Jeff_Hanson-Madam_Owl-2008-KzT

ARTiST : Jeff Hanson

ALBUM : Madam Owl

LABEL : Kill Rock Stars

GENRE : Indie



RELEASE : 2008-08-20

STREET : 2008-08-19



ENCODER : LAME v3.97 -V2 --vbr-new

QUALiTY : 169kbps avg / 44.1kHz / Joint Stereo

SiZE : 54.64 MB

PLAYTiME : 00:44:31



+ TRACK LiSTiNG +

-----------------



[#] [Track Name] [Time]



1. Night 3:54

2. Your Only Son 4:28

3. If Only I Knew 3:35

4. Maryann 1:48

5. Nothing Would Matter At All 4:27

6. I Don't Quite Remember 5:04

7. Careful 3:20

8. The Last Thing I'll Do 3:21

9. Wrong Again 2:36

10. No Never Mine 3:13

11. The Hills 5:17

12. This Friend Of Mine 3:28

44:31





+ RELEASE iNFORMATiON +

-----------------------



In case anyone is wondering after listening to this album, Jeff

Hanson IS actually a MAN. Enjoy!







Nobody but nobody sings quite like Jeff Hanson, and singularity has

its price. This is something that Jeff Hanson has had to accept over

the years. ôOtherworldly,ö is a preferable adjective to the lazy and

far more common observation, ôWait a minute, is this is a dude singing?ö

The trick as a listener, the challenge, is not to let this entrancing

flourish overshadow the meticulous pop and masterful songwriting craft

of the music itself.





Jeff HansonÆs influences are largely beside the point. ôI want this

to be a Jeff Hanson record,ö says the veteran songwriter of his third

LP, ôMadam Owlö, for the now legendary Kill Rock Stars label. Hoping to

evade the somewhat unavoidable construction of a new artist as an amalgam

of their most easily identifiable influences, on this record he has

created a sound that is truly all his own. Not that this album marks a

radical departure from the Jeff Hanson of his previous two records û

the essential elements are all still here. The bare acoustic prettiness

of his debut ôSonö and the handcrafted pop-cleverness of ôJeff Hansonö

have been developed here even further.





Often in the past his voice has filled the void left by what were comparatively

sparse arrangements. On ôMadam Owlö (the name comes from an unused potential

song-title) a bent towards the baroque allows JeffÆs voice to find its

harmonious place in an ensemble of timeless instruments, rather than fill

the role of the instruments themselves.





Along with his remarkable voice is another quality for which Jeff has earned

a reputation: consistency. This record, like its two predecessors, contains a

set of pop-music symphonies, every one of which feels like it couldbe the

recordÆs single.





At the age of 13, Hanson began his life in the music world with his surprisingly

hard-hitting emo-indie band M.I.J. out of Wisconsin. The band generated some buzz

with a few releases on Caulfield Records, and by the time Jeff decided to move

on full-time to his own material, the band had already been together for seven years.





Jeff was able to score a deal with the legendary Kill Rock Stars label (shhhàhe

did it by mailing them his own demo. Yes, that actually does happen!) and all

still in his early twenties. This is why at 30, Jeff is able to demonstrate the

calm and assured self-possession of a true veteran. It is this quality which

makes ôMadam Owlö so much its own thing. This is not the overreaching record of

a young artist trying to prove himself, but the latest effort in a musical career

spanning more than a decade, to distill the essence of his unique gifts.



http://www.killrockstars.com