Favorite Albums of 2013

I managed to listen to 50-odd records this year. Some were great. Some were just terrible. Some left me stymied at first, only to reveal themselves later.

Have you ever listened to an album, or a song, or an artist and the music matches up with the moment you’re in so perfectly that it makes both immeasurably better than they would be on their own? And whenever you listen to it after that, the moment comes back with lush, jarring clarity? Man, I love it when that happens. I had that happen a couple of times this year.

So these are my favorite records for the year that was 2013. I tried narrowing it down to a true Top 10, but my indecisiveness reared it’s ugly head and I’m stuck at 11. So, screw it, it’s a Top 11 for 2013.

Modern Kin — S/T

The debut record from Modern Kin is a live wire. The whole thing crackles with energy. It might just be because I’m a sucker for gospel-tinged rock and soul, but I highly doubt it. Keep an eye on these guys.

Chvrches — The Bones of What You Believe

Everyone has a guilty pleasure. Usually, my guilty pleasure records aren’t worth including on a year-end list because they’re simply not that good. Behind the synth-y 80s pop panache is a very well-crafted record. And Lauren Mayberry’s vocals bounce between Madonna and Cyndi Lauper, which, oddly, is part of the appeal for me. Perhaps I’m just getting sappy for my youth…

Superchunk — I Hate Music

A record inspired by a long-time friend who passed away, I Hate Music showcases what Superchunk does best. Full of wistful nostalgia for times gone by, there is still a beacon of hope running throughout. One of the best eulogies I’ve ever heard.

I really hate quoting myself, but in my review of the album earlier this year, I think I summed up what I love about this record pretty well — Low F is particularly haunting. Echoed guitar lines bubble under the aching remembrance of /“You caught me singing, said ‘can you meet me down at low F?’ / and I missed the question, but you got your answer, ‘yes yes.’”/ That’s the kind of line that just lights up my spine and makes my head swim. A double-hit of saccharine sweetness and sour regret. You can picture both the youthful moment and the wistful reminiscence, making your heart swell just to squeeze it just a little too hard.

Neko Case — The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You

When I first heard of Neko Case, she was the fire-haired vixen of early-aughts indie darlings The New Pornographers. She blasted through their pop sensibility with a blowtorch of a voice. Watching her get from there to here has been quite the ride. Life takes us in interesting directions, though, and Case has grown into one of the better songwriters out there. Don’t you ever shut up, Neko. Kid, have your say.

Typhoon — White Lighter

Typhoon’s maestro, Kyle Morton, assembled a group that provides a wonderful cacophony of sound around his paeans to a lost childhood and an uncertain future. Loss, frustration, anger, and hope — sometimes all at once, wind through this record — and it’s beautiful. This is sound of adulthood in the second decade of the 21st century, with horns and hand claps. I don’t do a proper numbered list anymore, but I assure you that Typhoon’s White Lighter is right at the top.

Mikal Cronin — MCII

Wide-eyed power pop is one of my musical weaknesses. Anything that even has a whiff of the Beach Boys or Big Star snaps me to attention like a dog whistle. Sure, intricate, thought-provoking lyrics and experimental instrumentation are great, but when I just want to rock and feel good, albums like Cronin’s MCII are where I turn. This is top-down-on-a-cool-summer-evening kind of music. The way that it crescendos, with the sparse “Piano Mantra” slowly building to a fuzzed-out catharsis, is absolutely perfect.

Jason Isbell — Southeastern

For heartache and pain, you’ll always get more bang for your buck with a country album. Jason Isbell delivers that and more on his latest solo release. All of it bound up in well-crafted songs that showcase Isbell’s considerable talent. I don’t know if Isbell gets any play on country stations at all. My local country station has him listed on their “artist search,” but a quick perusal of their playlists shows a steady stream of pop-country crap — Faith Hill, Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, etc, etc, etc. It says something about the current state of things when albums that the icons of country music would praise, like Southeastern, can’t even get whiff of airplay. It’s a fucking shame, really, because Isbell knocks them all out of the water.

Jagwar Ma — Howlin

One minute, I’d never heard of Jagwar Ma. The next, everyone and their brother was recommending it as fast as they could. The hype is deserved. A record with so much going on should sound unfocused, but it fits together so tightly that it’s almost hard to imagine Motown revival without a dash of electronica and pinch of psych rock. For someone like myself who grew up during the regrettable rise of rap-rock like Limp Bizkit and 311, it’s nice to see the next generation melding good music together for a change.

Savages — Silence Yourself

While melody and songwriting are always important attributes to a good record, there is something to be said for malice. The blues first gave it a tangible voice, rock and roll refined and glossed it up and then punk stripped it back to the bone. There is malice in this record. It’s powerful and barely contained. It manifests in primal howls, sludgy guitar riffs that explode into angular peals of distress, and rolling bass lines that sound like billy clubs ready for a beatdown, with animalistic drumming driving all of it forward. There is more than a hint of Fugazi and Minor Threat running throughout Silence Yourself, so I can dig it.

Charles Bradley — Victim of Love

It sounds weird to say that you hear growth in the sophomore album of a man who is 65 years old. But Victim of Love sounds like a more mature and better-crafted record than No Time for Dreaming, in my opinion. I especially like the psychadelia-tinged “Confusion.” Artists like Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones give me hope that the cream eventually rises to the top, if you just stick to your guns. I feel privileged to get to listen to artists who are almost direct connection to the old Motown hits I grew up loving.

Phosphorescent — Muchacho

This record sounds like a half-remembered dream, or maybe just the morning after. Every echo hangs in the air like lazy dust motes in a shaft of sunshine. It helps that it features one of my favorite songs of the year in “Song for Zula,” but the remainder is extremely strong. Muchacho is one of those albums that has to be listened to as such. It’s a mood, a feeling, and it can transport you if you let it.

So that’s my list, unordered and unorganized and likely incomplete. I always tend to discover one or two records after the fact that make me regret not including them. But that’s the nature of compiling a list, I guess. No one list is ever definitive. I try to keep myself from perusing other’s year-end lists while I’m putting my own together, but once I post this, I’ll be combing through them, looking both for validation for my own choices and for gems that I may have missed. And speaking of gems, how about a quick rundown of some of my favorite songs of the year? For shits and giggles, I’ll number this one -

1. Phosphorescent — Song for Zula.

2. Neko Case — Calling Cards

3. Typhoon — Artificial Light

4. Low — Just Make It Stop

5. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds — Higgs Boson Blues

6. Sin Fang — What’s Wrong With Your Eyes

7. Steve Earle — Remember Me

8. Mikal Cronin — Shout it Out

9. Jagwar Ma — The Throw

10. Wavves — Demon to Lean On

11. Jason Isbell — Elephant

12. Radiation City — Foreign Bodies

13. Sleigh Bells — Bitter Rivals

14. Pearl Jam — Mind Your Manners

15. Yo La Tengo — The Point of It

16. On An On — The Hunter

17. Guards — Giving Out

18. The Joy Formidable — Silent Treatment

19. Genders — Technicolor Vision

20. Modern Kin — Unannounced

Favorite Albums of 2012

It's that time of year when I strain to set down in list form my favorite albums from the past 12 months. Never an easy task, it's still one that I look forward to year after year. It falls right into my wheelhouse of loving order through lists and loving music.

