2007 has had some richly varied highlights, but for me the overarching constant was the level of quality from, without wanting to sound too Brit Awards about it, solo female artists. While some artists have outright disappointed (Alicia Keys, Kate Nash, Uffie) and others have yet to show their full potential (Candie Payne, Amanda Blank), these 30 women have made music that my iPod thumb keeps returning to. (I've linked to the myspace pages of a few of the less well known artists - give them all a once-over, you won't be disappointed).
30. Yelle – Irrepressible French cheese-pop chanting, but also soft naïve afternoon grooves.
29. Joanna Newsom – “Colleen” is the only new stuff released this year, but it mines a groove as deep as any funk queen.
28. Eve – “Tambourine” is a risky, brilliant track, and her fluoro-Versace look is awesome.
27. Duffy – Radio 2 incarnate, but some voices just cannot be denied. The Bernard Butler co-writing/producing avoids the cheese-layering production that sadly befell talented singers like James Morrison.
26. Rye Rye – Impenetrable Bmore b-girl stances from a girl who knows how good she is.
25. Alena Diane – Sandstone folk torch songs a world away from pell-mell modernity.
24. Robyn – “With Every Heartbeat” looked like it might not get picked up by the mainstream, and then suddenly it was Number 1. Anything less would have been criminal.
23. Amerie – She’s plainly got the funk up inside her, and you can still hear her hunger.
22. Hanne Hukkelberg – 2nd essential album in two years. A truly unique talent.
21. Tiffany Evans – American Idol reject comes good on the overlooked Timbaland jam of the year below.
mp3: Tiffany Evans - Girl Gone Wild
20. Bjork – Volta may not be my personal favourite of her records, but she is still operating outside her comfort zone as ever.
19. Gwen Stefani – “The Sweet Escape” unforgettably uplifting pop, and the “Now That You Got It” remix was equally insidious sunshine.
18. Stacy Epps – Warm but coughing soulful hip-hop. Check out her verse over one of the best beats of the year below.
mp3: Shape Of Broad Minds - They Don't Know (feat. Stacy Epps)
17. Sharon Jones – Hell hath no fury...
16. Santogold – Effortlessly straddles Switchy squelch-garage and 80’s powerpop.
15. Adele – Going to own 2008. Takes the bruised soul of Amy Winehouse and nurses it back to health; takes the quirks of Regina Spektor and makes them guileless.
14. Julianna Barwick – Hypnotic sylvan loops. Ragas for hissing summer lawns.
mp3: Julianna Barwick - Dancing With Friends
13. Janelle Monaé – Great guest spots on Outkast’s Idlewild, even better on this space-pop classic. A big tip for next year.
mp3: Janelle Monaé - Violet Stars Happy Hunting!
12. Kid Sister – Another one who could go stratospheric. Like Rye Rye she has that ridiculous flow that doesn't show off but just calmly announces its own brilliance.
11. Leona Lewis - Holy shit:
10. Bat For Lashes – Eventually made it this year despite some rather half-hearted promotion from her record company.
9. Tracy Thorn – Her album had the kind of production that tips its cap at the 80’s without pastiche. Metro Area, Ewan Pearson et al go to town with that timeless voice.
mp3: Tracy Thorn - It's All True (Escort extended remix)
8. Feist – Breezy afternoon picnic-radio music.
7. Amy Winehouse – A modern icon. Roll on the Grammys.
6. Roisin Murphy - Classic house and pop sung by unglazed porcelain. Kylie is jealous.
5. Alice Smith – Will her album For The Lovers, Dreamers And Me ever get a UK release? Subtly modern, blatantly sensual.
mp3: Alice Smith - Dream
4. Rihanna – Her album has some high points, but come on, she's here for “Umbrella”. Instantly memorable and still endlessly involving.
