what music now...

These waning days of summer, my CD player at home and car is constantly playing the following:

1. James Blunt - Back to Bedlam


2. Brazilian Girls - Brazilian Girls


3. Royksopp - The Understanding


4. Deep Dish - George is On


5. Keren Ann – Nolita

From those listed above, James Blunt must be the most pleasant surprise of a CD I've heard in a long while. Back to Bedlam contains ten stunning vignettes built around stories on relationships, breakups and friendships. The lyrics are bursting with emotions, and the music is diversely moving between folk, pop and soulful ballads. Even though Back to Bedlam was released last year, it is only now gaining wider exposure in North America.

Keren Ann is a beautiful singer who moved to Paris a while back to create songs in the vein of the French singers she loves. The first two releases were all in French sounding a little like Francoise Hardy or Jane Birkin at times. In 2004 she released Not Going Anywhere, mostly English versions of songs from her previous CDs. Most recently, Keren Ann has moved to New York City, and more particularly in Little Italy (actually a little north of it), which explains the title of her newest CD, Nolita. I’ll have a more detailed review of Nolita in an upcoming posting.

Love, Peace and … good listening!