Retrospectiva de 2014 em discos

Num ano complexo, a música viveu um dos seus melhores momentos com novos e talentosos artistas, o regresso de velhas glórias e, principalmente, a publicação de grandes e bons discos!

Numa reflexão injusta, aqui ficam os meus discos mais ouvidos!

You Can't Win, Charlie Brown
Diffraction/Refraction
Jan 20, 2014

Review aqui.

A 18 de Janeiro de 2014 previ que Diffraction/Refraction seria um dos discos que não iria conseguir parar de ouvir. Quase um ano depois é frequente regressar ao disco que alegrou o meu ano. 

Tive oportunidade de ver a representação deste trabalho ao vivo por várias vezes (e quando digo várias, digo, pelo menos, umas 5 vezes!) e cada actuação dos You Can't Win, Charlie Brown tornava este álbum cada vez melhor e apetecível.

A verdadeira demonstração de quão boa está a música Portuguesa. Basta ouvirem este disco!

Buraka Som Sistema
Buraka
Jun 23, 2014

Review aqui.

Surpreendentemente, Buraka Som Sistema fizeram parte da minha banda sonora de 2014. 

Também tive a sorte de os conseguir ver algumas vezes e é óptimo ver uma banda tão diferente, tão interessante e tão talentosa no nosso panorama.
Em Junho, escrevi "É um disco que explode energia, boas vibrações e muita vontade de dançar. Buraka incentiva à festa, à celebração num misto de línguas, géneros e culturas.", depois destes últimos meses agarrada ao disco, verifico que é um disco que merece ser ouvido e, acima de tudo, celebrado!
Que mais artistas arrisquem como os Buraka Som Sistema.

Jack White
Lazaretto
Jun 10, 2014

Review aqui.

Jack White nunca desilude. Num registo muito semelhante ao seu primeiro disco, White volta a mostrar porque é considerado um dos guitarristas/produtores mais ecléticos da sua geração.

Num disco mais negro e intenso, Lazaretto acabou por não ter a devida (e merecida) aceitação dos críticos, tendo passado despercebido um excelente disco.

No entanto, este disco foi uma grande companhia em viagens diárias e momentos de lazer. Um disco que para além de ser um excelente momento musical, é uma excelente companhia.

Gerard Way
Hesitant Alien
Set 30, 2014

Foi num misto de alegria, excitação e receio que recebi a notícia de que o (meu querido) Gerard Way iria lançar um disco a solo, após o fim (inesperado) dos My Chemical Romance.

Ainda em mente com um Gerard dark, com maquilhagem exagerada e actuações teatrais, foi com grande satisfação que ouvi este Hesitant Alien - um disco muito virado para o estilo brit pop, com algumas nuances rock e que mostraram que este Gerard Way consegue continuar a surpreender e, principalmente, mexer com o panorama musical.

Outro disco que acabou ofuscado das elites, Hesitant Alien é um delicioso disco que merece ser absorvido pelos fãs de synthpop ou uma espécie de rock menos puro. Estranho? Mais vale ouvir e apreciar este disco imperfeito.

Obviamente, muitos outros discos e músicas fizeram parte da minha banda sonora de 2014 que foi muito recheada de bons discos, especialmente de anos anteriores, que me levaram a ver a música contemporânea com outros olhos!

Assisti a grandes concertos, vivi grandes emoções e ouvi excelente música - muitos artistas emergiram, outros tantos foram (finalmente!) reconhecidos e ainda mais aparecerão nos próximos meses. E nós, como fãs e apreciadoras de música, cá estaremos para dar o melhor que se faz na música.

Bom 2015!

2013 Music Retrospection // Albums of 2013

This kind of reflections are a bit hard to do - usually, I tend to remember others that should be included and that I find unfair to keep it out. Yet, this is just a reflection, a top of records that I wasn't able to stop listen since the moment they got out!

I might be missing some huge artists whose albums I really enjoyed...

James Blake
Overgrown
April 5th, 2013

James Blake is my constant journey. It doesn't matter what he does, I know I'll fall in love for the next record harder than the previous one.
That happened with Overgrown. I heard the album on a local music store and I wasn't able to leave the store without bring the record home. As soon as I arrived home, I put the record on my player and it stayed there for almost two months listening to it, every single day, without any excuse.

Overgrown is such a gorgeous, powerful, out-going record. It's magical the transition from James Blake's previous records to this one.

Overgrown became one of my favourite albums for being so outstanding!

Vampire Weekend
Modern Vampires of the City
May 14th, 2013

Vampire Weekend are very special. I've seen them twice already and I never get disappointed. After Contra, I was honestly afraid of their third record and how it would turn out.
They have this way of being unique, of mixing things, of risking and creating such magnificent records like Modern Vampires of the City.
Vampire Weekend presented a very different and dark album when compared to their previous works.

Modern Vampires of the City reflects an incredible maturity and a more polished side of the young Vampire Weekend, showing not only a big evolution in their sound but the way they are able to transmit it.

