While I love checking out the hundreds of best of the year lists (and Largehearted Boy is the best aggregator I've found), all of that pales in comparison to the rush afforded by release of the Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop poll. I have voted in the poll the past couple of years, and find it interesting to see where my pick fall on the overall list, and what kind of support my favorites garnered from other critics.

This year's list was topped by -- surprise, surprise -- Animal Collective's Merriwether Post Pavilion. The disc seemed to top everyone's list... but mine. It didn't even make my top 20, mostly because initial listens did little for me and I never spent much time with it. Lately, spurred by its appearance on so many other lists, I decided to listen more carefully to see what I was missing. This time, it clicked, and would definitely have found a place in my top 10 (though I'm not sure what I would displace to get it there).

My ballot can be found here; it is identical to the top 10 I selected back in December here at TIRBD (so read that post if you're curious why I picked what I did).

Much of my ballot aligns with those of the rest of the critics. My No. 2 disc, Neko Case's Middle Cyclone, was No. 3 overall, while six of my picks were in the Top 20 of the P&J list. The rest of my picks were somewhat spread out. U2's No Line on the Horizon came in at No. 32, while the rest were in the lower reaches. Deer Tick's Born on Flag Day, which topped my list, was at 188 (only seven other critics picked it at all, and only a few of those put it in their top 5). Nirvana's Live at Reading placed at No. 111, while DJ Spooky's The Secret Song, was all the way down at 1,586 (I was the only one who voted for it).

Seeing the cluster of groupthink at the top of the list, it's amazing that 1,934 albums could be nominated. But for every Animal Collective or Neko Case that caught so many ears, there are albums like DJ Spooky's that caught only one or two. With 697 critics participating, if each has a pet favorite or two, that expands the list significantly very quickly, allowing for mass consensus at one end and complete diffusion at the other.

It's a great way to learn about what might have been overlooked (or in the case of Animal Collective, avoided) during the year. When I see an artist on other ballots that include albums that I loved, it makes me want to seek them out. Am I missing something? There's no better time to find out.

Labels: lists, music, Pazz and Jop

Perhaps it's the fact that I turned 40 this year, or that my job was busier than ever, or that playing with my kids takes up a lot of the time I used to devote to music. Whatever the case, I found my tolerance for challenging music that required multiple listens before I would "get it" was limited. At the same time, I probably listened to more albums all the way through than I have in years. It was a case of constantly seeking out the new thing and being disappointed. So many bands were hyped this year (which is, of course, nothing new) that were good but nowhere near as great as promised. Woods, Dan Deacon, Fuck Buttons, Memory Tapes, Real Estate... the list goes on and on. I liked something on all of these, but none were anywhere near the best thing I've heard all year.

I found that what it came down to, the thing that put something on this list more than anything else, is that I enjoyed listening to it. Now, that may seem obvious, but any look at a usual end-of-the-year list proves that it is far from it. People often populate their lists with challenging music, either because they want to impress readers, or because they truly spent the time to figure out what was going on and want a pat on the back. I have certainly been guilty of that in the past.

Not this year. In 2009, if you didn't captivate me right out of the gate, you were tossed on the one-and-done pile. That's not to say there isn't challenging fare on the following list, but rather that even the most perplexing albums at least had something that immediately grabbed me and made subsequent spins seem worthwhile.

With that, I present the Things I'd Rather Be Doing list of the best music of 2009. Following is a short list of great reissues and collections.

1. Deer Tick - Born on Flag Day - If fun and enjoyment are the bellwether's of a great disc, then Deer Tick wins hands down. Born on Flag Day is the most rousing, irreverent goodtimin' disc I've heard in a long time. John J. McCauley III succeeds despite the fact that his reach does not exceed his grasp; one feels like he has much better stuff in him, but what he's doing now is still awfully good. Live, the band puts on the most entertaining show I've seen in years, and you can just tell that as good as songs like "Easy" and "Smith Hill" are, this is only the beginning.

2. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone - Neko Case has such an identifiable sound that one fears she'll run out of ways to excel. No such worries yet, however. Middle Cyclone may well be her best album (and that's saying something), because it finds ways to push her sound forward while making it clear that we're still listening to Neko Case. Her songwriting, a pleasant surprise on Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, is in full bloom here, proving Case to be a formidable multi-talented performer.

3. Fever Ray - s/t - I never really saw the appeal of the Knife, the band of Fever Ray's Karin Dreijer Andersson, but for some reason her similar solo work smacked me upside the head and forced me to listen. Where Silent Shout seemed unremittingly cold, the Fever Ray disc used that icy tone as simply one of many tools. The songs seemed more fully formed, and despite the chill, they were still a pleasure to listen to. Andersson's gimmick of altering the pitch of her voice to add menace to the proceedings, deployed on the Knife's music, worked even better here. The most revelatory thing I heard all year.

4. Flaming Lips - Embryonic - The F'lips last, At War with the Mystics, was awful, one of the worst albums from a beloved band I've ever heard. I had hoped Wayne Coyne and Co. would retreat somewhat, but never expected they would regress so far. Had this album come after the majesty of Zaireeka, no one would have been surprised. That this swirling cloud of cacophony and blissed-out beauty followed the band's first true dud was the most pleasant surprise of 2009. There were no real singles, and it essentially stopped the band's commercial momentum in its tracks. But it proved that the band has much more up its sleeve, and makes the future seem very bright indeed.

