40 Records in 40 Years (30/40 - 2003)

The worries we made about what happened two years ago vanished in normal life. We used to live like nothing happened before and stored it in another file. So me and Christiane decided to take our next step an buy an apartment closer to the main city of our little town. We prepared everything for the move and the day before it should take place Christiane got a lighted appendix. So we had to do the move without her advices and finished it in time. Later this year we started for a longer trip to Thailand. Also a place I haven't been before. We did it close to our trip to India and traveled the country from north to south in local buses or trains. This yourney might be the reason why I am so addicted to South East Asia. Not only the people that are most friendly and helpful it is also the scenery, vegetation and meals. And these countries makes it easy to me to recreate and load up my battery. What else do you need sometimes more than sitting with a cold beer and a lovely woman by your side at pretty beach watching the sundown?

Another year with very good records:

• Kings of Leon - Youth and Young Manhood: 4 brothers bring us back classic rock
• The White Stripes - Elephant: It's the record I noticed them
• Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress: Another album with great songs
• The Rapture - Echoes: Dance punk at it's best
• Calexico - Feast of Wire: Their next one on high level
• Ben Harper - Diamonds on the Inside: Fantastic songs
• The Raveonettes - Chain Gang of Love: Simply great
• Warren Zevon - The Wind: See my words below
• Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Streetcore: His legacy
• Sons and Daughters - Love the Cup: Superb Scottish music

And songs as well:

And as ever - some remarkable movies:

• Mystic River: Great story and a fantastic Sean Penn
• Monster: Charlize Theron shows us the darkest sides
• Cold Mountain: Wonderful western according to the novel
• Love Actually: One of the every years christmas movies
• Bend it like Beckham: Nice story about women and football
• Once Upon a Time in Mexico: Classic drama
• Kill Bill 1.: The revenge of the bride

What happened in the world and was necessary to recall:

Another African Drama: The war in Dafur begins // Global protest against the Iraq war // The Indonesian military starts a operation in the Aceh province // A lot of east European countries join the European Union // The Concorde makes his last commercial flight // Saddam Hussein is captured at the end of the year.

Once more it was hard to decide which record I should feature on this series. The record that touched me most emotional was Warren Zevon's The Wind. Not because it was his last one. He recorded it while he was sick of lung cancer and he told us in his words to say good bye. I'll feature this record in another series these days. So let's go to todays record. It is probably one of the best debut albums in the last decade. British Sea Power brought us back the spirit of Post Punk, New Wave and Independent Rock. Based on the best of Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen and early Pixies they give us a full load of wonderful guitars. Most songs has catchy rhythms and the singer fits to all the songs. Beneath songs with heavy leading guitars shines the febrile hymn The Lately that ends in organized chaos.

Enjoy.

British Sea Power - Fear of Drowninng

British Sea Power - Waving Flags

British Sea Power - Remember Me

British Sea Power - Lately

British Sea Power - Apologies to Insect Life