Each year that passes, it seems to get more and more difficult to pare the list down to ten. At the same time, it gets more difficult to stay open to new and different music and artists. You hit your 30s and the tendency is to settle in for the long haul, disregard that which you don't immediately "get" or that you don't already know, and plow ahead into your 40s listening to the same soundtrack that carried you through your late teens/early 20s.

It's not easy. I still hold so much love for the bands I fell for back in my "prime" - The Wrens, The Mountain Goats, Apples in Stereo, The Thermals, Spoon, etc. - and they're all still putting out good music (The Wrens aside, obviously). It helps that 2012 was a good year for music. Plenty of artists hitting their stride and others coming back stronger than ever.

As I have the past few years, I declined to numerically rank these albums. They're my Top Ten for the year, but in what order I have no idea. I could give you general positions, like that Titus Andronicus is definitely near the top and so is Sera Cahoone. Cat Power and Japandroids are in the middle somewhere. Bobby Womack and Sharon Van Etten are in the bottom half, whatever that means.

As with any list, some didn't quite make the cut. For the sake of brevity, I'll point out three-

Justin Townes Earle, Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now A wonderful record, but only as wonderful as his others. Nothing new, but still very nice.

Cotton Mather - Kontiki (Deluxe Edition) A reissue of a stunningly overlooked power pop gem from the late 90s.

Robert Glasper - Black Radio If this is where jazz is heading, I like it. I like it a lot.

And now, on to the list!

Titus Andronicus - Local Business

What can I say about this album? Since it's release, I think I've fallen in love with each and every track for at least a day or two each. I play them over and over and over again, absorbing every single riff, every single diatribe, and I still haven't gotten sick of any of them. (okay, maybe Food Fight)

Titus were already riding pretty high after one of my favorites of 2010, The Monitor. With a more stable, tighter lineup this time around, They sound better than ever. It's not that the burrs and rough edges weren't endearing and engrossing. The mood that was set on their first few albums provided some of the best moments. Local Business is Titus Andronicus taking care of business in a slightly more efficient and organized way. I've never heard such discontent with society and self expressed with such an exuberant musical backdrop.

If this is what the generation under mine has to say, both lyrically and musically, I'm all for it. Hell, I'll be waiting for the insurrection with open arms.

Cat Power - Sun

Don't call it a comeback. Okay…call it a comeback. Cat Power's first album of new material in six years is an uppercut that connects squarely and knocks you on your back. When we last heard Chan belt out her own tunes, it was with a pastiche of old soul. Now she's back with a much darker, electronic-driven sound that is less a reinvention than a revelation.

The opening track, Cherokee, sounds at once desperate and confident, and it sets the tone perfectly. This is a gritty album. Chan's songwriting comes at you from street-level, not from high above. Ruin is a whirlwind trip around the globe set to a wonderfully circular piano line that reinforces that we are, in fact, "sittin' on a ruin." 3,6,9 brings out the swagger that walked all over her last album, The Greatest, while grappling with addiction and sobriety. Sun is a testament to Chan Marshall's resilience and talent, and I for one am glad to have her back after hiatus.

Oh, and Manhattan is probably one of the most darkly beautiful songs about New York City ever written. Hell, I don't think I've ever heard Man-HAttan ever sound so sexy.

The Tallest Man on Earth - There’s No Leaving Now

You could always feel a hesitant distance in Kristian Matsson's music. It was enthralling and starkly beautiful, but always at arms length. There's No Leaving Now loses that distance, and, in the process, pulls the listener in. Lines like "I was more than just a coward / I was handsome, too / I felt nothing when your flood came down" from Revelation Blues just knock you back and make you chuckle at the same time. Each song is it's own little tale that you wish could go on forever.

The musical and lyrical expansion that this album over previous Tallest Man on Earth albums makes this both wholly new and entirely comforting. You can feel an artist much more comfortable and at-ease finally taking the time to stretch out and explore.

Japandroids - Celebration Rock

Anyone who has ever played or enjoyed watching any kind of sport (not golf or bowling) knows that one player or team who, once the match/game/whatever started, went 1000mph with seemingly no regard for their own body and with no apparent intention of saving any ounce of energy.

That's the Japandroids, whether you see them live or just sit down and put on one of their albums. They strap in and power straight ahead, giving it everything they've got, with no regard for the future. Celebration Rock is like a full-frontal assault with instruments and shouted choruses, and it's beautiful.

This is not just an album of glorious nights of partying and living life to it's fullest. It's the aural embodiment and expression of those things. It's a bar rock band reaching for arena rock heights, probably best exemplified by The House That Heaven Built - "when they love you and they will / tell them all they'll love in my shadow / and if they try to slow you down / tell them all to go to hell." Selfishly, I hope they never reach those heights. Seeing them in a cramped bar, shoulder to shoulder, the crowd and band one churning mass.

It's the kind of album that can make you, if only for eight songs, feel 22 and on top of the world again.

Joe Pug - The Great Despiser

A big reason I liked Joe Pug's latest album - and all of his albums, really - is how much they remind me of where I grew up.

Pug often sounds like he's singing to his younger self. Especially with lines like - "they called you a dreamer / we were 17 / the years went by so fast / now they call you other things / all the answers that you're dreaming of / they say it's natural, but a grown man learns how to give them up" - from Silver Harps and Violins. Part of the fun of listening to artists your age is hearing them deal with the same problems you're facing. They just make them sound better.

Pug was a carpenter before he became a full-time musician, and the workmanlike pace of his songs shows it. They're solid and well-constructed and his backing band, guitarist Greg Touhey and bassist Chris Merrill, really shine live. The lyrics are the true substance and The Great Despiser, just like Pug's previous releases, delivers in spades.

Sharon Van Etten - Tramp

This is not an album for a beautiful, sunny day. It's best listened to in gloom and grey. It's not a summer album, it's a winter and fall album. This isn't because it's unbearably depressing, though there is depression. There is also plenty of self-criticism and vivid portraits of relationships soured and chances taken. It's inward-looking and shoe top-gazing, but it also showcases Van Etten's poignant songwriting - filled with half-thoughts and implications - and powerfully vulnerable voice.

The production work done by The National's Aaron Dessner really shines on Tramp, as well. There are moments, like toward the end of Serpents where it echoes the indie wall of sound that The National employ almost too often, in my opinion. When it shows up here, it's tempered and well-timed, and it suits the rough silk of Van Etten's voice perfectly. This is exemplified in the sparseness of standouts like Kevin's and In Line. The pained wail at the end of In Line goes right to your bones and raises the hair on the back of your neck. Tramp is a album that stays with you long after it's over.

Bobby Womack - The Bravest Man in the Universe

The 2010s have seen a weird resurgence for elder statesmen of soul, with Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley showing everyone that, even after years of struggle and toil, there is redemption when you strike the right note. Womack, a former backup guitarist for Sam Cooke and the man who wrote the Rolling Stones hit "It's All Over Now," is just as due for some late-career recognition, and his boldly-titled album, The Bravest Man in the Universe, certainly merits it.

You can hear the roots of soul butting up against and actually mixing quite well with a more digital palette throughout this album. Having one of the artists behind the Gorrilaz (Damien Albarn) as a producer certainly helps. But the passion on this album is all in Womack's world-worn voice. It shines on the hit "Stupid" as well as on the bare-bones "Deep River." It's not busted and broken down, just well-worn. The years of experience and pain and hard work resound in every high note and every growling return.

