Behind the Scenes of the Sounds and Times: Music Reviews and Screeds

My Top 30 Albums of 2023

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Sun, 08 Dec 2024 04:42:00 +0000

My Top 30 Albums of 2023 (and other great records)

My annual list, so late it’s silly – but it’s more for me and my personal music history and reference. With that in mind, my reviews are scaled back a bit into quicker blurbs.

30. Lost Ships – Atoms Collide Forever

Jangly indie rock from the UK. It’s pretty straight up with its basic guitar pop structures and reminds me of early 90’s Canadian alternative pop/rock, like Lowest of the Low and The Weakerthans. There are hints of Badly Drawn Boy and Shame About Ray-era Lemonheads, and it feels like the same successful recipe of contemporaries Quivers.

29. The Tubs – Dead Meat

Bad band name paired with an off-putting album name. Were it not for copious recommendations from indie tastemakers, I would have just passed this by. This is extremely tight jangle/power pop clearly influenced by Flying Nun and Slumberland artists. Recommended if you like The Bats, The Clean, The Feelies, Close Lobsters, Sumos, EggS, Holy Tunics, etc. Choice track: “Duped”.

28. Guardian Singles – Feed Me To The Doves

Shoegazey post punk/punk, like Shame meets Wire meets The Adicts. At times, this sounds just enormous. And snarly. Choice track: “Metal Fingers’.

27. Sands – The World’s So Cruel

I possibly learned of Sands through a review from Elizabeth Klisiewicz, the prolific music critic from The Big Takeover and digital radio (her tastes are so up my alley, she’s become a treasure trove). Sands have a lot going on, but in such an integrated way that the influences are hard to discern at first listen. At its core, this is a melodic guitar pop, pretty, tight, and polished. There’s lot’s of 60’s pop here, some 70’s AM radio, a bit of new wave, and Shoes-like power pop. It's pretty under the radar and really really good. Choice track: “The Lines Been Drawn”.

26. Emma Anderson - Pearlies

Fuzzy dreampop godmother from Lush graces us with a proper solo album, after some furtive releases with Sing Sing. Her signature voice brings me right back to the early 90’s . This is a more chill and downtempo affair when compared to her work with Lush, and is closer to Air and Cocteau Twins. Lovely. Choice track: “Willow and Mallow”.

25. En Attendant Ana – Principa

France’s EAA return after blowing my mind with one of the best records of 2020, Juliet. Less fuzz and more Stereolab lounge-jazz this time around, Principia is not as strong, but still exceptional and super cool. Choice track: “The Cutoff”.

24. Th Da Freak – Indie Rock

Not sure how this came across my ears. It was possibly from checking out the Howlin’ Banana Records roster, which has been putting out some excellent records in recent years (Special Friend, Pop Crimes, EggS). This on-the-nose album title just begs listening. What a treat. This is fuzzy, warbly lo-fi… indie rock! The approach feels like early Elephant 6 releases (e.g., The Gerbils, early Beulah) with all it’s charming DIY sonic choices. Sometimes it’s just straightforward 90’s indie rock that you might find in a (cool) used CD bin, sounding like Number One Cup, Archers of Loaf, or Tobin Sprout. Contemporary comparisons might be Mac Demarco, Dog Day, or Petite League.

23. Flyying Colours – You Never Know

These Aussies wowed me with 2016’s Mindfullness, an album of heady and ethereal psych shoegaze. 2021’s Fantasy Country and 2023’s You Never Know are equally excellent. This most recent offering adds new elements however, such as quasi-danceable synths and trebly guitar riffs that tie them to 80’s new wave and countrymates Tame Impala. I am also reminded at times of Brian Jonestown Massacre, American Analog Set, Stars, and Lilys. Good stuff. Choice track: “Hit The Road”.

22. Angelo De Augustine – Toil and Trouble

I had started to grow a little weary of DeAugustine, who’s gentle, emotionally laden folk started to sound overly precious and, well, “sad sack”. That fragility remains on Toil and Trouble, but the song structures and production are more interesting this time around, distracting from the melancholic self-pity. He’s a fabulous singer and the folky melodies are wonderful and dreamy. He fills a hole that Sufjan Stevens sometimes leaves when he is off on one of his experimental jaunts. Choice track: “The Painter”.

21. Nation of Language – Strange Disciple

After wowing me with 2021’s A Way Forward, Nation of Language finally return with their absolutely perfect distillation of 80’s new wave/synthpop, like a reincarnated AI amalgam of China Crisis, Depeche Mode, and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. I always love a good 80’s analog synth throwback, but Nation of Language is simply peerless in mining the special sounds/feels of that time. Choice track: “Stumbling Still”.

20. Bully – Lucky For You

Bully is Spotify-friendly pop-punk, seemingly tailor-made for the dwindling number of emo kids who still want to rock out to high energy guitar riffs. Regardless, you cannot argue that Alicia Bognanno is not laying it all on the table, with edge and grit and authenticity. You can tell she is having a blast while simultaneously exorcising whatever demons that may need confronting. The production is a little thin and inferior to her own work (she produced all the previous Bully albums), but that can’t stop the hammerstrokes of these songs. Think Hole, Breeders, and Sleater Kinney. Choice track: “All I Do”.

19. Blue Ocean – Fertile State

Blue Ocean can be added to the not so little corner of my music collection that is unassumingly lo-fi, seemingly recorded in small bedrooms, and replete with fuzzy guitar lines, noise, and reverb. It’s possible that they were trying to make a big shoegaze record, but I suspect Blue Ocean was making exactly what they wanted to hear. Guitar pop songs sent through a dizzying chain of budget pedals, with copious reverb on the vocals (setting: empty bathroom). Choice track: “Radiant Edge”.

18. Pop Crimes – Gathered Together

I could almost take the above review Blue Ocean’s Fertile State and drop it in here. This is catchier lo-fi fuzz pop, but with fewer pedals, and almost sounds like it was recorded live off the floor. There is also much more jangle going on here. An album like Gathered Together demonstrates to me that, despite my sniffy dismissal of so much music, I am simultaneously really easy to please. This is simple stuff. Give me a good melody and a few guitar chords and I’m pretty happy. This is the ongoing legacy of The Velvet Underground, punk ethos, and the tireless championing of record labels like Slumberland and Sarah Records (and now, it looks like, Howlin’ Banana). Choice track: “Ends and Begins”.

17. Great Lake Swimmers – Uncertain Country

Great Lake Swimmers have been giving us high quality, beautiful folk music for 20 years now and I initially missed their 2023 release, only noticing it upon seeing them live in 2024 (in which I loudly requested “Various Stages” when Troy Dekker took requests for a solo encore – he relented and it was beautiful). Uncertain Country surprised me. It is a much bigger sounding record, with more electric guitar and other added instrumentation. The title track could be a Broken Social Scene song and it’s wonderful to hear Dekker’s voice over top a song that rocks out. Several songs have a full gosepl choir. It’s gorgeous orchestral folk and one of the best entries in their catalogue. Choice track: “Uncertain Country”.

16. White Poppy – Sound of Blue

Dreampop, which I've always associated with the likes of Cocteau Twins and Lush, has bifurcated into two streams: the original incarnation and a more synth-based approach, which sort of took ambient music and injected pop structures and sensibilities. Ground zero of this evolution (and thus a wider application of the genre label) was the emergence of Beach House in the mid-2000’s (and several others, such M83 and School of Seven Bells). Beach House’s surprising reach has led to many bands seeking to emulate this recipe of synth-based arpeggios, ethereal vocals, and cathedral-level reverb. White Poppy’s Sound of Blue is a truly beautiful example. Choice track: “Happy”.

15. Drop Nineteens – Hard Light

The last decade has seen a surprising (and welcome) revival of the shoegaze/dreampop genre, with a gazillion new bands and, perhaps due to the resurgence, a flood of reunion tours and albums by the old guard: Slowdive, Swervedriver, Medicine, Ride, My Bloody Valentine, Lush, and many others. A “lost classic” of the genre was Drop Nineteens’ Delaware, in which the band was quickly pigeon-holed as American shoegaze (their second and final album was Dinosaur Jr. informed indie rock). While I loved Delaware, I honestly forgot about this band until they reemerged in 2023 with Hard Light. The shoegaze label is apt, albeit with some shifts and exceptions driven by pop/indie-rock sensibilities. It’s a little dreamier, with smoother edges, and is really strong top to bottom. “Another One Another” captures the old gazey Delaware sound, but you’ll also here some acoustic guitar and synthy moments. Stand out track “Gal” sounds like a Yo La Tengo clone, straight out of the I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One sessions. Choice track: “Gal”.

14. Sumos – Surfacing

Sumos, a new band to me, surprised me with this excellent collection of fuzzy, jangly power pop tunes along the lines of Apples In Stereo, The Bats, or Fountains of Wayne. Super tight, mid-fi, energetic, and catchy as all hell. Every song is a hooky treat. I’m looking forward to what these Mancunians do next. Also, I disagree with their self-applied label “scuzz pop”, which does them a disservice. I’ll accept fuzz pop. Choice track: “Enemies”.

13. Melenas – Ahora

I discovered Spain’s Melenas in 2020, with their tremendous Stereolab-inspired fuzz pop Días Raros. (What a bumper crop 2020 was for female led indie rock/pop/shoegaze – with Melenas joined by En Attendant Ana, Jetstream Pony, Uniforms, Gum Country, Lomelda, Hazel English, Pia Fraus, High Water Marks, Aiko El Grupo among my top records). 2023 follow up, Ahora, is just as great. Their apparent love of Stereolab is even more foregrounded this time around, with droning synths, propulsive bass lines, and a vocal delivery that is almost indistinguishable from Laetitia Sadier. All of this is most welcome. Choice track: “1986”.

12. Draag – Dark Fire Heresy

This popped up on a recommended list from a well-respected YouTuber reviewer (The Omaha Introvert) and the assessment was bang-on. I’ve said in this space before that there are many many good shoegaze records of late, but few truly great ones. The ability to match melody and hooks with the fuzzy haze is tricky, and Draag seems to do it effortlessly. Not only is pretty much every song enjoyable, each is also surprisingly distinctive, an accomplishment that makes this album stand out it in the landscape (how many shoegaze albums drift by as if one long song?). Choice track: “Good Era Doom”.

11. Jenny O. – Spectra

Jenny O. beguiled me with 2020’s New Truth and I was looking forward to her next release. Spectra does not disappoint. There are quite a few influences going on here and pegging her as a singer-songwriter seems almost demeaning. The eclecticism is wonderful. At times I hear a lot of Julia Holter and Weyes Blood, but she switches gears often. “Advice at Dinner Party”, for example, is 80’s disco pop, as if Banarama has reappeared (but way better). It’s all strong, but the highlight is the bouncy guitar pop/punk of “Solitary Girl”. It’s my song of the year and has the best chorus I’ve heard in forever, matching the hookiest harmonious heights of the Go-Go’s and The Bangles. I must have listened to this song a hundred times already and I already know that it will remain an all-time fave for the rest of my days. Choice track: Obviously “Solitary Girl”.

10. Seablite – Lemon Lights

San Francisco’s Seablite appears to be a faithful reincarnation of Lush and I fucking love it. Gorgeous fuzzy dream pop with an underground/cool factor, sung by disaffected Ghost World girls with (fallen) angel voices. If you told me this was the new project by Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson, I would believe you. Choice track: “Drop Of Kerosene”.

9. Young Fathers – Heavy Heavy

A friend who was only guessing at my musical taste sent me a Young Fathers track and I was immediately gobsmacked. How did I miss this? Young Fathers scratch that itch that TV On The Radio have not be scratching of late, which is rather hard to describe. An arty indie rock base, but blown out in numerous incredible musical directions – hip hop, African/Caribbean motifs, synthetic choirs, darkwave drones, industrial beats, and beat poetry. All delivered with amped up energy and conviction. I must see this band live! Choice track: “Rice”.

8. Golden Apples – Bananasugarfire

Jangly mid-fi indie rock from Philly, Bananasugarfire is one of those records that exemplifies a genre without being generic. If you said “I love Guided By Voices, Sloan, and early Teenage Fanclub”, I would be 100 percent positive that you would love, and not merely like, this album. It’s got all the ingredients of toe-tapping indie rock, that perfect blend of fuzz and chime, melody and harmony. Golden Apples are a pitch-perfect match to Matador and Merge records, circa 1994. Choice track: “Waiting For A Cloud”.

7. Crystal Canyons – Stars and Distant Light

Crystal Canyon return with classic shoegaze sounds, tying them directly to My Bloody Valentine and Lush. The “glide” guitar of MBV is liberally used, with that signature pitch-shift wailing that is almost narcotic in effect. The vocals performed by Lynda Mandolyn are pretty and cool, and suggest she looks up to Bilinda Butcher and Rachel Goswell. With song titles like “Dreamray”, “Catatonia”, “Pulsars and Magnetars”, and “Cobra Aurora”, you know this band is committed to the craft. I may sound like a broken whammy bar, but what makes this stand out above the innumerable shoegaze acts that have emerged in the last decade is melody. Like Fleeting Joys, Ringo Deathstarr, Soft Science, Westkust, Pia Fraus, and other great second (third?) generation ‘gaze acts, I came for the haze and stayed for the hooks. Choice track: “Catatonia”.

6. Film School – Field

Film School is routinely grouped into the shoegaze genre, but there is more than that going on here. On Field they introduce more danceability, propelled by Krautrock rhythms and tempos. “Defending Ruins”, for example, is a runaway psychedelic train, persistent in its drive and intensity and made for an underground dance floor. There are lots of classic shoegaze sounds, but also post-punky goth (“Is This A Hole”) and some bright janglegaze (“All I Need”). If there is a “west coast shoegaze” sound, Film School seems to define it. Choice track: “Defending Ruins”.

5. Sufjan Stevens – Javelin

Sufjan Steven’s apex mountain for me was always Illinois (2005), which seemed like the logical conclusion to his preceding two masterpieces, Michigan (2003) and Seven Swans (2004). Subsequently, Stevens embarked on a range of artistic explorations and art-house soundtracks that always left me disappointed. On 2015’s plaintive Carrie & Lowell, he returned to the beautiful folky spareness of Michigan, and that was lovely. More experiments and tangents followed and now, finally, we have Javelin, a record that is within throwing distance of Illinois’ greatness. Take Everything That Rises as a demonstration track. That banjo-like capoed guitar paired with Steven’s fragile and pretty voice, then joined by strings and choir, some digital loops, and then…you get the picture -- that signature blossoming of sound that evolves a humble tune into an emotional anthem. This is the recipe throughout and represents such a compelling return to form, reintroducing every strength that made Sufjan Stevens among the most exciting artists to emerge in the early 2000’s. Choice track: “Everything That Rises”.

4. Big Bliss – Vital Return

My all-time favorite bands may be so because they’re inimitable in their greatness (Beatles, The Clash, Swervedriver, R.E.M., Stereolab, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Arcade Fire, etc.). Great bands can approach the sounds and feels of such luminaries at times, but can never get all the way there. Big Bliss gets pretty damn close at capturing the sound/style/substance of R.E.M., at least in the Lifes Rich Pageant (1986) to Out of Time (1991) period, which was an incredible run. While not as varied in approach as R.E.M., Big Bliss nail that literate and weighty college rock vibe with methodical tightness. First track, “A Seat at the Table”, starts with a guitar riff that feels like it could be on Reckoning. You cannot listen to track 2, “Sleep Paralysis”, and not hear R.E.M.’s direct influence - propulsive guitar chords paired with Peter Buck’s jangly picking, the counter melodies of Mike Mills' bass, and Stipe's knack for melody and poetics. Next track, “Proof of Life”, channels Michael Stipe’s slower and meditative songs that pepper and enhance R.E.M.’s catalogue. The R.E.M. DNA is everywhere. I could never hear this as a “rip off” – it is an artistic accomplishment to land this so perfectly and does nothing but honor its mighty lineage. Choice track: “A Seat At The Table”.

3. Zoon – Bekka Ma'iingan

I was swept away by Zoon’s debut Bleached Wavves and it’s glorious gazey/hazy soundscapes that lead, Daniel Monkman, refers to as “moccasin gaze”, a tongue-in-cheek nod to his Indigenous heritage. There are plenty of shoegaze records out there and plenty of ambient experiments as well, but this album rises above, hitting me in the spiritual pleasure centre that precious few can. For me, this means Bekka M’iingan reaches the same dizzying heights as Sigur Rós’ Ágætis Byrjun, Godspeed You Black Emperor’s Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antenna to Heaven, and Spiritualized Laser Guided Melodies. I hear these bands in Zoon, and also elements of Flying Saucer Attack, Slowdive, and My Bloody Valentine. But there is something else, something unnameable going on here. A divine sort of sadness that transcends mere human ideas of sadness. And this imparts a sort of otherness, a deified combination of wisdom and hope that sits differently in the dimensions of space and time. Now THIS – what I have just said, which does not reference musicality directly – sounds like crazy talk, or grasping at spiritual straws, or just too much mumbo jumbo. Sorry. Big feels here. I literally do not comprehend how someone envisions these song structures and sonics, pursues them, nurtures them, and releases them to the world like Zoon has. Whatever Daniel Monkman is being guided by, it stands apart from me and my experience. That makes it magnificent to hear and I’ve heard some things. Choice track: “Awesinh (A-Way-See)”.

2. Being Dead – When Horses Would Run

At least once a year, some band emerges (to my ears, anyway) with a completely bonkers approach to musical vision and production that is as jarring as it is beautiful. Taking the last five years, for example, records by Black Country New Road (2022), Smoke Bellow (2021), Floral Tattoo (2020), Alex G (2019), and Spirit of the Beehive (2018) pushed all sorts of boundaries as to what a modern rock/pop music can sound like. It would be easy for things to go wrong, leading to songs that are just too, well, weird, to cross into that ephemeral space of “likability”. Being Dead may be the most accomplished of these, inevitably prompting the questions: “how the hell did these youngsters arrive at THIS conceptualization of music? How did they manage to make these choices? What musical experiences, listening habits, and tastes underpin this mélange of left-field folk/rock/pop?”. They clearly love old surf and rock n roll, 60’s psych rock, gothy folk, old-timey country and…well, I guess it’s a bit of a laundry list of genres. A single song shifts and pivots multiple times, pulling you in, pushing you out, and shaking you. The musicology of it all is astounding, reminding me of my first listens to Foxygen, Cindy Lee, and recent Smashing Times. The production sounds like a 78 RPM shellac record, anachronistically confusing/delighting the listener. Choice track: “Last Living Buffalo”, but you should listen to it all the way through.

1. Sunnsetter – The Best That I Can Be

Any number one album of the year for me will always be amongst “the best ever” in my personal estimation. My annual #1’s (and many #2’s and some #3’s) are automatically classics, de facto. But among these, there are those particularly special albums that stand apart further still, the best of the best, the most favorite of the favorites, the exemplifications of the music I love. To my surprise, The Best That I Can Be is definitely in the conversation for this status. I looked back at a mid-year Instagram post and had written: “It’s gorgeous - folky songs at the core with a beautiful, heady overlay of shoegaze and dreampop. It’s been on repeat and I just can’t get enough. Please check this out, it’s so deserving of wide exposure.” So that, but x10. Andrew McLeod (also a member of Zoon) strikes that perfect sonic balance of his acoustic and electric guitars, enhanced by warm keys and ambient textures. I'm sure he must be a fan of Sigur Ros and Mellon Collie-era Smashing Pumpkins. His vocals are lovely and his lyrics are honest and heartfelt. But adjectives cannot convey how well it hits my sweet spot of music, combining (almost) all I love in one place, perfectly assembled and performed. This is hard to understate for me. Everyone who likes enriched folk, dreampop, shoegaze, indie rock, etc., should hear this. Congratulations Sunnsetter, you’ve entered my pantheon. Choice track: “Float in Circles”.

Other worthy releases

The 1981 – Move On. Post-goth jangle wave, with a toe dipped in 70’s nuggets psych.

Beach Fossils – Bunny. Sunny jangle pop for the sad kids.

Bodywash – I Held The Shape While I Could. I heady mix of Beach House dreampop (see "Kind of Light"), gothy pop, and shoegaze.

Bry Webb – Run With Me. Rustic heartfelt folk from Constantines’ leading man.

Colored Lights – Colored Lights. Folky psych pop with some edge.

Couchboy – Singles and What Nots: 2021-2023. A comp of recent EPs that is effectively an album. Lo-fi jangle/power pop. Great!

Cult of Lip – Marsha. Woozy shoegaze, thick with noise, nausea, and no wave.

Daiistar – Good Time. Psychedelic dance recalling Charlatans and Stone Roses.

Diners – Domino. Power pop channeling Apples in Stereo and Beulah.

Eluvium – (Whining Marvel’s In) Consensus Reality. Song name “Mass Lossless Interbeing” kind of sums up these avant- neoclassical instrumentals.

Fruit Bats – A River Running To Your Heart. The prolific Eric D Johnson does it again with another collection of beautiful contemporary folk rock songs.

Griffin McElroy – Ethersea, Vol. 1. This dungeon master/podcaster soundtracks his own campaigns and this underwater story is beautifully scored with lovely instrumental motifs.

Grrrl Gang – Spunky!. Pop punk firecrackers from great grrrl group.

Jess Williamson – Time Ain’t Accidental. Williams shifts a little away from Mazzy Star and more towards the alt-country twang of Waxahatchee and Angel Olsen.

Julian Never – Pious Fiction. Lo-fi fuzzy indie pop/rock from Australia.

New Pornographers – Continue As Guest. Usually making my Top list, the New Pornographers nonetheless still deliver tremendous indie rock in 2024.

Photocopies – Unprofessional Conduct. Prolific flagship band of label Subjangle (a treasure trove of underheard bands) give us peppy jangle pop on every track.

Pia Fraus – Evening Colours. Estonian dreampoppers never seem to falter with yet another chill and nuanced record.

PJ Harvey – I Inside The Old Year Dying. IMHO Harvey has had trouble returning to the heights of masterpiece Let England Shake, but to be fair her subsequent albums are nonetheless great. This one included.

Reds, Pinks and Purples – The Town That Cursed Your Name. I have no clear understanding of RPP’s releases – they seem to come out every three months with highly similar album covers and the songs are samey. But it’s a good samey, and the jangle has been given more warm fuzz this time around. Always great stuff.

Rose City Band – Garden Party. Sun-kissed jams of canyon country/folk from Ripley Johnson (Moon Duo, Shjips). This album is a grandchild of the The Byrds and Grateful Dead, and a first cousin of Beachwood Sparks

Sand Pebbles – The Antagonist. Lightly psyched-out VU-inspired rock.

Shame – Food For Worms. High calibre, angsty post-punk/emo.

Sigur Ros – Atta. Perhaps a step back from their lofty past, but still pretty stuff.

Small Intestines – Hide In Time. Another VU-inspired lo-fi gem.

Special Friend – Wait Until The Flames Come Rushing In. Strongly reminds me of the underground folk of Ida and the collective of artists that birthed Sonora Pine, Retsin, etc. Bands that like to be spare and quietly dark, but also willing to add some noise.

Spires – Woke Up Strange. Indie rock/power pop, and while that’s a generic description, this is a really good listen.

Trillion – So Soon Now. This one was truly flirting with Top list status…lovely fuzzy astral shoegaze. Something about the layered vocals and actively punchy bass makes it a stand out.

Whitney’s Playland – Sunset Sea Breeze. Fuzzy indie pop with a welcome (vinyl only) cover of GBV’s "Motor Away".

Yo La Tengo – This Stupid World. A welcome return to form, circa Electro-Purra.

My Top 20 Songs of 2023

“Solitary Girl” – Jenny O.

“Float In Circles” – Sunnsetter

“Awesiinh (A-Way-See)” – Zoon

“Sixes and Sevens” – Jetstream Pony

“Gold” – Sigur Ros

“Solid Gold” – Red Sleeping Beauty w/ Amelia Fletcher

“Defending Ruins” – Film School

“Everything That Rises” – Sufjan Stevens

“Enemies” – Sumos

“A Seat At The Table” – Big Bliss

Thanks for reading and listening!

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 01:13:00 +0000

My Top 30 Albums of 2022 (and other great recordings)

For a Spotify playlist of all my favourite songs from 2022, click here!

Well, here we are in June and my 2022 year end list is only now appearing. For posterity, and so on. As has become tradition, a quick send off to some people who left us:

RIP 2022

So many musical luminaries left us in 2022: Jet Black (drummer, The Stranglers), Christine McVie (Fleetwood Mac), Bunny and Tabby Diamond of reggae greats The Mighty Diamonds, Andy Fletcher (Depeche Mode), Gord Lewis (Teenage Head), Keith Levene (The Clash/PiL), Gary Brooker (Procol Harum), Alan White (drummer, Yes), and Gary Roberts (guitarist, Boomtown Rats), among others.

I was hit a little harder by the passing of Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees). I read his autobiography, Sing Backwards and Weep, and it is pretty harrowing and a bit of a miracle he was still with us to begin with. Another gut punch was the death of Terry Hall, singer/co-founder of The Specials. He was an incredible man, providing the teenage me with an education in British politics and a bridge from punk to reggae.

Mimi Parker - Low

But most heart wrenching was the premature death of Mimi Parker, one-half the the husband and wife duo Low. I can say with confidence that Mimi was my all-time favourite female vocalist. She was an angel, an incredible songwriter, a sweet person, a strong woman, a devoted mom. What a loss. Her voice and her songs will be an enduring gift to me.

My Top 30 Albums of 2022

Yes, 30 albums, not 25 or 20, as I have done in the past. There were simply too many albums of high quality to eject some while retaining others. In fact, there were many others (which I briefly list later) that could have made the list. The volume of great music continues unabated, as so many small and worthy projects can now make it to our ears with ease through digital channels.

30. No Age – People Helping People

Every single No Age album seems to make my corresponding year end list. Their consistency is only matched by precious few artists who have the same longevity and pace (New Pornographers immediately comes to mind). It’s been some time since the definitive noise-pop moment of 2007’s Weirdo Rippers and its been full steam ahead ever since. People Helping People is yet another tremendous record of indie/punk/noise that never sacrifices melody. Their approach may not gain new fans (and their absence of year end lists is notably sad) but it’s noise-rock solid. Choice track: “Rush To The Pond”.

29. Northern Portrait – The Swiss Army

Northern Portrait is literate and lush indie pop from Copenhagen, taking obvious cues from Belle and Sebastian, Camera Obscura, and the like. The crooniness also calls back to the 80’s indiepop new wave underground of Aztec Camera, Style Council, Go-Betweens, and Lilac Time. This is no naïve bedroom indiepop. The instrumentation is rich and varied, the vocals are pitch perfect, and production is gorgeous and meticulous. If this is your thing, you should also check out similar acts 3 A.M. Again and Love, Burns, also on this list. Choice track: “Business Class Hero”.

28. 3 A.M. Again – Cherry Street

Subjangle, a South African-based DIY label, is the labour of love of Darrin Lee, founder of the Jangle Pop Hub blog. I’ve found the blog indispensable in its consistent reviews and endorsements of mostly under the radar acts. Subjangle takes this passion and breathes life into it, releasing numerous CD EPs and LPs of its most favored acts. Through this little unpretentious label I have discovered so much great music, such as The Photocopies, Cozy Slippers, fine., Umbrella Puzzles, and Radio Field. A particular stand out to me is 3 A.M. Again, the bright guitar pop of Massachusetts-based English teacher, Michael Telles. Sumptuous, spritely strummed acoustic guitar, Beach Boys vocals, and summery melodies give Cherry Street a boundless and welcome energy. Telles also sounds a fair bit like Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear of Animal Collective) and its nice to have that airy sort of voice fronting such strong melodies. The CDs from Subjangle are super limited and I am going to have a rough time collecting them…but I shall, as music as strong as this needs a physical form. The Cherry Street release is actually a quick turnaround 2023 reissue with bonus tracks, many of which are just as strong as the rest of the original 2022 album. Choice track: “What’s Hurting You”.

27. Flasher – Love Is Yours

Flasher keep evolving out of their D.C. punk roots (with members formerly of Priests). 2018’s Constant Image was a favourite of mine, with its taut new-wavey post-punk. Love Is Yours is more open, accessible, and danceable, with similarities to Stereolab, Komeda, Hazel English, and the like. Super cool and well-crafted retro-future dance pop with enough indie rock guitar edge to keep it honest. Choice track: “LittleThings”.

26. OMBIIGIZI – Sewn Back Together

Daniel Monkman (Zoon) and Adam Sturgeon (Status/Non-Status, formerly WHOOP-Szo, see #19) both produce explosive, heady music in their own acts, running the noisy gamut from shoegaze to doom metal. Here they join together to create more meditative and gentler songs, while exploring their Anishnabek identities and experiences. Sewn Back Together is spacious, emotional, and warm (mostly – there’s some harder numbers). You can hear the production influence of Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew and perhaps the influence of fellow Canadian Daniel Lanois. An excellent record. Choice track: “Ogiin”.

25. Panda Riot – Extra Cosmic

Panda Riot fly under an already low radar of shoegaze pop – I rarely see their name among other similar favourites, such as Ringo Deathstarr, Eternal Summers, Winter, and Soft Science. This seems arbitrary, as they have been undeniably consistent in the ability to put out super quality, hyper-catchy tunes, all with that woozy overlay of bending fuzz. And this time around things are a wee bit more straight down an indie rock path, suggesting you may be hearing a new Alvvays or Wolf Alice track (or an older Breeders b-side). Choice track: “1000%”.

24. Beach House – Once Twice Melody

Beach House have bee surprisingly prolific, if only because their catalog is so “samey” – floaty midi synths, drum loops and pixie-dusted vocals. Even though it’s all very good, to the point of becoming emblematic of this certain form of dream pop, I can tire of it, or at least stop paying much attention. They switched things up a wee bit with 2017’s 7, introducing a bit more shoegaze to the mix. Once Twice Melody has the band moving into the slightly dancey territory of M83 and School of Seven Bells, with some well-placed motorik drums, some welcome guitar, and evolving layers of sound. It may be their best album. It suffers from being a little long (a double album with almost all tracks topping 4 minutes) but it rewards when you give it the time it demands. Choice track: “Sunset”.

23. Weird Nightmare – Weird Nightmare

Weird Nightmare serendipitously shuffled onto my headphones based on some Spotify logarithm and I nearly skipped over it, hearing some initial pop punk strains that were rubbing me the wrong way. But the energy, urgency, and overall tightness won me over and I kept listening. It just got better and better from there, followed by a creeping familiarity. After a quick search, I was happily surprised to discover that WN is the new vehicle of Metz’s Alex Edkins. I’m a big fan, with the caveat that I need to be in a specific sort of mood to enjoy their fiery brand of frenetic post hardcore (truly one of the heaviest bands I listen to). Weird Nightmare seems to be an outlet for Edkins to pursue a poppier structure – it’s still heavy and fuzzy and fierce, but it’s just as close to Green Day as it is to The Jesus Lizard. Think Bully (Alicia Bognanno of Bully guests on a track), Sugar/Husker Du, and the early outings of Buffalo Tom and The Lemonheads. Choice track: "Darkroom"

22. Winter – What Kind of Blue Are You?

Winter is Samira Winter, a Brazilian dream popper now residing in L.A. This one took me by surprise. It is a definite bedroom indie feel, similar in sound/ethos to Sasami, Jaysom, or Palehound, but the self-assuredness and intentionality of the production is striking – fuzzy and rough in the right places, mixed perfectly into ringing reverb and funky drum loops, all in service of her confidently pretty vocals. I hear contemporaries Wolf Alice and Hazel English, but also old school Sundays and Cocteau Twins. Can’t wait to hear more. Choice track: “Lose You”.

21. Yves Jarvis – The Zug

Jean Sebastian Audet, aka Yves Jarvis (and formerly Un Blonde) continues to stun me with his challenging fusion of folk, soul, rock, and jazz. Each of his albums has landed on my year-end list since his incredible 2016 LP Good Will Come To You. His approach is kind of inscrutable. He could easily and effortlessly produce mainstream RnB/Soul hits if he was so inclined, but he’s not. Experimentation appears to be a central aim, potentially befuddling the listener with unexpected time/rhythmic changes and quirky vocal runs/refrains/repetitions. The melodies are often oblique and frustrating to access, but these are punctuated by moments of perfect pop that draw you back in. It’s slightly frustrating – the most hooky track (and my favorite, “Prism Through Which I Perceive”) – comes in at one minute, leaving me severely wanting. But deeper listens lead to new discoveries. I’d guess one might call it “progressive folk” but it feels more tangible to describe The Zug as a free associated recording session of Yes, Queen, and Prince. Or, a more obscure reference, a kindred spirit to the freaky folk/soul of Luke Temple (of Here We Goes Magic). Worth emphasizing are Audet’s vocals, which are luminous and impossibly pristine. They are conveyed like an intimate whisper but with perfect clarity. Such a talent. Choice track: “Prism Through Which I Perceive”.

20. Velveteen – Empty Crush

In terms of faithfully mining the foundational sounds of My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive, Velveteen are 100% successful. In fact, I think this is closest cloning of MBV I have heard, and there have been many attempts over the years. This earns Empty Crush the title of my favourite shoegaze album of the year (eclipsing Winter, #20 above). The ingredients: Hazy, woozy, layered “glide guitar” over top gossamer vocals, given form and meaning by exceptional melodies. If you buy one shoegaze record this year, make it this one. But generally, my recommendation is that you buy lots of shoegaze records. Choice track: “If You Could”.

19. Status/Non-Status – Surely Will Travel

In 2021, Guelph, Ontario’s WHOOP-Szo changed their name to Status/Non-Status to draw attention to the legal distinction that impacts the identity politics and experiences of Canada’s Indigenous population. With the new name comes a new sound and approach, moving away from WHOOPS-Szo's psychedelic doom guitars to an eclectic and satisfying indie rock. Lead singer Adam Sturgeon sounds like a comforting mix of Lee Mavers (The La’s), Tim DeLaughter (Polyphonic Spree), and Dave Bidini (Rheostatics). In the music itself, I hear Out of Time/Monster-era R.E.M., Built To Spill, Rheostatics, and occasionally the anguished anthems of Silver Mt. Zion. Quite a year for Sturgeon, who also appears on this list as one-half of Ombiigizi, with Zoon’s Daniel Monkman. This is a great album, top to bottom, and although I miss the intensity of WHOOP-Szo, there is more to dig into here, lyrically and sonically. Choice track: “Mashkiki Sunset”.

18. Love, Burns – It Should Have Been Tomorrow

I’ve always loved the jangle pop genre, but I’ve been way more intentional in my pursuit of that perfect combination of acoustic guitar, cleanly reverbed electric guitar, earnest (sometimes naïve) lyricism, and up-tempo beats. In the last few years, I’ve been smitten with the likes of Ducks Ltd., Massage, Red Pinks and Purples, Chime School, and The Shop Window. Love, Burns (essentially the solo output of Phil Sutton of Pale Lights and Cinema Red and Blue) lands nicely in this group, but with a smidge more soul and instrumentation, suggesting a persistent lineage that harkens back to Lloyd Cole and the Commotions through to Belle and Sebastian and Ladybug Transistor. Sutton has a insistent croon that gives the songs greater weight and soulfulness than you might otherwise find on straight up jangle. It’s a grower and a keeper. Choice track: “Dear Claire”.

17. Alvvays – Blue Rev

Despite a 5 year hiatus, Alvvays have re-entered the indie rock world and immediately returned to their lofty positions on everyone’s year end lists. It’s remarkable and almost arbitrary. Bands like Alvvays are more often likely to ride a rather temporary buzz and fall back down just as rapidly to a more modest fan base. And by “bands like Alvvays”, I mean the peppy indie rock bands that I hold dear to my heart, like Veronica Falls, Dum Dum Girls, Melenas, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Bully, etc. There is some sort of can’t-put-my-finger-on-it quality to Alvvays that might matter, though, like a near-perfection sonic recipe that is part 80’s guitar pop (Go-Go’s, Primitives), part shoegaze/dreampop (Lush), and part fuzzy indie rock (Throwing Muses, Breeders). The production is tremendous, balancing the edge, fuzz, and sheen in equal parts, with Molly Rankin effortlessly punching through it all with her fabulous range. Choice track: “Belinda Says”.

16. Ribbon Stage – Hit With The Most

Take Alvvays, above, strip off a few years of experience and put them in the basement with some basic gear and you have the lo-fi indie/fuzz pop of Ribbon Stage. Bands like this hit me in that melodic DIY sweet spot, like old Primitives, Bangles, Popguns, The Clean, and The Icicles (and newer acts like Aiko El Grupo, Kids on a Crime Spree, EggS, and Petite League). It is basic and scrappy and happy, music for music’s sake, full of noisy spirit. If I heard this in 1985, they’d be a revelatory favorite, that sort of hidden gem that you only find because someone’s cool brother bought an obscure mail order 12 inch. Choice track: “Playing Possum”.

15. Widowspeak – The Jacket

In 2020, I rated Widowspeak’s Plum at #3 on my year end list and suggested it may be better than any record by their primary influence, Mazzy Star. Again, not said lightly, because Mazzy Star is an all-time favorite of mine. 2022’s The Jacket is 100% of the same ilk, and almost of the same calibre. Singer Molly Hamilton exudes that sexy-sad-cool style mastered by Hope Sandoval, while the laid back guitar lines chill the listener into submission. While Mazzy Star suffered from a sort of samey-ness at times, Widowspeak always keep things interesting and varied, albeit within their own folky, softly psychedelic boundaries. Perhaps not as grand as Plum, this one still has lots on offer and warrants repeated listens. Choice track: “While You Wait”.

14. Horsegirl – Versions of Modern Performance

I first heard Horsegirl via their single “Billy”, which immediately evoked Yo La Tengo, Pavement, and Matador records of the 90s. Sounds like a concocted, self-serving story given this young band named dropped both these bands in their pressers and, like clockwork, were signed by Matador for their debut album, Versions of Modern Performance. While I can be smug about naming their influences, they really do channel that 90’s indie rock aesthetic defined by albums like Electro-Purra, Slanted and Enchanted, and a bit of Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville (and Guided By Voices, Sebadoh, Archers of Loaf, Versus, etc.). It is sooooo encouraging to see teenagers/twenty-somethings discovering 90’s alternative and going out forming bands that emulate the sounds. Horsegirl do it so well -- hooky melodies and chord progressions but with that detached, slacker, arty bent that makes it more interesting than straight up pop/punk. Excellent debut. Choice track: “Billy”.

13. Bonny Light Horseman – Rolling Golden Holy

Eric D. Johnson has not only been incredibly prolific in the recent times, he seems to be, after 20 years of Fruit Bats releases, at the very top of his game. 2021’s Pet Parade was my album of the year and will forever remind me of the hazy, lost times of the pandemic. I assume its gotten its share of critical accolades but it remains underappreciated – I’ve exhorted to anyone who will listen that this album would be considered Bob Dylan’s greatest achievement of his career if the old man dropped it instead of Fruit Bats. Johnson also put out a fabulous outtakes double album this year and also had time in 2021 quietly release a brilliant interpretation of Smashing Pumpkin’s Siamese Dream. In addition to all of this, he launched side project, Bonny Light Horseman, with Anais Mitchell and Josh Kaufman in 2020. “Deep in Love”, from their eponymous release, was my song of the year. The band reconvened for Rolling Golden Holy and it is another gorgeous folk rock triumph. Mitchell is a beautiful counterpoint to Johnson’s countrified delivery and one is reminded of Fleetwood Mac, Richard and Linda Thompson, and summery 70’s yacht rock. Consider my heartstrings pulled. Choice track: “California”.

12. Kiwi Jr. – Chopper

Toronto’s Kiwi Jr., with their third album Chopper, appear as the rightful heirs to Halifax’s power pop veterans Sloan. Granted, Sloan had a different trajectory, enjoying a meteoric rise to North American fame with the unexpected hit “Underwhelmed” and the endorsement of then powerhouse label Geffen; whereas Kiwi Jr. is still a modest outfit that does their thing in rather big ocean of indie bands. But the Sloan-like quality is undeniable, with catchy-as-hell guitar pop, creative/sardonic lyrics, and terrific harmonies. They are also heavily influenced by that slackified brand of arty indie rock, like Pavement, Jonathan Richman, and Boyracer – they would pair nicely on tour with Parquet Courts. Their debut, Football Money, was so accomplished, Sub Pop signed them for their follow ups and the critical reception has been fairly gushing. Produced by Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs), Chopper may be their best yet. Give indiepop gem “Clerical Sleep” a listen and tell me your toes didn’t tap.

11. Angel Olsen – Big Time

I’ve long been a fan of Angel Olsen, starting with 2014’s Burn Your Fire For No Witness, and sang her praises back then as channeling the varied sounds of PJ Harvey, Hole, Linda Perhacs, and Mazzy Star. In the interim, all her records have been solid, good-to-great representations of that underdefined genre of indie singer-songwriter. With a few listens of Big Time in my head, I had the pleasure of seeing Olsen on tour with Sharon Van Etten and Julien Baker and realized fairly quickly that she is now something much grander. Now the touchstones are entries in the great Americana songbook, such as Carole King, Dolly Parton, Dusty Springfield, and Patsy Cline. On Big Time, Angel Olsen sings her heart out in such a mature and refined manner (with just enough alt.music feels) that she seems larger than life, like a country music heroine with platinum records and red carpets rolling out with each of her steps. Every song is gorgeous. Choice track: “Go Home”.

10. Cozy Slippers – Cozy Slippers

Cozy Slippers is an indiepop outfit from Seattle that, at first listen, immediately reminded me of the Bangles and other rich guitar pop with female leads, like The Sundays, Go-Go’s, Wild Strawberries, Crash Vegas, and 10,000 Maniacs – there is most definitely a late-80’s/early-90’s feel. The vocals seem to be an equal part mix of Susanna Hoffs and Natalie Merchant which, prima facie, makes Cozy Slippers amazing. The songwriting and production more than back up the quality vocal performances, with jangly guitars, keyboards, and an overall anthemic hookiness pulling you in over the course of its too-short 35 minutes. I wonder if they are fans of Amelia Fletcher’s numerous incarnations (Heavenly, Talulah Gosh, Tender Trap, Catenary Wires) as I hear a lot of her royal indiepop influence here. This is such an assured debut and I can’t wait to hear more. Choice track: “Boat House”.

9. Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up Here

I’ll never comprehend how a 22 year-old, with so precious little time on this earth, can conjure the sort of artistic tour-de-force on display on BCNR’s Ants From Up Here. I am speaking of Isaac Woods (and the rest of the band) who’s intimate and often harrowing lyrical self-flagellation seems way beyond his years, like he’s some reincarnated old soul who in a past life won a Pulitzer prize for poetry. Others might feel the same incredulity of when first hearing The Decemberists, Bright Eyes, Arcade Fire, or Wolf Parade. But Woods seems beyond even these luminaries, joining the ranks of savant geniuses like Jeff Mangum and his fever dream fantasies with Neutral Milk Hotel; or a young Nick Cave or Bob Dylan. There would normally be the risk of experiencing these songs as self-pitying and tiring indulgence but Woods, in his seasoned baritone, seems to capture the darkest feelings of most young people in a way that comes off as universal. It's just that it is a very rare person who possesses the emotional depth, conceit, and tenacity to put those feelings into words and song. Incisive and clever turns of phrase give novel insights into daily microaggressions, self-doubt, fear, loathing and the occasional moment of cautious optimism. What makes the artistic statement of Ants From Up Here so profound is the coupling of Woods lyrics and world-weary voice with the accompanying music. “Post-rock” is the catch-all term that is most often used, but, like Neutral Milk Hotel, it is the pre-rock flavors that surprise – improv jazz, klezmer, showtunes, and classical forms put this album out of time/place so fundamentally that it is hard to grasp the musical objectives at times. This makes things unsettling, tightly wound, and occasionally frustrating to listen to. Which makes the melodic, anthemic, crescendoing moments all the more rewarding and satisfying. This is not a record to throw on piecemeal – it demands an attentive listen, beginning to end, and probably alone. Woods left the band four days before the release of this album. He was unhappy and one might predict that his unhappiness, as contritely described to fans, is probably profound and crippling in actuality. Like an inevitable casualty of genius, like Jeff Mangum disappearing into eastern Europe soon after In The Aeroplane Over The Sea blew up. Choice song: “Concorde”.

8. Petite League – Thrill Seekers

Since the release of No Hitter in 2016, the New York (and baseball) obsessed indie rockers Petite League have lost exactly zero steam, slamming out excellent LPs year after year. To keep the baseball metaphor going, the band has perfected it’s swing and does not seem inclined to change their form. Yes, perhaps they could switch things up in an attempt to go bigger and aim for bleachers, but why mess with such a great hit percentage? They remain consistent in their approach, weaving clever stories about their city and the people in it over top of peppy, fuzzy guitar. The production choice to treat Lorenzo Cook’s vocals so it sounds like he is coming out of handheld transistor radio remains. This is a good thing – along with his nasally/scratchy quasi-punk vocal style, this IS the sound of Petite League and it never gets old to me. Ever since hearing “Hang the Cowboy” (on 2019’s Rattler) I’ve been a fan and bloody impressed that every single song is good to excellent. Fun fact: Lorenzo Cook offered a limited number of Instagram friends to throw him a song that he would cover for a small fee. I gave him my very own “Forest For Trees” (on 2019’s For Fear, under my moniker Green Palm Radiation) and he didn’t disappoint. So amazing to hear it through the Petite League filter. Choice song: “Nite Stairs”.

7. The Loyal Seas – Strange Mornings in the Garden

I completely lost track of post-Belly Tanya Donelly and in the interim she’s apparently gone through some magical musical transformation. The Loyal Seas may be best described as countrified orchestral folk pop and modern comparisons could maybe include Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen (“Early Light” is a good example). But so much more seems to be going on here. This album took me completely by surprise and I struggling with my superlatives. These are gorgeous and sublime ballads buoyed by Abbey Road level production. There is a mature 70’s AOR depth, with Fleetfood Mac feels. I neglect to mention that Loyal Seas is a duo of Donelly and Brian Sullivan (Dylan In The Movies), the latter of whom I know nothing. His dulcet baritone is right in your ear and is maybe even jarring at first. He sounds a little bit like Ken Griffin (Rollerskate Skinny, Favourite Sons) and a lot like whoever sings lead for The Mink Lungs. Donelly, meanwhile, croons and soars with a measured skill that simply wasn’t present in her Belly days. There is rich instrumentation throughout, with piano and strings joining acoustic guitar and jangly electric chords and arpeggios. Sometimes the tempo shifts up to catchy indiepop territory, as with title track (and first single), an amazing highlight that eschews the country for Belle and Sebastian/The Ocean Blue vibes. This record is not on Spotify (good for them!) but I sure hope people find it on Bandcamp. It may be the greatest hidden gem of the year. Choice track: “Strange Mornings In The Garden”.

6. fine. – Love, Death, Dreams, and the Sleep Between

Went back to my initial notes on this: “Wow…what a find! Kind of Quivers, Weepies, great big pop choruses. Every song is great, many are fantastic.” Months later, my first impressions have held firm. Subjangle Records does it again (the THIRD entry into my Top 30 from this modest little label) with England’s fine. (yes, this band's name is unnecessarily lowercased with a period, making them annoying to write about and even more difficult to search online. Herein, they will be more simply called “Fine”). This is rich and upbeat jangle pop, albeit with a more vocals heavy, Phil Spectorish wall of sound production. It opens gently and with a choral arrangement style that invites some sort of specific adjective that does not exist. I was immediately reminded of “Invisible Republic” by Young Galaxy and the all-hands-on-deck vocal approaches of Broken Social Scene, Stars, New Pornographers, Architecture in Helsinki, and Arcade Fire. It’s not that annoying gang vocal approach that has been adopted by many indie bands and car commercials – but nonetheless it is multiple voices belting out melody with close harmony with a combination of fervor and precision. Every song has a catchy verse and chorus, lovely build ups and breakdowns, and usually some irresistible crescendo. Fine may indeed get lost in the overly crowded world of contemporary indie, especially as it's hard to pinpoint who the audience is here. Whoever is still listening to Belle and Sebastian maybe? (I know I still am). I think the band would have been better positioned in 2004 or so to garner a following (a fledgling Pitchfork.com would have drooled over them, and would probably dismiss them today, as their reviews are now often inscrutable and asinine). Also throwing back to the early 2000’s is the number of tracks – we are treated with 19 (!) songs, all strong, as if they have been stockpiling them for this release (another reason CDs are great). I hope they get some press. This is a GREAT record and they deserve some recognition. Choice track: “(Breathe Out) Dreams II”.

5. Papercuts – Past Life Regression

Because of my love for spritely indiepop on the one hand and woozy shoegaze on the other, many of my favorite albums land right in the middle, and are best described as “psychpop”. Bands like Apples in Stereo, The Minders, High Dials, Mantles, Woods, Brian Jonestown Massacre and many, many others come to mind. Papercuts – which is essentially the work of San Francisco’s Jason Quever – have been active for almost 20 years, with the 2004 release of LP Mockingbird. I’ve discovered Papercuts late in the game and only now am I accessing their rich discography. On Past Life Regression, there is a jangly foundation but it is enhanced by a warm psychedelic vibe – some MBV glide guitar, vintage organs treated with tremolo, and airy sounding vocals that sound similar to Anton Newcombe, who himself mines the sounds of British 60’s sounds of the Rolling Stones and Zombies, and others of that era. Sometimes they sound like Luna and share the deep-rooted influences of the Velvet Underground. “I Want My Jacket Back” sounds like a Left Banke song. All the comparisons aside, why this album is so highly rated to me is that every song is engaging and interesting while producing a palpable nostalgia for summers of love. Choice track: “Sinister Smile”

4. Jaguar Sun – All We’ve Ever Known

There is a hard to describe brand of indiepop that that deftly and subtly uses swirling keyboard backdrops, drum loops, and copious reverb to create a chill, breezy, summery sound. See, that sentence does not quite capture it. I’d say “chillwave”, but that invokes bands like Washed Out and Small Black that have roots in electronica and dance. If you instead add a folky foundation – with airy guitars, straight up verse/chorus structures, and attentive singing – you get closer. Examples include Real Estate, Yot Club, Cayucas, Candy Claws, Toledo, Tennis, Day Wave, Wild Nothing, and Amber Arcades. Toronto’s Jaguar Sun have appeared to have created the quintessential album in this hard to pin down subgenre. I’m smitten. If I were to recommend an album in order to sonically describe this particular indiepop formulation, it’s All We’ve Ever Known. Every song captures the essential qualities just described. It’s calming, almost hallucinatory, a true thing of beauty, and perfectly done. I highly recommend everything on this list, but I somehow feel like Jaguar Sun needs the most love. Search it out. Choice track: “Midnight Man”.

3. EggS – A Glitter Year

In their recent history, France’s EggS propagated a mystery, with a scarce online footprint and stories of presumed band members denying their membership, followed by hasty retreats. There are stories of blank dismissals of record labels seeking to represent them, with inscrutable evasions and misdirects. Perhaps this approach was all intentionally concocted to build interest, or perhaps it never happened at all. Whatever the case, I first heard the lead track “Local Hero” on A Glitter Year courtesy of a Youtube clip posted by Sam (aka, the Vinyl Douche) and I was immediately obsessed. I was lucky enough to score a copy of this now hard-to-get LP and it quickly shot up the ranks of my favorite 2022 releases. It is rollicking, revved up indie pop/rock, with rough fuzzy edges, impossibly catchy melodies, and cathartic boy/girl vocals. It’s an uncut diamond in the rough fields of common indie rock, with a sort of proletarianism at work. On every dimension of this well-worn genre, EggS is superior, which sort of blows my mind – how is it possible? There are intangibles here and certainly personal taste (which is pretty much indescribable) plays a huge role. Is it because they put a sax part on almost every song? A big deal for me are the vocals. Charles Daneau’s voice is ragged and unrefined, the sort of high energy, wound up, punk-adjacent style that makes Titus Andronicus or the Thermals so thrilling. But wait, those female vocals? At first listen, the familiarity was flummoxing. Turns out both Margaux Bouchaudon and Camille Fréchou of En Attendant Ana are core members of EggS. En Attendant Ana may be my most favorite newer band (Juillet from 2020 was a revelation) and it’s no wonder I’m so taken by EggS. I want more more more! Choice track: “Local Hero”.

2. Florist – Florist

Florist opens with a rather grating singing saw soundscape that sounds like an old Neutral Milk Hotel outtake. It’s off-putting and an inauspicious opener (one might call it brave, but I just think it’s merely ill-advised). It does, however, introduce the artistic conceit of the album, namely, short and experimental instrumentals alternating with fully formed pretty folk songs and ballads. This works because each conventional song includes in their backdrop a range of oscillating waves, field recordings, and other atmospherics that are on full display in the brief instrumental pieces. And I love it. This track ordering breaks up the soft folk pieces, which may otherwise wear thin back-to-back-to-back, while giving them a unifying ambience and thematic feel. The conventional songs themselves are gorgeous and creative, with measured finger-picked guitar, sweet understated vocals, and occasional horns and woodwinds. The experimental sounds therein do not make this a “folktronica” record – there are merely interesting accoutrements that enhance the experience and tell you that Florist is not your basic folk act. You will hear tape hiss and bird songs, with the group recording most of the tracks on a screened in front porch. You can almost hear the bucolic surroundings. The songs are sad, lonely, regretful, and pregnant with emotion – it’s one of those few records in which I orient immediately to the lyrics. I think I heard all the words the very first time I heard “Red Bird, Part 2 (Morning)” and got goosebumps. In hearing Florist, the first comparison that came to mind was Mutual Benefit, a criminally underrated orchestral folk group that has put out some of my most favorite albums over the past three years. The Weepies and Adrianne Lenker (Big Thief) are also in the same category of beautifully sung, plaintive folk. Florist took me completely by surprise. I hadn’t known them even though they have been going since 2013 under the leadership of Emily Sprague. Now, after happening upon them due to an intriguingly high Metacritic score, and I will certainly be exploring their back catalog. Choice track: “Red Bird, Part 2 (Morning)”.

1. Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

Adrianne Lenker and Big Thief continue their run of exemplary and eclectic albums with the oddly named Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You (shouldn’t there at least be a comma in there?). Largely gone is this overdriven indie rock sounds of their early work; but neither do they revert to the soft and plaintive approach present in Lenker’s solo acoustic work (and much of 2019’s UFO-F). And it is a gigantic double LP, coming in at 80 minutes. Lenker’s voice naturally cries out for countrification and the band gives it their all on a bunch of old-timey tunes. “Red Moon” is such a delightful romping hoedown that makes me want to spin in circles. There is some pretty and spare folk throughout but also lots of interesting creative indie rock. “Time Escaping” with its found sound drum patterns and electo-pulses sounds like a Juana Molina track. “Little Thing”, with its flanged/tremoloed guitars and circular chord progression is like a brilliantly hypnotizing Here We Go Magic track. “No Reason” is a plea for collectivism and, with a children’s chorus, sounds like it could have been on the Free To Be You and Me soundtrack of the early 70's (I say this with reverence, I can’t believe how perfectly this is done). There is so much to enjoy here, but if I were to say there was singular influence, I would say The Band. It’s a heady mix of Americana storytelling that is expertly played and sung. There are many incredible albums on this list, but Dragon is ahead of all the curves and easily the best Big Thief album to date, asserting them as one of the most important contemporary American bands producing music today. Choice track: “Red Moon”.

Other Amazing Albums and Releases from 2022

Although pushed off my list by small degrees, below are a pile of albums that I deem to be in the “A” range (at least 8/10 on my personal rating scale) and are all definitely worth checking out. It’s an exercise in splitting hairs to put some of these below rather than on the main list.

Air Waves - The Dance

Air Waves – The Dance. Nicole Schneit’s unassuming indiepop returns with its characteristic charm and naiveté. Slightly more sheen this time, but it’s this bedroom sound that makes it so attractive, like Lomelda and Hand Habits.

Beth Orton – Weather Alive. Orton’s vocals have become a little strained and gnarly, but there are gorgeous moments that remind me of Daniel Lanois’ early records. Overall, a solid album.

The Beths – Experts in a Dying Field. Catchy, high-energy and pop/punk comparable to Bully, Veronica Falls, and The Muffs.

Bill Callahan – Reality. Somewhat inconsistent in keeping my attention, but enough stellar tracks on here to make this yet another worthy addition to Callahan’s impressive discography.

Built To Spill – When The Wind Forgets Your Name. Welcome back Doug Martsch and company! The veterans of 90’s indie rock show that they are still masters of their era.

Frankie Cosmos - Inner World Peace

Ex-Void – Bigger Than Before. Often furious, scuzzy indie rock/punk in the same ballpark as early The Men and Cloud Nothings.

Frankie Cosmos – Inner World Peace. Lovely, interesting, and effortless folk/indiepop.

Gold Dust – The Late Great Gold Dust. Kindling’s Stephen Pierce continues to explore his own personal psychedelic folk rabbit hole.

High Water Marks – Proclaimer of Things. Norweigan fuzz pop band (along with American Hilarie Sidney, formerly of Apples in Stereo) gives another toe-tapping record worthy of the Elephant 6 legacy (i.e., compares favorably to the best Minders, Elf Power, and Beulah records, and of course Apples in Stereo).

Jim Nothing - In the Marigolds

Jim Nothing – In The Marigolds. Velvet Undergroud-inspired indie rock from Christchurch NZ in the manner of Twerps, Sonny and the Sunsets, Butterglory, and all things David Kilgour-related. This one pushes the main list.

Kids On A Crime Spree – Fall In Love Not In Line. Basic fuzzy indiepop and more quality fare from Slumberland records.

Lavender Blush – You Are My Moonlight. Excellent indie rock through a shoegaze prism, similar to Whimsical and Panda Riot.

Lightning In A Twilight Hour – Overwintering. Bobby Wratten’s (Field Mice/Trembling Blue Stars) new project focused on slowed down, forlorn indiepop.

