Entry #95: Elliot Smith - Elliot Smith

With some albums, you just know straight away that they will stay with you.

For me, it began the moment I heard the spidery, double-tracked guitar that opened both 'Needle in the Hay' and the album itself.  Those goosebump-inducing guitars were then complemented by Smith's thin, delicate near whisper, setting the tone for what was to follow.

This debut is for me, Smith's finest album: simple, unaffected and direct.  Many years ago, I had a dream where I found the phrase "Goblins don't become reality, they become albums" written on a desk.  I interpreted this phrase to mean that the demons that possess us are not supernatural or corporeal; instead, they are channelled through the art we create, particularly music.  It made me think about the music I listened to very differently.  In this case, Smith's "goblins" are the very glue holding together this modest work, a work that is as personal and intimate as Smith's vocals, and thanks to these goblins, this album has left an unshakeable impression.

                                                          Elliot Smith : Elliot Smith

Entry #94: Sun Ra - Sleeping Beauty

As mentioned in my Alice Coltrane entry, Jazz is not a genre I'm all that up on.  A lot of it completely loses me, but the stuff I like, I do like a lot.

You don't need to be a genius to know where this is going.

'Sleeping Beauty' then, was my introduction to Sun Ra, and is the record that has stayed with me the most.

As per its opening track, this album really is the sound of incoming spring, especially in the way it builds, swells and seems to flower into life; the music really portraying the fecundity of the season it references, making this perfect to listen to right about the time this entry was written.

Each of Sleeping Beauty's 3 tracks (averaging around 10 minutes each) feel like an amazing journey, making this album an immensely enjoyable listen to for me.

Oh, and after listening to the track below, listen to Mercury Rev's 'See You on the Other Side', then you'll hear what clearly inspired them!

Entry #93: Svarte Greiner - Knive

I came across this curious album sometime in 2007 courtesy of Boomkat, and at first, I was intrigued by the blurb on the website which, most notably, described the music as acoustic drone and ambient doom.  This immediately had me wondering just what this would possibly sound like.  I was also intrigued by the abstract cover art; an incomprehensible black smear (somewhat resembling a dead animal of some sort) over a soft pink background, so without really knowing what I was getting myself into, I clicked the 'Buy' button and waited for the CD.

On hitting play, I was plunged into a dark, dank world carefully sculpted from scrapes, taps, creaks and crackles, sewn together by solemn cello drones, flecks of taut, abstracted guitar and the occasional, spectral wail.  This was a beautifully bleak place.  The track names described the music perfectly: titles like 'The Boat Was My Friend', 'Easy on the Bones' and 'Ocean Made of Wood' conjured a haunted, nautical unease, suggested by the music itself.

I especially love this album for two reasons: it shows that soul-crushing heaviness is not the preserve of metal (and can be achieved just as effectively without loud guitars), and the organic way in which it blends the acoustic with the electronic.

Strangely, despite its foreboding atmosphere, I find 'Knive' to be quite relaxing and often read with it playing in the background.  I've even fallen asleep to it a few times.  It's especially perfect on bleak, rainy or overcast days, the sorts of days where you have no place to be and can just happily sit around reading and chilling.  I like days like that, and maybe this is why I like this album so much.

Above all, I consider this album is a work of art and a masterful piece of uneasy listening.

                                                    Svarte Greiner : My Feet, Over There

Entry #92: Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life

Despite his music punctuating my life at various points (particularly during my childhood), I am a relative latecomer to this album, having only truly discovered it at the turn of the millennium, but what a discovery!

This is, without a doubt one of the best albums ever created.  It is what the word 'epic' was invented to describe.  It is something to be preserved in a subterranean time capsule for future civilisations and/or races to discover once humans are gone from this planet.  Something to be beamed into space for aliens to pick up.

So yes, this album completely knocked me sideways, and the range, depth and power of its 21 song suite remains almost unmatched by any artist I can think of.

The song I've chosen below is also one of my all-time favourite songs.  A euphoric, cosmic affair tinged with just the right amount of melancholy to make for a perfectly bittersweet, happysad song that gets me in the feels every time.  I just had to share it.

