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...

Not so new but an album I've just been getting into recently by Sun Kil Moon (with thanks to my buddy Neil). That's Mark Kozelek, the veteran ex-Red House Painters man. Somehow, I never managed to get into that band. Maybe it’s an age thing for me now, cos this is certainly a mature person’s music (in years if not behaviour). 'Ben's my friend' is a rollercoaster of nostalgic memoir from middle life, surfing on a wave of bossa nova and collapsing under the weight of Kozelek’s creaking, soul-weary vocals. It's wonderful and so utterly plausible. That full band bossa arrangement is all the more effective for being unexpected, coming as it does at the very end of the album. Up to then, fingerpicked guitar patterns (almost exclusively) circle around the trapped characters of these mournful story songs, mostly centred on family and childhood. There’s a distinctly literary aftertaste to the songwriting, with something of Raymond Carver’s short story matter of fa...

A few new things of note this week. English garage rocker Laurie Shaw has another new album out, another intriguing foot stomper full of great tunes. From it, we had 'Black wolf blues'. The Clientele debut album Suburban light is being reissued on Merge, we took a great slice of jangle pop from that. And not so new but an album I've just been getting into recently by Sun Kil Moon . That's Mark Kozelek, ex Red House Painters. 'Ben's my friend' is a rollercoaster of nostalgic memoir from middle life, surfing on a wave of bossa nova. It's wonderful. Also St Vincent (fresh from her storming Primavera turn at the w'end), Roll the Dice (whose compelling new album is now out), The Elwins (one of the pop songs of the year) & Red Snapper (writhing synth funk). Plus a classic from The Zombies from 1968. Yes, always room for that. More on these pages. June 3 2014 w/ The Elwins,The Clientele,Laurie Shaw,The Zombies,Sun Kil Moon,Laetit...