Well, here we are at the end of another year and it's time again for everybody who critiques and reviews music to stick our necks out and name our favourite listens of the past year. Being as it's the last year of a decade some are even being brave enough to try and come up with a "best of the last ten years" list. I've still not decided on whether or not I'll give one of those a stab; it was difficult enough choosing ten from this year's crop of releases that the prospect of sifting through ten years of music leaves me chilled.
This is by no means any sort of definitive list of the last year's best music — that would be impossible for any critic to come up with no matter what he or she might claim. First of all there's no way anybody could listen to all the music that's released over the course of a year — I alone must receive two or three press releases a day announcing some new CD, half of which are for bands and musicians I've never even heard of let alone plan on listening to. For all I know I could have missed out on some brilliant piece of music without knowing it. Heck, I probably don't even listen to half the music that comes through my door, let alone the press releases that end up in my in box.
So for what it's worth, and in no particular order, are the ten CDs of goodness knows how many I listened to over the past year that stood out the most. It's a pretty diverse group of recordings which seemingly have very little in common. However, what they all share is an extra something that made them stand out from the pack in my mind. I've provided links back to the original reviews and what passes for the band's or individual's web site so if what you read is intriguing you can check them out in more detail. However, if you really want to understand why they meant more to me than anything else I listened to over the last three hundred odd days, I'd suggest giving them a listen and reaching your own conclusions.
Songs Unrecantable - Ersatzmusika: This album is as hard to describe in a few sentences as the disc's title is obscure. Sultry-voiced lyrics roam over the top of a mix of European-sounding folk and the occasional jarring guitar, capturing the mood of unease and uncertainty facing displaced persons everywhere. The majority of the band are Russian-born and now make their home in Germany, and while they don't speak directly about that experience, the sense of loss and confusion that imbues so much of their work captures the state of mind of stateless people everywhere. This is folk music from the concrete blocks of apartments where we segregate our immigrants, of the people who have no home to go back to, but who aren't yet at home.
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Article comments
1 - cek magdurlari
capturing the mood of unease and uncertainty facing displaced persons everywhere. The majority of the band are Russian-born and now make their home in Germany, and while they don't speak directly about that experience, the sense of loss and confusion that imbues so much of their work captures the state of mind of stateless