nuzzaci - an online journal

During the last couple of weeks a few new albums (some new to me and some new to the world) found their way to my ears and I though it would be a good idea to share my thoughts on these with you.

• 

  Only by the Night by Kings of Leon

  This album turned out being a big surprise. It’s amazing. Sitting here now, i’m willing to say it’s among the top 10 albums released in the last couple of years. Listening to it, I draw similarities from all sorts of albums and artist; R.E.M (mainly New Adventures in Hi-Fi from ‘96), Nine Inch Nails and David Sandström, to name a few, and they have somehow manage to find some sort of magic middle ground between this wide spectrum of amazing artists and and composed an album that touches emotions awoken across all the different genres they coincide with.

  There is an enormous amount of hidden energy within all the songs. I don’t know how they are live (a quick search on YouTube confirms they seem quite boring), but if I were to play these songs for a live audience I would break bones, lose limbs and most probably faint half way through the set due to exhaustion. In some aspects I can almost feel that the producers (Angelo Petraglia and Jacquire King) hide some of the true drive and energy of the songs. But, at the same time, it’s part of the charm of this album. But these songs in the hands of a producer with a longer history of creating rockier rock albums would be completely different.

  I haven’t really listened much to the other three full length albums by Kings of Leon, so I actually don’t know if this album is good or bad in comparison. Maybe it’s one of those odd cases where all the fan’s hate it and it’s more appealing for a new audience (such as me).

• 

  Hymns In the Key of 666 by Hellsongs

  Hellsongs is an acoustic three piece from Sweden (vocalist Harriet Ohlsson, guitarist Kalle Karlsson and Johan Bringhed on keyboards) that plays what people seem to describe (I believe it’s self acclaimed genre by the band) as Lounge Metal — old metal classics performed with startingly clear and crystaline female vocals, soft guitars and organ and two male choir-boys. Hymns In the Key of 666 is their debute album.

  So, simply, it’s a album featuring new interpretations (cover songs) of old classic metal songs sang by a female and performed in a folk/singer-songwriter fashion.

  Now I can easily see how this album can be hated by metal fans. And we can’t really blame them for it. Somehow we need to understand that some have strong emotional feelings tied to these classics and that what some people love about these songs is the way they are, as originals.

  I’m a metal fan. I even appreciate what people label as death metal (ooooooooo). But even though I can see why people don’t like this album — I do love it. Partly probably because I myself have composed a few songs where I transform songs of a heavier nature to a softer genre.

  It’s a very pleasant and in many ways unchallenging process. It’s more a matter of reinterpreting and analysing than walking around in darkness trying to create something unique and special. But even if it’s relatively easy to bosh out new variations of all these endless number of classics songs, it’s quite hard to recreate them into a song of high quality.

  I don’t think Hellsongs hits the nail on the head with this album. But it’s definitely good and I definitely enjoy listening to it. And it’s quite clear that at least one of the band members (99% sure it’s the guitarist) has a passion for metal music.

  One thing that this album does enable you to do, is enjoy “metal” songs in cooperate office environments. You just need a pinch of imagination and you can hear Angus’ guitar or Harris’ galloping bass strum.

  1. The Trooper by Iron Maiden, ‘83
  2. Symphony of Destruction by Megadeth, ‘93
  3. Rock the Night by Europe, ‘84
  4. Seasons in the Abyss by Slayer ‘90
  5. We’re not gonna take It by Twisted Sister, ‘84
  6. Blackened by Metallica, ‘88
  7. Thunderstruck by AC/DC, ‘90′
  8. Run to the Hills by Iron Maiden, ‘82
  9. Paranoid by Black Sabbath, ‘70
  10. Princess of the Night by Saxon, ‘81
• 

  Black Ice by AC/DC

  I’m a huge fan of AC/DC. My admiration stretches over many levels; the sound, the songs, the music, the constant high quality they have maintained over all the years, stage performance, Angus’ solos and energy, Malcolm’s rhythm, Brian’s charisma and voice, Cliff’s anonymousity and Phil’s steady and simple way of beating polyester and finally their combined ability to produce music that gives you an after taste of nose blood. They are living rock legends and you can’t compare them with anything or anyone else. ‹- full stop

• 

  More Modern Short Stories from Hello Saferide by Hello Saferide

  ‘More Modern Short Stories from Hello Saferide’ is Annika Norlin’s second album as Hello Saferide but her third album since her debut album ‘Introducing…Hello Saferide’. Besides Hello Saferide, last year she released her Swedish-language debut called ‘Säkert!’, with which she won two Grammis awards (Swedish equivalent of the Grammy Awards), for best female pop act and best lyrics.

