Linda Perry: Let It Die Here
According to the Oxford English Dictionary:
Excitement
noun
a feeling of great enthusiasm and eagerness.
Am I excited about Let It Die Here? Apparently so. I do have a fair amount of enthusiasm for this album to come out and on those grounds, I guess I would also have to say I’m eager too but I think we can all agree that so far as definitions go, that one is pretty lousy and I expected more.
I’m not spinning my wheels like a kid who has half an inkling that the big box under the tree does indeed contain the Six Million Dollar Man action figure I wanted so badly but it’s probably close. I have been in awe of great songwriters for most of my life and, if we’re going to stick with the Christmas analogy, Linda Perry is right up there next to the five pointed star that’s almost touching the ceiling.
You know who she is even if you don’t know who she is. The former lead singer/songwriter of 4 Non Blondes (and with over 2 billion views on YouTube alone of What’s Up, you really do know who she is) didn’t get what she wanted/needed from that project and wandered off to do other things… sometimes amazing other things when it comes to songs. Christina Aguilera spotted her talent a mile off and no matter what music you’re into, you cannot deny that Beautiful is as close to perfect as you’re likely to get when it comes to pop:
But as is my way, I have shovels in the boot of the car both to bury bodies and dig them up. So whilst I am hugely appreciative of perfectly crafted and produced songs, my heart lies with the imperfect, the lo-fi… with the person that grabbed a guitar, sang a song that was in the moment and with that being enough, then took the dog out for a walk and grabbed a coffee on the way home. Thus, across the years, I discovered this mighty gem called It Fucking Hurts - which pounds Beautiful into the dirt:
I so wish I had written that. Everybody who writes songs should be sitting around wishing they had written that. It doesn’t stop there. From the same album (Deep Dark Robot - 8 Songs About A Girl), we also have You Mean Nothing To Me:
At which point, you should go and buy your own shovel and dig. Not everything worth finding is backed by a multi million dollar press campaign.
Anyway, all of this is a prelude to the forthcoming album, Let It Die Here, which ties in with a documentary of the same name, directed by Don Hardy, which is structured as a very personal portrait of Perry at a crossroads in her life and career and follows her as she reflects on decades in the music industry. I’m not sure whether I’m looking forward to the album or the documentary more but I’ll take both because I can, thank you very much.
Here’s the trailer:
Neither are due out until May - the doc even has a theatrical release - so I’m doing nothing more than throwing mud at the wall here, but following its unleashing I expect to go out into the world only to find many, many girls wandering the streets wearing crazy hats for no reason at all. Maybe they will even learn how to play guitar or piano - I believe it’s known as the ‘Scully Effect’1. That’s how you know your work is done and you were right all along.
Let’s wrap up with Linda and Billy Morrison performing Chasing Shadows because, well, Billy Morrison and Linda Perry. No justification needed:
Damn, I love great songs… he said, reaching for his Gretsch.
** The Scully Effect is the name given to a phenomenon where the number of women starting careers in typical STEM (Science / Technology / Engineering / Mathematics) professions saw a noticeable increase following the airing of the X-Files in the early 1990s. This impact is attributed to the prominence of Dana Scully, an FBI agent and medical doctor who is able to establish herself a career where women are underrepresented, subverting traditional gender roles and using her cognitive and professional abilities instead of her physical attributes.
