It's oddly a long while since I've bought any CDs. I have just rectified that by buying blind a few new albums which I will now briefly review based on a single listen at work:
Bjork - VoltaVery good album this. That's to be expected really, this peculiar Icelandic sometime be-swanned freak box has never released an album that is anything less than very good. There's two types of Bjork album really: ones that are "
Very Good" and ones that are "
Very Good, with a bit of an edge too it". This falls into the latter category.
Rufus Wainwright - Release the StarsMore of the same from him really, which is a shame. I was hoping he'd have developed his sound a bit from
Want One and
Want Two, but this is not much of a leap forward. Maybe if I heard it in isolation without his back catalogue I'd be singing high-praises (with a melodramatic but overly synthesized string backing), but the fact is he does have a back catalogue that you simply have to consider when rating this.
Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst NightmareYeah, good innit. To be honest, they're a bunch of talented guys, so this was bound to be good. It will though be interesting to hear their "tricky third album". Let's hope they don't go down the Oasis road of just churning out the same sound over and over again without much artistic development and instead explore avenues that you wouldn't normally expect a bunch of spotty kids from Sheffield to tread.
Pick of the bunch? Bjork. Bless her.
Labels: music
Tuesday, May 15, 2007 1:08 PM
This post is a plea. I have been inspired by that beautiful man Sufjan Stevens to put together a compilation of Christmas tunes. Stevens, bless him, has just released a
5 cd boxset of Christmas songs. Now, whilst he should have perhaps edited it down to a 2 or 3 CD boxset, it contains some of the best Christmas music I've heard in a long while. God-damn-it, this guy is a genius. Illinoise was my favourite album of 2005 and now this new release is just steadily burying its way into my psyche and instilling joy in my heart.
Anyway, the thing is, as we're all aware, 97% of all Christmas tunes are just bobbins. Most make me want to literally kill myself which is at odds with the spirit of the season. But there must be a huge number of songs from artists (other than Sufjan Stevens) that are really great. So, I want you to suggest me songs to put in a Alternative Christmas Music Compilation. No holds bared. Anything from 15th century carols to punk, if it is Christmas related and a great tune, I'll have it. I don't care if it's happy or sad or joyful or melancholy, if it's Christmas related, I wannit.
Here's a few tracks I have already got that you need not suggest:
- I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up for Christmas (Aimee Mann)
- Bizarre Christmas Incident (Ben Folds)
- Seven O'Clock News/Silent Night (Simon and Garfunkel)
- The 2 or 3 CDs worth of decent tracks from Sufjan Steven's Christmas CD Boxset.
- White Christmas (Otis Redding)
- I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm (Dean Martin)
- O Holy Night (from that Studio 60 thing I blogged about the other day)
- Fairy Tale of Noo Yoyk (Obviously)
- ??????????
Labels: christmas, music
Sunday, December 17, 2006 8:23 PM
I was watching the Christmas episode of Studio 60 the other day and it closed with a really nice rendition of o Holy Night, performed by a brass ensemble of displaced New Orleans musicians. The folk at
NBC have kindly made the track available for free download. The only small tiny downside is that they've "augmented" it with some synth strings for some stupid reason. But you know what, it's still a really nice tune that makes me want to dust off my trombone and get
the band back together.
Labels: brass, christmas, jazz, music, tv
Thursday, December 14, 2006 10:20 PM
