Recollection Volume 31 – Hold it Together

Recollection is a project to review my record collection. I will listen to an album I own and review it. The album will be chosen randomly by computron. Today computron chooses…

Album: Hold It Together
Artist: $100
Released: 2007
Format(s) I own it on: CD

Once upon a time, my friend Daniel and I went to see Rick White performing in a church in downtown Toronto. His opening act was a duo known as $1001 I sat in awe as Simone Schmidt sang beautiful songs to this church crowd. Ian Russell provided backing vocals and and guitar. Apparently by that time they had a pedal steel player, but he was unable to perform at that show. White would later get them signed to Blue Fog Records and produce their first record. In the meantime they had CD-Rs for sale called Hold It Together.

The five song EP Hold It Together lived up to the potential of that first live show. Schmidt is a storyteller. Her songs might be personal, but there’s always a layer of distance between the singer and the song. Her songs could be perfect. They weren’t always perfect, but when it happened, it really happened. Hold It Together is the weakest of the band’s output, but it really shows the potential of what they would become.

Highlights

I never cum, but it don’t matter
I could be any other girl
My head planted on that pillow
My eyes fixed up above
Is this what they meant when they sang “Careless Love”

“Careless Love” would make it onto their first album. It’s a song about a woman in an unhappy relationship. It’s the tale of a woman leaving. She needs to find the happiness that the man she was sleeping with cannot provide. It’s an amazing song, one of my all time favourites. I don’t say that liberally.

Not quite as perfect, but still a brilliant song is “Nine Hundred Miles.” It’s a train song that shows off Russell’s guitar playing, guitar playing which seemed to get buried as the band grew.

Lowlights

I don’t think it’s really a lowlight, but I feel I need to address this. “San Andreas Fault” is “Sin City” by The Flying Burrito Brothers. I think it’s intentional, but it’s a bit weird.

“Marbridar” is the only song other than “Careless Love” that made its way to the bands full length debut. I never understood why. It’s probably my least favourite song on the EP.