Artist.......: Jolie Holland
Album........: Springtime Can Kill You
Label........: Anti
Genre........: Folk
Catnr........: 86788
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: May-02-2006
str.date.....: May-09-2006
quality......: VBR/44,1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: n/a
track title time
01. Crush in the Ghetto 03:01
02. Mehitabel's Blues 03:21
03. Springtime Can Kill You 02:49
04. Crazy Dreams 02:23
05. You're Not Satisfied 02:10
06. Stubborn Beast 04:06
07. Please Don't 02:30
08. Moonshiner 03:33
09. Ghostly Girl 03:34
10. Nothing to do but Dream 07:25
11. Adieu False Heart 02:36
12. Mexican Blue 06:30
Runtime 43:58 min
Size 53,6 MB
Release Notes:
We brought you the advance, so why not the retail
as well :) Even better, isn't it?
ôI donÆt like Robert Johnson,ö Jolie Holland says,
ôbut IÆve got an awesome live recording of
[singer-songwriter] Entrance doing ôLove In Vain.ö
His version goes, ôWhen the train left the station,
there were two lights on behind/the blue light was
the blues and the red light was my mind/is all my
love in vain?ö
ItÆs a nice coincidence, then, that when writing
notes on her third album, Springtime Can Kill You,
Holland was on a train. What she wrote, in fact
(her aversion to Johnson aside), is as unvarnished
and poetic as that song. As well, itÆs a
consummately eloquent sketch of the record and
through-line for this bio.
She writes: This baby is the picture of a lovesick,
convoluted mind. Sometimes my voice is as a lusty
young woman, sometimes an adoring friend, sometimes
a tormented soul, sometimes a whispering ghost.
Just as with her lauded 2003 basement-tapes,
Catalpa, and 2004Æs studio debut Escondida, Holland
writes with a soft focus and a sharp edge (and
sometimes vice-versa). Springtime Can Kill You
takes this approach to a transcendent level.
HollandÆs sepia-toned song noir and billowy voice
are in rare form as she weaves ethereal tales at a
crossroads where haunting meets joyfulùhers is a
voice from the heavens singing stories of the
underworld. The songs rise and fall like heavy
eyelids and convey the peace of a place between
asleep and awake. Sounds from past and
present-tense waltz together to a never-ending
melody that flickers between folk, jazz, blues and
pop as HollandÆs characters and situations play on
surrealistic celluloid.
We return to HollandÆs notes: àThe hallucinations
keep emphasizing the meanings of birdsong,
moonshine, crazy dreams and the profusions of
spring. There are open doors onto isolated county
roads. Echoes of Memphis MinnieÆs ôHomesick Blues,ö
of FreakwaterÆs ôMy Old Drunk Friend,ö Jimmie
Rodgers pining for love. This is a pilgrimÆs
progress through the haunted season of lust.
The lilting ôCrush in the Ghettoö is the birdsong,
Holland cooing about a new love (ôIÆm flirting with
the birds, IÆm talking to the weeds, look what
youÆve done to meö). ôMoonshinerö is a countrified,
sultry appeal (ôYou got that good hard stuff that
always gets me highö). ôCrazy Dreams,ö written by
HollandÆs friend C.R. Avery, has Holland trapped
and tormented (ôcaught in the thistle, someone
stumped on my prideö) in a troublesome trance.
ôSpringtime Can Kill Youö is the sum of those
songs, blending bliss, lust and torment into a
creepy-beautiful, Jarmuschian reverie. Holland,
singing as if deceased, warns thereÆs no time to
smell the roses (ôyou donÆt have the time for the
least hesitationö). Though existential at first
blush, itÆs a coy, sultry, spectral, even baleful
tune where death is a metaphor for the black
aftermath of rent love. ôItÆs just about being
fucked-up, heartbroken and burnt,ö says Holland.
This is the first time she wrote songs specifically
for an album as well as a band. ôI even wrote
myself out of a few songs, so I could work solely
as a singer.ö She says allowing her band members to
stretch their legs, particularly with guitarist
Brian Miller (co-writer of ôCrush in the Ghettoö
and the title track), helped her focus more on each
songÆs essence. Consequently, Springtime Can Kill
YouÆs rich tones swirl through HollandÆs unique
storytelling to create a departure from reality, a
reminder of the beauty humans can create.
In her words: Most of the stories and words are
mine, but there are a few instances in which I let
other peopleÆs songs tell the story because my
voice is one of millions, just a tiny drop in an
ocean of love songsà
Holland produced Springtime Can Kill You with
friend Lemon DeGeorge at two studios in HollandÆs
home base of San Francisco. Most of the tracking
was done at John VandersliceÆs Tiny Telephone
(where Holland and her band indulged in its array
of vintage gear) and a few mix sessions and some
overdubbing occurred at the venerated Hyde Street
Studios (Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Son
Volt, Chris Whitley). Many tracks were recorded
live to tapeùand a few of these were tracked before
an audience of HollandÆs friends.
Springtime is a remarkable statement for an
entirely self-trained singer-songwriter whose first
dalliance with music was with a toy piano (a
harbinger of her love for classic instrumentation)
and whose musical identity manifested while playing
itinerant songwriter throughout the South. It bears
both the rustic grain of her work with the Be-Good
Tanyas (which she co-founded and departed after
their debut album, Blue Horseùa subject she
confronts on ôMexican Blueö) and the self-reliance
of Catalpa, her much-adored debut. As well, it
expands on the not-so-hidden charms of Escondida,
which earned raves from the press and fans like Tom
Waits.
Holland will preview tracks from Springtime Can
Kill You at several pre-tour warm up shows among
those will be two at Largo in Los Angeles, April
5th and 26th . SheÆll follow these with tours of
North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand
throughout 2006. Along the way sheÆll continue her
genre-hopping guest appearances, which last year
included an onstage turn with hip-hop artist Sage
Francis and singing on Bad Religion singer Greg
GraffinÆs upcoming solo album.
But right now HollandÆs thoughts remain with
Springtime Can Kill You. In particular, its haunted
lust, true adoration, gentle torment and persistent
whispers and how, in concert, they ask the same
question: is all her love in vain? In her notes,
HollandÆs parting thought answers ôyesö:
We are all lovers, and every heart can break. And
springtime is always a beautiful minefield strewn
with honeysuckle and thorny roses.