Music Recommendation: Duncan Sheik's Whisper House

Another day, another music recommendation. I first started listening to Duncan Sheik when everyone else did, in 1996 when Barely Breathing came out. Except for Spring Awakening, he has flown completely under the mainstream radar, sacrificing commercial success for musical integrity and creativity. My best friend, Jeni, has been a huge fan of his for a long time. I had liked parts of Sheik's first album and had been annoyed by others. As a result, I hadn't followed his career at all. But when she played me his second album, Humming, I was blown away. He took everything I liked from his first album, discarded all the stuff I didn't like, and took off in a new, more mature direction. It was as if Sheik read my mind. :)

I've become a huge fan since, and I like everything he's released quite a bit (and with both being older and having more musical sophistication, I appreciate his first album much more than I did when I was 12). His newest album, Whisper House, which is really a collection of songs from a new musical he's working on of the same name, is one of the best things he's ever done. The melodies are beautiful and eerie, the strings are gorgeous, and the songwriting is top notch. I highly recommend it. Make sure, if you want to pick it up, to buy the iTunes version; it has a fantastic bonus cover of The Ghost In You by the Psychedelic Furs that I haven't seen available anywhere else. Enjoy!

Earthbound Starlight (Sony won't let me embed it, and yes, the album is called Whisper House, not Earthbound Starlight as the video description claims)