Album of the month: January & February

I decided to start a new series of blogposts. The idea is to post a blog every month about the album I liked best. Since it is March already I'm 2 months behind So I'll start with two albums.

January: The Decemberists - The King is Dead

Well, this one was quite easy. Since I listen to this CD the whole time.
I already new the Decemberists, because I had this sampler CD from Rough Trade with one track from them called '16 military wives' Which is a pretty well known song I guess. But when I heared this new CD I was totally surprised, in a good way. There are more folk influences and in one song 'Rox in the Box' they use an Irish tune (known as Raggle Taggle Gipsy. The Dutchies may recognize it as an song that Rapalje plays often :)
They use more backvocals, which gives the whole a very melodic and folky touch. This album makes you a bit nostalgic. You wouldn't guess that this band is actually from America! The sound is so Irish/Scottish. I didn't even know, untill I googled the bandname.

Here is my favourite track from the album the King is Dead:




February: Daniël Lohues - Hout Moet

Actually, this one was easy to pick too! I'm a big fan of Lohues. He sings in a Dutch dialect called 'Drents' which I, as a 'Groninger' can easily understand. Before this album he made a series of 4 albums. All titled 'Allenig' ('Alone'), marked with numbers I to IV, but you can also indicate them by the seasons. Each album stands for a different season. Now he made a new album with different artist, but with the same strong lyrics. He really is a word artist. It's a shame the non Dutchies, well and even some Dutchies will not understand the lyrics. But the melodies are great to! It's a folky albums, with Irish/Scottish influences in a couple of songs. We didn't here that in the previous albums.
'Hout moet' has two meanings, it can mean: 'as it has to be' or 'keep a good heart'
I couldn't find my favourite teack on YouTube, but I like all songs, so here is one track, called 'Prachtig mooie dag' which means: very beautiful day.



See you again next month ;) (Well, I think you'll see me earlier with another blog post!)