My Life In Rooms
Label: Monotreme
Length: EP
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: My Life In Rooms
Barzin’s Jason Pierce’like vocal is the only element that steadies the somber My Life in Rooms, a collection of drifting compositions that wobble and tip on a wealth of slide guitar and stuttering electric piano melodies. The singular moniker belongs to one Canadian songwriter, but the glistening surface of My Life in Rooms is the work of his collaborators, offering French horn, drums and gloomy string arrangements. These nine pieces are cooped up in the weary, shades-down bedroom ambience that is often associated with getting over the flu; Barzin’s breathy requests, amid the clink of vibraphone and violins, are delivered as if conceived under the influence of many decongestants. ‘Leaving Timeâ?� is one such example that finds the sickly-sounding subject longing for the company of a reclusive friend, with ‘a lovely faceâ?� that is kept ‘locked away.â?� Like the hopeful tremolo guitar progression of the title track, the album’s reluctant crescendos come as a surprise only because it doesn’t seem as if this work could get any more beautiful. But it does, frequently.
This article appears in Nov 1-7, 2006.