Album: retreat from the sun
year: 1997
. . .
Brad Wood was the producer of retreat from the sun. If you look at his Wikipedia page, you’ll see that he produced a whole bunch of records, including two more of my all-time favorites, Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville and Pete Yorn’s Musicforthmorningafer, both of which were everything-but-the-kitchen sink debut records.
retreat from the sun was a little bit different in that the basic instrumentation was just guitar, bass and drums, so outside of the songs that needed Petra Hayden’s violin, there wasn’t much else going on, outside of a keyboard here and there. Oh, and the vocals of Anna Waronker, Petra Haden and Rachel Haden, which were absolutely crucial in getting their songs across, especially “Long Island,” which starts off with just Waronker singing the first two words of the opening verse, before being joined by the Hadens as the full band kicks in in roaring power pop mode.
You’re pretty dreamy for a boy from Long island
You should come to see me on my Western horizon
Seems as though it’s cause we’re never meant to meet
But I just look at you and know you’re pretty sweet
I want to set a place for you at my table
We can sit forever watching reruns on cable
Take you driving in my brother’s beat old car
Sharing a cigarette and wish upon a star together
Each of the first six lines features Waronker solo in the first part and all three together in the second part, and just when you get used to it, the Haden sisters switch up to sweetly sour “driiiiiiiiive” at the “Take you driving in my brother’s beat old car” and lay out entirely for “Sharing a cigarette and wish upon a star together.”
It switches to call-and-response for the first part of the first chorus as Waronker’s guitar goes from crunchy to smooth, with Tony Maxwell rolling on his toms in the background.
So you say you like my shirt
(i like your shirt)
And you say you’ve got a lot just like them
(I’ve got a lot just like them)
And I hear you wrote a song about me
(La la la la)
But it’s the back half of the chorus that kills me every time, as the Haden sisters follow up their cherry “La la la la” with a long held out “ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” as Maxwell goes into a snare-driven build that resolves in a roll as Waronker spits utter truth.
By definition, a crush must hurt
And they do
And they doJust like the one I have on you
The way that they all come back in together on the second “and they dooooooooooo” kills me every time. Almost as much as the sour harmonies on “youuuuuuuuuuu” at the end of that chorus. But before you can totally process it, they’re back with a second verse.
I want to set a place for you at my table
We can sit forever watching reruns on cable
Seems as though our paths were never meant to meet
But I just look at you and know you’re pretty sweet
After that, it’s back to the chorus, only this time without the call-and-response, and a squealing synth helping to represent the way the crush is hurting her, and now I’m reminded of the equally great song “The Crush” from the even more unjustly obscure 1994 Hot Boxing album from Magnapop, which unlike retreat from the sun, has never gotten a vinyl reissue — in fact, as far as I can tell, it was never issued on vinyl here at all, so maybe somebody oughta get on that.
Anyways, after that second chorus, “Long Island” comes to a halt, and they sing the first verse together over just a lonely guitar, perfectly setting up the next song, their best song, which we’ll talk about tomorrow.
“Long Island”
“Long Island” Live at the Bottom of the Hill, 1997
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