For weeks I’ve been thinking I should write a post reviewing music I’ve discovered and fallen in love with this year, and here is one such post. I pride myself in my talent for recommending music to my friends, but I haven’t done so here in ages, despite the fact that I’m listening to more music this year than in previous ones. Maybe it’s that there are too many bands I could mention; it was hard to decide on these listed, and I have to split my reviews into several blog posts already.
If you don’t know me personally and are wondering why you should read my opinions about musical recordings, you will hopefully be a tiny bit impressed that I have a BA in Music and buy at least a dozen albums a month (as well as sample many, many single tracks). My mp3 collection is increased by 500 to 1000 songs per month, and this year’s total (according to iTunes) is just under 7500 songs, which I realize is a bit ridiculous and perhaps I should seek counselling.
I can’t say I listen to everything more than once, sadly, because you gotta sleep sometime. What I do mention, then, is what floated to the top from this ocean of music as being meaningful to me and worth sharing with you.
I’m too lazy to put up mp3s on my webserver, so you’ll have to make do with the Youtube embedded videos and links to MySpace to listen to the bands.
Afro-fusion
African music makes me so happy. Extra Golden (MySpace) is a group of American and Kenyan musicians who combine Benga and rock to give me something I can really groove to. Sadly, I never studied African music in school, so I can’t say anything intelligent about it, other than I like to shake my booty to it, which isn’t an intelligent thing to say, really.
They formed in 2004, and Hera Ma Nono is their second album, which includes a song of praise they wrote to some unknown senator I can’t remember the name of from Illinois who helped them get visas to perform in the US:
Chillaxing 1, and Why Breakups are Good 1
After recovering from illness and breaking up with his band and girlfriend, Justin Vernon holes himself up in a cabin in northern Wisconsin for 3 months and records one of the most soft and beautiful albums I’ve heard in years: Bon Iver‘s For Emma, Forever Ago (MySpace).
Listening to it, I get a sense of isolation in the vocals and guitar. Maybe it’s the pure sound in the overdubbing of both, and the resulting reverb which suggests emptiness. My favourite song off the album is the last one, “Re: Stacks” (which also happens to be Vernon’s mother’s favourite, proving I remember totally useless trivia). If you’re a fan of the TV show House, you may recognize this song from the end of last year’s finale “Wilson’s Heart”.
Chillaxing 2, and Why Breakups are Good 2
Shearwater (MySpace) started out as a side project for two members of Okkervil River, but this year one of the guys left OR to focus solely on this band. This year brought their full album Rooks and the Snow Leopard EP.
I keep forgetting that Shearwater’s music isn’t as laid back as I think it is; maybe it’s Jonathan Meiburg’s smooth voice that I find so soothing, but otherwise their songs are quite layered and often have a strong rhythm section. Maybe it’s because they often start out soft, sometimes with just the vocal line, and build up from there, adding strings and woodwinds and percussion.
One thing that struck me about them was that I came upon a live recording of them and kept replaying it on my iPod, and I normally hate hate hate live recordings and refuse to listen to them. Check it out here from NPR: Shearwater in Concert.
Boys and girls sing well together
Anathallo (MySpace) is a US band I only discovered in November when they put out their second release, Canopy Glow.
It’s a bit silly to base their music solely on the fact that they have both male and female vocals, but I can’t but make comparisons in my head to Stars and Belle and Sebastian. Or even to Sufjan Stevens, because of the extensive instrumentation (especially with percussion). Whenever I listen to them I hear instruments and counter-melodies I hadn’t noticed before, and I can’t ask for much more from a band.
Fun!.
I want to know who sedated the audience in the Extra Golden video and stapled them to their chairs?
Re: Shearwater: Kitties!
Re: Anathallo: OMG, amazing sound. I went looking for them in my local public library and discovered that they did a version of “If you’re happy and you know it” for a children’s collection. The mind boggles.
Do you dislike live performance or only recordings of it? I agree some bands should stick with the studio, but some only really shine when they’re in front of an audience and playing together in the zone. IMHO, of course.
Thanks for the new year presents. I’m looking forward to seeing what else you recommend from last year.
@jeffy I love going to concerts, but I hate the recordings. What I dislike is that you can often hear the audience members screaming and it reminds me of annoying jerks at concerts who won’t STFU and listen to the band. Also, sometimes you realize that the band isn’t that good live. Shearwater was an exception to my usual rule, though I do think the recording engineering has something to do with it.
I take the opposite approach. I will get attached to an album and listen to it over and over for several weeks. As a result my MP3 collection grows at a glacial rate.
And I love/hate concerts. The last one I went to was The White Stripes (forever ago). The music rocked (Dolly Parton “Jolene” cover was mind blowing) but security treated us like criminals, and there was a guy standing in front of me with his shirt off, displaying tribal tattoos, yelling “WOOOOOOOO” the whole time.
Thnx for the suggestions.
Music volley: Have you checked out Hooverphonic (The Magnificent Tree)? I just discovered them and I love them!
I haven’t heard of HOoverphonic, but I’ll check them out since you mentioned it. Thanks Patricia!
It’s unfortunate how anything that isn’t readily marketable as a known genre in North America just gets lumped into the “world music” bin. There’s so much awesome African music! I’ve really been getting into some good stuff from Algeria & Mali lately–those rhythms and melodies are such a fresh change from the typical western format… Be sure check out a band called Tinariwen if you haven’t already.