Well, since I'm not a professional (or amateur) in this business, my choices are defined totally by the city and routine I'm living, and the best soundtrack to them.
I gotta say, this year I've embraced back the idea of playlist, which made me miss my old K7s, and also gave me back the feeling of planning and giving CDs especially made for some people. They were many, even if about one single artist. But that didn't eliminated the pleasure of listen to a whole album, sometimes over and over. And the following ones were almost over played, if this could be possible...
So the Top 5 albums of 2011 for a woman at the first year of doctoral studies, with no money, having music as her best friend and living in São Paulo are
1. The Twilight Singers - Dynamite Steps
Took me a while to give this album a chance because I'm a big fan of She loves you and Play Blackberry Belle. The thing is: this album is so fucking good, so much better than the other two, it makes me want to pay Greg Dulli a beer! I think the only song that didn't get me (or that I didn't get) is "Waves". and from "Get lucky" until the end it just keeps getting better. "On the corner" is the lost twin sister of "Esta noche", my two favorites songs.
2. Paul Thomas Saunders - Lilac & Wisteria
Thanks to a PLAGUE of ANGELS I've got to know this guy and bought his EP actually, these 5 fantastic songs. I love the kind of images and places PTS brings me with his songs. Usually I see stories and characters while listen to music, but with him I see hills, mountains, I feel the wind. It's excellent to listen to while taking the bus or any kind of transportation where you can see the landscape. Just be careful with your mood. Once I got into tears in public, inside a bus.
3. Eddie Vedder - Ukulele Songs
This is another excellent choice to lose yourself into the wild (yes it's a joke). But really, I've mention (in portuguese) on this post and since that trip I know I've found an album with a rhythm, a tempo like my own. The whole world shuts down, gets into silence. I love how simple, rustic this record is, and subtle at the same time. Things are clear, you feel the sun in the sky no matter how sad you are.
4. Madame Saatan - Peixe Homem
It's not because they're from my hometown and now are living in this city, étrangers like me, but some how this have something to do with it. I think is the lyrics, the way they translate the world. As much as may sound aggressive to a fast or careless listener, it' more like this: when you realize you have to deal with chaos and out-of-your-control conditions as it is, you can see your inside mess as balance. Wanna try?
5. Pearl Jam - Ten
It's easy to put this album here, after 20 years, as it is to criticize everybody who does that. But before you do, let me tell you what I was saving for a post about Ten and now goes here:
Back in 94/95 my friends weren't really into them. People could only talk about Nirvana since Kurt was dead, so I've had to discover this album by my own ways (and without internet, alright? Things like that could take years...) I remember I've had like an afternoon with someone else's CD and I recorded on tape so fast I forced "Oceans" on the A side and it was cut on half. Then I spent years getting angry every time I've heard that hahahaha.
But that's not what I was meaning to tell...
Well back then I couldn't talk or understand anything in English by myself. I'm not pretty sure I can right now but in my something-teens, despite all my denying behavior, I was highly depending on other people or magazines to get the lyrics, so I was mainly defining my taste by sound, melodies. That's how I first liked Pearl Jam. I never thought their sound was commercial or anything like it. When I think about that moment in my life, two bands resume that time for me: Legião Urbana (an Brazilian band inspired by British post-punk like Joy Division) and U2 (all phases), so PJ sound was something completely different. On the radio there was lots of House and Dance music so you see... right?
While years and bands were passing through me, other Pearl Jam material came every once and a while. I was still loving the sound, the English was improving but I still couldn't get what they were talking about. The reason it's very clear to me now: it was never about language but the fact I couldn't really understand some kinds of pain, especially the way Vedder deals with them. It was a matter of perspective. The end of my innocence allowed me to relate and to finally understand a lot of things.
Unaware of the 20th anniversary, this album came back to my life this year, with more intensity after the concert and now the lyrics get me, sometimes literally. I have been teaching to more Jeremies that I would like to tell, I've worried for each one of them and hope they have found their ways through life. Yesterday when I was packing, "Release" started to play. I sang with all my lungs and suddenly I was crying. I've lost my father (in a non dramatic way), but I'm still looking for him and that song explains everything.
I don't know if I should be saying all this, justifying my choice and what I feel. I'm just glad I've got to known Ten once more.
