SOUNDTRACK: CHLOE X HALLE-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #123 (December 8, 2020).
Chloe x Halle’s album, with its arresting album cover, has been on all the top album lists this year. I hadn’t heard anything off of it, so this is my introduction to this “powerful sister duo.”
Flanked by personal memorabilia supplied by their mother, the Bailey sisters did their best to make this studio performance really feel like a home concert.
I don’t know what he album sounds like, but this recording (complete with a full band, horns and strings) sounds pretty amazing. Almost as amazing as Chloe and Halle’s voices.
As they volley off each other, swapping lead and harmonies, it’s amazing to watch how years of practice and innate genetic chemistry have them synced tight.
After introducing themselves, the sister play “Don’t Make It Harder on Me.” There’s a clean bass opening from Elin Sandberg and quiet guitar chords (it’s fun to watch Lexii Lynn Frazier play as she is smiling a lot and really into it). The addition of the trumpets (Arnetta Johnson and Crystal Torres) adding soft and then loud accents is a really nice touch. But nothing can distract from the voices.
Halle takes the higher notes and wow does her voice soar. But the two of them together, whether singer counterpoint or their gorgeous wordless harmonies are really amazing.
“Baby Girl,” the second song here, starts with notes reminiscent of Crystal Waters’ “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless),” and is preceded with Chloe sharing “I know this year 2020 has been absolutely bonkers for all of us. For those moments where you kinda feel less than and you’re not good enough … that’s why we wrote this song. … Whatever happens, we’ll be OK. And this is our world.”
The song is softer with keyboard splashes from Elise Solberg and soaring strings from Stephanie Yu (violin), Chelsea Stevens (cello) and Marta Honer (viola).
Halle sings the first verse with Chloe adding punctuation on this cool refrain
step up to the patio
listen to the radio
try to play it on my Casio
more great punctuation from the horns nicely flesh out this song. The song ends with a short drum breakdown from Brandi Singleton with some ripping bass work as it segues into “Do It.” “Do It” is a great moment to see the sisters play of of each other. It’s fun watching them smile at each other as they bounce and bop and back and forth with the “do it”s and the “woo”s.
“Ungodly Hour” is upbeat but “Wonder What She Thinks of Me” is a very different song. Chloe says it’s a song telling the perspective of the other woman and what does that feel like? What would we do in that situation. Chloe sings the first verses accompanied by gorgeous strings. It’s a beautiful torch song and their voices are simply fantastic. Their harmonies in the third chorus are, frankly, jaw dropping.
I don’t tend to like R&B albums, (and it’s possible the album doesn’t sound like this), but this set was really impressive.
[READ: January 3, 2021] “Preparing to Spin the Wheel of Fortune”
I like when an author I enjoy has a Personal History in the New Yorker.
This one was especially fun because David Gilbert relates his experience appearing on Wheel of Fortune.
The studio is cold. There are contestant handlers who are mystically upbeat. They tell them to clap without clapping (so they dont mess up the sound recording).
He rather enjoyed the make up because she makes him look very good (he’s very critical of himself). Before talking about the whole process though, he gives some background on the show. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 