What Love?

It's that time of year again, my amigos da musica, so hallelujah, here we go. FTSOTS presents the ten push and pulls of the year, not forgetting the finest reads around. Always a pleasure. Winning artwork - 'his dreams of music', yes sir - comme d'habitude by Tinca. Dig in and crack up.

1. Jake Xerxes Fussell - What In The Natural World
Jake Xerxes Fussell - Pinnacle Mountain Silver Mine
2. Colter Wall - s/t
Colter Wall - You Look To Yours
3. Joan Shelley - s/t
Joan Shelley - The Push And Pull
4. Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up
5. The Feelies - In Between
6. The Weather Station - s/t
7. Hiss Golden Messenger - Hallelujah Anyhow
8. Here Lies Man - s/t
9. Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile - Lotta Sea Lice
10. John Moreland - Big Bad Love

Flamenco dept:
Luis Moneo - Mi Cante, Mi Palabra

Top books on music:

1. Erin Osmon - Jason Molina: Riding With The Ghost

2. Clinton Heylin - Trouble In Mind: Bob Dylan's Gospel Years

3. Reinhard Kleist - Nick Cave: Mercy On Me

4. Allan Jones - Can't Stand Up For Falling Down: Rock'n'Roll War Stories

Kiss It

After a lengthy study hiatus, losing his trademark beard in the process, Robin Pecknold finally returns with his Foxes for their third album, and an ambitious one it is, too. The trademark heavenly vocal harmonies remain, but musically there's quite a difference: most of the tracks restlessly keep shifting shape, in ingeniously orchestrated arrangements. Progfolk indeed. I guess Crack-Up will keep us all busy for quite a while.

Fleet Foxes - Naiads, Cassadies

Coming Home

"A local and statewide newsbreak, then a weather alert announced another hard rain coming. I could already feel it in my bones. The song Your Protector by Fleet Foxes followed. Its melancholic menace filled my heart with strange adrenaline. Time to go..." That's from M Train, the delicate new memoir by Patti Smith. Often filled with a certain sadness, but always uplifting in the end, it's a tonic for the soul, just like a good cup of strong black coffee.

Fleet Foxes - Your Protector

Swedish Charms

A friend of mine recenty alerted me to the charms of young Swedish girl duo First Aid Kit. Thanks for the heads-up, bud: the warm, fresh and just a tad naïve pop of their full-lenghth debut The Big Black And The Blue goes down a treat here. No-frills acoustic bliss, located somewhere halfway between late-sixties Laurel Canyon and modern Stockholm. "I wish that I could have known by then... we all know now that we're never getting back to those times..."

Johanna and Klara´s earlier cover of the Fleet Foxes beauty Tiger Mountain Peasant Song, which got them on the musical map in the first place, isn´t half bad either by the way. Which finally gives me the chance to practice my Swedish in public: Välkommen, jag har saknat dig!

First Aid Kit - Heavy Storm MP3

First Aid Kit - Tiger Mountain Peasant Song MP3

And just in case you forgot what the original sounded like...

Fleet Foxes - Tiger Mountain Peasant Song MP3