{"id":6457,"date":"2013-03-05T15:52:32","date_gmt":"2013-03-05T15:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=6457"},"modified":"2013-03-05T15:52:32","modified_gmt":"2013-03-05T15:52:32","slug":"the-flowers-of-hell-odes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2013\/03\/05\/the-flowers-of-hell-odes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Flowers of Hell \u2013 Odes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><a href=\"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/2013\/03\/05\/the-flowers-of-hell-odes\/flowers1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6458\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-6458\" alt=\"flowers1\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stylusmagazine.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/flowers1-300x288.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"288\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Almost more interesting than The Flowers of Hell\u2019s cover songs is how founding member, Greg Jarvis, creates them.<!--more--> His rare disorder, timbre-to-shape synesthesia, allows him to actually see sounds as shapes, so all of the songs on <em>Odes<\/em> were visually constructed. Admittedly, the result is not quite as radical as the process, but this record still teems with creative arrangements and beautiful musicianship. Combine that with a list of songs written by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0KaWSOlASWc\" target=\"_blank\">Lou Reed<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OeP4FFr88SQ\" target=\"_blank\">Bob Dylan<\/a>, and Joy Division, and you have an orchestral pop record that should interest plenty of music lovers, classical or otherwise. Reed fans, especially, should have <em>Odes<\/em> on their radar with its heavy focus on Reed and Velvet Underground alumni. \u201cWalk On The Wild Side\u201d is given a subtle arrangement with deeper bass and clearer strings, while alternate lyrics from an old demo are given the Reed treatment by Ami Spears. An instrumental version of \u201cRun Run Run\u201d rides the bass-line through some classic Velvet Underground textures and improvisations, while \u201cMr. Tambourine Man\u201d is done with a pitch-imperfect Nico impression by Laura Rafferty and captures a similar vibe that Nico brought to Dylan\u2019s \u201cI\u2019ll Keep It With Mine.\u201d A spaced-out vibe full of breathy synths and vocoder vocals make <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qIq22u-BS6A\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cO Superheroin\u201d<\/a> the most interesting interpretation; the song celebrates Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed\u2019s marriage by combining her \u201cO Superman\u201d with VU\u2019s \u201cHeroin.\u201d \u00a0But my favorite has to be \u201cCalling Occupants,\u201d a Klaatu song about contacting space aliens that really works into Jarvis\u2019 extraterrestrial sounding arrangements.<br \/>\nAll too often cover albums seem to bring little to the table other than a good impression of a better artist. <em>Odes<\/em>, on the other hand, brings a lot of creative energy and intelligence to some of my personal favorites, so don\u2019t let this one pass you by. (Independent, <a href=\"http:\/\/flowersofhell.com\" target=\"_blank\">flowersofhell.com<\/a>) <strong>Matthew Dyck<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Almost more interesting than The Flowers of Hell\u2019s cover songs is how founding member, Greg Jarvis, creates them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[121,216,356,566,899],"class_list":["post-6457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-bob-dylan","tag-cover-songs","tag-flowers-of-hell","tag-lou-reed","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}