As far as songs about prostitutes go, and there are lots of them ("Roxanne," "When the Sun Goes Down" come to mind immediately), "Stella" is a pretty good one. I've been high on Ida Maria since seeing her at CMJ back in October, and actually had video of her performing this song... but Sony/BMG has had it pulled from YouTube for "Copyright Infringement." Oh Well. I wish I could have both of them here on this page to show the difference between them. Her studio recordings so far have been much slicker and slower than how she plays live or than any of the demos that have been floating around.
I've got nothing against sonic clarity, but I wonder if these aren't taking some of the energy out of them -- the thing that drew me to her in the first place. Maybe it's just a case of listening to those so much that I just want the record to sound like them too. (I suffered similarly after falling for Maximo Park's demos before their first album.) With time I guess I'll get used to it. She's getting a LOT of press in the UK, it's rather amazing how much she's blown up in less than a year.Here's another of her demos...
MP3: Ida Maria - Louie
If you're going to SxSW, I highly recommend you catch one of Ida's shows -- she's something else. There are two official SxSW shows and hopefully she'll play some parties as well. And if we're real lucky, she'll stop in NYC again on her way to or from, though I haven't seen anything yet.
oh stella. "oh my god" was one of my favorite tracks from '07. she's definitely set to take over in '08. this song would be perfect in a remake of 'streetcar named desire"
Posted by: McG | Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 10:13 PM