Top music picks
It’s been a memorable year for our city’s Arts & Life scene, and it’s time to look back at the highlights, provided by Journal writers and our readers. Today: The best CDs Monday: The best outings/ vacations
What’s the best new music you heard this year? Was it something local by an up-and-coming star such as Corb Lund or an album by an international performer like Jack White?
We asked our music critics, other writers and our readers this question. Here are their choices:
Here are my Top 10 music discoveries of 2012
1. Songza: OK, so this isn’t an album … it’s a free songstreaming app for your smartphone.
Songza offers playlists for hundreds of moods, activities, times of day and genres — such as Curing Road Rage, Hanging Out In The Man Cave, Rap’s New Weirdos, Waking Up Next To A Synthesizer, and my current favourite, An Evening In London.
You’ll discover so many new artists with each listen, you might not ever want to buy another album again. (Which isn’t exactly a good thing …)
Songza could be the future of music — for the next three months, anyway. 2. Purity Ring, Shrines Bow down to this Edmontonbred duo … and their stunner of an electro-pop debut.
Shrines mixes Corin Roddick’s chilly electro-beats with the bright-eyed vocals of Megan James to create a soundscape perfect for a Hobbits-meet-Aliens film. 3. Nuela Charles, Aware This soulful, trip-hop/R&B singer, formerly known as Manuela, is one of Edmonton’s next big things — along with Aware’s producer, Mr. Smith.
Together, they’ve crafted a fresh and fierce album, which alternates between bold and breezy, sassy and sinister, electro and earthy — yet it never sounds like a Frankenstein monster. Spine-tingling. 4. Radio Soulwax, Dave Take dozens of David Bowie’s songs, remix and mash them up together, then shoot an hour-long video with an actress who looks like the Thin White Duke.
This multimedia project, created by two Belgian brothers known as Radio Soulwax, is a touching — and apropos — homage to one of the first rock stars to harness the power of the Internet.
Dave is not a traditional album — you can listen to/watch it on Vimeo, a video streaming site, or via Radio Soulwax’s free app.
Bowie may never record or perform again — I wince as I type those words — but Dave feels like a new effort. You’ll get lost in it for hours. 5. Jack White, Blunderbuss Rock isn’t dead, but why does the retro-flavoured stuff — à la Jack White, The Black Keys, Alabama Shakes — seem the most invigorating?
Blunderbuss runs the gamut from country-rock to swampy blues to Elvis swivel. Unlike his previous work with The White Stripes, The Raconteurs or The Dead Weather, White’s solo debut feels like his most raw and vulnerable effort to date.
6. Born Gold, Little Sleepwalker
Artists who use software to manipulate their vocals usually get a bad rap for “cheating” or creating emotionally detached tunes. Not Born Gold, also known as Edmonton’s Cecil Frena. His second glitch-pop demonstrates digital alterations can be even more primal and gut-wrenching than the real thing. 7. Cat Power, Sun She’s not the most emotionally stable — or consistent — performer, but away from prying eyes, Cat Power is a force in the studio.
Her ninth effort, Sun, is a heavy-hearted pseudo-dance album, layered with sumptuous vocals, electro-rock riffs, smouldering pianos, introspective lyrics and Iggy Pop’s one decent cameo of 2012.
Cat’s power? Sounding like she’s about to wilt only to right herself and stand even taller.
8. Japandroids, Celebration Rock
A glorious frenzy of ’80sinspired punk, sweetened by the melodic chants of Vancouver’s Brian King and David Prowse.
9. Frank Ocean, Channel Orange
Frank and futuristic R&B — Ocean often sounds like he should be singing in a Blade Runner-style (strip) club. Understated yet bold, with a ragged falsetto to warm the coldest of hearts. 10. Kuhrye-oo, Kuhrye-oo Like his friends and kindred spirits — Purity Ring, Born Gold — this Edmonton-bred producer knows how to create spooky, skittery electro-pop.
— Sandra Sperounes
Due to my personal involvement with Corb Lund’s Cabin Fever, it’s a little tricky to claim as a favourite (though it is). So let’s go with Cadence Weapon’s Hope in Dirt City, which has some local flavour. The album is like watersliding through the Land of Dairy Queen in the old TV commercial, just a delicious, absorbing, beautiful piece of electronic rap — and Brett Miles’s sax solo on Crash Course for the Ravers was almost the best sound that erupted out the merciless year. Rollie Pemberton III took the phrase “Dirt City” to its heights here, making Edmonton’s nickname a thing that could be applied to any place. This album is perfect.
— Fish Griwkowsky
My favourite CD of the year was one that completely changed our understanding of an old favourite, Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony. We had always been taught that the unfinished symphony showed Bruckner’s despair and sadness at his coming death, and the third movement suggested just that. But Simon Rattle’s new recording with the Berlin Philharmonic (EMI 9 52969 2) adds a performance version of the almost-finished fourth movement — a triumphal paean of joy and majesty and celebration of the wonder of creation. Mind-blowing music, marvellously played.
— Mark Morris
Keith Jarrett / Sleeper (ECM/ Universal): This previously unreleased 1979 live concert from the jazz pianist’s long-defunct European quartet with saxophonist Jan Garbarek packs great waves of tension and release in a brilliant, hypnotic, interactive encounter.
