Tuesday, Mar 15, 2022 • 39min
New Mix: Belle and Sebastian, Scout laRue Willis, Gang of Youths, More
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All Songs host Bob Boilen shares his favorite new tracks of the week, including some powerful story-songs, from a drug-filled fling to lies learned about a lost father, an underwater journey and more.
Featured Songs And Artists:
1. Curse Of Lono: "So Damned Beautiful (feat. Tess Parks)," from People In Cars
2. Gang of Youths: "you in everything," from angel in realtime
3. Belle and Sebastian: "Unnecessary Drama," from A Bit of Previous
4. Niia: "Forward," from OFFAIR:Mouthful of Salt
5. Deer Scout: "Peace with the Damage," from Woodpecker
6. Scout laRue Willis: "Shouldn't I Be" (Single)
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Talking about
Speakers
(10)
Bob Boilen
Stuart Murdoch
Niia
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Transcript
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Break
Bob Boilen
00:39
For
NPR
Music, you're connected to all songs considered. I'm Bob Boilen
. I've fallen deeply for a band that's not new, but it's new to me. They're an English band called Curse of Lono
, a name that came from Hunter S. Thompson's
1983 book.Share
00:55
The song I want to play is from their third album coming in April called "People in Cars." It's a record filled with deep, dark atmospheres, great storytelling, and it's all heard through the baritone voice of singer Felix Bechtolsheimer, and here he is to take us to the song that I can't stop playing. It's called, "So damn beautiful."
Share
Felix Bechtolsheimer
01:15
This is the first song I ever wrote as a duet, and it's about a wild weekend affair that ends in tragedy, and it's something that happened not to me but to an ex partner of mine. She passed away shortly actually after we finished recording this song which was made the whole thing even more poignant.
Share
01:36
We recorded it here in London with our producer Oli Bayston, during lockdown, and we were discussing who we could get in to do the female vocal. Oli had been talking Tess Parks a little while earlier. So I reached out to her, and she was up for doing it, but she was stuck in Toronto.
Share
01:52
So we had to try and find someone who could record her over there and put the whole thing together. And I've just been talking to Mike Timmins of
The Cowboy Junkies
about another project, and luckily mike stepped up and offered to record the whole thing for us.Share
02:08
It became this mad transatlantic collaboration. And Tess and I talked on the phone and I told her what the song was about. But to this day I've I've never actually met her in person. Which is strange considering how intense and personal the song is. So this is "So damn beautiful" I really hope you
Share
Curse Of Lono
02:26
[So Damn Beautiful - Curse of Lono]
Share
Bob Boilen
06:56
That's
Curse Of Lono
and the song "So Damn Beautiful" from their album "People in Cars" of Fabulous album. It's out April 22nd on Submarine Cat Records. Another album with remarkable storytelling comes from the Australian band Gang Of Youths
.Share
08:05
The album "Angel in Real Time" begins at the bedside of singer David Le'aupepe's father as he's dying from cancer. The song is called, "You in Everything" and here's David Le'aupepe to tell us more.
Share
David Le'aupepe
08:18
"You in Everything" wasn't the first song on the album that I wrote, but it was the first one that I actually finished.
Share
08:24
I was an Airbnb with my wife in
Wellington New Zealand
and we were looking for my brothers and looking for clues about my dad and I sat down and I wanted to write something that sort of felt like three chords and the truth, something that felt like an overture in the vein of an old school Hollywood
or Broadway
thingShare
08:42
That surmised the record, the musical palette, the lyrical palette, the themes in the overarching concept which was fundamentally about feeling and hearing my dad's voice and his spirit kind of and everything in life now as a result of his passing, I kind of wanted it to feel like
Steve Reich
had a drum machine and the logic set up, and he was trying to do his own version of "I'm Trying to Break Your Heart" by Wilco
or somethingShare
09:12
And there were so many different versions that we did as a result of that experimentation. There was one that kind of sounded like songs Ohio, which wasn't very good. There was a dance version that was also quite bad. There was a very pastoral version that we split up into three, but gaining of views always tend to cycle back to the original concept, which is this dense, multi-layered thing that you're here now.
