Here's 50-1. Last list-oriented post until December, I hope.
50. Graduation—Kanye West
49. Toxicity—System of a Down
Basically prog-metal with one foot in the mainstream, Toxicity was No. 1 on the Billboard chart when the planes hit on 9/11. The music’s jagged rhythms and jumpy transitions aptly represent the chaos of the moment—a sense only reinforced by lyrical references to “self-righteous suicide” and “the toxicity of our city.”
48. Kill the Moonlight—Spoon
47. 808s & Heartbreak—Kanye West
Haunted by the sudden death of Kanye’s mother, 808s & Heartbreak stands as his most radical and introspective album to date, nearly leaving hip-hop behind in favor of a Princely amalgam of R&B and synthpop. I’m not sure where he goes from here, but I look forward to finding out.
46. Ys—Joanna Newsom
It sounds like it should be a pretentious, unlistenable mess: 24-year-old neo-folkie harpist sings five songs, backed by orchestral arrangements, ranging from seven to 17 minutes in length. But somehow it all comes together beautifully, with the arrangements by Van Dyke Parks and Jim O’Rourke’s mix creating the perfect context for Newsom’s cosmic ponderings.
45. Discovery—Daft Punk
44. Rounds—Four Tet
43. ()—Sigur Ros
Recorded in a (presumably dry) swimming pool, this lengthy mood piece lacks the bold melodic flourishes of its predecessor, Agaetis Byrjun, but nearly makes up for it in atmosphere.
42. London Zoo—The Bug
I fell hard for dub reggae sometime in 2007, and this album, released a year later, extends the legacy of that music (as well as that of the original dub revival of the mid-'90s) into the 21st century.
41. Yesterday and Today—The Field
40. Extraordinary Machine—Fiona Apple
39. Fishscale—Ghostface Killah
I initially mistook this album for little more than a retread of Raekwon’s Only Built for Cuban Linx (1995). But if you can get past the de rigueur references to Scarface, this might be the most purely enjoyable of the many Wu-Tang solo albums. And the all-star roster of contemporary producers, including Just Blaze and the late J. Dilla, ensures that it's no mere nostalgia trip.
38. The College Dropout—Kanye West
The first third or so of Kanye’s debut is so great that the rest can’t help but be a slight letdown, making the album somewhat difficult to get through in one sitting. And his anti-education shtick is still stupid.
37. Arular—M.I.A.
36. Amnesiac—Radiohead
Radiohead was on such a roll in 2001 that this album was almost taken for granted. But what seemed at the time like a slightly unwieldy collection of rejects from Kid A now plays like one of the band’s more unified and substantial records.
35. Good News for People Who Love Bad News—Modest Mouse
Isaac Brock and bandmates find a little bit of emotional stability and artistic sustainability. Many of the guardians of indie-rock purity complained about this album, but it has some of the sharpest songs of the band’s career.
34. Fleet Foxes—Fleet Foxes
33. Nothing’s in Vain—Youssou N’Dour
32. The Private Press—DJ Shadow
I suppose you could argue that Shadow was repeating himself a bit. But Endtroducing… is one of the greatest albums of all time, and nobody else sounds like this.
31. The Blueprint—Jay-Z
30. Stankonia—Outkast
29. DFA Compilation #2
Dispositive evidence that James Murphy’s career as a producer has been far more adventurous than LCD Soundsystem alone would suggest.
28. Rooty—Basement Jaxx
The best Prince album of the 2000s.
27. Modern Times—Bob Dylan
26. XTRMNTR—Primal Scream
Opening with a track called “Kill All Hippies” and closing with a cover of the Third Bardo nugget “Five Years Ahead of My Time,” XTRMNTR is the fullest articulation of Primal Scream’s complex relationship with the musical legacy of the 1960s. The album’s bleak tone and pervasive sense of a world falling into chaos, however, were all too contemporary, even prescient.
25. Brighter Than Creation’s Dark—Drive-by Truckers
24. Rings Around the World—Super Furry Animals
Smart, funny, weird, original Welsh indie rock. What more could you ask? Paul McCartney chomping celery? Done!
