Ah, spring. Spring is the time when everyone loses their minds and starts walking around in shoes with no socks, shirts with no sleeves, and pants that end at the knees even on days when the temperature barely reaches 10-15 degrees Celcius. Or even below that. It depends on how sunny it is and how harsh last winter was.
After completing this top 20, it seems that for me, generally speaking, guitar rythms seem to flow nicely in the windy spring breeze.
Watch out, the squirrels are coming out swinging to some jazzy bluesy swing revival!
20. Karma Wears White Ties, Wesley (2016)
Ah… a starry spring night. This indie dreampop/shoegaze band makes me feel like summer is almost here (even if I had to wear my scarf while waiting for the bus this morning).
19. Louise attaque, Louise attaque (1997)
Louise Attaque’s classic album with its fast violin, guitar, and drumming, fits well on a windy spring day.
18. Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Last Smoke Before the Snow Storm (2011)
Lovely smooth guitar rythms on a lovely day spent doing nothing at the foot of a large tree, watching the rasy of light through the moving leaves.
17. Jethro Tull, This Was (1968)
Blues rock is always a good idea. It may be Anderson’s flute that gives it a spring feel.
16. The Rolling Stones, Hot Rocks 1964-1971 (1971)
Rocks are heating up under the spring sun.
15. Beaties Boys, Paul’s Boutique (1989)
Time for a little spring garage sale. I’m taking the banjo.
14. Lost in Translation Soundtrack (2003)
Spring’s a time for contemplation and meditation, on all the nuances that are lost in translation (and boy are there many).
13. The Paper Kites, Woodland (2011)
It’s just a bit too early here for a walk in the neighbouring woods (too muddy), so the birds are all alone and consequently overjoyed.
12. Wolf Parade, Apologies to Queen Mary (2005)
This hypnotic music is rather melancholic and might work best on a rainy spring day.
11. Eric’s Trip, Love Tara (1993)
Remember your teen years, when spring was about new romantic possibilities… and (the flip side) cruel heartaches.
10. Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes (1983)
Adolescent frustrations are expressed quite differently here. For a very windy spring day.
9. MC Solaar, Qui sème le vent récolte le tempo (1991)
Solaar’s rythms flow well on a spring breeze. And spring is a good time to listen to poetry.
8. Leonard Cohen, Greatest Hits (1975)
Another spring album that is made for reflection. On an evening perhaps, with a glass of wine. Or at dawn, with tea and oranges (or, again, a glass of wine, it depends how late/early it is).
7. Ani Di Franco, Like I said (1994)
A classic and particularly intimate Ani album, with great acoustic guitar rythms, that’s perfect for spring. And, as always, the lyrics hit you straight in the gut (in a good way).
6. Belle and Sebastian, Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003)
LOVE THAT SHIRT. And the attitude.
5. Bob Dylan, The Essential Bob Dylan (2000)
Essential indeed, and incidentally, it all flows quite well through the Spring leaves.
4. Pixies, Waves of Mutilation – Best of Pixies (2004)
My mind is floating nicely.
3. Iron and Wine, Live at Norfolk (2009)
I want to cuddle into this awesome guy’s voice and take in all those nostalgic poetic truths.
2. Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation (1988)
A little distortion for rainy spring evenings.
1. Lou Reed, The Transformer (1972)
Spring chillin. Time to take a walk. On the wild or the moderate side, it’s all good.
A fiery 25 year old vs his own wise self twenty years later.
Today, we discuss Layla, the (in)famous song about unrequited love, written when the young Eric Clapton fell in love with pal George Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd. Clapton got inspired after reading an old persian poem about a man who was sent into madness when he couldn’t be with the one he loved, an arabian princess named Layla. Legend has it, Clapton played the song in front of Pattie a couple of times and later came clean with George at some rock and roll soirée.
That must have cooled down the party.
Of course we all know the rest of the story. Pattie stayed with George but eventually they separated. Eric and Pattie got together for a while, but it ended for them as well. Relationships aren’t easy and unfortunately they don’t always last forever. But brilliant songs that tap into something real can have a really long run.
