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Albums of the week (released 9th June 2003) - Tiscali Music News
Albums of the week (released 9th June 2003)
2003-06-09
For this week's albums, read on, but for this week's singles, please click here
Annie Lennox - Bare (pictured left)
After an eight year hiatus, multi-platinum, Grammy and Brit Award winning artist Annie Lennox returns with her brand new album. Featuring 11 self-penned tracks, 'Bare' is the artist's third solo release (following 'Diva' and 'Medusa', which between them have exceeded global sales of over 12 million copies) - and arguably one of the year's most eagerly anticipated releases. Recorded in London over the last year, the songs on 'Bare' are just one more proof of Annie's unique ability to communicate her emotions, seemingly one-on-one, to each and every listener. Producer Steve Lipson has already described 'Bare' as a "truly career defining album. Her best yet..."Includes the single 'Pavement Cracks'.
This Limited Edition includes a bonus DVD featuring specially recorded performances of tracks from the album, plus 10 minute interview.
Check out our fantastic Annie Lennox special here
Buy this album here
Radiohead - Hail to the thief
Radiohead return with the most eagerly awaited LP of the year.
Their third studio album in as many years, 'Hail To The Thief' (the title comes from an anti-George Bush slogan coined by his opponents following his contentious presidential victory) signals a welcome return to the masterful songwriting of the band's early work, mixing the furious guitar assault of 'The Bends' and 'OK Computer' with the experimental glitch-techno of 2000's 'Kid A' and 2001's 'Amnesiac'.
Recorded primarily over a marathon two-week session in Los Angeles with long-time collaborator Nigel Godrich, standout tracks include the fuzzed-out 'Myxomatosis' ("No one likes a smart arse/But we all like stars"), the yearning 'I Will' and the epic, album-closing 'A Wolf At The Door', a track described by Thom Yorke as "a basic documentation of the nearest I ever came to having a complete nervous breakdown. It's about fear - real or imagined - that still makes total sense".
Includes the single 'There There'.
"Nigel dragged us out to L.A because he'd done three records there - two with Beck, one with Travis. We'd always been hesitant about working in Los Angeles because - let's face it - Radiohead mixing in with the Hotel California mind-set doesn't sound like a potential marriage made in heaven. But we quickly realized you can function out there without becoming tarnished by whatever else going on there. It was the best recording experience we ever had. We finished one song each day we were booked. We didn't over-scrutinize. We didn't get too cerebral. We trusted in ourselves, Nigel, the studio and the songs and just let go, really" - Ed O'Brien
Listen to the whole album here
Buy this album here
Grandaddy - Sumday
After a three year hiatus, hirsute Californian space rockers Grandaddy return with their eagerly awaited fourth full-length album.
The follow-up to 2000's acclaimed 'The Sophtware Slump', 'Sumday' features 12 songs all written and produced by Grandaddy's Jason Lytle, including the album's stunning first single 'Now It's On'.
Other standout tracks include the heartfelt 'The Warming Sun', the epic 'The Final Push To The Sum' and 'The Group That Couldn't Say', a gentle story about a team of 'unit shifters' sent on a corporate bonding exercise in the country.
"It's nice to think there's a word that exists that only applies to our record, because it's misspelled, called S-U-M-D-A-Y. It does kind of feel like this is the encapsulation so far of the band's efforts and history. I think that has a lot to do with why it's called 'Sumday'. It feels very complete and I don't know if it's ever felt this complete before, a summation. Summary" - Jim Fairchild
This Limited Edition CD includes an enhanced section featuring the videos to 'Now It's On' and 'The Crystal Lake', a Grandaddy short film entitled 'Nacher Anthem', plus a link to a micro-site where the band will supply their fans with exclusive material such as short films, photos and artwork
Listen to the whole Grandaddy album here
Buy this album here
Steely Dan - Everything Must Go
After a three year hiatus, venerable jazz-rockers Steely Dan return with their brand new studio album.
