Another mellow track, this time from Swedish singer Lykke Li. It is taken from her 2011 album Wounded Rhymes.
Lykke Li:
/RjK
Tag Archive for Europop
Daft Punk – Get Lucky ft. Pharrell Williams
I am sure you have heard this already but I can’t seem to escape it at the moment and it’s just so damn catchy. Daft Punk got game.
We’re up all night to get lucky…
Daft Punk:
/RjK
Björk – Joga
Linnea Olsson* – Dinosaur
An old friend was in Dublin over the weekend. Given that he is a fellow musical obsessive I wanted to take him to see a gig. I consulted The Nialler9 Gig Guide and spotted this lady was playing. When I read her description as a “Swedish fantasy-pop cellist” you might say I was rather intrigued.
Despite a healthy dose of skepticism on both our parts I have to say it was rather great. There was perhaps the largest difference between expectation and reality for any gig I can remember. She really brought it! One particular highlight was an excellent cover version of Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack.
Interesting video here, it has a little of Darwin Deez about it.
Linnea Olsson:
/RjK
*Artist #620
Björk – Unison (live at the Royal Opera House)
As I mentioned yesterday, I have been listening to lots of 90’s music recently. In the ‘Best of’ playlists I listen to and read Björk features prominently. While she did produce much great music in the 90’s it somehow doesn’t seem to fit with the other tracks. It just sounds so stark and futuristic. It is hard for me to process the fact that Play Dead was recorded before Girls and Boys.
This track is typical of what makes Björk so utterly great. If I was to try and summarise it I might suggest the depth of feeling and emotion along with the magnitude of imagination.
I don’t often find myself drawn to live versions of songs but, for a couple of reasons, I made an exception for this. I love the scale that setting together with the choir and orchestra gives this already epic track.
Bjork:
/RjK
The Knife – Pass this on
This summer, The Knife will tour for the first time in 7 years. And even then, they only ever toured once in that incarnation. I missed out on tickets for the London show this May, which would have been handiest for me as I live there, but managed to get tickets to see them in Berlin instead. It appears I’m going on holidays.
Anyway, ticket-bragging aside, I want to talk about Pass This On from their 2003 album Deep Cuts. This album became popular after Jose Gonzales covered its opening track Heartbeats and it was featured in a Sony ad. Their follow-up, 2006’s Silent Shout is one of the best albums of that decade.
What I like most about Pass This On is those calypso drums. They’re so mesmerising. The song is poppier than anything else The Knife have done and it would be easy to bop along to this without getting too deeply involved. The lyrics are on the playful side too – I’m in love with your brother/ What’s his name/ I thought I’d come by to see him again. There’s no escaping a dark undertone that always exists when Karin Dreijer sings and that lurks on the edges here.
I rediscovered this song a couple of years ago through Jamie XX’s BBC Radio 1 Mix, which I played relentlessly for months and features Pass This On mixed seamlessly with Jamie’s own Far Nearer. I rediscovered lots of tracks off the back of that mix actually, most of which deserve their own posts. In fact, that mix deserves its own post.
Over the years, I’ve been a fan of other tangential Knife projects, such as Olof Dreijer’s Oni Ayhun EPs. OAR003-B is a particularly enjoyable 10 minutes of minimal techno.
This post has veered off on many tangents, but I suppose that’s the nature of writing about The Knife. Everything they touch is gold.
/HC
Sigur Rós – Njosnavelin
I thought something mellow was in order to help cope with the jarring prospect of the first Monday morning of 2013. The ever-soothing sounds of Sigur Rós will do just the trick.
This is taken from their 2002 album ( ). There is a pretty apt video here too, which I take to be their native Iceland. Hopefully the combination will help ease the pain a little.
/RjK
27th December 2012
John Talabot* – When the past was present (NAT)
Barcelona DJ John Talabot isn’t someone I know a lot about but I have noted that he has been getting a lot of love in Best of 2012 lists that I have been reading in the past month or so. This prompted me to check out some of his stuff, particularly his album fIN from which this track is taken. Pretty enjoyable stuff.
/RjK
*Artist #583
12th November 2012
Todd Terje* – Inspector Norse (Helen Chandler guest post)
This is my favourite song at the moment. I’ve been listening to it intensely for about a month now, and when I say ‘intensely’, I mean at least twice a day.
I moved to London 3 weeks ago. It’s been exciting and frustrating and tiring and challenging. On the tube in the mornings, when my hair is stuck to my face with sweat and I’m trying to avoid eye contact with the person I’m almost nose to nose with, Inspector Norse’s tireless disco-esque beat still makes me smile. Properly smile. Like a crazy person on the tube.
The video is brilliant too. I love dancing, completely, so I look at the guy in the video (Inspector Norse himself) and I think ‘Yes, man. I know what you mean.’
/HC
*Artist #552
5th November 2012
Jaques Brel* – Jacky
This is the original, French version of a favourite track by Scott Walker which I posted last year. Both are breathless, manic and rather magnificent.
The reason I thought of it is that (don’t laugh) I have enrolled in a French class which I take after work once a week. Hopefully at some stage I will be able to understand what he singing about!
/RjK
*Artist #549