Land of Talk (Lizzie Powell)
Land of Talk is an indie rock band from Montréal who have released two studio albums since being formed in 2006 by Elizabeth Powell.
Powell is the only permanent member of the band. In fact, the band is really just her. Of course there are other musicians, who come and go, but this is her baby.
After a pretty impressive debut EP entitled Applause Cheer Boo Hiss in the spring of 2006, they were signed to Saddle Creek Records in the US and the prestigious indie label Secret City Records in Canada. They took some time to release the debut LP, but when it finally came out on October 7, 2008, Some Are Lakes was met with some comparisons to Broken Social Scene, with whom Land of Talk would tour. Although I don’t really get the BSS comparisons, some of the songs on the album are “big” and a little bit anthemic. Still, with only three members, even in the studio, it’s hard to get that army of guitars sound that BSS always has.
I like that album a lot, and it was liked well enough by the Canadian music “press” to land on the long list of 2009 Polaris Music Prize nominees.
They toured with Broken Social Scene, then announced that they’d be taking a break. They didn’t break, but instead went through one of many lineup changes before hurrying back into the studio to make the Fun and Laughter EP, which came out in October of 2009.
Between the recording of and the release of that Fun and Laughter EP, they actually did take a break. Liz Powell had developed polyps on her vocal chords and needed to take a break. While she was recovering, she wrote and recorded the songs for Cloak and Cipher.
Jace Lasek from Besnard Lakes came in and helped Lizzie harness her voice a little. He also produced the record, which was longlisted for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize.
I liked Cloak and Cipher a bit more than the first record, and it ended up at #8 on my list of my 15 favourite Canadian records of 2010. I didn’t have it on my pretend 2011 Polaris ballot, but I loved it anyway.
To get to the point of the thing, here’s today’s song:
“The Hate I Won’t Commit” by Land of Talk
There’s no point in analyzing the lyric sheet. It’s either gobbledygook or some elaborate code or something. I just don’t understand.
soothsayer, i do not adore
the voices or flight of birds
and now all them wooden, a boy or a girl
they’ll fail away
full stoplightning and snow
cracks and slivers
burned in a rowso do not pretend that you do not love the war
i’ve seen you fight
and fall on your sword
blame us not for waiting
just has little cause
i’ve seen you fightsee the breast
see the brain
see the lung
see the stomach
cut from the same furit’s winsome and then
by feeling…the devil makes in
I can’t even pretend to have a theory about what this is about. Maybe one of you dear readers can come up with something. I’d love to hear it.
What I like is the energy levels and the changes of pace. The “Lightning and snow” and the “It’s winsome and then” parts are marked by a slowdown, which is pretty cool.
I like that it completely stops at 2:52 for a false ending. That goes on for a full six seconds, which is about three seconds longer than I expect a false ending break.
After it picks back up, it gets a little more aggressive. There’s a second guitar part that wasn’t in the first act of the song. The drums and the bass are both a bit heavier.
At 3:43 there’s a long snare fill, and then everything changes. The bass gets still heavier and much more active than in the first and fifth acts. From here on out is my favorite part of the song.
In some ways, I kind of wish that everything after the false ending was a song of its own. Or maybe I wish that the song was instrumental. I certainly like the whole song, but that last bit is my favorite part.
There’s no indication of what’s going on with Land of Talk right now. Their website isn’t up anymore, and there’s not anything new on their Saddle Creek page.
Buy Cloak and Cipher from the Saddle Creek store here.
this is that song 
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