New Mike Farrell project

leatherelbows

New Member
New cabaret-tinged album, OWL SONGS. A collaboration from Mike Farrell and indie artist, Jilann. She recorded a previous "live" studio session project (Not Alone) with Mike Garson (of Bowie fame). I met Farrell and Jilann both backstage during Ringleaders tour, when they were working on a stripped down Smiths covers/piano project (a la Colin Meloy, but Farrell on piano) that was scrapped (for the time being at least?). There are indeed some Morrissey-esque turns of phrases and other nods on some of these new tracks, such as lead single "For Love and Alcohol". Recommended.

https://www.jilann.com/music

 
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Snooping about it look like she is a french artist? Is Mikey in Paris now? Or LA?
 
Thank you for posting. I love cabaret music. Something about a darkly lit bar and dark lyrics with a spot light on a beautiful singer and a cold gin cocktail that transports me to another place and time. I loved everything about this except for the loud horn in the middle. This song deserved a slightly softer treatment throughout in my opinion. The Parisian ending was great. Overall well done!
 
They went ahead and used L'Atalante for some of the scenes in this video.
Can't surely for certain say what the other film or films is though.
 
Thank you for posting. I love cabaret music. Something about a darkly lit bar and dark lyrics with a spot light on a beautiful singer and a cold gin cocktail that transports me to another place and time. I loved everything about this except for the loud horn in the middle. This song deserved a slightly softer treatment throughout in my opinion. The Parisian ending was great. Overall well done!

I have the same feeling about cabaret. There's a song on the album called Speak Easy that's a gorgeous slow burn- when I hear things this stripped down it makes me really wish just for ONE album, if only once, Moz would drop the macho crunchy guitars and just do an album of brooding ballads. Not entire related - or, at leats, on a more "western" sounding note, I remember hearing Richard Hawley's "Born Under A Bad Sign" (off Cole's corner) on the radio years ago and for a split second thought the opening few words were sung by Morrissey and started to weep. I realized quickly it was someone else, in this case a crooner from Sheffield (who I should have known more about already). Still think Moz could do that so well if he wanted...
 
Thank you for posting. I love cabaret music. Something about a darkly lit bar and dark lyrics with a spot light on a beautiful singer and a cold gin cocktail that transports me to another place and time. I loved everything about this except for the loud horn in the middle. This song deserved a slightly softer treatment throughout in my opinion. The Parisian ending was great. Overall well done!

p.s. your location... for the win
 
I have the same feeling about cabaret. There's a song on the album called Speak Easy that's a gorgeous slow burn- when I hear things this stripped down it makes me really wish just for ONE album, if only once, Moz would drop the macho crunchy guitars and just do an album of brooding ballads. Not entire related - or, at leats, on a more "western" sounding note, I remember hearing Richard Hawley's "Born Under A Bad Sign" (off Cole's corner) on the radio years ago and for a split second thought the opening few words were sung by Morrissey and started to weep. I realized quickly it was someone else, in this case a crooner from Sheffield (who I should have known more about already). Still think Moz could do that so well if he wanted...

You and I are cut from the same cloth here. Songs like Trouble Loves Me, Nobody Loves Us, Wide to Receive, Sea Sick Yet Still Docked, Come Back to Camden and that is just off the top of my head prove that he is the master of brooding ballads. Unfortunately, he can't drop the crunchy guitars because that is all his current band are capable of producing.

I don't know much if anything at all about Mike Farrell, but I loved the outro he played on There is a Light at the end of Who Put the M in Manchester DVD, and I believe he had a hand in the horns on some of the YATQ tracks from that show. We are having a conversation on this site on another thread all about kids today and the affect of technology on society and communication. The thought of a Speak Easy brings back memories of a time when people actually spoke rather than texted and living may not have been simple but it was easy in a way that this high tech world could never hope to understand.