23. The Further Adventures of the Lord Quas—Quasimoto
22. The Woods—Sleater-Kinney
On their final album, the Washington state post-postpunk stalwarts finally let loose and bring the noise.
21. Smile—Brian Wilson
For obvious reasons, this was the single most difficult item to rank, which may explain how it got pushed out of the Top 20.
20. Third—Portishead
Mid-’90s legends return triumphantly with a new sound, channeling Syd Barrett and the Silver Apples through the Bristol murk.
19. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga—Spoon
The indie-rock MVPs of the 2000s deliver their most ambitious and consistent album, their signature new-wave-inspired sound expanding to encompass dub, raga, and Memphis soul, among other things.
18. Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea—PJ Harvey
Perennially tortured soul gets happy, accessible. It wouldn’t last.
17. Agaetis Byrjun—Sigur Ros
16. Original Pirate Material—The Streets
Mike Skinner proved to be something of a one-trick pony, but this debut, unburdened by the cramped production and narrative fixations of his later albums, aches with the troubles of drug- and Playstation-addled post-adolescents with little money and limited prospects.
15. Since I Left You—The Avalanches
14. In Rainbows—Radiohead
13. Everything Ecstatic—Four Tet
One of my favorite musicians working right now, Kieran Hebden has made a career out of the joining the dots and loops of laptop music with the fearlessness of free jazz and an obsession with pure sound. The rhythmic restlessness of this album lifts it slightly above his others.
12. No Line on the Horizon—U2
I’ve written enough about this album already. (See “Found Horizons,” posted March 10.)
11. Murray Street—Sonic Youth
Following a series of albums that had moved the band away from the pop mainstream and back toward the experimental noise-rock of the ’80s, Sonic Youth, with new member Jim O’Rourke, tries its hand at classic rock (sort of). The result is the band’s best late-period album, and possibly its best since the epochal Daydream Nation (1988).
10. Proxima Estacion: Esperanza—Manu Chao
That’s “Next Station: Hope” for all you monolingual Americans.
9. Is This It?—The Strokes
Young American rock band arrives to great fanfare. Critics go nuts. Backlash ensues. Nine years down the road, the whole Strokes phenomenon feels less like a rebirth than a last hurrah, but the album’s a stone-cold classic.
8. All That You Can’t Leave Behind—U2
Hardly a return to the expansive sound of the band’s ’80s period, All That You Can’t Leave Behind is basically Bono’s Tunnel of Love, an intimate, soulful plumbing of the hopes and fears of adulthood featuring U2’s sharpest batch of songs to date.
7. Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not—The Arctic Monkeys
Further evidence of the shrinking half-lives of critical acclaim and rock stardom.
6. Vespertine—Björk
Less immediately accessible than her earlier albums, Björk’s masterpiece both demands and rewards close attention. There may not be another great album from the past 10 years that’s so dependent on duration and song sequence for its impact. On the opening track, the singer announces that she’s going to a “Hidden Place” and the rest of the songs—mostly about fundamentals like love, sex, and family—unfold in this private, interior space until the closing “Unison” blows the lid off the whole thing and lets the world back in.
5. Love and Theft—Bob Dylan
Dylan’s late-career comeback with the death-haunted Time Out of Mind (1997) was one thing, but who could have seen this coming? Glossing musical forms ranging from roadhouse blues to cabaret to swing to I-don’t-know-what, the astonishing Love and Theft has the generic range of a Beck album with nary a sample in sight. Less unified than Dylan’s follow-up, Modern Times, it’s warmer and funnier, and its wizened master of ceremonies has never sounded looser.
4. Kid A—Radiohead
Feel the cool electronic breeze.
3. Madvillainy—Madvillain
If there’s a musician more underrated than Kieran Hebden, it would have to be Madlib, who’s virtually reinvented hip-hop over the past decade or so. This (so far) one-off collaboration with MF Doom is all about the flow, channeling the musical spirit of truly classic rock in ways never heard before.
