Entries categorized as “Best Albums of the Year” 495 results

Austin B. Harvey presents: The Liquid Diet writesAustin Harvey’s Best of 2009

Throughout the month of December we’ll be posting lists of the best music of the year as determined by the volunteers that make CHIRP what it is. Today’s is from CHIRP DJ, Austin Harvey.

1. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Glassnote) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   A classic example of an album that seems to touch all the bases without trying too hard. Phoenix manage to marry catchy choruses with an inherent dancefloor sensibility, tying the whole thing together with an unmistakably French cool.
2. Fanfarlo – Reservoir (Atantic) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Picture this: Arcade Fire fronted by a Swedish David Byrne, in London, without electric guitars. Sounds like a noble experiment if anything else, right? Kitchen sink instrumentation and irresistible melodies all come effortlessly on an album that can’t possibly be a debut.
3. The Antlers – Hospice (French Kiss) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   If 2009 was a complete bummer of a year for you (as it was for me), then maybe a heartbreaking album detailing the protagonist’s struggle – watching a lover die in a cancer ward – brought a little bit of release into our seemingly bleak existence. At once hauntingly intimate and stunningly epic.
4. Pisces – A Lovely Sight (Numero Group) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   A frequent member of my cohorts’ top 10 lsits, this rediscovered local nugget from the 1960’s serves as a fitting companion to the rest of the decade’s lost gems. Come for the psychedelic freakouts, but stay for “Are You Changing In Your Time”, and “A Flower For All Seasons”, two of the finest ballads from any decade.
5. Montee – Isle of Now (Strømland) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Combining the danceable bliss of Duran Duran’s Rio with the polyrhythms and musical deftness of Talking Heads’ Remain In Light. This might be the best new wave album made in 25 years, and it’s from a bunch of harmonizing Norwegians who care little for anachronism. Self-assured, yet precocious.
6. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca (Domino) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   “Cannibal Resource” was my summer jam, especially that part in the opening guitar riff where the Moogerfooger effect takes over. “BITTE ORCA / ORCA BITTE” was my scream-along lyric of 2009. it was a weird year. pop at its most disjointed and unhinged. lovely.
7. A Sunny Day In Glasgow – Ashes Grammar (Mis Ojos Discos) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   A shoegaze album worth getting excited about? From Philly? Yes. They do it with dream-pop interludes between the longer tracks, and heaps of sonic depth. An added bonus: this album also knows how to dance, check out “Close Chorus”.
8. Bibio – Ambivalence Avenue (Warp) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Wikipedia’s genre classifications for this album are “Ambient music” and “Jangle Pop”. You could throw in “Alternative Hip-Hop” and “Folk” into the recipe for this incredibly singular and exciting album from Stephen Wilkinson. The VGM-inspired “Sugarette” jumps to the gorgeous folk of “Lovers’ Carvings” without a chance to catch your breath.
9. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career (4ad) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Tracyanne Campbell sounds more assured with each record, and with good reason. Her band is peaking on this collection of chamber pop tunes with plenty of blue-eyed soul influence, perhaps even a bit of country. The upbeat songs, though, steal the show with a time-honored mix of heartbroken lyrics and euphoric instrumentation.
10. The Big Pink – A Brief History of Love (4ad) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
    Though I’m not the biggest fan of Robbie Furze’s vocal style, I can’t argue with the gigantic hooks on this album. They don’t sound much like The Band, but I hear Screamadelica-era Primal Scream fed through electroclash’s brattiness, or a more hard-rocking version of Cut Copy. Whatever the description, the results are lush and highly rewarding.

Reissue of the Year:
The Vaselines – Enter the Vaselines (Sub Pop) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
I will admit that I missed the boat on these guys when I was first getting into Nirvana back in middle school. I’ll turn in my indie-rock cool-kid card and write “‘Son Of A Gun’ might be the best song ever written” 50 times on the chalkboard. This is truly ahead of its time, indie pop clatter that’s at once catchy, messy, and irreverent. Perfect.

