The Forest & The Trees

The Forest & The Trees

Joel and Linnea Edin, known as The Forest & The Trees, are a Swedish folk pop duo. They live married life in an apartment in Stockholm and compose lulling, full-bodied folk anthems. This life sounds pretty idyllic; indeed, this album sounds a little like something out of a dream.

The eponymous album speaks about growing up, falling in love, and escaping. Opening with the rippling rhapsody “Mother”, Linnea lyricizes a tale of watching her mother age, also realizing that she is herself becoming the woman whose place her mother used to occupy.

For a folk-pop album, The Forest & The Trees starts with a bang. Fast-paced drumming on “To The Forest (I Need Some Peace)” highlights a message of escape from hectic city life into nature’s serenity. Then the album takes a soothing and atmospheric turn, characterized by tinkling chimes and mellifluous pump organ, banjo, guitar, percussion and bass. Most of the tracks on this album emerge like butterflies wriggling out of a still, motionless cocoon to erupt into the airwaves in a flurry of colourful activity. Final track “By The Trees” begins with an ambling glockenspiel, is joined by strolling bass and strings and suddenly somersaults into a surprisingly James Bond-worthy theme.

Like an all-weather tire, this is an album fit for a range of seasons and conditions. From sunny driving jams to mellower rainy day melodies, there are fixes on this album just waiting for lovers of both stripped-down and hearty, imaginative folk-pop styles.

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

The perfect poster child for the Twitter generation, Kanye West seems to invite his listeners deeper and deeper inside his own head with his every movement. Appearing both self-confident and self-conscious, he’s showcased his own inner workings, including his spiritual deliberations with the “Jesus Walks” saga (from his album The College Dropout). Now with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye opens the door wider for us to watch him process his victories and blunders in areas like relationships and image.

Singers have long put their lives on display through their lyrics, so an introspective album is not exactly new. However, Kanye takes self-awareness to a new level. Many of the tracks on this album monologue against (a.k.a. thoroughly spank) his critics and defend Kanye in one way or another. Existentialism runs rampant as tracks like “Blame Game” cleverly use different voices panning from one side to the other to simulate an internal conversation about a woman.

The album is big. In fact, it’s huge, spanning genres, harnessing the power of rock, hip-hop, electronica, neo-classicism, and Afro-beats. The tracklist is incredibly catchy, though many of these tracks contain dark lyrics filled with statements of resentment, frustration, or dismissal.

Kanye’s wit, convictions, and success have come along with some infamous actions and high profile meltdowns. Getting empathy has been a mixed bag for Kanye, yet he remains one of the most influential figures in hip-hop. There are many public figures like Kanye who long to be truly understood; this is a world where private lives are publicised to overexposure, misrepresented and misinterpreted.

Do people want to hear singers come clean about the dark, twisted corners of their mind as they attempt to figure themselves out? It’s up to you to decide, but the record sales and reviews indicate that many do. Our world is dominated by people publicizing their thoughts and actions via social networking, and Kanye somehow keeps up intrigue. His razor-sharp lyrics and fearlessness for experimenting with music mean he continues to create music people want to listen to.

NB: This album contains a lot of explicit content.

Future Of Forestry with Kye Kye

@ The Tapestry, Richmond, BC, 11 December 2010. Click here for video clips!

Unfortunately, I lost half of my footage in a mysterious digital mishap... interviews with Kye Kye and Future Of Forestry are a possibility in the New Year.