2. Kala—M.I.A.
I’ve already written plenty about this one too. (See “Combat Rock,” posted September 20, 2007.)
1. Late Registration—Kanye West
If Jay-Z is Jordan, then Kanye must be the Steve Nash of hip-hop—a master playmaker who can make the most ordinary of teammates look like a superstar. On his best, most expansive, most fully realized album, he gets terrific performances from inferior talents like The Game, as well as greats like Jay and Nas. The opening “Heard ’Em Say” is so perfectly arranged and performed that you forget that it’s the dude from freakin’ Maroon 5 singing background. “Touch the Sky” must be one of the most obvious uses of a classic soul sample that doesn’t make you wish you were listening to the original song instead. “Gold Digger” takes on the gender wars with humor and generosity. I could go through the whole record like this, but all good things must eventually come to an end.
11 February 2010
06 February 2010
Best Albums of the 2000s (part 1)
Below is the first half of my Best Albums of the 2000s list, the third in a series of four posts looking back at the decade in music. Most of what I said in the intro to the Best Songs list applies here as well, particularly as pertaining to the personal and idiosyncratic nature of the list. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology (i.e., iTunes), I have a pretty good idea of how many times I've listened to various tracks over the past six years, and this data did have some effect at the margins in terms of keeping the rankings honest. I'll try to get 50-1 up no later than midweek. Until then, here's 100-51:
100. Lovers—The Sleepy Jackson
99. Party Music—The Coup
98. 100 Broken Windows—Idlewild
Early high point from promising Scottish college rockers before their (in retrospect, perhaps inevitable) descent into overproduced moderate-rock hell.
97. Confessions on a Dance Floor—Madonna
I initially dismissed this as merely Madonna’s roots move, but the sense of effortlessness here is no mean achievement.
96. Phrenology—The Roots
95. Hypermagic Mountain—Lightning Bolt
It achieves total heaviosity. But it moves too.
94. Ta Det Lungt—Dungen
93. Untrue—Burial
92. 604—Ladytron
UK-based back-to-the-future synthpoppers reflect on love and commerce.
91. One Beat—Sleater-Kinney
90. Mesmerize/Hypnotize—System of a Down
89. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb—U2
This fair-to-middling entry in the U2 catalog finds the band spinning its wheels a bit, but the group’s newfound comfort with its own grandiosity would pay dividends down the road.
88. Thunder, Lightning, Strike—The Go! Team
87. Nouns—No Age
86. From Here We Go Sublime—The Field
Envious people will tell you that anyone with access to a computer could have made this album. But of course that’s part of what makes it great.
85. Rated R—Queens of the Stone Age
84. Songs for the Deaf—Queens of the Stone Age
Dave Grohl brings the thunder, making this the band’s best album by a whisker, despite a relative lack of musical variety.
83. Neon Golden—The Notwist
82. Lungs—Florence & the Machine
81. Gimme Fiction—Spoon
80. Silent Shout—The Knife
Of the many bands who’ve borrowed from ’80s synthpop over the past decade, The Knife has been one of the most original, deploying the genre’s bouncy sounds to cacophonous, menacing effect. And the distancing devices (heavily distorted vocals, raven masks) aren’t just facile alienation effects but function to evoke buried emotions and unspoken thoughts.
79. Hail to the Thief—Radiohead
78. The Unseen—Quasimoto
This stoned underground epic takes hip-hop’s crate-digging aesthetic strain to the next level.
77. Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.—Deerhunter
Evoking classic indie/alternative sources like Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine, these twin albums breathed some fresh air into a late-decade indie scene dominated by turgid hipster music.
76. Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts—M83
A consolidation, not a leap forward. But consolidations can be good.
75. Come With Us—The Chemical Brothers
74. Funeral—Arcade Fire
I remain suspicious of this band, but there are some gorgeous songs here to be sure.
73. Sonic Nurse—Sonic Youth
The second half of a productive two-album classic-rock detour with Jim O’Rourke finds the band stretching out comfortably. “The Dead are all right with me,” Thurston confides on “Stones.” As if we hadn’t known all along.
