Ask me again a week from now, and I might tell you it has moved up a couple of notches.Įven more veterans! This time in a supergroup! John Paul Jones (of Led Zepplin, wtf!), Josh Homme, and Dave Grohl writing and playing together sounds amazing. I really cannot say enough about how good this album is - it is totally infectious, and I really hope it does well. Apparently Charlotte has been dealing with a bunch of medical issues lately, and the album is definitely colored by it. The lyrical content matches the music in being singable-but-slightly-jarring - there is a lot of death/mortality stuff, with the title track mimicking the sounds of an MRI machine (IRM, get it?). The string arrangements are right out of Beck's incredible Sea Change album, and it's great to hear them again in this context. Charlotte and he have incredible musical chemistry, and make perfect bizarre pop songs that sound like they could be from any era. The songs are spare, catchy without being shallow, and each one has just enough trademark Beck-weirdness to make it unlike anything you've ever heard. Beck does the music for this one (see! another veteran), and it is his best work in, well, perhaps ever. If I had written this list a week ago, I would have missed this incredible record. Technically this album doesn't come out until late January 2010 in the US, but it's out now in Europe so I'm including it here. But it's bassist Lou Barlow's two songs that stand out and earn this album its spot in the top 10 - may he never again leave the band! J Mascis's guitar wizardry is just as awesome now as it was in the late 80's/early 90's, and his new songs are some of the best he's ever written. People were shocked at how good Beyond was, and Farm is even better. This is the second "new" album since Dinosaur Jr re-formed three years ago. Now if only Swervedriver and Jawbox (and Chavez?) would start recording again. And this time they're actually using quality instruments, amps, and recording techniques, which benefits the album greatly. Some people have said it's their best, some argue against that - but it definitely feels like they picked up right where they left off 12 years ago. This is the brilliant comeback album that no one noticed.Īnother great comeback album. This is by far their best work - songs and arrangements bursting with vitality, and recorded in such a way that perfectly captures the energy and feeling of a live performance. It's true that their prior two albums were not as good as the much-loved Source Tags And Codes, but I'm really surprised that very few people have given this new album the praise it deserves. Here's another veteran group that had been written off in the past few years. And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead I also don't mind the 10+ minute guitar freakouts :) But through the medium of Yo La Tengo, such songs sound perfectly natural and pleasing. What always strikes me about their songs (especially those that sound exactly like 1960s pop hits) is that if anyone else were playing them, I'd probably hate them. Yo La Tengo has been around forever, but they keep making amazing albums. Some tracks would sound cheesy or sappy in any other context, but when these guys play them, you'll get goosebumps every time. These are absolutely gorgeous, haunting compositions, with excellent use of strings, banjo, and other instruments. This Austin collective's third album solidifies their status as the inheritors of the "Rachel's" sound, and goes well beyond that. Maybe it's just a sign of my age, but I heard nothing this year that even comes close to these folks who seem to be hitting their stride in their 40s and 50s. Almost everything on this list is from musicians who have been around forever, or bands who broke up years ago and recently re-formed. In general, 2009 was the "Year of the Veterans". There's a lot of (supposedly) great stuff that came out this year that I haven't heard yet, so this could change.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |