Che Shannon Wright non sia ormai più considerata 'un'esordiente' è alquanto ovvio, visto il cospicuo numero di dischi a suo nome (ben sette se non si conta l'eccezionale collaborazione con il cantore d'oltralpe Yann Tiersen ), ma che potrebbe far sorgere dubbi circa la qualità della scrittura o il peso specifico delle composizioni nonché il livello dell'ispirazione, che non sempre è facile da mantenere alto. Dubbi che si rivelano assolutamente infondati, vista l'eccezionale caratura di questa nuova uscita: nove affreschi sonori, ora sognanti ("Father"), trasversali (le taglienti "Trumpet's on New Year's Eve e "Embers In [...]
I posted the beautiful and somber "Pharaoh's Chariot" from Soulsaver's third album, Broken , in my Creepy Halloween Mix and liked it so much I decided to look up more songs. I ended up with all of it and a brand-new respect for this joint project of Rich Machin (above, right) and Mark Lanegan (left, of Screaming Trees), who wrote lyrics and provided vocals on most of the songs. Songs are primarily dark and reflective, powered by Lanegan's ominous growl, although "All the Way Down" provides some welcome uplift. The album includes two instrumentals, [...]
50 M.I.A. - Arula 49 Muse - Absolution 48 The Walkmen - Bows and Arrows 47 Brendan Benson - Lapalco 46 The Delgados - The Great Eastern 45 Avalanches - Since I Left You 44 Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below 43 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 42 Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend 41 Wild Beasts - Two Dancers 40 Ryan Adams - Gold 39 Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles 38 Bloc Party - Silent Alarm 37 The Knife - Silent Shout 36 Spirtualized - Let it [...]
It's November and the end of the decade, so the "Best of a Decade" lists are starting to come in. The first comes from the hype-masters at NME who have named The Strokes ' Is This It? The Libertines ' Up the Bracket and Primal Scream's XTRMNTR as the first, second and third best of the decade. The list was chosen by bands such as Radiohead and Arctic Monkeys, plus record producers and label bosses. [...]
NPR is streaming the new Fever Ray album, Live at Lulea , in its entirety. Neon Indian's Alan Palomo shares his favorite things with Pitchfork . Billboard offers musicians sound advice on publicizing their music. Muso's Guide interviews singer-songwriter Amanda Palmer . Muso's Guide: You blog and use Twitter [...]
The Libertines' 2002 debut Up the Bracket was voted second in the list of the top 50 albums, with Primal Scream's XTRMNTR coming in third. Bands such as Radiohead and Arctic Monkeys, plus record producers and label bosses were among those who cast their votes. Guitar-led rock acts dominated the list with nine out of the top 10 places. Is This It, with its lo-fi scratchy guitars and hits like Last Nite and Someday, was one of the most acclaimed albums of the year when it was released in 2001. Its infamous cover shows a hand [...]
Contrast Podcast recently asked music bloggers like myself to submit our favorite 50 songs of the year for their annual "Festive 503 podcast. Our selections were then compiled into a shortlist and now we've been asked to recruit votes to narrow it down. For the curious, I've bolded the 10 songs I personally voted for. I really, really want "Nice Very Nice" by Kurt Vonnegut & Dave Soldier (from their album Ice-9 Ballads ) to make the final list. Not only because it's my favorite song of the year, from my favorite album of the year, [...]
De a pocos se van sumando más medios a publicar sus listas con lo mejor de la década, anteriormente revisábamos la lista de la norteamericana Pitchfork con 200 posiciones que escogió como disco de la década a Kid A de Radiohead, ahora es turno de la NME y aunque últimamente ya no tenga la influencia de antes, resulta más que interesante revisar la decisión del staff de la publicación británica. Es conocido el impulso que ha logrado dar la NME a la nueva música británica, no han querido parecer distintos en su lista ya [...]
Matter of Time mp3 The Leisure Society The Sleeper ..... ..... buy it Well, now this is getting interesting... Over at the Contrast Podcast , Tim's solicited everyone for their favorite 50 songs of 2009, remember? From all the responses he's compiled the top 155. I'm very impressed with the list! If you didn't submit your faves yet, you've still got a chance to get in the game at this point! Help us out, eh? (I"ve highlighted my top 10 in blue) Here's [...]
The Guardian examines the shortlist for the 2009 edition of the Bad Sex in Fiction Award. The shortlist: Paul Theroux for A Dead Hand Nick Cave for The Death of Bunny Munro Philip Roth for The Humbling Jonathan Littell for The Kindly Ones Amos Oz for Rhyming Life and Death John Banville [...]
