Teitur at the Purcell Room,Friday 26th March

Thank the Lord for Twitter.If it hadn't been for Twitter,I'd (probably) never have found out about Teitur's show at the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre last night.Having seen him in Esbjerg,Denmark (a 3 and a half hour train trip from where I lived in Germany) just over a year ago,and neglecting to write about it,I couldn't pass up the chance to go and see him again at a venue I'm familiar with,half an hour away from where I live now.

This show was quite different to the one at Tobakken in Esbjerg.There,Teitur was accompanied by a band,whereas this time,he was all alone with his piano and guitar,apart from in a select few songs where he was joined by a string quartet).The first song was All My Mistakes from the second album Stay Under the Stars,which set the mood for the rest of the evening- lovely and chilled out.

The next few songs were from the forthcoming (as yet untitled) album,which will be released around September.Thanks to Twitter again,I already knew the lyrics to When I Had It All,and a few weeks ago on Sounds of Europe,I said I hoped he'd "cobble a tune together in time for the show".It was of course,much more than cobbled together,it was wonderful,though how it will sound on the CD is another matter.If this album is anything like The Singer,and there are lots of different instruments and sounds going on,it will sound completely different to the simple but effective piano-only version.To be honest though,Teitur's music for me has always (mostly) been all about the lyrics."It's hard to let go of what you thought you wanted,it's harder to hold on to dreams that are haunted" is my particular favourite line in that song.

Fly on the Wall,Feel Good,Waverly Place and Freight Train are also songs from the new album,my favourite being Freight Train.Teitur said that it always reminds him of his father,and it's all about taking chances and making the most of life.On a personal level,and at this stage of my own life,the lyrics felt very poignant,and I got...slightly emotional :) The fact that Freight Train was followed by an encore of I Was Just Thinking made it all the more emotional.I'm a single person,and have been for longer than I care to remember,so the words don't have any personal resonance for me anymore.But still,it's a special song for me,partly because it's the first Teitur song I heard,nearly 7 years ago.

There were lots of other songs from The Singer,including of course the title track,which is one of my favourites,not least because of the line "they just want to understand me,and I sing to be loved" and the end note,which gets me every time.This version was probably quite close to the one he played in Esbjerg,but wasn't as dramatic as my favourite version,this one from Danish TV show,the 11th hour.

Don't Let Me Fall in Love With You,We Still Drink the Same Water and Catherine the Waitress are other highlights from The Singer,and though I enjoyed them,they're definitely better when all the other instruments are involved.And arguably in the case of Water,when Olafur Arnalds and Ane Brun are involved :)

Great Balls of Fire was played quite early on,which I like much more than the original version.Played at a slower tempo,in a minor key,with a string quartet changes the feel of the song altogether.It's eerie,almost sinister,which are not feelings that usually come up in your average song...The string quartet were great in every song they played,and in particular made Josephine an unexpected highlight of the show,as it's never been a favourite of mine.

What has always been a favourite of mine however,is Louis Louis,so I was very happy when Teitur played it :)

The final song of the night was One and Only.A nice,mellow end to a nice,mellow evening,even though I could have stayed listened to him all night.

Though this show didn't quite have the magic of the one in Esbjerg two Octobers ago,Teitur is (to quote his own song Legendary Afterparty) "still my hero,if I ever had one."

You must learn to love the rain

Here's the video to Teitur's latest single The Girl I Don't Know.Was a bit unexpected for me- it's not quite the image that forms in my mind when I listen to the song...



Teitur is on tour in the UK at the minute,so go and see him if you can.You won't regret it :)

Cross my heart and hope to die,I'm not drunk and I'm not high

It's always exciting hearing songs in places you least expect they'll be played.So today in H&M at the Forum des Halles,I was very pleasantly surprised to hear this...



Teitur being played in a clothes shop in Paris? Madness.I heard Catherine the Waitress on Radio 4 a while ago too.Well,on the World Service after 3am.They have this music show on there and they did a (pretty unremarkable) interview with Teitur and he did a lovely lovely version of Andvekur,from the equally lovely Faroese album Káta Hornið.

The video I posted there was from a gig in Slagelse in Denmark,a few days after I saw him in Esbjerg.I remember him playing Catherine the Waitress in Esbjerg,because it was during that that I had an...interesting shall we say,chat with his support act.

Anyway.A few years ago,Teitur was on tour with KT Tunstall.In the UK too which,of course,I somehow missed.But apparantly a few weeks ago they were here in Paris (why don't I ever know about these things?!) recording for the France 2 programme Taratata.Their duet of Nothing Compares To You was aired last Friday on said channel France 2.AND I MISSED IT!But never mind,there's always youtube.

