Anyway, her name is Victoria Bergsman (Hella Jewish, like me!) and she's just released an album -- not sure if it's her first -- under the name 'Taken By Trees'. The album, 'East of Eden' -- which is the 52,344th album featuring this type of music to have the word Eden in its title -- is actually pretty good. On "Young Folks", her voice didn't seem too special, but that was mostly because of all the reverb and echo hiding it. Here, she's cleanly SPITTIN' OVER DEM TRACKS! But seriously, I'm surprised that the album is as good as it is. Now mind you, it isn't for everyone. Animal Collective helped with some background vocals, which in return, prompted Victoria to cover their 2009 release, "My Girls" as "My Boys", and it's really good, surprisingly. Some people have referred to her as "World Music", which for those of you who don't know, is the politically-correct and non-racist way of saying "Music influenced by Africans". Often this genre sounds like a rehash of the Lion King soundtrack, but here, I don't mind it.
My favorite song from "East of Eden" is "Anna", and while it may be a little repetitive with its constant calling of "ANNAAA!", the song still does something to me. One of the guys from Animal Collective provides background vocals on this one -- not sure which one, but I think it's Panda Bear. Sounds like him. Anyway, the world music influences sounds way more genuine here, than say on Vampire Weekend's past records.
Another highlight is the aforementioned cover of Animal Collective's "My Girls", titled "My Boys". I don't know why, -- and I am a fan of the original -- but I sort of prefer this version. I guess it's because Victoria sticks pretty close to the original melody and doesn't fuck with what wasn't messed up in the first place. As a plus, I think her voice sounds really good on this. I'll post the original for comparison.
Obviously, I know that many of you are going to prefer the original. However, sometimes I just want to relax and listen to something RELAXING, which is not the word I'd use to describe AC's music, especially with all that background Avant-Garde shit going on. Anyway, I just thought I'd talk about this record a bit as it's the only record I've listened to out of the September releases that actually interested me. With that being said, don't get all uptight if you're not into it; I didn't record the songs, I just listen to them. Anyway, for those of you still interested in a review of 'Album' by Girls, it is coming, so look out for that.
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