Share
Gang Of Youths
10:09
[You in Everything - Gang Of Youths]
Share
Bob Boilen
16:23
Such an enthralling song and album from
Gang Of Youths
. There was also recently an in-depth interview with singer David Le'aupepe on NPR's
"All Things Considered," and that's really worth a listen. The album from Gang Of Youths
is called "Angel in Real Time".Share
16:39
From Australia, we head to
Glasgow,
and new music from Belle And Sebastian
. It's their first album in seven years. It's called, "A Bit of Previous." I want to play the high energy tune, unnecessary drama. Written by bandmate Bobby Kildea
. Here's Stuart Murdoch
with intriguing insight into the birth of "Unnecessary Drama."Share
Stuart Murdoch
16:59
The music for this song was actually written by
Bob
in the band. He brought the music in, and it's always pretty complete when he brings his song in. I was commissioned to write the lyrics, which is fun for me. And so I thought I would write about my friend who writes to me periodically and has been doing for a number of years.Share
17:18
She has a kind of car crash of a love life. In fact, you know, heard everything sort of life. I was going to call the song "Romantic Drama" ahead because that was the name of one of the emails that she sent me and
Bob
said to me, no, no, it's called "Unnecessary Drama".Share
17:35
And I thought, okay,
Bob
, I can do that. We'll call it "Unnecessary drama." That sort of fits. Then he said, I want the chorus to go "tah-dah-dah-dah". And he wanted the word radio in the chorus because he said all the best pop songs have the word radio in them, you know, like Transmission or Road Runner or Radio Gaga by Queen.Share
17:55
I just couldn't do it. I couldn't, I couldn't think of a way of getting radio in there. So I just kind of yelled out, "This is my life," this is my so-called life. Like the TV show, the
Pittsburgh
based show that was ahead of its time from the 90's, "There's My So-called Life".Share
18:15
It was going okay, we argued over the production of the record. I wanted a more new wave sort of feel, you know, like Furniture, Deveau or Trio or Yazoo or something like that. And
Bob
wanted more straight ahead rock and roll and, you know, it's his song, so he won.Share
Belle And Sebatian
19:02
[This is my life - Belle and Sebastian]
Share
Bob Boilen
22:45
Belle and Sebastian
and the song unnecessary drama from the album "A Bit of Previous," which is out May 6th on Matador. There's a funny video for the song, and I'll put that and links and videos to all the songs on the all songs considered site.Share
23:01
I also have a playlist on Spotify and Apple Music for all the music. I play on the show and I update that weekly, search my name,
Bob Boilen
. It's B-O-I-L-E-N. And it's break time. You're listening to "All Songs Considered" from NPR Music.Share
Break
Bob Boilen
24:18
This's "All Songs Considered," I'm
Bob Boilen
, the singer Niia
spelled, N-I-I-A has taken a far different approach on her new album than she's done in her past. Niia
appeared on Wycle Jean's
2007 and seven song, "Sweetest Girl".Share
24:34
She's covered
James Bond's
classic tunes such as Goldfinger, Sonny and Cher's "Bang Bang" Tears for Fear's "Mad World,
" but you cannot imagine any of that listening to her new album, "Mouthful of Salt." It's more of an ambient album with minimalist instrumentation that approximates an underwater journey. I'll play the song I fell in love with called, "Forward," and I asked Niia
to map it out for me.Share
Niia
24:58
So, this song began with me around 2 p. m. in the spring in
Los Angeles
with some friends in the studio just experimenting. We were throwing our car keys on the floor, pulling Velcro from our backpacks apart, really just trying anything strange to get an interesting sound. And by the end of the day we had composed a strange but very strong composition.Share
25:21
I didn't really have a melody or any lyrics or even a concept, but what I noticed as it was taking shape had this very down low, percussive, heavy feel, followed by an area uplifting one kind of this down, up, down, up, down, up, while still propelling you through the song. And that kind of stayed with me. So after the session I took the song home and it kind of sat on a hard drive for a few weeks.
