There was a moment during our Som Records in-store shoot with Vanessa Carlton—you can check it out here—when we collectively realized we didn’t have a copy of Liberman, her new and warmly received LP, on premises! A plan was immediately afoot to not only remedy this post haste, but to put the LP in the hands of a few of you. And we’ve got 3 copies of the record to do just that.
We should add that “warmly received” might be an understatement, Popmatters noting last October, “…the record itself is one of the strongest and most consistent of Carlton’s career. Liberman continues further into the reverb laden, dream-pop direction of Rabbits on the Run. At times, Liberman reminds the listener slightly of Nordic dream-pop enthusiasts like the Radio Dept. or Delay Trees, although Carlton never approaches the more noisy excursions of the former.
Liberman’s ten tracks whip by, each track filled with sweet, well-timed melodies and haunting atmosphere. It is over before you know it, compelling the listener to repeated, often back-to-back listens. Opener “Take It Easy” begins with a throbbing, almost danceable rhythmic pulse that would not sound out of place on one of the ‘Italians Do It Better’ records.
While this sound is kind of new territory for Carlton, it works really well for the song and anyone who listened carefully to Rabbits on the Run will not be surprised by it. Mid-album highlight “Nothing Where Something Used to Be” also employs the rhythmic sensibility observed on “Take It Easy” while also displaying the lovely vocal melodies that have always been one Carlton’s greatest strengths as an artist.”
The notoriously prickly Pitchfork weighed in, “…Like the bulk of her recordings, it’s still comprised of her honeysuckle voice and piano licks, but Liberman (so named after Carlton’s grandfather, one of whose paintings of nudes hangs in her home and served, she says, as a sort of inspiration) either lets those components stand alone or accentuates them with mild indulgences, like blunted brass or hand claps. The bare songwriting is not something you would identify as avant-garde, but Carlton’s inclinations are a lot weirder than they used to be…
Still, Liberman is excellent on its own. Carlton’s voice is the key attraction on songs that register between low-key pop, rock, and folk. Early single “Blue Pool,” for example, touches on each in a way that feels refreshingly old school, as though pop radio these days was comprised of Fleetwood Mac and the Mamas and the Papas…”
Why listen to critics however when we’ve got 3 copies of Liberman to mail to 3 of you. Enter to win a copy of the record by citing in the comments below your favorite track off Liberman or from any other of Vanessa’s releases—and briefly why.
We’ll choose 3 enthusiastic entrants with a North American mailing address a week from today, February 11, 2016.
