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PHIL SHOENFELT
CAROLINE SAYS ... AND MORE






     

Releases:

Download
2024 Fuego (D)  / Cat.No. 3707 / 19.04.2024
CD
2024 Moloko + (D) / Cat.No. PLUS 160 / 01.09.2024


Tracklist:

01.
Come Along With Me
02.
Blindest Love
03.
Caroline Says II
04.
Road Of No Return



Musicians
Phil Shoenfelt vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitars, bass guitar, drums (track 3)
Jarda Kvasnička
drums (tracks 1, 2, 4)




Credits
"Come Along With Me" (lyrics: Volker Regner, Anna-Lisa Schulig, Phil Shoenfelt / music: Volker Regner, Phil Shoenfelt)
"Blindest Love" (lyrics: Roland Popp / music: Roland Popp, Frederico Cunha, Matt Howden, Paulo Romao, Carlos Antonio Santos, Pedro Temporao)
"Caroline Says II" (lyrics & music: Lou Reed)
"Road Of No Return" (lyrics & music: Phil Shoenfelt)

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Dan Šatra at Stereo Mysterio, Prague, Czech Republic

Track 2 “Blindest Love” will be included on the Raindogs Tribute CD "Căes Danados – Raindogs Cover Songs” (ANTI-DEMOS-CRACIA/Camouflage Records)
https://anti-demos-cracia.bandcamp.com/album/c-es-danados-raindogs-cover-songs-2

Cover artwork by FUEGO / Friedel Muders


Press Release
A four-song online EP will be released on 19th April, 2024, by Fuego. The title is: CAROLINE SAYS … AND MORE and includes two cover versions, a collaboration and an original. The dominant theme could be described as romantically obsessive, even emotionally masochistic love, leading at some point to disillusion, madness and at the extreme end of the spectrum, physical violence.

Track 1 is a collaboration with Volker Regner and Anna-Lisa Schulig called “Come Along With Me”, a moody, atmospheric piece that lyrically emotes the joy and euphoria of a new love affair, while at the same time hinting at the melancholic ending to come.

Track 2 is a cover version of “Blindest Love” by Roland Popp and Raindogs. Here, we can see the euphoria of first love continuing, even while the narrator knows that his lady love is cheating on him. Phil’s version of this classic indie pop song will be included on the Raindogs compilation CD, CĂES DANADOS, which has been getting substantial radio play in Portugal.

Growing ever darker, the EP continues with an atmospheric version of “Caroline Says II” from the Lou Reed album Berlin. Here, masochistic and obsessive love degenerates into physical violence, with the classic opening lines: Caroline Says / As she gets up off the floor / Why is it that you beat me / It isn’t any fun. The track sees Phil making his debut on drums, as well as playing acoustic and electric guitars, bass and keyboards.

The final track, “Road Of No Return” features the incredible drumming of Jarda Kvasnička from Southern Cross and sees Phil making a rare foray into socio-political commentary – the first time, in fact, that he has done this since Khmer Rouge folded in 1986. The lyrics are non-specific, and the conflicts alluded to could be anywhere in the world. The atrocities carried out could be by any terrorist group or army of any nation or region. The point is to recognize that the world is gradually being enveloped by regional conflicts that are spreading into ever-wider confrontations, fuelled by monetary, religious, ethnic and territorial disputes. In effect, it’s like World War Three happening in slow motion. The song bemoans the brutality and lack of compassion on all sides. But probably it’s been like this ever since the human race crawled out of the primordial swamp. Genghis Khan wasn’t a very compassionate guy either…

***

11.05.2024

"Come Along With Me" is "Song of the week" at






Reviews
Musicserver.cz
review by Jiří V. Matýsek 05.07.2024
Zhruba sedmnáctiminutový počin nabízí čtyři skladby - dvě coververze (Lou Reeda a Roland Popp & Raindogs), spolupráci s Volkerem Regnerem a Annou-Lisou Schulig "Come Along With Me" a též sólový originál, vzácný socio-kulturní komentář "Road of No Return". Drobné dílo, ale velice povedené.

***

The roughly seventeen-minute piece offers four tracks - two cover versions (Lou Reed and Roland Popp & Raindogs), a collaboration with Volker Regner and Anna-Lisa Schulig "Come Along With Me" and also a solo original, the rare socio-cultural commentary "Road of No Return". A small work, but very well done.



Yellow Radio FM 101,7
review by Εύη Αλεξίου 11.05.2024
Το Τραγούδι της Εβδομάδας: Phil Shoenfelt – “Come Along with Me” (Έλα μαζί μου)

Τον προηγούμενο μήνα κυκλοφόρησε το άλμπουμ “Caroline Says… and More”, το κυρίαρχο θέμα θα μπορούσε να περιγραφεί ως ρομαντική εμμονή, ακόμη και συναισθηματικά μαζοχιστική αγάπη, που οδηγεί κάποια στιγμή στην απογοήτευση, την τρέλα και στο άκρο του φάσματος τη σωματική βία.

Βασικό θέμα που τον έχει εμπνεύσει στη μουσική του είναι αυτό του αναπόφευκτου της απώλειας. Το θέμα της ομορφιάς και της απώλειας, η φευγαλέα φύση της ίδιας της ζωής, το γεγονός ότι δεν μπορούμε να το κρατήσουμε, όσο όμορφο κι αν είναι, ή πόσο θέλουμε ο χρόνος να μείνει ακίνητος – αυτό το μεγάλο αιώνιο θέμα της μαγείας και της απώλειας είναι αυτό που τον εμπνέει περισσότερο και τον οδηγεί στη δημιουργία τραγουδιών που ισορροπούν στην κόψη του ξυραφιού μεταξύ ευτυχίας και μελαγχολίας, μεταξύ γιορτής και πένθους για όσα είμαστε καταδικασμένοι να χάσουμε.

