Michael Simon Armstrong - “Frames”
We are not quite sure where Michael Simon Armstrong came from, but he has landed in our stack of submissions with “Frames,” one of our new favorite songs. And after you have a listen, we’re quite confident that it will become one of your favorites as well.
“Frames” is Armstrong’s first song in nearly two years and is host to all of the best elements of folksy music– it’s raw, gritty, and honest as all hell. It opens with one of the best vibey guitar tones that we’ve heard in quite some time, drenched in so much reverb that it sounds as though it’s being played in the hallway of your neighbor’s house, though not in a call-the-cops kind of way; it is done in a much more soothing nature and one that might cause you to take a break from whatever you’re doing and go sit on the porch to hear what he has to say.
The imagery conveyed here is very vivid and delivered to us in a voice that one might describe as all of the best parts of Ben Folds, if Ben Folds sang songs that required more introspection. This comparison quickly fades once the rhythm section causes the track to lift, taking the song in a direction that will force you to recall the work of Aqualung, circa his Strange and Beautiful record, which is precisely when we decided that we had to feature this song on our blog. Armstrong brilliantly shines inside of his falsetto, so we are very delighted to inform you that he stays there for quite some time.
From this point, “Frames” is truly a gentle ride and a remarkable piece of music. It is exactly what we had in mind when we started this blog– to find songs as glorious as this, from artists we’d never heard of before, and to get them into the ears of as many people as humanly possible.
-TM