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You searched for ‘sparse’, which matched 32 songs.
click - person recommending, year, performer, songtitle - to see more recommendations.
Hard Time Killing Floor Blues  performed by Skip James
Recommended by dwmjuk [profile]

Despite the vocal style of James (not appreciated by myself) this track is a true masterpiece - listful, solemn and mysterious. Numerous good covers inc. Kelly Joe Phelps, & Chris Thomas King (O Brother Where art thou). The original's guitarwork is superior to other versions - sparse and perfectly timed. However Phelps has, in my oppinion, a more appripraite voice for the track.






  dyfl: The Twilight Singers (actually just Greg Dulli, from the Afghan Whigs, and Mark Lanegan from The Screaming Trees) just released a very good cover of this on their album SHE LOVES YOU, which I highly recommend...
Fire and Water  performed by Free
Recommended by dwmjuk [profile]

The first proto-heavy metal band and a direct link between metal and blues. Heavy driven blues. Free sound extremely sparse compared with similar bands and this is part of their appeal.





Do You Realize?  performed by Flaming Lips
Recommended by yeliabuh [profile]

vocals, guitar, drums, synthesizers. Flaming Lips songs remind me of impressionist paintings with little bursts of color everywhere. This song isn't as colorful as some of their others, but it's definitely likeable. The lyrics can be interpreted as deep, but they're delivered really casually in a flowing manner. This isn't a sparse piece. There's little interesting details happening all the time, like intermittent cymbal crashes to little guitar moments to weird synthesizer noises. It creates a texture that's interesting to listen to, but at the same time simple enough to listen to without exploding your brain or something. A really enjoyable piece overall.

from Yoshimi battles the pink robots, available on CD


Chez Les Y�-Y�  performed by Serge Gainsbourg  1963
Recommended by tinks [profile]

Excellent early jazz song from Serge with a very sparse arrangement and a lively rhythm. Further proof that the man could do anything he wanted.

from Gainsbourg Confidentiel (Polygram)
available on CD - Du Jazz Dans le Ravin (Polygram)




  delicado: yeah, I was completely blown away when I first heard the 'du jazz...' compilation! Astounding stuff, and you're right - he tried everything and was almost always successful...
  tempted: Have you heard "Nazi Rock"?
  delicado: ok, emphasis on the 'almost' I guess. I actually have friends who enjoy 'rock around the bunker', but it's not really my cup of tea.
  tempted: The saddest thing about Gainsbourg's restless life is that he got most popular in France on the most awkward musical road he ever followed. That was the half-arse reggae music he made. But still he's a hero of mine.
Ride The Wind (live)  performed by The Youngbloods  1969
Recommended by opl3003 [profile]

This live recording of "Ride The Wind" is a wonderful nine minute take on the six minute studio version available on The Youngbloods 1969 "Elephant Mountain" album.

Recorded live in NYC as a trio, The Youngbloods never sounded better. Jesse Colin Young is on bass. Banana plays guitar and keyboards, and Joe Bauer on drums. Sparse, almost scatted vocals mixed with improvisational instrumentaion help this song lightly float along. The bass solo gives me goosebumps, and accents the playfulness of the improv style the Youngbloods exhibit on this song.

I really like this song because it sounds so mellow and free. One of the best ways you can spend almost 10 minutes of your life. Give it a listen, you won't be sorry.

from Ride The Wind (Raccoon / Warner Bros. Raccoon #4)



  DRMUSE: I went to a concert in longmont Colorado on a June Night in 1970 in the Full Moon Light, where I heard Ride the Wind and Sunlight and On Sir Francis Drake, and Banana's Fender Rhodes with the picture of Elephant Mountain painted on the front could be seen for miles. The CD i recently found these treasures on is One Way # OW 34535, available through Amazon, GET IT ! It has some of the most amazing music you ever heard if you are a Youngbloods fan. It is also demarcated BMG Specialty Products DRC11575. Whatever your music is, people, enjoy it , sometimes it is all you have. And everybody learn to play. Maybe we could have a battle of the guitars instead of the guns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
roses in the snow  performed by Nico  1969
Recommended by belphegor [profile]

wow, i mean: wow... i've been an avid nico lover for years, having acquired a deep appreciation of her via some claimed proto-goth associations. obscure subcultural praise and all that velvet underground hoop-la aside, her amazing "desertshore" was proof enough that nico was and is a uniquely powerful force in life and art. but this "roses in the snow" diddy just floored me on a first listen. the revolving, minimalist tune of her harmonium must be the loneliest, most disillusioned harmony ever played since "gloomy sunday," and the cryptically profound words the closest thing rock'n'roll ever got to the "book of job." what does this piece really mean to say? not sure really: but somehow, i think it might be something like re-reading a long-departed lover's suicide note on a warm, languid autumn day...

