Cutting it fine this week folks! Without further ado, here are last week’s charts:
Top Artists this Week (see more)
18 Nov 2007 – 25 Nov 2007
 8 | 1 | Beppe Gambetta |
34
|
| 2 | Suzanne Vega |
31
| |
| 3 | The Wonder Stuff |
30
| |
| 4 | Pierre Bensusan |
28
| |
| 5 | Roger Waters |
20
| |
| 33 | 6 | Talking Heads |
14
|
| 7 | Tony McManus |
10
| |
| 7 | Stephen Fry |
10
| |
| 9 | Anne Dudley and Jaz Coleman |
9
| |
| 10 | Big Audio Dynamite II |
8
|
Beppe‘s at the top. His new one (Slade Stomp) is really very good.
Things are beginning to look a bit more representative of my actual music tastes now. I won’t go into them all this week as I’m sure the ones who haven’t yet been my featured artist will be one day. Stephen Fry is the audio books of Harry Potter, and Anne Dudley and Jaz Coleman is a CD called Songs from the Victorious City which I was overjoyed to find (it wasn’t that hard actually). I used to listen to it a lot on cassette during my university days, playing cards with my mate and rolling Camberwell carrots. The Victorious City is a direct translation from the Arabic for Cairo. It was a real treat to hear those tunes again.
And so to this week’s artist. Many years ago, when I was still quite wee (must’ve been around 1987) I caught a documentary on Suzanne Vega. It was late at night, I was tired and only half watching. One tune really caught my attention and I started watching intently after that. The tune was Fancy Poultry (from her second album, Solitude Standing). I then bought that album and her first one and listened to them a heck of a lot. They were very much part of the soundtrack to my mid to late teenage years. I continued to follow her work and got a new CD whenever one was released. She evolved and changed styles and producers and got a bit more experimental and I just loved her stuff. I got to see her in Edinburgh back in 1993 and again here in a school gym hall in Luxembourg in about 2002 and then at a festival in Belgium the following year. She’s really great live. At the Belgium gig I was already part of the Towie Tree (the forum on her own web site) and so was able to go back stage and say hi to her. It was great to meet her.
I have learned to play a few of her tunes on the guitar, including my very favourite The Queen and the Soldier.
I knew that she had a new album due out and checked this week. Sure enough, there it was, Beauty & Crime and it was DRM free on Amazon! I’ve listened to it a couple of times and like it but I don’t know it well enough yet to comment. It’s with a new producer again (she divorced her previous producer, Mitchell Froom a few years ago) and features the vocals of her daughter Ruby and KT Tunstall!
I could write more and more coherently but I’m really tired and it’s time for bed.
Anyway, here are a few samplers for y’all.
