I can't help but stalk this diary of yours, Tilly. Some great picks and great reviews - probably my favourite read on BEA right now.
Given the above and a couple of the other singer-songwriter albums you've featured you may be interested in these two, if you haven't heard them already:
I can't help but stalk this diary of yours, Tilly. Some great picks and great reviews - probably my favourite read on BEA right now.
By the way, that Mum LP is BEAutiful...
Thanks, Jimmy! You just made my day. Glad you dig that Mum album. It's pretty magical. I'll be sure to check out those rec. Always wanted to get into Judee Sill, but I've never bitten.
Love your one liners btw! Bracken is my new favorite word. 😁
It sucks being sick. People treat you different. Even doctors. Even your family. Brandon Cox aka Deerhunter knows this frustration. He knows the despair. Of being alienated, ostracized. But he’s done something extraordinary with this anger and frustration. He’s channeled it into a rallying cry. He’s taken his weakness and turned it into strength. Took fear and turned it into faith. In himself. In his abilities. Fading Frontier is nothing short of rallying cry for the sick & disabled. Anthems to get you fired up that you are important. That you matter. That no one is defined by anything or limited by anything. That one can surpass labels and diagnoses. And do something amazing.
Pretty impressive for a pop album. And this is a pop album at its heart. And it works. Anthems were made to be heard on FM radio after all. And in a different universe, those first three songs would be staples. Not all the songs work. Snakeskin’s 70s T-Rex stomp has never quite won me over. But, the rest is near perfect indie pop.
Grade: A. This is essential indie pop. These are songs for when the world wrongs you. For when you’re not understood. For when people don’t recognize the strength it takes to just keep on fighting and instead only sees weakness. Illness. This album picks you up, pats you on the back and inspires you to fight back.
Essential
1. Mum - Finally We Are No One
2. Townes Van Zandt - Townes Van Zandt
3. John Phillips - John, The Wolf King of L.A.
4. The Fun Years - One Quarter Descent
5. Virginia Astley - From Gardens Where We Feel Secure
6. Donovan - Wear Your Love Like Heaven
7. Bonnie "Prince" Billie - The Letting Go
8. Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
9. Gene Clark - No Other
10. Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
11. Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars
12. Real Estate - Days
13. Harold Budd - Pavilion of Dreams
14. Bob Dylan - Self-Portrait
15. Beach House - Bloom
16. Real Estate - Real Estate
17. Deerhunter - Fading Frontier
edit: Revised my opinion about Snakeskin entirely. I'm a total T-Rex fan boy so it was difficult to pass my first impression of song. But, I have. It's actually a really fun song. 😁
Last edited by Repo on 04/25/2017 02:38; edited 2 times in total
I have just two Deerhunter's albums, I will check this one out.
Why does Brandon Cox know the frustration of being alienated? What did u read about it?
ps: Refuge by Heaven & Earth is on my wishlist, I guess that I'll love it, cheers Jim _________________ Not Talulah?
- Gosh!
I have just two Deerhunter's albums, I will check this one out.
Why does Brandon Cox know the frustration of being alienated? What did u read about it?
LOL. to be honest, I have not read much of anything about Brandon cox. I saw him in concert back in the day, and I could tell he was troubled by his stage performance but that's just a vague memory. And I used to hang in indie rock circles so stories of Brandon's behavior would come up but I have no really memory of these conversations. Just a sense. I do know that he has some sort of congenital genetic disorder that has made his life difficult. Which one I forget, but it would be easy enough to look up.
Mostly, I can tell just by listening to his lyrics. He's not obtuse about what he's gone through. And I can relate. He definitely inspires me, and I really should read me about him.
I'm sure there are others on BEA that know his story well, so feel free to share! I'd be curious to hear as well.
Few albums seamlessly blend with nature and become a natural part of the sounds around you. The birdsongs. The crickets chirping in the long grasses. The wind rustling through the trees. THIS does. It never seems a bit out of place. Even the birds munching at my birdseeder seem at peace with it as opposed to scattering to the winds like with everything else I play.