Passion Pit - Gossamer

Sugary electro-pop isn't usually my thing, but I picked this album up on a whim and barely put it down all summer. If you've turned on your TV in the past few months, you've likely heard the opening track, Take a Walk, shilling for Taco Bell. But the rest of this album has surprising depth. I've said before that Constant Conversations is the slow-jam of the year, and the on-going references to Angelakos' drinking problem keep such a high-flying album grounded in harsh reality.

The problem I have with many dance-pop is that there's nothing behind the over-saturated musical palette. Just repetitive, mindless lyrics. There is real story there, real pain, real heartbreak, real triumph. Things that are hard to fake. Just ask any of the legendary musicians who battled demons during their prime, then got rich and sober and struggled to find anything interesting to say about their new, fancy lives.

While I'm glad Angelakos is clean and sober, his pain certainly created a beautiful piece of art that brought enjoyment to many people. When I caught Passion Pit in concert back in September, I've never seen so many people just blissed-out and enjoying the moment. It's that sharing of relatable material that brings out the best in both artists and audience, and it's wonderful to hear.

Dan Deacon - America

There are many different ways to sound like America. I, personally, still think that Jeff Tweedy's voice sounds like America. But that's beside the point. My first (and really only) exposure to Dan Deacon was his 2007 track Crystal Cat. So when I queued up America, I expected more of the same frenetic, freakout mayhem that I liked on that track. Instead, what I got was a much more nuanced, less soullessly-paced album. There are certainly big sweaty dance numbers on America, like the opener Guilford Avenue Bridge, but even they hide a more intricate and delicate core that runs throughout the album. There is soul, not just passion and pomp, to this electronic maven.

Deacon has stated that this album is based on his love for cross-country travel, and you can feel that throughout. The lines on the highway pass by during True Thrush, overpasses briefly blot out the lazy sun during Prettyboy, and through the heavy industrial drive of USA: II, The Great American Desert you can feel the cornfields and rolling hills of flyover country analog past.

Sera Cahoone - Deer Creek Canyon

With a voice as dusty and lonesome as a backcountry road on a summer evening, Sera Cahoone has delivered an amazingly pitch-perfect and toe-tapping country album for the 21st century.

Deer Creek Canyon doesn't fall back onto glamor country tropes and stereotypes. It's just honest, lo-fi alt country at it's finest. The only shame is that we have to slap the "alt" tag in front of the "country" because it has zero associations to what is popular country. Like Dan Deacon's America does with the entire country - but in an entirely different manner, of course - this album sounds like a trip through the West and Midwest, and it's a glorious trip, at that.

It's a lonesome sounding album that still manages to have moments of levity and balance. There's a resignation, but a willing one, throughout Deer Creek Canyon, a kind of "this is the way things are, and it's not great, but it's what I have to work with" feel. Everyone knows that feel.

Favorite Albums of 2011

I have been putting off my end of the year Top Albums list for weeks now.

Not because I can’t decide which records were my favorite, but I’m having a hell of a time writing up blurbs about each record to justify their selection. Coming up with effusive praise for music that I spend hours listening to never used to be so difficult. In fact, not-entirely-deserved hyperbole used to come pretty easily. Now I’m having a difficult time even justifying why I listened to some of these records at all. Not because they’re bad or regrettable or anything, but because the words just won’t come. It’s been frustrating.

I’ve started to worry that my love for music was beginning to wane. That perhaps I am outgrowing the very act of falling in love with a record. Ever since I hit 30, I’ve been steeling myself for that inevitable disconnect with new music that seems to hit so many people. That time when you eschew new music and start to surround yourself with the greatest hits from your personal “glory days.” I referred to this a few years back as “the time when you stop living for new experiences and start dying with comforting certainties.” Even though it came out of my head, even I thought it was a particularly cold statement to make about other people. But that didn’t make it any less true. I’m not quite there yet, though. I hope…

Maybe it’s not that I don’t still love music the way I always have, and just that don’t feel the need to explain that love to blunt outside judgement. I like what I like and that’s it. It’s kind of a freeing, actually, to not feel the need to explain why I unapologetically rock out to guilty pleasures like Wugazi or become moved to tears by Rural Alberta Advantage’s “Two Lovers.”

So, instead of long-winded write-ups breaking down why the chorus on The Joy Formidable’s Cradle is so amazing, I’m just going to give a few sentences on what made me like each album, saving both you and me time that would be better spent enjoying the music.

Here is my list, in no particular order.

The 4 on the Floor - 4x4

This hard-driving Minneapolis band struck a chord with me when I first caught the video for their song “Working Man Zombie.” It wasn’t until later, while talking to a childhood friend who lives in Minneapolis and knows the band, that I realized that some of the band members grew up mere miles from me in northern Minnesota. Sometimes life is too weird and sometimes that weirdness makes a damn good blues rock record.

Wild Flag - S/T

For reasons that should be relatively obvious, I never really got into the whole riot grrrl scene. (I’m relatively laid back and not prone to rioting, also I’m not a “grrrl”) But this record has an infectious energy that’s hard to deny AND it rocks pretty damn hard.

I was lucky enough to be part of the crew that shot an in-studio session Wild Flag did for OPBmusic and they are even more impressive in person. Go catch them if they come to your town!

Charles Bradley & The Menahan Street Band

No Time For Dreaming : Charles Bradley’s personal story is compelling enough (look it up, you’ll be moved) and the Menahan Street Band is more than solid. 2011 or 1961, this is a great soul record no matter what year it was released.

Oh yeah, I got to shoot an in-studio with these fine fellows and Mr. Charles Bradley, too! (humblebrag)

Rural Alberta Advantage - Departing

Sometimes, a record evokes a point and time from your own personal past. That’s what the newest from the RAA does for me.

Joy Formidable - The Big Roar

For three people, the Joy Formidable sure makes a hell of a racket. Since their debut EP, A Balloon Called Moaning, I’ve been impressed with their unbridled passion to create really emotive music that still sounds so effortless and honest, while simultaneously blowing your eardrums to kingdom come.

Eleanor Friedberger - Last Summer

To be honest, I was surprised to hear such an accessible and straightforward album coming from one half of the notoriously schizophrenic and obtuse (but in a good way) Fiery Furnaces, but there it was. Eleanor Friedberger has made a great pop record while still maintaining her verbose, idiosyncratic delivery.

Blind Pilot - We Are the Tide

If being earnest has a sound, I would imagine it would closely mirror We Are the Tide. The heart behind this record just wafts through your speakers and settles around you like a comforting blanket. Despite the wide-open instrumentation, it feels desperately intimate.

Wilco - The Whole Love

This is just a good record. That’s the most apt description I can think of and yet it’s also an indictment of how far Wilco has fallen creatively since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I know I might be living in the past, but every album since that 2002 release has slipped further and further away from their creative apex.

This also hass the sound of a band on auto-pilot, and that’s a damn shame.

In the end, I think this record feels disjointed. It’s forgettable because each great track, “I Might” for example, is followed by a lackluster one (in that case, “Sunloathe”). The great tracks still manage to carry it just enough to make it a good record.

