Love This Giant

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Love This Giant
The cover of Love This Giant: The musicians facing the camera and wearing black formal attire with jagged deformities on their faces
Studio album by David Byrne and St. Vincent
Released September 10, 2012 (2012-09-10)
Recorded Late 2009 through 2012
Studio Water Music Studio, Hoboken, New Jersey, United States (brass) and Patrick Dillett's Studio, New York City, New York, United States (additional instrumentation)
Genre Art pop[1]
Length 44:33
Language English
Label 4AD, Todo Mundo
Producer David Byrne, Annie Clark, John Congleton, and Patrick Dillett
David Byrne chronology
Live at Carnegie Hall
(with Caetano Veloso)
(2012)Live at Carnegie Hall2012		 Love This Giant
(2012)		 Brass Tactics
(2013)Brass Tactics2013
St. Vincent chronology
Strange Mercy
(2011)		 Love This Giant
(2012)		 Brass Tactics
(2013)
Singles from Love This Giant
  1. "Who"
    Released: June 14, 2012 (promo)

Love This Giant is a studio album made in collaboration between David Byrne and St. Vincent, released on 4AD and Todo Mundo on September 10, 2012, in the United Kingdom and a day later in the United States. Byrne and Annie Clark of St. Vincent began working together in late 2009,[2] using a writing and promotion process that Byrne had previously used on his 2008 collaboration with Brian Eno Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.[3] The duo had previously played together live at a St. Vincent show and on the album Here Lies Love.[4] The performers enlisted a variety of brass musicians to augment their songwriting and toured over the following year to promote the album.

Composition, recording, and production

The two artists met in 2009 at a Radio City Music Hall benefit concert for the AIDS/HIV charity Dark Was the Night.[5] However, the collaboration stemmed from a second meeting, at New York thrift shop Housing Works, where Björk and Dirty Projectors were performing. A concert organizer suggested Byrne and Clark try a similar collaboration.[6] Their work was initially slated just for a single live performance, but Clark suggested adding brass[7] to their line-up [6] and the two realized they could write original music around horns.

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"I suggested brass as a prominent voice because, at the time David and I decided to write songs together, I had just done the Actor record with a lot of woodwind and a lot of Strings on it. So I hadn't explored brass and I wanted to. Originally, we were going to do a night of music at a bookstore for charity. So I was thinking, Okay, it could be a small ensemble: just me and David and a couple of guitars and we'll call it a day. But then obviously it grew and grew and grew. Brass was a way to bridge what we do in some sort of neutral, middle ground. When we toured the album, just the sheer number of people onstage was exciting and overwhelming, and these people organised the stage movement in really fun and idiosyncratic ways and it made for such a lighthearted, beguiling show." – Annie Clark[8]

The musicians composed lyrics in person and via e-mail,[6] which resulted in an entire album's worth of material. Byrne and Clark each wrote and sing their own lyrics, with the exception of "The Forest Awakes"—which Byrne wrote, but Clark sings.[9] The instrumentation and funk grooves discouraged Byrne from writing his typical personal lyrics to writing about larger themes and Clark emphasized the art music nature of the recordings while composing.[10]

The album cover was inspired by "Beauty and the Beast", with Byrne as a "Buzz Lightyear-like" beauty and Clark as a grotesque beast.[11] The duo originally intended a plastic Beauty and feral Beast as a joke about the age difference between the two, but altered their idea when they met the prosthetics designer.[10]

Promotion

David Byrne and St. Vincent worked with digital promotions company Topspin Media to distribute the promotional single "Who" and create embeddable widgets to stream the album. A music video directed by Martin du Thurah was released on September 4 for "Who".[12] Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone gave the song three and a half out of five stars, calling the collaborators' chemistry "shocking."[13] In reviewing the track, WNYC's John Schaefer drew parallels between their use of brass instruments and Byrne's previous work on The Knee Plays.[14] On July 30, the track "Weekend in the Dust" became available for streaming on the album's official website. On September 2, the full album became available for streaming via NPR.[15]

Byrne and Clark appeared on the September issue of Filter[16] and performed on the September 10 episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. On November 1, 2012, Byrne and Clark performed on The Colbert Report.[17]

The duo toured to promote the album with a backing band that includes eight brass players (led by Kelly Pratt of Bright Moments), St. Vincent's keyboardist Daniel Mintseris, and My Brightest Diamond's drummer Brian Wolfe. Like Byrne's previous Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour, the performers engaged in complex choreography onstage while performing.[11] Byrne also simultaneously did book readings to promote his book How Music Works.[18]

Tour dates

North America
Australia
  • January 14, 2013 – Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  • January 15, 2013 – Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  • January 17, 2013 – Sydney Festival at the State Theatre, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  • January 18, 2013 – Sydney Festival at the State Theatre, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  • January 20, 2013 – MONA FOMA, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
North America
  • June 11, 2013 – Wellmont Theatre, Montclair, United States
  • June 12, 2013 – Wellmont Theatre, Montclair, United States
  • June 13, 2013 – Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Baltimore, United States
  • June 15, 2013 – Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, Asheville, United States
  • June 16, 2013 – Bonnaroo, Manchester, United States
  • June 18, 2013 – Belk Theater at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, Charlotte, United States
  • June 20, 2013 – Shubert Theatre, New Haven, United States
  • June 21, 2013 – State Theatre, Portland, United States
  • June 22, 2013 – The Green at Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, United States
  • June 23, 2013 – Confederation Park, Ottawa, Canada
  • June 25, 2013 – Kodak Hall at Eastman Theater, Rochester, United States
  • June 27, 2013 – The Zeiterion Performing Arts Center, New Bedford, United States
  • June 28, 2013 – Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, United States
  • June 29, 2013 – Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, United States
  • June 30, 2013 – Palace Theatre, Greenburg, United States
  • July 2, 2013 – Whitney Hall at The Kentucky Center, Louisville, United States
  • July 5, 2013 – 80/35 Music Festival, Des Moines, United States
  • July 6, 2013 – Ravinia Festival, Highland Park, United States
  • July 7, 2013 – Meijer Gardens, Grand Rapids, United States
  • July 8, 2013 – Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, United States
  • July 10, 2013 – Taft Theatre, Cincinnati, United States
  • July 12, 2013 – Grinders, Kansas City, United States
  • July 13, 2013 – Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver, United States
  • July 14, 2013 – The Ride Festival, Telluride, United States
  • July 15, 2013 – Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre, Salt Lake City, United States
  • July 17, 2013 – Cuthbert Amphitheatre, Eugene, United States
  • July 18, 2013 – Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery, Woodinville, United States
  • July 20, 2013 – The Mountain Winery, Saratoga, United States
  • July 21, 2013 – Fox Theater, Oakland, United States
Europe
  • August 18, 2013 – Harpa, Reykjavik, Iceland
  • August 20, 2013 – Folketeatret, Oslo, Norway
  • August 21, 2013 – Filadelfiakyrkan, Stockholm, Sweden
  • August 22, 2013 – Falconer Salen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • August 24, 2013 – Bozar, Brussels, Belgium
  • August 25, 2013 – Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn, Utrecht, Netherlands
  • August 27, 2013 – Roundhouse, London, United Kingdom
  • August 28, 2013 – Symphony Hall, Birmingham, United Kingdom
  • August 29, 2013 – Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  • August 30, 2013 – End of the Road Festival, Salisbury, United Kingdom
  • September 1, 2013 – Electric Picnic, Stradbally, Ireland
  • September 3, 2013 – Coliseu Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal (cancelled)
  • September 4, 2013 – Coliseu Do Porto, Oporto, Portugal (cancelled)
  • September 6, 2013 – Teatro Circo Price, Madrid, Spain
  • September 7, 2013 – The National Auditorium of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain
  • September 9, 2013 – Vittoriale Theatre, Brescia, Italy
  • September 11, 2013 – Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome, Italy