As it plays, it’s quite easy to imagine that it’s late afternoon. I walk softly barefoot to the koi pond on the outskirts of my village. I feel my bare feet on the pebbled path as a soft breeze plays with the wild grasses and cattails that form a backdrop to the pond. As I sit down by its stony banks, I hear the gentle splash of the turtles sliding off their little rocky perches. The frogs are already croaking in rhythm luring their mates to come ever closer. And, each striking of the piano key is like a soft pebble falling into the pond causing the water to ripple in ever expanding concentric circles outward. Outward to infinity. Until they recede again as if they were never there. As if they never existed. The small pond still once more. As the music plays, I lose myself in this gentle pattern of infinity and nothingness until my own body is no more. Until I am one with the pebbles falling into the pond and their ripples going ever outward to nothingness. Until I am no longer there. Because I am everywhere.
Grade: A+. This is my favorite album to meditate to by far and easily one of the best ambient albums of all time. There are very few albums that I can meditate to without the music becoming intrusive, but this is one of them. And it's probably the best of the lot. There is something very natural and organic about it, and it is one of the most spiritual albums I've heard. And as I chant Om, it levitates all the way to number three.
Essential
1. Mum - Finally We Are No One
2. Townes Van Zandt - Townes Van Zandt
3. Harold Budd/Brian Eno - The Pearl
4. John Phillips - John, The Wolf King of L.A.
5. The Fun Years - One Quarter Descent
5. Virginia Astley - From Gardens Where We Feel Secure
6. Donovan - Wear Your Love Like Heaven
7. Bonnie "Prince" Billie - The Letting Go
8. Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
9. Gene Clark - No Other
10. Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
11. Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars
12. Real Estate - Days
13. Harold Budd - Pavilion of Dreams
14. Bob Dylan - Self-Portrait
16. Beach House - Bloom
17. Real Estate - Real Estate
18. Deerhunter - Fading Frontier
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
If anyone else meditates out there, please share your favorite album to meditate to. I'd love to check it out.
These are mantra, and as u know they almost repeat the same line...forever lol
My favorite track is the #2, I think it's the most delicate and gentle song I have ever heard
Devi Prayer _________________ Not Talulah?
- Gosh!
Remember way back when. Back on my first post. When I compared the first half of Donovan’s double LP A Gift From a Flower to a Garden to some of the best folk rock EVER released. As good as The Byrd’s Mr. Tamborine Man. As good as Love’s Forever Changes. I meant it. I really did. I LOVE those ten songs with all my heart. But, you know what? The second half is even better! It’s just completely different. Gone are the catchy fun sing-a-long pop songs. Instead Donovan delves into something mystical. Something enchanted.
He casts a spell transporting you to a small fishing village on the craggy shore from a long, long time ago. From a land & culture that is no more and has been lost. When elves still had power and fairies ruled the woods. These are sea songs fit for a shire. It’s a bewitching listen when life was simple and better for it. When life was still tied to the land and the tides dictated chores. Not time. Not clocks. It’s as if Donovan feels not just born in the wrong decade, but the wrong era altogether. And the spell he casts with both the music & lyrics is seamless. Nothing breaks it. You can actually smell the salt of the sea. Feel the spray of the ocean mist. Nothing reminds you that these songs were written in the sixties. Because these songs don’t even know that radio exists.
Grade: A+. Simply one of the greatest double albums of all time. I would put this up against anything in the rock canon. Anything. That means you The White Album. That means you Blonde on Blonde. And Donovan shoots back to number one where he belongs.
Essential 1. Donovan - A Gift From a Flower to a Garden
2. Mum - Finally We Are No One
3. Townes Van Zandt - Townes Van Zandt
4. Harold Budd/Brian Eno - The Pearl
5. John Phillips - John, The Wolf King of L.A.
6. The Fun Years - One Quarter Descent
7. Virginia Astley - From Gardens Where We Feel Secure
8. Bonnie "Prince" Billie - The Letting Go
8. Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
9. Gene Clark - No Other
10. Grizzly Bear - Yellow House
11. Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars
12. Real Estate - Days
13. Harold Budd - Pavilion of Dreams
14. Bob Dylan - Self-Portrait
16. Beach House - Bloom
17. Real Estate - Real Estate
18. Deerhunter - Fading Frontier
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
Aside: Supposedly the second side was marketed or geared to kids. It was entitled For Little Ones. Which is just plain baffling. The first half is far better suited for kids. Poppy, fun & catchy as a cold in daycare. At least mine seem to think so. 😁
Last edited by Repo on 05/07/2017 03:58; edited 1 time in total
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