It took nine months to add 25000 tracks to my charts. Last time, very little had happened, this time all the more, at least in the lower half of the top 10.

1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (previously #2)
I feel I almost need to restrain myself and listen to other stuff too. So good.
2. The White Stripes (#1)
My interest has waned a little bit, but just a little bit.
3. The Knife (#3)
Two good albums isn't enough. I listen to them now and then, but I suspect that with another 25000 plays, PJ Harvey will overtake the Swedish electronic sibling duo.
4. PJ Harvey (#4)
Steady. Gets a few plays every week. Found new appreciation for White Chalk which I didn't like much early on.
5. Pixies (#5)
Feels like it's just a matter of time before they lose both one and two positions to Boris and Mogwai, and probably Deerhoof soon after as well.
6. Boris (-)
Has cannonballed up the chart, by far the most plays the last 12 months.

7. Mogwai (-)
Typical me to discover post-rock 5-10 years after everybody else. The new album is great.

8. Daft Punk (-)
Feels like they have peaked on my chart and is about to start a slow descent, if there is anything below that can overtake them. Alive 2007 is still a great album, but I'm not listening much to it anymore.

9. The New Pornographers (-)

9. Deerhoof (-)

The top five sat safe in place (except Nick Cave and the White Stripes that switched place), but otherwise it was a big shift - five new bands in positions 6-10. I had predicted that Mogwai and Daft Punk would find their way into the top 10, but I had barely heard Boris by the time I wrote the last time document (2 January 2008) and now they're my sixth most placed artist overall. Deerhoof was also completely unexpected, but I've simply been obsessed by these bands lately. The New Pornographers found their way into the top 10 just in time for me to grow a bit tired of them - can't say for certain that they will fall back out, but if my next update is with 100,000 plays, I feel some band has to find their way up into the top 10, and then it's either them or Daft Punk that will draw the short straw.

Out since last time: The Hives, Gorillaz, Hello Saferide, Mano Negra, Garmarna.
Hello Saferide could possibly make a comeback if I like the new album, but otherwise these are bands that will continue to fall down the list. Not sure what bands are coming on strong now - Kaizers Orchestra, Tom Waits, Sonic Youth, Melvins perhaps. God Is an Astronaut, Neutral Milk Hotel, Murder City Devils are moving upwards but have ways to go.

Zakochałam się ostatnio w jednej piosence... Jest tak niesamowita, że słucham ją w 3 wykonianiach: Haggarda, Garmarny i In Extremo. Ale nie tylko oni postanowili ją zaśpiewać.

Cytując za Wikipedią:
Herr Mannelig (albo: Herr Mannerlig) jest średniowieczną szwedzką balladą, która opowiada historie zdesperowanego górskiego trolla (płci żeńskiej huldra), który chce zostać człowiekiem. Troll wierzy, że wychodząc za Pana Manneliga (Herr Mannelig) stanie się człowiekiem. Ofiarowuje mu wspaniałe dary lecz on odmawia, gdyż troll nie jest chrześcijanką. Istnieje wiele wersji, które mają rożne melodie i słowa, jednak większość opiera się na tej właśnie historii.


Pozwólcie, że tekst piosenki przekopiuję ze strony Jacka Dobrzynieckiego [ http://www.dobrzyniecki.one.pl/mannelig.htm ] :

HERR MANNELIG

Pewnej nocy, kiedy nie nastał jeszcze świt
Kiedy pierwszy kur jeszcze nie zapiał
Do pana zamku przyszła chcąc oddać rękę mu
córka trolla, z gór czarownica.