— Roger Levesque
Purity Ring’s Shrines sticks in my mind as the best album of the year. The ex-Edmonton duo Megan James and Corin Roddick produce stuttering electronic beats and soft, billowing melodies that climb under your skin and nest in the corners of your mind. Listening to the album is like eating whipped cream in outer space.
— Amanda Ash
You’ve probably never heard of Gregory Pepper and that fact alone is one of the bigger tragedies in the arts world. His album, Escape From Crystal Skull Mountain, is infectiously poppy, lyrically profound and endlessly listenable. The high points are Wandering By, a quick waltz through childhood memories, and Dearly Departed, a loving ode to a zombie girlfriend. Pepper’s ability to handle existential conundrums with a happy melody and thoughtful lyrics is second to none and it’s on full display on this album.
— Stuart Thomson
Falklands — Cold Favour. Running neck and neck with Frank Ocean’s Channel ORANGE as my go-to record for most of this fall. Grown-up punks with a taste for Motown propulsion and power-pop melodies, their hard-won musical maturity doesn’t preclude them from body slamming a riff when necessary.
Lyrically, they wrestle with turmoil, hesitancy, romance, bad faith; hell, they’re making it up as they go along just like the rest of us, and if that isn’t a recommendation then I don’t know what is.
— Tom Murray
James Vincent McMorrow’s Early in the Morning. Bought this after his haunting and humble performance at Folk Fest 2012 and it hasn’t let me down. One of a handful of albums that, along with coffee, is essential for writing at home.
— Elizabeth Withey
Mondo, the debut album by Los Angeles-based Electric Guest, produced by Deadmau5. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon introduced me. Love the voice of lead singer Asa Taccone and the band’s retro soul beats. I dare anyone to listen to The Head I Hold without moving — something. Optimistic, lighthearted and catchy music, just the way I like it. (I never thought disco sucked.)
— Chris Zdeb
Cape Dory by Tennis. It’s a debut album from 2011, but I discovered this husband-andwife duo only a few months ago through a playlist app, Songza (the best thing I’ve heard about this year), and have had them on repeat ever since.
They have got this perfect, hypnotic-retro sound. It’s beachy and dreamy, ideal for playing in the background at work or at a dinner party, or when you’re just relaxing at home.
— Caroline Gault
Jack White, Blunderbuss: I’ve had an extra-soft spot for Jack White ever since he and sister-wife Meg included us in their bizarro-wonderful tour of the north in the summer of 2007, when they put on a fabulous show at the Shaw. Blunderbuss is White’s first solo album after the breakup of the White Stripes last year, his own heart-wrenching take on love and loss.
— Marta Gold
Solo Piano II by Chilly Gonzales: This is an absolutely beautiful collection of 14 piano compositions by eclectic Canadian-born performer and pianist Chilly Gonzales. It is a rich and elegant album, a perfect accompaniment to a sunny afternoon or a snowy night, to a lively dinner party with friends or a quiet morning alone. If you love it, and I’m certain you will, be sure also to check out its predecessor, 2004’s Solo Piano.
— Jana G. Pruden
The Chinese pianist Lang Lang, one of the hottest classical artists in the world, has been called Bang Bang by some critics. But on his flashy new Chopin CD, his first release devoted exclusively to the music of Chopin, I loved the way he gave some dramatic heft and bones to the (very) familiar, much-abused repertoire, and the loosey-goosey romantic clichés that go with it. No candlelight/crème caramel/ Chopin combo for this dude.
— Liz Nicholls
I’m not a big fan of country or roots music and I’ve never really followed the offerings of hometown hero Corb Lund. But his set at the Folk Fest last summer was a highlight for me — what a great entertainer! — and I discovered his fabulous new album Cabin Fever that night.
There’s a lot of fun in tracks like Bible On the Dash, The Gothest Girl I Can and Cows Around (are there really that many breeds of cows?), but I also love the contemplative songs like September and One Left in the Chamber. I’ve played the CD over and over again, and I’m now checking
out his earlier albums.
— Keri Sweetman
AND OUR READERS LIKED ...
My favourite album this year is by Anenon. On his LP, entitled Inner Hue, Anenon blends past and present ideas in modern music, exploring new ambient atmospheres in the process. He uses a Rhodes piano and saxophone for the basis of the songs and they build beautifully from there, occasionally reminding us of Brian Eno. The album is effective because of its attention to detail and it doesn’t overwhelm us with too many ideas. This is an album that begs to be listened to from start to finish.
— Kirk Opheim
Luke Bryan’s Tailgates & Tanlines. Love this CD. He is a great singer and hot to look at.
— Denise Kennedy
Favourite CD: Skyscraper Soul, by the incomparable Jim Cuddy.
— Joe McWilliams
Favourite CD: I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive, Steve Earle
— Dick Clarke
Purity Ring — Shrines
— Stefan Makowski
Just Getting Started by Loverboy
— Derek Wicks
Been dancing and singing to a cool little blues CD by Karen Lovely called Lucky Girl. I like her attitude. Cool, cool.
— Audrey Handfield