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bedsitter23It's time for the annual top 20 best albums list that I have shared with John DefFrog (whose list is here) since time Immemorial. I don't listen to every album that has ever been recorded and released, but damn, it is not for lack of trying.
As always, this list is maybe more of a "The albums that I spent the most time with' whether than any other comment on what a good album is or what I will be listening to in 20 years time.
Like last year, there is a lot of Americana. This time there is a lot more noise; and as always, there's some alt-pop.
There seems to be quite a few of my favorite artists from the 1990s on here, too- but given Roxette had a Top 40 hit, Take That was the hottest reunion, and Traci Lords finally got one of her dance songs on the radio, I seem strangely okay with that.
Here goes:
British Sea Power- Valhalla Dancehall (Rough Trade)- BSP has become a perennial Top 20 choice. Like "Open Season", the band's second album, this feels like a bridge to the next phase. As that album carried the band from it's strong debut to the career (so far) highpoint of 2008's Do You Like Rock Music. Valhalla feels like a similar positioning. There are some immediate rockers and some ambitious atmospheric pieces. BSP continues to be one of the most interesting bands on the planet.
Crystal Stilts- In Love with Oblivion (Slumberland) - 2008's Alight of Night was one of my favorite debuts of recent years and really sold me on the not-safe-for-work named shitgaze movement. For some reason that I can't understand, it took me awhile to get into Oblivion, but now I am completely sold. The album keeps all the elements that made Alight such a great listen- reverb, garage rock organ, and Velvets jangle. Oblivion matches Alight's high points by not radically changing the formula, but still sounding like a different album. Singer Brad Hargett's vocals seem a little more out front and give it all a bit of goth vibe on top of that Velvets/J&M Chain/Paisley Underground sound, and really makes for a great discovery for the new listener.
Dangermouse and Daniele Luppi - Rome (Capitol) - it seems like everything Danger mouse touches becomes incredibly riveting from DM + Jemini to Gorillaz to Gnarls Barkley. Rome received mixed reviews from the critics, and may be an acquired tatse, but i really liked this album. I find it a great start-to-end listen, and really a must for those who like their music on the overly melodramatic side. Norah Jones and Jack White's performances are top-notch regardless of what you think of their day jobs. My pick for the great unheralded album of 2011.
Danny & the Champions of the World- Hearts and Arrows (So) - You would be excused for mistaking this album for a Gaslight Anthem solo project (Even the cover looks like a GA album). Like GA, its ambitious anthemic Springsteen rock, though they swap the Anthem's obsession with the Clash for an appreciation of early Tom Petty. Not a very original template, but credit to D&tCotW for being as good at doing it as anyone.
Dears -Degeneration Street (Dangerbird) - The Dears captured everyone's attention with 2003's No Cities Left. That album found the Canadian band reaching for the heights their Britpop influences had reached, and with a great set of songs they were able to do just that. Saddled with the "Black Morrissey" moniker, singer Murray Lightburn and gang just weren't able to reach those heights again with the two subsequent albums. Only with Degeneration Street, are they back in the ballpark. The Smiths influence may still be there, but they have now successfully married it with some Radiohead atmospherics and both traditional prog rock and contemporary prog rock influences.
Steve Earle- I'll Never Get out of this world alive (New West) - This one has been hailed as Earle's comeback, and I don't think that is necessarily wrong (The last couple of Earle albums didn't really do much for me). Unfortunately this album does suffer in comparison (It immediately recalls 1995's Train a Comin, and no record is likely to be that good). It also suffers in comparison as an album to Earle's string of must-own records from the late-90s. Still, we are an iPod generation, and there are a lot of great single songs on this album that should make their way on anyone's playlist.
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (Vagrant) - It seems to me that PJ Harvey albums become as good as ambitious as their titles are (Compare "Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea" to "Uh huh her"), and Let England Shake is a tremendous title and a tremendous album. This one has been pretty much universally hailed, but it's justifiable as it is PJ at her best.
