10.27.2011

Carter Tanton :: "Fake Pretend" [feat. Marissa Nadler]

Carter Tanton's latest single, "Fake Pretend" is a spiraling web of echoes and glittering pop, showcasing the sublime vocals of Marissa Nadler. The warm tones of Tanton's strange fusion of singer-songwriter pop and electronic overtones take the sound out of the bedroom to the corner and then back again. On "Fake Pretend", Tanton resists classical structures of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-chorus, opening with Nadler operating like some kind of half-drowned muse, before Tanton himself steps in amidst cascading guitars and sings the only hook, "I'm nobody's fool." Seemingly interested in the fragile balance between intricacies and the ways in which delicate things fall apart, Tanton lets his composition collapse before reconstituting it behind even warmer guitars and a final movement featuring the title lyric. Nadler's vocal hides at the top of the mix, like some half-forgotten and entirely beautiful thing. The final act, washing synthesizers seize the arrangement and "Fake Pretend" fades out as winsome as it came.

Listen :: Carter Tanton - "Fake Pretend" [Feat. Marissa Nadler]

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