Too Late To Change Me? - New Music I Want (Part 6)

I'm not sure quite why my taste in music has developed over the years, and in particular why it has become so much more diverse. There is not much that I liked twenty years ago that I dislike now but had you asked me then, about much that of the genres I now devour, I very much suspect that you would have got a pretty withering answer.
I don't think that I'm becoming less discriminating and isn't age said generally to lead to increasing conservatism? Then again would I (if it were possible then) have written what I think in a blog at all let alone in the "this is what I like now, how I feel about it, and if you disagree that's fine and you can just tell me" way I am doing at this moment? Absolutely not!
Neither would I have believed that in 2008-9 I would get to see an average of one live band a week or that I could find out about so much new music and in large part this is a result of the digital revolution of the last decade or so - MySpace and blogs included. On the other hand, and this is a matter of active choice rather than conservatism, I can now find may of those artists and their new music on vinyl...

Perhaps not the album 'Too Late To Change Me' on vinyl, (yet...), but a good example of the way things have changed and the tide of music from, or influenced by, New York.
This particular ripple hasn't really reached these shores yet, more than a year after its US release, but that's no reason not to give it a mention. If you like the style of piano-led songwriting exemplified by, to give just two examples, Regina Spektor and Sara Bareilles then you might consider this.

The next problem is to get my paws on a copy of the six-track CD, as my local independent record store certainly doesn't have one. This is where the cyber-local independent store cdbaby comes to the rescue. This album has already gotten very positive reviews there and I strongly suspect, that once mine arrives on this side of the pond, there will be another and it will appear here first!
Another album that I found out about by the same route last year, and find myself listening to with increasing frequency, is Kira Fontana - The Inner Revolution, which is slightly more alt-rock/pop and was mixed by Howard Bilerman, who has worked with Arcade Fire and Godspeed You Black Emperor, so you can probably now see how this tallies with my Canadian-indie addiction and yes, before you ask, I am going to see Metric live in Bristol next Saturday.
Many thanks are due to Ariel Publicity, NYC for giving me the chance to find out about and mention artists that would have otherwise almost certainly escaped my notice.

The item I was going to include next no longer falls in the 'new music I want' category and it is about as local as it gets. I bought it last week and it deserves a review of its own.

Spark the fire...

My summer 2008 project has taken yet another turn! It all started mostly by accident as, while my curiosity had been aroused by music from, inter alia, Sara Bareilles (the album 'Little Voice', which I imported from America on vinyl) it was my niece that really moved this from curiosity status to quest status. I want to acknowledge her for that; it was a very good call indeed and way ahead of its time in the UK.
It has already surpassed all expectations but to receive two wonderful albums, both very different except for the fact that they are both largely unknown in the UK, on successive days is truly remarkable! Some reviewers have said that it sounds like Evanescence. I like Evanescence and have both their studio albums but that is a lazy comparison. The start (in particular) of track 2, Bloom, does however explain why some might have garnered that idea and it is true that Kira Fontana is, like Amy Lee, a pianist first and foremost. There is nothing wrong with the song, nor indeed the others that don't sound remotely like Evanescence. It is fair comment and sensible to say that 'The Inner Revolution' is certainly not the most immediately accessible album that I will tell you about this year; four listens and now I think I like it very much but I'm still really only just getting the measure of it.

On the other hand the US is also now doing catchy electro-pop like we thought it had forgotten all about long ago! Whilst it is in some ways faintly provocative and memorable, neither is it challenging nor entirely vapid, and that is just what pop should be.

This was never the way I planned,
Not my intention
I got so brave, drink in hand
Lost my discretion

Katy Perry tops the charts in the US and the UK with "I Kissed A Girl".

It is not Perry's fault at all but I can only imagine that this fills Stefy Rae with frustration and regret, and justifiably so, as 2007 single "Chelsea" was in much the same vein but went nowhere by comparison. It will be interesting to see if 'One Of The Boys' (Katy Perry's album, as yet unreleased in the UK) fares better than 'The Orange Album' by Stefy.

The jury is out and the voting may well be too close to call.

It is the music that matters...

A week away from my blog seems a long time. I have returned from a few days away but, unlike last year, I am back home when I intended and fully functional. This evening a different problem presented; I returned home from work, intent on adding some new blog material, only to discover that my street had no electricity and even vinyl won't play without that!

While my recent meanderings were limited to nowhere exotic, rather the comforting familiarity of North Yorkshire in good company, that doesn't mean that I have spent the last week entirely isolated from the world of new music and, also importantly, music that is merely new to me.
It does possibly mean that such music has no obvious connection, and this is an album and artist that I have never heard before, but it appears to make sense to buy it so it is now on order!

Alternative/indie music from North America is currently on fine form and this is just one album amongst many that holds promise. It is certainly not a new phenomenon but it is also true that music and politics share a lot in common. They know what they are up against - European music - and although this might seem a rather strange comment they are rising, vainglorious, to the challenge and that is exactly what is needed right now.

It is, like politics, a situation far more complicated than it might seem and this is why music has spawned a rash of sub-genres that, while we might disagree about the names we give them, share certain common values. To anyone reading this without some prior knowledge the term "anti-folk" is about as helpful as toothache and, in any case, it is also near impossible to define as it can present as different things in different cases. Given that there are too many sub-genres this is a particularly unhelpful situation that merely hinders communication but it is one quite unsurprising.
While I'm on this topic and, as I forgot to mention that Kira Fontana is from California, I might also mention Carrie Rodriguez.

She is from New York and as well as playing her, rather more folk-influenced, songs she also plays a mean fiddle! This, her second solo album, was released in the US on 5th August 2008 by Manhattan Records but, as of now, seems to have no full release in the UK or Europe.

It is just the music that matters!