5. Grizzly Bear - Vekatemist - The Grizzly Bear backlash has begun, and it is not without merit. The band, while making gorgeous music, does so in a largely soulless, rather mechanical way. Vekatemist has its share of absolutely stunning music ("Two Weeks" is among the five best songs of the year without question), but it is music made seemingly without passion. That missing ingredient kept this disc away from the upper reaches of this list. Here's hoping they find it in years to come.

6. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - s/t - Ah, sweet nostalgia. Had this been issued in the late 1980s on Sarah Records or K, it would be seen as a classic of the college rock era. Instead, it comes 20 years later, proving that at least someone who was listening to their big brother's record collection was absorbing the lessons on display. This is a fun, raucous disc that sounds a bit like Belle and Sebastian had that band been formed in a garage instead of a college rec room.

7. St. Vincent - Actor - Annie Clark is a wildly talented woman: a singer, songwriter and guitarist who puts all of those skills to work on her sophomore outing to create a bracing rock album. It's hard to point out any one thing and say, "this is St. Vincent." Instead, Clark has (not so) simply assembled a disc of great songs that make the best use of her strengths.

8. Nirvana - Live at Reading - Truth told, this may be the best album of the year. It's hard to award a nearly 20-year-old live album from a band that stopped making music more than 15 years ago the title of album of the year, however, so instead it sits here in the bottom of the top 10. There's little that can be said that hasn't been said before. This is one of the best bands of its generation playing its strongest songs in a take-no-prisoners performance before a powerful, adoring crowd.

9. DJ Spooky - The Secret Song - When I first popped this in, I was intrigued. As it continued to play, I was continually blindsided. Is that a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused"? At times this sounds like the great lost Beastie Boys album, at others it rivals the best of DJ Shadow or the Jurassic 5 or Springheel Jack. Translation: this is a little something of everything. By the end of its 20 tracks, you feel spent, but it isn't long before the desire to cue this up again takes over. That's a good thing, because it'll take several spins before it all sinks in.

10. U2 - No Line on the Horizon - This pick will surely earn me some catcalls, but hear me out. "Get On Your Boots" is a fairly awful retread. "I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" is Bono the old man trying so hard to connect with the kids and failing so miserably. "Unknown Caller"'s lyrics peppered with computer terminology are inane. That would be enough to sink most albums, but not this one, for the rest of it is as accomplished and flat out stunning as anything U2 has made since Achtung, Baby 20 years ago. "Magnificent" is the kind of anthem you wished the band had cranked out instead of by-the-numbers tunes like "Vertigo" and "Beautiful Day," while the title track is a perfect blend of the band's pomp and producer Brian Eno's circumstance. And for the band to be able to craft something as beautiful as "What as Snow" at this point is remarkable.

11. Love Language - s/t
12. Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs
13. The xx - s/t
14. Joe Henry - Blood from Stars
15. Bonnie Prince Billy - Beware
16. Gomez - A New Tide
17. John Wesley Harding - Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead
18. Ike Reilly - Hardluck Stories
19. The Dead Weather - Horehound
20. Boston Spaceships - The Planets are Blasted


Reissues/Collections

Nick Lowe - Quiet Please
Emitt Rhodes - The Emitt Rhodes Recordings 1969-1973
Tin Huey - Before Obscurity
The Jayhawks - Music from the North Country
Big Star - Keep an Eye on the Sky
Richard Hell - Destiny Street Repaired
Close Lobsters - Forever Until Victory

Labels: lists, music

It was another eclectic month of music listening here in September, with a wider selection and a greater number of discs spun. Starting in August, I decided to keep track of every album I listened to in its entirety. The rules: Only an album heard in its entirety, even if it is spread over several days, will count. Repeat spins, partial listens, EPs, singles and background music don't count. This had to be active listening of a full album. I could listen in the car, at home, at work or even on headphones while mowing the lawn. Every completed album was added to the list.

I listened to 47 albums in August, and 52 in September. As with August, it was easy to pick out some patterns. I paid more attention to new music this month, listening to fresh releases from Jay-Z, Noise Addict, Polvo, Yo La Tengo, the Clean, Lou Barlow, Boston Spaceships, Girls, Track a Tiger, Monsters of Folk, Ben Allison, The Clientele, Flaming Lips and Volcano Choir.

I also got into degrees-of-separation listening. I picked up the new version of Richard Hell's Destiny Street (which didn't count on this list because I listened to it in August), so I listened to the old version for comparison. That led me to an investigation of Robert Quine, which led to a listen to his duo disc with drummer Fred Maher, which led to a spin through Lou Reed's The Blue Mask, which features Quine's guitar. Reading about Big Star (more on that tomorrow) and priming myself for the Keep an Eye on the Sky boxed set led me to listen to a lot of Alex Chilton, while reading the book Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records led me to pull out a lot of old Merge stuff.

How does this compare to your own habits? Do you have the patience for full albums? What sparks you to pick up a disc and give it a spin? Let me know in the comments.