Daft Punk
Random Access Memories
May 17th, 2013

FYMS review

Daft Punk have been one of my favourite bands since a very long time. I was more than excited when they released their record after such a long time without releasing anything.
Gladly, I couldn't be more proud and I couldn't have enjoyed more this Random Access Memories.

It's a record that can't stop listening to because it's magical, it brings me to a journey of the golden times of music and the amount of different artists and musicians highlighted with their iconic sound and electronic innovation!

John Newman
Tribute
October 14th, 2013

I have this weird habit of creating musical obsessions. I discovered John Newman in the most random way and by the time, he hadn't announced the release of his first album so, I couldn't be more curious to see how the newbie would sound like.
In August, I wrote "His peculiar approach to music mixed with the iconic and really spiritual vocals and deep and mysterious song writing turn him into one of the most curious artists of 2013 and, surely, deserved to keep an eye on." [read more]

He released a Tribute a solid record, with amazing influences - highlighted with his peculiar voice. One of my favourite discoveries of 2013 and absolutely one of my favourite records of the year!

Highlight goes to:

Stromae
Racine Carrée
August 16th, 2013

I found Stromae not long ago. Stromae was the biggest surprise of 2013.
He appeared in my life somewhere in the last few months of the ending year, although he released the record way earlier, and he caught me off guard.
He caught me off guard, not only because I didn't have a big impression in french music but also because I didn't expect french music to be this good (later on, I realised - I already knew - some other artists that I was listening to were also french - like Woodkid or the above Daft Punk).

Stromae is powerful. He makes this fancy electronic (to everybody) kind of music, he reaches to a variety of genres, proving you that not all the electronic music is non sense (once again, I was betrayed by common sense).
He is absolutely outstanding. He is a full-kind of artists, not only concerned with the way his music is written and produced but also emphasising the image and promotion connected to his work.
Stromae is iconic and he is able to make huge things out of simple beats and constructing a solid song with great beats, catchy without turning into something ordinary.

Stromae may probably be my favourite artist of 2013 and I just can't wait to keep discovering more and more about his work.

With 28 years old, the Belgian guy is a genius and a huge promise (and I dare to say) in music!

2013 Music Retrospection // Moments of 2013

Music is more than a song or a certain record. Nowadays, music has a strong industry behind it and it's much more than selling an artist. Big things happened and we chose our top of Moments in the music industry of 2013.

David Bowie, the (highly expected) Return
In the morning of his 66th birthday, David Bowie surprised the world, breaking a 10-year-musical-silence with the song Where Are We Now? for his record The Next Day, released later in March.

My Chemical Romance, the end of (modern) punk
The iconic punk/rock band released a press release about the end of the band, on March 22, 2013, on their website.
The post can be read here. Next March 25, 2014, after a year of their announcement they'll release a greatest hits entitled May Death Never Stop You, in their own words "We hope you take the journey with us into MCR's past, and enjoy the small taste of what might have been."

Miley Cyrus, the change of the (little) girl
The biggest discussion of 2013 was, unquestionably, the (huge) change of Miley Cyrus's music and image.

Miley Cyrus started the "scandal" with We Can't Stop, marking the beginning of Miley's musical change that is followed her "dirty south hip-hop" Bangerz. She also counts with Wrecking Ball - the video that shocked for being so off-topic - and recently, Adore You.
Anxiously waiting to see how everything is going to work out in 2014!

P!nk, Billboard's Woman of the year
Last December 10, P!nk accepted the award for 2013 Billboard's Woman of the year in Music.
On her acceptance speech, she said "It's been an incredible year and I feel grateful to radio for sticking by me, and to the fans and friends and all of the incredible talent that I was fortunate enough to work with for this album."

During this year, P!nk's last record The Truth About Love became her first number 1 album on the Billboard's charts, four successful and achieving singles and a worldwide tour with more than 140 dates.

Justin Bieber, the (early) Retirement
On Christmas night, the 19-year-old Canadian musician tweeted "My beloved beliebers I'm officially retiring". A few days earlier, he made a similar statement during an interview to a radio station.
Other tweets were added with a different speech, leaving in doubt the big question "Is Justin Bieber retiring?"

Without further confirmation or statements, beliebers say it's a "joke" adding their idol won't be retiring any soon.
Waiting for the next chapters...

Lorde
One of the biggest surprises of 2013 - her minimalism, her rudeness image and her raw vocals caught me of guard.
She is a lot of things - the press has seen her as beauty and beast, but "one of my favourite things is her iconic and very characteristic voice for being so raw, so masculine and yet so pure and graceful."

Her uncommon look, her way of being so teen and so mature and off-beauty is inspiring and I honestly hope she continues around. She is damn talented, she has a bright future in music industry if she continues to be this particular, this one of a kind. 

Lou Reed
"On October 27th, the music world lost one of its most important figures."
That's how we started our goodbye to Lou Reed.
An artist that is going to be missed for his rawness, his strength, his silence and fight to talk about music. Music was his world.
Lou Reed once said “Without music, we might as well close the planet. Music is the lifeblood of everything. If we didn’t have music, we might as well be dead.”

