Alina Simone - placelessness

by Frank Gualtier -- 08/27/07

Photo by Vinciane Verguethen
Alina Simone's debut LP placelessness, released this August (2007), plays partly like a disquieting recountance of people, circumstance and actions that could perhaps have been and gone better but are being related precisely because they did not and partly like endearments and yearnings that fall under the same unsettled skies.

The music is an edgy brand of sparse rock and would-be folk with blues undercurrents that combine to form a unique and cohesive flavor with a surreal bite. Throw Simone's voice into the mix, reminiscent of Tracy Marcellino^[1] and Björk^[2] with an added signature "wail" that dispels any and all doubt of conviction, and the results are positively hypnotic.

Placelessness is easily one of the best albums of 2007.


Tracklist:
1.) Velvet Painting
2.) Saw Edged Grass
3.) Refugees
4.) Pacifica
5.) Swing
6.) Nightswimming
7.) Black Water
8.) Lonesome
9.) Riot Act
10.) Country of Two

Track 2 (Very Popular) Lyrics:

Saw Edged Grass:
You just took off running through the saw-edged grass --
we didn't even turn, we knew you would come back.
No one really knew... we tiptoed around the things that set
you off, like playing with matches in the high dry grass.
Run, run there you go, over the creek bed. Why are the
brilliant ones always so crazy? I know you love us more
than you love your demands, but something keeps you
running and only you can stop it. We let it go in silence.
It takes off the edge. Sometimes we wrap it up in silence,
cuz it's the only way to rescue the wildest friend. There
you go, running through the saw-edged grass (turn, turn,
you burn on the horizon). Hair whips round your face,
tumble through the weekend (underneath the overpass,
over the offramp). Something keeps you running and we
can only guess (digging up the things you hid under the
footbridge). Scratches from the branches will only give you
away.

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Links for Alina Simone:

• Website
• MySpace
• 54º40' or Fight! Online Music Store: Placelessness (2007)
• CD Baby: Prettier in the Dark EP (2005)

Notes & References: 1. Tracy Marcellino is the voice of LA alt/electronica band Twilight Sleep [website|myspace], 2. Björk [wiki|website|myspace]