'cause all love's a kind of losing... that's good - achingly beautiful song

Robley's orchestral indie-pop and fractured folk music has been praised by the likes of NPR, the LA Times, Performer Magazine, and the Boston Globe — and has drawn comparisons to John Lennon, Elliott Smith, John Vanderslice, Grandaddy, XTC, and Paul McCartney. This playlist contains selections from his first four solo albums, as well as his band THE SORT OFs. 

Chris Robley's Indie-Pop Playlist

http://www.vocalchords.ie

As part of Vocal Chords Iarla Ó Lionáird visited the home of world renowned singer Peter Gabriel to talk to him about the voice and what singing means in his life. They share a wide ranging discussion about the voice and singing. He talks about his journey as a singer and what performance, song and singing means to him and Gabriel shares his favourite music, from the Beatles’ ‘Love me do’ and songs of the “Pakistani Pavarotti”, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to his key musical influences including Otis Redding and Nina Simone. The Vocal Chords Special – In Conversation with Peter Gabriel broadcast on RTÉ lyric fm, on the 26th of December 2014, as a special and marked the beginning of the Vocal Chords journey.



Vocal Chords - In Conversation with Peter Gabriel

Demos

Mexicali Whites

Night Never Fell

Chronic Todd

Here's a bit of holiday nonsense.  You can probably guess the inspiration for this masterpiece.

Sweet Silver and Gold Nose

Love triangles and basic arithmetic meet New Wave rhythms and indie-rock riffs on this track, with Chris Robley getting an energetic assist from backing band The Fear of Heights:

Daniel Adlaf - keyboard and flugelhorn
Arthur Parker - bass
Chris Robley - guitar and vocals
John Stewart - drums

Engineered by Jeff Stuart Saltzman at Secret Society (Portland, Oregon).

Mixed by Jeff Stuart Saltzman at Mysterious Beard (Portland, Oregon).

Mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph Mastering (Portland, Oregon).

1+1+1=3

Chris Robley - 1+1+1=3

A rhythmic loops acts as a pedal tone as bass, and drone move through a simple chord progression.  A simple melody and brief stuttering chaos take turns are primacy.

The Unsound Mind

The 2nd single from Robley's upcoming EP is a drunken waltz, with a little mud caked on the boots and pant cuffs. Some things can't come back. Especially things that never were. Oh well. So long.

Engineered by Jeff Stuart Saltzman at Secret Society and Mysterious Beard in Portland, Oregon. 

Chris Robley - vocals, guitars
Arthur Parker - bass, piano
Daniel Adlaf - organ
John Stewart - drums

-------------------
Our love got stretched so thin and wide
that it almost wasn't there, 
but some things are best left untried. 
If there's choice then there's choosing;
and either way we're lost
'cause all love's a kind of losing...

Irretrievable beauty,
remember me
how I was when you knew me at first —
how I used to be
so honest, young, and free.

Across that heartbroken divide,
you stand over there
and I'll watch you waving goodbye
to what you won't allow.
I'd let you take it all
if only to feel better now.

Irretrievable beauty,
remember me
how I was when you knew me at first —
how I used to be
so honest, young, and free.

So thank you for shaking me loose,
and I'm happy I could help you.
It's better to feel useful than used.
And thanks too for the laughs
and the secret little thrills
that nearly tore us both in half.

Irretrievable beauty,
remember me
how I was when you knew me at first —
how I used to be
so honest, young, and free.
So honest, young, and free.
How I used to be.

Irretrievable Beauty

Chris Robley - Irretrievable Beauty

I know it's too late for Thanksgiving 2017, but the thing is I wrote it on thanksgiving and cranked it out as quickly as I could thereafter.  So, here, on the first day of December, I present you with my third Thanksgiving holiday song.  Incidentally my first thanksgiving song, which I never released, was remixed and updated and included as the B Section of this track.  

Lyrics:

Breaking bread,
Your face gets red,
From Drinking all the wine

Talk politics
While burning sticks,
Everyone's feeling fine

It's Thanksgiving!!
It's Thanksgiving!!

Grandpa's drunk
Spitting like a skunk
While he's passing you the mash

You grab your cuz
To join the buzz
And sneak off to smoke some hash

It's Thanksgiving!!
It's Thanksgiving!!

