[Moshe]

http://www.saucerlike.com/index.php

Steve and Lee on Rosenvinge's Continental 62
December 24, 2006

 

Next week Smells Like Records will release Christina Rosenvinge's "Continental 62". The album features both Steve and Lee:

"Continental 62 is the flight that connects Newark, NJ, and Madrid, Spain, a route Christina Rosenvinge has become quite familiar with in recent years. Her new album has made the trip several times as well, with basic tracks recorded in Madrid, and overdubs done at studios in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
On her third Smells Like Records album -- her second along with 2004's Foreign Land to be released both here and in her native Spain -- she's joined by longtime accomplices Tim Foljahn and Lee Ranaldo on guitar and vocals, rhythm section Jeremy Wilms and Steve Shelley, guests Charlie Bautista on guitar and violin, and well-known Spanish experimentalist turned pop-crafter Suso Saiz, who also co-produces. Of the ten tracks, seven are sung in English, and lyrically Rosenvinge has hit a vital sweet-spot, achieving maximum depth with the simplest language. Her songcraft in general has reached an impressive maturity, with seductive, coiled verses resolving in perfect choruses.

The arrangements are streamlined and strong, with Rosenvinge's piano playing, sparse yet supple, adding to the shambled grandeur. Perhaps the biggest surprise on Continental 62 however is the vocal experimentation. Stretching her voice dramatically, she effortlessly transcends the Nico and Francoise Hardy influence of her earlier work.

The album's highlights include the gorgeous descending chorus of the title track; the propulsive brushwork and close harmonies of "Liar to Love"; "Jelly," a wearied and fragile take on the jazz standard; and the prismatic, closing waltz "Nickel Song"."

You can hear MP3 excerpts and buy the album here.

 

Moshe

[EvdWee]

nice

[Moshe]

Lyrics:


CONTINENTAL 62
(Rosenvinge)

What about this city
holds you like a screw
asking you to come back
'cause something is here for you

Everyone is hungry
but a 6%
angels keep us dreaming
'cause angels pay no rent

Farewell kaleidoscope girl
I´m off with tomorrow´s fliight
your grace was mine for a while
but who can stand to your height?

i´m packing up my houseware
furniture's for sale
I forgot the last time
I saw the big white whale

even now you are pretty
with no frontal teeth
gathering your pieces
gasping out to breath

Farewell kaleidoscope girl
I´m off with tomorrow´s flight
your frace was mine for a while
but who can stand to your height?

WHITE HOLE
(Rosenvinge)

Before we met I had written down his name
love is a big white hole
so I gave in mind and body when he came
love is a big white hole
we got married under an auspicious moon
´'cause love is a big white hole
every guest made a toast to bride and groom
love is a big white hole

Hey, pretty face
can I go to your place?
time is up
there is no one else to blame
I can´t forget
I´m your wife, I´m your pet
I´m your past
and I keep on ticking
(ticky ticky ticky ...)

We had a child gold and perfect as a peach
love is a big white hole
on summer nights we run naked on the beach
love is a big white hole
but the devil would not let us go untouch
cause love is a big white hole
he turned the light crystal waters into sludge
love is a big white hole

Hey, pretty face
can I go to your place?
time is up
and there is no one else to blame
I can´t forget
I´m your wife, I´m your pet
I´m your past
and I keep on ticking
(ticky ticky ticky ...)


WINDOW
(Rosenvinge)


I Iook at your window
I see you get undressed
murderous white body
on murderous white bed

I look at your window
when you sleep at night
and your room fills up with
scratches of street light

Here we go
straighten by caffeine
no regrets
´'cause neither of us is clean

holy guardians watch for
your perfect litftle life
organized by sections
like precious merchandize

I look at your window
static mademoiselle
your are the kind that gets through
in this happy hell

Here we go
straighten by caffeine
no regrets
´'cause neither of us is clean

I look at your window
tiny lighten cell
so afraid to find that
I just see myself


A LIAR TO LOVE
(Rosenvinge/Wilms)

