"Starry skies" (2013 cd)

The soundtrack to last year.

1  State Of Grace – Taylor Swift

Red (Big Machine; 2012)

2  Forever Is A Long Time – Krystle Warren

Love Songs – A Time You May Embrace (Parlour Door; 2012)

3  I Think I Broke Something – Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin

Beasts of the Southern Wild OST (Thirty3 And A 3rd; 2012)

4  Forever Green – The Felice Brothers

Mix Tape (New York Pro; 2010) – although somewhat ironically actually from a mix cd

5  Sweet Talk – Jessie Ware

Devotion (Island; 2012)

6  Manchester – Kishi Bashi

151a (Joyful Noise; 2012)

7  I Couldn’t Be Your Friend – Tegan and Sara

Heartthrob (Warner; 2013)

8  Useless Desires – Patty Griffin

Impossible Dream (ATO; 2004)

9  With God On Our Side – Buddy Miller

Universal United House of Prayer (New West; 2004)

10  Ohio – Patty Griffin

American Kid (New West; 2013)

11  100 Million Little Bombs – Buddy Miller

Poison Love (HighTone; 1997)

12  Starry Skies – Laura Cantrell

No Way There From Here (Shoeshine; 2013)

13  The Wire – Haim

Days Are Gone (Polydor; 2013)

14  The Mother We Share – Chvrches

The Bones Of What You Believe (Glassnote; 2013)

1

Seems like I listened to a lot of big glossy pop records through 2013, and Red, which carried me from last year well into this, was the biggest and glossiest of them all, and maybe the best. I like Taylor Swift heaps – knowingly, but not at all ironically – and “State Of Grace” knocks it out of the park, shearing along in vivid, rapturous lines…it’s a rush.

2

It was not once but twice that Krystle Warren’s astonishing voice caught me – a while back at a Nick Drake tribute concert, and then again over the in-store speakers in Basement Discs. That second time, it was Love Songs that was playing, a swooningly romantic set that partakes of folk, blues, jazz and classic pop, and swirls it all into a confection that feels timeless. Sometimes it’s in the tiniest details that a song gets to you; “Forever Is A Long Time” is at once the lp’s most representative and its finest moment.

3

Something about Beasts Of The Southern Wild really caught at me and lingered – I guess that’s what art does. Like a splinter under the skin, I worried at it and it went ever deeper; I suppose I’ll never fully dislodge it, or uncover just what it is that causes such a visceral response in me. But there’s this, at least: the music’s an integral part.

4

I find myself singing along to this one a lot; so dusty, so evocative.

5

There can’t be too many songs that so embody their titles as this one, all elegant swagger, and going down so smoothly.

6

“Manchester” sounds like a rainbow, swirling upwards all the way through to that final flurry of strings.

7

So Tegan and Sara emerging with such a monster of a pop album, riding on waves of synths ripped straight from the 80s, melodies to kill for and an eye for the stadium – that was maybe something of a surprise. But what’s not a surprise at all is that it’s so plainly, desperately heart-on-sleeve – which is what makes “I Couldn’t Be Your Friend”, and indeed the whole of Heartthrob, so darn great.

8-11

Well, this year, I basically fell completely in love with Patty Griffin. There’s something transcendent about her music, some quality that calls to mind that old line about music being feeling then, not sound; it’s a quality present on luminous, unadorned songs like “Useless Desires” as well as in the more ornate mysteries of a track like the riverine “Ohio”. And then there was Buddy Miller, a fellow traveller along these roads of contemporary Americana; for several months through the middle of the year, I pretty much only listened to the two of them. Like Griffin, Miller has impressive range as both a songwriter and an interpreter; his 9 minute-long reading of Dylan’s “With God On Our Side” is revelatory, its simplicity perfectly, finely wrought, and then there are cuts like the chiming “100 Million Little Bombs”, its yearning feel completed by Julie Miller’s distinctive, lovely harmonies.

12

Another unutterably sweet slice of modern country from the ever delightful Laura Cantrell, from another wonderful album – it feels so effortless, and yet there’s so much craft and heart to it that you couldn’t possibly take it for granted.

13

Yes! Clearly Haim are all kinds of awesome, and Days Are Gone didn’t disappoint; “The Wire” is the best of the new songs on it, sheer pop-rock pleasure. (I was very tempted to choose their excellent cover of “Strong Enough”, which isn’t on the album, instead.)

14

I only discovered this one recently, sugary-sharp, and I keep expecting it to wear off, and it keeps on showing no signs at all of doing so – like all the best pop, it’s a moment, fleeting, that feels like it might last forever, even though you know it never will.

December 2013

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Previously

2012
2010 & 2011
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005