Desire Avenue

"The World Is Saved".....Stina's last album! It passed us by,didn't it?
I really don't recall much discussion about TWIS on the old CQD forum and I don't remember much talk about it on here either.

Did anyone like it?
Was it worthy of discussing?

.....or perhaps we did and I just can't remember?

Personally, I think it's her best yet. No duff tracks, great lyrics and arrangements.
I'm Staring Out The World kind of reminds me of Nick Drake's Way To Blue; same kind of world-weary melancholic feel to it.

well, we didn't really discuss it at all

I thought we discussed it a fair bit...?
Interestingly even though many of the CQD pages are in Google's cache,there's quite a few missing-presumably archived by Vero before the spiders crawled by.So I can't find any of the ones where we discussed TWIS-hardly any threads from '04.(There's also a chunk from late '02 missing,and I can't find all the 'special' threads (competition etc)).

As for me,I think it's up there with the other five.I find a slight discrepancy between the Jean-Claude tracks and the rest,in terms of musical texture more than anything.But that's not a criticism.
What intrigues me is that we know that Stina had made most or all of it by early 2003 (May 2003 was cited as a release date at one juncture); so we can reasonably expect whatever she's making now to have moved on somehow.
TWIS has several songs which are the product of a songwriter at the top of her game.All the JC songs are totally sublime IMHO.

I know I contributed some initial thoughts to Paul's lyric threads for the individual songs when I first got a copy of the promo, but I don't recall writing much about the album subsequently. I think I was a bit bemused by it at first, with the exception of the title track which I adored on first hearing. I might be remembering wrong, but wasn't there a generally sort of "well, um ...." reaction from most of us when we got the album? I don't recall anyone madly enthusing about it. There was a bit of discussion of the fact that it reminded most of us of things she'd done before, though we were divided as to which previous albums seemed to have the most influence - most people thought ASCHE and even MOAC, though Rob and I both felt it had a distinct connection with 'This Is ..'

Having lived with it for a long time now, I do love this album - things like '125' and 'Butterfly' which left me a bit cold at first have found their way into my heart, mostly because of the words. Stina is very much a words thing, for me - she's an enviably concise, stark writer with a core of wise insight and unobtrusive empathy that's just thrilling, she's a true poet. I think she must recognise and value this herself because she never, ever overcrowds her songs musically, the arrangements seem carefully constructed to support the words.

This record sort of blossomed for me after the initial bemusement, I just fell in love with it after a while. So many classic Stina moments in both the words and music.

Maybe we should set up individual threads for the songs again, might get a bit of discussion going?

Good idea,Beth.Who's going to set it up? OK I'll wait a few hours and see if Alex or someone does it.
One interesting thing about TWIS is that Stina has left us a few thoughts of her own,in her little comments about each song-which doesn't happen very often.There were those intriguing snippets of comment on PAS,but they seemed almost wilfully obscure,although adding to the mystery of Stina's vision.
And there were a few of her comments about This Is on that long tape recording she did wandering round Stockholm on a freezing day,which used to be on the Barbieboard.But being Stina (and cold),she couldn't remember half of the songs on her latest album

Feel free to create album threat here, or if you need special stuffs like subsection just ask.

sound world wrote: And there were a few of her comments about This Is on that long tape recording she did wandering round Stockholm on a freezing day,which used to be on the Barbieboard.But being Stina (and cold),she couldn't remember half of the songs on her latest album

Oh god, I remember the torture of trying to listen to that thing. I couldn't hear/understand most of what she was saying, the sound recording was so bad. Such a pity because it's probably the only occasion on which she's spoken at that length about her work.

My favourite part was when Stina came upon a queue at a bus-stop and suddenly feeling self-conscious about being seen talking to herself

Actually,with so many people on mobile phones these days I don't suppose anyone would give a second glance to someone walking down the street talking to themselves.

alx5962 wrote:Feel free to create album threat here, or if you need special stuffs like subsection just ask.

Alex,
would it be possible to create a 'The World Is Saved' section between 'All About Stina' and 'The Sound Of Music' and then create a thread for each song title and make them 'stickies' so that they stay in the same order as they appear on the album?

Thanks.

Good idea,RobB and then they won't disappear, forgotten,down the list like 95% of the other threads here

"Stina songs" section is here to discuss about albums & songs.
So I gonna think about what to do with it, maybe it's too common so each album need a special threat...
I have to think about all this

The problem with 'Stina Songs' is that someone has to feel motivated to start the 'song' thread in the first place. Also,given time,there is the danger of duplicated song threads.

Perhaps not only should we have a 'The World Is Saved' section with all the songs in their own fixed topics but do the same with each of Stina's other albums.

RobB wrote:Perhaps not only should we have a 'The World Is Saved' section with all the songs in their own fixed topics but do the same with each of Stina's other albums.

Any takers for 'Swallow strings'? 'Love hurts'?'Dynamite S/T mix'?
I think there might be a few empty threads.
But in principle I agree,RobB.

I have some ideas to test...
maybe the board will be unavailable for some time later this day or tomorrow...