It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 3 Kali Malone - All Life Long

 

                                                             'The World is yours.' NAS

I bought NAS's wondrous debut album Illmatic on  bootlegged cassette in 1995 when I was living and working in Warsaw at a point where it still seemed like a frontier city. I would stand at tram or bus stops early evening waiting for my ride home on the poorly lit streets of Nowy Swiat or Marzalkowska and things and people would substantiate out of the darkness in the  lamplight. It was all in all, a  memorable and frankly spooky experience.

 Illmatic's standout track and the most memorable moment of an ourstanding record is the The World is Yours and most of all the expression itself. 1995 was pre Internet or certainly felt like it. The world still seemed like an incredibly large place which it doesn't really anymore.

Now the world us actually yours. We have access to everything. Certainly sensations. We also have limitless choice.We can hone in on and endlessly indulge obscure obsessions at the click of a mouse. I'm currently obsessing about West German pottery for goodness sake,.Probably driving half of my social media friends half out of their wits. But it's better than going on about football or Donald Trump I've decided. Or how much I love early R.E.M. Anyway I really like West German pottery.

Today's Song(s) of the Day is a good example of that tendency too. Of the way every instinct, no matter how obscure or arcane can be indulged. Everything seems to have become imcredibly niche. Every taste is catered for in the modern marketplace. To all intents and purposes Kali Malone's All Life Long is an album of Gregorian Monk chants and other choral church music if that's how you fancy starting the week. But it's much more than that. 

I loved listening to this yesterday and again this morning. I loved its peace and space. Its reflection and wonder and awe. Surrender to this even though it's Monday. It'll make your day. This has magic dust attached to its wings. It'll make your day. Have I already said that.

Malone was born in Colarado and moved to Stockholm to study electro-acoustic composition on 2012. There is further explanation and exploration of what she does and why she does it on her Spotify bio. Really the record itself is all you need. It displays a fantastic and infectious inner calm.