Share
25:43
A couple of weeks passed and my friend randomly sent me this
Denzel Washington
commencement speech and he had this one line that really stuck with me and it said, "It's okay to fall but fall forward." And for me, everything just kind of clicked, and I was like, oh, that's the message of that song. I had worked on from there, the lyrics, the melody, everything just flew out of me.Share
26:03
I added some sound bowls that I've been experimenting with, Over
Covid
and that was that. And what's really interesting is this was one of my first sessions for starting my ambient record. And you know, it really is ironic because I was really falling forward in my own life making new music. So the song, "Forward" has a really special place in my heart. I hope you enjoy it.Share
26:25
[Forward -
Niia
]Share
Bob Boilen
28:50
Niia
and a song, "Forward," I love the spaciousness in that song. It's from her album "Mouthful of Salt" and comes out April 8th on Off Air Records.Share
29:40
Deer Scout is a project of Dina Miller, and Woodpecker is a six-year project that's now her debut album. I immediately was taken by her voice and the harmonies and the lyrics to the song I'm about to play called, "Peace with the Damage."
Share
29:54
And when I asked her for a little more insight into the song and learned that her father had written it, that endeared me to it even more. Here's Deer Scout.
Share
Deer Scout
30:03
"Peace with the Damage" is a song my dad wrote and originally recorded with his band Spuyten Duyvil. My mom sings on that version. My dad's one of my favorite songwriters and I always wanted to cover this song. It's one of my favorites of his.
Share
30:20
He also introduced me to
Jenny Lewis
who's both of our favorite songwriters and this song of his kind of reminds me of a Jenny Lewis
song because it's got such specific details in it, they just feel really devastating. We recorded it together, He recorded the vocals, and he plays guitar. We recorded the first vocal four years before the second vocal.Share
30:46
So they're really far apart. And I like that because I wanted it to feel kind of like, I mean, for one, it took a really long time to finish making the album. But it also kind of feels to me like it's a conversation happening between a past self and a present self
Share
31:02
[Peace with the Damage - Deer Scout]
Share
Bob Boilen
35:24
That's Deer Scout. Her song, "Peace with the Damage," is on her debut album, "Woodpecker" that comes out April 8th, and I close out the show with another Scout.
Share
35:32
It's the music of Scout LaRue Willis. This is the second song from what will be her debut album, hopefully coming this summer. Scout
LaRue Willis
has a voice that feels soulfully steeped in the past and I mean that as a deep compliment, I want to play the song, shouldn't I be? I'll let Scout LaRue Willis tell us more. I'm Bob Boilen
for NPR
Music. It's "All Songs Considered"Share
Scout LaRue Willis
35:57
To me, "Shouldn't I be?" is a song that's poised in this really liminal space right between the acknowledgement of old patterns that no longer serve us and the joyful moment of deciding to let them go.
Share
36:15
And lyrically, I feel like the song speaks to being really in that feeling of not enoughness and feeling like we have to be different, better, stronger, taller, more beautiful in order to be whole and yet sonically, I feel like there's a really triumphant energy to this song that says, "You know what I am whole right now, and I'm ready to let go of this misbelief in this misperception about myself."
Share
36:45
And I'm ready to stop watering down my unique expression because it's mine alone to give to the world. And I see this song as really like a tender bomb for people who are really feeling in that moment and trapped in the miss belief. And it's also a call to action to recognize that every single person has the capacity to drop that story.
Share
37:18
[Shouldn't I be - Scout LaRue Willis]
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Bob Boilen
Felix Bechtolsheimer
Curse Of Lono
David Le'aupepe
Gang Of Youths
Stuart Murdoch
Belle And Sebatian
Niia
Deer Scout
Scout LaRue Willis