Pitchfork

"Lushly orchestrated" is how the press materials describe the sound of Parenthetical Girls' upcoming Entanglements, their first record for Tomlab. And this song from the album certainly bears that out, filled with piano, horns, woodwinds, clattering production, and strings. Despite all the instrumentation, it still manages some space, and it sounds in its way like a slightly askew version of a 1960s pop tune, perhaps something by Burt Bacharach ("Close to You" is referenced here) with a bit of Scott Walker in there. Speaking of the 60s, the dedicatee Ellie Greenwich and her husband Jeff Barry loomed large in the decade as a Brill Building songwriting team (they wrote "Be My Baby", "Then He Kissed Me", "Da Doo Ron Ron", I mean, come on), though I can't say after a couple of listens how she fits exactly.

MP3:> Parenthetical Girls: "A Song for Ellie Greenwich"
[from Entanglements; due 09/09/08 on Tomlab]