Layla was originally released in the early 1970’s by Derek and the Dominos. Although it wasn’t successful as first, it gained a lot of recognition over the years and is now considered an all-time rock classic, and for good reason. What a powerful song, an emotional song, with its intense feature chords and the heartwrenching rendition of the lyrics. You can feel the suffering.
In the 1990’s, MTV’s unplugged sessions series produced some wonderful performances and albums. Eric Clapton’s unplugged performance appeared on the show in 1992 and became a huge hit. Recorded in England, it featured a slower acoustic version of Layla, which touched the public once more. Clapton’s guitar playing is incredibly solid here, no doubt about it.
I usually find it hard to choose a winner between the original and cover versions in this series, but in this case, there is no battle. As much as I love acoustic songs, the original Layla wins hands down as far as I am concerned. The seven-note riff does the trick, it freaking rocks. And the original 1970’s version feels much more authentic. That poor desperate guy is at a dead end. “Let’s make the best of the situation, before I finally go insane.”
But I do remember reading once that Clapton originally intended for that song to be a ballad, before Dominos’ Duane Allman added his personal touches!
Summertime is here! It’s hot, it’s sunny. Now if I could only be on vacation, that’d be great.
As was the case the last time, with winter, I found it harder than expected to figure out what summer actually “sounds” like. And to my surprise, it’s not all about reggay.
About that… funny story : at the beginning, I had two or three ideas at best for this list, and it was pretty much all about reggay, but now I can barely fit all of the albums I thought of in there. The list ended up being a lot more eclectic than expected.
I hope you’ll find some nice musical inspiration here while you’re probably also waiting, at work namely, looking out the window, irritated… waiting for the day when you can say so long y’all, I’m going for a sweet mohito on the terrace of a restaurant right in the middle of this beautiful sunny day.
Runners up : ZZ Top, Greatest Hits & The Dead South, Good Company
These well-known bearded guys from Texas can certainly play some nice blues rock.
This folk bluegrass band from the Canadian Prairies, Mumford and Son’s Evil Twins as they call themselves, created the strangest addictive cool summer song.
20. Buena Vista Social Club, Buena Vista Social Club
Named after Havana’s lost mythical night club, this album is a summer classic. I drank so many coffees listening to this music on late Sunday mornings.
19. Ben Harper, Fight for your mind
Enjoy your Summer mornings with Ben Harper’s slide guitar and his classic 1995 album Fight for your mind.
18. Elevator to Hell, Part I to III
Moncton’s indie low-fi psychedelic rock band Elevator chose to illustrate its album with a wintery picture, but paradoxically, it is a great listen in the summer.
17. The XX, The XX
I didn’t know about this London indie electronic pop band until recently, yet I feel this music has been flowing around everywhere since forever (on TV? in the wind?).
16. Ani DiFranco, Dilate
Ani’s critically acclaimed seventh studio album remains a personal favorite, with her signature rapid fingerpicking, crazy guitar tunings, and overall intensity.
15. Lhasa De Sela, La Llorona
Lhasa’s deep voice warms up any atmosphere. Her first album La Llorona is all in Spanish, and it’s such a pleasure to listen to in the summertime.
14. Gotan Project, Lunatico
Argentinean tango blended with electronic music is a strange but cool mix, and Lunatico is certainly a nice atmospheric summer album.
13. Sublime, Sublime
Sublime’s classic 1996 eponymous release may be the sunniest of all punk-ska albums. There is some dub, reggay, and hip hop music in there as well. A joy to rediscover.
12. Mano Negra, Best of
Alternative rock salsa ska punk (really, how can I describe this band?) Paris-based La Mano Negra, “The Black Hand” in Spanish, produced this sunny, energetic and eclectic “best of” after they disbanded. I wish I could have seen them in concert.
11. Zebda, Essence ordinaire
Zebda’s third studio release is a festive yet socially-charged album. These guys (of French and Arab descent, among others), who all grew up together in Toulouse, tell authentic and compelling stories.
10. Jean Leloup, L’amour est sans pitié
This album tore the place down in Québec in the early 1990s. A young Jean Leloup teamed up with La Sale Affaire and lived, played, and sung at a freaking crazy pace, about urban life, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. And summer in Montréal.
