Thursday, March 27, 2008

Gorgeous Music

I just bought the Once soundtrack today and am enjoying it immensely. Some of the tunes are so beautiful my wife and I have been calling them gorgeous. The blend of male and female vocals on such songs as Falling Slowly (it won the Oscar), If You Want Me, and My Mind's Made Up are just fantastic. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova sound great together.

Songs like these got me thinking today about how some of my favourite songs lately have been those with male/female duets on them. The harmonies are stellar and the songs are almost magical. Especially in those cases where you also have piano and guitar together.
Here are some of the best ones I could remember listening to lately. You can hear 30 second samples if you find them on iTunes.

Lazy Line Painter Jane - Belle and Sebastian - Push Barman to Open Old Wounds


Oh My Sweet Carolina - Ryan Adams (with Emmylou Harris) - Heartbreaker


Bridge Over Troubled Water - Johnny Cash (with Fiona Apple) - American IV


What Were the Chances - Damien Jurado (and Jenna Conrad) - And Now That I'm In Your Shadow


We Are Nowhere and Its Now - Bright Eyes (with Emmylou Harris again) - I'm Wide Awake Its Morning


Can you think of any others? Let me know because I'd love to hear them.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's a bunch I like that are, I think, in the same spirit as the great songs you've already listed:

"Father & Son" -Johnny Cash (with Fiona Apple) - on the "Unearthed" box set. From the same sessions as "Bridge"

"Static On The Radio" - Jim White and Aimee Mann

"Portland, Oregon" - Loretta Lynn and Jack White - from Van Lear Rose

"Lover" - James Iha and Nina Gordon

ANYTHING Emmylou Harris sings background on, like "One More Cup of Coffee" with Bob Dylan, or "Love Hurts" with Gramm Parsons

A lot of early Leonard Cohen, like "Who By Fire" or "The Partisan." I don't know who the backup singer is.

"Hard Life" - Bonnie "Prince" Billy. Again, I don't know the girl. From Master and Everyone

and of course, "I've Seen It All" - Bjork and Thom Yorke

Jon Coutts said...

i haven't heard any of those but several of them sound particularly intriguing. i'll be checking them out shortly . . .

Tony Tanti said...

Anything by Stars. Amazing.

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