{"id":4862,"date":"2020-02-25T21:47:51","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T03:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/?p=4862"},"modified":"2020-02-25T21:47:51","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T03:47:51","slug":"album-review-shira-small","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/?p=4862","title":{"rendered":"Album Review Shira Small"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I first heard a single from the Shira Small album <em>The Line of Time and the Plane of Now<\/em> on a compilation called <em>Wayfaring Strangers &#8211; Ladies Of The Canyon<\/em> by the Numero Group record label. The song was called &#8220;Eternal Life&#8221;. I&#8217;ve posted about it before.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BGuOP-w5o9M\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\nThis song came from an album recorded at George School in 1974. George School was a Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania which used to compete against the boarding school I went to, also located in Pennsylvania. It was recorded as a senior project and only a small number of vinyl copies were distributed to friends and family. <\/p>\n<p>For a long time this was the only track available on the internet as far as I could find. I always wondered what the rest of the album could sound like considering the strength and insight of this single. A few years later my friend Ako found another Shira Small track on a tape compilation. It contained a similar jazzy, introverted pop sensibility with thoughtful lyrics and that plain and powerful voice. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dIyQoCNZosw\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I was worried that the reason the rest of the album wasn&#8217;t being shared by collectors was that maybe it was only a flash of brilliance on a generally forgettable high school recording project. Recently, (at my request heh) someone was generous enough to post the whole thing! It turns out it&#8217;s a mix of both. After several listens, about half of the tracks are absolute gems and the rest are just okay&#8230; but still containing some interesting ideas and moments of beauty. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FUWZQIGjbhk\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In my opinion, <em>My Life&#8217;s Alright, I Want To Lay With You, and Eternal Life<\/em> are essential listening experiences, capable of making your life better for having heard it. On first listen I <em>Want To Lay With You<\/em> brought me back to a time of pure potent experience, filled with nerves and excitement for life; feelings that have been dulled by the hammer of time. On a lesser note, <em>Lights Gleam Lonely, Gimme Magic, Touch of Blue, and Fingerpainter<\/em> are pleasant tracks with searching spiritual themes but maybe don&#8217;t hit me on that gut level like those three bangers. The alt arrangement of <em>I Want To Lay With You<\/em> also sparkles. I don&#8217;t know why I wrote &#8220;sparkles&#8221; but it does. <em>Cool Guy <\/em>isn&#8217;t a great song but is a nice portrait of some guy in high school who Shira probably thought was a douche. <\/p>\n<p>All in all <em>The Line Of Time And The Plane of Now<\/em> is a time capsuled treasure of spiritual optimism and call for meaning from a teenage seeker. At this time and place, there was a legitimate position that art and mystical knowledge could change the world for the better in addition to material solutions. Now it feels like the conversation revolves solely around materialism. Well here&#8217;s a reminder that things were different before cocaine and disco fucked everyone up.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I first heard a single from the Shira Small album The Line of Time and the Plane of Now on a compilation called Wayfaring Strangers &#8211; Ladies Of The Canyon by the Numero Group record label. The song was called &#8220;Eternal Life&#8221;. I&#8217;ve posted about it before. This song came from an album recorded at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4862"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4862"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4864,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4862\/revisions\/4864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jessemoynihan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}