One day I’ll make a film – just so I can have Andrew Morgan write the score. A proper score, like they used to make. His beautifully cinematic music will trail our hero through an autumnal Paris as he outwits his enemies and gets his gal. In the mean time, this will do just fine.
As Long As We’re Together is the first single taken from Morgan’s autumnal Please Kid Remember album, released earlier in the year, though with eight tracks it has more of the feel of a mini-album than an E.P. Presumably, these are the tracks which failed to make the final cut for the album. If that’s the case then Andrew Morgan is clearly a man who has hit his musical stride.
The E.P. picks up exactly where the album left off with a blend of breathless euphoria and misty melancholy, awash with sumptuous string arrangements. There isn’t a single moment on here which isn’t simply glorious.
As Long As We’re Together is released by Broken Horse Records on November 16th.
Please Kid Remember is available now.
To find out more about Andrew Morgan read his Suitcase Orchestra Q & A here or visit his MySpace here.
Andrew Morgan has just released one of 2009’s outstanding albums, ‘Please Kid, Remember’. He’s also answered some questions we sent him:
If I were to play just one of your songs to someone who hasn’t heard your music, which would it be and why?
Probably Leaves/Please Kid, Remember (which is really one composition, but split into two tracks) because I feel like it pretty much encapsulates the kind of music I’ve tried to make thus far.
You are being sent to the moon. You’re allowed to take 1 album. What is it?
Definitely the 50th Anniversary Edition of Kind of Blue by Miles Davis because 1) it’s been my favorite album for 12 years and I still listen to it constantly, and 2) it comes with about extra hour of music via outtakes, alternate versions, and a bonus disc.
What was the last album you bought?
Kingdom of Rust by Doves
Tell us an interesting fact.
The sound the wind makes is in a minor key.
Tell us about a band or singer we might not have heard of who should be featured on Suitcase Orchestra.
Julie London, and her songs Dark, About the Blues, Bouquet of Blues, Meaning of the Blues, and Blues, All I Ever Had. I know very little about her, and discovered her music sheerly through chance, but have been absolutely transfixed by its film noir aura for the past 2 years. Haunting stuff.
What film would you be a character in?
A fun question to think about! While I’d love to sneak my way into the new Jason Bourne film that’s in development, I’d probably fit better in a Wes Anderson film as a character in the mold of Rushmore’s Max Fischer.
Recommend a book.
Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky
Would you rather a number 1 record or lasting respect from musicians you admire?
The latter, though I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive (i.e. The Beatles). I love the story of Doves, who had a hit song as Sub Sub, then were able to channel that success into the time and resources needed to develop into the phenomenal band they’ve been for the past decade.
What question should I always ask in a Q & A?
“What are your Top 5 Favorite Albums of All Time?” It’s a stock question, but something I’m always interested to know…
so, my current All Time Top 5 is
05. Nico – Chelsea Girls
04. Elliott Smith – XO
03. Radiohead – In Rainbows
02. Yann Tiersen – Amelie
01. Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
The next group would be
Nick Drake – Five Leaves Left
The Zombies – Odessey and Oracle
Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour of the Bewilderbeast
The Strokes – Is This It
The Smiths – The Queen is Dead
And new album most likely to crack the list is Fleet Foxes S/T.
Andrew Morgan’s latest album, ‘Please Kid, Remember’ is available now through Broken Horse Records.
Inside this man's mind lurks the most beautiful music.
If scientists were able to insert probes into trees and record the actual sound of leaves turning from green to gold in Autumn, then those recordings would form the basis for Andrew Morgan’s second album, ‘Please Kid, Remember’. Veering between impossibly pretty and achingly beautiful, Morgan has pieced together a masterful collection of songs and brief instrumentals.
Normally, a seventeen strong track listing would do little to inspire me but this album, which put to use 33 different musicians in 2 different countries, is essentially ten songs, bookended and interspersed with short instrumental pieces which hint at a future in film score work for the Kansas born Morgan. The titles tell their own story: ‘Leaves’; ‘Snow’; ‘Turn Your Collar to the Cold’; ‘First Snow of the Year’. This album isn’t just autumnal, it is Autumn – even the back cover of the album is a photograph of golden leaved trees – there’s a warm glow to it but a hint of coldness to come.
Overall, the album sounds like the product of locking Badly Drawn Boy, Teenage Fanclub and the late Elliott Smith in a studio. Nowhere is this more obvious than on ‘A Gesture Of Love’ which starts like one one of Smith’s jauntier moments before moving into ‘Howdy’ era Fanclub, all with a gloss of Damon Gough’s twinkling over the top and Morgan’s breathy, almost whispered vocals. The introduction to ‘Three Months In Cook County’ is possibly the most beautifully arranged and layered string and piano that I have ever heard, somehow effortlessly combining mournfulness and sparkling prettiness reminiscent of the arrangements which Robert Kirby washed over Nick Drake’s songs on ‘Five Leaves Left’, an album which clearly was somewhere in Andrew Morgan’s mind when he set out to put this album together.
In fact, there was a fair bit in Morgan’s mind when he wrote these songs – his friend Elliott Smith had died, another was institutionalised, he was almost killed by a tornado and his vocal chords were paralysed for three months by an allergic reaction. The recordings were beset by technical problems and sessions had to be repeatedly scrapped and work reconvened elsewhere. This resulted in a five year hiatus since his debut offering, ‘Misadventures In Radiology’, in 2004. Somehow, out of that maelstrom emerged one of the most wonderfully ornate and beautiful records ever. Happily, he is already under way with his third album.
Please Kid, Remember is available to download in the usual places but if you order it on CD through his website, you get a free mini-album, Victory In Passing’ tucked inside too. I can’t tell you what that’s like though as I haven’t been able to stop playing Please Kid, Remember yet.
http://www.myspace.com/morganandrew