9. Janis Joplin, Greatest Hits
Many times, I heard someone say that this person or that person is “the Janis of the 80s”, “of the 90s”, “of the 2000s”, … but in the end, it never stands the test of time. Beautiful soulful Janis. And as I listen to your music, I’ll always think of you standing on the stage of the Monterey Festival on that sunny day.
8. Jimmy Hendrix, Are You Experienced?
I don’t know if I’m experienced, but I’ve definitely listened to that album enough times that I know and appreciate the Jimmy Hendrix Experience. Even the colours chosen here for the cover amplify the warmth of his voice and music.
7. Tryo, Grain de sable
Tryo’s signature reggay and folk guitar rythms are a great fit for your summer afternoons. Like their peers Zebda, Tryo knows how to be socially-engaged and festive at the same time.
6. MC Solaar, Prose combat
If you don’t speak French, it’s a dang shame, because MC Solaar is a poet rapper who plays with words like no other. In any case, you’ll still move your head to these suave rythms.
5. Morcheeba, Big Calm
We loved that album right away when it was released. English trip hop electronic band Morcheeba, with its cool beats and jazzy musical exploration, is a nice album to chill out to. Pretty much like the cover implies.
4. Amadou et Mariam, Un dimanche à Bamako
A couple of musicians from Mali, who both became blind in their youth, conveyed their beautiful positive music and immense talent to the world with this classic album. This CD is loved by people of all ages (seriously, my parents have this album, I have it, and my kids love it).
3. Manu Chao, Clandestino
After La Mano Negra and other musical experiments, Manu Chao produced the stripped down Clandestino. With this, he intended to smoothly end his musical career. Ironically, this album, blending traditional latin music, reggay, rock, bresilian rythms, with a hint of chanson française, was a whopping success.
2. Bob Marley and the Wailers, Catch a Fire & Bob Marley, Uprising
It’s not cheating (too much) to have two Bob Marley albums on a Top Summer CDs list. I still listen to Catch a Fire often, but I had forgotten the sunny, upbeat and very catchy Uprising. I’m glad I rediscovered it.
1. Billy Stewart, Summertime
Janis’ version of Summertime is magical, but Billy Stewart’s is… just… mindblowing. Forget about Despacito (seriously, forget it)! THIS is the ultimate Summer song!
Summery fun fact : there are three (awesome) versions of Summertime in this list.
Only a month left until the end of Winter. It’s been a strange one : the temperature went below – 20 Celsius almost every day during Christmas holidays, then it rained for a few days, then – 20 again… But we’ve had lots of snow, which is great. And the sparkling snow of the last few days has inspired me…
I find that the overall atmosphere, my mood, and the music I listen to are often linked. That’s when I get most into it at least. My spouse and children on the other hand don’t appear to crave that same kind of serenity and often go for the complete opposite : they happily try to break the mood as brutally as possible. I was enjoying a mellow wintery Sunday morning vibe when “I got it from my daddy” from Gangnam Style’s illustrious Psy threw me and my delicious coffee out of the chair. So much for feeling one with the universe.
And so I retreat here to share my spontaneous top 20 list of CDs for the Winter season. It’s too bad that I wasn’t inspired before, because the indie folk person that I am would have found it a lot more natural to start with Fall. But it’s a nice challenge.
What makes a good Winter CD is still a mystery to me at this moment. I think it has a lot to do with sensory perceptions. Good Winter albums should be atmospheric albums that make you see and hear the evening snow falling down. They might feel a little Christmassy too (with piano music that sounds like bells, for example). Will finding the recipe kill the magic? Let’s see when I’m done.
Runner up : David Usher, Little Songs
David Usher’s first solo album is a hit and miss, the songs are uneven, but there are a few strong ones (like Saint-Lawrence River). I usually end up listening to the same four-five songs, but still, there is a nice atmosphere, a bit wintery, like an early Winter in late November. I never heard his other solo albums but I should, there was potential there.
20. We are Wolves, Invisible Violence
I’ll bet that these guys listen a lot to Ozzy Osbourne. The singer sounds exactly like him, but backed by an indie electronic rock band. We are Wolves’ third album is harder and louder than most albums on this list, but the electronic and rock atmosphere inspire the vision of an open snowscape (and after seeing the memorable Blue video, that image is kind of ingrained in my head).
