krj
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Favorite Albums and Songs of 2000
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Jan 1 02:56 UTC 2001 |
OK, fellow critic wannabees! It's time to get those "Best of 2000"
lists turned in. By my rules, it's a 2000 album if you bought it
in 2000.
A significant number of you are now taking your music one MP3
file at a time, so please give us your list of favorite downloaded
songs.
Please try to say something about each entry, so this doesn't
become just a dry list of title.
((( Linked between Agora and Music conferences. )))
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krj
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response 1 of 33:
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Jan 1 03:04 UTC 2001 |
2000 seems like the year I parted company with the US music industry,
even its independent and folkie components. Only one album on my
list had any real distribution in America.
Kristi Stassinopolou, ECHOTROPIA
Greek folk crossed with 70s progressive rock, according to the
promo. Folk Roots magazine, normally my pole star in roots music,
hated this disc because it was so retro.
Steve Andre' thought she sounded ethereal.
Gwenc'hlan, ...A NOS CONNIERES
Folk rock from Brittany in France, another 70s retro trip.
Crunchy electric guitars, and bombarde and bagpipes.
Lo'Jo, BOHEME DE CRYSTAL
A different sound from France. Denis Pean sings in a
croak approximating that of Tom Waits, and two Arabic sisters
sing in sweet harmonies; the instrumentals are a blending of
French gypsy cafe music and North African pop. Seeing this
band at the Detroit Festival of the Arts was, along with the
Hedningarna shows the same weekend, the highlight of this year's
live concerts.
Geoffrey Oryema, SPIRIT
Amadou & Mariam, TJE NI MOUSSO
Two great African rock albums with a tremendous influence from
the west. Oryema's been influenced by his association with
Peter Gabriel; Amadou & Mariam are steeped in the R&B
tradition of the Stax/Volt sound.
Spacannopoli, LOST SOULS
Band of Italians, descended from a group of trade unionists.
On Peter Gabriel's Real World label, so it's the only item on my list
available in retail shops.
Oysterband, GRANITE YEARS: THE BEST OF...
The Oysters were my favorite band from 1986-1992, and then they
went into a graceful decline until they seemed to run out of
gas around 1999. This 2-cd set from their old label
Cooking Vinyl is fun for me because it collects the few songs
I enjoyed from their later albums.
www.wen.com/radio
Charlie Gillett's show "World Music Charts Europe" for May 2000
was the best hour of music I'd heard in years. The show sampled
13 albums and I bought 8 of them, including Kristi Stassinopolou,
Geoffrey Oryema, and Amadou & Mariam from my list.
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scott
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response 3 of 33:
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Jan 1 15:56 UTC 2001 |
Hmmm... It's hard to pin stuff down to whether it happened in 2000 or not.
Lesseee... I didn't buy much this year. So most of these will just be the
things I bought, rather than trying to pick favorites. Yup, a bad year in
American music.
1. Pete Townshend, "Lifehouse Chronicles". This is the big 6-CD set from
the aborted "Lifehouse" project back in the 70's. Definitely a few gems in
here, although there's a lot of stuff I don't much care for as well.
2. The Fullerenes, "Better Dating Through Technology". Yet another local
band which is already gone. Not the greatest production, but the songs are
a lot of fun.
3. Jello Biafra, a couple of 3-CD spoken word albums. OK, not music, but
he was the lead singer for the Dead Kennedys. This guy ought to be required
programming opposite Rush Limbaugh, except for the fact that our conservative
owned media monopolies will never let that happen.
Gosh, what else? I think I got into the Red Elvises in 1999, and I wasn't
real happy with the latest Aimee Mann release.
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