Model Shop – Love Interest. Bouncy jangle pop forming out of indiepoppers Math and Physics Club.

Nurse and Soldier - Let's Spend the Day Together

Modern Nature – Island of Noise. Moody and spare emo-jazz dirges and hushed tales revolving around the saxophone. Not my favorite instrument, but it works here. Cousins to American Analog Set, Morphine, and Arab Strap.

Nurse and Solider – Let’s Spend the Day Together. Bobby Matador (Oneida) and partner Erica Fletcher continue to make understated, minimalist pop tunes with synths, fuzz, and love.

The Orielles – Tableau. Contemporary indie/art/goth fusion, The Orielles are at times difficult but cinematic and always interesting.

Peel Dream Magazine – Pad. Loungey, spacey pop that takes their cues very directly from Stereolab and High Llamas.

Pink Mountaintops – Peacock Pools. Stephen McBean (Black Mountain) returns with his other psychedelic rock outfit. Another fiery salvo of rawk, this time with some gothy/post-punk elements.

Smut - How The Light Felt

Smut – How The Light Felt. I’m not sure what “smut” sounds like, but it’s not this. This is instead pretty indie folk / dream pop that recalls The Sundays, Wolf Alice, and Mae Moore.

The Stargazer Lilies – Cosmic Tidal Wave. A pretty apropos title, as one is likely to be overwhelmed by the waves of psychedelic noise (and they actually have chilled out a bit!). But if you like this kind of drowning, do jump in.

The Stroppies – Levity. Catchy indie-rock with some post-punk signposts (think Wire or Pylon) and great melodies/harmonies.

Sunnsetter – All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace. Beautiful, ambient meditations similar to Jónsi & Alex (or Sigur Ros) and Eluvium. My favorite ambient album of the year.

The Shop Window – A 4 Letter Word. Reverb heavy, 80’s informed jangle pop that has its origins in British bands like Housemartins, Lloyd Cole, The Go-Betweens, and Crowded House.

Tess Parks – And Those Who Were Seen Dancing. Parks’ tobacco and whiskey soaked vocals weave together a series minimalist psychedelic jams reminiscent of Spaceman 3, Mazzy Star, Lightning Dust, and Opal.

Toledo - How It Ends

Toledo – How It Ends. Was waiting patiently for the full-length follow up to their EP Jockeys of Love. More summery, pristine indiepop that somehow references every decade of music. And it’s smooooooooth.

Trademark Issues – Eight. Power pop, a bit of 90’s indie rock, a bit of other things; a different times I hear old Dandy Warhols, Fountains of Wayne, They Might Be Giants, and Beat Happening (and all done in a bedroom).

Weyes Blood – And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow. Natalie Mering follows up my #2 album of 2019 (the sublime Titanic Rising) with another great record. Not the same heights, but still an excellent revival of Karen Carpenter and 70’s AM radio gold.

Whimsical – Melt. Impossibly pristine and pretty vocals front an overdriven, reverb-heavy shoegaze.

Yot Club – Off The Grid. At first listen, this sounds like you’re in for some keyboardist new wave pop but, while the MIDI-loops are there, this is all riding on incredibly tight guitar performances that sound pre-programmed. Also, great vocals - reminds me Andy McCluskey of OMD. Catchy as shit.

Young Prisms - Drifter

Young Prisms – Drifter. Underheard shoegaze act returns with another stellar record that bows at the altars of Slowdive, Curve, and My Bloody Valentine. I think they also must listen to Lovesliescrushing. I keep returning to this and feel like this should have maybe made the main list.

I can also confidently recommend the 2022 releases of Submotile, The Photocopies, Say Sue Me, Wild Pink, Resplandor, Hurry Up, Reds Pinks & Purples, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, and Sharon Van Etten.

Other 2022 Releases of Note

We were treated with comprehensive b-sides/outtakes/retrospectives from Joe Strummer, PJ Harvey, and Fruit Bats, all treasure troves. Dummy reissued their first two EPs on vinyl, which was great to acquire. Also have to call out a compilation put out by The Photocopies, which pulls together all their recent digital singles and eps onto a limited CD – an amazing number of great fuzzy, janglepop songs.


Besnard Lakes - Are The Prayers For The Death of Fame

It is really hard to keep up with single releases on digital platforms, as they arrive at an untenable pace. I check things out as much as possible, but try to stick to physical releases if available or take note and wait (some bands only release digitally, but are so good and force my hand). Numerous singles and EPs got my attention this year. Some EPs I recommend are Besnard Lakes (Are the Prayers for the Death of Fame), Stephen’s Shore (Green), Aluminum (Windowpane), Umbrella Puzzles (On the Meadow), Persian Leaps (Machines for Living), Mo Dotti (Guided Imagery), The Radio Field (Simple), and a split EP of Buddhist Bubblegum and Wiggly (Dreaming of the Desert).

I was also so happy to get some new music from Light-Heat (i.e., Quentin Stoltzfus, formerly under the name Mazarin) – an EP and two singles digitally via Bandcamp (and not Spotify). I love his stuff so much. A couple singles worth nothing: Nation of Language (two 7 inch singles, Androgynous and From the Hill) and Seablite (Breadcrumbs).

And that is that. I’m writing this well into 2023 and there is much to be excited about musically: New En Attendant Ana, Yo La Tengo, Zoon, Fruit Bats, Jess Williamson, Bully, Angelo De Augustine, Mutual Benefit, Soft Science, and Jenny O. to name a few!

Be well all.

Jay

My Top 25 Albums of 2021 (and other best music of the year)

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Tue, 24 May 2022 02:44:00 +0000

[As always, here is a link to a Spotify playlist of all my favorite 2021 tracks]

Last year, I was fully appalled by the year that was 2020, a scorched earth year of illness and political shit-storms. We all had high hopes for 2021, didn’t we? It was really no better, and arguably worse. And is currently – as I write this well into 2022 there continues to be public health meltdowns and the threat of world war. The constant salve (aside from my sweet little family) was of course music. I say this every year: the creativity, innovation, and quality of new music never fails to floor me, and it’s getting bit silly as a refrain, like being surprised by snow every winter. I should just accept and agree that we cannot see the bottom of the well of potential music and should have no expectations of it drying up.

RIP 2021

Charlie Watts

This year we parted ways with Mary Wilson (The Supremes), Graeme Edge (drummer, Moody Blues), Michael Nesmith of The Monkees fame, BJ Thomas (who is immortalized in my childhood brain by the timeless classic “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head”), and Sylvain Sylvain (guitarist of proto-glam punkers The New York Dolls.

We also lost a Rolling Stone, with drummer great grandaddy Charlie Watts passing on this year. I’m not a drummer guy, but Charlie Watts seemed so utterly consistent to me, an unwavering metronome of a man who you got the sense would rather be playing jazz instead of hitting the snare for possibly the most renowned rock band in history.

Lee "Scratch" Perry

Most upsetting to me were the passings of two absolutely legendary
reggae greats: Bunny Wailer and Lee “Scratch” Perry. Bunny Wailer co-founded the Wailers with Marley and Tosh. With both Marley and Tosh dying long ago, Bunny kept on moving, with numerous recordings and his own label Solomonic. His solo debut, 1976’s Blackheart Man, is a classic. Lee Perry was a larger than life personality, with his mania only being outmatched by his unbelievable productivity. He was arguably the greatest and most influential producer in reggae history.

My Top 20 Songs of 2020

In a massive field of competitors, narrowing a top song list is pretty much folly. But for posterity and so on, here is what I came up with:

1. The Pet Parade – Fruit Bats

2. New Revolution – The Besnard Lakes

3. Face on the Rail Line – The Catenary Wires

4. Invisible Lines – Tape Waves

5. Tala Tannam – Mdou Moctar

6. The Right Thing Is Hard To Do – Lightning Bug

7. Under the Rolling Moon – Ducks Ltd.

8. Viewmaster – Echodrone

9. Paprika – Japanese Breakfast

10. Stars –White Flowers

My Top 25 Albums of 2021

25. Bnny – Everything

Bnny is the nom de plume of Jessica Viscius and band (originally it was just her as Bnny). I discovered this record late (I think in 2022 before getting around to writing this) and it was a great find. I hear Mazzy Star, Garbage, La Luz, and Widowspeak – that kind of smokey noir cool folk sound, a little bedroomy, VU-influenced, and nailing that difficult combination of mournful/catchy. This is beautifully done and I look forward to more. Choice song: “Time Walk”.

24. Gold Dust – s/t

Gold Dust is the solo outfit of Stephen Pierce, who helps lead delectable noise-poppers Kindling. Somewhere along the way, it seems, Pierce fell in love with the gentler pastures of psychedelic folk, citing the typical influences (The Byrds, The Grateful Dead, Richard & Linda Thompson) but also more obscure acts like Gary Higgins (his 1973 album Red Hash was unearthed and roundly celebrated in 2005) and Japan’s Happy End. His detour into this world is so deep, he is apparently cataloging international psych and folk rock of the 60’s and 70’s for a future book. On this very limited self-released debut (currently, /200) he carries the torch admirably. This is dreamy and soaring psych folk worthy of his influences, tapping into that same earthy chemistry of the sixties that has inspired bands like Ladybug Transistor, The Hanging Stars, Fleet Foxes, and Real Estate. Choice track: “Run Into Clouds”.

23. Blankenberge – Everything

I can’t say I have a good sample size, but Russian shoegaze really tends to take it up a notch. I count myself a fan of Pinkshinyultrablast (#18 of 2016: “…assault the ears with supercharged, wall-of-sound shoegaze”) and Gnoomes (top 30 of 2019, best described as “experimental mad-gaze”), two bands that turn all pedal and amp dials to 11. Blankenberge follows suit with Everything, a brain-frying brigade of fuzzed out noise that sounds like the band is sandblasting a Kalashnikov AK-47. If that sounds distasteful, the foundation of noise has a dreamy counterpoint in Yana Guselnikova’s angelic vocals paired with upper register keyboards parts that recall early M83. The fullness that is created is enveloping, demonstrating once again how shoegaze is a genre that often tightropes the mystical line between beauty and barbarism. Choice track: “Different”.

22. Crystal Canyon – Yours With Affection and Sorrow

Here is another shoegaze triumph, this time from Crystal Canyon. Yours With Affection and Sorrow is their sophomore effort and immediately grabbed my attention after only a few moments of fuzzy reverb. There are copious nods to Cocteau Twins and Lush, but the guitar squalls bring them closer to Soft Science, Westkust, and genre grandparents My Bloody Valentine. There are now enough shoegaze oriented bands that it is sometimes a slog to find the gems that really shine – there’s a lot of noise amidst the noise! Crystal Canyon (and Blankenberge) stand out somehow as skilled purveyors of the scene that can’t die. Choice track: “Turn Blue”.

21. Ovlov – Buds

Ovlov got my attention with 2018’s Tru, an extremely solid indie rock album indebted to 90’s era bands like Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr., Chavez, and Superchunk. This sound continues with Bud, and the 90’s throwback sonics are somehow even more welcome this time around – maybe I’m simply most wistful for that era nowadays, what with the world imploding so spectacularly. There is a bit more restraint here (at times), recalling bands like Seam and His Name Is Alive, with stronger songwriting overall. If you were kicking around the 90’s indie rock world, you’d think this was next great thing to come out of Matador records. Choice track: “Strokes”.

20. Mint Julep – In A Deep & Dreamless Sleep

A deep and dreamless sleep – I could use me some of that. Mint Julep attempts to take us there with this (nonetheless) dreamy and ambient chillwave outing. I assumed this was a new band, but a cursory look shows they are the married duo of Keith and Hollie Kenniff, active since 2007 and both with a number of solo releases. In fact, I have Keith Kenniff’s beautiful 2012 ambient album Branches (think Philip Glass) and only now am I making the connection. Mint Julep has a dancey motif and close comparisons can be made to Washed Out, Delorean, Tycho, and the like. Hollie Kenniff’s vocals also recall Memoryhouse, Still Corners, and Beach House. If you feel like chillin’ out to some mid-tempo beats overlaid with a polished shimmer, this is your summer drink. Choice track: “Mirage”.

19. White Flowers – Day By Day

Among my favorite songs of each year there is usually one that evokes long ago memories, as if the song had always existed. There is usually some stylistic attachment to the 80's, when my musical taste was being imprinted. “Graveyard Girl” by M83 was a 2008 song that was seemingly scored for a John Hughes movie; “Ascension” from I Break Horses (2014), a synthy goth-pop masterpiece, sounds like it was first broadcast on Toronto’s City Limits in 1985; “Hang The Cowboy” by Petite League (2020) is a lo-fi indie-rock single that should have been in the underground bins of Toronto’s Vinyl Museum, and then lovingly added to me record collection next to Hüsker Dü and Camper Van Beethoven. Such is the case in 2021 in regards to “Stars”, a gorgeous new wave goth masterpiece that pulls on the same nostalgic heartstrings. This is what sublime means to me – the ability to create a new song that feels 40 years old for immediate absorption into my autobiography. Needless to say, the whole album is wonderful. Choice track: “Stars”.

18. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – G_od’s Pee AT STATES END!

Now the elderly (anti)statesmen of Canadian post-rock and avant neo-classical, GY!BE continue to impress with another though-provoking (or mind-bending) album of experimental art. It begins as their things typically do, with a unsettling collage of radio frequencies, hidden voices, and found sounds, slowly morphing into a post-apocalyptic anthem. And as per usual, there are the long soundtrack passages that build, build, build, finding some sort of relief by resolving all the collected/conflicted parts into a juggernauting wholeness. Soft and thoughtful moments are also peppered into the movements to provide some respite from the war. GY!BE remains exclusively instrumental and I have a difficult time naming another outfit that so effortlessly translates political thought into sound. Sure, any given listener will make their own abstract associations, but it is unlikely that those associations are of a sunny beach or a walk in the forest (but could be, I suppose) – it is more likely, across listeners, to evoke images of burning capitol buildings and the razing of marble colonnades. Another remarkable firestorm. Choice track: “Cliffs Gaze / cliffs’ gaze at empty waters’ rise / ASHES TO SEA or NEARER TO THEE”

17. Cool Ghouls – At George’s Zoo

Another band it took me awhile to check out because the silly name. I really must ignore these semantic biases. I suppose jokey bands rub me the wrong way. I first heard Cool Ghouls via the 2016 album Animal Races and I was suitably impressed by the delectable mix of garage rock, space cowboy, jangle, and retro psych. I immediately grabbed 2021’s At George’s Zoo and it was happily consistent. I love garage rock throwbacks (Crystal Stilts, Woods, Moon Duo, BRCM, Triptides, etc.) and the Ghouls are tops in this category. The vocal harmonies and electric guitar foundationally capture that 60’s psych rock so well that you can imagine their teak furnished living room and shag carpet covered in old vinyl from CSNY, The Association, The Left Banke, and The Zombies. Choice track: “To You I’m Bound”.

16. Silver Synthetic – Silver Synthetic

Like Cool Ghouls above, Silver Synthetic mine sounds from the past, but in this case the touchstones are 70’s power pop, country, and British pub rock. Big Star is the obvious ground-zero, but I also hear Nick Lowe, Shoes, Gram Parsons, Cheap Trick, and The Velvet Underground. What more is there to say about this? I suppose just that emulating old 70’s rock tropes run the risk of turning out rather boring. You have to do it right to move out of the garage. Your rhythm section needs to be in the pocket. The guitars need to sparkle with a balance of clarity and edge, finding that comfortable place that winks at the blues but doesn’t pander to them. The vocals need to be up front, effortless, and well harmonized. This is a pretty good definition of what Big Star gave us, and Silver Synthetic does this more than capably. This is a GREAT rock album. Choice track: “Out Of The Darkness”.

15. Pardoner – Came Down Different

This is another random web find and I am fully on board. The tongue-in-cheek hype sticker of Pardoner’s Came Down Different provides some review snippets, such as:

“Guitar” – Pitchfork

“Punk” – NPR

“Chaotic and Strange” – Bandcamp

In a way, this is a pretty good sum up. It opens with a mess of feedback followed by a daunting metal riff but this is a ruse, as it jumps right into a slackified indie-punk worthy of Parquet Courts, Pavement, and Archers of Loaf. It’s intentionally lo-fi and dirty and wonderful. Pardoner are pure 90’s indie rock, with a jagged line leading back to the Velvet Underground (check out “Lucky Day”, for example), via the Amercian punk of the Circle Jerks and Squirrel Bait. Choice track: “I Wanna Get High To The Music”.

14. Massage – Still Life

Massage was formed by Alex Naidus, formerly of Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Turning down the distortion and slinging on a Rickenbacker, Naidus has moved from the fuzzpop of Pains to classic janglepop that would have headlined a Flying Nun records showcase. Lots of call outs to The Bats, The Clean, The Feelies, as well as the 60’s folkpop of The Byrds and The Turtles. There are lot of contemporaries doing the same thing (e.g., Ducks Ltd., Chime School, Reds Pinks and Purples) and Massage’s Still Life sits among the best. Choice track: “I’m A Crusader”.

13. Smoke Bellow – Open For Business

Two thirds of Smoke Bellow hail from Australia but have set up shop in Baltimore – I don’t know why this is an unexpected genealogy, but it is somehow, especially when one hears the music. This is a strange pastiche of Stereolab, Gastr Del Sol, Deerhoof, and High Llamas. There is a lot of minimalist synthy krautrock lines rotating around in odd time signatures, centred with disaffected art-school vocals. This description sounds dystopian and off-putting and, were it not for my firsthand listenings, I’d typically dismiss such as thing. But it is WONDERFUL. On paper, it sounds cold, but it is warm and engaging, due in no small part to the lovely African jazz influences, recalling The Very Best, Fool’s Gold, and classic 60’s-70’s artists like African Jazz Pioneers and Bokani Dyer (I had to look these names up on my highly recommended compilation The Rough Guide to South African Jazz). So…if you’re looking for Stereolabish post-punk flirting with kwela jazz rhythms, these Australian transplants out of Baltimore will fix you up (there’s a musical description I’d be hard pressed to predict writing). Choice track: “Furry Computer 2”.

12. Flyying Colours – Fantasy Country

Is is just me or is Australia exhibiting some sort indie-rock/-psych renaissance over the past decade? I can show evidence for this based on my postage fees alone – a proportionately larger number of records have been traveling to me across the Pacific from down under (and from Japan). Among the amazing crop of contemporary bands (e.g., Courtney Barnett, Tame Impala, Redspencer, Rolling Blackout Coastal Fever, Jade Imagine, The Goon Sax, Twerps, Terrible Signal, Quivers, Amyl and the Sniffers, Chook Race etc., etc., etc.) Melbourne’s Flyying Colours fly particularly high. On Fantasy Country, the formula is a motorik psyched-out shoegaze that is equal parts Lilys, American Analog Set, and Slowdive. A huge, propulsive space jam from a band that sits among the top of the Aussie indie ranks. Choice track: “White Knuckles”.

11. Catenary Wires – Birling Gap

Big shout out to the indefatigable Vinyl Douche who has consistently delivered me absolute gems of musical delight via his YouTube channel during this thing we call the pandemic. His tastes match mine almost exactly (minus the jazz), but he routinely shows LPs by bands that are under my radar. In this case, he’s given me Catenary Wires, one of the many, many outlets of indiepop royalty Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey, who I was unwittingly familiar with through Heavenly, Talulah Gosh, Marine Research, and Tender Trap. This outfit, however, is far more polished and professional, sounding much more like The Mamas and Papas, Camera Obscura, Belle & Sebastian, and Ladybug Transistor. This is an incredibly pretty record that is almost alarming in its wistfulness. If you put this on your ears, don’t be surprised if you find yourself alone and meandering along a seaside boardwalk in some obscure British hamlet. Choice track: “Face On The Rail Line”.

10. Echodrone – Resurgence

I am a fan of Echodrone’s 2018 LP Past, Preset, and Future, which I thought was a great shoegaze album, but was interested to see if/how they evolved. I’m glad I kept tabs on them because Resurgence is a tremendous record with lots of novel twists and turns. This time around these young San Franciscans move into the territory of School of Seven Bells and M83. And every time I hear the first notes of “View Master”, I instinctively feel like I am hearing a brand new Swervedriver track (if you know me, there is really no higher complement). The production is maybe a bit too compressed and the left-field cover of Billy Joel’s “My Life” remains a head scratcher – but this should illustrate how strong this album is, as it still ranks among the best of the year for me. Go Echodrone! Choice track: “View Master”.

9. Tape Waves – Bright

Outside of the Sam (a.k.a., The Vinyl Douche), I have no heard no one speak of Tape Waves, the husband and wife dream pop duo of Kim and Jarod Weldin. This is straight forward guitar-based dream pop, the sort of ethereal loveliness we enjoy from bands like Cocteau Twins, Mazzy Star, High Violets, and Pains of Being Pure at Heart. This sort of fare can come off featureless at times, but when you get that optimal mix of fuzz/jangle/delay/reverb with gossamer female vocals, you’ve hit the sweet spot that melts me into my chair. Bright, to me, is a quintessential dream pop album and, along with Lightning Bug (see #4), demonstrates how the genre can still captivate and calm. Choice track: “Invisible Lines”.

8. Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime

Mahamadou Souleymane, AKA Mdou Moctar, is Nigerien artist that has been making world-wide waves with his brand of explosive jazz rock that is steeped in the musical heritage of the Magreb and west African highlife and funk. Arabic rhythms and scales are fused with rock to produce a truly powerful and celebratory sound. Souleymane is one of those special electric guitarists, extremely talented and innovative, sounding like Hendrix and Page mixed with jazz and African guitar (I am a dilettante in this area, but Moctar plays in the takamba and assouf styles, the latter also known as “desert blues. I highly suggest checking out some video of the band setting up, unannounced, in dusty courtyards and plazas in their home city of Agadez, Niger). I’m not positive how I came across this record but I was surprised to learn he had signed with big indie rock label Matador records, after some American patronage brought him some global attention – including write ups in Rolling Stone and The Guardian. And touring with Parquet Courts, for example, which feels bizarro somehow. It was only later that heard that they played my wee home town in Guelph, Ontario, as part of a festival – I missed this completely and I’m still gutted by it. This is some of the most powerful fusion psych rock I have heard. Choice track: “Tala Tannam”, a mellow and meditative track, but for the incendiary rock check out “Chismiten”.

7. Amyl and The Sniffers – Comfort To Me

I love me some old-school punk but barely pay attention to new bands that try to emulate the golden age of 1977-1982. While I prefer much of my new music loud and raucous, the original first-wave punk formula is somehow hard to pull off. These days, I really do need some post in my punk, to the point that I specifically ignored Amyl and the Sniffers. I guess I expected some overdone, refurbished, and inferior version of, say, D.O.A.. But then I finally put on Comfort To Me and, ka-blam, I must beg forgiveness. Amyl and the Sniffers (from Australia) absolutely nail that late 70’s London sound, filth, and fury. They have reignited my love of old punk and I’ve found myself reaching regularly for classic early records by The Damned, Still Little Fingers, The Vibrators, and The Adverts. Choice track: “Security”.

6. TUNS – Duly Noted

TUNS is the perfect power-poppy union of Sloan, Inbreds, and The Super Friendz and I am plenty happy their 2016 self-titled debut was not a one-off supergroup release. It took some years, but they have reassembled to give us Duly Noted, another top to bottom hookfest that sounds like Shoes in 1970’s Suburbia. It’s inescapable that these Haligonian colleagues Chris Murphy, Mike O’Neill, Matt Murphy (no relation to Chris) are a vocal/songwriting match made in heaven and clearly should have always been playing together in some form. They probably always were in each others basements and studios and on shared tours. It’s good to see it formalized into another exceptional released. Choice track: “In The Middle of The Way Home”.

5. Ducks Ltd. – Modern Fiction

Perhaps it is the YouTubers I’ve been hanging with, but there seems to me a preponderance of excellent jangly indiepop recently, following in the footsteps of those underground, DIY genre-defining outfits of the 80’s (a decade I’ve reappraised as amazing in recent years) – bands like Massage, Red Pinks and Purples, Wild Honey, and Pale Lights have been mining the sounds of Trashcan Sinatras, The Ocean Blue, Wedding Present, Close Lobsters, etc. I can picture the members of Ducks Ltd, from Toronto, playing their collections of rare singles from Slumberland and Sarah Records on an 80’s suitcase stereo, all nerdy, cool, and sweet. This is the best jangle pop record of the year and the field is a competitive one. Choice track: “Under the Rolling Moon”.

4. Lightning Bug – A Color of The Sky

There are so many obscure bands toiling away out there, it’s so easy for worthy releases to get lost in the playlist shuffle. Lightning Bug is one of those band who has me wringing my hands with the question as to how much incredible music I might be missing due to happenstance. I found A Color of the Sky through complete serendipity (and currently have no memory of the circumstances). All I know is that it shot to the top of the honor pile immediately and yet I don’t think I saw it appear on any year end lists. Band lead Audrey Kang spins magical, mellow, ethereal yarns with one foot in gentle folk and the other in spacious dream pop – equal parts Mazzy Star, Jess Williamson, and Weyes Blood. And Karen Carpenter, maybe? It is a gorgeous floaty journey and deserves way more attention than it has received. Choice track: “The Right Thing Is Hard To Do”.

3. The Besnard Lakes -- Are The Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings

I count Besnard Lakes among one of my most favorite bands in the past 20 years and among my Top 10 Canadian acts of all time (and that’s some real good company). Every release is momentous shoegaze bombshell and always lands in the upper reaches for my year end lists. Great Thunderstorm Warnings may be their best yet, just as soaring and powerful as 2016’s A Coliseum Complex Museum. It’s more of the same in the best ways possible, and the words “grandiose” and “transcendent” are seemingly unavoidable. It is hard to articulate the differences between space rock and shoegaze, except that the former seems attached to 70’s psychedelia and Hawkwind – but both apply here. At times, the Lakes enter the prog rock realm of Steven Wilson and Pink Floyd. As always, the harmonizing vocals of Jace and Olga are exquisite. Slap on a pair of headphones, turn down the lights, and immerse yourself in this symphonic gem. (A caution: I bought the vinyl and it sounded awful – a poor pressing with unacceptable hiss. The CD, of course, was wonderful. No such thing as a bad CD “press” and digital mastering these days is so advanced. CDs rule). Choice track: “Our Heads, Our Hearts On Fire Again”.

2. Nation of Language – A Way Forward

I briefly sampled Nation of Language late in 2021 and their synth pop did not grab me for some reason. I kept seeing them show up an all sorts of feeds I follow and trust so I gave A Way Forward another go. Then it hit and hit me hard. There are lots of synthpop subgenres and approaches, many of which I like – the chillwave of Washed Out and Alpine Stars, the dream pop of Beach House and I Break Horses, and the dance grooves of Holy Fuck and Caribou. There are fewer bands that successfully reference old new wave/synthpop (favorites include Burning Hearts and M83). Nation of Language, however, feel like they have been beamed directly from the 1980’s, something I would see on City Limits late on a Friday night. They are direct descendants of early OMD and Depeche Mode (and The Assembly, The Spoons, China Crisis, Fiction Factory, and Talk Talk). In all seriousness A Way Forward is a better album than any of the LPs put out by these bands. It has all the trappings: old school synth patches, bouncing arpeggios, and that signature new wave vocal crooning, at once vulnerable, semi-precious, and cold/cool. I’ve listened to it over and over, suspicious of the dreaded recency effect. I’ve put on Speak and Spell, It’s My Life, and Dazzle Ships to compare. Nation of Language is the clear winner. This is extraordinary! Could it be that A Way Forward is…the best new wave/synth pop album of all time? I say yes. Choice track: “This Fractured Mind”

1. Fruit Bats – The Pet Parade

Somewhere along the way, Eric D. Johnson’s Fruit Bats have transformed from “good/great” to “mind-boggling excellent”. This is quite an accomplishment when entering the 20^th anniversary of releasing music. I can think of a few artists who rekindled flagging careers after decades of work, but this steady state of quality releases being capped with such an incredible album like this seems unusual. My love of the Fruit Bats began with their 2003 album Mouthfuls (and notably the songs “Rainbow Sign” and “Slipping Through The Sensors”) which squared nicely with my new found love of twangy alt-country/folk records by Wilco, Royal City, Great Lake Swimmers, Sufjan Stevens, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, and the like. Over time, Fruit Bats introduced more complex arrangements and upped the production value and, entering into the 2010’s, pursued that sort of 70’s A.M. Gold sound that was being revived by bands like The War On Drugs, Phospherescent, and later Iron & Wine albums. By the release of 2018’s Gold Past Life, Fruit Bats were creating fully formed yacht rock and I was starting to tune out a little. But some sort of turning point seemed to happen when Johnson joined forces with Anaïs Mitchell and Josh Kaufman to form Bonny Light Horseman. Their sole album to date (self-titled in 2020) was a gorgeous alt-country/folk piece, excellent top to bottom and also yielding my song of the year “Deep In Love”. This set the stage for The Pet Parade. I’m sort of out of superlatives for this one. While the song structures can be reduced down to pretty simple three chord folk, Johnson manages to elevate the craft to soulful folk perfection. The production is an expansive, wide open field and the melodies/harmonies are instantly memorable. Fruit Bats, a Chicago-based band, sound like Laurel Canyon royalty effortlessly playing classic Americana rock/pop in late-70’s Californa. Choice track (and my personal theme song to pandemic emotional coping): “The Pet Parade”.

Other Amazing Albums and Releases from 2021

Another Heaven – III – The Sorrowful Cries of Bird With Singed Fingers. Crushingly beautiful sludgey shoegaze for fans of Jesu, Pelican, and Deafheaven.

Bachelor – Doomin’ Sun. Collaborative effort by Melina Duterte (Jay Som) and Ellen Kempner (Palehound). It’s what you might think: slightly lo-fi, arty, indie-rock/-pop, lyrically vulnerable/sardonic, and catchy as all hell.

Beachy Head – Beachy Head. A supergroup of members of Slowdive, Soft Cavalry, and Flaming
Lips, sound like Mojave 3 doing Slowdive without Neil Halstead.

Bobsled Team - The Colours Blur

Bobsled Team – The Colours Blur. This is grrrreeeat fuzzy indiepop, reminding me of Internet Forever, Strawberry Whiplash, and Blake Babies. Debut album from this Belfast group - deserves some spins!

Black Country, New Road – For The First Time. A frenetic post-punk jazz blasting apocalypse. Troubled and ultra-talented youth bleeding their hearts and fingers. For fans of Dry Cleaning, Fontaines D.C., and Slint.

Chime School – Chime School. Drummer for Seablite steps out from the behind the kit with a Gretsch and jangles us into submission. This sounds like C86 heaven.

Courtney Barnett – Things Take Time, Take Time. Barnett usually lands in my top 10. This is still a GREAT album of literate indie rock and she remains among my most favorite artists in the past decade.

Dummy - Mandatory Enjoyment

Dummy – Mandatory Enjoyment. Droney, krautrock-y fuzz pop that sounds like 90’s Stereolab, Prolapse, Electrelane, and Quickspace. Current siblings might be (the incredible) En Attendant Ana and Peel Dream Magazine. The more I listen the more I think it should have made the big list.

Fleeting Joys – All Lost Eyes & Glitter. More brilliant woozy fuzz and fire from these preeminent shoegaze masters.

Geordie Gordon – The Tower. Multi-instrumentalist Geordie Gordon (U.S. Girls, The Magic, Barmitzvah Brothers) goes solo on this digital release of slick soulful folktronica.

Hovvdy – True Love. A folk/indie-rock record similar to Silver Jews, Built to Spill, Richard Davies, and Hayden. Filling up the space with piano, pedal steel, and layers of voices seems has taken Hovvdy in a new compelling direction. Choice Track: “Around Again”.

Kiwi Jr. – Cooler Returns. Kiwi Jr. returns and it’s cool. More VU-inspired indie rock and power pop from these Torontonians

La Luz – La Luz. More groovy psychedelic surf rock that makes me think of Tarantino films.


Liz Phair - Soberish

Liz Phair – Soberish. Matriarch of 90’s indie rock returns with an album that’s closer to early lofty
heights 25 years ago. I’m proud of her.

Lord Huron – Long Lost. Massive folk-pop, the size of mountains. Beautiful and cinematic, with a old-timey charm.

Lunation Fall – Near. Fuzzy swirling shoegaze, like falling into a giant cotton candy machine. In France.

Model Village – World of Carp. Happy go-lucky indie-pop from Britain, like early Camera Obscura. Oddly, vocals of Lily Somerville sound a little like German 80’s band Propaganda.

Painted Shrines – Heaven and Holy. Collaboration of Jeremy Earl (Woods) and Glenn Donaldson (Skygreen Leopards) is another worthy addition to both bands’ garagey psych-pop.

Petite League – Joyrider. Lo-fi indie rock/punk that sends induces (for me) waves of nostalgia for the undergound 80’s.

Pia Fraus – Now You Know It Still Feels The Same. Reworkings of old songs, this is splendid shoegaze/dreampop, influenced undeniably by My Bloody Valentine, but often with a more melodious crystalline pop sheen that puts them among peers Pains of Being Pure At Heart, DIIV, and M83.

Psychic Flowers – For The Undertow. Postcard. Fuzzed out power pop, recommended if you like Dogleg, Bully, Petite League, Joanna Gruesome, and the like. I also got a Japandroids feel at times.

Quivers - Golden Doubt

Quivers – Golden Doubt. Following a lesser known (and great!) tribute album of R.E.M.’s Out of Time 2021, Australia’s Quivers this year delivered a beautiful and jangly guitar oriented record of folk-tinged power pop and with a dash or R&B and soul.

Redspencer – Dreamworld. Melancholic mid-tempo jangle, perfectly delivered, like The Go-Betweens just woke up after a peaceful nap.

Reds, Pinks, and Purples – Uncommon Weather. Bedroom pop from Glenn Donaldson that curtsies to The Smiths, Aztec Camera, The Chameleons, and The Field Mice.

Sarah Neufeld – Detritus. Arcade Fire violinists wows us with a gorgeous neo-classical ambient strings accompaniment to a Peggy Baker dance choreography.

The Shop Window – The State of Being Human. Northern soul-inflected indie-pop, relatives of later Jam, Go-Betweens, Housemartins. These guys have been around the block, in various outfits and supporting roles since the 90’s, and suddenly went for it with The Shop Window (it seems). Great
record, and super promising “debut”.

Squirrel Flower - Planet (i)

Squirrel Flower – Planet (i). Catchy indie folk much like Haley Heyndrickx, Jess Williamson, and Vashti Bunyan, with some indie rock edges and Neil Young nods.

Still Corners – The Last Exit. A move away from earlier chillwave to a darker sultriness, recalling Mazzy Star and Waxahatchee, with some Americana twang and Lynchian vibes

Subsonic Eye – Nature of Things. Singaporean foursome is gives us 90’s indie rock (think Belly, The Sundays, Juliana Hatfield) and I didn’t know I needed it this much.

Sufjan Stevens & Angelo de Augustine – A Beginner’s Mind. Angelo de Augustine is the heir apparent to Stevens' older sublime folk charms (e.g., Michigan, Seven Swans). Here they join forces to compile a beautiful folky chamber pop LP.

Toledo - Jockeys of Love

Toledo – Jockeys of Love. Avoiding a cloying record by mere inches, this debut EP is a luuush mix of
Lucksmiths, Bon Iver, and Kings of Convenience.

Triptide – Alter Echoes. Excellent 60’s oriented psych-pop from these San Franciscan songsmiths. Side two has a loungey production that sometimes works sometimes does not. But overall this is great.

Ulrich Schnauss & Mark Peters – Destiny Waving. Ambient dreamscaper Schnauss joins (again) Mark Peters of shoegazey Engineers to give us some more blissful magic that would likely provoke a thumbs up each from Eno and Lanois.

Wednesday – Twin Plagues. Delightfully tough to place rock music, sometimes arty, sometimes punk, a little country. Contemporaries include Sharon Van Etten, Courtney Barnett, Big Thief, and Ashley Shadow, and you really hear the inherited sounds of slacker old indie rock, like Pavement, Butterglory, Pixies, and PJ Harvey.

Wolf Alice – Blue Weekend. Maybe have moved a little too far into alt-pop territory for my tastes but still overall a great record.

Hope you're all surviving and thriving!

My Top 25 Favourite Albums of 2020

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Sun, 07 Feb 2021 19:16:00 +0000

As per usual, my annual review of music is arriving fashionably late, as now 2021 is the current object of scorn. But for what it is worth, here are my reflections on the year in music for 2020, anchored by my top 25 favorite LPs, but containing much more.

Check out my 2020 playlist on Spotify. It's glorious, honestly.

First, 2020, You Were Awful

RIP Neil Peart

2020, you heaping pile of garbage, you murderous soul-destroying pig-year. Near infinite computer bits have been expended to malign you, so what shall I say about you? I don’t think I’ll say much of anything. With a world suffering through pestilence and death, financial free-fall, systemic racism, violence, and a post-truth mindset, nothing can/need/should be said to lead off a music review. I usually start my annual reviews with a rundown of the musical stars who left us over the past year. Even this seems trite and inappropriate, what with the backdrop of worldwide carnage. I don’t much feel like eulogizing a few clever people while so so many more are dead and dying. And this has ALWAYS been the case of course, but it takes a deadly pandemic to lay that fact bare.

RIP Toots Hibbert

In lieu, I’ll just say I was greatly affected and saddened with the loss of Neil Peart (Rush), Toots Hibbert (Toots & the Maytals), David Roback (Rain Parade), Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne), and Johnny Nash. And the wider world of rock must recognize two pioneers – Little Richard, who perhaps founded rock and roll, and Eddie Van Halen, who revolutionized the rock guitar. Goodbye, too, to Bill Withers, John Prine, Florian Schneider (Kraftwerk), and Dave Greenfield (The Stranglers).

2020 taketh, taketh, taketh, but it also gave us perhaps the greatest year of new music I recall enjoying in almost 30 years. Or so I think. This feeling is almost certainly a mirage, a consequence of new listening habits, behaviourally and psychologically. Music has always been my salve, my salvation, my escape destination. This was amplified ten-fold in 2020. Music is a risk-free form of spiritual sustenance, a soundtrack to these months of physical and social isolation, the thing I’d hide away in. I think it’s the case that the music is not better in 2020, it’s that I’ve appreciated it differently and more intently. With greater attention and mindfulness and far more emotional associations. I think I will remember 2020 well – we all will – but in part due to the deep musical touchstones and memories.

So let’s get on with it.

My Top 10 Favorite Songs of 2020

Bonny Light Horseman

Here are my Top 10 most favorite songs of 2020, songs that are singularly fantastic, and which I will play for the rest of my life.

1. "Deep In Love" – Bonny Light Horseman

2. "Stolen Guitar" – Mt. Wilson Repeater

3. "Sweet Sunday Snow" – Pia Fraus

4. "November" – Real Estate

5. "Somewhere And Somehow" – En Attendant Ana

6. "Pulling The Pin" – Run The Jewels

7. "God Knows Why" – Jenny O.

8. "Shakes" – Maddie Jay

9. "Kisses" – Lomelda

10. "Home" – Caribou

Quickly, This Year’s Disappointments

There were very few duds this year. Well, of course there were scads of albums I’d dislike if I heard them, but among the artists I know and love, there were hardly any missteps. Actually, when I think about it, there was only really one, Sufjan Stevens' The Ascension (I may have included Magnetic Fields’ Quickies, but I was already growing tired of Stephen Merritt’s irreverent and sardonic twee-pop – he will always be a genius to me, but it just feels done).

People are lionizing The Ascension, and I don’t get it. This is an electronic record and my personally tepid response is not about me missing his stripped down folk or orchestral pop days (although I suppose that’s partially true). It’s just simply that the arrangements and melodies meander and bore me. There is a ton going on and nothing at all and it’s really hard to pay attention to. For someone like me who paid through the nose for the deluxe vinyl, this is a bit disappointing. No disrespect to those who love it, as it is clearly many people’s thing. Meh, maybe it will grow on me.

The Main List: My Top 25 Favorite Albums of 2020

And NOW...the main event and attraction, what all seven of you have been waiting for...my Top 25 Favorite Albums of 2020! This was another tough set of calls this year, with an additional 25 or so albums rating over 8.0/10 by my reckoning. Be sure to check out my run down of other very worthy albums at the end of the Top 25.

25. Hazel English – Wake UP!

Wake UP! is the first full length (after an initial EP in 2016 and some subsequent singles) of Eleisha Caripis, an Australian artist currently based in Oakland, California. There is an undeniable pop sheen to the production and one wonders if there is a play here for broader commercial appeal. This flirtation with capital “P” Pop is tempered by an undeniable indie feel, with shades of Stereolab, sixties folk psych, and dynamic dreampop. There is an amazing literacy and economy here, making each track a toe-tapping treat that everyone can love, without falling into boring Top 40 trappings. Choice track: “Shaking”.

24. Pia Fraus – Empty Parks

As I listen, I fret that that Empty Parks, by Estonian shoegazers Pia Fraus, deserves to be in my top 10 of the year, maybe even my top 5. I came to the album late in the year and it is growing on me like an aggressive ivy. I’ve said before, shoegaze/dreampop records are ubiquitous in contemporary indie, and many do not stand out from the crowd, as lovely as they often are. While squarely residing in the dream pop genre, Pia Fraus has something unique going on that sets it apart. I suspect it is the vocal production and balance, which is airy and etherial but also simultaneously warm and present, like they are whispering right into your ear. This production is tough to attain, and as a result it's almost definitional to the genre to bury the vocals or put them into the reverb stratospshere. Pia Fraus also like to have some loud, chimey, and front-loaded guitars over top of a bed of guitar fuzz and synths. The concoction is pure ear candy. Highly recommend. Choice track (and #3 song of the year): “Sweet Sunday Snow”.

23. Lomelda – Hannah

Another happily random discovery, I have no memory of how I found the sublime Lomelda, the stage name of Hannah Read. Hannah, the album, is bedroom-y, mid-tempo indie folkpop that shares a sonic personality with Haley Heyndrickx, Jay Som, Snail Mail, or (Sandy) Alex G. Like a more refined Kimya Dawson, Read weaves poignant and wistful stories throughout her catchy and heartfelt songs. She comes off as a true and committed performer, making up with passion what she may lack in chops. It’s pretty and warm and authentic. Within its own boundaries, it’s also very creative. Looking forward to more. Choice track: “Kisses”.

22. Isobel Campbell – There Is No Other…

I am a big fan of Belle and Sebastian and Campbell’s vocals therein; but I didn’t really like her early solo foray (aka Gentle Waves) and I ignored her collaborations with Mark Lanegan, who kind of rubs me the wrong way when he's not fronting Screaming Trees (there’s no good reason for this). Had it not been for some YouTube serendipity, I would have surely missed this gorgeous solo record, her first under her name since 2003. Campbell is all sultry and smoky and breathy, like an 60’s Gainsbourg protégé, commiserating in your ear. The music is loungey, vaguely psychedelic, and oh so retro-cool. An ill-advised cover of Tom Petty's "Running Down A Dream" notwithstanding, this is excellent and I am eager for more. Choice track: “The Heart Of It All”.

21. Nap Eyes – Snapshot of a Beginner

While a gazillion bands can name the Velvet Underground as an influence, Halifax’s Nap Eyes wear it on their sleeve. And, even more so, the storied solo output of Lou Reed. It’s not merely the cool drawl of vocalist Nigel Champion. The arrangements and sonics recapture that VU/Reed-ian sound seemingly without effort, helped in the studio this time by producers Jonathan Low (known for producing The National and Frightened Rabbit, among others) and Chicagoan guitar savant James Elkington (and as I write this, I notice that Elkington has a 2020 release I have not yet heard – it could very well deserve to be in this list, as I looooved Wintres Woman from 2017). This is a satisfying record top to bottom, buoyed by the oblique and literate observations of Champion, and backed by comfortingly familiar guitar-focused chords and melodies. Choice track: “Primordial Soup”.

20. Melenas - Días Raros

Spanish indie strikes again with Melenas, an indie-pop group from Pamplona, Spain. These four women have obviously been listening to copious Stereolab, OMD, and 90’s albums put out by Matador Records. They also remind me a lot of En Attendant Ana and country-mates Mourn and Linda Guilala. This is uber-catchy and up-tempo fuzzy guitar and synthpop, a sort of retro-futurist punk, with their Spanish vocals carrying a rareified urban cool to these Canadian’s ears – perhaps I am romanticizing things, but being in the indie underground scene in, say, Barcelona or Paris, is probably a cooler experience than in Toronto or Boston. Funny how image/culture can colour sound. Regardless! This albums stands on its own as a excellent indiepop record, regardless of its origins. Choice track: “Despertar”.

19. Exploding Flowers – Stumbling Blocks

Exploding Flowers are a new discovery to me (thanks @the_omaha_introvert!), hitting that perfect jangle pop sweet spot that I love so much. This reminds me of the 80's underground especially, like it was minted on a college quad, with Rickenbackers and vintage keys. Useful comparators: The Springfields, The Dentists, The Clean, Jazz Butcher, and Robyn Hitchcock. Bright and sunny, melodius and mellifluous, I kept coming back to this in 2020 as a way to mentally stroll down carefree streets and byways. Highly recommended for personal escapism from plagues and riots. Choice track: “Timing Is Everything”.

18. Adrianne Lenker – Songs and Instrumentals

I was a Big Thief fan, having picked up Capacity, but it wasn’t until I happened upon Adrianne Lenker’s Abysskiss that I became fairly obsessed. Abysskiss, my #5 of 2018, was an indie-folk masterpiece, and I set about acquiring all the Big Thief and Lenker music I could find. 2018 also saw reissues of Lenkers 2014 solo Hours Were The Birds and Aside and Besides, a split release with Buck Meek. 2019 was marked by the release of TWO Big Thief albums, UFOF and Two Hands. This cavalcade of song would lead me to question whether Lenker had another quality album in her. Nonetheless, Songs and Instrumentals came out in 2020 to many fans’ surprise, and it is more of the same – sublime, gorgeous, emotionally poignant indie folk of the highest caliber. Like she was raised by Nick Drake, Vashti Banyan, and a collective of wood faeries. A nice bonus is a whole extra disc of pretty instrumental work (almost 40 minutes). Choice track: “Anything”.

17. Yves Jarvis – Sundry Rock Song Stock

Ever since witnessing the beguiling stage show of Jean Sebastian Audet in 2017 – at that time going by the moniker Un Blonde – I’ve been a fan. Previous albums Good Will Come To You (2016) and The Same But By Differerent Means (2019) have rated highly on my yearly lists (#3 and #10 respectively). 2020’s offering equals Audet’s previous output and once again offers this listener an entirely unique and distinguished set of music. Equal parts soundscaping, soulful RnB, light jazz, and finger-picked folk, SRSS has a marvelous degree of depth and beauty. Audet sounds like your own personal music mage, whisper-singing in your ear about the world around you, and with layers of himself backing him up. Given the universal need to escape into ourselves in 2020 Yves Jarvis might just be the most effective album to shelter in place to. Choice track: “Semula”.

16. Ringo Deathstarr – Ringo Deathstarr

It has just occurred to me as 2020 closes that Ringo Deathstarr is no longer a “new shoegaze band”. Of the groups that helped revitalize the genre these past two decades, RDS have been around awhile, going on 15 years. I’ve been a doting fan since I first heard the impossibly catchy fuzz gem “So High” (from 2011’s Colour Trip), but I have also noticed a bit of downslide over the years. I always like their records, but they can also be too noisy, too difficult, or too indulgent. I gave the 2020 s/t release a bunch of deep listens, given this is their first release in 5 years. My initial thoughts persisted – their shoegaze wash was too prominent and I became frustrated in my search for hooks to hang my hat. But with time this perception shifted and I now consider this an excellent return. It IS overly guazy/hazy/distorted. It IS indulgent and weird. But a focused listen reveals reward after reward. May I also suggest bypassing the vinyl and grabbing (if you can spare the bucks) the japanese CD edition with three worthy bonus tracks. Choice track: “I Don’t Want To Lose This”.

15. Bonny Light Horseman – Bonny Light Horseman

Eric D. Johnson (Fruit Bats), Josh Ritter (The National) and Anaïs Mitchell team up to give us this beautiful and unexpected record. I find it hard to engage with contemporary rootsy folk and rock oftentimes, because it just seems so damn hard to live up to the roots. But in this case, the attempt is effortlessly fabulous, as if there is a direct supernatural line to the magicks of Tim Buckley and Van Morrison. Similar to Bon Iver, Gillian Welch, and Iron & Wine, this collaboration is superior folk that is in love with the 1970’s. It also contains my favorite song of 2020, “Deep In Love”, which I expect will now be with me for all of eternity. Choice track and song of the year: “Deep In Love”.

14. Zoon – Bleached Wavves

Fave local label of mine, Paper Bag Records, announced Bleached Wavves by the old school email newsletter approach and, based on the description (and some obligatory digital listening), I grabbed the deluxe vinyl. Dubbed “moccasin gaze” by Daniel Monkman, Zoon is short for Zoongide’ewin, meaning “bravery, courage, the Bear Spirit” in Ojibway. This tongue-in-cheek genre label barely describes the incredible amalgamation of First Nations rhythms and sounds with stratospheric shoegaze. The lyrical backdrop – which to be honest, I’m still engaging with – tells Monkman’s story of hope and recovery in the face of prejudice, addiction, and poverty. It is an amazing document and it’s sonic roots are clear – the hazy, woozy, narcotic elements of shoegaze, indebted heavily to My Bloody Valentine. Choice track: “Help Me Understand”.

13. Human Barbie – Get A Life

Will someone please get Human Barbie a record deal? I have no issue streaming music – I do it all the time – but when this album and others on this list (Sunnsetter, Mt. Wilson Repeater, Floral Tattoo) remain digital only, I fear they shall somehow drift away, criminally unrecognized. I came to Get A Life late in the year (days to spare I think) and it represents the last necessary reshuffle of my list. It is too good to fail to accommodate. Human Barbie partially fills the hole left by Ladybug Transistor, and other intelligent orch popsters of the early millenium (side note: but I also just discovered Kishi Bashi, who is similar and outstanding). Human Barbie is Chris Hackman, who provies sugary smooth vocals overtop lush and dreamy landscapes. The songs sound old, like 70’s AM radio old, as if they are coming from some aging-hippie’s basement full of psychedelic folk records. This one’s a beauty. Hard copy please! Choice track: “We Disappeared”.

12. Sunnsetter – The Love You Withhold Is The Pain You Carry

Sunnsetter is Andrew McCleod, a Hamiltonian who also serves as drummer for Zoon (see #14) and who concocts his own brand of floaty, shoegazey loveliness. His backstory sounds just as troubling as bandmate Daniel Monkman, full of isolation, anxiety, loneliness, and mental breakdowns. In his words, “This is music that I’ve meant to make for a long time, and just wasn’t able to either because of self hatred or just lack of inspiration and or the skills to do so.” You may notice some lo-fi, bedroom production limitations, but that is hardly worth worrying about. The Love You Withhold… is a gorgeous psychedelic folk opus and deserves the same deluxe vinyl release treatment given by Paper Bag records to Zoon’s Bleached Wavves. For now, you can stream it, but even better is a Bandcamp download for a paltry 5 bucks. Choice track: “Always Growing, Till The End (And It Continues)”.

11. Floral Tattoo – You Can Never Have A Long Enough Head Start

Self described as “music for sad trans people who grew up at the dawn of the digital age”, this young Seattle band gets the nod as my biggest surprise of the year, i.e., I came across the album randomly and it quickly shot up the ranks into best of the year consideration. A product of 2020 isolationism, pandemic anxiety, and the constant shadow of bigotry, this record is series of emotional gut punches and regrets. Sonically, I am reminded of powerhouses Titus Andronicus as well as the most chaotic moments of Neutral Milk Hotel (and also Gashcat, whom few know – the defunct and digitally erased outfit headed by now-glam rocker Kyle Craft). But there are also moments that Floral Tattoo sounds like Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Cure, or The Chameleons. Every song is immersive and impressive, a mix of indie rock, art punk, and new wave. Here’s hoping the band gets their music into some physical form soon. I will be following closely. Choice track: “Life In Color”.

10. Close Lobsters – Post Neo Anti

Full title being Post Neo Anti: Arte Povera In The Forest of There. I feel happy for long-time Close Lobster fans who waited over 30 years (!) for the this follow up to their last album, 1988’s Headache Rhetoric. Me? I only discovered these LEGENDS in 2019. I still don’t know how this massive gap in my music knowledge remained for so long. Close Lobsters play exactly the sort of layered, super catchy jangle pop that hits my sonic sweetspot, making me a diehard fan of bands like The Wedding Present, The Jazz Butcher, The Clean, and the Housemartins, not to mention The Smiths. I also thought I had a pretty good handle on the 80’s jangle underground, but somehow Close Lobsters did not reach my ears. When I finally heard 1987’s Fox Heads Stalk This Lands, I could hardly believe it. It was an instant classic to me, literally one of the best albums I had ever heard. I only had to wait one additional year for new music and lucky me. Post Neo Anti sounds better produced but otherwise sounds exactly like their output from the 80’s. What magic is this? Has there EVER been a more cohesive and consistent comeback album after a 30 year layover. Hum, at #4 gets some nods, but this was even longer. Wow, amazing. Choice track: “The Absent Guest (No Thing, No There)".

9. Uniforms – Fantasía Moral

What’s going on in Spain? I don’t think I owned a single record of Spanish origin, but 2020 has me listening to amazing records by imports Linda Guilala, Mourn, Melenas, and, my number 9 pick, Uniforms. I first heard Uniforms via an obscure digital EP (2018’s Equals) and was taken in by their lo-fi but fairly gigantic shoegaze. I put a pin in it, and made sure I would be alerted to any more releases. 2020 saw the arrival of their first full-length Fantasía Moral, and I jumped on it immediately. I was not disappointed. While reportedly new to the playing of instruments, this quartet has quickly learned the rarefied craft of “blowing the mind with sound”. Layers upon overlapping layers of heavily effected guitar, keyboards, and gossamer vocals, a concoction that is just as good as the most accomplished sound merchants of this ilk: Soft Science, Eternal Summers, Ringo Deathstarr, Luxembourg Signal, Westkust, Wolf Alice, and others. Choice track: “Brazil”.

8. Real Estate – The Main Thing

I count myself a fan of Real Estate, but could never be rabidly so, as their mid-tempo jangle pop is too unassuming to inspire me that way, beautiful though it is. I think I was sort of getting a bit bored with them, and was ignoring The Main Thing for awhile. That is until a friend insisted I give it a listen because of its pitch perfect re-rendering of 70’s AM radio yacht rock / disco pop. This description is mostly true – chunks of this album channel Hall and Oates, Captain and Tenille, The Little River Band, and Steely Dan. This genre throwback has certainly been done before by the likes of Beck, Vampire Weekend, and Foxygen, but wow this is smmmmooooooth. I mostly love this if my mood is amenable. But I’m otherwise pretty taken with the continued mastery of the jangle, with tracks like “You”, “November”, and “Silent World” demonstrating their understated genius. This is a gorgeous record. Choice track: “November”.

7. No Age – Goons Be Gone

With bands like Fontaines DC and Protomartyr gathering copious critical kudos in 2020, I’m more than little confused as to why No Age – some seriously experienced post-punkers – have been largely absent from year end lists, be they from online blogs and tastemakers or from music fans summing up their year on Instagram. Every No Age release seems tremendous to me, leaving most others in the dust. Their albums over the last decade (Everything In Between, An Object, Snares Like A Haircut) have all been remarkable, with Snares occupying my 2018 title for album of the year. Goons Be Gone continues quality – literate, political, experimental noise rock, full of tension/release, minimalism, all while allowing for superior melodic hooks. If you want some contemporary post-punk/rock, look no further than Goons Be Gone. Choice track: "Sandalwood".

6. Fleet Foxes – Shore

For such a high-end, critically lauded band, Fleet Foxes are not what you would call prolific. Shore, (dropped digitally in 2020 but not available physically until February 2021) is only their fourth album since 2008. 2017’s Crack Up (#10 on my annual list) was excellent and Shore follows suit. If anything, I like Shore even more, as its removed some of the unnecessary complexity, focusing on the perfect melody/harmony that FF is known for. Once again, the production is absolutely gorgeous, big sunny blue sky on a mountaintop gorgeous. Like it was recorded by Sir George Martin gorgeous. Peckhold and company provide their typical mellifluous vocals, again staking their claim as contemporary as the sweetest singing folk-rock group since Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Choice track: “Can I Believe You”.

5. En Attendant Ana – Juillet

Hearing them for the first time in 2020, I’ve become quickly and hopelessly obsessed with En Attendant Ana, a Parisian indiepop band of the highest caliber. Comparisons to Stereolab and Electrelane are apt enough, but the multi-layered ramshackle combination of guitars, bass, keys, drums, and horns brings them closer in design to a host of Elephant 6 bands, such as Apples in Stereo, Minders, Gerbils, and Secret Square. They sound perfect to me, with almost every song automatically qualifying as an indiepop anthem. The closest comparator right now is likely Alvvays, a high order compliment. I just wish this album was kicking around the clubs when I used to go dancing in the underground. Choice track: "Somewhere And Somehow".

4. Hum – Inlet

Whether or not it’s true, it feels like a boatload of records from big bands (to me) dropped without warning in 2020. Quite randomly I came across new music (just sitting here, with no one telling me) by Wolf Parade, No Age, Fleet Foxes, The Bats, Psychedelic Furs (!), and The Avalanches, to name a few. A big surprise for us 90’s fans was the unheralded return of Hum! And what a return. Combining their doom metal riffs with shoegaze and their signature Hum(drum) vocals (like a non-comical They Might Be Giants), the result is perhaps their best album. Having already been a significant Hum fan (1997’s Downward Is Heavenward is an underrated giant of a record), this is no small feat to drop an LP of this quality after 20+ years. Choice track: "Waves"

3. Widowspeak - Plum

A few artists have helped fill the hole in our hearts left by the (general) absence of Mazzy Star, made all the more painful by the passing David Roback this past year. Jess Williamson comes to mind, for example, who’s album in 2018 (Cosmic Wink) mesmerized me in much the same way Hope Sandoval used to. Widowspeak have also been putting out solid records with a similar sound for almost a decade and keep getting better and better. Plum, however, might be a better record than any in Mazzy Star’s catalog, and I do not say this lightly. Molly Hamilton sings in that perfect smoky/sultry voice that Sandoval had mastered, with Robert Thomas backing her with groovy VU-inspired guitar lines and chord progressions. Every song is a winner. I keep coming back to this album. Also, most boring album cover of the year. Choice track: "Money".

