John Darnielle’s treatise on surviving a childhood of abuse easily gets my top pick of the year. The lyrics make this record, and I can’t imagine them without Darnielle’s wailing delivery. This Year and Dance Music are my two favorite tracks, although I usually find myself listening to the album as a whole; once you’ve got the St Joseph’s Baby Aspirin you’ve got to make it through to the Pale Green Things. I can’t say enough good things about this album, worth a listen (or 20), and definitely worth catching on tour.
I am going to make it through this year if it kills me.
I drove home in the California dusk.
I could feel the alcohol inside of me.
Home.
Picture the look on my stepfather’s face,
ready for the bad things to come.
I was introduced to The National as the headliner at a $10 show that featured Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Talkdemonic. I’ve never spent less money for more entertainment, and I’ve never been so pleasantly surprised by a headliner I was thinking of skipping. I enjoy the more rocking tunes on this record, and if pressed to pick a favorite I’d have to go with Mr. November. Good from start to finish, but less cohesive than The Mountain Goats disc.
I’m the new blue blood, I’m the great white hope
I’m the new blue blood
I won’t fuck us over, I’m Mr. November
I’m Mr. November, I won’t fuck us over
Clocking in at only 7 songs and right about 30 minutes, Iron & Wine and Calexico’s In the Reins is short and sweet. I’d have enjoyed this one more if it had been a true collaboration. I’m not the biggest fan of Sam Beam, but he’s good in small doses, and you’d be hard pressed to find a better backing band. Hopefully they’ll get back together and Joey and John can get some input, duets between Beam and Burns would sound so sweet.
One more kiss tonight from some tall stable girl
She’s like grace from the earth
When you’re all tuckered out and tame
I initially thought that Kanye West’s Late Registration was going to be a total dud, thankfully I was wrong. Other than the lame skits and the gawd awful Brandy song this one is a collection of solid gold hits that I’m sure will be bled dry until I hate every last song. That’s the one downside of every decent hip-hop album in the last few years, eventually they become so played out that I can’t bear to listen to them any more…
You tellin’ me if my grandma was in the N.B.A.
right now she’d be ok?
But since she was just a secretary
working for the church
for thirty five years
things s’posed to stop right here?
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s self released “mega-hit” was next to impossible to find (other than on mp3, where it was next to impossible to avoid). I actually managed to stop the clerk at a local music as he was putting up the only copy they’d received. Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth is probably my favorite track, but they’re all good, on record at least… I’d have enjoyed this album much more if they hadn’t totally phoned in their first live show in Portland.
Who - Will get me to a party?
Who - Do I have yet to meet?
You - You look a bit like coffee
And you taste a bit like me
Antony and the Johnsons’ I am a Bird Now was a tough record to get into. On first listen I hated it, and deleted the mp3s from my hard drive. At a picnic a few weeks later someone mentioned it as one of their favorite albums so far of the year, and said that it took a couple of listens to get into. One trip back to usenet and four or five more listens I didn’t hate it. I kept listening for the same reasons you watch a trainwreck… you can’t stop it. For Today I Am A Bouy is definitely my favorite track of the bunch, but again they’re all good (it just takes a while).
One day I’ll grow up
Be a beautiful woman
One day I’ll grow up
Be a beautiful girl
For today, I am a child
For today I am a boy
Wolf Parade’s Apologies to the Queen Mary fills the yearly Canadian Rock and/or Roll spot in my heart that was created two years ago by Broken Social Scene and was filled admirably last year by Arcade Fire. Truth be told the Wolf Parade record isn’t as good as either of those, but it’s still a good disc. Grounds for Divorce is definitely my favorite of the tracks.
But look at the lovers
And they way they stand
And the way they move and the way move their hands
And look at their babies
And their tiny little hands
And the way they get loved and the way they get loved oh
That’s all for this year boys and girls…