72. Beauty and the Beat—Edan
A sui generis amalgam of hip-hop and psychedelic rock.
71. Room on Fire—The Strokes
70. The Eternal—Sonic Youth
69. Magic—Bruce Springsteen
Channeling the weary-but-hopeful spirit of the ass end of the Bush administration, Magic easily achieves the political relevance that the post-9/11 The Rising audibly strained for.
68. Specialist in All Styles—Orchestra Baobab
67. Gung Ho—Patti Smith
66. Off With Their Heads—Kaiser Chiefs
Producer Mark Ronson provides some much-needed musical context for the band’s sharp-as-ever songwriting on this album, the Kaisers’ third and best to date.
65. Phrazes for the Young—Julian Casablancas
64. Girls Can Tell—Spoon
63. White Blood Cells—The White Stripes
The White Stripes made more-or-less the same album several times over, meaning that whichever one you heard first is probably your favorite.
62. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below—Outkast
Long, sprawling, self-indulgent, but almost never boring. I still think Big Boi’s disc is better, but you’re welcome to disagree.
61. Chaos and Creation in the Backyard—Paul McCartney
Forced to straighten up and fly right by producer Nigel Godrich, McCartney delivers the most disciplined album of his post-Beatles career—and one of the best.
60. Demon Days—Gorillaz
59. First Impressions of Earth—The Strokes
Not the band’s most consistent album, but an aesthetic milestone, as Julian Casablancas gives voice to the nagging realization that the world might not be worthy of his best efforts.
58. Think Tank—Blur
57. Blue Cathedral—Comets on Fire
Combining neo-psychedelic ambition, indie-rock messiness, and ear-splitting volume, this album deserves to have been more influential by now. But it’s early yet.
56. XX—The XX
55. The Cold Vein—Cannibal Ox
54. Decoration Day—Drive-by Truckers
The Truckers broke into the indie-rock consciousness with their 2001 double-disc Skynrd tribute Southern Rock Opera, but it was this follow-up that established them as a top-echelon band and Patterson Hood as a major American songwriter.
53. Up the Bracket—The Libertines
It’s a shame they couldn’t keep it together for more than two albums, but of course the feeling that it could all fall apart at any moment is crucial to this particular rock aesthetic.
52. Da Drought 3—Lil Wayne
Most people would put The Carter III here instead, but I maintain that Weezy’s mixtape work, while less polished, is a lot more interesting.
51. Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike—Gogol Bordello
It lives up to its title, and that’s all you need to know.
100. Lovers—The Sleepy Jackson
99. Party Music—The Coup
98. 100 Broken Windows—Idlewild
Early high point from promising Scottish college rockers before their (in retrospect, perhaps inevitable) descent into overproduced moderate-rock hell.
97. Confessions on a Dance Floor—Madonna
I initially dismissed this as merely Madonna’s roots move, but the sense of effortlessness here is no mean achievement.
96. Phrenology—The Roots
95. Hypermagic Mountain—Lightning Bolt
It achieves total heaviosity. But it moves too.
94. Ta Det Lungt—Dungen
93. Untrue—Burial
92. 604—Ladytron
UK-based back-to-the-future synthpoppers reflect on love and commerce.
91. One Beat—Sleater-Kinney
90. Mesmerize/Hypnotize—System of a Down
89. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb—U2
This fair-to-middling entry in the U2 catalog finds the band spinning its wheels a bit, but the group’s newfound comfort with its own grandiosity would pay dividends down the road.
88. Thunder, Lightning, Strike—The Go! Team
87. Nouns—No Age
86. From Here We Go Sublime—The Field
Envious people will tell you that anyone with access to a computer could have made this album. But of course that’s part of what makes it great.
85. Rated R—Queens of the Stone Age
84. Songs for the Deaf—Queens of the Stone Age
Dave Grohl brings the thunder, making this the band’s best album by a whisker, despite a relative lack of musical variety.
