I must admit that I was a wee bit confused by the packaging of this single. First of all, I assumed (and we all know that old adage) that the title of the song was "Dancer vs. Politician", produced by another singer-songwriter called Justin Fairborn. What confused me even more was the fact that the single cover features an image of a blond girl, looking at something off-screen. So what's going on? Well, it turns out that Dancer vs. Politician is actually Sanni Baumgaertner, a Berlin native who ended up in Athens, Georgia, in the late nineties. And it also turns out that "Justin Fairborn" is Sanni's debut single, with her first album due for release some time in October. So having got over this admittedly silly (and ever so slightly pointless) diversion, we come to the crux of the matter: what's the music like?
"Justin Fairborn" is a hazy winsome track, stuck half-way between rose-tinted recollection and melancholic regret. Baumgaertner's vocals are in that dreamy vein so popular with psychedelic shoegazers. Whispery, breathy but very pretty. The arrival of someone called Justin Fairborn, a man who came into her life and would never leave it. And in a pleasingly symmetrical turn, apparently he wrote her a song once too. Quid pro quo, you might say.
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Musically, the song is nothing innovative; starting off with a simple jangly guitar melody, augmented by a delicate tinkling glockenspiel, it pretty soon is bolstered by swooning, sweeping strings. Slightly twee hand claps also get their turn, whilst an orchestral flourish of horns is also plopped in towards the end. It's soothing chamber-pop par excellence, in the vein of Belle & Sebastian, sweetly delivered and tightly produced. Listenable and pleasant on the ears without ever being anything more, "Justin Fairborn" is the sort of indie-pop that could more than likely be coming to a coffee-shop soundtrack near you...
www.myspace.com/dancerversuspolitician
www.monomusic.com/page2.htm
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