Razor Love (Neil Young Cover)

Knot in the Vine

SOME WEATHER is a study in style and subtlety.  Featuring Mike Fiore’s reverb-drenched vocals and lyrics that examine such heady themes as life, death, birth, guilt, and love, the album’s ten tracks are a slow burn that recall a dream whose details are just out of your mind’s reach.  Echoes, chants, and even the understated addition of sleigh bells throughout evoke joy at one turn - as in album centerpiece 8

Moon's Row

SOME WEATHER is a study in style and subtlety.  Featuring Mike Fiore’s reverb-drenched vocals and lyrics that examine such heady themes as life, death, birth, guilt, and love, the album’s ten tracks are a slow burn that recall a dream whose details are just out of your mind’s reach.  Echoes, chants, and even the understated addition of sleigh bells throughout evoke joy at one turn - as in album centerpiece “Great Move North” and premonition at the next, as in the following track, “Make Nice.”

SOME WEATHER will be out August 2nd on Nice Music Group.

Harlem Roses

Great Move North

Make Nice

Under Newry

A Hundred on the Hill

Bride

Fire and Fume

Garrison

Ohh, I never did the things that I should do
I never dug my heels in on the climb
I, I need a place to hide, but soon
That rising moon will grow
And I'll become easy to find

So I say
Cry, cry
Your eyes could never lie
They tell me the you're searchin' for a spark
But when
That light goes out we'll start again
'Cause everyone's a stranger in the dark

Ohh-ee, I'm thinkin' of a better way to be
I'm thinkin' of a thousand ways to bend
'Cause oh, this can't quit
No one ever says that it is harder to give up
Than to pretend

So I say
Cry, cry
Your eyes could never lie
They tell me the you're searchin for a spark
But when
That light goes out we'll start again
'Cause everyone's a stranger in the dark

So I say
Cry, cry
Your eyes could never lie
They tell me the you're searchin for a spark
But when
That light goes out we'll start again
'Cause everyone's a stranger in the dark


Stranger in the Dark

Where Love Goes

Oh, Neighbor 
Am I good to know?
I found it hard to leave my temporary home
No corners
Yours is his is mine

Oh the bridge to heaven
Is the hardest one to climb
But that sweet feeling
When you don't have to try anymore

A long distance
Lay before my eyes
I was invited
Why do you look so suprised?
And I heard you when you asked me "where did you go"
Well, I was in your company
Yeah, that's me now

Oh the bridge to heaven
Is the hardest one to climb
But that sweet feeling
When you don't have to try anymore
.
.
.

Recorded at Castle Wingaersheek, 10/18
Written & Performed by Mike Fiore
Produced & Mixed by Mike Fiore
Mastered by Scott Craggs at Old Colony Mastering

Bridge to Heaven

That's the Way the World Goes Round (JOHN PRINE)

Yama Ve

Listening to “Bad Star,” the fifth song on the new Faces on Film album, you’ll be tempted to avert your eyes, maybe feel a little guilty: Should I be hearing this? It’s so private, so deeply felt, that it imparts the sensation of eavesdropping on someone’s conversation on the train. You shouldn’t lean in for more, but you do. You can’t help it.
 
“Bad Star” sounds like one side of an intense conversation between Mike Fiore, the mastermind behind the Boston-based band, and presumably a loved one, perhaps a romantic interest.
 
You said I wasn’t looking too well
That night I wasn’t myself
Oh, I was just saying my lines
I was just part of the shine
 
That bare-bones intimacy and clarity are at the heart of “Elite Lines,” which Fiore will self-release on March 25. It’s Faces on Film’s third album since debuting in 2008 and marks a major leap forward for Fiore as songwriter unafraid to let the listener in.
 
“I’m hoping that maybe some of the imagery is more direct, that the characters are easier to identify,” Fiore says. “And I think I’m doing a better job as a writer that when I say ‘me’ in a song, I’m actually talking about myself.”
 
His first two albums (2008’s “The Troubles” and 2011’s “Some Weather”) were heard in a haze. Watercolor vocals soaked in reverb told stories shrouded in mystery but full of emotion. You couldn’t always figure out what he meant, but his conviction and mystique drew you in. Mood often trumped hard meaning, and Fiore liked it that way.
 
“Elite Lines,” which Fiore recorded both at home and at Q Division Studios in Somerville, Mass., with engineer-producer Rafi Sofer, lifts the veil a bit, giving you a clearer idea of where Fiore is coming from. Nothing is too obvious, of course, nor is it too opaque, either. 
 
Asked about touchstones for this new record, he sends an email with links to 10 songs that he kept in heavy rotation while making it. They’re all over the map, from Harry Nilsson’s majestic version of “Many Rivers to Cross” to the rumbling bass and R&B beat of Frank Ocean’s “Swim Good” to the cosmic country of Neil Young’s “I Believe in You.”
 
“Elite Lines” casts a similarly wide net, revealing new layers and shades of Fiore. A bluesy swagger underpins the stomp and sway of “Rake the Dust,” while “Heartspeed” pulses with an R&B sensuality that belies the danger lurking beneath those thick bass lines.
 
If it weren’t anchored by those clanging drums, “Daytime Nowhere” would likely drift into the cosmos to mingle alongside spectral songs by Cocteau Twins or Beach House. Then there’s “Percy,” which opens the album on a primal note: Fiore’s voice is lithe and nearly vaporous as it hovers over the tribal percussion and a psychedelic interlude that probably sounds even better after a hit of acid.
 
The album takes its name from a wordless but wondrous guitar piece that lasts just over a minute but lingers with its acoustic finger-picking that’s, somehow, both barbed and beautiful.
 
The song came to Fiore in a dream, prompting him to get out of bed and record it in the middle of the night on his phone before reshaping it later in the studio. That moment neatly sums up what Fiore was trying to accomplish on “Elite Lines.”
 
“When that happens, when you’ve got something good,” he says, “you gotta hold up your end of the bargain and go wake up and at least capture it."

Faces on Film

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