The thing about i is that the arrangements are actually pretty good, in a chamber-poppy way. A lot of bands who weren’t really bands have felt the desire to make a band album, and i is a great example. Really we aren’t free of any track without ukelele, cello, banjo, Claudia’s vocals, etc. Merritt also sticks to his range and achieves a really nice sotto voce throughout.
The sad-clown image is a classic allusion though (I don’t mean to make this a blog about Fellini, but La Strada, anyone?), but Merritt imagines a twisted sort of apotheosis for the clown, floating into the air via helium balloon.
Now some meta:
The graphic is based off of the marquee at the Village Vanguard.
Coltrane and Dolphy played there, and it’s in the Village, where Stephin Merritt lives.
Hey Kyle,
Glad to see you went with one of these, I felt bad about stealing Low from you! It’s looking good so far, and I have an idea. I’ll cut you a deal, if you’d like – I’ll trade you “All My Little Words” for a Low song (I haven’t covered) of your choice… at some point we can just write both of them up, email them over and voila – guest posts.
If you really, really don’t want to let “All My Little Words” go, but like the idea let me know, as I’m open to negociation. Probably the best/easiest thing to do is email me (imathers at gmail dot com), as I’ll probably forget to check this comment box. Let me know!
And, hahaha, I just noticed which song you titled the blog after, so I imagine I’ll have to think of another for potential swapping…