2. Mt. Wilson Repeater – Burned Up Ghost

Jim Putnam, the man behind Radar Bros. and the Flaming Lips’ live production, has also been furtively putting out music as Mt. Wilson Repeater. 2018’s V’Ger landed at #11 on my year end list and I was anxious to hear more. Acknowledging the general greatness of his 2008 debut, Burned Up Ghost is, in a word, incredible. Tooling away in his isolated little studio, Putnam has engineered a sumptuous, heady, and powerful album better than any album by the Flaming Lips not named The Soft Bulletin. Anthemic collages of electronic soundscapes, always anchored by engrossing melodies – there are layers in the layers in the layers. It’s a sound trip of the highest order. I’m feeling rather petulant that this (and V’Ger) have not garnered a physical release, despite an ongoing association with Merge Records. Merge, c’mon, man! It’s the best album in your 2020 catalog! Choice track: "Stolen Guitar".

1. Run The Jewels - RTJ4

With the exception of old late 80’s/early 90’s hip hop, I’m not a big fan of the genre. But this year RTJ put out my favorite hip hop album since the string of Public Enemy milestones 30 years ago. And perhaps it was social and political upheaval of our time, with the rise and resurgence of BLM action and protest in the face of morally repugnant police brutality. 2020 was a year of reckoning and it made me hear RTJ4 differently. Released on June 3, a mere nine days after George Floyd’s death, the lyrics are heart stopping:

The way I see it, you're probably freest from the ages one to four

Around the age of five you're shipped away for your body to be stored

They promise education, but really they give you tests and scores

And they predictin' prison population by who scoring the lowest

And usually the lowest scores the poorest and they look like me

And every day on the evening news, they feed you fear for free

And you so numb, you watch the cops choke out a man like me

Until my voice goes from a shriek to whisper, "I can't breathe"

Lyrical brilliance and explosive delivery aside, the record is my favorite of the year because it is musically rich, doing so much more than the average rap album. Incredible samples, melodies, beats, and breaks, this is a masterclass of the genre. The inclusion of matriarch Mavis Staples and other guests (Zach De La Rocha, Josh Homme, Pharrel Williams) adds even more. Choice track: "Pulling The Pin".

Amazing Albums Falling Outside the Top 25

Angel Olsen – Whole New Mess. A more cinematic and arty Olsen, channeling all the best features of Weyes Blood, Beach House, and Sharon van Etten. The gendered comparisons are intentional, as dudes don’t ever seem to pull this style off, except for maybe Marlon Williams or Antlers. Splitting dubious hairs to leave this one off the top list.

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead – X: The Godless Void and Other Stories. Funny how these alt-rockers have grown into progressive rock grandfathers. Another great big rock album with lots to love.

Austra – Hirudin. Toronto’s Katie Stelmanis returns with another cinematic art-pop album, brimming with power and politics

Bdrmm – Bedroom. Shoegazey indie-rock that sits that one important notch above so many other fuzzy guitar bands, making them amazing rather than merely good. They have an early Teenage Fanclub meets Drop Nineteens vibe, but with Joy Division moaning through the cracks in the floorboards.

Best Coast – Always Tomorrow. Bethany and Bobb give us their patented fuzzy indie pop, referencing 50’s sock hop, The Bangles, and Juliana Hatfield.

Braids – Shadow Offering. After a 5 year hiatus, Braids’ synthesized classical pop reforms to land them somewhere between Kate Bush and Julia Holter. A gorgeous addition.

Bully - Sugaregg. I didn't see this on a lot of year end lists and I don't get it. This pop-punk album is absolutely smoking, with an edge that distinguishes them from corporatized alternative.

Coriky – Coriky. With seemingly little fanfare, Fugazi founders Ian MacKaye and Joe Lally join forces again with Anna Farina (of the Farina/MacKaye duo in The Evens). Fugazi was once the spear point of literate underground protest rock and this return seems timely -- 2020 badly needs the political demonstrations/remonstrations of MacKaye and company. The album itself threw me off at first, testing my attention with seemingly straight up post punk, but then the curveballs came and I heard Wire, Parquet Courts and, of course, Fugazi. A great record. But are they aware that the opening chord progression of "Say Yes" rips off "Dance Hall Days" by Wang Chung?

Dehd – Flower of Devotion. Dehd run the risk of alienating the listener with distracting yelps and affectations, there is plenty more to rope you in. Think Crystal Stilts, Velvet Underground, Woods, and Galaxie 500.

Ecke Wu - Performance

Ecke Wu – Performance. From Shanghai, arcehtypal shoegaze/dream pop of the type perfected by Cocteau Twins and Lush.

Elliott Brood – Keeper. These footstomping countrifed rockers continue with their heartstring-pulling, down-home anthems. Doesn’t matter what song they play, every time I hear them I feel seriously nostalgic.

Empty Country – Empty Country. Solo effort of Joseph D’Agostino of now defunct Cymbals Eat Guitars. While his voice is an acquired taste, this is a great record of pensive and sometimes expansive indie rock.

Flaming Lips – American Head. FINALLY Flaming Lips return to a consistently listenable album. The King’s Mouth was almost there, but American Head manages to recall the greatness of the Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots.

Griffin McElroy – Graduation: Semesters I and II. Here is a niche soundtrack genre: instrumental scores for improvisational role-playing game podasts. The brothers McIlroy (and patriarch, Cliff) have walked along many stories under a range of games and game mechanics, but their D&D campaigns under the umbrella series “The Adventure Zone”, have always been their most successful. The most recent (and ongoing as of this writing) is “Graduation”, as our heroes (Justin, Griffin, and Cliff McIlroy) take on foundational beings of the universe, Chaos and Order, as directed by DM Travis McIlroy. Griffin is also the soundtracker, who in post-production, makes the story telling come alive with quasi-classical, baroque MIDI tableaus and soundscapes. While very niche, this needs to be heard on its own right. Whimsical and wondorous.

Jenny O. – New Truth. Within 20 seconds of lead track “God Knows Why” I was clicking away trying to secure a copy of Jenny O.’s 2020 LP “New Truth.” Such a great groovy guitar pop sound, similar to Luna, Jess Williamson, and Widowspeak.

Kestrels – Dream or Don’t Dream. Fuzzy indie rock from Montreal, comparing favorably to Dog Day or a less difficult Ringo Deathstarr.

Microphones – Microphones in 2020. Phil Elverum returns with a 45 minute single that must also be considered an album. Understated but beguiling, it’s long form personal narrative in song.

Peel Dream Magazine – Agitprop Alterna. An attractive Stereolab clone that brings back the transient noise bursts and refried ectoplasm.

Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher. Bridgers’ massively successful follow up to 2017’s Stranger in the Alps is more refined and more experimental, pushing her into the indie A-list territory of Weyes Blood, Sharon Van Etten, and Bon Iver. On everyone’s year end lists, she could be a household name if she isn’t careful.

Porridge Radio – Every Bad. Unwavering, from-the-gut post-punk, like Savages and Le Tigre circling each other before a knife fight.

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Sideways to Italy. More top end jangle rock from Australia’s current best import this side of Courtney Barnett.

Smokescreens – A Strange Dream. This is jangle pop goodness that sounds a lot like The Bats, The Go-Betweens, and The Clean. Surprise, surprise, it was produced by David Kilgour, formerly of the Clean, and revered ambassador of the jangle. Perhaps a little pitchy in places, but endearing nonetheless, this is a modest record that shines with innocence.

Soccer Mommy – Color Theory. Great mid-tempo indie-rock pop, a step-sister to Juliana Hatfield.

Stephen Malkmus – Traditional Techniques. The unwilling captain of slacker cool tests our assumptions with an album of Afghani sitar, stand up bass, and psychedelic raga folk. His best solo album.

STRFKR – Future Past Life. This one was just edged out of the top list, somewhat arbitrarily. Excellent bedroom guitar pop with well-chosen synth leads, backdrops, and grooves. Hippie dream pop under a disco ball.

Sunstack Jones – Golden Repair. You’d be forgiven if you thought this was a lost Verve album that more closely links A Northern Soul to Urban Hymns. Produced by Simon Jones and mixed by Nick McCabe (surprise, both from The Verve!).

Wire – Mind Hive. I seem to write the same thing every year. This absolutely seminal band keeps putting out post-punk masterpieces that teach all the clever clogs kids how its done.

Wolf Parade – Thin Mind. Grandfathers of Canada's early aught resurgence (along with Constantines, Arcade Fire, Stars, Broken Social Scene, and so on), their reformation has been seemingly without consequence, but this album (along with 2017’s Cry Cry Cry) relights the torch.

And also definitely check out the great 2020 long players put out by Mourn, Beabadoobee, Gord Downie (a final posthumous release), Jess Williamson, Young Jesus, ROOKIE, Deserta, Choux, Bob Mould, Corey Flood, Heather Trost, No Joy, The Black Watch, Woods, Kidbug, Dogleg, Emma Kupa, I Break Horses, Mamalarky, Bad Moves, Jesu, and Psychedelic Furs.

Some Favourite 2020 Music Things That Are Not Studio LPs

Beyond the main category of long-player album (i.e., the main criterion for list consideration) there were lots of other amazing releases in 2020. A complete stunner was the unexpected release (for me – those in the know, um, knew) of The Harry Smith B-Sides, which are the complete and ultra rare flip sides of every single from Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music (originally released in 1952 and arguably the most important archival music project in the history of Americana). I never thought about the fact that every historic track of course had a b-side. Down the rabbit hole I went. I’m still excavating through these 80 ancient tracks of deep Americana cuts – blues, country, gospel, and bluegrass.

Speaking of old records, Neil Young dropped Homegrown, a long unreleased album from his 70’s hey day that he held back because the content was too depressing for him. Fans have heard most of these songs in some shape or form in different places and times, but this is the first time the original cuts have been released as an album, as intended. It’s pretty surreal. Neil Young’s classic albums are part of our heritage, imprinted on our brains, carved into our memories. But in this case we don’t really know these songs, yet they are of that time. It’s chilling and heart-warming at the same time, and amazing to listen to. But I know that I’ll never love it the way I love his “real” albums from the 70’s.

In the realm of contemporary various artist compilations, Captured Tracks released an epic and unprecedented 2LP set of jangle pop: Strum and Thrum: The American Jangle Underground 1983-1987. Carefully and gorgeously crafted, this is the C86 compilation that America never had. I know quite a bit about music, but I only know four bands by name on here and I’m really only familiar with the music of two (The Springfields and Downey Mildew). And it’s alllll great. Included is detailed oral history of the scene. This compilation seems historically profound and I’m in love.

My ears are still ringing from the dreamy, spacey shoegaze appearing on Southeast of Saturn, a Third Man Records compilation that curates the best from releases from Detroit and area (e.g., Majesty Crush, Füxa, Windy & Carl, Astrobrite). A must-have for fans of this genre. Sticking to the shoegaze theme, Spain’s Linda Guilala relieved the frustrations of numerous physical copy purists who were loving their digital string of Stereolab-ish fuzzfest releases. Espacio De Tiempo (2009-2019) compiles all major singles and numerous b-sides onto CD and vinyl, so people like me can hold as well as hear it.

2020 was also the 50^th anniversary of one of my all-time favorite albums: Tea For The Tillerman by Yusuf / Cat Stevens. To celebrate this milestone, Yusuf, at 80 years young, decided to re-record the album in it’s entirety. This is unprecedented for me – the original artist reinterpreting and re-recording an album that ranks among my all-time favorites. This is qualitatively different from remasters (as common as potatoes), contemporary remixes, and never before heard versions of songs/albums that were recorded at the time of the original (e.g., Let It Be…Naked and the recent Beatles deluxe reissues are good examples). It’s also different from live renditions (e.g., The Wall – Live In Berlin) or contemporized compilations (e.g., Joni Mitchell’s jazzy reworkings on 2000’s Both Sides Now, Jeff Lynne redoing ELO hits).

The recreation of a full studio album, track for track…has this ever been done? Probably, although I can’t think of an example. It also seems ill-advised, like inviting artistic disaster. Why redo something so perfect, so embedded in music history, and so personally important to millions (?) of people? What if it is poorly done, what if it takes too many liberties, and sullies the source material? Turns out that Yusuf knew what to do! There are a couple curveballs in approach here and there but he largely sticks to the spirit and composition of the original tracks, with lovely and welcome additions and flourishes. A few tracks are noticeably different. “On The Road To Find Out” is turned into a dusty blues shuffle and “Longer Boats” segues into jazzy gospel (and includes some lyrical changes to align the original with Yusuf’s latter day world view). “Wild World” is the only misstep, and is an abomination, and I wish he didn’t do it. But otherwise, the result is powerful, and listening to this record brought me to tears. Multiple times. What a gift. In my list of 1970 albums, Tea For The Tillerman is #1, earning a perfect 10/10 and probably sitting in my Top 10 all-time. Tea For Tillerman² would be #1 in 2020 if I felt it qualified as a “new studio release”.

Another 2020 treasure trove for me was the release of Poi Dog Pondering’s Original Cassettes 1984-1987, a 2CD set of early versions and demos of the bands output from their first three glorious (and best) LPs. So many of these songs were so personal to me in my late adolescence and hearing these early incarnations is amazing.

Swervedriver surprised their fans with the release of Petroleum Spirit Daze, which is the original recordings of their first 1990 EP Son of Mustang Ford. For whatever reason, label head Alan McGee wasn’t feelin’ it and had the band redo the recordings, and these original tracks have been buried all this time. For the dedicated fan, these versions are exciting to hear, and perhaps revelatory for some. The “House of the Wood Studio” recordings (“Son of Mustang Ford”, “Juggernaut Rides”, “Afterglow”, and "Kill The Superheroes") have more space to them, are dryer and crisper somehow, mostly in relation to Adam Franklin’s vocals that you can actually hear. The best part of it all is hearing different studio versions of songs that are so minted on your brain. “Juggernaut Rides” is especially different and, I think, superior. Incidentally, the band decided to digitally reissue remastered versions of all their b-sides, over two albums (Youth at the Summit and Honey Heavens Above). Remastering of b-sides was done for a selection of songs for the now badly OOP 2005 comp Juggernaut Rides, but not for all of them. Truth be told, I haven’t listened intently to the results.

AND THEN….this is crazy: My all-time favorite song, #1 on my Top 500 (1965-2009) is “What Sees The Sky” by Mazarin. I consider Mazarin to be one the most criminally underrated and underloved band of the late 90’s/early 2000’s (and they continue still, or rather Quetin Stoltzfus continues, under the name Light / Heat). In 2020, the band reissued their third and last album (2005’s We’re Already There) on vinyl and I decided to pick it up. With the purchase came a download of early demos and outtakes, which included a fully produced alternate version (not take) of “What Sees the Sky?” An extremely raw and rocking, up-tempo version. Another unbelievable treat for me.

Blanks - Beyond These Walls EP

And of course there has been steady flow of EPs, singles, covers, and live sets from all directions that have been keeping my ears busy. Highlights include:

A new EP from Toronto's Blanks (Beyond These Walls) with four excellent new tunes -- I hear Dodos, Strokes, and Parquet Courts.
An unexpected digital single from the otherwise inactive Constantines (“Call Me Out”).
A quasi-improvised live set of the Pure Phase Ensemble (this being the 9^th incarnation led by Adam Franklin) as a centrepiece to SpaceFest in Gdansk, Poland.
An album of home recorded covers from Dean & Britta (
Peel Dream Magazine - Moral Panics
The Quarantine Tapes),
Brighter Then, an EP by Real Numbers.
A cover of Pixies’ “Here Comes Your Man” by Tanya Donnelly
The Mood Swings EP by Maddie Jay, which is way too poppy for me, but contains a top 10 song of the year for me, “Shakes”.
Great jangly singles from Odd Hope, Pale Lights, and Neutrals, courtesy of Slumberland.
A late 2020 7-song EP from Peel Dream Magazine (Moral Panics) that is better than the already great 2020 LP Agit Alterna.

Okay! 2021, what you got!?

All Hail The CD!: The Compact Disc Is The Best

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 00:22:00 +0000

Originally posted in September 2020; updated May 2021

It is 2020 and a quick gander through music and tech blogs shows an utter disdain for the Compact Disc, now widely dismissed as an obsolete technology made wholly redundant by music streaming services. On the side, vinyl has seen a proportionally impressive resurgence, but it remains niche and nerdy compared to the all-you-can-eat streaming services of Spotify, Google Play, and others. People have abandoned their CD collections in droves, attracted by the convenience and wide selection of streaming options. The twenty-somethings of the world barely understand what a CD is. CD rack units are hard to come by, and ironically expensive. CD-ROM drives have been removed from the average laptop.

Aside from a few mavericks that are defending CDs and predicting a resurgence, online discussions otherwise show a persistent incredulity that people still buy CDs. Take this annoying article, for example, which impetuously belittles CD consumers as old and out of touch luddites and chumps. Some apologists weakly counter that CDs survive because it is sometimes more convenient to listen to CDs in their cars or that bands need cheap merch to peddle at their shows.

So for a band, a CD is a cheap way to get your music out there to fans who come to shows and want to buy band merchandise, and who are happy to cough up the dough. For fans, Zarillo [an industry person] said CDs still have an appeal to older folks who may not want to use iTunes, and to people who still like to listen to music in the car. The appeal of CDs as being easily played in the car seems to be a popular response as to why people are still buying them.

Shit, really? 30-plus percent of the entire music industry pie is because people are technophobes with CD decks in their cars?

Regardless of a significant market share in raw terms, the trends show a gasping decline of the CD medium. It seemed that as soon as streaming services reached a critical mass of cataloged artists, it was game over, at least in perception. Why ever buy a CD when the world of music is at your virtual fingertips, any time and any place?

I am one of these old CD buyers, and I resent the notion that I am uselessly and sadly clinging to an outdated technology. Equally bothersome to me is the routine defense by my generation that buying CDs is a nostalgic link to the past. People may assume that my resistance to the (presumed) death of the CD is purely a panicked rationalization, given my sizable investment in the medium . No, no, I love my CD collection (and my vinyl LP collection, and 7 inch collection. I even like my cassette collection, especially the small run items by new bands that do not have any other physical formats available). My reasons why have little to do with nostalgia or driving in my car (don’t we all have bluetooth or USB inputs in our vehicles now?). My reasons are, I think, really good ones having to do with the audio fidelity, the psychology of listening to music, and the general importance of music appreciation and engagement. I think that many young people’s experience of music is stunted and limited by the digital world. This is counterintutive, but probably true. Things lose value when they’re essentially free and ubiquitous. Meanwhile, the new vinyl afficiandos will have you believe that vinyl “sounds better”.

There is much argument about all this on the interwebs. There is a long list of opinions and contentions held by champions and detractors of all media in question. The net result, I am determined to show, is that the CD should reign supreme. This is by no means to suggest that people shouldn’t listen to vinyl or any medium for that matter. People should in fact listen to whatever makes sense to them. In many cases, the differences between vinyl and digital are tiny and inconsequential. But its hard to tolerate the off-the-rails groupthink suggesting vinyl is inherently superior. And it’s equally hard to tolerate the opinion that CDs are irrelevant in the age of on-demand streaming.

The biggest argument online is about vinyl (a particular analog form) versus digital. The assertion, which is often equal parts rabid and snooty, is that vinyl sounds better than digital. This is stated factually much of the time, rather than preferentially. Vinyl is “warmer”, more authentic, and, most amazingly to me, the most faithful reproduction of the analog source that is possible. Let’s make something clear first for the purposes of argument. The comparator, digitally rendered music, refers to the highest fidelities of digital reproduction – CD, SACD, lossless digital files, or high bitrate compressed files that yield a resolution that is perceptually identical to their lossless digital counterparts (I’m looking at you, 320 kbps mp3).

The Hardware Barrier

Many (most? all?) of the aural nuances people argue about are completely moot, because there is far greater variance in sound quality attributable to listening hardware than there is to the audio source itself. People have different quality turntables, CD players, digital-to-analog converters, amplifiers, equalizers, speakers, and headphones. Valid comparisons between listeners and their systems cannot be readily made. Yet legions of people who listen to vinyl on Crosley portables or to 126 kbps mp3s on shitty earbuds have strong opinions about this.

What about within listeners? You get closer to fair comparisons if you funnel all your audio hardware through the same amp system and out the same speakers, so long as your digital to analogue conversion is on the high end. It is unfair to compare a beat up vinyl LP played on a budget turntable to the audio coming from a higher end CD deck. But once these things reach a level of parity, you can reach some degree of certainty that you are doing justice to the media. Speaking of which, controlled research studies have shown that listeners significantly prefer digital over analog playback.

The Big Myth of Vinyl

To paraphrase common online opinions, it is often stated that vinyl is a “pure analog reproduction”. The sound wave itself is carved into medium. Ergo, it must be the best! The “best”, in this sense, should mean the most authentic and true to the source recording. But this is simply untrue, independent of whatever subjective assertions people might make.

Consider what is actually meant by “analog” and “medium”. An analog, by definition, is a necessarily imperfect, but a consistent and predictable, physical representation of another object, process, or bundle of sense data, etc. In contrast, digital representation is not comprised of “physical variance” that can be proportionately traced back to its source – it’s just code. A medium is an intervening substance through which perceptual impressions can be conveyed. Vinyl, an analog medium, delivers the sound of the source recording to our ears, literally through vibrations of a needle on a physical waveform. But it is of course imperfect. It has to be. There are range of transformations, compromises, and mutations inherent to this transmission.

The “truest” representation of the music you love is the primary source, which is, at least in the pre-digital era, the lovingly mixed and mastered analog tapes that were intended by the artist to be delivered to the listener. Italics added because personally I want to hear what the artists meant me to hear. I want to hear what was played back by their engineer, to which the artists proclaimed, “Yes, that’s the mix! Stamp it!”. That’s why I rarely use EQ in my sound systems and why I use studio headphones that don’t colour the sound. The band already EQ’d it, so why should I mess with it?

So what happens during the transformation from 1/4” tape to vinyl? Quite a bit, evidently. Vinyl does not handle low frequencies very well, as deep bass troughs can kick the needle out of the groove. Engineers have to reduce bass frequencies in the source recording to prevent this problem, and quite conservatively so – record companies have always needed to accommodate the legions of teenage record buyers who play their products on cheap and crappy players with poorly weighted tone arms. Vinyl also doesn’t handle very high frequency sounds either, as needles often have a hard time tracking the rapidly undulating waveform. Things can get pretty hissy and “ssss-y” in these upper ranges. This is also true of songs closer to centre of the vinyl, in which more information needs to be crammed into a smaller distance of vinyl, creating tracking problems. Longer vinyl records may sound inferior to shorter ones for this reason. This is also apparently why 45 RPM can sound better than 33 RPM, as a fast spin transduces more information in a given time period. Always catering to audiophile sensibilities, the industry is putting out deluxe special editions of albums on muliple 45 RPM vinyl discs. How suspicious this is to the argument “vinyl sounds best” – apparently the billions of 33 RPM records could have sounded “better than the best” if they were mastered to 45.

Mastering to vinyl requires truncating the dynamic range of the recording (using the mysterious RIAA curve). Engineers in some cases fiddle with the track order to avoid ending with a song that has a wide dynamic range that cannot be reliably reproduced on the inner groove. No doubt, many engineers got really good at this and released wonderfully sounding records on vinyl in its heyday. It was also, of course, their only option. But a number of startling observations should give anyone pause about the superiority of the vinyl medium in terms of sound quality.

Vinyl versions are poor representations (not poor sounding, necessarily) of analog source tapes. They depart too significantly from the recording intended by the artist and the engineer. Engineers will tell you how demoralizing it is to hear the variance of vinyl masters after all that careful and meticulous mixing and mastering on tape. Personally, I want to hear what the artist envisioned.
Vinyl sound quality varies based on RPMs, how long the record is, and where songs live on the disc.
Vinyl degrades with each play, with the wave form literally being ground down by the needle. Conversely, a turntable’s stylus also wears down with each play. I’ve never had to get a new CD laser.
Vinyl pressings, audiophiles will tell you, vary in quality. Earlier presses (within a run) are apparently better. Different reissues will vary due to the press quality. I’m not talking about the variations in mastering between issues, but literally the physical quality of vinyl. Note that digital copies are exact duplicates. There is no such thing as a bad “CD press” (although there is some atrociously bad CD mastering).
Even the composition of the vinyl apparently matters, to the point that vinyl is not “one medium” and certainly exposes the fallacious notion that vinyl represents true analog fidelity to the recorded sound. Virgin vinyl, recycled vinyl, superior vinyl compounds from Japan, all with varying performance. Seriously, WTF do people mean when they say “vinyl sounds better”?
Vinyl is fragile, easily scratched and fingerprinted, and appears specifically designed to attract dust – all of this leads to greater hiss, pops, crackles, and, unforgivably, skips. Some people find this nostalgia inducing. More on that later, but I would argue that no artist would willfully include, want, or expect to hear this noise accompanying their craft.
The hardware imperfections of most turntables produce “wow and flutter”, audiospeak for changes in belt/drive speed and therefore pitch. Many vinyl enthusiasts find this pleasing, but again, I think this detracts from artists' intentions.

· I do not have statistics, but it is safe to assume that the majority of contemporary music is digitally recorded in the first place, which means digital releases are exact copies of the source masters. Mastering digital files to vinyl seems ludicrous to me, yet vinyl apologists still proclaim that it sounds better (subjectively speaking, that’s defensible, if that’s what you hear, but I find it very strange) or, ridiculously, that vinyl IS better in some objective sense that only true audiophiles can understand.

These facts are not really debatable, although hotly debated. High end digital recordings, on any objective measure, out-perform analog and are the closest representation of artistic intentions. CDs are a near perfect physical vehicle for digital data. There is no physical contact with the disc to play it, with only an optical laser extracting (magically, really) the information. CDs are hardy and resistant to scratches, if you take moderately good care of them, and damage is often reparable. The playback is the same every single time and they cannot be accidentally erased. There has been some discussion of the shelf-life of CDs, with recent reports that some old CDs are degrading, and the speed of degradation depends on environmental conditions and disc quality. Others suggest that CDs might last for centuries. In my personal experience, no CD of mine has shown any deterioration and I have digital back ups anyway. Meanwhile, many of my vinyl albums I bought as a teenager are a mess, and I wasn’t particularly hard on them.

But vinyl sounds warmer...

As I noted a few times, I am not debating subjective tastes associated with hearing music. People should listen to what “sounds good” to their ears, period. But what does it mean, exactly, when people say vinyl sounds “warmer” and more pleasurable than the apparently cold realm of digital? To my ears, this “warmth” is the perception of the muddy middle of mid-range equalization, in which the low and high ends of the spectrum have been lopped off by necessity on vinyl renderings. Some people like this frequency range (and, presumably, wouldn’t call it “muddy”). For some records, the vinyl-digital difference is not all that perceptible, and a little bit of EQ’ing on the output can align different renderings to taste fairly easily. In other cases the vinyl simply sounds quieter, which some fans like as response to the (quite overstated) “loudness wars” of the digital age. And in other cases, I can hear a sizable difference in quality.

There was a time, however, when vinyl WAS often better than CD. When the CD format gained prominence and began growing its market share it showed some serious limitations. In the early days, people were rightly blown away by the fidelity of several flagship releases (Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms comes to mind, which was exclusively released on CD and sounded amazing). As players became more affordable, record companies rushed to transfer old analog master tapes to the digital medium. The technology was young, the process was rushed, and, in many cases, it was unclear if any remastering was done at all. This might mean that vinyl masters (not the analog source tapes) would be digitized, which represents a big failure to take advantage of digital’s dynamic range. Worse still, source analog masters may have been transferred without remastering to CD, which could reintroduce high end hiss that an original vinyl master eliminated. Hence the common early disclaimer about the “limitations of the source material” slapped on CD cases, which was a way of deflecting blame elsewhere and away from lazy or perhaps naive remastering efforts. In other cases, the digital remastering (or mastering of new titles) just sucked – it did not improve (or even equal) the vinyl release, nor was it apparent that it was faithful to the source tapes. Case in point, for example, is U2's Unforgettable Fire, released on both formats together in 1984 when vinyl mastering had reached peak quality and CD was just a babe in the woods. My vinyl copy is far superior to the CD, which sounds tepid and poor. Slot in my 2009 remastered version, when CD mastering was advanced and refined, and it takes over the vinyl quite easily to my ears.

And now…wow! State of the art digital capturing is readily accessible to everyone and boasts analog conversion methods that provide true fidelity and faithfulness to original masters. Engineers know what there are doing now and very often get the remastering right. Digital remastering these days is rarely bad, and at worst it doesn’t add much that is new, except maybe volume. At best, you get absolutely sublime, moving, mind-blowing reissues, like The Beatles 2009 box set reissue, and reissues by Queen, Neil Young, R.E.M., etc.

So, in sum, I’ve been pretty hard on vinyl. Which is odd given that I have 1000 or so in my collection and continually buy it (more on that later). In fact, I will concede that, across all the recorded music I listen to, the vinyl/digital gap in audio quality is fairly small in size and largely inconsequential. Perhaps this is because I mostly listen to digital copies of both vinyl and CDs, and the problems known to vinyl are not pronounced in my listening life. So why the hell am I harping on about all this? Because I definitely prefer CDs (for reasons stated and more reasons to come) and they are quite possibly under threat. When they are routinely dismissed as obsolete and inferior in the face of piles of evidence, well, it’s frustrating. I worry about a future world of digital streaming and $38 vinyl records, with, ahem, “no happy medium”.

Why Not Go Exclusively Digital Via Streaming?

I stream music, quite a bit in fact. I like the convenience of calling up an album on Spotify wherever I am and sending it to a range of bluetooth receivers all over the house, in the car, etc., despite the degraded audio quality. It is a tremendous resource for checking out new bands. I’m also an avid user of the Bandcamp stream. Add YouTube into the mix, and you have a massive library to choose from. So what’s the point of purchasing CDs? Why not dispense with the clutter? Or, if you want a true “library” of songs, why not download mp3s? Going exclusively digital is a decision that seems even more attractive, one would think, with the availability of lossless (or at least very high resolution) digital audio options. I have my reasons to keep the CD in my life, and so should you.

Audio Fidelity

The "bits are bits" argument -- that a digital audio information is immutable and cannot be affected by external factors -- breaks down when one play tests multiple CD players through the same DAC. There are noticeable differences between CD players. Sometimes these differences are remarkable. I recently bought the 6000CDT from Audiolab and the sound is unbelievable. This is just a transport - it does not convert the digital information to analog sound and has no analog outs -- that sends the digital information to an external DAC. I don't fully understand the audio science, but there a number of physical and technical specifications that reduce "jitter", which is variance in the timing of the digital information. The ones and zeroes and their ordering will never change, but their timing during delivery can vary, and there are audible effects. I thought this was snake oil at first. I thought digital error correction takes care of this. But it is absolutely clear that my new transport completely out-performs other CD players plugged into the same DAC. I'm not talking about audiophile nuance here. It's superiority is obvious and unmistakable.

Jitter has been a known issue for a long time (it applies to all digital transmissions) but it's impact on digital audio -- and corresponding engineering -- is relatively new to most people (I count myself here, and still learning, if only superficially). Here is an older article that explores the issue. https://www.stereophile.com/content/cd-jitter-errors-magic/

The revelation that CD players THEMSELVES matter (independent of DAC uses) is important to me for a couple reasons. The first is, holy shit, CD audio already sounded great and now it sounds better. It means CD hardware had and has room to improve! Second, it's already clear that CD audio is superior to vinyl in a technical sense (and superior to these ears in a subjective sense). But I didn't really think that CD was superior to hi res digital files, whether streamed or on your hard drive. But the difference I am hearing between CD and 320 kbps mp3 is striking (again, same DAC). The truth of the matter is that CD is now a mature technology with the medium, players, and converters improving with every year. Digital files is pretty young. It will catch up, no doubt. But in 2021, CD is the best sounding medium, and isn't that the best reason to choose them? But...there are others...

Cost

If you want to stream high resolution audio, say at 320 kbps or lossless, you are going to eat up your home data plan. This normally wouldn’t matter, as high bitrate audio will still only use about 115 MB of data per hour, which would be accommodated easily by decent home plans. However, my household is also streaming hours and hours of video and we used to be consistently at the edge of our monthly plan.

Plans have gotten better, with affordable unlimited options. Just remember that you are in fact paying for music, albeit in a way that is buried within your internet data package. Streaming service subscriptions are the other cost. They are pretty cheap but if want to ensure you get most everything, you will need more than one service, and this adds up.

Do all these streaming costs add up to more than buying stacks of CDs on a regular basis? No, definitely not. Streaming will still be cheaper than buying physical products if you listen to a lot of music. But this is but one dimension to the debate. CDs. of course, are getting cheaper and cheaper, especially from the used market. Because of eBay and Discogs, the market competition is massive, driving down the price, at least for popular titles. Very often I can pick up a CD for the same or less as the mp3 download fee. But I’d rather buy brand new, directly from the artist if possible. CDs are cheaper and faster for artists to make than vinyl (perhaps a third of the cost). Postage is the only issue now, really, which has become positively larcenous in my home country of Canada.

Selection and Integrated Listening

People are rightly blown away by the selection of music boasted by streaming services (Spotify in particular) and adding them up seems to cover all bases. Right? I think it IS a rare record indeed that can’t be located on a streaming service of some sort (with YouTube being extraordinarily good for finding rare gems). However, what a giant pain in the ass this is! What kind of “library” is this if you have to jump from service to service to hear a song or album you want to hear? How do you organize it? You of course have to remember who carries which music. You have to manage all your subscriptions, passwords, updates, and junk email. This is untenable to me, and I assume this is true for most people. I suspect most people pick a service and stick with it.

In my case, the go-to choice is Spotify. Just how comprehensive is it? For starters, it houses 50+ million songs and growing by about 40k a day. In recent years a number of big names, after some principled resistance, relented and allowed their music to be added to the catalog (The Beatles, Pink Floyd, AC/DC, Prince, etc.). Others have allowed streaming of some sort, but just not on Spotify (e.g., Neil Young, Garth Brooks). A few stalwarts have no streaming presence at the time of this writing, such as De La Soul, King Crimson, Suede, and Tool. If I dispensed with my physical collection and stuck to Spotify, I’d have to do without Neil Young? Unconscionable!

However, there are thousands and thousands of songs that are unavailable and it is unclear why – probably this sometimes has to do with the absence of digital rights agreements of smaller bands and their labels, especially when agreements have lapsed. Other times the artist is not playing ball. Inaccessible to me are albums by artists such as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Joanna Newsom, The Housemartins, Spacemen 3, and Flying Saucer Attack, just to provide some quick examples. And so many little obscure gems, safely housed in my physical library, are now lost in the mists of the new streaming reality – Tales of Adventure, by Breeding Ground, an early 80s post-punk Toronto band, is absent; Globe of Frogs, an all-time favorite from mystical/weird folkie Robyn Hitchcock, is missing from the catalog, although many of his other releases are present; The sublime Falls EP, the only release by Sparrow House, a side project of Voxtrot’s Jared Van Fleet demonstrates how a favorite song (“Foxes”, #36 on my Top 500) may not be streamable. There are tons of localized, self-released records that have not and may never show up on Spotify.

Compare this to the physical library. At my fingertips I have all my CDs (and vinyl) accessible by getting out of my chair, walking 3 feet, pulling out disc and popping it into my deck. I am just as likely to queue up the high quality mp3 version of the album, which I have ripped myself from the CD. And physical releases may also have tracks that are not otherwise available. This is often true of 7” short-run issues that are unlikely to show up on mainstream streaming services, unless the band becomes accomplished enough to issue a b-side comp.

Longevity

Is streaming forever? Financial reporting shows that Spotify has yet to make a profit. The biggest music streaming service in the world is not profitable, due to the unending quest to establish licensing agreements and the payment of royalties. What if the service collapses? So does your “library” and all the memories made by the music you listened to. You don’t own a thing. Mp3s located on your hard drive are a much safer bet. Even the reliance on hard drives to store mp3s makes me nervous, although I think I’ve learned my lesson about securing back ups after losing piles of digital music at different stages of my life. CDs are my ultimate mp3 back up, and although I’d probably shoot myself in the face if I lost hours upon hours of ripping, I will have not lost the music.

Streaming is Shitty for Artists

Because of the wafer thin profit margins of streaming, and despite billions of dollars changing hands between consumers, services, and record labels, the great majority of artists receive a pittance from streaming. Most artists have to play ball, since their labels have, and because they will recede from view in the online environment without a streaming presence. But it sucks for them and is a completely unsustainable source of revenue. It’s only through the tough slog of touring, merch sales, and record sales that bands can survive. I will happily fork over 10 to 20 bucks to receive a physical copy if it means the artist benefits.

How many times do people listen to the average album, by the way, assuming they buy them in the first place? There’s a few that I’ve surely listened to hundreds of times. There are many others that I honestly LOVE, but that I’ve probably listened to under 5 times. A song or two might make it to a playlist, but the whole album? There are so many hours in the day. Yet, I still feel that the price of the CD is worth it (as is the future option to listen to it). In streaming terms, which pays about $0.007 per play, this means that a great album of 10 songs heard top to bottom 3 times will net the artist…35 cents! For some bizarre and unrealistic reason, the streaming industry appears to assume that if person actually buys a record, they will have it on repeat for two months straight. I’d need to listen to a 10-song album 140 times all the way through for the artist to get 10 bucks out of me! Streaming companies will argue that this is all a matter of scale, as the exposure to potential listeners is expansive – but so are downloads, which still sit at about a buck a song. If you love an album, I think you should buy it straight up, at the very least in the mp3 format.

The Allure of the Physical Product

I have been a collector as long as I remember. From childhood collecting of stamps, coins, pennants, and hockey cards to present-day collecting of comics, video games, guitar pedals, and, yes, recorded music, I have had an obsessive, completist nature that wills me to acquire and admire. It’s a rewarding condition bordering on dysfunction at times. So it is not my intent to suggest that everyone should have massive record collections. But there is something compelling about the physical release of a record that I believe many people recognize.

[Side bar: The term “record” and “album” is used by many as synonymous with vinyl LP. I’ve always thought of “record” as synonymous with “recording”, which encompasses CDs in my mind. “Have you heard the new Sloan record?” means to me their new long-playing album, not the medium.]

A new record, be it on vinyl or CD, is something you can hold in your hand and look at when listening to the music. Artists make highly intentional statements via their cover art, and communicate much about their music in accompanying liner notes. A new coloured vinyl disc is like a magical gem. One imagines the artist pouring over these decisions: the images to construct/deconstruct, the message to parley, the degree of ambiguity or controversy with which to challenge the viewer/listener, and so on. Lyrics and credits are very often provided, which is a nice extra and preferable to searching and reading online. The visual and tactile dimensions enhance the audio experience.

I love so many of these artistic efforts. When bands/labels go the extra mile to create something unique and customized, I am appreciative and pleased to file the item into my collection. Just recently the Soda Lilies released a short-run of 50 cassettes that were each “hand warbled” during dubbing to produce 50 subtly unique recordings. That’s super cool. My limited edition 7” of Courtney Barnett’s “Boxing Day Blues”, is signed. You can’t sign a stream. Torche graced us with a 10” coloured “flower vinyl” and CD release of the EP In Return in a beautiful double gatefold sleeve, one of my all time favorite releases in aesthetic terms. My Superfantastics 7” comes with 3D glasses to view their stereoscopic cover art. I love this shit.

Is there a vinyl versus CD argument here? Vinyl wins hands down in terms of cover art – it’s bigger which makes it nicer. And I am a bit of a sucker for coloured vinyl or picture discs. I routinely post my new pretty vinyl acquisitions on Instagram. But I also also post my CDs.

I like CD packages a little more overall. I am definitely in the minority here. In a recent article that echoes most of my points made here, the writer nonetheless deems the aesthetic value of CDs as “ghastly”. This seems quite harsh to me and also out of touch with t he amazing things that have been done with CD packaging, which is arguably more versatile than the 12x12 format. Of course standard jewel case CDs with a single page insert are boring and crappy, but I also have a number of vinyl LPs packaged in flimsy cardboard with no insert at all, which is equally lame. The general reason I like CDs better is their (true to their name) compact nature, which may seem counterintuitive at first. I can store more of them more easily, I can hold a stack of 10 in one hand, and flip through them like a deck of cards. I can read the spines much easier. Why should small be inferior? People love collecting trading cards, for example, and it would be weird and cumbersome if they were bigger. There are many creative things artists have done with CD packaging. The inserts can be extensive and actually more convenient to peruse than a 12” x 12” booklet. And the CD labels are larger and often more interesting and artful compared to their vinyl counterparts. Quick examples: The cover of my CD copy of Tamara Williamson’s album, In the Arms of Ed was hand painted by the artist herself. Gord Downie’s CD release of Coke Machine Glow comes with a book of poetry. Menomena’s M is a flip-book of still photos of the band, which animates into a performance. So many lovely little packages – the plastic jewel case should not not represent the CD!

The consistent outrage about all the wasted plastic of CD cases is a bit overstated anyway. The plastic is recyclable; vinyl is not. The gazillion CD cases showing up in landfills is a scourge and turns my stomach as they could have been recycled or - !!! – kept! I just did a random sample of three of my shelves and over one-third of my CDs are housed in cardboard digipaks or sleeves.

With vinyl I have become paranoid handling it, an annoying feeling I can’t seem to shake off and a by-product of the new vinyl obsession. Long gone are the days where I have 10 records haphazardly strewn on my floor. Now I worry about bending a corner, or slicing through the slipcover with the vinyl’s edge. The concern about scratching the surface is ever present. It’s stupid. CDs, however, give me no such grief. They’re hardy and easy to handle and I get no less enjoyment popping them into a CD receptacle than I do lowering a tonearm onto a vinyl record (a ritual that vinyl enthusiasts somehow find essential to the experience).

The desire to collect, acquire, and simply “have” can be characterized as a form of artistic engagement and pursuit. It can be just as easily denounced as vacuous materialism. Do people really need all these shiny discs lining their walls and cluttering their space to enjoy music? No, probably not. Many people do not need piles of records to be a music fan.

But neither do I think that collecting habits represent mere materialism. I strongly believe there is an important, foundational element of purchasing the physical product that drives how one engages with music. I believe the process of acquiring records produces qualitatively different psychological paths to musical appreciation that is badly stunted by the current environment of online digital streaming.

The Psychology of Record Buying and Listening

It is tremendously difficult to argue to a cash poor 15 year old who piggybacks on the family Spotify account that they start buying physical recordings (even if many do). If Spotify was around when I was a teenager, I would have been all in. Of course I had no choice except to buy records from a store if I loved a band (aside from radio and home taping, the first form of widespread piracy). At $6.99 to $8.99 an LP, this was a good chunk of money in 1984. People now don’t have to make this choice. It’s easy to paint this observation as curmudgeonly (he shakes his fist: “these damn kids today”!) but there is simply no denying the vast changes to music consumption. Kids aren’t any different, the environment of music is.

There is the oft-cited quote by author Nick Hornby that exhorts people to go to record stores instead of downloading, which makes us hard copy lovers feel smug, nodding our heads: “Go ahead and save yourself a couple of quid. The savings will cost you a career, a set of cool friends, musical taste and, eventually, your soul. Record stores can't save your life. But they can give you a better one." This quote was pre-streaming and one can only imagine that this cultural change would make Hornby dig his heels in even more. In a later interview, he stated that all access streaming…

“… enabled me to pay less attention to the music itself. I skip tracks all the time, I listen to things for twenty seconds before deciding whether I like them, I don’t pay enough for the music I do appreciate. So I decided that whenever I fell in love with an artist or an album, I would do them the courtesy of spending some decent money on their work, sitting in a room and listening to it properly, over the course of twenty minutes or so. It’s stopped my endless skid over the surface of things.”

He echoes my thoughts precisely. Buying physical music (CD, vinyl, cassettes, or any other format that you can put into your hands), in the fullness of time, brings all sorts of social, psychological, and emotional rewards. I think I started to feel this truth as soon as CDs arrived, enjoying the automated programming and easy track skipping but also feeling vaguely bothered by it – like I was cheating and being unduly capricious. Like I was doing a disservice to the record, the band, and music in general. If I didn’t articulate this feeling then, it certainly emerged with the onset of mp3s and their corresponding software players (remember WinAmp? Musicmatch Jukebox?). My use of Limewire and Kazaa was principled and utilitarian – I’d use it to explore new music for later purchase or acquire single songs that were not yet available on CD – but it still felt like stealing (because it was).

What do you get, in the near and far term, when you buy physical recordings?

First, purchasing the physical medium forces some attention on your part. Because you paid for it (directly and specifically) you are going to give it a chance cover to cover – which is what all artists hope for, at least. You will listen to every song at least once. The fact that vinyl records and cassettes are inconvenient is another consideration, and exactly the point. You are lazy – we are all lazy – and you will let that mediocre song #4 play through because you know #5 is great and you don't feel like getting up to advance the track. In time, perhaps #4 will reveal itself as great. I bought a used CD player that missing its remote and I’m glad, because yes, I’m too lazy to go up and hit that track forward button. And mixed tapes! The beauty of a mixed tape assembled from vinyl, especially as a gift, is that it is a labour of love – it requires thought, time, and attention that is completely lacking when you go surfing to a Spotify mix by some stranger. You’ll listen to it all the way through many times over, if the person knows you well. Making a Spotify mix for someone? Feels like barely a gesture. (Wow, to think that young people don't really have the option anymore to "give music", personally curated, a form of interpersonal communication...it boggles the mind what has been lost).

Engaging with physical music leads to a deeper understanding and appreciation of an album, and music in general. This process will create favorites out of songs you would have certainly dismissed and skipped. And if enough people do this, it preserves the sacred status of “an album” – a coherent document of songs that are meant to hang together, in a suggested order. A document that you can anchor more meaningfully than a single song (or a sporadic array of unrelated songs) to a time. Which brings us to point two.

Point two is that attention and repetition solidifies and strengthens memories. Music is a strange and unique pathway to memory building. A note on a piano or a drum strike does not encode for longevity. But if it’s the first note of a particular timbre, it can easily trigger your memory of a particular song. Add in layers of instruments and some vocals and you have the sonic/linguistic ingredients that, repeated 15-20 times, will stay with you your entire life! But the magic of music is not merely that it is specifically memorable; it’s that songs, albums, years, eras, and entire genres attach themselves to autobiographical memories. And the attachment, if not evocative of a particular scene, is keyed to the emotions of the time. Musically evoked memories can be both ephemeral and strongly focused, sometimes in the same moment.

So, buying physical music compels you to engage with music more deeply, and depth of listening translates into deep personal memories. My third point may sound exaggerated, that I am overreaching with the presumed power of music. But it is this: the totality of listening to records your whole life is nothing short of building your identity as a person. There is a reason film makers use music to strategically convey meaning, a parallel supplement to the scene – it makes cinema more memorable. Or why pretty much all religious observances use song, music, and rhythm to unify and empower the faith. Or why social and community life forms around and is anchored by music – it’s a common touchstone of being human.

Think of song that evokes a strong, personal memory. Why do you have it? For some songs it’s because something momentous happened in direct relation to that song. For others it's because it was “always playing”. Can you describe the memory? Not really, not adequately. The description is lacking because it is very difficult to materially capture the emotional context/content. It’s like describing a dream to a friend – it may have been a profound experience; meanwhile your patient friend will respond with “neat” or “freaky!”. But it is nonetheless powerful.

These are the core reasons I have always felt the benefit of holding a record in my hands. It sets up a commitment to listen with attention and mindfulness. And over decades this process, repeated and repeated, has given me an autobiographical frame, completely independent from the straightforward remembering of an event or scene. Certain smells can do this, as can visiting a place you have not been to in years, or looking at old pictures. But these sensory paths are less reliable somehow. Songs and whole albums can be truly transportative and they are the varied signposts of your personal history. Making as many of them as possible seems tremendously important to me. I think it’s what Hornby meant when he said (to paraphrase) that not shopping at record stores will cost you your soul.

The Collector Mind and Attraction to Vinyl

The vinyl resurgence, and the subsequent victimization of the compact disc, is a giant, glorious sham. It is the outcome of a brilliant countermeasure of bricks and mortar stores who sell physical products, primarily associated with the runaway success of Record Store Day. The wool has been pulled over the eyes of music consumers, producing an elitist, ostensibly non-conformist, retro-cool identity to which countless people, young and old, have assumed. The “superiority of vinyl” argument has been been propped up by this highly effective marketing tsunami and worn as a badge of honor by vociferous, sniffing hipsters.

I would like to be absolutely clear on my opinion here --- THANK FUCKING GOODNESS for Record Store Day and the remarkably successful initiative of independent record shops. Their efforts have preserved and fortified the existence of physical music. I am sad that CDs have been a casualty, but it was necessary. Here’s why: despite the many reasons CDs are great, in the minds of consumers they were never different enough from mp3s and then, the greatest threat, unlimited streaming. The record store movement HAD to get behind vinyl, because a much better narrative could be woven to set it apart from digital.

Regarding this narrative, first, was the claim that vinyl has superior audio fidelity, which is complete bunk. I need not repeat myself on this. The second reason gets at the heart of the collector’s mind, and diminishes the credibility of the first reason: that different pressings of the same record have different levels of quality, and that the condition of vinyl – especially original pressings – matters immensely. CDs, bless them, play the same even if smudged and scratched. Different copies of the same record house identical digital files. If vinyl is scratched, it’s permanently marred, and lesser. This is what collectors want – a way to distinguish their collection, and their “pressings” from those of others. You don’t hunt for “a superior sounding copy” of Rubber Soul on CD, because it is a copy and not superior sounding. This is why CD remastered reissues, with bonus tracks, are more valuable. They are different. And thus explains the love of vinyl, the psychological need of collectors to improve upon their collection and out-collect others.

I think if you asked any record store owner, they would tell you that they have absolutely NO problem selling CDs if that is what the market wants. CDs are beginning to come back a little bit now, as more people experience (or re-experience) the inherent value of the physical product through buying vinyl, but simply can’t afford the inflated vinyl prices. It’s become a real scam, this “collector” market, with huge similarities to sports cards. Create exclusivity, create rarity, and jack up the prices. I fall into this trap myself, when an album is vinyl only. Streaming a record I really like just seems wrong.

In Summary: All Hail The Compact Disc

Vinyl is not superior sounding to digital in any objective sense and there is plenty of evidence to back this up that cuts through the omnipresent, mysterious “vinyl is warmer” rhetoric.
Most CDs sound better than most vinyl counterparts, if by better we mean “as close as possible to the source recording that was endorsed and intended by the artist". In some cases the reverse is true, but this is due to mastering failures, rather than a consequence of the two media.
These days, most of the time, the practical sonic differences between digital and vinyl are pretty minor. I love listening to both.
However…CDs are better for many many other reasons beyond superior fidelity – cost, durability, longevity, storage, ease of digitization. Packaging and art comes down to aesthetic preference, but I would say a strong case can be made for many CD releases.
Support CDs! Why wouldn’t you, at least in part? I’ve given heaps of reasons! Do it!
Keep your Spotify account (it’s a great thing) but buy more records! Be it on CD, vinyl, or cassette, invest in the artist, and commit to the recordings. Your life sort of depends on it.

The Top 25 Albums of 1991

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Wed, 20 May 2020 04:54:00 +0000

[This post and all the music in it is dedicated to Michael Hotta, who led me to so many of these albums and whose birthday it is as I click the "publish" button]

For a playlist of my favorite songs of 1991 check out my Spotify and follow greenpalmrad.

Of all the years in music, this may be the most important to me, and a good chunk of Generation X. Other important years – such as 1968, 1977, 2005 – deserve gobs of respect as well, but 1991 is autobiographically special. I discovered the music of ’68 and ’77 after the fact (although not too long after the fact for ’77; on the other hand 2005 seems like yesterday to me). In 1991, I was on the pulse, in the middle of it, taking everything in as a university undergraduate. Friendship, heartbreak, fear, love, loathing, and hope. In these wonderful, chaotic, and impressionable days, rock music (and hip hop, and experimental rock, and other stuff) was rapidly mutating, giving rise to or solidifying entire genres in a single calendar year. Yes, the causal chain to these sounds is complicated, and yes, these musical statements did not arrive out of nowhere without precursors. But 1991 is when so many things HIT. The year also yielded albums that that exposed me to genres and niches I knew little about, but have since become dear to my heart.

1991 was a year of shoegaze, grunge, gangsta rap, and early britpop. It saw debut, break out, or seminal albums by sooooo many of my all-time favorite bands including Swervedriver, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Mercury Rev, Teenage Fanclub, Blur, and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin. What a list.

First, some honorable mentions: 1991 saw tremendous albums from Talk Talk, Ice T, Slowdive, The Mekons, Chapterhouse, Massive Attack, The Jazz Butcher, Rheostatics, The Bevis Frond, Tom Petty, Screaming Trees, The Magnetic Fields, Velvet Crush, and Lush.

And here we go, my Top 25 favorite albums from 1991, the cornerstones of the soundtrack of my life. The year you could dance to rock music in every corner club.

25. Julian Cope – Peggy Suicide

I should be clear up front that Julian Cope is far from a great singer. He’s not even a good singer, although I don’t mind his singing. I’m not even sure if he can even be considered “talented”, conventionally speaking. But, like Syd Barret, early Flaming Lips,or Robyn Hitchcock, he is an absolutely beautiful freak, someone who can make interesting and often amazing records because he is relentlessly creative, artistic, and out of his head. He is into Druidism, wizardry, acid, and radical eco-politics. When he’s not laying down vocals stark naked, he might be found crawling around the studio under a giant tortoise shell. Half the time he is inspired by The Velvet Underground, Suicide, The Stooges, and the MC5; the other half is Brian Eno, Japan, and brit-pop. He is pretty much uncategorizable and I don’t think he knows what he’s doing much of the time. As a result all of his records are uneven, and potentially aggravating at points. But on Peggy Suicide, an 18 song album, he finds a way to keep me interested and sometimes rapt, with a great song blooming up regularly to make up for the weird filler and peculiar digressions. Lyrically it’s a call to arms to rescue Mother Earth and to repudiate Thatcherism, police states, and organized religion. Apparently. Most of the time, I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about. I do know that his damaged mindset led to the creation of this piece of work that simply must make this list, if only to recognize the eight or so songs that affected me so weirdly and deeply back in the day. Choice tracks: “Beautiful Love” was the radio-friendly single, but delve into this record with “Promised Land”, “Las Vegas Basement”, or “If You Loved Me At All”.

24. Dinosaur Jr. – Green Mind

Green Mind was a fork in the road for Dinosaur Jr. It was their first album on a major label, first album after the less than amicable departure of Lou Barlow (who focused on his own outfit, Sebadoh), and, for all intents and purposes, a solo record. Drummer, Murph, was barely around, contributing on only three tracks and otherwise leaving it all up to the obsessive compulsive predelictions of band founder and de facto leader, J. Mascis. Compared to its distorted, in-the-red predecessors, Green Mind is almost bucolic at times. Okay, well, that’s taking it too far, but we do in fact have some acoustic guitar, some general jangle, and an overall attention to dynamics that do not necessarily involve his screeching Fender Jazzmaster. His penchant for Sonic Youth-style histrionics still appear, but it sure is nice to have some extra space to hear the band differently. While perhaps not the best album in Dinosaur Jr.’s catalogue, this one is up there. Listening to lead track “The Wagon” is like listening to a torch song for indie rock, signifying the emergence of 20 or so bands that would rotate through my 5-disc CD player in the 90s and beyond. Choice track: “The Wagon”.

23. Sarah McLachlan – Solace

Canadian folk pop royalty, Sarah McLachlan, debuted with 1988’s Touch, but it was Solace that put her on the map and minds of the pop culture coffeehouse. This was Sarah’s sweet spot, where she was new and fresh, exuding emotional authenticity and a voice of an angel. I was a sucker for it. One could maybe predict the eventual drift to AOR folk (although, kudos to Sarah for covering XTC’s “Dear God” in 1995 – that was a brave move). But Solace had something else going on, an independent spirit unfettered by the trappings of her eventual fame. This album puts me right back into my dilapidated car, driving to Ontario cottage country in the summer sunshine, worried about a girl, and getting lost trying to find my childhood cottage that I had not seen in 20 years. It pulls at my heart, this one. Beautifully produced, emotionally literate, orchestral folk. A Canadian classic. Choice track: “Drawn To The Rhythm”.

22. King Apparatus – King Apparatus

Does anyone remember these guys? My time in university dorms and dwellings led me to a life-changing love of ska, rocksteady, and reggae. King Apparatus, a Toronto via London (Ontario) collective, arrived on the university campus concert circuit with a bang of high energy ska, prefiguring the ska-punk revival that was to soon to hit the alternative (soon-to-be mainstream) air waves (e.g., Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reel Big Fish, No Doubt, Rancid, Sublime). The album (with single “Made for TV”) was a regional, almost national hit, with heavy rotation on MuchMusic and college radio. King Apparatus was short-lived however, disbanding in soon after in 1993 with four albums under their belt. A shame, because this is a tremendous album, stuffed to the cracks with catchy dance-floor pogos, with a staunch anti-fascist punk as fuck attitude. But it’s the title track (and namesake) “King Apparatus” that carries the day for me, a more rocksteady number providing some respite from the double time beats of the rest of the album, replete with rich anthemic horns and a simple message “to put away the coffee and go pick up a beer”. It’s got to be rub-a-dub music if you’re gonna dance with me! Choice track: “King Apparatus”.

21. Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – God Fodder

How this band got relatively lost in the cacophony of the early 90’s is beyond me, because they appeared to have all the ingredients of alt-music hit makers. They fit in snugly with the sounds of early Blur, The Charlatans, Stone Roses, and The Mighty Lemon Drops. They were also distinctive, however, influenced by punk but also freely using a fuzzily reverbed guitar sound that was sparkly and slightly psychedelic, a sort of proto-shoegaze similar to The House of Love. Unusually, they employed two bass players, one taking care of the low end and the other up high as a second lead guitar (with serious chops). This created a wholly unique sound that somehow felt hardcore, even though you were clearly listening to super-catchy melodic alt-pop tunes. Songs like “Happy”, “Kill Your Television”, and “Green Cell Grey” are irresistible and stand up to this day as classics. If there is any criticism, it is their penchant for recycling melodies and rhythms a bit too much across the album. That aside, God Fodder is a pretty remarkable debut and their follow up Are You Normal? (1992) was almost as good. The Stone Roses perhaps come the closest, but no one sounded like Ned’s Atomic Dustbin in 1991 and no band really has sounded like them since. Choice track: “Happy”.

20. Ice Cube– Death Certificate

1991 was a time when old school, gangsta rap was pushing itself onto the radio waves and it was awesome. I got into it based on various crossovers, from the embarassing (Aerosmith teaming up with Run-DMC; Barenaked Ladies’ covering Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power”, which is amazing) to the fortuitous (Ice Cube touring with Lollapalooza). Coming out the template laid down by the mighty N.W.A., Ice Cube’s hip-hop hammered the listener. But beyond his power-keg delivery, it’s the samples that impress me. Like the work of hip-hop pioneer Dr. Dre, Death Certificate incorporates amazing soul and funk riffs and samples to add (much needed) musicality to the back beats. The content is hair-raising and politically controversial; much of it is also a perfectly reasonable response to the culture of racism, violence, and poverty experienced by young black people in 1990’s AmeriKKKa (still is). Some songs are unlistenable because they are so horrifyingly offensive (case in point is “Givin Up The Nappy Dug Out”, which turns my stomach). Ice Cube’s moral out is that he is a street-wise storyteller that’s representing the bad shit and bad asses of urban realism. It’s a thin tightrope to be sure, but this bombshell of an album ultimately can’t be denied. Choice track: “The Wrong Nigga To Fuck Wit”

19. Billy Bragg – Don’t Try This At Home

I have been a die-hard Billy Bragg fan since a dorm mate lent me a tape of the Back to Basics compilation, which brings together his first three releases, Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs. Spy, Brewing Up With Billy Bragg, and Between The Wars. I distinctly remember being shocked that “A New England” was not a brilliant original from Kirsty MacColl, but a stripped down Bragg original. This “man and his guitar” approach, a staple of 60’s folk, was so different to me because I had never heard it done with a scratchy electric guitar. Such a simple approach, but so unique at the time. His socialist, unionist lyrics spoke to me in these heady days of undergrad university, a setting in what I was becoming more politically aware on an almost daily basis. And he could also write a good love song. Bragg moved beyond the bare bones production to a fulsome sounding band set up with greater production values during Talking with the Taxman About Poetry and Workers Playtime (brilliant albums that figure on my annual top lists for their respective years). But 1991’s Don’t Try This At Home was almost lavish in its production, and with a greater variety of song types, demonstrating Bragg’s willingness to experiment with structure and sound. The effect is that is that Bragg moves into literate pop territory, combining energetic anthems (e.g., “Accident Waiting To Happen”), danceable northern soul (“Northern Sea Bubble”), and contemplative country-folk (“Mother of the Bride”, “You Woke Up My Neighbourhood”). “Cindy of a Thousand Lives” shows his new range, sounding like long-lost Smiths song. The album is also helped along by some star-power guests, including Johnny Marr (The Smiths), Peter Buck and Michael Stipe (R.E.M.), and (fittingly, for me) Kirsty MacColl. I’ll have to give it some thought as to whether or not this is Bragg’s apex album – it very well might be. Choice track: “Accident Waiting To Happen”.

18. Public Enemy – Apocalypse 91…The Enemy Strikes Black

In 1991, Ice Cube (see #20) was second only to the mighty Chuck D, one half of Public Enemy. Flavor Flav, Chuck’s goofy party-time counterpart, seems at first to be superfluous, but he’s necessary, bouncing calls and repeats back over his partner’s deadly serious raps. But Chuck D is the man, leagues ahead of everyone else in terms of style, power, and force, and by far my favorite rapper. By 1991, Public Enemy is already 6 years old – true originators/innovators of early 90’s hip hop – and Apocalypse 91 shows them going in a bit of a new direction, apparently out of necessity. Things are little leaner, the regular organized chaos of samples is toned down a bit, and live instruments are more central. Turns out the band had a pile of material stolen and had to start from scratch, rushing to get this out to the public. My take is that they didn’t seem to lose anything, as long as they have the Bomb Squad running the beats and Chuck D’s front and centre presence. Politically raw and necessary, this album (again) eviscerates white America for perpetuating the corrupt, broken, intrinsically racist system of oppression that victimizes Black communities. There is fiery anger here that is simply easier to get behind than Ice Cube or Ice-T because it is not weighed down by the constant posturing of gun violence/vengeance and horrible misogyny; nah, it’s a revolutionary call to action, to collectivism, to knowledge as power. Public Enemy are nothing less than American heroes. Choice track: “Move!”

17. Crash Test Dummies – The Ghosts That Haunt Me

While it took me an unnecessarily long time to warm up to country (I was stunted and biased by “bad” country, i.e., pop country, and the assumption of a tightly wound conservativism), I was always amenable to folk music, including all the classic singer songwriters of the 60’s and 70’s (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Donovan, Gordon Lightfoot, etc.). But what I have always found most rewarding is multi-instrumentalist folk, especially with an injection of Celtic rhythms and sounds; for example, The Pogues, Spirit of the West, and early Poi Dog Pondering (the latter of whom is horribly unrecognized – see album #2 of 1988). In addition to the core elements of acoustic guitar, bass, and drums, I sure do love me some banjo, mandolin, accordion, violin, flute, and penny whistle. And so we have it with this album, The Ghosts That Haunt Me. Winnipeg’s Crash Test Dummies surprised everyone with the unlikely mega-hit “Superman Song”. I almost love it, but the lyrical theme is pretty silly (a euology for Superman and an unwarranted criticism of Tarzan for his illiteracy – why would Superman need such a straw man from another fictional universe to posthumously prop him up?) One would think that this (dumbish) whimsy would destroy what is clearly a beautifuly constructed song, but it’s more likely that that’s exactly what appealed to the masses. Did Superman Song bring me to this album? I don’t recall, but probably. Regardless, the rest of this albums is superb – every song is a rich and satisfying celtic-folk gem, with gorgeous harmonies (assuming you can accept the bass tones of lead Dummy Brad Roberts) and skilled, traditional instrumentation. It’s down-homey, heart-on-sleeve lyrics (minus the aforementioned Superman eulogy) auto-trigger the nostalgia of long-lost friends and lovers. The band received even greater acclaim for their sophmore effort God Shuffled His Feet, with another perplexing international hit single (“Mmm Mmm Mmm”) and then sort of lost the plot with some truly embarassing releases (try to listen to Give Yourself A Hand without cringing into a ball). Forget it. This is their apex. Choice track: “Winter Song”.

16. The Tragically Hip – Road Apples

Gord Downie, Canada’s homegrown son and hero, left us almost three years ago, leaving behind a legacy of amazing music, with Road Apples among the best. It’s been said too many times: The Hip were never big in the States but a national treasure for us Canadians. Literally millions of us all perk up to the distinctive opening picked chords of “Little Bones”, reciting in unision “$2.50 for a high ball, and a buck and half for a beer!”. Road Apples is super solid hard rock peppered with plaintive folk throughout it’s epic 50 minutes, and is one of those records that qualifies as a national soundtrack. Gord is ornery and energetic, leaning into the songs like a man possessed. And he is also mournful, stirring us to raise our lighters and sway to “Long Time Running”. “Fiddler’s Green”, a song that was usually too painful for Gord to play live – about the death of his 5-year old nephew – reappeared on their final tour, as Gord knew he would soon fall to cancer. An entire nation succumbed to goosebumps and tears while they played it live in Kingston, Ontario, televised coast to coast on CBC. I can barely listen to it now. While the Hip would up their game even more on successive albums, Road Apples is the moment they turned a corner into Canada’s humble Hall of Fame. Choice track: “Little Bones” (and “Fiddler’s Green”, if you feel like a cry).

15. Teenage Fanclub – Bandwagonesque

Before Teenage Fanclub became known for their sparkly, Bydsian indie-folk-pop, they were early signees to Creation Records and regularly made quite a racket. The Fanclub were not swirling shoegazers like My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Slowdive, but they loved their fuzz pedals and Fender Jazzmasters. Vocally accomplished even in these early years, Norman Blake and Gerard Love sweetly harmonize over distorted guitar chords and squalls, sounding equal parts Crazy Horse, Big Star, and The Byrds. That they eventually moved to a cleaned up indie-pop sound (which, I must emphasize, is amazing) makes Bandwagonesque that much more of a nostalgic treasure. This album was on my tape deck constantly (home taping was a necessity for this broke 22 year old – thanks Mike Hotta) and will forever send me back to the early 90s. “The Concept”, “What You Do To Me”, “Alcoholiday”, and especially “Star Sign” are part of my DNA. Perpetually underrated (relatively speaking) Teenage Fanclub were unsung fathers of grunge, and forebears of the 90’s indie rock movement, even as they shifted sideways to buff up their folk-pop sheen. Bandwagonesque is not quite a lost classic – it is a well-known record – but damn, it needs far more love and historical kudos than it currently gets. Choice track: “Star Sign”

14. Enya – Shepherd Moons

I’ve voraciously defended my love of Enya in response to the New Age detractors before – see #5 of my Top 20 albums of 1988 – and shan’t do that again here. To the point, Shepherd Moons, her third album, is yet another sublime, neo-classical, ethereal triumph that equals the heights of Watermark, her 1988 breakthrough. In fact, were 1991 not such an incredible and explosive year for new music, the album would likely land in the Top 5 of this list. Enya stays the course, relying on heavily reverbed midi synths and, on more stripped down pieces, simple piano. Her vocals, as always, are layered into an elven choir, as if walking amongst the trees of Lothlorien (incidentally, the name of track 9). You can tell she is emotionally tied to the romance of fantasy fiction and wonder, drawing liberally from Celtic classical/folk rhythms and touchstones. This is her watermark, so to speak, a genre almost entirely created by her – a magical meeting of the synthetic and the ancient, enchanted dramas con legato con amore. Do not dismiss Enya, lest ye be cursed and thrown to the Gorgons. Choice track: Afer Ventus.

13. The Lowest of the Low – Shakespeare My Butt

Writing this in order, it’s a tough jump from Enya to The Lowest of the Low. Like phasing from an expansive meadow of wild flowers to the backseat of a Toronto street car. But I need both, you know. It will never make much sense to me how it is that Barenaked Ladies rose to international stardom while the Lowest of the Low, ostensibly on the same trajectory, never really made it out of Canada, let alone Ontario. Don’t get me wrong, they are a cherished band with a rabid fanbase, but it is a relatively small and wistful one. The comparison to the Ladies is apt: Both coming out of Toronto in the late 80’s, quickly rising to local popularity in the Ontario bar circuit, comprised of seriously talented singers/players, composing uber-catchy pop/rock songs, and having a wry, jokey lyrical approach that walks the edge between “serious band” and “comedy act”. There are differences of course. The Low were more electric, had a sharper edge, and were a little bit darker and ironic in the humour. Could it be that the wide-eyed, pudgy smiles of Barenaked Ladies, and their unobjectionable, boy-next-door humour gave them a leg up in the race to the CanCon top? Either way, Shakespeare My Butt is a stone cold Canadian classic that stands up a fair bit better than Gordon and pretty much anything else the Queen Street scene was putting out at that time. Every damn song is a catchy brawl, with amazing guitar chops, pin point harmonies, and rollicking rhythms. Lyrically, it is a treasure of exemplary story-telling, with quippy and coquettish biographies of the denizens of Toronto’s bars, alleys, and bedrooms. In a year in which vinyl presses trickled to almost nothing, this debut record could be nicely housed on a CD, boasting 65 minutes of music across 17 tracks (it would finally be given the vinyl treatment, a two-disc set in 2010. To this day, it has not be issued outside of Canada). While every song is great, several songs are quintessential early 90’s Toronto standards – “Salesmen, Cheats, and Liars”, “Rosy and Grey”, and “Eternal Fatalist” are a trio of songs that left an indelible mark on this man’s 22 year-old brain. Cheers, boys, you deserved fame, fortune, and the inevitable explosive alcohol-fueled break up that lesser bands enjoyed. Choice track: “Rosy and Grey”.

12. Blur – Leisure

Another astounding debut, this time from Blur, a band that would become celebrated and emblematic of Brit-pop, with the dubious exception of uber-wankers Oasis. I have a lot of Blur albums, but find them generally spotty. But Leisure seems a perfect storm, excellent from top to bottom, and an innovative entry into the pantheons of early 90’s rock. To me this is ground zero for Britpop, with several toes dipped in the Madchester sounds of Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, and The Charlatans (especially, “She’s So High”, “Bang”, and first hit “There’s No Other Way”). There are occasional shoegaze elements as well – a song like “Slow Down” could pass as a Swervedriver song, were it not for the upfront hyper-British vocals of Damon Albarn. I should add that I am not a fan (for the most part) of the 2012 remaster. To my ears, the track separation and clarification is subtractive; the album was attractive to me because it had so many interesting sounds deep in the mix, not buried but nuanced. Regardless, this record stands up as a classic and represented Blur at their best, unfettered by the pressures to out-do their contemporaries with populist radio hits, like “Girls and Boys” and “Song 2”. The later stuff, including the hits, were always greatish, but Leisure takes the British crown. Choice track: “Slow Down”.

11. George Winston – Summer

This pick illustrates the high probability that I am missing out on a lot of great music within my less travelled musical genres – in this case modern classical/jazz, subgenre solo piano. One day in the early 90’s I was helping my Dad connect his brand new CD deck to his stereo. The deck was a gift and provided with it was this George Winston album, the only CD in the house. I chucked it on to demonstrate the mysteries of the CD player to my bewildered Father and was immediately taken by what I heard – beautiful, delicate, melodious piano. So tenderly and expertly done and so evocative of the album title and the song names (“Fragrant Fields”, “The Garden”, “Hummingbird”). I immediately teefed a tape and recorded what I could fit on a side. I’ve since acquired a bunch of George Winston and a number of records from his label mates on Windham Hill Records. But nothing compares to Summer. If you’re getting a little tired of the noise, noise, noise, if you want to get contemplative, reflective, and calm, this album may the balm you need. Choice track: “Living in the Country”, the song I walked down the aisle to. But it’s really worth hearing the whole album all the way through.

10. The Wedding Present - Seamonsters

The production on the Wedding Present’s classic Seamonsters is amazing. The production on the Wedding Present’s classic Seamonsters is extremely shitty. I really don’t know where I sit on this continuum and I seem to bounce back and forth based on my listening needs. David Gedge and company rolled into Steve Albini’s studio and he subsequently extracted some of the best off the floor distorted guitar dynamics that have ever been put to tape, not to mention drums that sound like they’re being played by an angry yeti. Simultaneously he buried what could have been one of the most compelling and powerful vocal performances by a person who cannot really sing. Gedge sounds tortured and haunted and excruciatingly miserable, even though he’s just as likely to disavow such feelings (see interwebs). His limited range is stretched to maximum and the result is an emotional gut-punch. It would be nice, Mr. Albini, if I could actually hear the heart-broken words he staples to his sleeve. Even the 2001 remaster fails in this regard. I love this album – it’s the best in the WP catalog in my opinion – but it frustrates me to no end. I’ve read the lyrics, and they are emotionally harrowing, but the attention required to place them puts me out of the songs. With a different approach to mixing and levelling, this record would be flirting with the Top 3 and nudging up against Nevermind (and believe me, I do not criticize Albini lightly). An amazing achievement and a missed opportunity all at once. Choice track: “Heather”.

9. Pixies – Trompe le Monde

Who would you name as the quintessential bands that were “ahead of their time”? The Beatles of course, The Velvet Underground unquestionably, The Clash (unequivocably), Miles Davis, My Bloody Valentine, and then scores of artists not many people have heard before because, well, they were ahead of their time. But I would also make a case for Pixies, a band considered contemporary to the alternative grunge scene of the early 90s; it easier to make the case that Pixies were influenced by Husker Du and Sonic Youth, and in turn informed the ground zero of grunge, Nirvana. While Pixies’ initial run was short (1987 to 1991, an outlier on the otherwise calmer 4AD label) their legacy sprawls throughout alternative rock and punk, influencing later bands like The Strokes, Modest Mouse, PJ Harvey, and Arcade Fire. Smashing Pumpkins probably don’t go in the direction they did without them. Radiohead’s first two albums would be decidedly different. Focusing in, Trompe Le Monde was the last Pixie album of their first hectic run and it hits like an aggressive, misanthropic wildfire. Deep at the core is Buddy Holly, but endlessly perverted by the skronks and screams of Joey Santiago’s guitar and the dystopic sci-fi caterwauling of Black Francis. That type of description is probably what keeps people away from Pixies, but it’s not all madness – it is that perfected approach of soft to loud, melodious to discordant, gentle to corrosive. Would grunge have happened without Pixies? That depends…do you think grunge happens without Nirvana? Yes, it’s an infinite regress of bands, but it’s fun to consider. Now go listen to “U-Mass”. It’s educational.

8. Mercury Rev – Yerself Is Steam

Mercury Rev became a kind of thing, an almost cross-over success, with the release of 1998’s Deserter Songs, an orchestral masterpiece (some would say) of fragile, anthemic Americana. It’s an album that can make one easily forget the band's earlier roots, because 1993’s Boces and 1991’s Yerself Is Steam are batshit crazy. After recording In A Priest Driven Ambulance as part of the equally bonkers Flaming Lips, Jonathan Donahue joined forces with David Baker, Dave Fridmann (who would become a producer extraordinaire), Sean Mackowiak (aka Grasshopper), and Suzanne Thorpe. The resulting debut, Yerself Is Steam (go ahead, say that slowly), would not land in my Top 20 albums all-time, but may figure into my Top 5 as the most important or influential to me. I had never heard anything like it at the time – it was probably when I first started using the word “avant” in any sort of meaningful sense. Whether it’s pop, rock, prog or otherwise, it is clearly avant-something. Yerself Is Steam completely weird at every turn but fully engaging and fascinating. It’s not solely experimental – there is plenty of melody to pull you in, but the songs are enveloped in some sort of lysergic paste. I can’t imagine hallucinogens did not play a part in its production. It is simultaneously expansive and claustrophobic, inspirational yet unnerving. Let me put it this way: overly indulgent, musical experimentation by people in the clouds usually puts me the hell off because I require a semi-studied attention to melody and some sort of sensible structure. Mercury Rev, in these early days, puts me right on the precipice without letting me fall off, grabbing me by the collar, forcing my attention, and ultimately, putting me in a grand headspace like no other. Cavernous vocals, thick psychedelic fuzz, wandering flutes, and a cacophony of other sounds are expertly engineered into one of the most challenging and rewarding albums of its era. Like bottled madness. Choice tracks: “Chasing A Bee”, “Frittering” (#232 and #264, respectively on the Top 500 1965-2009).

7. Pearl Jam – Ten

I remember it distinctly, sitting on my couch with my bedraggled university roommates, none of us doing what we should probably be doing, lazily watching music videos, back when one could simply turn on the TV and there would be music videos playing. My attention was caught by a song I’d never heard before, “Alive” by Pearl Jam, a band unknown to me. My internal monologue was roughly as follows: “Who are these dudes? They are rocking the shit out of shit but they are…not metal? No one is licking guitar strings, no one is gesticulating in spandex, there is no sophomoric devil imagery. And these aren’t punks either – things are half-speed with Hendrixian guitar riffs, and the song just passed the 4:00 minute mark. Yet they crowd surf. Wait…is that…is that REAL emotion and vulnerability in the lyrics. In the singer’s eyes? Wait, this is about someone’s lost relationship with their biological parents? Any suggestion of the blues is absent. They’re sort of hippies, but have some punk in them, and some full on 70’s rock, as well…”. It went on, these thoughts in my head, as I apprehended the beginning of grunge. Many people identify “Smells Like Teen Spirit” as their first grunge epiphany, but for me it was “Alive”, the first single from Ten. I was legitimately confused, because how could this even BE an niche…how come this hasn’t been done yet, how come we didn’t get here sooner, i.e., socially conscious, emotionally open rock – hard rock – stripped of the dumbass demon/sex imagery of metal, the nihilism of punk, the antipathy of pop rock, the vanity of blues, the escapism of psychedelia. It was moving…it made me feel like young people could legitimately and productively take on and change the world. Pearl Jam, for the first time in my memory of “rock music on the radio”, married the political and the personal (with a retroactive nod of respect to The Tragically Hip). Things are shit now. Not for lack of trying, Eddie, not for lack of trying. I verge on teary-eyed writing this, listening to Jeremy, and thinking about what was and what did not come to be. Choice tracks: “Alive”, “Jeremy”.

6. U2 – Achtung Baby

One might have forgiven U2 if they threw in the towel after the bombastic name-dropping extravagance of Rattle and Hum – a polarizing album that many felt sounded the death knell of the band. I disagree (then and now) quite vehemently, but it’s also fair game to question whether or not the band was running out of ideas. I see Rattle and Hum as a necessary exercise for the band to decide if rootsy rock was the direction they should go. After the critical shitstorm, it appears they said “alright, fuck ya then, we’ll see you in couple years”, and then squirreled themselves away to produce one of the most exciting pivots I’ve seen a band make, both musically and conceptually. I think I heard my first note of the album via the video for “The Fly”, which introduces Bono’s reinvented, ever-falling image of a nihilistic glam punk. This was, according to Bono, the sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree (leave it to Bono to be so painfully and unnecessarily self-aware). But the intentionality is compelling, and Bono called it in late 1989 saying to a concert crowd that “…we have to go away and just dream it all up again”. That they did, and by all accounts it was a painful and difficult time (as far as those things go for rock stars, boo hoo hoo). The sonic change is dramatic, starting with that first scuzzy, distorted guitar line that descends to announce “Zoo Station”. Suddenly, with the threat of fading relevance, U2 rockets back to the middle of the modern music scene, helping to invent it, in fact: distorted vocals from Bono as if emanating from a detuned radio; industrial drums, as if Larry Mullen was squatting with Einstürzende Neubauten; the Edge at the absolute top of his game, lording over towers of multi-effects units. Adam Clayton played bass. Achtung Baby! was an album they could never do again – knowing the futility of replicating the grandiosity of Joshua Tree they instead shifted to the dirt of the streets and the dance of the clubs. U2 retained their place at the top of the pop heap. Choice track: “Mysterious Ways”.

5. Smashing Pumpkins – Gish

Given the effusive accolades I have been heaping on the bottom half of the top 10, it shocking that I have 5 albums to go that are all superior enough (by hairs, it seems) to finish in the Top 5. Again, just a little pause to say: “1991, WTF?” ‘Twas the summer of 1991 and a friend tossed Gish onto the car stereo and I was fairly dismissive of “I Am One”, which seemed overly self-important and dumbly aggressive, like I was mistaking it for metal wankery. Billy Corgan’s nasal/nerd vocals didn’t help the cause. Little did I know I was listening to one of the most important, keystone records in contemporary rock. “I Am One” remains my least favorite song on the album (it was especially hard to shake off the live experience at Lollapalooza, which featured the ridiculously out of tune, screaming megalomania of Corgan). But then…the riches within! Track 2, “Siva”, is almost as hard as “I Am One”, but has a stronger hook, a dreamy psychedelic bridge, and…a second dreamy psychedelic bridge! These breaks from loud to soft to loud (hello Pixies!) is the moment I started listening intently, realizing there was something amazing afoot. And then comes the obliquely named “Rhinoceros”, a hallucinogenic journey that, in my mind, perfectly encapsulates everything I love about old Pumpkins – supremely catchy riffs, layers upon layers of sonically precise guitars, loud/soft dynamics, all spread across multiple movements and codas (hello Rush!). And THEN… “Bury Me” (#228 on the Top 500)…um…buries the listener with a heavily distorted, almost manic groove of chunky riffs and squealing high-on-the-neck notes. The main riff is so physically compelling I find it hard not to want to flip tables and smash dishes. As per the (non-formulaic) formula, things slow down a little and then bloom again into an outro bridge that features some of my most favorite guitar riffs ever put to tape, with Billy intoning over top. “Bury Me” is as good a time as any to stop and say, “holy SHIT”, is Corgan an amazing guitar player (who claims to have memorized note for note the entire Rush Hemispheres album as a teenager)! Meanwhile, drummer Jimmy Chamberlain is an animal (albeit a technically precise animal), hitting hard and fast and with complex fill patterns. Equal heroism should be granted producer Butch Vig, who was all in with the OCD of Corgan, bound and determined to reach a level of sonic perfection unheard of in indie rock. The Smashing Pumpkins, hailing from Chicago, were inappropriately tagged as “grunge” at the time, due in no small part to their presence on the soon-to-follow Singles soundtrack (with my favorite Pumpkin’s track “Drown”, #15 on the Top 500). They would demonstrate this with -- shockingly -- an even better album, 1993’s Siamese Dream. Choice tracks: “Rhinoceros”, “Bury Me”.

4. R.E.M. – Out Of Time

If pushed (and you’d have to push me a lot, and maybe punch me a little), I’d say this is only my FOURTH favorite R.E.M. album, with Reckoning (1984), Lifes Rich Pageant (1986), and Automatic For The People (1992) finishing ahead. This tells you how insanely consistent R.E.M. was during these years (and it suggests that R.E.M. is my…what, fourth favorite band ever, behind The Beatles, The Clash, and Swervedriver?). If Green shot the band into stadium level stardom (although they were almost there with 1987’s Document), Out of Time cemented them as one of the biggest rock bands on the planet, almost on par with U2. This was largely precipitated by the unlikely gigantic hit “Losing My Religion”. Oddly, I would have been on the side of the label, Warner Bros., who did not see it as the lead single, and would have picked 4 or 5 other tracks ahead of it. The band persisted, the label relented, “Out of Time” went to #1 in both the U.S. and the U.K., and “Losing My Religion” is now one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “Top 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll”. Ironically, the song is probably the most “R.E.M.-ish” of all the songs on Out of Time – oh, the randomness of hit-making. Mega-single aside, the album is bursting with tremendous wide-ranging songs: the fun-funk of “Radio Song”, the light easy listening of instrumental track “Endgame”, the pop of “Shiny Happy People”, the cerebral spoken word of "Belong", and the twang of "Country Feedback". Songs like “Texarkana”, “Me In Honey” (with great guest vocals from B-52’s Kate Pierson), and “Half A World Away” have that signature R.E.M. sound that no other band can touch. It’s all perfectly done, perfectly unique, and perfectly bizarre as a populist breakout album. There was something special about the 90’s, when you could finally hear fucking R.E.M. on the radio. Out of Time is a treasure trove. And here’s a great postscript – Out of Time longboxes (a common site in 90’s record stores) included a Rock the Vote petition to pass a Bill to remove barriers to young voter registration. This initiative was in part aimed at challenging Tipper Gore’s Parents Music Resource Centre, the conservative censorship organization. Clinton passed the bill and Out of Time has been called the the most politically important music packaging in the history of America (check out the podcast 99% Invisible for this great story). Choice track: “Half A World Away”, “Me In Honey”.

3. Nirvana – Nevermind

Well, this here is a big album. While 1991 is full of trailblazing musical documents, the sea change of Nevermind was unprecedented, at least since The Beatles landed on Ed Sullivan. It’s hard now, going on 30 years later, to listen objectively. So much has already been written. Off the top, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” represents the quintessential rock song of a generation of kids (me, an older “kid”, included) and has to rank in the Top 10 of best opening songs of an album. Other popular contenders: “A Hard Days Night”, “Like A Rolling Stone”, “Baba O’Riley”, “Whole Lotta Love”, “London Calling”, “Cherub Rock”, “Airbag”, “We Will Rock You”, among many others. (My highest ranked opening song in my Top 500 turns out to be “Suzanne” by Leonard Cohen at #10; but that’s only amongst songs from 1965 to 2009. “Hold On” by Alabama Shakes is #2 on my 2009-2018 and is another heavyweight contender). “Teen Spirit” was a warning shot across the bow of pop culture, saying “you may love us, but we kind of hate you”. Nirvana was saying fuck you to the materialistic 80’s, just as the Sex Pistols and The Clash were saying the same to bloated 70’s rock. Nirvana, forever anti-heroes, were visibly uncomfortable with fame and fortune, unwilling to play the rock star role, a position that was perfectly manipulated by rich label executives to invert hearts and minds and sell the slacker brand. These things aside, Nevermind was a sonic bombshell. Nirvana (or at least Kurt Cobain) had the most underground of influences – The Wipers, The Melvins, Meat Puppets, Jad Fair, The Shaggs, Daniel Johnston, Shonen Knife – and one wonders how the album could have been possibly birthed from these sources. But perhaps that was just Cobain’s laudable attempt at bringing some marginalized talent some attention, because he also counted himself a fan of R.E.M. and Pixies. Indeed, he admitted that he was constantly was trying to rip off the latter. Whatever the case, the combination of his chugging guitar, the rumbling bass of Krist Novoselic, and the jackhammer drums of Dave Grohl, produced a fully formed, wholly unique set of tunes. With Butch Vig helming the board, the band’s sound was perfected (and I wonder if Vig’s experience sculpting The Smashing Pumpkin’s Gish was a necessary ingredient). We all know what happens next. One more great album and then oblivion. I remember when I head the news that Cobain was gone – I walked the University of Guelph’s campus in a daze, bailing on whatever academic responsibilities I had that day, and went home to sadly fall asleep to Nevermind, worried about the world. Choice tracks: “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, “Lithium”.

2. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless

It’s tough for me to put MBV’s unparalleled record here at number 2, ahead of the previous luminaries. Because Loveless is a difficult album and undoubtedly off-putting for many listeners. (This is why fans of MBV are often considered insufferable hipsters. You can’t position me this way, though, because I have Sarah MacLachlan and Enya on this list). I came to MBV later, probably more late-90’s after reading numerous reviews extolling Loveless’ trailblazing virtues. Its influence was a pretty slow burn, considerably overshadowed by many of the records I’ve just reviewed. 30 years later, it is roundly considered a one-of-a-kind masterpiece, unique, peerless, and inimitable. Many a band have certainly tried – I know this well, having a rather large “shoegaze” collection. The making of Loveless is infamous, with Kevin Shields nearly breaking the bank of Creation Records, who were footing the bill for three straight years of recording and mixing (were it not for rise of Oasis, this would have been completely untenable). The wait was worth it, at least artistically. “What does Loveless sound like?” This is a “really good question”, and is worthy of a dissertation. As one reviewer opined, answering that question is like explaining acid house to a badger. The first thing to notice is that the vocal parts are of secondary importance – no, they are less that that. They are noticeable ephemera, but only one of many shifting, modulating forms in a wider spectrum of sound. Aside from understated bass and clinically delivered drum beats, the rest of the sound is highly treated guitar, seemingly infinite layers of it. Perhaps a picture of Shield’s guitar effects pedals gives a bit of a visual answer - click here. With a technique that might as well be patented – Shield’s “glide guitar” – MBV required writers to introduce adjectives like “gauzy”, “woozy”, and “wobbly” to their review arsenals. For many songs the entire audible spectrum seems full, a wall of distorted and reverbed circularities that make Phil Spector’s “wall of sound” look like a paper mache hamster enclosure. But the noise within this wall – undoubtedly represented by a tall, brick shaped waveform on your favorite digital audio editor – is multi-faceted, nuanced, ever-shifting, and dynamic. It is music for “the in-between” – between notes, between thoughts, between wakefulness and sleep, light and dark, soft and loud, sharp and smooth. Loveless is the permanently unsteady state of being, the sound of your organs trying to stay alive. Listen to it and succumb, and then you are in a wholly different and majestic place. Choice track: “Come In Alone”.

1. Swervedriver - Raise

Also on the Creation label and similarly under the shadows of other legitimately amazing bands was the mighty Swervedriver, my most favorite band not named The Clash or Beatles. As mentioned already in this screed, 1991 was year of firsts – a whole whack of debut albums that did not sound like anything else, that were wonderfully unique and emblematic of entire genres. This continues with Raise, Swervedriver’s incendiary juggernaut of record that was unfairly categorized as another Creation Records shoegaze band, alongside My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, and Ride. Swervedriver can “out-gaze” all these bands if they feel like it (and frequently do), although one suspects the tenacity and temerity of MBV would cause the Swervies to shrug and move onto some other brilliant thing. I’ve said this too many times in relation to too many albums in this list, but I have to say it: NO ONE sounds like Swervedriver. The double-whammy of co-lead guitarists and childhood mates, Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge, is extraordinary and unmatched in my mind. Both have an expansive set of influences and an in-depth understanding of musical history (I’ve come to realize through the years), but also incredible guitar skills to translate that knowledge; and as importantly, both are wizards with effects pedals. Since they know each other inside out, the output is the most mesmerizing, dynamic, psychedelic, and inspiring guitar passages these ears have heard. With their kick ass rhythm section (at the time, Adi Vines on bass and Graham Bonnar on drums) the songs on Raise are glorious. They are also highly resistant to categorization and unapologetically long, with protracted intros and instrumental bridges. But they never outstay their welcome (this album is nowhere near jam band territory). While super-heavy at points, with copious fuzz and wah, Swervedriver are always melodic, always detailed, controlled, and engaging. The vocals are buried, perhaps a little too much, but that also adds to the mystique, as the listener apprehends snippets of a romanticized America, with open roads and Kerouacian travels, being lost in mind and spirit, for good or ill. And speaking of “statement making” opening tracks, it’s pretty hard to argue with “Sci-Flyer”, which flies out of gate and repeatably body slams you. “Sunset” is a kaleidoscopic journey that appears to drop J. Spaceman and J. Mascis into an octoganal death match, but in the end they simply embrace and sway. “Rave Down” is the indie hit single that everyone in alterna-land should have been losing their shit over. I should also mention two things – first, it took me 5 or 7 focused listens to “get” Raise, and then I was hooked forever. And second, the b-sides (remember those?) for Raise’s singles (“Son of Mustang Ford”, “Rave Down”, and “Sandblasted”) could easily form a 13 song album that may just rival its parent recording. Of the 9 tracks from 1991 that are on my Top 500 (which seems low in retrospect), four are from Swervedriver. That’s how good they were. And ARE, happily – they reunited with albums in 2015 and 2019, both worthy of their amazing discography. Choice tracks: “Rave Down”, “Sandblasted”.

#205: Radiation Vibe by Fountains of Wayne (from the Top 500 1965-2009)

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 20:12:00 +0000

With the COVID-19 pandemic just topping 60,000 people worldwide, it seems trite and unfeeling to mourn the loss of a single person. But the human mind, especially trapped in isolation, can’t really compute the loss of tens of thousands properly. But when a person whose art has affected you, however distantly, perishes from this awful thing, the pangs of remorse assume a different quality. I suppose it’s a way of attaching something, anything with personal meaning to this fucking tragedy, at least until that future, heart-wrenching moment comes when someone you directly know and love falls victim.

Adam Schlesinger, 1967-2020

These have been my feelings with passing of Adam Schlesinger, one half of the fairly underappreciated power pop outfit Fountains of Wayne (the other co-founder being Chris Collingwood). Schelsinger succumbed to the coronavirus in New York on April 1, 2020. He was 52.

Named after a New Jersey garden fountain business (which also made a cameo in the Sopranos episode “Another Toothpick”), Fountains of Wayne were cut from the same upbeat, anodyne cloth of Weezer, The Lemonheads, and Sloan. They did receive some mainstream attention and success with 2003’s Grammy nominated Welcome Interstate Managers, but otherwise they toiled under the radar. Schlesinger himself, over time, turned into a pretty versatile artist, scoring films and theatre productions, producing a pile of records, and putting out music in post-FoW bands such as Tinted Windows (with Jame Iha of Smashing Pumpkins), Ivy, and the synth-poppy Fever High. Just prior to his death, a musical with Sarah Silverman (based on her book, The Bedwetter) was set to debut this coming June.

Amongst this impressive body of work, I personally think Schlesinger’s greatest achievement (shared equally with Collingwood) is the chorus for “Radiation Vibe”, #205 on my all-time Top 500 favorite songs, and the lead off track from the band’s 1996 self-titled debut. If anyone were to ask me what my favorite all-time chorus in a pop song is, it would be this one.

Lyrically, it’s banal as they come:

And now it’s time to say what I forgot to say

Baby, baby, baby, c’mon what’s wrong?

It’s a radiation vibe I’m grooving on

Don’t you want to get some sun?

Shine on, shine on, shine on

But, power pop being what it is, lyrical depth is unnecessary if you got the hooks. And this chorus is the most impossibly hooky, wonderfully harmonized chorus I’ve ever laid my ears on. The whole song is great, of course, a wry tune about (possibly) unrequited love for a girl who is inexplicably with some meathead. The opening riff grabs you immediately, moving through a basic blues progression, setting the stage for the sun-drenched chorus. As far basic pop-rock singles go, this is tough to beat. And it leads off an album which I consider a sort of lost power-pop classic. Every song is a treat.

RIP Adam Schlesinger, with gratitude.

Revisiting 2014: What I Missed and a Spotify Playlist

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Sun, 15 Mar 2020 14:57:00 +0000

In my quest to fully update my most favorite music through time via playlists and blog reviews, here is an update for the nondescript year of 2014. I don’t remember anything about this year, other than ISIS, ebola, and the anxiety and preparations of a new baby on the way. The music was, as per usual, a great balm – click here for my original Top 20 of the year post. Of course I missed (and misjudged) a few things, added and corrected here.

For a fulsome 2014 best song playlist, check out Spotify here! Read below for some quick reviews of can’t miss 2014 albums that I...um...missed!

Albums That Slipped Me By

There were a few albums that would have pushed their way into the Top 20, had I heard them. Quite a few others have grabbed my ears since my Top albums of 2014 write up and all come highly recommended.

Adrianne Lenker - Hours Were The Birds / Adrienne Lenker and Buck Meek

As written elsewhere Lenkers solo album Abyskiss (2018) stole my heart and made me a believer in singer-songwriter folk again; and made me a gigantic fan of her band Big Thief. So I went back and discovered this her first s/t solo record and a collaboration with Buck Meek. Equally amazing, poignant, creative folk.

Haley Bonar – Last War

Taking a cue from early Bangles as well as dreampoppers like Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Frankie Cosmos, and Veronica Falls, Bonar treats us to a heaping treasure of airy, melodic, psych-tinged gems.

Beck –Morning Phase

In 2014, I misjudged Beck’s Morning Phase, mentioning it merely as a very good album (8.1/10). After repeated listens it would now be in my Top 10 of the year. It is mellow, laid back, atmospheric folk that must have drifted by me unnoticed the first time around. But give it your attention and it rewards – so beautifully produced, sweet, and soporific.

Owl John– Owl John

We lost an amazing artist with the 2018 suicide of Scott Hutchison, front-man for Frightened Rabbit. I’m a huge FR fan and was gutted by this news. This was also the period in which I discovered that Hutchison had the Owl John solo project. The similarities to FR are unmistakable, due in most part to Hutchison’s familiar heart punching vocal delivery, but there is slightly more experimentation happening here. Alongside the guitars there are a numerous electronic flourishes, samples, and atmosphere. We know that Hutchison, in his full band set up, can be emotionally powerful, but the angst and self-deprecation is on full display here. As essential an album as any in the Frightened Rabbit catalog.

Eternal Summers – The Drop Beneath

Chimey guitar-driven dreampop with punkish flourishes, recalling The Primitives, Lush, and Cocteau Twins, and keeping pace with gold-standard contemporaries Alvvays, Wolf Alice, and Soft Science.

Allo Darlin’ – We Come From The Same Place

Slumberland Records is almost a can’t miss label, this time giving us the perfect folk pop of Allo, Darlin’, a band as great as Camera Obscura, Belle and Sebastian and The Lucksmiths. Jangle and twang in the summertime.

Weyes Blood – The Innocents

Weyes Blood took the number one spot of 2019 with Titanic Rising, channeling Fleetwood Mac and The Carpenters. Amazing. Back in 2014, The Innocents showed a much darker and experimental approach, more along the lines of Enya, Kate Bush, and Dead Can Dance. I originally didn’t like it too much, but it’s totally grown on me.

Kevin Drew– Darlings

I will always check out the extended family of Broken Social Scene (Stars, Metric, Amy Milan, Brendan Canning, etc.) because chances of a good record are high. Kevin Drew’s second solo album is particularly stunning, and perhaps comes closest to the BSS sound.

Mogwai –Rave Tapes

Because of my genre preferences in the 1990s, Mogwai was an ever-present recommendation; but they never did resonate with me. A little, sometimes. Now much much later they have finally caught my attention with the more urgent, psych-informed Rave Tapes. Brilliant.

TV on the Radio – Seeds

I’m just realizing that it’s 2020 and we haven’t seen new TVOTR in 6 years, not since this, their last album, in 2014. Seeds is more of the same, which is a good thing, as no one sounds like TVOTR. Soulful, angsty vocals undergirded by propulsive beats, rich organ, mesmerizing loops, and fuzzy/reverbed guitar lines.

Nurse and Soldier – You Are Standing Behind the Curtain

Bobby Matador of Oneida and his partner Erica Fletcher have been sporadically putting out music as Nurse and Soldier since the early 90’s. This album (with a very limited physical release of 300 vinyl LPs) got very little notice as far as I can tell. Too bad – it’s a great little slice of lo-fi analog keyboards and muted guitar, reminding me of early Stereolab, Broadcast, and Novak. Love it!

Dean Wareham– Dean Wareham

I am not sure why/when Wareham decides to “go it alone” as opposed to creating a new Luna or Dean and Britta record. He’s principle songwriter in all cases and it is the exact same recipe. In any case, this is as good as any Luna record, so if you like arty, Velvet Underground inspired catchiness (this time with more keyboards), check this out.

Morgan Delt – Morgan Delt

This is twisted psychedelic garage pop, with clear debts to Syd Barrett, Electric Prunes, and Silver Apples. And The Beatles, I suppose. In terms of contemporary stuff, think Youth Lagoon, Thee Oh Sees, Temples, Wand, and Flaming Lips.

Eno /Hyde – Someday World

Brian Eno taps Underworld’s Karl Hyde to contribute vocals to this outstanding set of polyphonic, tribalistic, quasi-dance songs. Mysterious and worldly, like Eno’s stuff with David Byrne or John Cale.

New Mendicants– Into The Lime

A welcome supergroup, coalescing in my hometown of Toronto, Canada, The New Mendicants combine the considerable talents of Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), Joe Pernice (Pernice Brothers), and Mike Belitsky (The Sadies). The results are what you’d expect – hella catchy, literate guitar pop that jangles your heart-strings.

Other Releases of Note

WHOOP-szo debuted with their mind-crushing debut ep Niizhwaaswo; Ought put out the "Once More With Feeling" 7" featuring "Pill", which also featured actual singing - fabulous; Swervedriver released the "Setting Sun" 7", signaling the 2015 return I Wasn't Born To Lose You - but the song was middling, giving me anxiety. Great singles came out by Lazy Salon (LZY_SLN-001), High Wire (LNOE), School of Seven Bells (I Got Knocked Down, a Ramones cover), and Wildhoney (Seventeen Forever). Dark Mean's EP Samuel the Phoenix was stellar countrified rock.

The biggest goldmine, for me at least, was the digital release of THREE albums (30+ tracks) of Adam Franklin covering his own back catalog of Swervedriver, Toshack Highway, Bolts of Melody, and Magnetic Morning (and a few covers), based on fan requests. These reworkings were revelatory for a rabid fan such as me and worthy for even the most casual fan. But most exciting was that I had the opportunity to commission Raise-era b-side "She's Beside Herself" (#5 on the Top 500) for this release. Adam sent me the track, but then reworked it again for the finalized released. Meaning I have a singular, one of kind version of one of my all-time favorite songs by my all time favorite guitarist/artist. I did, in the end, share it with a few other "Swervies" out there. How could I not? But I almost didn't.

See you soon. Wash your hands and stay in your hovels.

My Top 25 Favorite Albums of 2019

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Sat, 22 Feb 2020 05:24:00 +0000

Ah, getting my 2019 "best of" list posted in February of 2020 is still late, but certainly an improvement on the timing of my 2018 review. As has become customary, please mosey on over to this Spotify playlist which will gift you with 80+ songs that caught my attention this year. Let's get on with it.

First, In Memoriam: 2019

Ginger Baker

As it inevitably happens, the music world lost some legends in 2019, including Cream/Blind Faith drummer extraordinaire Ginger Baker, original garage-psych agitator Roky Erickson (of 13^th Floor Elevators fame), tragic indie legend David Berman (Silver Jews, and just this year, Purple Mountains), Keith Flint of Prodigy, enigmatic avant-garde crooner Scott Walker, and bassist Peter Tork of The Monkees.

Kim Shattuck

A few other passings hit me harder. Kim Shattuck of The Muffs (and in the 80s, Pandora) left us too early at 56 after a largely hidden battle with ALS. After receiving the diagnosis, she declined rapidly, having trouble walking and talking by the end of 2017. She was nonetheless determined to complete The Muffs seventh and final album, No Holiday. In her last year and half she was unable to move or speak at all, yet she still directed her bandmates to carry out her vision through assistive communication devices, based on already recorded demos. According to Adam Schary, a friend who was recruited to do Kim’s guitar parts, “She literally couldn't move, but her ears were so good. I'd record a part and then get a text saying, ‘You're a bit out of tune.’ There she is, in the other room, and she can't move, and she’s telling me I'm a little flat. Crazy.” Which makes the new album, released a mere 16 days after her death, particularly heart-wrenching. If you did not know Shattuck’s story, you’d call it a great pop-punk record, like a harder edge Go-Go’s, fun, catchy, and with a touch of subversiveness. With her struggle in mind, it takes on a whole different tenor. As a long time Muffs fan, this last album was gift. Kim Shattuck was awesome.

Ric Ocasek

Ric Ocasek! I can’t say Ocasek has held much importance to me since his days in The Cars – I honestly don’t know a note of his solo work. But there is something about a childhood idol passing on that is sad and jarring. I was (and remain) a big Cars fan. Their self-titled debut and follow up Candy-0 were part of my earliest musical memories, at least in terms of having the album in my hand, putting it on the turntable, and listening all the way through. “Moving in Stereo” in my 1970s stucco-walled basement with Andrew Honor. Gah. Those early Cars records are timeless.

Ranking Roger

And so long Ranking Roger. General Public’s sunny, toe-tapping universal pop hit “Tenderness” (1984) led me to some ill-advised wearing of pink shirts, black leather ties, and fedoras; but more importantly led me to the way-cooler English Beat, the wider two-tone movement, and the world of ska, rocksteady, and reggae. The English Beat became an all-time favorite band of mine, and while Dave Wakeman came off as more the leading man, Rankin’ Roger was the soul of the band. And while we all skanked to the unstoppable Beat, we learned about love, unity, and the scourge of Thatcherism.

Daniel Johnston

Daniel Johnston – outsider artist, naïve popster, and tragic victim of life-long mental illness – passed away at 58 of a heart attack at his home in Waller, Texas. I can’t possibly do his story justice in this space, so I highly recommend the touching documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. In short, he produced off-kilter homemade art and super lo-fi music with such heartfelt (and oddball) authenticity that it was somehow heartbreaking. Hearing Daniel belt out “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Your Grievances” by himself on a basement pump organ, likely imagining himself in front of a stadium audience (“Sing it! Everybody!”), is simultaneously sad and uplifting. When he wasn’t incarcerated in psychiatric institutions, Johnston was prolific, humbly starting with a relentless hocking of early homemade tapes wherever he could. His profile grew a decade later when Kurt Cobain was seen by millions wearing a Hi..How Are You? t-shirt (a 1983 Johnston album). The cynic might suggest that it was merely Cobain’s endorsement, rather than talent, that put Johnston on any pop culture map. While this is probably true in part, loads of successful musicians point to him as an important influence. I saw him live opening for Yo La Tengo in the mid-2000s, with just him, an out of tune guitar, and a music stand for his notes, and it was frankly awkward and cringey for the most part. But then I listen to his recordings and there is a strange purity and fragility that compels me to attention. After the life he lived, I yearned for him to be happy and at peace. Rest in it, Daniel.

Mark Hollis

Mark Hollis, co-leader of Talk Talk, was a visionary genius. The music world had already lost him, with him retiring from music in 1998 with the release of his only solo record. But his absence seems a little more recent to me. I was a massive fan (who wasn’t?) of the band’s early new wave hit “It’s My Life” (#185 on my Top 500), which still completely stands up. The follow up album, 1986’s The Colour of Spring, pulled me in with another hit “Life’s What You Make It” (#29) , but I stayed for the experimental, jazzy ambient pieces that filled the rest of the album (which then got me interested in Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, and David Sylvian). For some unexplainable reason, I didn’t search out the rest of the Talk Talk discography – Spirit of Eden (1988) and Laughing Stock (1991) – until about 5 or 6 years ago. These are both treasures, albeit challenging listens at first. And I only picked up his solo record after he died. Although it’s 20 years old, it’s brand new music to me. And what a voice! Wholly unique. I wish we had more music to celebrate his life with.

[Fuck…as I’m writing this Neil Peart has died. He will deserve a separate dedicated eulogy in another post]

Top Ten Favorite Songs from 2019

I failed to do a full-fledged top 10 list of songs last year and that bugged me. So I am forcing the issue this time around, although I lack confidence. So many great tracks. But for what’s it worth, roughly in order, here are my Top 10 favorite songs of 2019:

1. Future Ruins – Swervedriver

2. Andromeda – Weyes Blood

3. Dreamlike and on the Rush – New Pornographers

4. UFOF – Big Thief

5. New Familiar – Steve Gunn

6. Naïve Castle – Wildhoney

7. 147 – Starhorse

8. Cow – Alex G

9. Paraguay My Love –The Ocean Blue

10. Skin Game – DIIV

My Top 25 Albums of 2019

I’m probably more removed from capital-P “Pop” than I have ever been. I hear rumours that the guitar is dead. While it has clearly fallen out of favor on common Spotify pop hits playlists, it is absolutely thriving in peripheries of indie rock. 2019 brought me hordes of new shoegaze/dreampop bands; punk/post-punk/post-rock appears to be alive and well; and there is still, to my ongoing surprise, copious acoustical folk that still manages to grab at my ears. And any year with a new Swervedriver album (and to a lesser extent and new Ride album) is a superior year.

What marks 2019 as particularly special (if you’ll indulge me, kind reader), was the release of my own album – For Fear, under my artist alias Green Palm Radiation. I would never stoop to inserting it in my Top annual list, of course – that would be weird and self-indulgent. But I certainly listened to it more than any other album and think it’s really quite good. It’s pretty under the radar as for as these things go, but some minor press has been positive and affirming. If you like the sort of music described here, go have a listen at my Bandcamp or on Spotify.

Ok, enough about that. And now…my Top 25 favorite albums of 2019

25. Bill Callahan – Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest

I have found ol’ Bill Callahan a little hit or miss over the years. I had no idea if I liked (or should be liking) early Smog (e.g., the naïve arty minimalism of Julius Caesar) and I’m still undecided. Certain albums, like Knock Knock (best album cover ever, by the way) have been inconsistent, with insanely good gems surrounded by mediocre, sometimes ponderous filler. In his solo forays, I found Apocalypse pretty terrible (6.0/10), whereas the earlier Woke on a Whaleheart was grade-A soul folk (8.5/10). Callahan’s latest outing is, happily, pretty darn excellent. While perhaps not putting his most melodic foot forward to start, he finds his groove halfway through with the confessional “Writing” and it’s all golden baritone story-telling from there. To quote the man himself, in song: “It sure feels good to be singing again, from the mountains, and the mountain within”. It has been a long 5 years since his last release. Welcome back, lonesome cowboy Bill. Choice track: “747”.

24. Submotile – Ghosts Fade on Skylines

This was a semi-random find courtesy of Big Takeover writer Elizabeth Klisiewicz. Knowing Klisiewicz’s love of the shoegaze, I gave a listen and was immediately pulled in by the Joy Division meets Lush approach and the wonderfully variegated wall of sound therein. Funny, though, because Ghosts Fade on Skylines dropped in and out of my Top 25 with repeated listens. Sometimes I was thinking “positively brilliant” and other times I was thinking “meh, sorta messy and directionless”. Submotile have a vacillating signal-to-noise ratio that appears to correlate to my state of mind, mood, and attention. Ultimately I decided that a record that is fabulous when I give it my undivided attention remains great despite those times when it is apprehended as background clutter. Throw this on some good headphones and pursue immersion and you may just find your new favorite post-rock record. Choice track: “Tramonto”.

23. Bonnie “Prince” Billy – I Made A Place

As with Bill Callahan, it is nice to have Will Oldham back, especially for a bonafide Bonnie “Prince” Billy outing. While he has been his typically busy self with all sorts of projects, there is something a little extra special when the BPB moniker is involved – and it’s been about eight years since we’ve been graced with an album of originals (since 2011’s Wolfroy Goes To Town, I believe). And like compatriots Callahan, Phil Elverum (Microphones, Mount Eerie), and Liz Harris (Grouper, Helen), Oldham inhabits a darker, alternative, and more challenging sphere within the folk tradition. This somehow holds true even when he offers straight-up country sing-a-longs (e.g., lead track “Memory Box”). I’m not sure why – he just seems to consistently imbue a mystical/mysterious countenance in his songcraft that makes me listen differently. Maybe it’s simply because I know this is the same man who wrote “I See A Darkness” and “Knockturne”, and who starred in John Sayles’ Matewan at 17 years old. In any case, Oldham’s unique strengths are on full display here – sublime acoustic guitar work, hauntingly sweet vocal delivery, and that particular brand of tragi-comic story-telling. Choice track: “Squid Eye”.

22. Whoop-Szo – Warrior Down

I happened upon the mighty Whoop-SZO at the 2014 Hillside Festival (Guelph, ON) and have been keeping close tabs on them ever since. Their music at the time was a heady combination of doom metal, shoegaze, and psychedelia, with roaring guitars and an intense stage presence (I highly recommend their first two albums, Niizhwaaswo and Citizen’s Ban(ne)d Radio). That furious combination remains on display with 2019’s Warrior Down, although the guitar histrionics are tempered a bit, allowing for greater space and melody; they compare favorably to Jesu, Alcest, and The Bevis Frond. The band eclipses its past work this time around by weaving together a powerful and saddening narrative of the suffering of Canada’s Indigenous peoples to colonialism, systemic racism, and marginalization. The band has strong Anishinaabek roots and tragic lived experience (for example, “Gerry” documents the murder of bandleader Adam Sturgeon’s cousin by an RCMP officer). Warrior Down is a heart-wrenching journey, made all the more stirring by its incendiary delivery. Choice Track: “Amaruq”.

21. Angelo De Augustine – Tomb

Since the release of Swim Inside The Moon (#8 of 2017), as well as teaser single “Carcassonne” (a Top 5 track of 2018), I’d been waiting patiently for De Augustine’s follow up. Tomb maintains the approach – beautiful acoustic arpeggios, heart-churning melodies, and the sweet sadness of De Augustine’s other-worldly falsetto. When I am in a particularly receptive mood, this record rates even higher. Other times I find that that I weary a bit of his heartbreak, his relentless vulnerability, and unwavering penchant for regret. I may even get annoyed – like how many relationships have faltered under your watch? Are you just a shitty partner but an exemplary songwriter? But that’s a problem borne of my cynical moods and, generally speaking, this is a beautiful record. A bit more going on here production wise as well, with added piano and electronic accoutrements that lift it above the sound achieved by an acoustic guitar and bathtub reverb (which was amazing on Swim, but you can’t keep doing that I don’t think). De Augustine appears to be the heir apparent to Bon Iver and Sufjan Stevens. If you feel melancholy, hurt, or just like to listen to emotionally vulnerable troubadours, this is the record for you. Choice track: “You Needed Love, I Needed You”.

20. Pernice Brothers – Spread The Feeling

Joe Pernice has given us lots to love throughout his solo discography and those of Pernice Brothers, Chappaquidick Highway, Scud Mountain Boys, and The New Mendicants – a trove of power pop gems, Laurel Canyon country, orchestral folk, and Californian sunshine pop. Now located (randomly, oddly) in my neck of the words (Toronto, Ontario), Joe has given us the first Pernice Brothers album since 2010’s Goodbye Killer. With such a established pedigree, it is somewhat strange and disheartening to see him so far on the periphery of the industry – Spread The Feeling is available only via bandcamp (no Spotify, no Itunes), as a digital LP and through a short-run of vinyl/CDs from Pernice’s own label Ashmount Records. Maybe this is a good thing for Joe, but I can’t help but feel a sense of injustice that he is putting music out on the margins when it so deserves to be heard. On Spread The Feeling we get treated to endlessly hooky guitar pop that’s as good as anything he has done, a confection that combines Guided By Voices, Mojave 3, Teenage Fanclub, Matthew Sweet, David Kilgour, and a multitude of other contemporary greats. Choice track: “Mint Condition”.

