Michael Penn - "I Can Tell"

Michael Penn - "I Can Tell": "Today, I attended a SXSW panel with Michael Penn. It was largely an interview with him about his film soundtrack work (as part of the SXSW Film Festival), but they had a Q&A at the end and I got to ask a question. I inquired about his re-occurring references to Los Angeles in his work - the L.A. of yesteryear, in particular. It turns out his affection for the less stereotypical Los Angeles and its history is not unlike my own, which is what I had always expected.
Here, in "I Can Tell", the narrator crosses Pico (a street in L.A.) as part of a relationship song that feels like it's a part of a larger cinematic story. The dramatic crescendo in Michael's vocals, after the narrated interlude, is one of my favorite moments in his work."