from the marble index, available on CD (elektra)


Band of Gold  performed by Freda Payne  1970
Recommended by scorzonera [profile]

A tiny nugget of sparse beauty. Punk as fuck.
Nothing is wasted here, bass, drums, guitar, backing vocals adding minimal textures to carry Freda's direct, heart rending vocal, which itself is virtually vibrato-free. An astonishing recording when put in context of the overblown rubbish which dominated the charts at that time (most times, come to think of it).


available on CD - Unhooked Generation: The Complete Invictus Recordings - 2001


Chanson D'O  performed by Francoise Hardy  1971
Recommended by delicado [profile]

You might be familiar with Francoise's incredible 1971 album La Question, a track from which was recommended by another user almost four years ago (Oui, je dis adieu). I managed to get a friend to copy the album for me at the time, and I recall being very taken by 'Viens', the first song. I put this track on a compilation but somehow never really savoured the album as a whole.

Recently I found I could get the album on CD, so picked it up (along with another interesting Francoise album, 'If you listen').

The difference for me now I have the CD is vast, and I'm now able to appreciate the album in all its glory. The clincher for me is the blend of percussive Brazilian guitar, beautiful strings, and the Melody Nelson-style sparseness of the arrangements.

I chose this track to recommend because of the bizarre extra dimension brought by the fact that Francoise is just scatting - there are no words - and the intermittent moments of complete silence, which are surprising and really hold the attention. Parts of the chord sequence remind me of Henry Mancini (in particular, a track called 'Softly' from the Mr Lucky soundtrack), while the overall effect of the sexy echoey vocal naturally brings to mind Ennio Morricone's work with Edda Dell'Orso.

from La Question, available on CD ()




  ambassador: this album's a favorite of mine, too. I also really like her album "Soliel" of a couple years earlier. The interesting thing about this album is that the Brazilian female guitarist Tuca (just one name) backed her on this as she did on Nara Leao's gorgeous tribute to Bossa Nova (recorded in France), "Dez Anos Depois." If you listen to these albums side by side you can clearly here the similarities, not to say they sound identical. And doesn't Fracoise look stunning on the b&w album cover?
Zigarillo  performed by Botho Lucas Singers und die Sound Masters  1972
Recommended by delicado [profile]

This one of the most insanely catchy and infectious tracks I've heard in a long time. Opens with a sparse bongo beat, accompanied by 'mouth percussion'. A German voice sounding slightly like aging British radio DJ Tommy Vance starts talking ('Der man, das Zigarillo'), before a catchy piano riff and jaunty easy listening chorus come in. A fun track - nice that compilations like 'pop shopping 2' come out and save things like this from total obscurity.


available on CD - Pop Shopping 2 (Crippled Dick Hot Wax!)



International Flight  performed by David Snell  1973
Recommended by eftimihn [profile]

An incredible harp track that lives up to the title, establishing a late 60s/early 70s jet set lounge mood right from the beginning. Backed by a jazzy rhythm section with just bass, drums and some sparse guitar work it's due to Snell's melodic, dreamlike, almost etheral harp playing that makes the track so evocative. I was pleased to see the track was just selected by the Thievery Corporation as an opener on their compilation album "The Outernational Sound", good choice i must say.

from The Sound Gallery Vol. 2, available on CD (Scamp)




  nighteye: Oh yes this track is awesome, I love the dreamy harp sound. Be sure to bring this track on your next international flight!
Willow’s Song  performed by Lesley Mackie  1973
Recommended by leonthedog [profile]

A sensuously haunting track, from the equally haunting soundtrack of a notoriously haunting film. Sparse, but slowly layered and building with anticipation. Don't know much about the late Paul Giovanni, but he surely hit a home run with this entire soundtack.


available on CD - The Wicker Man (OST) (Silva)



  n-jeff: Lovely stuff, but strangely, disquietingly, indistinct. One of the tracks that got me sacked from a regular pub DJ slot. haha.
Black Eyed Dog  performed by Nick Drake  1974
Recommended by two-headed boy [profile]