19. Star Horse – You Said Forever

Ah, that’s the sound – that jangly, reverbed, gauzy goodness that brings me straight back to the late-80’s/early 90’s sound of Slowdive, Lush, The Cure, Jesus and Mary Chain, Cocteau Twins, The Sundays and so many others. Hailing from Stockholm, Sweden, Star Horse got my attention with the excellent 2015 single Slower Now b/w Wherever You. It nailed that bliss-poppy sweetness that made me a rabid fan of bands like Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Soft Science. I wanted more, and it seemed of a heck of a long time for a long-player to emerge, but here we are finally with You Said Forever. If you have a soft spot of ethereal boy/girl harmonies backed with atmospheric, dreamy guitars, check this out. Choice track: “147”.

18. Brittany Howard – Jaime

As soon as I witnessed/heard “Hold On” – the impossibly amazing single by Alabama Shakes that shook us all back in 2012 – I knew I would be avid follower of the band. Truth be told, the balance of the Shakes’ output never quite reaches the height of that single, but it’s always been good to great. Now we have bandleader Brittany Howard putting out Jaime as a solo venture. I see Howard as Alabama Shakes – it’s hard not to – so it seems strange that she would feel a need to go it alone. But the Shakes have always been a band, an artistic unit, and a collaborative effort. On Jaime, Howard seems eager to be more adventurous and ambitious, moving away from the roots rock playbook of her band. She succeeds, as the songs transcend the Shakes’ work, showing a broader surveying of funk, Motown soul, jazz, and RnB. These are genres that depart pretty significantly from my preferred tastes (at least on record – l’m a pretty open book in live contexts). This tells me that Howard is a unique force, pulling me into a record that I’d be likely to dismiss based on categorical descriptions alone. And while her brand of soul commands my attention, Howard then drops a song like “13^th Century Metal”, an urgent political monologue about human rights and justice backed with a hyperkinetic organ, vinyl static, mournful horns, found sounds, and relentlessly funky drums. “We are all brothers and sisters!” What a powerful album. Sing it, Brittany! Choice track: “History Repeats”.

17. Daniel Land – The Dream of the Red Sails

Daniel Land is another one of those artists who I consistently follow, but whom I do not otherwise see covered too much in the press. This is a benefit of Bandcamp membership, I suppose – I buy a record in 2012 and get an email alert for a 2019 release. After 6 or so albums (some with The Modern Painters) and a pile of singles/EPs, Land’s sound has not changed one bit, which is fine by me. What we have here is another attractive collection of beautiful and gossamer mood-pieces, close in approach to Cocteau Twins, The Sundays, Daniel Lanois, and This Mortal Coil. These are calming, rainy day songs, conducive to introspective floating, wandering, and sleep. The vocal melodies are also nicely upfront and well done, giving some much need structure to the atmosphere. If you wish to drift away awhile, Daniel Land can take you there. Choice track: “Under A Red Sky”.

16. Mountain Goats – In League With Dragons

After mining stories to do with teenage goth culture (2017’s Goths) and professional wrestling (2015’s Beat The Champ), John Darnielle returns with another narrative concept album, this one referencing fantasy RPG gaming. It hardly matters to me what his subject matter he chooses to explore. Whimsical or farcical, Darnielle is an absolute master at weaving tales of the human condition, always engaging, always thick with metaphor and metaphysics, regardless of the vehicle. I would argue, however, that the songs on his last couple of albums have not been particularly strong. There have been lots of good ones, but I have been waiting for him to return to the heart-stopping album-length excellence shown on Tallahassee (2002) and The Sunset Tree (2005). In League With Dragons approaches this high water mark and I suspect with repeated lessons, as I come to know/feel the fables within, it will only grow in my estimation. I’ve probably said it elsewhere, but John Darnielle is a peerless lyricist and deserves to be bestowed the title of Poet Laureate – an honor which is actually being petitioned to the U.S. government by his dedicated fans. On League of Dragons, the musical composition is beginning to catch up to these lofty accolades. Choice track: “In League With Dragons”.

15. Deerhunter – Why Hasn’t Everything Disappeared

Deerhunter is a really challenging band to nail down. If I say “I like Deerhunter”, I don’t really know what I’m saying. Over the course of 7 or 8 albums, they have (wonderfully) jumped from genre to genre like kids in a candy store, effortlessly traversing 90’s shoegaze, 80’s synthpop, and 60’s informed garage psych. One moment you’re comparing them to DIIV and Slowdive and the next you’re invoking The Stones and the Velvet Underground. This is all welcome to me, because they always do fabulous interpretive work. Why Hasn’t Everything is yet another great record, this time brewing an orchestral concoction of brit-pop, Village Preservation-era Kinks, Revolver-era Beatles, early Moody Blues, and the retro-revival sounds of Elephant 6-releated bands (Apples in Stereo, The Minders, Ladybug Transistor, Olivia Tremor Control). I suppose that’s plenty of reference points. The take-away is that this record is timeless and percipient, feeling simultaneously 50 years old and brand-spanking new. Choice track: “Death In Midsummer”.

14. Beirut – Gallipoli

My goodness, time flies. I have a hard time reconciling the fact that Beirut’s last album No No No was released all the way back in 2015. As my #13 pick of that year, I was welcoming them back into the fold, as there had not been a release in the previous four years (2011’s The Rip Tide). I guess we must expect these long layovers from the no longer 20-something Zach Condon. While I could use twice as many Beirut albums, the wait is still worth it, because I can’t think of another band that fills this tremendously unique niche of “Albuquerquean crooner backed by Balkan waltzes with a dash of synthpop”. I got a chance to see the live show this year and it was a heart-warming thing of beauty. Old-world meets new-world, ancient and cosmopolitan, a unifying force of musical cultures. People with Condon’s vision and execution are rare and precious. Long live Beirut! Choice track: “Gauze Für Zah”

13. Olden Yolk – Living Theatre

I have been a fan of the band Quilt since their self-titled debut on Mexican Summer, a great record of jangly, 60’s-inspired, lightly psychedelic tunes. Founder, Shane Butler, formed Olden Yolk with Caity Shaffer in 2018 as a side project and it is even better. While it initially feels fairly similar to Quilt, this new incarnation is noticeably richer, warmer, and better produced. Hitting their stride three songs in with the amazing “Cotton & Cane”, there is a gratifying shift from Velvet to Paisley Underground, and clear debts being paid to The Go-Betweens, The Church, and Echo and Bunnymen. The link to the 60’s endures, as well. “240 D” could be a Harrison penned Beatles outtake from the White Album; “Blue Paradigm” sounds like early Jefferson Airplane. With lead vocals being shared with Shaffer, I am also reminded of Vashti Bunyan and Linda Perhacs. More please! Choice track: “Cotton & Cane”.

12. Alex G – House of Sugar

House of Sugar starts off inauspiciously with off-key caterwauling that leads into frustratingly misaligned synth burbles – it makes me want to mute my stereo. But then a minute and half in, it recovers into some semblance of structure and I find myself transfixed. Such is the eccentric oeuvre of Alex Giannascoli, bedroom pop experimenter and wacky folk songsmith. Eight or so albums into his surprising discography, Alex G remains fresh, and weird, and wonderful, marrying simple acoustic rhythms to found sounds, quirky percussion, and homespun vocals. While at times too experimental for casual listening, there are still numerous melodic gems to latch onto here. It may be impossible for Alex G to compose a straight ahead folk song – there’s always something skewed, or tattered, or opaque about all his songs – but that’s his strength. While this music will never be mainstream, anyone keeping tabs on contemporary DIY innovation and indie semiotics will agree that Alex G is true royalty of this past decade. Choice track: “Cow”.

11. Wilco – Ode To Joy

A new Wilco album has always been a safe bet for me. Ever since 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco has transcended the alt-country label to explore a wide bandwidth of genres. Every album is great to outstanding. Hence, I was little concerned a third of the way into 2019’s Ode To Joy, which I was hearing as tepid and uninspired. Things turn around with the subtly hypnotic “Quiet Amplifier”, leading into a trio of deceptively simple songs that rank among my favorite Wilco has ever composed. “Everyone Hides” sounds like the best Paul Westerberg song he never wrote; “White Wooden Cross” sounds vaguely Hawaiian, and is a lilting, breezy, nostalgic gem; “Citizens” sounds like a top-tier Iron and Wine song. Ultimately, this is uncomplicated stuff – no showy orchestration, no studio trickery, no guitar pyrotechnics typically proffered by guitarist Nels Kline (“We Were Lucky” excepted). But you know how that is with legendary players. Their three-chord throwaways somehow make everyone else look like rank amateurs. Choice track: “White Wooden Cross”.

10. Yves Jarvis – The Same But By Different Means

Un Blonde’s 2016, Good Will Come To You, was #3 on my list of that year and maybe the most unique entry of the bunch. Un Blonde is now Yves Jarvis, the new moniker of Canadian Jean Sebastian Audet. On The Same But By Different Means, Audet continues to showcase his inimitable mastery of organic atmosphere, rich vocal interplay, and soulful meditation. There truly is nothing like it in the landscape of music right now. Throughout there are amazing touchstones to soul, as if channeling 70’s Stevie Wonder, and coupled with shapeshifting cycles of sound that remind me of Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks or certain Nick Drake jazzy dirges. Like his last album, the production puts Audet (more like 5 or 6 of him) right in your ear, as if the song has very directly been composed for you. While this album could have been made in 1975, it also feels uniquely contemporary, like it needed history behind it to emerge in the present. Another tremendous accomplishment. Choice track: “Curtain of Rain”.

9. Wand – Laughing Matter

Wand’s Laughing Matter was a new find for me this year. I’ve certainly seen their name floating around for some time, but was surprised to find this is their fifth full length. What a great surprise. Some cursory research tells me that their first three albums were tagged as garage psych with metal tendencies, perhaps explaining why I hadn’t yet sought them out. On Laughing Matter (and 2017’s Plum, apparently) their sound has opened up dramatically into varied experimental pop and art rock, and to great effect IMO. I often thought Radiohead was so unique in their sound and vision that they could not be imitated, and perhaps very few artists would even muster a try. I have to say that Wand (at least on this album) have maybe come the closest. Most obvious are the vocals of Cory Hanson, which sound impressively like Thom Yorke’s (although with a smidge less fragility; and with the added bonus of gorgeous female vocals courtesy of Sofia Arreguin). That’s hardly the only ingredient to Radiohead, of course, but Wand’s arty, introspective, and wonderfully unpredictable sound is equally comparable, especially in relation to The Bends, Ok Computer, and Kid A. If you told me Johnny Greenwood was handling the guitar on Laughing Matter, I would believe your lies. There are also the familiar long passages of structured jams with layers of sound effects and atmospherics. Emotionally, that oddly attractive feeling of moody despair permeates. I don’t want to overstate things – no band will ever be Radiohead; but that a band could be favorably compared at all is a compliment of the highest order. Choice track: “High Planes Drifter”.

8. DIIV – Deceiver

I thought DIIV’s 2012’s debut Oshin was a good record, but not great. Among the gazillion bands to keep up with over successive years, I let DIIV fall by the wayside, missing 2016’s Is The Is Are. When 2019 began to come to a close, I kept seeing their album Deceiver on year end lists, especially circling around the shoegaze cognoscenti. This threw me a little, having thought of them as a jangle-pop band indebted to 80s new wave. Had I missed something? I had! Holy shit, this is a great record! Like Preoccupations, DIIV effortlessly reproduce the classic sounds of 80’s gothy new wave but add the wall of sound shoegaze of the early 90’s. Equal parts Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, My Bloody Valentine, and Slowdive, Deceiver is a sonic triumph. And I have yet to delve into the lyrical content, which (I’m told by reviewers) swirls around the burdens of drug addiction and recovery. This is also apparently the first album conceived by the band as collaborative whole, which seems to have clarified and strengthened their sound. It goes without saying that DIIV has moved up my ladder of bands to be excited about. Choice track: “Skin Game”.

7. William Tyler – Goes West

With yet another stellar release William Tyler remains the king of the castle in the rarefied world of neo-classical guitar. His roots remain firmly planted in John Fahey Americana and the light psychedelic minimalism of Robbie Basho and Leo Kottke. We are once again treated with gorgeous, meditative finger-picked instrumentals, aptly supported by drums, steel guitar, and atmospheric synths. Even with no lyrical content, the imagery this music conjures is palpable and cinematic -- sun-soaked meadows, forests, trees, innocence, intimacy…it’s truly beautiful. And I love that he lives on an indie-rock label, Merge Records (likely facilitated by his membership in alt-country gentle-people Lambchop), because he might otherwise be inappropriately marginalized on some dinky new age label. Choice track: “Venus in Aquarius”.

6. Steve Gunn – The Unseen In Between

If not for his vocals, Steve Gunn might sit snugly right next to the aforementioned William Tyler. He is another amazingly talented contemporary guitarist. But there is far more going on within 2019’s The Unseen In Between, setting it apart from the comparatively muted pastoralism of Tyler. In addition to the immensely satisfying guitar riffs, Gunn adds a bluesy/rootsy soul to the mix with his canyon wide vocals. Lots of other instrumentation fills in and brightens the song landscapes. Jammy electric guitar solos regularly appear, always taking the feels up a notch. It's the perfect record for a drive cross-country, away from regret and toward optimism. I highly recommend taking Steve Gunn on a ride. Choice track: “New Familiar”.

5. Vampire Weekend – Father Of The Bride

Ok, this was a weird surprise that I am still having trouble processing and describing. I’ve been a casual fan of Vampire Weekend, digging a handful of songs off each of their popularly acclaimed albums since their self-titled debut in 2008. I picked up Father of the Bride and pretty much shrugged after the first listen. I probably wasn’t listening too intently and I dismissed it for awhile. Upon revisiting I was just…floored! I was torn in two directions at once. First, I couldn’t help but be a little turned off by the extreme pop sheen of the production. This sounds snobbish to say out loud. I’m not sure how to describe my problem with it, but the production and vocal delivery just seemed to present the songs on a silver platter, ready-made for the masses. But on the other hand, the song structures, timing, instrumentation, shifts, breaks, rhythms – it’s sheer genius. It’s discombobulating. It’s as if Ezra Koenig is the reincarnated love child of Paul Simon and George Michael, when the two ruled the pop-world with Graceland and Listen Without Prejudice. The cycling acoustic guitar runs on “Harmony Hall” are so perfectly performed, they sound rendered by MIDI (gosh, I hope they're not). This is great and disconcerting at the same time. “Rich Man” would sound like authentic Hawaiian slack key, were it not for the polished pop, Squeeze-like vocals of Koenig, an expertly played string quartet part, and the flange-treated guitars. It’s all perfectly done, so much so that half the time it rubs me the wrong way. But the other half I am amazed. Choice track: “This Life”.

4. Big Thief – U.F.O.F; Two Hands

While commonplace in the 60s and 70s, it is rare thing indeed when a band releases two records within a calendar year. I think the last example I can think of (not including side projects) was Beach House, who put out Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars in 2015. By all rights records should be easier and quicker to make in contemporary times, what with the near universal accessibility of digital recording. But I suspect artists may hold back, wanting an album to simmer out in the world before obviating it with a new release – such are the attention spans of listeners these days. Not so for Big Thief, who offer up Two Hands and UFOF in 2019. They are of such similar high quality that I felt I had to consider them together (with the added benefit of freeing up an additional Top 25 slot). They are different in character, though. With it’s elegant acoustic dirges, UFOF feels very much like a continuation of lead Thief Adrianne Lenker’s stunning solo album, Abysskiss, that held the #5 spot last year. On the other hand, Two Hands sounds much more in line with Big Thief’s other two albums, Masterpiece (2016) and Capacity (2017), with a fulsome band sound, lots of jagged electric guitars, and big flourishing choruses. Lenker is what unites the two albums, with her distinctive voice and emotionally rich lyrics. Despite the varying tenor of both blums, you could mix and match songs from either and still have a cohesive Big Thief album. Choice tracks: “Forgotten Eyes” and “U.F.O.F.”.

3. Swervedriver – Future Ruins

What’s this you say? A new Swervedriver record that is not summarily slotted into the #1 spot? When I first heard it, I was convinced it could not be toppled, but I was listening through rose-infused earbuds, methinks. Upon repeated listens, I could not deny the fact that Future Ruins, their sixth full-length and second since reforming, is my least favorite of their releases. However, the yardstick we are using here is from an entirely different universe of measurement, as my least favorite Swervedriver album absolutely destroys most competitors and receives a lofty rating of 8.8/10. Suffice to say, Future Ruins is an excellent album. It just seems to fail to reach that tipping point of songs that absolutely blow my little mind. Nonetheless, everything is attractive and catchy, and the layered guitar parts have that usual peerlessness in terms of tone/mix/dynamics. It’s all gold, really, but the songs are not quite as formed into the bejeweled beauties I’ve selfishly grown accustomed to. The high points are high indeed, with the title track “Future Ruins” currently occupying my song of the year -- a slow, druggy, enveloping admonition of the current shitty state of the world. “The Lonely Crowd Fades In The Air” gives us that classic Ejector Seat Reservation (1995) era of 60’s-informed psych pop. And a Swervedriver album would not be complete without a long-form psychedelic dronefest, this time courtesy of closer “Radio-Silent”. The band seems to be going strong with founders Adam Franklin and Jimmy Hartridge at the helm, ably backed by Mick Quinn on bass and hard-hitting Mikey Jones on drums. They have now been together longer since reforming (2008 to present) than they had been over their initial 1989 to 1998 run. May they never leave us. Choice track: “Future Ruins”.

2. The New Pornographers – In The Morse Code Of Brake Lights

How do they do it? I had a look back at The New Pornos’ full-length discography and their consistency is possibly unparalled, at least in my personal estimation. From 2000 to 2019 they have released eight albums, five of which landed in my annual Top 10, and all of which garnered a rating of at least 8.0/10. Here is how they stacked up:

2000: Mass Romantic – 8.7 (#10)

2003: Electric Version – 8.7 (#7)

2005: Twin Cinema – 9.1 (#5) (I might make the case that 2005 was the best year in music, ever)

2007: Challengers – 8.4 (#23)

2010: Together – 8.0 (unranked but my guess is somewhere in #25-#30)

2014: Brill Bruises – 8.5 (#8)

2017: Whiteout Conditions – 8.5 (#25)

2019: In The Morse Code of Brake Lights – 8.8 (#2)

I’m trying to think of a band in the last 30 years that has put out so many albums, back to back to back, that have maintained such excellence to my ears. Besnard Lakes come close with six albums (plus side project The Soft Province) that are all consistently grade-A. But that might be it. If you consider the numerous side projects of Carl Newman, Neko Case, Dan Bejar, and Katherine Calder, the sheer output of quality music is bananas. What a powerhouse of perfect pop they are! A supergroup that has somehow stayed a group for two decades. It’s worth mentioning that their eighth album is my second favorite overall, with Twin Cinema setting the high bar in 2005. They just keep going, never mailing it in. Another fabulous outing with a songs I’ll be listening to for the rest of my life. Choice track: “Dreamlike and on the Rush”.

1. Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising

Back in 2014 I picked up The Innocents, the debut album of Natalie Mering’s Weyes Blood. My first reaction was that it was interesting at points but ultimately a little too dour and hamstrung by directionless melodies (albeit skillfully sung). Like a middling Julia Holter record. I bypassed 2016’s Front Row Seat To Earth, but in the past couple years I rediscovered and reappraised The Innocents, now in my mind a good to great album that recalls Enya and Dead Can Dance, with a sort of medieval new age atmosphere and sometimes on the margins of Joanna Newsom’s freaky folk. I thought it wise to check out 2019’s Titanic Rising and, miraculously, we find ourselves sitting here at number one. I did not see this coming. This here is a complete reinvention, so well done I can scarcely believe it. I am always struck (or at least semi-interested) in genre/era throwbacks; if done well they can be positively transportative. When Black Mountain emulated Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath on 2010’s Wilderness Heart, for example, I felt dazed and confused and back in high school. Same goes for Preoccupations, who replicated goth/new-wave so perfectly on last year’s New Material, I was taken back to the all-age dance clubs of Toronto of the mid-80s. Is it surprising that no one has done…THIS? --- a pitch perfect reproduction of 70s A.M. radio hits, that sort of soft, orchestral AOR rock that draped the background of my childhood reality. Why would anyone do this? It would flop, right? It would be boring, an uninspired anachronism that we simply don’t need to hear anymore. To my surprise, wrong, wrong, WRONG! This album tugs at my heart, tells me my age, and puts me in dirty overalls, boat-sized cars with sun roofs, lakeside cottages, and in our badly wall-papered kitchen eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches. I can see the mono speaker panasonic radio and the rotary telephone on the wall, with the long tangled cord to accommodate my Dad's propensity to pace while talking.

Natalie Mering is suddenly and astonishingly the rebirth of Joni Mitchell and Karen Carpenter, singing like a 70’s radio goddess in flowered slacks and big hair, so sweetly, effortlessly, and anthemically. Her honeyed voice was always there, of course, and so it falls to the musical arrangements and production to complete this magical time-travel trick. This is Fleetwood Mac, The Mamas and Papas, Little River Band, Carly Simon, Seals & Crofts, Cat Stevens, and the Electric Light Orchestra. Absolutely lush, perfectly balanced, sugar-sweet, but with that sad longing lilt that made us all fall in love with The Carpenters. At the mid-point of the album, the title track suddenly acknowledges her other darkwave/new age influences, and sets up “Movies”, a track that could easily be mistaken for early 90’s Enya. It’s beautiful. “Mirror Forever” retains this foundation, sounding like Kate Bush in her most restrained moments, with a dash of Peter Gabriel. Then its back to more 70’s A.M. radio hits to close out the album. As you might have discerned by now, I am absolutely smitten with this record. I think it is an amazing accomplishment and a high water mark for 2019 and perhaps even the decade. HIGHLY recommended, especially if you were conscious 40 years ago. It will warm your cold old heart. Choice track: “Andromeda” (but just listen to the whole album beginning to end).

A Selection of Other Great Albums in 2019

A number of records fell outside my Top 25 by mere tenths of ratings. Here is a short-list of albums that each garnered 8.0 to 8.2 out of 10 by my estimation. In other words, these are also really amazing and deserve a look-see.

American Football – American Football. More angular and spacious song cycles from the old indie underground.

The Appleseed Cast – The Fleeting Light of Impermanence. Emo-favorites emerge again with another dynamic record of love, loss, and crushing guitar chords

Black Swan Lane – Vita Eterna. Lesser-known but prolific post-rock/new wavers give us a floaty album worthy of Echo and the Bunnymen and The Chameleons.

Bob Mould – Sunshine Rock. Punk grandfather keeps chugging along with satisfying indie rock that is more Sugar than Hüsker Dü.

Calexico / Iron & Wine – Years To Burn. Another beautific collaboration by indie-folk luminaries Iron & Wine and Tex-Mex troubadours Calexico.

Hand Habits – Placeholder. Stripped down, meditative indie folk/rock following the same recipe as Soccer Mommy and Snail Mail.

Light Conductor – Sequence One. A collaborative psychedelic drone record, mostly instrumental, from Jace Lasek (Besnard Lakes) and Stephen Ramsay (Young Galaxy). Heavily influenced by Spacemen 3/Spiritualized/Spectrum and maybe the ambient works of Aphex Twin.

Patrick Watson – Wave. Wide-eyed orchestral mood pieces that land somewhere in between Antony and the Johnsons, Jeff Buckley, and Jens Lekman.

Pup – Morbid Stuff. Pretty polished pop punk that veers dangerously close to Sum 41 territory. But the energy, chops, and hooks simply cannot be denied.

Rheostatics – Here Come The Wolves. A welcome return by Toronto heroes with a bouncing batch of eclectic new songs that stand up against their best output.

Sebadoh – Act Surprised. The first album in six years (and only second since 1999) from this group of lo-fi indie rock royalty. While still loud and fuzzy, the tracks here have the same improved production feel that was introduced on Harmacy (1996) and The Sebadoh (1999).

Kudos also to Fleeting Joys, Vicious Blossom, Lula Wiles, Ride, Purple Mountains, Mannequin Pussy, Girlpool, Nick Cave, Angel Olsen, Palehound, Hovvdy, and Belle and Sebastian, who all put out great LPs in 2019.

Finally, there were a few EPs and singles of note. As part of Slumberland’s singles subscription series, Wildhoney put out Naïve Castle b/w Kiss Me, with the A-side landing on my top 10 songs of the year. In that same series, I also enjoyed Smiles’ Gone For Good b/w This Boy, probably because it sounds exactly like Teengage Fanclub. Swervedriver unexpectedly put out a 12 inch single for Record Store Day 2019 containing a cover of The Supreme’s “Reflections” (b/w a Gene Clark cover) and it’s pretty great. Sufjan Stevens graced us with two beautiful new tracks in celebration of Pride Month, “Love Yourself” and “With My Whole Heart”. Spanish noise-/bliss-poppers Linda Guilala continued to thrill me with two 2019 singles, Será Más Fácil and Estado Natural. I’m loving everything they put out these days, unsurprising given their strongest touchstones are Stereolab and Lush.

Disappointments and Misfires of 2019

Not sure about putting negativity into the last paragraphs of this post, but it has become tradition to talk about what went wrong - the records that left me wanting from bands I hold in high esteem. First, Vivian Girls. Ugh...what went wrong with Memory. After a hiatus, the new record is pitiable -- awful production, meager hooks. I was excited for these women to come back with a fuzzy indiepop tour de force. I also had super high hopes for Piroska, a supergroup composed of members of Lush, Elastica, and Modern English. What I heard were pedestrian chord progressions and boring melodies. Feels like a missed opportunity. Mac Demarco, your schtick has worn thin, my man, at least for me. There have been definite high points in the past few Demarco records, but now I am just sort of annoyed with Here Comes The Cowboy. Not anyone's fault, that. Finally, general underwhelmedness listening to 2019 offerings by Elbow, Toy, Wintersleep, Versus, Black Mountain, Tycho, and Dandy Warhols. Hope they can change it up next time around. Expecially Black Mountain, whom I revere.

That is it! Expect more frequent posts in 2020. Lots to look forward to, including new Wolf Parade, Dan Deacon, and Caribou. And a gazillion more, as per usual. Follow my Spotify channel, profile greenpalmrad!

#83: Cover The Walls by Internet Forever (from the The Top 100, 2009-2018)

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Thu, 05 Dec 2019 05:23:00 +0000


from the 2012 self-titled album Internet Forever.

10 years ago, the original point of this blog was to list the Top 500 and talk about its contents, with much attention paid to doing song by song reviews. Didn’t really happen! While I reviewed a few tracks, my few and far between blog posts were reduced to Top 20 albums of the year lists and reflections, which I totally enjoyed doing and will continue to do. But now I’d like to get back to songs, of which there are now 600 to choose from (as I added 100 more of my most favorite from the last decade).

I picked randomly and landed on…“Cover The Walls” by Internet Forever. Internet Forever, a British trio of indie fuzz-popsters, emerged in 2009 with this single, but seems to have dropped out of view by 2013. The probability of the band becoming a musical footnote (if that) seems fairly high, with two singles and only one (fantastic) album to their name. I hope they make a return somehow, or are at least not forgotten (and since the internet is probably forever, there’s always hope). Perhaps they’ll be given the comprehensive reissue treatment that has helped me discover a substantial trove of sparkling indie treasures that would have otherwise been consigned to the rarefied vinyl collections of erudite twee-pop fans.

INTERNET FOREVER - 'Cover The Walls' from Extra on Vimeo.

Whatever their destiny, they deserve far more love for this track on its own, never mind a bunch of other great songs. The band started with some half-joking blog posts about forming a band called – you guessed it – Internet Forever. Things accelerated pretty quickly, with members trading digital tracks by email and assembling some finished songs on Garageband. The resulting first single was "Cover the Walls" (b/w "Page of Books"), released in 2009 by the label Twenty Years of Boredom. After a second single ("Break Bones") and some touring the band entered a proper studio and put together a full LP of slightly more polished tracks (including reworkings of the two singles). And that appears to be it. But at the very least (the very, very least), “Cover The Walls” is forever enshrined in the #83 position of my Top 100 most favorite songs from 2009 to 2018.

Why this obscure, fuzzy bedroom guitar pop? For the same reasons that legions of wallflowers, misfits, and romantics listen to Cherry Red reissues, K records, and the whole C86 musical oeuvre. I love “Cover the Walls” because it distills the essence of indiepop, the kind Calvin Johnston envisioned, that community-based, DIY music making that was punk as fuck, but never hard or hateful. That showed that three chords, a beat up amp, and a rudimentary drum kit could yield devastatingly catchy pop songs, if sung from the heart. “Cover the Walls” is all that. A simple, almost four on the floor drumbeat, inexpert vocals recorded in the red, fuzzy guitar, cheap analog synths and – most importantly – an impossibly catchy verse and chorus. I fully recognize this is not for everyone, but for those who like bands like Los Campesinos, The Vaselines, Dear Nora, The Aislers Set, I’m From Barcelona, Twerps, The Pastels, etc., “Cover the Walls” is archetypal.

I must confess I’m torn between recommending the much more lo-fi version of the song on the 7” (2009) or the slightly cleaned up version on the album. I’m more familiar with the single but I think it’s clear the album version sounds better. Check out both! And check out the 2012 self-titled album. The blog The Line of Best Fit puts it this way: "this indiepop album is, really, the Platonic ideal of indiepop albumness: a glorious curation of that which makes us lonely, speccy, woolly bastards melt into our own tea."

And as always, please check out my Spotify channel - you can start with the Top 100 (2009-2018), from whence this song came.

Revisiting 2015: Full “Best of Playlist” on Spotify and Some Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 04:29:00 +0000

Ah, 2015, marking the mighty and flawless return of Swervedriver, the emergence of young Courtney Barnett, and, most fundamentally, fatherhood.

As mentioned in previous ramblings, I am slowly but assuredly building “best of the year” playlists for online sharing and posterity. As usual, these follow ups help identify gems I missed at the time of my initial yearly review and provide an opportunity to pass them along.

For the 2015 Spotify playlist of my favorite songs, go here!

For the original 2015 best album round up, go here!

Great Albums I Missed

Here a few albums that would have wrestled a few others out of my Top 20 and therefore come highly recommended.

Iron and Wine – Archive Series Volume 1

Oh, this is a treasure trove. Iron & Wine became an instant success with Sub Pop release of the band’s debut The Creek Drank The Cradle. In 2002, we all revelled in the beautiful authenticity of Sam and Sarah Beam’s hushed folk harmonies. After instant classic Our Endless Numbered Days (2004) it wasn’t long before Beam changed course to bigger and more complex arrangements, sounding wonderful but quite different from the early folk recordings. I missed the stripped down intimacy. As if in answer, we received Archive Series Volume 1, a collection of unreleased recordings culled from late-90’s and early-00’s demos. Fingers crossed for a Volume 2. Choice track: “Judgement”

Eternal Summers – Gold and Stone

Missed this somehow upon release and it is as essential as the rest of their discography – chimy guitar driven dreampop with punkish flourishes, recallingThe Primitives, Lush, and Cocteau Twins, and keeping pace with gold-standard contemporaries Alvvays, Wolf Alice, and Soft Science. Choice Track: “Together Or Alone”.

Surf City – Jekyll Island

I picked this up (somehow, somewhere) in 2018 and promptly forgot about it. In my final playlisting run I gave a relisten and, holy shit, this is great. Taking foundational cues from The Velvet Underground and Jesus and Mary Chain, Surf City play that category of mid-fi garage psych-pop promoted by Woods, Quilt, Black Angels, Crystal Stilts, Crocodiles, Warlocks…ahhhh….I could go on, but they just exactly hit that super-catchy, fuzz-loving, reverberating goodness that gets my toes tapping. Choice track: “One Too Many Things”.

Day Ravies – Liminal Zones

Australia’s Day Ravies give us buzzing, off kilter garage punk and experimentation on Liminal Zones. I like Tussle (from 2013), but this is a truly banging record, if a little lo-fi and ramshackle-y at times. Choice track: “Hickford Whiz”.

Crocodiles – Boys

(“Hi Surf City, we’re Crocodiles, and we’re very similar to you. Can we use your review? Why thank you!”). Okay, so this seems lazy, but the woefully Crocodiles truly are cut from same cloth as Surf City above – buzzed out, fuzzed out, lo-fi garage goodness. Choice track: “Hard”.

Drug Cabin – Wiggle Room

I always wondered what happened to Ambulance Ltd., the short-lived brit-pop/shoegaze outfit (from the States) that could have been BIG (in my estimation) circa 2004. Well, some web-browsing indicated a number of later project and side thangs, one of which was Drug Cabin, headed by Marcus Congleton (and joined by Nathan Thelen of Pretty Girls Make Graves). It is a quirky, beatle-esque, countrified thing that is really hard to pin-point. A little Kinks, when the Kinks were weird, some Beach Boys and Byrds, some Teenage Fanclub, and some Wilco. In short, super great. Unfortunately, this album was super limited (can’t find a physical copy anywhere) and the band seems inactive. Choice track: “Ruby”.

My Top 100 Favorite Songs 2009 to 2018

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Sat, 21 Sep 2019 04:15:00 +0000

It is the 10-year anniversary Behind the Scenes of the Sounds and Times, along with the introduction of my all-time Top 500 favorite songs list. This original list (with two exceptions) covered 1965 to 2009, or 45 years of music; or, on average, about 11 songs per year.

10 years later, it’s time to add to the Top 500. Building a newly updated list that stuck to a 500 song limit was an option, but an awful one. Awful because of the massive amount of work this would entail, but also because I could not stomach jettisoning these precious songs in favor of more recent ones, ostensibly because they are now “more favorite”. No, the Top 500 is now sacrosanct in my mind, and cannot be meddled and muddled with.

So on to a new list, a complement to the old, with the following criteria:

100 songs, a nice round number that approximates an average of 10 songs per year.
Songs released from 2009 to 2018. Songs from 2019 are too fresh, with not enough listening time to warrant inclusion.
Songs must be so loved by me that they would have warranted serious consideration for the original Top 500 had they existed back then.

As per usual practice now, you can find this list on Spotify here. A couple notes, however, on the inevitable Spotify gaps and inconsistencies:

#2 Hold On – Alabama Shakes. This crackin’, outrageously soulful rock song is considerably improved upon in the official video version. This is how I first heard it, and when I picked up the album, the song felt like it lost some power. The Spotify version is the album version.

#21 Celebration – Un Blonde. My third favorite album from 2016 was Good Will Come To You, by Un Blonde, the moniker of unsung genius Jean-Sebastian Audet (well, maybe sometime sung in certain corners of the interwebs). Audet changed his alias, however, to Yves Jarvis recently and Good Will Come is available on Spotify under this new identity, along with a new 2019 LP (The Same But By Different Means).

#33 Where We’re Going - Gashcat. The horribly named Gashcat was the original outfit of the now solo Kyle Craft. Craft, after disbanding Gashcat and moving to Portland from Louisiana, put out a couple of good glam-rockish albums on Sub Pop records over the past few years. But Gashcat sounded to me like the second-coming of Neutral Milk Hotel (singing saw included) and I mourn the loss of an amazing band that never took hold. Craft, in the process of reinvention, removed any and all official links to Gashcat’s debut Reunion! and follow up EP Devil Kid Demos (but did re-record “Lady of the Ark”). The songs, thankfully, still persist on YouTube. Listen to “Where We’re Going” here.

#54 We Have Failed – Elika. I discovered this song on When the Sun Hits: 200,000 Gazes, a digital compilation of lesser known and/or unsigned shoegaze and dream pop artists (yours truly included, with my Green Palm Radiation track “Rachel Brook” appearing on the third issue, 300,000 Gazes, Vol. 2). Elika has a lot of releases widely available in the digital world but this darkwave gem was always my favorite, and appears to be exclusive to the compilation. Listen here.

And now, my Top 100 favorite songs, 2009 to 2018:

1 Swim Until You Can't See Land Frightened Rabbit The Winter Of Mixed Drinks

2 Hold On Alabama Shakes Hold On

3 Call It Dreaming Iron & Wine Beast Epic

4 Let's Play / Statue of a Man Mutual Benefit Love's Crushing Diamond

5 Written on the Forehead PJ Harvey Let England Shake

6 Yesterday's Fire Moonface Heartbreaking Bravery (with SIINAI)

7 Rill Rill Sleigh Bells Treats

8 Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) Arcade Fire The Suburbs

9 English Subtitles Swervedriver I Wasn't Born To Lose You

10 Avant Gardener Courtney Barnett How To Carve A Carrot Into A Rose EP

11 The Hair Song Black Mountain Wilderness Heart

12 Lorelai Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues

13 Surrounded By Your Friends Hooray For Earth Momo

14 I'm Not Talking A.C. Newman Shut Down The Streets

15 High School Lover Cayucas Bigfoot

16 So High Ringo Deathstarr Colour Trip

17 What Would I Want? Sky Animal Collective Fall Be Kind

18 Poor Old Lance Frank Fairfield Out On the Open West

19 Man On Fire Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros Here

20 Necronomicon Besnard Lakes A Coliseum Complex Museum

21 Celebration Un Blonde Good will come to you

22 I Don’t Know Sheepdogs Learn and Burn

23 Their Pie (Hawthorne Version) Mark Orton Nebraska

24 Clawing Out at the Walls Dominant Legs Young at Love and Life

25 Haze Angelo De Augustine Swim Inside the Moon

26 Invisible Republic Young Galaxy Invisible Republic

27 Cease To Know Eluvium Similes

28 45'S and 33'S Drew McIvor 45'S and 33'S - Porchlight

29 Disco-Slave Songs Two Koreas Science Island

30 The Ballad Of The Space Babies Jim Guthrie Sword & Sworcery LP - The Ballad of the Space Babies

31 Middle Sea Yuck Glow & Behold

32 Baby Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti Mature Themes

33 Where We're Going Gashcat REUNION!

34 Albatross Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night

35 Getting Gone Mutual Benefit Skip A Sinking Stone

36 Waiting For Something To Happen Veronica Falls Waiting For Something To Happen

37 California EMA Past Life Martyred Saints

38 Back To You Twerps Range Anxiety

39 The Scene Between Go! Team The Scene Between

40 Blue Skies Kathryn Calder Kathryn Calder

41 Bad Texan Lucid Dream Compulsion Songs

42 Sun's Coming Down Ought Sun Coming Down

43 Lady of the Ark Kyle Craft Dolls of Highland

44 I Wonder? Swervedriver I Wasn't Born To Lose You

45 Line Them All Up Black Mountain IV

46 Zombie Langhorne Slim Lost at Last Vol. 1

47 You Day Wave Headcase / Hard to Read

48 Voidfish (Plural) Rachel Rose Mitchell Voidfish (Plural) - Single

49 Carcassonne Angelo De Augustine Carcassonne

50 Lost Dreamers Mutual Benefit Skip A Sinking Stone

51 Freebird II Parquet Courts Wide Awake

52 Womb Adrianne Lenker abysskiss

53 Ascension I Break Horses Chiaroscuro

54 We Have Failed Elika 200,000 Gazes: Volume One

55 Oh, Naoko Sun Airway Nocturne of Exploded Crystal Chandelier

56 My Only Pains of Being Pure at Heart The Echo of Pleasure

57 Latin America Holy Fuck Latin

58 Bluebird of Happiness Ulrich Schnauss Missing Deadlines - Selected Remixes

59 Fool's Gold S. Carey Hundred Acres

60 Killer Crane TV On The Radio Nine Types of Light

61 The End of That Plants and Animals The End of That

62 Capacity Big Thief Capacity

63 Leonard Sharon Van Etten Tramp

64 The Park Secret Cities Strange Hearts

65 Feel Ty Segall Manipulator

66 Jigsaw Heart Elliott Brood Work and Love

67 Pedestrian At Best Courtney Barnett Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit

68 You See Everything Low C'mon

69 Take It Slow Rogue Wave Delusions of Grand Fur

70 Ablaze School Of Seven Bells SVIIB

71 Feel You Julia Holter Have You in My Wilderness

72 The Mermaid Parade Phosphorescent Here's To Taking It Easy

73 Star Roving Slowdive Slowdive

74 An Impression No Age An Object

75 Halfway Home Broken Social Scene Hug Of Thunder

76 Don't Delete The Kisses Wolf Alice Visions Of A Life

77 Feel It All Around Washed Out Life of Leisure

78 Catamaran Candy Claws In The Dream Of The Sea Life

79 Blue Rose Amen Dunes Freedom

80 Cali in a Cup Woods Bend Beyond

81 Chinese Letter Ulrich Schnauss Missing Deadlines - Selected Remixes

82 Olympians Fuck Buttons Olympians 12"

83 Cover The Walls Internet Forever Internet Forever

84 Stay Close Delorean Subiza

85 Lovin' on an Older Gal Sonny & The Sunsets Tomorrow Is Alright

86 The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack Liars Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack

87 When We Were Alive Thermals Now We Can See

88 C'est La Vie No.2 Phosphorescent C'est La Vie

89 Valley Hump Crash No Age Everything In Between

90 She's Closer Than I've Ever Been Adam Franklin I Could Sleep For A Thousand Years

91 All Be Gone Buffalo Tom Quiet and Peace

92 Nothing Brings Me To My Feet Favourite Sons The Great Deal Of Love

93 Glass Jar Tristen Sneaker Waves

94 My Old Man Mac DeMarco This Old Dog

95 Ends of the Earth Lord Huron Lonesome Dreams

96 James Ex Cops True Hallucinations

97 Continental Breakfast Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile Lotta Sea Lice

98 Talking Backwards Real Estate Atlas

99 Your Type Alvvays Antisocialites

100 Young Blood Naked and Famous Passive Me - Aggressive You

The Top 20 Albums of 1988

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 04:00:00 +0000

[Best songs of 1988 playlist on Spotify]

I’ve enjoyed doing my top 20 lists over the past 10 years or so that I’ve decided, what the hell, let’s do all the years. Let’s start with 30+ years ago, 1988. The 80’s were filled with lots of great music if you looked hard enough, but I didn’t really look for the era’s deep indie cuts until much later. But the decade did have R.E.M. and U2 at their finest, and scores of brilliant new wave/post punk singles, and the working class heroes of Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Dire Straits, The Waterboys, The Alarm, and Billy Bragg. The 80’s were also horribly hamstrung by the self-conscious narcissism of the MTV age, pastel colours, and ridiculous rock star pretensions of fey new wavers and atrocious hair metal bands. Corporate music takeovers of glam and punk ruled the Top 40.

1988 specifically saw the early stirrings of shoegaze, gangsta hip hop, indie rock, and the grunge explosion of the 90’s, with important records by My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Galaxie 500, Spacemen 3, Public Enemy, N.W.A., Jane’s Addiction, and Pixies. At the time, I was not on top of all this greatness – trapped in my freshmen residence, my listening habits were directly affected by my peers and I went down an important retrospective path of psychedelic 60’s and folk, 70’s classic rock, and early reggae. It was an education. Years later I caught back up with 80’s, and 1988 was a pretty good one. And so, 30+ years later here is a fulsome review of my Top 20 favorites of that year.

First, respect to the following long-players that fell just out of the primo list:

Close Lobsters – Headache Rhetoric
Spaceman 3 – Playing With Fire

N.W.A. – Straight Outta Compton

The Feelies – Only Life

Cowboy Junkies – The Trinity Sessions

The Smithereens – Green Thoughts

The Proclaimers – Sunshine on Leith

Phillip Glass – Powaqqatsi

Jane’s Addiction – Nothing Shocking

The Jazz Butcher – Spooky

Dinosaur Jr – Bug

Felt – Pictorial Jackson Review
Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman

And here is a quick Top 20 of my favorite songs of 1988. A full playlist of superior tracks is on Spotify here.

1. Waiting For the Great Leap Forward – Billy Bragg (from Workers Playtime)

2. Jane Says – Jane’s Addiction (from Nothing Shocking)

3. The Host of Seraphim – Dead Can Dance (from The Serpent’s Egg)

4. Orinoco Flow – Enya (from Watermark)

5. You Are the Everything – R.E.M. (from Green)

6. Chinese Bones – Robyn Hitchcock (from Globe of Frogs)

7. Punk Rock Girl – The Dead Milkmen (from Beelzebubba)

8. Pulling Touch – Poi Dog Pondering (from Poi Dog Pondering)

9. I’m Not Always So Stupid – The Wedding Present (from George Best)

10. Crash – The Primitives (from Lovely)

11. World Leader Pretend – R.E.M. (from Green)

12. (Nothing But) Flowers – Talking Heads (from Naked)

13. Desire – U2 (from Rattle and Hum)

14. Fairytale of New York – The Pogues (from If I Should Fall From Grace With God)

15. Straight Outta Compton – N.W.A. (from Straight Outta Compton)

16. I Believe In You – Talk Talk (from Spirit of Eden)

17. Where Is My Mind? – Pixies (from Surfa Rosa)

18. Antenna – The Church (from Starfish)

19. Tighten Up Vol. ’88 – Big Audio Dynamite (from Tighten Up Vol. ’88)

20. Flowers – Galaxie 500 (from Today)

And now…my Top 20 favorite albums of 1988.

20. House of Love – House of Love

It is amazing to me that I didn’t get around listening to this band until the past few years. For one, they were one of the first successful bands (relatively speaking) of the UK’s Creation Records, which were to go on to release records by perennial favorites of mine, including Swervedriver, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Boo Radleys, Slowdive, The Jazz Butcher, etc. (not to mention Oasis). I honestly think I got them simultaneously mixed up with Book of Love (remember “I Touch Roses”?) and House of Pain (remember “Jump Around”?). They were erased by this cognitive mishap. But here were are. House of Love are the perfect musical connector between The Smiths/Joy Division, Stone Roses, and shoegaze. They have that uniquely British power pop feel, but reworked considerably through cavernous shimmer and reverb and that downcast vocal delivery that helped define bands like The Chameleons, Kitchens of Distinction, and The Psychedelic Furs. It’s so 80’s but also so good at prefiguring the noises of the 90’s just around the corner. Choice track: “Love In A Car”.

19. The Waterboys – Fisherman’s Blues

I was enthralled and obsessed with The Waterboys’ previous LP This Is The Sea, and it took me awhile to warm up to Fisherman’s Blues. Years even. This Is The Sea was anthemic, angst-ridden, and somehow unworldly. Fisherman’s Blues felt timid in comparison. But I’ve made peace with this transformation. While it seemed The Waterboys were beginning to lurk into the grand (grandiloquent?) territory of U2 (who had just released The Joshua Tree the year prior), they instead took a step back and refashioned themselves into the cerebral soul-folk of Van Morrison (directly referenced in their cover of Van’s ”Sweet Thing”). This has aged well, retaining the deep romanticism of the earlier records, while muting the grandiose elements. It’s a great record, pastoral and intimate. Choice tracks: “Fisherman’s Blues”, “And A Bang On The Ear”.

18. The Pogues – If I Should Fall From Grace With God

Whiskey soaked Celtic romps from these bad asses from London. It is the sort of stuff you can hear at many an Irish bar, but the Pogues are impossibly jiggy and off the rails. Lead Shane McGowan brings an authentic drunken growl to the mix and he’s punk as fuck, a complete menace (McGowan grew up and experienced first hand the anarchy of nascent UK punk). On this set we have righteous political anger, love and regret, and high speed drunken merry-go-rounds. Included is one of the most compelling duets recorded, “Fairytale of New York”, which has become an anti-hero Christmas classic and a widely adored love song, primarily because things fall apart so abjectly between McGowan and Kirsty MacColl (RIP). While the Irish folk on If I Should is front and centre, one also hears Spanish and Middle Eastern influences and a tightly wound and frenetic musicianship that is the best of the best. Choice track: “Fairytale Of New York”.

17. The Mighty Lemon Drops – World Without End

I always thought these blokes didn’t get nearly enough love. One songwriting weakness, at least in my estimation, was a tendency to recycle melodies on the verses, creating a sameness across numerous songs. But the choruses always seemed to make up for it, improving the songs immensely. World Without End showcases the Drops’ best stuff, which draws on the post-punk of Joy Division and The Psychedelic Furs, the Madchester rhythms of Stone Roses and Inspiral Carpets, and big hooky sounds of the Britpop to come. Choice tracks: “Inside Out”, “Closer To You”.

16. Big Audio Dynamite – Tighten Vol. 88

It could be that this is the least loved of B.A.D.’s first string of albums. I’m not sure, although it does rate a paltry 2/5 stars on Allmusic. I remember buying it on vinyl when it came out and being hugely disappointed – this was the moment I began to ignore the output of Mick Jones, which is startling since he was one half of the songwriting team of The Clash, my first true love. Something about it bothered me. Perhaps I grew tired of the wry/sardonic sampling, and the looping synths and digibeats. But I eventually came back to it and I feel it is more interesting and engaging than No. 10 Upping Street, and is only a shade shy of the greatness of their debut This Is Big Audio Dynamite. The melodies and choruses are stellar, and the experimentation on display shows that literally no other band was doing what B.A.D. was doing back then, fusing sampling and looped beats with rock riffs, hip hop, folk, and whole ton of other weird shit. Lyrically, it’s a sarcastic word salad that, over time, compels meaning, dark and funny and poignant. The penultimate song, the title track, is an amazing amalgam of jazz, samba, pop, and moody electronica that is truly transportive. Choice tracks: “Mr. Walker Said”, “Tighten Up, Vol. 88”.

15. Cocteau Twins – Blue Bell Knoll

I became a fan of the Cocteaus long after their heyday in the 80s. I had heard of them of course, but was certain they would be too goth and gloomy for my tastes. I’m not sure where I got this preconception. Damn those preconceptions. Eventually I got things straight when I heard too many references to the band as foundational to other favorites (especially Lush). A new love affair began when I picked up 1996’s Milk & Kisses, which turned out to be their last proper studio album. I’ve since been acquiring their back catalog and found Blue Bell Knoll to be a highlight of 1988. It’s what you expect if you know the Cocteau Twins. Layers and layers of chorus/delay guitar shimmer, compressed and reverbed drums, and the glorious goth-opera vocals of Elizabeth Fraser. Like music you’d hear while travelling the astral plane with a Nephilim entourage. Choice tracks: “Athol-Brose”, “Ella Megalast Burls Forever”.

14. The Go-Betweens – 16 Lovers Lane

The Go-Betweens put out five solid albums of jangly, Paisley Underground guitar pop before landing the acclaimed and beloved 16 Lovers Lane, their last album before reuniting twelve years later in 2000. These are genuine, heart-on-sleeve meditations on love and loss. The emotionality and vulnerability of the lyrics is striking and poetic, but for me I am just taken by melodies and chord progressions that act as perfect vehicles for these messages. This is some pretty breathtaking songwriting here, and, in the context of simple four-piece guitar pop, seems peerless. If you think well of Billy Bragg, Lloyd Cole, The Lilac Time, or The Dream Syndicate, The Go-Betweens will lead you to the promised land of sweet song. Choice tracks: “Love Goes On”, “Clouds”, “Streets of Your Town”.

13. Minor Threat – The Complete Discography

This may not be considered a proper album, really, as it is a collection of all of Minor Threat’s incendiary punk dating back as far as 1981. But it is the only long player they released and is often the first and only record that many listeners have ever been able to get. Their discography, obviously, is not large, but it looms so. 80s hardcore sometimes doesn’t age very well and I have to be in the mood – the structures are pretty strict, and in MT’s case, it is a relentless, unyielding, impossibly fast barrage of punk mayhem. While there were quite a few great 80s hardcore bands, Minor Threat appeared to be in a league of its own. A principled, completely DIY, highly localized, political juggernaut. Leader Ian MacKaye would go on to create the more free-form hardcore of Fugazi, but Minor Threat still stands as monument to American indie and hardcore. Flex Your Head! Choice tracks: “I Don’t Want To Hear It”, “Minor Threat”.

12. Galaxie 500 - Today

Heavily influenced by The Velvet Underground, Jonathan Richman, and twee indiepop, Galaxie 500 by all rights should have been a tiny footnote in the indie music scenes of Boston and New York. They seriously lacked musicianship (poor singing, rudimentary guitar), but somehow made up for it with artiness and that sort of detached urban cool that made the Velvets anti-heroes of the late 60s. In the end, G500 became hugely influential to a 90’s indie scene of stripped down, slowed down, sparse minimalism celebrated by outfits such as Codeine, Low, Bedhead, Seam, Idaho, Smog, and many others. (The genre was most often called “Slowcore”, and that’s the last I’ll speak of it). G500’s trademark was their production. While merely a three-piece of guitar, bass, and drums, producer Kramer (of Bongwater) laid on the reverb so thick and wide, the band sounded like they were playing in the hull of an oil tanker. This hid their many imperfections and gave them a ghostly, wistful presence and a signature sound. Of course, songs are nothing without melody, and Dean Wareham and company knew their way around a good hook. Add in deadpanned, cheeky-noir lyrics and you have the G500 oeuvre. Today, their debut, perfectly captures all this, launching the still-going-strong careers of Dean Wareham (Luna, Dean and Britta), bassist Naomi Yang, and drummer Damon Kruskowski (the latter two having married and forming Damon and Naomi). Choice tracks: “Flowers”, “Tugboat”.

11. Talk Talk – Sprit of Eden

One might have initially thought Talk Talk would be one of those one-hit new wave wonders, with the incomparable single and title track “It’s My Life”, regressing and drifting into the mists, perhaps showing up alongside Endgame, The Assembly, and Furniture on one of the Hardest Hits compilations. The follow up, The Colour of Spring was, however, a massive reformulation. While they gained enormous mainstream exposure with the accessible and powerful single “Life’s What You Make It”, the rest of the album was a rewarding foray into a fusion of jazz, ambient, and avant-pop, solidifying them as high-brow contemporaries of Brian Eno, David Sylvian, and King Crimson. Spirit of Eden followed and it was even more challenging. There are no clear singles – the band refused to issue any, or tour the record due to its complexity; instead we have long, meditative, and beautiful movements of jazz, classical, and prog-rock. Stunning, spiritual, and expansive. Is that enough adjectives? Choice tracks: “Inheritance”, “I Believe In You”.

10. Public Enemy – It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back

I was a peripheral fan of PE in the early days, largely (and very embarrassingly) because I was turned on to “Fight The Power” through an early cover by Barenaked Ladies (on the self-released “Sandwich” tape – but later redone on the Coneheads soundtrack, oddly but awesomely). Over the years, I realized that no one comes close to the mighty and righteous Chuck D in terms of the pure power of rap delivery (and yes, Flavor Flav adds great punctuation). Nation of Millions is a hip hop high water mark in my mind. I was ridiculously fortunate to see them perform this whole record, beginning to end, at the Pitchfork Music Festival in 2008. Wicked ass funk guitar samples, jazzy drums, fiery political lyrics, and gut punch raps that destroy all-comers. Old school that stood above the rest. Choice tracks: “Louder Than A Bomb”, “Caught, Can We Get A Witness”.

9. U2 – Rattle and Hum

While U2’s Unforgettable Fire established the band as stadium ready, the legendary Joshua Tree absolutely blew the roof off the rock world. It was a height that would not (could not?) be reached by the band again. So what to do next? Rattle and Hum was a conceit that led to a fair bit of critical blowback, with strongly worded suggestions that the band was pandering and name-dropping in order to reinvent themselves and their influences. It was a fair question. Did the band really emerge out from Dylan, Hendrix, BB. King, gospel, blues, and general Americana? This feels like a leap when examining their formative years as post-punkers/new wavers. Here is a band that has just conquered the world with their own distinctive (now canonical) material and yet they still felt a need to establish some sort of retroactive roots rock credibility? But in the end, to me, this didn’t matter, and I see the whole record as an homage to the greats – there is a humility to U2 in some strange way, side by side with the bombast, as in “yes, we have made some fantastic albums, but remember who really matters.” Perhaps critics felt that a self-celebratory rockumentary was pure egoism but if anyone deserved documentary treatment in the late 80s, it was U2. If you deeply felt the inclusive spirituality of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” on Joshua Tree, the gigantic live gospel version put you over the edge. “All Along The Watch Tower” probably didn’t need covering by anyone after Dylan and Hendrix cemented it in two exemplary ways, but it stands up as a cracking live tribute. And anybody who has seen U2 live intimately knows that “Pride (In The Name of Love)” needs live representation. But the real value of Rattle and Hum comes from the new material that was penned by the band. “Desire” became an instant classic, with its Bo Diddley, garage surf rhythm coupled with the Edge’s signature guitar sound. “All I Want Is You” is a simple and pretty love song that transforms into a universal anthem. “Angel of Harlem” brings in the Memphis Horns to eulogize Billie Holiday – who knew U2 could sound like Wilson Pickett? While it was clear that band was reaching a point that would require a radical rethink – which ultimately birthed the brilliant Achtung Baby -- Rattle and Hum was a necessary set of roots rock demons to exorcise, punctuated by some A-game U2 originals. Choice tracks: “Desire”, “All I Want Is You”.

8. Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation

Sonic Youth, the grandparents of indie-rock and avant-pop noise bedlam, put out a number of amazing albums, but Daydream Nation counts as my favorite (Dirty would be a fairly close second). I don’t think I am alone in this opinion. While J. Mascis, Robert Pollard, and Frank Black may have something to say about it, I don’t think the indie rock scene we know and love happens without this album. Would we have Pavement, Blonde Redhead, Broadcast, and Superchunk? Nirvana? Eric’s Trip, awesome Haligonian indie rockers, take their name from track 5. In 2015, I ran into Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin and, in full fanboy mode, recounted how me and my buddies assembled to listen to their new album beginning to end. He replied that he and his mates did the same for Daydream Nation almost 30 years ago, clearly marking the album’s influence. While still angular and challenging (and claustrophobic and dystopic), gone are the maddening sound experiments of SY’s earliest records. While delightfully distorted, Daydream Nation has memorable songs and hooks. I wish I could listen to this for the first time in 1988. It would have floored me and I would have glimpsed the future. Choice tracks: ”Teen Age Riot”, “Silver Rocket”.

