Paul Plut – Lieder vom Tanzen und Sterben (2017, Austria)

Our next spotlight is a wonderful guest post written by Urban (aka @Banur) on number 98 on The List, also submitted by Urban. This is the debut solo album from Plut, and, as Urban writes, "is a beautiful dark folksy album that found a niche for him and itself in the diverse Austrian music scene."

FFO: Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash, sad music
(CW: As mentioned in the spotlight, some lyrics deal with suicide and death)

Want to read more? See the full spotlight: https://1001otheralbums.com/2025/03/22/paul-plut-lieder-vom-tanzen-und-sterben-2017-austria/

Want to skip straight to the music? Here's the Bandcamp: https://paulplut.bandcamp.com/album/lieder-vom-tanzen-und-sterben

Happy listening.

Psst, do you need some cool music to listen to?

Dig if you will The List of over 1001 albums from 115+ places/peoples, as recommended by 120 Fedizens (https://1001otheralbums.com/the-list/)! Think "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die", but, like, NOT just Western pop. We chose these albums not because of popularity or sales or reviews by influencers and whatnot, but rather because they’re important to us personally and/or represent a band/genre/people not well represented in official lists, albums that we think deserve way more attention.

We feature an album from The List every few days on the 1001 Other Albums blog (https://1001otheralbums.com/), if you want help choosing, with new posts linked here. With the help of some lovely guest contributors, we’ve featured 139 albums so far...and counting! Give us a follow, I bet you'll hear something you dig.

(And if you want to share your thoughts on one of these albums via guest post, OR want to add your favourite albums that aren't yet on The List, hmu!)

Coming to you live from linernotes.club, it's a new Fediverse account for the 1001 Other Albums project!

The blog-to-Fediverse pipeline stopped working a couple weeks ago, so setting up shop here to replace the automated account @1001otheralbums.com. Perhaps it'll be fixed at some point, but I think it might be nice to actually have a way to follow people back and reply to comments directly here rather than using my personal account @buffyleigh. So, if you've been following the project over there, perhaps give this one a follow!

I'll start posting album spotlights here this weekend, starting with the last 3 that have failed to pop up on the old automated account.

A Year of 1001 Other Albums

A year ago, a handful of people validated my feeling that it would be a good idea to put together a Fediverse-sourced list of albums everyone should hear, with the aim to bring our diverse tastes and musical knowledge together and help others discover brilliant albums from any genre/language/place that generally get missed by commercially-driven lists. A couple weeks after that, the 1001 Other Albums blog was stood up to house The List. A couple days after that, we started to spotlight each album on The List via blog posts. We now have over 1080 albums on The List from over 115 countries/places/peoples submitted by around 120 Fedizens, and – with the help of 15 lovely guest contributors – we’ve featured 129 of those albums so far.

While The List in itself is a pretty darn cool resource for those wanting to randomly pick something new to listen to, the blog tends to gain a couple followers via its Mastodon account (@1001otheralbums.com) with every new spotlight post, so I think people dig that sort of guided/group listening part of the project too. So, though I might not post as frequently as last year, my aim is to continue spotlighting each album in some way or another via the blog posts as long as I can, ideally until we’ve done them all. Guest write-ups on albums we haven’t touched yet are always welcome (and submissions are still open for The List!) from any Fedizen, so do let me know if you’re interested in submitting something (via reply here, or email to johnmastodon@1001otheralbums.com).

Welcome to those just joining us, and thanks once again to all those who have taken part in the project so far. Whether you’ve contributed to The List and spotlights, have dropped a comment/boost/like on a post, or are just enjoying the tunes, I’m very happy you’re here, and I hope you hear something you love.

Music is magic, lean on it.

Kovacs – Shades of Black (2015, Netherlands)

As randomly chosen by survey[1] on Mastodon, our next spotlight is on number 799 on The List, submitted by @raisedfist.