La gente de NME suele hacer listas cada tanto y esta vez, a través de una votación de sus lectores, eligieron los 100 discos más grandes de la década y si bien estoy a favor de muchos de ellos, eso es simplemente porque yo amo la música inglesa. Pero hay que ser parcial y explicar que estos resultados se dieron porque la mayoría de los lectores de la revista son de Inglaterra y fanáticos de su música. El número 1 fue nada menos que Is This It de The Strokes, seguido [...]
Tempo di classifiche di fine anno anche per NME , la prestigiosa -e controversa- rivista britannica. Votata dalla redazione e da una selezione di musicisti e addetti ai lavori, arriva la classifica dei 100 migliori album del decennio che sta per finire. Tra i giurati: gli Arctic Monkeys, Carl Barat, i The Killers, Jarvis Cocker, Pete Doherty, gli Elbow, Johnny Marr, gli MGMT, Ian Brown, i The Big Pink, Snoop Dogg, Alan McGee, gli Yeah Yeah Yeahs e molti altri. Qualche sorpresa. Un gruppo inglese (i Libertines ) è stato scalzato dal podio da [...]
Music brag NME has crowned The Strokes' debut album 'This is It' as the best album of the decade. As the naughties come to a close NME (and a long list of music experts) voted for what they thought are the best 100 albums of the decade. With the concluding list spanning artists from Jay-Z to Johnny Cash and a few unexpected ones in between. The New York rockers beat off the likes of Primal Scream's 'XTRMNR' and 'Up The Bracket' by The Libertines to take the holy grail. Mike Skinner must be [...]
Music brag NME has crowned The Strokes' debut album 'This is It' as the best album of the decade. If that isn't enough encouragement for the boys to get cracking with their next album release then I don't know what is. As the naughties come to a close NME (and a long list of music experts) voted for what they thought are the best 100 albums of the decade. With the concluding list spanning artists from Jay-Z to Johnny Cash and a few unexpected ones in between. The New York rockers beat off the [...]
Toronto - Seeing how it's the end of the year AND the end of decade, you will see a whole lotta best of lists coming out. The blog Largehearted Boy has kept track of many blogs so far, so you can take a look at that. Everyone's favorite British hype magazine NME has already declared the Strokes' This is It to be the top album of the decade. What does everyone think about this list? Probably not the most accurate, but still worth talking about. 1. The Strokes – 'Is This It' [...]
Here's the weird thing about the British: In general, they have much better taste in music than Americans. While we waste our time on interchangeable pop stars, they're singing the praises of Gossip's Beth Ditto. But their likes and dislikes are very particular - and, in general, they seem to love the kinds of semi-mainstream/semi-indie bands that become one-hit wonders or just never make a huge splash in the U.S. and then fairly quickly fall out of favor with the music-geek set. For example: NME has just named its #1 album of the '00s... and it's [...]
In news we just feel obligated to report on, the son of Sir Paul McCartney , James, recently formed a group called The Light . McCartney will be playing guitar along with Bryan Johnson on drums and Charlie Turner on bass. Both Johnson and Turner grew up in Allerton, the same area of Liverpool that Sir Paul spent his childhood and inspired many of his future hits. McCartney met his bandmates about a year ago after being introduced to each other by producer David Kahne. The Light is said to be currently mixing its [...]
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Hos, Hookers, Call Girls & Rent Boys collects stories, poems, and essays by sex workers. Compiled by David Henry Sterry and RJ Martin, Jr., the book organizes this collection of refreshingly genuine and brutally honest writings by category (love, life, money, etc.). The New York Times wrote of the book: "From the unappealing title, you might think this is a truly trashy [...]
Pitchfork may have usurped everyone with their best-of-the-decade list, but the floodgates are open now and many other publications are printing their nominations. Today (Nov. 17), the NME has produced a list of the albums they consider to be the best of the decade, and there are very few surprises. The paper was one of the earliest champions of the Strokes when they emerged at the beginning of the decade, and Is This It is their predictable number 1 choice. The list is male dominated and indie-centric—Jay Z's The Blueprint [...]
Their top picks are as follows: 1. The Strokes – 'Is This It' 2. The Libertines – 'Up The Bracket' 3. Primal Scream – 'Xtrmntr' 4. Arctic Monkeys – 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not' 5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – 'Fever To Tell' 6. PJ Harvey – 'Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea' 7. Arcade Fire – [...]
new music from vampire weekend – cousins + music video
No Curve Allowed (Grading This Week's New Tracks)
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HOT CHIP TAKE another crack at IT and I’m IN
