Sunny side up…
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[7.17]
Alfred Soto: Asking For Flowers, an overrated breakthrough, required that we concentrate on its followup. Here it is, and she sounds lost so lost in the big beat. What is she trying to say, and to whom? Of course it might sound better on the album but I don’t know if she’ll get that chance.
[5]
Jer Fairall: Upon hearing of her romance with Justin Vernon, whose voice makes me itch and whose music bores me to tears, I could only say that I was happy that she was happy. After hearing this first taste of their musical union, though, I’m left stunned at what they’ve seemingly brought out in each other: “Sidecar” sounds nothing like his listless, humourless soft rock, what with this live wire of a bass line that could alone kick the moribund ass of anything he’s ever released as Bon Iver. Nor does it resemble anything like the rustic, harrowing sketches that Edwards once constructed her songs out of, chiming and buzzing where she would have once drawn out and prodded her stories for every bloody detail. Of course, the difference is as much tonal as it is structural: “Sidecar” is a happy song, happy about finding a new love to face the world with, to make breakfast in bed for, to commiserate with over past personal tragedies only fleetingly in the rearview. As a concluding note to 2011 (and an introductory one to 2012, as this is the advanced single for Edwards’ upcoming album), I love this as much for how it runs counter to my personal musical highlights of this year, from EMA to “Someone Like You” to Drake and The Weeknd, as I do for how it just makes me bop foolishly around my living room for its two-and-a-half minutes, literalizing, as much as one simple, charming little song can, all of my foolish, hopeful optimism for the year to come.
[9]
Dan Weiss: Fast ones by Mrs. Bon Iver number in the few and her other tunes in the league of the perfect “The Cheapest Key” number in zero. So this “fun” song has something to celebrate. Not the unfinished title metaphor though.
[7]
Edward Okulicz: A shock, but a minor and pleasant one is a Kathleen Edwards song opening with garage drums and a big, raucous bass sound that sounds like the discharge of a giant battery. In fact, it’s as kinetic as this sort of thing gets, to the extent that her voice is a little drowned. The surprise that saves the song is that once you’ve heard it a few times, it’s as sunny and catchy as it needs to be.
[8]
Jonathan Bogart: Maybe it’s just because I watched two live sessions of the song in order to find a screencap before listening to the studio version, but the buzzy guitar and ghostly electronic wail in the background (theremin? possibly) are making this song for me. With just her and two guitar players, it’s a cute enough ditty; with a full band, it’s enough to worm its way into my affections even in the middle of year-end free-fall.
[7]
Katherine St Asaph: This song was not written for me. I can appreciate the buzzy synth, and Kathleen sings well enough, but the point at which I’d sing this song is the point at which I’d get the sidecar thrown in my face.
[7]