7. My Bloody Valentine – Isn’t Anything

Huh, feels like I could repeat the Sonic Youth review above and sub in shoegaze for indie rock. Here is another album I wish I heard when it came out. I don’t know when I first heard the sublime and peerless Loveless, but it was a long time ago, long before I finally got my hands on MBV’s debut, Isn’t Anything. At this point the band’s sound does not yet feel fully realized, but that is only in comparison to Loveless, which isn’t remotely fair. Taken on its own merits, Isn’t Anything is tremendous and unique for its time, with layers upon layers of beautifully effected guitar, carefully constructed dissonance and drone, and the distant vocals of Bilinda Butcher and Kevin Shields. It marks the beginning of shoegaze (an awful, inapt term, but perhaps my favorite subgenre). I repeat, it marks the BEGINNING OF SHOEGAZE! The beginning of Ride, Slowdive, Lush, Boo Radleys, Verve, and countless other authors of fuzz and bliss. Choice tracks: “Lose My Breath”, “Feed Me With Your Kiss”, “Sueisfine”.

6. Billy Bragg – Workers Playtime

Billy Bragg, the leftist, unionist Woody Guthrie of the 80’s, is known for his sharp-as-knives political commentary packaged into super catchy, honest-as-fuck folk pop. But, as all Billy Bragg fans know, he is an equally accomplished writer of the simple love song. Because he is an absolute lyrical genius, his simple love songs are also clever, poignant, and possibly profound if you happen to be a bit heart-stricken. Both song types are on Workers Playtime, although one might think love songs would be scarce. The cover is adorned with socialist imagery of communist China, exclaims “Capitalism is killing music”, and includes an Antonio Gramsci quote in the liner notes. It just presents like a heavy political album. But within are brilliant little songs about the basics of love and loss, including the gems “She’s Got A New Spell”, “The Price I Pay”, and “Valentine’s Day Is Over”. But the cream of the crop and one of my all-time favorite tracks is “Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards”, which documents Bragg’s ambivalence and disillusionment with modern socialism and activism in his world of “pop and politics”. Bragg’s narration of the pitfalls of Bolshevik communism, the scars of the Cold War, and the trappings of superficial western liberalism is penetrating and sublime – and sad, cynical, hopeful, and funny all at once. I reckon I’ve never heard lyricism so perfectly concocted, at least not with Bragg’s everyman practicality and humour that ostensibly eluded some of my other favorite poets, such as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Matt Johnson (of The The). The Great Leap Forward was China’s post war propaganda of economic and social development. Bragg’s still waiting for the bonafide leap, presumably to this day, toward the sort of socialism that can free us all. Revolution is just a t-shirt away! Choice tracks: “She’s Got A New Spell”, “Waiting For The Great Leap Forward”.

5. Enya – Watermark

I have received a fair bit of flack from a range a peers for my love of Enya, with the most common criticism being that she apparently shills prefabricated new age slop that is somehow clichéd and musically insipid (no one has said this to me in this way exactly, but it’s what I hear). Can I just say…please shut it? Brian Eno may be the grandfather of new age (unfortunately spawning countless boring soundscapes and recorded rainstorms best fit for yuppie beauty spas) but Enya is clearly the powerful matriarch of it all, beginning in earnest with her self-titled debut (after some years with proggy new agers, Clannad); and then remarkably crossing over to the pop charts with her second album and the brilliant single “Orinoco Flow”. Perhaps, skeptics might say, this is a sorely dated piece of work, sounding far too tethered to 80s synths and MIDI choirs – that I need to listen to it again and straighten myself out. Fact is, I have routinely put on this album over the past 30 years whenever I have wanted to calm my mind and sink away into neo-classical beauty. YOU need to listen to it again. Start with the title track, “Watermark”, as well as “Miss Claire Remembers”, two hauntingly beautiful piano solo pieces that are not out of place next to Debussey and Satie. This gives you a sense of Enya’s compositional roots. Then listen to “Na Laetha Geal M’Oige”, in which Enya mesmerizes the listener with an otherworldly vocal solo over subtle organ, with an instrumental bridge on uilleann pipes (pretty distinctive bagpipes of Ireland, although I know very little of such things). Finish off with Enya’s signature sound – that which has given her the new age tag – best featured on “Orinoco Flow”, “Storms of Africa”, and “The Longships”. Now, if you don’t like ethereal musical mind castles, then, sure, Enya is not for you. But if you do, if you are attracted to meditative, classical soundscapes and gorgeous transportive melodies, give Enya another chance. She is, after all, the Mother. Choice tracks: “Orinoco Flow”, but you really should listen to the whole album beginning to end, on headphones, under the stars.

4. The Primitives – Lovely

One wonders why the Primitives never got the same kudos and exposure as similar female led guitar pop groups, such as Blondie, The Go Go’s, and The Bangles. While they earned some success with the lead single “Crash” – which led me directly to their records – they remained on the relative margins. Perhaps because they avoided overproduction, retaining a fuzzy foundation underneath Tracy Tracy’s candyfloss vocals, and aligning them more closely to the Jesus and Mary Chain and Lush. With the exception of the eastern-influenced “Shadow” (tablas!) this is a simple but irresistible indie pop-punk, with a dose of 50’s sock hop and 60’s garage-band. When I reviewed 1988 for the purposes of this list, I was a little floored by how highly this rated for me. I knew I liked it a lot – but a revisitation put it mighty high on my favorites list. Lovely is a key document in the indie-pop, C86 genre, giving rise to a host of jangly/fuzzy indie bands I adore, such as The Aisler’s Set, Dear Nora, The Vivian Girls, Veronica Falls, Frankie Rose, Best Coast, Slumber Party, The Pipettes, and many others. Choice tracks: “Crash”, “Way Behind Me”.

3. Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians – Globe of Frogs

Robyn Hitchcock is one of those amazingly fantastical dudes who weaves the quirkiest and strangest of tales into his outsider folk rock music (like the druidry of Julian Cope, the madcappery of Syd Barrett, and the sardonic wit of The Jazz Butcher). I am a fan of this guy, although nothing in his discography comes close to Globe of Frogs. Absurdism is tough tightrope to walk without losing the audience and crossing over into the land of dumb, but Hitchcock stays the course somehow on what is one of the oddest concept records I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. I’m not suggesting there is particular narrative here; rather it is the lyrical symbolism that coheres. It is relentlessly “organic”. That is to say, the songs all consistently invoke organic metaphors and imagery. It’s about flowers, soil, skin and bones, birth/death/rebirth. It’s all sticky and fleshy and compostable, but also inscrutable. I don’t know how else to explain it. Sample lyrics: “He splattered me with tomatoes, hummus, chick peas and some strips of skin”. Or “And in the demon’s hat, discoloured flowers grew, and they had fleshy stems, and fleshy petals too.” Song titles include “Tropical Flesh Mandala”, “Luminous Rose”, and “A Globe of Frogs”. The album feels like a paean to a freaky, hallucinogenic biosphere, all queasy and uneasy. All this lyrical wonderment would be for naught were it not for the music itself, which is imbued with attractive rhythms, jangly guitar, rollicking bass, and ear worm melodies. If there is a grandfather of the “freak folk” genre of the 2000’s (i.e., early Animal Collective, Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom), it is Hitchcock. Globe of Frogs’ closest relatives at the time may have been Julian Cope and R.E.M. (in fact, R.E.M.’s Peter Buck guests throughout on guitar). I could have easily missed this album were it not for the minor college radio hit “Balloon Man”, which got some Toronto airplay. A friend bought the vinyl and I promptly taped it (Mike Hotta, thank you). There is no way I would have taken the deep dive into this album that it deserves without this well-worn cassette. And now, 30 years later, both the LP and CD are long out of print and absent from major download and streaming sites. A lost classic. Choice tracks: “Vibrating”, “Balloon Man”, “Chinese Bones”, “Flesh Number One (Beatle Dennis)”.

2. Poi Dog Pondering – Poi Dog Pondering

Who listens to Poi Dog Pondering? Anyone? Anyone? Once again attributable to my teenage supplier (thank you again Mike Hotta, you are officially responsible for 2 of the top 5 of 1988), this record arrived unannounced into our naïve musical sphere of punk and new wave (and Led Zeppelin, Rush, and The Beatles, of course) and I don’t quite get why we connected so strongly to it. Perhaps we were receptive due to the growing presence of Celtic influenced bands like the Pogues and Spirit of the West. Or maybe it is simply that we were suckers for really good melody. In any case, we knew that Poi Dog Pondering were something special, albeit beyond any teenage articulation of that fact. Had they any footprint to speak of in the landscape of popular music (beyond a small, seemingly rabid, fanbase) they would have been considered trail blazers of the rock-folk-pop ensemble. Clearly the “ensemble” – and by that I mean lots of musicians contributing to a coherent whole – has been around as long as classical and jazz, and that’s a mighty long time, but the framework of rock and roll was essentially an attempt to tear that down into the classic line up of guitar, bass, keys (maybe), and drums (notwithstanding the orchestral arrangements of The Beatles and The Beach Boys, among others). In the early 2000s, Arcade Fire revived (repurposed? reintroduced?) this approach, employing both in studio and in live set ups a rotating cast of numerous multi-instrumentalists, covering the rock basics, but enhanced by brass, strings, extra percussion, and any number of folk instruments. The effect was monumental and represented a distinct trend in popular indie rock (e.g., Broken Social Scene, The Decemberists, Mercury Rev). Well, Poi Dog Pondering was well ahead of this game back in 1988, assembling a plethora of amazing musicians based in Austin TX and, unexpectedly, Hawaii. (Sidebar: Guelph’s own Black Cabbage deserves mention as another earlier adopter of the “all hands on deck” cacophony). For a young, under the radar indie band, these lovely folks had serious chops and amazing production value. In any given song, you have crystal clear layers of three or so guitars, bass, violin and cello, flutes, drums and other percussion, piano, and other accoutrements. The lyrics of led ponderer, Frank Orral, could be a little saccharine, a little on the nose of the 90’s hippie love revival, but also often poignant and poetic. The whole package was astounding. While the Poi Dogs would later move into RnB structures, this first album was a triumph of cinematic Celtic folk with Hawaiian flares. Choice tracks: “Living With The Dreaming Body”, “Pulling Touch”, “Fall Upon Me”.

1. R.E.M. – Green

R.E.M. was growing concern in the pop landscape ever since Lifes Rich Pageant (which landed the surprise hit “Superman”) and Document (which gave us the lyrical rollercoaster ear worm “It’s The End of the World as We Know It” and the much loved “The One I Love”). Green, however, jumped into the big time, with giant hits “Orange Crush” and the ultra-radio friendly “Stand” (both going to #1 on mainstream charts in the US). I had a been a devoted fan every since I saw heard/watched “Pretty Persuasion” (from 1984’s Reckoning) on an after-school video show. Despite marking their move to a major label (Warner), Green was pure R.E.M. in my mind, even though Peter Buck suggests the album represented a big change to “major key rock songs”. Conversely, Buck also acknowledges the album’s eclecticism and experimentation, including a decision to trade instruments and to introduce new sounds (most obviously Buck’s mandolin on three songs). There are so many great moments on here – from the anti-war rock piece “Orange Crush” to the cerebral folk of “World Leading Pretend”, “Hairshirt”, and “You Are The Everything”, to the bubblegum pop of “Stand” (which, I should note, dignified itself by perhaps being the first #1 pop song about mindfulness, localism, and environmentalism). Remarkably, R.E.M. would reach even greater heights with follow ups Out Of Time and Automatic For The People. But don’t forget Green, a moment when a beloved independent band went to the majors without a hint of compromise. Choice tracks: “You Are The Everything”, “World Leader Pretend”, and the last untitled track.

What’s next? Probably I’ll jump back to the 60’s.

The Top 500 is on Spotify! (but not all of it...)

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 15:53:00 +0000

After much searching, clicking, and dragging, I’ve finally imported the Top 500 as public playlist on Spotify. Get it HERE!

The playlist, however, is incomplete with 28 songs absent from its database, either completely or in terms of the version that I know and love. Spotify does indeed have a staggering collection of music. It’s super impressive and convenient. I would say TOO large and convenient, but that’s another discussion altogether (coming soon!).

So what’s missing? There are a bunch of songs by local and/or by lesser known artists, many defunct. There are also fairly well known artists whose Spotify catalogue is incomplete. This is especially frustrating in relation to Swervedriver (my most favoritist of bands), who have their major studio albums on the site but very limited b-side representation – and in the 90's, these guys were kings of the b-sides.

Here are the song gaps, in order of their Top 500 position and, with a couple of exceptions, links to hear them.

#1. What Sees The Sky - Mazarin

How frustrating is it that MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE SONG is not on Spotify. When I picked this song as my number one, I was legitimately surprised. I wasn’t consciously trying to be snobbish or supercilious selecting it for the revered top spot. It just legitimately turned out this way. See one of my earliest posts for my reckoning of this supreme track. Listen here.

#6. She’s Beside Herself - Swervedriver

My most favorite Swervedriver song is this b-side of the Rave Down EP. A languid, lyrically ambiguous psych-grunge anthem centred around an irresistable riff and wall of sound guitar solos that will paste you against the wall. Fun fact! In 2014 Adam Franklin, as a solo artist, commissioned his fans to request reworked covers of his own back catalog, and I jumped in with this song (among 32 other lucky requesters). My specially requested cover appears on digital release All Happening Now, Vol. 2, and is the placeholder on the Spotify Top 500 playlist. Even more cool? Adam sent me his cover but then decided to rework it for the digital release – which means I have an additional version of this song that no one in the world has, a true one of kind version of my 6^th all time favorite song (except I think I maybe shared it on the fan site – I just don’t remember). Here is the original.

#11. This Is England – The Clash

I’m certain this would be considered heresy to the world-wide legions of Clash fans. But it’s true, my number one favorite Clash song and eleventh all-time song is from 1985’s Cut The Crap, the post-Mick Jones record that was formally disavowed by Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon, and purged from The Clash’s official discography as a horrible mistake. I don’t think its as bad as all that, but I’m sure the emotional baggage that centred around the record was way too heavy for Joe when the dust settled, having been cajoled and artistically swindled by manager, “producer”, and all-round asshole Bernie Rhodes. But…This Is England was an instant classic in my mind. Strummer singled it out years later as a pretty good song and it does in fact appear in the singles box set, a pretty meaningful concession. But it does not, sad to say, live on Spotify. You can hear it here.

#36. Foxes (Sighing Like A Furnace) – Sparrow House

If you were to combine the dimensions of “most favorite song” and “most obscure song” and apply it to the Top 500, “Foxes (Sighing Like A Furnace)” would be your result. Sparrow House was the solo side project of Jared Van Fleet, former keyboardist of Voxtrot and member of Yellow Ostrich. Sparrow House released one humble EP (Falls) in 2007, and it is beautiful display of home recorded indie folk, recalling Elliott Smith or The Kingsbury Manx. All of it is lovely, but "Foxes" is sublime. I remember thinking it was foolhardy to put such a recent and obscure song so high into the list – surely it would age away from such greatness. But I did not relent and ten years later I think I feel #36 is not high enough. Gorgeous, nostalgic, shimmering folk. Sink into it here.

#62. Cars Converge on Paris - Swervedriver

Another epic B-side, “Cars Converge” is a slowly evolving/looping minimalist piece, with layer after shimmering layer of psychedelic guitar, a bouncy bass line, and an oblique anti-capitalist narrative. It originally appeared on the super rare US promo of the Last Train To Satansville EP, making it, back in the day, the holy grail of the Swervedriver catalog. I remember shaking my head when I first heard it – THIS didn’t make the album? The song now appears on the 2005 compilation Juggernaut Rides (now also rare as it turns out) and the CD reissues of Mezcal Head – but why aren’t the reissues, which have B-sides as bonus tracks, not on Spotify? Annoying. Check out the song here instead.

#86 Pigs on the Wing, parts 1 and 2– Pink Floyd

For the longest time 1977’s Animals was never a big Floyd album for me, which is strange given my reverence for the follow up The Wall (#2 album of all time, possibly?). But I LOVED Pigs on the Wing, which I heard time to time in early university, 1988-1992. I also think I was not even aware that part 2 ended the album. But then I kind of forgot about these two short acoustic love songs that bookended the record. In any case, when Napster and Limewire emerged I went searching for the track and quite randomly landed the version that joins parts 1 and 2 with a guitar solo. Where did this come from? Years later, I discovered that this unified version was only available on the 8-track version, which allowed the listener to loop from side 1 to side 2 continuously – the band took advantage of this format to link the two parts with the instrumental bridge. It also appeared on a promo single b/w a radio edit of "Sheep". The guitar solo, by the way, was performed by Snowy White not David Gilmour. You’d be forgiven for thinking it was Gilmour though, as White seems to have absolutely perfected Gilmour’s sound. The bottom line is that I’ve always heard Pigs on the Wing parts 1 and 2 as a single song, but this amalgamated version is not on Spotify – so the playlist just has the two parts clunkily sitting in sequence. Hear the combined version here.

#121. Cantina – Richard Davies

Here is another criminally underrated artist. Australian Richard Davies dazzled me with 1997’s Telegraph, and the gem among the gems is “Cantina”, a rollicking road-weary chamber-poppin’ song that absolutely sparkles. The production is particularly brilliant, like it was recorded by Sir George Martin. I also recommend his two other solo albums and his work with Cardinal and The Moles. Check the song out here.

#136. Prague – Mega City Four

"Prague" appeared on mixtape from a friend and I have been in love with it ever since – a indie rock anthem full of regret and wistfulness, with a simple two-chord riff that digs its claws into you. I have the album that houses the song (Sebastopol Rd.) but for some reason I am pretty unfamiliar with it, or the band in general (although I can at least say they sound like Ash, Adorable, and Oasis). I did some Wiki reading to discover this British outfit released eight albums between 1989 and 1996, along with twice as many singles. I also discovered that the guitarist, Darren “Wiz” Brown, joined Canadian outfit Doughboys (!) and, sadly, passed in 2006 from a brain aneurysm. Perhaps I should be diving into their back catalog, but not on Spotify, which has only one album. Check out Prague here.

#202. Paris Sous La Neige - Mellow

I think I first heard this impossibly catchy, summery, groove-pop on a Magnet or CMJ magazine sampler. Whatever their exposure was back in the early aughts, Mellow faded from view after a couple years. While the song clearly dates to the late 90s rave-up excesses of the new electro pop (think Soup Dragons, Jesus Jones, and Happy Mondays) and the euro-cool schtick is a little thick, the song is still just a ultra-fun, carefree ear worm. Check it here.

#203. Fuzzy Sun – Jim O’Rourke

Experimental outsider label Drag City had, until recently, been slow to hop on the Spotify free streaming bandwagon, leaving us wanting for the sounds of Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Broadcast, and Bill Callahan (and 100+ other acts). That’s changed recently, with much of their roster starting to show up. But not yet the full discography of producer/agitator Jim O’Rourke. One of his prettiest – but shockingly subversive and probably just offensive – EPs, Halfway To A Threeway, remains unrepresented. Contained therein is “Fuzzy Sun”, a brilliant little piece of jazz-folk that sits comfortably alongside fellow Chicago outfits The Sea and Cake, Sam Prekop, Archer Prewitt, and Gastr Del Sol. Hear it here.

#234. Ain’t That The Way – Royal City

Royal City, named after the alias of my hometown of Guelph, was a local supergroup of brilliant indie-folksters Aaron Riches, Jim Guthrie, Nathan Lawr and others, active from 2001 to 2004. Gorgeous bittersweet harmonies, gentle arrangements, and an (un)healthy dose of general ennui made them particularly fetching. “Ain’t That The Way” on 2004’s swan song Little Hearts Ease perfects their sound, completely disarming me every time. I can't find a playable stream anywhere, or even an mp3 download option. Frustrating...but lots of affordable CD copies on Ebay, so I suggest you buy it.

#239. Holland – Paul MacLeod

Curse the world that took Paul MacLeod, local troubadour, sometimes member of the Skydiggers, and an all-round Canadian talent that deserved more than he got. It was our tradition for all of us grad school friends to sit on the Jimmy Jazz patio every Monday night for pitchers and Paul, often with partner Danny Michel, for a slew of amazing covers and, over time, some truly inspired originals. Few songs pull my heartstrings like “Holland”, which signifies and memorializes one of my most favorite life eras. The song didn’t appear in studio form until 2007’s Bright Eyes Fade. It’s a great version, but does not capture the song at its stripped down best, live on a summer patio, Guelph Ontario, circa 2001. I somehow acquired a live version (off a long-defunct web page), recorded at a small humble festival held in a barn somewhere in the farm lands of Southwest Ontario. It’s perfect. I can’t find this anywhere online, but here is a comparable version from a 2012 set at the Jane Bond in Waterloo, Ontario. His whole catalog, absent from Spotify, needs exploring. Rest in peace, Paul.

#275. What Fran Said – Five Guys Named Moe

Undoubtedly taking their name from a mid-forties musical, this group of Ottawans came and went with two singles and one album circa 1990. Once you get past the references to the stage musical (and some contemporary Chicago bar band) you can find a smattering of online references to Five Guys, typically on blogs lamenting their almost complete disappearance. Their self-titled album is an absolute rarity in physical form with virtually no online presence (although there is a 5 sentence write up on Allmusic and a Discogs entry). A shame. They were a super talented bunch, marrying a folky template with upbeat multi-instrumental chops and soaring harmonies. Their closest comparators may be Lloyd Cole, Hothouse Flowers, Poi Dog Pondering, or local Guelph heroes Black Cabbage. “What Fran Said”, a rollicking countrified sparkler, is my favorite from what is a really great album and a lost Canadian classic. The song (and full album) are on Youtube here.

#277. Wichita Lineman – Optiganally Yours

I hope we can all agree that Glen Campbell’s Wichita Lineman is genius songwriting. Put into the hands of the inscrutable weirdos of Optiganally Yours and you have a whole other approach to the song’s greatness. OY is tough to categorize; they produce a sort of kitchen-sink analog melting pot of found sounds and poppy hooks, centred around the mid-70’s Mattel instrument, the Optigan. Every song is a retro-futuristic, genre-pillaging anachronism. Hard not to admire but tough to love too much. But their take on Lineman is really special, turning it from a heartfelt easy listening tune into a bizarro RnB groove that would fit in seamlessly on Beck’s Odelay. From the 1997 LP Spotlight on Optiganlly Yours. Check it out here.

#313. Xmas Trip – Run On

This is a strange gap on Spotify for sure. Run On were part of the B-list roster of 90’s indie rock trailblazers Matador Records, who gave us the more well-known and revered bands of that era: Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Guided By Voices, Liz Phair, etc. Run On was B-list merely in terms of exposure, however; they were a pistol hot, art-punk quartet formed in New York, with ties to the noisy no-wave scene. While members have stayed active in different projects, the Run On name was retired after two albums and a handful of singles and EPs. “X-mas Trip” is a carousing, galloping pop punk song owing a debt to Yo La Tengo, Pere Ubu, or even The Cramps. I love the lyrics, which create a time and place of memory, as if it were your own: “The casssette of Daydream Nation worn out / The Bernadette Peters autograph on my cast / The CBGB's T-shirt I’m wearing / The drive down from St. John was almost always easy / The drive back on Christmas Day was not". Check out Xmas Trip here.

#328. Flawed – Swervedriver

Yet ANOTHER Swervedriver B-side (from the 1991 Sandblasted EP) that is as strong as any album cut. It is a searing, fiery showcase of the bands wholly unique dueling guitar sound of overdriven fuzz, Jazzmaster pitch-bending, and what I believe is a broken distortion pedal of Adam Franklin’s (a unique sound that appears on a lot of early Swervedriver). Drummer Graham Bonner hits like John Bonham and Franklin sings with a faraway, lachrymose voice that appears on number of their early tracks (like “Sunset”, “Scrawl and Scream”, and “She’s Beside Herself”). The song suddenly devolves into an extended psychedelic coda of off-beat finger-picking, swells of distortion, and a fuzzed out wah that prefigures 1993’s epic “Duress”. Hear the amazingness here.

#332. Icebox – Electrolyte

Alone at conference in Halifax in 2008, I drifted down to a rock club to check out some bands and was treated to an amazing double bill comprised of a band whose name fails me (possibly called Parks and Recreation?) and Electrolyte, a short-lived indie rock outfit led by Neil Gunn. Gunn maintains a bandcamp page of his own music (under the moniker Clint Driftwood), which includes Electrolyte’s sole album Evil in Joy. If memory serves, I think I had to email the guy to get a copy the self-released album, as it wasn’t quite ready for the gig. So I suppose this could very well be the most obscure song on the Top 500 (with the possible exception of “Foxes (Sighing Like A Furnace)” by Sparrow House). “Icebox” hits that indie rock sweet spot of 90’s Matador/Merge, referencing bands like Pavement, Versus, Chavez, Superchunk, and Butterglory. Evil In Joy, and this track in particular, deserves recognition and props. Check it out here.

#343 Colours - Donovan

Classic folk song “Colours” is of course on Spotify, but only the single version that appears on 1965’s Fairytale. Much more familiar to me is the version on his 1969 Greatest Hits release. Apparently Epic records were unable or unwilling to secure the rights to the original recording of Colours (as well as “Catch the Wind”) and so Donovan re-recorded a new version (with Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones on bass and Big Jim Sullivan on guitar). I think this is a better version and one wonders if it was closer to Donovan’s vision, since he clearly didn’t try to emulate the first one. Oddly, the Greatest Hits LP is not on Spotify – this is surprising because it includes non-album singles and these two important reworkings. Check out the better Colours here.

#356. The Other Jesus – Swervedriver

Here we go with Swervedriver again. Sigh. The band was left in limbo in 1995 when A&M announced a long delay of the release of Ejector Seat Reservation. When the band asked to get out of their contract (and they were), home UK label Creation dropped them right after the domestic release, which quickly went out of print and was not available at all in North America. Sony had licensed the rights and so we have seen some limited reissues over the years, but never for digital purchase or streaming. Criminal! This is an epic record. The Other Jesus – which clearly should have been the single, but Creation demanded it be Last Day On Earth to align with the britpop of the day – is guitar pop genius. Starting with a menacing bass line, the song suddenly jumps into an uplifting melody that sounds like the Byrds or the Beatles were transplanted right into the middle of the 90’s. Listening to ESR, there is no damn reason, other than bad luck, that Swervedriver should not have had the same career arc as Stone Temple Pilots or Blur or The Smashing Pumpkins. Superior to all comers, yet this album still languishes. Listen here!

#362. Walkin’ With Jesus – Spacemen 3

Drone pop grandfathers Spacemen 3 gave us simple and catchy minimalist songs (or jams) dressed up in layers of guitar, reverb, and overall drugginess. I was always partial to Spiritualized, the post S3 band of Jason Pierce (or J. Spaceman), which always seemed a little more advanced and nuanced (but still basic at the core). In fact, it was Spiritualized that led me back to this original incarnation, and while I enjoy lots of it, nothing quite grabs me like "Walkin’ With Jesus", an irreverent tongue in cheek conversation with the man himself about how earth is probably a lot more fun. Silly lyrics aside, what I love about this track is the discipline of the band to keep it minimalist – two alternating organ chords, a looping bass line, a simple acoustic guitar, plaintive vocals, and just a wee bit of extra electric guitar for a solo. Clearly influenced by the Velvet Underground, Spacemen 3 were adept at bringing a sort of underground soul to a DIY asethetic. No Spacemen 3 on Spotify! I have slotted in a weak live version, by Spiritualized, as a proxy. Walk with Jesus here.

#364. Chinese Bones – Robyn Hitchcock

Another super random casualty of the streaming business. Robyn Hitchcock has loads of material on Spotify but not one of my favorite albums of all time “Globe of Frogs”. I review this album in my Top 20 of 1988 post, so I won’t go into detail here. Chinese Bones is one of many highlights on the album, all of which flirted with my Top 500. Check out this brilliant freaky folk (and the signature arpeggios of R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck) here.

#386 Fleas Don’t Fly – Arnold

In the middle of the Britpop conflagration of the late 1990’s were Arnold. I’ll never understand why these guys did not go BIG! They used the same sonic playbook as Oasis, The Verve, Suede, Ash, Supergrass, etc. But the production was somehow more lush and intimate, and with vocal harmonies that bested all-comers. More importantly, the hooks were huge and unforgettable. They were also on famed UK label Creation and stayed on with label-founder Alan McGee, moving with him to Poptunes when Creation expired. Yet they only managed three albums in a short four-year period of music making. I have little knowledge of what happened to these guys. Its frustrating

because they were pretty freaking great. "Fleas Don’t Fly" was released as the first single for the 2^nd album, the critically praised Hillside. It is a beautiful, floaty, open-string acoustic number, with a chord change announcing the chorus that is positively irresistible. Float to it here.

#387 Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist – Fembots

The Fembots were a Toronto indie band active in the late 90’s to the mid-00’s. While starting out decidedly experimental (with power tools, toy instruments, and loops), the album Small Town Murder Scene reined that into a fine batch of gothic-country tunes – atmospheric, woeful, and poignant. Think Rock Plaza Central, early Akron/Family, Wilco, or even Handsome Furs. This song sends me back to those wonderful years of 2003-2005 when the best music on the planet all seemed to come from Canada. The lyrics here are fascinating, paraphrasing the resistance politics of, I assume, Alexander Berkman, a Russian émigré to the US and anarchist in the late 19^th century, as there is an autobiography with the same title as the song: “Let them break their bats on our heads, let them drown their guns in our blood, we’ll stay frozen in this fight forever / Let them hold their breath for all time, let them waste their lives trying to hang on to what can’t be owned”. A brilliant requiem. Resist it here.

#410. Wake Up – Barmitzvah Brothers

The incorrigible Barmitzvah Brothers, teenage outsider savants homegrown in Guelph (my town), gave us many albums throughout the 00’s, and loom larger than usual on this track, adding more members, chops, and an obvious pop sensibility. I reviewed this a long ago on this space – read it here. I can't find a streaming source though!

#414 Sun On His Back – Camera Obscura

“Sun on His Back” IS in fact on Spotify, part of Camera Obscura’s debut album, Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi. It’s a splendid, nostaglic track that aligns comfortably with Belle and Sebastian and UK twee folk pop. But my problem is that my preferred version includes a simple instrumental trumpet lead, replacing an unsatisfying banjo part. The trumpet suddenly gives the song an unexpected mariachi feel and it’s what I am used to. I have no idea where I got this version of the song (an mp3) – I cannot for the life of me find it on any official release, or anywhere for that matter. If anyone can identify where it comes from, please let me know. The next step is to query the C.O. facebook group, but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. This stands as one of the few songs in the Top 500 that I do not have in physical form (acknowledging the unique circumstances of #86 above). So, yah, I can’t direct you to my preferred version, but the album version is in the Spotify playlist, and here’s a live version…with trumpet!

#432 The Streets That Spin Off – Toshack Highway

Post-Swervedriver, lead singer Adam Franklin formed an interim project called Toshack Highway, producing a whole treasure trove of excellent songs that you will not find on Spotify (there is one EP on there). In Swervedriver’s heyday of North American touring, the band became fast friends with Burlington Ontario’s Sianspheric (and I simultaneously became a huge fan). This was a wonderful development for me personally, as it meant that Adam Franklin, having relocated to New Jersey, came up to Ontario pretty often on tour. One outcome was a double EP, a Canadian pressing that paired a five-song Sianspheric release (Asprin Age) and a five-song TH release (Magentic Morning). It’s all awesome, but I was especially stoked by the TH songs, which moved away from the synthesizer heavy first album and toward a sort of natural extension of Swervedriver’s Ejector Seat Reservation and 99^th Dream. Certainly it’s more muted, without the sprawling guitars we were used to, but it’s still rich and complex. “The Streets That Spin Off” is particularly impressive, with amazing arpeggiated acoustic guitar looping and circling around some great chord progressions, shifting time signatures, and varied pacing. Hear this underheard classic here. A reworked (and stripped down) version is also on the Spotify playlist as a placeholder.

#452. Weed King – Guided By Voices

There is a live version of this song (from 1992's Propeller LP) on Spotify, but it is so goddamn awful I refuse to include it on my playlist. The sound quality is terrible and Robert Pollard is way out of tune, sounding (as was often the case) completely loaded. This should not imply, however, that the studio version is hi-fidelity. Like much of the album, it sounds like basement 4-track cassette recording, with odd cut-outs and tape hiss. This seems wholly intentional on the part of the band, striving for a true DIY sound and aesthetic. Such recording limitations cannot, however, tame the full-on rock power of Weed King! I confess I cannot figure out what this song is about and I don't think I need to know. What I do know is that it moves from a dark minor key lament into a crescendoing bridge that ultimately launches a classic garage rock anthem. For the dreams of the weed king we all sing! Listen here.

#485 Preto O Branco – Maria João and Mario Laginha

This one was off my own beaten path. I was perusing in Vortex Records circa 1999 and they were playing this…this Portuguese bossanova experimental jazz bop...or something. I loved it immediately, I loved the interplay between the straight up bouncing jazz (similar to Vince Gauraldi of Peanuts soundtrack fame) crossed with the odd-ball improv-jazz vocals of Maria João. Few I've played this for can get past Maria's shrill vocals but if you like Kate Bush you may have no issue. Just try it. Her range is extraordinary and this is an amazing song, with a mid-song jazz interlude that is wonderful. And it’s happy and energizing, even without understanding the lyrics. I’ve put a live version from Spotify in as a placeholder, but go to the superior original here.

And there we have it...the scattered and lost tracks of the Top 500, victims of the age of streaming, collected here for posterity and access.

My Top 25 Favorite Albums of 2018

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 04:58:00 +0000

For a playlist of my favorite tracks from 2018, check out this Spotify playlist. And consider following my Spotify "station"!

First, In Memoriam 2018

Incomparable legend and Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin left us this year. Respect. We also lost punk legend Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks), curmudgeon/disruptor Mark E. Smith (The Fall), minimalist and neo-classicist pioneer Glenn Branca, Yvonne Staples (The Staple Sisters), and Ray Thomas (Moody Blues). We also say goodbye all too prematurely to Scottish 90’s star Dolores O’Riordan (The Cranberries).

RIP Scott Hutchison

The loss that hit me the hardest was that of Scott Hutchison, lead singer/founder of Frightened Rabbit. Tragically, Hutchison took his own life after many years of struggling with depression. Over the last 10 years, Frightened Rabbit graced us with five absolutely sublime and inspired indie rock albums. So many songs remind me of this era and listening to them now is bittersweet and emotional. I hear them differently now; they are rich with sad symbolic narratives of Hutchison’s struggles. I’ll miss this music greatly.

My Top 25 Albums of 2018

I sure found it hard to keep up with music in 2018. The sheer volume of bands out there right now is astonishing, intimidating, and maybe even alarming. Why alarming? I don’t know. So many. Alarms me. During 2018 I was so often focused on either recording my own album or going back to create “Best Albums” lists for years gone past. Revisiting 1998 or 2005 or 1985 has been rewarding and enjoyable, but my 2018 listening felt light and decidedly compressed into the final months of the year. So I’m over half a year late, which is a bummer, but hey, these lists are for posterity.

Some great stuff in 2018. Perhaps fewer “legendary” albums (two broke the 9.0/10 barrier) and way more, it seems, landing in the “great” B+ zone of 7.6 to 7.9. Among my favourite albums, about half were brand new to me which is pretty unusual and totally exciting – overall, I have a ton of new acts to follow.

Each year I normally provide a Top 10 song list. I can’t do it this time around – I just don’t know. My favourite song might be “Carcassonne”, a 7" single from Angelo De Augustine, which means he’s assumed this mantle two years running (last year was “Haze”). After “Carcarssonne”, it’s a tough call, but Adrianne Lenker's songs "Womb" and "Symbol" are currently transfixing me. Maybe Buffalo Tom’s “All Be Gone”, which transports me to 1992’s Let Me Come Over. And I'm very much digging "Boots" by Blanks . Check out the Spotify playlist for 2018, as it’s all great stuff to my ears.

25. Marlon Williams – Make Way For Love

This was an unexpected record club find. I had never heard Mr. Williams and I was dismissive after the first spin, as not much grabbed me. Oddly, the second time around was a wholly different experience. Perhaps I was simply more attentive or emotionally receptive. Following in the footsteps of Chris Isaak, Williams is an anachronism, channeling the lovelorn crooning of heartbreak king Roy Orbison. The mood of this music is lushly dark, and one wonders if Williams is angling to appear on the next David Lynch soundtrack. Like Isaak (who’s unexpected hit “Wicked Game” appeared on Lynch’s Wild At Heart), the Twin Peaks vibe is unmistakable. It is a lofty, old-timey mix of gothic country, soul, and pop-jazz. (As an aside, what artistic life experiences lead a young man to pursue this brand of music? It’s puzzling). Beyond Orbison (and even Glen Campbell), I hear similarities to Lambchop, The Tindersticks, and The Pernice Brothers, and the same template of like-minded troubadours Rufus Wainwright and Jens Lekman. I have to say, the mood must strike me to engage with this. Sometimes the album feels overwrought or too dour, and sometimes I just don’t hear the depth and find myself bored. More frequently – and the rationale for Top 25 status – it is a darkly compelling punch to the gut. Choice Track: “Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore” (a duet with Kiwi singer Aldous Harding).

24. La Luz – Floating Features

I suppose that I can enjoy just about any genre that is creatively reinvented, updated, and subverted. For example, I can confidently say that I dislike 50’s-era doo-wop (and, well, 50’s music in general). But then The Pipettes came along all retro-cool and sassy and made the throwback attractive. Juliana Hatfield, or bands like Best Coast or Tele Novella similarly mine the simple melodies and structures of early pop music, but back it up with fuzz guitar and/or lyrical irreverence. Enter La Luz, an all-girl quartet from Seattle that intermingle doo-wop, surf, spaghetti western, and Nuggets-era garage pop. Everything sounds wonderfully retro and distant, as if you are listening on an old juke box in some Quentin Tarantino film. The members themselves present themselves accordingly, with lovely anachronistic visuals of 1960’s desert psychedelia. The vocals are a gauzy mix of sultry and angelic. This is eminently cool stuff that makes we want to go searching for independent, lesser-known acts of yesteryear. Choice track: “Mean Dream”.

23. Neko Case – Hell-On

First off, terrible album cover! If this was not Neko Case adorning it, I’d find it ridiculous (which is odd, as it should be ridiculous regardless, but…it’s Neko CASE!). Anyway…I’ve always been fascinated by her countrified identity as a solo artist, given she has also shown long-term commitment and contribution to Canadian indie-rockers The New Pornographers. I’ve always wanted her to take the New Pornos formula and run with it on her own. She does so here, albeit with lots of luminary guests, including Björn Yttling (of Peter Bjorn and John), KD Lang, Laura Veirs, Eric Bachman, and Mark Lanegan. But this is ultimately Neko’s show and she shines. There remains that country twang and structure, but its alongside straight-ahead rock anthems, beautiful folk passages, and tunes that would slide nicely into a New Pornographers set. I’ve only just begun to pay attention to what sound like personal, yet often oblique, lyrical passages. I think this is her best album yet. Choice Track: “Dirty Diamond”.

22. Suuns – Felt

In this space I called Suuns’ 2016 album, Hold/Still, a “grating, ponderous mess”. I was particularly harsh, I think, because their live show was a face-melting triumph to which the album bore no resemblance. I would have written them off were it not for the delivery of a limited coloured vinyl copy of Felt – a selection not in my control, as part of the Secretly Society record club. I gave it a whirl and…well, it started kind of okay – “Look No Further” was a simple mid-tempo beat with a darkwave vibe and an annoyingly glitchy guitar (?) line. But before I could say “grating, ponderous mess”, the album immediately revived into an Animal Collective meets Tangerine Dream dance-jam (“X-ALT”) and I’m bouncing along. “Watch Me, Watch You” continues the electro-flow, sounding like a dance floor found in Blade Runner, as if Vangelis decided to do some MDMA. Where Felt succeeds is the much greater attention to melodic progression (including, my goodness, chord changes!) which is why Hold/Still was unlistenable to my ears. Surfing along the electro-beats and gurgling arpeggios are languid, dreamy vocal lines that make Suuns more song oriented and far more interesting. Choice track: “Watch Me, Watch You”.

21. Flasher – Constant Image

Forming out of Priests (in part) and from the contemporary Washington D.C. punk scene in general, Constant Image is Flasher’s debut full-length. I have not yet heard their earlier releases, but the interwebs tell me that this was their first time booking formal studio time and with a dedicated producer. Keep it up, I say. While the Dischord records punk ethos are fairly easy to place, there are debts being paid to bands like XTC, Talking Heads, Wire, and Franz Ferdinand, and modern new wave in general. This record is a taut, hook-laden, post-punk joy to hear. It all seems so simple at first listen, but there is a discipline here, and what sounds like a deep concern for economy, rhythmic interplay, and raw sonics. This is punk in 2018. Choice track: “Who’s Got Time?”

20. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Hope Downs

RBCF serve up the same sort of guitar driven jangle jams as forebears The Bats, The Feelies, The Go-Betweens, and early R.E.M., and contemporaries Brilliant Colours, Twerps, and Morgan Delt. In some ways, with the exception of the inimitable R.E.M. of course, they already seem more accomplished. This is a crackin’, raucous album of sing-a-long guitar pop with that perfect amount of edge and fuzz. It feels like it was birthed in the 80’s underground alongside the Hoodoo Gurus and The Young Fresh Fellows but is as fresh sounding as anything you’ll hear in the world of indie-rock today. This album has gotten a lot of press and exposure and that gives me optimism – a good chunk of people are still smitten with a heartfelt, upbeat strumming of the electric guitar. Choice Track: “Time In Common”.

19. S. Carey – Hundred Acres

Since Justin Vernon has lately tended toward electronic blurps and auto-tuning (e.g., Bon Iver’s 2016 album 22. A Million and Big Red Machine’s self-titled debut this year 2018), I greatly appreciate the emergence of S. Carey, who is definitely cut from same folky cloth that brought Vernon such acclaim. As it turns out, Sean Carey (full name) serves as the drummer and pianist for Bon Iver. You’d be forgiven if you assumed he was the principal songwriter, as the similarities are striking, including the vocals. In short, if you have a penchant for soft, drifting, chamber folk, then turn your ears to Hundred Acres. It’s gorgeous, pensive, and sweet (but never cloying), and reminds me of older Sufjan Stevens, Iron & Wine, Neil Halstead, The National, and, at times, The Alan Parson’s Project. Were it not for Mutual Benefit (see #4), this would count as the prettiest album of the year. Choice Track: “Fool’s Gold”.

18. Light-Heat – V

Mazarin, the defunct band of Philly’s Quentin Stoltzfus, is musical royalty to me. If I was to name one artist whose heights I attempt to emulate in my own music, it would be Mazarin, especially 2000’s Watch It Happen and 2001’s A Tall-Tale Storyline. I’d been waiting patiently and sadly since their final album in 2005 for news of Stolzfus, who basically went dark. But hallelujah, he returned in 2013 with Light-Heat and a self-titled album, backed by considerable talents of The Walkmen (minus, of course, Walkmen vocalist Hamilton Leithauser). Now we have his 2018 offering, V, which numerically suggests that Light-Heat is a nominal change and a continuation of Mazarin (and is now without Walkmen members in any significant way). I hear the continuity – bright, slightly psychedelic, heavily reverbed tunes with catchy melodies, sweet harmonies, and feeling of nostalgia that is almost tangible in effect. Some songs feel like outtakes from Magical Mystery Tour-era Beatles. There are experimental instrumentals and Stereolab-type grooves, and, overall, a generous offering of satisfying indie rock. I’ve said it before – Stotzfus is criminally underrated. I’ve seen hardly anything written about V and no appearances on year-end lists. It certainly doesn’t help that the album is not on Spotify. I am only a grateful listener because of direct social media. I sincerely hope he keeps going in this saturated music world. Choice track: “Under The Spell”.

17. Hot Snakes – Jericho Sirens

After a string of records in the early 00’s Hot Snakes are back this year and sound as blistering and energetic as ever. Forming out of early 90’s alternatives Drive Like Jehu and Rocket From the Crypt, the Snakes spit out hair-raising hard rock and roll with strong nods to their hardcore punk origins. Jericho Sirens is fiery barnburner, knocking the listener’s head around with lightning fast power chords, chunky riffs, and rumbling bass lines. Rick Froberg’s vocals sound like he just shot gunned a can of kerosene to wash down some amphetamines. Monsters! When I feel despondent about the doom/death/screamo metal that often dominates alternative wavelengths, it’s always helpful to put on the far more satisfying post-rock/punk of bands like Constantines, Metz, No Age, C’mon, or The Men (or, of course, much of the second-wave of American hardcore). Hot Snakes’ 2018 record adds even more heft to this mighty roster. Choice Track: “Six Wave Hold Down”.

16. Young Jesus – The Whole Thing Is Just There

On this, their second record, Young Jesus pronounce themselves as “a serious band”, if only because it takes some degree of artistic perseverance (stubbornness? honesty? integrity?) to produce a 6-track, 49-minute emo think-piece of jagged post-rock electric guitar, discordant and bellicose solos, and song titles such as “Saganism vs Buddhism”. Lest I scare off the reader with this description, there is much that is accessible and attractive here, despite the (sometimes lengthy) moments of cacophony. “For Nana”, by way of example, could be a fine National song. Earlier incarnations of the band tended toward a Hold Steady style but there is much more in common here with Slint, Sunny Day Real Estate, Trail of Dead, and The Appleseed Cast. This album is a powerful, lacerating soliloquy, with vocalist/leader John Rossiter alternatively crooning and caterwauling through a series of finely wrought narratives. Choice track: “Gulf”.

15. Haley Heynderickx – I Need To Start A Garden

Opening like a 1965-ish Donovan track, Haley Heynderickx begins with sparse, ghostly, vulnerable folk. Her voice is gorgeous, a combination of Sharon van Etten and Joni Mitchell, and her acoustic finger picking is skilled and precise, as if Nick Drake was back on his stool. By the time second track, “The Bug Collector”, is half-over, there is a smoky trombone and some background soundscapes added to the mix. In time, HH announces herself as more than a fragile folky, but a dynamic artist who owes as much to PJ Harvey, Throwing Muses, and Ani DiFranco as she does Joan Baez. She’s clever, heartfelt, and powerful in her delivery, from her soft passages to her exasperated screams of “I NEED TO START A GARDEN!!” that close out the obvious single “Oom Sha La”.

14. Soft Science - Maps

If one looks deeply into the shoegaze/dream pop genre – as represented by numerous social media groups, playlists, blogs, labels, and DIY bands – you’ll be overwhelmed with the depth and breadth that is out there. It’s hard to keep up. The strength of the genre is that many bands plying their trade do a good job, creating what seems like an endless supply of decent tracks. It’s tough, however, to find the real gems, the songs that inexplicably capture the sound that evolved in the late 80s and early 90s. When bands like, Ride, Slowdive, Swervedriver, and My Bloody Valentine returned with brand new records, the response (by me and many others) was “ahhhhh, that’s the sound!”. The originators are experts and the followers are too often lacking. All this to say…Soft Science arrives with their third album as if they were birthed by Creation Records in 1991. They absolutely nail the sound, the dynamics, the swelling, sailing beauty of the craft. Out of the gate, they sound like Gala-era Lush and Loveless-era My Bloody Valentine – no small feat. There is some variability in the record too, with the second track (“Breaking”) sounding like an odd meeting of the Boo Radleys and Canadian new wavers The Spoons; other tracks are bit more indie rock, sharing similarities to Veronica Falls and Wolf Alice. In short, this is a shimmering, beautiful jewel of a record that deserves far more spins than it is currently getting. Choice Track: “Diverging”.

13. Preoccupations – New Material

Whether by cynical design, happy accident, or well-crafted homage, some of the best music I hear is informed by the rich history of rock (how could it not be, really) and, to my liking, the more rarefied history of “alternative” music. Sure the word alternative is fairly meaningless nowadays, but I use it here in reference to the early and oh-so-pure alternatives of punk, goth, and new wave – all of which got commodified and mainstreamed in time, of course. But back then? It was so exciting when us bored suburban kids first heard The The’s Soul Mining or the first Damned record, or Joy Division. Preoccupations – who were once noise rockers Women and then post-rock experimentalists Viet Cong – have emerged with their second record as the preeminent parlayers of old school goth and new wave. The lead track, “Espionage”, might as well be Andrew Eldritch coalescing from behind a gravestone with an epic new Sisters of Mercy track. Throughout I hear so many reverent reimaginings of Love and Rockets, Echo and the Bunnymen, Public Image Ltd, New Model Army, Shriekback, and The Cure. It’s so damn authentic in production and delivery that I can hardly believe it. These guys are fucking geniuses. Choice Track: “Disarray”.

12. Superchunk – What A Time To Be Alive

If one were to look across the roster of top tier early 90’s indie bands, that explosive era of grunge-mainstreaming and indie rock celebration, would you have expected Superchunk to be among those still surviving? Perhaps, if you predicted Merge records (founded by ‘chunkers Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan) would remain a going concern by signing Neutral Milk Hotel and then (boom!) Arcade Fire. Here we are in 2018 and, like a bunch of pouty/angry 20 year olds, Superchunk kicks us in the gut once again with this pop punk gem. They seem just as disillusioned and righteously livid now – in this sad dark era of the new American fascism – as they did when they penned “Slack Motherfucker” in 1990. They seem more vital now than ever. Choice track: “Dead Photographers”.

11. Mt. Wilson Repeater – V’Ger

This is the solo project of Jim Putnam while his main outfit, Radar Brothers, remains inactive (since 2013’s Eight). I am pretty big fan of the countrified, slightly spacey folk of the Radar Brothers and was lucky to hear about this release. It is a digital only album that emerged quietly with little to no press coverage, other than some complimentary words on the Merge Records website. Putnam is on his own here, creating this luminous piece of work completely solo on his own 4-track. The Radar Brothers blueprint is still there at the core (mid to slow tempos, melodically sumptuous), but Putnam has ventured into some psychedelic, sci-fi, head trip territory at times here. It is immediately engaging to me, since the songs link so strongly to the early output of faves Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips, with a dash of Pink Floyd. (Notably, Putnam acts as the sound engineer for the Lips’ live show). I also hear a lot of resemblance to the indie-rock outsiders of the 90’s, like Number One Cup, Pinetop Seven, Lenola, Home, and Rollerskate Skinny. This is as good as any Radar Brothers album and highly recommended if you miss that particular form of…what?...Avant-Indie Psych-Folk? Yes, that’s it. Choice track: “Gone”.

10. Jess Williamson – Cosmic Wink

Jess Williamson effortlessly revives the sweet, jangly psychedelics of the paisley underground, sounding much like The Rain Parade and The Dream Syndicate, and later similarly influenced outfits, like Mazzy Star, Luna, and The Jesus and Mary Chain. This was a welcome and unexpected treat for me. There seems to be a lot of great (and mediocre) straight up folk out there, but to have a singular female voice absolutely nail that dreamy, countrified psych-folk that finds its roots all the way back in Joni Mitchell, Gram Parsons, and The Byrds, is wonderful. While Mazzy Star reappeared this year with an EP of old (reworked) and new material, they do not appear to be a going concern, which leaves a big ol’ gap in my paisley heart. Jess Williamson seems fully prepared to take up the mantle. Choice track: “Awakening Baby”.

9. Phosphorescent – C’est La Vie

“Stood out in the night in an empty field and I called your name. I don’t stand out in empty fields and call out your name no more”. Such is the heart on sleeve, simple-yet-profound lyricism of Phosphorescent’s Mathew Houck. The backdrop on this, the title track (appended with “part 2”), is a poppy chord progression on keys/organ that is as well-worn as a 12-bar blues in E. It shouldn’t work – it should sound like something else, like 50 other things, and be dismissed as wholly uninspired song writing. And maybe to other ears this is true, but to me it comes across as a folk-rock anthem, ranking comfortably with straight up tracks of U2, Tom Petty, and The Waterboys. And then Houck gives us "New Birth In New England", a song that could be a mid-80s Beach Boys single (this is a bad thing, in case anyone is confused) but, yet again, it works in some preternatural way I don’t fully understand. It should sound like bad AM radio pop, but its sounds lush and engaging and universal. I can’t pinpoint any of this. Houck’s distinctive cracking/countrified voice surely matters, but something about the production is integral – like Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno are at the helm, sinking every ounce of their audiological artistry into every single note. We have wholly ordinary song structures here, but man….it sounds soooooo good. Another stellar Phosphorescent album. Choice Track: “C’est La Vie, Pt. 2”.

8. Parquet Courts – Wide Awake!

Parquet Courts widened my eyes and ears when they dropped their 2012 debut album Light Up Gold, an irreverent set of angular pop songs that celebrated the slacker-rock of Pavement, Dead Milkmen, Beat Happening, and Guided By Voices (while lapping all four bands in musicianship, methinks) . Five years later, we have their fifth album, Wide Awake!, which shows a pretty impressive growth curve, genre-wise, incorporating spots of reggae, funk, psychedelic folk, and space cowboy country alongside their sagacious punk. Now I hear shades of Belle and Sebastian, Combat Rock-era Clash, Nick Lowe, and Foxygen. It’s a tremendous mixture of diverse ingredients, but it’s all Parquet Courts. I can’t wait to see where they go next: Choice Track: “Freebird II”.

7. Hovvdy – Cranberry

For many folks, I suspect Hovvdy’s 2018 offering, Cranberry, might drift by unnoticed or be dismissed as unremarkable indie folk. The album is unremarkable in certain ways – simple rhythms and guitar strums with hushed vocals and a consistent tempo that may induce nodding off. Why do I love it so? This is tough to describe, like describing the colour blue – I can only make reference points, like the sky, or Hayden, Seam, Red House Painters, Ida, and Low. There’s lots of languid space and, within that minimalism, a disciplined attention to what details exist. Rather than feeling half-assed or careless (which you may hear in other underproduced, naturalistic indie albums), it sounds wholly intentional in its delivery. If this description sounds too clinical, I apologize, as this album is warm and emotional all the way through. I again name drop Red House Painters – Cranberry is on par with Mark Kozolek’s early earnest output, which is a pretty high watermark. Choice track: “Float”.

6. Courtney Barnett – Tell Me How You Really Feel

It’s been a long wait for this follow up to Barnett’s debut Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit, which took our collective breaths away in 2014. To be fair, she did drop another full album in partnership with Kurt Vile (A Lotta Sea Lice, in 2017), but that barely sated our desire for her perfect brand of indie rock. She’s returned with another brilliant record. The title itself is subtly weighty; at first glance it can be taken literally or sardonically (the latter of which is her preferred form of communication). Change the emphasis on one or more of the title’s six words and you have numerous interpretations of meaning. This is her M.O. throughout and that’s just the lyrics. Musically, it shines with laid back Velvet Underground grooves, scorching volleys of noise, and folky remonstrations. It’s catchy all around, super powerful at its best, and a worthy follow up to all the indie gems she’s served up to date. Also, see her live. She rocked my socks off. Choice track: “City Looks Pretty”.

5. Adrianne Lenker - Abysskiss

Whoa, did this take me by surprise! I was familiar with Lenker’s main outfit, Big Thief, and counted myself a fan. But this solo record is shockingly good (and has made me go back and reappraise Big Thief). Lenker sounds a bit like a cross between PJ Harvey and Joanna Newsom (but without the latter’s nasally pixie affectation) and plays guitar like Nick Drake come back to life. One of my most recent favorite things is Angelo de Augustine (number 8 last year), whose spare, intricate, reverbed folk tugged my heartstrings. Adrianne Lenker does much the same here. Early Iron and Wine is also an apt comparison. Brilliant. Choice track: “Womb”.

4. Mutual Benefit – Thunder Follows The Light

Is anybody listening? Damned if I’ve heard anyone mention this mesmerizingly beautiful orchestral folk outfit. Mutual Benefit stunned me with 2016’s Skip a Sinking Stone, and I thought it was surely a matter of time before they landed on a number of recommended lists. They took a lovely detour in 2017 with a full cover of Vashti Bunyan’s lost folk classic Just Another Diamond Day and return in 2018 with this satisfying release. Lush and angelic melodies/harmonies interweave with slide guitar, banjo, flute, strings, piano, and other accoutrements, supported by washes of dignified synths. Every song is so engaging and accomplished, and I don’t understand why they have not broken wide open to a giant fan base. This is folk in 2018 and you should all know it and love it. It should be gently rocking the world to sleep every summer’s eve. Damn you all to Hades. Choice track: “Written In Lightning”.

3. Amen Dunes – Freedom

Damon McMahon’s project Amen Dunes floored me with 2014’s Love, a neo-folk masterpiece and #2 of that year. It’s been a long wait, but here we finally have Freedom and it is Love’s equal and more. I once described it to a friend as Tom Petty jamming with Wolf Parade, after Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner washed downed a bunch of Quaaludes with red wine. McMahon has a strange otherworldly, crooning vibrato, making him sound pained and bedraggled. Behind this unique voice are rich and unexpected chord structures, unsettling time signatures, fuzzed guitar arpeggios, and Lynchian reverb. It’s quite a heady avant-folk cocktail, with multiple touchstones that nonetheless sound unlike anything I have ever heard. Truly a singular vision, reminding me that, holy shit, there’s still so much brilliant art that can be accomplished within the framework of contemporary rock music. Choice Track: “Blue Rose”.

2. Spirit of the Beehive – Hypnic Jerks

So although this post is being published in fricken August of 2019, I had this list pretty much drafted by mid-January…until, that is, Dylan Taylor (friend and brilliant lead of Not For Function and Blanks) PM’d me with a “check this out” link to Spirit of the Beehive. I listened once and thought, really? Did you just casually send me my favorite album of the year? Ultimately No Age (as per below) won out by a hair, but sheesh. This is amazing (amazing but probably not for everyone). Hypnic Jerks is a weird and wonderful collage of post-pop experimentation and is a joy to apprehend. There is so much going on, harkening all the way back to Silver Apples, XTC, and Television, while sitting alongside contemporary outsiders like Ought, Parquet Courts, Tyvek, and Youth Lagoon. Just when you think they’ve lost the plot with some bizarro found sound clip, they reel you back in with some catchy riff or lovely vocal harmony. It’s dazzling art-house punk and one of my new favorite things. Thanks to you, Dylan, you just cost Julia Holter a spot on this hallowed list at the eleventh hour, and she’s pissed. Choice Track: “Monumental Shame”.

