© Sigrid (via Youtube)
When the world is on your shoulders /
And the weight of your own heart is too much to bear /
Wеll, I know that you’re afraid things will always be this way /
It’s just a bad day, not a bad life
— from Bad Life by Sigrid feat. Bring Me The Horizon
Looking forward to the second album “How To Let Go” by Norwegian singer and songwriter Sigrid to be released on Friday, three years after her debut “Sucker Punch”.
Alles war schön und nichts tat weh
Die Musik von Casper begleitet mich bereits seit über einer Dekade und entweder ‘XOXO’ oder ‘Hinterland’ stände sicherlich auf der Liste meiner Alben für die einsame Insel. Auch, weil sich auf beiden Platten Titel finden, die ich extrem stark mit prägenden Phasen oder einschneidenden Situationen meines Lebens verbinde.
Die letzten beiden Alben ‘Lang Lebe der Tod’ und ‘1982’ (zusammen mit Marteria) haben mich dann emotional irgendwie nicht mehr ganz so ‘erwischt’, obwohl beide durchaus Lieder enthalten, die ich ebenfalls sehr gerne mag.
Fünf Jahre nach seinem letzten Soloalbum hat der Bielefelder vergangene Woche endlich sein neues Werk mit einem toll inszenierten Livestream veröffentlicht und mit jeder Rotation gefällt mir ‘Alles war schön und nichts tat weh‘ ein bisschen besser. Melancholie. Adrenalin. Euphorie. Gänsehaut. Schade lediglich, dass das insgesamt eher düstere Album für mich gedanklich zukünftig unweigerlich mit dem aktuellen Wahnsinn in der Ukraine verknüpft sein wird —nicht zuletzt auch Dank des dramatischen Song ‘Billie Jo‘, der von einem heimgekehrten Soldaten mit PTSD erzählt oder der fatalistisch anmutenden Hook von ‘Zwiebel & Mett (Die Vergessenen PT 3)’.
Andererseits liefert mir Casper –wie schon seinerzeit mit XOXO– nicht einfach nur den Soundtrack für meinen Alltag, sondern auch ein Refugium, eine kleine Rettungskapsel in die ich mich zurückziehen kann, wenn das Gewicht der Nachrichten und Bilder zu groß wird.
© Casper (via YouTube)
Ich hab’ heute wieder dran gedacht /
Dass ich mir zu viel Gedanken mach’ /
Dunkle Nächte, lange wach /
Wann hört es auf, wo fang’ ich an? /
Ging so schnell, da fühlt sich letztes Jahr wie gestern an /
So viel Schlechtes, dass ich ‘s Beste fast vergessen hab’ /
Hoff‘, mein letzter Satz, wenn ‘s Ende naht und ich dann geh /
Alles war schön und nichts tat weh
© ANTI / Fleet Foxes (via YouTube)
me by myself on the longest night of the year… honoring the loneliness of 2020 with a nylon string and some songs new and old.
In December 2020 on the winter solstice —just a few days after New York declared a state of emergency because of COVID-19 and forced a wide lockdown, Robin Pecknold performed acoustic arrangements of “some songs new and old” from various albums of his band Fleet Foxes as well as a Nina Simone cover (‘In The Morning’) and a traditional tune (‘Silver Dagger’) at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. The recording of the live stream finally got a proper digital release –on Spotify for example– with physical formats to follow in Spring 2022.
A Very Lonely Solstice is a haunting depiction of the isolation a lot of us experienced in one way or another throughout the last two years and another beautiful cultural-historic document of our time. Furthermore, it’s the perfect score for dark winter days and a wonderful alternative to the more traditional –and often cheesy– Christmas time songs.
© The Howl & The Hum / Kobalt (via YouTube)
Hostages (Live Alternate Version) is probably one of my favourite songs this year, Human Contact is very likely one of my favourite albums this year –the studio version I missed in 2020 as well as the current live version– and The Howl & The Hum is most definitely my favourite band discovered this year. I might have a little crush on those lads.
Kunzite – VISUALS
»Ride on the rays of the farthest sun«
About a decade ago I came across the electronic rock from Ratatat for the first time because of their features on one of my favourite albums, Kid Cudi’s masterpiece ‘Man on the Moon: The End of Day’. The recognizable sound the Brooklyn-based duo was contributing to the tracks ‘Alive’ and ‘Pursuit of Happiness‘ –probably one of my favourite songs of all time– lead me to listen to their music quite extensively back then, first and foremost to the extremly catchy tunes of their earlier released album ‘Classics’.
Just recently –six years after the last vital signs of Ratatat– said album (which nowadays is available on YouTube in its entirety) popped into my head again while listening to ‘VISUALS’, the just-released second longplayer by a band called Kunzite. Only after doing my habitual research on the music project unkown to me hitherto, I discovered my association is not by chance;
The 2018 formed duo is a collaboration between the musicians Agustin White and Mike Stroud, the latter being the guitarist of –you guessed it– Ratatat, for which he plays a variety of instruments. I guess a lot of the infectious groove on ‘VISUALS’ caused by synthesizers, pipe organs and lap steel guitars is to a great extent attributed to him, at least it undoubtedly sounds a hell lot like his other music project.
In fact the whole record sounds like Ratatat got inspired by the island vibes of Hawaii –where White and Stroud recorded large parts of the longplayer, decided to dial back the weirdness just a tiny bit and, most notably, add hypnotic pop vocals to their repertoire.
The result is a psychedelic joyride and probably one of my favourite albums of 2021 so far. I can’t wait for ‘VISUALS’ to drop on vinyl later this year (November), until then I have to be careful not to listen to it repeatedly ad nauseam in its digital form —especially since it oozes summer fun and therefore matches the current late summer sun way better than the dark winter months ahead.
There’s rumored to be an exclusive track with the grande Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry on the physical record, though, so I’m going to put it on as soon as I get my hands on it, no matter how often I’ll have played it already till then.
