(PAW2009 42/52)

(PAW2009 41/52)

Sometimes the power in music is in the associations it makes with what else is going on when you hear it. This week’s tune, “Remains” by Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon, is a great track by itself, but I enjoy it more for how I came across it.

Whedon’s brother Joss is the man behind some of the most interesting genre TV of the last decade or so: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, Firefly and the current Dollhouse. The fraught first season of Dollhouse ended with an unexpected and initially unaired future-set episode called “Epitaph One”, in which the writers were pretty cruel to their characters in order to lay out some of the darker ideas the show plays with. Revolving around a couple of powerful scenes, “Epitaph One” is very good TV (much better than unfortunately large chunks of Dollhouse’s first season).

The sadness and hope of the final scene of the episode can be heard in the song.

“Remains” [YouTube]

There seems to have been a glut of good, smart TV over the last number of years. I hear The West Wing and Battlestar Galactica talked about a lot, although I haven’t seen any of either of them. (I’ll hear about that, I know.) As in books and in film, I find some really high quality hidden away in genres where the mainstream might never find it. That’s a shame, I think.

(PAW2009 40/52)

Eleven years ago I sat among a group of people in a church hall and played a bit of guitar. There was a friend there who, with a bit of encouragement, did some fine singing. Last week, after a long time gigging and winning some financial backing, that friend released her first album.

I tend to experience slight anxiety when someone I know releases a recording. It could be a bit awkward if I don’t actually enjoy listening to the music. It gets bought as a matter of course, but not necessarily listened to much. I’m glad to say that I have been enjoying listening to Coming Around by Elle Stevenson.

For a first long-player it’s a strong collection of tracks in the acoustic-y, piano-y, female singer-songwriter-y vein. (Hmm. Does that sell it terribly well?) The song that has really caught my ear is “Almost Forgiven”, with its disarmingly jaunty piano line. (I suppose I might regret ‘jaunty’, too. I’m no good at this game.) If you like it, you should like the rest of the album. Behind the smooth presentation, some of the lyrics are pretty raw. It’s an effective combination.

No streaming options for this one, again. This is what happens when I pick songs from less-prominent local artists. You can get a short preview — or buy it! — on Amazon’s MP3 store. There are also a few tracks for listening on Elle’s Last.fm page.