MINE, the word is out
and out is the truth
un uninvited guest to soothe
you move your hands
as catching a fly
we speed away
true love can only live on lies
a liar to love
a liar to love
a liar to love
is endless

twice you say my name
a crack in your voice
it looks like I´m the plate of choice
I should be wise
I should be polite
and never ask
who´s sleeping closely by my side
a liar to love
a liar to love
a liar to love
is painless


JELLY
(Rosenvinge/Wilms)

Yeh, everyone is leaving now
everyone but you and me
yeh. sugar kisses and goodbyes
leave us always empty

satellites in outerspace
look for something new
so I float around this room
tracing hints of life around you

moonlight is cooler everyday
and it´s coming close to us

satellites in outerspace
look for something new
so I float around this room
tracing hints of life around you


HELICOPTER SONG
(Rosenvinge)

I see a thread
getting tangled up in hours
I see the stream
turning us into stone
now look at the spiderweb spreading out
war is tomorrow
war is tomorrow
who´s by your side today?


¿QUIEN ME QUERRÁ?
(Rosenvinge)
A Lola M

Quien me querrá
cuando el cielo se vuelva oscuro
y no haya más que decir.
Como se va el futuro
sin nada para mi.

Quien me querrá
con lo cara que está la vida
quien se querrá arriesgar.
En cada despedida
nace la eternidad

Quien me hará sonreir
quien cuidará de mi
si tú te me vas
te me vas

Quien me dirá
ay mi Lola Lolita Lola
qué poco queda ya
para contar las olas
del otro lado del mar


TOK TOK
(Rosenvinge)


Oir tu voz el contestador
me hace dudar
de ti no sale nada sin cobrar
es más que un rumor
pides perdón y repites que no
es perversidad
hablas de noches sin fin
de impunidad

Isabel, maldito aguijón
otra vez siento la tentación
de ceder y perder la razón
en manos de un putón
sin fe ni corazón

Atar llorar pedir sacar sacar
que bien te va
hay algo en tu garganta que jamás
se puede tocar
dicen que soy tu peinado de hoy
que no duraré
que ya has mudado de piel
!qué estupidez!

Isabel. maldito aguijón
otra vez siento la tentación
de ceder y perder la razón
en manos de un putón
sin fe ni corazón

y ahora ya estás en la puerta
tol tok... tok tok.... tok tok tok
sabes que no estará abierta
tok tok... tok tok... tok tok.. tok

Isabel maldito aguijon
esta vez no habrá compasión
al final tu tenías razón
se puede renacer solo tras la humillación
se puede renacer solo tras la humillación


TECLAS NEGRAS
(Rosenvinge)

A los catorce años (casi quince)
con las rodillas esqueléticas y blancas
la cara tan redonda
y tan mal pintada

Toda la ropa negra (por si acaso)
era la hermana loca de Gregorio Sampsa
solo salía en martes
a clase de danza

¿Te acordarás del día que nos vimos en la filmoteca?
Tú ibas a ver "Pierrot le fou"
yo¨"Tout va bien¨" por vez primera
llovía, y la Plaza Mayor me pareció otro planeta

El bicho se transforma en mariposa
lo imperdonable pronto o tarde se perdona
ya no serás tan guapo
ni yo soy tan mona

¿Te acordarás del dia que nos vimos en la filmoteca?
Tenía tanto que olvidar
pero aún llevaba dos coletas
tú me invitate a merendar
y me llevaste en bicicleta

Los dias se hacen largos
el desaliento viene y va como una moda
y el tacto de tu mano
aún no se evapora


NICKEL SONG
(Rosenvinge)

Slowly I reach the door
push and your coat is missing
your footprints on the snow
stop and go
stop and go
stop and go
suddenly I´m so little
alone without a nickel
and you are gone away
not much to say

smoke of my cigarrette
fades into the ceiling
I can´t say I didn´t know
I didn´t know
I didn´t know
'cause I did know
you were never real
but how I´m going to heal
of this winter love
that´s now turning off

who was lazy?
who was blind?
am I losing my mind?

[Inhuman]

Originally Posted by Moshe

who was lazy?

