Monthly Archive for November, 2010

AlmostAGhost’s Best Albums Of 2010 – #22. Rose Elinor Dougall – Without Why

Published by almostaghost on November 30, 2010 in almostaghost and review. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .
Without Why

without the Pipettes

#22. Rose Elinor Dougall – Without Why

Rose Elinor Dougall was one of the original members of The Pipettes, who rose to fame for their irreverant British songs, polka-dotted hotness, and ’50s girl group sound. She left that group after one album, and recorded Without Why, her first solo album. Dougall is a bit more serious than the Pipettes, her songs mostly about love and all its infinite worries.

The album flows well, going from delicate to atmospheric to Johnny Marr-like guitar and back. Dougall’s voice is strong and pure, her British accent charming. Not many singers can sing “my liver, my lungs, my arteries and my cerebral faculties are corroded” with such beauty. On “Third Attempt,” she sings “no-one could shine so brightly / no, no-one could burn so fiercely all the time / but when we did, my darling / you know the world was yours and mine.” The way she sings “my darling” is probably my favorite thing on the whole record. There are a few tracks which remind me of The Pipettes a bit too much (“Start/Stop/Synchro” and “Carry On”), which is fine, I guess, but I could do without. The highlights are the slow burns: “Find Me Out,” “Third Attempt,” “Watching” carry this album, and give it an unexpected weight.

The album closes with “May Holiday,” where Dougall sings “who knows where this leads? Where all of this may lead?” This seems to sum up her prevailing wonderings about love, but also, surely, her new and unknown path as a solo artist. The unknown and unsure can lead somewhere good, or maybe not, but you can follow that road without knowing why. Sometimes it ends up with a cool album like Without Why.

Rose Elinor Dougall – “Find Me Out”

Rose Elinor Dougall – “May Holiday”

- almostaghost

AlmostAGhost’s Best Albums Of 2010 – #23. Pterodactyl Plains – Raven

Published by almostaghost on November 29, 2010 in almostaghost and review. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
Montana's finest

only room in that straitjacket for you

#23. Pterodactyl Plains – Raven

I won’t lie, I know nothing about Pterodactyl Plains. I grabbed their record because I thought their name was cool. So this review will be woefully uninformed. Raven starts with some guitar and quiet humming, before delving into a diverse and excellent bunch of songs. Some of the songs sound like a band, some use drum machines/synths, others folky, some pop jazz. But all sound like Pterodactyl Plains wrote these songs somewhere far away, and they’re slightly twisted due to the isolation.

The main highlight is the singer, whoever she is. She has a voice that is both kind of crazy and inviting at the same time, like a cross between PJ Harvey and Norah Jones. Really, that’s lame, I should look up her name, hold on a sec. OK, her name is Jessica Kilroy. The group appears to be her and another guy, Kier Atherton, who also sings a little at the end of the record. Oh, they’re from Montana. (I was right about them isolated in nowhere, haha.). Anyway, there are two things underlying these songs which make them stand out: touches of psychedelia (the slight twistedness I’ve mentioned) and touches of groove. The groove is important. A lot of similar bands ignore that part entirely. (Looking at you, Beach House.)

Pterodactyl Plains. Is that actually a place in Montana then? I don’t know. But I do know that I really like this album they’ve made. I always appreciate bands that toss in lots of sounds and styles, while still maintaining their own thing. I’m also a sucker for female singers. So that adds up to one of my top albums of the year.

Here are a couple of tracks! Hope you like them as much as I do.

Pterodactyl Plains – Red Umbrella

Pterodactyl Plains – Straitjacket

- almostaghost

AlmostAGhost’s Best Albums Of 2010 – #24. Frightened Rabbit – The Winter Of Mixed Drinks

Published by almostaghost on November 28, 2010 in almostaghost and review. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
Frightened Rabbit - The Winter Of Mixed Drinks

am I a man or a bag of sand?

