If you like Cohen and Cave, you might like this. As concept albums goes it’s on the better side of what we’ve heard. It wouldn’t get recommended to everyone, though.
For clarity, we wanted to check out the full album rather than just the track Java.
IS MILLER SESSIONS A REGULAR ON OUR PLAYLISTS?
No.
Miller Sessions is led by Norwegian singer-songwriter Espen Langbråten, also known for his band Helmers Hage, whose songs have aired on NRK. He's backed by Frederik Bjørnstad on mandolin, banjo, baritone guitar, piano (this list keeps going), organ, and accordion, Lars Martin Torp on bass, and Andreas Łosiewicz on drums. Trevis Read threads spoken word through the record, pulled straight from Miller's own writing.
THE POET sets ten of Miller's poems to music, one poem per song, built around the words rather than over them, and you can feel that in the composition. The record opens with Read's spoken word before Langbråten sings the title track, a dark, dramatic opener. COLUMBUS, Miller's best-known poem, gets a piano-led arrangement further in. JAVA, which is how we ended up here, was what intrigued us in the first place. The dulcet tones in the opening, the grimy, deep instrumentals, it is a work of art. And art is subjective. It was this one where we found similarity between the singer’s pacing and tone and some of Nick Cave’s murder ballads.
And like Nick we are the first to say this isn’t for everyone. But we can’t help but feel something for it, or about it. And that is the point. Art, music - whatever, is to make you feel something.
Restrained arrangements, plenty of space in the mix, storytelling vocals over performance, that's Cohen's delivery. But a band of outsiders reaching for American frontier mythology, with a subject who was an actual horse thief who lived among outlaws and nearly hanged, that's Cave's territory too.
Cool things? Joaquin Miller's real birthday was September 8, 1837, confirmed by Wikipedia. He spent decades insisting it was 1841, along with a story about being born in a covered wagon heading west. Ambrose Bierce called him "the greatest liar this country ever produced," and the lie outlived him. And honestly, the second link is worth reading, because it is fantastic.
Two mugs. Not because it's badly made, the playing is serious, and so is the concept. THE POET is easy to admire and through, and admiration isn't the same as wanting to hit play again. Still, we recommend you take a listen, even if just to try something new for a while.
