I’ve covered in this space how purchasing albums based on songs heard on Pandora can be risky. The problem being that Pandora tends to share the hits. (I find this surprising, but that’s a discussion for another time.) And yet, I keep buying whole albums with the hopes of finding more good music. And we have our next album that isn’t suffering from this problem: Share This Place: Stories & Observations
It bears mentioning that this album does have the twin used CD warnings: a) There are a lot of copies for sale used. and b) Many of these copies are bargain-bin cheap. I usually avoid albums like this, and it was only the strength of their song, “Love Song of the Fly” that goaded me into purchasing it.
Like the rest of the songs on the album, “Love Song of the Fly” is sung from the point of view of an insect. In this case, a housefly. The fly isn’t expressing love for another fly. Instead, it is singing the praises of its human host, and bemoaning the cruel treatment it receives in return. The singing is sweet and clear, and the music is jazzy world music flavored. Heavier on the jazz, usually, but with strains of folk music or Latin music mixed in. People who cannot stand accordion music will want to avoid this, because there is a lot. There is also a lot of cello and guitar on the album.
The lyrics are brilliant. The insects sing poetically about the advantages of having six legs, communicating with chemicals, bio-luminescence, shedding skins, and even what life is like gestating in a ball of dung. Sings the dung beetle larvae:
My mother made for me this pear
A perfect womb, a mottled lair
Where I will grow and eat my share
Of pastry rich beyond compare
The vocabulary is splendid, and the subject matter is approached with a sly but very frank wit. This helps prevent the album from seeming like a bunch of Shel Silverstein songs, luckily. Sadly, it is not without flaws. The second half of Luminescence wants to play like a swinging jazz number, but singer Mirah doesn’t seem up to the task. She can’t seem to find the rhythm. Or something. On the plus side, it comes with a little booklet containing all the lyrics.
Of course, it’s hard to find an album where every single song is awesome. At worst, Share This Place will make your index finger itch for the fast forward button once or twice. At best, it will transport you to the experience and poetry of insect life, where you can forget your woes, trundle around on many legs, spray noxious toxins out of your abdomen, or stretch your wings and recall your favorite instars.
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