Best of the Oughts: Albums 51-60

I could do this all month and I almost did.


60. Iron and Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
Even when fully polished, Sam Beam can make anything sound like a cool breeze on a mid-summer afternoon as you sip lemonade on the back porch. Even a fart.


59. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
I didn't care for all the religious imagery until my recovering Catholic partner explained it to me. Then this record took on a whole new meaning. Haunting, beautiful, lo-fi: this is what Sufjan Stevens was before he he got all orchestral.


58. Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News
This record broke Modest Mouse. I know it's not a favorite for most because a certain song was overplayed one summer, but it's a really good record, an appropriate break-out release from an indie workhorse.


57. Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse
This was the album that reminded you all that Sonic Youth could still rock. Forget building their own instruments. Forget their advancing ages. Forget all you thought you knew about rock and roll. Sonic Youth just reinvented it.


56. Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender
You either love or hate this album (along with the next choice). Joanna Newsom does some crazy Kate Bush shit over a harp. Can you get any more punk rock than that?


55. The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
Weird in a seventies and show tune kinda way, this brother and sister duo will blow your mind...or completely frustrate you with every release since.


54. Elliott Smith - From a Basement on the Hill
Who knew that some of Smith's best material was never released before his suicide/murder? I expected throw-aways when I bought this one, only to be thoroughly surprised and reminded how great a songwriter this man was.


53. She and Him - Volume One
I know that some of the luster has been lost on this one since M Ward has moved on and Zooey has starred in cotton commercials. Forget all of that. This record is timeless.


52. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
I love that Sleater-Kinney were known for how much they rocked harder than your favorite boy punks. Then, they release an even harder hitting record just before calling it quits.


51. Feist - The Reminder
This was, at one time, my favorite album of one particular year, but it faded for me over the following months. Upon, a revisit, I rediscovered the magic and beauty in Feist's effort. This album is cool from beginning to end.

We're halfway there. I bet you're wondering what's next? Well, all I can say as that any of the remaining sets of ten could be someone's top-10. Stay tuned...

The Year in Music

The end of the year is finally upon us, and I, like every other hack out there, has a self-indulgent year-end list. Of course I would start off with music. If this blog has any running themes or topics, it’s definitely music.

Best Single that many of you probably are annoyed with by now because of all the commercials and air play it’s received: “1 2 3 4” by Feist
Yes the lyrics are simple and repetitive. Yes the video is too wholesome. But, damn, has a song ever been bigger for a Canadian songstress? Close second: “Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn and John
Come on. Enjoy it one more time…

Best song that almost uses a dirty word in the title only to scream it in the chorus with legendary indie rockers backing a soon-to-be legendary indie rocker: “Backed out on the…” by Kevin Drew
Dinosaur Jr backs the Broken Social Scene front man on this happy rocker.

Best cover of a Dylan song (right now): “I’m Not There” by Sonic Youth
This may change tomorrow, but the title track from that weird Dylan movie is a dead-on interpretation. It really connects Dylan to punk in a way I had never fully realized.

Best song that carried a much weaker album: “23” by Blonde Redhead
This song has urgency, beauty, and mystery…all the things the rest of the album failed to deliver.

Best Spoon song that should cause feet to move, critics’ heads to explode, and units to shift: “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb”
Kiss Britt Daniel’s ass, Poison!

Band that Pitchfork loves that I’ve been too slow to ride the bandwagon but feel that I will take the plunge any day now: Black Kids
I don’t know if I’m offended or aroused by the band’s name, but I do know that their sound excites me in a way the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah did when I finally gave in to their will.

New act that I missed this year that NPR thankfully reported in their year-in-review feature: Taken by Trees
I think I have just discovered the next Swedish Cat Power.

Best band that all the critics love that I’ve liked in the past but have yet to purchase this year’s release: Animal Collective
Difficult indeed.

Best Video – Classic Format: “Elephant Gun” by Beirut
This sad, dance-heavy video takes me back to all those vagabond Brit-pop vids back in MTV’s early days.

Best Video that didn’t make me go out and buy the band’s record: “What’s a Girl to Do?” by Bat for Lashes
Rarely has a dance routine been so expertly executed as in this super-cool video.

Best fan video: “My Body Is a Cage” by Arcade Fire, video by J. Tyler Helms
2007 was the year of green screens and fan videos. I don’t know whether this is a smart marketing ploy or a cheap way to make videos, but this is the best of the year by far.

Funniest video: "Can't Tell Me Nothing" by Kanye West

New dance music genre that will be old by February…I hope: Progtronica
I have had it with anything that sounds like Battles or LCD Soundsystem. Why is it that the hipsters get so happy over dance music that will be forgotten in six months when head-bobbing doesn’t count as dancing? There is a reason disco, trance, big beat, and techno all died.

