Artificial Fire

Never fails to please, what a woman! Sixth or seventh or so release by this LA chanteuse keeps on her pop/love songs vector of recent years (diverging from her western, swingy, bluesy influences of Thrill, Snakebite). Sexiest voice out there paired with the best players in The Southland (dj bonebrake, X drummer and a fine cast of characters), guitars bass drums, simple and organic. For fans of PJ Harvey, Neko Case, Tom Waits, Norah Jones, Patsy Cline, Sam Phillips. I am still stunned that she is not a household name (came close when she stumbled into providing the soundtrack to that controversial Carls Jr commercial with Paris Hilton washing the car). If you aren’t familiar with Eleni, do yourself a favor and check out her back-catalog in the library after playing this on the air.

1) sultry with dominating sexy guitar hook
2) darker with nice fuzz bass and simpler guitar melody with slowly delivered harmonized line “god is love and appreciation”, strange – is this about drugs?
3) slightly cutesy pop with trombone and a swingy feel, a 1960’s Burt Baccharach feeling, funny lyrics
4) lovely, a song about love as sweet as can be, “hopeful” like a ray of sunshine, “wanting for someone to kiss me”, with strings
5) lovely slow phrased melodies, triplet waltzy song to dance close with your lover to
6) an autobiographical ode to childhood, the past, my past? (are you over 35?), nice epic guitar work toward end
7) upbeat indie-rock with a slight twang/surf, always daring someone to kiss her (!)
8) the pop/indie/surfy rock feel continues, intensifies
9) slow down: mellow pretty ballad, sad about jilted love
10) slow way down: chill, just lovely! How does she do this?!?
11) a bit more Tom Waits’ in the featured dissonant guitar work and sultry backhandedness, yes
12) supercool with (treated?) vibes, upbeat
13) starts with some cool noise, a slow near-bluesy tone, dark
14) halting, dark, tinges of baritone guitar, mancini spy feel even
15) leaves us with a genuine rocker, reminiscent of 70’s “new wave” Joe Jackson/Nick Lowe