Artist.......: Lily & Madeleine
Album........: Lily & Madeleine
Label........: Asthmatic Kitty Records
Genre........: Pop
Catnr........: n/a
Source.......: WEB
Rip.date.....: 2013-10-29
Str.date.....: 2013-10-28
Quality......: 260kbps/44.1kHz/Joint Stereo
Url..........: http://lilandmad.com/
track title time
1. Sounds Like Somewhere 3:34
2. Devil We Know 3:34
3. Nothing But Time 2:44
4. Spirited Away 3:21
5. Disappearing Heart 3:14
6. And Tonight 2:57
7. I've Got Freedom 3:15
8. Come to Me 3:04
9. Lost Upon the Sea 2:35
10. Goodbye to Anyone 2:33
11. Paradise 3:27
12. You Got Out 2:55
Runtime 37:13
Size 72.02
Release Notes:
Like truth, beauty resides in simplicity. When it manifests itself, it doesnÆt
require elaborate arguments or proofs; you canÆt debate someone into
apprehending it. ItÆs apparent and all it requires is appreciation, or perhaps
even love. Such are the songs of Lily & Madeleine. They present themselves
without excessive adornment, confident that even a single listening will
captivate you. They present no unnecessary barriers to entry into their world,
and in their restraint lies an invitation.
Understandably, when their debut EP, The Weight of the Globe, came out earlier
this year, much was made of the fact that Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz are
teenagers: Madeleine is eighteen and her sister is sixteen. Surely, thatÆs
important given the impressive talent on display. On that release as well as on
Lily & Madeleine, their debut album, these two young women sing with a spare
elegance thatÆs all the more breathtaking for seeming to come to them so
naturally. Both Lily and Madeleine can sing powerfully, but you will find no
show-off pyrotechnics here. They are not afraid of fragility or vulnerability.
As with all the best family bands, their harmonies sound effortless, two
distinct expressions of the same idea or emotion. ItÆs a style of harmony that
is so subtle that it could almost be singing in unison, so entwined are the
voices. ItÆs a sound that only blood relations can deliver. Lily and Madeleine
treat their voices as instruments that are in service to their songs. They are
vehicles of feeling and meaning. They do what they need to do to reach your
heart. No more, no less.
That virtue, to my ears, reflects the sistersÆ upbringing in the Midwest. They
are from Indianapolis and they recorded this album fifty miles south of there in
Bloomington. At its best, the Midwest encourages the sort of plainspoken
honesty, entirely free of pretense, that this music embodies. Beyond that,
whether you know it or not, southern Indiana is a magical place. Its rolling
hills distinguish it from much of the rest of the Midwest, and its summer heat
and proximity to Kentucky give it a distinctly Southern feel. ItÆs the surreal
South of early R.E.M. albums like Murmur, Reckoning and Fables of the
Reconstruction. And just as the University of Georgia did for R.E.M.Æs hometown
of Athens, the presence of Indiana University in Bloomington helps give the town
a kind of rural open-mindedness. The most modern, up-to-the-minute ideas are
alive there, but in a context that recognizes and accepts the ongoing resonance
of the past. As William Faulkner wrote, ôThe past is never dead. ItÆs not even
past.ö
ôThese songs are an expression of youth as all Romantic poetry knows it to be: a
repository of yearning and wisdom that will eventually have to do battle with
the world in order to retain its luster.ö
I hear all of that and more on Lily & Madeleine. Most wonderfully, their songs
are exactly an expression of their youth. That does not mean they are na∩ve û
far from it. Nor, thankfully, are they merely precocious û young people
performing the parlor trick of mimicking their elders. It is the sound of
innocence on its inevitable search for experience. The themes of this album û
the passing of time and the seasons, the ache of desire, the quest for identity,
the wonder of whatÆs ahead û are not just the concerns of youth. They matter to
everyone at every age. But as ômaturityö sets in and all too often yields to
cynicism, we lose the willingness, the fearlessness, to explore them. Rather
than hopeful, we become afraid of what we will find. These songs occupy the
space we live in before that fear descends and we succumb to its limitations.
In that regard this is music without limits. It comes from a specific place û in
the words of one song, it ôSounds Like Somewhereö û but it transcends those
origins and ascends into the universal. It is eminently of its time, and it is
timeless. It is a sound evoked by the voices of two young women, but it is for
everyone. ôIn the shadow, boy meets man,ö Bono sings on ôTwilight,ö from U2Æs
debut album, Boy. Lily & Madeleine exists in that same half-lit netherworld
between adolescence and adulthood, this time from the female perspective. Girl
meets woman in the shadowy realms of this album, and the journey does not
proceed in only one direction. Yes, Lily & Madeleine look ahead to the women
they will become. But no adult who listens to their songs will fail to feel the
emotions of their youth reanimated.
Of course, Lily & Madeleine benefit from the great help theyÆve received in
making this album. ThatÆs hardly a surprise: The ease of these performances does
not come easily. Their producer and manager Paul Mahern conjures sonic
environments that are perfectly suited to these songs. The vastly talented Kenny
Childers of Gentleman Caller co-wrote these songs with Lily & Madeleine. Both
Mahern and Childers have helped shape the Indiana music scene for many years,
creating the musical world that Lily & Madeleine have now entered. It is an
ideal collaboration. And it is certainly appropriate that Lily & Madeleine have
found a nurturing home on Asthmatic Kitty, the adventurous independent label,
co-founded by Sufjan Stevens, that sets a standard for encouraging daringness in
its artists.
ItÆs a coincidence, perhaps, but a lovely one that MadeleineÆs very name alludes
to one of the most famous scenes in all of literature, from Marcel ProustÆs
masterpiece In Search of Lost Time. In the first book of that epic work, the
young character Marcel tastes a cake called a petite madeleine and experiences a
rush of memories and feelings. He attempts to hold onto those emotions, but they
fade as the taste in his mouth disappears. They are bound to the sensual
experience of that first taste, and further bites only serve to dissipate the
connection further. We have all had that experience. For Marcel to discover the
true source of those emotions, he must finally look within himself.
The songs on Lily & Madeleine trigger similar emotional effects. The shimmering
recollections of that summer, that girl, that kiss, the scent of that evening
air, the heat of those afternoons, all float in and out of consciousness as
these songs play, transporting you to the world inside you that knows everywhere
you have been, but that does not know time, or its passage, or its end.
Shop : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lily-Madeleine/dp/B00EI2CTLY