19. Lamb, Best Kept Secrets
Lamb is a nice little mix of electronic, trip hop, and drum and base, with a jazzy twist. This “best of” album gathers very different songs (many of them singles, hence the need for a best of), but Lou Rhodes’ jazzy husky voice ties them all together. The drum and base element is also a strong point. It’s nice to listen to this while casually working on the computer, in front of my snow covered window.
18. Massive Attack, Mezzanine
Another trip hop album… This feels right, yet contradictory. I definitely see some kind of snowy scenery, but am I trying to warm myself up ? In a cabin perhaps, with a fire burning. In any case, I just had the most intense flashback of the late 1990s. Perhaps this reminds me of chilling inside with friends when there’s a snowstorm outside. The sound fills the room and some of it escapes outside in the night, into the storm, and brings the vibe… to no one. Trippy.
17. Lhasa De Sela, The Living Road
Another hot-cold paradox. Lhasa De Sela has a deep and warm voice. She mixes different cultural influences into her music, and her songs are in Portuguese, French, and English. So, how does this one work… Nature unleashing its wrath, wind sweeping the snow away, and this woman with a broken heart is still standing, sharing her emotional stories with outstanding aplomb.
16.Patrick Watson, Close to Paradise
On Patrick Watson’s first release, vocals and piano are upfront. Some songs do stand out, like Luscious Life, but overall, the album sounds like an endless string of magical sparkling piano sounds.
15. Wray, Hypatia
I’m walking in a dreamy snow storm right now.
14. Portishead, Portishead
The haunting songs on Portishead’s second album work quite well for the Winter season. Incidentally, they make me think of walking around downtown during Québec’s 1998 ice storm. For weeks, several cities went without power. In Montréal, they called in the army to help cut down frozen branches that came crashing down. It was chaos all over, but people were really supportive of one another. My best friend lived in the smallest apartment downtown but she had heat, and I stayed with her for a few days. All day, we’d listen to music on our CD players or radios that could also function on batteries. When you’re 18, that works out just fine.
13. Malajube, La caverne
Malajube’s third release is as innovative as always. These guys are great composers and musicians. One of the signature moves of this band is to turn up the sound of the instruments and to lower the sound of the voice. That way, the voice (whisper) just blends in and adds to the atmosphere. The unexpected melodies and hooks make the Winter days feel pretty darn cool.
12. Yann Tiersen, Goodbye Lenin
11. Nina Simone, Jazz Masters 17
I couldn’t find the cover of the Jazz Masters album… Too bad, it still makes the cut. Nina Simone is one of the most amazing one-of-a-kind voices that has ever been, and her unique bluesy style is the best thing to warm you up on Winter evenings. This CD is a great way to start if you’re unfamiliar with her work : Work Song, Love Me or Leave Me, Pirate Jenny, Mississipi Goddamn, Little Girl Blue, Black is the Color of my True Love’s Hair… You’ll want to know more for sure.
10. Bjork, Post
Perhaps it’s because of the song Hyperballad, but when I listen to Post, I always think of Bjork on the top of a snowy mountain in Iceland, happy and serene in front of a sparkling white open and windy scenery, screaming and wondering if her voice reaches the other side. For some reason, the image I have of her is in a simple white dress with no shoes… yet she’s not cold at all. Bjork’s voice is amazing enough that it doesn’t have to be warm at all, because it’s… celestial, perhaps? Flying upwards over the icy moutain.
9. Dustin Tebbutt, Home
I like Dustin Tebdutt’s album covers. This artist indeed crafts beautiful album covers, as well as clever and soothing melodies, and the imagery lifts your head up to the stars. It feels beautiful and a bit lonely, just like a silent Winter snowscape. But the colours, especially the contrats of colours, are always very stark in Winter.
8. The Cure, Disintegration
The Cure’s mellow melodic, melancholic and introspective songs flow perfectly from one to the other on this album, which is important for the atmosphere to build up. And so it builds up, like sparkling snowflakes pilling up little by little. Speaking about things flowing, Robert Smith’s voice flows perfectly over the music. It appears out of the mist, and disappears in the same manner.