Tune-Yards - WhoKill

A vibrant, beautifully chaotic collection of songs. So discordant yet so right. This has been a slow-burner for me. It sounds better each time I listen to it.

Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines

This is a breakup album that makes you feel good about the breakup, while simultaneously wallowing in it like a little bitch. Not an easy feat, but a very catchy record.

Favorite Albums of 2010

For the life of me, I can’t find a copy of my post from 2010. Much like the other “lost” years of 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2006, I’m sure it was a real classic, unrivaled in the genre and unappreciated in its time. Alas, we shall never know.

But, thanks to my iTunes library archives, I was able to find the actual albums I chose for that year, if not their order. Here they are:

The Thermals - Personal Life

Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

Spoon - Transference

Superchunk - Majesty Shredding

LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening

Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues

Jonsi - Go

The Black Keys - Brothers

The Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - I Learned the Hard Way

Favorite Albums of 2009

Once again, as another year draws to a close, I’ve been scrambling, trying to work out which albums this year were my favorites. Remember, this list is totally subjective and not meant to imply that these are the ten best albums of the year, period. They are simply my favorite albums of 2009, the ones that I personally enjoyed the most.

Go ahead and strap yourself in, it’s going to be a long ride:

10. Silversun Pickups - Swoon

Everyone’s favorite Smashing Pumpkins cover band is back with a new album. Just kidding. Just kidding. Sure, the Silversun Pickups have some of the same ascetics that the Pumpkins did; the overwhelm- ing guitar, the heavy bass played by a hot female bassist, etc, but they are most definitely a different band. I had their first Pikul EP and the growth since then is pretty stunning. Sure, there are a few throw-away tracks here, notably ”Catch and Release” and ”Sort Of,” but the standouts more than make up for it. ”Panic Switch” and ”There’s No Secrets This Year” are a couple of the better tracks to come out this year. All in all, this record makes me look forward to their next effort, because if they can get rid of the 2-3 filler songs that seem to pop up on each of their records, there isn’t much to keep them from putting out a truly memorable record.

9. Mariachi El Bronx - Mariachi El Bronx

The last thing I expected when Kelly told me that The Bronx had a new disc out and that I had to listen to it was to hear a tumbling bassline and lots of brass horns. For a hardcore punk band, these guys can really belt out some mariachi tunes. Sure, it’s not like they re-make the whole genre, but they get a huge up for actually having the skill as musicians to pull off a pretty damn good mariachi record. The songs pop with excitement, heartache and loss. What starts out as a stunner ends up as a solid record that would be a good addition to anyone’s music collection.

8. Eels - El Hombre Lobo

It seems like every year that the Eels put out a record, I end up exhorting my friends and acquaintances (unsuccessfully) to check them out. This has been happening for almost ten years now and still no one seems to listen. You’d think after awhile I’d give up the ghost and just enjoy them by myself in the privacy of my own home. Each release gets less and less publicity and less and less fanfare, but is no less impressive than the one that preceded it..

This record is different from the last few that the Eels have put out. While Blinking Lights and Other Revelations was a opus that spanned two discs and spawned two distinctly different tours. El Hombre Lobo sounds like a record made in a basement for a select audience. If Mark Oliver Everett’s music didn’t come out of the studio sounding so polished, if he gave in and made a sloppy record that reveled in it’s (and his) flaws, he’d probably be lauded, much like Paul Westerberg was for his Stereo/Mono collection of basement recordings. But because each Eels record has a pop polish to it, we sweep them under the rug and discount them. Meanwhile, one of the better songwriters of our generation has been languishing under our very noses for over 15 years and the only thing that we remember him for is one radio hit back in 1996. It’s sad, really. So, hey, do me a favor and go buy this fucking album.

7. Justin Townes Earle - Midnight at the Movies

I’d include this album for the title track alone. The songwriting is stellar, the arrangements are top- notch and Earle’s voice will haunt you in your dreams. Add in that he includes a cover of The Replacements’ ”Can’t Hardly Wait” that just breaks your heart and this is a record that, much like the Avett Brothers, I could sit and enjoy with just about anyone. ”Mama’s Eyes” makes you want to cry and ”Black Eyed Suzy” makes you want to get up and shake something. In addition to the songwriting, Earle should be commended for choosing the right traditional songs and covers to round out this memorable album.

6. The Thermals - Now We Can See

Sometimes there’s a band that comes along and, through sheer force of will, can do no wrong. It’s not that every song they record is a hit or that every album they put out is an instant classic, but they just keep chugging along and never seem to disappoint. For me, that’s Portland’s own Thermals. They have always put out listenable, energetic records. Fucking A is a classic of the early 2000s and 2007’s The Body, The Blood, The Machine was epic, especially for a punk record. On Now We Can See, The Thermals seem to be settling into early middle age without losing much of the verve that made them so enjoyable in the first place. You see bands hit a certain age all the time and just drop off a cliff artistically. Thankfully, that does not happen here. With sing-along songs like ”Now We Can See” mixed with the blunt force of ”When We Were Alive,” The Thermals have managed to begin to grow old gracefully. Some bands view every new record as more and more pressure, but it seems like Hutch, Kathy and Co. are content to keep on letting us in on their good time.

5. White Rabbits - It’s Frightening

The percussion. The staccato guitars. The rolling bass. The howling vocals. Oh, and the percussion. This album has it all. So many of the songs use a calypso beat and it makes even someone like me want to dance. The songs are more proclamations than diatribes, filled with poignant lines like ”when you’re out taking names/take a number.” It’s Frightening was produced by Spoon’s Britt Daniel, and when you listen to the White Rabbits’ first full length, Fort Nightly, it really shows. There is much more space and experimentalism going on on this record. They take chances and seem to have been challenged to grow musically and that’s exactly what they did. While there are ravers peppering the whole album, some of the standouts are the slower, more contemplative tracks, like ”Midnight and I” and ”Company I Keep.” This record is a big step forward for the White Rabbits and it’s certainly one of the more listenable albums, front to back, of the year.

4. Mos Def - The Ecstatic

I’ve always liked the idea of Mos Def. He’s popped up on my radar as an actor and occasionally as a musician here and there, but I’d honestly never really sat down and listened to one of his albums all the way through.

This year, I figured enough was enough and grabbed The Ecstatic. Now I know what I was missing. The flow, the creativity, the personality, they make his music unmistakable in so many ways. Top to bottom, this record is excellent. Kicking off with ”Supermagic” and culminating with ”Casa Bey,” two extremely strong tracks, there is barely a throwaway on this album. The stellar ”Auditorium” really stands out, as do ”Quiet Dog” and ”Life in Marvelous Times.” Mos Def is at the top of his game here and has delivered a true gem.

3. Blakroc - Blakroc

When I first heard about a collaboration between The Black Keys and a group of hip-hop artists, I was slightly skeptical. But after thinking about it for a second, I realized that their brand of percussive, gut-bucket blues might just be a perfect fit. I couldn’t have imagined how well, though. About halfway through Blakroc, you forget about that this concept sounded unique at first blush and just accept that it was inevitable and relish that it was done by such talented artists. From top to bottom, this record breathes new life into a musical genre that has been languishing in obscurity for too long. Overshadowed by flash and bling and half-assed artists, rap and hip-hop has found refuge in the underground and alternative music circles, where Mos Def, Raekwon and RZA have found new, if limited, fame.