Brass Tactics

Brass Tactics
A piece of recording equipment hanging out of a brass horn on an orange background with "David Byrne & St. Vincent" and "Brass Tactics" written in yellow
EP by David Byrne and St. Vincent
Released May 28, 2013 (2013-05-28)
Length 18:11
Language English
Producer David Byrne, Annie Clark, John Congleton, and Patrick Dillett
David Byrne and St. Vincent chronology
Love This Giant
(2012)Love This Giant2012		 Brass Tactics
(2013)
David Byrne chronology
Love This Giant
(2012)		 Brass Tactics
(2013)
St. Vincent chronology
Love This Giant
(2012)		 Brass Tactics
(2013)		 St. Vincent
(2014)

The promotional EP Brass Tactics was released via Topspin's platform on May 28, 2013.

  1. "Cissus" – 3:14
  2. "I Should Watch TV" (M. Stine Remix) – 3:32
  3. "Lightning" (Kent Rockafeller Remix) – 3:12
  4. "Marrow" (Live) – 3:46
  5. "Road to Nowhere" (Live) – 4:27

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 77/100[19]
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 4.5/5 stars[20]
BBC Music Very favorable[21]
Drowned in Sound 8/10[1]
The Guardian 4/5 stars[22]
The Independent 4/5 stars[23] and 5/5 stars[24]
Pitchfork Media 5.9/10[25]
The Skinny 3/5 stars[26]

Love This Giant has received generally positive reviews; aggregator Metacritic scores it a 77 with 36 reviews, indicating "Generally favorable reviews."[19] Reviewing the album, BBC Music's Jude Clarke calls it "a perfect cerebral pop pairing" that "improves and deepens on each listen" due to the songwriting and the singers' voices.[21] Bram E. Gieben of The Skinny also praised the "engaging musical conversation" between the two singers, but criticized the musicianship for lacking experimentation[26] and Heather Phares of AllMusic agrees that the album is lacking in Clark's "guitar acrobatics."[20] The Guardian's Maddy Costa has praised the vocals as well, contrasting them from subtle and seductive to "soft and whispy... with the glint of a razor blade."[22]

The Independent's Andy Gill[23] and Simmy Richman[24] consider the brass instrumentation the greatest strength of the album with the latter declaring the work "a skewed and funky instant classic." Robert Leedham of Drowned in Sound praised the "jaunty trombones" and "jubilant trumpet-lead fanfare" as well, but found the alternating vocals weak and Byrne-centric.[1]

Track listing

All songs written by David Byrne and Annie Clark, except where noted

  1. "Who" – 3:50
  2. "Weekend in the Dust" – 3:05
  3. "Dinner for Two" – 3:43
  4. "Ice Age" (Clark) – 3:13
  5. "I Am an Ape" – 3:05
  6. "The Forest Awakes" (Byrne, Clark, and Walt Whitman) – 4:52
  7. "I Should Watch TV" – 3:08
  8. "Lazarus" – 3:13
  9. "Optimist" – 3:49
  10. "Lightning" – 4:15
  11. "The One Who Broke Your Heart" – 3:46
  12. "Outside of Space & Time" (Byrne) – 4:34