Whoa
It's Thanksgiving

The turkey's ate
And everything is great
And you think you might even score

The party's loud
You love this crowd
Take a minute; say what you're thankful for:

Healthy Children, Employment, Sick Beats, Hot Showers, Dry Towels, Cold Beers, Vocoders, Rational Fears

We give thanks for everything
We give thanks for food with wings

Day turns to night
There ain't been a fight
And playin' football was lots of fun

As they turn to rovers
Have some leftovers
Wrapped up inside a buttered bun

It's Thanksgiving
It's Thanksgiving

Whoa
It's Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving (NEW ORIGINAL HOLIDAY CLASSIC)

"The science is way off," says Maine-based songwriter Chris Robley of his new single 'Collapsing Star,' musing on how pop music is rife with mixed metaphors and factual inaccuracies. ""In this song a giant sun steadily dims and shrinks; I think stars actually get big and bright before they finally collapse, but I chose sentiment over science." 

Robley, whose previous album saw him "at the top of his game" (KCRW), has been releasing a series of singles over the past year, the latest of which is a song about the promise of devotion in the face of aging. It’s a Bowie by-way-of Death Cab sprawl, both epic and ultimately tender, the music patiently shrinking under its own slow gravity.

Recorded at Secret Society and Mysyerious Beard Studios in Portland, Oregon.

Engineered and mixed by Jeff Stuart Saltzman.

Mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph.

Performed by: Arthur Parker (synth bass), Daniel Adlaf (keys and synth), John Stewart (drums), and Chris Robley (voice, guitars, glockenspiel).

Chris Robley - "Collapsing Star"

Galumph

The new synth-rock single from Chris Robley recalls Secret Machines, Muse, Radiohead, and Bjork, with its obsessive, buzzing bass, soaring vocals, and squalor of guitar.

Engineered by Jeff Stuart Saltzman at Secret Society in Portland, Oregon.
Mixed by Jeff Stuart Saltzman at Mysterious Beard in Portland, Oregon.
Mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph in Portland, Oregon. 

Performed by:

Arthur Parker - Keyboards
Daniel Adlaf - Synth Bass
John Stewart - Drums and Percussion
Chris Robley - Vocals, guitars, and keyboards

Lyrics:

I gotta let you go (4x)
Oh, how could you shut me out right now
when I couldn't need you more
and how haven't you realized by now
the one you've been waiting for is here

But I wanna be the only one (3x)
you love

Let You Go

Chris Robley - "Let You Go" (radio edit)

01 - Pieces

A bare-bones, bedroom folk version of Robyn's dance hit "Call Your Girlfriend." Let's get LONELY!

I've always loved this song by Robyn, and her production is brilliant. But it's a great song even without the big beat, bells, and whistles.

So I recorded my own take on it — stripped to the essentials. For me, that's acoustic guitar and voice. 

Recorded all old-fashioned to a Tascam 388 tape machine that lives and loves in Lewiston, Maine. 

Mixed by Peter Rodocker at Yellow Room Recording Studio in Portland, Oregon.

In between is a whole continent. Imagine that!

Chris Robley - "Call Your Girlfriend" (indie-folk Robyn cover)

One morning shortly after my father passed away I was going through old photographs with my mom. At some point, the lamplight turned on thanks to an automatic timer. I'm not sure which of them programmed it that way, but I liked to imagine it was my dad. 

The idea stuck with me that the things we set in motion will outlast us. Also, that almost anything could be funny from a distance. Comedians get to joke about all kinds of tragedies once enough time's gone by. 

So that became the beginnings of this song: "Louise Louise Louise Louise" — recorded on my trusty Tascam 388 reel-to-reel tape machine in Lewiston, Maine. 

Mixed by Peter Rodocker at Yellow Room in Portland, Oregon. 

In between is a whole continent. Imagine that!

Chris Robley - "Louise, Louise, Louise, Louise"

Chris Robley is a poet, songwriter, and producer whose lush, orchestral indie-pop has been praised by NPR, the LA Times, the Boston Globe, and others. Skyscraper Magazine said he is “one of the best short-story musicians to come along in quite some time.”

Robley’s poetry has been published or is forthcoming in POETRY Magazine, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Northwest, Beloit Poetry Journal, RHINO, Magma Poetry, and more. He is the winner of Boulevard’s 2013 Poetry Prize for Emerging Writers and a 2014 recipient of the Maine Literary Award for poetry.

Chris Robley - Irretrievable Beauty

Chris Robley Music

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