2009: The Annual ‘Best Of’ Awards 09

2009: the year that the radio and my personal tastes started to collide. If you’d told me a year ago that I would stumble into my kitchen and hear some of my favourite songs playing on Triple J (or, heaven forbid, Nova) I would likely have stroked your hair lovingly before recommending a charming medical professional. But yet. There it was. Radio, it seems (despite the Triple J Hottest 100 shemozzle) begun a slight love affair with intelligent female songwriters and the charts began to follow suit.

As always, my end-of-year ‘best of’ is entirely subjective mix of my own emotional responses to the sound, mixed with a slight hint of critical objectivity. Are they, critically, the best of their respective genres? Perhaps not. But they are, at the end of the day, the sounds that moved me – physically, emotionally – and gave me the soundtrack to live my life to in ‘09. Enjoy.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Florence and the Machine – Lungs

More than just a dynamic and powerful vocalist, Florence and the Machine’s debut album was a diverse collection of moody, slightly left of centre (but surprisingly radio friendly) pop songs. With an often thriving percussive beat and an abundance of interesting turns of emotive phrase, this album – at a time where many of her contemporaries were looking to the past for inspiration – never felt anything less than remarkably fresh.

Highlight tracks: Drumming Song, Howl, Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up), Blinding

SONG OF THE YEAR: Sally Seltmann – Harmony To My Heartbeat

Arriving unexpectedly in the later stages of the year, Sally Seltmann – formerly New Buffalo and writer of Feist’s “1 2 3 4” – made an incredibly welcome return with the delightfully upbeat ‘Harmony to my Heartback’. The track is typically Sally Seltmann: jangly, hand-clappy, immediate pop but with enough intelligence, street smarts and unexpected twists to raise it well above your standard radio fare. Bring on the album.

Honourable mention: Bertie Blackman – Heart

Bertie continued to show why she is Australia’s most adventurous singer-songwriter.

GROUP OF THE YEAR: Metric – Fantasies

Canadian indie-pop-rock darlings Metric returned in 2009 with ‘Fantasies’, a shimmering (but never glossy) alt-pop-rock collection. Showing why she is one of the world’s most intriguing frontwomen, Emily Haines wraps herself in this material like a banshee – whispering, wailing and seducing her way through ten-tracks of pop-rock bliss.

Honourable mention: Gossip – Music For Men

Pop-punk trendsetters take a few Donna Summer pills and produce an unexpectedly dancefloor-driven album that works more than well.

SOLO ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Fever Ray

Taking the trademark sound of The Knife and transferring it to a beguiling, atmospheric, Karin Dreijer Andersson’s solo venture (under the moniker Fever Ray) was a lush, sensual and sometimes challenging album. With worldy beats (and a sometimes otherwordly feel) there was no other album quite as distinctive as this in 2009.

Honourable mention: Bat For Lashes – Two Suns

If Cat Power turned into a Brooklyn electro-pop-goddess you’d end up with an album close to Bat For Lashes’ ‘Two Suns’. As exciting and involving as it as listenable.

Honourable mention: Little Boots – Hands

Of all the mainstream, UK synth-influenced pop albums to drop this year Little Boots was bursting to the brim with catchy, well constructed gems.

Token male mention: Paolo Nutini – Sunny Side Up

The Scot with the stunning voice and musical range. Soulful, emotive and occasionally funk-driven.

LIVE PERFORMER OF THE YEAR: Sia

Providing the year’s most enchanting shows (March, Metro Theatre, Sydney) Sia showed herself to be an engaging, chaotic personality – and a stunning, spine-tingling vocalist.

LOOKING AHEAD: ONES TO WATCH FOR 2010

Marina and the Diamonds

After a swathe of great singles already released in the UK, welsh-born Marina and the Diamonds is poised to release a great album in the next year. With traces of Regina Spektor and Florence and the Machine, Marina and the Diamonds is a stylised, glamorous and adventurous indie-pop starlet in the making.

Emma Russack

Former lead singer of Australian indie band, Lola Flash, Emma Russack is set to (finally) release her debut solo EP early next year. While an early listen hints at a more jazzy direction than her lo-fo past, she is a strong songwriter with a rich, unique voice.