83. Neon Golden—The Notwist
82. Lungs—Florence & the Machine
81. Gimme Fiction—Spoon
80. Silent Shout—The Knife
Of the many bands who’ve borrowed from ’80s synthpop over the past decade, The Knife has been one of the most original, deploying the genre’s bouncy sounds to cacophonous, menacing effect. And the distancing devices (heavily distorted vocals, raven masks) aren’t just facile alienation effects but function to evoke buried emotions and unspoken thoughts.
79. Hail to the Thief—Radiohead
78. The Unseen—Quasimoto
This stoned underground epic takes hip-hop’s crate-digging aesthetic strain to the next level.
77. Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.—Deerhunter
Evoking classic indie/alternative sources like Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine, these twin albums breathed some fresh air into a late-decade indie scene dominated by turgid hipster music.
76. Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts—M83
A consolidation, not a leap forward. But consolidations can be good.
75. Come With Us—The Chemical Brothers
74. Funeral—Arcade Fire
I remain suspicious of this band, but there are some gorgeous songs here to be sure.
73. Sonic Nurse—Sonic Youth
The second half of a productive two-album classic-rock detour with Jim O’Rourke finds the band stretching out comfortably. “The Dead are all right with me,” Thurston confides on “Stones.” As if we hadn’t known all along.
72. Beauty and the Beat—Edan
A sui generis amalgam of hip-hop and psychedelic rock.
71. Room on Fire—The Strokes
70. The Eternal—Sonic Youth
69. Magic—Bruce Springsteen
Channeling the weary-but-hopeful spirit of the ass end of the Bush administration, Magic easily achieves the political relevance that the post-9/11 The Rising audibly strained for.
68. Specialist in All Styles—Orchestra Baobab
67. Gung Ho—Patti Smith
66. Off With Their Heads—Kaiser Chiefs
Producer Mark Ronson provides some much-needed musical context for the band’s sharp-as-ever songwriting on this album, the Kaisers’ third and best to date.
65. Phrazes for the Young—Julian Casablancas
64. Girls Can Tell—Spoon
63. White Blood Cells—The White Stripes
The White Stripes made more-or-less the same album several times over, meaning that whichever one you heard first is probably your favorite.
62. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below—Outkast
Long, sprawling, self-indulgent, but almost never boring. I still think Big Boi’s disc is better, but you’re welcome to disagree.
61. Chaos and Creation in the Backyard—Paul McCartney
Forced to straighten up and fly right by producer Nigel Godrich, McCartney delivers the most disciplined album of his post-Beatles career—and one of the best.
60. Demon Days—Gorillaz
59. First Impressions of Earth—The Strokes
Not the band’s most consistent album, but an aesthetic milestone, as Julian Casablancas gives voice to the nagging realization that the world might not be worthy of his best efforts.
58. Think Tank—Blur
57. Blue Cathedral—Comets on Fire
Combining neo-psychedelic ambition, indie-rock messiness, and ear-splitting volume, this album deserves to have been more influential by now. But it’s early yet.
56. XX—The XX
55. The Cold Vein—Cannibal Ox
54. Decoration Day—Drive-by Truckers
The Truckers broke into the indie-rock consciousness with their 2001 double-disc Skynrd tribute Southern Rock Opera, but it was this follow-up that established them as a top-echelon band and Patterson Hood as a major American songwriter.
53. Up the Bracket—The Libertines
It’s a shame they couldn’t keep it together for more than two albums, but of course the feeling that it could all fall apart at any moment is crucial to this particular rock aesthetic.
52. Da Drought 3—Lil Wayne
Most people would put The Carter III here instead, but I maintain that Weezy’s mixtape work, while less polished, is a lot more interesting.
51. Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike—Gogol Bordello
It lives up to its title, and that’s all you need to know.