Tony Breed writesTony Breed’s Best of 2009

Throughout the month of December we’ll be posting lists of the best music of the year as determined by the volunteers that make CHIRP what it is. Today’s is from CHIRP’s March Director and DJ, Tony Breed.

They say the album is dead; people are just interested in singles. I say the album will never die. Sure, most CDs these days are just collections of songs written at the same time — not really “albums” at all — so why not just buy the good songs and leave behind the filler? (This is not news; it’s been the case for decades, but it’s only been recently that you can buy any single songs that interests you.)

But there are still people making real albums: collections of songs around a central theme; songs that proceed in order and sound better as a whole than as individuals; or sometimes albums that tell stories, like an opera or a ballet. No less than four of my top ten albums of the 2009 are true albums: The Decemberists, The Flaming Lips, Madness, and Sufjan Stevens. And the rest? Well they are good too.

1. The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love (Capitol) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   You know what I love about the Decemberists? As they’ve gotten more popular, and switched to a major label (minor-major, perhaps), they’ve just gotten weirder. the Hazards of Love is not just a concept album, it’s an actual story told in song, like any one of the story-songs from Picaresque elongated into a full album. And it’s brilliant. It’s suffused with prog-rock goodness, and features guest vocals by Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond and Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond. The one flaw? With Colin Meloy singing two roles and narrating, it’s a little hard to follow. Two more guest vocalists would have been welcome. (Ooh! Ooh! The Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt as The Rake; would that not have been great?)
2. Flaming Lips – Embryonic (Warner Bros.) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Another album with a dash of prog rock and a good dose of weird. I discovered The Flaming Lips with 2002’s excellent Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, where the sweet, odd and tuneful title track is followed by a wild instrumental breakdown featuring screaming. Embryonic is like that track: it grabs you by the collar, throws you to the ground, demands your attention.
3. Pomplamoose – Pomplamoose Videosongs (Self-Released) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   And now for something completely different: a fantastically adorable duo who make videos for all their songs and post them to their YouTube page. Perhaps you, like me, saw their amusing cover of Beyoncé‘s Single Ladies when that was being forwarded around. Perhaps you didn’t then go to their video home page and listen to some other songs. If you had, you probably would have fallen in love and bought their album, as I did. Singer Nataly Dawn has a gorgeous voice, and Jack Conte’s instruments and production create perfect confections. Promise me you will check them out.
4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz (Interscope) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Take note: if you are a band and you want to change styles for an album, this is how it’s done. It’s Blitz’s electro dance sound is reminiscent of Ladytron and CSS, as well as a good chunk of 1983. It certainly helps to have Karen O, who has great presence, vocally (see her collaborations with Har Mar Superstar and The Flaming Lips, and her work on the I’m Not There soundtrack).
5. The Noisettes – Wild Young Hearts (Mercury) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   I am a sucker for an album that moves through a variety of styles, and here the Noisettes are, pushing all of my buttons. Well‚ it’s more like an overview of Motown, with all the requisit hooks, but a dash of rock thrown in. Downsides: the album is a bit overproduced, particularly for a band known as one of the rowdiest live acts in London. And their disco-inflected hit, Don’t Upset the Rhythm (Go Baby Go), is a bit too slick, repetitive, and under-written for my taste (but I still groove to it every time it’s on, and never get the urge to skip to the next track).
6. Madness – The Liberty of Norton Fulgate (Yep Roc) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   My goodness, is Madness back? And could this be any good? YES. Peppy, cheerful ska, great stuff from start to finish, never repetitive‚ and capped off with an epic 10-minute track incorporating elements of South Asian music, in honor of the Punjabi population now living around Norton Folgate in London.
7. Sonic Youth – The Eternal (Matador) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   For me, Sonic Youth had always been a band that can cross the line with their dissonance and noise, into something I just don’t want to hear (e.g. the second last few tracks of Goo). The Eternal sees them instead riding that line, never crossing it, always staying close to the edge. It is a whole album that is like their best stuff. It is Sonic Youth sounding like Sonic Youth in the best possible way.
8. St. Vincent – Actor (4ad) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Oh Annie Clark you are an odd one, with your dark vignettes, sweet vocals, and angular notes. I dub you the inheritor of the Kate Bush/Tori Amos weird-lady singer-songwriter mantle. Keep it up. I look forward to your whole career. I can’t wait to see what comes next.
9. Sufjan Stevens – The BQE (Asthmatic Kitty) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Yeah, I know, sometimes you just want to smack him. Ambitious, grand projects that get attention: Sufjan Stevens is an artist who knows how to get himself noticed. But at the same time, he’s good. He delivers. If only every artist who was this talented set themselves on projects of this magnitude. What this is, basically, is Stevens trying to make classical music. It’s like Sketches of Spain for 2009 (in fact, it has some real echoes of that great 1960 Miles Davis album), except instead of being about beautiful Spain, it’s about the BQE, the most unloved and unlovely highway in the five boroughs of New York. It features Stevens’ signature arpeggios and flute trills, as well as a funky electronica breakdown in the middle. It also comes with a DVD video (the album being really a soundtrack to the video) featuring a trio of hula-hoopers that I confess I have not yet watched. (Yes, hula-hoopers. You do kind of want to smack him, don’t you?)
10. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone (Anti) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
    Great vocals, great lyrics, great songs. She just hits the ball out of the park with this album. The singing is so emotive, and the melodies so evocative.

