Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Jane Siberry - The Walking (1987)


The Walking is a truly strange record. Not only is the music itself a virtual labyrinth of knotty verses, muttering asides, new-age-y sap, lyrical surrealism, and big, extended pop hooks, there's a real cognitive dissonance to hearing such progressive, avant-garde music employing pillowy, keyboard-saturated, radio-ready 80's production. No one seemed to care much for it when it first came out -- this was reflected in Siberry's choice to severely rein in her progressive tendencies from here on out, cementing The Walking as an outlier in her discography -- but it's always been my favorite of hers. Most of you will probably not like this, but just a few of you might love it. And it's my goddamn birthday.

Track listing:
1. The White Tent the Raft
2. Red High Heels
3. Goodbye
4. Ingrid and the Footman
5. Lena Is a White Table
6. The Walking (And Constantly)
7. The Lobby
8. The Bird in the Gravel

Well, maybe she should go to school
No, no
She's a table

11 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday! Stay weird ;)

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  2. I am a fan. Her catalogue never did fit between the lines... wonderfully so.

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  3. My dad tells me that I liked this record when I was really young, but my first memory of listening to Jane Siberry is definitely that song on the Crow soundtrack! Also the first I had heard of Medicine and RATM.

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  4. Went into this with a good deal of trepidation, only to find i like it very much. If she only had engaged in some more Shelley Hirsch styled extended vocals, I could really love it. Thank you for this one, and all the other great stuff here.

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  5. Tremendously good. Surprised to see no one mention 'No Borders Here' which is stunning beautiful while being goofy as hell.

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    1. *No Borders Here* is my favorite Siberry, though *Bound by the Beauty* has sentimental attachments for me too.

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  6. Alas, my beloved Zippyshare has been laid to rest (RIP you little trooper xx), any chance for a re-up on this one please?

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    1. Absolutely, it's fixed. Can't let this one go dead, I love this weird-ass record.

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    2. You total legend, thank you! I'd only ever listened to a tiny bit of her stuff from the 90's before when she got a bit of rotation on alt radio in Australia when.. I think it was When I Was A Boy came out? I could be wrong, the memory is getting hazy going that far back ha ha

      Came across The Speckless Sky on here the other day and when you wrote she had a weird ass record I had to hear it ha ha. Speckless Sky was really good too, think I'm gonna have to track down some more!

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    3. That timeline would make sense because I'm pretty sure When I Was a Boy was her commercial peak outside of Canada, due to "Calling All Angels". You should definitely hear No Borders Here as well. Hope you like this one, I have yet to meet anyone who likes it as much as I do.

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