Dancer Vs. Politician
A City Half-Lost

[Self-Released; 2008]

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Styles: indie rock
Other: Velvet Underground, Nico, Portishead, Azure Ray
Links: Dancer Vs. Politician

There’s something beautifully melancholy about fall. As the leaves burst into brilliant colors and the weather slowly turns, so does the music that plays on the stereo of many seasonal-oriented music lovers. The same music that fits the summer months just don’t cut it in the dimming days of fall; albums that are a bit darker and deeper tend to once more find their way to the top of the music pile. I’m talking Fiona Apple in her heyday. Portishead’s Dummy. Bon Iver, of course. Maybe some Low and Radiohead thrown in for good measure.

Dancer Vs. Politician, Sanni Baumgaertner’s latest Athens, GA-based project, joins that group of esteemed musicians with A City Half-Lost, an album perfectly crafted for the arrival of colder weather. As with many albums, however, there are a few standouts and a few songs that could have been left off completely. "Wet Leaves" and "Homeless Mind" close the album and play to Sanni’s strength as a songwriter and a musical craftsman. Both tracks continue the tone set by songs like "Mond & Stern," — delicate tracks transformed into rich, eerily dark songs through muted Portishead-like reverb. Baumgaertner’s immense talent clearly reveals itself on this debut album, and even the album’s misfits — "Happiness" and "Mach Dich los" (which unfortunately lead-off and bisect the tracklist) — are musically sound.

After spending nearly a decade traveling back and forth between her home country of Germany and the U.S., Baumgaertner recently relocated permanently to Athens, GA, and many of the songs on A City pay homage to her heritage. Although those who aren’t fluent in German will struggle to understand her lyrics, the gentle intertwining of stringed instruments backing Sanni’s lilting voice with horns, accordion, and glockenspiel might just serve as her musical auf Wiedersehen to her country of birth.

1. Mach Dich Los 2. Mond & Stern 3. Keine Zeit 4. Justin Fairbarn 5. Hochtief 6. Ratcliffe Highway 7. Happiness 8. Neuer Morgen, Neuer Tag 9. Wet Leaves 10. Homeless Mind