St. Thomas
St. Thomas
Racing Junior/Universal

This is a must buy! A great CD box for a good cause - the St. Thomas Memorial Trust. Holding a lot of brilliant music. It's been just over a year since St. Thomas Hansen passed away way too young. St. Thomas is a tribute to his memory.

This box gives you a lot of moving music and moving images for the money (it's sold at a quite fair price): 2 double-discs of music, plus a DVD (Movie Star) with music videos, live recordings and documentary footage. Plus a very nice 48 page book. Record one, You May Find A Treasure Everywhere, is a collection of some of St. Thomas' best songs, plus an extra disc of rarities, demos, radio recordings - unreleased stuff like that. Disc one holds 16 songs picked from all his albums: Mysterious Walks (2000), I'm Coming Home (2001), Hey Harmony (2003), Let's Grow Together (2004), Children Of The New Brigade (2005) and There's Only One of Me (2006). To quote myself from what I wrote on his debut in our issue # 49, launched exactly 8 years ago this date: "Mysterious Walks is brave and cool, and an excellent mixture of mystery and melody. Enjoy! And applaud!!" He made a lot of great music, even though some of his albums had weaker stuff as well. Like almost everybody else. But, there was a nerve to everything he did. Never mind his English, his songs were warm despite if the tone and lyrics painted angst and despair. You May Find A Treasure Everywhere, disc 1, is a parade of golden songs. Among the disc 2 rarities there are some treasures and curious moments worth having a peek inside.

Walk With Me is a 2CD tribute, 26 artists paying their respect. As with most tribute albums this list should have been cut down. In most cases I prefer originals before covers. But, there are of course times where a song turns out with a most appealing new finish in the hands of others. There are profiled names among the tributes. Norwegians such as Ane Brun, Sivert Høyem (Madrugada), Ai Phoenix, Ivar Chr. Johansen (A.K.A. Ravi), a reunited Poor Rich Ones, Einar Stenseng & Paal Flaata as, to name a few, well as international artist like Lambchop and Grasshopper (from Mercury Rev). Many of these bands and musicians have been working/playing/recording with Thomas over the years, and you'll clearly feel everything's done with a great love and respect. I won't name many of my own favourites here - that's for y'all to pick for yourself, but I'd like to mention Ane Brun, Flunk, Moonpedro And The Sinking Ship, Ai Phoenix. Well, infact there's nothing more to say except: Buy the box.

The aim of the St. Thomas Memorial Trust is to raise money for:
- improved mental health care amongst children and youth
- mental health support related to drug or alcohol abuse amongst young people
- putting mental health care on the public agenda, reducing stigma and negative views on the subject

Copyright © 2008 Håvard Oppøyen