The list:

Jay-Z - The Blueprint 3
Husker Du - Flip Your Wig
Bob Dylan - Together Through Life
Steve Wynn - Sweetness and Light
Richard Hell - Destiny Street
Noise Addict - It Was Never About the Audience
Lou Reed - The Blue Mask
Robert Quine and Fred Maher - Basic
Robert Gordon - Is Red Hot
Ben Neill - Night Science
Gutterball - s/t
Superchunk - Come Pick Me Up
Matt Suggs - Golden Days Before They End
Polvo - In Prism
Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs
Soulsavers - Broken
Anders Parker - Skyscraper
Dinosaur Jr. - Farm
The 6ths - Wasp's Nests
The Clean - Mister Pop
Lou Barlow - Goodnight Unknown
Rolling Stones - Between the Buttons
The Beatles - Abbey Road
Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue
Evan Parker/Matthew Shipp - Abbey Road Duos
Emitt Rhodes - Mirror
Superchunk - Foolish
Bill Fay - Time of Last Persecution
Alex Chilton - 1970
Alex Chilton - Bach's Bottom
Emitt Rhodes - Farewell to Paradise
Big Star - Live
Pearl Jam - Backspacer
Cardinal - s/t
The Feelies - the Good Earth
Boston Spaceships - Zero to 99
Girls - Album
The Minus 5 - I Don't Know Who I Am
David Grubbs - Banana Cabbage, Potato Lettuce, Onion Orange
Jim Carroll - World Without Gravity
The Clientele - Bonfires on the Hearth
Track a Tiger - I Felt the Bullet Hit My Heart
Stephen Stills - Manassas
Monsters of Folk - s/t
R.E.M. - Document
R.E.M. - Monster
Ben Allison - Think Free
Jenny Scheinman - s/t
Stefon Harris - African Tarantella
Flaming Lips - Embryonic
Peter Laughner - Take the Guitar Player for a Ride
Volcano Choir - Unmap

Labels: lists, monthly list, music

Lists are meant to generate discussion, of course, and no list that seeks to represent each of the last 25 years with one indie-rock album could hope to be definitive. That said, the list featured on Entertainment Weekly's web site today, "The Indie Rock 25," is downright awful. There are some obvious picks, but much of it either selects albums that are far from the best/most interesting of the given year or are not the best album from the chosen act, which shows how artificial such an exercise can be.

Then again, when you set constraints like these, how can you win?

1. Only one album may represent each year.
2. All the bands had to have been signed to an independent label for the given album.
3. The term ''band'' must be taken literally.

This year's pick, Radiohead's In Rainbows, was an obvious choice. Such lists are tailor made to recognize the fact that a band like this has left its major-label home for indie-land, so it's no surprise, and one that's hard to argue. So is Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, the pick for 2007, or Boys and Girls in America from the Hold Steady, the 2006 pick. From there, however, things occasionally go off the rails as often as not.

Bright Eyes in 2005, a year with Okkervil River, Antony and the Johnsons and Sufjan Stevens all making critically acclaimed and well-received discs? Please. And this has little to do with my inability to comprehend Connor Oberst's appeal, and more to do with the fact that he had made his impact long before and, with this tepid disc, came nowhere near the artistic heights of the aforementioned discs. Arcade Fire in 2004 makes sense, but again, the White Stripes' Elephant in 2003 is a strangely out-of-touch pick. It's really White Blood Cells or nothing for this group. That spot, for 2001, goes instead to the Shins, whose album that year, Oh, Inverted World, may have included the future hit "New Slang," but which didn't make a dent in the public consciousness the way it's follow-up, Chutes Too Narrow did in, you guessed it, 2003.

The rest of the list can be split into three groups: no brainers (1998's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel or 1994's Bee Thousand from Guided by Voices) miscast (Sleater-Kinney's relatively underwhelming The Hot Rock in 1999 as opposed to 1997's absolutely scorching Dig Me Out or the Smiths' Meat is Murder instead of the later, superior The Queen is Dead) and just plain wrong (no matter their parsing of things, My Bloody Valentine and the Pixies were major label bands on their respective releases, UK releases to the contrary).

The compilers seem to know all this, spending more time in each write up explaining why better and more appropriate albums were not picked than they do extolling the virtues of those that were. Still, the list does what it should, sparking the desire in fans to pull out old albums, listen to great music and discuss the merits.

Labels: criticism, lists, music

OK, I'll admit it: I like the music of white guys. If they're bookish, or a bit too clever for their own good or back after a long layoff, so much the better. I've tried for diversity, tried to broaden my horizons, but my time is limited these days, so I seek out the aural equivalent of comfort food. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I'll peruse all of the dozens of other lists out there, look for some commonalities and continue to build my "to-be-heard" list so that when I do someday get some time, I'll know what to see out.

In the meantime, if smart white guys with guitars are your thing, you could do worse than to check out these 25 discs. As always, you get a sort of annotated top 10, a second 10, another handful and some comments about those that missed.

Overall, it felt like a good year for music. I'll be curious to see who tops the Idolator and Village Voice polls, because nothing really struck me as a runaway obvious best-album choice for the masses. My pick was easy, but I doubt Joe Henry cracks the top 25 most anywhere else. Sure, critics like to single out things that don't get airplay -- when they're not busy ironically touting mainstream pap because it's subversively derivative... or whatever -- but not white former alt-country also-rans on the edge of 50 who make more money producing than performing. That's fine: Joe can be my little secret.

For me, 2007 was the year of the welcome return. Henry was back after several years away from his solo career while producing, while Nick Lowe also returned after a long layoff. Seth Tiven, Dumptruck frontman, issued his first solo album this year, the great Solitude, after a few years away as well. Then there's Glenn Mercer, the former Feelies frontman, who came back after nine years away from recording and more than 15 years since the Feelies hung it up. Add to that nice discs by Ian Hunter, John Fogerty and Dinosaur Jr., and it's like the old folks home ran out of room and sent a bunch of 'em to the recording studio to sleep on cots.

OK, enough pontification. On to the list.

