Sacred Horse

My first runner up as favorite album was the new album by Enslaved, simply named E. Progressive metal seems to be the genre they fall under, but the genre is less important to me than the quality of the music, and to me, it is simply outstanding. I have played the opening track, Storm Son, before, but my favorite track after many a listen is Sacred Horse. New keyboard player Håkon Vinje gets a workout that moves my mind in the direction of the late, great Jon Lord on this track, and it really shows how well he fits in with the rest of the band.

Enslaved is a band that mixes clean vocals (also Vinje's duty now) with the growls of Grutle Kjellson (bass/vocals) - and the growls are very unique. Grutle's style is very harsh and not deep enough to be the more traditional Cookie Monster sound, but on E, they fit better than ever. The only other original member is Ivar Bjørnson (guitar and backing vocals), while lead guitarist Terje "Ice Dale" Isdal has been with them since 2002 and drummer Cato Bekkevold has been with them since 2003. Enslaved of 2017 sounds very different from the band that recorded and released Vikingr Veldi in 1994. I love their evolution. I became aware of them with the album Ruun in 2006, and their ability to add in soundscapes and melody in addition to building and building and building on a riff (as heard on today's song) makes them uncannily heavy hitters. Today's song, Sacred Horse is a tour de force of everything I like about them. Enjoy!

In Every Dream House (There's A Dream Of Something Else)

OK, so I lied. Kinda. But not quite. I couldn't do a top 5, so I was going to do top 6. Then I realized I definitely had a top 7. And now, here I am with what looks like a top 10. Three more albums could make it a Baker's Dozen, so why not? So... Without further ado, here are my 13 favorite albums of 2017. They are not necessarily the best albums, like I said before, but they are indeed my favorite albums:

1. Motorpsycho - The Tower
2. Enslaved - E
3. Pallbearer - Heartless
4. Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
5. Chris Stapleton - From A Room Volume 2
6. Steven Wilson - To The Bone
7. Tyminski - Southern Gothic
8. Robert Plant - Carry Fire
9. Roger Waters - Is This The Life We Really Want
10. The Dream Syndicate - How Did I Find Myself Here
11. Ed Sheeran - ÷
12. Primus - The Desaturating Seven
13. Mike Oldfield - Return To Ommadawn

And then there is the other caveat I have: the albums of numbers 2-13 aren't necessarily interchangeable, but they change from day to day. 

BUT - the main thing for me is that Motorpsycho with The Tower once more delivered a great album. It is an album that has been on heavy rotation for me over a long period of time this year. It is their first with drummer Thomas Järmyr - and, contrary to the last time they lost a drummer and decided to release a double album, this is one heck of an album. I think the fact that they did get their drummer aboard before recording it has something to do with it - but for me, that is just pure speculation. However, it does seem like Bent Sæther (bass/vocals) and Hans Magnus Ryan (guitar/vocals) need to play off a live drummer in order to get things to groove properly - and this album grooves big time.  Especially on the track In Every Dream House (There's A Dream of Something Else). The Tower is my favorite album of 2017.

Rakkauta Al Dente

So I am still not quite ready with my list of my six favorite albums from 2017... My problem is that I wanted to make it a top 5, but I end up with 6 and I can’t seem to cut it down further - so I am punting again... One of the more overlooked albums came from the Finnish band Circle. I have been aware of them for a little while, but I haven’t been following them closely. However, I did pick up Terminal, their latest album from 2017 - and to me it is a bubbler. The opening track, Rakkauta Al Dente, is a hypnotic song, with a riff building and building. The vocals start out screaming, but they also change. I love this song, and the album is strong - but not quite in my top ten for 2017.

Feel It Still

OK, so I really don't know too much about this band. They came out of the blue with a song that I simply can't get enough of. Portugal. The Man. Great band name. And to me, they delivered 2017's song of the year - which is a great excuse for me to postpone my favorite albums of 2017 yet one more day... The song is pretty simple, and when I read that the singer was inspired by the classic Please Mr. Postman it made all too much sense. It is timeless, yet original, and it's played by what looks like a band of nerds. I have started listening to Woodstock, which is the album the song is from, and it is interesting and original. I know that I will be exploring this band over the course of the new year, but for now, I will enjoy their great 2017 single Feel It Still - although I found a stripped down version of it to share...

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Take 9)

My favorite record release of 2017 was released in 1967. I really can't describe how exciting the super deluxe boxset of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band by The Beatles is for someone like me. Let's start with the box set. It has the music (more about that in a bit), a big, thick book about the album, the cover, the road there, and the songs (and pictures of the handwritten lyric sheets), cutouts of insignia and mustaches to make your own Sgt. Pepper uniform, a replica of the Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite poster (this one is truly exciting, as you can look at it and find where John Lennon got the inspiration for his song), and a record store promotional poster replica. All really neat stuff...