                                                        Stevie Wonder : Another Star

Entry #91: Flaming Lips - Embryonic

As per an earlier entry, Flaming Lips are a band I have known and loved for many, many years.

Starting from the mid-90s, I have seen their music evolve, grow, mutate and develop in many interesting ways.  Whilst I tend to prefer the noisy guitar pop they were known for back when first got into them, I have also enjoyed their post 'Clouds Taste Metallic' output for what it is, appreciating how these albums expanded the band's sonic palette, taking it to heights that could have never been anticipated from their 80s, psych/garage days.  I therefore grudgingly admit that had they stuck to the 90s formula I fondly remember, what they do would've gotten old by now.

This is partly what makes 'Embryonic' so special for me.  In many respects, it is -to adopt the cliche- a "return to form", having more in common with those earlier records, but still retaining the DNA of "newer" outings (in an altogether more stripped down sort of way).  The songs on 'Embryonic' less like actual songs and more like free-flowing jams that just happen to gel, but this spontaneity is precisely why this record works for me and why I consider it to be one of their best.

                                      Flaming Lips : The Sparrow Looks Up at the Machine

Entry #90: Conduits - Conduits

I was introduced to Conduits and in turn this album via Shazam, an app that is perfect for music lovers like myself.

One evening sometime around 2012, I was sitting in a pub with one of my best friends and a song came over the speakers that really caught my attention.  With Shazam's help, I learned the song was 'Misery Train'.  I was drawn by the haunting guitar and vocal melodies, the implied, soft menace and the bassline.  I instantly knew that I needed to hear more Conduits, and that's how I found this album.

Upon picking it up, I played it almost repeatedly well into 2013, captivated by the ghostly atmosphere, rolling percussion and beautiful melodies.  This is an album, that, in a relatively short space of time has wormed its way into my consciousness and has managed to stay with me ever since as a result.

                                                              Conduits : Misery Train

Entry #89: Suzanne Vega - Suzanne Vega

Back when I was about 15, a famous reworking of 'Tom's Diner' reached number 1 in the UK charts.  That was my introduction to Suzanne Vega.  The song was catchy and fun, and yeah, I liked it, but it was not until I heard 'Marlene on the Wall' on a late night radio show a year or so later, that my interest in her music began in earnest.

The song seemed to fit the nocturnal ambience of that otherwise quotidian Sunday evening as I sat all alone in my room doing my homework.  It was there, in this context, that I truly heard Vega for the first time and fell in love with the silken, husky tones of her voice, captivating songcraft and the compelling tales her lyrics weaved.  In spite of that, it would be a few more years (and after hearing a few more songs here and there) before I even thought about picking up any of her albums, but when I finally did, this was the first.  It had to be.

On hearing this album for the first time, it felt like finally meeting someone who'd long anticipated my arrival.  The music spoke to me and what it said was simply this: "I've been waiting for you all this time... what took you so long?".

                                                   Suzanne Vega : Marlene on the Wall

Entry #88: Fennesz - Endless Summer

I often find myself drawn to music that could be described as ethereal, unearthly and haunting.  It's a characteristic that has made its way into a lot of my own work (so I'm told), and is something that just seems to resonate with who I am.  And it is also why I love this album since it features all three of these elements to varying degrees.

Of particular interest to me is the way Fennesz combines heavily treated guitars with his microscopically engineered electronics, completely reconfiguring the very notion of what that instrument can be.  It's a trick he's used to great effect on most of his output, but 'Endless Summer' is the pinnacle for me.

Above all, this is one of those albums where mere words don't adequately convey its abstract, otherworldly beauty.  I can talk about how it sounds all day, but it really has to be heard to be believed.  I hate to make lazy and trite comparisons, but I think it would be fair to say that 'Endless Summer' is, in many respects, the electronic equivalent of My Bloody Valentine's 'Loveless' owing to its focus on layers, textures and hazy, dreamlike soundscapes.  Also, like 'Loveless', the cover art is a perfect visual representation of the music itself.

The track I've chosen below is one of my personal favourites; a beautifully haunting and mesmerising piece that really does sound like something you might hear in a dream, and is one of the reasons why I love this record so much.

                                                         Fennesz : A Year in a Minute