In order to fully examine the minds of torment and depression, one would need to be familiar with Nick Drake's 'Black Eyed Dog.' With his transcendant ability to translate his demons into song, Nick Drake accounts a supernatural phantasm chasing him through the darkness of his own neurosis. 'Black eyed dog he claws at my door' - sung in his upper register, with the use of heavey falcetto, sounds like he is straining to survive a nightmare. His performance, despite the sparse production of acoustic guitar and vocal, is expansive. Use of harmonics and finger roll on this song proves the mastery of his instrument, as an amateur guitarist I am baffled by the sound he can create. The singular pulse of the guitar string rings-out with a delicate harmonic while the layering of other voices continue subtly underneath. And the result is the tragic embrace of his own psychological deterioration; a horror unlike the Macabre style of the French, it stands as its own haunting style, that of 'Drakesque.'

As we know his depression did finally catch up to him, and as a revisionist I would say that Nick knew it would all along, sooner or later. One would only need to hear this song and some of the pieces are put into place.

from Time of No Reply, available on CD




  Liv: they say he had to have several overdubs of his voice on this track until he got it right, because of his depression his voice was trembling.. so far from the classical orchestrations of his early recordings, the sparse instrumentation and the intense emotion of "Black dog" affects you even more as Nick's haunting voice sounds like he's singing through an abyss of infinite darkness and despair..
  songs-I-love: Actually, the lyrics to this song go "A black-eyed dog, he CALLED at my door...", but with Nick's way of singing (or rather: expressing himself), it's just all too easy to get confused. The line "I'm growing old and I wanna go home" gets through my heart like a bullet every time I hear it. Only few songs can evoke such strong emotions in me.
  kkkerplunkkk: Yes beautiful and chilling, but it's a small comfort to know that this wasn't actually the last song he ever recorded, that sad honour going to the recently discovered Tow The Line.
The Peterman  performed by Bullet  1975
Recommended by mr_klenster [profile]

Of the thriller/cop/detective/crime soundtracks, this is maybe my tops. Slow, plodding, and sparse, with beautiful and short dalliances of sound.

from The Hanged Man


final solution  performed by pere ubu  1976
Recommended by n-jeff [profile]

This early single starts off in quite an unpromising way, the sound is quite dry and sparse. Bass and drums, David Thomas muttering teen angst semi audibly in a style that hadn't quite developed into the strange sing song delivery that became his trademark.

"The girls won't touch me cos I got a ". What was that, what?

As it progresses the volume picks up until the final chorus where Thomas is screaming and the guitars start thrashing, then it finishes on a guitar solo that I swear J. Mascis based his entire career on, wah wah squealing on the edge of feedback, while the rest of the band just seem to be lifted into a noisy stratosphere.

I heard for the first time in 10 years last week, and it was breathtaking.

from the single final solution (Rough Trade)


Alleys of your Mind  performed by Cybotron  1981
Recommended by geezer [profile]

A Detroit take on Kraftwerk,Depeche Mode and European Disco,sparse remote synthetic drums and bass lines,and squelching fat melody lines that you can still hear in todays pop and R and b (Justin Timberlake,Timbaland ,Lady Ga Ga ),lends heavily from Trans European Express but is also looser and a tad more joyous .

from Clear
available on CD - Clear or Best of


Oh Well, I'll never learn  performed by Morrissey  1987
Recommended by delicado [profile]

Clocking in at around 2 minutes, this B-side is very simple, but beautiful. It was something of a 'holy grail' to me as a young Smiths fan, hidden as it was on the rare 'Suedehead' single (cassette and CD singles only!). I managed to procure a tape of it via my brother, and was instantly entranced. Morrissey has recorded many songs which are catchier and more intense than this, yet it has a unique power. The lyrics are entertaining - 'I found the fountain of youth and I fell in', and the accompaniment is delicate and sparse, with some great guitar playing from Vini Reilly. It ends with something rather lovely - it's nothing really, but it's one of those little details which when I was young, I used to pick on in songs - as Morrissey repeats 'I'll never learn', a spooky, echoey sound comes in and envelopes the entire song. Such little things used to please me...

from Suedehead (single) (HMV)
available on CD - My Early Burglary Years



  FlyingDutchman1971: I couldn't agree more! Having purchased the US 12 inch of 'suedehead' which didn't include this track, it was such a nice surprise in 1994 when I purchased the 13-cd british singles box set and found this track. Moz sings this song with such a great since of joyous naughtiness that you just want to tweak his delinquent little nose.
Bulletproof Soul  performed by Sade  1992
Recommended by MoeShinola [profile]

