Fan Dance
Sam Phillips
Daring Detour from an Underappreciated Singer-Songwriter
Back in the 1990s, before the illegal copying of music via the Internet triggered widespread record-industry panic, the barons of the big labels were quite content to spend millions promoting 'NSync and Britney Spears, the pop equivalent of instant pudding. Even though label rosters at the time included such magnificent talents as the singer and songwriter Sam Phillips, the executives devoted most of their resources to the acts most likely to hit it big, a "winner-take-all" model that prized the quick sensational buck over the long-term career. Then one day they woke to find cases of Ashlee Simpson CDs in the warehouse and hardly any promising newcomers in the pipeline. Oops.
The artists were there. They'd just been marginalized. Among them was Phillips, a tunesmith whose forte is intricate, high-gloss post-Beatles pop with a sour twist. Since the 1980s, Phillips has plowed past label indifference to cobble together one of the most varied and interesting discographies in contemporary music. She started out as Leslie Phillips, making contemporary Christian music (the shadow classic The Turning), then went secular and earned a following for her smart, opulent song (Martinis and Bikinis). Then, despite a string of critical successes, she was dropped from her label.
Fan Dance, which was produced by Phillips's then-husband T-Bone Burnett, came after a five-year hiatus. It represents another shift—it pulls Phillips away from lavish arrangements, and into a shadowy, mysterious, torch-song ethos. Each of the twelve tracks calls from a specific locale; one ("Edge of the World") uses a rattling upright piano to evoke the sounds of a long-deserted vaudeville hall, another ("Below Surface") sends distress signals from murky depths. Phillips writes tightly compressed verses and declarative refrains, but in these noirish dream sequences the "hooks" rarely clobber you over the head. Instead, the eerie images and haiku melodies worm slowly into your subconscious, firing the imagination in ways that pop music, adrift in the age of Ashlee Simpson, rarely does anymore.
Genre: Rock
Released: 2001, Nonesuch
Key Tracks: "Edge of the World," "Soul Eclipse," "Love Is Everywhere I Go," "Below Surface"
Catalog Choice: The Turning; Martinis and Bikinis
Next Stop: The Beatles: Abbey Road
Book Page: 597
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Comments:
#1 from fs bfth, the - 02/13/2009 3:27
Because it’s an excellent choice. Few have heard it.
#2 from Robert DuPont, Albany NY - 05/22/2009 8:11
Hi Tom,
I bought the book, and I’m looking at the cover, and I see a list under the heading ‘Essential Music’. I see Miles Davis, Beach Boys Pet Sounds… Ok…. Sam Phillips Fan Dance… what?? ( insert double -take here)
Thank you. I’ve been a SamFan for years, starting with the Indescribable Wow, but I was floored when I first put on ‘Fan Dance’ . I knew the change of direction was coming, but still I felt, dang, this is a great album. It still kills me every time I play it.
Not that Sam needs or craves validation, but any subtle promotion of her work is most welcome. My only regret about ‘Fan Dance’ is that it is not on vinyl.
So thank you again. It’s a fun book. I look forward to delving into it furthur, and I’ll leave comments as I go along
