May 27th, 2008
Ida
Back in 1970, John Martyn recorded an album entitled The Road To Ruin with then-wife Beverly. The title song of the track, Road To Ruin was a wonderful heartfelt song which evokes the inevitable outcome of our lives and its antonymous coexistence with the wonder of being alive.
The song is a perfect fit for New York City’s Ida and their soft, sweet, haunting execution. The instrumentation is hushed, gentle, starting off with docile handclaps and a subdued hi-hat, almost whispering in the background as a dramatic piano chord ushers in ambient vocals, soft-spoken yet quivering from a conflicted inner self. Little more is added to the song’s moving evolution, aside some distant, nebulous warbles and the aching hum of an organ grinder, leaving it as languishingly perfect as it is.
The result is a tenderly intimate song of self-realisation which strikes all the emotional chords with absolute sincerity.
MP3: Ida - Road To Ruin