music: Sun Kil Moon - Admiral Fell Promises (2010)

I’m listening to theleaning tree right now with tears in my eyes..This song is fucking beautiful…

I got hold of Sun Kil Moon’s latest album today and the wait was worth it, it’s an instant favourite. 

Mark Kozelek does not really go into new territory with this one; it’s the usual singer/acoustic guitar combination from previous efforts. But let me tell you, this simple formula works perfectly for him.

This time he seems to be more drawn towards a flamenco guitar playing style, right from the first track Alesund, to the middle of the impressive Third and Seneca, one will catch glimpses of Spain.

True to his style, his songs are tempered by different tempos and moods.

As usual, the imagery he uses throughout his songs is related to places, people, situations and memory. That’s what his music is all about and what makes this wonderful album special: Memory.

On a side note, check out the awsome photography of Nyree Watts, the photographer that collaborates with Mr. Kozelek on his albums.

Reminds me of: Destroyer; places where I've been happy: Cape Town, bits and pieces of Barcelona and Luanda; the ocean...

10/10 I’m a fan….

music: Cat Power – Jukebox (2008)

This woman’s voice blows my mind, her rendition of Ramblin’ woman is absolutely incredible.

Jukebox is mostly a tribute to some of the songwriters that influenced her. Names like James Brown & the Famous Flames, Bob Dylan and Billie Holiday. Actually her cover of Billie Holiday’s Don’t explain is a fresh spin of the original. Great song, my favourite, along with Silver Stallion.

Cat Power’s folky/bluesy voice has a very intimate and honest feel to it.

Sometimes it feels like a light stroll on a sunny day (Silver stallion; Aretha sing one for me) and sometimes it feels like she’s baring her soul out (parts of Song to Bobby, and Ramblin’ woman).

But whatever the tempo, it feels almost as if each song was written by or for her. A difficult thing to achieve with covers, especially with such legendary songs. 

Reminds me of: Norah Jones, lazy sunday afternoons, Juno (Sea of Love), Love :)

9/10 Love her. Her mannerisms and the way she dances (or tries to)...

music: The XX - XX (2009)

I've been listening to this album non stop for the last week or so...

It's just great. It reminds me a lot of Depeche Mode's "Violator", one of my favourite albums ever.

The XX sound is uncomplicated and minimal.
Where they win is in all the dreamy warmness and mood they put in tracks like Shelter, my favourite Heart skipped a beat and Crystalised. It's the kind of music you can listen pretty much anywhere, in the car, with friends or alone.

The only flaw I could find was that as far as first albums go, this one is flawless...
Which of course, for a first album is great but always extremely dangerous. The pressure for an encore will be huge...

I highly recommend it.

Reminds me of: Depeche Mode's Violator, Portishead's Dummy and in some songs Dead Can Dance...Oh and I almost forgot The Joy Division.

9/10 an instant favourite.

music: Bjork - Debut (1993)

Debut does not exactly represent Bjork’s willingness to try every single weird sound that exists. 

It’s a trip hoppish album with quite a few danceable tracks (big time sensuality, there's more to life than this,  to name a few) and it's quite safe if compared with her sometimes completely novel (some say crazy) approach to making music (earth intruders anyone?).

But it only goes to show the diversity of this woman’s work, her range is ever expanding. Some call her over the top, I call her a genius. She’s still way ahead of her time musically. 

Plus she's really cute and totally huggable. 

Along with the following Post (1995) and Homogenic (1997), this album is my Bjork’s favourite.

Reminds me of:  Sigur Rós, early Tricky, Portishead, Trip hop, Massive Attack, Stephanie Sednaoui (great music vids), Anthony and the Johnsons

8/10 Me loves. My number one reason to want to visit Iceland, despite the cold. 

music: The tallest man on earth . Shallow Grave (2008)

Kristian Matsson's voice is fantastic...

Yes, the similarities with Bob Dylan are unavoidable and his simple use of guitar makes for a really striking similarity. 

But The Tallest man on earth stands on his own right as a great composer. Songs like Where do my bluebirds fly had me smiling long after listening to them. 

His music is light and simple (one man’s voice and his guitar) and that's where his magic resides.

Reminds me of: Bob Dylan, sunrise/sunset, American folk music. 