The integration of blues and hip-hop has always been on the periphery, but now it’s been shoved to the forefront and rightfully so. As it stands, it’s a testament to the talent of the artists involved, because they make it all sound so effortless.

2. Japandroids - Post-Nothing

This record languished in my library for a few months after I first got it, popping up every now and then. I never really took the time to sit and listen to what it had to say until one day, it hit me like a punch in the gut. The raw emotion and fuzzed-out simplicity are hard to resist. It’s like listening to pure nostalgia.

Japandroids have managed to put out a record that makes me wish that I was at once young enough to share the enthusiasm for life that oozes from Post-Nothing and makes me glad that I’m old enough to share sentiments like ”we used to dream/now we worry about dying” from ”Young Hearts Spark Fire”.

The Japandroids aren’t re-inventing the wheel with their sound, but the combination of the current social climate and my own flip into my 30s make this the perfect record to bemoan getting old to.

1. Avett Brothers - I and Love and You

The Avett Brothers have been making down-home music to soothe the soul for most of the last decade, garnering a small but dedicated fanbase everywhere they play. Whether it’s frantic rave-ups or plaintive ballads, they’ve blazed a new path for true country music in an era marked by experimentalism and a departure from simple songs. That’s something that, in and of itself, I admire. But add to that the fact that they make beautiful music and I’m hooked. I bought most of their albums within a one month period after picking up their 2007 effort, Emotionalism, and I haven’t looked back. So when they released a their newest this fall, I was falling over myself to listen to it.

I and Love and You is a monumental leap forward for The Avett Brothers. The arrangements are grander without being over-grand, the songs are more focused without sounding too polished and the passion that informs so much of their performance is still comes across on the recording. And while this album is decidedly different from most of their catalog, they still manage to stay true to form. The album is paced perfectly, kicking off with the title track and never looking back for a moment. There are poignant moments peppered throughout and strong tracks all the way through. From the heartbreakingly lovely ”January Wedding” to deliciously quirky ”Slight Figure of Speech,” this album hums all the way through. I could sit down and enjoy I and Love and You with a teenager and with my grandmother, knowing that they’d love something about it. There’s something here for everyone, and that’s more than I can say for almost every other record that came out this year.

Favorite Albums of 2008

For the past eight years, my friends and I have gathered together at the end of the year to compare our picks for the top albums of year. Originally, since we all worked for the campus radio station,it was an on-air countdown. We’d take 3-4 hours to argue, laugh and listen to some great music. But since we all graduated and moved hither and yon, we’ve sent e-mails back and forth comparing our lists. Now, with the platform of Sodblog, we all get to come together digitally to make our case to the blog-reading public.

I post my picks today, my friend Chris posts tomorrow, and Kelly posts on Friday. I encourage you to head over to Sodblog to check out their lists in the coming days. I’m sure you’ll find something worth listening to or arguing about.

Without any further ado, here’s my list for the Top 10 albums of the year, a few runners-up and some of my favorite songs of the year.

10. Girl Talk – Feed the Animals

Imagine every song you’ve ever heard, intentionally or otherwise, mashed into one album and 14 songs. Sounds like a headache, huh? Not quite. While this album isn’t up to the standard that Girl Talk set with the brilliant 2006 release, Night Ripper, it’s still just stunning to listen to. Hearing songs that I grew up listening to sampled, screwed up and set to hip hop beats is, well, it’s a head-trip, that’s for sure. You spend half of your time marveling at every riff or beat or lyric that you recognize, stunned that your music knowledge is actually much larger than you ever imagined. Hearing Twisted Sister and Temple of the Dog provide the backdrop for the same song, with snippets of ten other songs that you know but can’t quite place, it’s impressive in it’s scope.

9. Atmosphere – When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold

I’m not the biggest hip-hop fan, but for some reason, Atmosphere has always held a special spot in my playlist, with their compelling beats and insightful, real-life lyrics. This album, which I think features Slug’s most direct storytelling since Lucy Ford and some genuinely compelling beats. The realism that Slug dabbles in, instead of the extravagance of mainstream hip-hop, is so much more relatable. Atmosphere is the group that introduced me to the idea that I didn’t have to go back to old-school Public Enemy-type hip-hop to find music in the genre that didn’t focus only on booty, benjamins and booze. Atmosphere certainly does that, telling us stories about homeless men, men missing their dead fathers or even prostitutes with vibrancy and heart.

8. The Constantines – Kensington Heights

The Constantines are rock and roll in the same way that Creedence Clearwater Revival was rock and roll, Led Zepplin was rock and roll and Pearl Jam is rock and roll. Grunting, sweating and screaming, they pound through songs that are as elemental as dirt. Kensington Heights isn’t a departure, but a natural progression, as The Constantines have expounded upon their early reliance on Fugazi-ish silence and explosion with more driving beats, melodic departures and howling guitars. This is the sound of a band at the height of it’s power, at it’s apex. The only complaint I have with the record is that they still haven’t fully been able to capture the raw emotion and power of their live performances, but they’re getting close.

7. Army Navy -Army Navy

For a debut album, Army Navy’s self-titled, is a pretty damn good way to start. Combining elements of Apples in Stereo’s joyous, percussive, driving beat and Superchunk’s wide-eyed taking in of the world around them, they have managed to craft a fun, rollicking ride of an album. Kicking off with the excellent “My Thin Sides” and finishing with the 70′s pop cover, “Right Back Where We Started From,” they hit the right note over and over again. This is the kind of album that, while not necessarily full of deep meaning and music virtuosity, gets stuck in your head and will not leave.

6. Mates of State – Re-Arrange Us

Kicking off with the angelic “Get Better,” this new album by husband and wife duo Mates of State is easily their best so far. With their perfect harmonies, lighthearted and uplifting lyrics and simple organ, drum and vocal style, they wrap you in happiness and don’t let go. I can’t imagine a better album to cheer someone up with. They’re not exactly stretching themselves musically from their other releases, but it still feels like a step forward, like all of the elements that have always been their found a way to lock together in a more pleasing way. It’s not all that different, just better.

5. Rural Alberta Advantage – Hometowns

This album came out of nowhere, for me. Admit it, you’ve never heard of Rural Alberta Advantage, either. In fact, I just bought this record two weeks ago and it really threw a wrench into the assembly of my list. Fittingly enough, this album is one that sneaks up on you, as well. The songs aren’t necessarily slow-burners, like a National record, but they nonetheless gain flavor over repeated listens. The track, “Edmonton” is emblematic of this, with the nasal to the point of ridiculousness vocals and simple arrangement wrapped around a simple repeated line “what if I’m only satisfied when I’m at home?” and it’s variations. That simplicity is beautiful, and so is this album.

4. TV On The Radio – Dear Science

Sometimes, an album comes out and is so stunning in it’s brilliance that most people don’t fully know what to do with it. That was Dear Science for me, at first. Full of complex songs with influence drawn from very diverse sources, this album was almost too much to take, the first time I listened to it. Even now, there are songs like “Family Tree” that just leave me speechless. The more I listen to them and watch the progression of their amazing albums, it strikes me that TV on the Radio is our generation’s Steely Dan; they’re a band that everyone likes to appreciate and call genius, but their music is tossed aside, as if it is inconsequential to their success as a band. Basically, they’re the band that every hipster calls their own, even if they don’t own the album. They’re a stamp of cool.

