The Daily Sabbatical

Some bloggers whinge and grouse (and gripe and whine) about year-end lists, calling them juvenile, obsessed with rank and order, and arbitrary.  To these critics, a  response in the classical argument form of tu quoque:  you write music reviews, jackass.  I, for one, find the year end lists an excellent source of new music, they help me to find the reviewers whose taste most clearly matches mine, and compiling my own gives me a chance to see the forest of the year’s musical offerings by closely examining the trees.  I’m almost always surprised at how good a year it turned out to be.  This year was no exception.

(Note:  Eric at drawerb pointed out that Radiohead, my previous number 3, was officially last year.  So, slide everyone up and add another excellent album to the list…)

10.  Notwist– The Devil, You & Me

Neon Golden was so good that any following album by Notwist will be crippled by the comparison.  Still, those head circling melodies are here and if there is a little less going on as far as song structure goes, sometimes simplicity is a good thing.

9.  Marnie Stern–This is it and I am it and you are it and so is that and he is it and she is it and it is it and that is that.

Somewhat embarassingly Ms. Stern is the only woman on my list this year, but she so clearly outrocks anyone else on the list that she’s an excellent representative for the ladies.  The innovative guitar work and the unrestrained vocals make this one of the year’s most energetic records.  (The album’s title may be annoyingly long, but it more than answers the question by posed by The Strokes.)

8.  Chad Van Gaalen–Soft Airplane

How can Chad Van Gaalen be Neil Young reincarnated when Neil is still alive?  Nevermind.  This Canadian’s third album sees him out of his small sophomore slump and expanding his songwriting horizons.  Best one man band I know of.

7.  Vampire Weekend–s/t

This makes private-school Robert, with a penchant for Peter Gabriel and Pennyloafers, very happy.  It makes public-school Robert very suspicious, in no small part because it is catchy as as an STD in Thailand.  Very difficult to dislodge from Car CD players.

6.  Fleet Foxes–s/t

I get tires of My Morning Jacket’s Jams despite my love of My Morning Jacket’s Jim James.   (Jesus!)  Fleet Foxes comes to the rescue with a debut that introduces us to one of the best vocalist’s going: Robin Pecknold.  The Breugel cover of their album tells you something about their sound–let’s call it Feudal Folk and move on.

5.  Mountain Goats–Heretic Pride

John Darnielle puts out his second best album–nothing will beat Tallahassee probably–but his second best is good enough to be one of the best of the year.  Darnielle’s songs give us a peek through windows we would otherwise never approach, in part because the folks inside might be playing with pistols.  Easily one of our best songwriters.

4. Devotchka–A Mad and Faithful Telling

Beirut and Calexico can put up their horns and balalaikas.  Devotchka wins the international sound award.  Take Roy Orbison, David Byrne, a Mariachi band and a polka band, put it all in a blender with a shot of vodka and you have Devotchka.  Transliterator might be the best song of the year.

3. Foals–Antidotes

There’s definitely something Rapture-ous about these guys, but where The Rapture left the races and went off the tracks, Foals gets the checkered flag.  Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm, with guitar and bass counterpoint.  Pitchfork desperately needs to revisit their review on this one.

2.  Bon Iver–For Emma, Forever Ago

The most beautiful album of the year introduces us to Justin Vernon, the year’s most exciting new songwriter.  Sam Beam can relax–the gift doesn’t all rest on his shoulders now.

1.  Deerhunter–Microcastles/Weird Era Cont.

An album in the top spot should be difficult to describe, and this one certainly fits that ticket.  Deerhunter has thrown some elements of shoegaze in here, though without foregoing the crisp pop songs.   There are drifting, semi-psychedelic melodies as well as bass-driven tunes of a Sonic Youthy color.  This album just has everything.  Even without Weird Era Cont., the accompanying disc of outtakes and add-ins which would probably merit a place on this list on its own, Microcastles is the most complete album of the year.

