Nina Simone- Wild is the Wind (1963)

http://www.mediafire.com/?ow7qbz9fqwrppu6

Nina Simone: a marketing nightmare.

Jazz/Soul/Blues/Broadway singer, both vulnerable and abrasive. Outspoken against discriminatory practices and against African-Americans who seemed to fall into stereotypes. Outspoken agains the white audiences that supported her career. A classically-trained pianist who could improvise with the best jazz trios and pound a piano like she was trying to kill it. Contradictory, brash, and powerful. Beautiful and ugly.

I was in love with Jeff Buckley before i ever heard Nina Simon's earlier version of Lilac Wine (neither of them wrote it). I far prefer her version. It's one thing for a person with a lilting, beautiful voice to make a lilting, beautiful song. But Simone--whose voice was deep, resonant, and brassy--sang this song with such vulnerability and tenderness that I don't think Buckley's version can touch it.

Also recommended: Nina Simone Sings the Blues.

Yamaguchi Goro- A Bell Ringing in the Empty Sky (1967)

Original cover. Fussy, but still stunning.

http://www.mediafire.com/?9wdvz4j30ng6zit

Remember the 1960s, when people would release records just because they were interesting?

Japan's designated Living National Treasure, Yamaguchi Goro, played the shakuhachi (bamboo flute) on a series of lps throughout his life, though this one was picked up by the massively exotic Nonesuch Records Explorer Series in the 1960s. It's one of the few LPs to have been rereleased on cd in the early 2000s.

If you've ever wondered what a solo bamboo flute sounds like, you don't have to imagine too much. It sounds empty, plaintive, sad, lonesome, faraway, and fragile. And lovely.

New artwork. Actually matches the music better.

This is a perfect album to play while you're doing something seemingly unrelated. For instance, i love to listen to it while gardening. It makes picking tomatoes seem so fleeting and sad. Totally recommended.

Abbess Hildegard von Bingen- A Feather on the Breath of God (1993)

http://www.mediafire.com/?s1e9eno35w5a51m

Let me introduce you to another CD that i purchased based on visual interest: Abbess Hildegard of Bingen.

Hildegard von Bingen was a self-taught Christian mystic who created music, poems, visual art (iconography), and religious texts during the 12th century. Her music is amazing--serene, surreal, haunting, evocative, and blissful. The title of this collection, A Feather on the Breath of God, is meant to convey the role of mankind in the earth-- floating at the whim of the supernatural. It's also a perfect description of this music.

Her artwork/iconography is also unbelievable. I hate to add to the piles of internet knowledge, so i'll refrain and just say how incredible the music is. I think of cds like this when i think of Michael Stipe's quote that "Music is proof that god exists."

Please just download it and listen to it.

Some of Bingen's sensational--and academically neglected-- visual artwork. 

A beautiful self-commissioned holy icon.

Aaron Martin- Worried About the Fire (2010)

http://www.mediafire.com/?lwqyrhy8nzt3bbr

Aaron Martin made one of those records that i wish i had made. It's moody, airy, deep, creepy, breathy, and beautiful. Very sparse instrumentation that somehow feels both ethereal and Appalachian. Think of bowed saws, looped violins, nebulous electronics, and sparseness. Or, imagine "Brian Eno: Music for Tall Forests in The Snow."

This is one of those amazing albums that can be listened to actively or passively, as background music or meditation music.

Highly recommended. I need to check out more of his stuff.

jj- No.3 (2010)

http://www.mediafire.com/?1qqbr1dtjghb48n

jj are a Swedish pop group, and if you can mentally squish together your notions of the singer Lykki Li with the stellar vampire movie Let the Right One In, you could come up with something like jj.

I know, right? What the f*** kind of band name is jj, in lowercase letters? Grr. Those swedes (writes the guy named after a viking).

No.3 is their third (!!!) album that sounds shimmery and perfect. It's cheeky and cheesy and classy and catchy. Sometimes high schoolers can really nail that "heartbreak" thing right on the head.

If you're up for something poppy and youthful, but somehow tasteful, give it a try.

L(y)kke Li- W(o)unded Rhymes

http://www.mediafire.com/myfiles.php

*Note: Hooray! My second file removed due to copyright infringement! I'm on a roll! Notice the creative misspelling. Thanks, record execs-- keeping us all safe from pirates.

I hate it when I agree with Pitchfork.

I can't stand their ideal of "Let's-record-it-on-a-Fischer-Price-tape-Deck-and-add-a-photo-of-me-with-bad-sunglasses-with-Photoshop-lens-flare-effect" because it's so dumb that it's ironically cool. And that being hip is unhip, and that makes it cool.

And yet, crap: I love L(y)kke Li, the snaggle-toothed sorta shy Swedish pop singer. W(o)unded Rhymes doesn't feel as vulnerable as Youth Novels did, but i'll take it as a great follow up.

Wounded Rhymes is both simultaneously confident and vulnerable. I don't know how someone can make dance music that feels so confessional. When i think of popular American dance music, it seems to fall into one of two categories: either "You broke my heart and now i'm gonna dance" or "My man is so awesome and now i'm gonna dance".

By contrast, this is sort of a dance album that David Lynch would produce. And for that reason, i really love it. Don't believe me? Watch her music video for "Get Some" and tell me that you don't somehow feel totally creeped out, and perhaps a little smidge turned on. Mostly, though, just REALLY creeped out.

Also, she played on the Jimmy Fallon show in a ridiculous outfit with the most amazing tambourine display I've seen in years.