This is the last "Which one is your favorite?" post for 2019. I checked the previous posts and saw that it is time for a jazz classic and I picked a great piece from Monk. It is one of the most covered compositions of Monk and I hope you will like the ones I chose for you...
Here is the piece for this week;
"Crepuscule with Nellie"
Thelonious Monk wrote “Crepuscule with Nellie” for his wife (the eponymous Nellie) when she was having surgery for a thyroid disorder in 1957. “Crepuscule” first appeared on a Monk album that same year, Monk’s Music.
The tune was originally titled "Twilight with Nellie", but Pannonica de Koenigswarter suggested instead to use the French word for twilight, which is crepuscule.
Monk at the piano is joined here by Art Blakey on the drums, Wilbur Ware on bass, Gigi Gryce, Coleman Hawkins, and John Coltrane on saxophones, and Ray Copeland on trumpet. This version starts with a solo piano introduction from Monk before the drums and bass join Monk on this beautiful ballad.
Monk himself played and recorded many different versions of the composition.
And here are the 3 versions I picked for you;
Jason Moran - "Crepuscule With Nellie"
Kronos Quartet & Ron Carter "Crepuscule With Nellie"
Chick Corea feat. Christian McBride & Brian Blade - "Crepuscule with Nellie"
Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).
nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers..
The last "weekend songs" post of the year. I believe 2019 was a good year for music so the 5 songs I have chosen for this post are all released during this year. I hope you like them.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
As John Keats once said;
"Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter."
Here are the 5 songs for this weekend;
Sharon Van Etten feat. Norah Jones - "Seventeen"
Jorja Smith - "Be Honest"
HAIM - "Summer Girl"
Lil Nas X - "Old Town Road"
Cass McCombs - "Absentee"
Hope you have a great weekend.
nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.
Here is my second "Top 10" list for 2019. This time with all genres combined, except jazz, which I already did a Top 10 post last week.
I need to restate that normally I do not like such lists due to the fact that one might be missing a lot of valuable works that are around but unheard of by the person creating the list. After all I am just an avid music listener and definitely not a critic or anything near that. So please take into consideration that the below artists/albums are only the ones I picked during the year and liked a bit better than the rest of the things I have listened to...
10) The Cinematic Orchestra “To Believe”
Long-awaited album from the sound scape masters. Jason Swinscoe and Dominic Smith have created a new dimension of dreamy music in collaboration with talented vocalists such as Roots Manuva, Tawiah and Moses Sumney. An album that can carry the listener out of this world.
A Caged Bird/Imitations of Life by The Cinematic Orchestra
9)Holly Herndon “Proto”
Very interesting album by Holly Herndon again exploring the musical links between humans and artificial intelligence. Is this the future of music? Who knows, but Holly Herndon and her band have created an impressive and a groundbreaking job this year.
Eternal by Holly Herndon
8) Vampire Weekend “Father of the Bride”
Vampire Weekend has a rather different musical perspective with the new lineup. Might not be liked by all fans but I guess they have done a brilliant job and as always managed to stay ahead of the curve. I liked the new sound and with each listening found new tastes.
Unbearably White by Vampire Weekend
7) Thom Yorke “Anima”
This year's Top 10 list would definitely be incomplete without Thom Yorke's Anima. He and his longtime producer Nigel Godrich have created a phonetic atmosphere with loops, distorted instruments, heavily modified sounds and interesting rhythms. The short movie that was released with the album can take the viewer on a dystopic journey that doesn't seem very far from today.
Last I Heard (…He Was Circling The Drain) by Thom Yorke
6) Nilüfer Yanya “Miss Universe”
It's been a while I last posted about Nilüfer Yanya on the blog. I was following her closely in her earlier days but it seems she has achieved a lot in a very short period of time and came out with this debut. She really stands out with her unique vocal, her ability to bounce back and forth between musical and lyrical styles and surely deserves to be in the list.
H34T Rises by Nilüfer Yanya
5) Caterina Barbieri “Ecstatic Computation”
Berlin-based Italian composer Caterina Barbieri's 4th album is deeper, darker, and trippier than any of her previous releases. I believe you don't need to be an electronic music fan like me in order to enjoy this album as it has the power to create an emotional and a revelatory sound scape for every listener.
Fantas by Caterina Barbieri
4) Brittany Howard “Jaime”
As the lead vocalist and guitarist of Alabama Shakes, Brittany Howard released her debut album in September with great acclaim for the critics. It is dedicated to her sister Jaime, who died of a rare cancer type as a teen.
History Repeats by Brittany Howard
3) Lana Del Rey “Norman Fucking Rockwell!”
Here is an album with a cinematic beauty. Her Lana Del Rey persona is timeless and it seems that something that was missed during the last decades. Norman Fucking Rockwell! can easily be her magnum opus. Definitely should be in everybody's top 3.
Doin' Time by Lana Del Rey
2) FKA twigs “Magdalene”
It was difficult to place this album on the top of the list or as a runner up but only for sentimental reasons I had to pick another one for number one. Anyhow it is an album you will definitely be hooked on from the first track to the last. Haunting vocals, amazing beats and captivating melodies will draw you to the depths of FKA twigs' musical mind.
Home with You by FKA twigs
1) Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds “Ghosteen”
Here is my number one album of 2019. There is no better artist than Nick Cave that can musically express certain emotions like grief, loss and death.This is an album that gives you all these senses but not in a depressingly way. I do not know if it's only me who finds optimism in Nick Cave's music but listening to his music gives me hope in an unconventional perspective like seeing the light at the end of the dark tunnel. In my humble opinion if you need to pick one album to buy this Xmas or New Year, this should be the one...
Bright Horses by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
I hope you have liked my Top 10 albums of the year. And please post your comments as I would love to hear your favorite albums of 2019...
This is one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands, Radiohead. It is from their debut album "Pablo Honey". The song was not initially a chart success, but became a worldwide hit after being rereleased in 1993. Radiohead took elements from the 1972 song "The Air That I Breathe"; following legal action, Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood are credited as cowriters. The members of Radiohead grew weary of it in later years, and refused to perform it for a period.
Here is the song for this week;
"Creep"
Thom Yorke wrote the song in 1987 while he was a student at Exeter University in England. He first recorded it acoustic. He said that this is about being in love with someone, but not feeling good enough. He describes the feeling as, "There's the beautiful people and then there's the rest of us."
On the album version, Thom Yorke sings, "You're so f--king special." For radio, he recut it as, "You're so very special." Yorke regrets changing the line for the radio version, saying it disturbed the "sentiment of the song." According to him, the song lost its anger as a result.
The song interestingly became a popular hit almost everywhere but Radiohead's home country England.
Following the release of Pablo Honey, Radiohead spent two years touring in support of Belly and PJ Harvey. They performed "Creep" at every show, and came to resent it. Yorke said the band felt they were being judged on a single song and had to move on. During the tour for Radiohead's third album, OK Computer (1997), Yorke became hostile when "Creep" was mentioned in interviews and refused requests to play it, telling a Montréal audience: "Fuck off, we're tired of it."
Well we're not Thom...
And for the variety of the covers I chose 4 versions for you;
Macy Gray - "Creep"
Evrencan Gündüz - "Creep"
Scala & Kolacny Brothers - "Creep"
Postmodern Jukebox - "Creep"
Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).
nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers..