3. Okkervil River – The Stand Ins

Okkervil River started out in the heroin sheik shadow of Bright Eyes. For many, they were just another over-wrought, sprawling indie pop band. With their last few albums, they’ve emerged from that shadow fully-formed, a tight band with better songs than most of us gave them credit for. Will Sheff sings and howls with gusto and purpose still, but also manages to tone it down and create an album that stands out as better than their past triumph, Black Sheep Boy. With standout tracks like “Calling and Not Calling My Ex” and “Lost Coastlines,” this album hums with emotion.

2. Paul Westerberg – 49:00

If you missed this album, it’s too late and too bad. You missed a sloppy gem. 49:00 is one track with many songs pasted on top of, around and over each other. Songs start out of nowhere and end just as abruptly. It’s odd that a concept such as this record, had it been attempted by anyone other than Westerberg, would have fallen flat and seemed childish and trite. But in the hands of old Paul, it’s a masterpiece almost on the same level as his double album Stereo/Mono from 2002. The songs (and pieces of songs) are captivating and exciting, mimicking the unchecked possibility of skipping around the radio dial. Especially of note is the last 5-6 minutes, where Paul shotguns through a medly of classic songs and then rocks out on guitar while his young son takes the mic. 49:00 was pulled from circulation for unknown reasons, but the group of covers was probably it’s undoing, since you can almost bet that Paul didn’t ask for permission when he threw them in there.

1. The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound

If Springsteen and Alkaline Trio had a love-child, The Gaslight Anthem would be it. Growing through Boss-ish tunes like “Only Cowgirls Get the Blues,” “The High Lonesome,” and “Meet Me By The River’s Edge,” they make their intentions known early on. They are here for nostalgic reasons, to reimagine all those hours we spent as kids, sitting by the radio, waiting for that one song to come on so we could sing along at the top of our lungs. The ’59 Sound is replete with passages from Otis Redding, Bruce and even Counting Crows, that are evident upon second and third listen. But instead of sounding desperate or lazy, they sound familiar and comforting. Listening to this album is like being a child and re-discovering music all over again.

Runners-Up

DeVotchKa – A Mad & Faithful Telling

Brilliant, eccentric and comforting music from these Denver-based troubadors. Not quite up to the high-water mark that they set with How It Ends.

The Avett Brothers – The Second Gleam

Catchy and it has a banjo? I’m in. This one is good, but Emotionalism was better.

Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue

Jenny has positioned herself as the heiress to Neko Case as the new indie chantouse. Her first solo record was dynamite and Acid Tongue is easily 10b on my list. She’s right on the verge of fully realizing her potential oustide of Rilo Kiley.

Songs of the Year

The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound

Mates of State – Get Better

Okkervil River – Lost Coastline

TV On The Radio – Golden Age

Ghostland Observatory – Heavy Heart

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – We Call upon the Author

Tim Fite – Big Mistake

The Ravonettes – You Want the Candy

Ted Leo/Pharmacists – I Got Your Number

Paul Westerberg – 5:05

The French Kicks – Abandon

The Walkmen – In The New Year

Favorite Albums of 2007

My 2007 best of list was originally separated out into individual posts for a blog I was writing for at the time. I have combined the posts here, with date stamps to indicate order.

Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

To kick off the Top Ten Albums of 2007 Countdown (gotta shorten that name…) in style, let’s start with a seriously stylish and stylized band, [1]Spoon, and their latest album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.

Just so we’re all on the same page, my plan is to post my reviews of each of the 10 albums on my list in increments leading up to the end of the year, then, sometime around New Years, I’ll post the rankings of the albums, from 1 to 10…or 10 to 1, if that suits you better. In any case, let’s get this party started:

I downloaded a bootleg copy of this album. There, I said it.

Don’t worry, I paid for a copy when it came out. I’m not a heartless asshole. Indie musicians are skinny enough, I don’t want to deprive them of a well-earned meal. In fact, maybe the next time, instead of paying for an album, I’ll just send them some of that weight-gain powder.

I’ve been a fan of Spoon for years now. I have all of their albums and I have no problem cranking the stereo every time one of their songs comes up. The angular, minimalistic, jarring jams that these guys from Austin, Texas (now Portland, Oregon…YAY!!!) churn out are instantly, toe-tappingly catchy.

On this album, the band seems more loose. Long-time fans could see it coming after 2005’s Gimmie Fiction showed a band more willing to break out and expand their sound. Still, many of the tracks on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga were a very welcome surprise. From the 60’s-soul horn sections on ”The Underdog” and ”Got Yr Cherry Bomb” to the brooding pop of ”Black Like Me” and the driving, urgent rock sound of ”Finer Feelings,” you hear the sounds of a band, already 10+ years into their existence, unafraid to branch out and try new things. The funny part about these new directions, is that they seemed almost effortless, like the capacity to make songs like this was built into the groundwork of the band’s sound long before they were actually implemented. Spoon has a way of incorporating new sounds and ideas and making them uniquely Spoon-ish.

I love it when bands mix it up, as long as it doesn’t sound contrived, and this albums sounds anything but that. In the past, many of their songs sounded very claustrophobic and paranoid, just looking back to the albums Girls Can Tell and A Series of Sneaks will give you multiple examples of that.

I like this new Spoon. They seem to incorporate new sounds and styles into their already existing ”Spoon- sound” without any hiccups. It’d be fun to say that lead singer/songwriter Britt Daniel’s move from Austin to Portland facilitated some of that change, but it’s there’s probably much more behind it. Although, a change of scenery couldn’t have hurt. The changes that they made to their music appear effortless even where they’re sweeping. The mood of this record ebbs and flows and, in a scant 30 minutes, takes you on a wonderful ride. You can listen to each track over and over and hear some new quirk or hook that makes you love it for an entirely new reason.

There’s energy in this record. A certain freewheeling feeling surrounds the production, even when the lyrics are more staid and reserved. It’s the kind of record where you can tell the band had fun making it and enjoys what they’re doing, even if they are deadly serious about their craft. Its’ the kind of record that you’d want to make if you were in a band, and that’s why it makes my list for the Top Ten Albums of 2007.

(2007-11-26 12:04)

Radiohead - In Rainbows

To continue the countdown of my Top Ten Albums of 2007, let’s talk about Radiohead’s In Rainbows…

My first real introduction to Radiohead, aside from being bombarded with the music video for ”Creep” every time I turned on MTV in the mid-90’s, was two burnt CD’s a friend of mine handed me during my sophomore year of college. As with many bands, I was a late adopter. Even though I was really into music from a very young age, I lived in an insulated music vacuum growing up. It wasn’t until I reached college that the doors were blown off and I started to realize how much great music had been kept from me. In a two year period, I was exposed to the greatness of Radiohead and Wilco and The Replacements (thanks, Kelly), the bedrock of my musical tastes to this very day.

Those two discs weren’t even proper Radiohead albums, per se. They were the collection of all the B-sides that the band had released on their singles and whatnot, a rag-tag collage of the band from their inception thru the release of OK Computer and beyond. My friend, Adam, described them to me as the two greatest Radiohead albums ever, and while he had a tendency to overstate things, every single one of those songs was a gem that I cherish to this very day.

