Twin Within was a collaboration between two immensely talented Toronto musicians. It was short-lived, and really only a side project for its two members, but the small amount of music the partnership produced was excellent. I’m tagging it here as “pop” and “indie” – but it’s much harder to characterize than that. Most of their songs – “Tunnel to the Reservoir” is a good example – sounds like the opening number from a musical about Tears for Fears, if it were written by Stephen Sondheim.

The Twin Within project produced just two short albums, Horizontal Lines and Live Off The Floor at Hamilton Place, which feature essentially the same set of songs but with different instrumentation. The two records are like fraternal twins; largely the same DNA, but distinct personalities.

I loved their track “YerYard ‘78” from the first listen. I was already formulating an eloquent and insightful post about it, and was excited that such an interesting track would get to be the focus of this blog’s 800th entry. Then I heard the more orchestral version and loved it even more. The rich instrumentation and the reverberating setting of the location in which it was recorded gave it a grandeur that felt appropriate for an 800th week celebration.

But then I realized there were elements from the original that I missed; the closeness of the vocals and the tighter percussion gave it an intimacy that also felt appropriate for an 800th week celebration.

In the end – and maybe prompted by the implications of the band’s name – I figured there was no reason not to enjoy a twin set of songs. So to celebrate our 800th week, today for the first time (okay, second time) we get to listen to TWO beautiful versions of one fantastic song.

What makes these beautiful songs:

1. The original does more to showcase singer Alex Samaras’ incredible range and control, from a chest-voice whisper to a victorious belt to a soaring falsetto.

2. The orchestral version does more to highlight the intricacy of the music, which uses a time signature and several chord changes that most pop songwriters would never consider. There’s even a section at 1:40 that features some startling chord changes that don’t appear in the original.

3. The lyrics in both imply that a significant moment is being remembered, but the imagery is just vague enough that we never quite know the specifics. Maybe it’s not about a specific memory, but rather a comment on jumbled memories themselves: “Feel your thoughts combine / With living skies and horizontal lines.”It almost sounds like two people staring into the sunset, pondering their memories independently, but in parallel.

Recommended listening activity:

Co-ordinating outfits with your best friend.

Buy the original here.

Buy the orchestral version here.

The post Week 800: “YerYard ’78” by Twin Within appeared first on Beautiful Song Of The Week.