Recorded with a core band that includes drummer Keith Carlock, keyboardists Ted Baker and Bill Charlap, and guitarists Jon Herington and Hugh McCracken, 'Everything Must Go' is Walter Becker and Donald Fagen's first release since 2000, when 'Two Against Nature' - the duo's first studio release in 20 years - garnered multiple Grammy awards, including 'Album Of The Year'.
Listeners anticipating Steely Dan's patented amalgam of sonic perfection, sinuous musicality, and subversive storytelling will not be disappointed by the new release, whose musical allusions range from Pharaoh Sanders to Tommy James, and whose literary echoes bound from William Gibson to Burmashave.
Featured lyrics include such catchy phrases as "and that's when she jumped the turnstile" and "hey - is that a horseshoe crab?"
'Everything Must Go' took roughly a year torecord - a veritable wind sprint given Becker and Fagen's legendary meticulousness in the studio. "We went for live tracking this time and got great, in-the-pocket tracks", says Becker. Donald Fagen adds "It's mad: it's wiggy: I love it".
Released simultaneously on CD and DVD-A.
Grammy Award winning recording engineer, Elliot Scheiner, whose previous DVD-Audio mixing and engineering credits include R.E.M.'s Reveal and Faith Hill's Cry, is responsible for the 5.1 mix on Everything Must Go.
The DVD-A album includes an exclusive 13-minute short film piece entitled 'Steely Dan Confessions', which finds Becker and Fagen touring the night life of Las Vegas with 'Rita' the famous cab driver, from the U.S. hit TV series Taxicab Confessions.
The DVD-Audio album includes Photo Gallery, Song Lyrics, Discography and Production Credits.
Listen to two tracks from the album (Windows media): "The Last Mall" | "Blues Beach"
Check out "Steely Dan Confessions" here
Buy this album here
Clipse - Lord Willin'
Signed to the soon-to-be massive Star Trak Entertainment label, Clipse have finally reached home base with the man who been by their side since day one, the Neptunes.
Having run with each other since forever, the two teams' paths split somewhat when Clipse signed to Elektra for a brief while and the Neptunes went on to become, well, international superstars.
However, now that the Neptunes have been given the dispensation to set up their own label, it was only natural that the Clipse should be one of thefirst on board.
Their ensuing debut album is a slamming set of fell-good party hip-hop that overrides the bling lifestyle and any gangsta leaning to concentrate on the art of having fun.
The album includes the US hit 'Grindin''.
This new version comes with 'Grindin'' remix featuring N.O.R.E, Baby and Lil' Wayne, the Selector remix of 'Grindin'' featuring Sean Paul and Kardinal Offishal, the Axwell mix of 'Ma, I Don't Love Her' and a special Clipse game.
More music features
Buy this album here
Four tet - Dialogue
Kieren Hebden is a member of Fridge, Britain's answer to America†s cereberal post-rock sect. Dialogue is his first full flowering offshoot, instrumental bar odd sampled babbleogues and wildly eclectic, dovetailing strands of funk, ambient, hip hop and jazz.
Despite live instruments, the only real dialogue here is between Hebden and his technology, but the absence of personality allows groove and games of juxtaposition to work wonders: Liquefaction marries be-bop with Indonesian gamalan, She Scanned scans another blueprint for Asian drum'n'bass aside from Talvin Singh†s, while Calamine†s guitar whooses, keyboard pulse and scattered loops are another world altogether.
In fact, Dialogue is an update of Brian Eno†s Another Green World: indefinable and beguiling, but beautifully measured, with the potential to be just as influential.
Widely acclaimed as one of the UK's most prominent experimental musicians Keiran Hebden's seminal debut album 'Dialogue' gets a re-release on the Output Recordings label.
See Mike Oldfield interviewed here
Buy this album here
Tinersticks - Waiting For The Moon
Perhaps not surprisingly for a band who can count three soundtracks in their resumé, 'Waiting For The Moon' draws you in like an unfolding narrative.
