Sans Cell, Sans Souci

Current Music: Haven in the Sky, from Tell Me on a Sunday

I am currently cell phone-less, because the fine print indicated that to get the big $250 rebate from Amazon.com, I had to cancel my service before re-signing up for a new 1-year service contract. Unfortunately, although my old phone was turned off successfully, the new one is not able to connect to the network... it was supposed to do this itself automatically within 15 minutes, but nothing has happened for an hour, and I can't even call tech support to ask what's going on. I might drive to a pay phone, but I sent an email and it's probably ok to be out-of-touch for a night.

That's related to the point, incidentally, of this most bizarre Lloyd Webber song, one of the other new ones from Tell Me on a Sunday. It's about the paradise of trans-Atlantic flight. Maybe Lloyd Webber is used to flying 1st class, because it sounds a lot nicer in the song than I remember from flying to France. The music is weird, it would be equally fitting in Starlight Express, The Beautiful Game, or a softcore soundtrack. Amazon's editorial review calls it a "quasi-dance track with a trip-hop beat". Huh. Anyway, it's such a weird premise for a song, but it's nice how it describes getting away from it all for 8 hours in a plane:

This is more than a flight, it's a haven
Let us take care of you on our haven in the sky
Just sit back and relax, take things easy
Watch the ground disappear, wave your worries goodbye

Up here, everything's clear
You just sit and they grant you your every wish
Angels in uniform
Smile and ask
"Would you rather the meat or the fish?"

No big decisions
No binds and no ties
I love this limbo up in the skies
Eight whole hours my life's not in my hands
Better sort my head out for when this plane lands!

Nothing matters when you're here in limbo
Watch the clouds underneath, lift the weight off your mind
Here the sun's always shining above you
Leave whatever old baggage you don't want behind


Unexpected Song is refreshing on this recording because of the new orchestration. It uses a smaller orchestra, but perhaps more piano, reminding me of the changes in the second Martin Guerre recording. The piano part has these new doubled sixteenth notes all over the place: the final two 16ths of most bars in the piano part are the same note, which adds a crazy amount of intensity. This little detail is worth the price of the recording. The song sounds more mellow at first but the piano really starts rocking as it progresses. The whole piano accompaniment feels like it's in a higher register and it's more varied and interesting than before. The crucial harmony on the words "unexpected song" is unexpectedly different in the last half of the piece-- at least I think it's a different chord. Hopefully I haven't been tricked by crazy sound of the piano part. The big syncopated chords in the last verse or two now sound different as they are more subtle drum hits, but still great fun. You Made Me Think You Were in Love has also been reorchestrated to good effect: this time it sounds more like "On Your Own" from Rent than the frenetic 70's thing it was before. Finally, in the title song Tell Me on a Sunday, the orchestration is about the same as before, but the piano performance really rocks here too, especially starting on the big accented dominant octave for "Don't run off in the pouring rain/Don't call me as they call your plane/Take the hurt out of all the pain." These three measures are incredible with that unsubtle breaking-the-strings fortissimo.

Other new songs: Speed Dating is quite annoying, although it's funny that I just heard about the concept, here in Bloomington. Tyler King is about the same. Fourth Letter Home (out of five), however, is good because the lyrics are so realistically naive.. It provides a great segue into the next track: "I think I've found my soul mate... One ready made life..."

Finally, Somewhere Someplace Sometime is growing on me, although the old endings of Song & Dance were much superior. I'm still not sure what to feel about the pop orchestration.. the background stuff reminds me abstractly of "Amigos Para Siempre". It's mostly spanish-sounding guitars, keyboard pads, bass, and cheesy drum kit:

Somewhere Someplace Sometime
You can put yourself
Through all kinds of hell
When good love goes bad
Or you can just say
That what comes and goes
Is meant to happen
Time to move on now
Even though each step
Will be hard to climb
But I still believe
Love will come along
Somewhere, someplace, sometime

Something good will come
Out of this I'm sure
I know who I am
If it's up to me
Then I'll be just fine
I don't break easy
I won't count the days
I won't fall apart
No, not anymore
And I won't let go
Of the dream in me
Maybe I'm crazy
Longing for love is not a crime
Keep your heart alive
And love will arrive
Somewhere, someplace, sometime