Interactive Poll: Your Boat Is Burning!

1.    Lorenzo:  Lalli “I Fuochi”  Spare piano begins the piece, with an imploring sort of female vocal.  Echo-y voices in background, sounds like they were recorded in a church, perhaps.  I can’t find the lyrics in English, but her voice is so terribly evocative of sadness.  She reaches some really beautiful depths in her tone.  Very soul-wrenching.  Electric band comes in about halfway in and her pace also picks up.  She sounds like she is coming to some resolve to me, despite what sounds like an anguishing situation, but I’m just guessing.  Her voice comes in, in an echo-y sense, is she haunting herself with whatever happened?  I like this very much, very emotional piece. 

 2.       suitkees: Caetano Veloso & Lila Downs “Burn It Blue”  Now this is right up my alley.  Mexican feel and a haunting vocal, with strings behind the expertly played guitar.  Pretty, pretty harmonies.  It just gets better and better as it continues, some light orchestration begins a soft ascent as they sing of a bird’s flying free.  Lila’s voice near the end also soars and then the two singers entertwine and it drops back to scant orchestration and vocal.  Stunning.  This will surely be a serious consideration for me.

 3.      Nick:   Mikko Joensuu  “House of Fire”  Begins with warbly keys and synthy bubbly sounds.  The tension builds as the general sound is repeated, lovely ambient piece, it is becoming clear by the first 3 minutes.  Sparkly notes start to alter the piece gradually (sparks?).  Ooooh, here come some guitars, or looped something similar on synths, not sure.  Little accent weeeegleeeees go spinning out and flashes of plucky keyboards (if that makes any sense, you’ll get used to my “technical terms,” when describing music, Nick, lol).  Vocals come in about halfway through, and yes, it does sound a bit like guitar underpinning the vocal, which is very lysergic and spooky at once. Some percussive elements are now added. Whirlies and tinklies close the offering, with a fadeout of what reminds me of bending a saw and hearing the whooshing noise that makes.  Very eerie piece for the most part, as you can probably guess, I also quite enjoy this one. 

Honourable Mentions (these were under serious consideration and truly ended up here because competition was so stiff)  This was the longest "A List," and ending "Honourable Mentions," yet for me, not to mention the "If You'd Selected," list): 

Raff:  Manuel de Falla “Ritual Fire Dance”  

Logan:  Harumi “Fire By The River” 

Mike:  Gotye “Smoke & Mirrors” 

wiz_d_kidd:   RÊVE “Moths”  

Scott:  The Winery Dogs “Fire” 

If you’d Chosen Differently (these would have been up for second listen, possibly have competed for Top 3 and/or Honourable Mentions:

George:  Type O Negative  “Summer Breeze/Set Me On Fire”  

A Crimson Mellotron: Audioslave “Original Fire”  

Cristi:  Pro Musica  “Poarta de foc”  

Tancos: Sister Irene O’ Connor “Fire”  

Tigerfeet:  Tindersticks “This Fire of Autumn”