29 January 2010
Best Music of 2009
I’m almost done with my Top 100 Albums of the 2000s list, but it seemed kind of ass-backwards to post that one before doing my Best of 2009 list. I had thought this year was going to be kind of an afterthought, what with the inevitable end-of-decade hoopla, not to mention that I appeared to be headed for my oldest and most esoteric Top 10 ever, but having now had a chance to catch up on some late-breaking releases, as well as others that I’d missed during the year, I’m now convinced that this was a pretty decent year, one with at least 13 or 14 albums that would have easily made my 2008 Top 10. Even better, 2010 is shaping up to be a monster, with strong new releases from Spoon and Four Tet already making bids for next year's list and new albums on the way from most of my other current faves. Less happily, this is my first rapless Top 10 since…well, ever, I guess. Raekwon’s fine Only Built for Cuban Linx…Pt. II came closest, but, good as it is, it seems like evidence that hip-hop is now entering its classic-rock period. That’s not a good thing, in case you were wondering. On to the list:
1. U2—No Line on the Horizon
U2’s 12th studio album is one of its best, with longtime producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois asserting themselves as full-on collaborators. Following the solid but too comfortable How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004), No Line on the Horizon reclaims the sense of musical and spiritual searching that has defined the band’s best work. (See “Found Horizons,” posted March 10.) (“Unknown Caller” “Moment of Surrender”)
2. The Field—Yesterday and Today
This supremely chilled out second album from Sweden’s Axel Willner improves on the formula of his 2007 debut, From Here We Go Sublime, adding a little rhythmic variation to his melodic techno. The most striking move is a cover of “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime,” a new wave hit from the Korgis, which briefly adds a human voice to Willner's mix, but each of the six tracks on this carefully constructed album is subtly distinguished from the others. The result is the most aesthetically realized music of the year. (“Leave It” “Sequenced”)
3. The XX—XX
The debut album from a quartet of British early-twentysomethings who know what a VCR is. Singers Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim trade intimacies in vocals that feel almost whispered against the minimalist precision of the band’s arrangements. Supposedly they’re influenced by early-2000s R&B, but I can’t hear it. I’m thinking their parents must have listened to The Cure. Or possibly their grandparents. (“Crystalised” “Night Time”)
4. Julian Casablancas—Phrazes for the Young
The first solo album from Casablancas continues along the musical (synthpop, crooned vocals) and spiritual (Baudelairean) vectors of the third (but apparently not last) Strokes album, First Impressions of Earth (2006). I’m now convinced he has the stuff to develop into an American version of Jarvis Cocker, should we dare to even hope for such a thing. Included is the funniest/saddest song about NYC gentrification ever (“It started back in 1624…”). (“11th Dimension” “Left & Right in the Dark”)
5. Sonic Youth—The Eternal
Sonic Youth’s 15th proper album, and first for Matador, dissects and reconfigures musical elements from various phases of the band’s music to date—atonality, ironic pop forms, noise, hard-rock riffing, etc. As with U2 on No Line on the Horizon, the result is an album that feels both quintessential and not quite like any of their other records. Returning to the lo-fi sound of their ’80s period, the band stretches out gloriously on extended cuts like the alternately anthemic and meditative “Anti-Orgasm” and the unsettling “Massage the History.” (“Anthem” “Massage the History”)
6. Florence & the Machine—Lungs
With the Amerindie scene increasingly overrun by turgid hipster music (well represented in this year’s Pazz & Jop poll), it was refreshing to hear something hi-fi from a new artist with a big voice and bigger songs. A 23-year-old native of London, Florence Welch combines a variety of influences, mostly of the misfit female variety (Kate Bush, Siouxsie Sioux, Björk, etc.), and musical styles (alt-rock, soul, mainstream pop) on this buoyant, overflowing debut. (“Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)” “Between Two Lungs”)
7. Fever Ray—Fever Ray
