Anna
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Here are my top 10 albums for the first half of 2008. Order is based on how often I listened to them so far. Underneath each album are a study on {approved!} allmusic adjectives, lyrics in italics form and some ramblings of mine.
This post is dedicated to Stefan (http://mog.com/SA), who organized this whole project, and whom I tortured by changing my list 3 bloody times :) If you haven't voted yet, go here: http://mog.com/blog_post/view/169238. Today's the last day!
The Top
10. Tindersticks - The Hungry Saw
~ Sophisticated, bittersweet, nocturnal.
Not a great Tindersticks album, but it does work as an atmospheric whole, and I gladly gave in to that voice and its surrounding harmonies.
Yesterdays Tomorrows:
9. Ed Harcourt - The Beautiful Lie
~ Genuinely tortured, vampire metaphors & dark lyrics, eccentrically cathartic.
Got its US release 2 years after its UK one..... Keep your ears on Ed, as he sings from the heart and allows a sneak peek into his mutli-instrument talent tornado. Breath-taking.
Rain On The Pretty Ones:
8. The Whip - X Marks Destination
~ New Order-esque, best indie electro album of the year so far, I wanna be trash.
If you don't feel the burning need to dance to this album, and especially Trash, you're dead below the waist! ;)
Trash:
7. Sons & Daughters - This Gift
~ Fiery, brash, wearing my name around my neck, apparently just self-possessed.
Their most polished album production wise so far, but also their tightest, most solid one.
Gilt Complex:
6. Murder By Death - Red Of Tooth And Claw
~ Gloomy, intense, honest.
One of this year's revelations to me. Chilling male vocals, gloomy music and superb use of violin. It grabbed me by the hair and still hasn't let me go. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Fuego!:
5. Madrugada - Madrugada
~ melancholic, passionate, one of my favourite vocalists of all time.
If you like Gutter Twins, Murder By Death and the like, you will enjoy this album, and the band in general. That's a promise. They've been criminally overlooked. That's a lethal offense in the court of music, you know :)
What's On Your Mind?:
4. These New Puritans - Beat Pyramid
~ Straightforward, of numbers, colours & philosophy, hypnotic.
While the singer is delivering his {mostly} numeric related lyrics in an addictive talking sort of way, the music makes you feel like there's a threat in the horizon.
Swords of Truth:
3. Ladytron - Velocifero
~ Quirky, eerie, theatrical.
Mesmerizing synth pop with ethereal vocals to boot. Ladytron delivered yet another devour-worthy album. Devour away then.
Ghosts:
2. The Kills - Midnight Boom
~ Aggressive sexiness, thumping, a little tornado.
A ticking sex bomb. It doesn't explode, it teases and teases you. Like tantric sonical sex.
U.R.A. Fever:
1. The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement
~ dramatic, retro, 20 little tragedies begin.
Yeah yeah yeahs, it's not original. Before I go burn the rest of my unoriginal CDs (that would be all of them, parthenogenesis died a long time ago), let me tell you that this album contains tightly-written, beautifully orchestrated, lyrically charming songs, covered in a retro cloak of nostalgia. I am craving heartbreak while you're making your demands.
Standing Next To Me:
The Other Top
Albums that really are in my top 10, but I left 'em out because other neglected albums required {?} my support, while these are doing fine at our list already:
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Dig Lazarus!!! Dig!!! and The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia.
& The Almost Top
Albums that almost made it: The Duke Spirit - Neptune, The Raveonettes - Lust, Lust, Lust, Clinic - Do It!, British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?, For Against - Shade Side, Sunny Side.
...that Mark Sandman "collapsed on stage at the Giardini del Principe in Palestrina,Latium, Italy while performing with Morphine. He was soon pronounced dead of a heart attack at the age of 46".
It was that very same day that the world of music got poorer. After all these years, the gap remains. But that's what happens with voids of gone presences that are very significant; they just never get filled, and we learn to live {or survive, if you may} with them.
I'm not going to elaborate on the nights and years I've spent with Morphine. I'll just mention that I tasted Morphine for the first time when I was 15 years old and never got off it, and leave it at that.
A few facts about the man, from wiki.
"His instruments were extensively altered and sometimes built by hand to create unique sounds. In Morphine, he played primarily a two-string slide bass guitar usually tuned to a fifth, but he also was known to play a unitar (named after the one-stringed instrument in American blues tradition), and three-string slide bass with one bass string and two unison strings tuned an octave higher (usually A). He sometimes paired bass strings with one or two guitar strings, creating the "basitar" "tri-tar and "guitbass".
In addition to his work as a musician, Sandman was also an amateur photographer and artist. He created a comic entitled The Twinemen, starring three anthropomorphic balls of twine who form a band, become successful, break up, and later reunite".
Let this day be dedicated to Mark. Spin some Morphine to his honour, occupy your thoughts a little bit with what he offered the music community, all the inspired, soul-scratching, and sexy music that came to us from this group. I don't know where he is, but I'm sure that it's a smoky, jazzy and noir place.
a crash in the night
two worlds collide
when two worlds collide
no one survives
Comments
My God...I can't believe that it has been nine years already...I feel blessed to have been lucky enough to see that amazing saxophone twice live. One of rock's truly original talents...and anyone who ever heard a Morphine song was better off for it.,
It wa 9 years ago yesterday that I purchased tickets to see him at Stubbs here in Austin...it was kind of a weird confluence of events that he was dead within hours of me buying my ticket. I count myself lucky that I was able to see his first band, Treat Her Right they were amazing as well.
You can kiss that Anna goodbye. This is not a time to be nice, mellow and kind. Weak links will be terminated without a second thought.
That's right, you cannibals, it's MOG Wars III
Go here to find out what the hell I'm talking about: http://mog.com/whosyrdad/blog_post/15623 or/and http://mog.com/Dale/blog_post/50625.
Go here for the the rules: http://mog.com/I_am/blog_post/170076
Go here to write your suicide note (= participate): http://mog.com/Control/blog_post/166669 (yes, the post with the number 666).
4 days left. The clock of death is ticking.
You don't have to play, of course. But if you decide to do so...(takes deep breath)..
FOLLOW THE BLOODY RULES.
REPORT YOUR DEATH AND STATUS WHEN NEEDED AND POST ABOUT YOUR DEATH WHEN YOU BECOME A CORPSE.
ME AND CHRIS ARE NOT GOING TO BEG FOR REPORTS & POSTS.
IF YOU DECIDE TO PLAY, YOU PLAY ALL THE WAY.
I'M NOT KIDDING.
NO NAGGING, NO COMPLAINING, NO BOO BLOODY HOO.
DON'T START SOMETHING YOU CANNOT FINISH.
If it's not too much trouble, sugar please with a cherry on top. ;)
May the bloooooood be with you.
Signed,
Evil High Instigator,
aka The Red Right Hand, MOG's Grim Reaper, etc.
PS Sorry I had to delete the other post and your comments with it, it looked off and bizarre. Do feel free to repost.
Comments
now I have 10 new albums to add to my evergrowing list - THANKS SIS :)
Mean that - you're the bestest GreekSIS ever !!!
So I guess that loud bang I heard earlier was your head exploding...
Love The Kills, Duke Spirit and Raveonettes!
;-)