7. La bottine souriante, La Mistrine
La bottine souriante is traditional music in Québec, especially for those who are of French descent. Generations of people played and listened to this kind of music when they took a break to celebrated the holidays together. I heard there was always one or more people in families who played the violin, the accordeon, or who could drum with their hands and feet like there was no tomorrow! La Mistrine was the first album my sisters and I would put on Christmas night when we were kids. When the first song Le reel des soucoupes volantes started, we knew the party had begun!
6. Belle and Sebastian, If you’re feeling sinister
If you’re feeling sinister is exactly the CD I had in mind when I thought of writing this post : a soft moody album that makes you want to curl up on your comfy chair with a book and a glass of wine on the weekend, around 4 or 5 PM, when the light changes outside and the evening sky becomes blueish. Yeah, I’ve done that quite a few times with this CD on, and it never disappoints.
5. Tori Amos, Under the Pink
A young girl at my highschool played Winter on the piano once at some ceremony or something and I thought that was the best thing I had ever heard, so I bought Under the Pink and discovered Tori Amos. This feels like a very honest album and it puts the emphasis on the piano melodies and the soothing vocals. The songs go straight to your heart, and your mind gets lost in Tori’s very personal and evocative imagery.
4. Radiohead, Kid A
Ice age coming! Kid A is a wonderful album. Radiohead experiments with various sounds and effects, and all we can say is that these guys definitely have an ear for music. It’s amazing how well this album has aged. These sensitive lyrics, backed by the perfect soundscape, can almost bring you to your knees (as the overwhelming How to Dissapear Completely does).
3. Yann Tiersen, Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain Soundtrack
One of France’s biggest movie successes also brought Yann Tiersen’s music to international fame (ironically, Tiersen said he wasn’t satisfied with it), which is not that frequent for instrumental albums. The story of Amélie Poulain does not take place in Winter, but the music, the accordeon, the little bell sounds, the rythm, it has a lovely “Christmassy” feel.
2. Vince Guiraldi Trio Charlie Brown’s Christmas Special
The joy of getting or the joy of giving? Not many Christmas specials have been as good as the original 1963 Charlie Brown Christmas Special. It had everything : social comment on consumerism, glitter vs substance, alienation, … And for one extremely rare moment, everyone rallies around Charlie Brown at the end to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. That being said, this album is classy all on its own with cool jazzy versions of Christmas favorites. This is one of the rare Christmas albums I never get tired of.
1. A Message to Bears, Departures
The beautiful atmospheric Departures fits really well on a melancholic snowy day. The album doesn’t necessarily lift your mood, but it certainly accompanies your moody self on your moody journey and delicately expands your horizons. This is an enjoyable musical exploration, courtesy of English multi-instrumentalist Jerome Alexander. Now, does the message reach the bears, have they replied, and what did they say?
I don’t think this will happen often : posting about two “best of” compilations at the same time… But Leonard Cohen isn’t your usual singer/songwriter/musician. With this many great songs, it’s no surprise that at least two compilations made the list.
Let’s start with the first one: the 1975 release “Leonard Cohen, the Best of”. While I was enjoying “The Future” album from 1992, a friend of mine told me that I absolutely had to listen to Cohen’s 60’s and 70’s stuff before I could even start saying that I knew about and enjoyed Leonard Cohen. So I borrowed this compilation from another friend, and indeed, only then did I start to understand the kind of unbelievable wonders that this Montréal-born artist could create. This “Best of” compilation comprises some of his greatest older tunes, classics like “Suzanne”, “So Long, Marianne”, “Sisters of Mercy”, “Famous Blue Raincoat”, “Chelsea Hotel”, “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye”, … Simply put, there just isn’t one bad song on this album. BTW, in addition to the links below, you can also find many of these songs on these previous posts: https://songsuneedtohear.wordpress.com/2013/10/07/how-to-start/ ; https://songsuneedtohear.wordpress.com/2013/11/30/famous-blue-raincoat-leonard-cohen-vs-tori-amos/
In 2002, a 2-disc compilation intitled “The Essentials” was released. Practically all of the songs on the 1975 best of compilation are included on this one as well. But a few cool ones were added, like “The Stranger Song”, an all time favorite of mine. And then, there’s a few great classics from the 80’s: “Everybody Knows”, “I’m Your Man”, “Tower of Song”, “First, We Take Manhattan”, “Dance Me to the End of Love”, and of course “Hallelujah”, a wonderful song that was covered by just about everyone (Willie Nelson, Elton John, Bono, Rufus Wainwright, John Cale, K.D. Lang, Jeff Buckley, …). “The Essentials” compilation continues with some nice hits from the 90’s: “The Future”, “Waiting For a Miracle”, and also “Anthem” which brought us the wonderful phrase “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”. The album finally ends with four songs from the 2001 CD “Ten New Songs”, which he made with Sharon Robinson (a frequent collaborator of his).
