A Quick Tour Through My Year in New Music - part 3/4
Just these 5 albums, then I'm done for now. There will be a part 4 if I get more 2017 albums for christmas, or otherwise, any time soon.
Mastercastle - Wine of Heaven
We're going to Italy for some pretty uncomplicated, kind of romantic sounding old school heavy metal. I've been a pretty big fan of this band, to be honest.
This new album though... Disappointing to such an extent that I started to question whether I had been wrong about their past albums and that maybe this band just wasn't ever really that good?
I seem to still get into their previous albums, but I can see more clearly than ever where the limitations of this band lie.
Wine of Heaven lacks the strong songwriting they've exhibited earlier and the vocalist has never seemed so inadequate. There's just something oddly unappealing about the production too, but I can't pin it down. It just doesn't have the right kind of metal vibe to it.
Basically: Steer clear and listen to
any other Mastercastle album instead.
Sarah Slean - Metaphysics
Sarah Slean always drem comparisons to Tori Amos and in my book, that's no bad thing. She's typically been fairly musically diverse and had a flair for making some nicely full sounding songs - often with a sort of baroque flair to them.
2017 continues it's bad habit of making me feel let down, since this album is permeated by a dull adult-contemporary vibe through and through. I'm worrying that this might be the end of the line for miss Slean if she continues down this road. My experience has been that when once an artist goes soccer mom fodder, they don't come back again.
Basically: **** this album.
Tori Amos - Native Invader
I've written a full review of this album a little while back. It's amazing. Album of the year? No contest.
Basically: Tori at her best.
Vuur - In This Moment We Are Free: Cities
The biggest surprise of the year for me. I'm not even a fan of Anneke Van Giersbergen's previous bands or collaborations (notably, Devin Townsend), but the live performances I heard of songs from this album caught my attention in a big way.
Anneke's new band, Vuur, is essentially a very modern sounding metal band of some tough to nail down description, with her soaring vocals front and center.
The guitar riffing is a bit workmanlike, but as each song grew on me, I came to really love how everything plays together on this album. It is perhaps a bit too stylistically uniform across those 11 tracks, but with time, as every song has stuck in my head, my opinion of this album has grown several sizes.
Possibly the second best album of 2017, honestly. Allthough Crystal Viper and Depeche mode provide some strong competition.
Basically: I really hope this band becomes a long term thing. A very strong debut. If you're as into fully
sung vocals as I am, you need to check this album out.
Yasmine Hamdan - Al Jamilat
The second album from Lebanese pop/electronic/singer songwriter artist Yasmine Hamdan.
Al Jamilat is a gorgeous album, featuring an eclectic bunch of songs with lush production and a lot of interesting sonic details. Her voice is soft, but full of character and I love the way she combines her own language and some Lebanese musical influences with musical stylings that feel very modern and western.
I'm still fairly new to this album, but I really feel like it might just end up being one of the best of 2017, even after I've explored a lot deeper.
Basically: This album is something special. Put on your best headphones, stare out the window late at night and give it a chance. It's that sort of album.
2017 in summation: Some good albums for sure, but I'm not gonna lie; some of the albums I bought were pretty big disappointments. 2016 was a much stronger year in music for me, although I always believe that I've simply missed all the best stuff. 2017, like any year, will redeem itself with time.