Quick and to the point here kids. It was a great year for music.
Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Pure perfection from top to bottom. If you don’t like this album, you don’t have a heart.
St. Vincent – Actor. I see Annie Clark as the female Sufjan. An incredible album.
Future of the Left – Travels with Myself and Another. Good for those days when you feel really mad at everyone. Might not be for everyone, but “You Need Satan More Than He Needs You” is as good as it gets.
Washed Out – “Feel It All Around”. Jesus Christ, man. A beautiful, warm blanket of a song.
The Dead Weather – Horehound. Jack White on the drums. Alison Mosshart on vocals. It’s bluesy, intense and it rocks. When Mosshart snarls, “cuz I’m just like your mother”, I’m inclined to believe her.
Doves – Kingdom of Rust. Rainy day loveliness. You can always depend on Doves to crank out a dependable album and KoR does not disappoint. Heart-rending brit-pop with a dance beat.
Mew – No More Stories…I’m not sure how I missed Mew all these years (I’m currently obsessed with their earlier record, “Frengers”), but they’re fantastic. Skilled musicians, amazing arrangements.
The XX – The XX. This band came out of the nowhere, and while they can be a little mopey, that’s the point. Mopey club music.
Mastodon – Crack the Skye. Mastodon cleans up the metal and turns it on its head. Some of their best performances to date, with some crazy soloing, amazing drumming, and incredible vocal performances.
Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures. It’s obvious that Josh Homme took the helm on this project, but then that’s not a bad thing. Homme, John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) and Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana) join forces to fight flaccid riffs and succeed.
Animal Collective – MPP. Can’t believe it. After years of HATING Animal Collective. They win me over.
The Thermals – Now We Can See. Not as balls-out punk-rock as their older stuff, but it brings me great joy. The kids also love it.
Super Furry Animals – Dark Days/Light Years. My favorite SFA record since Rings Around the World. Filled with songs that were supposedly created from a single groove (each).
Dinosaur Jr. – Farm. This album, in a word, “rips”. The solo in “Said the People” is some history making stuff. Wonderful.
The Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come. An album that takes all of its song titles from Bible passages. Doesn’t sound like something I’d be into, but this album is touching, riveting, and happy all at the same time.
Destroyer – Bay of Pigs. 13 minutes of heaven. I think I’ve begun every Destroyer review I’ve written with “Dan Bejar’s voice is an acquired taste” so I’m going to do it again. Dan Bejar’s voice is an acquired taste, but this 13 minute epic EP (it’s only 2 songs) is a must listen. What could be best described as “ambient disco”, Bejar constructs a fantastic song that lingers in the shadows long enough to burst forth and capture your ears.
Andrew Bird – Noble Beast. A Spring day. You can almost see the bugs, flitting about in the afternoon sun, as you listen to Noble Beast. All of Bird’s trademarks are there, the whistling, the violin, and his unmistakable voice. The deluxe edition comes with an album of instrumentals that are wonderful to read to.
The Clientele – Bonfires on the Heath. A Fall day. Much like Noble Beast above, this album conjures seasonal imagery: dead leaves crunching underfoot, the smell of fires in living rooms, the look of snow in the air. 60’s jangly Brit-pop through orange/brown colored lenses.
Up next, my favorite records of the 00’s.