Herr Mannelig, Herr Mannelig, weź za żonę mnie
jam przecież taka jest hojna
Usłyszeć mogę tylko od ciebie tak lub nie
Czy tego chcesz czy nie

Dwanaście pięknych ja rumaków tobie dam
które pasą się w gaju cienistym
Nie poznał jeszcze siodła żadnego konia grzbiet
ni pysk żaden nie gryzł wędzidła

Dwanaście murowanych młynów tobie dam
Które stoją od Tillo do Terno
Ich żarna tak czerwone jak ognie piekła są
Ich koła aż świecą od srebra

Piękny miecz złocony ja tobie jeszcze dam
w boju nigdy cię on nie zawiedzie
Gdy piętnastu złotych pierścieni zabrzmi klang
wróg ucieknie z pola w popłochu

Dodam też koszulę tak białą niby śnieg
co z zamorskich jedwabiów jest tkana
Nie znajdziesz drugiej takiej choćbyś świat cały zszedł
Tobie tylko ją ofiaruję

Dary te królewskie chętnie przyjąłbym
gdybyś była córką Kościoła
Lecz tyś jest córką trolla, starego czarta z gór
siostrą diabła, dziedziczką Necka

I w ciemność precz odeszła córka trolla z gór
w mroku lasów cichła jej skarga
Jeślibym rycerza za męża mogła wziąć
Ma udręka by się skończyła

Herr Mannelig, Herr Mannelig, weź za żonę mnie
jam przecież taka jest hojna
Usłyszeć mogę tylko od ciebie tak lub nie
Czy tego chcesz czy nie

Haggard - Herr Mannelig


Garmarna - Herr Mannelig


In Extremo - Herr Mannelig



Obecnie poluję na rosyjską wersję dobrej jakości...

April 8, 2008

This is my music collection BEFORE my computer upgrade. Current laptop of 4 years has 30GB; within a month I plan on upgrading to much bigger. Correspondingly, the music collection should increase.

This is the "before" snapshot:

Artist - Album

!!! - !!!
4hero - Two Pages

A
A Minor Forest - Flemish Altruism (Constituent Parts 1993-1996)
A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step
Add N to (X) - Avant Hard
Aesop Rock - Bazooka Tooth
Aesop Rock - Float
Al Di Meola - Friday Night In San Francisco
The Album Leaf - In a Safe Place
The Album Leaf - One Day I'll Be on Time
The Album Leaf - The Seal Beach EP
Amon Tobin - Foley Room
Amon Tobin - Permutation
Andy Statman & David Grisman - Songs of Our Fathers
Animal Collective - Feels
Animal Collective - Here Comes The Indian
Animal Collective - Sung Tongs
Arab Strap - Elephant Shoe
Arab Strap - Monday At The Hug And Pint
Arab Strap - The Red Thread
The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

B
Beans - Shock City Maverick
Black Liquid Death - Love Is Death
Boards of Canada - The Campfire Headphase
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
Boards of Canada - High Scores
Boards of Canada - In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
Boards of Canada - Peel Session
Boards of Canada - Trans Canada Highway
Bomb the Music Industry! - To Leave or Die in Long Island
Bonobo - Animal Magic
Bonobo - Days To Come
Bonobo - Animal Magic
Bonobo - Dial 'M' for Monkey
Bonobo - Live Sessions
Bonobo - One Offs Remixes and B-Sides
Bonobo - Solid Steel presents Bonobo
Bonobo - Sweetness
Brazilian Girls - Talk To La Bomb

C
Culturcide - Tacky Souvenirs of Pre-Revolutionary America

D
Dälek - Abandoned Language
Dälek - from filthy tongue of gods and griots
Don Caballero - American Don
Don Caballero - Don Caballero 2
Don Caballero - For Respect
Don Caballero - Singles Breaking Up, Vol. 1
Don Caballero - What Burns Never Returns
Don Caballero - World Class Listening Problem

E
Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
Explosions in the Sky - The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place
Explosions in the Sky - Friday Night Lights Soundtrack
Explosions in the Sky - How Strange, Innocence
Explosions in the Sky - The Rescue (EP)
Explosions in the Sky - Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever

F
Faust - So Far
Faust - Faust Iv
Four Tet - Dialogue
Four Tet - Everything Ecstatic
Four Tet - Pause
Four Tet - Rounds

G
Garmarna - Vedergällningen
Ghostland Observatory - delete.delete.i.eat.meat...
Ghostland Observatory - Paparazzi Lightning

