The Underground of Happiness

I think the trick with chamber pop is to introduce enough acid elements to balance the sweetness, like lemon juice in a tart. There’s plenty of swooning on Composed (the bending string arrangements alone would break your heart at several different times), but it’s offset by some gothic lyricism and an intriguing minor-key undertow to make an intriguing, moving whole. I should fess up, I’m a sucker for chamber pop. We can agree that Van Dyke Parks was the chief pioneer in this area – the man is one of my heroes – and the whiff of VDP floats around this album like a warm embrace, in its showtune interludes, beautifully subtle keyshifts and full use of every orchestral voice. Actually, “chamber” is a moot point – you could say orchestral – but I’d stick with the word on the basis of the winning personal and intimate atmosphere all through. The guest vocal turns will attract most of the headlines – David Byrne, Caetano Veloso, Dawn McCarthy, Mirah Zeitlyn, Zac Pennington, SoKo ,...

There are several reasons to love Jherek Bischoff's new album, Composed . Firstly, it's on The Leaf Label , who are on a particularly hot streak this year, following two stunning releases already from Matthew Bourne and AU . Secondly, it features guest contributions from David Byrne, Caetano Veloso, Nels Cline, Carla Bozulich, Zac Pennington and Soko , among others, all of which are sparkling and vibrant. But thirdly, and most importantly for me, it occupies the musical area known as chamber pop . You know we love a bit of chamber pop around here. This is a swooping, fluttering, brilliantly orchestrated album of tunes which recalls Van Dyke Parks at his best. I'm not going to say any more for now because I'm still digesting its multi-faceted gorgeousness, but there'll be loads more on the radio show from this in the near future.

Left with Pictures - In time (Organ Grinder Records) If you're into chamber pop (and I am) you'll want to be checking out this English band's second album. It's a concept-ish album, with 12 songs, each one relating to a different month of the year. So, it opens with Constantly , a bittersweet meditation on the passing of time, driven along by a rolling piano figure and some great banjo playing. The Ides of March sounds strangely like Morrissey (only, if he'd been into The Zombies instead of the New York Dolls). August's Go Simon, Go! brilliantly finds common ground between a barbershop quartet and Thin Lizzy's Dancing in the Moonlight . And the at-odds-textures of bowed saw and jaunty brass on closing song Forgive me perfectly evoke the mixed feelings of an English December. Joining folk and classical music, via English music hall, this album just goes to show how broad a church pop music can be, if you go looking in the right places. And don't you j...