April Smith and the Great Picture Show
Every once in awhile, this generation will put out a female singer who can sing… and sing WELL (i.e. not like a whiny infant, singing through their nose or in key without the modern use of pitch correction). Every once in awhile, this generation will put out a female songwriter who doesn’t sound like she is gazing at her navel, and singing about whatever insipid thought that comes into her mind, while relatively smart women worldwide collectively roll their eyes. Call me a traitor to my gender, but it is rare for me to find someone in the latter twentieth century into the twenty-first who actually has something to say with her songs, and has a voice that does not make me want to put my index finger in my retina. Meet April Smith and the Great Picture Show. She is a singer and a songwriter. And she is also a woman who sings really well, writes really well and made a really great album.
If your iTunes library is as schizophrenic as mine, you’ll love April Smith. She’s a little bit cabaret, show tunes, pop, and rock and roll. If you can appreciate any one of the four above categories, pick up “Songs For A Sinking Ship.”
Ironically, “Drop Dead Gorgeous,” one of the albums’ standout tracks, illustrates in song-form, my issue with the navel gazing singer-songwriter: “I’m a sucker for a pretty face and you’re as pretty as they come/so what if the conversation leaves me absolutely numb?/oh you’re so enchanting when your mouth is closed/and with a mouth like that who needs politics and prose?/now i’m staring into those vacant eyes trying to figure out if you’ve understood a single word that i’ve said/ is there anything going on in that pretty little head? ‘cause if you’re just drop dead gorgeous, you should just drop dead.”
Holla, April Smith. You tell the world.
The album is a delightful mix of sunny pop songs like “Movie Loves A Screen,” (“baby what I mean is that I love you more than any other I’ve seen/if you couldn’t tell well I hope you’re quite keen on it/like a rhyme loves a sonnet/likes a movie loves a screen/that’s what I wanna mean to you…”)
“Colors” is a sweet bounce of a tune, heavy on alliteration: “…like a lighthouse guides a shipwrecked sailor safely from the sea…” It is possible it was resurrected from the 1940s dance halls.
Sunny one minute, dark the next, Smith doesn’t shy away from being forceful with her lyrics and pushing voice, and warns other women against hitting on her man: “I’m a lover not a fighter and I don’t want to have to get rough/I’m just warning you ahead of time/I can be a bitch when it comes to my stuff/so keep your damn hands off my dixie boy.” Fear naught; the song isn’t a nod to Alanis Morissette; the arrangement is far more creepy and more layered.
Apparently, Smith has done some scary, bad things in the past, as illustrated to creepy vaudeville effect on “Terrible Things.” You might have caught it, appropriately, featured on the season three promo for “Californication” and echoed by the actions of Hank Moody.
April Smith and the Great Picture Show set about to record an album with artistic integrity and without a record label. With the help of strangers, and through the guidance of kickstarter.com, fans who like the band had the opportunity to put forth a little cash to be sure the album was made, and especially, was made per the artists’ vision and wishes. The goal was $10,000 and instead, they ended up with $13,100. Like our website-that-could that is hosting this very article, it was a do-it-yourself, answer to yourself, make something fantastic the fans are helping provide, and everyone wins sort of undertaking. In an industry that is being forced to change with the times, do not be surprised if you find more and more artists that you love doing this….and be sure to give them a few bucks to perpetuate this love.
Few can say that they’ve played both Lollapalooza and Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, but April Smith and the Picture Show are among that few. Few artists who do not have the financial push of a record company can say that they have consistently charted on iTunes. Smith can say that. So…what are you waiting for? Get eclectic while I get direct: Buy. This. Album. Now!
