Tag: Christina Perri

Christina Perri – I Don’t Wanna Break

“A real sort of ‘yes, this is happening, don’t you dare switch off’.”

Tim: Back in November we heard the first track from her second album; here’s the second.

Tom: Crikey. That’s very good.

Tim: It’s less vocal-focussed than last time, though obviously with her voice there’s only so much you can do to distract attention from it. We do, however, get a lovely rising piano and drum beating instrumental underneath most of it which works wonderfully with the nature of the vocal, breaking into pieces regularly and maintaining a real sort of “yes, this is happening, don’t you dare switch off” attitude.

Tom: Agreed: it sounds like it’s going for a final chorus when it’s only half way through the track, and then it just keeps rising and falling — and that last part drags your attention back and keeps you listening.

Tim: Right – it’s not all necessary, because anyone who turns this off with all the “aahh-ah-ah-ahh”ing going on is just an idiot, and doesn’t deserve to listen to it anyway.

Christina Perri – Human

“Breathtaking, I think is the word you’re looking for.”

Tim: Have this, the lead single off the Jar of Hearts hitmaker’s second album.

Tom: Blimey, “the Jar of Hearts hitmaker”? Have you been taking cliché classes from the NME?

Tim: Breathtaking, I think is the word you’re looking for. The one specific thing that stuck out at me throughout this: the echo.

Tom: “Reverb” is the technical term. Almost always a digital effect these days.

Tim: I don’t think I’ve ever noticed a singer’s voice properly echoing before – I don’t know if it’s something that just never been done or if it’s particularly audible here, with the massive voice and tiny backing, but I quite like it.

Tom: It’s used everywhere, because it adds depth and warmth to vocals that might otherwise seem clinical. You’re noticing it here because the track is mixed to emphasise the vocal far more than most pop music is.

Tim: I’ll confess I was initially disappointed by that build to the first chorus because no track should really be allowed to do that and then just stop, unless – UNLESS – it’s there solely to draw attention to a fantastic and flawless vocal. Oh, look what it did. WONDERFUL.

Christina Perri – Arms

To quote Louis Walsh on many many occasions, “I’m going to say yes.”

Tom: Now, “Jar of Hearts” is still being played in heavy rotation on some radio stations. It’s a cracking song. Can she possibly follow it up with anything even half as good?

Tim: To quote Louis Walsh on many many occasions, “I’m going to say yes.”

Tom: First half of first verse: worried. Second half of first verse: optimistic.

Tim: Yes, and yes. And then, end of the first chorus: there it is.

Tom: And then it keeps building, like her last song, slowly and inexorably, gaining energy and instrumentation – and because it was so slow and calm at the start, that actually makes a difference.

Although I would like to say, video director; if your female start is lying down, and you film her from the neck up rolling around and making an ‘oh’ sound, it’s not going to look like she’s singing in her sleep.

Tim: You had to go there, didn’t you? Since you’ve pointed it out, though, it’s the three short seconds at 2:42 that really do it for me.

Saturday Flashback: Christina Perri – Jar Of Hearts

The best piano-and-strings ballad I’ve heard in a long while.

Tom: Another one from America that didn’t make it over here. Do yourself a favour: just listen to the video in a background tab to start off with. I’ll tell you why later.

Now, just to set your expectations: this isn’t bouncy pop music. It’s a slow piano-and-strings, steadily building, ballad.

Tom: …and it might just be the best piano-and-strings ballad I’ve heard in a long while.

Tim: It is nice, isn’t it? Calming and all that.

Tom: There’s quite a tale behind it as well, if the official story‘s to be believed; it went platinum despite Christina Perri being an unsigned artist.

Tim: A tale to inspire us all.

Tom: Bloody stupid video, though. Which is a shame, because the song doesn’t need that adornment: “To gild refined gold, to paint the lily … is wasteful and ridiculous excess.” Put her in front of a piano, film it well, and you have exactly the kind of video that the song needs.

Tim: You just quoted Shakespeare. I have absolutely no idea how to follow that.

Tom: Knowing you? Generally with a cock joke.