1. No Age – Snares Like A Haircut

I’m starting to wonder if No Age presciently named themselves 12 years ago with the release of Weirdo Rippers, a noise-pop record that has gained canonical genre status. The band’s vision has not aged a day, sounding as vital and exciting as ever. Snares Like A Haircut follows their unique recipe of hypnotic, high energy fuzz guitar, feedback, reverb, and disaffected/infectious vocal delivery, as if Wire decided to add five extra distortion pedals to their stomp box chain. What is clear on this release is the band’s decision to ensure every song has hefty hook that pulls you along through the waves of fuzz, phase, and static. Not to mention the propulsive, machine gun drum lines that threaten to concuss the listener, or perhaps exhort them to run into rush hour traffic. “Noise pop” is truly a blurry sub-genre; but with all due respect to the many worthy participants (e.g., Times New Viking, Parts & Labor, Women) these guys were and are the rulers. Choice Track: “Send Me”.

Some Great Records Falling Outside the 2018 Top 25

I went to 25 entries again this year (most years have been 20) to accommodate the bumper crop of great records that created a noticeable bulge at the 8.0 – 8.2 out of 10 rating range. Here are a bunch more that you should not ignore, all of which could have slid into the last 5 spots or so. Definitely recommended.

Amber Arcades – European Heartbreak. Super cool jangle pop from Dutch songstress Annelotte de Graaf, along the lines of Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Frankie Rose, and Tennis; although this latest one is less fuzz and more jangle folk.

Basement Revolver – Heavy Eyes. Lucky to catch this fabulous shoegazey band opening for…I don’t remember. The Go! Team maybe. This LP pulls together some EPs and singles into their first proper debut, and it is a good one. I’m keeping an eye on them. Recommended if you like Courtney Barnett, Wolf Alice, Girlpool, and Soccer Mommy.

Beach House – 7. Got this kind of late and I probably should stop listening to it, lest it force me to (argghh!) rewrite my list. This is shaping up to be my favorite Beach House album, a spacey, droney, lush set of soporific beauties. Really, this could have cracked my Top 10, if I were more industrious.

Buffalo Tom – Quiet and Peace. Pop-grunge rock elder statesmen return with a record that sounds like it was made in 1992. Delivered with emotion, angst, and love, this power trio still has it. “All Be Gone” is up there as one my most favorite songs of the year. And it closes with a great cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Only Living Boy In New York” (#77 on my Top 500 list).

Cowbo Morsche – Cowboy Miracle. A late add to my 2018 collection, found on the super cool new/unsigned music site Divide and Conquer. This is crazy shit, a kooky melange of 8-bit funk/dance and indie pop, with irreverent nods to rock, country, and…I dunno…bossa nova? It reminds me of They Might Be Giants and Shugo Tokumaru, but more chaotic and frenetic. I love that this album exists ‘cause it’s bananas.

The English Beat – Here We Go Love. Also unexpected, the croon of Dave Wakeling brings me back to the mid-80s, landing somewhere between the great Beat records and the pretty good General Public releases. Some great two-tone tracks here.

Holy Tunics – Butter Dish. A satisfying bolt of jangle pop, with a fairly straight lineage from The Flaming Groovies to the Jazz Butcher and The Clean, to Outrageous Cherry, EZ-TV, and Woods. Nice, nuggety psych-pop with a C86 finish. A great find.

Julia Holter – Aviary. Neo-classical avant pop? How to best describe the cinematic luminescence of Julia Holter? I’m not sure I can or if I should (although I just sort of tried, I suppose). I just think everyone should don a good pair of headphones, dim the lights, and settle in for an otherworldly, panoptic ride through her strange musical wonderland.

Lump – Lump. Laura Marling and Mike Lindsay (from Tuung) team up to give us quirky, genre-bending, freak-folk, part dissonant static and synths, part acoustic prettiness. Closest relative might be a toned down Dirty Projectors.

Megative – Megative. Unexpectedly great, Clash-influenced reggae album led by former Stills frontman Tim Fletcher.

Ovlov – Tru. 90’s indie revivalists sounding much like Dinosaur Jr., Archrers of Loaf, Sebadoh, Versus, and Chavez.

Sharon van Etten – Remind Me Tomorrow. Darker and more atmospheric this time around (comparing favorably to EMA) but still plenty to love here.

Shame – Songs of Praise. British post-punk newcomers give us a set of furious manifestos. If you like Metz and early Constantines, these boys will interest you.

Other 2018 records I thought were tremendous include Richard Reed Parry, Stephen Malkmus, Still Corners, Air Waves, Sheepdogs, Speedy Ortiz, The Beremy Jets, The Beths, Cut Worms, Iceage, Sandro Perri, Nap Eyes, Spare Snare, Echodrone, Cosmic Child, Ellis, Eternal Summers, The City Gates, and Blush Response. And a hearty welcome back to both The Breeders and Belly who returned from my youth with solid new albums.

Singles and EPs of Note

Angelo De Augustine – Carcassonne (7”) – beautiful stop-gap single between 2017 and 2019 albums.

Blanks – Blanks (digital EP) – Toronto band provides catchy brit-pop meets post-punk gems (and I this has since been remastered for a more formal issuing in 2019).

Courtney Barnett – Spotify Singles (7”). Commissioned by Spotify, Barnett gives us a great Crazy Horse-esque cover of Elyse Weinberg’s (never heard of her) “Houses” backed with “Charity” (from Tell Me How You Really Feel).

Ellevator – s/t. Debut EP from this Hamilton, Ontario band fits perfectly on their new label, Arts & Crafts, sounding like a rejuvenated Stars or Metric.

Fleeting Joys – Lake Placid Blue (digital single). Long-time waiting for a new release from these criminally neglected blissful shoegazers. This 2018 single reappears on the 2019 LP Speeding Away to Someday.

Iron and Wine – Weed Garden (EP). More glorious folk magic from the best of the best.

Hyness – Hyness (single and split 7” with Strange Shakes) – Great Lush/MBV influenced dreampop

Linda Guilala – Mucho Mejor (digital single) and Primavera Negra (7” single). This Spanish outfit combines mid-tempo Stereolab-ish pop with waves of gauzy guitar. Brilliant! Can’t wait for the follow up to 2016’s amazing Psiconáutica.

Mythless – Patience Hell (12” EP) – Dude from Fang Island takes it up a hair-raising notch.

Not For Function – Not For Function (digital EP) – great Toronto post-punk running from Wire to Wolf Parade

Redwood River Band – Brother Green (digital EP). Accomplished, dignified old-timey bluegrass with beautiful harmonies. Not on Spotify, s o find on bandcamp people!

Ride – Tomorrow’s Shore (12” EP). Quickly following up 2017’s reunion record, Ride gives us four new and neat, uniquely Ride-ish tracks.

The Disappointments, Miscues, and Disparagements of 2018

I don’t bother panning music I already know I won’t like. It’s dumb and useless for me to pontificate about the sorry state of current mainstream pop music (sorry, was I starting to pontificate?). However, every year there are few records put out by artists I normally love that fall short of expectations. They may not be terrible, just not up to snuff in relation to their past discography. Or they may be really shitty. The rotten tomatoes of 2018 go to Paul Simon, Low, Titus Andronicus, and Grouper.

Paul Simon surprised and delighted me with 2011’s (was it that long ago?!) modernized So Beautiful or So What (and I completely missed 2016’s Stranger to Stranger) but I was left wanting with 2018’s In The Blue Light. Maybe I should have recognized the titular reference to the blues, which I just don’t think plays to Simon’s strengths (although it’s equal parts jazz). It’s a drab affair and it bored the shit out of me.

Low's Double Negative

Low is an all-time favorite, and they rarely miss the mark. The critics adored Double Negative, It’s dark and brooding, with glitchy trip-hoppy loops and death-march drums, but rarely leads to the much needed release of Alan Sparkhawk and Mimi Parker’s usually gorgeous harmonies. The intentional clipping and hiss on pretty much every track is a big drawback for me (but apparently impressed the pants off every indie blog in the blogoverse possibly because this doesn’t sound like a Low record).

Titus Andronicus used to blow up my speakers with their anachronistic political tirades and wall of sound folk-punk. In a A Productive Cough, the band seems to try to emulate the balladry of fellow New Jersey rock giant, Bruce Springsteen, but the intended weightiness just isn’t there, even if the energy and commitment is. In time, the pained growl of Patrick Stickles becomes a liability when it’s usually a devastating strength.

Grouper, the critically revered outsider goth-folk of Liz Harris, gave us Grid of Points in 2018. It’s quite hard to distinguish this record descriptively from Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill or The Man Who Died In His Boat, two records I love. I’m not going to try, really. Grid of Points is hard to access, hard to notice, whereas Harris’ other recordings immediately draw me in.

That’s it! Sorry for the lateness. But not really, because music is forever.

The Top 25 Albums of 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 03:22:00 +0000

For a playlist of my favorite tracks off my favorite 2017 albums, here be a Spotify playlist:

First, In Memoriam 2017

Because of the carnage of 2016, in which far too many massively influential artists left us, I have become far more sensitive to these passings. Relatively speaking, 2017 felt rather calm, but speaking relatively is also callous and distracts from some seriously tragic losses. Noteworthy were the departures of Malcolm Young, Tommy Keene, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, J. Geils, Gregg Allman, Holger Czukay, Chris Cornell, Saxa (legendary saxophonist for The English Beat), Glen Campbell, and Charles Bradley. But I was hit significantly harder by a few others…

Tom Petty! I have not been a vociferous fan of his extensive catalogue but I can confidently say that he was perhaps the coolest, honest, and most authentic elder statesmen of all of rock and roll history. Damn the Torpedoes was such a key early influence for me growing up in the 70s and a decade later Full Moon Fever kept the straight-up rock and roll faith in a year that I was also discovering The Pixies, The Stone Roses, and Galaxie 500. With its universal appeal, that album built bridges.

Pat Dinizio of The Smithereens, in December 2017. I purchased the band’s debut, Especially For You, on cassette on a blind hunch via the Columbia Record and Tape Club. It quickly became (in my world) an all-time classic and favorite, and a Top 10 entry in the albums of 1986. Perfect jangly power pop.

Grant Hart of Husker Du. Husker Du was a tremendously important band to me (as were the subsequent solo ventures and post-Husker bands of Hart and bandmate Bob Mould) ever since “Divide and Conquer” was aired on Toronto’s CFNY and melted my face. Grant Hart penned and sang some of the most powerful American punk rock classics in the 80s, meanwhile pulling off some of the fastest, tightest drumming you’ll have the pleasure of banging your head to. Many a day I’d give myself an emotional shot to my skinny, self-absorbed teenage arm by blaring “Keep Hanging On” through my Walkman.

And…Gord Downie, passing away in 2017 after receiving a diagnosis of terminal brain cancer in
2016. Because of the unthinkable writing on the wall, 2016 saw the whole country go through a protracted period of mourning and communal celebration of this giant of a man. The Tragically Hip gave us a farewell tour and a final album, and Gord gave us two solo records: Secret Path and, just prior to his death, Introduce Yerself. As with his whole life, Gord went out with productive and emotional purpose, and it fucking hurt. What must it be like to write your final album, as your cognition falters, your body betrays you, and your life turns to mist in a race against time? What do you do? Introduce Yerself is profound for this reason and I have been uncertain how to handle it within my 2017 write up. I feel uncomfortable ordering it within a list of relative merit, to the point where I have omitted it. Momentarily standing back as best I can, the album is a good to great collection of airy, largely piano driven poems, stories, and biographies. But in the context of Gord’s story of life, love, death, art, and activism, it is also album of the year, a heart-wrenching and haunting gift. As a new father, I was reduced to tears listening to “Bedtime”, a wistful moment-by-moment narrative of Gord putting his children to bed without waking them up. It’s literalness gives way to a devastating metaphor of love, loss, and the unshakeable bond of family. This was the moment, weeks after Gord’s death, that I let the sadness of 2016 come flooding back in. We all miss him.

Is it repetitive to say year after year that it was “a great year for music”? I keep saying this. This is the new normal, because in our hyper-connected online reality, I can always seem to find an avalanche of excellent records. Musical trends? They may be there, fabricated in the highly regulated universe of mainstream pop music, but trends are simultaneously irrelevant and impotent. Fewer kids are picking up guitars, apparently, but I’m able to hear way more guitar driven bands in 2017 than in 1997. For all I know, on the whole, the proportion of shitty music (in my estimation) may be higher now than it was 10 years ago (I have no idea, really). Who cares? There are far too many albums in one’s own wheelhouse of preferred genres to even listen to in a year. In 2017, I acquired about 25 additional albums released in 2016 that obviously were not under consideration for the 2016 Top 20 list. Four or so would have bumped out current occupants (namely, amazing albums by Jim Guthrie & JJ Ipsen, Goat, EZTV, and The Moles). It’s tough to keep up. Anyway, I’m going to stop saying “it was a great year for music”, but I’ll note that this year’s list is 25 LPs long, rather than the usual 20, because I just couldn’t omit a few. It is always a good year for music, until further notice, such as when legislation against net neutrality requires that I only listen to Kendrick Lamar and Drake (and put a bullet in my head).

My Top 25 Favorite Albums of 2017

2017 was punctuated by the re-emergence of great Canadian indie rock, feeling a lot like the landscape of 10 to 15 years ago. Hooray for releases by Wolf Parade, Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, Emily Haines, The New Pornographers, Japandroids, Do Make Say Think, Elliott Brood, and Lowest of the Low (and of course Gord Downie). And these are just the Canadian acts who have been around back in the heyday. New records by Canadians Mac Demarco, Alvvays, Annie Sumi, Metz, Bird City, Richard Laviolette, Colin Stetson, and Austra also caught my ear.

Before the main list, here’s a quick top 10 favorite songs from 2017 (all accessible via the Spotify playlist):

Haze – Angelo De Augustine
Call It Dreaming – Iron & Wine
Zombie – Langhorne Slim
Your Type – Alvvays
Continental Breakfast – Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile
Body Chamber – Versing
Valley Boy – Wolf Parade
Hug Of Thunder – Broken Social Scene
Fatal Gift – Emily Haines
My Only – Pains of Being Pure of Heart

And now…The Top 25 Albums of 2017..

25. Versing – Nirvana

This is good place to shout out the podcast “KEXP Song of the Day”. Every day, without fuss or commentary, a new song is posted by Seattle’s preeminent indie and new music focused radio station. Versing’s “Body Chamber” dropped into my headphones and I was soon bobbing my head over a new stack of dirty dishes. Despite the intro bass line that unnervingly sounds a little too much like “My Sharona”, this tune evolves into that perfect indie rock sound of the early to mid-nineties. The album could have been part of those classic Merge and Matador rosters that introduced us to the scratchy, DIY guitar gems of Pavement, Guided By Voices, Versus, Chavez, and so many others. Contemporary comparisons would be Japandroids, Yuck, and Courtney Barnett. Catchy, overdriven rock love. Choice track: “Body Chamber”.

24. James Elkington – Wintres Woman

Never heard of this guy until Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin complimented the guitar fingerpicking of “Make It Up” in a Facebook post. Given Franklin is my all-time favorite guitarist, it was worth a look-see. Whoa and indeed! To date, Elkington has been on the sidelines of the Chicago music scene, quietly contributing to and collaborating with the likes of Jeff Tweedy, Richard Thompson, Steve Gunn, and Nathan Salsburg. This is his first proper solo record and it is a minor masterpiece of strikingly beautiful prog-folk. He sounds quite similar to Gunn and Salsberg, and also has roots in the outsider tradition of experimental folk guitar pioneered by John Fahey, Bert Jansch and the whole of Tompkins Square records. Elegant and masterful acoustic guitar playing overlaid with introspective and airy baritone vocals. Choice track: “Make It Up”.

23. Langhorne Slim – Lost At Last

This is another feller that I have somehow missed over the years, and I have truly been missing out. Langhorne Slim is the moniker for country folk troubadour Sean Scolnick. The music is steeped in old timey bluegrass, honkey-tonk, and travellin’ folk, influenced heavily by Bob Dylan, The Band, and Woody Guthrie. At times, things move into the realm of country gospel, accompanied by foot-stomping choral arrangements, suggesting comparisons to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. But it’s not all throwback – on the sublime and silly “Zombie”, he sounds like The Hidden Cameras (although it also sounds like it’s produced by Phil Spector). Langhorne Slim’s music is simple and straightforward, but the careful attention to instrumentation and production (notably, heart-breaking Nashville Skyline vocals, chiming pedal steel, and the best upright country bass I think I’ve heard) raises it to new devotional heights. Choice track: “Zombie”.

22. The Feelies – In Between

Elder statesmen of unassuming guitar-based indie pop, The Feelies return with their first album since 2011 and only their second since their initial demise in 1991. The Feelies were utterly unique in the post-punk landscape of New York in the 1980s, having little to do with the current crop of new wave and power pop bands. Their closest relatives were the Velvet Underground (minus the dark and arty pretensions), the Flying Nun contingent (The Bats, The Clean), and contemporary mates Yo La Tengo. Thirty-seven or so years later and little has changed, other than a greater preference for acoustic guitar and a less frenetic strumming pace. The tasty recipe remains – jangly, irresistible chord progressions and riffs, with muted, almost amateurish singing. But so damn catchy! A new Feelies record is like receiving a postcard from a long lost friend telling you they’re happy and doing just fine. Choice track: “Time Will Tell”.

21. Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile – Lotta Sea Lice

How random and unexpected. I am a gigantic fan of the currently incomparable Courtney Barnett (who slotted in at #2 of 2015 with Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit) and an on and off fan of Kurt Vile (who I like a fair bit, but who can also feel drab at times). Let’s just say that Courtney has lifted Kurt up a fair bit, and while he brought her down a tad, the result is on the whole a pretty great album. The uber-slacker vibe of Vile matches with Barnett pretty well, as they trade witty, sarcastic, and sometimes poignant lines with one another in disaffected drawls and twangs. When it’s just Vile singing, it is a borderline irritant, but Barnett always drops into to save him. While I miss Courtney’s indie rock fury, these are great chiming folk songs. And no matter how laid back and off the cuff these two sound, there is no mistaking that there has been great care taken to interweave their impressive guitar lines and narratives. They let the songs breath and expand, with all songs coming in at 4+ minutes, and a couple over 6. Highlights are “Continental Breakfast” and “Blue Cheese”, both gorgeous and shiny folk-pop gems. Great live show too! Choice track: “Continental Breakfast”.

20. The New Pornographers – Whiteout Conditions

The New Pornos, now hallowed demigods of Canadian Rock, have never put out a bad album. In fact, in my estimation, all their albums have been of the highest toe-tapping quality; they scarcely put out a bad song! (Although, I suppose Dan Bejar’s songs are usually subpar in comparison – he should just go be Destroyer and be done with it. Carl Newman and Neko Case got it covered). The quality, unsurprisingly, is maintained on Whiteout Conditions. The band sounds just as big, catchy, and super tight as ever, but what is remarkable is how irresistible the melodies are…again! Their song writing formula – Newman leading the vocals and Case and Katherine Calder providing soaring chorus harmonies – is bulletproof and indomitable. If anything has changed, there are noticeably more electronic flourishes, beats, and arpeggios underpinning the songs to great effect (e.g., “Second Sleep” could be a School of Seven Bells track). All in all, another grand contribution. Choice track: “Second Sleep”.

19. Penguin Café – The Imperfect Sea

Simon Jeffes, founder and composer of the incomparable Penguin Café Orchestra, died of a brain tumor in 1997, effectively halting the work of the collective. It was a terrible loss, as PCO had a singular artistic vision, incorporating disparate worldwide musical genres, instruments, styles, and found sounds into a neo-classical western framework of cycle, repetition, and growth. Never short of interesting, and most often spellbinding and emotional, PCO’s instrumentals reflected an abundance of talent and musical innovation. After about 20 years and a wholly unique catalog of music, PCO ended. Until, that is, Jeffes’ son Arthur brought it back to life. With a brand new membership and aspirations to recapture and reignite the PCO ethos, the younger Jeffes returned with Penguin Café. I confess I missed the first two albums (2011’s A Matter of Time and 2014’s The Red Book) – perhaps I just didn’t believe he could (or should) pull it off. Cynically, I thought this may be a lesser talent coasting on a father’s legacy – after all, he did not even reassemble any original members. The Imperfect Sea has proved me wrong, and embarrassingly so. It is a truly remarkable and beautiful record that is delivered exactly within the oeuvre of his father’s vision. Sweeping, magnificent, mournful, and inspirational. Choice track: “Ricercar”.

18. The Magnetic Fields – 50 Song Memoir

What’s with the prolificacy of Stephen Merritt? Sheesh. In the rare instance an artist/band has the artistic pretension (and resources and material) to issue a triple-LP, it tends to happen only once in their career. Not many do it, especially when you exclude posthumous b-sides and live releases, which shouldn’t count. Wait…I can’t actually name any bonafide triple LPs other than Sandinista by The Clash, Have One On Me by Joanna Newsom and, you guessed it, 69 Love Songs by Magnetic Fields. Merritt has already been down this road. Nonetheless, in 2017 he decides to drop a quintuple LP set! 50 songs on 5 CDs or vinyl platters, each song earmarked to a successive year in his life. Conceptually, this is interesting and beyond ambitious, but I am not sure how to rate this as an “album”. There is obviously some filler here, but there are also a pile of great songs that harken back to the early days of MF albums Distant Plastic Trees, Get Lost, as well as Merritt’s output as The 6ths. Simple, wry, mid-tempo indie pop that bubbles and bops. If you put the best tracks of the fifty into a single album, it would vie for album of the year, and there is easily enough here for an accomplished double-LP. Should points be lost for putting out too much music at once? I don’t know. I suspect I’ll never get to fully know this record, but the numerous gems in here gives it year-end list status, although not without a certain amount of hand wringing. Choice track: “’88: Ethan Frome”.

17. Shake Some Action! – Crash Through Or Crash

It’s hard for me to get used to this band name, which is obviously taken (punctuation and all!) from the Flamin’ Groovies’ classic song and album. Cognitive annoyance aside, SSA! are clearly influenced by the high energy old school power pop of the Groovies (and Big Star), but update it with a much denser sonic attack of fuzz, drive, and reverb. Many songs could easily slot into the playlist of a Nuggets box-set, exuding that wonderful garage psychedelia of the mid-60s, and sometimes resembling the sound of The Strokes, White Stripes, or Crystal Stilts. A truly welcome surprise and a band I will surely be keeping an eye on. Choice track: “Waiting For The Sun”.

16. The Shins – Heartworms

Ever since hearing “New Slang” (the song that “will change your life”, as per the quotable quote of Natalie Portman in Garden State) I’ve been a diehard Shins fan. While each album after debut Oh Inverted World has shown slightly diminishing returns, Heartworms reasserts (and slightly reimagines) The Shins as the indie rock/pop masters they are. The impossibly high but crystal clear vocals of James Mercer once again shine through these eleven heart-warming ear-worms (get it?), amongst more varied instrumentation, including swelling folk strings, gurgling synths, and occasional electropop beats. The always alluring guitar strums and riffs, quintessential to the Shins sound, bring it all together. Fans should be overjoyed with this release. Choice track: “Heartworms”.

15 Shugo Tokumaru – Toss

I’ve been waiting patiently for Shugo Tokumaru’s follow up to his absolutely sublime LP In Focus? (#12 of 2013). Tokumaru is a wild-eyed genius. As with his previous output, Toss is a frenetic, fluorescent carnival ride of impossibly happy/trippy orchestral pop songs. I’m unaware of anyone producing such candy-coated complexity, although there are decent parallels to some of Jim Guthrie’s videogame soundtrack work and to Dan Deacon’s fuzzy 8-bit dance freak outs. Those comparisons weaken considerably upon recognizing that Takumaru has assembled, orchestrated, and produced over 20 contributors, representing numerous brass, stringed, and percussive instruments. Compiling layers upon layers of myriad MIDI-based digital tracks is an impressive feat on its own, but the ability to manage this cacophony of live instruments is rather astounding, at least within his feverish, hyperdriven framework. There is so much going on yet it is all crystal clear and balanced, never sounding like an indulgent pile on. And his vocals (all sung in Japanese) are smooth as silk. I should note too that there is some respite from the frenzy on a couple of tracks, where he slows things down a bit, evoking a warm folky charm that allows one to catch a breath. And please check out these amazing people perform some 2013 songs live on KEXP. LIVE! Arigatou gozaimasu, Tukomaru-San. Choice track (and once again, AMAZING video): “Lift”.

14. Beaches – Second of Spring

Occasionally Bandcamp posts great genre- and geographically-specific articles to showcase new young talents. I bought a few records based on their review of Australian psychedelia, and a cream of the crop was Beaches double LP Second of Spring (kudos also to Celestial Bum and Black Heart Death Cult). This album is tremendous. This is In-the-red fuzzy and distorted garage rock, reminding me of Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segal, Black Angels, Tame Impala, and Dog Day. These DIY Melbournians know how to conjure a sweet toxic mix of droney chords, punk rock rhythms, cry-baby wah, rumbling bass riffs, and canyon-high vocals. And without the indulgent psych-rock stoner trappings. Right up my hard rawk, Big Muff alley. Choice track: “Arrow”.

13. This Is The Kit – Moonshine Freeze

Despite being around for some years, the wistful and arty folk of Brit Kate Sables and her revolving collective of musicians – This Is The Kit – is new to my ears. Moonshine Freeze is a beautiful recording of gentle and intricate guitar patterns, hushed but confident vocal harmonies, and subtle but substantive background sounds and embellishments that create atmosphere and presence. I’m reminded of Mae Moore, Beth Orton, Kinnie Starr, Ida, and maybe Ani Difranco without the growl. I’ve yet to immerse myself in the lyrics just yet, but what I’m catching feels poetically earnest and sweetly sombre. Sable’s vocals are really quite gorgeous, understated, and likewise forceful when they ought to be. The album finds that perfect balance of chill and engaging. So many modern folk records run the risk of drifting by unappreciated, but Sable adds all sorts of rhythmic flavors (afrobeat, bluesy, jazzy) and instruments (banjo, kick ass horn sections) to the mix to keep your attention. Choice track: “Moonshine Freeze”.

12. Wolf Alice – Visions Of A Life

British band Wolf Alice impressed the pants off me with 2015’s My Love Is Cool (#11 of the year), a kick ass indie-rock record that ran an impressive gamut of styles recalling the Cocteau Twins, Elastica, and PJ Harvey. The new album (and album of the year at my fave music blog Drowned in Sound) is even more varied. Ellie Rowsell can croon like Julia Holter one moment and then blow your speakers apart like a wasted and furious Courtney Love. The songs here are bigger and better, many with sheets of fuzz guitar, new wave synths, booming bass, and angelic vocal arrangements. Like their debut, there is depth and nuance here, going far beyond mere three chord indie rock. For example, “After the Zero Hour” unfolds as a folky prog-rock piece worthy of Kate Bush and Joanna Newsom; “Don’t Delete The Kisses” could be a Grimes song. There is something here for everyone. Choice track: “Sadboy”.

11. Emily Haines and Soft Skeleton – Choir of the Mind

While Emily Haines is the compelling face and voice of Metric, one gets the sense that her Soft Skeleton records are closer to her heart, wholly and completely hers, and the music she is most interested in making. Based on this latest record, I hope she continues this course (nothing against Metric, mind you). This is her second and she seems greatly influenced by her membership in Broken Social Scene and, most notably St. Vincent. Haines provides an amazing set of lush, complex songs that are equal parts neo-classical, progressive rock, and danceable electronica. The arrangements appear to spring initially from spare and elegant piano arpeggios, but often evolve into grandiose, multi-layered modern rock operas, carried by lyrics steeped in regret, sorrow, and desolation (song titles include “Strangle All Romance”, “Wounded”, and, awesomely, “Nihilist Abyss”). If this sounds all a bit heavy, well, it is. The world is hard and fucking sucks, and people are terrible, and life is slipping through our fingers. Yes, sometimes wallowing in such despondent thoughts is part of the process, and Emily Haines can be right there with you in your ear, commiserating. Choice track: “Fatal Gift”.

10. Fleet Foxes – Crack-Up

With the departure of drummer Josh Tillman, hastened by the (mystifying) runaway success of his side-project Father John Misty, and the entry of Robin Pecknold into Columbia University, it appeared Fleet Foxes were done in 2014. Happily, the band has returned this year with Crack-Up and I think it is their best release yet. Their M.O. has not changed in any significant way, although many reviews talk up the band’s putative reinvention, esoteric song titles, and high-brow academic references to F. Scott Fitzgerald and Spanish painters. While I do acknowledge the arrangements are a little more challenging (evoking Yes and Steven Wilson at times, oddly), it is hard to escape the pithy centre of Fleet Foxes – soaring and sunny folk rock that mines the best of sixties-soaked Americana and British psych-folk. It is a masterful concoction of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, The Byrds, Moby Grape, Gram Parsons, The Beach Boys and Fairport Convention. You will not hear sweeter rock harmonies in 2017, methinks. Choice track: “- Naiads, Cassadies” (yes, that is literally the song title).

9. EMA – Exile in the Outer Ring

Emma Anderson returns with her third album of magnificient industrial noise pop. Debut Past Life Matyred Saints (#2 of 2011) was harrowingly fabulous, and follow up The Future’s Void (#13 of 2014) was a bit more muted but still compelling. Exile in the Outer Ring falls somewhere in the middle, jumping back and forth from whispery indie rock songs to alarming industrial noise bombs. EMA feels like the heir apparent to PJ Harvey, mixing in the punk nihilism of oldies Dry and Rid of Me with the later erudite treatises of Let England Shake and The Hope Six Demolition Project. But while Harvey is a useful reference, Anderson is doing her own thing – wrapping catchy guitar riffs in barb-wired, electrifying noise, metallic beats, and overall fuzzy mayhem. Her vocal delivery is alluring and traumatized at the same time, at once beautiful and tragic, creating an uneasiness in the listener. Choice track: “Blood and Chalk”.

8. Angelo De Augustine – Swim Inside The Moon

Asthmatic Kitty, the record label curated by savant boy-wonder Sufjan Stevens, has always in my mind fallen short of expectations. One feels like the brilliant Stevens would put out records that are somehow comparable, if somewhat less amazing and extravagant, to his own output. I have liked records by Half-Handed Cloud, Castanets, and Juliana Barwick, but there has been nothing particularly revelatory. Until now. AK has delivered Angelo De Augustine’s second LP, Swim Inside The Moon, and I am enraptured by it. Reportedly, this LP was recorded almost entirely in De Augustine’s bathtub and the sound of the porcelain reverb is pretty unmistakable, as is the tape hiss and lo-fi production value. The intimacy is what matters, however; this is one man strumming beautiful patterns on his guitar and singing soaring melodies in a sweet and fragile falsetto. The effect recalls Sufjan’s early output of Michigan and Seven Swans, Elliott Smith, and, most wonderfully, Pink Moon by Nick Drake. The first song “Truly Gone” is immediately engaging and pretty, with a interesting circular guitar line complemented by his hushed vocals. The next song, “Haze”, is impossibly gorgeous and spellbinding and easily ranks as my favorite song of the year. Throughout, these solo testimonials demonstrate that folk music – just a person and their guitar – can still absolutely slay me. It’s a weird fine line, as we know that the singer-songwriter is a worn out medium with a toiling cast of millions adding precious little to the canon. But ever so often, someone like Augustine comes along and breaks your heart to pieces. Choice track: “Haze”.

7. Sand Pebbles – Pleasure Maps

The Sand Pebbles, hailing from Melbourne, Australia, have been around for a shocking 15 years and, with this release, 7 LPs – shocking insofar as I had not come across them until a recent review in one of Jack Rabid’s Top 40 lists, as published in the bi-annual supermag The Big Takeover. I always pay close attention to Jack’s recommendations. Pleasure Maps opens with a propulsive tune (“Desire Lines”) that sounds oddly like a throwback to Canadian new wave, like a long lost Spoons song or something, although a little more, um, Kraftwerk-y. Then it becomes the American Analog Set jamming with Brian Eno, and I’m becoming smitten. Throughout, I hear a wonderful mixtures of The Byrds, reverb drenched surf music, and, quite obviously, Luna (the last track, “Friendlier Advice”, is undoubtedly an homage to Luna’s amazing jam-out “Friendly Advice”). These songs are transportative, buoying me away on wave after jubilant wave of languid psych-rock goodness. How did I miss this band? I want the whole back catalogue. Choice track: “I Heard The Owl Call Out My Name”.

6. Pains of Being Pure At Heart – The Echo of Pleasure

Gosh, time flies. It does not feel all that long ago that I considered Pains to be one of my favorite “new bands” with gobs of potential. I wish they had been a little more proflic in their 10 year lifespan because everything they put out is tremendous. The Echo of Pleasure is their fourth album and is once again chock full of hooky fuzzy pop and new wave anthems. The obvious reference points continue to be The Cure, Echo and Bunnymen, Yo La Tengo, Lush, My Bloody Valentine, and the whole C86 indie-pop genre. This album feels a little more 80’s influenced to me somehow, and I say that in the best way possible (vintage, borderline cheesy synths may be the culprit). Brilliant, glistening, dream-pop gems. Choice track: “My Only”.

5. Slowdive – Slowdive

The shoegaze revival, referenced reverentially in my more recent annual lists, included genre founders Slowdive, to the extent that they reunited to tour once again (as did Swervedriver, Ride, My Bloody Valentine, Lush, Sianspheric, and others). All of us fans were waiting for the “new music” announcement, which came and culminated with 2017’s self-titled LP. It’s interesting – I always liked Slowdive, but was always a wee bit underwhelmed, feeling their music sort of drifted by unnoticed a good deal of the time. Later, however, I became a massive fan of Mojave 3 (composed of Slowdive’s Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell) and Halstead’s solo work (an all-time favorite album of mine is his sublime Sleeping On Roads). The growing familiarity with the Halstead’s projects led me to reappraise and newly appreciate Slowdive’s discography, and has primed me for this one. And it is glorious. Reverb-drenched undulating waves of guitar and angelic vocals create an otherworldly, prismatic topography of sound that disarms the senses. But this isn’t just soundscapes for sound’s sake – underneath it all are distant pop tendrils that tempt and lure you along. Choice track: “Star Roving”.

4. Alvvays – Antisocialites

Toronto’s Alvvays have been getting supreme love of late, beginning with their self-titled debut in 2013 and now with 2017’s Antisocialites. That time-gap between albums seems suprising, but it was filled with constant touring, which seems to have focused their chops and positioned them nicely for this follow up. The first ablum was good, almost great, but this sophomore release is stellar and stunning. Truth be told, I’m having trouble figuring out why, because the surface recipe is deceivingly straightforward – slacker gal vocals over top of catchy chorus/fuzz guitar. But there is more going on here, somehow, some sort of pure distillation of the best components of their forebears and contemporaries – The Primitives, Beach House, The Raincoats, Camera Obscura, The Pipettes, Wolf Alice, Veronica Falls, Frankie Rose, and so on. Amazing, catchy, awesome indie pop, if that’s yer thing. Alvvays is top of the Canadian alt-pops and I can’t wait to see what they do next. Choice track: “Your Type”.

3. Iron and Wine – Beast Epic

Ever since I was mesmerized by the beauty and darkness of Iron and Wine’s Endless Numbered Days, they have been a consistent favorite and a cut above their peers in so many ways. The incomparably sweet male/female harmonies of Sam and (sister) Sarah Beam deliver penetrating sketches of a lost America, among a backdrop of gorgeous finger picked guitar supported by a range of other effortless folk instrumentation. When they went in the direction of polished retro-70s AM rock (with Kiss Each Other Clean and Ghost on Ghost) I was impressed but also yearnful for a return to their earlier folk format of Days and debut The Creek Drank The Cradle. Beast Epic is that return, but with greater wisdom, experience, dynamics, and nuance. The set up is old school – gone is the big production, horns and orchestra, and overall sheen –stripped back to the trusty, dusty acoustic guitar, stand-up bass, piano, and subtle strings. The result is some beautiful countrified folk that is up there with Iron & Wine’s very best work. Choice track: “Call It Dreaming”.

2. Broken Social Scene – Hug of Thunder

2017 has been marked (in my mind at least), by the resurgence of mid-2000s Canadian indie rock, with BSS and Wolf Parade leading they way. Once you can put the embarrassing douchy demeanor of Kevin Drew out of your mind (sorry, whenever I see them live, I’m rubbed the wrong way by his “I’m so cool” thing), BSS delivers a powerful new record of wall of sound guitar anthems. We have waited seven years for this, and the collective is getting pretty long in the tooth, yet it still dramatically coheres, rocks the shit out of shit, and optimally uses the copious talents of its independently successful members – Drew, Emily Haines, Feist, Brendan Canning, Amy Milan, Charles Spearin and a host of others. Full of propulsive and urgent rock songs, I get a wistful celebratory feeling, nostalgic for the memories of hopping from show to show during one of the greatest rock eras in our history (circa 2003 to 2008, starting with Constantines’ Shine A Light and ending with Frightened Rabbit’s Midnight Organ Flight). BSS bring it all back here, lifting us up like the young lions we used to be (a little bit of a LOL here – I was in my mid-30s. But still. It’s the feeling, man. Screw you). Choice track: “Halfway Home”.

1. Wolf Parade – Cry, Cry, Cry

If Broken Social Scene reels you in for a group rock hug (of thunder), Wolf Parade lashes out and repels any sort of touchy/feely sentiment. Wolf Parade is no less a supergroup than BSS, boasting the supreme (and all somehow tortured) talents of Dan Boeckner (Handsome Furs, Divine Fits, Operators), Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes, Swan Lake), and Spencer Krug (Frog Eyes, Swan Lake, Sunset Rubdown, Moonface). Their reunion album, Cry, Cry, Cry is equal to their amazing, mind-blowing classic Apologies to the Queen Mary, released way back in 2005. (As an aside, the ever-cynical, critically bankrupt Pitchfork, which anointed Queen Mary with 9.2/10, lambastes the new album (6.7/10) as a recycling of their old sound, absent of new ideas, a “been there, done that” let-down. Personally, I kind of want an amazing sounding band to…um…CONTINUE SOUNDING amazing. And they do! What did they want Wolf Parade to do, put out an album of death metal Rihanna covers? Meanwhile, Preoccupations (formerly Viet Cong) put out what is essentially a Wolf Parade album clone in 2016 and Pitchfork was salivating over it as “ferociously alive”, giving it a 7.9/10. Fuck Pitchfork. Complete idiots). Okay, now that I got that aside off my chest, what do we have here? Roiling, careening, propulsive, explosive rock gems. It’s a heady mix of 80s gothy new wave, angular guitar lines, darkened dance-beats, anthemic choruses, and embittered end of the world shout outs. Krug and Boeckner bring their A-games, sounding like the best of their other bands, while channeling David Bowie, The Boomtown Rats, XTC, Modest Mouse, and The Pixies. A tremendous return. Choice track: “Valley Boy”.

Some Great Records Falling Outside The 2017 Top 25 List

As you may have noticed, I went to 25 this year instead of the usual 20 as this year’s crop was so great. But even that narrowing was hard. Here are some GREAT records that did not make the list, but still garnered a great to excellent rating by my reckoning (i.e., at least 7.5/10).

The New Year – Snow. The Kadane brothers have come back with their first album since 2008 and, dammit, I didn’t hear it until January 2018, just as I was pushing the blog publish button. If I’m honest, this record would have finished in the top 10 if I was more judicious (i.e., less lazy). A bit more upbeat and major chorded than their first slo-core classic outfit (Bedhead), this is some great straight up mid-tempo guitar-centric indie rock that always leads to compelling crescendos – think Seam, Ida, Acetone, and Low. Not on Spotify, so check out elsewhere!

Japandroids – Near to the Wild Heart of Life. Sorta hurt to leave this duo off the list. I always root for these guys who give every ounce of themselves to their craft, be it in the studio or to rapturous, crowd-surfing audiences. Super high energy sing along anthems of shredding guitar, pounding drums, and nostalgic memories of youth.

Elliott BROOD – Ghost Gardens. These Canadian lads just keep on plucking. Bluegrassy, stomping, whiskey-soaked country rock (with an emphasis on the rock). Once again, every song is a carousing, crowd-pleasing, heartfelt sing-a-long.

Mac DeMarco – This Old Dog. DeMarco is one of those amazing indie outsiders that comes off as a sort of naïve folky, a niche bedroom recorder. But this is some really mature, keenly delivered stuff. It’s simple (as per usual) and maybe even lazy sounding at first, but a closer listen reveals layers of careful production and attention to detail. This is mellow and slack, but also supremely catchy. He falters at the tail end, though, losing his vibe with some peculiar and ill-advised (and almost maddening) forays into cheesy 80s-sounding RnB. But listen to lead off track “My Old Man” – so basic, so perfect, like lying in a hammock on a warm summer afternoon.

Tristen – Sneaker Waves. This is wonderful jangle pop, perhaps too much sheen at times, but brings me back to The Bangles, Kirsty MacColl, The Go Gos, and Juliana Hatfield. And there is a countrified pop feel too, sounding a bit like Cortney Tidwell.

Do Make Say Think – Stubborn Persistent Illusions. More brilliant, moody, and inspiring instrumentals from this Canadian collective. Recommended for fans of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Explosions in the Sky, and Stars of the Lid.

Jay Som – Everybody Works. Lo-fi pop maestro Melina Duterte advances her bedroom recording craft exponentially since her first collection (2016’s Turn Into). This Bandcamp offering seems like a more proper debut of hooky indie gems and has gained wide attention from boutique blogs to mainstream media. Close relative to Alvvays with a touch of Lordes, Grimes, and…um…Avril Lavigne? Choice track: “1 Billion Dogs”.

Charly Bliss – Guppy. I was immediately taken by “Glitter”, which melodically grips you like a top-end Primitives or Juliana Hatfield song. The rest of the albums is good to great, if sometimes pushing a little too far across that blurry boundary into over-polished pop-punk.

Austra – Future Politics. Toronto’s Katie Stelmanis gives Emily Haines’ Choir Of The Mind a run for it’s money, with heady, beat-laden synthetic operas. Recommended if you like Emily (obviously), but also School of Seven Bells, Beach House, Grimes, and Florence + the Machine.

METZ – Strange Peace. METZ once again absolutely bludgeon us with uncompromising post-hardcore. They sound like the apocalypse and do so much more for me than the sludgy doom metal that’s seen such a recent revival. This harkens back to the dizzying heights of Minor Threat, Fugazi, Public Image Limited, and The Jesus Lizard, but with even more tension and release, if that’s possible. Recorded straight to tape by original disruptor Steve Albini.

Arcade Fire – Everything Now. While most agree that the title track was a great tropical disco single, the consensus has also been that Arcade Fire dropped another dud (the first being Reflektor). I tended to agree, then witnessed possibly the greatest live show I have ever seen in my life at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. Seriously. This spectacle breathed new life and respect into the 2017 album and AF consequently are still a going concern for me.

Wire – Silver/Lead. I’ll just say what I said last time around, in reference to 2016’s Nocturnal Koreans: “[Wire provide a] time-tested recipe of taut minimalist guitar lines, brainy nihilistic lyrics, and cold-filtered vocals. I truthfully can’t think of a band coming out of the late 70’s art punk scene that evolved to remain as relevant, exacting, and exciting as Wire.” All true, again, for Silver/Lead.

Annie Sumi – In The Unknown. Recently settling in my hometown of Guelph, ON, Annie Sumi put out her second album and it is a gorgeous, meditative set of emotional folk gems. Sumi sings like an angel, fingerpicks like a seasoned pro, and ups the production value with beautiful strings and pedal steel this time around, to great effect. I hear a lot Joni Mitchell here. Dare I say Annie Sumi might be the next Sarah McLachlan? I dare!

Richard Laviolette – Taking the Long Way Home. Another Guelphite, Laviolette finally follows up his first album (2009’s All Of Your Raw Materials). The old-timey country approach is more prominent this time around, which is not a bad thing by any means, but there are fewer of the more delicate folksy numbers that were so bloody amazing on his first record. But still a great album and I can’t see how Laviolette is any less of talent than Will Oldham, for example. He should be a national treasure, and basically needs to make more records.

Bird City – Winnowing. Jenny Mitchell, indie mainstay of Guelph, ON has been a local musical force, playing all manner of roles in The Barmitzvah Brothers, The Burning Hell, Richard Laviolette’s Oil Spills, as well as treating us with her sublime bedroom recordings as Jenny Omnichord. She’s jettisoned her omnichords for the banjo and surrounded herself with a host of local musical heroes to put out her debut under the moniker Bird City. Stripped down, beautiful folk tunes of memory, longing, regret, happiness, and everything in between.

Japanese Breakfast – Soft Sounds From Another Planet. The Secretly Society record club (which delivers me lovely coloured limited edition vinyl from labels Dead Oceans and Secretly Canadian) sent me Japanese Breakfast one month and what a nice present. Psychedelic, blissful synth sounds, spacey sonic landscapes, and chill vocals provided by bandleader Michelle Zauner. Fans of Washed Out, Blonde Redhead, and Chromatics take note.

Drew McIvor – Through the Tangle of Trees. McIvor returns with a tremendous genre-jumping mix that adds to his already accomplished reggae, rocksteady, and disco-funk chops. We got some fragile and pretty folk, bluesy-swing, RnB, thumpin’ country, and some straight up rock. Ever-present is the best feature – McIvor's smooth and flawless vocals and harmonies. Dig it!

Soccer Mommy – Collection. Saw this group open for Luna and I was impressed enough to pick up their cassette Collection. The pairing with Luna made sense, as they ply the same trade of slowed down, simplified electric guitar pop. Also seems to reference Juliana Hatfield, Yo La Tengo, and SF Seals.

Moon Duo – Occult Architecture, vol. 1. Moon Duo give us another solid album of psychedelic drone pop with 80s-era synths, sounding like an upbeat Joy Division or an angsty OMD. Contemporary comparisons might be The Men, Crystal Stilts, and Wooden Shjips.

Bully – Losing. This is great edgy pop-punk, at times sounding a heck of lot like the 90s showings of Hole, Weezer, and The Breeders, and following the same current wave as Beach Slang, Wild Flag, and Vivian Girls. Cathartic and snidely sweet.

Girlpool – Powerplant. I wanted to like this more than I did, because I adored their previous album, Before The World Was Big. This is still very good – strange, whimsical, DIY indie rock, sometimes punk-inflected, sometimes slow and spare. The guitar tones are fabulous – fuzzy, buzzy, and bendy. Closest relatives would be early Liz Phair and Juliana Hatfield.

And a few records I have not fully listened to, but gave me great first impressions: 2017 albums by Beck, Elbow, Sheer Mag, Waxahatchee, Grizzly Bear, Alex G, Luyas, and Casper Skulls.

Odds and Ends

And I should note a couple amazing cover LPs. Luna cover a range of fairly obscure songs on A Sentimental Education, including the Velvet Underground’s “Friends” (from the Doug Yule era LP Squeeze, which has essentially been redacted from VU’s discography), “Fire In Cairo” by The Cure, and “Car Wash Hair” by Mercury Rev. Luna’s live show in Toronto was outstanding. Jonathan Rado (of Foxygen) covers all of Springsteen’s Born to Run, and it’s quite cool. A big treat this year was the small vinyl pressing of Mutual Benefit covering the lost and rediscovered gem Just Another Diamond Day, the cult-folk classic released by Vashti Bunyon in 1970.

A few singles and EPs deserve a mention. Lehmann B. Smith, an Aussie on Courtney Barnett’s Milk Records, contributed “Dust” to the label’s split singles club…really dig this track. The mighty Chavez returned modestly with a 12 inch single, and “Blank In The Blaze” is great highlight (included in the Spotify playlist). “She’s A Believer” by Black Heart Death Club (from the s/t EP) is a pretty awesome Spaceman 3-influenced psychedelic treat. And I loved the crunchy indie pop of Kindling (especially “Claims Nonexistence” from their No Generation EP). Finally, Not For Function, will definitely be making waves in Toronto and beyond over the next while. I have some back door access to their tunes and they're killer post-punk rockers that sound like a careening Wolf Parade broadsiding Television. For a taste check out "Doritoes".

The Disappointments, Miscues, and Disparagements of 2018

This year’s disappointments! Not bad albums, really (although some are), but these are the bands that

I expect more of, that I was excited about. That failed me and filled me with ire and annoyance. There’s always a few (as opposed to the truckloads of records that actually sucked, but that I wouldn’t deign to listen to in the first place).

Flaming Lips…I think I give up. Ever since 1999's The Soft Bulletin (a nearly perfect, trail blazing record) things have gone downhill. The Lips are always interesting enough for me to hope beyond hope that they’ll bring back the greatness. Oczy Mlody is an aimless, moody, gurgling pile of nothing, drifting by unremarkably. There are no hooks and it’s all so tiresome. Cloud Nothings, who had great high energy indie rock potential, sound like modern alternative bullshit on Life Without Sound, like I am listening to Sum 41. Avey Tare of Animal Collective attempted to go back to the roots of AC’s Sung Tongs’ (that bastion of indie freak folk) but the result is annoying rather than mesmerizing.

Mew’s 2017 release, Visuals, is merely okay, and way too poppy and light. They’ve lost what made them great – the sludge-metal riffs that normally undergird the 80s synths. I have been waiting for a new Flotation Toy Warning record, but their novel warbly orchestral pieces seem to have wore thin to me, to my surprise. Such otherworldly potential here, but the formula breaks down into a sort of precious bomast. That said, check out great song and amazing interactive VR video for “Carry Me To Safety”.

And finally, the War On Drugs put out a pretty polarizing record, landing on many writers’ year-end best of lists, but it was also panned by quite a few others. Drawing heavily on Dylan, The Band, and AOR, one has to respect the production chops – it sounds fabulous if taken on its own terms. But the songs are to my ears overly long, overwrought and, in many places, soft rock sinkholes. This is a long way from Slave Ambient and the other early bracing records. I tried to like it numerous times if only because at times I really did – in 30 second snippets, I suddenly felt it was amazing. And then something would turn and it would be like I was listening to Honeymoon Suite or The Eagles, and the distaste would rise in me. That taste has remained. Not horrible as a rock document (I gave it 6.8 out of 10), but it is easily the disappointment of the year.

Signing off! Maybe, hopefully I'll post more frequently in this space.

The Top 20 Albums of 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 03:18:00 +0000

For a playlist of my favorite tracks off my favorite 2016 albums, click here for a Spotify playlist. This list contains all my "Choice Tracks" from each album in the Top 20 plus much more.

Well, 2016, as far as years go, you were a scumbag, stealing from us some sacred music cows. Last year’s Top 20 write up got posted mighty late, arriving in February (like this one) to acknowledge the 2015 deaths of Scott Weiland and Lemmy and then, in early 2016, David Bowie. It was an avalanche of crumbling stars after that, with the departures of Prince, Leonard Cohen, Sharon Jones, Glen Frey, Merle Haggard, Keith Emerson and Greg Lake (Palmer beware!), and George Michael. Add in other artistic and iconic losses, such as Alan Rickman, Gene Wilder, Gary Shandling, Carrie Fisher, Muhammed Ali, Gordie Howie, Steve Dillon, and John Glenn. TWO members of Barney Miller’s staff, Abe Vigoda and Ron Glass. Alan Thicke! And Fidel Castro and Nancy Reagan are in purgatory somewhere mud-wrestling, and I’m fine with that.

I also should confess that I haven’t heard Bowie’s final album Black Star. I just couldn’t do it. I saw the video premiere for “Lazarus” after he died and I was completely horrified and saddened. Stomach churning. Bowie has always been a provocative artist, but it was dispiriting to think that THIS was how he wanted to world to see him as he left this mortal coil – blind, in rags, desperate, insane. I vowed never to watch it again and then could never bring myself to pick up the album. Too soon.

Honestly, none of these losses were more personal and heartbreaking than Gord Downie’s announcement that he is suffering from terminal brain cancer. He is still with us, inspiring the nation, but the future is dire and upsetting. The last Hip shows across Canada were epic, shattering goodbyes, and fans have been additionally graced with a new solo record from Gord, an exhortation to Canada to address historical crimes against Indigenous peoples. Gord Downie’s fragile figure loomed large in 2016.

As always – PILES of great new music. An embarrassment of riches once again. Big hitters (for me) Besnard Lakes, Frightened Rabbit, Teenage Fanclub, and School of Seven Bells did not disappoint. A few brand new artists (for me) pushed into list as well. A lot of great ambient/psychedelic/instrumental records floated about in 2016 it seemed. Some extended plays I picked up included new music from previously defunct acts. Wolf Parade reunited around Sub Pop’s deluxe reissue treatment of Apologies for the Queen Mary and an unexpected 4 song EP (called EP4) of new music. Excellent return to form. Even more exciting was the reunion of Lush, seemingly following a trend in the ranks of original British shoegaze (see Ride, Swervedriver, Pale Saints, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, etc.). Their new EP, Blind Spot, is just perfect.

Before I get to the albums, here are my Top 25 favorite songs of 2016:

1. Getting Gone – Mutual Benefit

2. Necronomicon – The Besnard Lakes
3. Break – Frightened Rabbit
4. Ride It Out – Redspencer

5. You – Day Wave

6. Ablaze – School of Seven Bells

7. Celebration – Yves Jarvis (formerly Un Blonde)

8. Take It Slow – Rogue Wave

9. Lady of the Ark – Kyle Craft

10. Hey You - The Thermals

11. Crucified Again – Arcade Fire

12. 22 (OVER S∞∞N) – Bon Iver

13. Line Them All Up – Black Mountain

14. Lost Dreamers – Mutual Benefit

15. Still Want To Be Here – Frightened Rabbit

16. Mixed Messages – Tuns

17. Yr Face – Yuck

18. Human Performance – Parquet Courts

19. No Worries Gonna Find Us – Plants and Animals

20. Golden Lion - The Besnard Lakes

21. Golden Vanity – The Hanging Stars

22. Bad Texan – Lucid Dream

23. Memory – Preoccupations

24. Racing Country – EZTV

25. I Have Nothing More To Say – Teenage Fanclub

And now…

The Top 20 Albums of 2016

20. Rogue Wave – Delusions of Grand Fur

Setting aside the frankly silly malapropism of the title, Rogue Wave convinces me once again that they may be the most criminally underrated indie-rock band of the 2000s. I ranted about this in reference to 2013’s Nightingale Floors, suggesting it is pure happenstance that bands like The Shins or Vampire Weekend become 1^st tier indie rock stars while Rogue Wave goes relatively unnoticed. It bugs the hell out of me. Grand Fur is tightly packed with wonderfully catchy, guitar-driven indie pop, perfect harmonies, and lyrical beauty, richly deserving to be heard and loved. Choice track: “Take It Slow”.

19. Radiohead – A Moon-Shaped Pool

I remember being mystified by the endless accolades handed to Kid A back in 2000. I felt there were obviously some very strong singles (“Everything In Its Right Place”, “Optimistic”, “Morning Bell”), but I also felt the document was indulgent and was not nearly as accomplished as The Bends and Ok Computer, two nearly flawless albums. This trend continued with each Radiohead release… a vague disappointment tempered by some seriously transcendent moments. Yet…yet…there is always something inescapably superior about a Radiohead album when compared to their peers, and this holds true once again with A Moon Shaped Pool. It’s a beautiful, introspective, but often bleak record. It’s challenging stuff, gloomily cyclical, at times moribund, yet deeply immersive if you give it the attention it truly deserves. Why they continue to sell a gazillion records to average music consumers is beyond me, though. Choice track: “Daydreaming”.

18. Pinkshinyultrablast – Grandfeathered

Taking their name from an Astrobrite album, Pinkshinyultrablast are a Russian quartet that assault the ears with supercharged, wall-of-sound shoegaze. The touchstones are obvious – Lush, Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine – but the delivery is considerably louder and decidedly more raucous. There is an immense density of trebly guitar, backed by airy synths, drawing comparisons to Luminous Orange, Fleeting Joys, Serena Maneesh, and early Asobi Seksu. The hooks are undeniable, while the pixie-dust vocals of Lyubov Soloveva keep the cacophony rooted in the pop roots of C86 twee bands of the 80s. And they sound like they are having a blast. Is there a contemporary shoegaze scene in Russia? If we can get more of this rock candy, I sure hope so. Choice track: “I Catch You Napping”.

17. TUNS – TUNS

Great bands maintain greatness because of an internal familiarity, a reciprocal instinctiveness that keeps them gelling. That is perhaps why the “supergroup” concept so often falls short of expectations, with the whole being less than the sum of its parts. High pedigree collectives like Snowpony, Electronic, The Postal Service, Zwan, Broken Bells, etc. were never awful, and often good, but paled in comparison to their original outfits. And so it was with trepidatious delight that TUNS arrived, a Haligonian power trio comprising Mike O’Neill (The Inbreds), Chris Murphy (Sloan), and Matt Murphy (The Super Friendz). These three enter this fray as masterful and venerated indie-rockers who can weave a guitar and vocal hook like nobody’s business. I am happy to say that the gestalt is super impressive. TUNS literally sound like all three bands perfectly mashed together – upbeat, super-catchy guitar pop, with delectable harmonies that feel like home. And more so if you were weaned on the early albums of these humble giants. Choice track: “Mixed Messages”

16. Cavern of Anti-Matter – Void Beats / Invocation Trex

Stereolab is an all-time favorite of mine, and in some ways the most unique of my most cherished bands whose catalogues I devour. The band tend to describe their music in their song and album titles and, while comically oblique, are also metaphorically bang on somehow: Space Age Batchelor Pad Music, Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements, Aluminum Tunes. Even Refried Ectoplasm attaches to the Stereolab sound in some absurdist manner. With the band on a "Hiatus/Sabbatical/Pause/Intermission/Breather" we have been graced with a pretty great ‘lab-ish album from Laetitia Sadier (Silencio, in 2012) and now, in 2016, Tim Gane gives us Void Beats / Invocation Trex under the moniker Cavern of Anti-Matter. Again, the titling seems an analog to the album itself…somehow. While there are certainly lots of Stereolab touchstones, this record is a little more motorik and cyclical, with less of the grinding organ and guitar in favor of copious bleeps and bloops. As well, Void Beats is primarily instrumental (Bradford Cox of Deerhunter/Atlas Sound guests on vocals on one of the two vocal tracks), sounding much like Holy Fuck and other analog-techno outfits. But the short of it is that Gane’s new record is amazing – engaging, fun, meditative, innovative, and grounded in the core history of the Stereolab legend. Choice track: “Echolalia”.