I started this draft over a week ago, wondering if I could write it without comparing this singer to another singer. But, on this side of the pond, I can barely find any info on Kovacs, i.e., Sharon Kovacs, or any reaction on this, her debut album. And so, let me just say it, knowing I mean it only as a point of reference and not to diminish the ginormous talent that is Kovacs in any way.

Imagine Amy Winehouse’s spirit, resurrected and mixed with the presence and gumption of Asajj Ventress (i.e., one of my most favorite characters in the Star Wars universe). Can you dig it? Kovacs’ soulful voice and lyrics are beautiful, powerful, sexy, cheeky, just on the edge of dangerous. In other words, I’m quite happy to have learned about this artist, I really enjoyed this album, and I’m excited to check out the rest of her work.

And, since we’re in the middle of our month-long run of #BowieADay, I think it’s worth mentioning that Kovacs is a David Bowie fan – indeed, one of the only things I could find on Kovacs is that she joined the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2023 for a special cover of Bowie’s take on Jacques Brel’s “Amsterdam” (aka “Port of Amsterdam”). For those following our BowieADay listening schedule, today we listened to his covers album, Pin Ups (1973); his cover of “Amsterdam” wasn’t included on the album proper, but was included as the B-side for the album’s “Sorrow” single. Whether before or after checking out Shades of Black, I highly recommend watching the Kovacs/Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra performance of the tune, at the end of this video (starting at 1:07:50).

Happy listening!

• Songlink: Kovacs – Shades of Black
• Discogs: Kovacs – Shades of Black

1. The survey choices that initially led to this spotlight were “When the weather gets rough”, “And it’s whiskey in the shade”, “It’s best to wrap your savior”, and “Up in cellophane”, following the earlier surveys that had “Well, I don’t want no Abba Zabba”/“Don’t want no Almond Joy”/“There ain’t nothing better”/“Suitable for this boy” and “Well, it’s the only thing that can pick me up”/“Better than a cup of gold”/“See only a chocolate Jesus”/“Can satisfy my soul”. The second option was the winning selection, and the survey result was translated as picking an album in The List that contained a word in the phrase – in this case, “shade”. ↩︎

SpaceAce Sunday | The Watersons – The Watersons (1966, UK)

The next album our dearly missed friend submitted to the project is number 1050 on The List.

I forgot to explain in our last SpaceAce Sunday that that album marked the first of the last group of SpaceAce’s contributions. From there until we reach the end of our SpaceAce Sundays (with the exception of next week), you may notice that each album was released in 1966. This isn’t an odd coincidence. When I had finished indexing the entirety of The List, I discovered something odd: of the roughly 1035 albums we had gathered up to that point, none of them had been released in 1966, the only entry for that year being a compilation that included some singles released in ’66. Granted, there was also no albums for 1962 (again, just a compilation with some ’62 singles) and then one or none for any year earlier than 1955, but the bare spot for 1966 seemed to really stand out to me, given the number of albums we had in the few years before and after.

And so, me being me, I tooted “was no one pressing records in 1966?”…and some lovely Mastodonians promptly provided evidence that, in fact, ALL of the records were pressed in 1966, lol, and we ended up adding 16 albums from that year to The List. SpaceAce is responsible for most of those, as he took a look at his gigantic vinyl collection on Discogs, sorted by year, and made a list of 10 albums from 1966 that were worthy of The List.

And so, here we are. If The Watersons sounds familiar in this context, it’s because we’ve already had a SpaceAce Sunday looking at this family, in particular the duo of siblings Lal and Mike. As mentioned in that previous spotlight, The Watersons consisted of Lal (or Elaine, as billed on the cover of this album) and Mike, their other sibling Norma, and cousin John Harrison. The album here is their second. Next weekend we’ll be taking a look at their previous album from 1965, the first album in fact that SpaceAce had contributed to The List – it’s a holiday-ish affair, so we had saved it for the holiday season. That said, for me at least, the a cappella tunes on this album already remind me of Christmas carols, so guess I’m getting an early start.

Happy listening, all. And thank you, J.

• Songlink: The Watersons – Early Days
  • Note: I can’t find a streaming link to just the 1966 album, but it is included in its entirety (and with tracks in the same order) in this 1994 compilation (tracks 7 to 17) that also features the same cover photo.
• This Die or DIY blog post has a download link (.rar format), if you’re into that sort of thing.
• Discogs: The Watersons – The Watersons

New idea: Want to contribute to a Fediverse-sourced #AOTY list, that includes your top album (or 3) of the year, where "top" is however you define it - favorite, most listened to, most personally important, etc. - and "of the year" does not necessarily mean the album was released in 2024, just was key in your 2024 listening, and you think others might dig it? If so, drop album name(s) below! If people like this idea, I might make it a special-edition post/sub-list for the #1001OtherAlbums blog.

SpaceAce Sunday | Jacques Dutronc – Jacques Dutronc (1966, France)

The next album our dearly missed friend submitted to the project is number 1047 on The List.

As mentioned in our spotlight last week on Mission of Burma, I recently started a new listening project of going through entire discographies (well, studio albums) of artists, particularly those other Mastodonians have recommended. After Mission of Burma I went through Roxy Music’s discography, and then, as I was craving a different vibe from either of those two bands and wanted to listen to someone I wasn’t familiar with at all, I decided to start in on Françoise Hardy’s studio albums. All 32 of them. Wowzers. After listening to about 10 albums (and falling in love with Hardy), I started reading the Wikipedia entries on Hardy and each album, and realized that she had been married to Jacques Dutronc, whose self-titled 1966 album just happened to be our next SpaceAce pick. Funny how things go.

So, Jacques Dutronc, husband of Françoise Hardy. I would so have loved if SpaceAce had written this spotlight, I’d have loved to hear what he had to say about this dynamic duo. Like, the two met the year after this album, Dutronc’s first of many, came out, and Hardy was already 8 or 9 albums in. Can you imagine the amount of music flowing through that house?

Anyway, we’ll revisit Hardy in another spotlight as we have her self-titled 1971 album on The List. For now, I hope you’ll give this album a spin because it is fucking fantastic. Like Hardy, Dutronc was an important figure in the yé-yé movement, with this album being in the beat/garage rock genres (I think?), with maybe a touch of mod (think Bob Dylan meets the Beatles, but, you know, in French), plus whatever wonderful nonsense is going on in the second-last track “La compapade”. So nice, I listened to it twice.

Thanks, dear SpaceAce, for leading us towards such a great rabbit hole. I may even figure out what exactly yé-yé is soon.

• Songlink: Jacques Dutronc – Jacques Dutronc
  • Note on the album title: Similar to Hardy’s albums, the majority of Dutronc’s albums were released being self-titled, and then came to be known under the title of one of the singles or most popular songs on the album. This one might be titled Et moi, et moi, et moi (as the Songlink has it), Les play boys, or Les Cactus, depending on where you get your albums from.
• Discogs: Jacques Dutronc – Jacques Dutronc

Mission of Burma – Vs. (1982, US)

Today’s spotlight is on number 777 on The List, submitted by @puffer.

I had expected to listen to far less music than usual in the last month, given the hectic work schedule that had me take a break from blogging. But, well, November 5 happened, and I have ended up squeezing in as much music as humanly possible to cope, not unlike what I did in the aftermath of November 8, 2016. In particular, I inadvertently started a new listening project, that of doing deep dives on artists with solid bodies of work. After first going through the entire discography of The Cure, and then that of Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Creatures, I realized how great such a task is at keeping my brain occupied. And so, I asked the Fediverse for more recommendations of solid discographies and, as always, they delivered.