Your music will live on, nonetheless... you will be missed, Lou.

Read our retrospective, written by Diogo, here.

Other highlights: That The XX are amazing, we all know that... The band used their uniqueness and organised their own festival, entitled night + day, "in three of the world's most unique locations" Lisboa, Berlin and London.

Wouldn't it be good to have other bands and artists inviting other bands they are friends with or that admire and organize more festivals like this one?

A [incomplete] retrospective to Lou Reed

written by Diogo Barreto

Last Sunday, the 27^th of October, the music world lost one of its most important figure. Lou Reed, founder of The Velvet Underground, owner of a successful solo career, singer of songs and singer of life.

Lou Reed; the last photo shoot by Jean Baptiste Mondino.

Shot at Industria Superstudio, NYC. September 21, 2013.

Reed first came to the public’s eye with his counterculture band, The Velvet Underground – the musical project that Andy Warhol took under his wing, down at The Factory. They released one of Rock’s master piece: The Velvet Underground & Nico. Although it was a commercial failure (only 30,000 copies sold!), in the words of Brian Eno: "…everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band."

Lou would release three more albums with The Velvet Underground: White Light/White Heat

(1968); The Velvet Underground (1969) and Loaded (1970), all of those became landmarks in the story of rock music.

Reed launched his solo career in 1972, with is album Lou Reed. Although a good album, it was with is next record that he became a respected solo artist. The name of that effort is Transformer – produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson. In 1973 Reed released Berlin, a rock opera about prostitution, drug use and suicide. In 1975, released Metal Machine Music in which Reed only uses sounds of feedback from his guitar, turning it into a precursor for noise music.

Lou Reed made some records, some good, other not so good, after that and, in 1982, he released The Blue Mask (one of my personal favourites by him). In 1990, Reed teamed up with John Cale (former band member from The Velvet Underground) and they released Songs for Drella, dedicated to the memory of their mentor, Andy Warhol, who had died in 1987.

In 2003, Reed released The Raven – an album inspired by poems of Edgar Allen Poe and with new versions of songs previously recorded by Reed. The album featured artists such as David Bowie, Laurie Anderson and Willem Defoe. 
He participated on albums by John Zorn, Laurie Anderson and Metal Machine Trio.

The last album recorded by Lou was with Metallica: Lulu, based in the play by German playwright Frank Wedekind, of the same name. It was bad received by critics and by fans. In response to this, Reed claimed: "I don't have any fans left. After Metal Machine Music, they all fled. Who cares? I'm essentially in this for the fun of it."

This statement summarizes what Reed meant to me. Just a guy who did what he wanted and what he thought was right. He didn’t care for critics. He did music for the sake of music and wrote for the sake of writing.

Our Must-listen Top 5 (plus one) Lou Reed Songs:

• The Velvet Underground

Heroin - The epic track from Velvet Underground & Nico. It starts with an hypnotic feeling supported by Reed’s voice and guitar and Tucker’s drumming. At first it’s a very melodic song about the consumption of heroin, but later it becomes a pandemonium of sounds, before returning to its hypnotic mood. A song about heroin. Not endorsing it, but also not condemning it. It’s just a great fucking song!

I'm Waiting For The Man - A song about purchasing 26$ worth of drugs in a neighborhood in New York to a dealer (“the Man”). Join the lyrics to a dirty blues instrumental, with a great rhythmic section and you got one of the most suburb songs by The Velvet Underground.

Sister Ray -  A seventeen minute opus recorded in one take. A masterpiece about drugs, violence, murder, sex and travesties, accompanied by one of the best instrumental pieces avant-garde has ever produced. A big battle between Reed’s guitar and Cale’s distorted organ, improvising most of it, it stands as one of the greatest song in all Rock N' Roll catalog.

Sweet Jane - This song is, for sure, a very different song. It has an uncommon association with The Velvet Underground showing another upbeat and rhythmic side of the band. It's a song for everybody, not only Reed and Velvet fans. It's a hit that stands abouve all the other possible hits from the record. It goes straight into your hears and your head and mouth!

• Lou Reed

note: Lou Reed (solo songs) commented by Patricia

Perfect Day - It is a very soft-melodic song, that brings out a very sweet nostalgia being considered to be a very complex song due to the very (supposed) controversial topics. Yet, it has a very deep, dark side living sideways with a very romantic devotion.

Walk On The Wild Side - One of the biggest classic in rock music, and its chorus are very familiar to most of us. It has a constant rhythm through out the song. Once again, Lou Reed choses taboo topics in his lyrics yet giving a very light and kind approach to his music. A must-listen song. For sure!

Lou Reed once said “Without music, we might as well close the planet. Music is the lifeblood of everything. If we didn’t have music, we might as well be dead.”

Your music will live on, nonetheless... you will be missed, Lou.