3 Different Albums For Your Day (1)
I am always discovering new music, but recently I have been finding far too much for me to keep track of. A couple albums a day means some that I love can slip through and easily become forgotten in an ever-growing Spotify library. But, I don’t very much like the option of listening to fewer albums. So, I figured this would be a fun exercise for me to track some albums that have captured my attention in the past, allowing me to reflect upon them whilst also hopefully providing you with a good album to listen to. Anyway, here are three ‘different’ albums that you may never have heard of before.
I: Loane – Jamais Seule [2008]
Start your day off right with something fun. With Jamais Seuleyou get a brief sonic holiday around a dreamy Paris. Its traditional acoustic instrumentation captures the beauty and mystery that the City of Light is renowned for and makes each song naturally flow into the next for the ultimate daydream.
Loane’s debut album is a fantastic piece of French pop/folk that delivers song after song by hitting you with catchy hooks to (try and…) sing and dance along to. These are equally counter-balanced with slower songs that lure you into their mysterious world too. Every song can become yours, and it is up to you how much you seek to understand or leave unclear. It is an album that you can build upon your own meanings and significance. Thankfully, it is a great joy to listen to and is so very ‘French’ that whatever world you create, you will always find yourself walking down a Parisian boulevard.
Perhaps you had never listened to French music before, or even music of another language. Well, this is a great start, for there are endless amounts of beautiful music in every country to explore. Personally, I have just begun learning French and am slowly picking up pieces of lyrics I can understand, which is a great feeling. If you are learning a language, find an album you love and you can use the album as a tracker of your progress!
2: Shakey Graves – Shakey Graves And The Horse He Rode in On (Nobody ‘s Fool and The Donor Blues EP) [2017]
Your day is well underway now, and you sadly no longer have the time to get lost in a daydream of French cafes and mysterious romance. Well, here is something a bit more stripped back, but no less impressive.
Shakey Graves’s collection of two EPs from 2012 and 2014 respectively features sixteen fantastically crafted low fidelity songs, each unique in their own right. The first half of the album is often just a guitar and a drum supporting his understated voice. Each song uses the guitar in a melodic way that compliments his crafty lyrics, taking inspiration from in particular American folk and blues music. As the album progresses we see the use of more instruments that thicken up the body of the songs. Whilst I do think the best songs here are those primarily guitar focussed (biased guitar player?), these songs are equally as entertaining and make for an album that can rock in the background as you go about your day.
3: Grouper – Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill [2007]
After a long day of fantasizing about Paris and being backed by intricate guitar lines, you may need something to relax to. Grouper’s acclaimed album touches into an ethereal world lost in a haze that seems to slowly swirl and fluctuate in clarity. All the while, she extracts these small pop songs, which, simple in concept fill up this world of her own with melancholic expression. This is the perfect album with good headphones and closed eyes, lose yourself into a meditative state and take a sonic bath in what is one of the most relaxing albums I have ever enjoyed. I can promise that it will not disappoint.
Anyway, I hope if you had the chance to listen to any of these that you enjoyed them and that your day was equally as enjoyable too. Voila !
