A Few of My Favorites from 2010
I’ve been thinking more about the past lately – listening and buying a lot more vinyl and albums from the 1980s as well as some new stuff. Some of this is straight up wish fulfillment – I want to love music today as much as when I was a high school kid, discovering great music for the first time and sharing it with my friends. You get older, and busier, and music can get less personal and become just musical wallpaper. Funny thing is that I spend very little time talking about music with much of anybody, but I still spend a lot of time listening.
When I haunt the record stacks at Doc’s Records, Record Town, Forever Young or (more likely) an estate sale, part of it is a journey of discovery as well as an archeological mission. I’ll fork over money on new vinyl, adding new cuts to the soundtrack of my life, but I’ll also search out old records of the past. There’s the Clash album I passed on buying in high school or the X album I gave to a girlfriend in college and never got back. For some reason, it seems to matter.
Anyway, the more music I listen to, the more it seems I here music that reminds me of something else – the late Sixties and the mid-Eighties seem to still be going strong. As a result, 2010 was kind of a good year for music and a good year for memory. Below are some my favorite albums and songs. A couple probably date from late 2009, but I don’t get wound around the axle about stuff like that. You just gotta roll with it. Also, I lean toward live performance videos vs. official videos when possible. Just a preference.
Albums
The Monitor by Titus Andronicus
Where do you start with this one? First off, you have love a bunch of raunchy New Jersey rockers who would name their band after one of Shakespeare’s lesser known plays and tackle diverse references to Flemish Renaissance painters and Kramer’s favorite holiday – Fesitivus. With that as their track record, why not tackle a concept album based loosely on American Civil War themes. Sure. Why not? The result is something like The Replacements scoring a Ken Burns‘ documentary. Though I have lamented the death of the album format before, I applaud the effort here. The result is both rocking and compelling. Although my favorite song on the album is “A Pot in Which To Piss,” I’ll give you “A More Perfect Union” below because it’s what I could find.
The Suburbs by The Arcade Fire
The Arcade Fire will always be saddled with the expectations of topping their debut effort, Funeral. I won’t even bother getting in to comparisons. Just evaluate The Suburbs on its own. It’s simply stunning. I can listen to it over and over. The Spike Jonze video below for the album’s title track captures it beautifully. The whole album is a story of nostalgia, ennui, impatience and cul de sac memories. Well done.
Heaven is Whenever by The Hold Steady
They say that Hold Steady leader singer/songwriter Craig Finn is more of a short story writer than a rocker, with touches of John Updike, S.E. Hinton and Jack Kerouac. OK, sure. Memory and nostalgia and the healing power of a good LP all come into play, especially on this cut, “We Can Get Together.” As he sings, Heaven is whenever we can get together / Sit down on your floor, and listen to your records. Amen, brother. Watch below:
Transference by Spoon
If it is possible for a band to be completely raw and over-engineered at the same time, Spoon manages to do it on this album. Brit Daniel may be the only rock and roll singer you ever need to listen to – he is always pitch-perfect capturing the nuances of the ups and downs of love. Even when I’m really not sure what he’s singing about, it seems to work. Like on “Out Go The Lights”: There’s a picture of you standing there in my black wig /Looking like who thinks they know who. I mean, WTF? But it seems delicate and it works. Enough talk. Watch “Trouble Comes Running” below:
Lisbon by The Walkmen
Listening to this album is like watching a sunset on the last day of your vacation – tinged in a warm glow but imbued with a load of melancholy. Listen to “Juveniles” – the first cut from the new album – and you’ll find out why The Walkmen is one of my favorite bands.
Songs
“Rogers Park” by Justin Townes Earle
Harlem River Blues, Earle’s latest album, is a modern riff on a classic country sound that manages to feel old and brand new at the same time. Oddly enough, “Rogers Park” is a song that Earle actually wrote years ago and struggling with drug problems in the Chicago. While it isn’t everyone’s experience, this song has a universal quality that can appeal to anyone who has ever wrestled with inner demons in the dark of a sleepless night.
“Crash Years” by the New Pornographers
It’s Neko Case singing. What more do you really need to know?
“Clementine” by Sarah Jaffe
I am naturally skeptical of buzz, and Denton singer-songwriter has certainly got her share over the past couple of years. Watch the video below and you’ll understand that the accolades are all well deserved.
“Every Night Is Friday Night Without You” by Old 97s
What I worry about with the Old 97s is this: At what point do they start sounding like the old-timers’ alt-rock tour? This song is the answer: Not yet.
“The Weary Kind” by Ryan Bingham
The perfect country song? Mmm … no. But still good enough to win the Oscar this year in one of the best films about country music in a long while. The T-Bone Burnett/Stephen Bruton Fort Worth connection makes it that much better.
“One Day” by Kings Go Forth
I saw these guys play live at SXSW this year on a freezing-cold afternoon and they rocked the shit. This song would fit in incely on a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack.
“When I’m With You” by Best Coast
This is new take on the classic Sixties beach rock sound. And ordinarily I don’t like the “official” video, but Burger Clown is actually kind of fun.
“Heaven Can Wait” by Charlotte Gainesbourg
Like chocolate and peanut butter, Beck and Charlotte Gainesbourg go great together.
“Wireless in Heaven” by Robert Earl Keen
Again with the old-timers’ tour comment. The answer is “not yet”. This song proves that everyone’s favorite Aggie still has some chops.
“Numbers Don’t Lie” by Mynabirds
Who needs Amy Winehouse? As with Best Coast and Kings Go Forth, the Mynabirds prove that the Sixties sound is alive and well.
“Keep Telling Me Things” by Blakroc
How much awesomeness can you cram in one band? The Black Keys? Mos Def? The RZA? Um, yes please.
“End of an Empire” by Henry Clay People
I also saw these guys at SXSW and they are just as raw and raunchy live. As Titus Andronicus has already established, the spirit of The Replacements is alive and well in American rock music. Also from HCP, check out “Working Part Time.”
