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30. Another Place. Maggie Brown (2017)
Did we stop yesterday with Elenne May, here's another band from Amsterdam that is far more obscure than it deserves to be. Maggie Brown released a perfect album in the form of Another Place. Although I like all its songs, songs that seem to have touched me on another level, there's one that really makes the great. 'Hail To The Rain' is the kind of song that a band comes up with, if it's lucky. Only the truly great artists have more than one. Maggie Brown has one at this point from its second album and latest to date. There are more very good songs on Another Place. Check the album out.
Will the album really stay as good as I think it is right now? I was listening to it for the first time with two dark Kasteel beers in me on a Friday early evening, with my love cooking in the kitchen. Playing it loud with closed eyes, positioned ideally between the two speakers, I was proverbially swept off of my feet. But not just me, from the kitchen came "who is this"? and we played Wild God again over dinner. As I wrote before, I had nothing by Nick Cave before 'Push The Sky Away', see elsewhere in this list, and liked every album since then. Wild God tops it all. It may be over the top, or whatever people say/write about it. This is simply fantastic. Time will tell where we truly wind up. For now this is really, really good and touches me on a host of levels.
'La Flaca' may be my discovery of the Barcelona band, De Vuelta Y Vuelta is my favourite album. Here it all comes together. All the potential presented perfectly. The albums that followed all delivered but never again like this. All the different influences come together and gel like the band must have intended it before but perhaps was not yet able to achieve. Here it could and it shows. Guests bring in influences from rap music and even from Italy. In Rome in 2001 the album lay there in the Italian version, where the band had broken already. With an album like De Vuelta Y Vuelta I found it really does not matter that I do not understand more than a few words. The music tells it all. Always forward is the message I got from it. I took it to heart.
I came on board with her eponymous album not long before the release of Iris. It did not make this list, but would have been somewhere between 125 and 100. Iris is more varied, better and more mysterious. Reb Fountain shows more sides of her musical self, goes deeper musically and within herself it seems. I can listen to all the songs on Iris for a long time. The American born singer-songwriter from New Zealand is a late bloomer. She found her voice later in life but it comes across all the stronger. Iris is a real top album.
I'm cheating a bit here, but Violeta Violeta is a pop opera released in three parts over the period of one year. Should I have to choose an individual spot for each album they would be around here anyway. So why not allow for room for two other albums? On Violeta Violeta Kaizers Orchestra really goes all out. Despite the fact that you'll find some smaller songs like 'Hjerteknuser' on I, there are also several huge songs with an orchestra and choir. Songs do not come more pompous than 'Begravelsespolka' on III, nor often as good as this song As I understand the final shows were in Oslo with all these extras on stage. I never saw nor heard it. And then the band broke up, with me missing the show due to illness when this was announced. I always had the albums for consolation. There is more Kaizers Orchestra to come.
Accelerate is one of R.E.M.'s later albums, though not its final as I thought. On Accelerate the band rocks once again and is in great form. Every song is what it should be. Yes, the band released several other nice records between 2000 and 2011 but not as good and consistent as this one. Accelerate is the only one deserving a spot on this list. By now retired for well over a decade, we still have the records. I played this one for the first time in a long time because of this list and was so pleased to hear it once again. I must have played it often at the time, as all song rang bells and brought back the lyrics immediately.
Big Love Blanket is an album that grew on me. With every spin it became better. It was far too low on my 2022 list, in hindsight. Personal Trainer is the third band Willem Smit is frontman of and he's still some time away from becoming 30. Paleo Superspeed Donkey, Canshaker Pi both bands had their moments. It really came together for Smit in Personal Trainer, with bassist Ruben van Weegberg always at his side. Smit is able to play more with his alternative rock music, making it more playful and serious at the same time. This all came together on Big Love Blanket and especially in the few truly fantastic songs it has on it. They are party songs that can get any crowd moving. One of the best albums to come out of this country for sure. The bands second album, 'Still Willing', is still growing on me. Too slowly to receive a spot on this list.
Here's the Covid album of De Kift. It was presented online from an empty Paradiso. It is the only album show I've missed since 1997 or 98. Hoogriet is the album on which De Kift reached its pinnacle musically. Although over time 'Niemandsland' may prove even more impactful because of the theme, musically it will not. Delicacy meets roughness here and this includes songs to dream away to. De Kift is one of the most alternative bands I know, because nothing is "normal" with De Kift. Not the music, not the atmosphere, not the instruments used, nor the presentation. With De Kift it is impossible to predict what comes next. The surprise is always total and overwhelming. We are ageing, slowly but surely, the experience does not alter. De Kift is a great band and am glad to see it has moved back into the bigger halls of the venues once again. It deserves it. De Kift is not easy, but certainly unique.
And to think that the album containing the band's best song, 'Bal', has not made it to this list. If there ever was a song containing the essence of the band it is that song called 'Bal'. "Feeste, feeste, feeste", in all seriousness.
22. Mutter. Rammstein (2001)
I discovered Mutter several years after its release through the son of the singer of the band I was in at the time, Flopsband. My circa eight year old son discovered one of the songs somehow, perhaps 'Ich Will' through a tv commercial. I took to Mutter immediately. The melodies on the album are so strong. They mostly come from the keyboard of Christian Lorenz. The rest of the band goes for the rhythm and the deep end. In front is the imposing hulk of singer Till Lindemann, who on stage is larger than life and then some more. This album is full of great songs and is simply the band's best. Without competition in sight.
Another album from the first year of this century. Coldplay is a band I've totally lost sight of since 50% of 'X&Y'. What I wrote of a song like 'Fix You', now the band's most popular song it seems, totally came true and exemplary for nearly all songs I've heard since: boring. To think that things started with this incredibly strong and beautiful album followed by that powerful second one. On Parachutes the band sounded fresh, all but a formula. It was full of ideas that worked out so well. Whenever I hear, 'Yellow', 'Trouble' or name one of the others, I'm back immediately, enjoying the memories of the songs on Parachutes. How can things go so wrong for a band and yet become the biggest band on the planet in the 2020s? At least I have Parachutes, 'A Rush Of Blood To The Head' and an half of 'X & Y'.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
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