One of the only good things about grading is that it’s the type of work I can do while listening to music.  (The same errors get pretty easy to spot.)  Keeping that in mind, I made several purchases yesterday.  Most of them consist of new stuff which I haven’t fully digested yet, but one deserves mentioning immediately: Neil Young’s 1971 Massey Hall concert, released last year.  I’m a pretty big Neil fan, but anyone with ears has to like this record.  The recording quality is just outstanding–I actually had to stop grading for most of the record because it pulled me in so completely.  Neil is playing solo here, and his guitar work is jawdropping.  He plays what were then “mostly new” songs, but which we now know as songs from Harvest.  I can’t post anything, because I’d probably get my pants sued off, but most people know what they’ll be getting.  If you aren’t a Neil fan yet, give this one a try.  It gives shivers.

I love it. Reminds me of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Ok. Back to grading.

I have a lot of admiration for Nick Thorburn, the guy behind Islands, The Unicorns, and several other projects.  He knows how to write a song, has a beautiful voice, and obviously has energy to spare.  Nevertheless, I never really grow attached to his albums.  Moody Motorcycle–a collaborative product of Thorburn and Jim Guthrie under the moniker Human Highway–is no exception.  I fall in love with songs for a moment and then kind of move on.  Nevertheless, I do fall in love for a moment–with the harmonies, most of all.  This is a strong album, really–much better than it was rated on Pitchfork, I think.  As the cover indicates, there’s a sort of sixties folk feel to many of the songs–excepting, most obviously, the title song which makes me think of Smashing Pumpkins for some reason.
I know this is a thoroughly conflicted review–that’s the nature of my relationship with Nick Thorburn apparently.  Still, listen to the track below–no one can deny that it is just lovely.

The Sound.mp3

If you have nightmares where you are pursued along the wharf with calliope music fluting your doom in the background, this album probably isn’t for you.  If you like the idea of Danny Elfman collaborating with The Clientele, however, listen up.  Misophone is a production of two guys from Bristol who are apparently cranking out songs left and right.  This is supposedly their thirteenth (or fourteenth?) album, though its only the second I find evidence of.  Whatever.  These guys have a flair for the tune, and could probably hang out with the Elephant Six crowd if they ever came out of their attic.  It rides the line between happy and very dark–sorta like a bad clown.  I have to say, the melodies are very simple and can get cloying after a while (especially with the oom-pah, oom-pah-pah on the bass clef) but they are incredibly entertaining in smaller doses.  For some, it will be essential listening.  For me, they’ll make their way into lots of mix tapes and will probably be played at the funerals of household pets.

Spisska nove ves.mp3

I’m pretty sure Debbie Harry is the first woman who made me feel “funny”. I saw this video the other day and it all came back to me…

Another excellent blog with another excellent tops list.  John over at s1t1 has mp3s up for his top 50 (!) songs and for his top 10 albums.  His taste is generally spot on–he has a penchant for a sort of blues infused pop, but he ranges beyond that.  Just direct songbird to his site and you’ll get a kick ass mixtape, learning something in the bargain.  Good stuff.

Songbird 1.0 has finally been released!  If like me, you’ve been a follower since the early beta’s, you’re pretty excited.  If you don’t know anything about Songbird yet, you’ve got something to look forward to.
Songbird is, in essence, a music browser.  Based on the Mozilla framework, Songbird combines a music manager a la Itunes, with a browser that allows you to play music right off webpages, automatically subscribe to mp3 blogs so that music is automatically downloaded to your computer, and much more.  It can sync with your Ipod too.
Personally, I use Media Monkey for managing my main collection, but I use Songbird as a browser and to manage music downloaded from blogs.  I love the damn thing.  Check it out here.

The end of the year is a great time for music lovers, not only because of the plethora of fall releases still sinking in, but also because of the appearance of thousands of “best of the year” lists.  One of my favorite music blogs, gorilla vs. bear, just released their 2008 list and I highly recommend it.  Great picks on there, and great sample tracks.  If you don’t follow these guys, you should.  (Oh, and they’re from Dallas to boot.)

Great video from Pioulard’s excellent new(ish) album, Temper. A really excellent followup to his 2006 precis.