Since I received those two CDs, I’ve collected every album that Radiohead has ever released, searched out live bootlegs and rare tracks. I downloaded Kid A, Amnesiac and Hail To The Thief before their proper releases (I bought each of them once they came out, honest) and I was ecstatic when the band announced that they would be releasing their latest, In Rainbows, for download before it was available in CD form.

Now, I’ll freely admit that I was a bit let down by Amnesiac and Hail To The Thief. They both had their moments. ”Knives Out” is a great track and ”There, There” leaves me speechless, but as albums, I never thought that Radiohead had met the expectations they set with OK Computer and Kid A. I know that those are lofty expectations, being that both of those albums are insanely great, but a guy can dream, right? So, when I downloaded my copy of In Rainbows, which I paid for ($9!), I was a bit apprehensive. I wanted it to be great from start to finish.

I was not disappointed.

While In Rainbows is no masterpiece, it is surely the best Radiohead album in years. For a band that is constantly searching out new and different avenues for their music to explore, you can’t really use the term ”return to form,” but this is certainly another step forward.

For the first time, Radiohead has some soul in their music. While the motif of cold, precise execu- tion is still found throughout this album, it swings a bit more, especially on tracks like ”Reckoner” and ”Weird Fishes/Arpeggi.” There’s a warmth to much of this album that has been missing. Instead of holding the listener at arms length, it invites you in and wraps itself around you. Every track sounds different from the next and all the songs have so many layers that you could listen to this record for days on end and still discover new things to love about it.

Songs like ”Videotape” and ”All I Need” just didn’t show up on previous albums. They tear at your emotions and beg to be placed prominently on a mix tape you give to someone you love. If you had told me a few years ago that I’d even think about doing something like that with Radiohead song, I’d have called you crazy. But, here I am, saying just that. I cherish being surprised by the musicians and bands that I love, and that’s exactly what has happened with In Rainbows.

Not only do I look at this album differently that I have other Radiohead albums, but listening to this record has made me go back and re-listen to all of the other albums they’ve released and hear them in a new light. In a weird way, my odyssey with Radiohead like the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz, all that time spent searching for a heart, only to realize that they had one all along.

(2007-11-28 15:56)

The White Stripes - Icky Thump

Like I mentioned in my last album review for Radiohead - In Rainbows, I owe much of my current taste in music to my friends. We all have people in our lives that introduce us to bands and music. My dad intro- duced me to such disparate artists as Jimi Hendrix and Hank Williams Sr. My grandmother is responsible for my love of Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, as well as my unhealthy obsession with the Glen Campbell song ”Witchita Lineman.” ”By The Time I Get to Phoenix” is a great, too. I’m not even close to kidding.

Anyway, what I’m getting at is that I have a friend to thank for making me sit in his Ford Explorer and listen to this new band he had just heard about called The White Stripes. This was 7-8 years ago and I was totally blown away. I spent the next few months collecting their back catalog and playing them for as many other friends as I could. Thanks, Rausch.

Bringing us back up to modern times, as I was whittling down my favorite albums of 2007, I came across The White Stripes’ Icky Thump, a record that I really enjoyed when I first heard it and then, for some odd reason, totally forgot about a little more than a month later. Granted, it came out during the summer and a lot of good records came out during the summer, so in my mind at least, this is a totally understandable oversight. But boy am I glad I started listening to it again…

They had very much fallen off my radar after their previous record, Get Behind Me Satan, which I thought sounded forced and unoriginal. In fact, I hadn’t loved one of their records beginning to end since White Blood Cells. I guess that makes me a snob or something. I also stopped liking The Who after John Entwhistle died…go figure.

Icky Thump, though, marks a return to form for Jack and Meg. That’s not to say that there isn’t growth evident on this record, because there most certainly is. The songwriting on ”Little Cream Soda” is particularly good and ”You Don’t Know What Love Is (you just do as you’re told)” is perhaps the best song in any genre for the entire year of 2007. The title alone nearly merits that praise by itself. Very few songwriters are as good at cutting to the quick as Jack White.

Also back is the hard rocking, simplistic garage sound that they had slowly embellished over the past two records. Jack’s guitar has never sounded better on record and Meg seems to have at least sat through a few more drum lessons, adding some new tricks to her repertoire. Most importantly, Icky Thump has highs and lows, consonance and dissonance and some truly gut-wrenching guitar solos. A tour-de-force cover of ”Conquest” certainly helps, too. Patti Page has never sounded better.

In the end, the fact that over half of this album is instantly in my ”classic tracks” bin put it over the top. I could listen to ”Icky Thump,” ”300MPH Torrential Outpour Blues,” ”You Don’t Know What Love Is,” ”Conquest,” ”Bone Broke,” ”Little Cream Soda,” ”Rag and Bone” and ”Catch Hell Blues” over and over again. It’s quite the line-up for a band that keeps moving forward while keeping a foot suck firmly in their roots. Here’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about: (via the White Stripes Wikipedia entry)

In regards to rare recordings of the band:

The most rare recording has yet to be discovered. According to Jack White, he recorded an as-yet unheard song on a record. White and Brian Muldoon hid 100 records in 100 pieces of furniture in 2004 in cele- bration of Muldoon’s 25th year of upholstering furniture in Detroit. Says White, ”we put 100 records in 100 pieces that year, and maybe, one day, they’ll be found. This is a record no one has ever heard and maybe will never hear, but it’s a nice time capsule. I’m sure a lot of upholsterers would open up a chair, pull out that record and throw it away, so that’s the funny part about it.”

Now, that, my friends is reason enough for me to include them on this list. Truly awesome.

Speaking of truly awesome…

(2007-12-05 14:10)

Caribou - Andorra

I was all set to finish up my review of the next album on my Top Ten list, The Apples In Stereo’s New Magnetic Wonder when I started listening to a record that I just downloaded the other night, Caribou’s Andorra.

I was halted in my tracks, breathless.

I’ve long been a fan of orchestral pop music. It’s been making a comeback in the past few years, with Sufjan Stevens’ state-theme albums and all, which I like. I mean, I have the Beach Boys ”In My Room” on my Top Five All-Time Songs. I habitually listen to tracks from their unreleased opus, Smile. I don’t necessarily have an obsession as much as a healthy respect and admiration for the genre, let’s put it that way.

Now, I know jack shit about Caribou, aside from the fact that it’s one guy, Daniel Snaith. Kind of like Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor…except not unnecessarily angry about everything. In fact, most of this album, and most orchestral pop in general in my opinion, alternates between two distinct emotions: bliss and melancholy.

An example of the melancholy side on Andorra is the song ”Desiree,” which plays out like a pleading letter to a lost love, se to a heartbreakingly beautiful backdrop of harp and woodwinds, of course.

On the other side of the coin is ”Melody Day”…wait, that’s also melancholy. It has it’s uplifting moments, though. Actually, for the most part, this is a beautifully melancholy album, full of lost loves and missed opportunities. It evokes memories of the Beach Boys orchestration and harmonies (even if he is harmonizing with himself, which is totally cheating) and Elliott Smith’s beautiful defeat and pain. It melds these and many other influences that I’m not even close to savvy enough to catch into a wonderful end result.

Since I started writing this review, I’ve listened to Andorra twice through. The second time around, it was just as captivating and gorgeous as the first. I can’t imagine what the third listen will bring, and that’s something you can’t say about a lot of records these days. That’s why, at first blush, I decided to throw Andorra up on my Top Ten Albums of 2007 list.