Hey - don't knock Sade. This is from the Love Deluxe album, which is a great record by any measure. All the songs are original and heartfelt, not formulaic, and with an awareness of third-world misery that's striking coming from a pop princess like her. But she is from Nigeria and knows what she's singing about. Bulletproof Soul is my favorite on the album, a song very dry and quiet and sparse. The backing vocal works in a very sad, soulful harmony line in the chorus that really makes the song.

from Love Deluxe (Sony)


Are you the one that I've been waiting for?  performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds  1997
Recommended by phil [profile]

Like most of the boatman's call album, this one is very sparse - it's essentially the piano and Nick's voice. The lyrics are Nicks best ever effort though I reckon - it's him trying to decide if someone really is the love of his life: "well we would know, won't we?/ stars would explode in the sky/ But they don't, do they?/ Stars have their moment, and then they die."
 
It really does repay listening to about a hundred times - very moving.

from The Boatman's Call, available on CD


Over  performed by Alpha  1998
Recommended by tinks [profile]

Terrific downbeat with a very sparse feel. Great soundtrack-inspired piece of moody Bristol trip-hop, with nods to Barry Adamson and Jimmy Webb.

from Pepper: Remixes & Rarities (EP), available on CD



Groovin� With You  performed by The Gentle People  1999
Recommended by eftimihn [profile]

What a great blend of electronica and easy listening this track is. Think of it as a trippy, chillin' "A Summer Place" in outer space with gentle male/female vocals, some french whisperings and sparse, delicate electronica intertwined with the memorable, lush string melody sample of "A Summer Place".

from Simply Faboo, available on CD




  n-jeff: Great track, it made me buy the LP, which was a little disappointing, but the first four or five tracks are great, and for me this song is the opeak of them, and the whole LP.
Miner at the dial-a-view  performed by Grandaddy  2000
Recommended by karl [profile]

A sparse, gorgeous song: a batty sample, a vocal - with a cracked 'yeah' near the end to melt your heart - a chiming, New Order-ish bass, and not a whole lot else.

from The Sophtware Slump (v2)



Saturday  performed by Yo La Tengo  2000
Recommended by Genza [profile]

So sparse... I like this. It just about moves along and has a real feel of desolation and hopelessness. And there's a top-quality drum machine sound in there too - which you just can't beat.

from And then nothing turned itself inside out (Matador Ole 371-2)



Let�s Stay Inside  performed by Ivy  2000
Recommended by eftimihn [profile]

Sparsely instrumented, bossa nova-tinged ballad by New York-based Indie-Pop trio Ivy. Very breezy, airy sounding due to a delicate muted trumpet riff and Dominique Durand's charming, accented vocals (reminding me of the even more accented singing Claudine Longet).

from Long Distance, available on CD



The Past and Pending  performed by The Shins  2001
Recommended by xfanatic50 [profile]

A beautiful ballad, with minimal vocals and sparse acoustic guitar. A departure from the Shin's normal upbeat pop.

from Oh, Inverted World (subpop)



Rose Kennedy  performed by Benjamin Biolay  2001
Recommended by eftimihn [profile]

In his home country France Benjamin Biolay often is praised as the "nouveau Gainsbourg", he's a singer, songwriter, arranger, producer, orchestrator and plays various instruments. His debut album "Rose Kennedy" shows the impact "Histoire de Melody Nelson" had on him, as this is also conceived as a concept album. The track "Rose Kennedy" sounds very 60's in its instrumentation and feel, with lush, rich strings, warm Fender Rhodes keyboard, gentle and dreamlike vocals with a sparse dose of electronica and some samples thrown in.

from Rose Kennedy, available on CD




  nighteye: Can you call him the french version of Scott Walker? This song reminds me of some of Walkers songs from the '60s, and what a great song 'Rose Kennedy' is. I love the strings and Biolay's deep voice.
I hung my head  performed by Johnny Cash  2002
Recommended by andrew76 [profile]

This is a cover of a song by Sting. I haven't heard Sting's version but I am not a fan of what I have heard. Anyway, Cash's version is stripped down to the bare essentials, acoustic guitar and piano with a little bit of keyboard in the background to add some depth, but the music is secondary to the great mans voice. He's in his seventies, and all the age an experience in his voice just makes the youth and experience of the lyrics all the more poignant. His voice reminds me of my grandfather (May he rest in peace). The whole Album (American Recordings IV - The Man Comes Around) is incredible and this song is a stand out track among many, both original and covered.

