Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
Neko Case was one of those artists that I kept managing to see live somehow, without ever really digging into her recorded work. Now that I have, I’m a big fan. Her new album is really rewarding as well, not just because it continues her tradition of great songwriting and singing, but because of the detours it takes. For example, one of the main pleasures of her albums is just the visceral pleasure of her voice, hearing her crank it out. But on the first track of Fox Confessor, she stays low in her vocal range, letting the words and instrumentation gradually build the mood. The understated nature of the first track makes the second track, “Star Witness”, even more effective, with its multiple, soaring vocal lines.
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
I’m going to steal a line from Pitchfork’s year-end wrapup: “The Decemberists have always been an interesting band, but with The Crane Wife, they became a great one”. I think I listened to this album probably more than any other this year, which is probably untrue since I got it at the end of October.
Joanna Newsom - Ys
This was an album that came heavily recommended by a lot of the hipper-than-thou indie music publications, but I couldn’t decide for a week whether it was totally awful or totally awesome. It’s definitely not the most accessible of albums: five songs, each longer than seven minutes, sung by a frantic pixie in a child-like voice, accompanied only by her harp and a string section. Singing songs about meteorites, monkeys and bears, being milked from thistles at twilight, etc. Then one night when I was kind of lost in multiple ways, it all started to come together, and I decided on totally awesome.
Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam was my favourite band for a long time, and are definitely the band that I’ve invested the most in emotionally over the years. I was pretty disappointed with their previous album, Riot Act. I’ve always been willing to follow Pearl Jam down interesting detours (I still think No Code is their best album), but Riot Act was their first release that didn’t feel like it had been really worked on and polished. It felt rushed, and half-baked, and for the first time Eddie Vedder’s lyrics weren’t up to his usual standards (“Thumbing My Way” and “Green Disease” are the worst offenders).
But the new album, Pearl Jam, is a huge statement about everything that makes the band, and rock music in general, great. The first half of the album is filled with unrelenting rockers, capped off by the best song on the album, “Marker In The Sand”, while the second half steps back a bit, and thinks deeply about living. I think Pearl Jam’s best work is always when they’re in transition. Dealing with sudden fame on Vs. and Vitalogy, dealing with adulthood on No Code, and now figuring out how to still rock out, and still make a difference, when they’re all in their forties. It’s nice to have them back, and so vital, after so long.
M. Ward - Post-War
I went to see M. Ward at Sala Rosa earlier this year, and immediately became a fan. His most recent album careens between rock stompers and slow crooners, telling a series of stories about lovers, losers, dreamers, and dead men. One thing I like about his work is the amount of space he gives the slow songs to breathe, and the way his guitar dips in and out of things, commenting briefly then fading out again. This album will also be forever notorious to me because of the impromptu dance party it inspired at a family reunion, featuring pogoing Uncles and ten people with ten different ideas about just when the semitone bend happens in the chorus of “Chinese Translation”.
Honourable Mentions:
• Sparklehorse - Dreamt for Light Years In The Belly of a Mountain
• Bob Dylan - Modern Times
• Calexico - Garden Ruin
• Cat Power - The Greatest
• Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
These are mostly albums that I just started listening to recently, or don’t really have much to say about except I like them a lot! Also, I can’t believe I waited for five years for a new Sparklehorse album to come out, then didn’t hear about it at all until a few days ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment