2010 In Music

It was a good year in music--I got to see three amazing bands live, perform Mozart's Requiem, and sing with a hand bell choir. So this video-heavy post will showcase a few favorites.

Earlier this year, my favorite band on the planet put out an EP called Night Train. It was not a true album, with only eight tracks, but it still went to #1 and Keane decided to do a couple of mini-tours in England and the U.S. based on it.

My favorite song from the EP is probably My Shadow...maybe Your Love, because Tim took lead vocals for this one (Tom is the usual singer and no one even tries to top his awesome voice). So I'll post both songs. : )





Anyone who has been reading this blog longer than five minutes knows all about my seeing them in Oakland in July, so I'll skip the oh-my-god-I-met-Tim-and-Richard spiel and stick to the music.

In May, Chorale performed Robert Ray's Gospel Mass, and Yours Truly had a solo, which was thrilling. The solo was the one at the end of this part of the Mass:



I have a much different timbre to my voice than this soloist, but the solo is the same and I think I had some style and soul. There are no recordings of me doing it--that may be a good thing. ; )

In August, I started discovering the magic of two new bands--Mt. Desolation and Mumford and Sons. Mt. Desolation is a side project of Tim and Jesse from Keane, started when they got the idea (over a few pints of Guinness) to make a country album. They put out an album in October (but of course, Keane fans were hearing it on YouTube in August). They were to tour the west coast opening for Mumford and Sons, so I checked out this other group to see if I'd enjoy the show after Mt. Desolation left the stage. Turned out I would. Mumford is awesome.

Mt. Desolation put out a great video for "Departure":



And another for "State Of Our Affairs":



Mumford and Sons, meanwhile, took me be storm on YouTube, and then live. These 20-something British guys are not only talented, they are full of incredible energy and joy. Their music--a sort of fusion of bluegrass, country, folk, rock and indie, is hugely entertaining and addictive.

Some favorites include "The Cave," "Lover Of the Light," and "Little Lion Man."







Yeah. They're that amazing.

With all this Keane, Mt. Desolation and Mumford and Sons burning up my iTunes, it was kind of easy to forget other music, but I still managed to listen to some Muse.

This fall, I spent a lot of time and energy singing Mozart's Requiem, a fantastic experience with the incredible new conductor for Chorale. It was a music nerd's dream. Here is the Lacrymosa, one of the more famous movements from the piece, and a personal favorite, as well.



As Magen told us over and over again, you do not need to be religious to sing this music--the meaning transcends the words, and it's impossible not to sing that high ascending soprano line at the beginning and not feel passionate. What an incredibly lovely piece of music by a genius composer. (From about 1:50-2:00 in this video, incidentally, is another part I absolutely adored singing--so sensitive, so delicate...fun for all Singing Fool types.)

For our Christmas concert, we got to know Velocity Hand Bell Choir, a group out of Oakland that has more fun with hand bells than ought to be legal. Having them be part of our concert was a treat. I'm posting a YouTube video of them performing "Moondance," to show just what you can do with hand bells (I had no idea).



Hell, let's add "Don't Worry, Be Happy" because it shows just how much fun they have:



There's a lot of pop music that came out this year and frankly, I didn't pay a lot of attention. Katie Perry's "California Gurls" was a big UGH and so was that song by Ke$ha that everyone played. My year in music was geared towards British alternative music and a ton of Mozart!