Then there is the music. The 2017 mix is spectacular, and having the mono mix is nice, but... The earlier takes, listening to how they built the songs and tried things out. Feeling like you are listening in to parts of their creative process. Wow. Just wow. I am a lucky man, as Christine, my lovely girlfriend, knew how badly I had wanted this since its release and got it for me for Christmas. Getting both the girl and the music is a nice little perk, I must say...

So today, I will celebrate this release. One of the earlier takes of a song I like from this box set is the title track, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This is take 9, and you can hear more of the raucous guitar in here. I love this song, I love this album, I love this box set - and I love my Christine.

Bastards

I had some eye-opening moments this last year musically speaking. I am thoroughly enjoying Ed Sheeran and find his latest album ÷ to be a joy to listen to. Rag'n'Bone Man released Human, which is a great song, but the album wasn't quite that great (still good, though, by all means). But the biggest surprise for me was Kesha's album Rainbow. I have gained massive respect for her as an artist. She has grown up a lot, it seems, as this album is not dominated by the party anthem (although Woman is a ton of fun). I have already played Praying, so today I will play the acoustic opener, Bastards, which really sets the right tone for the album. I am so glad I decided to really listen to her this time around, because this is good stuff.

Lights Of Home

So I am back again after an extended winter break. Yesterday was a teaser, but now it's time to summarize 2017 for me musically. I have all sorts of good ideas, but before I start with what I will call the musical missteps (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly), I just thought I'd mention that I have abandoned the dating part of the titles - the dates for the posts are already listed anyway, so I thought I'd make it simpler on myself. Nothing wrong with that. And, I will try to post as often as possible, but I make no guarantees of frequency.

BUT, I have thoughts about 2017. Let me first acknowledge that the world is still around despite DJT's best attempts to change that. And then let me acknowledge that as much as I think I should be an absolute authority on music and that my word goes, there is no way I can make a claim to the best recordings of any year or time - but I can list the favorites I heard (and/or purchased) over the course of the year. And so I will start with a trio of records I had great expectations to, but that simply fell so flat that I barely listened to them more than once - if I even got that far. I am naming this segment after the classic spaghetti western featuring Clint Eastwood: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

First off: The Good. U2's album Songs of Experience. I am actually liking the lyrics on this album. But the music... It leaves a lot to be desired. For instance, the single, You're The Best Thing About Me, really sounds like a bad Coldplay song - like one of the Coldplay songs where they try too hard to sound like U2. And the melody lines are way too predictable all the way through - with the stadium rock choruses. I know, for a lot of people it is safe U2, but to me it just sounds fake. It sounds like U2 is trying to sell us an album filled with fake plastic trees (and I am not talking the Radiohead song here, as that is a great old song). They are becoming the old people trying to dress young to still be cool. I want a good balls out rock'n'roll album - and their last one, Songs of Innocence, could have been that album, which became clear to me when I watched the songs performed live at the Paris concert. Songs of Experience isn't horrible - although it is a stretch to call it The Good - but the gimmick was too hard to resist.

Then there is The Bad. Queens Of The Stoneage decided to hire a "hip" producer and make their music danceable. Mark Ronson made Villains a shitty album. Or maybe Josh Homme did it himself and needed someone to rubberstamp the crap. After all, they have been very up and down in their releases, at least as far as my taste is concerned. But with Villains, they really hit a new low for me. I just don't like the songs. I don't like them trying to be dancey. ...Like Clockwork was such a return to form for me that Villains is an even bigger letdown than it needed to be. I can't listen to it. It's just a matter of opinion, and I get that, but this was bad to me.

And then... The Ugly. Beck. I can't stand his new album. Colors. He spent a lot of time to "get everything right." WRONG. I can't say anything else about it. I can't listen to it. It is everything that is wrong with pop music wrapped into one album. And I used to love Beck.

Of course, there were worse albums than these three released this year. At least I assume so. I just haven't bothered listening to those albums. But U2, Queens of the Stone Age, and Beck have all released some great albums and songs - and so to me, they were the three biggest disappointments of 2017. Because I wanted and expected more. But at least Songs of Experience by U2 functions as muzak. And the song Lights Of Home really touched me for some silly reason (and there were other songs that did as well). So I think I can share that one. And then maybe tomorrow we can look at some positive surprises as well...

MLK

Today is Martin Luther King day here in the US. Back in 1984, U2 released the album The Unforgettable Fire, which featured two songs about Martin Luther King Jr: Pride (In The Name Of Love) and MLK. Pride (In The Name Of Love) shouldn't need any introduction, as it really was the song that lifted them from a well-known band to beginnings of the superstardom that was cemented with the later album The Joshua Tree. The song MLK, however, is quite different. Where Pride is rousing and exhilarating, MLK is contemplative and meditative. Pride is almost a call to action, while MLK is a call to reflection. And I feel reflective, contemplative, and meditative today...

