Another stripped down, simple song from Germany, this time sung by a really cute, baby-faced lad. A gentle ballad as opposed to Lena’s creepy cool or her bubbly quirk, it continues a strong series of songs from the nation.
4. Switzerland
The lead singer many be scarily manscaped, but Switzerland’s entry is a fantastic dance rock track. It’s a genre growing in popularity in Eurovision entries. Catchy and unforgettable. Plus- love the accented vocals.
3. Slovenia
My BFF Nina even likes this song. After the last few years apologizing for the over the top Christina wannabe and that other thingy (forgettable…), The best of the 2012 pop ballads has a strong vocalist in Eva Boto (seriously, girl, strong pipes) and a song with an interesting melody that is bolstered by militaristic drumming and a soaring melody.
2. Hungary
I had a soft spot for Kati Wolf’s fantastic dance ditty from last year, and Hungary returns with a power ballad that tugs at the heart-strings. Even my cold, cynical muscle grew three sizes too big when I heard it. Lovely.
1. Malta
I am a huge sucker for Eurotrash dance music, and this song is not only the best representation of that since Hadise got all “Dum Tek Tek”, it’s the best song Eurovision has this year. Infectious, celebratory, and dude, I need me some glow sticks stat.
DARK HORSEs: Iceland
I love it when we Scandinavians get all dark and stormy. I can never peg the Eurovision voters, either jury or televoting. Does this odd little Icelandic song fit in this years music scheme, or will it get ditched? I hope it goes through, because it’s a great song with an interesting structure.
Ireland
Because Jedward are an unstoppable force. Seriously, someone stop them. I beg you. Or at least give them Ritalin.
It's a trick they do with mirrors and with chemicals.
Picking one Elvis Costello record from the reams and reams of worthy Elvis Costello records should have been a nightmare. But it wasn’t. King of America has always been my favourite album by the awesome and brilliant Declan MacManus. There was never any question in my mind it would be on this list, and that it would feature high on it. He shot to fame the year I was born, and he remains the one musician that has never, ever, EVER disappointed me.
This album takes EC away from his humble new wave punk rock beginnings and entrenched him as the man who can do everything. This rich, soulful, country tinged album is criminally overlooked, even within his own catalogue. It breaks my heart.
This ended up being way harder than I thought it would be. At the end of November, I wasn’t happy with my preliminary list, but knew two potentials were being released shortly and that it would change the line up. Then when I locked it down, the list just felt wrong. So I did something I never do:
I delayed publication and listened to every 2011 I own. Repeatedly.
Instead of my usual yuletide, Pogues induced December music coma, I listened to thirty particular albums over and over and over. Then I opened the list back up and made some changes. Hence the late publication date.
But under the cut are the twenty albums I like best. Some people will be disappointed by the exclusion of one particular album. Some will be surprised by the inclusion of others. But I will say this. 2011 wasn’t a grand year for music, but man, some of it was freakin’ fantastic.
Thanks to all the people who threw suggestions out at me over the year. I appreciate it, and you all pointed me to bands I would have never given a chance otherwise. Merci, gracias, danke, tak, go raibh mile maith agat.
I could say something. But really, all I can say is that I played on my grandparents Mac as a child and I would die without my iPod. And Steve Jobs gave me both of those things.
It is completely irrational. They’re only a band. Many other bands I love have broken up. Many of those bands have gotten back together for reunion tours. I didn’t even cry when the Smiths disbanded, when I was a child and more prone to overreaction.
But when the news of R.E.M.’s break-up came over my Twitter feed yesterday, I was rendered speechless. It’s not even as if the news was shocking, per se. The band has been uneven since Bill Berry left in the late nineties, and their different projects have taken over their lives.
Some music about New York, love, loss, and everything in between after the cut. It’s ten years worth of thought, anger, frustration, relief and love in several YouTube videos- politics, hymns, accidents of time, and Steve Earle.
I think Idol critics mistaken the word “star” for something completely different than what I believe it means. “Star” doesn’t mean Madonna. It means someone who has a loyal and rabid fan base that does consistently well. Kelly and Carrie may have exceeded the expectations, but need I remind you that both had rather mediocre début albums. Kelly made her name on her second album, and Carrie was saved from country obscurity by “Before He Cheats”, which crossed over by being a great song.