Top 50- 6: I sing to be loved

Teitur- The Singer

Teitur is responsible for one of the coolest evenings I've had here.Well,OK,it was in Denmark actually.In that case,definitely the coolest time I've had in Denmark :) Although it seems like absolutely ages ago now,there are still certain bits that I remember really clearly.Umbrellas in the Rain,because it seemed like such an odd choice of song to perform,the two women who stole my little ledge that I was sitting on and subsequently seemed to feel sorry for me and gave it back,having a chat with Teitur's support act Dawn Kinnard in between Hitchhiker and Catherine the Waitress,having a little cry at I Was Just Thinking,and this song,because it was probably the one I wanted to hear the most,after seeing the video I've posted here.The video is from a Danish TV show called den. 11 time,and I think is one of the best live performances of anything ever.He didn't disappoint at Tobakken either.I think why I love The Singer is because it's so honest,and the music (in the live piano versions at least) is simple yet quite dramatic.(On the album there's a marimba type thing going on,which doesn't quite have the same effect).And listening to the lyrics,it seems I'm a stereotypical Teitur fan :) I still think he's the best singer-songwriter around at the minute,and as he mentions in this song "I sing about my loneliness and in return they thank me"- as mushy as it may sound,his music has been a big help in the last few months (there's not much I can relate to more than his first album Poetry and Aeroplanes),and yes,I do thank him for it.

Top 50- 40: Everything you do seems to be in slow motion

Teitur- Start Wasting My Time

The Singer is an...interesting album.I don't really know what else to say about it.The songs don't move me like they do on Poetry and Aeroplanes,and there aren't as many easy-listening radio friendly songs on it as there are on Stay Under the Stars.And there doesn't seem to be a theme running throughout the album like on the previous two.So it stands out,but is still very good indeed.Lyrically brilliant as always,songs range from the sinister You Should Have Seen Us to the insanely upbeat Catherine the Waitress.And somewhere in the middle is Start Wasting My Time.I'm not sure why it's become one of my favourites from The Singer,but I do love the chorus (somehow it fits the theme of laziness really well I think) and the build up to it,the mad piano bit at the end,and the backing singers.It seems so long ago that I saw Teitur in Denmark that I can't remember if he did this song or not,but either way,I love the video in the link of him performing it in Berlin.

I'm as harmless as a chicken in a freezer

Don't let it be said that Teitur is all about wonderful introspective songs about long-distance relationships and loneliness...



I love him!

There's less crap songs than there used to be

So excited,I'm off to Denmark on Friday morning to go and see this man...



It's costing a small fortune,despite only being 2 hours away,but I missed him in London in August,because I thought coming here early would be a good idea.I've seen videos of this tour from various different places,and it looks pretty damn good.Now if only I could work out how to get to Esbjerg...

Don't stop dreaming coz it never gets better than this

Ugh,it seems the rumours were true and Lene Alexandra is going to be in Norway's Melodi Grand Prix in the Bodø semi final.Great.
Anyway,thought I'd just mention 2 songs that I'm really liking at the minute,by 2 of my favourite Scandinavians :)
The first one is Live For Today by the ever fabulous Kjartan Salvesen,it's from his latest album Then Silence,which seems really really good.Not sure if it's available on itunes,because every time I try and access the store bit,my computer gets stuck.If not though,it's probably on one of those nice Scandinavian music websites like cdon or something.One that only accepts the sort of credit cards that I don't have.Anyway,here's the song.It's good,very happy,reminds me of some sort of 90s Britpop or something.


I finally got Teitur's second album Stay Under The Stars on Christmas Eve I think it was.Although I haven't had a chance to listen to it properly like I did with Poetry and Aeroplanes,this is my favourite song from it.It's called Hitchhiker,and it seems he released it as a single (something with escaped my notice at the time somehow),because there's a video to it,which I also really like.It fits the song very well,not just because she's a hitchhiker,but also because it's just kind of...dark I guess.It's good.

Until the sun comes up you can hold my hand

Interesting Fact of the Day: The Faroese name for the Faroe Islands is Føroyar,which means 'Sheep Islands'.Oh the wonders of Wikipedia.The Faroe Islands however,are also home to one of the best singer/songwriters around.I discovered Teitur Lassen about 4 years ago,about the time of his first album,Poetry and Aeroplanes.But as seems to be the case quite often,I sort of forgot about him until quite recently.
Anyway,the first song of his that I ever heard,and I think the song he's most well known for,is called I Was Just Thinking,and it's about long distance relationships.Like most of his music,it's simple,yet very beautiful and just on the right side of melancholy.You can see the video here.
Sleeping With The Lights On is also from Poetry and Aeroplanes,and it's also lovely.And quite catchy too.You can see it here
The second album Stay Under The Stars came along a whole 3 years after Poetry and Aeroplanes,I haven't heard so many of the songs from it,but I came across this one today,it's called Louis Louis,it's a bit more upbeat than the two I've just mentioned,and I could see it being quite popular in Britain actually.There's some other songs from this album on Teitur's MySpace page.

As well as releasing the 2 English language albums in America (and Canada as well I think),Teitur has also done a Faroese one,which was apparantly released this year in the Faroe Islands and Iceland.However,you can indeed buy it on CDWow which I may just have to do some time soon.It's called Káta Hornið (no idea what that means unfortunately),and this is what appears to be the first single from it,called Ongir Pengar (might mean something to do with money if Faroese is anything like Norwegian.Then again,I could be very very wrong).It's pretty different to the other songs I've posted on here,but it's very cool.The video's cool too,looks a bit like a Mew video I think.