The Underground of Happiness

I gave in to list culture a few years back, so here's my contribution. In fairness, I find looking back over the year a good way of rediscovering musical highlights, refreshing the mucial memory. Plus I've tried to add a bit of depth by describing why these musical moments, albums, songs, phrases, whatever, have stayed with me. This first instalment I'm calling Folk/Roots/Country , as usual a somewhat arbitrary set of tags but broadly representative. Enjoy, the rest of the series will follow over the next couple of weeks or so (in total there will be three or four). 1. Olof Arnalds – Patience (One Little Indian) Another superb album from the Icelandic singer this year, Palme . As with all her work, there’s an endearing quirkiness to the songs but through ingenious arrangements she manages to avoid the stultifying cul de sac which is the home of many of the twee-inclined. This song has her quivering tones (not unlike Bjork in her quieter moments, in terms of p...

I found it hard to get past this opening song on Fry’s new album, a welcome return from the veteran folk artist who has been pursuing a career as a painter when not playing music. With those wonderful cello drones and flurries of fingerpicked acoustic guitar, allied with a pastoral, dreamlike atmosphere, it plays like a companion to the Bert Jansch song ‘The black swan’, itself a modern classic. Where Jansch was describing a vaguely sci-fi future, Fry seems to be dreaming of a re-imagined, idyllic present. You listen to this and find yourself drifting on a stratospheric current just like the silver bird in the song. It’s uplifting and quite beautiful.