#24. Frightened Rabbit – The Winter Of Mixed Drinks


The Winter Of Mixed Drinks is a sharp album, by the severely underrated Frightened Rabbit. Frightened Rabbit is a band from Scotland, who have turned out a few consistently great albums already. Their music sounds a bit like shoegaze, but if it were more upbeat and happy. Is there such a thing as happy shoegaze music? That’s probably an oxymoron. But Frightened Rabbit uses the waves of guitar and keyboards from shoegaze, and adds dramatic swells, upbeat momentum, clever harmony vocals. It’s a great sound. At first listen, they can sound like a typical indie garage band, but there really is much more going on which rewards repeated listens.

Similarly, Scott Hutchison (Frightened Rabbit’s lyricist) explores the usual shoegaze areas, but in a more optimistic way. He can explore the dark corners of loneliness and depression as well as anyone, but never does it in a hopeless or bleak way. Most of the tracks on Mixed Drinks seem to encompass a longing to move on, trying to recreate yourself. There is a lot of existential figuring-things-out (“am I dancing? Or simply spinning in my own grave?” and “are you a man or a bag of sand?” for example). At the same time, the ideas of escape and rebirth show up throughout the album, which adds slivers of hope to the sadness. Near the end of the album (“Living In Colour”), he seems to even find his way out, even if momentarily: “but as the night started swallowing / you pulled the blood to my blue lip / forced the life through still veins / filled my heart with red again.”

Here’s a couple of tracks:

Frightened Rabbit – “Nothing Like You”

Frightened Rabbit “Not Miserable”

- almostaghost

AlmostAGhost’s Best Albums Of 2010 – #25. Sophie Zelmani – I’m The Rain

Published by almostaghost on November 26, 2010 in almostaghost and review. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .
some prefer the sunlight

some prefer the sunlight

#25. Sophie Zelmani – I’m The Rain

In thinking about I’m The Rain, Sophie Zelmani’s eighth album, I am struck by how similar it is to basically everything else she’s done. Artists certainly often maintain their own style, but most also branch out a bit (especially by their 8th album). Zelmani, on the other hand, does much the same thing over and over. I have heard, and love, all of her records, but none stands out above any other. She has matured a bit, but I’m The Rain‘s personality does not differ from that of any of her other albums. Normally, I would find this problematic or frustrating, but it never bothers me at all with Zelmani. I want more albums from her, and I want them all to be like this one. (And that’s what she gives me!)

I’m The Rain continues Zelmani’s use of very elemental metaphors. I assume it is because she is Swedish, yet writing in English, but her songs tend to be about love, ships, rooms, weather, time—all the basics. She doesn’t get fancy. But again, this is not a criticism: the lyrics fit the light touch of the music very well, and are even more perfectly matched to her shy, whispered vocals. Less poetic, sure, but Zelmani’s lyrics come off as pure expressions. For instance, the opening lines of “If I Could” are: “if I could give anything, I would / if my thoughts could do you good / If I could help you with this part of life, you’d get a lift / You could load your weight on me.” Not the most beautiful lines ever written, but when you hear it, you know she feels it and is saying what she wants to say. What more could you want?

I’m The Rain frequently borders on sad, but in the end is quite hopeful. She is always on that borderline. She uses piano riffs a bit more on this record to enhance the mood, and the acoustic-guitar beds on which she lays her voice can be surprisingly complicated (check that Spanish guitar on “You Can Always Long For May” below). As Zelmani sings, “some prefer the sunlight and some like the rain,” and well, if she’s the rain, that’s what I prefer.

“You Can Always Long For May”

“Interior Design”

- almostaghost

AlmostAGhost’s Best Albums Of 2010 Countdown (26-50)

Published by almostaghost on November 25, 2010 in almostaghost. 1 Comment Tags: , .

