You know Britta Phillips from the bands Luna and Dean & Britta, but now she has a debut solo album, Luck Or Magic. The record features five Phillips originals alongside covers of songs by the Cars, Evie Sands, Fleetwood Mac, Dennis Wilson and ABBA’s Agnatha Fältskog. Phillips will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week.
Phillips: His single “Gardenia” made me jump at the chance to see him live after watching him perform it on Colbert. I was lucky enough to get into a warmup show at a 500-capacity venue in L.A. and was utterly blown away. I kept saying things like, “He’s the best rock ‘n’ roll singer, ever,” during the show. And, really, his singing was perfect. Perfect in pitch and tone, but more importantly, that character and soul. And the phrasing made stories come alive, like Frank Sinatra, but rock ‘n’ roll incarnate. Duh, you say, but I’d only ever seen him once, at Reading Festival back in the ’90s, and I didn’t get it then. I don’t know if it’s just proximity in a live situation or that his voice now has more gravitas from age and experience. But the pathos, too. I was really overcome. The new songs are pretty damned good, but they didn’t roll quite as much as the the oldies. Josh’s playing is great, and the band is great. Sad that this is the exception with great older artists like Iggy. The last time I saw Bowie, I kept thinking that they weren’t playing his songs right, even though they’re all amazing players. They were missing some subtle rhythmic accents from the original recording, which made it sound like the best cover band in the world. The Stones sound like that now. Like the best Stones cover band.
“I think the whole basis of fashion is contempt. The whole idea of fashion and style expresses a preference for abstract aesthetics in opposition to human values.” —Iggy Pop, 1977.
Video after the jump.
