Album of the year project 3rd post.

The third match-up sees ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Os Dead's record "Tao Of The Dead" against Wino's "Adrift".

 

The prog-rockers ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead is a new experience for me. For some reason I've always thought that they played some kind of lame indie pop. After I understood that they play brilliant prog rock I had to get the new album, and I can't say I'm disappointed! This is a great album, packed full of great riffs, lovely atmospheric parts and straight forward rock songs. You really don't expect a band like this to put out so many great songs on one album, normally the album is more in focus rather than the songs. I mean that you have to listen to an album from start to finish to really appreciate it but on "Tao Of The Dead" several of the songs really stand up on their own as well. Some good examples are "Weight Of The Sun", "The Wasteland" and "Ebb Away".

The record is sort of two parter where the band, on the c-side, has one song they call "Strange News From Another Planet", which is something more to be expected from a band like Trail Of Dead with spaced out parts and the song reaching over the ten minute mark (and probably more, there's no way to tell the length of a song on a record player;)). This last side ties the record together perfectly.

Scott Weinrich, what a voice that man's been gifted with! The frontman of such stoner/doom legends as Saint Vitus and Spirit Caravan. This is Wino's first acoustic album. There are some electric guitar solos as well but it's mainly based on his voice and his guitar. The progress he has made musically is comparable to the likes of Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till for example. Those two play in the band Neurosis which started out as hardcore punk but has progressed to more experimental metal. They have both released solo material which has been just their voices and a guitar. So to get back to Wino...

"Adrift" seems like a natural step leap from Spirit Caravan's stoner rock (he's played in several bands after they split up but I haven't listened to most of them). They have always used acoustic guitars in their songs, quite effectively as well. I have a feeling that some of the material on this record would have benefited to go through a Spirit Caravan filter. You can hear the potential of the songs and sometimes it works but I think that they could have been even better. There are some quality riffs on here, like on "Mala Suerte" and "D-Bear" for example. What would that song sounded like if Wino was backed up with a band?

So in conclusion Trail Of Dead advances to the next stage.

Next up is Indie/psych rockers Akron/Family against the first metal album so far the last one from Crowbar.

Album of the year project 2nd post.

The second match-up also features a Norwegian band. They're up against the mellow singer/songwriter music of Sam Beam's moniker Iron & Wine.

2011 has really been a triumphant year here in Norway for the Stavanger  based collective. From this record alone they have had three huge hits that's been playing non-stop on the Norwegian radio stations. The three songs are really hit friendly and catchy tunes, add the twist of gypsy influenced accordians and harmoniums and you have a recipe for success apparently. They have had headlining spots at the biggest Norwegian festivals Öya and Slottsfjell and have grown from, probably, the biggest Norwegian band as of today to even bigger.

So, does the music live up to the hype? The Violeta Violeta project is a trilogy of records and this one was released in January marking the first one. The second one is set to be released on 11.11.11. They have already released two singles from the upcoming album, which means they have had five frequently played singles on radio since August last year. The hits are without a doubt brilliant songs unfortunately the rest of the album can't really live up to that standard. There are some quality songs other than these three but there are a few that, for me, are just fillers. It's an impressive project that they've taken on and I'm looking forward to explore the next two releases.

The Iron & Wine album is one of these low key singer/songwriter albums that really isn't my cup of tea. I get easily bored with records like these. I don't know why but there's just something there that doesn't catch my ears. However, if there is a record within this genre that I like, I listen to it more or less non-stop. There are few of these but when that one record comes it is great! There is at least one of those records released this year, but is this the one? No, not really. It is a good album but for me, it lacks that little bit of magic to make it a classic. It's an even record without any real lows, but I miss the highs for it to be a record of my taste.

Conclusion: "Kiss Each Other Clean" might be a more even record over all, but with the strength of the good songs that are on "Violeta, Violeta, Vol. 1" the Norwegians will progress to the next level.

Next up is Wino vs. ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead.

Album of the year project 1st post.

As I wrote about in a previous post I'm doing the "best of the year list" a bit different this year. I believe this is the best way to decide which album really is the best of the year. The results are obviously only my personal opinion, with a little help from my girlfriend as well sometimes.

So, the first match-up that I'm listening to at the moment is between Decemberists' "The King Is Dead" and Delillos' "Trist Å Väre Glad". Both albums were released in January this year. The Delillos album was one of those that I listened to quite a lot during the spring before the releases of the year really picked up.


It's a tougher match-up that I anticipated actually. I have given the Decemberists album a couple of listens this year and it's a real beauty. I'm a big fan of the country/americana genre with the new Jayhawks album being one of the more anticipated releases of the year. I got it this week but I haven't had the chance to listen to it yet.

Spotify links:

The Decemberists - The King Is Dead

Delillos - Trist Å Väre Glad

The Decemberists album has more or less everything I look for in an album like this. Great songs, like the album opener "Don't Carry It All" and the beautiful "Rise To Me". The A-side really delivers but flip the record over and the B-side can't really live up to the quality of the former. On the B-side opener they try to pick up the pace with the Springsteen inspired "Down By The Water", but there's just something missing. It's an ok song but nothing more. And that's how the rest of the album continues with the exception of the low-key beauty "June Hymn" in the middle of it. But it alone isn't able to lift the B-side to higher grounds.

