Halve the Light

Halve the Light Artist: Paul Brill
Label: Redeye Distribution
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 677516507325
EAN: 0677516507325
ASIN: B00005A44T


Release Date: 2001-02-07

Halve the Light


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General General
Categories | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Indie Rock Indie Rock
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Experimental Rock Experimental Rock
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Alt-Country & Americana Alt-Country & Americana
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General General
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Folk Rock Folk Rock
Categories | Folk | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Tracks:

  1. Maybelline
  2. Bad Medicine Night
  3. Start it Again
  4. Caroline
  5. Love Survives Us All
  6. Dry Ice
  7. Don't Say Maybe
  8. Halve the Light

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Album Description

"Halve the Light" is the latest recording by New York City songwriter Paul Brill. The album fuses Brill's folk-rock and pop influences through songs about lost souls and late-night travellers. Co-produced by Brill and Dave Camp, "Halve the Light" weaves a running literary narrative amongst the sultry tones of pedal steel, acoustic guitars, strings, pianos and vocal harmony. Close to the music, too, is a sense of the cityscape - the songs have an edge, lyrically and musically.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars The Great American Heartbreak.......2001-11-16

The first time my girlfriend dragged me to hear Paul Brill perfom at CBGB's I was less than enthusiastic. Country-style singer-songwriters are my least favorite artists, as a rule. Much to my amazement, however, I soon found myself singing along to his music. A singer-songwriter extraordinaire, Paul Brill captures the heartache of American life in a manner which is as current as it is timeless. Drawing on influences as diverse as Hank Williams and Bob Dylan, Brill's music is a refreshing body of meaningful work in an otherwise bleak musical landscape. Songs such as "Maybelline" and "Dry Ice" have a sing-along quality that undermines their lyrical depth. Brill is a thinker, and his songs evoke a familiar and ultra-American sadness reminiscent of the work of the Beats. Musically, Brill's compositions are solid manipulations of pop conventions set against a New Country backdrop. Don't let the slide guitar fool you, this is pop music at it's best. Brill has crafted tunes worthy of Oasis, if not the Fab Four themselves.

5 out of 5 stars Good Music, Fresh Air.......2001-07-25

This CD came highly recommended by a personal friend. The artwork appealed to me enough to take a chance on it. That was a few months back, in April, I believe. Now, in July, I am still struggling to find the tools to pry the disc from my CD player. It simply refuses to leave.

This independent release is simply a work of true art and such a welcome and pleasant surprise to my record and CD collection. My tastes, as most people, range far and wide, from Modest Mouse to the Byrds, Big Star, and so on. It would seem that Brill shares a similar appreciation for good music, or at least, I may flatter myself into believing our tastes are concurrent.

The arrangements are soulful and inventive, and Brill's deft and natural sense of melody and harmony conspire to create something traditional and original at once. The coda to 'Bad Medicine Night' causes me to hum along, nodding my head with the acoustic guitar. The vocal harmonies in 'Caroline' give me pause. And the drums in 'Dry Ice' evoke the following phrase: 'yeah yeah'.

Click on Buy this CD. Insert Credit Card information. Wait for arrival of said CD to your doorstep. Enjoy.

5 out of 5 stars Endoplasmically Reticulous.......2001-04-05

There are no words to describe the originallity of Paul Brill's musical style so i had to come up with new ones: Endoplasmically Reticulous. People from the San Francisco Bay Area are already familiar with Brill's songwriting genius. But with this release he shows his prowess as a complete musician and producer. Each song is carefully crafted with subtle yet sufficiently complex arranging. It features the some of the hottest bluegrass/counrty players in the "Downtown" scene of Manhattan, and as one might expect, the playing is outrageous. Upon first listen the song forms are constructed with familiar building blocks of the folk and bluegrass idioms, but upon closer review, each block plays host to an ornamented symphony of Beethovian proportion. I highly recommend this CD.

4 out of 5 stars Brilliant Surprise.......2001-03-24

This record is simply beautiful. Maybelline is a treasure. Looking forward to more great music from this budding artist. Try to catch a live show - worth a special trip to NYC.

5 out of 5 stars Discovering the Hidden Form.......2001-03-17

Few artists in the alt-country landscape engage with their musical roots with the depth, subtlety, earnestness and craft of Paul Brill. In fact, to pigeonhole Halve the Light into the alt-country category doesn't even seem to do the album justice: here we see none of the overly self-conscious irony of a Todd Snider or the questionable obliqueness of a Jeff Black.

One thinks, instead, of standout, almost accidental moments that occur in certain careers, moments like Yo La Tengo's Fakebook or Dylan's Nashville Skyline, moments that find artists reconciled with--though not free of--their demons, and comfortable with their mastery of their underlying traditions. From the tears-in-the-beer, steel-pedal twang of Maybelline to the fiddle-on-fire squaredance of Caroline, Brill, backed by an ensemble that would be the envy of any first-rate jug-band from Appalachia, seamlessly weaves the contemporary--and often urban--themes of his intricately textured lyrical fabric into the tapestry of venerable heartland forms with panache.

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