***

Song of the Week: Phil Shoenfelt - "Come Along with Me"

Last month saw the release of the album "Caroline Says... and More", the overarching theme could be described as romantic obsession, even emotionally masochistic love, leading at some point to frustration, madness and at the end of the spectrum, physical violence.

A key theme that has inspired his music is that of the inevitability of loss. The theme of beauty and loss, the fleeting nature of life itself, the fact that we can't hold on to it, no matter how beautiful it is, or how much we want time to stand still - this great eternal theme of magic and loss is what inspires him most and drives him to create songs that balance on a razor's edge between happiness and melancholy, between celebration and mourning for what we are doomed to lose.


musicserver.cz
review by Jiří V. Matýsek 07.10.2024

Phil Shoenfelt se na EP "Caroline Says… and more" propadá hlouběji a hlouběji do temnoty

Phil Shoenfelt, britský muzikant už natrvalo usídlený v Praze, dává svému rockovému písničkářství různorodé tváře. Desky vydává převážně se svými Southern Cross, ale hrál i s Tichou dohodou či Band of Heysek. Příležitostně sáhne i po v zásadě sólové formě. Třeba jako na EP "Caroline Says... and more".

Forma navíc může měnit vyznění celku a Shoenfelt s touto myšlenkou rád pracuje - v jeho diskografii se dají najít písně, k nimž se v různých verzích v čase vracel. Ostatně, jeho předposledním dlouhohrajícím albem je titul "Shapeshifter", jenž nabídl přepracované starší kusy pouze v duu s kytaristou Davidem Babkou.

Čtyři skladby čítající ípíčko může výše uvedenou nahrávku částečně připomenout. I tady totiž Phil Shoenfelt přibral ke spolupráci kolegu z kapely, tentokrát bubeníka Jaroslava Kvasničku, a i tady si, alespoň tedy z poloviny, vzal do parády songy, které mají i jinou podobu, respektive interpretoval je někdo jiný.

Nejznámější je patrně "Caroline Says II", kterou Lou Reed nahrál na svou klíčovou desku "Berlin". Ve Shoenfeltově - při vší úctě k Reedovi lépe nazpívané - verzi vyplouvá na povrch písničkářská křehkost, jemné aranže dopředu vysunují krutý text, který muzikant až třesoucím se hlasem vypráví. O to větší kontrast pak přichází s následující "Road of No Return". Po dlouhých letech natočil Shoenfelt protestsong se slovy prstem ukazujícími na zvrácený stav světa, který přišel o lidskost, doslova plive a srší.

Nahrávka se nicméně otevírá v poněkud optimističtějším duchu. Úvodní "Come Along With Me" (vznikla ve spolupráci s Volkerem Regnerem a Annou-Lisou Schulig) prosycuje optimismus nové lásky a nese ji kupředu povedená postpunková kytara. Druhá položka "Blindest Love", původně z repertoáru indiepopových Roland Popp and Raindogs, na úvod navazuje - láska se propadá do deziluze, blízká je i forma písně samotné.

Vše ale jasně směřuje, jak asi vyplynulo z výše napsaného, ke druhé polovině EP. Tam leží jeho největší síla a postupná gradace, přesněji řečeno degradace vztahu od opojení k toxicitě, navíc pak rozšířená na celý svět, emocionální zásah koncentrované nahrávky jenom umocňuje. Čtyři skladby a něco přes sedmnáct minut v tomto případě dokonale stačí.

***

Phil Shoenfelt delves deeper and deeper into darkness on the EP "Caroline Says... and more"

Phil Shoenfelt, a British musician now permanently based in Prague, gives to his rock songwriting in a variety of guises. He releases albums mostly with his Southern Cross, but he has also played with Silent Agreement and Band of Heysek.
Occasionally he reaches for a basically solo form. Like on the EP "Caroline Says... and more".

The extra form can change the sound of the whole, and Shoenfelt is happy with this idea to work with - in his discography you can find songs that have been covered in various versions he has revisited over time. After all, his penultimate full-length album
is "Shapeshifter", which offered reworkings of older cuts only in duo with guitarist David Babka.

The four tracks comprising the EP may partially recall the aforementioned recording. Here too, Phil Shoenfelt recruited a bandmate, this time drummer Jaroslav Kvasnicka, and here too, at least in half, he took charge of the songs, which have a different form, or rather interpreted by someone else.

The best known is probably "Caroline Says II", which Lou Reed recorded for his seminal album "Berlin". In Shoenfelt's - with all due respect to Reed, better sung - version, the songwriter's fragility comes to the surface, the delicate arrangements bringing forward the harsh lyrics, which the musician narrates in an almost trembling voice. The contrast is all the greater with
the following "Road Of No Return". After many years, Shoenfelt has recorded a protestsong with words pointing the finger at the perverse state of a world that has lost its humanity, literally spitting and spitting.

However, the record opens in a slightly more upbeat vein. Opener "Come Along With Me" (written in collaboration with Volker Regner and Anna-Lisa Schulig) oozes the optimism of new love and is carried forward by hilarious post-punk guitar. The second entry, "Blindest Love", originally from the repertoire of indie-pop's Roland Popp and Raindogs, picks up on the opening - love plunges into disillusionment, close to the form of the song itself.

But everything is clearly heading, as the above probably implies, towards the second half of the EP. There lies its greatest strength, and the gradual gradation, or more accurately, the degradation of the relationship from intoxication to toxicity, furthermore then extended to the whole world, only enhances the emotional impact of the concentrated recording. Four tracks and just over seventeen minutes in this case is perfectly sufficient.