In traditional fashion, I shall present them in reverse order.
3. Bill Fay - 'Life is People'
Read here what I wrote earlier this month - http://eddie-graham.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/bill-fay-life-is-people.html
A wonderful follow-up album released 40 years after its predecessor!
2. Goat - 'World Music'
I don't recall how I came to hear of this band but I was intrigued by the story that surrounds them. It is alleged that they stem from a collective of townsfolk from the village of Korpilombolo in the north west of Sweden. Wearing masks on stage, they shun individual attention but prefer to focus on the songs rather than the song sources. The village itself is alleged to have been visited by a travelling witch doctor several hundred years ago and ever since has had strong connections with voodoo.
I'm not sure I hold with all of that but what I do know is that this album slowly sucked me in until I found myself totally hooked. Described elsewhere as a cross between Can, Faust, Spacemen 3, Fairport Convention, Fela Kuti and the Edgar Broughton Band they are clearly very difficult to define. The opening track the instrumental 'Diarabi' begins hesitantly but finds its groove with a repetitive guitar phrase picked up by the other instruments until it ends in a squeal of feedback leaving just the drums to take the song to it's conclusion.
Several tracks feature a female (?) singer with a voice that is again difficult to categorise. Part Poly Styrene (X-Ray Spex), part Renate Knaup-Krotenschwanz (Amon Duul II) and part Bjork (Bjork) she howls and wails her way through the lyrics. It takes a few listens but soon becomes quite mesmerising.
'Let it Bleed' strikes me as having a Velvet Underground guitar influence but soon evolves into something more akin to Tinariwen. Then a honking sax turns it into something different again.
The most commercial song (if such a thing exists on this album) is 'Run to Your Mama' which starts off with thunderous Black Sabbath-like chords and continues over an insistent beat. There are three songs with a goat theme - 'Goatman', 'Goathead' and 'Goatlord' but each is very different from it's predecessor. Maybe the band just have a thing about goats. The middle of these songs has a driving rhythm, a fuzzy bass and strident guitar parts including Hendrix-like feedback, then suddenly it turns into a sublime version of the melody played on a lone acoustic guitar over the sound of waves crashing on a shore.
On first hearing I never dreamt that this album would end in my top three but there you go. It just goes to show that persistence pays off. I will be fascinated to hear what this lot come up with next time around.
1. Anais Mitchell - 'Young Man in America'
I first wrote about this album back in May and you can read it here - http://eddie-graham.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/anais-mitchell-young-man-in-america.html
Since then, as promised, I have fully explored her back catalogue and it reaffirms my opinion that Ms Mitchell is a major talent who has progressed steadily with each piece of work released. Part of me wonders when the rest of the world will catch on to the fact that she is a sensational songwriter though there is also a selfish part of me that hopes this never happens or I will be unable to see her live again at intimate little venues such as Newcastle's Cluny 2 where I saw her in June.
In my view this album is the best of the year - no contest!
So that's my list. I'd love to hear your own views.
Just one more post to come before the start of 2013.
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