This is just a beautiful track from the Dirty Projectors’ bassist Nat Baldwin. While backing up David Longstreth for the Projectors, helping Vampire Weekend out with Contra and studying with jazz genius Anthony Braxton, Baldwin has put out a couple of solo records. “A Little Lost” – which happens to be an Arthur Russell cover – is off of his most recent People Changes.
The sincerity of using only an upright bass and his voice is only magnified during his switch into light falsetto at many points in the song – namely the chorus in “I’m so busy, so busy thinkin’ bout kissin’ you and I wanna do that.” Baldwin’s voice continuously jumps atypically during both the verses and choruses, but he manages to make the song sound surprisingly gorgeous. The ultra clean production on his voice doesn’t hurt either.
After 5, 10, 15 listens of this song, I’m still baffled as to how Baldwin creates his entire backing all on an upright bass. Since he is playing with the vocal line, he has to ground the rhythm on the bass while still maintaining a viable accompanying line. Even after that, he adds some high held out bass notes as flourishes - icing on the cake, really. “A Little Lost” is so present, Baldwin is just perpetually adrift and you’re simply joining him for a fantastic three and a half minutes of his journey.
