Soundtrack to the last couple of months
Life has been…intense, the last few months, and not conducive to blogging. There has been some good music, though, so here’s what I’ve been listening to, in no particular order:
Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, BBC Proms
Barenboim conducting the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
I was familiar with Barenboim as a pianist, but I didn’t know his work as a conductor, so when the Proms featured his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Lavender Menace and I tuned in. Now, as a veteran of Catholic youth orchestras and choirs, the motherfucking Ode to motherfucking Joy has been the bane of my existence. THE BANE. So I wasn’t sure I could take the fourth movement. But under Barenboim’s direction, it was absolutely electric. For the first time I could really hear how radical Beethoven was. It was moving, and deeply satisfying, like great art should be.
Click to viewKristin Hersh
Kristin Hersh, Sonic Architect
Been listening to a lot of Kristen on repeat, especially Crooked, which I think might be my favorite of her albums. The sonic landscapes she builds are mesmerising and endlessly fascinating to me. And I find her incredibly cathartic. Crooked comes with a beautiful hardback book of lyrics and related musings about each song, written in her unique style, equal parts poetry and wry sarcasm. I can’t really pick out a single track as a stand-out, the album is such a seamless whole. But here’s one anyway, for a taste:
S.J. Tucker, Haphazard (2004)
S.J. Tucker, wild child
I’m a Completist about very few artists; but S.J. Tucker has recently joined Tori, the Indigo Girls, and Ani in that category. She’s so thoroughly, uniquely herself. Like if Joni Mitchell and Ani had a bisexual pagan love child. Her first album is a bit uneven in its themes, but each song is full of the humor and keen emotional observation that she’s come to master on later albums. Particular favorites are the contemplative but determined drive of "Crystal Cave“, the wry self-awareness of “Face-down” and “Follow Me Down”, witty “Mummy Medusa” and wacky “In the House of Mama Dragon”.
Chris Pureka, Dryland (2006)
Chris Pureka, stone butch blues
I discovered Pureka on Last FM and I’ve finally gotten around to getting her second album, a collection of moody, introspective folk-americana that’s perfect for a gray autumn afternoon. Pureka is pretty much the unofficial heir to Ferron’s title of Lovelorn Butch Folk Troubador. Pureka’s sound is like Amy-Ray-in-ballad-mode, blended with Harvest-era Neil Young, with a twist of Gillian Welch. In fact, she covers Welch’s “Everything is Free” on this album, and does a damn fine job of it. She manages to take Welch’s distinctive bluegrass sound and make it her own, so that it flows seamlessly with the rest of album. Destined to be the soundtrack to many a lesbian break up. Here’s a song she wrote about her grandmother:
And a gratuitous Tori video, for good measure: