10. Accelerate – R.E.M.
After a ten-year period of general listlessness from the camp of one of the greatest alternative rock bands in history, many had assumed that R.E.M. had checked out and gone to adult-alternativeland. Fortunately, they returned to their up-tempo, rock and roll roots, delivering their most cohesive album since 1992’s Automatic for the People and their most energetic album since 1986’s Lifes Rich Pageant.
9. Matador Singles ’08 – Jay Reatard
Over the last year, underground pop punk mainstay Jay Reatard released a series of six singles, his second year in a row of attempting to revive the A-side/B-side single format. This noble effort will probably fail though, as most people are bound to discover the songs through this end-of-the-year compilation. Despite it being a collection of singles, it has the common thread of brilliant pop songwriting unifying the album, and songs like “Always Wanting More” and “An Ugly Death” are among the year’s catchiest tunes.
8. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Caught between something religious in nature and an enlightening trip to the Appalachian Mountains, listening to the Fleet Foxes, in the right sort of circumstances, is an experience. The beauty that lies in their reverberant four-part harmonies, rustic acoustic strumming and gorgeous songcraft that owes as much to indie pop as it does to American roots music is unmatched in today’s popular music.
7. Stay Positive – The Hold Steady
The Hold Steady are here to save rock and roll. Lead singer Craig Finn’s tales of idealistic, young Americans drinking and making out in the Twin Cities are told with such fervor and urgency that they become almost Biblical in that great Springsteen tradition. The rest of the band sounds so full and meaty that nothing can stop them either, which leaves very few surprised that “Constructive Summer,” “Sequestered in Memphis” and the title track have become indie anthems.
6. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
Without any doubt the biggest buzz band of the year, Vampire Weekend were either going to be next great propagators of indie rock or another hyped up failure along the likes of The Killers. Essentially, they wound up being neither, but certainly leaning towards the former, since the band’s self-titled debut album is one fantastic slice of Afro-bent indie pop. And if songs like “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” and “Oxford Comma” won’t typify this generation’s collegiate hipster elite, then kick me out of college.
5. A Mad and Faithful Telling – DeVotchKa
This Denver quartet plays gypsy and mariachi pop music like they’ve never been to the United States, and their fourth full-length album, A Mad and Faithful Telling is a summary of what makes DeVotchKa great. From the heart-tugging “Clockwise Witness” to the jaunty, pulsating “Basso Profundo,” DeVotchKa have assembled a set of incredible songs for those who need a little more tuba with their pop tunes.
4. Dig, Lazarus, Dig!! – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Singer-songwriter Nick Cave has reinvented himself various times throughout his nearly thirty-year long career, starting off as goth’s lone prince and eventually becoming a twisted gospel crooner. In recent years, though, he’s become one of rock and roll’s most fiery poets, expanding the garage rock experiments of his Grinderman side project to his full palette with the Bad Seeds. The results yield one of his most powerful and lively albums to date, mixing in wordy struts like the title track and “We Call Upon the Author” with the dense balladry of “Jesus of the Moon” and “More News From Nowhere.”
3. Hold On Now, Youngster… - Los Campesinos!
The exclamatory-marked Welsh septet broke out at the end of last year with an EP and a single, the six-and-a-half minute long “You! Me! Dancing!” The single was one of 2007’s most beloved tracks, yet it was up to the band to follow through with a full length that could justify all of the love. Sure enough, they prevailed, and their first of two albums released in 2008 is probably one of the most jubilant and energetic albums in history.
2. Rabbit Habits – Man Man
Few acknowledge junkyard instrumentation and tribal chants as likely components of pop music, and Rabbit Habits is unlikely to win over those who avoid those sorts of odd aspects of music. Still, its sheer audacity and energy make it one of the year’s absolute highlights and when coupled with singer Honus Honus’ emotive and heart wrenching lyrics, this seemingly distant and uninviting music becomes sincere and human.