It starts with a postcard from a nightmare ('Until The Morning Comes') and awakes to a world that could hardly be less forgiving. On 'Say Goodbye To The City', Staples sounds like a man held captive inside his own song – pleading "I can't see you anymore" over a backdrop of imminent panic which swells with every passing song.
It's on the remarkable '4:48 Psychosis' though, that 'Waiting For The Moon' reaches the outermost point of its journey.
Over a one-chord improvisation, Staples' feverish intonations owe more to The Velvet Underground than to any of the band's more well-documented influences.
Thereafter, 'Waiting For The Moon' slowly edges towards some kind of resolution.
'Sometimes It Hurts' is the latest in a succession of duets - this time we find the bewitching chanteuseLhasa de Sala negotiating a terrain familiar to Tindersticks fans – where parting fuels desire and desire prolongs the misery of parting.
The sweetest sorrow also informs 'My Oblivion', thanks to the sumptuous languor of its strings.
Join the Music Club today
Buy this album here
Truby Trio
Swish mixtures of groovy latin funky jazz, and hilarious high-brow house. A real winner.
'...don't let the title fool you: this is far from being numbing muzak for the mind. but even if – after dancefloor jazz hits such as 'Galicia', 'High Jazz' or 'A Go Go' you already thought to know what to expect from Truby Trio's album be prepared for a pleasant surprise. 'Elevator Music' is already a sure candidate for the phusion debut of the year!' - Groove Germany
Listen to the whole album here
Buy this album here
Waterboys - Universal Hall
From the band that brought you the seminal 'Whole Of The Moon' and the glorious 'Fisherman's Blues' comes the Waterboys' brand new album. Recorded in the basement studio under the theatre of the same name in Findhorn, Scotland, 'Universal Hall' contains twelve songs in a series of unique, uncompromising and ground-breaking styles containing elements of pop, gospel, acoustic and minimalism with lyrics which articulate the clearest vision yet of the authentic, contemporary spirituality that is at the heart of Mike Scott's songs.
'Universal Hall' also celebrates the reunion of singer Scott with Irish fiddler Steve Wickham, who previously played on the Waterboys albums: 'This Is The Sea' (1985), 'Fisherman's Blues' (1988) and 'Room To Roam' (1990), and who contributes mercurial description-defying fiddle to the new record. "Steve's the finest rock fiddler ever. No one else comes close" says Scott of his friend, "Hemakes his violin sound like fire and wind; a clear voice from the high lands of the soul".
Other musicians on 'Universal Hall' include piano player/flautist Richard Naiff and of course Mike Scott who complements his usual guitar and keyboards with a variety of unusual sounding instruments including earth resonator, harmonium, micro-synth and tambron.
The album was recorded in five weeks during January and February 2003 at the studio beneath Universal Hall, the remarkable building pictured on the album cover and situated at the Findhorn Community in Scotland. "It was a unique and delightful experience recording in a Community theatre" says Scott, "We could hear all sorts of stuff echoing through the walls - Wednesday night folk dances, kids' theatre classes, workshops and community concerts in the theatre upstairs, the boom-boom of the Thursday night conga drum class - a mosaic-like creative environment in which to work".
Check out the Tiscali Radio here
Buy this album here
Also released this week:
Earlimart - Everyone Down here
Buy this album here
Classical Albums released this week:
Crossing The Stone - Catrin Finch
She's performed across the world, won many prestigious awards and is Royal harpist to HRH Prince Of Wales - she's even had a concerto written especially for her (by Karl Jenkins, the man behind 'Adiemus'). Welsh harpist Catrin Finch has already achieved a lot in her 23 years and now she's about to take another step up with her first major recording for Sony Classics. It's a collection of traditional classical works like Debussy's 'Clair De Lune', alongside more contemporary works by Steve Reich, side-by-side to tunes from Chick Corea and Astor Piazzolla.