One recommendation that had multiple votes was Mission of Burma. Having never knowingly listened to them before but remembering that we had their first album on The List, I was excited to get to know this band…and tore through their discography plus some of their side-/post-projects in a week. I did so in a rather haphazard fashion and am needing to revisit a good chunk of it, so perhaps I should’ve left this spotlight until after doing that. However, at the time of writing, the one and only Puffer has just published a really excellent piece over at their Digital LoFi blog about their experience of the Boston post-punk scene in the 80s, a scene which included Mission of Burma. Among many other things, Puffer touches on how they got into Burma and the Vs. album, as well as the drummer Peter Prescott’s next band, Volcano Suns.*

So, rather than regaling you with my tale of how my entire background with Burma is via a free MOJO CD I stole from my employer’s garbage and a Moby cover, let’s head on over to Digital LoFi to continue our spotlight on Vs. Puffer’s piece is an absolute goldmine for someone like me who is into 80s post-punk but not familiar with the Boston scene, so it’s well worth the trip. And (!), there’s even a mixtape to go with it, that kicks off with track 1 of Vs.

Happy reading/listening!

>>> Digital LoFi | 24: Notes On My Boston Rock Scene <<<

• Bandcamp: Mission of Burma – Vs.
• Discogs: Mission of Burma – Vs.

*We’ll meet up again with Prescott and the other Volcano Suns members in a future spotlight, as they were “The Din” for the Dredd Foole and The Din album we have on The List, Eat My Dust, Cleanse My Soul (1985).

SpaceAce Sunday | The Auteurs – After Murder Park (1996, UK)

Welcome back to SpaceAce Sundays. The next album our dearly missed friend submitted to the project is number 1035 on The List.

…And, unfortunately, that’s pretty much about all I can tell you about After Murder Park, lol. Though The Auteurs put out four studio albums and a handful of EPs, I can only access two of their releases, not including this one. And since the work of the late great Steve Albini apparently made the band sound unrecognizable on this album, commenting on the albums I can hear wouldn’t tell us much. At any rate, with Albini’s name on it and SpaceAce’s tip of the hat, it’s safe to say it must be worth the spin.

If you’ve heard this record, please go ahead and tell the class all about it, and/or drop a streaming link for non-Canadian folks below [edit: there is now a – limited-time only! – WeTransfer link as well as a couple non-Canadian streaming links in the comments!]. In the meantime, if you haven’t already, have a read-through of SpaceAce’s tribute to Steve Albini, up on the excellent Digital LoFi blog. (And, remember kids, don’t rely on streaming services to preserve your favorite albums – long-live physical media!!!)

• Discogs: The Auteurs – After Murder Park

The Jesus Lizard – GOAT (1991, US)

[This guest post was written by @Defiance about number 429 on The List. The album was submitted by platenworm.]

Another Steve Albini-produced classic. And perhaps the best album by this American noise rock/post-hardcore band. It’s fitting that the album title is also an acronym for Greatest Of All Time.

I was already a fan of Scratch Acid, the predecessor band. My best friend turned me onto them in high school.

So when I was in college and just starting to DJ, I was eager to play their new stuff. I can still remember getting the band’s first 7” in the station’s “new bin”, 1989’s “Chrome b/w 7 or 8”. The following year the band released their first LP, 1990’s Head. I liked that album and played it regularly.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one, their second full length album. But GOAT is a step up in every way. 

The bass grooves are unlike their prior albums. They’re more…groovy! Probably why this is my favorite album from the band. It’s more accessible, but still raw and driven by David Yow’s intense and almost indecipherable yelling. The Jesus Lizard was one of the first bands of this era and genre that increasingly focused on dynamic hooks, and GOAT really delivers in this regard.

The album opens with “Then Comes Dudley”, which features the classic Jesus Lizard / Scratch Acid sound. Dark, loud, and relentless. The crunchy snare drum and driving bass guitar have that distinct Albini sound.

The pace really picks up with track 2, my favorite, “Mouth Breather”, and then hits a new peak with the slide guitar driven song “Nub”. The rest of the tracks are a mix of dynamic tempos and dark, sometimes droning noise and rhythms over which singer David Yow wails and moans. It’s almost as if The Birthday Party had released another album in 1991. 

An interesting side note is that the picture on the album cover can be easily misinterpreted. At first glance, it looks like an orange flame on black background. I thought this the case for years. But it’s actually a topless woman with a close-up image of nails projected onto her body. 

By the way, The Jesus Lizard still makes good music to this day. Earlier this year (2024), they released another great album, Rack. 

Play GOAT at high volume! 

– Defiance!

• Bandcamp: The Jesus Lizard – GOAT
• Discogs: The Jesus Lizard – GOAT

Françoiz Breut – Vingt à Trente Mille Jours (2000, France)

[This guest post was written by @arratoon about number 912 on The List. The album was also submitted by @arratoon.]

The second album from French singer and illustrator was a sonic leap forward from her beguiling eponymous debut.

Written in the main by her then boyfriend, Dominique A, and his band, the songs bear the signature of the prolific songwriter and performer but are blessed by Françoiz’s elegant voice.

If, like me, you’re a sucker for sweeping strings then the addition of Budapest Symphony Orchestra will thrill you. The orchestrations are subtle but shimmering, and are used to their best effects on what has become her best-known song. “Si Tu Disais” starts with her barely audibly whispering the title, before hitting its stride. When the orchestra kicks in you’ll soar along with it. The track has been covered by Benjamin Biolay, and she’s performed it with fellow travellers Calexico, but this is the original and best version.

“L’Origine du Monde”, written by Katerine (most recently seen annoying Christians by appearing naked and painted blue as a Greek God in the Paris Olympics opening ceremony) kicks, buzzing guitars flying around like wasps.

The album features a languid version of Philippe Sarde’s “La Chanson d’Hélène”, originally from the soundtrack of Claude Sautet’s film Les Choses de La Vie, sung by Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli. Here, Joey Burns from Calexico anglicises Piccoli’s lyrics. It’s a woozy delight. Françoiz also covers jazz standard “Sans Souci”. There’s more late-night languidity in Dominique A’s “La Nuit Repose”, shimmering guitars caressed by dark violins, before sailing away.

One of my favourites on this record is “Il n’y a pas d’Hommes dans les Coulisses”. Spare at first, her voice and a bass are joined by yearning strings and brushed drums, vibraphone and guitar adding mistral uplifts.

The record shows how much of an engaging performer she is, and how much of a great interpreter of people’s songs, seen recently on 2023’s Cover Songs in Inferno album she made with Don Nino. While Vingt… is beautifully moody and atmospheric, her most recent couple of albums, 2021’s Flux Flou de la Foule, and this year’s Vif!, are resplendent in their upbeat joyfulness, and both are uninhibited delights.

– Adrian Arratoon (@arratoon)

• Songlink: Françoiz Breut – Vingt à Trente Mille Jours
• Discogs: Françoiz Breut – Vingt à Trente Mille Jours

The next album SpaceAce submitted to this project – and the 100th (!) album we are spotlighting – is number 1029 in The List.

I would’ve loved to hear why SpaceAce picked this particular album, given the history of the band. Prior to forming this electropop duo, Elli Medeiros and Denis Quilliard (a.k.a. Jacno) were both in what is credited as France’s first punk band, Stinky Toys, with Elli on vocals and Jacno on rhythm guitar. Interestingly, all the lyrics were in English, possibly as Elli, originally from Uruguay, spoke English as her second language (Spanish as her first). Stinky Toys released only two albums (both self-titled), in 1977 and 1979, but apparently left an impression on such people as Andy Warhol, Malcolm McLaren, and Blondie.*

Once Stinky Toys broke up, Jacno released his first solo album in 1979, a minimal, ambient pre-electro self-titled album, featuring Elli on one of the songs. Soon after, as a duo, Elli & Jacno put out three albums, starting with the one we’re looking at here. And then, after the duo called it quits, both went on to have solo careers, with Elli also working in film.

I can only assume SpaceAce had/was familiar with all of these projects, but it’s up to us to do our own deep dive now.

Thanks, friend, for pointing us in the right direction.

• Songlink: Elli & Jacno – Tout va sauter
• Discogs: Elli & Jacno – Tout va sauter

PSA: As mentioned on my Mastodon, I’ll be taking a break in November from writing 1001 Other Albums spotlights, so we’ll regroup in December to continue going through SpaceAce’s contributions to The List.

*As per this article in The Guardian, “Cult heroes: Jacno – the oddball luminary who delivered punk to Paris“.

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/10/27/spaceace-sunday-elli-jacno-tout-va-sauter-1980-france-uruguay/

As randomly chosen by survey* on Mastodon, our next spotlight is on number 188 on The List, submitted by HauntedOwlbear.

Holy moly atmosphere, Batman. If you are adverse to all-encompassing, moody, weighted blanket-type of atmosphere, perhaps stay away from this. But, if you’re like me and you crave this sort of thing, especially on a gloomy day just on the cusp of full-on autumn, give this one a spin.

(Warning: If you choose to listen to this album, you may get so immersed in having 39 minutes of your life so beautifully soundtracked that you might not even realize a few of those minutes were a Black Sabbath cover. If this happens to you, simply hit that play button again.)

• Bandcamp: Ulver – Shadows of the Sun
• Discogs: Ulver – Shadows Of The Sun

*The survey choices that led to this spotlight were “B”, “L”, “U”, and “E”. The third letter was the winning selection, so the survey result was translated as picking the third album in The List by an artist whose name starts with the letter “U”.

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/10/02/ulver-shadows-of-the-sun-2007-norway/

As randomly chosen by survey* on Mastodon, our next spotlight is on number 54 on The List, submitted by mbr.

Before working on this spotlight, I was aware of GGGOLDDD’s 2022 brave and difficult** album This Shame Should Not Be Mine, which was written as a commissioned piece for the 2021 online version of Roadburn (with the live album then released the same day as the studio version). What I think I missed though was that somewhere around TSSNBM, GOLD changed their name to GGGOLDDD, meaning Why Aren’t You Laughing? is from the very same band.

Given the heavy lyrics of TSSNBM, I would definitely recommend starting with WAYL? first. It’s a really interesting mix of gothic-tinged post-rock/-metal with great vocals from Milena Eva that give off some Kristin Hersh vibes, some Brutus vibes, and even some Aurora vibes (especially in “Taken By Storm”). If you’re then hooked and are in a good place, give TSSNBM a spin.

• Bandcamp: GOLD – Why Aren’t You Laughing?
• Discogs: GOLD – Why Aren’t You Laughing?

*The survey choices that led to this spotlight were “Turned away from it all like a blind man”, “Sat on the fence but it don’t work”, “Keep comin up with love but it’s so slashed & torn”, and “Why, why, why?”, following the earlier survey that had “It’s the terror of knowing what this world’s about”, “Watching some good friends screaming, ‘Let me out’”, “Pray tomorrow gets me higher”, and “Pressure on people, people on streets”. The last phrase was the winning selection, so the survey result was translated as picking the first album in The List with one of the phrase’s words in the title, the matching word here being, obviously, “why”.
**The lyrics of TSSNBM were written by singer Eva about when she was raped as a teenager, and her trauma around that situation.

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/09/13/gold-why-arent-you-laughing-2019-netherlands/

I had a #1001OtherAlbums blog post scheduled for tomorrow, but it's SpaceAce's memorial in real life tomorrow and tbh I feel weird about posting a non-SpaceAce thing, so I think I'll just reschedule the post. Our next spotlight then will be our regular #SpaceAceSunday.