I was deeply hungover the first time I saw Land of Talk live. It was a Sunday and Lizzie Powell was playing in the mid-afternoon at Red Papaya, a Thai restaurant in Guelph, while wearing an orange trucker hat. The strangeness of the moment — and my electrolyte deficiency — somehow only made it more beautiful. "I wanted to be anti-virtuosic here," the singer-songwriter said of "Your Beautiful Self," their fittingly titled first single from upcoming album Performances. It holds that same unvarnished nearness that makes that set stick out in my memory.
Despite not employing the electric guitar, "Your Beautiful Self" doesn't lose any of the urgency of Powell's more chugging grooves, anchored by the percussive push-and-pull of drums and piano. Their voice finds itself swimming in the gravel an octave below its comfort zone to ask, "Were you all but wished out?" after the starkly pure, organic instrumental introduction. The rhythm feels natural as a heartbeat; just a subtle knife twist in the distance closed between each deep breath.
(Next Door Records)Despite not employing the electric guitar, "Your Beautiful Self" doesn't lose any of the urgency of Powell's more chugging grooves, anchored by the percussive push-and-pull of drums and piano. Their voice finds itself swimming in the gravel an octave below its comfort zone to ask, "Were you all but wished out?" after the starkly pure, organic instrumental introduction. The rhythm feels natural as a heartbeat; just a subtle knife twist in the distance closed between each deep breath.
