Thursday, December 18, 2008

For Your Consideration: The Tallest Man on Earth

I will confess to you, the first time I ever heard of this guy, or his album Shallow Grave, was this morning when I was skimming through Pitchfork's Albums of the Year list. He's not doing anything terribly innovative: his songs are thoroughly in the style of early Will Oldham, Iron and Wine, and a thousand other shy, quirky guys with weird voices accompanying themselves on an acoustic guitar. And yet I, for one, enjoy at least an album or two a year of that kind of thing, and after just a couple of listens this guy seems to have some really stellar songs, so I'm throwing him out there as a late contender to be in my top ten somewhere. Hope you enjoy.

2 comments:

drischord said...

I heard Bob Dylan himself in this stuff. And not in the way that most people sound like Bob Dylan. Great stuff. It might be too late for it to make my list (Week That Was might have just snatched that last spot), but I'm definitely going to get this.

Unless of course-- and I really cannot say this enough-- the Web Sheriff might object.

drischord said...

So I bought the album on eMusic (sorry Web Sheriff; the idea of publicity still works) and now I think it might have to crack my Top 10. It certainly does sound like Bob Dylan, Iron & Wine, Will Oldham, etc, and yet it also sounds like none-of-the-above. I think Quinapalus had it right when pointing out the guy's bizarre voice. That makes it more appealing.

That and the fact that he's Swedish.