H
Happy Apple - Happy Apple Mix (by David King)
The Herbaliser - Something Wicked This Way Comes
The Herbaliser - Take London
The Herbaliser - Very Mercenary

J
Jane's Addiction - Kettle Whistle
Jane's Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual
Jedi Mind Tricks - Instrumentals
Jedi Mind Tricks - Violent by Design
Jedi Mind Tricks - Visions of Gandhi
Jedi Mind Tricks - The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological And Electro-Mangetic Manipulation Of Human Consciousness

K
Kid Koala - Breeze Block
Kid Koala - Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Kid Koala - Emperor's Main Course
Kid Koala - Some of My Best Friends Are DJs
Kid Koala - Scratchcratchratchatch
Kid Koala - Nufonia Must Fall
Kid KoalaKid Koala - Live From the Short Attention Span Audio Theater Tour

L
Lali Puna - Faking the Books
Lali Puna - Scary World Theory
Little Wings - Discover Worlds of Wonder
Little Wings - Light Green Leaves
Little Wings - The Wonder City
Little Wings - Wonderue
Lupe Fiasco - Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor

M
Maserati - Confines of Heat
Maserati - The Language Of Cities
Mission of Burma - Vs.
Mouse on Mars - Varcharz
Muddy Waters - The Anthology: 1947-1972
Musique Bye Leo. - [album artist=Musique Bye Leo.][/album]

N
Nicola Conte - Bossa Per Due
Nicola Conte - Other Directions

P
Phonem - Ilisu
Pole - 1
Pole - 2
Pole - 3
Pole - Steingarten

R
RJD2 - The Third Hand

S
Slint - Spiderland
The Smashing Pumpkins - Adore
The Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (disc 1: Dawn to Dusk)
The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (disc 2: Twilight to Starlight)
The Smashing Pumpkins - Machina/The Machines of God
The Smashing Pumpkins - Pisces Iscariot
The Smashing Pumpkins - Greatest Hits

T
Tool - 10,000 Days
Tool - Aenima
Tool - Lateralus
Tool - Opiate
Tool - Salival
Tool - Undertow
Tool - Sleep Forever
Triosk - Moment Returns
Tristeza - Espuma
Tristeza - Mania Phase
Tristeza - Mixed Signals

Please give me more suggestions (as if last.FM recommendations weren't enough). I need help filling out the missing letters...any artist recommendations starting with I, O, Q, and U-Z ? thanks and rawk on...

Top 50:

1. L’âme immortelle
2. London After Midnight
3. Deine Lakaien
4. Emilie Autumn
5. Die Ärzte
6. Inkubus Sukkubus
7. In Extremo
8. Rammstein
9. Pain
10. Nightwish
11. Placebo
12. Cradle Of Filth
13. Marilyn Manson
14. J.B.O.
15. Apocalyptica
16. Dope Stars Inc
17. Wolfsheim
18. Celtic Woman
19. Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio & Spirital Front
20. System Of A Down
21. Queen
22. The Crüxshadows
23. Rabenschrey
24. Oomph!
25. Thomas Newman
26. QNTAL
27. Faun
28. Joachim Witt
29. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
30. Garmarna
31. Within Temptation
32. W.A.S.P.
33. Sopor Aeternus And The Ensemble Of Shadows
34. Depeche Mode
35. Unheilig
36. Sarah Brightman
37. Michael Jackson
38. HIM
39. Falkenbach
40. Ayreon
41. A7ie
42. And One
43. David Bowie
44. Leaves’ Eyes
45. Lacrimosa
46. Children Of Bodom
47. Yazoo
48. Finger Eleven
49. Falco
50. Carl Orff


Germany: 17

1. Deine Lakaien
2. Die Ärzte
3. In Extremo
4. Rammstein
5. J.B.O.
6. Wolfsheim
7. Rabenschrey
8. Oomph!
9. Qntal
10. Faun
11. Joachim Witt
12. Sopor Aeternus and The Ensemble of Shadows
13. Unheilig
14. Falkenbach
15. And One
16. Leaves' Eyes
17. Carl Orff

England: 8

1. Inkubus Sukkubus
2. Placebo
3. Cradle of Filth
4. Queen
5. Depeche Mode
6. Sarah Brightman
7. David Bowie
8. Yazoo

USA: 8

1. London After Midnight
2. Emilie Autumn
3. Marilyn Manson
4. System of a Down
5. The Crüxshadows
6. Thomas Newman
7. W.A.S.P.
8. Michael Jackson

Finland: 4

1. Nightwish
2. Apocalyptica
3. HIM
4. Children of Bodom

Austria: 3

1. L'Âme Immortelle
2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
3. Falco

Sweden: 3

1. Pain
2. Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio
3. Garmarna

Netherlands: 2

1. Within Temptation
2. Ayreon

Canada: 1

1. Finger Eleven

France: 1

1. :A7IE:

Ireland: 1

1. Celtic Woman

Italy: 1

1. Dope Stars Inc.

Switzerland: 1

1. Lacrimosa

I love me some non-English music. I love it whether it's French, Italian, Romanian, German, Japanese or Spanish.

Well, not so much Spanish.

Okay, generally not Spanish at all, but almost everything else.

I guess it comes from a love of languages? (Except Spanish!) To my right, I have instructional books, tapes, cds and dvds for Persian, Japanese, Finnish, Russian, Romanian, Spanish (eek!), Italian and Mandarin. Elsewhere in the apartment you can find books for French, Vietnamese and Korean.

In addition, my sister borrowed my copy of the Hindi dvds, and I've also taken 2 years of high school German. Just don't ask me to say much unless you give me a week to prep. :)

Now, this all has a very interesting impact on my listening habits. What music do I listen to? Mainly English, yes, but what comes next? I think I will find out.

Main rules:

1) Jaci Velasquez counts as English, unless the artist tag had an accent mark, then it's Spanish.
2) BoA is a strange one. I will count 1/3 of her music as Japanese, and 2/3 as Korean: I don't like her English voice, so I never listen. I know she has many more Japanese songs than Korean, but I listen to her Korean stuff more often.
3) Kate Ryan will be 10% French.
4)
5) Taiwanese music will be counted with Mandarin, since I don't know the difference. Yet.
6) I can only count the songs shown in my all time charts, so anything that doesn't show up there simply can't be counted.
7) This list counts the 3212 songs that I could find on my list

On to the list:

1) Mandarin @ 20%

Well, I didn't listen to any Mandarin until just before Mandarin class started this recent summer, so going from nothing to first is a pretty good run. This was mainly due to the enjoyable music of S.H.E, who sits at #5 of my most played list. Their album Play was my first Mandarin album.

2) Japanese @ 18.4%

I was thoroughly surprised when I started listening to Mandarin, that I all but completely forgot about Japanese. Now, most of the Japanese music I used to listen to, kinda sounds bad. I mean the voices, not the music... Still, 倉木麻衣 and her Delicious Way keep me listening.

3) Romanian @ 16.8%

I'm not too shocked to find Romanian up in third. While I did listen to Japanese on a regular basis, it was the music of Alina, Anna Lesko, Andra and Corina that held my attention during the 9 months I spent in Texas.

4) Korean @ 14.7%

After this, the percentages get crazy small. Korean pretty much started it all, even though Japanese was my foray into foreign music (followed by Russian). When, and I don't remember how, I first heard BoA, I fell in love. Then she released Atlantis Princess, and Korean was a permanent fixture on my list. After she switched to Japanese, I had to get my fix with S.E.S.'s last album. For now, I keep my Korean tracks to SeeYa and 카라 (KaRa).

5) Middle Eastern & Indian @ 8.8%

I group them together because of their similar music and vocals. I also can't tell the difference between Arabic, Punjab, Hindi, etc., so this is simply the best way. (Imagine "Asian" music combined into one.. oi! Yes, that would include this as well...). At any rate, this group is helped mostly by Aneela of Toy-Box fame, and supported by soundtracks to several Bollywood flicks that I fell in love with while in Texas.

6) Finnish @ 3.8%

What can I say? Varttina (not tagged, sorry), was pretty awesome and I did decide to add half the tracks of Nylon Beat. I really don't listen to Finnish much anymore...

7) Cantonese @ 3.1%

Thanks to my Jadeworld subscription on DirecTv, I get to wath fabulous Cantonese music videos. I've got a lot DVR'd, and from that I find the music I enjoy and listen to it. Cantonese is a recent addition to my Language of Music list. It is perhaps the most recent, come to think of it. Since I can't read Chinese characters very well yet, nor do I understand Cantonese (and the subtitles don't help hehe), I find few of these artists. One, however, that I've found and enjoyed is 鄧穎芝.

8) Turkish @ 2.7%

Last winter I purchased and listened many times over to Sultana's cd. I can't remember the album title offhand. It's pretty slick hip hop with few nice samples here and there.

9) French @ 2.3%

With a healthy does of Kate Ryan's French songs to add to my small collection of Assia and other French artists, a top 10 for my second least favorite language is pretty good.

10) African @ 2.1%

Thanks to the soundtrack to Tsotsi, I've got some nice tracks from the other southern continent.

11) Thai and Swedish tie with 1.8%

China Dolls, despite their name, sing in a lovely language called Thai. Sit that alongside Bubble Girls, and Thai ties with the only Swedish band I listen to: Garmarna

13) Pacific Islands @ 0.9%

I have no way to tell which island, which language, or what, so I group them together. I've been listening to Te Vaka, among others.

14) Spanish @ 0.8%

Jaci Velasquez, with just a small bit of help from some other band I can't remember, keeps Spanish out of last place. It was because of Jaci, not the language.

15) Portuguese @ 0.4%

Matato'a performs in Hawaiian, but also in Portuguese. Their song Fusion Natural was one of the practice songs for the first Polynesian Dance classes I took.

16) Vietnamese @ 0.4%

With one less track played than Portuguese, Vietnamese suffers from being another one of my not-so-favorite languages.

And that's it. All 16 languages that I've listened to since 1999, at least, as best as i can figure it.

Any recommendations for foreign music you think I might like based on what I've written here?

Well, it's that time of year again. Time for the list of the best albums of 2007. I have never done any such list. Not for music, nor anything else. So be gentle.

As far as music was concerned, 2007 did not impress me much. I discovered a lot of great music in 2007, but most of it was not made in 2007. So I will exclude those albums for this list. Most of the music released in 2007 that I was looking forward to was really pretty medicore in the grand scheme of things. The things that I did like, were not anything really note-worthy. So this was a tough list to compile. But I digress. Let's just get on to the albums.


Best newly-discovered music:
Wir sind Helden - Soundso
favorite tracks: Stiller, The Geek (shall inherit), Kaputt, Labyrinth

An old high school friend had moved to Germany a few years ago and he was about to come visit Florida for a bit, so we decided to meet up. He told me about Wir sind Helden, and I decided to check them out. They had just released a new album in 2007, so I gave it a listen. And wow. It was pretty damn good. There were a couple songs that I couldn't really get into, but most of the album was very nice and interesing. It was a real mixed bag of different styles, but it did well in each area. They turned out to be a really great band, and Soundso came out of nowhere to become a favorite of last year.

Best unexpected hit:
東京事変 - 娯楽
favorite tracks: OSCA, 黒猫道, 私生活, 復讐, 月極姫

I was actually very surprised at how much I liked this album. I have not really liked Tokyo Jihen that much since they first debuted. Their first two singles were pretty good, but then I kind of lost interest after their first album. That interest came back full force with OSCA, though. That song rocked, and the video rocked even harder. Killer Tune was rather good, but I was worried the album would be more in that big-band, old-sounding vein. Thankfully, the album rocked pretty hard anyway. I did not think I would ever like a Tokyo Jihen album. I was proven wrong with this release. There were still a few songs that I didn't suit my fancy, but the album as a whole was very enjoyable.


And I guess that's about all for last year. Seriously. In my opinion, there was just nothing to get that excited about. But I'll talk a little bit more about a couple of other albums, just for the sake of argument.


Chara - Union
favorite tracks: This is my car, Amai amai

I really liked a few songs of this release. "Amai Amai" and "This is my car" are really great, heart-felt songs. "UNION" and "watashi o mitsumete" were also pretty good overall, but lacked that special something that makes a Chara song a timeless classic. "Crazy for you" and "Sekai" were very fun and nice songs too, but those actually came out in 2006, so they don't really count. So while this album is nice, and is a solid release, it just wasn't anything note-worthy, exciting, ground-breaking, or the like. Whereas, her last two albums, A Scenery Like Me and Something Blue, were just that. And much more. So as a follow up to those two albums, this release just seemed to be a step backwards maybe. Her moving to Universal Music probably had a lot to do with it. Oh, well. Here's hoping her next album is a bit better.


ART-SCHOOL - Flora
favorite tracks: SWAN DIVE, hikari to shintai

This was a really disappointing album. The lead-up released were so good! And there was so much new material! But it didn't really live up to my expectations. There were a couple of good songs, a couple of okay/catchy songs, and a whole lot of "meh" songs.


Sigur Rós - Hvarf
favorite tracks: Salka, Hljómalind

Well, this is the only Sigur Rós music released this year. (Excluding the song "Heima" which was featured in the DVD release of the same name.) It came with another disc titled "Heim" which only had live versions of already released material. So this was esentially a three track single (or four if you count the new version of Von). And the new songs weren't anything spectacular. "Takk..." is one of my most favorite albums ever, so I was really looking forward to a new release from them. While the three "new" songs were actually written years ago (just not recorded or released), I was still expecting a lot from this release. While I really like all three songs, they just aren't all that great. And there's only three of them. It was still a nice release, and I whole-heartedly enjoyed it, but it wasn't anything note-worthy in my opinion.


鬼束ちひろ - Las Vegas
favorite tracks: everyhome, Bokura Bara-iro no Hibi, Sweet Rosemary, Angelina

This album is kind of like Chara's UNION. It's pretty good, but it's not that good. Not as good as her other works, and not as good as expected. But "everyhome" is a real classic. It's just an amazing song. "Bokura bara-iro no hibi" was fantastic as well, so that just made the anticipation for this all the higher. But it ended up being kind of folksy and weird in places, and it's just a little awkward all around. It's a mixed bag, but not in a good way. It has some great songs, but also some songs that just feel out of place. None of the songs are that bad really, they're all pretty good, they just don't seem to sound well together.


椎名林檎 - 平成風俗
favorite tracks: ギャンブル

This was an okay album, but there was a lot of old material on it, and a lot of covers, so it just felt like a hodge podge of odds and ends rather than a true album. And I did not really enjoy it that much, but I must say GAMBLE is a truly awesome song. PAPAYA MANGO is pretty good too. But overall, this one was pretty "meh." Suprisingly the Tokyo Jihen album was a lot better than this. Something I could not have foreseen.

And I liked Björk's song Earth Intruders. And that was about it.

So that's my take on 2007. I will end with my last.fm statistics for last year's most played artists, albums, and songs, although the majority of those albums and songs were released long before 2007.

The number at the end represents the number of times I have played songs by the artist, within the album, or the song itself.
* indicates that I first heard of this music in 2007.
+ indicates that the music was released in 2007.

Top 12 listened artists of 2007:
01 Chara 1,529
02 Cocco 1,425
03 Spangle call Lilli line 778
04 Sigur Rós 617
05 Triakel* 592
06 Andrew Summers 479
07 ACO 461
08 The Channels* 430
09 Wir sind Helden*+ 427
10 椎名林檎 424
11 Garmarna* 408
12 Windy Hill* 404

Top 10 listened albums of 2007:
01 Cocco – サングローズ 492
02 The Channels – The Channels* 352
03 Spangle call Lilli line – 68 SCLL 335
04 Radiohead – The Bends 280
05 Triakel – Triakel* 256
06 Windy Hill – 無風* 222
07