Song of the Day: Mina Tindle - I Command

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on The Morning Show with John Richards, is “I Command” by Mina Tindle from the 2014 album Parades on Believe Recordings.

Mina Tindle - I Command (MP3)

Mina Tindle's baroquely-crafted take on pop music draws equally from the artisanal aesthetic of her home city of Paris and her stay in Brooklyn during the late-2000s indie rock boom. A self-described latecomer to creating music, Tindle (real name: Pauline de Lassus) began toying with the idea of making her own music during her final year of university in Brooklyn and began taking it seriously when she returned to Paris, serving stints in the Franco-American group The Limes and Toy Fight. Two years after leaving the latter group, Tindle's solo debut manifested itself in Taranta, a collection of folk- and pop-influenced tunes that drew comparisons to Feist. Inspired by Tindle's Mediterranean roots, this year's Parades further refines and expands Tindle's arrangements and voice, both of which shine on the pulsating, eloquent "I Command". From the opening line, Tindle's voice is filled with a resonating, cracking tension as Tindle multitracks it leading up to the soaring chorus. Ninety seconds in, Tindle cleverly changes the tone of the song, speeding up the tempo and switching out delicate piano for buzzing synths and a pounding drum beat, and at the song's climax, Tindle's voice, now confident and rich, crystallizes the song in a single, triumphant line: "C'mon baby...you should know... you'll never be alone."

Tindle has a slew of European dates throughout the winter, but there aren't any announced plan to come Stateside yet. Keep up with Mina on Facebook and her website, and below, watch the wintery video for "I Command".