Thomas' Christmas calendar: Now in English!

Hey everyone (?) !

It's soon December again, and as has been the case the last several years, that means I'll be summing up the year in music here on my very seasonal music blog. I first post some runners-up, and then my top 10 favorite albums of 2016 one by one as we get close to Christmas Eve. Some years I haven't got through the whole list on time, which may very well be the case this year too, but I'll give it a try. This has always been in Norwegian, but I have a feeling that's been to more people's disappointment than joy lately (perhaps always), so here it goes in English this time.

For any newcomers looking through old titles, I figured I'd start things off with a little guest appearance from Captain Hindsight: Some cruelly overlooked titles from last year's list. There could be many reasons for me missing out on the best releases any given year. There's so much great music out there that some great things just go under the radar. Other albums might have been under consideration for the list, but not deemed worthy of inclusion at the time of writing, only to later reveal themselves as growers. These are sometimes the worst, slowly becoming my favorite albums a year or two later when I didn't even give them a sideways glance on that year's list. So here are some of my biggest blunders from last year. I don't know how they would have placed on the list (probably the list itself has changed a bit), but these hidden treasures need to be shared.

Eivør - Slør

She actually looks just like that in person - and I met her in March!

We had a funny time.

The Faroe Islands' biggest music export, the amazing singer Eivør, released two albums last year. One sung in English, Bridges, and a sort of companion piece sung in Faroese, Slør. It was a bit much too take in, and at first glance they both seemed less thrilling than her 2012 highlight Room. But Slør turned out to be the real grower, each song captivating me one by one, until the entire album plays like a great movie you've seen over and over again, each scene taking you to a new yet familiar place. You come for Eivør's incredible voice, but you end up staying for the mystical Faroese land- and seascapes she so vividly conjures up.

Hear: Í tokuni, Mjørkaflókar.

Buffy Sainte-Marie - Power In The Blood

She's a cool lady. I like this album cover.

Native Canadian folk artist Buffy Sainte-Marie rose to fame in the sixties as a protest singer and had a few hits, including "It's my way", and I don't think the international music scene paid much attention to her for the next 50 years, but she's done some really cool work in her later years. Protest songs from the people of the land are as important as ever, and this record really resonated with me. Buffy, now 75, writes with her heart on the outside of her football jersey, aswe'd say in Norway. Power in the Blood won her the Polaris Music Prize over fellow Canadians like Drake and Caribou, with its captivating folk rock tinged with a bit of world music spice courtesy of some traditional Cree instruments, the odd lyrics in Cree, and the energetic Cree Indians chanting along. Her lyrics about nature and God and peace and Mother Earth versus greed and money and oil and corporations and media are mostly both beautiful and powerful. Only occasionally does a rant about GMOs poisoning our groceries and such become a bit much. But she totally gets away with it, this is a fantastic album that delivers a strong message and certainly gets your blood pumping.

Hear: Carry it on, Ke sakihitin awasis (I love you baby).

East India Youth - CULTURE OF VOLUME

Take a perfectly normal picture and pixelate it weirdly. Repeat on the music.

This guy means business. Not only his album, CULTURE OF VOLUME, but also every single song therein, is titled in CAPS LOCK. In this, his STATEMENT, William Doyle a.k.a. East India Youth takes perfectly good pop songs and pretends that they're weird and experimental. They're not, they're catchy and often quite simple. But the strange ambient-techno opener "THE JUDDERING" puts you in a dark and excited mood, making the thrill of the grandiose pop-climaxes here even bigger. Doyle's second album as East India Youth is loud, it's long, it speaks in CAPS, it could have been pretentious and over-the-top, but thanks to Doyle's bubbling creativity and sheer songcrafting skill, it turns out to be a thundering success.

Hear: "HEARTS THAT NEVER", "ENTIRETY", "TURN AWAY"

Ane Brun - When I'm Free

It's a strange picture, but fitting for the album: Sparkles, and the fact that there's actually true emotion behind them.

Here's another one I just can't believe didn't get a nod from me last year. Ane Brun is a wonderful singer, performer and songwriter, and I'd claim that When I'm Free is her best work to date. It's a bit understated, definitely a grower, but not difficult. It's rather comfortable, glossy, and easy to enjoy in the background, but oh my do these songs stand out when listened to closely. There's a Björk-like quality in the slightly off melodies, structure of the songs, ways she sometimes strains her voice, especially in the opener "Hanging". There are a few songs here that dip to mediocrity, but they're never not pretty, and the highlights bring Ane Brun for me into the very top tier of Norwegian artists.

Hear: "Hanging", "All we want is love", "Shape of a heart".

Tune back in on December 1st for my countdown of 2016's best albums. In the meantime, feel free to scroll through old posts - if there's any particular Norwegian review you're curious about, let me know and I'll happily talk to you about it in English.