Some music suggestions to keep you company during the up coming winter darkness
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.
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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).
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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.
- The Trooper by Iron Maiden, ‘83
- Symphony of Destruction by Megadeth, ‘93
- Rock the Night by Europe, ‘84
- Seasons in the Abyss by Slayer ‘90
- We’re not gonna take It by Twisted Sister, ‘84
- Blackened by Metallica, ‘88
- Thunderstruck by AC/DC, ‘90′
- Run to the Hills by Iron Maiden, ‘82
- Paranoid by Black Sabbath, ‘70
- Princess of the Night by Saxon, ‘81
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
