"The Sweet Bitters self-titled debut album is a delight!
With mesmerizing harmony, unique lyrics, and music that
manages to incorporate a folk-pop jangle without dumbing-
down the decidedly cerebral bent to the compositions, it has
been a pleasure airing multiple tracks to share with my listeners.
Sharon Goldman and Nina Schmir are powerful talents."
--Lilli Kuzma, host of Folk Festival on WDCB Public Radio in Chicagoland
"After listening to Sweet Bitters...two thoughts come to mind -- great songwriting and amazing harmonies."
We’ve seen Sweet Bitters live three times now (including last night). The first time we saw them was just over a year ago at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn. Seven months later we saw them perform at Googie’s. As noted in that post, the main point of the Googie’s show was to raise money to produce a new CD.
I’m very happy to report that they did indeed produce a new CD, and a wonderful one at that! Last night was the official CD Release Party / show, even though the CD itself has been available for at least two months (we got our copy on March 30th, 2009). In the previous post I said that it would be a 13-song CD. It turned out to be a 12 song CD. I’ll get to the missing song toward the end of this post.
REVIEW OF SWEET BITTERS 4-SONG DEMO ACOUSTIC EP, MARCH 2008:
The astonishingly good, catchy, wickedly smart debut from two of New York’s most unique songwriting talents. When she’s at the top of her game, Sharon Goldman is one of the world’s foremost pop tunesmiths, alongside Aimee Mann and Elvis Costello. Her full-length debut (released under her former name Sharon Edry) is one of the best artsy pop albums ever made, a feast of luscious guitar and keyboard textures. Nina Schmir first made a mark in the New York scene as one of the superb harmony singers in Aimee Van Dyne’s band. Since that group broke up, she’s been plying her solo work, acoustic songs imbued equally with devious wit and haunting intensity. She’s also a tremendously good singer (as one would imagine from someone who worked closely with Van Dyne), with a velvety high soprano rich with subtlety and emotion. Goldman is just as subtle, with a slightly lower register and a casual, completely unaffected, almost conversational style. The duo’s layers of harmonies on this album are often wrenchingly beautiful. Each songwriter contributes two songs to this effort.
The first, Clocks Fall Back is a total 60s throwback, an instant classic with its lush bed of chiming acoustic guitars and soaring harmonies, an unforgettable melody that lingers like Hazy Shade of Winter or California Dreaming. Goldman’s evocative lyrics paint a vivid yet characteristically nuanced, somewhat melancholy picture of twilight New York, 2008.
Falling Into Place, another Sharon Goldman number is perhaps the Sweet Bitters’ Perfect Day, the song’s narrator breezing along Seventh Avenue (in Brooklyn, naturally) hoping to see her main squeeze: “only gravity keeps me from flying,” she smiles. It’s another indelible New York (or make that Brooklyn!) moment.
Nina Schmir’s Last Time This Way bounces along on a classic piano pop melody, with tasteful strings in places. ““Don’t say silly things that make your ears ring,” she cautions. The album’s final track is the somewhat jazz-inflected, pensive, intriguingly titled Monterey SPBG. The Monterey in the song is actually a town in the Berkshires (although it’s not named here); SPBG stands for Suckling Pigs and Baby Goats, which was a silly working title Schmir came up with in characteristic fashion while playing the song for a friend in a park in Chinatown. A truck passed by, the phrase emblazoned on its side, and suddenly the tune had a name. For a little while, at least.
"They have a song called "Falling Into Place" that’s about a late afternoon walk up Seventh Avenue in the winter. It’s real pretty. One of the few songs I know about Seventh Avenue."
--Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn
Sharon plays guitar (very well) and sings (beautifully). She also writes wonderful songs. Nina plays guitar (very well), sings (beautifully) and plays keyboards (extremely well). She also writes wonderful songs.