Vanessa Carlton – A Thousand Miles
Of a time for me – daughterly one’s formative years. Still like it. Catchy… jaunty piano… nice strings.
Note: The Proclaimers would only walk 500 miles
Joni Mitchell – Just Like This Train
Ah Joni. Used to think of her like the female Van Morrison, but that’s unfair. Didn’t know this one by title, but recognized it instantly.
At points it could be a Steely Dan track – musically, but her stuff is off kilter, more interesting, yet eminently listenable (at least to me – the females of my household can’t stand her voice). I think my thoughts of Van-ish-ness may be in the way her phrasing tends to spill out the words at times. Wonderful choice!
“A Thousand Miles” / Vanessa Carlton. Very contemporary-B-way-musical, except her slightly slurry phrasing, which is more into pop-rock territory. Perfectly pleasant. But a question: Would you not have to start out in space to fall into the sky?
VC – when blasting this song through the car speakers, girls will check you out where if you are blasting Strawbs, they laugh. best performance of this song is in the movie White Chicks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RNG_tTXXcg
JM – Always enjoyed Joni Mitchell, don’t really hear much more than her hits. often I will play her as background music.
“A Thousand Miles”by Vanessa Carlton: love that piano waterfall and the staccato string pulse. The pre chorus pregnant pauses create just the right drop. Pop candy. Nice mix. Ending on the waterfall; good call. I will pass by often trying to get to less top 40 music but this one I judge to quick. A well produced and packaged treat.
“Just Like This Train”by Joni Mitchell: a song that gets better after multiple spins and feels like a comfortable warm sweater. Love her voice character/style for the same reason probably everyone else does (or doesn’t). A real story teller and a true artist.
Vanessa Carlton- The piano is Bruce Hornsbyish. I like the twinkling of the piano dovetailing with the staccato strings/cellos.
Her voice is a bit grating in that teenage-Broadway ballad way (you know what I mean). I realized that this is the kind of song that, while hearing it a bunch if you listen to the radio (at some point in the past), I don’t truly listen to it. Definitely don’t SIT DOWN and listen to it.
I don’t think a deep listen changed my opinion on it. Good but not great. Credit for a memorable piano riff definitely.
Joni- Cool guitar harmonies that evoke train whistles. Evocative imagery in the lyrical snippets I can pick out. I’d like to be able to connect to this song and more of JM’s work though the melodies just don’t resonate with me, like on this song. Which reminds me—I wanted to submit “If Love Was a Train” by Michele Shocked but could not find a YouTube version of it. That would be my train submission. Billy Bragg has “Train Train” and I considered The Clash’s “Train in Vain” as well. I wonder if the MyFive Partliament would have accepted a song by Mark Twain?
Vanessa Carlton – A Thousand Miles
Of a time for me – daughterly one’s formative years. Still like it. Catchy… jaunty piano… nice strings.
Note: The Proclaimers would only walk 500 miles
Joni Mitchell – Just Like This Train
Ah Joni. Used to think of her like the female Van Morrison, but that’s unfair. Didn’t know this one by title, but recognized it instantly.
At points it could be a Steely Dan track – musically, but her stuff is off kilter, more interesting, yet eminently listenable (at least to me – the females of my household can’t stand her voice). I think my thoughts of Van-ish-ness may be in the way her phrasing tends to spill out the words at times. Wonderful choice!
“A Thousand Miles” / Vanessa Carlton. Very contemporary-B-way-musical, except her slightly slurry phrasing, which is more into pop-rock territory. Perfectly pleasant. But a question: Would you not have to start out in space to fall into the sky?
VC – when blasting this song through the car speakers, girls will check you out where if you are blasting Strawbs, they laugh. best performance of this song is in the movie White Chicks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RNG_tTXXcg
JM – Always enjoyed Joni Mitchell, don’t really hear much more than her hits. often I will play her as background music.
“A Thousand Miles”by Vanessa Carlton: love that piano waterfall and the staccato string pulse. The pre chorus pregnant pauses create just the right drop. Pop candy. Nice mix. Ending on the waterfall; good call. I will pass by often trying to get to less top 40 music but this one I judge to quick. A well produced and packaged treat.
“Just Like This Train”by Joni Mitchell: a song that gets better after multiple spins and feels like a comfortable warm sweater. Love her voice character/style for the same reason probably everyone else does (or doesn’t). A real story teller and a true artist.
Vanessa Carlton- The piano is Bruce Hornsbyish. I like the twinkling of the piano dovetailing with the staccato strings/cellos.
Her voice is a bit grating in that teenage-Broadway ballad way (you know what I mean). I realized that this is the kind of song that, while hearing it a bunch if you listen to the radio (at some point in the past), I don’t truly listen to it. Definitely don’t SIT DOWN and listen to it.
I don’t think a deep listen changed my opinion on it. Good but not great. Credit for a memorable piano riff definitely.
Joni- Cool guitar harmonies that evoke train whistles. Evocative imagery in the lyrical snippets I can pick out. I’d like to be able to connect to this song and more of JM’s work though the melodies just don’t resonate with me, like on this song. Which reminds me—I wanted to submit “If Love Was a Train” by Michele Shocked but could not find a YouTube version of it. That would be my train submission. Billy Bragg has “Train Train” and I considered The Clash’s “Train in Vain” as well. I wonder if the MyFive Partliament would have accepted a song by Mark Twain?