I don't often wax lyrical about music, but I've recently stumbled across a few albums that have made me want to comment on them.
There are a hell of a lot of underrated artists out there, both established and new. A few years ago I discovered that Tiffany (yes, that one) had brought out a new album in 2000 that had gone completely unnoticed everywhere. I think the US had some media interest about it, but the rest of the world was blissfully ignorant. It's a shame, as it is a very good album! She has a good voice and a good range, especially since diching the "pop princess" image and writing her own material. The album, The Color of Silence, got very good reviews and was hailed as a darned good bit of musical work. Why the hell did no-one hear about it then??
After the relative failure of that album she was understandably quiet in music circles. Recently though, she's been on the telly and gained a new surge of popularity. Two more albums have been released, music from one of which is being used in the TV programme Ugly Betty! She's back! but still, no-one's really aware of it!! Madness!
T'Pau brought out another album in 1998! What? Yeah, I know! Rave reviews in the states, Amazon's comments are all glowing about it, and it's bloody good! Why the hell are these things not being advertised more??? Did I miss out on something? Red is probably the most balanced album by T'Pau since the original classic Bridge of Spies. I'll admit I didn't really think Rage was as good as Spies, and The Promise was actually quite bad, but Red does really make up for it, but maybe that's just me being excited about there being new T'Pau material that I haven't heard! Again, Carol Decker was on telly a bit again a few years back, but at no point around then did anyone mention that they had more than the original three albums in their catalogue!!
I sometimes wonder if I live in a bubble.
Anyway, some new artists I'm enjoying are Little Boots (crap name, great singer) and Rob Dougan. Rob Dougan's a rather famous DJ in his day job, but his album Furious Angels is maybe the most original thing I've heard. Everyone and their uncle are doing rock music to orchestral backing these days (I'm looking at you Meat Loaf) and some of them are doing it rather badly (still looking at you, Meat...). No-one to my knowledge has put dance and trance beats to orchestral and choral music before! Holy crap it really works! Furious Angels is a bloody good listen and has some fantastic driving music on it. is voice isn't that great, sounding rather like Mr T with a cold, but like the kind and giving man he is he has included instrumental versions of the tracks he sings on on a special bonus CD. What a guy! Incidentally if you've seen The Matrix, he wrote the song that plays in the "woman in the red dress" scene.
In the excitement about Mr. Dougan I forgot to talk about Little Boots. It really is a crap name. Apparently she chose it as the literal translation of Caligula. What that says about her I don't know. Her real name is Victoria Hesketh and that sounds much cooler in my opinion. The music on her debut album Hands is a blend of rock and electronica, sometimes verging on a very 80s sound (a bit like Pet Shop Boys) but usually staying in the realm of pop ballads with a strong rock undertone. It all works well together and it's something that I could listen to quite happily on a desert island.
My MP3 player has never been so blessed. I had to sacrifice my "Ubuntu on a stick" 2GB memory card to fit all this stuff on as well as the 80s mix album and the Kingdom Hearts soundtrack for the car's MP3 player.
So now you all should go and buy the following:
T'Pau - Red (1998)
Tiffany - The Colour of Silence (2000)
Rob Dougan - Furious Angels (2002)
Little Boots - Hands (2009)
Thank you. Support your artists and help them fight the oppression of the producers!