05022014 - Joker's Daughter "The Last Laugh"

OK, here's what happened. I got bored, and none of the first couple of albums I tried inspired me to listen beyond the first track. So I did what you do when in doubt, and turned to Slayer. I know what you're saying, you're saying this is not a Slayer album! Well, DUH! And of course I have already heard all their albums as well, so they can't be included on this blog. However, I tried to find other bands that have named one of their own songs "Slayer", and this thing looked appealing. Apparently this is a collaboration between the Greek-English singer/songwriter Helena Costas and Danger Mouse, and this album, released in 2009, features some other musicians as well. I don't care. This is a sweet, airy, naively cutesy pop album with charming and catchy songs that have a lot of ethereal Joanna Newsom-y freak folk in them, but with plenty of quirky arrangement ideas and production details that separates this from all those minimalistic folk releases from the latest years. It seems like this project only lasted a short time, but as far as leaving a little something gorgeous behind as opposed to a huge pile of indifferent stuff, this has it all. Oh, and the song "Slayer" isn't actually on the album itself, but is a bonus track on one of the singles off it...