I - know you're married but i've got feelings too, martha wainwright (2008)

daughter of loudon wainwright iii and younger sister of rufus, martha was surely always destined to be something of a musical genius. i own her first two releases (this and 2005's self-titled album) and was thrilled to see that the quebec native has also recently released "sans fusils, ni souliers, a paris" a tribute to edith piaf, recorded live in paris. i look forward to hearing it; what a lovely combination that will be.

this particular album is my ultimate catharsis album, so it was perfect timing for this morning after a couple of very stressful, grumpy, frustrated and ultimately sad days. it starts with martha's haunting, portentous voice. no matter what this woman was singing she could make it sound achingly beautiful. combine that with her desperately emotional lyrics ("you got a girlfriend and i can only talk about her / for so very long / then the mind turns into my heart and whispers / into the dark cave that i've been wrong / my heart was made / for bleeding all over you / and i know you're married but i've got feelings too / and i still love you"..... yea, you get the picture, somewhere along the line it seems someone done gone and smashed poor martha's heart...) it's topped off by well-written, wistful and complementary music - the forlorn cello, wailing electric guitars (contributed, in this instance, by the who's pete townshend) and there you have an album of pure beautiful anguish.

far from a couple of "obviously sad" tracks, it's am entire album chock full of poignant despair. martha, like her brother and father, is an excellent songwriter, using her medium to tell a meaningful story, full of depth and texture. this is the kind of album that grabs you inside and kind of twists things around a bit. it's wrenching and agonising and breathtakingly emotional - but at the same time it contains elements of optimism. "you cheated me" is a jaunty, almost pop song, with fresh-sounding acoustic guitar, mischevious lyrics, and notes of genuine cheekiness.  but martha's often cheerful melodies and striking vocal harmonies bring a lighter note to the album. and for all of the insecurity that comes through in some of the songs, martha clearly also displays strength - not just vocally, but intellectually and creatively. plus she does an exceptional cover of pink floyd's "see emily play".

as a listener, it's totally and completely self-indulgent - the kind of album you listen to when you need to a release and then almost feel a bit silly for getting so emotionally involved in it. i normally feel better after six or seven tracks. this morning i listened to the whole album, then repeated the first two songs.

H - heavenly pop hits, the chills (1995)

both born in dunedin in the '80s, the chills and i grew up together. or, more like, i grew up with them. because of this, they hold a special place in my heart and always have. may i one day have the privilege of seeing them live....

the chills grew out of the post-punk era, one of a number of bands in dunedin embracing the unconventional nature of punk, but growing those elements into a more mature, more technically talented sound. someone who can frame it much better than me, wade ronald churton in 'have you checked the children' (a book i read religiously as a teenager and which i thoroughly recommend to anyone with an interest in the new zealand punk and post-punk scene of the late-70s and early 80s) writes: "at a time when the echoes of punk were fading in a haze of violence and mutation elsewhere, in dunedin the ethics of punk and the character of the city had produced a fertile pool of musicians and songwriters which had ignored fleeting trends. in time, the fermentation in isolation of the city's punk-influenced alternative music would go on to produce a genuinely rich and influential indigenous new zealand movement."

...and so was born the dunedin sound. you can shun the dunedin sound all you want, but the point stands that dunedin is and long has been an incubator for talent, for creating music that doesn't conform to a particular trend, and that sounds different to that created in bigger centres. but I digress.

there was a time were the chills - and especially 'heavenly pop hit' were my happy place. so familiar, so all-encompassing and perfect, full of heart and soul, and the best intentions. like the warm hug of a best friend really. this is an album full of classics - kaleidoskope world, i love my leather jacket, pink frost, wet blanket, doledrums, never never go, to name but a few of my many, many favourites - that never fails to buoy my spirits. maybe it's a dunedin thing, maybe it's a familiarity thing, but listening to the chills is like coming home.