Ryan Meeking

Hirsute Australian singer-songwriter borrows shades of Jeff Buckley and Damien Rice – with his own superb songwriting and vocals thrown into the mix.

Sia

Having wrapped up working with Christina Aguilera, early previews of Sia’s new material show a sprightly, exciting dance-pop side to her repertoire.

Live and Honest: Catching up…

A little (a lot) slack on the postings recently. Indeed. So, to bring you up to speed… a few live clips that have captured my imagination/attention/soul over the past few eons.

Florence and the Machine – Rabbit Heart (Live on Jools Holland)

La Roux – Quicksand (Acoustic)

Metric – Gimme Sympathy (Acoustic)

Live and Honest: Vienna Teng + Abra Moore

‘Live and Honest’ is a new little segment here on Dark Cafe Daze and is effectively the culmination of my many hours crawling online video sites for rare live videos of oft neglected artists.

Vienna Teng

“I’ve come home, even though I’ve never had so far to go…”

The first of these, this week, comes from Vienna Teng (birthname, Cynthia Yih Shih), a Taiwanese singer-songwriter and former software engineer for Cisco systems. Teng (thankfully) ended up with an independent record and has released four English-language albums, each highlighting her beautiful voice and poignant lyrical constructions (the way she writes and creates characters is up there with the best of them). The below clip is “Homecoming (Walter’s Song)” from her 2004 album Warm Strangers.

Abra Moore

“Don’t take it away from me, don’t take away the one love that matters…”

This week’s second clip comes from Californian (but largely Austin-based) folk-pop singer, Abra Moore, whose 2004 album Everything Changed was one of my favourites of that year. A delicate performer, her voice has obvious shades of Joanna Newsom in its fragility and sometimes challenging tone. Her lyrics, however, are raw, insightful examinations of human interaction, with the above album perhaps being one of the most affecting narratives of marriage and divorce in modern music. The below clip is a live performance of  “Family Affair” from that album, as well as the arresting studio version of “I Win”.

Dusting Off: Red Ghost – Brittle Times EP

Red Ghost (aka Rosa Agostino) is a Sydney-based artist who happened to put out one of 2007’s unheralded gems.

Largely guitar based, this lo-fi EP, Brittle Times, inhabits the same dark cloud as Cat Power and PJ Harvey. While not yet as wry a lyricist as either of the above, she nonetheless creates a distinct ‘I’m a little sad and a little angry but kinda too intelligent to wear it on my sleeve’ mood – chiefly thanks to some nice layering of her rather deadpan vocal delivery and the sparse instrumentation.

While seemingly off doing things with other bands at the moment, this was nonetheless a promising EP and it would, indeed, be a shame to not hear more solo material from here in the future. If anyone bumps into her, tell her we approve.

Keep updated with Red Ghost at her Myspace. Buying her EP from iTunes is also highly recommended.

One of us has changed: Ivy York

One of the stranger parts of my personality is my ability to know obscure facts about former pop stars.

Does everyone remember Aleesha Rome? No? See clip below.

What then, you might ask, is she doing with herself these days?

As expected, she is in a Bollywood-inspired indie-country London band called Ivy York. The interesting thing is – they put together lovely tunes, and have a single coming out in September.

Check them out: http://www.myspace.com/ivyyork

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPTwg49aOT0

Album Review: Lisa Mitchell – Wonder

I’ll lay it bare from the outset: I do not have a history of love for Lisa Mitchell. Mark Holden was obsessed with her on that talent show but I, myself, didn’t quite get it.

Post-Idol, however, that slowly began to change. Her first EP, Said One to the Other, was nice enough – yet it was 2008’s Welcome to the Afternoon that made my ears perk up, showing an interesting blend of post-country (“See You When Get Here”) and Weepies-inspired folk-pop (“Neopolitan Dreams”) that wouldn’t be out of place on a Bravia television advertisement.

