Tag: recommendations

Generally, I tend to think that things like “Best of the Decade” lists are ways for lazy editors (and bloggers) to fill space, though that never stops me from doing my own year-end lists.

However, reading Paste Magazine’s take on the topic led me to reflect a bit on how much my musical life has changed in the last ten years. If the 90s were the decade when I discovered music — when the power of melody, rhythm, lyrics and live performance were first revealed to me, and I made my initial tentative stabs at writing, performing, and recording music — then the ’00s were the decade in which I began to live it. In the last ten years, I’ve recorded three solo “bedroom” records, as well as a full-fledged studio record with my band The Lost Cartographers, played dozens of gigs, seen hundreds more, and increased the size of my music collection by a power of ten. iTunes changed the way we buy music, and made it possible for me to listen to that entire collection shuffled together (making the album itself a somewhat archaic way of organizing lists like these). And my iPhone allows me to take a large chunk of it with me wherever I go, as well as find and download new music from anywhere.

Through all these changes, the albums listed below are the ones that I most enjoyed over the past decade. I make no claims that these are the best albums produced in that time frame, but they are the ones that I would take with me to that other critical cliche: the desert island.

The Runners-Up:

• Beirut, Gulag Orkestar (2006)
• Art Brut, Bang Bang Rock & Roll (2005)
• Clem Snide, The Ghost of Fashion (2001)
• The Decemberists, The Crane Wife (2006)
• Sufjan Stevens, Illinois (2005)

The Finalists: 

5. Main Hoon Na (2004) – Main Hoon Na is the Bollywood movie I recommend most often to those who have never seen one: it’s funny and smart, worldly and rooted in an ancient mythic tradition (it’s based on the ancient epic Ramayana), and the music is great. The soundtrack takes the something-for-everything approach of masala films to a global level, mashing together styles as diverse as qawwali devotional music, American 1950s rock, and Latin pop just for the sheer joy of it, and it provided a big chunk of the soundtrack for my summer in Jaipur.

4. The Avett Brothers, Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions (2006) – While 2007’s Emotionalism and 2009 major label debut I and Love and You get most of the critical attention, Four Thieves Gone gets my vote as the Avetts’ best, as it’s one of the few studio albums that manages to convey the frenetic joy of a great live band in all its jagged glory.

3. Solomon Burke, Nashville (2006) – The larger-than-life “Legendary King of Rock and Soul” returns to his country roots on an album produced by Buddy Miller, and featuring collaborators from Patty Griffin to Dolly Parton. The result is an incomparably beautiful mix of soul and country, a truly American sound.

2. Old 97’s, Blame It On Gravity (2008) – Currently my favorite band of all time, the 97’s had an up-and-down decade, getting dropped by Elektra after 2001’s 60s-pop-influenced Sattelite Rides, returning to their alt.country origins on 2004’s Drag It Up (which unfortunately obscured some pretty good songs with muddy and overdone production) and coming back with six-guns blazing for their last album of the decade, an accomplishment that rivals their excellent late 90s albums for country swagger and pure melodic bliss.

1. Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)  – In the summer of 2002, while driving north from San Francisco in a rented car to visit friends and family in the Pacific Northwest, I stopped at a roadside mall to buy some CDs for the drive (this was a good four months before I got my first iPod). I had never owned a Wilco CD before, but the critical buzz over their new album was deafening, especially in my new hometown of Chicago (whose iconic Marina Towers also graced the CD cover), and I had heard enough bits and pieces of it to be intrigued. At that moment, driving away from the ruins of a failed relationship and toward a future that was thrillingly uncertain, the insect hum of homemade electronics, off-kilter drumming, and half-drunken piano plinking of “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart” held out the promise that, for all its heartbreak, the world remained a strange and beautiful place. By the end of the achingly lovely “Jesus Etc.” I knew that this would be one of my favorite albums of all-time.

While I downloaded or purchased physical copies of over 50 albums in 2008, only about 20% of them were actually released in 2008. So I really ought to be doing a list of the albums I listened to most during the year, but who am I to buck the conventions of rock criticism? (Except, you know, by being lazier and only choosing 5 albums.)
5. The Whigs, “Mission Control” – Drum-pounding, melodic, no-frills rock and roll, with just enough indie swagger to keep it interesting. I like the Hold Steady, but in a battle of the bar bands I think the Whigs would eat Neil Finn and company’s lunch.

4. Okkervil River, “The Stand Ins” – On paper, Okkervil River sounds like a cynical combination of some of the darlings of college radio’s last few years: the desperation-filled but enthusiastic crooning of Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade, the relatively complex orch-pop arrangements of the Decemberists and Beirut, the dark humor and Americana-roots of Wilco. But somehow, this Austin band manages to make it all sound fresh and new.

3. Frightened Rabbit, “The Midnight Organ Fight” – With their frantic sound and plaintive vocals about heartbreak, these Glaswegians would probably be considered emo if they took themselves seriously — which, thankfully, they do not. Plus, they put on an amazing live show.

2. Murry Hammond, “I Don’t Know Where I’m Going But I’m on My Way” – As the bass player in the Old 97s, the laid-back Hammond contributes a few (usually excellent) songs to each of that band’s albums, but has often been outshined by charismatic lead singer Rhett Miller. On this solo disc, however, Murry really shines as an interpreter of gospel and old train songs. Many of these songs, especially the ones featuring just his lonesome voice and the drone of a harmonium, are just breath-takingly beautiful.

1. The Old 97’s, “Blame It On Gravity” – Hammond, Miller, lead guitarist Ken Bethea and drummer Philip Peebles make a return to form after 2004’s muddily produced “Drag It Up.” In the accompanying DVD (which also features a driving tour with Miller of the band’s early days) producer Salim Nourallah says that his goal was to be able to capture the energy of the band’s live shows. He succeeded admirably, producing the band’s best album since 1997’s “Too Far to Care.”

Last Saturday, fellow Lost Cartographer Gabrielle Schafer and I played a short three-song acoustic set at the Charleston as the guests of the Long Gone Lonesome Boys. Aside from being incredibly nice guys, the Boys put on an amazing show, and the LGLBs’ John Milne was kind enough to give me a copy of their second cd, “Lonesome Time.” While the disc doesn’t quite capture the fun and energy of their live set, you should check it out if you enjoy 50s and 60s country along the lines of the Louvin Brothers or anything from Sun Records. Like fellow Chicagoan Robbie Fulks, the LGLBs provide this classic material with wicked wit and a decidedly 21st-century twist (e.g. one of their songs is called “www.lonesome.com,” and features the line “tired of Googling porn/and playing with my flugelhorn”). If you can catch them live, by all means do so — but if you can’t, you should pick up this record.