It seems that, every few years, i become obsessed with a performer who may have been around for a while but whose music i'd never heard before and immediately have to buy as many of their albums i can find.
The first one that i can recall was Happy Rhodes, followed a few years later by Dan Fogelberg. (Yes, i know he was extremely popular back in the 70s and 80s but i was listening to the wrong radio stations in those days.) A few years after that it was Caro Emerald's wonderful Euro-Jazz stylings. She's on my bucket list of performers i'd love to see before i die.
A couple of years ago, i thought i'd found another: Alison Sudol, the singer with A Fine Frenzy. Her voice made my spine melt and and her songwriting had a dusting of genius upon it and i bought all four of their albums. But they split up and i listened to some of her solo tracks and they were dreadful: she didn't even sound like her.
Then i thought it might be the group London Grammar and their exquisite singer Hannah Reid. Their first two albums may be considered boring as hell or so beautiful you wind up on the floor weeping with joy, and i'm definitely in the latter camp. Alas, what i've heard of their third album is so underwhelming i have no plans to whip out the credit card and zoom off to amazon.ca
This year, i discovered Isabelle Geffroy, stage name "Zaz" (a childhood nickname, i believe), who's been recording for around ten years. Her vocal style is reminiscent of Edith Piaf's, but with a gruffer timbre. Sheer magic. She's a huge star in Europe and South America but as she only sings in French and Spanish she'll never be big in North America -- although she has performed in Montreal -- and that's sad.
So, i bought a lot of Zaz cds last year. In fact i bought a lot of cds in 2020 period. Probably half of them were replacements for old vinyl (which i have no way to play at the moment), the rest were new discoveries.
The music industry is dead. Most of their "new" releases are "deluxe" editions of old albums with added bonus tracks which were left off the original releases for a very good reason -- they're crap. Or recordings of radio concerts which cost the record companies a pittance to release and are often just note-for-note performances of the original studio recordings. The major labels are desperate.
It's the independent labels that are thriving and moving into uncharted territory. Or should i say, thriving by moving into uncharted territory.
So, what were my favourite albums of 2020?
Certainly the most important album was Songs Of Our Native Daughters, released by the Smithsonian Institute. It's a compilation album featuring Rhiannon Giddens (a wonderful singer in her own right), Amythyst Kish, Leyla McCalla and Allison Russell and consists of old (19th and 20th century) songs about the experience of being a Black woman in America. It's moving, it's heartfelt, it's emotional and insanely beautiful. Every white person in the USA needs to listen to this.
Of the new (to me) albums that i bought, i think i have to give the nod to Nik Kershaw's 2001 album To Be Frank. I was a fan in the eighties but then i kinda lost track of his work, but this album is sheer joy from start to finish. Nice work, Nik!
I'll also give a nod of the Hatlo Hat to Elbow's Little Fictions (2017) -- their singer, Guy Garvey, has the voice of a choirboy and their songs touch me deeply.
(What?! I hear you exclaim, nothing by Zaz?!? Well, no, but only because all of her albums are new to me, i haven't really made close friends with any of them, yet. But it's coming!)
As for the CDs that were replacements for old vinyl, well there a couple by Free which were excellent but i'm giving the laurel wreath to CANO's Aù Nord De Notre Vie from 1977 -- CANO is an acronym for Co-operative des artistes du Nouvel-Ontario. A French-Canadian folk-rock collective from Northern Ontario. Very few of their albums are available on CD any more, and this one was a bit pricey but it was well worth it!
It's not a perfect album, by any means. The female singer, Rachel Paiement, has a gorgeous voice and the instrumental playing is sumptuous, but some of the male vocals leave a bit to be desired. I can live with that, though: Ashley Hutchings can't sing, either.
Here are the albums and some pics of Zaz.
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