Honorable Mention:
John Vanderslice / Romanian Names
It’s always to hard to whittle my list down to 10. Romanian Names is great for all the same reasons the Neko Case’s Middle Cyclone is great (though the vocal styles are very different). I say, go get both of them.

Song of the year:
“Swing” by Zero 7
You know that song you hear on the radio, stop what you’re doing, and just listen? This year it’s “Swing”, by Zero 7, featuring vocals by Jackie Daniels. There are a number of other good songs on the album, though it didn’t really cohere as an album for me. But this song, this one track… I could listen again and again.

Guest of the year:
Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond as the queen on Hazards of Love is so, so good. Note to self: check out My Brightest Diamond. That’s gotta be good stuff.

Belated 2008 album of note:
Grace Jones / Hurricane
Not released in the US, Hurricane (Jone’s first album released in 19 years) didn’t get any attention here at all. By the time I even found out it existed, 2008 was almost over. Comeback albums can be hit-or-miss, and I didn’t muster the enthusiasm to get myself a copy until a few weeks ago. This album is a hit; great stuff, start to finish — everything I would want it to be, and absolutely worthy of your attention.

Billy Kalb writesBilly Kalb’s Best of 2009

Throughout the month of December we’ll be posting lists of the best music of the year as determined by the volunteers that make CHIRP what it is. Today’s is from CHIRP’s Music Director, Billy Kalb.

Woe be to the radio DJ who has to take a sabbatical from radio; my exposure to new music was strictly regulated by my wallet this year. So, if not the best, here’s a list of my favorites.

