Bat for Lashes - The Haunted Man
Patty Griffin - Impossible Dream
Joni Mitchell - Shine
Radiohead - OK Computer
Radiohead - In Rainbows
The year got off to a slow start, but there's some definite quality here. I finished the Tori Amos/Joni Mitchell comparison, though unfortunately in this case the Joni Mitchell album is... well, it's not all bad. But there are times when it is so dour and miserable in its message. Which I think is what she wanted, but as a listener the music is not enough to get past this.
Patty Griffin writes a lot of things that are in some way pretty miserable. And perhaps never more so than on Impossible Dream, where the sense of regret aches through the speakers in the sequence of "Useless Desires", "Top of the World" and "Rowing Song". But it's so goddamn beautiful. When late Joni Mitchell sometimes offers a lecture, Patty Griffin offers an embrace for the world's heartache. To be honest it's not my favourite album of hers because there's a bit of inconsistency in the quality. But the best moments? They're incredible.
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