G - the gulag orkestar, beirut (2006)

it's taken me three days to get around to blogging about this album, because i'm still not entirely sure how i feel about it. unconventionally, i've listened to it in addition to other albums for the past 3 mornings in a row, trying to come to terms with what it delivers and how i receive it.

on morning one, i wasn't convinced by it. i distinctly recalled the notion that it was very similar to my first reaction to david byrne (now one of my favourites) i knew it was technically clever, but i just didn't get it. i thought it was a bit obvious - it reminded me of some bad movie soundtrack where our intrepid protagonist ventures into deep mysterious places of the unknown, totally condescending the listener or fictional viewer("look, we're in the east... they do things different here"). in fairness, i was in a pretty foul mood that morning of the first listen.

subsequent listens - and more considered thought - have revealed a different side. the comparison to david byrne is unavoidable to me, right down to the extent that i think zach condon's voice actually sounds very similar to byrne's in parts. but also in the "borrowing" from world music. beirut do it more obviously, but also in a more comprehensive, unified way. the album is fuelled by clear eastern european influences dominated by horns, jangly polka, wicked accordians, and eccentric strummed instruments (any number of them....) i think perhaps my initial feeling of being patronised was based on the fact that i really adore eastern europe and the balkans - areas that this album inextricably links itself to - and it seemed a bit of a "once over lightly" on an area so full of cultural, historical and musical depth.

that said, it's full of great, slightly eccentric sounds, and is a really good listen. like sufjan stevens, and david byrne before him, it's a slightly strange sound, but an intelligent one that has really grown on me.

F - the fame, lady gaga (2008)

f seems to be a popular letter - too many artists to choose from about a month ago, and ohhh so many albums to choose from this morning. i might even repeat f again tomorrow, since there are so many little treasures of musical goodness just sitting in there. but this morning, there was really only one choice: gaga's "the fame." oh yea, i went there, and i went there good.

once again, i confess being a latecomer to gaga fandom. i remember the exact moment i realised i loved gaga: sweating in a club in the middle of port moresby with my best friend (i don't think this was the kind of field work the ethnomusicologist had in mind, but there ya go.) you know an artist has transcended all kinds of boundaries when you hear 'pokerface' in the middle of papua new guinea.

i appreciate lady gaga not necessarily for her music - which can claim partial responsibility for my reintroduction to the world of pop, no small feat - but also for who she is(n't). clearly, lady gaga is an image, a character, a figure, as much as a singer. various articles rage as to the authenticity of lady gaga as both a musician and a personality. i confess not having enough of a background in pop to really refute some of the claims made e.g. gaga "stealing" from madonna, but it seems to me that musicians are always influenced by a range of sources - and to my mind gaga has used various influences to create a sound of her own. i'm satisfied enough that lady gaga really can sing (witness the stripped back vocals at the start of "again again"), and that she writes (yep) good songs. a quick look at any of her videos will confirm that she can dance, and reviews indicate epic live shows. so yea, musically i'm satisfied.

i'm more interested in the debate on gaga's personality, and i guess from a quasi-feminist perspective.

there can be little doubt camille paglia is correct in saying "lady gaga is a manufactured personality" but surely paglia must work harder than that to prove that a manufactured personality is a bad thing in and of itself. i fail to see a distinction between gaga and, for example, bart simpson, another icon who embodies a certain set of characteristics (albeit with much more limited reach). essentially, gaga is a character like any other, she just has greater reach, and unlike other (human) celebrities, appears to remain constantly in character (witness 'paparazzi'). i don't really see the issue with this. but what further infuriates me about paglia's attack on lady gaga is the argument that gaga isn't sexy, and therefore she can not be a generational icon: and this coming from a so-called feminist. what bollocks. to me the refreshing thing about lady gaga's boundary-pushing is precisely that: she's a bit off the wall, a bit weird looking, and yea, not what we'd traditionally define as sexy. but wait, maybe that's precisely why so many people identify with her. as alex needham argues in response to paglia, part of gaga's iconic appeal is that she's not selling sex - she's selling kookiness. and, well.... music.

so yes, paglia is quite right that gaga is a construct, but i fail to see what's wrong with that. i like the perfect irony of "the fame" as an album critiquing the ease with which anyone can achieve fame, but the fact that no one really cares who the artist stefanie whatsherface is, they know the character lady gaga. the anonomity that the individual playing the character of lady gaga somehow seems to retain in the face of international superstardom like we have never seen before fascinates and astounds me.

in the end, i'm not really saying anything new here, and all i can really come up with is "so what"? gaga is a construct that people, for whatever reason, identify with. and perhaps my experience of seeing her being adored in png really says something: the fact that lady gaga ranked seventh on forbes' list of one hundred most powerful women - rated for their ability to influence - illustrates just how global her reach is.

plus, she's got a good voice and makes music that makes me smile.

