A Limerick Ox - Blog Archive » Freddie Stevenson

A few days ago, I was listening to Q on CBC Radio One, and excellent Canadian band The Sadies were one of the musical guests that day. In his introduction of the band, Jian Ghomeshi stated “The Sadies are frequently described by befuddled, or perhaps just word challenged, music critics as ‘genre-defying.’” Later, in the post-performance interview with the band, one of The Sadies, when talking about the acquisition of such vague labels, said “And who knows, maybe it’s the journalists who are being lazy.”

Lazy? That one got the gears going. Lazyness. There is no excuse to be lazy when approaching one’s work, and writing is quite often on the receiving end of rather laggard insights. Not to mention that sloth is a Deadly Sin™ after all; so are all music writers damned to swim in fiery pools of flames for all eternity when they try to go for broader statements on an artist’s work? Well, some will, yes. Others will end up there for entirely different reasons too, like because they enjoy setting fire to cats (or so I’ve heard).

So am I being lazy by calling Freddie Stevenson’s Easy Now a surprisingly pop-hugging, punk-energized acoustic folk rock triumph? After all, I’m clumping just about every musical style that can be played with a guitar into one description, which is the MP3 blogger’s equivalent of filling up your cup each different brand of soda at the fountain because you have free refills.

But I honestly can’t find any better way to get the point across for this incredibly spirited and furiously catchy song which has all the makings of one of the most memorable tracks of the year. Stevenson’s songsmithing is heartfelt and sincere, creating these effulgent melodious hooks with such apparent effortlessness it would more than likely break my heart if I were a musician. His writing is witty and sharp, delivered with a certain form of poise from which occasionally eeks out a quickened outburst, allowing us to peek into the bare magnetism which bubbles under his work.

So no, I don’t think I’m being lazy by using such a vast categorisation. In fact, it’s Stevenson’s own fault at being so good at everything at once.

MP3: Freddi Stevenson - Easy Now

www.freddiestevenson.com
myspace.com/freddiestevenson

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 10:02 am and is filed under download, Freddie Stevenson, free, MP3, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.