1. Awesome Record, Great Songs – Tim and Eric
Not since The Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime has an album featured so many incredible original songs. Sure, the humor may be lost to those who haven’t watched the television series Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and those who despise the show altogether will likely find nothing here. Still, in the soundtrack to that show’s first two seasons, Tim and Eric have piled upon countless hooks and melodies, spanning an absurd amount of styles, from techno to Arab music to low budget public access synth pop, united entirely with absurdist humor. Even the Shins, Built to Spill and Aimee Mann dig this, as they’re featured as guests on the album. Due to its pervasive and perverse sense of songcraft, and simply because it’s such a relentlessly enjoyable listen, Tim and Eric have created the best album of the year.
Alright, now for some new blog exclusive stuff! If you remember from last year (via facebook, since this blog didn't exist until last week), The Arcade Fire's "No Cars Go" was awarded with my pick for the best song of the year. Well, here are my picks for this years' top fifty tracks of the year. Note that although Tim and Eric scored the best album of the year, I haven't included any of their songs in here just because I'm not sure which ones were technically part of the TV show from 2007 and they're just really difficult to rank - to find certain songs that are better than others and whatnot, so just consider songs from that album to be way up there. Basically I didn't want those two to take up a quarter of the list.
Here we go!
50. "Super Soaked" - Be Your Own Pet
This raucous opener from their sophomore (and final) release, Get Awkward, gives the band their great big mission statement, "I just want to run around!/I just want to party down!" brashly shouted by frontwoman Jemina Pearl. Too bad the party's over. R.I.P. Be Your Own Pet
49. "Dark Leaves Form a Thread" - Destroyer
Certainly the poppiest song from Trouble in Dreams, this shows Dan Bejar in his solo mode at, interestingly enough, his most New Porno-esque.
48. "You/Aurora/You/Seaside" - Get Well Soon
Feel the wrath of his bombast!
47. "The Clockwise Witness" - DeVotchKa
Dark, wistful and melancholy, the Denver quartet elevate their hyper-romanticism here, particularly with Nick Urata crooning, "I can't fake it anymore."
46. "Sax Rohmer #1" - The Mountain Goats
A truly spirited number from John Darnielle in the same manner as "This Year," "No Children," and basically his best songs. And it's difficult to deny the passion in the chorus, "I am coming home to you/If it's the last thing that I do."
45. "Lost Coastlines" - Okkervil River
The Stand Ins, in all honesty, didn't quite take me in the same way that The Stage Names did for whatever reason. "Lost Coastlines" though, is still a great, lively number, with it's "Lust for Life"-ish bassline pushing the energy up to it's triumphant syllabic finale.
44. "Low Tide" - O'Death
The Neil-Young-meets-Southern-gothic-preacher vibe of O'Death continues to run amok throughout their underrated sophomore release, Broken, Hymns, Limbs and Skin and although the album is loaded with great tracks, I guess I just picked "Low Tide" since it leads off the album and makes a pretty rambunctious first impression
43. "Valerie Plame" - The Decemberists
"Days of Elaine," also part of the Always the Bridesmaid singles series may be the better song, but "Valerie Plame" is infinitely catchy. The tale of the exposed CIA agent couldn't have been more sprightly, and the somewhat contested "Hey Jude"-esque coda seals the deal for me. And dig that banjo!
42. "Big Trouble" - Man Man
Opening with a big brassy funeral lament, the song lurches forward, a New Orleans death march of the highest caliber, starting stopping, being interrupted by smashing glass, heightening with super-creepy falsetto and punctuated with Honus Honus' dark conclusion: "You make me feel... like a zombie!"
41. "Runs in the Family" - Amanda Palmer
"Runs" being the key word, Palmer reads some of her very best lyrics at a lightning-fast pace, showing tremendous urgency through puns and poetry detailing her social and mental plight. The martial rhythms in the chorus coupled with her frenetic delivery give the impression that the poor girl really is going to snap at any moment
40. "Laughing All the Way to the Plan" - Elle Milano
"Why don't we find ourselves a home?" frontman Adam Crisp pleads in the chorus to the leadoff track to the young British band's only album Acres of Space Cadets. Sadly, here's another set of young hopefuls who have ended their run far too early. R.I.P. Elle Milano.
