The Story Of

L’HEURE DE L’ÉTOILE

Lullaby Baxter was at the window. Robinson St. George was in the garden. “Something simple,” she said. “No need to get all orchestral,” he said. “You on piano, me singing and, if need be, my subtle drumming,” she said. “It’ll take a good many walks, talks, eyes, nights, books, lives, leaves, hats, hands, years and ears,” he said. “It’ll take the humility of an observatory but the stick-to-it-iveness of the moon,” she said. “So there we are,” he said, returning to his tomatoes. “The ever of never becomes the always of sometimes,” she said, disappearing into the house.

Lullaby Baxter has released two critically acclaimed albums, Capable Egg (2000) and Garden Cities of To-morrow (2006). She and Robinson St. George have collaborated on three film soundtracks: Mothers & Daughters (2008), I Liked You Better Before (2010), and Arithmetic: Annie’s Life in Numbers (2010). They live in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.

(Special thanks to artsnb for their generous assistance in the creation of this album.)

Praise for GARDEN CITIES OF TO-MORROW

“Lullaby Baxter has returned with a gorgeous little follow-up that mines everything from baroque pop, to Brill Building pop, to jazzy crooning, to '60s Bacharach, to the music of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and pulls it all off seamlessly. With a voice that sounds equal parts Dusty Springfield and Carole King, Baxter coos playful lyrics over a lush yet restrained musical backdrop produced by pop duo Hercules, and that combination of whimsical wordplay, sumptuous vocals, and classy arrangements is too earnest in its desire to win you over to resist its allure...”

—Pop Matters

“Lullaby Baxter jettisons the quirky jazz approach that served her well on her first album in favor of a lush chamber pop sound that suits her sweet vocals and cheerfully daft lyrics perfectly...[Garden Cities of To-morrow] is a laid-back, layered masterpiece...there are swells of organ, shimmering strings, all manner of junior-high-approved percussion, and rich layers of backing vocals that make these simple and charming melodies come to life. Baxter's breathy vocals (which call to mind Colin Blunstone in makeup and heels) recline upon these pillow-soft creations like a graceful seraph....she wisely chooses to under-sing everything, sounding lazy, sexy, and so close you could reach out and hug her. Indeed, listening to the record on headphones is an almost unbearably intimate experience. Thanks to songs as memorable and flat-out lovely as "What's Wrong with You," "Cardboard Armoured Car," and "Dumptruck," though, it's an experience you'll want to have repeatedly.” (4.5 out of 5 stars / The Best of 2006)

—All Music Guide

“Evoking the best of '60s soft-pop (Pet Sounds, Dionne Warwick, et al.) with a dash of folkie earnestness on the side, Baxter owns a sweetly self-effacing voice that allows her to wear profound sadness lightly. While the cotton-candy melodies and lazy tempos suggest a soothing vacation from harsh reality, Baxter is unpredictable around the edges ... amidst lovely strings and flutes, she tosses velvet barbs, cooing, "What's wrong with you? / Other than everything?"…

—Harp

Praise for CAPABLE EGG

“Baxter sings sweet ‘n’ goofy songs pitched midway between insinuating nursery rhymes and a sort of off-kilter feminine sophistication you might once have run across in places like Manhattan’s Algonquin Hotel…. Characters like Mr. Powder-Blue Breadbox, Morty-Mort-Morton Showstopper Calhoun, and Knucklehead populate songs evoking the animated furniture of ‘40s cartoons…but it’s Baxter’s beautiful, buttery-warm voice that carries the day…She’s the capable egg of the title, and that’s no yolk.”

—The Village Voice

“Polka, country, vaudeville, lounge and folk are twisted together into something approaching k.d. lang’s wistful elegance...Song titles such as ‘Mr. Powder-Blue Breadbox’ and ‘Horsey Don’t Snore’ underline the offbeat lyrics, the trio mining some kind of arcane Americana with touches of Van Dyke Parks.  A tough trick to pull off, but Baxter & Co. succeed in carving their own niche.”

—Q Magazine (U.K)

“…a strange little newborn…a round-trip tour of a musical world that has always been with us, but never quite in this form.  It has sounds that make you think of spit-curls on the foreheads of silent movie queens, bar stools in suburban basements, and nylons with visible seams down the back…Baxter’s melodies and the lyrics of Lutwidge Sedgwick (not his real name either) manage to seem both archaic and breezy, like photos of Jazz-Age kids whooping it up.  But the ghosts on Capable Egg flit by with their faces covered. Baxter’s warm, coffee-toned voice and her vocal inflections sometimes sound like she’s evoking some forgotten twenties songbird, but then the picture dissolves, often within the same phrase.  In the end she sounds like nobody except herself.”

—The Globe And Mail

(photos courtesy of selma reis)