Jeff's Music Yammerings

Favorite Female Artists (posted 11/24/09)

Listening to Sinead O'Connor now and got inspired (like I normally do with her).

Okay my Favorite Female Singer/Songwriters:

Kate Bush, for her emotional sensitivity, and the brilliance and creativity of her music. Hounds of Love, a masterpiece, is one of my top five albums. Aerial, her latest, Disc 2, A Sky of Honey, is as good as anything she's done. The Dreaming is musically brilliant. I'd pick her to represent us humans to the aliens as what we can be.

Alanis Morrissette, for her emotional sensitivity, psychological insight, her lyrical expressiveness and cleverness, her all-out focus on making her life as meaningful as she can and sharing the experience with us. Her musically-creative peak seems to be behind her (I like album #2 the best), but her lyrics still occasionally go where no one elses does (and that's to counseling (see "Out is Through"). As one critic said "She never met a run-on sentence she didn't love"). This to me is a good thing. She would be my spokesman for the continuing struggle to understand life, relationships, and how to be happy.

Poe. Complete Package, but not a lot of work. "Haunted" is one of my Top 5 Albums. She's been hobbled by a lawsuit and hasn't put anything out since that album. Too bad.

Shakira. Perhaps, lighter on substance, I love her voice. Unique. She has two vibrattos: her voice and her hips. The former is the only one that really matters.

Sinead O' Connor. Nobody can pack the emotional wallop Sinead can. This woman has been hurt, she has struggled mightily and loved fiercely. If you total all the tears I've shed to Sinead and those shed to all other artist combined, Sinead has required the more Kleenex. Whereas Kate only fleetingly has sung about motherhood and seems a little more intellectual about emotions, Sinead wallows in the raw intensity of HOW IT FEELS, and you can't help but feel it too. "My Darling Baby", "In this Heart", "Thank You for Hearing Me." Heart tuggers. "Troy." And the absolute most tragic song of all time: "Scorn Not His Simplicity". If I needed to teach a rock to feel, I'd have to loop some Sinead at it. Favorite Albums by her: The Lion and The Cobra, Universal Mother, and Faith and Courage. Lord, thanks for Sinead, sincerely.

What I'm listening to right now

2009

Arctic Monkeys, A.F.I.

(Nov 2004):

Muse - Absolution	2004	Grandiose and Operatic 4 minute pop-songs. Wall of sound bass. Go to muse.mu for listens.	Electric live show!
The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium	2004	Hard, edgy, non-formulaic complex concept album (the concept isn't complex, the music is). Recalls early Rush. Long meandering songs that remain consistently foot-tappy. Many many listens into it there is still a LOT of stuff to discover.

Favorite Albums

Kate Bush - Hounds of Love		Awesome on many levels: music, vocals, poetry.
Poe - Haunted	2000	Awesome on so many levels: music, vocals, poetry, concept.	"Doesn't transcend the genre, it perfects it." Twenty years after I heard that quote, I finally understand it.
Radiohead - OK Computer	1999		Expands the genre ("Kid A" and "Amnesiac" transcend it).
The Cure - Wish	1993	3 guitars, angsty; great bass lines
Midnight Oil - 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1	1985		No filler, very creative, not an unnecessary note. Starts minimally, builds
Midnight Oil - Redneck Wonderland	2000	Angry, edgy, high energy melodies, great stuff deep in the album.

Other Favorite Albums

Sonic Youth - Goo	1990	Sonic Youth: Accessible!	Doesn't transcend the genre, it perfects it.
Gang of Four - Shrinkwrapped	1999	Great Melodies over Driving Bass, Feedback & Sampling.
The Posies - Frosting on the Beater
That Petrol Emotion - Chemicrazy		Great Album of Guitar Pop
Sinead O' Connor - The Lion and the Cobra		passion
Bob Mould - Workbook		punker goes beyond punk to write songs with structure and pacing
Fatima Mansions		Viva Dead Ponies	Great pacing. Ballads erupt into beautiful angry yelling.
Throwing Muses - the Real Ramona
Elastica		many great guitar pop tunes

Favorite Artists

Poe	based on the strength of "Haunted"
Kate Bush	I often thought "if aliens visited and wanted a single artist's work, I'd have to give them Kate Bush, because she encompasses so much of what it means to be human: vulnerability, sensitivity, sensuality, playfulness, in a medium of very creative music, poetry, and vocal styling.
Alanis Morrisette	Extremely Introspective and expressive. Sensitive, Earnest. "Never met a run-sentence she didn't love." Runner up to the "Alien sampler" (see Kate Bush).
Midnight Oil	16+ albums, peaking in "10, 9, 8,...", "Red Sails in the Sunset", "Redneck Wonderland"; lyrics always significant, almost always important, have used their fame to further green causes they are passionate about; could picture having them over for dinner.
The Cure	Alternative icons. Robert Smith, of course, paired with Simon Gallup on bass, preferably with Porl Thompson on guitar.
Joy Division	Goth-Punk icons, great (albeit simple) melodies, vocal passion (a bit tormented).
U2	all great albums, although I miss the point of October (sophomore?) and don't have the patience for "All that you can't leave behind."
Sinead O' Connor	Great vocals, great tunes, passion, especially on "The Lion and the Cobra" and "Universal Mother".
Hoodoo Gurus	Great Australian alternative (but very mainstream) rock and roll. Fun.
Inspiral Carpets	Early stuff is great, keyboard/bass led; fun
Oingo Boingo	Boing is a great album, a couple long songs, the rest good pop
Peter Murphy
Rush	Great concept songs and albums (through Signals); lyrically unmatched.

Favorite Concert Video

The Cure - Show: the group's best lineup, 3 guitars, great playlist.

Some Favorite Songs

I'll jot these down as they strike me

Band	Song	Album	Comment
U2	Bad	Wide Awake in America	the live version, not the studio
U2	Twilight	Boy	what a great bass line
Sinead O'Connor	Scorn not his Simplicity	Universal Mother	Weeper: perhaps the most tragic song ever sung
Joy Division	Something Must Break	Still	2:50 min Ian, bass, snare, keyboard jam; classic
Joy Division	New Dawn Fades	Unknown Pleasures	Dark, Urgent, Lost
Midnight Oil	Short Memory	10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1	some songs are brilliant within a niche. I put this song up against any song judged on any criteria (actually the music isn't very complex)
Fatima Mansions	Popemobile to Paraguay	Lost in the Former West	Politically Angriest Song I know, sung beautifully "It's been a while since you've said 'Heil!" you CIA-bred necrophile..."
Jane's Addiction	Three Days	Ritual...	8+ minutes, kicks buttss
The The	the Violence of Truth	Mind Bomb