Charlotte Cornfield on Panoramic & True – S/T

On her sixth album, Charlotte Cornfield offers a vulnerability that’s been hinted at in her work, but has only grown since the birth of her daughter. The record brushes against the edges of pop, folk, and country. It’s a record about growth, about asking for help, about love and letting oneself be loved. The record features not only some of Charlotte’s best, and most cutting creations, but banner drop-ins from Feist, Buck Meek, Christian Lee Hutson and Maia Friedman. Naturally, it’s always nice to see what else might be driving the forces behind and album, and I asked Cornfield to dig into her own collection for a favorite that’s been lost beneath the public’s gaze. She goes deep on Panoramic & True’s debut from 2010.

“A friend played me two songs off this record in early 2010 (“Ha Ha” and “Something I Can Feel),”and they completely knocked my socks off,” recalls Cornfield. I remember lying on my bed in Montreal listening to John Lennox sing, “Bitter warm heart wrapped in paper,” over frazzled chaos of strings and guitars, and just feeling this knot in my chest like you do when you’re falling in love. It sounded like the whole thing was about to fall apart, and I loved that about it. At the time I had this old Lenovo laptop and a pair of vintage speakers and I listened to those tracks on myspace over and over in my Mile End room.”

 
“I was so obsessed with the album that I got a friend to introduce me to John (who was then based in Chicago though he’s Canadian originally) and I offered to play drums with him if he was ever going to be in Montreal. That connection led to a couple of gigs together and a recording session at my friend Zac Decamp’s studio that has still never seen the light of day, though I revisit the unmixed recordings often. I remember John driving me from Montreal to Toronto in his old Mercedes (weird car for a 29-year old to have) and he just seemed wise beyond his years to 21-year-old me at the time. We never got close but I have always remained a fan.”
 
“But back to the S/T: This album soundtracked my life for a couple of years there and I had a big moment with each of the songs, from the Sloan-meets-Beatles energy of “California” to the devastating piano ballad “Don’t Take Your Love to Town” to the beautiful descriptive love song “My Fair Lady.” Maybe it was time and place but these tunes hit so hard for me. And revisiting them 15 years later they still do. But of all of them, “Something That I Can Feel” is the one that steals my heart. Two minutes and twenty-seven seconds of beauty.”

Ding Dong  /the storm is gone / the wind drops / the sea is calm / The fishers’ haul / happiness / I gave up all that I had and still I get/ the sad side of the deal/Give me something that I can feel.

 
“Is a wanderer’s lament and it’s perfect. I think there was a vision behind these arrangements, with the string quartet and everything, but I would have also been happy to hear them solo in any form. It’s the words, the voice, the delivery. This record was self-released and didn’t reach many ears, and at some point John stopped performing and starting doing poetry full time. I recently stumbled on a poem of his via the poetry foundation. He’s still got it!

I always ask if the record has had an impact on an artist’s own works, and Cornfield confirms, ”I think there is a freeness to the way these words roll off the tongue, and some abstract imagery that came into my life at the right time as a writer. I just feel like the vividness really got me, and it was a tool that I started using regularly after that.”

If you, like many, missed out on Panoramic & True when it first found it’s way out, the record is streaming and still in print on LP. Well worth looking into and getting familiar with Lennox’ work on tape of paper. As for Cornfield, her new record, Hurts Like Hell, is out at the end of the month, March 27th from Merge. Check out the singles out now and get primed for the full weight of the album when it arrives.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.