Life Is People

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Life Is People
Studio album by Bill Fay

Publication
(s)

2012

Label (s) Dead Oceans

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

Songwriter

Title (number)

12

running time

53:59

occupation
  • Singing / piano: Bill Fay
  • Guitars: Ray Russell
  • Drums / Percussion: Alan Rushton
  • Guitars / backing vocals: Matt Deighton
  • Bass: Matt Armstrong
  • Drums / Percussion: Tim Weller

production

Joshua Henry

Studio (s)

Snap Studios

chronology
Time Of The Last Persecution
(1971) 		Life Is People -

Life Is People is the comeback - album of British singer and songwriter Bill Fay . It is the first regular publication after 1971. Life Is People appeared on 20 August 2012, Dead Oceans and reached at 37 weeks in 2012 in Germany 7th in the Newcomer - Charts .

style

The music on Life Is People is characterized by the fragile baritone voice and the piano playing of Bill Fay, who was 69 when the recording was made. The style of the songs range from sparingly orchestrated piano ballad and Smooth Jazz on Gospel until elegiac folk-rock with elaborate strings - Arrangement . Fay's lyrics are about farewell, death and transience. They are full of melancholy and interspersed with numerous biblical metaphors .

History of origin

Bill Fay had released two albums in the early 1970s. “The self-titled debut (1970) comparable to Nick Drake , Leonard Cohen or Scott Walker , the wildly ecstatic follow-up Time Of The Last Persecution (1971) - these were highly ambitious, boldly arranged, fantastically beautiful songs between orchestral pop, folk, rock and jazz, which, however, incomprehensibly flopped. ” An almost completed third album was not due to be released until 2007 under the title Tomorrow, Tomorrow And Tomorrow .

But for Jeff Tweedy American US by the band Wilco , who already Fays ballad Be Not So Fearful gecovert had, there was no musician, "whose albums [him] had ever meant more" than the plates Bill Fay. Tweedy subsequently promoted Bill Fay's comeback, invited him back on stage in 2007 and appeared in a duet with him on Life Is People in the play This World .

The 32-year-old producer Joshua Henry was also familiar with Fay's early work from his father's collection. It was Henry who was able to persuade the aged musician to go back to studio recordings after more than 30 years. Various musicians, such as Ray Russell and Alan Rushton, who had already played on the second album Fays, agreed to work together again after more than 40 years. Four members of the London Community Gospel Choir were also hired for three songs and the Vulcan String Quartet for the string arrangements. The recordings were made on a small budget but with great commitment on the part of those involved in Snap Studios in north London , where Fay was born and still lives, which has won awards for its vintage musical instruments .

Bill Fay donated his royalties to the aid organization Doctors Without Borders .

Track list

  1. There Is a Valley - 4:15
  2. Big Painter - 3:59
  3. The Never Ending Happening - 3:43
  4. This World - 3:43
  5. The Healing Day - 5:14 am
  6. City of Dreams - 6:10
  7. Be at Peace with Yourself - 5:00
  8. Jesus, etc. - 4:17 (Jeff Tweedy / Jay Bennett)
  9. Empires - 3:23
  10. Thank You Lord - 3:13
  11. Cosmic Concerto (Life Is People) - 7:56
  12. The Coast No Man Can Tell - 3:06

Exclusively published on the music streaming platform Spotify :

  1. Brother - 3:15

All title text and music by Bill Fay, except where noted

Publications and chart successes

reception

Life Is People has received rave to enthusiastic reviews from music critics.

The critic on welt.de wrote: “Yes, you have to get involved in these heavy, elegiac songs full of wisdom and warmth that never slip into kitsch - they are not suitable as background banter. But it's worth the effort with this monumental album. For Seventies veteran Fay, 'Life Is People' should finally secure a place in the pop hall of fame. "

Thomas Mehringer thinks “of other late works of the last ten years, of people like Warren Zevon , who recorded his last album 'The Wind' knowing that he would not live to see the release again. Or Robert Forster's 'The Evangelist', which largely deals with the death of Go Betweens comrade Grant McLennan . ” And presented the album as album of the week in the scene magazine Zündfunk of Bayerischer Rundfunk .

Henning Grabow wrote on motor.de : “Do I have 'old man's music !' heard? Well, if you want to continue walking on the wide, shady avenues of ignorance, just listen away. Friends of the beaten track and undiscovered clearings please listen and may be just as confused as I am about the informal variety that is offered to those interested here. 'Life Is People' works without expectations or requirements. Music as a gift, from a grateful but unswerving soul ... "

For Andreas Borcholte on spiegel.de the album is “a masterfully clarified old work, full of philosophical questions, well-formulated criticism of the hectic lifestyle of our time and pious wishes for a harmonious evening trip to the 'Coast No Man Can Tell'. Perhaps that is how Nick Drake would have sounded had he lived longer. But maybe you can save yourself all comparisons with Bill Fay, the finally risen one. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ musicline.de ( Memento of the original from October 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed October 4, 2012) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.musicline.de
  2. ↑ a b c d welt.de (accessed October 4, 2012)
  3. ↑ br.de ( Memento from September 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on October 4, 2012)
  4. ↑ snapstudios.co.uk ( accessed October 5, 2012)
  5. ↑ Booklet for the CD
  6. ↑ musicline.de ( Memento of the original from October 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed October 4, 2012) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.musicline.de
  7. ↑ br.de ( Memento from September 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (Accessed October 5, 2012)
  8. ↑ Podcast on br-online.de
  9. ↑ motor.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed October 5, 2012)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.motor.de  
  10. ↑ spiegel.de (accessed October 5, 2012)

Web links