  What sets Annika Norlin’s music a part is her lyrics and her way of telling stories. The songs make you smile. They are flirty, cute and a bit childish. I saw her live about two year ago which just added to my admiration towards Annika and her music.

  The debut album was overall a bit happier but that doesn’t necessarily make this a sad album. I recommend all of her albums as well as to go and see her if she’s playing in your area.

• 

  Say I Am You by Weepies, The

  This album is from 2006, which makes it 2 years old. I stumbled over it while listening to the singer-songwriter radio channel on last.fm. It’s one of those albums that you can have running on repeat for a few hours without getting annoyed on it. And, when you don’t have it running on repeat you miss it and want to run it on repeat. It’s simply a very ok album.

• 

  Death Magnetic by Metallica

  I (like may others) split Metallic’s different eras into the period before the self titled black album and the period after. The pre-black and post-black both have pros and cons and I (unlike most) don’t really have a preference over which is the best. They are different.

  The latest album, Death Magnetic, is a turning point in this pre-black/post-black approach since it’s released post-black but has at least one foot on the other side of the black album. The new songs are faster, longer and has moved away from the radio friendly song structure (verse/chorus/verse).

  So unlike the band’s previous album, St Anger, that was very anonymous and mediocre, Death Magnetic is a proper mark in Metallica history and sets an interesting direction for the future.

There we are. Hope some of you enjoyed reading and that my words encourage you to give the above albums a spin.

So, we are now a few weeks into 2007 and it’s about time to look back at 2006 and see what actually happened. Since I have had this digital online journal for almost a year (1st of May), 80% of what I’m mentioning here have already been documented earlier.

2006 for me started with coming back from San Francisco (where I had celebrated Christmas (in Lake Tahoe) and New Years (San Francisco) with my girlfriend Willow and her family) and began moving in with Willow to her flat.

During 2006 we had done quite a few improvements to this flat. First we extended the loft so the bedroom got a bit bigger, then we changed the flooring and built a loft bed in one of the bedrooms. But 2006 has just been the beginning… If everything goes as planed, during 2007 I will tell you all about the new kitchen, the new bathroom and the new staircase up to the loft.

 

Work

I don’t talk much about work on this journal. And that’s not because I don’t do any work or that nothing exiting happens at work. No, the main reasons is when i’m not working, and sitting by the computer, I prefer not to talk, reflect or spend time on work related stuff.

I have been at POKE for over three years now, and during these three years a lot has happened e.g. we have grown 462.5% in size, changed offices twice, rolled out a lot of really nice work and won more awards than I can remember. So, as a big reward for our great achievements, about a month ago, we moved into 10000 sq. ft. of dedicated private space.

So 2007 surely kicks off big.
It’s a bit of a fresh start.
A new start.

Two of the bigger pieces of work I been involved in during 2006 was the new topshop.com and the GoodFood magazine website. Thanks to a brilliant team and exceptionally brilliant client, I can look at them both and be extremely satisfied.

 

Sport (F1 basically)

2006 brought me back to Formula One, and the 2006 season was amazing and it definitely made way for an exciting 2007!! The biggest news was of cause the creation of the new 10th of September tradition of German beer and spaghetti tomato sauce, a new tradition to salute and remember the announcement by Scuteria Ferrari of Micheal Schumacher’s retirement as a race driver.

 

Music

So what’s the best album 2006… well it turns out being quite hard… all the ones I’d thought of, turned out being released in 2005! Such as With Teeth by Nine Inch Nails, Go Down! by David Sandstrom and Potemkin City Limits by Propagandhi.

Don’t know, was 2006 a dry year for people with my kind of music taste? What have I missed…

Born In The U.K. by Badly Drawn Boy, 9 by Damien Rice and Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of The Mountain by Sparklehorse are OK, wouldn’t go so far and give them the title ‘Best Album of 2006. (they have done better).

The one album that took me by surprise was Comfort Of Strangers by Beth Orton. So, until further notice Comfort of Strangers can wear the crown of Album of the Year 2006.

 
During the end of 2005 i decided to ‘grab myself in the collar’ and take care of the concert opportunities that comes with living in London. So I ended 2005 strongly with seeing Anthony and the Johnsons, Eels, Unseen, Randy, Flogging Molly, Millencolin and Jeff Tweedy, and have followed through into 2006. Some concert reviews pre this blog can be found on my last.fm journal.

2005 I also left The Above. Which means that during 2006 I have been ‘bandless’. Think that’s one of the main reasons I have managed to get up to so much stuff. I do miss playing though, and might just pick it up again in 2007…

Below is a list of the gig’s I went to during 2006. The absolute highlights was the acoustic Foo Fighters concert and the Tindersticks concert.

