Throwback Thursday : Savage Rose

Check out this powerhouse of a Danish prog rock group Savage Rose with lead singer Annisette. Her vocal style carries the rock and roll energy of Janis Joplin and Grace Slick and like her peers, their dynamic range also includes elements of Jazz, Soul, and Gospel. Annisette's acrobatic and massive vocal range (part siren, part whisper) is often described as proto-Kate Bush which makes this exciting and complex musical group all the more ahead of their time.

New Album Alert : Joanna Newsom - Divers

SQUEEEE! You can stream her whole new album Divers right now via NPR. I liken this to reading a choose your own adventure book that has no definitive plot (no two listener take aways will be the same!) and may require a dictionary to understand all the words she uses to spin her delicately orchestrated webs. It is as if Kate Bush and Björk  (who apparently has been a singing coach of sorts to her) has created a chamber Pop opera and given birth to a star whose voice flits like a sprite through a maze of tall grass and mushroom caps houses. If you hate reading but love a good story, this is the gift you have been waiting for. Her vocabulary and use of language is a thing to behold. I am not sure I am smart enough to grasp and unravel all of the thematic layers found on this new record but I feel like a better person for at least trying. Prepare to be awed and English majors, there are a good 100 thesis papers to be found in her body of work.

Not recommended - playing Scrabble against her. I am 100% certain Newsom would win. Apparently Slate agrees.