I admit to having a strange ritual choosing my aural selections: frequently, I choose them visually. Confused? Don't be. I explain: for me, album artwork is almost as important as the musical contents. I cannot take them apart and I often times feel disappointed when a great album jacket doesn't correspond musically or vice-versa. This one here today is not the case, thankfully.

Headless Heroes is a project by a very eclectic New York combo headlined by singer Alela Diane who decided to assemble a collection of songs of famous contemporary songwriters and do some covers. The Silence of Love is the final result and it is beguiling. Since I'm not that familiar with the original versions, it was almost like hearing them for the first time ever, not even registering the fact that they are in fact cover versions.

I'm going to leave you with To You, my current favorite track of this, an album I'm sure I'll give a lot of spins to.

I've just found out about this amazing album through some friends of mine. I honestly (and foolishly) thought that Mike Patton, of Faith No More fame, had sort of abandoned his musical career after the band's breakup but I had no idea how wrong I was! He has apparently been involved in a myriad of musical projects with other bands, artists and movie soundtracks so I guess the man is here to stay, after all. And this particular album - Mondo Cane - might just prove to be his biggest claim to musical legitimacy he'll ever do. I sincerely hope he can prove me wrong because now I really want to know what he's going to do next.

Mondo Cane was apparently inspired by the fact of Patton having married an italian girl and moved in to Italy where he started to realize that italian radio stations filled the air with old italian pop songs. Which I simply love, in case you haven't noticed yet! This album is a sort of hommage to those years and those songs and that kind of sound that I guess you can instantly recognize in some Morricone soundtracks. And that's exactly where I'm going to leave you: a rendition of Deep Deep Down, a track that can be found on the soundtrack of Danger: Diabolik, a key movie of those times. And prepare to be amazed.

Sorry for the lack of posts but I've been immersing myself into new music, both old and recent and haven't had the time or disposition to write about it. I had to first let it all sink in in order to make sense of so many new sounds that I'm hearing. Plus, I've been making some bad ass CD compilations for myself and some friends and they also have been keeping me busy all this time. Maybe someday I'll share them with you, who knows. Now, off to Ms. Gainsbourg's new album.

Co-written and co-produced with american indie superstar Beck, IRM is the new album from the daughter of that gallic legend that went by the name of Serge Gainsbourg. And the album really shows the influences: it does feel like a record co-written with Beck with a touch of the french chanson here and there, so I guess you can say that it's a perfect marriage of sorts. Made at a time of intense introspection and soul-searching on the part of Gainsbourg (IRM is a sort of medical X-ray exam you do to your brain), the results are both mysterious and schizophrenic, but intensely addicting and multi-layered. The end result of all this is that you'll find yourself going back to it time and again to hear that particular track that left you wondering and wanting for more.

One of the highlights is LE CHAT DU CAFÉ DES ARTISTES, a cover of a song written by Jean Pierre Ferland. Currently it's my favorite track in the album and you can check it out just below. Enjoy it.

This small incursion that I'm making into some seriously vintage music would not be complete without a mention to perhaps the maddest, quirkiest, most whimsical british band of all time: the Bonzo Dog Dooh-Dah Band, a.k.a. the Bonzo Dog Band.

Led by eccentric extraordinaire Vivian Stanshall, a major force in the post-modern whimsical world (if such thing even exists), they are to the music world what the Monty Python are to the movie world. This obviously means that they possess that rare gift of making people laugh whilst creating great art at the same time. This compilation is essential to understanding and comprehending just what made them tick and exactly why they are revered in Britain as belonging to a sort of music nobility, such was their legacy.

Part of their charm are the reinventions they made around old vintage classics of the popular sort and how they somehow successfully achieved grand notoriety with such material in a time when everyone was looking into the future for inspiration. Perhaps anachronism was the key, after all. If you've never heard them before and are curious to know how they sounded like, here's your chance now. I leave you with one of their all time classics: Hunting Tigers Out In India. Toodle-oo.

The key to the success of Nancy Sinatra is her perkiness. Sure, her songs are great and her very straightforward way of singing are also big ingredients of her mass appeal but you have to admit that the lady does have an attitude. It's the kind of girl who doesn't take "no" for an answer. Lucky us, then for her musical legacy is nothing short of pop treasures along the way.

Boots is her debut album and it sold by the gallon. A household name in merely weeks of starting her career, she was guest to Ed Sullivan and just about any prime-time TV show that you can think of. Of course, her family name did help a bit, though she did not live or make her career on its shadow. These Boots are made for walkin' is still today, by any terms, a great pop single: a catchy tune, feminist-tinged lyrics and a disjointed beat and groovy bass line to help establish the perky mood of it all.

After discovering the album (a winner on all fronts and it's no surprise why it sold so many records), I fell in love with its opener: a cover of the Rolling Stones As Tears Go By, in my view a better version than the original. Go and take a listen and see what you think:

I drove today with this CD on. Wonderful album all around. Nilsson in this album pays tribute to a true songsmith and a contemporary legend: Randy Newman.

The main core of this Newman covers album consists of Nilsson at the piano singing in a very relaxed and mellow way and at times, you almost feel as if he's channeling the spirit of the composer of these songs such are the similarities in the voice phrasings and quirkinesses. It's a rare album indeed, full of straighforward ballads and some lively numbers, but never losing focus or falling into schmaltziness.

One to go out and look for, definitely and it only goes to prove that Nilsson was on top form, this being the follow-up to the equally wonderful Harry album that I mentioned before here at the Aural Journal. I leave you with Love Story, one of the album's most charming moments and precisely because today a girl friend of mine announced to us that she was going to marry! The best of luck to her!

I am completely smitten by the track you can listen to at the end of this post. It's the sort of song that waltzes round and round at the back of your mind for days and days. And it's also absolutely gorgeous to boot. But first things first.

The album jacket you see on your left is for a double CD tribute to Boris Vian made by quite a number of high-profile french musicians and singers. It came out just last month and it's called On N'Est Pas Là Pour Se Faire Engueuler. As all tribute albums, it's mostly a hit and miss affair with very good reinterpretations of his songs on one side and not so good on the other. Still, it's always interesting to hear how contemporary these half-century songs can sound like with a 21st century production job.

But the one song I was talking about at the beginning of this post is Valse des Mannequins, a wonderful waltz-like chanson sung by none other than Ms. Sarkozy herself, Carla Bruni. Listen to it and I dare you not to replay it directly afterwards!

The perfect record for a hot late spring day like today's. GONNA TAKE A MIRACLE was Laura Nyro's wonderful tribute to the songs she loved as a teen and the ones that formed her as both a musician and singer.

As legend goes, this album was recorded in just a few days and the tracks you hear are mostly one-take affairs. Apparently, both Nyro and the Labelle combo knew all the songs by heart and it was just a matter of getting them right on tape. A lot of fun was also involved, according to those who enjoyed it, which really helped the whole feel of the record: laid-back, spontaneous, fun and moving.

Nyro's impressionistic approach to songwriting is also on clear display here, despite it being a strictly covers album. She was always a free spirit, anyway. At this moment in time, it was still not considered fashionable to do a whole covers album, which only goes to prove just how far ahead of her time she was. Still is, in my book. Listen to The Bells and dare not to fall in love with it.