The Lemur Blog

In no particular order, here comes a bunch of albums that were all considered for and nearly made it onto my top 20 albums of 2009 list. Sorry I couldn’t be bothered to upload artwork to any of them or post mp3s. But Hypem isn’t really tracking TLB anymore and the first page of my blog is turning extremely long because of all the 2009 dabblery. Sometimes text is more than enough, you should check these out too. There’s a link to a Spotify playlist at the bottom, so start there once you’ve read through the list.

The Fauns - The Fauns

CFCF - Continent

Bat For Lashes - Two Suns

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Girls - Album

Fever Ray - Fever Ray

Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms

jj - n° 2

Real Estate - Real Estate

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It’s Blitz!

The Big Pink - A Brief History Of Love

A Sunny Day In Glasgow - Ashes Grammar

Atlas Sound - Logos

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

Wild Beasts - Two Dancers

Antony And The Johnsons - The Crying Light

Wavves - Wavvves

Avner - Lyssna

Metric - Fantasies

Princeton - Cocoon Of Love

Basement Jaxx - Scars

Julian Plenti - Julian Plenti Is… Skyscraper

A Camp - Colonia

The Whitest Boy Alive - Rules

Here’s a Spotify playlist for it:

http://open.spotify.com/user/thelemurblog/playlist/6CYTTgBGansOgO3K8A9FMb

Better late than never. A few things have changed since I handed my top 20 list in to Consequence Of Sound, change in these sort of lists is a natural thing over time. But this is fairly accurate, valid and lasting. Ranking your darlings ain’t the easiest thing you know… I can’t tell for sure, but between these there’s a minimal, almost microscopical, amount of space. It’s a tight collection and tough competition for the ranks. Enough excuses for now, here it is.

1. Jonathan Johansson - En Hand I Himlen

2. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

3. Asa - Asa

4. The xx - xx

5. Jack Peñate - Everything Is New

6. Röyksopp - Junior

7. Telefon Tel Aviv - Immolate Yourself

8. Florence Valentin - Spring Ricco

9. The Horrors - Primary Colours

10. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career

11. Deportees - Under The Pavement, The Beach

12. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport

13. The Antlers - Hospice

14. Passion Pit - Manners

15. Micachu - Jewellery

16. The Field - Yesterday And Today

17. Japandroids - Post-Nothing

18. La Roux - La Roux

19. Tommy T - The Prester John Sessions

20. K’naan - Troubadour

It’s time to start this shit up again. Stay tuned…

Anyways, realized a while ago that there’s a whole bunch of songs from the 00’s that are potential material for my Top 10 Songs Of The Decade. Many of the songs on that list is from the latter half of the decade, which comes naturally since that was when I first got into the music I like today. Of course there’s amazing songs from 2000 - 2005 too. The same goes for the albums list to a slight extent but that was, understandably, a lot easier to compile than the songs list. For every album there goes approximately 10 songs, so…

Anyways, the lists for 2009 oughta be easier, I’mma compile them soon. So stay tuned.

1. Coralcola - Heath Ledger

2. Marit Bergman - I Will Always Be Your Soldier

3. Nordpolen - Skimret

4. Säkert! - Allt Som Är Ditt

5. Florence Valentin - Mitt Allt

6. Glasvegas - Geraldine

7. Alaska In Winter - The Homeless And The Hummingbirds

8. Jack Peñate - So Near

9. Asa - Fire On The Mountain

10. Arcade Fire - Wake Up

1. Nordpolen - På Nordpolen

2. Jonathan Johansson - En Hand I Himlen

3. The Knife - Silent Shout

4. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

5. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala

6. Glasvegas - Glasvegas

7. The Field - From Here We Go Sublime

8. Justice - Cross

9. Burial - Untrue

10. Asa - Asa

11. Björk - Vespertine

12. Arcade Fire - Funeral

13. Daft Punk - Discovery

14. Radiohead - Kid A

15. Gorillaz - Demon Days

16. Shad - When This Is Over

17. Elliott Smith - Figure 8

18. Maps - We Can Create

19. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours

20. Röyksopp - Junior

I can’t tell you much about it, because it’s just in the planning stage. But it WILL happen and I’ve already got my first signee, although a real contract hasn’t really been involved. I won’t however, let you know who it is until I’m ready to launch the label. I wouldn’t necessarily call it record company because it doesn’t necessarily mean releasing physical records - although it’s very likely that it will happen. I’d prefer to call it music company. Although I hate to call it company because it doesn’t involve a lot of money or structured organisation and the word company sounds so strict, formal and dull. But whatever, you get the point. The name of the record label is also to be announced further on. What I can tell you about the matter are some key words describing the label’s philosophy:

DIY

Independence

Freedom

Anti-establishment

Purity

Sincerity

Keep checking this blog for more updates and news regarding the label.

If you’re an artist feeling that you can connect to these key words I wrote above and would be interested in being signed by me, please let me know. And if you’re just some random person with tips, ideas, questions, suggestions or feel that you can and would like to help out forming this label, then please let me know too!

thelemurblog@hotmail.com

Here’s a sample of how the label’s music is going to sound. This is one of the bands I’m currently considering signing.

