SOUNDTRACK: DIANA GORDON-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #51 (July 15, 2020).
I was immediately attracted to this Tiny Desk (Home) Concert because I (still) have the exact same neon green iBook. I don’t know how old Gordon is, but I have to wonder if it’s original.
I don’t know anything about Diana Gordon. That’s probably logical since although she’s been in the music world for a while, it was mostly a s songwriter and under a different name.
After years of writing hits for others and releasing music under the moniker Wynter Gordon, the Queens, N.Y., native has awakened new aspects of her artistry in recent years that she’s finally ready to share under her given name.
So if she wrote hits, her music must be poppy, right? Not exactly
But while her earlier work routed through the pop and dance worlds, Wasted Youth balances influences of Whitney Houston, Alanis Morissette and The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan.
I actually hear a lot of Natalie Merchant in her quieter singing–especially with the gorgeous acoustic guitar of her masked-up guitarist, Davin Givhan.
Like the workplace props that flank her, [folders, boxes and a Curb Your Enthusiasm mug and check out that phone!] Gordon’s latest EP, 2020’s Wasted Youth, feels so fitting for these unprecedented times.
Starting with “Rollin,” you can hear “Gordon’s nihilistic invincibility” in a song that name checks Nirvana. It starts with a great deep guitar riff (it even sounds bad ass on the acoustic guitar). She adds a raspy vocal intro before singing with a cool (dis)affected 90’s alt rock vocal style. I really dig it (the record version has a more thumping bass sound making it more danceable but also more distorted).
When the song is over she demonstrates a yodeling sound that underpins her singing in “Rollin.”
“Wolverine” is a quiet ballad that showcases her “forlorn lilting yodel.” It’s a more traditional song with her Natalie Merchant-esque delivery. This is a pretty song from one of her earlier EPs.
The blurb describes “Wasted Youth” as “a sonic eyeroll-shrug,” but I feel it’s more of an intense song of pain. Although not to be prudish but I wish there wasn’t quite so much cursing in it. I mean every instance if the phrase “wasted youth” (several times per chorus) is preceded by “fuckin.” It would be effective once, but just gets worn out for an entire song. It’s a really good song otherwise.
“Once A Friend” is another ballad. This one features her “tear-jerking honesty.” The record version sounds much the same–acoustic guitar, straightforward vocals and a gut punch of a lyric–all in less than two minutes.
I’m definitely going to have to listen to her some more.
[READ: July 20, 2020] “The American Persuasion”
This was a New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs. These pieces are usually one page, but this one was three. It’s also labelled “Part 1: The Scent of Liberty.” I can’t decide if that means there are actually more parts or if that is part of the joke (there’s no part two in a future issue).
The premise of this piece is amusing, it is even more amusing reading it after Hamilton has come out because it also deals with the founding fathers in an unusual way.
The piece starts with George Washington trying to impress the Marquis–the man who would “be known as the noble Lafayette.” Washington is a dandy, admiring himself in the mirror with fragrance dabbed behind his ears. He “understood the power of his beauty, and he was not above using it now.” Lafayette finds him hard to resist.
Washington was assisted in his Revolutionary quest by “noted voluptuaries and lovers of pleasure” Paul Revere, John Hancock and the Adamses. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 