One reason I love music is the healing effect some of it has on me. It is weird but whenever I’m in a depressive mood I love to listen to sad music. Bathing in self-pity really does me good occasionally. It’s very selfish and totally unproductive but it helps to get over those dark intervals. When I’m down I can’t take happy-go-lucky music. Actually I hardly ever listen to happy music. Usually it makes me feel uncomfortable. Something must be wrong with me, I feel.

Anyways when I read in this ILM thread about a new American Music Club album and I noticed several people were slagging off West, Mark Eitzel’s phantastic collaboration with Peter Buck from REM I had to defend it (to no avail of course) and relisten to it. It still has got this immediate soothing effect on me, like an embrace of a brother in soul. Warm and hopeless at the same time. Extremely tuneful and almost poppy with that very special so desperate sounding crooner's voice of Eitzel on top. Rather lushly produced with Buck’s guitar, some piano, drums, keyboards, saxophone and even flutes. And if it is true what one guy on the ILM thread said, namely that the album was only rehearsed for a couple of times before the recording I must say that this is how I like it, any more polishing would have only diluted the essence of the record. There is also a jazzy track on it which ends in a kind of improvised jam session: Three Inches of Wall. And on the last song Live Or Die there is a wonderful saxophone solo. Some wise and banal bits of the lyrics I overheard, I couldn’t find the complete lyrics on the web:

Chorus from If You Have to Ask:

Chorus from Free of Harm:

In Your Life:

Stunned & Frozen:

Chorus from Live or Die:

Nine short live audio clips (mainly spoken word intros) of Neil Young's new project Greendale which is supposed to be released as CD and DVD in August. Some impressions of Greendale which Neil Young performs on his current tour here at ILM:

P.S. Here is my review. I am still not sure what to think of this album.

If someone asked me to go on with my temporarily suspended 40 years, 40 albums project (including the best of the year polls) I would do it. After six albums I ran out of steam last winter. But it would have to be me who chose the next years (though I am open and keen on suggestions) to be covered. And I would probably never do all forty years.

I promised Sean to write 50 words on this album which hasn't left my walkman, stereo, cd-rom drive etc. for the last couple of months. Concerning the depth and variety of the album 50 words are by far too few to do justice to this extraordinary piece of popular music. I feel that each song deserves at least 1,000 words. On the other hand 50 words are too much as there is only one word in my vocabulary, I mentioned it before: phantabulistic.

50 words: Like good tea HTTT is a perfect blend of many different varieties: Ambient, progrock, goth, dronerock and electronics. Add to this Yorke's pure sad asexual though sexy voice. His vague lyrics picked up from everyday conversations reflect the currently prevailing gloomy and grim atmosphere. A glacier-volcano spitting out frozen lava.

P.S. The full feature Hail to the Thief in 50 words with contributions by 15 music lovers (critics, musicians and webloggers) is online at Tangmonkey. There is also a thread at ILM including some more 50 word shots.

From

to

isn't such a huge step.

P.S. Not quite sure what Yorke sings there actually before "the raindrops". On Ateaseweb it says "oh", in the lyrics sheet there is only "the raindrops". It doesn't really matter but I prefer my interpretation.

I was a little bit surprised when I read in the Slate music club from last week which featured Radiohead's new album dissected via e-mail by Sasha Frere-Jones and Gerald Marzorati (NYT magazine) the following sentence by Frere-Jones:

On one hand I'd be very happy if this was true as I found the mixes which were leaked to the web absolutely perfect and could not imagine any improvement on them whatsoever.

On the other hand my feelings would be mixed as Radiohead's producer Nigel Godrich said that the tracks that leaked were the unmastered versions. If Frere-Jones is right Godrich has not been saying the truth (for marketing reasons?) which I find pretty inadequate and morally reproachable especially in the view of the album title.

So now I am not sure if I will buy the album anymore for two reasons. I was 100% sure before. But why should I buy an album which is identical to the mp3 versions and why should I buy an album of people who lie to me?

In the end I'll probably buy the album because I have the feeling it is the best album of the zero years yet. Before in my view that album was Amnesiac but Hail to the Thief seems to be even more of a miracle.

By the way this comes from someone who has kind of despised Radiohead and especially Thom Yorke's voice before. Interesting is this statement by Frere-Jones concerning the change of his voice:

P.S. The Slate e-mail exchange has been discussed here extensively on I Love Music!

has a new album out: World Without Tears. I am just listening to four tracks from it here at EuroRanch. Excellent bluesy songwriting which can be filed under Americana-Roots with some country elements (pedal steel). Lucinda Williams has got this Southern drawl of which I can't get enough. Her great voice is rough and raspy. Think of a fifty year old Janis Joplin and you'll come close. Relax and fill your glass with Bourbon. Recommended without reservations.

"Dirty is the angriest album Sonic Youth has ever recorded." (review by Adrien Begrand at PopMatters)

That is probably why Dirty is my favourite record of Sonic Youth. It is the most aggressive, the most punk. I never understood the fuss about the boring, almost progrocky, meandering Daydream Nation. Additionally the 1992 Lorelei concert was one of my favourite shows ever. I did not know one of the songs they played but especially Thurston was like a Hendrix of the Nineties. Tickling the noise out of his guitar as if there was no tomorrow. After the Slanted & Enchanted deluxe treatment another one I need desperately. Unfortunately they are both quite expensive in Europe.

This record, the second Dandy Warhols album from 1997 has not left my different CD players for the last couple of days. I must say that I do not understand at all that this album apparently did not impress anyone when it came out. It is a record without one second of filler, perfect pop hooks, extremely relaxed and droning on and on. I have listened to two other Dandy Warhols releases, the new one and 13 Tales of Bohemia or how it is called. Those two are totally disposable in comparison. If someone asked me which album I'd take to an island MBV's Loveless or The D.W. Come Down right now my answer would be clear...

• Goldfrapp's new record Black Cherry is a little bit of a disappointment. It is not because of the change of style, from sentimental schmaltzy cinemascope soundtrack to electro-dance music. No, the new album has some tracks with cheap embarrassing beats which I have to skip after 20 seconds of listen. And the whole album is not organic. It is just a collection of songs. Allison Goldfrapp's voice is sexy as ever but the song material is simply too disparate. Lots of different influences: I hear Kate Bush and Shirley Manson from Garbage.

• I just listened to Kat Onoma's Black Session on Bernard Lenoir's radio program. Absolutely brilliant. Of all bands I do not have any records of Kat Onoma is the band I need an album of most urgently. They are from Strasbourg and have been going for well over ten years. Their music is dark, bluesy, messy and powerful. The meeting point of Joy Division and Gallon Drunk. With an electronic touch and some tape voice experiments (Deleuze's voice could be heard at one point). Rodolphe Burger sounds sometimes very much like Bashung. Actually Bashung sang at the concert as well. Apparently one song on Bashung's latest Fantaisie Militaire is even written by Burger. I ordered Kat Onoma's latest Digipack together with Benjamin Biolay's first quite orchestral album Rose Kennedy.