Personnel

Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra onstage
Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra is one of several guests on the album, augmenting the songs with their horn sections.
Additional musicians
  • Jacquelyn Adams – French horn on "Who", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "I Should Watch TV", and "Out of Space and Time"
  • Randy Andos – tuba on "Weekend in the Dust"
  • Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra – "The One Who Broke Your Heart"
  • Jack Bashkow – saxophone on "Who", "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", and "Lightning"; clarinet on "Optimist"
  • Lawrence Di Bello – French horn on "The Forest Awakes"
  • Ravi Best – trumpet on "Weekend in the Dust"
  • Ron Blake – saxophone on "Weekend in the Dust"
  • Jeff Caswell – bass trombone on "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", "Lightning", and "Outside of Space and Time"
  • John Congleton – production, drum programming; synth on "I Should Watch TV"
  • The Dap-Kings – "The One Who Broke Your Heart"
    • Cochemea Gastelum – saxophone
    • David Guy – trumpet
  • Eric Davis – French horn on "Who", "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", "Lightning", and "Outside of Space and Time"
  • Dominic Derasse – trumpet on "Dinner for Two", "The Forest Awakes", and "Lazarus"
  • Rachel Drehmann – French horn on "The Forest Awakes" and "Lazarus"
  • Steve Elson – saxophone on "Who", "Weekend in the Dust", "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", and "Lightning"
  • Kenneth Finn – euphonium on "Dinner for Two"; trombone on "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", and "Lightning"
  • Gareth Flowers – trumpet on "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", "Lightning", and "Outside of Space and Time"
  • Alex Foster – saxophone on "Weekend in the Dust"
  • Josh Frank – trumpet on "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "I Should Watch TV", and "Lighting"; trumpet and flugelhorn on "Outside of Space and Time"
  • Paul Frazier – bass guitar on "Who" and "Outside of Space and Time"
  • Earl Gardner – trumpet on "Weekend in the Dust"
  • Mike Gurfield – trumpet on "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "The Forest Awakes", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", "Lightning", and "Outside of Space and Time"
  • Stan Harrison – saxophone on "Weekend in the Dust"
  • Ian Hendrickson-Smith – saxophone on "The One Who Broke Your Heart"
  • Tom Hutchinson – euphonium on "Dinner for Two"
  • Aaron Johnson – trombone on "The One Who Broke Your Heart"
  • Ryan Keberle – trombone on "Weekend in the Dust"
  • R. J. Kelly – French horn on "Dinner for Two", "Lazarus", and "Optimist"
  • Chris Komer – French horn on "Who", "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "I Should Watch TV", "Optimist", and "Lightning"
  • Anthony LaMarca – drums on "Who"
  • William Lang – trombone on "Dinner for Two" and "The Forest Awakes"
  • Bob Magnuson – saxophone on "The Forest Awakes"
  • Brian Mahany – trombone on "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", and "Lightning"
  • Ozzie Melendez – trombone on "Weekend in the Dust"
  • Patrick Milando – French horn on "The Forest Awakes"
  • Lenny Pickett – saxophone and brass arrangement on "Weekend in the Dust"
  • Jonathan Powell – trumpet on "Weekend in the Dust"
  • Kelly Pratt – trumpet on "Dinner for Two" and "Optimist"; brass arrangement on "Dinner for Two"
  • Mauro Refosco – snare drum on "The Forest Awakes", timpani on "I Should Watch TV", surdo on "Optimist"
  • Marcus Rojas – tuba on "Weekend in the Dust", "Ice Age", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Lightning", and "Outside of Space and Time"
  • Mike Seltzer – trombone on "Ice Age"
  • Evan Smith – clarinet and flute on "Who" and "I Am an Ape"
  • Bob Stewart – tuba on "The One Who Broke Your Heart"
  • Tom Timko – saxophone on "Who", "Dinner for Two", "Ice Age", "I Am an Ape", "I Should Watch TV", "Lazarus", "Optimist", and "Lightning"
  • Kyle Turner – tuba on "Dinner for Two" and "The Forest Awakes"
  • Steve Turre – trombone on "Weekend in the Dust"
  • Michael Williams – trombone on "The One Who Broke Your Heart"
Technical personnel
  • Jon Altschuler – engineering
  • Greg Calbi – mastering at Sterling Sound, New York City
  • Patrick Dillett – production, mixing, drum programming
  • Tony Finno – brass arrangements
  • Ken Thompson – brass arrangements on "The Forest Awakes" with Tony Finno
  • Yuki Takahashi – engineering
Design
  • Gabe Bartalos – prosthetics
  • Richard Burbridge – cover photo
  • Catalina Kulczar – art
  • Juan Marin – art
  • Steve Powers – type design
  • LeeAnn Rossi – art
  • Noah Wall – package design and art

See also

References

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  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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