Tag: Norah Jones

I Love Danger Mouse

As a songwriter, I really appreciate innovative production, the implementation of diverse instruments and brevity used appropriately. Recently added to my current producer heroes —Butch Vig, Brian Eno and Kanye West — is Danger Mouse.

Brian Joseph Burton (born July 29, 1977), better known by his stage name Danger Mouse, is a Grammy Award winning, American musician, songwriter and producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined vocal performances from Jay-Z’s The Black Album with instrumentals from The Beatles’ White Album.

He formed Gnarls Barkley with Cee Lo Green and produced their albums St. Elsewhere and The Odd Couple. He produced the second Gorillaz album, 2005’s Demon Days, as well as Beck’s 2008 record, Modern Guilt. He has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the Producer of the Year category five times (2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011), and won the award in 2011. In addition, Burton worked with rapper MF Doom as Danger Doom and released the album The Mouse and the Mask and the EP Occult Hymn.

In 2009 he collaborated with James Mercer of the indie rock band The Shins to form Broken Bells. The group’s first album was released on March 9, 2010.

Danger Mouse was listed as one of Esquire magazine’s seventy-five most influential people of the 21st century.

The pinnacle of music for me combines soul, rhythm and ambience, and thus I’m a big fan of genre bending like quirky hip hop (Gnarls Barkley) or grooved out alt-rock (Gorillaz). Danger Mouse & Jemini’s Ghetto Pop Life provides such a funktastic experience.

On his recent album, Rome, he collaborates with Italian composer Daniele Luppi, and features guests Jack White and Norah Jones. The addition of orchestration pushes toward the spaghetti western feel, utilizing vintage equipment and musicians featured in the film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly with a soundtrack composed by another Italian composer, Ennio Morricone.

Danger Mouse creates great examples of musical escapes, sounds that take to another place and time.

Norah Jones – "What Am I To You?" / Newton's Third…

www.norahjones.com
www.myspace.com/norahjones

“To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction…”
-Newton’s Third Law of Motion

A friend of mine recently devoted a post to the value of friendship. Personally, I can’t bear to offer more energy into a relationship than that which I am given in return. That is not to say we should not do good for the sake of doing good. It’s just that, after awhile, the lack of a favorable response becomes exhausting. It’s nice to get something back. Something to show the hope was not in vain. An equal reaction in the opposite direction…

What am I to you?
Tell me darling true
To me you are the sea
Vast as you can be
And deep the shade of blue

When you’re feeling low
To whom else do you go
See I cry if you hurt
I’d give you my last shirt
Because I love you so

If my sky should fall
Would you even call
Opened up my heart
I never want to part
I’m giving you the ball

When I look in your eyes
I can feel the butterflies
I love you when you’re blue
Tell me darling true
What am I to you

Could you find a love in me
Could you carve me in a tree
Don’t fill my heart with lies

I will you love when you’re blue
Tell me darling true
What am I to you…

Someone who insists on being there even during the hardest of your times… Maybe it’s selfishness or an issue of self-worth. I personally need the reciprocity to show me it’s not just empty words I’m getting back. Anyway, that’s just me…

What do you think?