The Oedipus Project
Mr. Little Jeans is the pseudonym deftly utilized by Monica Birkenes.
The name comes from a character in the film Rushmore.
She’s a Norwegian, living in London and recording recently in Los Angeles.
She delicately and lovingly and hauntingly transforms Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs” into her own song.
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Arcade Fire will release a deluxe version of The Suburbs this summer.
Included will be a 30 minute film by Spike Jonze entitled Scenes From the Suburbs, an 80 page booklet with photos and lyrics and two unreleased tracks: “Culture War” and “Speaking in Tongues”.
“Speaking in Tongues” features backing vocals by David Byrne. A tongue in cheek homage no doubt to the Talking Heads album of the same title.
Mine was a driving vacation, a chance to listen to music uninterrupted, enveloped in my moving audio bubble, along miles and miles of highways. I discovered numerous compelling songs that will be presented here in the weeks to come, but it was the album, The Suburbs, by Arcade Fire that I continually returned too. The disc explores the environs where many of us grew up in–and what much of this and many countries have become–the homogenized beige living space with little connection to space and time. The endless boredom, hours wandering, wasted time, a longing to escape and the realization that there will be nothing to return to.
“Now our loves are changing fast
Hope that something pure can last.”
There are so many good songs of differing styles that my faves change from day to day. Here is a punk rave-up called “Month of May” and a song of suburban sprawl (“Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”). The title track “The Suburbs” was heard here on this site in June, so I’ve included the beautiful coda to that song that ends the album. One of the albums of the year, these are the Songs of the Day.
“Month of May”
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“Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”
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“The Suburbs (Continued)”
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