This solo project from Karin Dreijer is in many respects even darker and more disturbing that her work with brother Olof as The Knife. The gothic soundscapes and distorted vocals recall the duo’s Silent Shout, but repeated listenings reveal Fever Ray as a more intimate, if no less mysterious, record, eschewing some of the dissonant sonic flourishes of the earlier album in favor of a haunting ambience. (“When I Grow Up” “Now’s the Only Time I Know”)
8. PJ Harvey & John Parish—A Woman a Man Walked By
For some reason, I didn’t much care for this when it was released in March, but having rediscovered it a few weeks ago, I’m now convinced that this war-haunted album is Harvey’s best since Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea (2000), a reminder of how indispensable her artistic vision remains. The somber tone is similar to that of 2007’s dirge-heavy White Chalk, but here sadness and regret are tempered by anger, and Parish’s presence as collaborator adds some much-needed musical variety. (“The Soldier” “A Woman a Man Walked By/The Crow Knows Where All the Little Children Go”)
9. Dirty Projectors—Bitte Orca
Something from an arty hipster band that I do like. (“Stillness Is the Move” “Temecula Sunrise”)
10. SunnO)))—Monoliths & Dimensions
Try as I might, I’ve never been able to get into metal—most of it tends to lose me as soon as the singer opens his mouth. SunnO))), a duo comprising guitarists Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson, isn’t exactly a metal band, but the music does employ some of the instrumental and, yes, vocal tics of the genre in the service of what the band has termed “power ambient” music, a label that aptly describes Monoliths & Dimensions. The album’s doom-metal sonics are complemented by unexpected elements like a women’s choir and even a French horn. The vocals on the first track still remind me of the orgy scene from Eyes Wide Shut, but it’s a hypnotic song that holds up to repeated listenings, and the album only gets better from there. (“Big Church” “Alice”)
Top 5 songs not on those albums
I half-assed this list so badly last year that I almost didn’t do one this time, but I’m happier with this one.
1. Girls—“Lust for Life”
2. Bob Dylan—“It’s All Good”
The title kind of says it all.
3. Bat for Lashes—“Daniel”
I’m highly ambivalent about Two Suns, much of which is beautiful and mesmerizing, even as other bits feel fraudulent. This is the type of goth-tinged pop song that a band like Love and Rockets might have been able to get on the radio 25 years ago, but which has sadly disappeared from the mainstream.
4. The Arctic Monkeys—“Cornerstone”
I want to hang out at the Parrot’s Beak. Or the Rusty Hook.
5. Patterson Hood—“The Pride of the Yankees”
Also some mention should be made of Edan’s unclassifiable “Echo Party,” a 29-minute track that reimagines the old school hip-hop party jam as some synthetic type of alpha beta psychedelic funkin’, and of The Feelies’ Crazy Rhythms (1980) and The Good Earth (1986), the most significant rock reissues of the year.
1. U2—No Line on the Horizon
U2’s 12th studio album is one of its best, with longtime producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois asserting themselves as full-on collaborators. Following the solid but too comfortable How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004), No Line on the Horizon reclaims the sense of musical and spiritual searching that has defined the band’s best work. (See “Found Horizons,” posted March 10.) (“Unknown Caller” “Moment of Surrender”)
2. The Field—Yesterday and Today
This supremely chilled out second album from Sweden’s Axel Willner improves on the formula of his 2007 debut, From Here We Go Sublime, adding a little rhythmic variation to his melodic techno. The most striking move is a cover of “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime,” a new wave hit from the Korgis, which briefly adds a human voice to Willner's mix, but each of the six tracks on this carefully constructed album is subtly distinguished from the others. The result is the most aesthetically realized music of the year. (“Leave It” “Sequenced”)
3. The XX—XX
The debut album from a quartet of British early-twentysomethings who know what a VCR is. Singers Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim trade intimacies in vocals that feel almost whispered against the minimalist precision of the band’s arrangements. Supposedly they’re influenced by early-2000s R&B, but I can’t hear it. I’m thinking their parents must have listened to The Cure. Or possibly their grandparents. (“Crystalised” “Night Time”)
4. Julian Casablancas—Phrazes for the Young