Joe Henry – Civilians
Any time Joe Henry enters the studio, you ought to clear a spot in your top 10 list. When he does so with a batch of his own songs, there’s little point in considering anything else for the top spot. With Civilians, Henry may well have crafted his best disc, one that seems a culmination of every twist, turn and blind alley of his career without rehashing any of it. He surrounds himself with different players each time out, and no two albums sound alike. Despite that, he has created an inimitable, yet readily identifiable sound of his own, and Civilians is a shining example of that excellence.
web site
Metacritic
TIRBD Monday Interview
"Time is a Lion" MP3

Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha
Andrew Bird’s music is a strange amalgam of old-time string band, soul, rock, folk and classical elements that mesh to create something unique and readily identifiable. On Armchair Apocrypha, Bird offers the best synthesis of all those disparate elements, presenting it with his strongest batch of songs. Here, all of his tools are used to maximum effect, the Jeff Buckley vocals, the sweet whistle, the violin used in myriad ways and the obtuse way of looking at a melody. The only thing better is seeing him live, accompanying himself with a sequencer that allows for a jaw-dropping one-man band performance.
web site
Metacritic
"Heretics" MP3

The National – Boxer
As with Okkervil River (see below), the National followed a breakthrough album with something less expansively startling but probably more lasting. Boxer is a sublime album, one that actually seems to contract a bit from the sonic landscape of Alligator, refining that sound to create something more insular and self-contained. The focus is still on Matt Berninger’s vocals, his gruff tone helping one to realize what Tindersticks would sound like with a spur to the side, though the rest of the band is integral to the sound, its restrained playing conveying Berninger’s tales of hope giving way to despair. It’s the kind of album people will find two decades from now and wonder why it wasn’t huge at its time.
web site
Metacritic
"Fake Empire" MP3

Radiohead – In Rainbows
By the time the dust settled in the grand discussion about how we got to first hear In Rainbows, it seemed as if most people forgot to talk about what we were hearing. The what, of course, is Radiohead's seventh album, one that nicely synthesizes much of what came before it while still sounding fresh, a sort of "all the colors of the rainbow" sort of moment if Radiohead could ever be that obvious. It does continue the path of Hail to the Thief in its shedding of overt ambient and electronic overtones, as if Thom Yorke exorcised those tendencies -- for the time being -- with his 2006 solo debut, The Eraser. While Radiohead is never likely to make another OK Computer, for the first time since, it has made a record that seems to indicate that the band is similarly comfortable in its own skin, and that's a beautiful thing.
web site
Metacritic

Josh Ritter – The Historical Conquests of…
Ritter took some heat this year from people who actually criticized him for making an album that was too good, too polished and too poised. Sure, this lacks grit, a clearly self-conscious stab at making a great album. But guess what? Somewhere along the way he succeeded. He shares with Okkervil River's Will Sheff the title of year's best lyricist, and wedded those enthusiastically poetic words to some of the year's best melodies. The progression this young artist has made over his five albums is startling, and I'd imagine that we'll look back on this the way we do early work by... well who has made five increasingly great albums and not imploded? I'm sure Ritter will be criticized for the hubris of a long career, too.
web site
Metacritic
"To the Dogs or Whoever" MP3

Iron & Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog
Sam Beam’s earliest recordings were hushed, intimate affairs, and it would have been reasonable to expect that this was his best – and perhaps only – forum. Then he hit the road with Calexico and seemed reborn as a sort of low-key Dylan circa the Rolling Thunder Revue or Van Morrison of our time. The experimentation, energy and volume (both in terms of sound and the sheer amount of stuff on the tape) carried over the The Shepherd’s Dog, a disc that makes all that came before it seem like a black and white snapshot in contrast with its vivid 35mm Technicolor. Snapshots are nice and have their place, but this is Cinemascope and it only hints at where Beam might eventually land.
web site
Metacritic
"Innocent Bones" MP3

Okkervil River – The Stage Names
There’s no, um, fifth-year senior slump here. After breaking through big time with its fourth album, Black Sheep Boy, Okkervil River refines things and delivers with The Stage Name. Singer and songwriter Will Sheff continues to harness the wild caterwaul of his instrument, using it to great effect on these songs that ostensibly deal with rock music and performance. These are clever compositions, but never to the detriment of a consistent listen. From the number song name check of “Plus Ones” to the ingeniously organic sprouting of “Sloop John B” in “John Allyn Smith Sails,” this is a lovingly crafted disc that rewards repeat listens and shows that Okkervil River has reached its potential while leaving plenty of territory to explore.

web site
Metacritic
"Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe" MP3

Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Spoon is the only act on this list that didn’t better its last outing. In equaling it, however, it easily earned a spot in the Top 10. Since Girls Can Tell, Britt Daniel has been honing his music, stripping it down to the barest essentials on Kill the Moonlight before starting to rebuild things – very slowly – on Gimme Fiction and Ga⁵. No longer can he sneak up on listeners; he’s a known quantity who satisfies rather than stuns, getting by simply by offering another batch of great songs. The instrumentation on “The Underdog” shows where he can take things if he chooses, while “The Ghost of You Lingers” proves there is still a bit of territory left to explore.

web site
Metacritic
"The Underdog" video

Nick Lowe - At My Age
Lowe has aged quite gracefully, actually, adding this great disc to what is becoming the strongest part of his catalog. Leaving behind the broad jokes and pub-rock glory of his career peak, he has recast himself as an adult crooner who sings songs the coolest hipster wouldn’t be embarrassed to spin. Mixing covers rendered as lovingly as his own compositions with some of his own strongest songs to date, Lowe proves the fiction of one of the standouts from his last disc, “Lately I’ve Let Things Slide.” Rather, he has stepped up to deliver another gem.
web site
Metacritic
"The Club" stream