1. Jason Mraz, warm up by Raul Midon

   The Mraz gig was probably this years biggest disappointment. Saw him preform an ‘absolute masterpiece’ two years prior, and this time he just managed to reach ‘average commercial ass-selling and record label selling shite’. He didn’t even get close to his potential and wasn’t even near to meet my expectations.

2. Nizlopi

   Willow almost passed out on this gig.

3. Iron & Wine and Calexico

   Saw Calexico back in 1998 in a small pub in Stockholm, Sweden. Calexico 2006 is definitely another band on stage (in a good way). For Iron & Wine the venue was a bit to big.

4. The Shins

   Read more here.

5. Foo Fighters

   One of the best concerts I’ve been to. Read more here.

6. Foo Fighters, warm up by Juliette & the Licks, Angels & Airwaves, Queens of the Stone Age, Motörhead

   The biggest concert I have ever been to. 85.000 people in Hyde Park. It was HUGE. Read more here.

7. Death Cab for Cutie

   Saw DCFC twice in 2006, first in March and then in June. Tom Hostler took me along to the March gig, and since they were so damn good, we booked tickets for June gig as well. Read more about the June concert here.

8. The Cult

   As Billy Duffy changed guitar a few songs into the set, I told Willow, “That’s probably the nicest guitar in the world”. Then, on my 28th birthday, Miss W gave me Miss G.

9. The Rolling Stones

   Read more here

10. The Veils

    Another suggestion by The Hoss, and again, another band I saw twice in 2006. Read more on Willows blog.

11. Tindersticks

    Tindersticks preforming their album Tindersticks II. Totally amazing. Read more here.

12. Hello Saferide

    The most common ’search keyword’ that brings traffic to this site is ‘songs about ocd‘. The search brings me on place nr 8 on Google and points to the post I wrote about this concert. Read the post here.

13. Tom Mcrae, Joe Purdy, Steve Reynolds, Jim Bianco

    Read more here.

14. Robyn

    A weird 5 song mini gig at a small bar in Shoreditch.

15. David & the Citizens

    See photos from this gig on Willow’s flickr

 

Travels

I have never travelled as much during a year as I have done during 2006. The weird bit is that even if I have been around a bit, I manage to have 6 holidays left towards the end of the year, which leed to an extra week off in London. To prevent this from happaning in 2007 I have already booked off 15 days of my holidays, all 15 to be spend before the second week in March.

1. San Francisco, United States of America

   Even though the year stared in San Francisco: The Lake Tahoe and San Francisco trip belongs in an non-existing 2005 review and not in this. But it [the trip] was very very nice.

2. Paris, France

   We spent Easter in Paris. Which was a bit of a disappointment. Paris was not even close to what I expected it to be…

3. Rome, Italy

   In May we went down to Rome, Italy, to celebrate my dad and his 60th birthday. It was lovely. Think the Paris trip made me realise how much i like Rome. You can read more about the Rome trip here and here.

4. Rosili Bay, Whales

   In June we went to Rhossili Bay, Swansea, Wales, with David Marks. Read more here.

5. Skelleftea, Sweden

   As a tradition done every year since I moved to London, Middsummer was spent in Skelleftea. Read more about the trip here and here.

6. Hel, Poland

   Read more about the amazing week in Hel, Poland, here

7. Skelleftea, Sweden

   Went back to Skelleftea in the end of October to celebrate my sisters 30th birthday. Read more here.

8. Newcastle, United Kingdom

   Similar to the midsummer tradition in Skelleftea, Thanksgiving is a trip to Newcastle. This year I made something special.

9. Dover, United Kingdom

   This was just a one day trip down to the white rocks in Dover. I didn’t know that it was just an hours boat trip between Dover and Calais. The Freestyle song Dover-Calais make it seem like it is at least a few hours; since in the song they meet ’somewhere between’. Read misleading lyrics here.

10. Rome, Italy

    Anyone who ever meet or knew my uncle Antonio Nuzzaci will remember the end of 2006 as a very sad moment. During the early hours of Thursday 21st of December he passed away. This cast a shadow over the ending of 2006. Willow and I flew down to Rome to attend the funeral on the 22nd of December, and then we stayed in Rome over Christmas.

11. Taranto, Italy

    Last week of the year was spent in my parents house in the south of Italy. This might have been the last time we visited Viale Die Pini 18, since a few weeks back they sold the house and are planing to move up to Tuscany. Photos from the Italy trip can be found on Willow’s flickr.

The title of this post is something Annika Norlin, above, (a.k.a Hello Saferide) said last night to present one of her songs. And those words nicely summarises the whole gig.

It was very cute, very warm, very good, very happy and very inspiring.

A thanks to Maia Hirasawa for a lovely warm up.

Since I have mostly good thinks to say about last night, I decide not to discuss Gustaf Kjellvander solos performance of The Fine Arts Showcase.