Truth about 'Hold Time' by M. Ward

M. Ward is one of those indie singer/songwriters that’s not totally acoustic and plain, filled with emotions that make you which you never turned on the album. The happy, but yet mellow M. Ward has finally after three years released a new album. After his previous hit ‘Post-War’ which I must admit is a fantastic album, M. Ward brings his game on to his new ‘Hold Time’. The album is a nice and sunshine album that starts of with the bittersweet yet happy and earthy tone. He is one of few artists that has found what I once saw in The Shins but at a slower speed and a more sentimental path.

In ‘For Beginners’ M. Ward brings on the quick acoustic play with a happy surface that give you time for reflection and just like The Shins second track ‘Mine’s Not High Horse’ on ‘Chutes To Narrow’ he gives the album a perfect start. In this album he’s done a terrific collaboration with actress Zooey Deschanel (Almost Famous, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy) for an original soundtrack song ‘Rave On’ for the upcoming film ‘The Go-Getter’. The duet is absolutely one of the highlights of this ‘feel good’ album that never really reaches up to what ‘Post-War’ did.

I hate to compare stuff and this is a creative and beautiful record that sets tone for the upcoming spring. I’m not very well familiar with M. Ward so I can’t really compare and change opinions on his earlier work (except ‘Post-War’) and I could give you full biographical background but this is about ‘Hold Time’ as a record and I guess I fall in love with the music. It’s one of those albums that has continuous linear speed, it’s a great ‘mood’ setter for a sunny day and it’s surely a very good album. A Sunshine ‘Mood’-setter that has a little charm with it and I like it. It secures his future in my library.

Highlights; 'For Beginners', 'To Save Me', 'Jailbird' and 'Rave On'.

Exploring The Harmony of Regina Spektor

To me, Russan/American singer songwriter Regina Spektor was totally unknown, until a year ago. What I heard was amazing but in the beginning of 2008 I kind of forgot about Regina Spektor and it took me until yesterday (see. today) that I finally got on with it. Listening to her four albums, knowing a fifth is currently on its way I was set into numb position. Exploring Regina Spektor on a wider stadium is something all should do if you haven't heard her, or if you only heard a little bit.
What Spector does is that she takes a genre, makes it her own and experiments with it in a singer songwriter way I have never heard. With influences from Icelandic singer Bjork, Regina Spektor reminds more of a young Tori Amos or an excellent version of Swedish singer/songwriter Anna Ternheim with influences from a less and sometimes jazzier Norah Jones. I have found a special recognistion to this easy listening girl singer songwriter explosion or movement that has exploded to the world of music during the past years.

Regina Spektor might be the inventor of what I would like to call the alternative singer/songwriter with somewhat a touch of the first points of what punk tried to reach out with. With totally unexpected breaks and composing of her music she turns rules of music upside down in harmony. She is one those with the elderly voice that you can decide on what you think of, the original strength of her voice is certainly magical in every situation of a day and it expresses emotions and feelings on a high level. I can imagine a live concert, listening to the bittersweet love, growing up, life, argument inspired stories to a spinning discobowl in what I would call the singer/songwriter phenomenon of the 00's.

Some songs you ought to hear; Love Affair, Back of a Truck, Buildings, Flyin', 2.99C Blues (Eleven Eleven), Oedipus, Bon Idee, Lulliby (Songs), Ode To Divorce, Poor Little Rich Boy, U2, Somedays (Soviet Kitch), Fidelity, Samson, On The Radio, Field Below, 20 Years of Snow, That Time and Summer In The City (Begin to Hope).