"We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the very first time." -- TS Eliot
Alternative Gifting: The Daily Mantra’s Top 10 Essential Listening List
by Nicole
Music to inspire, create and make love to, these albums have been in heavy rotation in the Daily Mantra's life this year.
1 Giant Leap / 1 Giant Leap
After receiving numerous, and quite justified, complaints about missing the 1 Giant Leap documentary off our DVD list, we’re making sure the accompanying soundtrack album is at the top on this one. The multi-media, audio/visual travelogue project features Baaba Maal, Robbie Williams, Michael Stipe (click HERE for music video), Michael Franti and Neneh Cherry, to name but a few, and packs more of the world than you ever thought possible onto one, very beautiful album.
An Ancient Muse / Loreena McKennitt
After the unexpected death of her fiancé in 1998, Canadian singer and harpist Loreena McKennitt withdrew from the limelight. A reflection on the Celtic singer’s extensive travels in the intervening years, Ancient Muse marked a highly anticipated return from her self-imposed exile and a venture into more wordly sounds.
Colour The Small One / Sia
The Daily Mantra has a preview of copy of Sia's excellent new album, Some People Have Real Problems, which is set for release on Jan 8th 2008, but for now fans of the bluesy, sometimes Zero 7 songstress will have to make do with Color The Small One, which rose to prominence after the breathtaking track "Breathe" was chosen as the soundtrack to Six Feet Under's long drive into the sunset.
Conjure One / Conjure One
Woefully ignored when it was released, the self-titled debut from Conjure One (aka B.C. born ex-Frontline Assembly member Rhys Fulber) features one of the most stunning vocal performance ever from Sinéad O' Connor on the impassioned “Tears From The Moon.” The follow up album, Extraordinary Ways, is also well worth a spin.
Ultimate Kylie / Kylie Minogue
Since Kylie Minogue's post-cancer comeback album X has yet to be released here in the U.S., check out this double CD hits collection which boasts everything from the highly infectious worldwide smash "Cant' Get You Out Of My Head" to the lesser known, but equally worthy, "Where The Wild Roses Grow," an unexpected, yet delightful, collaboration with Nick Cave. The soundtrack of a survivor.
The Mating Game / Bitter Sweet
You may not have heard of the band, but you'll have heard their super-sexy, laid-back, lush grooves promoting everything from ABC's Samantha Who to Victoria Secret's undies and Korbel's bubbles. Sex sells, and this is nothing short of aural Viagra.
Alright Still / Lilly Allen
Like the song says, "it makes me smile, makes me smile." Let's just hope she avoids the tabloid attention-grabbing pitfalls of her position and gets back to the music in 2008. The U.S. has Britney and the U.K. has Amy as their uncrowned drama queens, and neither country needs another. Allen should just stick to making us "Smile" with her bittersweet, and very funny songs.
Rock Paper Scissors / Michael Brook
The third Canadian to make our list, producer and musician Michael Brook is not only famous for inventing the infinite guitar used by U2's The Edge, but also for composing the score for the Al Gore documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Rock Paper Scissors, Brook's most recent solo album, is a cerebral ambient soundtrack for life.
Live At Grand Performances / Dakah Hip-Hop Orchestra
LA's Dakah Hip-Hop Orchestra have picked up the baton and brushed off Parliament's Funkadelic classic Vietnam-era peace anthem "Come In Out Of The Rain," making it more relevant than ever. "When will the people start getting together, learning to live, and love one another..."
Sounds Eclectic: The Covers Project / Various
Radio-freedom fighters KCRW raid their audio vaults, bringing together a collection of classic covers recorded live in their Santa Monica basement Morning Becomes Eclectic studios. Sia makes The Pretender's "I Go To Sleep" her own, K.D. Lang comes over all spiritual with "Hallelujah," and The Magic Numbers do something completely 'out there' with their cover of Beyonce's hit song "Crazy In Love."
