I found a copy of this incredible album on vinyl yesterday and as I sat listening to it last night, it really dawned on me just how timeless and special it is.
Colour Green is quite seriously one of the most delicate and quietly haunting albums to have been released in the past 50 years.
From what I know of Sibylle Baier, she grew up in Germany and briefly pursued a career in acting (she appeared in an early Wim Wenders film), but then gave up her aspirations to move to America and focus on raising a family.
The songs on the album were compiled from a series of reel-to-reel recordings which Baier wrote in the early 70’s and it was only when her son Robby found them and eventually got them into the hands of J Mascis that the album saw it’s incredibly belated release in 2006.
Colour Green is intimate. As soon as Baier sings the opening line ‘Tonight, when I came home from work..’ she’s got you. This is one of those rare albums that can silence a room. She sings of a woman’s loneliness, of the transient nature of love and life, of the quiet happiness that comes from driving down a freeway and eating pie next to someone you love. It’s sentimental, without a trace of sap.
Baier also saves the most wonderful surprise for the last song– up until this point it’s just Baier and her guitar, but then the strings swoop in on ‘Give Me a Smile’ and it’s even better than you thought.
Get into it, over and over again.
-Lucy B