Me
who was blind?[/quote]
Heyden
am I losing my mind?
[/quote]
Maybe, but oyyu jsuet have afun

[guitarpro]

That should be rockin

[pokkeherrie]

It's already had a release outside the US earlier this year.
Lee plays guitar and does backing vocals on Window.

http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/showthread.php?t=7658

[EvdWee]

Originally Posted by pokkeherrie

It's already had a release outside the US earlier this year.
Lee plays guitar and does backing vocals on Window.

http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/showthread.php?t=7658

ah, so that's why i was already able to download it..

will she ever come to holland?

[pokkeherrie]

not much chance i guess... you can always go to wolf eyes instead though. when you close your eyes and concentrate on the music then it's almost the same.
04-04-07 Patronaat Haarlem (Net) + Growing + Thrones
05-04-07 Vera Groningen (Net)

[EvdWee]

yeah, knew about those dates... but christina is something special...

[Moshe]

http://mog.com/Treppenwitz/blog_post/34837

Just got a copy of Christina Rosenvinge’s upcoming release in my mailbox. She has the same publicist in North America as Under Byen, and it’s one of those cases where an unsolicited album hits the spot. I was unaware of her prior to this, but she apparently has toured with Stereolab and Elliott Smith. Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo plays guitar and produced the album. Like Stina Nordenstam, she has the nearly too delicate little girl vocal style which glides over off-center compositions—much like the “sukkersmuds” sound that I keep hearing in Scandinavian music: sweet and gritty. Rosenvinge is of Danish heritage, though she was born in Spain. She must have sukkersmuds in her blood.
There seems to be something about these cross-cultural hybrids that make for fascinating music. They are especially interesting to me when they are not trying to make a fusion of styles, but trying to make something new. I’m thinking of the Italian brothers and Japanese singer in the NYC band Blonde Redhead, or elodieO, another New Yorker who sings in English and her native French. Stereolab too, for that matter.

[Moshe]

Watch the video to "A Liar to Love' here

[Moshe]

http://www.tinymixtapes.com/spip.php?article2656

Christina Rosenvinge
Continental 62 [Smells Like Records; 2007]


Styles: dream pop, singer-songwriter, art rock, experimental pop
Others: Nico, Mazzy Star, Astrud Gilberto, Portishead


There exists something both elusive and timeless in Christina Rosenvinge’s trim yet evocative songs, which is made manifest in the subtle complexity of her intricate and memorable arrangements. Her third full-length on Smells Like Records, Continental 62, finds Rosenvinge once again joined by Lee Ranaldo on guitar, and is held together by a potent rhythm section that includes masterful drumming by Steve Shelley. The title of the record refers to the flight between Madrid, Spain, and Newark, New Jersey — a flight frequented by the Spanish-Danish vocalist. The bulk of the record was in fact recorded in Madrid and then mastered in New York City, resulting in an album adorned with stylish and cosmopolitan overtones. In addition to Rosenvinge’s breathy and heavily accented vocals, Continental 62 exhibits a romantic European sensibility rife with florid melodicism and polished off with an American indie rock sheen.
Continental 62 begins in an impressively haunting manner with the stunning title cut. Driven by a spare, Schubertian piano phrase, the piece seizes the listener’s attention with its air of immediacy and candid simplicity. A melancholy, passionate cello melody from Raúl Pinillas and a smattering of spooky glockenspiel accompaniment from Charlie Bautista help to solidify the track’s moody resonance. Rosenvinge effortlessly manages to impress with how deftly she integrates so much into her arrangements without undermining the underlying spartan nature of her songcraft. “Jelly,” for instance, features, along with Rosenvinge’s seductive vocals, little more than a few simple, jazz-based guitar figures, brushed drums, and some delicious yet sparse glockenspiel. Taken as a whole, however, the track comes off as extraordinarily powerful. Furthermore, Rosenvinge demonstrates the ability to wrest a great deal of emotion from the listener with the bossa-flavored “¿Quién Me Querra?,” another of the album’s highlights and one that calls to mind images of blue skies and summer sun as competently as anything imagined by Astrud Gilberto. “Tok Tok” showcases her more rollicking side with its caterwauling violin, menacing piano chords, and Shelley’s propulsive drumming, and bolsters the already varied and heterogeneous nature of Continental 62.
With a finale almost as dramatic as its introduction, Continental 62 closes with the tense and barely restrained “Nickel Song,” a track that makes effective use of Suso Sáiz’s classical Spanish guitar chords, which then give way to Ranaldo’s somewhat unsettling and psychedelia-inflected descending six-string leads. Absorbing and affecting, the piece is an inordinately mature ending to a splendidly crafted album. A strong recording that never ceases to grow on the listener despite repeated spins, Rosenvinge’s Continental 62 comes highly recommended.
1. Continental 62 2. White Hole 3. Window 4. Liar to Love 5. Jelly 6. Helicopter Song 7. ¿Quién Me Querra? 8. Tok Tok 9. Teclas Negras 10. Nickel Song
by Olskooly

