8: jj - jj n° 2

I've heard so much great music come out of Sweden in the last couple years (see Miike Snow, Tough Alliance, Air France, Annie, Robyn).  Seems disproportionate for a country with only nine million inhabitants.  Also counter-intuitive is the feeling of warmth reflected in the work of many of these artists when their homeland seldom breaks 75 degrees (F) on summer days.  That said, this album froths over with summery, island sounds (steel drums, bongos, acoustic guitars, yes, but are those castanets and is that a xylophone?) with vocals that feel like they are floating down, emanating from that single cloud hanging out over the water.  So there you are, laying in the sand, day-dreaming through the first two tracks...and then..."Ecstasy."  You've reached a special place...hard to believe it was created by none other than Lil' Wayne!  Like many others, this is the track that lured me to the album and it's terrific.  The album is thoughtfully framed around it.  By the time your tropical stroll nears its end( ), the summer months are over, the goodbyes begin, and you reflect with great sentiment...what an awesome season it's been.

Date of Birth: 1 July 2009

Superlative/s: Best Seasonal Album

7: Mew - No More Stories / Are Told Today / I'm Sorry / They Washed Away / No More Stories / The World Is Grey / I'm Tired / Let's Wash Away

Ok, so what the f**k is "prog" anyway and why am I musically prejudiced to dislike it?  This cracked.com article, while fabulously hilarious, does very little to bring me closer to an answer.  Jethro Tull?  Love me some Tull.  Atomic Rooster?  Not in my collection (had to do a quick search to verify this).  But reconciling the teachings of the article against the album tags alone does render a hit.  The exceedingly, obnoxiously, horribly long album title.  Ahhh, we might be on to something here... I remember sampling Mew's previous record, "And The Glass Handed Kites," and not hating it, but not really liking it either.  So with reluctance and the aforementioned "prog prejudice" I pressed play on 2009's "No More Stories..."  I'm greeted with the psychedelic effect of halfway reversed vocals over deliberate percussion, and deep, bassy synths.  It's an experience akin to listening to Sigur Ros in that 1) I have no idea what they're are saying but 2) the trippy yet heavy atmosphere is immediately indulgent.  The mood breaks, then continues in a funky, syncopation laden jam with fluctuating time signatures and lyrics that are not only intelligible, but catchy.  The "prog-like" arrogance of grandeur takes a back seat to the incredible talent on display in its musicianship and songwriting.  There are enjoyable moments throughout: of tenderness, of fun, of heart race, and heart break.  Although this album certainly isn't for everyone, Mew have made me a believer.

Date of Birth: 24 August 2009

Superlative/s: Most Syncopated, Most Artistic

6: The Clientele - Bonfires On The Heath

I've been in on these guys since their debut "Suburban Light" appeared in 2000.  However this, their fifth album, is the first I felt compelled to share as a recommendation with my friends.  It's not to say their prior releases were poor or even mediocre in the slightest. So what was preventing me from telling my musical circles, "hey, check these guys out" ?  I think this album achieves the collective of all things The Clientele have been playing with but have not perfected to date.  Where their previous releases rarely diverged from formula (lush, hazy, 70s style psychedelics) , Bonfires expresses a subtle diversity not found earlier in the catalog.  It's just got a different buzz to the whole deal, starting with the first track "I Wonder Who We Are."  A tender little jam with trumpets accenting the end of each chorus, head bobbing the whole way.  Several songs evoke splashes of the White Album, and the influences, while clear, are not overdone.  And this diversity and its throwback roots are what elevates the album from good to great.

Date of Birth: 6 October 2009

Superlative/s: Most Ethereal

5: Freelance Whales - Weathervanes

When I begin putting this list together each year, typically in early November, I surf through my most trusted music publications to refresh my memory on what they rated highly in a feeble attempt to ensure I don't miss anything truly outstanding.  This typically results in "list paralysis" syndrome which merely makes tough choices even tougher thereby delaying the whole process.  Rarely do I discover or rediscover anything that captures me.  This year was different, as only recently, I happened upon Weathervanes by Freelance Whales.  The band, currently operating out of Queens, are best known locally for playing ad-hoc, busker-type performances on street corners and entrances to subway escalators.  The quality of this self-released album tells me their status as "little known" is about to change.  A hybrid of Sufjan Stevens,  Postal Service, Passion Pit, and other bands on the tip of your tongue that you can't quite recall...acoustic folk and electronic synthesizers, this is truly remarkable stuff.  So glad to have found them.  The most unique listen of the year.

