The most useless lists for the week 22 aka the things I’ve loved during the week.
Top 5 Albums:
1. Iron & Wine: Around The Well
– I just bought it friday and started listening to it today, but I instantly fell in love with it. I’m a long time fan, but I didn’t rate his latest studio album Shepherd’s Dog as highly as the earlier ones. This rarities collection on the other hand is right up my alley. I would have bought it just because of The Trapeze Singer (eventhough I love the song, I never bothered to buy In Good Company soundtrack just because of it), but there’s a lot of treasures in here. This is the kind of Iron & Wine I love. All you need Sam is an acoustic guitar and your voice. Don’t let it grow too big. It’s this down-to-earth beauty and warmness that makes these carefully crafted songs reach our hearts. A bigger sound can destroy part of that magic.
2. Blue: S/T
– A stunning pop album from the seventies. I love it to bits and last.fm reveals that I listened to 197 Blue songs during the week.
3. Puumaja: Meriselityksiä
– Finally out and available and sounds excellent. Great to have those great songs like Täydelliset kasvot finally on an album.
4. Leevi & The Leavings: Suuteleminen Kielletty
– I picked up a few old albums from Anttila (shame on me that I bought from Anttila). I loved them when I was something like 10-15 years old. Had most of the albums on cassettes and I took songs like Sopivasti Lihava and Unelmia ja Toimistohommia to these levyraati things we had at ala-aste. Well actually the teacher didn’t let me play the latter one, because she remembered that the first one had some inappropriate lyrics. Anyway, nowadays I only had one collection on vinyl, so I thought I fill some holes and bought some of their early albums. Great stuff obviously.
5. Steve Earle: Townes
– I’m not into tribute albums, but this was too interesting to miss completely. Steve Earle covering his friend the late great Townes Van Zandt. I do think it’s a rather good album. Mostly because it contains some of the best songs ever written. The problem just is that Townes was so extraordinady talent and one of the greatest artists that ever lived that no-one can come even close to his original versions and therefore I really can’t see why I would pick this album from the shelf instead of those Townes Van Zandt masterpieces after the first few weeks. Still this is by no means a bad album and I hope it will forward people to the real things. By this I mean not just Townes Van Zandt’s albums, but also Steve Earle’s own music which is mostly great as well.
Top 5 Songs:
1. Blue: Look Around
2. Iron & Wine: The Trapeze Swinger
3. Blue: Timi’s Black Arrow
4. Puumaja: Täydelliset Kasvot
5. First Aid Kit: You’re Not Coming Home Tonight