Best show - Large Venue: Arcade Fire in KC

Best show - Medium Venue: Camera Obscura at The Blue Note

Best show - Small Venue: The Thermals at Mojo's

Best Albums from 2006 that I discovered late and listened to all throughout 2007: The Thermals' The Body, the Blood, the Machine, Beirut's Gulag Orkestar, and Band of Horses' Everything All the Time

Top five albums on my best 31 of 2007: Stay tuned...

#6 of 2007: Feist - The Reminder

Thirty-One Words:Leslie Feist has a lovely voice, nice dance moves, and possibly the single/video of the year. This record proves her to be the real deal. I could’ve made this #1.

The one song that makes it worth $17.95: "Sea Lion Woman"

Pitchfork Says: 8.8

Kate's List

As my list of the year's best albums nears its end and as you all anticipate my other year-end lists, I wanted to share my sister's list. Enjoy.

i must, must make a year-end list. i can't continue with my life if i don't make a year-end list. mockers be damned, i am making a list.

5 best albums of the year

1) feist-the reminder
the 1 and 2 spots were really tough for me but in the end i had to go with feist because i had been listening to it since june and i took the time to actually figure out the piano part on "my moon my man". granted the ipod/lifetime song has gotten annoying but it's still a good song. if i can be embarrassing, i'd say that this album is my generation's Exile in Guyville, only nicer and less f-bombs. feist is the nice canadian girl who doesn't have to skank it up to get your attention. plus she's in broken social scene, which automatically makes her my best pretend friend.
best song: the park
best line: he's the dirtiest clean i know.

2) bonnie "prince" billy-ask forgiveness
i just got this a week ago and the only reason it's not 1 is because 1) i just got it, 2) it's an ep so it doesn't seem right to put it first when everything else is a full-length and 3) it's covers...but damn good covers. i got it a few days before my birthday. it's amazing, old will knows my pain. best song: it's a tie. sometimes i like "i came to hear the music" but i think i probably like "cycles" the best.
best line: you know it's almost funny/but things can't get worse than now/so i'll keep on trying to sing/but please, just don't ask me how

3) arcade fire-neon bible
maybe this should be 1 but i've kind of gotten over the excitement of it. i still love it though, and i still don't wanna work in a building downtown. this was probably the best live show i saw all year and i wasn't even drunk! that says something...lot's of dancing and hooting and hollering. there also fun songs to drive too. "no cars go" makes me think of going towards the light...in a good way.
best song: no cars go
best line: see 2nd sentence

4)sunset rubdown-random spirit lover
i also just got this one but it's slowly been growing on me...just like their last release. i wish i could say more but i think i have a canadian theme going on here. for some reason, they remind me of queen. it's their arrangements or something very operatic, perhaps...or am i just trying to sound smart?
best song: the mending of the gown (criminitly, that guitar!)
best line: spencer krug's emoting, in general...he just doesn't seem to hold back.

5) i'm not there (movie & cd)-ok, so i'll admit it, i didn't get a whole lot of new music this year unless i could get it from the library or a friend. and since the library is somewhat limited in what they order and i only have two friends, i didn't really hear a lot from 2007. i got a lot from the 60's because i needed to...anyway, i'm getting off course. i went to the fancy bob dylan movie...kind of got parts of and really liked the soundtrack from seeing. when i finally got it at the library, i was somewhat disappointed in the songs...it just wasn't as good without the movie, i suppose. first the gripes: eddie vedder & antony and the johnsons. two people i never want to hear again. antony, you giant, please lose your voice. i don't care how much lou reed likes you, he's wrong. on the upside, however, i think the ladies outshine the men on this one, which is ironic since i'll pegged dylan for a bit of a mysogynist...or maybe it's not so ironic, really. oh, yeah, and what about that mason jennings?
best song: the cat power one, stuck in mobile with the memphis blues again, maybe? seriously, i'm so tired of the cat power haters. so what if she gave up the bottle and became friends with karl largerfeld? i like happy cat power just as much as sad-sack cat power.
best line: really? i'm not answering this. but desolation row is my favorite dylan song, surprise, surprise.

6) charlott gainsbourg-5:55
ok, i'm cheating, i was going to stop at 5 but then i remembered that this came out in 2007. anyway, quickly, very very good...i like her voice but she didn't write any ove the songs.
best song: operation
best line: our love goes under the knife...i only picked this line because for a long time i thought she was saying "olive goes under the knife" and i always pictured olive oil from popeye sitting on an operation table freaking out because someone was about to cut her open.