33. Daniel Lanois- Belladonna


Daniel Lanois again likes to remind the music communuity that first and foremost he is a musician. Lauded as part of the producing team behind, amongst others, U2 and The Neville Brothers, he has in the last two years released several albums in which he exposed his love for pedal steel guitar, an Americana sense of folk, country and blues and the ambient sensibilities of his one time collaborator, Brian Eno. On Shine, the great album he released in 2003 he worked within a song capacity using various vocalists, this CD sees him work his magic mostly instrumentally. It's his variations in guitar styles that keeps the album interesting, from his trusted pedal steel guitar to dosed feedback and using Latin rhythms like mariachi to offset against the more spacey soundscapes he uses to give the tracks more depth. Don't expect another ambient album, the songs don't float away and are certainly not without weight but they have an airlike quality about them which are exposed by listening to his album with headphones. Very nice disc.