…

Haha, just kidding. Could you believe that? Japanese über-polished futuristic technopop girl trio Perfume on my label? Sometimes, Japanese pop music is so plastic and streamlined it hurts. Love this and the rest of the album: GAME, nonetheless!

Perfume - Baby Cruising Love

Buy GAME

You may or may not know that I’ve taken up the writing for Consequence Of Sound again. I focus mainly on record reviews. So I’ve been working on a bunch of reviews this Autumn and urge that you check out my archive here. Recommended especially are the Shad article and the review of Jack Peñate’s splendid second album Everything Is New. Check out his So Near below! The best track of the album and one of the very best pop songs of 2009 if you ask me!

Jack Peñate - So Near

Buy Everything Is New

If and when Hypem choose to pick up my blog for indexing mp3s again… I will return. So let’s hope they’re willing to pick up a small Lemur who’s ready to once again burst his heart open again for the music world he’s so lucky to be part of.

Kent is Sweden’s probably most popular pop/rock band (and, after The Knife, the BEST). This song ranks as one of their best (from their eponymous 1995 debut) and it measures up to the best Radiohead or Elliott Smith ever wrote and recorded. The lyrics in Swedish and in an English translation by me are found below. Just so you’ll “get” why I chose this as my comeback song. If you ask me, it’s one of the best ballads ever written.

Kent - Den Osynligen Mannen

Swedish lyrics

Kent - Den Osynlige Mannen

Fyll mig med luft igen
Gör mig synlig
Du får gärna avsky mig
Om det gör mig tydlig igen

Om du vill visa dig igen
Om du vill komma hit igen
Om du vill röra mig igen
Så måste jag vara i färg

Fyll mig med vatten min vän
Håll mig flytande
Jag låter dig avsky mig
Det gör mig tydlig igen

English translation (Free interpretation - out of necessity)

The Invisible Man

Fill me with air again
Make me visible
You’re more than welcome to loath me*
If it makes me visible again

If you want to show yourself again
If you want to come here again
If you want to touch me again
Then I’ll have to be in colour

Fill me with water, my friend
Keep me floating
I let you loath me
It makes me visible again

*This sentence could also be translated as “I gladly/willingly allow you to loath me”

The beauty and directness of the original language sort of disappears in a translation. But you probably get the point now why I chose it as my comeback song.

Curious personal trivia: this is my favourite drunk-song when I’m feelin’ blue, melancholic and am under the influence of alcohol.

I just totally lost all motivation to blog at all. School has started, I’ve picked up my writing for Consequence Of Sound, so less time after summer freedom = severe motivation problems and no posts.

I just feel like there’s so many things I could and would want to do with my self-hosted blog.

Do I wanna do the classic personal quasi-philosophy “write-whatever’s-on-my-mind” blog that I said I would?

Should I just continue going the same successful road I’ve been going for the last two years that The Lemur Blog has existed?

Should I prioritize school/Consequence Of Sound/clubbin’ ‘n’ giggin’/miscellaneous doings and let the blog shrink to a simple but effective “pic+awesome mp3″ format?

Should I turn it into a site (this is an idea I’ve had as of late) where I review old and new music releases (albums/EPs/singles and everything inbetween and relating to) and fulfill my dream of becoming the most famous, creddy and respected unprofessional/professional (the latter in the hope that Pitchfork picks me up) music reviewer/journalist (like a more thorough and indepth Robert Christgau, who’s the only individual that Wikipedia recognizes as a reliable review source)?

Should I just forget about it all and let it sink into oblivion in a disgraceful manner?

The last is probably not an option. I haven’t payed for a year’s worth of server hosting to not use it halfway through, you know. So something is going to be up here and whatever it is, it will be regularly. It will be on a daily basis, that is. I just need time to figure out what I want and how well it will fit my tight schedule. Until then help yourself to some Passion Pit

Passion Pit - The Reeling

P.S.

Popaganda @ Eriksdalsbadet 28-29/8 was awesome. Major Lazer @ Debaser Medis 2/9 was awesome. Passion Pit @ Debaser Slussen 3/9 was awesome. The Queue @ Stinsvillan 5/9 was awesome.

There’s no coincidence that Ricco was the name of choice for Love Antell when he wrote the title track to Florence Valentin’s third and latest album Spring Ricco. It’s not for any possible rhyming qualities. It’s not to sound exotic. The lyrics dealing with young violence point towards a brave and important reference to the Riccardo Campogiani incident in Sweden. An incident that struck a few heavy chords inside of me. Florence Valentin’s song strikes a few chords as well. Being the closest thing to Glasvegas any Swedish band has come, Florence Valentin mix exuberant popability á la Håkan Hellström and social-realistic themes where every word sounds like the truest ever sung.

The lyrics of the album will be translated and posted here on this blog soon!

Florence Valentin - Spring Ricco