Thirty Days Of Music Day 22 - A Song You Listen To When You're Sad

Bon Iver mesmerised us all when he released his 2008 debut album For Emma, Forever Ago.  The whole record is one heartfelt outpouring of emotion, and Vernon's log-cabin lamentation is absolutely stunning.

Re: Stacks is the best song on the album and sees Vernon at the height of his tearjerking beauty.  The guitar is simple and unobtrusive, putting all the emphasis on the vocals.  Vernon's delicate falsetto is pure and emotive, and the world-weary lyrics are a delight to the ears.  His lyrics are so evocative and the song plys you with images: 'pouring rain', 'black crow', 'wiry legs are crossed', 'the fountain in the front yard is rusted out'.  

When you are sad this is a song to wallow in.  It's not a song to cheer you up, or to make everything feel ok; it's not a song to show you the bright side of life or warm your heart or lift your spirits.  It's a song you listen to when you wan't to embrace sorrow; when you don't want to be cheered up and 7 minutes of sadness is all that you need.  

Thirty Days of Music Day 19 - A Song From Your Favourite Album

I've raved on about Foals' second album for months now, and it placed #1 in my top albums of 2010 so I'm sure you're getting bored of hearing about it, but it's just so damn good.  Total Life Forever is a raucous romp of a record, filled with all of Foals' heart and soul.

Alabaster is relatively unknown when it comes to songs from Total Life.  It wasn't released as a single and it's not an album track that has caught on particularly among fans but I think it's one of the best songs on the album.  It's lead for most of the 4 minutes by a drum beat that grows mighty, yet starts quietly and mystically - Foals have become expert at changing tempo and sound.  The song is wonderfully ambient and it is populated by simple, high-pitched guitar lines and rhythmic chanting that create an off-beat effect.  It's so effective because it's unusual - the song seems to rise and rise, building atmosphere and tension, but never hits true climax.  The chorus, although climactic, never reaches unleashed volume, yet Yannis' singing is heartfelt - Foals have managed to mix their original intellectual math-rock style with raw emotional energy and it has worked magnificently.

Total Life Forever was the best album released in 2010, and Alabaster was one of the best songs to grace my headphones.

Mercury Prize

I've been away for a while so this post is a bit late, but I just wanted to talk about the Mercury Prize from a few weeks back.

 For me, the highlights of the nominations were Laura Marling, Foals and The XX.

 20 year-old singer-songerwriter Laura Marling's second album I Speak Because I Can is her second to be nominated for the Mercury Prize.  It is a mature, dark, brooding record - unexpected from someone of her age - that contrasts with her previous nomination Alas, I Cannot Swim.  She fully utilises her voice's primitive punch in this album, teaming it perfectly with ominous backing and her characteristic trickling fingerpicking.  These songs seem more melancholy than her previous offerings, and they take on mammoth subjects - life, death, heartbreak, responsibility.  It's as if, to me, the album reeks of history - songs such as What He Wrote, Made in Maid and Devil's Spoke all hearken back to a more uncomplicated time without losing any of their own sophistication.  All that's brought to mind is costume dramas, witches and denied love.

 Marling expertly emulates an old traditional folk style, and uses great contrast in her instrumentation.  The single, Devil's Spoke, sees running, rolling guitar and Marling's singing keeping pace whilst album highlight Blackberry Stone is much more gentle - you are lulled as you listen by the simple guitar, lamenting violins and her soft vocals.

 Oxford indie band Foals' second album also saw them depart from their debut's style.  Antidotes was filled with uncompromisingly stubborn math rock - barked vocals, odd time signatures and jerking, awkward guitar.  Total Life Forever, on the other hand, is an ambient, aquatic, synthesised masterpiece that even sees lead singer Yannis move into the unexplored realms of gentle melody and falsetto.

 First single, This Orient, is an uplifting, emotional web of carefully arranged sounds - multiple voices, synths, guitar, bass and drums all combine to create a beautiful end product.  The rise and fall found in This Orient is characteristic of the album - the band have created a perfect mix of gentle and loud music, and they masterfully transfer between the two.  Spanish Sahara is an escalating riot of the sound and singing that builds from near silence, Alabaster is an almost perfect synergy between vocals and instruments that creates a lamenting, uniquely structured song.  Every song seems to have a natural, catchy beat and the hooks are far more accessible than those in Antidotes.  They still retain a penchant for high, jerking guitar but it is rendered so much more subtly.  Total Life Forever is my album of the year so far - buy it if you can and see them live if you can.

 The XX, who won the award, are the hipster band of the moment.  Famous for their incredibly stylised, minimalistic approach to music, their debut album XX received critical acclaim.  Now I don't intend to oppose all those critics who think the album is quality, because it is.  They take a refreshingly different approach to music, and both Oilver and Romy have incredible voices.  Single Crystalised is a work of art, and the two vocalists always combine perfectly both live and on recording.  However, I feel that the other two albums I have talked about are better.  The minimalistic style of The XX is not condusive to putting great emotion into their songs, and this can lead to a sterility in their music.  Furthermore, the lack of variation in the album let it down.  Intro, possibly the best song on XX, is a faster piece - the exception in an otherwise slow album.


I'm not trying to take anything away from The XX, because the album is great(especially for a debut) and in a way they do deserve recognition for their acheivements.  However, like Nihal stated on the Mercury Prize show, I feel there's better stuff to come from them.

 Top Songs:
Foals: Alabaster, This Orient, 2 Trees, Spanish Sahara
Laura Marling: Devil's Spoke, Blackberry Stone, Made in Maid, I Speak Because I Can
The XX: Crsytalised, Islands, Infinity

For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver

For Emma, Forever Ago, the debut album by Bon Iver (Justin Vernon) released in the UK in 2008, is not an album you can listen to lightly. The songs demand attention to be truly appreciated.

The simple rhythmic strumming of the guitar and the periods of unaccompanied singing add a stripped quality to the music; Vernon’s quivering falsetto delivers unbridled emotion. There is no doubt that its production has played a massive part in this album’s success. Written and recorded by Justin Vernon in a log cabin in northwest Wisconsin, the album is extremely minimalistic – consisting mainly of Vernon’s voice creeping over deep, earthy acoustic guitar. The raw power transmitted by the untouched, unpolished quality of the sound is truly incredible.

It is this quality that separates him from the rest of his contemporaries and makes the album so incredibly moving. Vernon has poured all his life’s heartache into 9 songs.

The highlights include opener Flume, which makes up for its somewhat ambiguous lyrics ("Only love is all maroon/ Lapping lakes like leery loons") with a stunningly beautiful melody. The trumpets and guitar in For Emma are also wonderful – free to weave in and out of Vernon’s vocals, dancing around the rest of the accompaniment. However, the masterpiece of the album comes at the end. Re: Stacks, the epitome of everything Bon Iver, is a gentle lament over a night of drunken gambling ("There’s a black crow sitting across from me/ His wiry legs are crossed/ He’s dangling my keys/ He even fakes a toss"). The chorus is a short, sweet number surrounded by the long, languishing verse.

The album is worth every second invested. It's an album filled with melancholy, heartbroken, world-weary songs. If you are yet to experience Bon Iver (one of the minority) then go look him up. For fans of Fleet Foxes, Goldheart Assembly, Grizzly Bear and Laura Marling

Top Songs: Skinny Love, For Emma, Re:stacks, Flume

Also, check out La Blogotheque on youtube for some awesome videos of Bon Iver playing live. As well as other bands like Fleet Foxes and Phoenix. Their "Take Away Show" series is really great.