writing most of the comments to my postings myself. You are probably right. But I have another reason than just making my blog seem busier than it actually is. I prefer to write a comment than to change the original post when new info has arrived and has been processed in my shrinking brain matter. In this way new relevant ideas and links to already existing posts appear on their own in the recently modified list on your right, they are easy to find and they stay together with the post they belong to. Enough meta now.

Yesterday before relistening to Miss America I had this one word in my mind to which I wanted to compare the voice and singing of Mary Margaret O'Hara. Strangely enough after having listened I forgot about it or didn't find it appropriate anymore. Now that I haven't listened to the album for more than twelve hours the word comes up again.

It is quicksand. In hindsight it suddenly makes sense again. Three aspects of quicksand fit to O'Hara's voice.
- It is effervescent
- It radiates a certain insecurity
- Her intonation has an almost liquid flow

She sings her lyrics in a way that they become hers a second time. One might think that she stutters when listening superficially but that is totally wrong. She cuts a word like song (as in Year in Song) into two syllables. First she utters the hissing "s" then she pauses and sings the whole word. And it doesn't sound forced at all. Paradoxically it somehow flows smoothly.

Another take on this: as a listener I feel like being in quicksand as well. I get lost in her voice. I have to listen to it again and again. To really find out the details of her way of singing.

More info on the album here at the AMG.

on M²OH:

The Uniquely Talented Mary Margaret O'Hara based on an interview Christopher Jones had with her. Especially interesting is the part on the traumatic recording which seems to be responsible for the long silence that followed:


Also noteworthy is this:


Mary Margaret O'Hara in Ecstasy by Kurt Wildermuth (May 2002) who even compares her to my favourite album of 1972 which I just picked one week ago. That is really weird. I would never have thought of linking those two but somehow it makes sense:


Though I must add that I don't endorse the author's bonmot about Roxy Music "saying nothing stylishly". As I wrote in my review of their first album before I don't think that it really is about glam or style. That is just the surface, the package.

I got those links via Nigel Richardson from his post on M²OH at Blogcritics: How to write about an album you don't have yet.