It’s that time of the year again, when What’s on presents the best of the year. I’ve seen some awesome gigs this year and quite a few of them were at Lowlands. Coincidentally some of the performing artists appear here too! Note that this list is based on the records I actually bought for myself! So there’s no illegal downloads, presents to friends or that sort of thing. For this reason some obvious records aren’t here, not because I don’t like them, but I didn’t buy them (yet).

The best new albums of 2008

1. Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
CD 2008, MAG/Polydor I already heard quite a bit of Elbow. Friends of mine have already been fans for years. And I liked what I heard, but the penny never really dropped. One Day Like This got played on the radio a few times… mmm… nice… Then came Lowlands Festival. They played a brilliant set of brilliant songs that had people in the audience embracing eachother. I looked the album up on the internet because I wanted to buy the vinyl version. I couldn’t find one for a price that suited me and I bought tickets for their show in Rotterdam instead. And they pulled of quite the same trick as they did on Lowlands. A fantastic show once more. They played backed by a marvellous string section, singer Guy Garvey became a personal hero and I bought the CD then and there. One Day Like This is the Song Of The Year!

2. Laura Marling – Alas I Cannot Swim
CD 2008, Virgin Records Miss Marling’s appearance at Lowlands was a bit of a surprise. I believe it was the first performance we saw on Saturday morning and we were blown away. A young woman with an acoustic guitar, silent and shy-ish, takes the stage with three young men on drums, keyboards and double bass. And when she started to sing I was … blown away. She sounds like she’s seen a bit of the world, that she’s had her share of pain and joy. She plays soft gentle folky tunes on her guitar like she’s been doing that for years, but she’s 18 years old… When I got home I scavenged ebay for the gift box set version of the album, with something extra for every track on the album. A fantastic set that will take the price for best artwork hands down. The title track (one of my favorites) appears on the album as a sort of bonus at the end of the last track. ‘There’s gold across the river but alas I cannot swim’. Brilliant!

3. Beck – Modern Guilt
CD 2008, XL Records If, apart from brilliant, it’s one thing, then that’s two songs too short. But in this 30 or so minutes we’re quickly introduced to the reborn Beck. In one way it’s more of the same; collaging styles, techniques and noises with near sleepy vocals have become his standard. In another it’s all different, he mixes the strange hiphop meets antifolk sound with a conceptual approach we haven’t heard since the sixties. Beck is worried and he’s telling this in a whole new vocabulary. The title track was a long time contender for Song Of The Year.

4. Tindersticks – The Hungry Saw
CD 2008, Beggars Banquet Tindersticks are back on track. I just realised that, even though I’m already a fan since Tindersticks II, they haven’t appeared in any of the What’s On year lists untill now. But with this new album they haven’t as much reinvented themselves as found new reasons to make Tindersticks music again. There is no band in the world that can make romance sound so dark, brooding and errr… romantic. Stuart Staples is a personal hero, just because of his delivery, the arrangements are beautiful and the band sounds tight and loose at the same time resulting in a very warm and intimate album. The Flicker Of A Little Girl could have been on Tindersticks II and I mean that as a compliment. The only thing is that the artwork looks quite silly.

5. Calexico – Carried To Dust
CD 2008, City Slang One more band that I’ve followed for years. I loved their previous album ‘Garden Ruin’ too, but the show I saw at the time didn’t strike me as brilliant. I remember thinking it was good, but nothing more. This time I saw them play in Elektrawerk in Köln and it was amazing. It was like seeing a couple of your own friends playing an amazing show. They’re such nice people and they make such cool music and they play with so much joy and fun. I also bought the Tool Box CD, which is a beautiful instrumental album that sounds like a soundtrack to a dusty movie.

The best reissues of 2008

1. Eels – Blinking Lights And Other Revelations
4LP 2008, E Works This is the only album that ever made it to What’s On’s Best Of List twice. It was released as a double CD in 2005. I loved it immediately, but I was slightly dissappointed by the fact that I had bought the album in a record shop and got a jewel case, whereas other people bought the same album online and got a digipack. I hate jewel cases! But revenge is mine, though it cost me a dime. This is as deluxe as it can get. The original album spread out over three heavy weight vinyl discs, with a live show (with strings) as a bonus disc and a gorgeous book, packed in a 12 inch box. Wow!

2. Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison
2CD+DVD 2008, Columbia It’s been rereleased so many times it makes you wonder what the hell they are going to come up with next. But this is again something special. Two entire shows where most people thought there had only been one. Obviously the second (previously unreleased) show isn’t half as good as the first one. But these two cd’s give a unique insight into a legendary day.

3. Eels – Useless Trinkets 2CD+DVD, Geffen
4. David Bowie – Live Santa Monica ’72  2CD EMI
5. Beck – Odelay  2CD, Geffen

CD 2008, XL Records This is probably the most remarkable entry for What’s On ever. If the last entries tended to look like regular reviews, this one has a good old personal story to it. Last Tuesday I went to see Beck perform in de Melkweg in Amsterdam. It seemed a rather small venue for this artist and an odd date to say the least, since his new album was not to be released yet, for another week. So when we entered de Melkweg and I noticed they had the album for sale already I didn’t think twice. I even urged Roel to buy one too. Then Yeasayer played, which was nice, but I didn’t really get it. Maybe I have to listen to the album. And Yeasayer were finished the waiting started… … … Nothing happened, just roadies tuning the same guitars over and over again… … Then an aquaintance of us got a phonecall. He said people backstage were flipping because the local record shop had already sold the new album at the Melkweg. Someone had made a terrible mistake and everyone was really upset! So I happen to be one of the happy few to own it before it is released. The downside to this story is that when they eventually took the stage I thought Beck was someone who had dressed up as Kurt Cobain for Halloween, with torn jeans and big, cheesy sunglasses. They played a rather short set without saying a further word or even a smile. His mind was somewhere else completely. When I saw him in Vredenburg Utrecht a few years ago he wasn’t feeling well, but it turned the perfomance into an intimate night of singer/songwriter gone bonkers. Which was really beautiful. Last Tuesday it felt a bit like watching the Dire Straits. They got most of the notes right but for as far Beck himself was concerned there was no energy whatsoever. Oh and the album is really, really good! Please do yourself a favor and buy it. His cooperation with Dangermouse sounds perfect. The lyrics are almost understandable, he’s obviously worried about the state of the world today. Title track Modern Guilt sounds like a sixties pop song from space, Chemtrails sounds like Diamond Bollocks on acid. The album is totally cool, it’s short and snappy and really beautiful! For the first time in years he has really reinvented himself… On record, that is…

LP Velvet Records This is A Fantastic Bootleg! It comes from a tapesource that really should have been released officially years ago. The sound (compared to most of the other live recordings by the Velvets) is actually quite good. Only one of the songs (Guess I’m Falling In Love) was released on the Peel Slowly Box, which also included Booker T. from this show, which isn’t included here. I’m Not A Young Man Anymore is a very enjoyable pretty jamlike song with only a few lines of repeated lyrics. I’m Waiting For My Man is different from any other version you might have heard before. Run, Run, Run is way longer (some extra verses) and noisier and even though mr Reed’s singing gets rather sloppy here, it’s a brilliant version. The B side is dedicated entirely to an early version of Sister Ray, it doesn’t get as f***ing loud as the album version, it’s still a landmark in noise history. I’m really happy with this record and if they ever continue the official, so called Bootleg Series, this definitely should be part II for crying out loud! And why not include all the songs this time!?

2 CD & DVD – Geffen 2008 This is something of a dream come true! Odelay was the first Beck record I ever bought and it amazes me just to think it’s twelve years ago. It still sounds so damn’ contemporary it must have been made in a parallel universe. It hasn’t aged a bit. At the time Beck had just become famous with Loser and the album Mellow Gold when his grandfather Al Hansen died. I believe there were some more casualties to be mourned and Beck went into the studio and recorded a couple of tracks for an album he never finished. The only track that made the original Odelay album was Ramshackle, which is one of my favorite tracks. A few tracks of these sessions are included on the bonusdisc of this deluxe version. Feather In Your Cap is a very different version, both from the Whisky CanCan single as well as the Sea Change album version. Anyway, at the time Beck decided there had to be a better way to deal with grief and loss and went into the studio with The Dust Brothers and came out with Odelay. Most of the bonus material was released earlier as B-sides and on soundtracks, most of it I already knew, but there are some different versions and some of the bonus songs are longer. All in all it’s a fantastic set and an absolute must have for every Beck fan.