Two heartbreaking omissions on “The Essentials” compilation: “Teachers” and “Master Song”. How could those two masterpieces from his first album not be considered essentials?!! But it’s OK, I forgive you, Leonard Cohen. In a world dominated by insipid sorta-dance music about cheap booty-calls, this timeless music fills the heart and mind. Leonard is an artist who can accompany you your whole life. His genius, poetic and touching lyrics about human desires, his beautiful melodies, and his distinctive hypnotic voice, constitute quite the musical work of art. While I think that his first albums are unforgettable and comprise some of the greatest lyrics I have ever heard in my life, I do agree that all of his albums are worth listening to.
In Québec, in my days (…), if you sat around a camp fire and someone pulled out a guitar, there was a good chance of hearing a Georges Brassens song.
Singer-songwriter and musician Georges Brassens is one of the most beloved figures of France’s cultural and musical history, with his witty lyrics, his warm voice, his distinctive guitar rythms, and his wooded pipe. Georges Brassens sang about the kindness of simple people, about social oppression, and about human stupidity. He wrote hundreds of songs and I can’t recall a single really bad one. This solitary character’s timeless music is loved by people of all ages.
In the very conservative 50’s and the 60’s, Georges Brassens wasn’t afraid to speak freely, make jokes about sex, and laugh at the clergy and politicians who send others to war, with humour and intelligence. George Brassens was an amazing storyteller, and poet.
In one song, he sings about two dead oncles, two young soldiers who died fighting on opposite sides in a war. A few years later, their two countries made up. From their perspective, wouldn’t the wise decision be to avoid rushing into things? “Qu’au lieu de mettre en joue quelque vague ennemi, mieux vaut attendre un peu qu’on le change en ami” (Instead of taking aim at some vague ennemy, it’s better to wait a little until he is changed into a friend).
In 1967, he receives the Grand Prize for Poetry from the Académie française.
When he died, in 1981, a French journalist says, we are here stunned, as we lost a beloved relative.
Tori Amos is the first artist who’s music really touched the adolescent me. It genuinely blew my mind.
As a kid, I listened to whatever I could get my hands on. My parents had some good vinyls. When I was ten, they gave me my own radiocassette player and a few blank tapes. For years, I taped every good song I heard on the radio. It felt great, but it was still mostly commercial music or music I was too young to really appreciate.
One day, when I was 13 or 14 years old, I was attending a highschool talent show. I was amused, listening to these kids and their elaborate theatrics screaming their guts out. Then this girl dressed in white walked towards to the piano and performed Winter by Tori Amos. I was blown away. It was so different from what I had heard before.
It was the early 90’s. My friend’s older brother knew of Tori Amos and lended me a CD. The defining moment. It opened a door for me, opened up new dimensions. I became a true music lover. And I owe that to Tori, to her free spirit, her unique melodies, her emotional soothing vocals that elevate the soul, her strange and poetic personal imagery, and that amazing piano playing. What a unique artist.
I’m sure I got most of her lyrics wrong (everytime she explained what she was trying to say in a song during an interview, it was a mile away from what I had originally thought), but who cares. Tori’s music accompanied me for a decade, a very intense and formative decade. Then, for some reason, I lost touch with it. Little Earthquakes, Under the Pink, Boys for Pele, and Choir Girl Hotel I have listened to pretty much every day for those ten years. To Venus and Back, Strange Little Girls, Scarlet’s Walk, and Beekeeper I also have in my collection.
Listening to this right now is like opening a souvenirs’ box. Some performances still send chills up my spine.
Songs and groups you need to hear 