39. "There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In" - Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello
Yeah, this has very quickly become one of the best holiday songs ever, and sums up quite nicely how I personally feel about Christmas. A tip of my hat to these two.
38. "Modern Guilt" - Beck
I don't even know if this is one of Beck's best songs, or even the best on the album, but I'll be damned if Danger Mouse's production doesn't intensify the song's tight, claustrophobic beat, and I am a sucker from minor key descending bass runs. Oooooh yes.
37. "Robots" - Flight of the Conchords
Binary solos? Corny vocal re-enactments of 1950s robot laser beam sounds? "Shut their motherboard-fucking systems down?" "Come on sucker lick my battery?" Any of their songs would have fit the bill, but just for audacity, "Robots" takes the spot on the list (maybe only topped by "Bowie")
36. "Good Arms vs. Bad Arms" - Frightened Rabbit
Picking one song from The Midnight Organ Fight was difficult, but this track shows the group at their most emotive, and maudlin pithiness is what this young band does best.
35. "California Dreamer" - Wolf Parade
Wolf Parade captures the intensity and energy that made Apologies to the Queen Mary such a great album here, with its relentless pulse and anthemic "Thought I might have heard on the radio/But the radio waves were like snow" refrain.
34. "We Call Upon the Author" - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Honestly, you can take any lyrics from this song an use it as an example as why Nick Cave is one of rock and roll's greatest poets and his madman delivery only emphasizes things, particularly whenever he shouts, "Prolix! Prolix! Nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!" Glad he didn't take those scissors to this beast of a tune.
33. "Mansard Roof" - Vampire Weekend
Others like "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" or "Oxford Comma," but the lush strings, grandiose tremolo guitar picking and rolling snares capture the jubilant energy of Vampire Weekend in just over two minutes of fantastic indie pop.
32. "Where Do You Run To" - Vivian Girls
Ladies and gentlemen, the Vivian Girls present the pop chorus. One of their longest songs (just over three minutes) is easily one of their best, with some of the catchiest hooks of the year
31. "Easy Eats or Dirty Doctor Galapagos" - Man Man
When I saw Man Man a couple of months ago, they opened their set with the stoic, stately "Doo Right," a sick tease for the next tune, "Easy Eats." As soon as Pow Pow began his turbulent drum rolls, the crowd began to eat itself alive and tear itself apart. This is Man Man at their circus-freak best.
30. "Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks" - Los Campesinos!
ONE BLINK FOR YES. TWO BLINKS FOR NO. SWEET DREAMS, SWEET CHEECKS, WE LEAVE ALONE!
29. "Slapped Actress" - The Hold Steady
The triumphant conclusion to Stay Positive, Craig Finn declares that all the world's a stage in his own manner, telling of how Ybor City almost killed him again and that "we make our own movies." Best of all, it culminates in a "Whoah whoah" coda that, in a perfect world, would tear every arena in the world down.
28. "I Need a Life" - Born Ruffians
I had trouble keeping the band's "Kurt Vonnegut" off the list with its hyper-romantic "Won't come outside, love?" refrain, but this one is even better. Its "The sun is shining but we stay inside/Oh, but we go out at night!" call-and-response chorus might as well be the story of my life.
The next two songs are full album length, and while they didn't make my top 10, it would be a crime to ignore them in the top songs section, and since it's weird to pick apart random snippets from each, I've just thrown the entire albums in the middle of this list.
27. Feed the Animals - Girl Talk
The world's most popular mash-up artist is back with another instant party, and one that rivals 2006's Night Ripper. Highlight: Probably "Like This," which syncs "Ghetto Superstar" over "Autumn Sweater" and "Lip Gloss" over the start-stop section of Metallica's "One."
26. 49:00 - Paul Westerberg
As a radio transmitter of the former Replacements frontman's mind, this album succeeds on a number of levels, combining a whole bunch of incredible pop songs into one track where everthing bleeds into itself. From the poppy "Who You Gonna Marry?" and "Something in My Life is Missing" to the wistful "Goodnight Sweet Prince" to the Hootenanny-esque "I'm Clean" and "Everyone's Stupid," Paul Westerberg has reminded everyone that he is still a viable force in rock music. And that covers section that ends with a lo-fi version of "I Think I Love You" is messy brilliance.
