Staff pick of the week...
This week...Michael picks it!

Artist: Marjorie Fair Title: Self Help Serenade Format: CD Price: Unavailable at the moment because it is being issued domestically in the next few months... stay tuned!!	Tracks on this CD:
	Don't Believe
	Halfway House
	Stare
	How Can You Laugh
	Waves
	Please Don't
	Cracks In The Wall
	Stand In The World
	Hold On To You
	Silver Gun
	My Sun Is Setting Over Her Magic

In early 2004 a friend who works for EMI in the U.S. sent me a promo CD in a full color cardboard sleeve listing a 2003 copyright date. The band name and cover suggested something I might like and I was surprised that the album had somehow slipped through the cracks. I played it, and liked it a bit, but it was somehow forgotten in the wake of the “newer releases” receiving airplay at Parasol. About six weeks ago one of my colleagues played a new import release that sounded great and somehow familiar. When I went to the CD player I was surprised to meet once again Marjorie Fair’s “Self Help Serenade.” Surprised because it sounded so much better on this fresh listen (maybe free CDs in cardboard sleeves don’t receive the attention they deserve!) and because the artwork listed a 2004 release date. I’ve read comparisons to the Thrills and other purveyors of laid-back California dreaming, but I hear something a bit more “English” (Radiohead, Starsailor, Keane) in the songs of Los Angelino Evan Slamka. Jon Brion receives credit for “Eleventh Hour Musical and Spiritual Insight” (inserting mellotron and some sneaky Beatlesisms?) and guests also include Joey Waronker and classic session men Jim Keltner and Billy Preston. The album has apparently been languishing without release since 2002 and coming from a major label I take that as a GOOD sign. I’m not sure if this will ever be released in the U.S. but fans of high fidelity orchestrated pop arrangements would do well to hear what we’ve all been missing.