Album Review - Breathe
Cinematic Orchestra's new Single from the Album Ma Fleur
Review of the new single, "Breathe," from the Cinematic Orchestra. Jason Swinscoe works with Motown legend Fontella Bass and singer-songwriter Patrick Watson
The Cinematic Orchestra has not been heard of since 2004's Man With a Movie Camera. They are still cinematic, but they're scoring a different movie. As sweeping, grand and grandiose as ever, the new single, Breathe, has an elegiac tone. There is genuine, not always pleasant emotion in these songs. However, the songs celebrate life as much as they mourn it. Listening to them is not necessarily as happy and toe-tapping as their previous work, but just as deep and rewarding.
The single features three tracks: Breathe, Colors, and the formerly download-only single, a shortened version of Build a Home. It can only be bought as a limited 12" or digital download. The group has also made all three tracks available as free streaming mp3s on The Cinematic Orchestra Myspace page if you just want to listen. And listen you should, because it's fantastic.
Jason Swinscoe, the band leader/producer of The Cinematic Orchestra, has never been one to be stereotyped. Other than Fontella Bass's voice, not much of these three tracks sound anything like his last album. Possibly to avoid any more comparisons with electronica, drums and bass are almost non-existent on these tracks. But you don't miss them. The songs aren't for dancing, but for being absorbed into the world of their vivid, intense moods. In ways, the songs are more cinematic than before. They are the soundtrack to an emotional event, a feeling.
The title track, Breathe, is the return of Fontella Bass, who also appeared on The Cinematic Orchestra's last album, Every Day, most famously on the track, All That You Give. Bass's voice, distant and distorted like a long distance phone call, is for the most part only set against acoustic guitar, what sounds like another muted, distorted guitar, and occasional piano. Drums and synths come in for the crescendoing choruses. The song is quiet, mournful and beautiful. Bass's voice is just as strong as on Every Day, but it expresses an entirely different range of feeling Like the rest of this single, it is more subdued, working the subtleties of a specific emotion. The track is over six minutes long, but you still don't want it to end.
Colors, the single's second track, features no vocals, but manages to invoke the same mood as the powerful vocal performances of the other tracks. The multiple instruments building up interweaving melodies sounds like earlier Cinematic Orchestra albums, but the tone is more somber, elegiac. Keyboard bass and a brass ensemble start things off. The brass plays a powerful, wistful melody that transitions into an acoustic and muted guitar combo like on Breathe. All with occasional accents from other effects and instruments. Drums are noticeably absent, or would be if any of the other songs had them. I'm not sure the song goes anywhere, but it sounds so good, I don't care.
The final track, Build a Home, appeared previously as a digital download, but also appears here. It is a radio edit of the opening track of Ma Fleur. It is the most lush of Breathe's tracks, with full strings and piano backing Patrick Watson's amazing voice. Watson is a singer-songwriter that has toured with The Cinematic Orchestra and many other artists. This is the most joyous of the three tracks, but it is also the most sorrowful. Simple piano chords back Watson's voice as he starts to sing softly. Strings slowly come in and the piano builds as Watson's voice rises and soars. A perfect end to the EP, it leaves you wanting the full version on the soon to come album.
The Cinematic Orchestra's new album, Fleur, will be available in May. Look for a review here.
Links:
The Cinematic Orchestra Myspace page - with free streaming mp3s of Breathe
The Cinematic Orchestra website