Back to the regular listing.
25. "Effington" - Ben Folds
Not gonna lie, I like "Bitch Went Nuts" a lot more, but good God, this is some vintage Ben Folds Five stuff right here, that harkens back to the simpler, more energetic and sardonic times of Whatever and Ever Amen, and despite the negative press that generally and somewhat bafflingly went along with the release of Way to Normal, this look backwards has created some of Folds' best songs in years, "Effington" being one of the best.
24. "The Witch (Made to Measure)" - Clinic
I really love the way Ade Blackburn sings, with his teeth clenched or whatever. He may sound like an prick even, but it just sounds great, especially along the neo-psychedelic music that Blackburn and the rest of Clinic chimes in. And I really love those shakers.
23. "Sun Giant" - Fleet Foxes
Not to sound morbid or anything, but at the moment, I'd really like for this to play at the end of my funeral (given that it's a nice, warm sunny day or whatever.) I'd also just like to mention that I wish college a cappella groups sounded like this. Cathartic, religious, beautiful, moving, fill-in-the-blank...
22. "Basso Profundo" - DeVotchKa
"Clockwise Witness" showed that deeply romantic side of the group, but here we have their Eastern European influences taking full flight, from the tuba bassline to the oompah-breakdown in the middle of the song, where Urata wails wordlessly over an ever-speeding-up accordian and violin led polka.
21. "Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, NJ" - Titus Andronicus
After a distant, far-removed solo intro from singer/guitarist Patrick Stickles, ending with the bile-filled prophecy, "But should the shit hit the fan/I just pray you will not be spared," from the bellows of the band's lungs comes a violent yet almost cleansing shout of "FUCK YOU!" that launches the song into an epic torrent of reverb-laden guitars and climactic towering rhythms. It's brilliant, but if it all seems humorless at times, don't forget that the name of the band's debut release The Airing of Grievances is a Seinfeld reference.
20. "Shake That Devil" - Antony and the Johnsons
Shifting directions entirely on this cut from the Another World EP, Antony Hegarty lends the first half of this song to a bluesy, tortured lament over swirls of distant feedback and noise. Suddenly, the whole thing turns into a otherworldy, uptempo drum-and-sax blues tune, with Antony at the helm, commanding the whole tune with that voice. Oh, let's hope he continues this sort of thing on The Crying Light.
19. "Took My Lady to Dinner" - King Khan and the Shrines
I don't even know if this song belongs on the list. I was going to put "I Wanna Be a Girl" on here until I remembered that it was originally released on last year's What Is?!?! album. Both songs were released in the U.S. on the compilation The Supreme Genius of King Khan and the Shrines. Whether or not this song debuted on that album shouldn't matter though, because this neo-garage soul tune deserves its spot on this list, with King Khan leading the show with his hilarious chant of "She's fat!/She's ugly!/I really, really love her!" and complaining the rest of the song about how his girlfriend eats too much.
18. "Eraser" - No Age
I don't even know what it is that I love so much about this song. I guess the key word here is "buildup." And my heart truly does start to race when Dean Spunt comes in and out with his "Thump! Thump-thump!" bass pedal rhythm. And then just before the song ends, the thing launches off into noise-punk land. This is some incredible, addicting stuff.
17. "Accelerate" - R.E.M.
Everything that I said about R.E.M.'s return in the albums section is embodied right here, in the band's darkest song here, driven with crystal clear production and a tight rhythm section. "Where is the ripcord, the trapdoor, the key?/Where is the cartoon escape hatch for me?" Stipe sings, leaving the listener fearful that if he doesn't find it by the end of the song, the whole things will simply crash and burn.