from American Recordings IV The Man Comes Around, available on CD


Any Girl Can Make Me Smile  performed by ANT  2002
Recommended by kkkerplunkkk [profile]

A beautiful, soft, sad, fragile piece about a couple breaking up and bursting into tears as they do. Incredible for its intimate feel and sparse instrumentation (voice, organ, harmonica, egg shaker) chilling lyrics 'you close your eyes but there's no paradise, you count the cost of all we've lost and all we've wasted'. It hits the nail bang on the head! Love it to bits.

from A Long Way To Blow A Kiss, available on CD


Prototype  performed by OutKast  2003
Recommended by Festy [profile]

I knew nothing about OutKast, and know little more now. What I do know is that this song was from a concept album in which both members of Outkast ("Andre 3000" and "Big Boi") produced a side each. Also from what I understand, this track may not be typical of their usual stuff. I also found out that this was played to death on the radio when it was released, so this may not be a new song to many. Not being a commercial radio listener, I missed it when it was released!

I'm not sure what attracted me to the song first off. Perhaps it was how sparse and basic it seems, perhaps the humour in it ("stank you smelly much" - real lyrics in this love song), or perhaps the "behind the scenes" audio, like Andre's dicussion with the engineer. Why would he leave that in, I wonder. Is it a theme that runs through his side of the album? Anyway, a soulful and beautiful, if not strange song which I heard on a compilaton called "Strange Soul" put out by Albion Records.

from Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (LaFace Records 82876 50133 2)
available on CD - Strange Soul (Albion Records)



Love Will Tear Us Apart  performed by Nouvelle Vague  2004
Recommended by eftimihn [profile]

Nouvelle Vague is the project of Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux, who basically took classic late 70s/early 80s new wave songs and transformed them into light, easy going, predominantly bossa tinged tracks, including heavily accented, whispery Longet-esque vocals. They claim these young vocalists never even heard the original songs. It works brilliantly for sure on "Love will tear us apart" where they manage to interpret the song as a melancholic, chilled stroll down a beach with sparse percussion, acoustic bass and guitar, vibraphone and some samples of waves rushing on the seaside. I'd like to think even Ian Curtis might smile down on this cover version...

from Nouvelle Vague, available on CD



Tive Razao  performed by Seu Jorge  2004
Recommended by ambassador [profile]

So anyone who's seen The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou or City of God will recognize Seu Jorge as the handsome, dark-skinned actor with the gravelly voice. In Life Aquatic he plays Pele, the Brazilian safety officer on board Zissou's boat and the bard that plays Portuguese language covers of David Bowie songs. Although this is changing, even in Brazil he's better known as an actor than a musician. His second solo album (he used to be in a band called Farofa Carioca), Cru, was released last fall in France and was impossibly hard to find until recently. Tive Razao was the first release from this album and is fairly representative and is the shining peak as well. Based around an acoustic guitar riff and Seu Jorge's multi-tracked vocals, the song just floats in this melancholy haze like some of the best Chico Buarqu de Hollanda ballads. The production on this song (and the album) is much more sparse than the previous album, but much more original as well. Jorge even uses what I think is a theremin to add a slight spookiness to the preceedings. The lyrics mean something like, "I had an excuse" or "I had a reason."

from Cru, available on CD



  ambassador: I since found out that the title means "You were right." makes a bit more sense that way.
Sequenced Time  performed by Cubismo Grafico  2007
Recommended by sardonicsmile [profile]

cubismo grafico's (matsuda gakuji) current output leans heavily towards new wave and other general 00 trendy sounds, but 'sequenced time' sounds more like the soft pop rock stuff with his other band neil and iraiza. one chord piano and sequenced drums, simple, sparse and sounding very much like a quiet night in the city.

from Nuit (Escalator Records)


Bumblebee  performed by Roman Andren  2008
Recommended by Festy [profile]

You'd be forgiven for thinking this one of Sergio Mendes' hipper tracks from his Brasil '66 or '77 period. It has that old sound to it and is really warm. It starts off breezy and builds with energy whilst Roman Andren, a young Swedish musician, composer and DJ, plays some beautiful electric piano over the top. Although it starts off with vocals over a sparse bass and electric piano combo, the vocals don't come in again until a while into the track. By the end of the track, the energy is at its most, yet still breezy, with brass, vocals and hand-claps providing a sense of a party. It's the perfect song for a summer's day or, close your eyes on a dreary winter's day and be transported.

from Juanita & Beyond : Live Studio Sessions, available on CD



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