As you might expect there's also plenty of contributions from Karl Jenkins (no less than 7!) but his music suits her delicate style perfectly. The whole album trips along extremely gracefully, taking care not to drift into sentimentality, and offers a reassuringly pretty sound - the aural equivalent of floating dust caught in a sun beam.
Buy this album here
Nikolaj Znaider - Va: Bravo
Buy this album here
For this week's albums, read on, but for this week's singles, please click here
Annie Lennox - Bare (pictured left)
After an eight year hiatus, multi-platinum, Grammy and Brit Award winning artist Annie Lennox returns with her brand new album. Featuring 11 self-penned tracks, 'Bare' is the artist's third solo release (following 'Diva' and 'Medusa', which between them have exceeded global sales of over 12 million copies) - and arguably one of the year's most eagerly anticipated releases. Recorded in London over the last year, the songs on 'Bare' are just one more proof of Annie's unique ability to communicate her emotions, seemingly one-on-one, to each and every listener. Producer Steve Lipson has already described 'Bare' as a "truly career defining album. Her best yet..."Includes the single 'Pavement Cracks'.
This Limited Edition includes a bonus DVD featuring specially recorded performances of tracks from the album, plus 10 minute interview.
Radiohead - Hail to the thief
Radiohead return with the most eagerly awaited LP of the year.
Their third studio album in as many years, 'Hail To The Thief' (the title comes from an anti-George Bush slogan coined by his opponents following his contentious presidential victory) signals a welcome return to the masterful songwriting of the band's early work, mixing the furious guitar assault of 'The Bends' and 'OK Computer' with the experimental glitch-techno of 2000's 'Kid A' and 2001's 'Amnesiac'.
Recorded primarily over a marathon two-week session in Los Angeles with long-time collaborator Nigel Godrich, standout tracks include the fuzzed-out 'Myxomatosis' ("No one likes a smart arse/But we all like stars"), the yearning 'I Will' and the epic, album-closing 'A Wolf At The Door', a track described by Thom Yorke as "a basic documentation of the nearest I ever came to having a complete nervous breakdown. It's about fear - real or imagined - that still makes total sense".
Includes the single 'There There'.
"Nigel dragged us out to L.A because he'd done three records there - two with Beck, one with Travis. We'd always been hesitant about working in Los Angeles because - let's face it - Radiohead mixing in with the Hotel California mind-set doesn't sound like a potential marriage made in heaven. But we quickly realized you can function out there without becoming tarnished by whatever else going on there. It was the best recording experience we ever had. We finished one song each day we were booked. We didn't over-scrutinize. We didn't get too cerebral. We trusted in ourselves, Nigel, the studio and the songs and just let go, really" - Ed O'Brien
Grandaddy - Sumday
After a three year hiatus, hirsute Californian space rockers Grandaddy return with their eagerly awaited fourth full-length album.
The follow-up to 2000's acclaimed 'The Sophtware Slump', 'Sumday' features 12 songs all written and produced by Grandaddy's Jason Lytle, including the album's stunning first single 'Now It's On'.
Other standout tracks include the heartfelt 'The Warming Sun', the epic 'The Final Push To The Sum' and 'The Group That Couldn't Say', a gentle story about a team of 'unit shifters' sent on a corporate bonding exercise in the country.
"It's nice to think there's a word that exists that only applies to our record, because it's misspelled, called S-U-M-D-A-Y. It does kind of feel like this is the encapsulation so far of the band's efforts and history. I think that has a lot to do with why it's called 'Sumday'. It feels very complete and I don't know if it's ever felt this complete before, a summation. Summary" - Jim Fairchild
This Limited Edition CD includes an enhanced section featuring the videos to 'Now It's On' and 'The Crystal Lake', a Grandaddy short film entitled 'Nacher Anthem', plus a link to a micro-site where the band will supply their fans with exclusive material such as short films, photos and artwork
Steely Dan - Everything Must Go
After a three year hiatus, venerable jazz-rockers Steely Dan return with their brand new studio album.