16. "Lover's Day" - TV on the Radio
These guys are cleaning up this year! Makes me wonder if I've missed something in this album. At any rate, the final track on Dear Science proves to be an absolute triumph, and perhaps the most poetic song about sex I've ever heard. The militaristic snare drums and the steady sleigh bells provide a template for Dave Sitek to craft his soundscapes and Tunde Adebimpe's vocals to soar when he concludes endearingly, "I'm gonna take you home."
15. "White Winter Hymnal" - Fleet Foxes
People have written a lot about this song, so to avoid repetition and incidental plagiarism, I'm just going to say that this song boasts the best melody line of the year, bar none.
14. "Baltimore" - Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
This song starts off like the standard great-as-usual Malkmus tune with a pretty neat instrumental breakdown thrown in the middle. But alas, at the two and a half minute point, the song turns into a hard rockin' jam that rounds out the song's final four minutes, creating as a whole, an incredible post-Pavement Malkmus composition.
13. "Miserabilia" - Los Campesinos!
Everyone likes to point out that this song has to do with/is about (which it isn't) Gareth Campesinos! throwing up in a Mexican restaurant. Fine, whatever, but for me the most devastating moment happens at the very end, when the meek, troubled tweecore troubadour laments, "I have broken down into the naked breasts of a newly ex, no dignity, I can only guess that she thinks about it when she touches herself." And then the whole group yells in unison, "SHOUT AT THE WORLD BECAUSE THE WORLD DOESN'T LOVE YOU/LOWER YOURSELF BECAUSE YOU KNOW THAT YOU'LL HAVE TO" over this nasty, taunting riff. Yikes.
12. "Lighten Up, Morrissey" - Sparks
No, it's not an attack on the Pope of Mope, but rather, in the over-35-year-old tradition of hilarious Sparks tales of bizarre romance, it's about a guy begging Morrissey to lighten up because his girlfriend thinks everything he does pales in comparison to the sort of thing the ex-Smith would do. And if the brothers Mael don't charm enough with their lyrics, the straightlaced rock and roll melody, a departure from their modern synth-string affairs, recalls their earlier records bringing a classic sound to a modern era.
11. "The Arm" - Islands
Never mind that bombast comment I stole from Mark E. Smith in regard to the Get Well Soon song; this one would make Jeff Lynne blush. But anyone who knows me knows that I'm a sucker for overblown symphonic rock, and Islands deliver the goods in spades on their underrated Arm's Way. And nowhere else are their ambitions more present than on the album's opening track, "The Arm," which features a killer call-and-response riff between the guitar and violin and a song that changes shape a few times in its duration. Feel the wrath of their bombast!
10. "More News From Nowhere" - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Cave retells Homer's "Odyssey," or something like it in his own terms, entering Odysseus' psyche and telling of what a confused and ultimately modern character he was and still is. Cave drives the message home so many times in the song's eight minute (and never tiresome) duration, "It's getting strange in here/And it gets stranger every year."
9. "Toe Jam" - The BPA (Featuring David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal)
Fatboy slim teams up with David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal to create one of the most relentlessly infectious and fun songs of the year, with a great vocal hook built to stick in peoples heads, some awesome canned horns and a brilliant bassline. And the music video featuring a bunch of naked people dancing around creating designs and words with their censor bars is easily the best music video I've seen all year.
8. "Too Drunk to Dream" - The Magnetic Fields
Has this melody really never been written before? Did Stephin Merritt really not plagiarize this thing? It's so simple and catchy that I have a lot of trouble thinking that he wrote it. Hell, this song has two insanely catchy hooks, one that starts the song a capella, cleverly separating life being sober and being shitfaced, and the other which makes up the rest of the song, and were it not drenched in feedback and full of such maudlin lyrics, is the kind of melody that would accompany every joyful-romp-in-the-park type song from now on. But hey, those hilariously droll lyrics helped get the song so high on this list in the first place. "So why do I get plastered?/And why am I so lonely?/It's you, you heartless bastard/You're my one and only."
7. "Walcott" - Vampire Weekend
The emotional climax of the album, its propulsive energetic melody revolves around Ezra Koenig asking the title character, "Don't you want to get out of Cape Cod tonight?" The song ebbs and flows, in and out of endearingly baroque string quartet sections, before building into the gorgeous grande finale. And they reference Mystic Seaport. Always a plus for this proud Connecticut native.