2009 brings us Mitchell’s debut long-play – which, to my surprise, I found myself purchasing late one night. The record store clerk perhaps should have been my first clue as to what to expect – “oh, it’s very nice” she said, somewhat non-commitedly. Another musically-inclined friend should have been the second – “oh, it’s very sweet”.

After the first listen, it was tempting to write this album off entirely. Sure, it still had “Neopolitan Dreams” and the slightly off-kilt lead single “Coin Laundry”, but there was nothing immediately striking about the rest of the material. Pleasant? Yes. Melodic? Indeed. Earth-shattering? Pass me the Nutella.

By the third listen, my thoughts have changed somewhat. While still lacking anything as musically exciting as “See You When You Get Here”, Wonder does contain a number of nice moments. “Jealous” has the unexpected swagger of a young Sheryl Crow (with some nice harmonica action to boot) while “Clean White Love” wouldn’t be out of place on an Old Man River album.

It is the slower, self-penned “Love Letter” that reveals Mitchell to be a surprisingly strong, highly personal songwriter and emotive performer. “Inside an old house, by the seaside, you can take off my blouse, but take it from me; I’m disorderly and you’d be off better writing someone else your love letter ’cause I’m always on the road“. It sums up what is most surprising (and impressive) about this album – the unexpected warmth and honesty it radiates.

With Julia Stone seemingly on hiatus, Mitchell may have just established herself as the benchmark in fragile, Australian folk-pop. Maybe Mark Holden was right after all.

Find out more at Lisa’s official website.

Music Video Thursday: Kate Miller-Heidke – The Last Day On Earth

The best song from Kate Miller-Heidke’s ‘Curiouser’ album now has a lovely (if not slightly heartwrenching) video. Forget any Neighbours preconceptions: this song was brilliant long before Steph Scully cried a lot. The “in my head…” lyrical refrain is one of the best of the year, too.

She’s Always A Woman: My five most important female-fronted tracks.

I have been meaning to cast my vote in the Hottest 100 Women poll (on Twitter and Facebook) for some time now, yet, as expected, have been stuck in periods of intense deliberation. My love of female musicianship (particularly lyrically and vocally) is well known, so to narrow this list down to something tangible is quite the daunting task.

Inspired by Tim Dunlop’s ability do it, I have decided to bite the proverbial bullet.

The following list is by no means concrete, exhaustive or entirely representative of my musical soul. Rather, it is five songs that have shaped me and continue to define who I am as both a person and a music-lover.

Billie Holiday: Strange Fruit (1939)

One of the most painful, important songs ever sung. I don’t listen to this song very often – how you could, really.

Joni Mitchell – A Case Of You (1971)

Choosing my favourite track from ‘Blue’, an album which I consider the defining highpoint of Joni’s career (and of music in general), was never going to be easy. I’m still not sure I’ve got it right. Yet this song remains one of the most beautifully poignant, bittersweet love songs of our time.

This Mortal Coil – Song to the Siren (1983)

Perhaps one of the greatest cover songs of the last few decades, this Tim Buckley cover is a stunning, emotionally vibrant piece of music.

PJ Harvey and Thom Yorke – This Mess We’re In (2000)

More than anything else, this track – from PJ’s Stories from the City… album, sums up a mood and a moment in time from my young adult years. The OST to my coming of age.

Patty Griffin – When It Don’t Come Easy (2004)

My favourite song from my favourite singer-songwriter. The song that will one day be my wedding song.

(ignore the shoddy fan made video – just listen)

Song-of-the-year contender: La Roux – Bulletproof

“Big in the UK” but yet to make a major splash here in Australia, this is the clip for La Roux’s ‘Bulletproof’ – a glorious, 80s inspired pop cataclysm.

Manweek Wednesday: The Avett Brothers + Ray LaMontagne

In the spirit of #manweek today’s post brings two tracks from some of music’s finest (hirsute) singer-songwriters.

The Avett Brothers – Murder in the City

Ray LaMontagne - Crazy (yes, a Gnarls Barkley cover)

Find out more info about The Avett Brothers here - and introduce yourself to Ray here.

Sidnenote: Manweek is an initiative between ReachOut and youth radio station Triple J to get men to talk about male-centric issues. Find out more information here.