Glenn Mercer – Wheels in Motion
This disc defines the term “welcome return.” Its 11 songs sound current at the same time they feel perfectly aligned in spirit with Mercer's two-decade-old Feelies work. You feel right at home from the start, as the acoustic guitar strums and organic drums drive the song. Things ebb and flow nicely over the course of the next nine songs, as Mercer shows off his delicate guitar work and uncanny way of creating compelling melodies with a limited vocal range. By the time he reaches the end, with an inspired medley of George Harrison's "Within You, Without You" and "Love You To," it becomes clear that Mercer hasn't lost a step.
web site
TIRBD Monday Interview

The next 10:

11. Caribou – Andorra
12. Chuck Prophet – Soap and Water
13. Richard Thompson – Sweet Warrior
14. Bruce Springsteen – Magic
15. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
16. Josh Rouse – Country Mouse City House
17. Thurston Moore – Trees Outside the Academy
18. Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
19. Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings – 100 Days, 100 Nights
20. Danny & Dusty – Cast-Iron Soul

Five more in no order:

Crowded House – Time on Earth
Band of Horses – Cease to Begin
Mark Olson – Salvation Blues
Seth Tiven – Solitude
Graham Parker – Don’t Tell Columbus

And now for the part where I list the albums I thought would be on the list above. First up, Steve Earle, whose Washington Square Serenade seemed great -- on paper. Shaking things up with a Dust Brother behind the board sounded like a great idea, but bells and whistles -- or in this case, a drum machine -- can't polish subpar songs. That and the fact that Earle spends so much time touting his new wife, Alison Moorer -- yes, Steve, she's a dish, but you're just this side of Dennis Kucinich in the "look, a babe married me, I'm not a weirdo" sweepstakes, and that's kind of embarrassing --add up to a pretty boring album from a guy who has been a lot of things in his career, but rarely that... The New Pornographers are clearly a talented bunch, and I admire anyone willing to mess with their formula, but Challengers, from its godawful cover art to the inclusion of three Dan Bejar songs -- if I want to hear Bejar, and I don't, I'd listen to Destroyer -- is simply an overly crafted, joyless exercise in style... The Shins made a good record with Wincing the Night Away, but not a great one. "Phantom Limb" is among the best songs of the year, but where past great songs were among peers, here it's head and shoulders above, and that's disappointing... How can we miss the White Stripes if they won't go away? As with the New Pornographers, I admire Jack White for continuing to mess with the formula, and Icky Thump certainly has its moments, but it feels more like an exercise than an album. Artists like Bruce Springsteen get in a rut where they try so hard to make a Bruce Springsteen album that they forget to make music they love; on the flip side, these younger artists sometimes seem to be trying so hard not to make a New Pornographers or White Stripes album that they forget to play to their strengths and embrace what got them here in the first place.

A few artists came close and are definitely in the rotation on any "best of '07" playlist around Chez TIRBD, but they just didn't make the cut. It was nice to get Neil Young back -- the Young that cares little about convention and is willing to throw something together because it feels good. Chrome Dreams II isn't a great Young album, but it's better than I'd have hoped for at this point... Ian Hunter made a strong return on Shrunken Heads, including the great track, "I Am What I Hated When I Was Young," that embraces his age and experience, rather than run away from it like most artists of his vintage seem wont to do... Speaking of which, it was nice to see John Fogerty blow the roof off on Revival, a not-so-coyly named return to form for the Creedence chief. "I Can't Take It No More," might not be "Fortunate Son," but it's still a blast of welcome vitriol... Dinosaur Jr. joined the "improbable reunion club" founded by the Pixies, and actually cranked out a decent album in the process. Beyond has some great moments, including a couple of Lou Barlow's strongest songs in recent memory.

Lastly, two young'uns laid the groundwork for nice long careers with some impressive debuts this year. Jason Isbell is no stranger to rock fans, having penned some of the strongest tracks on the Drive-by Truckers' four most recent albums, but stepping out solo for the first time with Sirens of the Ditch, he proved he can deliver more than two or three songs every couple of years... the Broken West also didn't technically debut this year, having released an EP as the Brokedown before signing to Merge and issuing the great I Can't Go On, I'll Go On this year. But that disc came completely out of left field for me, a fully-formed and catchy blast of pop that stayed in the player for quite a while this spring. It fades as the album progresses, which kept it off the list above, but with a few more songs like "Down in the Valley," they'll soon be in the upper reaches of lists like this one. Read more about the band and singer Ross Flournoy in this TIRBD Monday Interview.

Labels: criticism, lists, music

The results of the Idolator Jackin' Pop poll are in, and TV on the Radio tops the album of the year list. No surprise, as the disc has been in the upper reaches of nearly every list I've seen -- except mine. There were surprises, however, as I didn't expect to see Neko Case's seemingly ignored disc make the top 10, for example. All in all, 497 critics picked 1,300 different albums. Anyone looking for a recommendation for something to listen to need look no further.

My ballot can be found here; it's essentially the same as my top 10 posted here in December. It's always interesting to see how your picks fared in a long list like this. My no. 1, Yo La Tengo, was no. 22 here, while my no. 2, Robert Pollard, was all the way down at no. 228. The wost-faring among my top 10 was the Minus 5, at no. 461. Oh well, there's no accounting for taste.

The overall package has some essays that look interesting, including one from poll editor Michaelangelo Matos. All that, and a first look at Robert Christgau's first post-Village Voice Pazz 'n Jop ballot as well (the New York Dolls?), should make for some good weekend reading.