David Cook’s major label, Idol champion album was a really good record, and it went platinum in a world where platinum once again is a difficult thing to achieve. He also pulled a Kelly and demanded more of an input on his follow-up. As I am a huge fan of his before-Idol indie release Analog Heart, I was excited. As much as I loved David Cook, the rush to make the Christmas market left me wondering about some of the choices. As great as “Light On”, “Bar-Ba-Sol”, and “Come Back To Me” are, there are unworthy songs that haven’t sat well with me years after the initial rush. I trust David’s judgement for the most part, and I hope the natural evolution of Idol winners careers gives me a superior album.
Desert Island Discs, the long running BBC radio programme, recently uploaded a tonne of their archived programming from the late 90s till now on to iTunes. I highly recommend the series, which uses a parlour game where one person (in this case, a celeb of some type) chooses eight songs, one book, plus a luxury of some sort (which cannot be a person, nor can it be an iPod thanks to Nick Hornby) to be cast away with. I have posted a desert island list before (three in fact). But I have decided, while listening to a slew of these programmes this last week on my walks home from work, to play the BBC game.
Some of you who go way back in the archives and read the post that served as the introduction to the list, you will recall that i had put my foot down about two certain artists. I have to admit, in reality, it was five artists that I decided could not end up on the list. Two of them were clear- the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. When you are the two greatest rock bands in the history of music, you cannot be considered for best of lists. You will top them. And let’s face it- they would have.
But I then expanded it to include Led Zeppelin, the Who, and the Beach Boys.
All five of the bands have albums widely considered to be amongst the greatest ever recorded. So any inclusion of their records meant that what I ultimately wanted to achieve, writing brief blurbs about records important to me that other people never heard of or never considered before, would be defeated by my love of music.
So I have put together a brief supplement to the list, seeing as we are reaching the half way point. My favorite Beatles, stones, Who, Zeppelin, and Beach Boys records under the cut. Warning: some of the choices are not as obvious as you might think.
My North American friends, the ones not as obsessed with everything music around the world no matter how obscure or terrible they may be ( hi, Soviet era pop music!) have tweeted me about Eurovision. They have all been touched by Eurovision, even if they didn’t realize it. I mean, they’ve all heard “Waterloo”. They haven’t been living in caves near Tora Bora.
But the following is a list of Eurovision songs they may not have heard of, but they should probably listen to. Just to round out their musical education.
I know the U.K. is the frontrunner with Blue’s “I Can”, but there are better songs. Expand your international music palette with the following bands and songs.
First, from Serbia, the lovely and charming Nina from Belgrade. She’s only 21, which explains how she can pull off the Mia Farrow pixie cut. Below is the English version of the song. It’s still awfully catchy.
If it weren’t for Casey Abrams, I’d write off the damn thing.
The girls were terrible. The boys were mediocre.
Steven and Jennifer were effusive and uncritical. When Randy is the voice of reason, something is wrong.
And DO NOT SING SONGS BY FORMER IDOL WINNERS. Also, stop singing “Fallin’”. How many fucking times do I have to tell you girls, stop singing that song?
Every goddamned year.
Although, I give credit to James for singing Judas Priest. Never thought I’d see the day. And Thia wasn’t horrible.
As it is, there is too much screechy shit, too many runs, too many off-key performances, too many weird dance moves, too many people I already dislike intensely ( Clint Jun, Lauren Alaina, Jordan). I just want it all to stop.
Casey for the win. I love Mumford and Sons. And he looks like he belongs in that group. And I also love “I Put A Spell on You”, which was TyraBanksSays FIERCE.
I swear these reviews will get better once I start really giving a damn. Somewhere around top four.
In a few days, it’ll all be over and we can return to hating our fellow man instead of pretending to get along.
So here are the last few Christmas songs, including my favourite. And what’s my favourite shouldn’t surprise a single reader. If it does, you aren’t paying attention.
