Free and legal MP3 from Land of Talk (powerful return of Fingertips fave)

"May You Never" - Land of Talk
     Another song with an introduction that's sparser and slower than the song it introduces, "May You Never" starts with spacey/chimey sounds, a semi-pentatonic piano riff, and some ultra echoey vocals from smudgy-voiced Lizzie Powell over a doleful kettle drum. It sounds all indie-mystical, but at 0:51 the beat kicks in, and the guitar grabs the piano's motif so effectively that you see you've been set up all along. The song is sharp and powerful, and driven by Powell's mysterious way with a melodic refrain.
     This is Land of Talk's third time on Fingertips, and it is apparently impossible for me to talk about them without mentioning Powell's crazy-delicious guitar playing, so here I am again, telling you not only to tune in for the short but sizzling solo (at 2:00) but to keep your ears on what she's up to in and around the rest of the song, including how she starts the coda with a literal bang (3:30) and ends it (if you listen carefully) with an echo of the song's very first notes.
     "May You Never" will be one of four tracks on the band's forthcoming Fun and Laughter EP, slated to arrive next month via Saddle Creek. The band is meager with bio info, so I'm not sure how many people are playing with Powell at this point; the bigger news in any case is that she appears to be fully recovered from vocal cord surgery in January that sidelined her just when the band was geared up to promote their last CD. MP3 courtesy of Saddle Creek.