Speaking of Pazz and Jop, it's coming in February. I voted despite the call to boycott over the firing of Christgau and others. It's one thing for Sasha Frere-Jones to decline -- as he talks about in this NPR piece, the latest to wade into the fray -- but the Dean himself even participated, so why not?

Labels: lists, music

Chris Anderson takes a look at the music industry's 2006, and it's safe to say label bigwigs won't like what he has discovered -- the number of gold- and platinum-selling discs was at a 23-year low. You can talk all you want about various technological and Long Tail-related reasons (which are all quite valid), but I still think it comes down the fact that the music being pushed as popular simply isn't very good. The High School Musical soundtrack, Rascal Flatts and Carrie Underwood lead the pack. Ugh.

Yes, that phrase above -- "the music being pushed as popular" -- seems a bit strange. Isn't popular music simply what's, um, popular? Yeah, right. It's what the labels choose to promote. As labels continue to promote pretty people instead of good, innovative music, fans rebel and look elsewhere for entertainment. File sharing might have been driven at least in part by people's desire to get something free, but it also stemmed in large part form the desire to find something better than what was being offered at the local Sam Goody.

Update: Coolfer reports further on the end-of-year music biz stats today, and has this interesting nugget: "Catalog titles fell only 2%, and deep catalog (albums three years or older) was even with 2005. New releases fell 7%." Further proof that mainstream music is getting worse? Perhaps. It's an easy assumption to make when you see that older music is selling steadily while new discs continue to tank.

Labels: lists, music

Ann Powers, music critic for the Los Angeles Times, has an interesting piece on the way the buzz generated mainly by indie rock blogs and web sites has impacted the music scene at large. For every success story like TV on the Radio and the Hold Steady, there is an ever-growing list of artists and bands that see amazing hype and then seemingly vanish. In the past, earning a rave review in Rolling Stone or Spin could earn enough buzz to sell a few albums; now, a timely mention on an influential blog or two or 10 can set the buzz machine in motion. Powers doesn't really come to any conclusions here, though in her defense it may be too soon to do so.

Speaking of sometimes unsubstantiated hype, Pitchfork has released its list of the top 50 albums of the year. I've heard a bit more than half of the discs, and agree with some of the picks but certainly not all. The site has always tried to straddle the line between over-hyping obscure artists and offering valuable analysis of under-exposed music, and this list is no different. There are plenty of head-scratchers and several notable omissions, but I'll let the posters at Stereogum keep that debate alive.

Labels: lists, music

The opportunity to look back on all of the music released in a given year usually helps to put things into perspective. In years past, there were clear-cut winners, a few also rans and the rest. Last year, for example, My Morning Jacket was my top pick, with all others a distant second and beyond.

This year, things were different. It took a couple of weeks to really nail down this list of 25 top discs. The good news is that I was afforded another chance to really listen to a lot of great music. The bad news is that a lot of albums that I thought would hold up throughout the year instead fizzled when subjected to such close scrutiny. The result is a solid list, but one that is much different than I might have predicted even a couple of months ago. For more on that, you can see the end of this post.

What I'm most struck by in looking at this list is that it is made up almost exclusively of veteran acts or newcomers. There are few bands with a couple of discs under their belt who made this list. Instead, bands well into their second or even third decade, like Yo La Tengo and Sonic Youth, put out some of the most vital music of their careers. Meanwhile, upstarts like Midlake, Grizzly Bear and Margot and the Nuclear So and So's came out of the gate with albums that promise (I hope) long and fruitful careers.

Top 10:

Yo La Tengo – I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass (Matador)

I labored this year to determine my favorite album, then realized I should make it easy and pick the one that spent the most time in the player. Few bands make music this creative and vital more than 20 years and a dozen albums in, but Yo La Tengo has made its career on eclecticism, so why not experience a creative rebirth now? Sure, you could call this a greatest hits populated by all new songs, as it recaptures all of the band's various styles more than it treads new ground. But top to bottom, it is one of its most consistent albums, and the one I would choose if introducing someone to its music.
Metacritic
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MP3: "Beanbag Chair"

Robert Pollard – From a Compound Eye (Merge)

In a review of this disc for PopMatters way back in February, I wrote that with From a Compound Eye, Pollard had finally made his classic album. Time has done nothing to diminish that accomplishment -- it is a fantastic collection of songs that fully explores and capitalizes on Pollard's interest in what he calls the "four Ps": pop, punk, prog and psych. There are reasons to miss Guided by Voices, but this isn't one of them. The power of this record is perhaps augmented by the fact that he issued a second strong disc in October. It's well past the point of suggesting that Pollard scale back and issue the cream of the crop. As he told me in an extensive interview before the album's release – the results of which are here and here – "I used to be accused, and probably still am accused, of not using my best stuff on records. That's good, I guess, if you have that much stuff, if people think you aren't using your best stuff on your major records." On this one, at least, no one could level such an accusation.
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MP3: "Dancing Girls and Dancing Men"

Bob Dylan – Modern Times (Sony)

Dylan is three-for-three on his last three discs, a streak the likes of which he hasn't seem for more than 20 years. Yes, the title is anything but descriptive, and yes, even the cover art has been done, but none of that detracts from the fact that this was one of the most creative, lively and fun discs put out this year. Anyone who can record an homage to Merle Haggard's "Workingman Blues" and take the album on which it appears to the top of the charts must be doing something right. It feels like Dylan could crank out endless numbers of discs like this if he so chooses. Let's hope he does.
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Video: "When the Deal Goes Down"

Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s – The Dust of Retreat (Artemis)

Yes, the name is a bit silly, but it's hard to find anything else to criticize about this gem. Led by twentysomething Richard Edwards, this Indiana group blends singer-songwritery tunes with strings, percussion and sweet vocals in a well-arranged whole that delights from beginning to end. Standouts include "Quiet as a Mouse" and "Skeleton Key," but there isn't a bad song in the bunch. In an interview with TIRBD, Edwards said he feels the band will continue to grow and improve. That bodes well for future best-of lists.
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MP3: "Skeleton Key
MP3: "Barfight Revolution, Power Violence"

Los Lobos – The Town and the City

It would be easy to consider Los Lobos another of those veteran bands who made a great comeback, save for one thing: the band never went away, and hasn't released a bad record in 25 years. Its last, The Ride, did feel like a career-capping goodbye, but we should know better by now. To follow it, the band uncorked its most inventive and consistent disc since Kiko, one that found it easily straddling the ever-shrinking chasm between its roots and its experimental tendencies. Not only that, but it did so with a concept record that actually makes sense.
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MP3: "Hold On"

Grizzly Bear – Yellow House (Warp)

When Yellow House was released, it didn't seem possible that it could live up to the massive blog hype that awaited it. But unlike bands like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Tapes 'n Tapes, there was no need to tear down what had been built up. The disc was everything that was promised and more. Mixing lo-fi bedroom pop, subtle electronics and haunting harmonies, it never grabs you, but neither does it seem to let go. Some songs seem to be randomly glued-together fragments, while the whole had a somewhat disjointed feel. That's part of its considerable charms.
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MP3: "On a Neck, On a Spit"

Belle and Sebastian – The Life Pursuit (Matador)

Another act that seemed destined to keep making the same record over and over again with decreasingly satisfying results, Belle and Sebastian instead turned in the album of its career. For the first time, Stuart Murdoch's songs don't seem affected, and everyone seems to be having- gasp - fun. The disc is an absolute blast and the songs are top notch. Even an ill-advised turn behind the mic from Stevie Jackson is easily swallowed because it's surrounded by so much sugar.
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MP3: "Another Sunny Day"

Minus 5 – s/t (YepRoc)

Scott McCaughey thinks this disc is his most straight forward in years: "I actually felt like I tried to make this album more direct and more accessible," he told me for a PopMatters piece. That he said so about a disc whose first song begins with the line "The quartermaster baked a radio" is telling. There's straightforward, and then there's the Minus 5. No matter the angle of attack, McCaughey is a deceptively talented songwriter, and this, known as "The Gun Album," may be the best collection of his career. Ably backed by a few friends who have become a crack band - Peter Buck, Bill Rieflin and John Ramberg - he cranked out a beauty.
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MP3: "Twilight Distillery"

Josh Ritter – The Animal Years (V2)

Ritter is a classic overachiever, a kid from Idaho with a decent but not great voice and compelling but not heart-stopping songs. But a funny thing happens with his records: You can't stop playing them. He has a knack for crafting deceptively simple ditties that stick in the ear for days. This time out he has refined his approach and added a degree of difficulty that only serves to make his hooks stickier. Even a slight political bent and some artistic ambition can't hamper his progress. Careful, Josh: We'll start to expect it.
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MP3: "Girl in the War"

Midlake – The Trials of Van Occupanther (Bella Union)

It’s hard to describe this album’s appeal; sure, it is full of wonderfully catchy songs, but there is nothing remarkable about the disc. It offers sweet, folky pop with dreamy vocals, beautiful stacked harmonies and somewhat anachronistic keyboard flourishes. Perhaps its charm is in the fact that it doesn’t sound like Midlake is trying very hard. Unlike the many hipster acts aspiring to retro cool, Midlake seems to have found a direct channel to the '70s without actually recreating its sound. The result is the surprise hit of the year.
Metacritic
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MP3: "Roscoe"

The next 10:
11. Shearwater – Palo Santo (Misra)
12. Bruce Springsteen – We Shall Overcome (Sony)
13. Band of Horses – Everything All the Time (Sub Pop)
14. Gomez – How We Operate (ATO)
15. Sonic Youth – Rather Ripped (Geffen)
16. Richard Bucker – The Meadow (Merge)
17. Mission of Burma – The Obliterati (Matador)
18. Alejandro Escovedo – The Boxing Mirror (Back Porch)
19. Bonnie “Prince” Billy – The Letting Go (Drag City)
20. TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain (Interscope)

An additional 5, in no certain order:
Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (Anti)
Drive-by Truckers – A Blessing and a Curse (New West)
Robyn Hitchcock – Ole Tarantula (YepRoc)
Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America (Vagrant)
Pernice Brothers – Little By Little (Ashmont)

A welcome comeback, but better luck next time:
The Lemonheads – s/t (Vagrant)

Top Reissues:
Sebadoh – III (Domino)
Pavement – Wowee Zowee - Sordid Sentinels Edition (Matador)
Gram Parsons – The Complete Reprise Sessions (Rhino)