The story behind the last Delillos album is an interesting one. During a series of live shows last year (I think it was) they more or less jammed out the songs that were to be the new album "Trist Å Väre Glad". This is a really "fun" album and you always get a warm, nice feeling listening to it. It also features one of the best songs of the year, the title track. The fact that they sing in their native Norwegian language makes the album an honest and personal experience and they paint beautiful stories in their songs. As with the Decemberist album this record really shows it's strong points on the first side. The Delillos album however can keep this quality even on the b-side. They have drinking ballads in the vein of Tom Waits ("Lars Lillos Drikkevise"). They even finish the album with a song about singing in your native language, with the song "Jeg Elsker Deg" ("I Love You").

To summarize: I didn't think that the Decemberists album would stand up as well as it did along side the Delillos album but it really did. However with a better b-side and an overall quality Delillos will advance to the next stage.

Next up is Kaizers Orchestra vs. Iron & Wine.

"Album of the year" project

The last few years I've listed my favourite albums from the past year. I will do so this year as well but this time I will do it a little differently than before. I always have difficulties ranking the records. Often the number one spot has been quite easily decided but how do I really come to the decision?

I think I mostly base it on the number of times I play a record, the more you like a record, the more you're likely to play it, right?

This year though I'm gonna have a play off with the records of the year. I've put together a grid play off with 64 brackets. Here's an example of how one of these things looks, for those of you who doesn't understand what the hell I'm talking about:

So I'll put two records up against each other and the one I think is better advances to the next stage until at last there is just one album still standing- the album of the year!

First I had the idea of putting up a vote on my blog on each "match up", but for a few reasons it wouldn't work. For once there aren't that many readers here to be honest, and those who would vote would probably be three of four people so it wouldn't be too much of a competition:)

Second of all it's my blog and my opinions so I thought it would be better to have my views on it. Also I'll have help from my girlfriend to decide some of the match ups. I'll have final say though;)

I will put the albums against each other that have been released at the same time of the year so that I've had the chance to listen to both albums an equal amount of times. Which in most cases I haven't, but at least I've had the chance... So first up will by Decemberists against the Delillos album which were both released in January this year.

The criterias I have for an album to be part of this is:
1. That I own it on vinyl.
2. That it is an original release. Not a collection (like Foo Fighters - Medium Rare), not a live album (like Neil Youngs - A Treasure or Mastodon - Live At Aragorn) etc.
3. It qualifies to be among the best 64 records released this year. Apparently I have too many records at the moment. I own a few from the year already and I also have a list of records that will be released this year that I will buy so I have to sort some of them out before this thing starts.

Here are the albums that I've got so far:

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead	Tao Of Dead
Akron/Family	S/T II
Amon Amarth	Surtur Rising
Anna Järvinen	Anna Själv Tredje
Bigbang	Epic Scrap Metal
Black Country Communion	BCC 2
Blackfield	Welcome To My DNA
Bon Iver	Bon Iver
Boris	New Album
Boris	Heavy Rocks
Boris	Attention Please
Bright Eyes	People's Key
Buffalo Tom	Skins
Cave Singers	No Witch
Crowbar	Sever The Wicked Hand
Decemberists	The King Is Dead
Delillos	Trist Å Väre Glad
Drive-By Truckers	Go-Go Boots
Earth	Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light
Explosions In The Sky	Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
Fleet Foxes	Helplessness Blues
Foo Fighters	Wasting Light
Girls	Father, Son And The Holy Ghost
Graveyard	Hisingen Blues
Haunted	Unseen
Iron & Wine	Kiss Each Other Clean
J Mascis	Several Shades Of Why
Jarle Bernhoft	Solidarity Breaks
Jeff Bridges	Jeff Bridges
Kaizers Orchestra	Violeta Violeta Vol.1
Kebnekajse	Idioten
Ljungblut	Over Skyene Skinner Altid Solen
Low	C'mon
Lykke Li	Wounded Rhymes
Manchester Orchestra	Simple Math
Mogwai	Hardcore Will Never Die
My Morning Jacket	Circuital
Okkervil River	I Am Very Far
Panda Bear	Tomboy
Paul Simon	So Beautiful Or So What
PJ Harvey	Let England Shake
REM	Collapse Into Now
Spirits Of The Dead	The Great God Pan
Steve Earle	I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive
Thurston Moore	Demolished Thoughts
TV On The Radio	Nine Types Of Light
Twilight Singers	Dynamite Steps
Urge Overkill	Rock&Roll Submarine
Wino	Adrift
Wobbler	Rites At Dawn
Wolf	Legions Of Bastards

And there are releases from all of these bands that have just been released or are expected later this year that I'll most likely buy:

Opeth

Mastodon Steven Wilson

Sivert Höyem

The Amazing

Björk

Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah

Coldplay

Black Keys

Ryan Adams

Blink-182

Lou Reed and Metallica

St. Vincent

Tom Waits

Wilco

Jayhawks

Are there any records that I'm missing from the year so far, or upcoming releases?