I've been trying to hunt down my top 10 lists dating all the way back to my first list in 2001 when I was still a bright-eyed graduate student in Minnesota. Some dogged detective work dug up my list from 2007, which was my first full year living in Ireland. Despite that fact, the majority of this list still is very North American centric. Thinking back to that period, I was still finding it hard to adjust to living in Europe and found myself listening to a lot of radio stations back in the States. Anyways, I'm just cutting and pasting my write-ups from 2007 so they might sound a little dated now particularly when you read those for bands like the National that have become househould names these days. Or when I refer to MySpace. Goodness, that was so 2007. Anyways, with that caveat in mind, here's that list:
10. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Sage Francis nearly took this spot by virtue of quoting John Donne, Charles Bukowski, and Allen Ginsberg in the space of two songs. In the end, though, I just couldn’t overlook what is a pretty solid album. The first couple of songs are a bit milquetoast, but it really picks up by the end of the album. It suffers from my unrealistically high expectations of the album, but it’s still quality. Definitely gloomier than their previous efforts, but it also appeals to my egalitarian side with lyrics like “eating in the ghetto of a hundred dollar plate”. “Intervention” was overplayed a bit, but it’s a really fabulous song. It might be a bit of the egotistical rock star thing to record a song in a church using a pipe organ, but it really does work. Plus, every time I hear the pipe organ on that song, I think of the Simpsons episode where Homer replaced the organist’s regular music with “Inna Gadda Da Vida”.
9. The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
This is based on only a handful of listens as this album just came out a few weeks back, but the Raveonettes have always, always, always been one of my favourite bands. They just have such a unique sound. The music, as ever, is a mix of retro 60’s twangy guitar and feedback and, on the vocals, they’ve got this incredibly cool thing that only the Scandinavians seem able to do: a really detached, yet melodic voice. It always sounds like they really couldn’t be bothered to be singing and really have better things to be doing but, since they happen to be singing at the time, why not do it with perfect pitch. As far back as Nico with the Velvet Underground, the Scandinavians have been able to do this! I wish I knew what was going on up there. Not as good as their first two albums, so only #9 on my list.
8. Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass
Moving to Ireland has really cut down on the amount of hip-hop I’m exposed to. It’s just doesn’t seem to be very popular in these parts. I surmise that House of Pain put an end to that experiment. So, sadly, this is the only representative of the genre on the list this year (with Sage Francis on the outside looking in). And this one came about from a night spent randomly strolling through eMusic. But what a great find. Really dense lyrics, complex rhymes, great production, and your man raps faster than that dude from Onyx. But, like, good as well.
7. Candie Payne - I Wish I Could Have Loved You More
Amy Winehouse gets all the buzz as far as the retro-60’s chanteuse crowd goes, but that’s largely ‘cause she’s cuckoo and has a crazy beehive hair-do. If that’s the style you’re after, Candie Payne’s album is waaaayyyy better. She’s got this sound that reminds me of Beth Gibbon from Portishead. It helps that the music oftentimes has that same kind of sultry, 60’s-spy-movie sound that Portishead perfected. She has a sweeter voice than Beth Gibbon, though, particularly on a few of the tracks. More Dusty Springfield-ish.
6. The Bastard Fairies - Memento Mori
10. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Sage Francis nearly took this spot by virtue of quoting John Donne, Charles Bukowski, and Allen Ginsberg in the space of two songs. In the end, though, I just couldn’t overlook what is a pretty solid album. The first couple of songs are a bit milquetoast, but it really picks up by the end of the album. It suffers from my unrealistically high expectations of the album, but it’s still quality. Definitely gloomier than their previous efforts, but it also appeals to my egalitarian side with lyrics like “eating in the ghetto of a hundred dollar plate”. “Intervention” was overplayed a bit, but it’s a really fabulous song. It might be a bit of the egotistical rock star thing to record a song in a church using a pipe organ, but it really does work. Plus, every time I hear the pipe organ on that song, I think of the Simpsons episode where Homer replaced the organist’s regular music with “Inna Gadda Da Vida”.
9. The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
This is based on only a handful of listens as this album just came out a few weeks back, but the Raveonettes have always, always, always been one of my favourite bands. They just have such a unique sound. The music, as ever, is a mix of retro 60’s twangy guitar and feedback and, on the vocals, they’ve got this incredibly cool thing that only the Scandinavians seem able to do: a really detached, yet melodic voice. It always sounds like they really couldn’t be bothered to be singing and really have better things to be doing but, since they happen to be singing at the time, why not do it with perfect pitch. As far back as Nico with the Velvet Underground, the Scandinavians have been able to do this! I wish I knew what was going on up there. Not as good as their first two albums, so only #9 on my list.
8. Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass
Moving to Ireland has really cut down on the amount of hip-hop I’m exposed to. It’s just doesn’t seem to be very popular in these parts. I surmise that House of Pain put an end to that experiment. So, sadly, this is the only representative of the genre on the list this year (with Sage Francis on the outside looking in). And this one came about from a night spent randomly strolling through eMusic. But what a great find. Really dense lyrics, complex rhymes, great production, and your man raps faster than that dude from Onyx. But, like, good as well.
