Electronic - Electronic (1991)

Let's start a small tribute to Johnny Marr. It's not only that NME awarded him with the Godlike Genius award, hailing him as "not content with rewriting the history of music with one of the world's greatest ever bands, The Smiths, he's continued to push boundaries and evolve throughout his career, working with some of the best and most exciting artists on the planet." It's also that, after some decades as a band member in various projects or as a highly admired session musician, he's about to release his first solo album, "the Messenger". In the meanwhile Mojo's previous issue contained a brilliant cd with many of Marr's collaborations, which actually gave me the idea for this tribute; no Smiths albums should be expected though.

The first part of the tribute is about the group he formed with Bernard Sumner of the New Order. The offered upload is the group's first album release.

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Montrose - Montrose (1973)

Let's say goodbye to some of the artists that passed away withing 2012. Fist of all, we remember Ronnie Montrose an extremely talented guitarist, who, along with his band, gave us one of the best samples of 70's hard rock with the uploaded album; the band's line-up for this album consisted of a then-unknown Sammy Hagar on vocals.

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At The Drive In - Vaya (1999)

I need to expedite a little bit, since there are six more posts for 2012. This one is about the reunion of At The Drive In which is of course the reunion of the year (and for whoever will complain that this title belongs to the Stone Roses, read this older post). During their tour, they gave two shows for the Reading and Leeds festival. I wish I could be there for their return to the scene of the crime, but at least I still have some very vivid memories from their legendary show during the Carling weekend of 2000.

Now, I guess you all have the Relationship of Command lp, so I've chosen to upload Vaya instead, which I consider as their runner up best album.

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UB40 - Signing Off (1980)

This post is dedicated to the person of the year 2012. So, after the Time magazine here's the choice of the musictraveler. It's the person under the name Unemployed Anonymous. While I don't have a picture of his/ hers to show to you, we all know him/ her very well; he's/she's one of us, he's/she's us. It's him/ her that suddenly lost the ground beneath his/ her feat. It's him/ her that is now experiencing an extremely toxic work market where nobody is hiring people so he/she knows that the unemployment status will keep him/her company for a very long time. It's him/ her that faces many difficulties to find a daily meal for him/her and his/her family. It's him/ her that is depressed, shocked, ashamed, frustrated, low self-respected. It's him/ her that has lost his/ her hope that his/ her dreams have become a nightmare. It's him/ her that is only a number in the neo-liberal statistics (which number is growing rapidly and hits historic highs). 

The relevant upload is an album the covers of which are replicas of the UK's Unemployment Benefit (Form 40) attendance card. I chose this one, containing a heavy political agenda (and far away from the covers-of-famous-songs-using-polished-reggae style they followed some years later), although it competed very hard with the band's second album that contains the track One In Ten, a reference to the number of unemployed in the UK at that time; the song for my country should go something like "I am the 2.7 in ten..."

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Rapidshare problem is fixed

I just realised that from Jan. 15, it wasn't possible to download anything from rapidshare, unless the files were done public. So, there you go. Everything is available again. Enjoy!

Fionna Apple - When The Pawn... (1999)

You know, it's been some years now that all music magazines, websites, blogs etc. compete to present the earliest possible their list with the best albums of the year. This means that albums released during November and, moreover, December are not taken into account for these lists, while next year they are also not taken into account because they were released ... last year. If we continue like this the lists with the best albums will start being issued on August or something. Recently, Uncut presented a revised list with the best albums of 2011, and they tend to do so for 2012 as well. So, we could start reading the revised lists from all magazines; it would be an interesting year throughout if each month we would be reading about the revised list of 2004 or something. Moreover, this could be an opportunity to re-evaluate new "buried treasures" from the last decade, albums that were "criminally neglected" that nobody has ever heard of.
So, there I am. I'm proud to be the last one, worldwide, to present the album of the year, as chosen by this blog (i.e. by me). No, it's not because I'm a lazy sod sometimes, nor because I tend to skip my weekly update goal for good reasons such as to join just another children party. This was purely on the basis of (ehm) having enough time to listen to all the stockpiled albums and be absolutely sure for my final choice!
So, after this long prologue I'm declaring as album of the year the album with the great title (in terms of length as well...) "The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do", an adventurous recording, full of influences (from cabaret to Mellissa Etheridge) beautifully mixed together to create a unique result. Stephen Thomas Erlewine writes for allmusic: "Alone with her voice, piano, and percussionist Charley Drayton, Apple has nowhere to hide, nor does she give any indication she'd prefer to run. These spare but not skeletal arrangements -- each cut is subtly colored with harmonies, slight effects, overlapping rhythms, and additional keyboards -- never shift focus away from Fiona's magnetic vocals, the human element pulling us into these songs. (...) There are no singles here, nothing concise and concentrated to facilitate an easy sell. But that's not to say that The Idler Wheel is alienating. As elliptical as the melodies and words can be, the music is immediate and the songs unfold quickly, certain turns of phrase or thrilling runs swiftly seeping into the subconscious. Lacking either ornate production or a pop single, The Idler Wheel plays like Fiona Apple at her purest and that's plenty complicated: she takes no shortcuts or easy turns, her intent somewhat shrouded but never absent." I couldn't agree more.

The related upload was Fiona Apple's best album until her latest release, with the even greater title (again in terms of length) "When The Pawn Hits The Conflicts He Thinks Like A King What He Knows Throws The Blows When He Goes To The Fight And He'll Win The Whole Thing 'Fore He Enters The Ring There's No Body To Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won't Matter, Cuz You'll Know That You're Right". (The titles of Fiona Apple's albums could lead to a nervous breakdown the reviewer that was said by his/ her editor to write "a 200-word review").

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