8/10 I highly recommended it for “those” bad days, it will lift your spirits. 

music: Richard Hawley – Richard Hawley (2007)

The first thing I thought upon hearing troublesome waters was…. hmm, this feels like Johnny Cash…

This ex Pulp member has a voice of gold. 

I’ve been listening to Sunflower, Time has made a change and my favourite Naked In Pitsmoor for the last 3 hours or so, and it just keeps getting better.

His sound is both masculine and warm. 

Although some might consider him a crooner, I think he has the voice of an old jackal.  A guy who’s been there, has loved and suffered. And now sings about his experiences and memories.

Actually for some dumb reason I think that that’s how David Carradine  would sound if he ever made an album as Bill, from the movie Kill Bill… It might be the timbre of his voice... oh well, me and my theories…

Reminds me of: Johnny Cash, David Fonseca, Mark Knopfler, Frank Sinatra

7/10 Solid  and beautiful singing. 

music: PJ Harvey . uh uh her (2004)

Polly Jean Harvey is the Devil.

She’s raw, she’s loud and her music is not exactly radio friendly.

But to call her a great musician and awesome lyricist is a serious understatement. I personally see her as the female equivalent of Nick Cave. Of course the Boatman's Call album and they having worked together in other projects, can only reinforce this notion. 

She sings with everything she has.

I absolutely love what she is able to accomplish with her voice, the way she sings about pain, about love and about life. My favourite track on this album is you come through for me. This songs gives me goosebumps, it's perfect.

Reminds me of: Man size, Nick Cave, L7 (the energy, not the tampon...), Anais Nin’s Under a glass bell, seagulls and small boats on the shore

9/10 This is not MTV

music: Smashing Pumpkins . Mellon collie and the infinite sadness (1995)

This album is nothing short of magical, from the beautiful first track that names the album, to the radio friendly tonight, tonight with its violins and Billy Corgan’s unique voice. To one of my all time favorite songs: the wonderful 1979.

Mellon Collie will definitely take you places. In my case, it reminds me of the insecure (but free in a way that only teenagers can be) boy I used to be. 1979 in particular reminds of all the possibilities, fears and expectations I used to have as a 17/18 year old... I was a seriously fucked up kid, therefore pretty normal :)

While it is true that the track listening could have been arranged differently, and some tracks like we only come out at night kind of stand out as odd in the middle such of great tunes, this album can still be considered a classic.

Reminds me of : teenagehood, Larry Clark kids, Sofia Coppola's Virgin Suicides, having crushes on pratically every girl I met, feeling awkward afterwards :)

8/10 Smashing Pumpkins at it's best. 

music: In the Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2 (2008)

I grew up listening to Waldemar Bastos voice on the radio. He is hands down one of the most beautiful voices the Angolan and African music market has ever heard (those who’ve heard velha chica, know exactly what I mean).

His interpretation of love is blindness alone makes this album unique.

When combined with giants like Angélique Kidjo (reinterpreting mysterious ways) and Vusi Mahlasela (sometimes you can’t make it on your own), you have a veeeery special record in your hands.

Track Listing:
1. Angelique Kidjo “Mysterious Ways”
2. Vieux Farka Touré “Bullet The Blue Sky”
3. Ba Cissoko “Sunday Bloody Sunday”
4. Vusi Mahlasela “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own”
5. Tony Allen “Where The Streets Have No Name”
6. Cheikh Lô “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”
7. Keziah Jones “One”
8. Les Nubians “With Or Without You”
9. Soweto Gospel Choir “Pride (In The Name Of Love)”
10. Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars “Seconds”
11. African Underground All-Stars Featuring Chosan, Optimus & Iyeoka “Desire”
12. Waldemar Bastos “Love Is Blindness”
 

Reminds me of: Jubilee 2000, U2, Africa, Angola, IMF vs Africa, Mali Music by Ko Kan Ko Sata Doumbia, Toumani Diabate, Afel Bocoum and Damon Albarn

8/10 Rip it, download it or steal it, but have it in your album collection.

music: Sun Kil Moon - April (2008)

Some say that music is memory. And this concept is true in Mark Kozelek’s music and lyrics. 

While sharing his experiences in songs like Tonight In Bilbao, one cannot help but look back into the past for similar feelings of belongingness to a geographic place. 

