Not sure which one you already got, but I'm gonna be jumping on the Shearwater wagon with Bernd, though it may not be a sound you'd go heavy for, nobody. Won't hear anything better or more adventurous this year. Beautiful record. Important music. Sadly, don't get a chance to say that often enough anymore.

Obviously influenced by that genre defining moment in the late 80s when Mark Hollis and Tim Friese-Greene and the rest of Talk Talk holed up in an abandoned church with an assortment of musicians, often recording in the dark, crafting a mix of ambient jazz and modern classicism that became one of the most beautiful records ever in "Spirit of Eden", probably the beginnings of what later became known as post-rock.

But this record is more dynamic overall, gentle at times, but loud and forceful at others. Not the typical formula, but whatever is right for the music. Songs like "The Snow Leopard" really do change the status of Shearwater in my mind, making Jonathan Meiberg one of the top musical visionaries today. There's the bits of Jeff Buckley, and even Scott Walker when he isn't so madly cryptic and overblown, some David Bowie at times, but this does seem pretty special, especially in today's play-it-safe pop music climate. I do love "Palo Santo", but this one goes way beyond my expectations. Sometimes you get the feel an artist has been working their whole career for that one defining record, and I think it all came together this time for Meiburg, the inspired lyrical imagery coupled with his allegorical music vision, can't imagine right now that it won't easily be my record of the year. Even harkens back to the progressive folk of Jethro Tull's "Songs from the Wood" (absent the often annoying flute), or bits of "Aqualung", but channeled through that later "Spirit of Eden" to strip away the excess. His voice is the best it has ever been, recorded without most of the needless reverb this time, it floats on the wind, and then soars effortlessly, like the majestic birds that live in so much of his music. Just 35 minutes, but a beautiful record. And speaking of record, the CD sounds pretty good even if a touch loud, but someone in another board mentioned the "fabulous sounding, dead-quiet Matador/RTI vinyl."

That's my story, though reading it now ... well, it seems a little overblown. Probably should've stopped at the first paragraph