MY SECOND EVER POOP DISC-CLAIMER (disc-lamer?):
Last year I blamed my musical malaise on my distraction with the election. This year the malaise continues and I really don’t have a convenient explanation for it. I had more time on my hands than ever this past year, and I probably listened to less music. I’m starting to hear myself sound more crotchety (I’m still a few years away from cantankerous though). I am no longer willing to snuggle up to this year’s model, whatever that was. More and more I am finding my solace in old musical friends (or newer artists, themselves looking back through their record collections on 5 or 6 of these titles). Be that as it may, the Sweet 16 from 0-nine.
Buy from Robbie1. ROBBIE FULKS – 50-Vc. Doberman
This 50 song collection is available only as a download from robbiefulks.com. After eight albums, this is Fulks’ most varied collection and there are surprises at every turn. The music jumps from dark rock’n’roll to straight country and everywhere in between. Everywhere.
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2. NORAH JONES – The Fall
I know. Snorah. Ignorah. Let the scoffing begin. Success be damned, Norah had “cool” down way before she decided to do her guitar album. This album sounded good whenever I went back to it, which, as it turns out, was quite often.
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3. AVETT BROTHERS – I And Love And You
Initially this came off as rather nondescript and bland. Actually it still is but a certain warmth and comfort come from it after repeated listens that become kind of irresistible. I and like and this.
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4. NEKO CASE – Middle Cyclone
Her voice is ethereal and her music takes me to some abstract plane where, I do believe, the tornado loves me.
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5. VAN MORRISON – Astral Weeks: Live At the Hollywood Bowl
Someone aged 64 has no right to be in such good voice and, backed by a crack band, he brings the 40 year old album to life in a concert setting. Still astral after all these years.
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6. GOLEM – Citizen Boris
This is what Gogol Bordello would sound like if they played Jewish weddings or, as one critic put it, “what the shtetl would be like if it were full of punks.” Golem is one more piece of the ethnic musical mosaic that is Eastern Europe. And Brooklyn.
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7. WILLIE NELSON & ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL – Willie & The Wheel
Willie Nelson sounds 15 years younger than he is and Asleep At the Wheel 15 years older than they are in a perfect combination of styles, executed with precision and swing. I probably shouldn’t use the word executed for anything that has something to do with Texas though. Great artwork.
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8. STEVE EARLE – Townes
No one wrote simpler and more plaintive, soulful, personal songs than Townes Van Zandt, and Earle more than honors his mentor in a record that was going to happen sooner or later. The deluxe edition has the extra stripped-down acoustic disc, well worth it.
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9. JORMA KAUKONEN – River Of Time
Another acoustic gem that channels the spirit of Mississippi John Hurt. Sushi grade, not Hot, Tuna.
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10. THE RUMBLE STRIPS – Welcome To the Walk Alone
There is no one else out there making music quite like the Rumble Strips, and the buying public seems to have weighed in that that’s a good thing. Their second release leans a bit more toward Britpop and a little less toward their Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ sound, with strings supplementing their horn-driven sound this time.
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11. RHETT MILLER – Rhett Miller
Rhett’s poppiest album yet gets him no closer to grabbing the brass ring. At the risk of sounding selfish, at least it will keep my Gardiner neighbor playing little outdoor one-man gigs like the few he did this year. See you at Water Street Market in 2010, Rhett.
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12. MATTHEW SWEET AND SUSANNA HOFFS – Under the Covers: Volume 2
Not as good as Volume 1 but neither was seventies music (before 1977, anyway) as good as sixties music. The iTunes version has an additional ten tracks, including five post-Pistols covers (Buzzcocks, Television, more). At this rate, Sweet and Hoffs should catch up to the present on Volume 6, to be released in 2013.
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13. REGINA SPEKTOR – Far
A cocktail of quirky piano tunes mixed with just the right amount of Brill Building pop. The kind of music that’s probably used on the soundtrack to every TV show I don’t watch.
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14. SUSAN COWSILL BAND – Live At Carrollton Station: Covered In Vinyl Volume 2
A self-released, poorly recorded, warts’n’all concert collection of Cowsill putting her gorgeous, sometimes parched voice on selections from six of her favorite albums: Born To Run, Heart Like A Wheel, Revolver and hits collections by Aerosmith and Sly. Nicest cover art of the year.
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15. DENNIS DIKEN WITH BELL SOUND – Late Music
This is one of those spot-the-musical-references records. It gets harder after The Who and Brian Wilson but no less fun.
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16. JOHN DOE & THE SADIES – Country Club
This collection of lazy old-time country songs is out-of-step with everything else going on in music, and I say that as a compliment.
NEW OLD STUFF
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THE BEATLES – Remasters
Despite their claim that I never give them my money, I did this year on many of these vastly improved albums. I have to admit, it’s getting better.
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V.A. – Clap Your Hands and Stamp Your Feet: 20 Nederglam Tracks From the Early 70s
I never liked Glam in the 70s and I’m not sure I like it in the 00s. But I dare you not to clap and stamp to these 20 tracks by 20 artists you’ve never heard of. Good fun.
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V.A. – Destroy That Boy! More Girls With Guitars
Girls, guitars, garages, attitude.
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JACQUES DUTRONC – Et Moi Et Moi Et Moi: 1966-1969
A history of 60s music. In French.
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V.A. – Fire In My Bones: Raw + Rare + Other-Worldly African-American Gospel [1944-2007]
An in-depth visit into a gritty, secret, alien world. Frequently breath-taking.
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V.A. – Where the Action Is: Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968 – Before L.A. became El Laid Back, it was a vibrant factory of crunching garage bands and Brian Wilson-style studio wizardry.
LEADERS OF THE PACK
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