Word: brion
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Brion's album Meaningless could have been one of 1999's best solo debuts--but you may never get to hear it. Lava/Atlantic, Brion's label, decided the CD wasn't sufficiently marketable and never released it. "I was treated as if I had handed in my 'art record,' as if I had intentionally done some horribly self-destructive thing," says Brion. "I thought I handed in something that was reasonably commercial...
This month the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter gets his chance to be heard. Brion, 35, composed the introspective instrumental score to Paul Thomas Anderson's film Magnolia (Anderson is a longtime friend of Brion's) and produced five songs on the sound track (including Aimee Mann's intimate cover of the Harry Nilsson standard One). Brion also produced Fiona Apple's terrific...
Listening to a Brion-produced song is like entering a tastefully decorated drawing room. Brion--who plays piano, drums and guitar--often fills his music with warm instrumentation but never overwhelms a song's emotional content. In his own compositions, his lyrics are playfully pensive. "I wish I could say that we'd fallen from grace," he sings on Dead to the World, a song from his solo CD. "But we never made it to that place." Says Brion: "The willingness to fall on your face pays for the moments that are a little more transcendent." He's now shopping...
...still/O darling, it's so sweet" explains Apple on "Fast as You Can," and yet you still don't know whether her sexual prey should flee her in fear or approach her with curiosity. Apple draws heavily on old-school R&B and the instrumental support, led by Jon Brion, effectively complements her wandering voice. Her piano work is uncomplicated and elegant, allowing you to focus on her intimate vocals. "I Know," the album's concluding track, proves that Fiona Apple was correct about one statement on Tidal: you don't have to sleep to dream...
...songs on the album, Apple is far better at hitting her targets. When the Pawn Hits... has been artfully produced by Jon Brion, who helps give the CD a carefully ornate sound that's intimate yet rich. Lyrically, Apple is full of fury: at her past, at her lovers, at herself. In To Your Love she sings, "It's hard enough even trying to be civil to myself." In Limp she mocks, "It won't be long till you'll be/ Lying limp in your own hands." She knows there are things about her that put people she loves...