I think Johnny was the last person that had any ability to insert any type of control over Moz. If it wasn't for Johnny taking the reins, I don't think Moz would have been left in a place that afforded him the ability to be so successful later in life. Just my two sense. You obviously have a much greater grasp on the world of music than I do. I simply know what I like and one of my favorite concert videos of all time was Sade singing all of her classic songs. Speaking easy of gorgeous classic slow burns Your Love is King gets me every time!
 
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Unfortunately, he can't drop the crunchy guitars because that is all his current band are capable of producing

That is not the reason. Moz can't drop the guitars because he is a punk rocker at heart as much as he is a crooner or torch singer. These opposites are part of his identity, always have been.
 
New cabaret-tinged album, OWL SONGS. A collaboration from Mike Farrell and indie artist, Jilann. She recorded a previous "live" studio session project (Not Alone) with Mike Garson (of Bowie fame). I met Farrell and Jilann both backstage during Ringleaders tour, when they were working on a stripped down Smiths covers/piano project (a la Colin Meloy, but Farrell on piano) that was scrapped (for the time being at least?). There are indeed some Morrissey-esque turns of phrases and other nods on some of these new tracks, such as lead single "For Love and Alcohol". Recommended.

https://www.jilann.com/music



Thank you for posting. I love cabaret music. Something about a darkly lit bar and dark lyrics with a spot light on a beautiful singer and a cold gin cocktail that transports me to another place and time. I loved everything about this except for the loud horn in the middle. This song deserved a slightly softer treatment throughout in my opinion. The Parisian ending was great. Overall well done!

Loved this! Well done Mikey and thanks, leatherelbows. I love a bit of cabaret too, and I actually really liked the trumpet solo, evennow: I always think cabaret should be a bit dirty and raucous, it's not a very refined art form (in a good way), in my thinking. It reminded me of Rufus Wainwright - someone I would love to see him collaborate with.


Another gay trailblazer (always a plus in Moz's book) with a distinctly theatrical style. I think they would sound fabulous together.
 
That is not the reason. Moz can't drop the guitars because he is a punk rocker at heart as much as he is a crooner or torch singer. These opposites are part of his identity, always have been.

I appreciate that insight - and you are quite right. One cannot ignore that side, from the earliest demos (Handsome Devil, Miserable Lie, etc).

I think my feeling has less to to with the "punk" aspect and more to do with what I can only describe as his (not so) new macho swagger. A toughness that he embraced around Your Arsenal (such a sonic departure from Vauxhall (and obviously Kill Uncle, etc etc) and adopted as an almost theatrical identity with Southpaw and the Boxers tour. It was actually quite fun as theater but an act that should have seen another character arc. Bowie was smart like that. I think the success of Arsenal really grounded Morrissey, and while one could hardly blame him - he's been almost trying to make that album again and again (speaking with ample generalization, obviously there are a small handful of recent tracks to debunk this). But overall his harder look and his "gang" is what he now (too) firmly embraces - Alain's departure really cemented this.

In short (finally)... I suppose I just simply miss the tender hooligan - the outsider for all outsiders... who (even when expressing his 'punk' side did so in a more sly way, like the Dolls or the Buzzcocks and less like some generic 90s alternative frat boy rock band.

But then again, maybe I'm stuck and need a new character arc.. one that doesn't want or need someone like him to write/produce The Queen is Dead again and again...

I can dream though.

Because, I must.
 
"A toughness that he embraced around Your Arsenal (such a sonic departure from Vauxhall (and obviously Kill Uncle, etc etc) and adopted as an almost theatrical identity with Southpaw and the Boxers tour. It was actually quite fun as theater but an act that should have seen another character arc. Bowie was smart like that. I think the success of Arsenal really grounded Morrissey, and while one could hardly blame him - he's been almost trying to make that album again and again"

" Alain's departure really cemented this"




Mostly agree with this.
Love, Alain. (ha;)
 
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bowie cave cohen collaboration jilann mike farrell mike garson mikey farrell moz new music
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