Recorded with a core band that includes drummer Keith Carlock, keyboardists Ted Baker and Bill Charlap, and guitarists Jon Herington and Hugh McCracken, 'Everything Must Go' is Walter Becker and Donald Fagen's first release since 2000, when 'Two Against Nature' - the duo's first studio release in 20 years - garnered multiple Grammy awards, including 'Album Of The Year'.
Listeners anticipating Steely Dan's patented amalgam of sonic perfection, sinuous musicality, and subversive storytelling will not be disappointed by the new release, whose musical allusions range from Pharaoh Sanders to Tommy James, and whose literary echoes bound from William Gibson to Burmashave.
Featured lyrics include such catchy phrases as "and that's when she jumped the turnstile" and "hey - is that a horseshoe crab?"
'Everything Must Go' took roughly a year torecord - a veritable wind sprint given Becker and Fagen's legendary meticulousness in the studio. "We went for live tracking this time and got great, in-the-pocket tracks", says Becker. Donald Fagen adds "It's mad: it's wiggy: I love it".
Released simultaneously on CD and DVD-A.
Grammy Award winning recording engineer, Elliot Scheiner, whose previous DVD-Audio mixing and engineering credits include R.E.M.'s Reveal and Faith Hill's Cry, is responsible for the 5.1 mix on Everything Must Go.
The DVD-A album includes an exclusive 13-minute short film piece entitled 'Steely Dan Confessions', which finds Becker and Fagen touring the night life of Las Vegas with 'Rita' the famous cab driver, from the U.S. hit TV series Taxicab Confessions.
The DVD-Audio album includes Photo Gallery, Song Lyrics, Discography and Production Credits.
Clipse - Lord Willin'
Signed to the soon-to-be massive Star Trak Entertainment label, Clipse have finally reached home base with the man who been by their side since day one, the Neptunes.
Having run with each other since forever, the two teams' paths split somewhat when Clipse signed to Elektra for a brief while and the Neptunes went on to become, well, international superstars.
However, now that the Neptunes have been given the dispensation to set up their own label, it was only natural that the Clipse should be one of thefirst on board.
Their ensuing debut album is a slamming set of fell-good party hip-hop that overrides the bling lifestyle and any gangsta leaning to concentrate on the art of having fun.
The album includes the US hit 'Grindin''.
This new version comes with 'Grindin'' remix featuring N.O.R.E, Baby and Lil' Wayne, the Selector remix of 'Grindin'' featuring Sean Paul and Kardinal Offishal, the Axwell mix of 'Ma, I Don't Love Her' and a special Clipse game.
Four tet - Dialogue
Kieren Hebden is a member of Fridge, Britain's answer to America†s cereberal post-rock sect. Dialogue is his first full flowering offshoot, instrumental bar odd sampled babbleogues and wildly eclectic, dovetailing strands of funk, ambient, hip hop and jazz.
Despite live instruments, the only real dialogue here is between Hebden and his technology, but the absence of personality allows groove and games of juxtaposition to work wonders: Liquefaction marries be-bop with Indonesian gamalan, She Scanned scans another blueprint for Asian drum'n'bass aside from Talvin Singh†s, while Calamine†s guitar whooses, keyboard pulse and scattered loops are another world altogether.
In fact, Dialogue is an update of Brian Eno†s Another Green World: indefinable and beguiling, but beautifully measured, with the potential to be just as influential.
Widely acclaimed as one of the UK's most prominent experimental musicians Keiran Hebden's seminal debut album 'Dialogue' gets a re-release on the Output Recordings label.
Tinersticks - Waiting For The Moon
Perhaps not surprisingly for a band who can count three soundtracks in their resumé, 'Waiting For The Moon' draws you in like an unfolding narrative.
