TONIGHT’S TRACK – NEW LALI PUNA JAM – REMEMBER

I have to say, I was originally disappointed when I heard this track.  It’s been such a long time since Valerie Trebeljahr, the brains behind Lali Puna, has put out any new music.

I mean, having a child changes priorities naturally, and that’s wonderful.  But it was more of the same.  It wasn’t seeing it as impressive, or really relevant.  I thought perhaps that the music would evolve subsequent to such a momentous occasion.  I thought for a second that perhaps music to her was more mathematical…more logic than feeling.

And I quickly countered that thought with reason, noting…her music is emotive just as it is.  And shit, more of the same isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  It breathes, and it’s refreshing to go back to something familiar…but still different.

Do I expect a lot from the artists I love the most?  Absolutely.  It’s the same with how I value my friendships and relationships with anyone.  The closer you are to me, the more I expect from you…and that’s the same high/intense level I operate on in return.  Perhaps it’s a flaw.  Perhaps that sets you, and the people you love most in the world, up for failure.  I dont know.  But I guess we’re all still learning – we better be.

In this case though, this is not the first time I’ve been let down by this artist.  One of the reasons I went to Iceland in 2007 was to hit Iceland Airwaves, a 5 day music festival. It was predominantly because one of my absolute hidden favorite band’s was Valerie’s band, Lali Puna. I sacrificed my final night of music festival to see Lali Puna.  While I was meeting people all over the place, I was alone most of this trip.  It’s nice to be free on your own sometimes.

But on that final evening of my 11 day trip, I passed up seeing the FM Belfast and Chromeo show with 3 other Americans I met randomly in the greatest of Icelandic places – people that would soon become the closest of friends in my life.  And, Im sorry…after 3 or 4 years of not touring (and she hasn’t toured since), it was a disappointing flat-energy show.

But…after a second, third, fourth and fifth listen of Remember.  I really dig it.  And, like it’s title, it brings me back.

When I first came across Lali Puna in 2004, right when Faking the Books was released, it couldn’t have been better timing.  I found that first album…and I went back for the other 2 full lengths, and an EP. It fit the winter, it fit the introspection and it worked so well into the late spring.

She became a phase, and her music was a soundtrack for that period in my life…quite similar to my Serge Gainsbourg obsession…that’s another story for another day.