Amor de Dias

Oooh, this is nice....

Amor de Dias
The House at Sea
Merge


“Voice in the Rose,” which leads off this second collaboration between The Clientele’s Alasdair MacLean and Lupe Núñez-Fernández, is an almost ideal blend of indie pop and bossa nova, its dual guitar lines lightly, buoyantly syncopated, its bright, sharp instrumental clarity softened at the edges with luminous drone.


MacLean sings lead in this one, as he does in about half the songs. His voice barely exceeds a whisper. A soft ache of nostalgia lodges in almost too pretty tones. The guitars are Latin, the vocals C86. And yet you can hardly see where the seam lies, it all fits so beautifully together. It’s the kind of daydream hatching pop tune that makes you sad and happy all at once, happy because the sound is so caressingly pretty, sad because it, like the good things flashing by in the lyrics, will be over any minute now, and then where will you be?

More

Amor de Dias

It's been snowing all day, very pretty, glad it's finally here. It's the kind of snow that wraps a soft thick blanket around everything, including sound, so that it seems even more quiet and peaceful than usual.

I had to drive to Brattleboro to get Sean, and the roads were dice-y in spots but not too bad. I had Damien Jurado's Maraqopa on most of the way there, and it was just about perfect for the trip...soft-spoken, but also kind of incandescent.

And now I'm home and listening to another reticent sort of pleasure, the second album from Amor de Dias. That's essentially Alistair McClean from the Clientele and Lupe Nunez-Fernandez from Pipas, both sides hushed and lovely, one indie-pop, one Latin, but not so much difference between the two as you'd expect.



I just wish my iPod would stop forgetting where it put this album. Pretty much every time I boot up, I have to manually locate it.