Dec 27

It was really, um, nice, 2011, but I have a really early morning tomorrow…

Posted in: Music

Thank you Waub for starting this tradition among our circle of now-extended friends 10 years ago.  Wow.  I’ve discovered so many great records (& more metal than a girl could ever dream of…) thanks to the initiative you took on that fateful day in Akron <3.

The real top ten, really (& I only cheated twice with double-entries):

1.  Feist – Metals:  Anyone who knows me a teeny bit won’t be surprised this is my top album. But it’s not pre-Monarch Feist bias at play, I swear.  This is a rich, dark record with challenging, complex & interesting percussive, vocal & melodic parts, which are completely different from the upbeat hand-clappy triple-a-radio stigma she suffered for the past six years. Not at all weirded out by her upcoming Mastodon collabo (what could be worse than LuLu, amirite?!?), it makes a lot of sense after listening to this (on repeat…for months on end).

2.  Singapore- do re mi fa q:  Not quite a full-length, but much more than an EP…& definitely a fair representation of what their live show yields. These (young!) guys shocked me with their polished presentation, unique sound (think a Nick Cave-fronted Strokes with a dash of Depeche Mode’s timeless sexy swagger) & smart songwriting. Hoping that 2012 brings big things for another ungoogleable band from Toronto.
3.  TIE:  Kate Bush- 50 Words for Snow & Director’s Cut:  Yeah, technically two different records but it’s nice to look at her songbook through a new lens, especially before tackling new material.  Listening to the director’s cut recordings of classic songs was almost as invigorating as last year’s Peter Gabriel covers record…& 50 Words will definitely help get you through the next two months & then some.

4.  Wilco – The Whole Love:  Would never self-identify as a big Wilco fan, cause it seems like a daunting chore…but this frigging record, with an almost prog-like churn, weird twists & turns & still catchy tuneful treats, has me revisiting all their old albums. This is one of those records that if you put it on during a dinner party you catch people pausing to enjoy it…or maybe I just throw really shitty dinner parties filled with awkward silences.

5.  Ryan Adams – Ashes & Fire:  My boy got me through a near-hellish fall/winter. I’ll admit to leaning on the standbys: Pneumonia, Gold, Heartbreaker…& all-time fav Easy Tiger. BUT this album is stand-alone GREAT. Funny reading in the reviews that he took 2 years off, cause there are delicious Sad Dracula/bootleg/one-off breadcrumbs all over the interwebs to satisfy any dry spell, but you can tell that my future husband/ex-Mr. Mandy Moore put in some serious time sequencing, mixing, writing a near-perfect country/roots album.

6.  Chilly Gonzales – The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales:  There are no words to describe how amazingly meta this man has become. Oh & watch Ivory Tower or die laughing/trying.

7.  St. Vincent - Strange Mercy:  Everyone who wrote off her last two albums as too swirly, orchestral, busy & lush has run out of excuses. This is a fierce stripped down record where two things are glaringly obvious: bitch can shred & hot damn she has complete vocal range & control.

8.  TIE:  Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts & Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – Mirror Traffic:  Combo slots on the list because of the common producer credit – Beck. Solid records for 90s icons on both sides of the studio glass.
9.  PJ Harvey - Let England Shake:  Spare me the Arab-Spring/political interpretation undergrad angst bullshit. This is a structurally sound trudge through the most painful moments in life, the inexplicable, the horrible & the terrifying. A tough slog, but somehow still beautiful.
10.  Bill Callahan - Apocalypse:  With his unique voice, folk tendencies &, well, a goofy approach to lyrics, I worry that a guy like this’ll get a ‘character actor’ stigma (I have more interesting things to worry about but it’s nice to switch it up). What can you do though, right? Wait 20 years & guys like Buscemi are revered as leading men…I trust that history will be equally kind to Mr. Callahan. At least in a big-payout-for-his-estate-Nick-Drake-level-of-reverence kind of way. (Watch “America” & it will all make sense)
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Dec 25

inch by inch, life’s a cinch (part two – parentheses edition)

Posted in: Music

Might as well get these out of the way before the 2012 Mayan calendar apocalypse thing happens, too.  (Again, stalling, yes.)

Top five records in 2011 that were really good, but only in small doses (reasons outlined in handy parentheses):

  1. Austra – Feel it Break (Shrill…Sorry, but it’s true.)
  2. James Blake – s/t (Cold & melancholic, like a poorly curated pop-art exhibit soundtrack.)
  3. tUnE-yArDs – whokill – (Too much, too busy, too piercing in its jangly-ness.)
  4. K Flay – I Stopped Caring in ‘96 (Two words: white guilt.)
  5. Raphael Saddiq – Stone Rollin’ (Too happy.)

Top five records I bought in Australia, still listen to on a regular basis, and secretly wish were released in 2011 because they’d have a fair shot at the real top ten:

  1. Darren Sylvester – s/t (2008 – SERIOUSLY GET THIS. The Cars & T Rex honeymooned in Oz & this record appeared 9mos later.)
  2. Tame Impala – Innerspeaker (2010 – Swirly psych without hippie dippy-tude, still nice & fuzzy around the edges. Sent it to all my Black Angels/WarPaint friends.)
  3. Mystery Twin – s/t (2010 – So different than anything I’ve listened to in ages, great work-music, which isn’t to imply that it’s a total snoozefest, cause, it’s, ugh, just go listen.)
  4. Angus & Julia Stone – Down the Way (2010 – a bit folk-twee, in a Felicity soundtrack kind of way, but not as cheesy as the godawful CD-ROM-flashback-website would have you believe.)
  5. Cut Copy – Zonoscope (FastFact: this came out in 2011 but I had nowhere else to put it.)

Top ten records that I didn’t weigh fairly because I have it in my mind that they should be as great as the artist(s)’s previous LP, which is wrong:

  1. Wild Flag – s/t (It’s hard to not expect more from this amalgamation of grrrl hrrros… REMINDER:  before you get angry, remember the intro about the total unfairness of this list)
  2. Das Racist – Relax (Meh. Maybe it was their lackluster SX appearance…)
  3. Tom Waits – Bad As Me (So so so good.  But still…)
  4. Dan Mangan – Oh Fortune (‘Nice, Nice, Very Nice’ was TOO darn nice.)
  5. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes (‘Little Bit’ less than what I’d hoped.)
  6. The Roots – Undun (Solid…)
  7. Black Keys – El Camino (Again, they set the bar SO high…)
  8. Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde (the NEXT record will be insane…right?)
  9. Ian Kamau – One Day Soon (SO GOOD…but the mixtapes spoiled me.)
  10. Fucked Up – David Comes to Life (concept albums, are, you know, um, tough to pull off…)
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Dec 24

inch by inch, life’s a cinch

Posted in: Music

Faced with debilitating top-ten-list-related anxiety, I’m posting this to stall for a couple days.  It’s not just my indecisiveness that’s delaying the big one, but it’s too lovely to be at the house with my parents.  Hopefully we’ll all pare down screen time in 2012.  Life’s too short.

Apologies in advance if my choices offend…or you could just take this as a challenge to convince me otherwise:

Top ten 2011 records I seriously tried to like but can’t get into:

  • Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
  • Joanna Newsom – What We Have Known
  • M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
  • Gillian Welch – The Harrow & The Harvest
  • Bon Iver – s/t
  • Jay-Z & Kanye West – Watch the Throne
  • Radiohead – King of Limbs
  • Destroyer – Kaputt
  • Drake – Take care
  • The weeknd – all of them
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