Vecka 44-45

Laura Gibson

Då kör vi en ny omgång. Några gamla Poplisteartister dyker upp igen som Phosphorescense, Richard Thompson, John Hiatt och holändske Jacco Gardner. Flera för mig nya och spännande kvinnliga artister bjuds det på: Laura Gibson, Emma Ruth Rundle och Roisin Murphy. Och så har vi en powerpopgud som Paul Collins.

1 Paul Collins (US) From the opening power chord, to the last perfect harmony, this album was an extreme listening pleasure. It is brilliant and a welcome return of Paul Collins. It has been four years since we have heard anything from Collins, and that album was credited to The Paul Collins Beat (Feel The Noise). Of course Collins is best known as the pioneer and godfather of power pop, and on Out Of My Head, he firmly establishes this position and more. He is really untouchable when it comes to this genre of pop. He knows when to bring in the backing vocals, the harmonies, and everything else. The man is a master at arranging. He creates a sound that is familiar and brand new. Spill Magazine

2 Laura Gibson (US) This is a beautifully eerie album that echoes out of the Oregon wooded world. It is, to quote the lyrics, “the pause between the riddle and the punchline.” I suppose this is folk music; but really, with the emphasis on piano and Wurlitzer, rather than the traditional folk-singer guitar idiom, this is much more a work of Americana art, with music as its chosen medium. The record bleeds an American soul: “Tenderness” is yet another melodic pick of Eden’s apple with Dave Depper’s wonderful bass. Laura’s multi-tracked vocals simply soar. Soundlab

3 Richard Thompson (UK) At 69, British folk-rock legend Richard Thompson still has a sharp electric dagger or two in hand to go with his often acid tongue and cankered worldview. 13 Rivers is 13 tracks that flow from fast and fiery to slow and reflective. Painting lyrical pictures of the "smell of death" where he lays his head, the song picks up its rage, as Thompson delivers a typically smoldering guitar solo to ride out the personal storm that rages within. The storm continues on "The Rattle Within," featuring a diabolic guitar solo: NPR

4 Phosphorescence (US) Troubadour Matthew Houck, aka Phosphorescent, has released his new album, C’est La Vie. The effort marks his seventh full-length overall and first in five years following 2013’s excellent Muchacho. Its nine tracks reflect on a marked period of transition for Houck, during which he started a family, left New York for Nashville (where he built his own Spirit Sounds Studio), and overcame a life-threatening illness. As a press release put it, Houck sought to balance “the earthy and the incandescent, the troubled and the serene.” COS

5 Jacco Gardner (NL) Dutch psychedelic pop auteur Jacco Gardner has released the melodious sub two minute ‘Volva’ the first little taster below from his forthcoming album, the all instrumental Somnium. His first release since 2015’s excellent Hypnophobia, its gestation period saw Gardner move to Portugal’s City of Light, a development that heavily influences the album. Lisbon will do that to you.Named after the 1608 novel by Johannes Kepler, it was written at a time when the Dutch mercantilists were imagining all sorts of fantasy worlds during the era of European “discovery”. Indie30

6 Emma Ruth Rundle (US) Since emerging in 2008 with the dark psych-folk project Nocturnes, Emma Ruth Rundle has kept up a hectic schedule, carving out a huge swath of sonic real estate both as a solo artist and with her shoegaze outfit Marriages As a musician, Emma Ruth Rundle is full of contradictions. Drawing from elements such as folk, post-rock and drone, her work balances the slow, dark impulses of Chelsea Wolfe and the dreamy folkiness of Marissa Nadler. She has her feet planted firmly in two worlds, but on her latest record, Rundle is able to combine these influences in new and intriguing ways. Exclaim

7 John Hiatt (US) For The Eclipse Sessions, Hiatt's 23rd studio album, he decided to pare down his band to the bare minimum. Hiatt also manages to find comfortable middle ground between those extremes with a song like "Over the Hill", a bit of low-key funk that throws in some sophisticated Beatlesque melodies, in addition to Hiatt's ever-present ruminations on the aging process ("I'm long in the tooth / What can I say / I take huge bites of life"). Pop Matters

8 Peter Bibby (AUS) Straight out of the land down under, Peter Bibby is unmistakably an Aussie through and through. Whether it’s his striking vocabulary or wild-west-esque-outback sound, Bibby’s tunes on Grand Champion positively drip with a knack for hilarious storytelling and a crafted blend of bluegrass mixed rock ‘n’ roll. While the occasionally crude lyrics might offend church-goers, most listeners will find immense pleasure listening to the boisterous, anecdotal songs like “Medicine,” “Long Baby” and “Work for Arseholes.” Bibby sells himself as a rollicking, almost lunatic, madman throughout the album, KTSW

9 Roisin Murphy (IR)  born 5 July 1973) is an Irish singer-songwriter and record producer.^[8] She first became known in the 1990s as one-half of the UK-Irish trip hop duo Moloko with her partner Mark Brydon. After the breakup of Moloko, Murphy embarked on a solo career, Today Róisín Murphy shares “The Rumble / World’s Crazy”, the final pair of tracks in a series of 12” singles which have been released across 2018 to unanimous acclaim from critics and fans alike. Created in collaboration with Baltimore maverick musician/producer/DJ Maurice Fulton and released through The Vinyl Factory, Murphy gone and made some of the most hip-twitching, pleasure-centre-stimulating music of her life. The lyrics are intense, exploratory and probing Front View Magazine Wiki

10 Exploded View (Int) The international music project of Annika Henderson, Hugo Quezada and Martin Thulin has returned and taken flight with their second full length, Obey. The album was recorded at Hugo’s and Martin’s studios in Mexico City with Annika visiting from Berlin. The band has crafted their most ambitious work to date.  Sacred Bones Records

Ni har som vanligt två veckor på er att lyssna på denna mix av spännande ny musik. Det betyder att sista dagen att rösta är söndagen den 11 november. Här är länken till Spotify.

Emma Ruth Rundle