God's Lonely Man

 

Anna Calvi continues her collaboration with various artists. After releasing her highly successful collaboration with Perfume Genius some time ago, it was obviously inevitable that she would team up with Iggy Pop for a song. 

The result sounds more perfect than one could have imagined. Iggy conducts a destructive inner monologue in the background, while nervous guitars, driving drums, and Calvi's raw presence provide a counterpoint in the foreground. Well done. 

I See A Darkness

 

About every ten years, musicians get the idea to cover I See A Darkness. A few days ago, Anna Calvi also ventured to cover the dark ballad written by Will Oldham in 1999, which for me is one of the best songs he has ever written. Rarely has a song about friendship moved me as much as this one. While Calvi's urgent guitar playing and vocals create an ominous atmosphere, it is Perfume Genius who breaks through the dark sky with his falsetto.

A good song can't really be ruined. That's why we're featuring the original by Mr. Oldham and a version that Martin Gretschmann, aka Acid Pauli, brought to clubs quite some time ago.

2020: The Songs

 

This year is almost gone and looking back on it I have say it was a horrible one. Covid-19 changed our lives completely and I suppose the life after the pandemic won't be the same any more. The virus changed the way we met, the way we work and the public life at all. Incompetent leaders and governments made the wrong decisions or ignored the risk. I can fill the list with much more but I will stop now. One of the things that made life easier was music. Retrospective I can say that it was a good year for music. The main thing this year was the day Andrew Weatherall passed away. He was the one that gave us new music - always one step ahead of us all. A year ends list could be filled nearly with of his songs and mixes. But this was already made by others from us. So I decided to make a list based on a playlist I made on Spotify for new songs that was released in 2020. This is not an ultimate list because I find almost everyday new songs from this year that will be saved on this playlist. Also the songs are with any ranking. So let's start.

The Cry - Truth (Remix 2020)

Four Tet - Baby

Daniel Avery and Alesandro Cortini - Illusion of Time

Glok - Cloud Cover (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Military Genius - L.M.G.D.

Nadine Shah - Ladies for Babies

Les Big Bird - Tinitus Aetérum

Andrew Weatherall - Unknown Plunder/End time sound (I couldn't resist)

Sonic Boom - Just imagine

Anna Calvi - Wish (Haunted Version)

Hot Since 82 - Make Up

Roisin Murphy - Murphy's Law

Golden Bug & Limininas - Variation Sur 3 bancs

Kanaan - Double Sun pt 2

Yard Act - The Trappers Pelt

Noun, Daniel Avery, Roman Flügel - Meeting of the Mind

Mogwai - Major Treat

Moon Duo -- Planet Caravan

Les Sympatics de Porto Novo - A min we vo nou

Woodleigh Research Facility - Aprés Le Villa 2

Gang Of Four - Forevers Starts Now

Michael Rother - Bitter Tang

Close Lobsters - Let The Day Drift Away (Canopy of Dust Remix)

Dan Wainwright - Rain Dance

Josephie Öhm + The Liberation - Rushing Through My Mind

Total Control - Glass

Steve Gunn - Tommy's Congo

The Oriells - Bobby's Second World (Confidence Man Remix)

Green Gartside - Tangled Man

Andy Bell - Love Comes In Waves 

Underworld - Brussels (Live in Amsterdam)

1000 Foot Whale Claw - The Water Is Quite Clear

Keral Dust - Phoebe

Youth Meets Jah Wobble - Breaking Shells (feat. Hollie Cook)

Jane Weaver - The Revolution of Super Visions

Whyte Horses - Ca Place Pour Ma

A Man Called Adam - Ship Away

Fjordfunk - It Is All Black (Hardway Bros. Remix)

Andy Bell - Cherry Cola (Pye Corner Audio Remix)

Daniel Avery - Lone Swordsman (The best tribute since St. Antony)

Don't Beat The Girl Out Of My Boy

In 2018 Anna Calvi released one of the best records in this year with Hunter. Now she announced to new version of this album. She reworked the songs with a little help from Courtney Barnett, Charloot Gainsbourg, Joe Talbot and Julia Holter and transformed their songs in a more rough shape. If the rest of the rework is as good as this collaboration it seems to be another highlight of this year.

Tuesday's Cover

I really don't know if it is the start of a new series but I found a cover from Ghost Rider originally played by Suicide and release in 1977 as the opening track of their epic first album. Anna Calvi, who made one of  favorite albums from has this song in her live repertoire and she does it very well in her own style. Not too far from the original but far enough to incorporate to her sound. A version of this song I can agree to and probably next week there will be another cover appear at this place.

Hunter

Probably the greatest, cleverest and most erotic album was released by Anna Calvi a few weeks ago. Calvi's first album was a word-heavy statement in indie music. I missed her second album where she made some experiments in eclectic sounds she is now back and better than before. Hunter is still more concentrated and has got in the good sense more roughly than his predecessor's work. She stands for a dark archaic sound in the tradition of The Bad Seeds with hooks, rhythms and intelligent lyrics. And after all she likes to destroy her songs by heavy guitars. All in all one of those records that will be on the shortlist for 2018.