The
Hotlist 
THE HOT AND NOT
LIST as of February 18th 2001
Le Mec:
Hotlist
- Fragma:
"Toca". Their singles "Toca's Miracle" and " Everytime You Need
Me" have been really great and the entire album is filled with beautiful trance/dance
songs just like them.
- Swan Lee:
"Tomorrow Never Dies". A song originally intended for the James Bond film of the
same name a few years back. However, most people know that Sheryl Crow ended up delivering
the theme song. Swan Lee's contender is every bit a haunting and atmospheric, though, and
probably only got scrabbed because someone more famous came along. Swan Lee's debut album
"Enter" is out too but I haven't yet heard it. Should be fine too, though...
- Michael
Penn. I've been listening to his music over the last couple of weeks and
feel like promoting it a little. And yes, he is related to the actor Sean Penn (he's the
brother)...However, strongly inspired by The Beatles he delivers a very personal music
dish that should be known by more people. Check out the debut album "March" from
1989 or the other two releases "Free-For-All" or "Resigned".
- Nik
Kershaw has written a book about how to make it in the music business.
It's called "Spilling The Beans On...Making It In Music" and is based on
Kershaw's personal experiences in the business. Probably contains a few good stories...
- POINT OF
VIEW: Deciding on what makes an album great...
Every time I discuss music with other people and we get to discussing what makes
an album great, it's funny how people can never agree on the same albums or on the
criteria which should characterise these great albums. Personal taste and opinion is one
thing, but what about some common guidelines to measure albums against...
What is a great album anyway? Is it a great album if the critics say so but not many
people have bought it? Do these critics have a more important music taste than our own?
Ultimately, labeling an albums as "great" is always based on music taste and
therefore a very subjective matter. We can only lean towards the media for inspiration to
find our own favourites.
Should we look to sales figures to determine what are the best albums? Because even though
music today is about a lot more than just the actual musical content (take Britney Spears
f.ex.) and therefore may seem superficial and thin, the public voice still carries some
weight when giving an impression of what's good or bad. Even if we like it or not. But
maybe an album is great if is sells 10 million copies - no matter whether the artist is
Britney Spears or some basement experimental half-drunken 50-year old Russian fugitive
living in Budapest...
How do you decide?
Personally, I think the best choice is often to aim somewhere in the middle. If an album
sells well and has gotten great or at least good reviews, it's probably worth checking
out. At least if you have a fairly wide taste in music and don't only get turned on by
Slayer or Backstreet Boys.
Maybe a good idea is to find a few reference points you can compare your own music taste
with. This could be a certain music magazines or even a specific critic. You then know
that if this person likes an album, you'll probably like it too....or the other way
around. I personally use the media and friends as reference points plus the occasional
discovery journey in the local record stores. This approach seems to work well since I dig
out a lot of music I like and rarely come across really great artists I have never ever
heard of before...
So, if all else fails, I guess you'll just have to take a few chances now and then to find
that special artist or album. There might be a lot of crap amongst your findings, but for
every pearl you dig out you should be prepared to swallow a certain amount of bad tasting
pieces of dirt.
- NME
Carling Awards 2001 - The results. As promised a few weeks ago, below you
will find the results of the NME awards held on February 6th. I guess there weren't too
many surprises. For more info and reports on the awards, check www.nme.com. The winners are (I have marked
my personal winners with a
 ):
Notlist
- Creed.
This post-grunge mainstream rock band has sold over 9 million copies of their debut album
in the US. This is just horrible since I find their music tragically ordinary and copyist.
It so beats me how a band like this can sell that amount of albums....a bit like Hootie
& The Blowfish selling over 13 million of their debut album. Come on, Americans, if
you need somebody to direct you to some decent music, I'll be glad to help you!
- German
R&B. It had to happen. With every country jumping on the
ever-forgettable R&B wave, German R&B artists are now also surfacing in the
international charts. I really wish they'd stick to techno and trance music - at least
they do that with some success. There just isn't much credibility in a German guy pouring
his heart out in R&B style...
- Danish
Eurovision Song Contest. With Denmark winning the Eurovision Song Contest
last year, the whole country went mad and suddenly the whole concept got all credible and
accepted. This weekend, the Danish contender for this year's throne was found and in May
the battle is to be fought in Copenhagen. I mean, no matter how you twist and turn it, the
musical qualities of the contest remain a big pile of crap! I hope this will soon be
realised so that we can all go back listening to at least half decent music on the radio
again...
- Blur:
"13". This album was honoured as being the best album of 2000 by many magazines
and music critics. Maybe I'm missing the plot or just haven't understood the
album....because I think it's faily awful. Admitted, it does have its moments and given
Blur's musical qualities will never be completely bad....but to me, it just lacks any
really good songs and melodies and is too experimental for its own good. A bit like
Radiohead's "Kid A". File as "Higly Overrated".
- JJ72
live. Went to a concert with this Irish band a couple of days ago and was fairly
entertained. However, I think the band lacked some extrovert audience appeal and should do
more to make their performance interesting and more varied. At least the concert left me
with the impression that JJ72 are best discovered on cd.
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