Discs I thought I’d like more but:
Damien Rice’s 9 simply wasn’t very good. Beth Orton’s Comfort of Strangers was an interesting experiment thanks to Jim O’Rourke’s dry, raw production, but the songs weren’t quite there. Calexico’s Garden Ruin took a rewarding turn toward easy pop, but shed too much of what makes the band unique in the process. The Black Keys' Magic Potion would have been more powerful if it hadn't followed three strong albums that sounded pretty much exactly like it. I was pretty sure that Living With War from Neil Young wasn't going to age well, and I was right. Beck's so-called return to Odelay-like heights, The Information, was good, but his schtick seems a bit tired these days. He used to sound like everyone under the sun; now he just sounds like Beck. The Decemberists' The Crane Wife is a solid, adventurous turn that makes worries of a major label sell-out seem ridiculous. If I wanted to listen to Emerson, Lake and Palmer, however... Broken Boy Soldiers from the Raconteurs was a fun, energetic romp, a perfect summer album from Jack White and Brendan Benson. It didn't seem to merit repeat spins, however, which probably has something to do with White overload. How can we miss him if he won't go away? Ray LaMontagne’s ’Til the Sun Turns Black was a consistent, rewarding follow-up, but I found myself turned off by his insistence in dozens of magazine interviews that he was really a quiet reclusive guy who didn't like talking about himself. There's a solution, Ray.

And finally:
I can admire the artistry of Joanna Newsom, but suffice to say, if I'm ever holed up in a compound, the ATF won't need to guess at what to play on the boombox to get me to surrender. And talk about duds: Has that Arctic Monkeys disc shown up on anyone's list? Earlier this year it was heralded as the next big thing, as if every rock critic was suddenly stricken by NME syndrome. Today, it seems as if it has found its level, which is about waist-high in the cutout bin.

Labels: lists, music

I had wondered if the shakeup in the music staff at the Village Voice would mean the end of the annual Pazz & Jop critics poll, but according to a story in today's New York Times about an upstart rival poll, the Voice plans to go ahead with the poll.

For those not paying attention earlier this year, after New Times Media purchased the Voice, it let go several staffers, including Music Editor Chuck Eddy and critic Robert Christgau. Because Christgau had overseen the poll, it seemed likely that it would go by the wayside. Instead, there now will be two polls: Pazz & Jop and the new Jackin' Pop poll from Idolator.com, a music blog that is part of the Gawker Media family.

The more the merrier, of course, though I wonder if, in this age of bloggers and Metacritic and other instant-criticism outlets, there is still a need for these polls. Oh, who am I kidding. Of course there is. No matter now many lists there are out there, I'll always read one more. Music obsessives are always after two things: Confirmation of their own good taste and news about new things that might possibly conform to that taste. There is nothing better than a year-end list to supply plenty of fodder for both.

Stay tuned here in the next couple of weeks for my own list. For an idea of what's to come, last year's list can be found here.

Labels: lists, music

The end of the year is imminent, and that means the inevitable flood of "best-of" lists is about to begin. I'll post at least one, if not more, in this space come December, but until then, there will be plenty of linking to do.

The first comes from Information Leafblower, which posted its fourth annual list of the Top 40 Bands in America. As you can guess, that leaves out anyone who isn't American, which thins the list somewhat. Kyle compiled the list by asking several music bloggers to weigh in.

TV on the Radio tops the list on the strength of the band's Return to Cookie Mountain disc. The group didn't make last year's list, so it's quite a feat. The Hold Steady, the Decemberists, Ghostface Killah and My Morning Jacket round out the top 5.

As with any list, there is plenty of discussion/argument fodder about why certain bands did or didn't make it, but overall it's a fairly solid list that reaffirms just as many of my opinions as it challenges. I was glad to see Shearwater, Midlake and Margot & the Nuclear So and Sos on the list, and intrigued by the presence of Bishop Allen, Man Man and Lavender Diamond. And, as is always the case, it adds to the ever-growing list of bands I want to check out.

Labels: lists, music

Voting for this year's Plug Independent Music Awards is open, and at first glance, it seems to indicate that things were a bit off this year. Perhaps you can chalk it up to the fact that 2005 music has had an extra year to burrow its way into my consciousness, but the nominees for last year's awards seem to be a stronger bunch than those for this year.

Take a look at the Album of the Year nominees for 2006 (for albums issued in 2005):
Animal Collective - Feels (FatCat)
Antony And The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now (Secretly Canadian)
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm (Vice)
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Self-released)
Dangerdoom - The Mouse And The Mask (Adult Swim/Epitaph)
Devendra Banahrt - Cripple Crow (XL)
The National - Alligator (Beggars)
The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema (Matador)
Sleater-Kinney - The Woods (Sub Pop)
Spoon - Gimme Fiction (Merge)
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (Asthmatic Kitty)
Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary (Sub Pop)

And the nominees for 2007:
Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time (Sub Pop)
Beirut - Gulag Orkestar (Ba Da Bing)
Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit (Matador)
Cat Power - The Greatest (Matador)
Girl Talk - Night Ripper (Illegal Art)
Grizzly Bear - Yellow House (Warp)
J Dilla - Donuts (Stones Throw)
Joanna Newsom - Ys (Drag City)
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood (Anti-)
Silversun Pickups - Carnavas (Dangerbird)
The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America (Vagrant)
The Knife - Silent Shout (Mute)

Maybe it's a matter of personal taste, but beyond Band of Horses, Belle & Sebastian and Grizzly Bear, I'm not pulling these out for a listen much any more. Some, like Newsom, I just don't get, and others, like the Silversun Pickups, seem hopelessly bland at best. Contrast that with last year, where those last six nominees alone still garner significant spins around chez TIRBD.

Then again, perhaps it's more a matter of nominations than overall quality. Yo La Tengo, Midlake, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Califone, etc., all were nominated in other categories. Add them to the Album of the Year list, drop a few over-hyped entries, and you'd have the makings for a pretty good year.

Labels: lists, music