Parts 2 and 3 to follow reasonably soon....
As always, this list is maybe more of a "The albums that I spent the most time with' whether than any other comment on what a good album is or what I will be listening to in 20 years time.
Like last year, there is a lot of Americana. This time there is a lot more noise; and as always, there's some alt-pop.
There seems to be quite a few of my favorite artists from the 1990s on here, too- but given Roxette had a Top 40 hit, Take That was the hottest reunion, and Traci Lords finally got one of her dance songs on the radio, I seem strangely okay with that.
Here goes:
British Sea Power- Valhalla Dancehall (Rough Trade)- BSP has become a perennial Top 20 choice. Like "Open Season", the band's second album, this feels like a bridge to the next phase. As that album carried the band from it's strong debut to the career (so far) highpoint of 2008's Do You Like Rock Music. Valhalla feels like a similar positioning. There are some immediate rockers and some ambitious atmospheric pieces. BSP continues to be one of the most interesting bands on the planet.
Crystal Stilts- In Love with Oblivion (Slumberland) - 2008's Alight of Night was one of my favorite debuts of recent years and really sold me on the not-safe-for-work named shitgaze movement. For some reason that I can't understand, it took me awhile to get into Oblivion, but now I am completely sold. The album keeps all the elements that made Alight such a great listen- reverb, garage rock organ, and Velvets jangle. Oblivion matches Alight's high points by not radically changing the formula, but still sounding like a different album. Singer Brad Hargett's vocals seem a little more out front and give it all a bit of goth vibe on top of that Velvets/J&M Chain/Paisley Underground sound, and really makes for a great discovery for the new listener.
Dangermouse and Daniele Luppi - Rome (Capitol) - it seems like everything Danger mouse touches becomes incredibly riveting from DM + Jemini to Gorillaz to Gnarls Barkley. Rome received mixed reviews from the critics, and may be an acquired tatse, but i really liked this album. I find it a great start-to-end listen, and really a must for those who like their music on the overly melodramatic side. Norah Jones and Jack White's performances are top-notch regardless of what you think of their day jobs. My pick for the great unheralded album of 2011.
Danny & the Champions of the World- Hearts and Arrows (So) - You would be excused for mistaking this album for a Gaslight Anthem solo project (Even the cover looks like a GA album). Like GA, its ambitious anthemic Springsteen rock, though they swap the Anthem's obsession with the Clash for an appreciation of early Tom Petty. Not a very original template, but credit to D&tCotW for being as good at doing it as anyone.
Dears -Degeneration Street (Dangerbird) - The Dears captured everyone's attention with 2003's No Cities Left. That album found the Canadian band reaching for the heights their Britpop influences had reached, and with a great set of songs they were able to do just that. Saddled with the "Black Morrissey" moniker, singer Murray Lightburn and gang just weren't able to reach those heights again with the two subsequent albums. Only with Degeneration Street, are they back in the ballpark. The Smiths influence may still be there, but they have now successfully married it with some Radiohead atmospherics and both traditional prog rock and contemporary prog rock influences.
Steve Earle- I'll Never Get out of this world alive (New West) - This one has been hailed as Earle's comeback, and I don't think that is necessarily wrong (The last couple of Earle albums didn't really do much for me). Unfortunately this album does suffer in comparison (It immediately recalls 1995's Train a Comin, and no record is likely to be that good). It also suffers in comparison as an album to Earle's string of must-own records from the late-90s. Still, we are an iPod generation, and there are a lot of great single songs on this album that should make their way on anyone's playlist.
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (Vagrant) - It seems to me that PJ Harvey albums become as good as ambitious as their titles are (Compare "Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea" to "Uh huh her"), and Let England Shake is a tremendous title and a tremendous album. This one has been pretty much universally hailed, but it's justifiable as it is PJ at her best.
Parts 2 and 3 to follow reasonably soon....