First, some John Cale. Okay, it’s technically less a Christmas song than a whatever it is, but it’s John Cale. He’s better than you. He plays the viola. You don’t.
Next… I want one too.
Ladies and gentlemen, the legend herself, Miss Eartha Kitt, and that purr.
Thanks to Staples adverts, I now associate this song with the back to school sales. But it is a Christmas track.
The original- Darlene Love. U2 my ass.
This is one of my favourite Christmas tracks of all time- because I love beagles.
And finally- the single Christmas track ever in the history of mankind. The Pogues. Kirsty MacColl. And a really bad day.
I broke one of my rules. I had to. I couldn’t make the choices I needed to make, so I dumped two songs I like but was really unenthusiastic about and-
I repeated artists.
I tend not to do that, simply because I believe you should try to allow as many artists on these lists as possible. There is always someone who reads them and discovers something new. If you repeat artists, it means that some band isn’t getting a spot on a list to be found out. It pains me. There are so many great bands.
But there were two artists that each had so many songs that I just could help myself. they each have two slots. The other sixteen- well, there is a lot of overlap between this list and my albums list. The year in music was quite terrible for quality singles. That explains why “Teenage dream” is on so many of them.
I’m three days behind my daily list (love life). My kids and I have decorated our tree and began eating the chocolate out of the advent calendars. And the girls are listening to the Glee Christmas album with shrieks of delight. So, I’m here to give the next three songs and catch up to the day. Yes, folks, it is a musical advent calendar for you.
First off, I would like to dedicate the next one to my lovely, charming BFF Jayme, who loves this song, as do I. There is no way this duet should have worked. But it does.
One of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written melody composed by Adolphe Adam and the best know version is with the poetic lyrics of one John Sullivan Dwight. It’s a hymn that people love to sing but few can sing well. There is that note, after all, that only dogs and Celine Dion can hear. I went with my favourite version, by the legendary Nat “King” Cole.
Finally, a modern Christmas classic that just makes me smile. It’s terrible. Just terrible. But it is Bill Nighy.
Ah, Christmas. I may hate the actual day itself, but I love the music.
Yeah, you don’t look all that shocked by either of those things,
This year I’ll be playing you some of my favourite Christmas songs ever. Some of them reflect the only time I ever actually like going to Church was at Christmas, or that I love Slade, or that I really love the Pogues.
We will start with the U.K. christmas classic, with Noddy Holder and gang bringing us glam and poor spelling with “Merry Christmas Everybody”, the one time Noddy didn’t misspell something.
The Grammy Awards and I have a long, troubled, often violent history. Okay, the violence has all been pretty much one-sided, and began in 1989 when Jethro Tull beat Metallica in the inaugural Best Heavy Metal Album category. I threw something at the TV, because even at twelve I knew Jethro Tull was about as metal as a nun on spiritual quest in Lourdes. The Grammys have been known to often get it terribly, horrifically wrong over the years. Elvis Presely’s only Grammys came for his gospel work, not his pop music. Christopher Cross dominated the 1981 Grammys- I’d rather have seen The Wall win and I hate post-Syd Pink Floyd on the whole, and that album in particular. The last thirty years of the Grammys existence has pretty much been embarrassing, save for the occasional moment of reason and real taste. Let me just refresh your memories:
Milli Vanilli as Best New Artist. “Don’t Worry Be Happy” as Song Of the Year when it clearly should have gone to “Faith” by George Michael. “Somewhere Out There” as Song of the Year in 1988- the year of The Joshua Tree winning album of the year. Practically every winner of the Rock categories in 1994. Every single one of the rap categories between 1989 and 1994. Most of the Album of the year winners since 1995.
The 2010 Polaris Prize for Music was handed out tonight in Toronto. Like the Mercury Prize in the U.K., it honors one band’s album for the year as the best in the nation.
I watched the live stream on MuchMusic.com like a good little music geekazoid, and I must give props to Sirius for being a huge sponsor of the shindig. Also thanks to CBC Radio 3 and the ever-present FACTOR, who Canadian musicians rely on for financial help for video and recording funds. There are other sponsors as well, and they are all lovely. Especially the Oakville vodka people, Tag, because it’s great vodka. And yes, thanks to the Government of Canada as well, for at least supporting the arts without (much) hesitation.
