Thank God for .
Here I am approaching the end of 2006, when thorough and passive music aficionados alike pause to reconsider the best offerings of the past year, and I feel all down on myself because of my own hesitation to jump into pools of new music, opting instead to jump on board and/or criticize the new offerings from old favorites.
Long story short, it'd neither be exciting nor suprising to see my year-end best-of list probably citing the likes of great (though proven) artists like Belle Sebastian, the Stills and Ray Davies.
But last night the greatest new show on television roped me into the inside track on Corinne Bailey Rae. Lo and behold - some great new soul arrives as I continue my now-6-month-long soul kick (no joke, I was actually compiling a soul kick MP3 CD last night for the long drives in my car), and what's more - she's a British artist too.
I put it down at first to the show's great writing - the timing of her playing "Trouble Sleeping" while the show's production team reaches the finishing line on what was (surprise, surprise) yet another trying week both in the Studio and around NBS offices, Amanda Peet's Jordan character breaks some big news, and (one of my old favorites) Mark McKinney promises a return - it was such a winning combination that any relatively celebratory song could've had me clapping and exclaiming, "What a good show!
" to my empty apartment.
(I also did this when they had Sting on a few weeks back, playing that 15th century stuff, and the renaissance take on "Fields of Gold"..
. They almost sold me on that bollocks, but then I went ahead and listened to some of the album..
. yeah, not so much.)
But something about that chorus of "Trouble Sleeping" really set in fast, and I immediately acquired the songstress' , released back in February (well, June in the US), and not only is the track as good on its own as you would want to believe, but it's accompanied by some other blinding tracks as well.
Needless to say, it hasn't even been 24 hours yet, but I've heard the album a few times through now, and played "Trouble Sleeping" a hell of a lot. Easy contender for one of the Top 10 albums of 2006, and some of the best new soul I've heard in awhile. What else could I possibly post here today?
FYI, you can also watch the inspiring bit of Corinne "singing" it on the show by clicking on the Studio 60 link at the top of the post.
On an unrelated note (unless you count the British songstress factor), some good soul has reposted Sleeper's "Nice Guy Eddie" video at YouTube, so now you can see what I was talking about back in October. Oh, Louise, we could be so good together.
.. and I'm a better drummer than that guy too.
.. Even though the audio's a tad off, you still look beautiful.
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