6. "Always Wanting More" - Jay Reatard
The song that turned me on to Reatard, "Always Wanting More" features a surprisingly beautiful and incredibly catchy guitar riff and melds it effortlessly to a bright punk rhythm to create the power pop song of the year, hands down.
5. "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Believe it or not, this was the first Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song I ever heard, when it got pitchforked almost exactly a year ago. I became an instant fan, and well, the rest I suppose, is history. Still, the song's neo-garage riff, bleeding over from Grinderman and its tight rhythm blend together to create one of the most struttable songs ever, and Cave's lyrics about the Biblical zombie Lazarus being brought back from the dead in the modern world only to succumb to fame and die mad, confused and tortured are some of the best of his career. Oh, poor Larry, indeed, and the house comes down whenever Cave muses, "I don't know what it is, but there is definitely something going on upstairs!"
4. "Constructive Summer" - The Hold Steady
The only thing I would have liked to see this year is for the Hold Steady to have released Stay Positive at the beginning of the summer instead of the middle of it, rendering this end-of-spring call-to-arms somewhat useless. Still, for summer '09, this will be the song, as Craig Finn heralds the coming of good times at fast paces, proclaiming "We're gonna build something this summer" over a hard rocking bar band brawl of a beat. And most enlightening of all comes at the end, when Finn says, "Let this be my annual reminder/That we could all be something bigger." This is a true anthem in every sense of the word.
3. "Mykonos" - Fleet Foxes
Similar to Malkmus' "Baltimore," the song's first two minutes or so are pretty enough, featuring a ghostly wordless chorus courtesy of vocalist Robin Pecknold floating above the regal Renaissance rhythms that the band produces. But it's the song's second half that begins with gorgeous a capella harmonies pleading, "Brother, you don't need to turn me away" that launch the song into its beautiful second half. "You go, wherever you go today" the band sings as if in prayer over a steady and subtle powerful marching rhythm. And then it all dissipates, fading out as the vocals drown in their own reverb, echoing into their own phantom remains.
2. "My Year in Lists" - Los Campesinos!
In under two minutes, Los Campesinos! have crafted the second best song of the year, a song which starts off equating writing a letter to sex, then becomes self-conscious about it and ends up with Gareth Campesinos!' top five resolutions of the year, the first of which is that he "do[es] not believe in the New Year anymore," a line with a delivery that for some reason, gets me every time I hear it. It's all beautiful and sad, fun and playful and rather bitter, particularly with the "I cherish with fondness the day (before) I met you" refrain, and ultimately, it ends up as one of the very best songs of the year.
1. "Poor Jackie" - Man Man
Two things happened here. The first is that someone analyzed what I personally love about music and threw it all into one song - songs with multiple parts, somewhat abnormal instrumentation, the key of F minor, dark lyrics, etc. etc. The second is that in this song, Man Man go all out, pulling no punches in this tremendous eight and a half minute long monster. The Jackie of the song's namesake is a female Jack the Ripper, covering up her clues and changing her identity to avoid being caught in the first part of the song. By the second half, though, Honus Honus is pleading, over a slow oompah beat and a cacophony of percussion, violin and trombone for someone to murder him and set him free. Finally, the noise settles down and all we are left with is the disturbing conclusion, "There ain't no God here as far as I can see/Your God of hope and light never did nothing straight about me," as the song whimpers and slowly but surely dies. Man Man give this song everything they have and the world is now a better place because of it.
Alright, that's enough. Go and check out whatever tunes sound appealing to you and let me know what some of your favorite songs are if you want.
What do we have to look forward to in 2009?
Animal Collective
Antony and the Johnsons
A.C. Newman
Andrew Bird
Franz Ferdinand
Bruce Springsteen
(And that's just January!)
Morrissey
Robyn Hitchcock
Trail of Dead
Dan Deacon
Decemberists
And who the heck knows what else.
Alright I'm exhausted. Happy listening and Happy New Year!
