This weekend we have two types of the female vocal.
JANIS JOPLIN - PEARL
Released posthumously, and slightly unfinished (I believe that Buried Alive In The Blues was supposed to have a vocal - citation needed), this is probably the cleanest Joplin record. It includes my personal favourite vocal - Me and Bobby McGee. She glides from a controlled, country blues of regret to one of uninhibited ecstasy. If I were to ever sing karaoke it would be this or Proud Mary. And that is high praise, trust me. Aside form this we have all sorts of double keyboard action. In a post-Band era she/her group tightened up and injected a little Texas into a blues template that had until then served her perfectly well. By toning down the volume and what detractors would probably call the Banshee thing, she found a new centre for her art. This LP shows what a huge loss her passing really was.
LES MYSTERE DES VOIX BULGARES
Remember this? You bought it because you liked the Cocteau Twins, listened to it, told a mate, but to be honest didn't play it that much. It's a strange one because it sounds like nothing else I've ever heard. As a community of noise - it's the only proper choir record I've ever owned - it is unparalleled. The open throat racket sounds like little else in your collection. God only knows what they're singing, though I guess it's about loved ones, goats and broken hearts. All good folk music is. Crank it up and give in to the noise. Did anyone ever buy volume 2?
