Vecka 19-20

Feist

Ny omgång med en svensk, Henrik Berggren (bild nedan). Spännande. Flera artister 

som tidigare varit med här, t.ex. Afghan Whigs och Perfume Genius. En kvinnlig

artist som är i ropet är ju Feist (bild ovan). Sedan har vi ju Woods, som alltid går 

vidare till final. Ska det bli så igen?

1. Leeroy Stagger (CAN) is a Canadian alternative country singer-songwriter with punk roots. Reinventing himself as a singer-songwriter, he released his debut independent EP, Six Tales of Danger, in 2002.Stagger has gone on tour as a supporting act for The Pixies, Modest Mouse and Evan Dando. The new album is Love Versus.  Wikipedia. 

2. Afghan Whigs (US) The new album In Spades clocks in at just 10 songs in 36 minutes, but feels as expansive and substantial as a double-album statement. And that’s thanks in large part to coolly paced, multi-sectional songs like “Arabian Heights” and “Light As a Feather,” where Dulli masterfully ratchets up the tension before unleashing his fevered howl at just the right moment. Pitchfork

3. Henrik Berggren (SWE)  Gamle Broder Danielsångaren har haft det tufft med hälsan ett bra tag. Nu är han tillbaka. Det finns fortfarande elände att rasa emot, men för första gången gör nu Henrik Berggren en skiva där han framför allt är glad – och den känns som en omedelbar klassiker. DN.

4. Slowdive (UK) During their original run, Slowdive changed constantly. They proved shoegaze was not an unchanging monolith, but an incessantly protean genre. The solution, it seems, is revisionism, not revivalism. In “Star Roving,” they have the luxury of being able to pick and choose from their own ghosts, and summon them into the present. The song bears the hallmarks of their more rugged work, but the streaks of noise and layers of out-of-reach-murmurs is sensitive to their later experimentation. Pitchfork

5. Feist (CAN) Mycket på femte albumet ”Pleasure” låter som replokalsinspelningar, med brus, förstärkarbrum och rumsljud kvar i mixen. 41-åringen från Calgary tillåter sig att vara ännu mer introspektiv än tidigare, måhända en nödvändig process vid den punkt i livet där hon befinner sig och efter vad hon själv beskriver som några vilsna år. Aftonbladet

6. Fujiya & Miyagi  (UK) This is the self-titled sixth LP from the Brighton band still led by founders and Krautrock/post-punk aficionados David Best and Steve Lewis. Album closer "R.S.I." sums up the album's spirit, rhyming slop, flop, and prop over a skittering snare, funky guitar, and melodic bassline. With a full set that rivals their best songs to date without significant reinvention, it's a must for fans and great place to start for the uninitiated. All Music

7. CFM (US) Anyone who’s been paying close attention to Ty Segall’s output over the past decade has enjoyed the talents of Charles Moothart. The guitarist has not only played on several of Segall’s albums, he’s also toured extensively to support those albums. On “Pinch the Dream” the production reveals the way that Moothart constructs a song. Rather than verse/chorus/verse, he tends to utilize the bridge as a way to display his skills at riffage. Here, the guitar melody becomes the hook in the track, even as it veers back and forth between different time signatures, another Moothart specialty.  Vauge Visages

8. Mark Mulcahy (US) returns from his past lives on his latest solo album. After spending a few years immersed in a sort of career retrospective with his old bands Polaris and Miracle Legion, the western Massachusetts singer comes sauntering back with The Possum in the Driveway, his first album of new material since 2013. Paste Magazine

9. Woods (US) Filled with warmth, horns, and many messages of love, Woods’ tenth album is a feel-good record for these rough times. For a band that’s rivaled in success by both a former member (Kevin Morby) and a soundalike (Whitney), there is an unspoken imperative that their 10th record shifts the status quo, and songwriter and bandleader Jeremy Earl is explicit in stating his intention: Love Is Love is a political album. On “Bleeding Blue,” Earl reflects on election’s immediate aftermath, with flower-power cadences applied to lines like “Have you heard the news? Hate can’t lose” and “I am the wind/Love’s not dead.” Pitchfork

10. Perfume Genius (US) Mike Hadreas’ fourth record is pure decadence. It’s his most realized album yet, a tender and transcendental protest record of love and devotion. Transcendence is key to No Shape, and at its most explicit on “Wreath,” which references Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” both in its lyrics and breathless spirit. Like “Slip Away,” it’s a race to outrun the inevitable—in this case, Hadreas’ own physical form and identity, the prejudice projected onto it and the Crohn's disease within it. “I’m gonna peel off every weight/Until my body gives way/And shuts up,” he swears.  Pitchfork

Henrik Berggren

Ni har två veckor på er att lyssna. Poängen ska lämnas senast söndag 21 maj. Här är länken.