Baaba Kulka – Baaba Kulka
Gaba Kulka has always been great for a surprise (remember her changing her name from Gabriela Kulka?), now she’s out to get me hooked on heavy metal (and, thus, turn me into my brother, Thermoskanne) with this record full of Iron Maiden covers.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Best tracks
Tom Waits – Bad As Me
After having been completely overwhelmed with the quantity of material on his last two records, I was glad to see Waits back with a regular studio record. It does contain the usual mixture of melancholy and noise with songs erring on either side.
Rating: ★★★½☆
Best tracks
R.E.M. – Collapse Into Now
I’m a sucker for R.E.M.’s catchy tunes and ÜBerlin reminds me a lot of the good stuff™ there like
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Best tracks
Tori Amos – Night Of Hunters
When I first heard the prereleased snippets on Soundcloud, I was completely blown away by Carry and a little bit underwhelmed by
Rating: ★★★½☆
Best tracks
Blondie – Panic Of Girls
An densely-packed collection of great Blondie songs – and some wonderful experiments into new directions. They did great here and deserved better than to be given away for free with magazines.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Best tracks
Joan Baez – Play Me Backwards
Play Me Backwards isn’t actually a new album but it was re-released this year with a slew of bonus songs. I never quite understood other people’s fascination with this record that I’d always regarded mediocre. But I love these new tracks. I think the album would have been a lot better had some of these been used instead of the ones that are actually on the record.
Rating: ★★★½☆
Best tracks
Evelinn Trouble – Television Religion
The reason I loved Evelinn Trouble’s Arbitrary Act so much back in 2007 was mostly because I’d fallen in love with her emphasis on acoustics. Unfortunately, some acoustics had to make way for heavy instrumentation but, luckily, some still remain.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Best tracks
Cyndi Lauper – To Memphis, With Love
The award for the best live record of the year goes to our trusded Cyndi. I especially love the blues-y renditions of her classic songs. Some track are DVD-only, unfortunately but you’ll now how to get them onto your player…
Rating: ★★★★☆
Best tracks
Daft Punk – Tron: Legacy R3c0nf1gur3d
This is what the Tron soundtrack might have sounded like if it had been a regular Daft Punk album instead of having been arranged to fit to the on-screen action.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Best tracks
Derezzed (Remixed by The Glitch Mob)
Encom Part 2 (Remixed by Com Truise)
End of Line (Remixed by Photek)
Fatty Gets A Stylist – Fatty Gets A Stylist
Amazon sold this to me as Liberty Bell. They might have thought it would sell better if it was given some recognizable name like Kate Miller-Heidke’s. However I think this undermines the whole purpose of this project: to be a wonderful and intensely fun diversion from the main work of the artists involved.
Rating: ★★★★½
Best tracks
Melanie C – The Sea
The latest of Melanie C’s records is the first after the big Spice Girls reunion. It seems like she needed to get some rest afterwards and slow the pace of releases. A wise strategy that turned out very well. “The Sea” reminds me of the turn Alanis Morissette had taken when she released Flavors of Entanglement: more electronics but still decidedly Mel C. Not quite a Reason but a lot better than This Time.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Best tracks
Daughter – Demos – EP, His Young Heart – EP, and The Wild Youth – EP
Three wonderful little intricate EP’s that will pave the way for a lot of great stuff to come. I’m sure.
Rating: ★★★½☆
Best tracks
Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know
It seems like Laura Marling is trying to get me confused. I thought I had her figured out when she released Alas I Cannot Swim: light-hearted, fun, beautiful. Then came I Speak Because I Can which was completely inaccessible to me. And now this — exactly what I would have wished her second album to be: a progression towards the more sophisticated while retaining the basic qualities that made the first record so wonderful. It seems like Laura Marling really is “A Creature I Don’t Know”.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Best tracks
Beth Ditto – EP
Beth Ditto takes exatcly what I like about Gossip, adds some ’80s frills and out comes the EP I wished could have been a full album.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Best tracks
PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
I’m not sure I could add anything significant to the slew of enthusiastic reviews out there.