Date of Birth: 18 October 2009

Superlative/s: Sleeper of the Year, Best Instrumentation, Best Lyrics

4: The xx - xx

Alright, let's just get this out of the way.  The blogosphere has been knob-slobbing this album since it first leaked.  So.  Much.  Hype. So being the jaded "yeah right" kind of listener I am (or aspire to be, rather), I fully expected this to take it's place in the long line of over-hyped indie records that either boringly drag along (Grizzly Bear) or straight up hurt my ears (Animal Collective).  Much to my surprise, this album delivered the goods.  Quiet and dark it is.  Boring and painful it is not.  The album begins like a ship coming to port in the darkness.  Wordless voices appear beneath a simple guitar melody and you immediately want more.  Sly but soulful male/female vocal tradeoffs work wonderfully in building the mood.  The songs maintain their simplicity but the attention to detail in the arrangement is remarkable.  For their haunting, tender efforts, The xx, a group of four twenty-somethings from London, find a well deserved spot in this year's top 10.

Date of Birth: 17 August 2009

Superlative/s: Best Male/Female Vocal Duo, Delivered On The Hype Award

3: White Rabbits - It's Frightening

2009 - another year passes without a proper LP release from Spoon.  Luckily, White Rabbits treat us to the next best thing.  It's Frightening, their sophomore effort, blasts out of the gate with rapid tom-tom percussion, manifesting the frantic imagery on the album cover.  A funky guitar riff is dropped and we're off to the races on a kick-ass indie rock adventure.  "Rudie Falls," the second track, is an absolute gem.  The comparisons to Spoon are both logical and fair, as Britt Daniel (Spoon frontman), had his hands all over this in the studio while serving as producer.  His influence is perhaps most pronounced on "Lionesse," both in the song's style and the ghostly, aching vocal delivery.  Despite a few forays into the melancholy, the album maintains its overall pace, yet another hallmark trait of that band from Austin.

But that's not to say this is entirely a retread of the same old idea.  It's Frightening brings creativity and freshness to an established and frankly, well embrace sub-genre.  This is an excellent listen from top to bottom, and one that you shouldn't shy away from playing for your friends with more conservative (read: mainstream) tastes in music.  Here's hoping that White Rabbits build on this and break more of their own while they grow as a band.

Date of Birth: 19 May 2009

Superlative/s: Best Rock, Best Percussion

2: Editors - In This Light And On This Evening

"London's become the most beautiful thing I've seen," chants Tom Smith as if he's gazing over the city from a distant tower, watching the whole thing burn in apocalyptic glory.  And then an explosion.  Soaring electric guitars.  Morse-code blipping a helpless SOS.  This is epic stuff; part Homer Odyssey and part Dante Inferno.  The album continues: a delightful, engaging combination of Joy Division (by the way, have you seen the movie "Control"?), Depeche Mode, and Interpol.  Densely layered, powerful songs that exude confidence and elicit fear.  This album caught me totally by surprise and blew me away.  Even the more lackluster tracks, suffering from occasionally poor lyricism, find a way to escape from mediocrity with shifting time signatures, dramatic crescendos, and Smith's persistent and confrontational voice.  Once I decided on my top ten, began to juxtapose the order, and gave everything several more listens, this album kept creeping up the chart.

Date of Birth: 12 October 2009

Superlative/s: Most Epic

1: Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

I glommed on to an extremely early leak of this album and immediately started playing it for anyone and everyone who would listen.  And everyone got hooked.  Wherever I threw this album on, people always stopped and asked, "who is this band?"  "Phoenix...French...these guys are gonna blow up this year," I told them.  And though my prognostication came true, it was a bittersweet victory.  You see, it's sorta tough to let "everyone else" in on your little secret of a band, despite the facts: 1) Phoenix wasn't truly much of a secret to begin with and 2) yes Candice, you were the one to originally turn me on to the band (via Too Young on the Lost In Translation soundtrack).  Now to the album.  I'd be frightened to learn the total number of times I've played 1901 and Lisztomania. Last.fm alone has tallied 38 and 24 respectively.  At the surface, the songs carry themselves with such ease it's hard to believe some of them took three years to record (check out their interview on pitchfork.com).  But do a little digging into a song such as "Love Like A Sunset," and the Thom Yorke-ish complexity and perfectionism becomes apparent.  And that is some musical company in which to rub your shoulders.

Date of Birth: 26 May 2009

Superlative/s: Album of the Year

So here we are.  We have an xx and a jj.  We have real animals (rabbits, whales), mythical animals (phoenix), and the sound of animals (Mew).  We have editors working in the metric system for their clientele, and a french name from the UK.  Never would have guessed that's how the year would unfold.  Here's to those that missed the cut, and those forthcoming in 2010!