3. Kathy Diamond – Her Miss Diamond To You will go down as one of the all-time great lost records. Insane shimmering disco production from Maurice Fulton.
mp3: Kathy Diamond - All Woman
2. M.I.A. – Absolutely attuned to phonetics as all great rappers should be, and a fantastic producer.
1. Ciara – Her album is underrated, she can dance better than any other R'n'B starlet, but she's at the top for “Promise”, perhaps my most listened-to track this year, and the greatest R’n’B slow jam ever recorded. Amazing precise delivery, transcendent production, a furlined future-caramel masterpiece.
mp3: Ciara - Promise
In the space of a couple of months, I've watched Fuck Buttons go from a duo with a support slot in a dingy upstairs room at the edge of Manchester's curry mile, without a proper website or any releases to speak of, to being blogged every three days, signing to ATP Recordings, releasing a dinky little 7" picture disc at Rough Trade and finally, last week - giving up their day jobs. They also premiered the video to "Bright Tomorrow" on Pitchfork a week or two ago.
In Manchester, they used a table in the centre of the standing space to construct an inspiring set up of wires, satin lined suitcases, pocket-sized casios and a fisher-price tape recorder. They sound gloriously noisy, colourful and excited. From the confusion of wires, samplers, keyboards and laptop erupt fireworks; bright infusions of cyclic melody disrupt the brash, gloopy haze of feedback and white noise. Vocals are channelled through the Fisher-price contraption, wedged in the jaws of Benjamin John Power as his screams are distorted into wide grimacing squawks.
I believe they are a band to see live, after nearly standing too close to the table in Manchester, frozen to the spot from fear and excitement, I can't imagine it being batter in any other medium. In headphones - crank it up and have somewhere to be - altered states induced at night. they have signed up for ATPvsPitchfork and will no doubt crop up around the country again soon. check their myspace for dates.
"Bright Tomorrow" works the frequencies, sonic heartbeats charged, synths stuck in a glitch, harmonious keyboard melodies that slide amongst the wreckage of electronic abuse and twisted wires strewn about, fuelling the vocal screech, the metallic strain to hit the build; the hard, fast peak of aural bliss.
Note: only two Fuck Buttons tracks have been officially released, so its feels a little cheeky to post their entire back catalogue in one fell swoop. Buy the 7", or better still: support them live.
Words like "transcendent" and "sublime" get bandied about a great deal in music journalism, but Jen and I were lucky enough to see something recently that we both agreed merited both words - Norwegian accordianist Frode Haltli performing his recent album Passing Images, the concert which closed this year's Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
The record is a series of traditional Nordic folk songs reinterpreted in a contemporary way alongside Haltli's own compositions. Playing on the record and with him in Huddersfield were singer/vocalist Maya Ratkje, viola player Garth Knox and trumpeter (and PIAIL fave) Arve Henriksen.
Knox ranged from sudden dramatic swathes to near-inaudible high-tensile rapture; Ratkje, as well as providing effortlessly soaring passages, contributed an astonishing range of clicks, whistles and ululations to evoke an organic, outdoor sound-world.
Henriksen is simply perfect here. Not only does he make having sloping shoulders look cool (jealous), his own interests – the natural world, acknowledging heritage alongside sonic envelope-pushing – match those of Haltli. His signature sound, a kind of freeze-dried Don Cherry, dovetailed precisely with the coolly alive physicality of this music. But his instrument burst towards other poles, from 808-like robotics on “Lude” to the warmly brash Miles Davis of “Vandring”.
As for Haltli, he wrings every possible sound from his accordion, from piercingly blank high-end to convulsing mumbling; from doom-laden drones to hymnal beauty. The sight of an accordion being played with such sensitivity is mesmerising, the impossible full length of it exposed like a conjurer’s trick, its crenelated curves like some strange Scandinavian mollusc.
The inexorability of its ebb and flow is the perfect visual complement for his work, which folds in every drip of snowmelt and rustle of pine, every faded footprint and half-remembered melody, before unfurling it all in a thrillingly fresh way and yet still on its own terms. This concert was uplifting in a way that only the most wondrous natural sights can usually create – this is music that moves with the logic of starlings, with the half-life of sunset.
Here's a couple of tracks from the record, which has shot straight to the upper echelons of my year's best list:
Frode Haltli - Vandring (alternative ZShare link)
Frode Haltli - Jag Haver Ingen Karare (alternative ZShare link)