Welcome to PuR’s Love Crypt, spotlighting the underrated, secretly classic albums & songs that didn’t always get the attention they deserved upon release but are worthy of adoration & a listen. Basically, if Love Crypt were a Beatle it would be George Harrison. Now join us under the radar to meet some beautiful dark horses…
Psychic Babble: My Brother’s Ears, My Sister’s Eyes (2011)
I made a playlist a while back called “Beach Boy-esque” featuring songs that openly and lovingly bowed toward the legendary band in sound and scope. And within that list were a couple of songs by Psychic Babble, the side project of Colin Frangicetto, guitarist of artistically ambitious band, Circa Survive. 2011’s My Brother’s Ears/My Sister’s Eyes is the only album Frangicetto has released under the Psychic Babble moniker thus far and it’s a beauty. It’s alt-rock filtered through a Brian Wilson lens, plushly melodic, occasionally edgy and filled end to end with epic, echoing, sundown soundtracking anthems. Special nods go to “Harper”, “Let Me Change” and “Samantha” , all undeniably handsome and evocative to the last.
Hear it here:
Emmylou Harris: “The Connection”
For a song that won a Grammy in 2006 for best “Female Country Vocal Performance”, “The Connection” feels oddly obscure. For one thing its introduction to the world wasn’t particularly conducive to discovery; it appeared as the last track, #19, on the 2005 compilation The Very Best of Emmylou Harris: Heartaches and Highways. It was never a single. It was over 5 minutes long. It fell in right between the chairs, not quite a sleeper but hardly famous. But it is one of the true Emmylou lost gems, an absolutely gorgeous and wistful waltz of desperation, ethereal and melodic. The song was written by by Jack Routh and Randy Sharp, who in an interview with Songfacts said the idea behind the song ” …was this connection, this stream, this desperate person who just wouldn’t let go. And the state of mind that they would go to. But the concept of just refusing to let go, even when there really was nothing there… so desperate that they’re conjuring up a connection of any kind just to keep from letting go”. Emmylou offers up a vocal of pure, rustic beauty and “The Connection” remains an absolute stunner.
PICKING UP ROCKS 