Honorable Mention

• Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue
• Cold Cave - Love Comes Close
• Doves - Kingdom Of Rust
• Florence & The Machine - Lungs
• Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care
• Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms
• Passion Pit - Manners
• Simian Mobile Disco - Temporary Pleasures
• The Big Pink - A Brief History of Love
• The Temper Trap - Conditions
• The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa
• YACHT - See Mystery Lights
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz

Best of 2010 (Already)

• Beach House - Teen Dream
• Lindstrøm & Christabelle - Real Life Is No Cool
• Yeasayer - Odd Blood

Sometimes it takes a little extra from an audience or critic to separate themselves from their “likes and dislikes” in order to evaluate a piece of art on its own terms of merit.

There’s a concept in literary study called the “suspension of disbelief.” In simple terms, it means you are required as an audience to pause your mental grounding in reality and embrace that which cannot possibly be real or even plausible. Without this suspension, the trust between the artist and audience is broken and the art is rendered ineffective.

So when Candice and I attended Tristan and Isolde at the Lyric Opera in Chicago last month, instead of suspending my disbelief, I was forced to suspend my dislikes.

It was our second time at the Lyric, having previously seen La Traviata in celebration of our first anniversary. Running time of that show was right around three hours. Let it be known that I consider myself a well cultured, traveled, and read individual. I also have an obsessive affection for music. However, I am NOT a fan of the operatic voice or the “sing talking” the performers utilize in the show. In terms of performing arts, I much prefer pure theatrical drama, even down to the slow, grinding pace of works such as Hamlet or Lear. The intensely long, static scenes of the opera (we’re talking 30-40 minutes) become unbearable to witness because they advance the story in neither plot breadth nor character depth. After the first ten minutes I get it. You’re sad. You’re really, really sad. You’re also really, really pissed about being so really, really sad. Whatever. Now go do something about it and quit crying like a washed up bitch! (Note- this statement applies to the male character more so than the female. No women were harmed in the production of this blog post). This wallowing in self pity and deprivation goes on for nearly five hours in turn, and inevitably, causes an equal and opposite reaction of self pity and deprivation.

But returning to the concept of suspending your dislikes, if you are able to take a step back, outside your own realm of comfort and liking, you can certainly appreciate a number of the opera’s artistic attributes, specifically:

• These people are absolutely pouring it out for you, physically and emotionally
• The analog of their voices cannot be truly reproduced…these are quite the highly optimized musical instruments
• The venue (Lyric Opera) is a masterpiece of architecture and design…I often found my attention focused on the intricacies of the theater and its adornments
• The stage design was uniquely contemporary for a Wagner opera, and aesthetically pleasing at that…the depth of the stage was mind boggling

There is no denying this performance was world class and of the highest quality. And I successfully implored myself to find a way to appreciate the aforementioned aspects of the show. But when it comes down to brass tacks…

I just really, really hate it.

This year I probably listened to a greater volume and a wider variety of music than any other year in my life.  This amps up the difficulty factor in determining the best of the best of 2008 (as reflected in my long honorable mention list below).  So without further ado, here is my thunder:

10: Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

A very early release (January 2008), this record stuck with me throughout the year, peaking my interest during chill summer evenings.  Afro-pop, organs, and simple but pronounced percussion shine through the fusion of styles.  The mood is quite laidback…akin to my own personality.  Catchy lyrics and singalong choruses make this indie record highly accessible.  Standout tracks include “Oxford Comma” and “One (Blake’s Got A New Face)”.

9: Deadmau5 - Random Album Title

I have two iPods: an 80GB Classic that can hold about half of my library, and a 1GB shuffle for working out and taking on my walks to work or other on-the-go activities.  This album is constantly playing on the shuffle because of its energy and emotion.  Totally rave-tacular.  The mouse-mask wearing DJ/Producer hesitates to call this an “album” (note the sarcastic album title).  The way he sees it, it’s just a compilation of his own tracks.  Whatever floats your boat, Canuck.  Standout tracks include “Brazil, “I Remember” (a collaboration with Kaskade), and “Arguru.”

8: Neon Neon - Stainless Style

To kick off the weirdness, Gruff Rhys, lead singer of Super Furry Animals (a Welsh alt-rock band), is behind this project along with hip-hopper Boom Bip.  The record plows through 80s Action-Adventure TV series themes (”Neon Theme”), 80s synth-pop (”I Told Her On Alderon”), and crude hip-hop (”Trick For Treat”).  Also crude is the album art.  I love it.  The songs are stylistically all over the place, but solid throughout.  The retro feel is intentional, prolonged, and unavoidable.  Oh, and crazily catchy.  A couple of these will most certainly feature on my New Years playlist.

7: Lindstrom - Where You Go I Go Too

If there’s a single musical style or genre that captured my ear in 2008, it’s cosmic/baleric/italo/new disco.  The jury’s out on what to call it, exactly, but I really dig it.  The second full length from the Norwegian Lindstrom is comprised of only three tracks spanning about 54 minutes.  Lindstrom noted in an interview that he felt artistically liberated by removing the constraints of the standard, five minute track.  The result is an album that’s spacey, energetic, melodic, epic, precisely layered and extremely well crafted.  Standout tracks include…ummm…shit, all of them.