1. Flaming Lips – Embryonic (Warner Bros.) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   If not the best record of the year, it was easily the most welcome. After the Technicolor dazzle of The Soft Bulletin and the serene trippiness of Yoshimi, the Lips lost me with 2005’s At War with the Mystics; it was fun, but I worried that the band had given themselves over entirely to cartoonish spectacle and Santa costumes at the cost of the songs. But here we have some spectacular new blood: not quite a return to form, or even a retreat to the olden days. Just a generous burst of the gloriously unpredictable weirdness that we’ve come to expect from Wayne Coyne & co., and it’s their best in 10 years.
2. Fever Ray – Fever Ray (Rabid) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   The first eight words will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end: “This won’t ever end ‘cause I want more.” Fever Ray’s Karin Dreijer-Andersson is a vampire, a demon, a soulless thing out to drain your life. This much is clear from opener “If I Had a Heart”, where she pitch-shifts and twists her voice until it barely registers as human. As an album, however, Fever Ray ultimately proves the contrary — Dreijer-Andersson is a human with a heart, and her songs here demonstrate an aching vulnerability rarely seen in her work as one-half of The Knife.
3. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion (Domino) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Damn but I’m glad for Person Pitch. Panda Bear returned to his main gig after his wildly successful 2007 solo adventure with a new sense of purpose. Animal Collective always struck me as a brilliant band tripped up by its own experimental overindulgences, but the focused, well-rounded MPP changed the game: an AC record that your mom could enjoy, yet compromising nothing in the way of derring-do. It felt right on time for 2009.
4. Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer (Jagjaguwar) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   How epic is that? Spencer Krug dials back the strangeness from the indie-prog Renaissance Faire bramblebush that was 2007’s Random Spirit Lover and delivers a record called Dragonslayer? Krug – by far the weirder of the two main dudes in Wolf Parade – has never played it safe, but this is as inviting as his Sunset Rubdown project has ever been. Part of that seems to be due to his having figured out how to make use of the whole band — in particular self-described “Jane-of-all-trades” Camilla Wynne Ingr, who has more vocal duties than ever before — but mostly it’s because the album just kicks effing ass. And wasn’t it always the D&D kids who most wanted to be rock stars?
5. Andrew Bird – Noble Beast (Fat Possum) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Andrew Bird had the poor luck of releasing his latest on the same day as Animal Collective released theirs, quickly getting lost in the shadow of Merriweather Post Pavilion hype. That’s often the case with Bird, who builds sturdy, well-liked but unflashy albums of elegant indie rock time and again only to be buried in end-of-year lists. For his sake, Noble Beast makes my top 5. Bird continues to find new ways to surprise and engage with little more than a guitar, a violin and some masterfully arranged whistles. Well done, sir. Well done.
6. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca (Domino) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   I’ll readily admit that I don’t think it’s their best work, but no one – not even Animal Collective – was less likely to make a major splash this year, and yet this summer found David Longstreth and his band playing Millennium Park. WTF? This is the closest the Projectors have ever come to an equal balance of challenge and familiarity, a sort of outsized avant-pop for the decade to come. Don’t believe me? Just listen to Solange Knowles’ cover of “Stillness is the Move” – that’s Beyonce’s sister, you know.
7. El Michels Affair – Enter the 37th Chamber (Fatbeats) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Hypothetically, this shouldn’t have worked. I mean, the RZA’s Wu-Tang productions are already bulletproof. How could you change them without ruining everything? But somehow, taking them back in time by 35 years and reimagining them as a run of killer jazz/funk/soul jams still hit all the right notes. The El Michaels Affair – a loose collective of session players – turns what could have been a lukewarm covers record into a genuinely faithful yet original tribute to the 36 Chambers.
8. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest (Warp) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Arcade Fire, where have you gone? By 2009, the official playbook of indie rock had evolved into a sound so sleek and tuneful that Michael McDonald was taking note: “The punk movement swung towards being as primitive as possible, but now it’s back to where these guys are good musicians,” he told Paste. That’s not to say it’s dad rock, though. (I’m pretty sure my own dad has zero interest, and I even played him the b-side where McDonald does vocals.) It’s just a renewed appreciation for the kind of pop that flourishes within the chamber setting, and the realization that sometimes your song just needs a children’s choir. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.
9. Dan Deacon – Bromst (Carpark) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Before Bromst, I was sure that Dan Deacon’s music was a fleeting pleasure. He’s wacky and fun and all that, but where’s the staying power? It’s neat, but is it good enough to be high art? Will it stand the test of time? After Bromst… who cares? Deacon’s an oddball savant making his own brilliant Saturday morning cartoon pop with reckless abandon and enviable aplomb. Months on, Bromst still impresses, and listening to a track like “Snookered,” well – wait, what was that? A passing trace of Brian Eno? Ah, I see. High art, indeed.
10. The Xx – Self-Titled (Young Turks) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
    It’s not a complicated formula: spare, spacey boy/girl post-punk duets. Songs about love. Songs about heartbreak. Songs about VCRs. It’s an album that’s considerably more than the sum of its assembled parts, just a dazzling little surprise from a new band no one had heard of before this year. And these kids are how old? 19? Hell yes, consider me ready for that next album.

Best album from 2008 that took me until 2009 to fully appreciate:
The Walkmen – You & Me (Gigantic)
What can I say? It’s a grower.

Best song from 2009 that was so good it totally overshadowed the also-good album it came from:
Bill Callahan – “All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast”
Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle was great, but this track somehow made the rest of it look less great.

Album I ended up liking a lot even though logically I shouldn’t have:
God Help The Girl – God Help the Girl (Matador)
My brain: “You know, this is basically indie rock showtunes.”
My heart: “Oh, I’m aware. Your point being?
My stomach: “Shut up, you guys. I want a sandwich.”

2009 reissue on my Christmas list that I’m most looking forward to:
Kraftwerk – The Catalog (Astralwerks/Mute) / Various Artists – Can You Dig It? The Music and Politics of Black Action Films 1968-1975 (Soul Jazz)
It’s a tie. I know, they couldn’t be further apart, but I can’t honestly say which one I’m more excited for.

DJ Sherbert - Uneasy Listening writesDavid Schermer’s Best of 2009

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’ve been traveling all day for the holiday. Sorry this is going up so late. –M.G.

Throughout the month of December we’ll be posting lists of the best music of the year as determined by the volunteers that make CHIRP what it is. Today’s list is a bit of a different appraoch to the “top ten” courtesy of CHIRP volunteer David Schermer.

Best Album by a Supergroup Despite Conor Oberst’s Contribution

Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk (Shangri-La) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
What goes better with Jim James’ voice than Jim James’ voice? Fried Chicken? Maybe. The voices of M. Ward and Conor Oberst? Certainly. They put on a 3 hour + show at the Auditorium Theater. What could beat that? Well, on the following night (Halloween), they performed their encore as KISS in full costume and makeup.

Best Non-Comedy Album by a Comedian

Steve Martin – The Crow: New Songs for the Five String Banjo (Rounder) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
The album of all original bluegrass songs isn’t funny. It’s not funny how good it is either. So what if he hasn’t made a decent movie in like forever. He’s made a great album here. Sure he’s backed by some of bluegrass’s best, but he doesn’t need them. Warning: he doesn’t sing on most of the songs.

Best Song About God

Regina Spektor – “Laughing With” Far (Warner Bros.) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
This would probably win this category even if it didn’t compare God to Jiminy Cricket. However, it’s nice that it did.

Best Song Off M. Ward’s Hold Time (Merge Records)

“Stars of Leo” Amazon / Insound / iTunes
Congratulations “Stars of Leo.” After drawing your name from the hat, you’re the lucky winner. Congratulations hat for containing so many great songs.

Best Song in an Off-Broadway Musical of a B-Movie

“Bitch/Slut/Liar/Whore” – The Toxic Avenger Musical Original Cast Recording (Time Life Entertainment) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
Pulp was known for their full, sumptuous productions (typified by the work the legendary Scott Walker did on We Love Life), so Steve Albini does not come to mind as the obvious choice to record Mr. Cocker. But the team works to perfection. Cocker’s songs are still a mix of Roxy Music-style glam and classic ‘50s and ‘60s rock, though he adds some more rocking sounds to the repertoire this time around. His band tears into it, and Albini makes it sound, in spots, pretty ferocious. Trading in raw for lush makes the music more sensual and sleazy, especially on the songs where Cocker portrays the many different ways a middle aged man can try to get in the pants of a 20-something year old woman.

Best Musical Appearance on Late Show with David Letterman

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – “Home” Up From Below (Vagrant) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
I’d never posted a video to Facebook before this one. Figured I had no choice since these guys are really something you have to see for yourself. Nobody commented on it but I’m sure that’s just because its greatness rendered everyone speechless. Sadly their record doesn’t quite accurately capture their contagious energy and optimism. Even more sadly, their show at Lincoln Hall sold out before I got a ticket.

Video:

Best Bob Dylan Christmas Video

Bob Dylan – “Must Be Santa” – Bob Dylan – Christmas in the Heart (Sony) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
Watch it. It’s even funnier and more fun than most of the bad reviews this album has received. I love it. Then again, I’m Jewish. But about as Jewish as Bob Dylan.

