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| Author |
Message |
krj
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Favorite Albums and Songs of 2003
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Jan 15 06:52 UTC 2004 |
OK, music fans! It's time to get those "Best of 2003" lists turned in!
By my rules, it's a 2003 album if you bought or downloaded it in 2003,
but feel free to apply your own rules.
Please try to say something about each entry so this doesn't become
just a dry list of titles. Music tastes are so fragmented these days
that few readers are likely to know much about any one person's
favorites.
Previous years' lists can be found in the Music and Music2 conferences.
((( Linked between Agora and Music conferences. )))
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| 14 responses total. |
krj
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response 1 of 14:
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Jan 15 06:59 UTC 2004 |
Martyn Bennett, GRIT
Samples of old recordings of Scottish traditional song, and old
texts, given a sparkling dance pop setting incorporating some
folk instrumentation. Yes, in spots that means Techno Bagpipes.
Bennett's fourth top-quality CD in a row; he's doing the most
consistent work of anyone I follow.
FOURTOLD
Cindy Mangsen, Steve Gillette, Anne Hills, Michael Smith;
an album full of story songs and old-fashioned harmony singing.
Anyone who loved 1960s folksinging needs this CD. Their
live workshop performance at the Philadelphia Folk Festival
was my best show of the year.
Richard Thompson, THE OLD KIT BAG
Richard Thompson, 1000 YEARS OF POPULAR MUSIC
Like other midcareer artists, RT has blossomed since leaving
the major label. THE OLD KIT BAG was the first studio album
in a decade which I truly enjoyed and played repeatedly.
1000 YEARS is a live musicology lesson ranging through
medieval song, folk song, Gilbert & Sullivan, music hall,
blues and rock.
Thea Gilmore, SONGS FROM THE GUTTER
British singer-songwriter who I like best in her rock stylings.
She's channelling The Pretenders, down to recruiting the old
Pretenders guitarist.
L'Ham de Foc, CANCO DI DONA I HOME
Male/Female duo from Spain doing original songs in a folk
idiom with an early music influence.
Dikanda, JAKHANA JAKHANA
Second album from the most obscure great band I know.
Polish folk group with a fabulous rhythmic sense does music
from all across Eastern Europe.
John Spiers & Jon Boden, BELLOW
Accordion, fiddle and singing; English traditional song
delivered with energy and style. Somewhere Peter Bellamy
is smiling.
Luigi Cinque & Tarantula Hypertext Orchestra, TANGERINE CAFE
Moody late night jazz-roots stream-of-consciousness from
Italy.
--- Songs & Streams ---
Ketil Bjornstadt, GRACE
Poetry of John Donne in a jazz setting. The official CD release
was overblown; the BBC-streamed concert from the London Jazz
Festival stripped the arrangement to one singer, piano bass and drums,
and made it a classic beauty.
FRoots Radio, March 2003
This show appears monthly, and for some reason the March show
is the one which really caught my fancy this year.
Alas, I'm not sure this one is still online.
Nuova Agricola Associazione, "Vacri"
Italian folk band with contemporary influences. This song was
discovered on that March radio show, and I went to a lot of bother
to order the EP direct from the band. Only this one song is
worthwhile, alas, but it *has* stuck in my head for ten months,
down to the details of the final drum riff.
Coldplay, "Moses"
The White Stripes, "The Hardest Button To Button"
I stopped paying attention to current rock music about five
years ago and these are the first rock songs to catch my ear
since then. Suddenly I developed a craving for electric guitars
and started listening to BBC Radio 6; it will be interesting to
see where this leads in 2004.
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md
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response 2 of 14:
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Jan 15 12:12 UTC 2004 |
Mine are all new Naxos releases. Sheila Silver's Piano Concerto and
Six Preludes; Arnold Bax's 6th symphony, c/w "Into the Twilight"
and "Summer Music"; Samuel Barber's Vanessa (first new recording since
the original in the 1950s). Sheila Silver is highly recommended. I'd
never heard of her before the Naxos CD came out but now I'm a fan.
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ryan
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response 3 of 14:
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Jan 15 13:48 UTC 2004 |
This response has been erased.
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scott
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response 4 of 14:
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Jan 15 14:18 UTC 2004 |
I've been exposed to music I liked, but I couldn't say for sure it came out
in 2003.
Howe Gelb
The latest Nick Strange Group CD (did come out in 2003)
and, um... I'll have think about it.
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gull
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response 5 of 14:
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Jan 15 15:10 UTC 2004 |
This was actually released in 2002, but I bought it this year:
"In Violet Light" by The Tragically Hip. I think it's my favorite album
of theirs that I own. (They have ten albums, and I only own four so
far.) If you're not already a Hip fan, though, it may take a while to
grow on you; it'd be a bit like comining in in the middle. It might be
better to start with "Phantom Power", which is also an excellent album.
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happyboy
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response 6 of 14:
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Jan 15 23:40 UTC 2004 |
ry cooder and manuel galban: mambo sinuendo
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willcome
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response 7 of 14:
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Jan 15 23:47 UTC 2004 |
HEY< I"VE GOt that eonee~!
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krj
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response 8 of 14:
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Jan 19 19:53 UTC 2004 |
Ryan in resp:3 :: so what did you like this year that came out before
2003? It's like the NBC ads promoting old reruns: "If you haven't heard
it before, it's new to you!!"
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ryan
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response 9 of 14:
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Jan 19 20:17 UTC 2004 |
This response has been erased.
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jor
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response 10 of 14:
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Jan 24 20:05 UTC 2004 |
About a year ago, during the war buildup,
WDET kept playing this strange kind of
groove piece that I thought might have been Bjork.
IIRC, it turned out to be Sinead O'Connor singing
with 'Widespread Panic'.
Well I must not recall correctly, because now
I can find no trace of it:
"Don't be afraid . .
Let your, heart, sing"
Something like that. I need help.
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mcnally
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response 11 of 14:
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Jan 25 01:27 UTC 2004 |
Probably that's "What Your Soul Sings", a track she did with Massive Attack
on the last Massive Attack album, "100th Window".
I very highly recommend Massive Attack's classic trip-hop albums "Protection"
and "Mezzanine". I personally found "100th Window" very disappointing.
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bhoward
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response 12 of 14:
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Jan 25 04:05 UTC 2004 |
Mezzanine is my favorite by them. Love playing it when driving through
Tokyo at night for some reason.
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mcnally
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response 13 of 14:
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Jan 25 08:50 UTC 2004 |
"Mezzanine" is good but I prefer "Protection" and also "No Protection",
a dub-remix album of the tracks on "Protection" done by British dub
artist Mad Professor. But if he liked "What Your Soul Sings" he really
can't go wrong with either album.. "Blue Lines", their first album, is
also good but different enough I would think "Protection" or "Mezzanine"
would be better starting points.
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jor
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response 14 of 14:
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Feb 12 18:37 UTC 2004 |
Thanks. No wonder I couldn't find anything under
"Widespread Panic". Sheesh.
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