[EvdWee]

i recommended her for the festival motel mozaique in holland, hope she will play in holland soon...

[Moshe]

http://webapp.pitchforkmedia.com:901...d_review/40501

http://assets.pitchforkmedia.com/ima...inental62.gif?
Christina Rosenvinge
Continental 62
[Smells Like Records; 2007]
Rating: 6.0
http://assets.pitchforkmedia.com/ima...gif?1155783511
http://assets.pitchforkmedia.com/ima...gif?1155783511

The Madrid/New York-based musician Christina Rosenvinge's third (mostly) English-language LP is a mixed bag: On about half of the songs, her blend of loungey art-rock and mannered, Nico-esque vocals is inventively alluring; on the other half, it's pleasant enough but roundly unmemorable. To understand why a musician as talented as Rosenvinge, who has a knack for evocative ice-melt arrangements and striking textural vocals, would squander that talent on some of the non-events that pepper this album, we might look to her origins. Indie fans probably know Rosenvinge from her trio of Smells Like Records LPs and her collaborations with Lee Ranaldo, who lends guitar and backing vocals to a couple of tracks on Continental 62. But she's been active in music since the 1980s, when she was half of the tart-pop duo Alex y Cristina, who were stadium-packing mainstream stars in the Spanish-speaking world. In the early 1990s, Rosenvinge left the group and began to explore more sophisticated, idiosyncratic fare as a Spanish-language solo artist, then switched to English-language U.S. releases around the turn of the century. Imagine that you're a musician with heady aspirations who spent the 80s spinning sugar for television audiences in the most outrageous blonde bangs imaginable (seriously): Mightn't you go to any lengths to distance yourself from this persona? I'd probably write a few boring songs too, just to make a point.
Of course, this is pure speculation, and it's equally possible that Rosenvinge's muse is just finicky. Continental 62 is most successful when she uses stately dream pop as a baseline, contrasting it with unexpected textures and tangents, rather than an ultimate end; the four tracks that privilege inventive songwriting over hazy atmosphere are the best. The title track's creeping, solitary piano and cooing vocals move through three distinct phases of emphasis, unlike the weaker songs' equivocal drift; contrasts occur as crisp edges surface from and subside beneath the blue blur of her voice. Album standout "White Hole" is distinguished by its frosty yet lively vocals, slashing rock bridge, and the inspired, Life Without Buildings-ish onomatopoeia that precedes the chorus. On "A Liar to Love", Rosenvinge trades her ice princess routine for a naturalistic singing style that's well suited to the song's spry lilt, evoking the liquid cool of Stereolab or Georgia Hubley. And on the Spanish-language song "Tok Tok", Rosenvinge's voice directly engages with the terse textural elements seething beneath it, rather than drifting amid them, similar to Under Byen's broken clockwork sprawl.
The album's other six tracks aren't bad; they just don't have the substance to recommend repeated listening. On "Window", with its mincing vocals and tinkling music box accompaniment, Rosenvinge draws pretty pictures but neglects to animate them. "Jelly" drags with an unappealing blend of seriousness and preciousness permeating Rosenvinge's monochromatic warble, and "Helicopter Song" is very similar. Meanwhile, "Teclas Negras" is like a Spanish version of the title track with less dynamic melodic phrasing. In its entirety, Continental 62 is fine for background music. But the substantial number of moments when it vividly leaps into the foreground makes one wish, on the main, for more sound effects and fewer affected sounds.
-Brian Howe, January 25, 2007