It starts with a postcard from a nightmare ('Until The Morning Comes') and awakes to a world that could hardly be less forgiving. On 'Say Goodbye To The City', Staples sounds like a man held captive inside his own song – pleading "I can't see you anymore" over a backdrop of imminent panic which swells with every passing song.
It's on the remarkable '4:48 Psychosis' though, that 'Waiting For The Moon' reaches the outermost point of its journey.
Over a one-chord improvisation, Staples' feverish intonations owe more to The Velvet Underground than to any of the band's more well-documented influences.
Thereafter, 'Waiting For The Moon' slowly edges towards some kind of resolution.
'Sometimes It Hurts' is the latest in a succession of duets - this time we find the bewitching chanteuseLhasa de Sala negotiating a terrain familiar to Tindersticks fans – where parting fuels desire and desire prolongs the misery of parting.
The sweetest sorrow also informs 'My Oblivion', thanks to the sumptuous languor of its strings.
Truby Trio
Swish mixtures of groovy latin funky jazz, and hilarious high-brow house. A real winner.
'...don't let the title fool you: this is far from being numbing muzak for the mind. but even if – after dancefloor jazz hits such as 'Galicia', 'High Jazz' or 'A Go Go' you already thought to know what to expect from Truby Trio's album be prepared for a pleasant surprise. 'Elevator Music' is already a sure candidate for the phusion debut of the year!' - Groove Germany
Waterboys - Universal Hall
From the band that brought you the seminal 'Whole Of The Moon' and the glorious 'Fisherman's Blues' comes the Waterboys' brand new album. Recorded in the basement studio under the theatre of the same name in Findhorn, Scotland, 'Universal Hall' contains twelve songs in a series of unique, uncompromising and ground-breaking styles containing elements of pop, gospel, acoustic and minimalism with lyrics which articulate the clearest vision yet of the authentic, contemporary spirituality that is at the heart of Mike Scott's songs.
'Universal Hall' also celebrates the reunion of singer Scott with Irish fiddler Steve Wickham, who previously played on the Waterboys albums: 'This Is The Sea' (1985), 'Fisherman's Blues' (1988) and 'Room To Roam' (1990), and who contributes mercurial description-defying fiddle to the new record. "Steve's the finest rock fiddler ever. No one else comes close" says Scott of his friend, "Hemakes his violin sound like fire and wind; a clear voice from the high lands of the soul".
Other musicians on 'Universal Hall' include piano player/flautist Richard Naiff and of course Mike Scott who complements his usual guitar and keyboards with a variety of unusual sounding instruments including earth resonator, harmonium, micro-synth and tambron.
The album was recorded in five weeks during January and February 2003 at the studio beneath Universal Hall, the remarkable building pictured on the album cover and situated at the Findhorn Community in Scotland. "It was a unique and delightful experience recording in a Community theatre" says Scott, "We could hear all sorts of stuff echoing through the walls - Wednesday night folk dances, kids' theatre classes, workshops and community concerts in the theatre upstairs, the boom-boom of the Thursday night conga drum class - a mosaic-like creative environment in which to work".
Also released this week:
Earlimart - Everyone Down here
Classical Albums released this week:
Crossing The Stone - Catrin Finch
She's performed across the world, won many prestigious awards and is Royal harpist to HRH Prince Of Wales - she's even had a concerto written especially for her (by Karl Jenkins, the man behind 'Adiemus'). Welsh harpist Catrin Finch has already achieved a lot in her 23 years and now she's about to take another step up with her first major recording for Sony Classics. It's a collection of traditional classical works like Debussy's 'Clair De Lune', alongside more contemporary works by Steve Reich, side-by-side to tunes from Chick Corea and Astor Piazzolla.
As you might expect there's also plenty of contributions from Karl Jenkins (no less than 7!) but his music suits her delicate style perfectly. The whole album trips along extremely gracefully, taking care not to drift into sentimentality, and offers a reassuringly pretty sound - the aural equivalent of floating dust caught in a sun beam.
Nikolaj Znaider - Va: Bravo
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