This years short list included:
The Besnard Lakes, The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night (Montreal).
Broken Social Scene, Forgiveness Rock Record (Toronto).
Caribou, Swim (Dundas, Ont.).
Karkwa, Les Chemins de Verre (Montreal).
Dan Mangan, Nice, Nice, Very Nice (Vancouver).
Owen Pallett, Heartland (Toronto).
Radio Radio, Belmundo Regal (Grosse Coque, N.S., Moncton, N.B., and Pointe-à-l’Église, N.S).
The Sadies, Darker Circles (Toronto).
Shad, TSOL (London, Ont.).
Tegan and Sara, Sainthood (Vancouver and Montreal).
My daughters are all music fans of various passion levels. My eldest remains stubborn in her tastes. My youngest loves all music, but favours the bass heavy sounds of funk and rap, as she is hearing impaired and Parliament really rattles the floors. My middle one prefers my jazz collection, and cannot abide my punk collection. They are a fractured bunch. So it surprised me when I over heard my eldest commenting to a friend on her cell phone, “Yeah, my mum is a huge fan of the Kinks. I can’t stand them. But they are a huge part of my life.”
It made me consider my life. I rarely hate any artist outright, but I have a deep intolerance for the music of Johnny Horton. He was my dad’s favourite. I thought him a whiny idiot singing about the Civil War. Nasally. Ick.
I have been asked on several occasions by various people in my life what I would bring to a desert island if only given a certain amount of music, books, and movies. I have decided to take this and turn it into a series of posts, because that’s what I do – take memes and think about them incessantly until I give in and write about them.
Generally, I’m asked what ten albums, books, and dvds would I take. I’m going to stick with those parameters. I started with books, since there was that blogger meme running around a few weeks back that made me contemplate it. Now, for the truly difficult one- albums. All those records, only ten to take.
The first time I ever heard Alex Chilton’s marvellous voice was when I was about five or six and “The Letter” came on the radio. My mom, a child of the sixties, would always have some random oldies station on, where the Supreme’s “Love Child” seemed to play every hour, causing me to hate that song with a passion. But “The Letter”, while steeped in ’60s pop, seemed different from most of what that station played. It was a short burst of sunshine and lollipops. It impressed my young self enough to stop listening to “Bullfrogs and Butterflies” and start listening to R.E.M.
Alex Chilton was a mere sixteen when ” The Letter” became a smash single. He would never be that huge again. After the Box Tops disbanded in 1970, he went solo, only to join up with the blue-eyed soul-power pop band Big Star, who hailed from his hometown of Memphis.
Big Star is at turns one of the greatest and one of the saddest rock and roll stories ever. They helped create the power pop movement, influenced by the Brits, the Byrds and Stax Records simultaneously. Chris Bell was actually the original driving force behind Big Star, Chilton joined later, and from the beginning, they made magic happen. I don’t care where you start, but go buy a Big Star album.
Big Star shined brightly for three short years before record company shenanigans brought them down in 1974, and Chilton then went on to a sporadic but influential solo career. As a new generation of artists began to proclaim the influence of Big Star on their own music ( R.E.M. is an obvious successor, the Replacements wrote a song called “Alex Chilton”, and Counting Crows singer Adam Duritz is known for changing the “Mr. Jones” lyric from “I wanna be Bob Dylan” to “I wanna be Alex Chilton” in concert). He reformed Big Star in the early ’90s and continued to tour with them and a reformed Box Tops until his death.
Die-hard music geeks all know his name and love him. Everyone who owns a TV has at least heard “In The Street”, a classic track from Big Star’s first album that served as the theme for That ’70s Show. Everyone knows ”The Letter”. Alex Chilton may not have been the biggest music star in the world, but his influence reaches far and wide throughout modern music. And he deserves all the praise being heaped on him now.
Ultimately, all I can hope for is that some kid out there hears “September Gurls” and picks up a guitar and decides that he wants to be Alex Chilton.
