Sunday, December 19, 2010

More from 2010

A few of my old favourite artists have released new stuff this year:


For The Ghosts Within
Robert Wyatt brought out an album that mixes jazz standards and some new material. Wyatt's distinctive voice is accompanied by some beautiful string arrangements and Gilad Atzmon's alto sax and clarinet.
I'm sharing his version of What A Wonderful World here - it closes the album and is almost throw away in its simplicity so perhaps isn't the best way to represent the album, but it seemed right for the time of the year. Where Are They Now on the other hand has German rapping and its electronic swing beat reminds me of some of the Verve remix albums or the music from Belleville Rendezvous.


Invariable Heartache
Cortney Tidwell leads somewhat of a double life musically, producing some great shoe-gazy dance numbers (check out Don't Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up and Watusii) and , as you'd expect from someone Nashville born and bred, some nice country tinged songs. Kurt Wagner's band Lambchop definitely lean towards the country side of things and have produced some sublime music over the years. Together, calling themselves "Kort", they have produced an album of country tunes from the 60s and 70s, emphasising, in their words, the songs' "the beauty and simplicity".
This is probably the most up-beat track from the album - Picking Wild Mountain Berries - but it's all good.


Long Live The Duke & The King
The Felice Brothers were one of my discoveries at the Primavera festival in Barcelona a few years ago and it was Simone Felice's showmanship that really made their live performance something special. His side project, The Duke & The King, seems to have taken over and the Felice Brothers are no more. This is the band's second album and they've really settled in to their stride. It's a great tumbling mix of country, soul, folk and 60s style rock with gorgeous C S N & Y style harmonies. Hard to pick a single track but here's Shaky with its great opening lines "Baghdad she's a mean old town / I get the feeling she don't want me around".

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