Here’s my list of CD’s for the month. Four highly anticipated releases, with only one true winner.
In My Room-September 2004
1.) Jeff Buckley-”Grace (Legacy Edition)” Jeff’s mom and Columbia got it right. “Forget Her” finally see’s the light of day in proper sound. Glorious re-mastering and numerous bonuses. Plus all the videos and EPK on DVD. Well worth the $25 price tag.
2.) Kings Of Convenience-”Riot On An Empty Street” A joyous, relaxing sophomore affair. Can’t wait for the remixes, especially if Four Tet gets his hand on some of the tracks. Features a great Canadian songbird named ,Fiest.
3.) Adem-”Homesongs” Former Fridge and Badly Drawn Boy member release first solo record with the help of Kieran Hebden (Four Tet). A somber, yet beautiful, modern folk record.
4.) Joanna Newsome-“The Milk-Eyed Mender” saw this woman open for Devendra Banhart awhile back. Kind of like an American folk version of Bjork. She plays a harp as well. Hunting record.
5.) Adrian Crowley-”A Northern Country” Irish singer-songwriter’s third release. Beautiful, simple and sad. What the Irish do best.
6.) Delays-“Faded Seaside Glamour” The Cocteau Twins meet The Hollies. British outfit’s debut is a Summertime pop/rock record. Great vocals as well. Can’t believe that lead singer is a guy., what a voice with a lot of range, as well.
7.) Bic Runga-”Beautiful Collision” New Zealand songbird released this record two years ago. Wonderful pop music, with the help of Neil Finn on a couple of tracks.
8.) Sons and Daughters-”Love The Cup” Scottish outfit that sounds a wee bit like Nancy and Lee meets X. Franz Ferdinand has been championing this band for awhile now. Not bad, but I have the Ba Da Bing (USA) release of this EP. I hear the Domino (UK) version has been remixed and sounds a lot better.
9.) The Blue Nile-”High” Of all the releases last month, I looked forward to this one the most. It’s not a bad record. It just doesn’t go anywhere. It’s almost like Paul, Robert and Paul J. are still stuck in the 90’s. This is the record that should have followed “Hats”. I still love the band and I wait patiently for another seven years till the next one’s released.
10.) Tift Merritt-”Tambourine” What is this? Tift decides she wants to make a classic country-soul record. So they (fecking Lost Highway) team her up with Mr.alt.country-.pop guru, George Drakoulias as producer. Blah, Blah, Blah, What a boring, soulless record this is. Only Tift’s voice and the last two tracks save me from trading this puppy in. If you thought the first record stunk, you’ll love this one, I guess? I mean that’s Lost Highway’s plan. Miss Merritt, get you ass over to a true indie label ,ASAP!
100. and counting, because that‘s where this puppy would rank, come years end) The Finn Brothers-”Everyone Is Here” This is the worst record Neil Finn has ever made. What a boring record. No guts, just Mitchell Froom’s boring pop/rock production stamped all over this disc. To bad ,because there are some decent tracks on this record. I know there are a few fellow Finn fans on this board. But can you really believe how bland, backward sounding this record is.? Neil’s been on a great solo roll, I hope he returns to it soon.
Hope I didn’t get to negative there folks, I just had high expectations this month. What’s everyone else listening to? What’s coming out this month. I need suggestions.
Cheers, Kevin (who would rather be in the mountains of northern New Mexico then back in the sweltering heat of Phoenix.)