7. Candie Payne - I Wish I Could Have Loved You More
Amy Winehouse gets all the buzz as far as the retro-60’s chanteuse crowd goes, but that’s largely ‘cause she’s cuckoo and has a crazy beehive hair-do. If that’s the style you’re after, Candie Payne’s album is waaaayyyy better. She’s got this sound that reminds me of Beth Gibbon from Portishead. It helps that the music oftentimes has that same kind of sultry, 60’s-spy-movie sound that Portishead perfected. She has a sweeter voice than Beth Gibbon, though, particularly on a few of the tracks. More Dusty Springfield-ish.
6. The Bastard Fairies - Memento Mori
This is my favourite story of the whole lot. I owe discovery of this band entirely to Bill O’Reilly. No, really. You see, those that know me really well know that, every now and then, I have this overwhelming need to make myself angry. I’m like the reverse Hulk. And few things get me angrier than finding Bill O’Reilly videos on YouTube. One in particular was the Queen Mother of bizarre Bill-O rants. He was going on and on about some video on “an internet site” (he wouldn’t say which one, though anyone this side of Ted Stevens knew he meant YouTube). I mean, I can’t even explain how crazy Bill-O’s rant was. Of course, that necessarily piqued my interest in finding said offensive video.
Turns out that it was a promotional video for this band. So, I kept following the trail to their MySpace page where I find that they’re essentially a duo replete with a super cool punk-rock Sioux lead singer named Yellow Thunder Woman (is thunder really yellow?). Even better, they were offering their album for free on their website. Score! And, even better, the album’s really good. The music captures the punk rock message (which is basically the middle finger to societal conventions) hidden inside of simple, sugary sweet melodies and Yellow Thunder Woman’s coy voice. A lot of the instrumentation on the album was even done with toy store instruments. Not really for the easily offended, though...
5. Shout Out Louds - Our Ill Wills
First album of Mike’s Blue Period here and my second Scandinavian entry. This album was my soundtrack to October and November. It’s fabulous autumn music. It’s a complete departure from their debut album, which was all chirpy and happy. This one’s like the exact opposite (without being annoying, though), but it still retains the great melodies and pop sensibility. It reminds me a lot of Beck’s Sea Change album; more proof that better art comes from the end of a relationship than the beginning of one. What most people notice, though, is how eerily similar the lead singer’s voice is to that of Robert Smith. Which I happen to quite like, but I suppose could turn off a few people.
4. The Budos Band - Budos Band II
Why don’t more people play baritone sax? You never see that. Turns out it’s a way cool instrument. It’s rapidly replacing the double bass as an instrument I’d make my kids learn. It just looks cool. And it sounds so impossibly low on the register. Anyways, enough about the baritone sax, hard to describe the Budos Band. Imagine a slower, smoother version of Booker T. and the MG’s. They play a brand of instrumental R&B/funk with a full brass section and a proper organ. It’s just a groove album that would play well in any 60’s swingers pad. Playing this album instantly makes me a lot cooler than I actually am.
3. The National - Boxer
It’s about time I got an Ohio band on one of these lists (though they’re technically a New York band now). And, what’s really, really, really strange about that, is that as I’m looking for material on them right now, I just realized that one of my college fraternity brothers is their drummer. You know, you might come across someone that you’ve lost track of on Facebook or MySpace or something like that. You don’t expect to come across them in the lineup for one of your favourite bands of the year! Anyways, this is a great album. It feels very Midwestern American to me for some reason. Lyrics start out innocent, invariably with the loss of innocence right around the corner. The mood is always even-tempered sometimes a bit high, sometimes a bit low, always ending up level but with a tinge of resignation. And I know this review comes off completely hollow to a lot of people on this list, but to me the best word that describes this album is really “Midwestern”. I know the place where this album comes from. I grew up there.
2. Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover
On the first draft of this list (yes, how sad is that, I’ve gone through this like 10 times), this album showed up much lower. Somewhere around #8. Fortunately, I listened to the top contenders over and over while in the throes of Galway traffic and it dawned on me how good this album really is. Just like their last album, it’s more of a meal than an appetizer. With songs routinely clocking in over 6 minutes long and featuring abrupt structural changes, it takes a bit to get into it. It’s not an easy listen, but stick with it. The songs are all epic and do a fabulous job of taking the listener on an emotional roller coaster. But all in all it’s a really happy, tender album. So maybe I’m not so melancholy after all. They score extra points for naming a song “Trumpet, Trumpet, Toot! Toot!” inclusive of exclamation points.
1. Happy Apple - Back on Top
I’ve been waiting for this album for at least a year. The fabulous jazz trio from Minneapolis features easily the best rhythm section anywhere. On “Very Small Rock”, Eric Fratzke’s bass line actually sounds melodic for half the song before he changes it up, keeping the beat by playing only single notes every now and then. He manages to go from a really lush bass line to an extraordinarily sparse one and makes it work. And there’s no real way to explain Dave King’s drumming on “Density and Dan’s Fan City” other than using an open-mouthed stare with maybe some unintelligible syllables dropping out. That song like a lot of the ones on this album (“Calgon for Hetfield”, “The New Bison”, etc.) have been standards at Happy Apple shows for years. They’ve just now finally gotten around to recording them all. Far and away, though, the best is “Dan’s Fan City” (named after a real place in St. Paul, next to the spot where Dave King buys his drums). It’s as good as anything Radiohead’s ever done. And, as always, they remain fabulously hilarious in their own nerdy way. Song titles on this release also include “Rise! Marc Anthony” and “Hence the Turtleneck” and the last time I saw them they took time out of their show to do a medley of Rush, Foreigner, and Bon Jovi. Ah, that’s good for a laugh.
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