The first solo album from Casablancas continues along the musical (synthpop, crooned vocals) and spiritual (Baudelairean) vectors of the third (but apparently not last) Strokes album, First Impressions of Earth (2006). I’m now convinced he has the stuff to develop into an American version of Jarvis Cocker, should we dare to even hope for such a thing. Included is the funniest/saddest song about NYC gentrification ever (“It started back in 1624…”). (“11th Dimension” “Left & Right in the Dark”)
5. Sonic Youth—The Eternal
Sonic Youth’s 15th proper album, and first for Matador, dissects and reconfigures musical elements from various phases of the band’s music to date—atonality, ironic pop forms, noise, hard-rock riffing, etc. As with U2 on No Line on the Horizon, the result is an album that feels both quintessential and not quite like any of their other records. Returning to the lo-fi sound of their ’80s period, the band stretches out gloriously on extended cuts like the alternately anthemic and meditative “Anti-Orgasm” and the unsettling “Massage the History.” (“Anthem” “Massage the History”)
6. Florence & the Machine—Lungs
With the Amerindie scene increasingly overrun by turgid hipster music (well represented in this year’s Pazz & Jop poll), it was refreshing to hear something hi-fi from a new artist with a big voice and bigger songs. A 23-year-old native of London, Florence Welch combines a variety of influences, mostly of the misfit female variety (Kate Bush, Siouxsie Sioux, Björk, etc.), and musical styles (alt-rock, soul, mainstream pop) on this buoyant, overflowing debut. (“Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)” “Between Two Lungs”)
7. Fever Ray—Fever Ray
This solo project from Karin Dreijer is in many respects even darker and more disturbing that her work with brother Olof as The Knife. The gothic soundscapes and distorted vocals recall the duo’s Silent Shout, but repeated listenings reveal Fever Ray as a more intimate, if no less mysterious, record, eschewing some of the dissonant sonic flourishes of the earlier album in favor of a haunting ambience. (“When I Grow Up” “Now’s the Only Time I Know”)
8. PJ Harvey & John Parish—A Woman a Man Walked By
For some reason, I didn’t much care for this when it was released in March, but having rediscovered it a few weeks ago, I’m now convinced that this war-haunted album is Harvey’s best since Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea (2000), a reminder of how indispensable her artistic vision remains. The somber tone is similar to that of 2007’s dirge-heavy White Chalk, but here sadness and regret are tempered by anger, and Parish’s presence as collaborator adds some much-needed musical variety. (“The Soldier” “A Woman a Man Walked By/The Crow Knows Where All the Little Children Go”)
9. Dirty Projectors—Bitte Orca
Something from an arty hipster band that I do like. (“Stillness Is the Move” “Temecula Sunrise”)
10. SunnO)))—Monoliths & Dimensions
Try as I might, I’ve never been able to get into metal—most of it tends to lose me as soon as the singer opens his mouth. SunnO))), a duo comprising guitarists Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson, isn’t exactly a metal band, but the music does employ some of the instrumental and, yes, vocal tics of the genre in the service of what the band has termed “power ambient” music, a label that aptly describes Monoliths & Dimensions. The album’s doom-metal sonics are complemented by unexpected elements like a women’s choir and even a French horn. The vocals on the first track still remind me of the orgy scene from Eyes Wide Shut, but it’s a hypnotic song that holds up to repeated listenings, and the album only gets better from there. (“Big Church” “Alice”)
Top 5 songs not on those albums
I half-assed this list so badly last year that I almost didn’t do one this time, but I’m happier with this one.
1. Girls—“Lust for Life”
2. Bob Dylan—“It’s All Good”
The title kind of says it all.
3. Bat for Lashes—“Daniel”
I’m highly ambivalent about Two Suns, much of which is beautiful and mesmerizing, even as other bits feel fraudulent. This is the type of goth-tinged pop song that a band like Love and Rockets might have been able to get on the radio 25 years ago, but which has sadly disappeared from the mainstream.
4. The Arctic Monkeys—“Cornerstone”
I want to hang out at the Parrot’s Beak. Or the Rusty Hook.
5. Patterson Hood—“The Pride of the Yankees”
Also some mention should be made of Edan’s unclassifiable “Echo Party,” a 29-minute track that reimagines the old school hip-hop party jam as some synthetic type of alpha beta psychedelic funkin’, and of The Feelies’ Crazy Rhythms (1980) and The Good Earth (1986), the most significant rock reissues of the year.
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