I'm no expert, but I'm exploring and hope to learn a lot more about it (especially to pick up some compositional techniques). I've loved Renaissance and Early Music for a while, especially instrumental dances and ballads, and of course vocal polyphony (a la Josquin des Prez, Claudio Monteverdi, Palestrina, etc). My parents made me aware of Renaissance polyphony early on by taking me to Anonymous 4 and Chanticleer Christmas concerts when I was a kid. Rather than the other way around, this interest was part of what initially attracted me to Gentle Giant, as well as…

I don't consider myself a vocally-oriented listener, nor a particularly ambitious singer myself, although I seem to get more comments on my (Nell James) voice than anything else. I was listening to Rilo Kiley the other day, and was remembering how Jenny Lewis is the only vocalist who I and other people have agreed I sound a tiny little bit like. I'm not sure who else. I've gotten a couple comparisons to Suzanne Vega, but I don't quite hear it. Hmm.

One of my favorite vocalists is Roye Albrighton from Nektar, and I think he has…

Okay, so I'm listening to The Moody Blues, specifically Lunch Break. Did The Who get their sound from this, or vice versa? Or did they just both reinterpret The Beatles in the same way, independant of each other?

"The Lowest Trees Have Tops"
John Dowland

The lowest trees have tops, the ant her gall,
The fly her spleen, the little spark his heat,
And slender hairs cast shadows though but small,
And bees have stings although they be not great,
Seas have their source, and so have shallow springs,
And love is love in beggars and in kings.

Where waters smoothest run, deep are the fords;
The dial stirs, yet none percieves it move;
The firmest faith is in the fewest words,
The turtles cannot sing, and yet they love;
True hearts have eyes and ears, no tongues…

I confess I've never really heard Cocteau Twins until recently, I'm just discovering Treasure. I really like it a lot, and what strikes me is that it's much more rhythmically complex than I would've expected from something of this genre. The vocal phrases are not your standard single-melody eight-note stuff. (There are even a few triplets in there, which is pretty exciting for music geeks such as myself.) This helps to keep the songs interesting as they march on into endless repetition. I know some people love hypnotic atmosphere for its own sake, but I usually find active, varied…