Song Of The Day 8/23/2015: Natalie Prass – “It Is You”

Photo: Shawn Brackbill

In 2013 I listened to 330 new albums. Last year I listened to 366. Unfortunately in 2015 I haven’t come close to either of those mammoth numbers for a few reasons. Number One is my job, which requires me to, of all things, pay attention for long stretches of time. This wasn’t a problem when I was in the music industry. Number Two is this blog, for which I have to do a lot of plundering in the past, researching, coming up with original ideas, ripping off old ideas from Steve Martin, and heavy lifting. Number Three is the tragedy that’s befallen my car stereo, which is no longer playing certain frequencies at the level in which they were mixed. These frequencies cover certain flourishes in the piano, orchestral and guitar riff departments. It’s not unbearable; it just makes all my ELO albums sound like Nick Drake. Number Four is my preparation for a project I can’t tell you all about yet. I have about five of those projects, that I can’t tell you all about yet. The primary reason I can’t tell you all about them yet is because four of them will never happen and the fifth is kinda tentative. Finally, there’s my work with the orphans. (That’s a stock one-liner I’ve been using since 1998, and damn it, I’m sticking with it until it works.)

But since I have to come up with a best-of–2015 list by – well, who’m I trying to kid, I’ll need it by September 30 – I’m going to cram as many albums into my listening experience between now and then. And I haven’t completely turned off new music at all, which you can tell from my recent reviews in Treble. I listen to every album I review for them. It’s not like I write for Maxim or anything. Anyway, I’m really going to try and turn on the warm jets from here to Thanksgiving.

One song that did get past the mesh of the sieve is this song from Natalie Prass’ self-titled debut, which I haven’t heard all the way through yet. This song came up on random shuffle a few weeks ago and I haven’t been able to forget it. “It Is You” is the kind of combination of pastiche and gorgeous string arrangement that will get me every single time. I don’t have any defense against music like this. It’s lovely. I will always be taken in by any contemporary songs like this, and will defend the rest of the losers in nerd camp who love this song as well.

All right, distribute this amongst yourselves and I’ll be back with more instructions in the morning.