You’d think the use of a music box on the title track from an interesting release by Korean jazz singer Youn Sun Nah — “Same Girl” was originally found on Randy Newman’s 1973 recording “Trouble in Paradise” — would imbue it all with this childlike wonder. (Elsewhere, Youn Sun Nah employs a kalimba, and a kazoo.) Instead, her purposeful pace, her delicate enunciation of each Newman lyric, gives the tune a deep-blue, almost black, melancholy. When she sings “you’re still the same girl,” absolutely quivering with emotion, slowing the song almost to a stop, it sounds every bit like a eulogy for something inextricably lost. A dark and wondrous song.
Half Notes is a quick-take music feature on Something Else! Reviews, presented whenever the mood strikes us.
[amazon_enhanced asin=”B0040N1N68″ price=”All” background_color=”FFFFFF” link_color=”000000″ text_color=”0000FF” /]
- Nick DeRiso’s Best of 2015 (Rock + Pop): Death Cab for Cutie, Joe Jackson, Toto + Others - January 18, 2016
- Nick DeRiso’s Best of 2015 (Blues, Jazz + R&B): Boz Scaggs, Gavin Harrison, Alabama Shakes - January 10, 2016
- Nick DeRiso’s Best of 2015 (Reissues + Live): John Oates, Led Zeppelin, Yes, Faces + others - January 7, 2016
