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Like I said over in the "movies of the year" thread, my entertainment input this year has been staggeringly low. So these albums represent most of what I bought this year (guess I got lucky). My best albums of the year (no pah-tick-ya-lah order):
And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Source Tags And Codes: ROCK! This album shreds it up and throws it in your face. Very, very rocking and, more than that, fantastic and memorable tunes.
Spoon - Kill The Moonlight: Spooky, late at night, playing music alone in a darkened gymnasium sound on a lot of this album. And then there's the pop nuggets aplenty. Why aren't these guys on the radio, like, all of the time?
Sleater-Kinney - One Beat: Already gushed about this one. My favorite S-K joint thus far. Urgency, immediacy, and tight, forceful ROCK.
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: Never was a huge Wilco fan, but I was pretty blown away by this one. The songs were v. nice, and I'm always a sucker for Jim O'Rourke production. Niiiice...
Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots: I dunno. Am I the only one who thought that The Soft Bulletin was one of their worst? This album more than makes up for that misstep (yes, okay, I know I'm the only one...).
Racebannon - In The Grips Of The Light: Brutal. Bludgeoning. Not as brutal or bludgeoning as an actual Racebannon show, but a decent recorded version of same.
Breeders - Title TK: Not as good as their other albums, but still at the top of their form. Not bad for taking ten years off. Quite different. Lots of open space, here. "Sparseness" is the name of the game. "Rocking out" is the middle name. And the last name is, I dunno..."Wellington".
Rilo Kiley - The Execution Of All Things: Don't actually own this one...yet. I've heard it several times in the cafe I frequent, though, and I am digging it muchly. What it would sound like if Lisa Germano were less mired in depression and formed an alt.country band in a world where alt.country never happened.
Ugly Cassanova - Sharpen Your Teeth: The occasional side-project that actually works. A rustic-y broadening and deepening of the "Modest Mouse Sound".
Sonic Youth - Murray Street: Their best album since Experimental Jet Set..., IMHO. But, then, Experimental Jet Set... is one of my favorite SY albums, so that's what my opinion's worth...
Walkmen - Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone: Here's another one I picked up from the 'Lith (kudos to Flux!). I liked Jonathan Fire*Eater and am happy to see that some of them are still doing their avant-post-punk-moodpop thing.
...and I'm gonna stick Lali Puna's Scary World Theory on here because I wish I'd heard it last year. Laid-back Teutonic click-pop. Apparently a big influence (the band, not the album) on Radiohead's last two releases and it shows. And I thought they'd been listening to Oval...
Reissues:
Pavement - Slanted And Enchanted: Luxe And Reduxe: How did they pack so much stuff on this? It blows my mind. I'm really happy that one of my friends lost my old copy of Slanted now.
Spoon - Series Of Sneaks: Still possibly their best album. One of the best straight up rock albums I've heard in a dog's age. Oh why aren't they always always always on the radio?!?
Johnny Thunders - You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory: These garage rock punks are lucky Mr. Thunders managed to shuffle off this mortal coil a while back. This would be some stiff competition.
Disappointments of the year:
Cornershop - Handcream For A Generation: I think they're going downhill. When I Was Born... was several steps down from Woman's Gotta Have It, IMHO, and this is the leap off the cliff. There's a few redeemable songs, but it's mostly just sort of...there. Nothing to crow about.
Girls Against Boys - You Can't Fight What You Can't See Supposedly their big return-to-form after the severe disappointment of Freak*on*ica, but it's just a wan imitation of their old sound w/none of the bite. Really a shame.
Jason Lowenstein - At Sixes And Sevens: Wait, dude. Didn't you write a bunch of kick-ass Sebadoh tunes? What happened? Manages to sound more aged than the oldest Lou Barlow record.
I still haven't listened to the new Beck and GBV albums enough to make a sound judgment about them. They're two of my favorite acts, but these albums kinda fell flat w/me.
(P.S. Having just finished the new GBV again, I've concluded that it is easily their weakest album yet. The first of theirs where it sounded like they were just going through the motions. Too damn bad...)
[edited to add meat to bare bones] |
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