Top Discoveries of Winter Break

Christmas saw a glorious return to purchased compact discs. A hiatus from iTunes. There's something nice about returning to the tactile musical medium. With favorite artists and new gems, there's just so much more awe for the entire music-making process when I'm holding a cd booklet in my hand and seeing all the names of the recording engineers and artist shout-outs to people I have never heard of.

Here were the final musical experiences of 2009:

1. Slavic Soul Party, Baltica (from the album Taketron). John discovered this band through NPR, of all places. I think we fell for them because they have a sound reminiscent of Youngblood Brass Band, but they add an Eastern European flair with traditional instruments like accordion. After hearing them on NPR, John tracked them down via YouTube, and Baltica was what we heard first off of Taketron. John immediately put the cd on his Christmas list, and I immediately bought it for him. We listened to it in the car and fell in love with Sarba, which isn't on youtube, but I would recommend listening to the clip on Amazon. It is just so quick and silly. What's not to love?

2. Christmas really came alive for me with Arvo Pärt. His music is like standing in a Cathedral, alone, listening to the echoes of what the angels must sing. The example that has been the most striking (and new to me) is his Summa. I first heard it as a choral arrangement, but on youtube I stumbled across this breathless version for strings: Summa for Strings 1. And, a sprightlier version: Summa for Strings 2.

Go Estonia! I can safely say he is my favorite Estonian composer. Although perhaps I should look into others...see if there's some sort of magical composition-dust in the water.

3. Sufjan Stevens' Songs for Christmas. I have rarely like entire albums of Christmas songs by bands or singers...until now. He runs the gamut of secular and sacred tunes from shimmery arrangements of Hark the Herald Angels Sing (which reminded me of Björk's Frosti), to hauntingly beautiful ones that I wished were covered more often (O Come O Come Emmanuel, I Saw Three Ships). Some more favorites on the album: Sister Winter, and Put the Lights on the Tree (complete with the cutest animation ever).

4. On the topic of Christmas, I found one of the most adorable songs ever which will forever be a part of my Christmastime traditions: The Weepies' All That I Want. It reminds me of the musical aesthetic they used to shoot for on Gilmore Girls...it would fit in well with Sam Phillips' tracks for the soundtrack. Simple, sweet, gorgeous. And it uses sleigh bells!

5. Björk, Voltaic and Volta. My two acquisitions of Björk have very similar titles. John was amazing and went off of the Christmas list, trekking to the East Side to get me the live Voltaic album with the DVD (at our local shop they had the non-DVD version of the album). It's pretty phenomenal. The standout track? Pleasure is All Mine from Medulla, synthesized instead of vocalized. The Volta album was something I really should have owned by now, given my obsession with her. So many instant loves on this album...Earth Intruders (holy crap go watch that video...stunning) with its tribal beats and percussive power, I see who you are with its Gather Ye Rosebuds sort of carpe diem argument, and the insistent Rebel Yell, Declare Independence (with another freaking hypnotic video).

She gets another picture because I love her.