To make the navigation to the different reviews in this series easier I created an overview page. It is still quite empty with only three albums but I hope I can fill it up till my birthday, July, 14th. The year column links to the poll in which you dear readers have hopefully voted for your favourite. The album column links to my amateurish review and the last column titled RYM links to the top 100 albums as rated by the contributors to the rate your music site of said year. Everyone can become member there and review and rate albums.

I closed the 1980 poll. The overwhelming winner was Joy Division's Closer. JD fans should be patient. The band will be covered in the series though it won't be the album you are probably thinking of...

40 years, 40 albums is a good exercise for me to relisten to my old albums and reevaluate them. Actually listening to the 1999 stuff was another indication for me that I have too many records. Maybe I should start selling the ones I don't like anymore via Ebay. The most striking examples from 1999 I just listened to were Sigur Ros, Flaming Lips, Perry Blake, Smog, Spain and Radar Bros. A good rule for future buys would be to first sell an old album before buying a new one. Discipline is a discipline I have never been good at and I can definitely improve on.

Probably even better than selling old albums would be a cd exchange where people exchange second-hand cds. Does anyone know if a place like this exists? In case it didn't I guess it would be about time to create one on the interweb. The new economy will come back one day, you know.

There are three live shows in Offenbach this week I thought of going to:

• Tuesday - Ryan Adams in the Capitol
• Wednesday - Tom Liwa opening for Low in the Robert Johnson
• Thursday - Bright Eyes in the Robert Johnson

Ryan Adams is on his own this time and all I heard of him in the past nine months (after the last excellent concert in the Batschkapp with his band The Sweetheart Revolution) was bland middle of the road rubbish.

Bright Eyes singer Conor Oberst hasn't got the voice of my dreams and I am not in the mood for his melodramatic, introspective and self-lacerating songs.

I will probably attend the Low concert though. I heard one of their newer tracks which I didn't like too much as it sounded more like a normal rock song than the older slow atmospheric stuff on their first two records. But Tom Liwa from Duisburg which is almost my hometown (only the Rhine separates them) should be interesting. He played in an indie band called Flowerpornoes before which I don't really know but I listened to some tracks from his latest double album 2 Originals of.. and I liked what I heard. Singer songwriters singing in German without sounding pathetic are quite rare in this country.

Rules of Card Games: Mao (via caterina.net)

Why don't I feel the slightest bit of compassion after reading this? Maybe his singing will sound better now with two artificial front teeths. Maybe they will pack it in altogether. That wouldn't be the worst solution. I wouldn't miss them. Can someone please forgive me?

Elmar Brandt im Steuersong:

So richtig lustig find ich das jetzt nicht mehr, wenn unsere gewählten Volksvertreter die armen Satiriker jetzt auch noch arbeitslos machen...

(He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not ) A little bit of a dark comedy this new French film by Laetititia Colombani with Audrey Tautou who became famous for her main role in Amélie Poulain. I had a positive surprise after the mixed reviews.

The film tells the story of a female stalker or érotomane like they say in French. The young Angélique (Tautou) is head over heels in love with the married cardiologist Loïc. Though she shows her love with endless presents and almost kills herself for it it will take Loïc a long time to find out about it. In the first scene she buys a rose for him and asks the shop owner to deliver it to her beloved one. As the amount the flower is worth is below the delivery threshold the guy first refuses her wish. But he has no chance. Angélique’s charming smile is absolutely irresistible and the story takes its course. It is told two times. Once from the point of view of Angélique’s wanting to be boy-friend of her age and once from the stance of Loïc. Obviously these two perspectives are extremely different and the second run through Loïc’s eyes is rather surprising and revelatory for the spectator.

The film turns from the obsession of a young innocent girl into a tragic lethal affair without ever losing its sense of humour. A medical history told in a light, fairy-tale like way without being totally unrealistic. A joy for the observer.

The plot reminded me a lot of Ian McEwan’s brilliant novel Enduring Love (enduring has two meanings, guess which is the good one here).

And another poll so that you can do two in one go.

This poll is a little late but I'd like to be complete.

Dan Emerson on The Beatles Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in his music/film blog Restate My Assumptions. He presses some more juice out of one of the most squeezed out releases in pop history. Personally I always found that album together with its older brother, the Beach Boys Pet Sounds totally overestimated (Dan anticipated this stance of course). The only memorable things about Sgt Pepper's in my book are the new production methods and the last song: A Day in the Life. Have a look what Dan writes about it:

Olav Bjortomt in his well written music blog It Makes No Difference... on Gillian Welch's long beautiful ballad I Dreamt a Highway (November, 28th). I have to agree especially to this passage:

are a trio hailing from Massachusetts. Their music is at least as fascinating as their ambiguous name playing with the two meanings of the word band. Do you remember the mysterious Möbius Band which has only one side from the geometry lessons?

The group is very open-minded musically. Fusing modern jazz, electronics, classical elements, epic film scores, Stereolab-like vox organ patterns, American Analog Set loops, Low's majestic slow minimalism and many other things I am going to explore in more detail this afternoon. Califone and Tortoise from Chicago seem to be other important influences. Not to forget the improvisational side of Sonic Youth represented by Lee Ranaldo. Very exciting stuff. Eclecticism as I love it.

The first two EPs and more can be downloaded from their audio page.

Pitchfork's Joe Tangari reviews their latest release Three EP.