OK, so starting tomorrow I will countdown/review my top 25 albums of 2010. Yes, I’m taking a slight chance nothing awesome is released over the next month, but I think I got it covered. :) I’ll try to post a new one every day, but we’ll see how the schedule goes. I’ll do my best to finish by the end of the year, when I will also share my best-of-2010 mix of songs. (I’ll include mp3s and media with each post as well.)

To get it started though, I’ll just list my #26-50 with some short occasional thoughts:

26. Mavis Staples: You Are Not Alone [Jeff Tweedy produced... so much soul]
27. Arcade Fire: The Suburbs [growing on me a bit, love the lyrics, mixed on the music]
28. Laura Marling: I Speak Because I Can
29. Jamie Lidell: Compass [Beck had his hand in a lot of albums this year. this was the craziest.]
30. Grinderman: Grinderman 2
31. Charlotte Gainsbourg: IRM [another Beck production, very solid and at times affecting]
32. The Black Keys: Brothers
33. Janelle Monáe: The ArchAndroid [so much win]
34. The Knife: Tomorrow, In A Year [had trouble placing this, it's nothing you've heard before, both good and bad]
35. Beck & Os Mutantes & Liars & St. Vincent: Kick [Beck and friends playing INXS? remarkable]
36. Engineers: In Praise Of More
37. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan: Hawk
38. Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy [never liked his music but this has some great stuff. Bon Iver, for reals?]
39. Midlake: The Courage Of Others [they've gone all '70s British folk...and it works]
40. Amiina: Puzzle
41. Sharon Van Etten: Epic
42. Beach House: Teen Dream
43. Tift Merritt: See You On The Moon [as always, lovely]
44. J. Tillman: Singing Ax
45. John Legend & The Roots: Wake Up!
46. School Of Seven Bells: Disconnect From Desire
47. The Pipettes: Earth vs. The Pipettes
48. Nicki Minaj: Pink Friday [she's absolutely bonkers and I kinda love it more than I should]
49. Belle & Sebastian: Write About Love
50. Neil Young: Le Noise

PS. To any other writers on this blog, please post your favorites sometime by the end of the year too!

- almostaghost

That’s Soul (mix)

Published by almostaghost on November 23, 2010 in mixes. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Hi, I made a mix of soul music for any of you readers who either like soul or are interested in it. It’s one of my favorite music styles–the passion and feeling that these singers put into their songs can knock anyone out.

The mix has got a good response, and I think I may start making more mixes on different genres (even ones I don’t know very well!). Anyway, here it is, I hope it’s enjoyable:

- almostaghost

Brian Eno – Small Craft On A Milk Sea

Published by almostaghost on November 12, 2010 in review. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .
Small Craft On A Milk Sea

Slow Ice, Old Moon

Sorry for the interruption in my semi-regular posting. I had a computer meltdown, and was out of town for a week, and it just all added up.

So I return, with some thoughts on the new album by Brian Eno. Eno! Eno has always been a favorite of mine, almost anything he does I’m interested in hearing, whether he’s the artist or just the producer. Quite a lot of his work is absolutely amazing, this post would be way too long and off-topic if I were to explore it all here. Needless to say, I’m always glad when he has some new work, especially under his own name.

Eno’s work is usually divided categorized in four ways: songs, ambient, collaborator, producer. His career is pretty consistently top-notch, no matter which way he turns. His new album is Small Craft On A Milk Sea, and fits in between his ambient work and his collaborative work. That is, it was done with two other musicians (Leo Abrahams on guitar and Jon Hopkins on keys), so technically it is a collaboration. It is released under Eno’s name though, and comes very close to sounding like his solo ambient albums (esp. the later ones, like Music For Films). The 3 musicians do often lean a bit more towards electronics than technically pure ambient music.

In the end, it serves a similar purpose to ambient: beautiful background music, that moves slowly with minimal amount of engagement for the listener. There are some crunchier moments, some songs with a bit of rhythm in there, but overall, Eno is still doing (one of the many) things he does best: scoring music for movies that don’t exist.

Here’s a sample:

Calcium Needles

- almostaghost