In my case, this song reminded me of my town, Luanda, seen from the eyes of a kid on the passenger seat of my mother’s car.

I really recommend this guy's music, his voice is that of a man who has somewhat lived and is trying to look back into his past, without necessarily trying to explain it. In that sense (lyrically) his songs remind me a lot of  Leonard Cohen’s later albums.

Although not in this album, Sun Kil Moon's epic song Duk Koo Kim, is an all time favourite of mine. Read the story behind the music.

Reminds me of: Leonard Cohen's Avalanche and In my secret life, Duk Koo Kim VS Ray Mancini the fight, meeting with old friends, Jeff Buckley singing Halelujah, Dr.House

9/10 A very special album

music: Tori Amos – Little Earthquakes (1992)

Neil Gaiman was right on when he created the character Delirium of the Endless, inspired by Tori Amos. 

Actually I think that if the Endless ever became a movie (God I hope not, it’s perfect as it is) Tori could also play Death, she has that calmness that comes with having seen it all. On a side note, Nick Cave would have done great as Dream, PJ Harvey as Desire/Despair, Bono’s McPhisto as a sexy version of Destruction, and maybe the great Johnny Cash as Destiny.

But back to Tori Amos. She belongs to a handful of artists that defy description. She was there long before the Alanis Morrissettes, and way before the Gagas. As singers go by, she’s pretty much perfect. 

Her lyrics deal with sometimes very personal subjects (such as rape, her relationship with her father, God, love) and the way she plays that piano is just insanely beautiful.

Tear in your hands  is one of my favourite songs ever and by itself a great reason to get Little Earthquakes.

Reminds me of: U2 (feat McPhisto) Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Car, Nick Cave Into my arms (and of pretty much everything he does), Johnny Cash hurt, The Endless, Mike Carey’s character  Lucifer.

9/10 this is an album to cherish

music: Lenny Kravitz . mamma said (1991)

As a 14 years old kid, living and studying in a city I did not want to be in, with not that many friends and extremely bored. I relied a lot on music to dream, to experience and to lift my spirits up. Music is capable of all these things. And of many more.

Mamma said is one of these albums that held me up in this difficult period.

From what I know this album was made right after or while Kavitz was separating from his wife. And knowing that, gives, obviously, another dimension to classics such as stand by my woman.

I personally think that this album is unique in Lenny Kravitz career, in the sense that musically it’s more diverse in his otherwise almost completely rock discography. It draws form a multitude of genres, from jazz, to funk, to rock.

Reminds me of: growing up, John Legend again, High fidelity the movie, Maxwell Drowndeep hula

Released in: 1991 

8/10 a Lenny Kravitz classic.

music: Bon Iver - For Emma

I fell in love with Bon Iver’s music from the moment I heard them on youtube.

This album feels like a warm blanket on a very cold night. And it figures, since it was apparently composed during a 3 month stay  at a winter cabin somewhere in northern USA (check the album's Wikipedia) by Justin Vernon.

In For Emma, Justin’s layered voice conveys an incredible sense of solitude and contemplation of things and of feelings.

The winter is omnipresent in this album, and it serves as a metaphor for something resembling melancholy. But from a point of view of someone who has lived, matured and who understands that the past is the past, and that all experiences are unique.

I recommend Blindsided and re: stacks as an introduction to this bands music.

Reminds me of: winter, Boards of Canada, Eric Serra The Big Blue (ouverture) (for the atmosphere, even though it's the sea)..

9/10 Highly recommended. It will warm you up.

music: Destroyer - Trouble in dreams

My interpretation of Dan bejar’s music is that of a series of cuts from different movies put together, in such a way that they seem like one huge scene. And he has a frikkin' wiki. 

His lyrics are poetry. Like Jacques Prevert, he seems to have the ability to pull you into his sometimes colorful world of words, even if you don’t always understand what it’s all about. Libby’s first sunrise, foam hands and specially shooting rockets (couldn't find worthy youtube links, so...) are pearls to be heard over and over again.

Reminds me of: Jacques Prevert Paroles (in French), the Nouvelle Vague movement, specially certain scenes from "À bout de souffle"... go figure... 

9/10 One of my favourites

reboot

ok let's try a reboot of the blog and see what happens. :)

see you there!