Video:

Best Musical Discovery I Should Have Made Over 25 Years Ago

Love – “The Red Telephone” Forever Changes (Elektra/Wea) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
I know. I know. But I didn’t know. I didn’t know. Thanks to East Village Radio on the internet I now know about the great Arthur Lee and his psychedelic masterpiece. If anyone out there wants to see rainbows without having to attend a gay pride parade or drop acid, listen to this album.

Best Album By an Artist Whom I Can’t Believe Died This Year

Michael Jackson – Thriller (Sony) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
Maybe his best musical days were already behind him. Still it’s really sad he’s gone. Mama-se, mama-sa, ma-ma-coo-sa.

Best Album Discovery From Reading a Best of 2009 List

St. Vincent – Actor (4ad) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
I always thought that was Miranda July on the album cover. And I like Miranda July, so I don’t know why I never bothered to pick up this album but thanks to everyone for naming it to their ten best and forcing me to pay attention. I myself am laughing with a mouth full of blood after punching myself for not having given it a listen sooner. Laughing of course because of the way I punch.

Mike Bennett writesMike Bennett’s Best of 2009

Throughout the month of December we’ll be posting lists of the best music of the year as determined by the volunteers that make CHIRP what it is. Today’s is from CHIRP Board Member and DJ, Michael Bennett.

1. Madness – The Liberty of Norton Fulgate (Yep Roc) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   After bursting onto the scene as a frenetic ska band, Madness put its own stamp on British observational pop, providing a more urban and urbane (but less poetic) variation on the pastoral English paeans of Ray Davies and The Kinks. Years after their heyday, it’s amazing that these elder statesmen have as much to say as they do. The album loosely revolves around the concept of snapshots of London, which suitably inspired the band to whip up a number of songs that rank with their beloved singles from the ‘80s. It is all topped off by the 10 minute title cut, a genre hopping historical journey through a diverse London neighborhood that celebrates immigration as making a great city all the stronger. This great band finally pulls off the great album that was always in them.
2. A.C. Newman – Get Guilty (Matador) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   I like this more than the last two New Pornographers records. This may be due in part to the fact that I find Dan Bejar’s New Porno contributions to be inconsistent, but I think it’s more because this just happens to be a particularly strong batch of songs from our pal Carl. This album isn’t as intimate as Newman’s debut solo LP, The Slow Wonder. It’s much more in line with the NP’s, with a lot of top flight talent helping out, from Nicole Atkins on backing vocals to MVP Jon Wurster bashing the skins. Newman’s oddball constructions are especially seamless as the arrangements are skillfully put together, and the hooks unfold more and more with each spin.
3. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone (Anti) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   It’s hard to believe that when she debuted with The Virginian, Neko was a promising alt-country honky tonk singer. Ever since that first album, she has refined a unique sound that touches on country, folk, gospel and rock, with floating and pastoral atmospherics that her powerful voice soars through. On her latest, she simply refines her approach even more, mixing direct songs (“People Got a Lotta Nerve”) with ruminations on the elements (“This Tornado Loves You” and her splendid cover of Sparks’ “Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth”). She’s never less than compelling, and, at times, breathtaking.
4. The Noisettes – Wild Young Hearts (Mercury) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Some fans of the much rawer debut by this British trio have cried foul at this foray into pure pop music. I think the trade off is worth it, as Shingai Shoniwa takes a back seat to no one, not even Amy Winehouse, when it comes to modern British R & B vocalists. Moreover, she and bandmates Daniel Smith and Jamie Morrison, along with some collaborators, whip up a varied batch of material, from widescreen ballads, to dumb fun dance songs, to retro new wave gems. And Shoniwa sings the hell out of all of them. This sounds like a greatest hits album.
5. Jarvis Cocker – Further Complications (Rough Trade) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Pulp was known for their full, sumptuous productions (typified by the work the legendary Scott Walker did on We Love Life), so Steve Albini does not come to mind as the obvious choice to record Mr. Cocker. But the team works to perfection. Cocker’s songs are still a mix of Roxy Music-style glam and classic ‘50s and ‘60s rock, though he adds some more rocking sounds to the repertoire this time around. His band tears into it, and Albini makes it sound, in spots, pretty ferocious. Trading in raw for lush makes the music more sensual and sleazy, especially on the songs where Cocker portrays the many different ways a middle aged man can try to get in the pants of a 20-something year old woman.
6. The Features – Some Kind of Salvation (429) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Early on, this Murfreesboro, TN band sounded like a collision between Pixies and Roxy Music and Sparks circa 1974, with every song a rollercoaster ride relying heavily on dynamics. Now, at the end of the decade, the band still is capable of exploding, but frontman Matt Pelham has a much bigger bag of tricks, dabbling in Russian folk and dixie fried R & B, along with other styles. No matter how you slice it, it all comes up Features, as Pelham’s commanding warble and the band’s tight playing propels everything to the highest heights.
7. The Duckworth Lewis Method – The Duckworth Lewis Method (Divine Comedy) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Neil (The Divine Comedy) Hannon and Thomas (Pugwash) Walsh both love British pop music. And they both love cricket. Somehow, they manage to take a sport where a match can last up to five days (NOTE: the band’s name comes from a method for scoring such long matches) sound vital and interesting. The lyrics are witty and the music flits about from the pastoral Kinks to music hall whimsy to Gary Glitter-style stomp. This is silly fun.
8. Richard Hawley – Truelove’s Gutter (Mute) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   The debonair Bard of Sheffield continues to explore emotionally hued pop songs, often set in his hometown. The sound is again grounded in the dramatic swells of predecessors like Scott Walker and Roy Orbison, but at a bit cooler temperature, due in large part to Hawley’s mellow baritone crooning. On this album, many of the songs feature sparse instrumentation, emphasizing the great command of tone in Hawley’s guitar playing. He also pushes forward with a couple of epic length songs that only serve to make the melancholy and nostalgia resonate all the more.
9. Micachu and the Shapes “Golden Phone” – Jewellery (Rough Trade) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
   Just when you thought that the latest crop of post-punk revivalists had squeezed the last drop out of the sounds of the Ghosts of ‘78-‘82 Indie Past, along comes 21 year old Mica Levi to show that there are always new ways to cobble together dissonance and melody. Bits of the early Cure, The Fall, Orange Juice, Wire and others all collide and ping-pong about, while Mica is at turns wistful, cheeky and wise. Adding to the excitement is Mica’s distinctive oddball guitar playing.
10. Reigning Sound – Love and Curses (In The Red) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
    The band’s studio follow up to the incendiary Too Much Guitar is a toned down affair. That doesn’t mean mellow, but instead of probing the band’s inner Springsteen (see Time Bomb High School), or conjuring up The Saints (as on Guitar), Greg Cartwright and company commence to lay down top notch R & B infused rock. Mixing in obscure covers with Cartwright’s sturdy originals, this is a timeless rock ‘n’ roll record. Cartwright writes about the usual stories of loves won and lost, singing them with total commitment, making them sound fresh and relevant.