6: Blitzen Trapper - Furr

As a September release, this one came to the party late, but I’ve been rocking it quite frequently.  This is the fourth full length from the Portland sextet, and it catapults itself forward from where Wild Mountain Nation left off.  Where as their previous album had some gems intermixed with some flops, you can leave Furr to rock all the way through without tending the “Next” button.  Very accessible, cabin-in-the-mountain style rock and roll.  A great record to play when entertaining friends who have a more commercial, rock taste.  Standout tracks include “Sleepytime In The Western World,” “Furr,” and “God & Suicide.”

5: Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

After a fallout with his former band and a broken relationship, the artist, Justin Vernon, locked himself away over the winter in his father’s cabin in remote northern Wisconsin.  The output from his stay is this tender, raw, emotional record that perfectly captures the sentiment and imagery of the winter season.  As I spent a number of winter breaks with my family “up north” in Wisconsin, this album is dear to me.  Through the music, I can see myself as child, staring out across the frozen field in the back of my great uncles farm.  Standout tracks include “Skinny Love,” “Blindsided,” and “Re: Stacks.”

4: Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours

The 2008 release from the Melbourners arrived fairly early in the year (April) and it’s been a stalwart.  I’ve enjoyed this album walking the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland in a light snow shower and watching the sun rise over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Shimmering electro-pop, flexed by an overload of synths, with elements of straightforward rock underpinning it all.  If you don’t like this album, you probably don’t like music period.  Standout tracks include “Out There On The Ice,” “Lights And Music,” and “Hearts On Fire.”

3: Sigur Ros - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

The latest effort from Sigur Ros (pronounced si-ur rose) features their first ever song recorded in English, and you know what, I couldn’t tell you what it is.  That’s because their music doesn’t rely on heart-string pulling lyrics to be evocative.  This record sees the Icelandic quartet freshen up their moods and melodies while retaining their marquee flair for emotional and dramatic song structures.  Standout tracks include “Gobbledigook,” “Góðan daginn,” and “Við spilum endalaust.”

2: Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

The gents from Manchester dedicate the memory of their dear, fallen friend Bryan Glancy (nicknamed The Seldom Seen Kid) with the most beautifully composed album of 2008 and the final track “Friend of Ours.”  Elbow deservingly won the 2008 Mercury Prize for their effort.  To me, this album is where Radiohead might have landed had they not forked off into the electronic realms of OK Computer and onwards.  Standout tracks include “Mirrorball,” “Grounds For Divorce,” “Weather To Fly,” and the aforementioned “Friend Of Ours.”

1: TV On The Radio - Dear Science,

I pressed play on this album and all I could say was “WOW.”  That’s what makes this record the album of the year.  I was only lukewarm on their previous release “Return To Cookie Mountain,” but this one absolutely blows my mind to the point that it’s difficult to accurately capture in words.  So I will leave that honor to someone closer to their music.  “A lot of bands have something to say,” explained their producer and instrumentalist David Sitek. “We have something to ask.”  Standout tracks include “Halfway Home,” “Crying,” “Golden Age,” and “DLZ.”

Honorable Mention - The Next Best (In Alpha Order)

• Booka Shade - The Sun And The Neon Light

• Girl Talk - Feed The Animals

• Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules & Love Affair

• Jamie Lidell - Jim

• Kings of Leon - Only By The Night

• Lil’ Wayne - Tha Carter III

• MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

• The Cool Kids - The Bake Sale

• The Hold Steady - Stay Positive

• The Presets - Apocalypto

• Thievery Corporation - Radio Retaliation

• Van She - V

Under The Radar - Lesser Known Electronic Beats

• Agoria - Go Fast

• Catz N’ Dogz - Stars of Zoo

• The Mole - As High As The Sky

• Loco Dice - 7 Dunham Place

• Motorcitysoul - Technique

1. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon
2. In Rainbows - Radiohead
3. Guns Babes Lemonade - Muscles
4. Alive 2007 - Daft Punk
5. Idealism - Digitalism
6. Stateless - Stateless
7. The Shepherd’s Dog - Iron & Wine
8. From Here We Go Sublime - The Field
9. Sound of Silver - LCD Soundsystem
10. Soundboy Rock - Groove Armada

Honorable Mention:

• Kala - M.I.A.
• The Cool - Lupe Fiasco
• Release the Stars - Rufus Wainwright
• Challengers - The New Pornographers
• Hey Hey My My Yo Yo - Junior Senior
• Dystopia - Midnight Juggernauts
• Copia - Eluvium

All in all, 2007 was a pretty terrific year for music. Looking forward to the 2008 releases!