2017 - December 11 - Painkiller

Some songs need no words, but simply speak for themselves. This is one of them. This is Judas Priest. This is the Painkiller.

2017 - December 8 - A World Without Heroes (Fallen Heroes edition)

So as I return following the Heroes week, it's time to consider some fallen heroes...

December 8, 1980, was the day I experienced the first loss of a hero of mine. Mark David Chapman was waiting for John Lennon outside the Dakota building in New York and shot him. Back then, he was more a hero because he had been a member of The Beatles - but I still remember it well. As I grew older, I was drawn to his idealism. Often written off as naïve, but everything I read and see about him makes me believe he was genuine. Of course, he was a complex individual with flaws that often were masked - or maybe simply overlooked - by those of us who were unadulterated fans; for instance, it is easy to give him credit for retreating from music to be a father to Sean Ono Lennon, while at the same time forgetting that he had a very complex (to put it mildly) relationship to his first wife, Cynthia, and his son from that marriage, Julian.

And today, this sentiment of flawed heroes is getting incredibly relevant again. It was easy for me to condemn Donald Trump and Roy Moore based on allegations of sexual misconduct, but it was very difficult for me to do the same for Al Franken, who is someone I have followed for a long time after finding him on SNL reruns. As a matter of fact, on the day my oldest daughter, Emma, was born, I was reading Rush Limbaugh Is A Big, Fat, Idiot by Al Franken. So when Franken was elected senator from Minnesota in 2008, the same year Barack Obama was elected president, I was excited - but not as excited as I have been following his career in the Senate. I have found him to be a most excellent voice for more progressive values, values that I share with him. Except that he now has a tail of women accusing him of inappropriate behavior. And I cannot overlook it.

Of course, I could hide behind the fact that all he is accused of while in the Senate are simply allegations, the number of women telling similar stories is too big to ignore - it does point to a trend. I do believe in the tenet of "trust, but verify" - and to me, the volume of complaints along with an acknowledgment on his behalf of what he did prior to becoming a senator, serves as a verification of a core of veracity in their allegations. And finally, I cannot separate between what he did prior to becoming a senator and after becoming a senator, simply because I don't apply that standard to others (the aforementioned Trump and Moore). And I try to avoid double standards as much as I can.

So I was relieved to hear that Al Franken is resigning from the Senate. I will miss the Al Franken I had grown incredibly fond of as a Senator and political voice. The one who in public stood up for us all. But I am glad that he is resigning. Integrity is to me the most important asset of an elected representative, and Al Franken has lost the sheen of integrity with me. I could say the same about another political hero of mine, John Conyers, who also is stepping down for similar reasons. And so I understand how difficult it is to give up on someone you otherwise believe in because of what can be considered a moral flaw. But I am doing it.

I do agree with Al Franken, though, that it is ironic that he is stepping down while an admitted sexual predator is occupying the White House and an alleged pedophile is supported by his party to ascend to the Senate. It does seem like sexual misconduct is a prerequisite for office representing the Republican Party these days - and it really sickens me. To me it is pretty simple: If you cannot respect the people you work with or women in general (never mind laws like age of consent - or even the simple principle of consent), how can we expect you to respect the people you represent?

And then we have Kiss. Talk about fallen heroes. From 1980 to about 1984, the only band I listened to was Kiss. And the first LP I ever got that I picked out myself (I wish I could say that I bought it myself as well, but I asked my parents to buy it for me), was (Music From) The Elder by Kiss. I found it in a discount bin at KBS, a grocery/department store with a formidable deli right across the street from my elementary school. I worshipped Kiss. My walls were covered by pictures and posters, all of Kiss, and I had build a stage with a drum set and drum riser in Lego for Playmobil figures serving as the members of Kiss. But it was always about the music for me. My first real big concert was seeing Kiss in Skedsmohallen in 1988 on the Crazy Nights tour. I loved it. They put on a great show and played really well.

And I thought they were in it for the money as well. But then MTV Unplugged happened. The Unplugged show was great, showing six former and current members playing together, but Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley started to see dollar signs reappearing after commercial decline. A reunion tour with full makeup and Ace Frehley and Peter Criss back in the fold  was planned, while Eric Singer and Bruce Kulick, who had kept Kiss alive were discarded. My illusions started shattering, then they were completely shattered by the autobiographies of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. Their narcissism shows no end, and their stories shows how much Kiss always was a business venture more than anything for them. Now, don't get me wrong - there is nothing wrong in seeing business in your music, but I believe in music as art first and commodity second - and not just a commodity. And if you want to tie sexual misconduct and misogyny to Kiss, seek out a written transcript of Terry Gross of Fresh Air on NPR (she is by far the best interviewer on the planet) interviewing Gene Simmons. Talk about your fallen heroes. Yet we do need them - and so, bridging my first Kiss album with MTV Unplugged, which is where it started going south for me, here is A World Without Heroes, originally found on (Music From) The Elder, as it was performed on MTV Unplugged.