2 CD & DVD – Geffen/Universal 2008 Blinking Lights from 2005, kind of remembered me how great a ‘band’ eels have always been and still are. At the time I had kind of lost interest in their music, but with the double album Blinking Lights it all came back. I went to see them play (with strings) in Vredenburg, bought the Sixteen Tons CD and later the fantastic Live at Town Hall. It seems that I was not the only one who had lost interest, since these albums have all been released on other (smaller) labels than Geffen or Dreamworks. And now eels are ‘back’ (and touring again) here’s a compilation of ‘B-Sides, Soundtracks, rarities and Unreleased, released by Geffen. This seems to be the way, you drop artists and when they have fought their way back to the surface again you release everything that’s left on your shelves and try to make a buck. Just look at ‘The Radiohead box’ that was released by EMI/Parlophone last year, guaranteed to give you everything you already had for a long time just once more. Or far worse, there’s a Dutch artist whose name don’t even want to mention here, who re-released everything together in a ludicrously big box, containing not only the drab and awful music on CD, but also on a ‘very handy’ MP3 player along with a 20 inch picture of himself. How’s that for ripping off your fans? You must be really at your wits end to find something to please yourself if you go and buy that load of egomania. But enough of this, as a way of making a quick and easy buck for an ex-label, Useless Trinkets is a nice exception. There’s so much beautiful music from the first decade of their existence that was unavailable for all this time, that even 2 CD’s seem hardly enough space for it all. And most of it I had never heard before. The DVD doesn’t really appeal to me though, it’s a live performance ‘Souljacker-style’ from 2006, resulting in roughly 30 minutes of RRAAWWKK. But since mr E has found peace within himself I’m sure it’s worht watching because you’ll never get another chance to see this kind of show again. And all liner notes are newly written by the master himself. Fantastic stuff!

2CD – 2007 – Factory Records/London Records/Rhino A while back I saw ‘Control’ by Anton Corbijn. It’s a fantastic film, dramatic, funny, beautiful and painful and in a way, in lack of a better term errr… warm… And that’s remarkable, because if the movie is warm, how come the record sounds so cold? Imagine lying in the middle of a concrete floor underneath an old newspaper in the cold stare of tube light. What’s going on here? The music, lyrics and the songs are mostly really beautiful and when you’re not really taking everything too literally there’s no need to worry about anyones well-being. But at the end you feel cold and alone. There’s loads of echo and reverb, digital drums, breaking glass, elevator noises, deep voices and a chilling production. Maybe it would have been better if the icy hand of the producer had had a little more warmth. Then there would have been another kind of light at the end of the tunnel instead of the tube lights of the mortuary. In this sense the live bonus disc is a very important addition. It has a basement club atmosphere that doesn’t make you feel any better but at least they serve beer there. It’s a beautiful album and a beautiful reissue, by Rhino.

12" LP – Atlantic 1978 Although I really think that Mingus made the best music before 1965, this is great too. It’s recorded in two sessions in 1977 and 1978 about a year before his death. The entire album consists of two sidelong compositions. Cumbia & Jazz Fusion is 28 minutes long and Music for "Todo Modo" 22! According to the liner notes the B-side "Todo Modo" was made as a soundtrack for a film, whereas the Cumbia & Jazz Fusion, was another typical Mingus composition dealing with Freedom and/or discrimination. The title track is a totally bonkers combination of mediaeval melodies, South American percussion and Jazz, Mingus stylee. It starts with just bird sounds, then slowly the rythm fades in. After two minutes or so the main melody starts, flutes, oboes and clarinets play a very simple repetitive tune for quite a while. Then slowly it gets more swing and the jazz kicks in. At the end Charles starts to sing and it really takes you back to ‘Original Faubus Fables’ From 1957. As a composition it’s the happy counterpart of ‘Epitaph’, it sounds so full of life and energy it’s hard to imagine Mingus was already seriously ill at the time. The structure of "Todo Modo" is more classical, as far as I can see it’s three different parts merged into one composition in a way that really builds up the suspense. There’s some beautiful solos but the best thing is that you don’t even need to see the movie anymore. It would only come as a dissapointment after all the great music on this record.

You are looking at the brandspanking new weblog for Pondertone what’s on. This will gradually replace the what’s on page back on the pondertone site. Here you can read about the music Patrick of Pondertone is currently listening to. As a special treat I’ll try to upload some record covers as well… But as I’m rather new to this kind of stuff I’m afraid it’s going to take some time to start up.