Genre(s) - Chansons Françaises, pop, singer-songwriter Origin - Take a guess Year of release - 198? Bitrate - 128 kbps Size - 54.40 MB
Ses Plus Grands Succes, which simply means His Greatest Hits, is a compilation album by the French singer-songwriter Gérard Lenorman. I really do not know a lot about the man, but I remember having known his song La Ballade des Gens Heureuses (Ballad of the Happy People) for about all my life. It's still, to me, the most beautiful song on the disc though that may be because of the memories attached. Voici les Clés (See Here the Keys) and Si j'Était Président (If I were President) always flush my chest with some aching warmth as well, it's fantastic if music can evoke such a response. If you enjoy this album as much as I did, may I suggest for you to try this album out as well, by a compatriot and collaegue chansonnier Benjamin Biolay.
Genre(s) - Chamber pop, singer-songwriter Origin - United States of America Year of release - 2004 Bitrate - Eh, it's actually in M4A (old WMP-rip of my own), hope you don't mind. Size - 32.12 MB
This EP came as a companion disc to the concert DVD Welcome to Sunny Florida so that's the picture I used. It features six songs, and going by the title I imagine they are the unreleased overspill of the beautiful Scarlet's Walk that preceded the live registration. It's easy to conclude it must be less accomplished material for it not to appear on the album but I wonder if you could keep that up after hearing just Ruby alone. Seaside and the long Apollo's Frock are also beautiful, and would have been strong contenders on the full-length. This is really just an extra for long-time fans and completists, people new to the glory of Tori would do well to walk Scarlet's Walk first (find it here).
Genre(s) - Power metal Origin - Germany/Romania Year of release - 2007 Bitrate - 192-320 kbps Size - 68.88 MB
Powerwolf are a German band with a singer (and opera student) straight from the craggy mountains of Transylvania. Consequentially, instead of fantasy battles and the like, the band's lyrics are centered around vampires, werewolves, the devil and other creatures of the night. There is also a strange obsession with the Catholic church. Musically this is just perfect: crunchy guitars, great classic riffs backed by a church organ. It is suitingly bombastic stuff, but not too fast or needlessly filled with all kinds of symphonic arrangements. The all-important choruses are captivating and will keep popping up into your mind all through the rest of the day. The great and remarkable voice of Attila Dorn makes this highly uplifting release complete. Last year's album Bible of the Beast made it to my top-20 for 2009.
Genre(s) - Neomedieval darkwave Origin - Germany Year of release - 2007 Bitrate - 128 kbps Size - 67.96 MB
I wish to love Sopor Aeternus with all my heart, since Anna-Varney Cantodea is simply one of the most fascinating people in music today. However, Les Fleurs du Mal is actually the first SA&tEoS album that I could stand. It probably is the most playful release Cantodea and her ensemble have ever produced, musically and especially lyrically. Shave if You Love Me, Some Men and A Little Bar of Soap are even quite humourous. It is as if our heroine has never felt as comfortable being herself, before. The music is still based on medieval-ish instruments, keyboards, and percussion but the addition of a full-fledged choir ("sing it, boys!") lets itself be quite well noticed. I don't believe I've ever called an album sexy before, but it's just the only word that summarises Les Fleurs. Highly recommendable to everybody, not just darkwave fans.
Genre(s) - Psychedelic rock Origin - San Francisco, California Year of release - 1977 Bitrate - 128 kbps Size - 31.89 MB
I'm a big fan of the Dead's expansive hallucinogenic jamscapes of the sixties, as well as their sudden turn to folk music in 1970. The material that followed American Beauty never caught much of my attention except for this one; Terrapin Station. It's a very organic rock album that is still nothing like what they did in their first five or so years. There's a psychedelic edge but it is not as consciously pushed, rather a pleasant side effect. It's very relaxing music. The album's raison d'être is of course to showcase the heavenly title track, a decent 16 minute course through all kinds of different moods. Plaintive verses, smooth and chilled-out, then a cautious preparation for the finale, and through a blistering drum solo (that will not bore even you) to the climax that sounds like the sky is breaking and a coked-up angel's chorus descends down to earth to herald the second coming of our estimated prophet.
Genre(s) - Black metal Origin - France Year of release - 2004 Bitrate - 128 kbps Size - 49.92 MB
In the last decade, France has come to be known as a hotbed for black metal innovation, but Nehëmah must have missed that memo. The veteran band isn't one to change its style over the course a mere 12 years, and this reminds me very strongly of Darkthrone's Under A Funeral Moon. True, some more subtle synths have slipped into the music, making Requiem Tenebrae the most lucid of the band's albums. You won't have to worry that this might make the sound more melodic, it doesn't. What it does, is provide added grimness at the most effective of moments, such as the sick finale to Consciousness in Evil or the lingering miasma of Taken Away. Through the Dark Nebula is a furious closer regularly punctuated by single floor tom beats like cannonblasts, a very effective way of making the whole track sound even more hostile. For all their staunch traditionalism, Nehëmah know how to make old-school black metal engaging again.
This blog is meant to generate attention to bands that I think deserve it, and aims for a large variety of music styles. I will only share albums that I personally recommend, and do not honour requests. You won't find complete discographies here as I encourage individual research and do care about the artists enough not to offer their entire lives' work for the taking. If you notice a mistake or a wrong/broken link, please let me know so I can fix it. Thanks!
Complaints and compliments can be directed to bartromeijn-at-hotmail-dot-com but for quick messages by all means use the shoutbox and comments.
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The music I offer on this blog is for display purposes exclusively. You are not entitled to download or listen to it at all. Go away.
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