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DOWNLOAD: Agnes Obel – Brother Sparrow

Posted by Michael Miller

Tags: Folk, SingerSongwriter

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(Photo: Sofie Amalie Klougart)

“Brother Sparrow,” an ethereal folk song by Agnes Obel, is mostly just the whispering voice of the Danish singer with spare accompaniment by guitar and piano (and, briefly, hushed drums that sound more like footsteps at the songs’ end). Obel, who is quite a sensation in Europe, has a unique gift for melody and tone. Her voice is, at once, powerful and restrained, the perfect way to deliver the stark imagery of lyrics, deeply sad without explicitly mentioning sadness: “Voices in the street,” she sings, “Footsteps the concrete, guess I hear just every sound,” each word expressing some kind of incomprehensible loneliness.

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