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The next 10: Wilco – Wilco (The Album); The King Khan & BBQ Show – Invisible Girl; Flaming Lips – Embryonic; The Shazam – Meteor; Michael Carpenter – Redemption #39; V.V. Brown – Travelling Like The Light; Chris Hickey — Razzmatazz; Florence & The Machine — Lungs; The Resonars – That Evil Drone; Cheer-Accident — Fear Draws Misfortune.

Best reissue: Hank Williams Revealed (Time-Life)

Disappointing reissue: Beastie Boys – Paul’s Boutique (Capitol): A lot of CDs released in 1989 could use improvement in the mastering department, and this hip-hop essential is no exception. But after playing the original and the reissue back-to-back, I could barely discern any difference. It’s not even much louder. And why this album didn’t get the deluxe treatment, when there are b-sides and remixes that could have been appended, is beyond me. The only plus? The component parts of “B-Boy Bouillabaisse” have been separated into individual tracks. Whoopee.

Best Show: Sparks, Royce Hall UCLA, Los Angeles (performing entire Exotic Creatures Of The Deep and Kimono My House albums)

Best shows in Chicago: Three shows stood out for me:

1. Raphael Saadiq at Park West in March.
2. Franz Ferdinand, at the Rivera in May.
3. The Wrens, Schubas, July.