06 - Love: Forever Changes

06
LOVE: FOREVER CHANGES (1967)

Forever Changes is a record I got as a present, as something I "must have". The first time I listened to this record was at a party, when I was hanging around with some people who all knew this one and wanted to hear it. A discussion about Arthur Lee started, the guy who wrote all the songs. Some people had seen him live a few years earlier, shortly before he died. A lot of attention was drawn to the record, so I listened to it quite often afterwards, and quickly fell in love with it. Yet this record is another on of these cases where I got the special edition, and maybe shouldn't have. The record itself is great, and there are some nice versions of the songs on it as well, but all in all, you don't really need all the special stuff that is on there. After all, a record is a record, and when it's over, the songs that follow kind of destroy the atmosphere the record created. However, to talk a bit more about the songs, Alone Again Or is great, I knew this one even before I got the record. And I later found out that I had also heard Always See Your Face before, as it is on the soundtrack of High Fidelity, one of the greatest films about music there is. However, Forever Changes is not about single songs, but they whole record in itself is what you gotta listen to.

07 - The Zombies: Odessey and Oracle

07
THE ZOMBIES: ODESSEY AND ORACLE (1968)

I rarely listened to the record in a whole, I must admit. Rank 7 is more about certain songs that mean so much to me. This entry is mostly about Care Of Cell 44, about Leave Me Be, Time Of The Season, This Will Be Our Year - songs that are so important for me this year, that the whole record had to make it onto the list. Yet this is all about The Zombies as well, because these songs stand for their sound in general, their music, which I find incredibly good this year. When I discovered Leave Me Be, it was another of these instances when I fell in love with a voice. I was in a state of mind when I could literally feel the sadness this song emerged from. Later I heard Time Of The Season, which is so different from Leave Me Be - a bright song about happyness and love. After that, it took a while until I got the record. I got the new 30th anniversary edition as a present. It's a nice records, because everything a Zombies-newbee needs to have from the band is on there. And I love most of the record very much, songs like This Will Be Our Year (which it was!), Brief Candles and Maybe After He's Gone. They are all fantastic, but none of them can quite shake me as much as this one song does: Care Of Cell 44. It's a long story behind this one. It's about me...

8 - The Bishops: the Bishops

8
THE BISHOPS: THE BISHOPS (2007)

The Bishops stand for all the great rhythm'n'blues and beat music I discovered this year. This is a fresh young band from London who just represent this great hard 60's sound and style so very well. A records that pushes you and makes you jump up and dance! I love their energy, and I am also very much into their sophisticated stylishness. Okay, I am repeating myself.
I like the band for how they combine dramatic lyrics that actually say something sad(The Only Place That I Can Look Is Down or Will You Ever Come Back To Me) with very danceable beat music. The Bishops are just one of the many many many recommendations that, ironically, came from all the way home to make my time in Manchester. I was told to go to their gig. I had the chance to see them both in Manchester and, later, in Berlin. But both times, it was not destined to happen. May I get a another chance? This probably depends on what's going to happen next with the band. Let's hope they keep it up!

9 - Little Man Tate: About What You Know

9
LITTLE MAN TATE: ABOUT WHAT YOU KNOW (2007)

This years' list is gonna give a lot of reference to the time I spent in Britain. Being in the country of music for five months, and spending almost all the time in the city of music (I am talking about Manchester) does of course have some nice effects. I had great experiences there and some of them had loosely or tightly to do with Little Man Tate.

The first time I heard about them was last year, in autumn 2006. Back then I went to a Peter, Björn & John gig in Berlin where they were touring with Little Man Tate. But I had no clue who they were and so we missed the show. But things that are destined to happen simply happen! In Manchester I had lots of opportunities to gain as much from the musical atmosphere there as possible. This included going to clubs and record stores (Manchester's Oldham Street has a larger number of record stores than any other street or area in Britain), namely The Roadhouse (venue) and Picadilly Records (store). And one day on myspace I got a bulletin saying the Little Man Tate were doing a few free gigs in Britain to promote the release of their new single. The gig was in the Eastern holidays, and they were giving out tickets in Picadilly Records on a specific date. By then, I had become very interested in the band because of their great rock music and their smart titles like Man I Hate Your Band. So I rushed to shop right in the morning to make sure I got two tickets - as a special surprise for someone special who was gonna spend the holidays with me. The gig was great. And I mean not only the band, who were rather tired (you could tell by the voice of the singer that they had been touring the continent) but still put on a great show. For me it was also fantastic to observe the audience - lots of Brits, weird guys who were into stage diving and partying hard. And they adored the band. The atmosphere was very much alive.

The record, About What You Know, also brings back lots of memories of things that I experienced, which could only have happened in Britain. I went to a big house party, were two hundred people squeezed themselves into a living room to see Foals play for free, and everything I hear House Party At Boothys I can't help but thinking of that. In most party of the album, the lyrics just refer to specific things I have seen that are part of the British culture. I am failing to properly describe this here, let's just say that it's great Britrock, and with this records I feel like I listened to it from a British point-of-view, not as someone who hears it and has to wonder what it is like to know all this. Cause this time I know!

10 - Danger Doom: The Mouse And The Mask

10
DANGER DOOM: THE MOUSE AND THE MASK (2005)

This one is so fresh (for me) it could be a regular blog entry. I Listened to it very few times so far. Already it is bringing back lots of the good feelings hiphop used to give me some years ago. Danger Dooms voice is very charismatic, a bit mysterious and it gives me so much pleasure listening to what he has got to say. And he has got something to say. And finally, someone in the rap scene who has got the nerve to have some humour. When I had my hiphop phase, 6 or 7 years ago, I admired the mcs for being able to articulate so many many interesting thoughts in one song, and sometimes telling great stories. Then I felt new school had nothing important to say anymore, apart from a few valuable artists like The Roots or Common. The best hiphop, for me, is what groups like The Pharcyde or A Tribe Called Quest used to do in the early nineties. And The Mouse and The Mask very much sounds like that.
Hello rap music, In casef there's more we're-ina-a-good-mood-and-can-also-have-aluagh-about-ourselves like that, I wanna be friends again!

Top Ten 2007

The end of december is the time when people go crazy for making lists. lists they wish for christmas, lists of things to do next year and, of course, lists of great stuff of this year. I am no different and just like last year, again I am going to make a list of ten records I discovered in 2007. They have not all been relased this year, but this is the year I discovered them and these ten records quite well sum up what has been going on this year.

Picking my 10 fave albums of 2007 was not difficult at all. But I am still working on the ranking. Whatever, in the next few days till new year I am going to look back on my year 2007 and write a bit about the most fantastic albums that accompanied me through it.