E - the el dorado e.p, anji sami (2006) and employment, kaiser chiefs (2005)

the el dorado e.p. is one of my favourites. i'm a committed sami fan (both of anji's solo work, and with her sisters as a trio). this softly country-tinged e.p. features jaunty drums, wistful slide guitar, clever, heartfelt lyrics and that haunting, distinctive anji sami voice. secretly my favourite of the sisters, anji has a knack for well-composed, intelligent songs with real emotion to boot.

i was surprised (and frankly, a little bit cross) to read a review critiquing this album as "fragile" - i see it as nothing of the sort. i know it's naughty to do so, but compared to hannah howes' offerings on 'candy', the el dorado e.p is streets ahead in confidence, in song structure, and in identity as an artist. and it's a debut e.p. it's by no means perfect - in fact part of the beauty of the e.p. is the honesty in its flaws (such as a slightly out of time guitar strum at the beginning of one of the songs), but it showcases sami's intelligent songwriting, clever use of harmonies, and rich voice.

i am one of the fifteen people desperately awaiting the sami sisters' debut album and my only complaint with anji is that she's not exactly what we might call prolific. the upside of that is that she creates beautiful, clever music; music to be taken seriously.

i first encountered kaiser chiefs in late 2005 / early 2006, during that excellent winter of british-style indie pop. think kaiser chiefs, hard-fi, franz ferdinand (in the 'you could have it so much better' era, such a good
album), and yes, the killers circa hot fuss. i was living in europe and that indie britpop style underwent a total revolution that winter - we used to go to particular bars every wednesday and thursday for their "indie nights", we wore skinny jeans and chucks, we listened to morrissey, and yea, we were totally too cool for school. but it was 2006, and we rocked it.

i still listen to employment occasionally. "every day i love you less and less" is a great song for running - it's got a great beat and harsh motivating lyrics. when i was student president i (oh so wittily) had the deliciously chav-ish "i predict a riot" as my cellphone ringtone - and i still can't quite hear the beginning of that song without immediately putting myself in media-mode. the album maintains the effusive energy of its opening two tracks throughout, and the exuberance is contagious. it's a high-energy album, and takes a lot of energy to listen to as well - something that worked out well for me on a monday morning walk to work, but that sometimes makes it difficult to maintain an interest right throughout the album.

D - dear catastophe waitress, belle and sebastian (2003)

i was a latecomer to belle and sebastian fandom, by virtue of the appearance of 'piazza, new york catcher' on the juno soundtrack. at face value an airy, cheerful song, with a restrained and delicate lyrical treatment on questions of love and confusion, the song attracted me. belle and sebastian seem to have a knack for taking sometimes complex, clever lyrics and making them fit. like almost everything about the juno soundtrack (perhaps the source of a separate entry at some later stage) the quirkiness of the song attracted me and more listening was clearly needed; the rest, as they say, is history, and i became a belle and sebastian convert.

this album combines aspects of twee '70s rock n roll (embodied in the upbeat, sugary sweet "if she wants me"), with idiosyncratic, cacophonic orchestral elements (such as throughout the title track). i like belle and sebastian's traditionally unconventional approach (can something be traditional and unconventional? i mean that traditionally b&s are unconventional) although i think this album is one of their more accessible. it's whimsical, unfalteringly happy (even when dealing with complex questions lyrically), and because of that one reviewer rates it as "the belle and sebastian album for people who never really liked belle and sebastian".

although i confess not having been a die-hard fan since their establishment, i do think our above reviewer is taking too hardline a viewpoint. i own two other b&s albums: the band's first album, the stripped-back, almost melancholic "tigermilk" (1996) and 2006's much more commercial effort, "the life pursuit". and i like these variants on the belle and sebastian sound as much as "dear catastophe waitress". to co-opt a b&s lyric ('you don't send me') "i'm a little bored" with reviewers who argue that a band's albums all need to sound the same. belle and sebastian have done what i think many bands struggle to do - matured, refined, and developed musically, while retaining their own unique sound. perhaps much of this can be credited to stuart murdoch's consistently charming voice and captivatingly complex lyrics. either way, i think it's interesting that 'juno' also features 'expectations' from "tigermilk" and the two tie together seamlessly.

i'm happy to stand behind dear catastrophe waitress as a refreshing little album, bubblegum and all. and i do really like belle and sebastian. so there.

they just don't write songs like this anymore