(2007-12-06 10:15)

Apples In Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder

It had been almost five full years since the last proper Apples In Stereo album when I was up late one night in December of last year, watching The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. Stephen was conducting a guitar solo competition between himself and the lead guitarist for The Decemberists. The back story is readily available, if you’re interested, but I’m not going to get into it here. The important thing about the show that night was that, the opening act was musician Robert Schneider, who performed the playfully irreverent (and completely objective) ”Stephen, Stephen.”

I was shocked.

Other people, important, on-TV kind of people knew and loved Schneider enough to have him on their show five years after his band, The Apples In Stereo had released their last album?! What the hell?

Not too much later, I heard that they were, in fact, back together, with a slightly different line-up and that a new album was imminent. Joy! I was a huge fan of their last two records, Discovery of a World Inside the Moone and Velocity of Sound, which were still in my heavy music rotation. Go check them out, they’re that good.

Two months after the impromptu appearance on the Colbert Report, Schneider’s Apples In Stereo released New Magnetic Wonder. It was everything I had been waiting for.

The psychedelic production, the starry-eyed lyrics, the boundless enthusiasm were all still there. How someone can’t listen to a song like ”Energy,” with lyrics like ”the world is made of energy and there’s a lot inside of you and a lot inside of me” and not have their mood turned around is beyond me. But that’s not all, the entire album is full of gems, from ”Seven Stars” to the blatant enthusiasm of ”Sun Is Out” and ”Can You Feel It?” this is an entire record made to put you in a good, toe-tapping mood.

In fact, just about the only bad thing about this album is the cover art, which, let’s face it, is pretty damned ugly. I like to think that it’s a defense mechanism, put there to guard against those people who wouldn’t truly appreciate it.

(2007-12-10 12:26)

The Post Where Nate Decides to Give Up On Music Reviews and Just Do A List Already

So, I was sitting around the other night, re-reading some of my posts here on Sod. I do this often. It’s a great way to bask in my glory. But seriously, I was re-reading my music reviews so far, so I could decide which to review next. After reading through them all, I realized something that I had alluded to earlier, these aren’t so much reviews of the albums as they were blatant adoration of them. Essentially, I was taking 5-8 paragraphs to tell you all how much I loved these records, which should already be obvious. I mean, they’re on my list, for crying out loud.

So, in lieu of another post where I make sweet, sweet love to each and every one of my favorite albums from 2007, I’m just going to do the entire list right here, right now. Each album will be recapped with a quick paragraph and possibly an mp3 or a Youtube link. For those records that I’ve previously reviewed, I will simply link to my earlier article about them.

That is all. Let’s do this.

10. Caribou-Andorra

9. Les Savy Fav-Let’s Stay Friends

This is just a kickass rock record that will have your feet tappin’ and your head thrashing from start to finish. I first heard ”The Year Before The Year 2000” on the radio and I was immediately hooked. The utter forcefulness of this record is just captivating.

Just for the record, this is a fan-made video. Also, it’s the shit.

8. Tom Brosseau-Grand Forks

This album made me cry the first time I listened to it. I’m not even kidding. Between the high-registered, wailing voice and plaintive guitar and the highly personal subject matter, I was a total mess. Sounding little a slightly effeminate Hank Williams Sr., Grand Forks, ND native Tom Brosseau lays out a tribute album to the 1997 Red River flood on its tenth anniversary, and its brutal in its beauty. For those of us that lived through The Flood, this album stands as a testament to the perseverance of our hometown. It also happens to be a great record.

7. The White Stripes-Icky Thump

6. Wilco-Sky Blue Sky

The fact that this album made my Top Ten is evidence that I’m getting old. Eschewing the studio chicanery and sonic messing-around and getting down to beautiful melodies, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy is at the top of his talents and is surrounded by possibly the most talented group of musicians in rock at the moment. It’s really quite a sight to behold. So, never mind the fact that it sounds like a record straight out of the ’70’s. It’s good music that’s good for you.

5. Apples In Stereo-New Magnetic Wonder

4. The Weakerthans-Reunion Tour

The Weakerthans are the kind of band that your English professors would start, if they had spent as much time practicing guitar as they did reading Faulkner. Every time I listen to one of their records, it takes me right back home to the plains, with the high blue skies above me and the welcoming desolation all around. John K. Samson is one of the best songwriters around and the band more than ably surrounds his words in 4/4 time. Plus, they’re from Winnipeg!

3. Spoon-Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

2. Radiohead-In Rainbows

1. The National-Boxer

The slow, intricate build to a cathartic release, again and again. The slightly awkward lyrics that are sung with such conviction and passion. The ominous feeling that hangs in the air, surrounded by earnest passion. This is the New York City band The National in a nutshell. To tell the truth, I’ve barely listened to the actual studio recording of this album. Right after the release of Boxer, one of the mp3 blogs that I frequent posted an entire live session the band did on French radio. [11]You can find it here. It includes performances of most of the songs from Boxer and proves that The National is the kind of band that can be best appreciated in a live setting. I’ve had the extreme pleasure of seeing them twice in the past year and both times, I was blown away.

Honorable Mentions

Jens Lekman-Night Falls Over Kortedala - He’s Swedish and knows how to make a genuinely en- joyable record, which is more than you can say about The Hives.

John Vanderslice-Emerald City - His second best record about 9/11, so far.

Little Lebowski Urban Achievers-Is This A Party or An Intervention? - the band that reminds me of my years in college, in a good way. And, they’re from Minneapolis!

MIA-Kala - Surprised? Don’t be. She rocks.

Favorite Albums of 2004

Here’s the big list. You’ve probably seen all of the important year-end lists and whatnot, but I always feel obligated to add my two cents. So here it is.

I’m finding myself a little at odds with an actual numerical ”Top Ten,” because I can’t decide on my favorite album and there’s a few more than ten. I know, I’m horrible. Anyway, here goes:

Wilco-A Ghost Is Born (in ten years will be recognized as the classic that it already is)

Arcade Fire- Funeral (saw them live…WOW)

Green Day- American Idiot (why all the press?)

The Bigger Lovers- This Affair Never Happened (very nice power pop)

The Hold Steady- Almost Killed Me (balls to the wall midwestern rock)

Elliot Smith- From A Basement On A Hill (makes you want to cry)

TV On The Radio- Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes (awesome for a party, try it!)

The Black Keys- Rubber Factory (two white guys from Akron make the best blues album of the year? yup.)

The Secret Machines- Now Here Is Nowhere (Pink Floyd and Led Zepplin date Tool)

A.C. Newman- The Slow Wonder (perfect pop, and it’s Canadian!)

The Fiery Furnaces-Blueberry Boat (weird, very weird and good, very good)

The Good Life- Album of the Year (is it? maybe.)

The Helio Sequence- Love and Distance (I haven’t even heard all of it yet and I put it here anyway)

Iron and Wine- Our Endless Numbered Days (beautifully hushed)

Modest Mouse- Good News For People Who Love Bad News (am I on a bandwagon, yes…had I actually heard of them before this year, yes)

Once again, I know that is way more than ten and that it isn’t in any particular order. Feel free to tell me that I’m an idiot for picking this album or that album, but if you do, please have the common courtesy to post your top ten afterwards!