I must confess something. I have rekindled an old love affair. This one goes back a long time with me. We have been off and on over the years and I always think of her with dear impressions and a longing heart. Her name is music and I have fallen hard once again for her. It was years ago that I remember listening to my first vinyl record, Musiquarium by Stevie Wonder and not believing the amazing sounds that I heard. It was as if he was in the room performing for me. I can remember being a young child and putting James Browns greatest hits into my portable CD player, hooking in my headphones, and playing drums along with him. I was in love with music then as everything mesmerized me. The sounds seems like textures that I could feel, everything was an emotional experience that begged for more. That hunger and desire made me the musician that I am today and it is back.
The latest Daft Punk album,
Random Access Memories or RAM, features the title track "Give Life Back to Music". Many mock that "it isn't Daft Punk" and in many ways it isn't. The album is a cry back to their roots as musicians and why they started doing all this in the first place. After a certain age you want to be taken seriously and perhaps this was another challenge for themselves to do that.
I would classify the album as a "musician's album", meaning that it helps if you understand the background and why they made the album. It features some of the best talent in the industry. From mastering legend Bob Ludwig to Nile Rodgers and along the way some of the greatest drummers out there too and bass player Nathan East to boot. John "JR" Robinson plays drums on many of the tracks as well as Omar Hakim sharing memorable links on "Giorgio by Moroder". It is like a time capsule that was taken straight from the 70s and features music similar to what the Robots would have listened to to form their sound.
2013 features a lot of great albums that should also be noted and the future of music is very bright. That spark I once had as a child is back thanks to the amazing musicians and their ability to transfer their dreams to the recording studio. Here are some of my top albums for 2013:
- Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
- Midlake - Antiphon
- Jay-Z - Magna Carta
- Lady Gaga - Artpop
- Arcade Fire - Reflektor
- The Flaming Lips - Late Night Tales
- The Naked and Famous - In Rolling Waves
- The Strokes - Comedown Machine
- Queens of the Stone Age - Like Clockwork (but they are better live)
My love affair with music keeps me up and night and inspires me to write more music, practice more, and makes me happier elevating my state of mind. Keep up the amazing work artists to help inspire others out there. Sharing the joy of music with others is what this is all about.