Rating: ★★★★★
Best tracks
Joss Stone – LP1
Joss Stone has always had the perfect voice but the songs she used them on never quite fit. With the third record she finally seems to have found the right songs (or at least some). I don’t get, though, why this record got named in a way to suggest it to be her first (the same complaint applies to, Introducing… Joss Stone, which, as it happens, did not introduce Joss Stone)…
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Best tracks
Patrick Wolf – Lupercalia and Brumalia
I seem to be the perfect candidate to like Patrick Wolf’s music but up until Lupercalia and Brumalia, I never did. Most of it was just too unaccessible to me. I realise I should have invested more energy into getting to know the previous albums but, as they say, time is a virtue… I’m glad this album opened my eyes!
Rating: ★★★★☆
Best tracks
k.d. lang – k.d. lang And The Siss Boom Bang Sing it Loud
There were actually two k.d. lang releases this year: Sing it Loud and a 25th year anniversary edition of A Truly Western Experience. Like most, I prefer the wiser, more settled k.d. to the young, wild “westerner” of 25 years ago.
Rating: ★★★½☆
Best tracks
Feist – Metals
In 2007, The Reminder was one of four sophomore albums that had me hooked immediately and led me to later check out the corresponding debut releases which I’d liked even better (the other three albums being Ghosts, Back To Black and Overpowered). Feist is back and she’s gone back to what was so great about Let It Die and experimented from there (
Rating: ★★★★★
Best tracks (With this album, it was hard finding any songs to exclude)
The Bad In Each Other
Graveyard
How Come You Never Go There
A Commotion
The Circle Married The Line
Bittersweet Melodies
Undiscovered First
Comfort Me
Maria Taylor – Overlook
I had actually missed Maria Taylor’s previous release, Lady Luck, as well as Azure Ray’s Drawing Down the Moon, so I had a bit of catching up to do, resulting in a slight Maria Taylor overdose. Still, I wasn’t at all put off by Overlook. A solid release, even if I think it falls short when compared to Lynn Teeter Flower.
Rating: ★★★½☆
Best tracks
Adele – 21
I like the fact that a record as stripped-down as this can have the commercial appeal it does.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Best tracks
Kate Bush – 50 Words for Snow
While I’m not too comfortable saying anything about a new record from my favourite artist ever™ until at least some years have passed, it’s safe to say this album is something special and will uplift me for many years to come.
Rating: ★★★½☆
Best tracks
Madeleine Peyroux – Standing On The Rooftop
Not the kind of music I’m very involved with when listening but great as an accompaniment to the more dull tasks of life.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Best tracks
Martha, My Dear
The Things I’ve Seen Today
Standing On The Rooftop
Superhero- Don’t pick a fight with a poet
Jessie J – Who You Are
This is the most mainstream-able music I’ll ever admit to liking… Jessie J has found a fun and fresh way of meddling with the pop audience.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Best tracks
Charlotte Martin – Dancing on Needles
In this – highly recommended – collection, you’ll find some of Charlotte Martin’s most engaging songs to date. I’ve always found her music to be best when listened to with headphones but Dancing On Needles really shines when allowed to engulf me completely.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Best tracks
Vanessa Carlton – Rabbits On The Run
I’ve been in love with Vanessa Carlton ever since I first saw the video for
Rating: ★★★★½
Best tracks
Marianne Faithfull – Horses And High Heels
Marianne Faithfull continues the path she started on with Easy Come, Easy Go. What’s missing is the drama that made Before the Poison so interesting. Yet, there are just too many beautiful songs here as to consider this a bad record in any sense.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Best tracks
Heidi Happy – Hiding With the Wolves
Having skipped Flowers, Birds and Home because of the unappealing cover, this time the poetic cover might have skewed my opinion towards the more favorable. I found this record to be highly diverse as it was hard finding the musical common ground for all the songs. Nevertheless, some songs are truly great and deserve a mention.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Best tracks
Stahlberger – Abghenkt
Dieselben witzigen Texte wie auf Rägebogesidlig, aber mit abwechslungsreicherer Musik unterlegt. Macht einfach Spaß…
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Best tracks