- Boys for Pele
- from the choirgirl hotel
- Abnormally Attracted to Sin
Crowded House - Temple of Low Men
Electric Light Orchestra - The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra
Gomez - In Our Gun
Gomez - Split the Difference
Missy Higgins - The Ol' Razzle Dazzle
Elton John - Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
John Mayer - Born and Raised
Moloko - Do You Like My Tight Sweater?
Pearl Jam - Backspacer
December isn't the easiest month for sitting around and listening to music. Okay, it doesn't have to be "sitting around", but it does have to be a mental space where I can spend time in one place or on one task for the length of time an album lasts. December tends to have a lot of rushing around - getting ready for Christmas, trying to plan holidays (sometimes), and trying to get things done at work when people said it would be done 'this year' and they suddenly realise that the year is almost over.
The most notable listening would have been in the week after Christmas. Not only the time and space for it with a week off, but 2 new albums as presents, both of which I'd had my eye on since they were released mid-year.
One was Missy Higgins' first album for several years. I also think in some ways it may be her best. What's striking about The Ol' Razzle Dazzle is how melodic and 'catchy' it is. There's something deeply ironic about opening an album with a smooth-sounding song about having writer's block, but that's exactly what 'Set Me On Fire' is. Mind you, the lyrics do say it was the lyrics that were the trouble, not the melody. There are plenty of other songs with tunes that stick in the brain. The more I listened to this record in the period after Christmas, the more I enjoyed it.
I haven't listened to John Mayer's Born and Raised as much, but it also seems to be a pretty solid album. It has a very relaxed feel to it. Everything from the artwork to the lyrics makes it clear what kind of album you're supposed to be listening to, and while I won't claim to be any kind of expert on Americana it seems to tick all the right boxes.
Perhaps it's relative weakness is that 'ticking boxes' is often all that it does. Quite a lot of the songs seem quite safe in a way. However, you then hit something like 'Walt Grace's Submarine Test, January 1967' which is utterly magical and, as a piece of storytelling, completely unlike anything else Mayer has done. As he himself seems to recognise in an interview I watched.
Year in Review
Only 116 albums listened to this year, down from 134 last year in the space of the 10 months I kept records for. I'm not sure if that means I listened to less pop music, or listened to the same things more often. Certainly, things like my dedicated Tori Amos and Joni Mitchell sessions would have lessened the variety. I haven't yet looked at the classical statistics, but I do suspect that there were periods of the year where I was very classically focused - if only to churn through the massive number of purchases.
New pop albums are comparatively sparse in comparison. New Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, the aforementioned Missy Higgins and John Mayer Christmas presents, Sting's Live in Berlin (still haven't tried the CD version of that yet!) newish Gotye and Washington, very old David Bowie, newly purchased but already familiar Bryan Duncan and Beth Orton.
There are actually several more purchases that I haven't even listened to yet. Which I plan to soon, although I've also become reminded recently of a couple of things I purchased years ago and haven't unwrapped. It does happen, and sometimes it's nice to just put something aside for that day when I'm in mood for new music and I'm not in the mood to actually wade through completely unknown artists.
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