15. Sianspheric - Writing the Future in Letters of Fire

The past few years have seen the return of foundational British shoegaze bands – Swervedriver, Slowdive, Ride, Lush, and My Bloody Valentine – and these Canadian genre masters have followed suit. I’ve been a fan since the first floaty delayed chords of their 1995 debut, Somnium, surprised my ears. This was surely not a sound one associates with Hamilton, Ontario. It’s been 15 years since their last proper album and they have come back at the top of their game. Gentle, slow-tempo, glacial passages carry faraway reverbed vocals lines, with occasional grandiose bursts of distortion and fuzz. These are songs to lose yourself in, fully and completely. Headphones and isolation recommended. Choice track: “It’s Not Over”.

14. Wire – Nocturnal Koreans

From 1977 to 1979, Wire put out three bombshell albums that were post-punk before first-wave punk was over. They were unusually innovative and artful in their approach to stripped down, angsty, guitar-based rock, cementing them as revered grandfathers for years to come. Despite two lengthy hiatuses (1979-1987 and 1991-2003) and some mediocre forays into techno, Wire has consistently lived up to their hallowed beginnings across a stack of great records. 2016’s Nocturnal Koreans is no exception, with their time-tested recipe of taut minimalist guitar lines, brainy nihilistic lyrics, and cold-filtered vocals. I truthfully can’t think of a band coming out of the late 70’s art punk scene that evolved to remain as relevant, exacting, and exciting as Wire. Choice track: “Still”.

13. Black Mountain - IV

In an obvious nod to Led Zeppelin, Black Mountain’s roman numeraled fourth record is a mammoth psychedelic rock-fest. Their eight minute opening single, “Mothers of The Sun”, is a stoned, sci-fi elegy to proto-metal at its best, laid at the far-out altars of Hawkwind, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple. Thereafter is a quick shift to that odd place where 80’s new wave meets 80’s metal, as if Jefferson Starship was kicking out the jams with Blondie (“Florian Saucer Attack”). “Line Them All Up” is a glorious prog-folk number in which singer Amber Weber showcases her soulful pipes. “Cemetry Breeding” almost has a goth feel, were it not for other main vocalist Stephen McBean’s rockist vocal delivery. Top to bottom, this is a big, brash retro-rock record, complete with a cover clearly and wonderfully indebted to Pink Floyd. Like their previous album Wilderness Heart, IV gifts us with intricate musical homages so perfectly realized that there is no concern of rip-off or derivation, just wide-eyed celebration. Choice track: “Line Them All Up”.

12. Teenage Fanclub – Here

Us southwestern Ontarions are a lucky bunch, because for some extremely odd reason, Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake decided to relocate to Kitchener (and, I believe, Joe Pernice to Toronto, making their band The New Mendicants a going concern). I think I can safely assume that there is no other British rock luminary who has made this career move; the possibility of running into Mr. Blake on King St. is positively surreal. In any case, the Fanclub played Toronto’s Lee Palace recently, and it was seriously nostalgia inducing. The band has mellowed over the years, for certain, but their M.O. remains fully intact – impossibly catchy and fetching vocal harmonies over jangly, fulsome chords emitted by three intertwined guitars, usually punctuated by a lava-hot solo on a Fender Jaguar. It’s the kind of set up that seems pedestrian, tired even, on paper. But the songcraft of Blake, Gerard Love, and their mates is so perfectly developed, a timelessness is assured. Here, once again, does this all very well and stands up solidly to previous classics like Songs From Northern Britain, Man-Made, and Thirteen. Choice track: “I Have Nothing More To Say”.

11. Explosions In The Sky – The Wilderness

Explosions in the Sky have long been a band that descriptively aligns with a key corner of my musical tastes – wide-screen, cinematic, often fiery instrumental rock. Key adherents include Godspeed You! Black Emperor (and splinter groups A Silver Mt. Zion, Set Fire To Flames, Fly Pan Am), Mogwai, Kinski, Pelican, Mono and others (and see RLYR, #10 below). Explosions in the Sky have helped pioneer this framework since the early 2000s, and while I have enjoyed their records, they always seemed to fall short of the majesty so often evoked by their compatriots. But The Wilderness takes a rather giant leap forward, primarily because the band has moved outside their typical sonic template (namely, waves of guitar moving from spare, minimalist lines to maximalist crescendos). I am largely unfamiliar with their soundtrack work for three movies in 2013-2015, but perhaps the narrative demands of film have pushed them to try new things. The Wilderness sounds like a new Eluvium album, which is a welcome development (Eluvium has released 7 ambient-experimental albums since 2003 that are uniformly tremendous). Drastically reduced is the reliance on electric guitar as the foundation – it’s still there, of course, but there is a neo-classical richness provided by beautiful synth lines and swells, digital beats alongside their regular kit, reverbed piano, and a singular attention to melody. The result is uplifting and grandiose, a Chariots of Fire type elevation. This greater instrumental balance gives the guitar work room to breathe and evolve into entirely new personalities that were not previously possible. Epic! Choice track: “The Ecstatics”.

10. RLYR – Delayer

I can only assume this new outfit is pronounced “Re-LAY-er”. Let’s go with that. I have no memory of how this came across my virtual desk, but I recall being interested as it was a side project of Pelican’s guitarist, Trevor Shelley de Brauw. Their bandcamp offering did not disappoint. Take my description of “incendiary instrumental rock” as described in #11 above, and it applies quite nicely to RLYR. That said, there is a harder edge at play here, much as there is with many Pelican songs, which tugs RLYR into the loosely defined “post-hardcore” genre. The fuzz/distortion is indispensable, upping the angst quotient considerably, such that RLYR shares the sonic territory of Horseback, Torche, Jesu, Psychic Paramount, and Wayne Rogers’ body of work (notably Magic Hour and Major Stars). There are only four songs on Delayer, with one song clocking in at 23 minutes and two exceeding 6 minutes, but this is hardly atypical in this genre. Although there are long extended passages of gritty, buzz-saw guitars, the hooks are there, and they refuse to let you go. It is worth noting that RLYR plays pretty fast, much faster than the sludgy (but amazing) work of Jesu, for example. It’s all amped up, up-beat, and determined to anthemically fry your face. Choice track: “Slipstream Summer”.

9. The New Lines – Love and Cannibalism.

This is 60’s throwback psychedelic pop, clearly influenced by The Byrds, Moby Grape, Fairport Convention, and early folk numbers by Syd Barret/Pink Floyd. I also hear a lot of the paisley underground, referencing The Rain Parade and The Dream Syndicate. The vocals are an acquired taste, delivered with an oddly deadpanned affectation, as if the singer is a not-all-there acid casualty, a 60’s zen caricature. While the maudlin vocals may marginalize some listeners, Love and Cannibalism is otherwise beautiful and lysergic. Lovely 12-string guitar arpeggios, vintage organ, and infernally catchy choruses. If you like kaleidoscopic baroque pop and long to return to Haight-Ashbury, this is highly recommended. Choice track: “Weatherman’s Apology”.

8. Preoccupations – Preoccupations

Calgary’s excellent noise rockers Women dissolved and reformed with much critical fanfare as Viet Cong. Viet Cong’s debut, Cassette, was a reverb-drenched noise pop document referencing Pavement, Wire, and No Age. I was hopeful for the future, but 2015’s self-titled follow up was only good, and not great – something was missing. The band hit the indie papers with faux-scandal when their name became a subject of much protest, wagging fingers, allegations of racism, and calls for censure. I thought this was total bullshit and entirely misplaced ire. The band did not help their cause by shrugging their shoulders with the excuse that they thought the Viet Cong were bad-asses, clearly drawing on superficial celluloid references. Political quicksand. Weary of the controversy, they have emerged as Preoccupations. And while Wolf Parade put out a surprise 4 song EP this year, Preoccupations is my new Wolf Parade (or Handsome Furs, or Sunset Rubdown). They sound a lot like those bands now, along with a consistent undercurrent of Joy Division, early Psychedelic Furs, and Echo and the Bunnymen. Amazing! Choice track: “Memory”.

7. Flyying Colours - Mindfulness

Thank you intrepid rock critic godfather, Jack Rabid, founder and editor-in-chief of the incomparable music zine The Big Takeover. Every quarterly issue is jam-packed with incisive reviews from the world of underground rock and associated genres. Jack’s Top 40 each issue is a treasure trove of records that would have otherwise passed me by. Enter Flyying Colours, a group of Aussies that, to my ears, are a bit too pigeon-holed as shoegazing descendants of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Chapterhouse. I get it, but I also hear more straight up psych rock structures and sounds aligning with Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Dandy Warhols, Tame Impala, and The Lilys. But we’re splitting musical hairs here – this is fulsome, stunning fuzz rock – loud, heavily reverbed, melodic, and explosive. This album is fucking dynamite. Thanks again, Jack! Choice track: “It’s Tomorrow Now”.

6. School of Seven Bells – SVIIB

I’ve been a committed fan of this pop-goth-dance trio ever since I saw them open for TV On The Radio back in 2007 or so. Three amazing albums followed, reigniting my love of bands like Cocteau Twins, Lush, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Kate Bush. SVIIB has always had a danceable quality as well, alongside bands like M83, Caribou, and Air. In some cases, they are 2 or 3 production mistakes away from bad dance pop. Unlike M83’s latest album Junk (which is horrendous) they maintain their cool. Tragedy struck the band in 2013 when drummer Benjamin Curtis (formerly of Secret Machines) succumbed to lymphoma. Through the sadness and devastation, front-women and twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza assembled, built up and mixed a range of already laid down tracks, demos, and song ideas to release one final posthumous album, in honor of their fallen friend and bandmate. It is much the same, which is to say, super fabulous – angelic two-part harmonies, irresistible melodies, soaring synths, and dance-floor ready beats. Choice track: “Ablaze”

5. The Lucid Dream – Compulsion Songs

Whoa! For some reason I do not recall how I came across these groovy Brit mofos, but extremely happy I did. This is an epic psychedelic rock album, but in no way constrained by whatever stereotypes that such a description might conjure. They burst out of the gate like a Gatling gun, with “Bad Texan”, a four-on-the-floor acid-dance punch up that sounds like the Happy Mondays guitar dueling with Holy Fuck. Second track “Stormy Waters” reverts to an acoustic folk romp, punctuated by fuzzy auto-wah, suddenly sounding like Gomez or Akron/Family. And then…an 8 minute psychedelicized reggae dub jam ("I'm A Star In My Own Right), complete with a melodica that would do Augustus Pablo proud. This reggae detour feels sympatico with the rest of the album, like the Clash's Armagideon Time? “21^st Century” is off-the-rails garage punk, a full on rendering of MC5, Stooges, Ty Segal, and The White Stripes’ more uncontrolled urges. The whole album feels eclectic but unified by distorted and otherwise multi-effected wall of guitar attacks. It’s like the aural equivalent of staring into a oil drum full of burning magnesium. On acid. Choice track: “Bad Texan”.

4. Mutual Benefit – Skip A Sinking Stone

Unknown to me at the time, this unassuming folk group landed in the 7^th spot of 2013’s best of collection with Love’s Sinking Diamond. “Let’s Play / Statue of Man”, in retrospect, was my favorite song from that year (although I believe I initially put it behind “High School Lover” by Cayucas and “Takes Time” by Jim Guthrie). So I have been waiting for the follow up and felt for some reason that a sophomore slump was inevitable. Not so! Another tremendous record. Skip A Sinking Stone is absolutely stunning, elegant, warm, and pretty. My love of fuzzy mayhem may be unmitigated, but I am also a sucker for that warm sweet spot where folksy talent meets technical prowess, attentive production, narrative vision. Every note, swelling string, vocal harmony, finger pick, piano trill, and tremolo decay seems to be in its perfect place. This may all be meaningless without the all important foundation of melody, and that’s where Mutual Benefit elevates their craft. The melodies are effortless, winsome, and irresistible. Every track evokes sunshine, cool breezes, sacred ground. Love, regret, family and friends. Traveling, shifting landscapes, and drifting dreams. Gosh, did I lay that on a bit thick? You know what, I don’t think so. In fact, I’m struggling with it sitting at #4 – it may deserve more than that. Choice tracks: “Lost Dreamers” and “Getting Gone” (both of these in contention for song of the year).

3. Un Blonde – Good Will Come To You

Where do dudes like this come from? Jean-Sebastian Audet, a Calgarian who’s relocated to Montreal, is a wondrous genius. I had the distinct pleasure of watching him play live at the Hillside Festival in 2016 and, although it was just him and his guitar, I was captivated (I think maybe another player was there, but whomever it was seemed superfluous). He has this rare alacrity and fluidity in his guitar playing that feels unique, like a totally fresh approach to the instrument (although at times I am reminded of Sandro Perri). As good as his live set was, it is a shadow of his beautiful 2016 record Good Will Come To You. Most songs have his acoustic guitar as the foundation, and his strumming patterns are strange and inscrutable, sounding simultaneously lazy and highly disciplined. Ditto to his jazzy electric guitar overlays, which sound random and jammy – yet entirely purposeful to the structure. The acoustic passages remind me of Animal Collective’s Sung Tongs, but instead of the paroxysmal hollers and tribal chants, Audet provides us with some of the most soulful, gospel-tinged vocals I’ve had the pleasure of hearing. I suspect the four part harmonies are all him, from deep bass to ringing falsettos, all sung with a gorgeous vibrato. The homey production is profoundly intimate – he’s right on the mic, right in your ear, next to you on your porch. Added to the tracks are a range of found sounds and field recordings, putting you right in the midst of some welcoming downtown neighbourhood, observed through technicolor sunglasses. It's an intensely “present” record that seems to compel calm and mindfulness. And listening to it, I wonder if Audet has any choice but to write, play, and live music. I can’t imagine he could do anything else. Choice track: “Celebration”.

2. The Besnard Lakes – A Coliseum Complex Museum

Ah, the mighty Besnard Lakes – every album they put out is glorious and epic. This oddly named album may be their best yet. Walls of deeply effected guitars and keyboards with the impossibly high vocals of Jace Lasek soaring above them. Every song feels anthemic – the Lakes have that lovely ability to sound impossibly huge but then somehow kick it into an even higher gear. If you wish to get a sense of quintessential sense of this band, check out the compelling and beautiful (and wonderfully ambiguous) video for the single “Necronomicon” (apparently its first screening to co-lead Olga Goreas moved her to tears, and it’s easy to see/hear why). It’s strange – when I think about Canadian music and bands, I often forget about the Besnard Lakes as I list-make in my head. But we’re now 5 LPs and 2 EPs into their growing discography and I am starting to register that they are somewhere in my top 5 Canadian bands of all-time. Who, in fact, would place after Neil Young, Arcade Fire, and Constantines? I think it might be the might Besnard Lakes. Looking forward to 2017 release, apparently coming soon! Choice tracks: “The Golden Lion”, “Necronomicon”.

1. Frightened Rabbit – Painting of a Panic Attack

2013’s Pedestrian Verse was good, but could not hold a candle to the triumphs of The Midnight Organ Flight and A Winter of Mixed Drinks, two albums that were ever present in my ears during the late 2000s, and somehow emblematic of a pre-child, financially secure, fancy-free concert going period with many fine friends. I thought the Rabbits were on a mild downward slide, but 2016’s Painting of a Panic Attack has kicked me in the gut. Back to back heartfelt and powerful indie-rock songs that send me back 8 years or so. I have to say, it’s hard to make heart-on-sleeve rock songs like these without slipping, at least a little bit, into self-importance, repetition, and even self-parody. Many a band have I grown weary of because they couldn’t break out of their original mold, becoming tired and pointless. This is the risk – if you sound like you are always on a soapbox, or always crying to the love that has rejected you, or always playing the angry isolationist card – well, it’s hard to maintain a sense of authenticity (independent, completely, of “real” authenticity, whatever that means). Frightened Rabbit have not really changed, yet have avoided this trap fully and completely. Acknowledging some sonic experimentation here and there, the rhythm/feel/structure feels no different from 8 years ago. What does this sound like? Take your old favorite FB songs, and all the best songs of bands like Wintersleep, Snow Patrol, Elbow, The Long Winters, and The Shins, and you have a good picture of Painting a Panic Attack. Every song gives you a reason to tap your toes, sing along, or fall into sudden repose to get a handle on the greatness you are hearing. Irresistibly yours. Choice track: “Still Want To Be Here”, “Break”.

Some Great Records Falling Outside The 2016 Top 20 List

Narrowing to the Top 20 was tricky once again, so much so that I have secondary list of a few records that could have easily made the cut. Perhaps a top 25 was in order, but to lighten the writing load, I stuck to 20 and put these highly worthy records outside the main list.

By Divine Right – Speak and Spell: BDR’s full cover album of Depeche Mode’s 1983 classic is brilliant and perhaps should be in my top 20; but I arbitrarily do not allow the inclusion of cover records or compilations. I don’t know why, I just don’t. Their translation of DM’s synthetic lines into crunchy guitar pop is tremendous and the live show knocked my socks off.

Eluvium – False Readings On. More gorgeous meditative ambient passages from Matthew Cooper. His dronescapes, dreamworlds, and MIDI operettas truly position Eluvium as the heir apparent to Brian Eno.

Foreign Fields – Take Cover. If you enjoy lush orchestral arrangements, spacious reverb, emotionally wrought (and highly gifted) vocals, and…well…pervasive melancholy, this may be the album for you. This is a similar feel to James Blake, but more song-oriented, similar to Antlers, Antony and the Johnsons, Fanfarlo, Sleeping States, and Radical Face – but kind of better than all of them, by several smidges.

The Hanging Stars – Over The Silvery Lake: The whole artist/title combination feels eponymous to the music itself. This is a great space cowboy/Laurel Canyon gem and reminds me of Beachwood Sparks.

Holy Fuck – Congrats: What we have come to expect from Toronto’s own Neu-Technocrats – heady, dark, electro dance anthems. A trancey groovefest.

The Junipers – Red Bouquet Fair. With Pet Sounds production, syrupy harmonies, and lush orchestration, The Junipers effortlessly channel The Zombies, Beatles, and early Bee Gees. It is a gorgeous record that sounds fresh and vibrant, with multiple toes dipped in the 60s, and reminds me of the best albums of late 90s Elephant 6 bands (Olivia Tremor Control, Essex Green, Ladybug Transistor, The Minders) and other more recent gems, like the Ruby Suns, Marching Band, The High Dials, and Secret Cities. Hard to not push this into my Top 20 list.

Parquet Courts – Human Performance: This band indignantly dismisses that they are influenced by Pavement (they claim their greatest influence is the more obscure, clearly Pavement-sounding Tyvek – also a great band). This is irrelevant to listeners like myself who hear it so clearly, an amazing call back to Slanted and Enchanted and Wowee Zowee.

Plants and Animals – Waltzed In From The Rumbling: I’m a little annoyed leaving this out of the top 20. On the cusp, this is yet another accomplished album of soulful indie rock from these amazing Montrealers.

And here still are more excellent 2016 records that deserve mention, all garnering at least a 7.5/10 by my personal reckoning:

Alcest – Kodama: Former alt-metalists go the route of Jesu, Torche, and Mew, finding beauty in layers of heavy riffage and 80s synth backdrops.

Angel Olsen – My Woman: Not quite as dramatic and sublime as Burn Your Fire (#10 in 2014) but chock full of great indie rock songs with a splash of glam and some vocal pomp.

Bob Mould – Patch The Sky: Elder punk statesman Bob Mould has always played a bracing, hard & fuzzy punk-pop but this is the closest he’s come in his solo works to his post-Hüsker Dü outfit, Sugar. A welcome return to scorchers from the early 90s.

Daniel Land – In Love With A Ghost. Daniel Land (& The Modern Painters) landed in my aural lap back in 2009 with Love Songs for the Chemical Generation, a woozy bedroom pop-ambient affair similar to Hammock, Dan Deacon, and Youth Lagoon. I was smitten. Land’s latest offering has a more synth-poppiness to it, reminding of Depeche Mode, Bronski Beat, Air, M83, and Young Galaxy.

Day Wave – Headcase / Hard to Read: Simple, catchy indie-pop recalling The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, Pains of Being Pure At Heart, and C86 bands in general. This is a reissue of their first two EPs, but has “debut album” status as the first real physical release. The live show was a sweet birthday treat.

Gord Downie – The Secret Path is the soundtrack companion to the graphic novel and animated short-film, telling the tragic story of a 12-year-old boy, Chanie Wenjack, who escaped one of Canada’s residential schools to journey home, a trek that would cost him his life. It’s a symbolic call to action for Downie, who is spending his last days advocating for reconciliation and truth. It’s a beautiful and sad record.

Haley Bonar – An Impossible Dream. Bonar, a Canadian growing up South Dakota, graces us with fuzzy guitar pop, recommended if you enjoy Juliana Hatfield, Vivian Girls, Courtney Barnett, Frankie Rose, and the like.

High Violets – Heroes and Haloes. Lushy, gazey, guazy guitar pop. Lovely airy vocals and hitting the same sonic notes as Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Pinkshinyultrablast, Fleeting Joys, Soft Science, and Tamaryn.

Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions – Until The Hunter: Not really new territory being covered here, but the dark, sultry underground folk of Sandoval is always welcome.

Juliana Barwick – Will: Operatic ambient gorgeousness from spritely Barwick. The album may pass you by relatively unnoticed if you’re not careful. But with your attention, it’s completely immersive. Recommended if you like This Mortal Coil, Tim Hecker, Enya, Hammock, Julia Holter, and Grouper.

Kestrels – Kestrels: Buzzsaw wall of guitar pop from Montreal, sounding a lot like old tour mates Ringo Deathstarr and Yuck.

Little Scream – Cult Following: After 2011’s St. Vincent-inspired The Golden Record, Laurel Sprengelmeyer starts with an ultra groovy, ear-catching disco number and apparent shift in mandate. Sounding more like Prince or Abba, the dance kitsch starts to wear thin, but the album is ultimately saved by a return to her earlier avant-pop.

Nick Cave – The Skeleton Tree. Mr. Cave lost his teenage son in a climbing accident and although much of the album was already in process before this tragedy, you cannot help but hear his mourning throughout. Dark, sad, and harrowing.

Nopes – Never Heard Of It: Face-melting, noise punk delivered at terminal speed with anguished lo-fi vocals. While tough to listen to excessively, Nopes grab your attention and hammers you before you can squirm away. And it is also clear that the lead guitarist has some serious chops, a rare commodity in this anti-genre.

Nothing – Tired of Tomorrow: Classic shoegaze/dreampop that sits hand in hand with Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Lush, High Violets, Cheetahs, Slowdive, and Pale Saints.

Noveller & thisquietarmy – Reveries: I have a penchant for minimalist psychedelia and ambient drones, going back to the early work of Spaceman 3/Spiritualized/Spectrum (and a big list of others). Noveller is the solo outfit of Sarah Lipstate, who contributed guitar to Receiver-era Parts and Labor. Thisquitearmy is an experimental drone project of Montrealer Eric Quach. Together? Long ebullient swaths of sustained, elliptical guitar and strings. Truly meditative.

PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project. Recorded behind one-way glass to allow voyeurs a peek into the creative process, PJ Harvey’s follow up to Let England Shake (my #1 album of 2011) is less accomplished, but it is still great and maintains the same political portentousness.

Radical Face – The Family Tree: The Leaves: Floridian Ben Cooper’s third in his “Family” trilogy of heartfelt acoustic and orchestral indie pop. Beautifully done and reminiscient of Sufjan Stevens and Lord Huron. Also check out The Roots and The Branches from 2011 and 2013.

Sam Beam and Jesca Hoop – Love Letter For Fire. Admittedly I prefer Sarah Beam’s angelic vocals complementing Sam’s (in Iron and Wine) over Jesca Hoop. Yet Hoop provides more confident co-leadership in these folky numbers and it’s nice to hear Sam trading off lines. If you like Iron and Wine, you will like this.

Savages – Adore Life. Savages are punk as fuck and witnessing the video for “The Answer” feels almost exactly like my first viewing of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Communal rebellion, love, nihilism, release. I don’t think Savages represent the watershed moment that was Nirvana’s Nevermind, but perhaps they should.

Several Futures – Before Your Forget. Long post-punk tirades from Toronto. Fans of Metz, Ought, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Wire should approve.

Snowblink – Returning Current. Groovy, loungey ambient-pop taking copious cues from St. Vincent, Feist, and Little Scream.

Tamaryn – Cranekiss: These shoegazers dropped a portion of the fuzz and replaced it with cycling electronica, sounding a lot like School of Seven Bells, Cocteau Twins, Curve, M83, and The Cure.

Thermals – We Disappear: Pure Thermals. High energy, irreverent pop-punk. No one does it quite like them.

The Tragically Hip – Man Machine Poem: The Hip’s catalog has been up and down in the later 2000s, but Man Machine Poem hits the same lofty notes as 2009’s We Are The Same. Given the tragic news of Gord Downie’s failing health, the record has an extra weightiness to it and a sombre undercurrent as a Canadian institution suddenly says goodbye.

Wilco – Schmilco: Another great offering by the grand-gentlemen of indie rock, Schmilco is a little more country, bluesy even, than 2015’s Star Wars.

Wintersleep – The Great Detachment. Another powerful offering, Wintersleep is at the top of its game in delivering grand and often spine-tingling rock hymnals. RIYL Snow Patrol, Elbow, The Dears, etc.

The Disappointments, Miscues, and Disparagements of 2016

And, like every year, we have our disappointments. These aren’t bad albums necessarily, it’s just that they fall quite short of hopes and expectations. Which makes me dislike them even more. They betrayed me.

First, fuck autotune. Nothing is improved by autotune, even if pitch is technically truer. It’s an awful sound. So why would a brilliant singer like Justin Vernon, aka Bon Iver, use it? His 2016 record, 22, A Million is getting endless congratulations whereas I find it terribly annoying 75% of the time. At times it sounds interesting and whimsical and progressive, coming across like Múm, Half-Handed Cloud, or a toned down Animal Collective. But then it regresses to abrasive low-fi beats, unnecessary static and interrupted volume (like a bad mp3 file), and autotuned/vocoded vocals. And the bizarre symbology of the song titles bugs me. It has its moments though, especially “22 (OVER S∞∞N)”, which is a great track – but overall, man, a frustrating listen.

I have waited patiently, 3 or 4 years I guess, for one Kyle Craft to emerge from the ashes of never-to-be indie stars Gashcat. Gashcat had no physical releases – just a digital LP and an EP via Bandcamp and an enormous buzz from playing SxSW around 2011-2012. They were the reincarnation of Neutral Milk Hotel and ready to be my new favorite band. Then a break up was announced and all online presence disappeared with rumours of lead ‘Cat, Kyle Craft, having moved to Portland from Louisana to hunker down and make some new music. Happily, he re-emerged as a Sub Pop signee with a brand new album, Dolls of the Highland. It’s good (and the slightly reworked “Lady of the Ark”, a Gashcat song, retains it’s greatness). But just good. Which is far below what I expected, as I expected it to be my new favorite album. He lost the DIY ramshackle, all hands-on-deck energy of his previous work, moving instead into glam-rock, blues shuffles, and deep south Americana. Sigh. I should stress, probably, that it’s quite a good album. If you like Dylan, David Bowie, and The Band, which I of course do.

M83’s new album, Junk, is horrendous. Anthony Gonzalez obviously loves his synthy 80s trappings, but the dancey fluff on here is irredeemable. It’s like Howard Jones humping the Thompson Twins while Wham watches. How he can get here from 2003’s Dead Cities, Red Cities and Lost Ghosts is beyond me.

Another big disappointment in a purely relative sense was PersonA by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. It’s not bad, but pales in comparison to my top album of 2012, Here. And I express confused disappointment after being blown away/torn to shreds by the Suuns set at Hillside 2016, only to find the supporting album, Hold/Still a grating, ponderous mess.

Have at it! Signing off!
J.

The Top 20 Albums of 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 04:08:00 +0000

Hello friends.

Sad times for music. Luminaries die every year, but the recent passing of Lemmy, Scott Weiland, and, heart-crushingly, David Bowie, is a little tough to process.

But music is forever, and so we go.

I felt like I got behind this year, rushing to listen to a number of anticipated albums in the final days of 2015. This led to several reviews being considered on the Spotify platform. This horrifies me. Spotify is a listening modality of convenience that I quite appreciate, but it is also a soulless monster that separates me from properly communing with artist/album/song. As a dedicated collector I somehow feel I have zero rights to put an album in my Top 20 that is not physically represented in my audio room.

Because of my tardy 2015 listening, I have less confidence in my list and my ordering. What I do have confidence in is yet another solid pile of records that knocked my socks off – straight up indie and punk, bizarro and electro folk, poptastic rave ups, psychedelicisms, and some solid soulful rock. And other stuff. It was really challenging to find that dividing line of “in versus out”. What I did notice was a number of artists/bands upping their game, giving me the sort of albums I had hoped they would produce after several recent offerings fell short of greatness.

Some Great Records Falling Outside the List

First, as always, here is a quick list of GREAT records (at least 8/10 by my reckoning) that fell short of Top 20 status:

Alex G – Beach Music: Bandcamp darling Alexander Giannascoli keeps issuing (and reissuing) tremendously catchy and skewed bedroom folk pop. 2015’s Beach Music is perhaps the best of bunch. Recommended if you like Mac DeMarco, Kurt Vile, and the early days of Yo La Tengo and Sebadoh.

And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead – IX: Another propulsive grenade of anthemic rock. Some critics tire of what they perceive as bombast, but I feel that they just keep bringing it.

Beach Slang – The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us: Awesome garage punk, and heavy on the reverb, reminding of Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Ringo Deathstarr, The Men, and Eagulls – but also Broken Social Scene in that sorta wall of sound rock jamboree sort of way.

Breakfast in Fur – Flyaway Garden: Can’t put my finger on this one. It’s 80’s new wave, gothy at times, but also basic indie rock. A good pile of songs that grab me by the collar but don’t quite shake me.

Helen – Original Faces: Admittedly an acquired taste as this is, production wise, a lo-fi fuzz-fest that sounds like it was recorded in a gymnasium. But I adore it! Reminds of Flying Saucer Attack, Galaxie 500, Frankie Rose and other lo-fi lovelies. This is, by the way, a more upbeat and less spare outlet of Liz Harris of Grouper fame.

Joanna Gruesome – Peanut Butter: Tight and gnarly punk-pop and a fabulous sophomore outing. Like Action Pact playing red rover with Juliana Hatfield. Rrriotus!

No Joy – No More Faithful: Gauzy, swirling guitar pyrotechnics and gossamer voicings. Big fan, accomplished album, but not enough overt hooks to go with the shoegaze on this one for me.

Novella – Land: Churning, garage psych strongly influenced by Lush, Black Angels, and Slowdive.

Open Fields – Land: This under the radar cassette is a continuation of the lightly psychedelic and pastoral indie-folk of The Kingsbury Manx (with KM member Ken Stephenson among other North Carolinan indie rocksters)

San Fermin – Jackrabbit: For some reason this album got panned in a lot of places for trying to do too much. I disagree. I think this is a triumphant melange of soulful and jazzy art-pop.

Twerps – Range Anxiety: Special little aussie friends of Yo La Tengo and particularly keen students of the Velvet Underground and the Flying Nun Records sound, obviously evoking The Clean, The Bats, and The Feelies.

Viet Cong – Viet Cong: Had high hopes after a tremendous debut last year (out of the ashes of Calgarian noise band Women). They almost met my post-punk expectations. Gnashing, crunchy no-wave noise.

The Weather Station – Loyalty: Divinely fingerpicked folk gems from Tamara Lindeman. Intricate and beautiful. Nick Drake would dig it. He’d just listen and stare and his eyes would water.

And additonal kudos to the 2015 editions of Cheatahs, Mountain Goats, Westkust, The Mantles, Wire, Yo La Tengo, The Lilac Time, Summer Fiction, Dick Diver Slow Down Molasses, Sonny and the Sunsets, and Car Seat Headrest.

Disappointments in 2015

And its time for my yearly disparagements. My disappointments. People that hurt me. Again, this is not about bands I generally dislike, but those I typically like quite a bit and who deflated me with (relatively) subpar releases.

Young Galaxy seemed to trending inexorably toward electro-centric dance music the last little while. Falsework completes the transformation and it’s ugly. It’s repetitive, superficial pap. The only reason I don’t kick in my stereo is the warm and familiar voice of Catherine McCandless. Come back YG, come back to the Invisible Republic!

Trevor Powers of Youth Lagoon inspired with his first two strange and wonderful avant-pop records but this year’s Savage Hill Ballroom is just drab and often annoying. Tame Impala is getting album of the year kudos from all over the place, with their reconstitution as an airy electronic outfit. Which would be fine if there was any sort of catchiness to it. It’s reaaaally boring to my ears. Please bring back the firey guitars, mates! Silversun Pickups sound like they have sold their guitars and souls to modern alternative radio and sound more like Depeche Mode, Mew, and Muse – but without any redeeming character. I am suspicious that they were tightly directed and produced right into that blasé top 40 pop format. NOW who’s going to replace the hole left by the death of 90s era Smashing Pumpkins?

How long have The Waterboys been back together? Did they ever split? Yes, I know I can google this, but I don’t feel like it. Anyway, This Is The Sea and Fisherman’s Blues are such canonical recordings that their new record required a look-see (and I had heard good things). What a godawful mess! Really bad bar blues rock, with maybe one exception. This is not my Waterboys. Old England is dying indeed.

Alabama Shakes. Sigh. I still salute and support you mofos, but Sound and Color’s rough hewn RnB just ain’t my thing. I think their first single “Hold On” set the bar so high that they can’t possibly reach it again, at least for me. Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper is a let-down. His experimental electro-romps just don’t have the melodic brilliance displayed on 2007’s Person Pitch, an all-time fave of mine.

And the delicate topic of Sufjan Stevens. I adore this man's music (well, most of it) and I was excited to hear he was returning with a softer, sparer album more akin to Michigan and Seven Swans. And that's pretty bang on for 2015's Carrie and Lowell. Yet...I can't put my finger on it, but there is a sameness throughout the record, rhythmically and melodically, that has left me...unaffected. Which is the opposite reaction from those of critics and people I know who find it breathtaking and heart-breaking. I'm aggravated with myself. I'm not saying it's not a good record - it is. But I'm used to "absolutely stellar". This is a 8.5/10 if you are listening to it while staring through the condensation on a window on a grey fall day. The lyrical narrative of birth/life/death and family needs attention. But if you are playing it while doing other things, it dissolves in the background. I'm really sorry about all this.

Finally, Father John Misty is getting much love in the music criticism world, but the reviews of I Love You Honeybear confound me. Adjectives like “bizarre”, “messy”, “unconventional”, and “warped” are being thrown around like candy mints and it’s NONE of these things, except perhaps lyrically. Sure, he’s clever and witty, and it’s a well put together production, but the songs are quite mundane to me. The orchestral folk angle is repetitive and tedious. This is not any sort of trailblazing in my mind, and certainly not a list-topper. Sheesh. What’s going on? I feel like I am missing something.

Songs of the Year

These are my most favorite songs of the year, consistently returning to my headphones at every opportunity (titles are linked to various streaming options).

Okay! Let’s get to the list proper. Presenting...

The Top 20 Albums of 2015!

20. Steven Wilson – Hand. Cannot. Erase. (8.3/10)

Progressive Rock is a genre that appears to be an oxymoron – what was new and progressive in the 1970s has become antiquated and derisively associated with the bloated and self-indulgent concept records of that period. And I kind of miss the genre. I remain a big fan of Yes and early Genesis, and of course Pink Floyd and Rush, and I generally like records by other luminaries of the prog period, like King Crimson, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and The Moody Blues. I often wonder if this musical type – that marriage of rock tropes with classical arrangements, overly long song “suites”, and fantastical narratives – continues today in a way that mirrors its early form. Did it die? Or did it mutate over time though the continual experimentation and innovation that gave us Talk Talk, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Dirty Projectors, Soft Bulletin-era Flaming Lips and so on? While there are still “best of” lists of new prog albums to this day, the fan base seems relatively small and tucked away; and/or “prog rock” has become interchangeable with “prog metal”, referencing outfits like Mastodon and The Mars Volta. Sadly, I just don’t hear anything that sounds like the old days. That is, until Steven Wilson arrived in my headphones, courtesy of an extremely high metacritic score of 89% (this is a very high for a critical average). Hand is quintessential progressive rock. It sounds like a lost Yes album or what could have come between Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and Trick of the Tail. It has a glorious crystalline production, richly layered songs with long instrumental forays and codas, and repeated lines and phrases that tie the album together into that concept album experience. The Yes/Genesis/Floyd touchstones are apparent throughout but I also hear elements of Trail of Dead (oddly), CSNY, and Windham Hill new age acts. And at times, Wilson falls into that sort of bloated and clichéd prog rock guitar solo that hamstrings half of Yes’ catalog. He loses marks for this type of wankery, but overall, this is an amazing and immersive tour-de-force album. Choice track: “3 Years Older”.

19. Ought – Sun Coming Down. (8.3/10)

Wow. Ought’s sophomore effort is a complex lightning bolt of a record, and is fun and challenging in all sorts of post-rocking ways. So innovative and artful and risky, but never self-indulgent – there is always some barb or hook that sinks in and drags you along. Listening to Ought is what I imagine it was like when people first heard Talking Heads or Joy Division. Ought probably doesn’t exist without David Byrne or Ian Curtis. The smarmy art-house affectations of lead singer, Tim Darcy, is part of the package, but the shtick tends to wear on me a bit. Otherwise this would be among the Top 3, probably. Some straight up singing would indeed put Ought into “favorite new band” territory. Amphetamine dance-psychosis with a lizard in your pants. Choice track: “Sun’s Coming Down”.

18. Heartless Bastards – Restless Ones (8.3/10)

The history of popular music is also a sad and frustrating history of genres being bludgeoned into mediocrity by the music industry. Funk begat forumlaic disco, country begat new country rock, blues became white-boy bar blues, grunge became “alternative rock”, brit-pop barfed up Coldplay, and so on. Accordingly, nothing will turn me off quicker than the category of “modern country blues rock”, which is as accurate a signifier as any for Heartless Bastards. But one forgets that foundational genres, before corporate mold creeped in, were pure and true and awesome and that many contemporary artists continue to do them honor and justice. In recent years, the classic rock sound, for example, has been emulated brilliantly by The Sheepdogs, Alabama Shakes, Black Keys, and Black Mountain, reminding me that what I love has not died. Enter Restless Ones, which takes up the mantle of countrified and electrified blues rock. Erika Wennerstrom, who you may initially mistake for a male glam-rock singer, belts out a tremendous set of rocking tunes backed by massive 70’s garage hooks. An old formula renewed and reenergized. Choice track: “Black Cloud”.

17. Dan Deacon – Gliss Riffer (8.3/10)

Dan Deacon, that loveable 8-bit sound-nerd, returns with another set of dance tunes for the weirdo wallflowers. What may be new this time around is a little bit more space and little bit less freneticism. This is a good thing. While Deacon usually tends toward the manic side of his electronic mash-ups, these songs are clearer and somehow more engaging. I certainly wouldn’t call this a sedate record – it still gets the blood-pumping – but it projects a maturity and a degree of restraint that I had not heard in his past adventures. And he’s largely gotten rid of the chipmunk voicings that were sometimes irritating. He still sticks to his operational plan – successive layers of tribal rhythms and mantras that crescendo into blazing technicolor freak outs. Choice track: “When I Was Done Saying”

16. Wilco – Star Wars (8.3/10)

I’ve been a more than casual fan of the band since it’s humble alt-country beginnnings. I realized that Wilco was unusual and special with the releases of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born. These were lush, experimental, and gorgeous records, always with one toe dipped in their folk-country roots. But I sort of lost track of them for a few years afterward. Fast-forward to the Toronto Urban Roots Festival in the summer of 2015. Wilco headlined one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, to my serious surprise. Oh, Nels Cline, I had no idea! I saw Wilco’s resident guitarist earlier at the Hillside festival, and it was an experimental, plodding set that irritated, but also made me wonder how these sonic meanderings could be reeled into the more structured songs of his parent band. The TURF set was remarkable and mind-blowing, a wall of sound wonderfully integrated with Jeff Tweedy’s brilliant songwriting. Needless to say, I jumped all over Star Wars, a surprise full-length dropped for free to fans online, followed by a physical release. A mix of Lou Reed cool and the accessible facets of Mercury Rev. Choice track: “You Satellite”.

15. Great Lake Swimmers – A Forest Of Arms (8.3/10)

Occasionally I get caught in cycle of record buying based on the (usually enormous) strength of a single song. Great Lake Swimmers’ second album, Bodies and Minds, was released a decade ago and included the compelling and beautiful track “Various Stages”. This is an all-time favorite, landing at #122 on the Top 500. Because of “Various Stages”, I dutifully picked up all of four of their subsequent albums, with A Forest of Arms being their most recent. The last three (Ongiara, Lost Channels, and New Wild Everywhere) have been….good. Good! Pleasant! I enjoyed them well enough. But the Swimmers have always been a little predictable in their airy approach to melancholic folk. I’ve been getting a little bored. But this 2015 release is tremendous! The songs are richer and lusher, the tempos have ticked up, and the vocal melodies are gorgeous. Singer Tony Dekker really needs to be considered among the top vocal talents among contemporary Canadiana. There is a wide-open, sun-kissed, Laurel Canyon sound now, pulling the Swimmers alongside Beachwood Sparks, Ladybug Transistor, Radar Brothers, and Fleet Foxes. It’s like a brand new band has emerged. Choice track: “Shaking All Over” (this is a live version).

14. Beach House – Depression Cherry / Thank Your Lucky Stars (8.4/10)

Beach House oddly decided to release two albums less than two months apart in the latter half of 2015. They are both stupendous, but I simply cannot allow two slots of my list to be taken up by one band. At 9 tracks each, why not one album of the best 14 or so? Why not a double album? Whatever, they get reviewed together. Are they different and unique and self-contained? Maybe a little. Depression Cherry is classic Beach House – lush, beautiful, soporific meditations that put the listener into a calm other-worldly place. I love their dynamic. Their songs, at a basic structural level, could easily be slow dance numbers from some 1950’s sock hop. The production creates a welcome mutation, however, as notes, chords, and midi arpeggios are conveyed through warm, tremolo synth patches. And of course, Victoria Legrand’s vocals are hypnotic and angelic. Thank Your Lucky Stars, in contrast, is little rawer, but only a little. What is striking and a lovely change of pace is the presence of some fuzzy electric guitar and, at times, a real drum kit (I think). But honestly, if you mixed and matched these albums together, it would still be all Beach House, and all great. Choice tracks: “Levitation”, “Marjorette”.

13. Beirut – No No No (8.4/10)

Zach Condon retains some of the Balkan reggae world music feel on his latest outing, but has elected to do away with the mournful brass menagerie in favor of electric piano, synths, and strings. It is a nice change up. The songs have a greater economy and clarity to them and I find myself even more attracted to the melodies. His voice, unique as always and still way beyond his years, shines through like he’s an old seasoned veteran. And can I say welcome back! Beirut had not released an album in 4 years, a period which Condon appears to have suffered some serious life difficulties. Returning with a simple but compelling gem like this one is heartening. Choice track: “No No No”

12. Waxahatchee – Ivy Tripp (8.4/10)

Opening with what sounds like a drawbar organ run through a fuzz pedal, Katie Crutchfield steps to the mic and delivers the sort of open-wound manifesto that makes Erika M. Anderson (aka EMA) so darkly powerful. But then the musical gears are neatly switched to a couple of tunes that could be lead singles on Liz Phair’s early records. It’s a glorious mixed bag of pop candy experiments after that, sourcing Yo La Tengo, Múm, The Primitives, Belly, and Pavement. And it exactly the sort of thing you would expect to follow her last album, Cerulean Salt, which was simpler but bursting with potential. This one’s a treasure, top to bottom. Choice track: “Breathless”.

11. Wolf Alice – My Love Is Cool (8.5/10)

Wow, where did this come from! The casual or inattentive listener of My Love Is Cool may judge this album to be in the general category of indie-rock (whatever that might mean), but to me the tracks navigate an amazingly nuanced set of influences. And it so happens those influences are near and dear to my musical heart. The opening track sounds like the dream pop of Cocteau Twins or Julia Holter, followed by an upbeat shift to the indie bounce of Pains of Being Pure At Heart. A chunk of songs harken back to Garbage, The Cranberries and some straight up 90s grunge and rrriot girl – like Hole, Elastica, Smashing Pumpkins, and Sleater Kinney. And I hear Yeah Yeah Yeahs and PJ Harvey to boot. Something for everyone here and track for track Wolf Alice maintains the quality. Great stuff. Choice track: “Bros”.

10. Metz – II (8.5/10)

Metz has returned and it is a glorious monstrosity of guitar distortion and shredded vocal chords! It’s like rolling in the glass after putting a chainsaw through a plate glass window. But, hmm, that sounds painful. Metz is not painful to my ears, just exhilarating. It’s relentless, uncompromising post-punk. It’s completely subversive to the mainstream of…well…any genre really, following the M.O.’s of Public Image Limited, Fugazi, and the early nihilist blasts of Nirvana. If you like the bleak, the pavement-hard, and the harrowing, look no further. And hide the children. Wait, no, put the children front and centre. My one year-old totally dug the record. Choice track: “Spit You Out”.

9. Kathryn Calder – Kathryn Calder (8.5/10)

In addition to becoming a full-time member of the New Pornographers, Kathryn Calder has four albums under her belt in the dynamic Immaculate Machine and two solo records of her own. And its all great, great stuff. But it was nonetheless a bit of a surprise when I laid my ears on her 2015 self-titled album. This is, top to bottom, a fantastic record. It’s like she has taken all her various strengths and high points from her body of work and made them shine at every moment, and whole has become far more than these sums. “Blue Skies” for example is the sort of sparkly, effervescent folk that immediately puts me into a nostalgic reverie – and I haven’t even sorted out what it’s about yet. That melody and voice! The gossamer blanket that wraps them! That perfect chorus! Like listening to diamonds shine, and this is merely one gem of many. There is a great eclecticism here. “Take A Little Time” is an electo-dance engine that marries the Pornographers’ sound (especially the bridge, where the NP influence is wonderfully obvious) with The Mounties or the Russian Futurists. “When You See My Blood” is moody and expansive, sounding a bit like Little Scream or St. Vincent. So let’s be clear here – this is not a singer-songwriter album, a reference point that seems overly, and unfairly, applied to Calder. This is not another Sarah Harmer album (or MacLachlan or Slean, for that matter). It’s significantly more – take a deep dive. Choice track: “Blue Skies”.

8. The Go! Team – The Scene Between (8.5/10)

Does every written review of this album start with the (hardly astute) observation that the sound of a can of pop being opened and poured is a perfect, bubbly metaphor to open the sweet sounds of the latest Go! Team album? See, I did it too, in a backhanded sort of way. What other found sounds could open this record? If only sunshine, grins, and barefoot dancing in the grass produced any discernible audio. Man, I’ve missed the Team! The previous LPs Proof of Youth (2007) and Rolling Blackouts (2011) tried to recapture the brilliantly sampled dance mayhem of their debut, Thunder, Lightning, Strike (2004), but fell short in my estimation. The Scene Between is far less driven by the sampling magic of its predecessors and their ol’ school hip hop vocalist, Ninja, is absent. In her place are a collection of guest vocalists who share in common a level of obscurity. The new recipe works wonderfully. Every song is a catchy toe-tapping pop anthem that is impossibly happy-hearted. Think Belle and Sebastian’s most upbeat tunes, Japanese indie-pop, and C86 jangle pop. Choice track: “The Scene Between”.

7. Jim O’Rourke – Simple Songs (8.5/10)

The enigmatic Jim O’Rourke returns with a comparatively straight-up record that aligns with the more accessible areas of his catalog, recalling Insignificance, Halfway To A Threeway, and Eureka. This is cause for celebration, as these are not only my favorite O’Rourke records, but also represent a rather small proportion of his otherwise experimental and often opaque output. Always prolific, the man clearly does as he pleases, careening into weird jazz, field recordings, and noisy WTF collages. Not here! With super sheen, wide-angle production, Simple Songs sounds initially like its namesake, but what you really have are some wonderfully complex and thoughtful A.M. radio rock arrangements. I am most strongly reminded of Electric Light Orchestra, Paul McCartney and Wings, Supertramp, and The Moody Blues. But Simple Songs is in no way a tired recycling of those old sounds. Those bands are touchstones, for sure, but he makes it all his own, with his own brand of repeating (rather than repetitive) earworm choruses that are slick and impossibly catchy. Throughout, this listener is absorbed by unexpected time signatures, swelling strings, bright piano, pedal steel, complex guitar techniques, and an understated but confident voice. Add his subtle pop-jazz acuity and you have a modern masterpiece. Choice track: “Last Year”.

6. Julia Holter – Have You In My Wilderness (8.5/10)

I’ve enjoyed Holter in the past (specifically Ekstasis and Loud City Song), but her songs have been far more sparse in their arrangements, darker, and generally more difficult in rhythm and sound. I don’t quite know what you would call it – ethereal avant-jazz informed by Enya and Kate Bush? Which is laudable and totally cool. But this time, Julia Holter has edged her needle a tiny but significant way toward more conventional song structure and melody, and the results are glorious. “Everytime Boots”, for example, begins as an upbeat and clever piano shuffle but then transmutes into an airy chorus invoking Kate Bush and Brian Eno. “Feels You” sounds like she’s been listening to Grimes and Milla’s The Divine Comedy. It is amazing what a substrate of major keys and versus/chorus/verse can yield. This is not suggest that Have You In My Wilderness is a straight up pop record. Her experimental roots run deep with arrangements including bubbling electronics, harpsichord, shimmering classical strings, and an ever present stand-up bass providing a dignified backbone. Her voice is effortlessly powerful, a presence that completes these heady concoctions. Choice track: “Feel You”.

5. Jib Kidder – Teaspoon To The Ocean (8.6/10)

I have large soft spot for DIY bedroom recording troubadours who put out clever and often twisted versions of contemporary rock/pop/folk. I love the idea of isolated and insular music geeks twiddling away in their cramped home studios obsessively creating and innovating on their PCs and Macs, often not knowing (or even caring) if this music will ever get heard. Online distribution among like-minded fans often gets picked up by some interested corner of the mainstream (or at least the indie media cognoscenti), as we have seen with Dan Deacon, Youth Lagoon, Mac DeMarco, and Alex G. Lower profile records by Pete Samples, Daniel Land, and Chester Endersby Gwazda also fit this bill and have come into my yearly Top lists. And there are countless others floating in the netherweb, populating Bandcamp and Sound Cloud with lo-fi delights.

This year the nomination goes to Jib Kidder’s wonderful and whacky Teaspoon To The Ocean, and it is one of the best of the bunch. It is infernally hard to categorize. The opening track, “Remove A Tooth”, is a strange retro-futurist East Indian raga. Super trippy. Kidder uses some vocoder/auto-tune technology on his voice, and although it is likely the result of some Pro-Tools effects patch, it sounds like early experimentation from the 70s that could have come from Bruce Haack, The Silver Apples, or Mike Oldfield. “Appetites” is a circuitous and woozy pop tune that finishes with one of the oddest guitar solos I’ve ever heard. One wonders how intentional and planful it was. Could Kidder reproduce it over and over again if asked? If so, he’s a weird genius who must hear music in a completely unique way. “World of Machines” is perhaps what you would hear inside the head of someone who has happily descended into madness – a weird, giddy set of vocal loops, vinyl crackles, twinkles, and stuttering time changes. Over top is Jib croaking some obscure lament. That description makes the song sound awful but it is ridiculously alluring, like watching a ferris wheel collapsing in slow motion. The whole album is has an inimitable quality to it and I can hardly imagine how a musician/producer arrives at this document. Kidder gives us some clues, however, posting a song mix dubbed “Woke Up Laughing” (a Robert Palmer title that appears on the mix) that represents his primary influences and muses in creating Teaspoon. With some exceptions (Palmer, Penguin Café Orchestra, Roy Orbison, Barry White, and I guess Mike Oldfield), this is some obscure and weirdo shit. I loved most of it. But I was also struck by the realization that other people, like Kidder, appear to live in enormously different musical universes than I do, in this case communing with outsider synthetic art-pop that spans several decades. And here I thought I was pretty eclectic. Choice track: “Appetites”.

4. Joanna Newsom – Divers (8.6/10)

Newsom stormed the indie music scene with her quirky and nerdy fairy tales and, to many ears, a horrendously whiny/weirdo vocal style. I was immediately taken by her, as were so many others, because her vocal delivery lacked any sort of self-consciousness and, when you gave yourself a chance to dive deeper, there came the spellbinding realization that she was a literary savant/musical prodigy. I cannot think of any other instances where a diminutive elf-women brings the coffee house down armed with thick narrative metaphors and a classical harp. I will always accept that the Milked-Eyed Mender (her debut) will grate many listeners but I believe there should otherwise be universal acceptance that a song like “Bridges and Balloons” is an artistic folk masterpiece. As Newsom’s acclaim grew, so did her sound and production – more instruments were added and her primary tool became the piano. I enjoyed subsequent records (as did the critics, almost universally) but Divers provides, to my ears, the most fully realized JN record. I’m not sure I can pinpoint the move from great to excellent – it may be a simple set of reasons, such as a more conventional singing style, catchier melodies, and greater economy in her songs (on her acclaimed triple LP, Have One on Me, 14 of 18 songs are over 5:00 and most are over 6:00. It becomes ponderous at times). Divers is brilliant and represents the second coming of Kate Bush (that first matriarch of unicorn-riding pixie queens). One could argue that Newsom is already more accomplished lyrically; she at times seems closer to Shakespeare than Bush. She can be quickly excused for a degree of academic obscurity, because interlaced in her erudite narratives are lines that, whatever their potentially haughty context, just kill me. During “Waltz of the 101^st Lightborne” she emotes, within a perfectly affecting Gaelic-type melody: It was there that I called to my true love / Who was pale as millennial moons / Honey, where did you come by that wound? That lyric hit me and I had to go back and find out more. The rest is mostly confusing but always compelling – obsessively so – one can find her lyrics on genius.com with annotated explanations/suppositions made by smarty-pants fans. Turns out this song (one among eleven beautifully crafted tracks) is about a sci-fi astro war doubling as a metaphysical treatise on space and time. I understand about 15% of it. But rather than feeling baffled and marginalized, I want to understand all of it. It’s probably important. Choice track: “Waltz of the 101st Lightborn”.

3. Here We Go Magic – Be Small (8.7/10)

Here We Go Magic’s self-titled album from 2009 is excellent in general, but is revered for the inclusion of the sublime “Tunnelvision”, #39 in the Top 500. The subtle, barely changing acoustic chords pass through a circular, minimalist cycle while Luke Temple croons simple plaintive statements over top. The build throughout the song proceeds in micro increments and is so carefully crafted that you hardly perceive it happening. Yet by the end you are in a swirling cacophony of distant chanting voices, bells and chimes, and reverberating drones. It is truly hypnotic. I had hoped that Tunnelvision would portend more of the same from the band, but I have a been a little let down in subsequent years – until 2015, with the advent of Be Small. Here We Go Magic knocks it out of the park here, with a collection of groovy, bubbly electronic tunes, sometimes dancey, sometimes folky. Every song is complex joy of intertwining analog keyboards, looping arpeggios, insistent drum grooves, and Temples mellifluous falsetto vocals. I get the strange sense that this album could not have happened in any previous decade – it is fully modern in its sound and scope. Choice track: “Falling” (my fave track is actually "Stella", but can't find a link).

2. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (8.9/10)

Young Aussie, Courtney Barnett, is indie rock’s newest most celebrated darling. Her rise to stardom has been rapid, with the release of her amazing EP compilation (A Sea of Split Peas) and this, her 2015 debut LP. I was immediately smitten by Barnett’s back to basics indie rock set up – a ubiquitous genre that is easy to learn, but hard to master – and she is masterful. A familiar formula is at play here – compressed, overdriven guitars, mid-tempo rock drums, and that sort of literate humble/slacker attitude. She’s adorable, tough, and authentic. She seems really nice but simultaneously unsatisfied. She might in fact be exactly how Alanis Morissette describes herself, but probably isn’t, in “Hand in My Pocket”. She is musical love child of Liz Phair and Kurt Cobain. Lyrically, she is a wonder, like a young female John Darnielle (of Mountain Goats). Her first person narratives are incisive and super-witty and her vocal delivery is effortless, powerful, and cute. The album feels like it could have been a flagship release of Matador, Merge, or Sub Pop records in 1995 – pure indie rock, when indie rock seemed to have some clearer boundaries. I will be watching her career closely – probably obsessively. I already have two autographed singles, making me a self-satisfied yet embarrassed 46 year-old. Choice track: “Pedestrian At Best”.

1. Swervedriver – I Wasn’t Born To Lose You (9.7/10)

Okay, um…this may take awhile. To the point, this is not only my favorite record of 2015, but is probably my favorite record of the last 20 years. I don’t know, I’d have to sort out if that’s true or not. I have a lot say. This feels like it will be more like an article on Swervedriver, in addition to a review of the new record. Read on, or not, but just know that I can’t recommend this album enough to anyone remotely interested modern rock music.

I’ve always testified that The Beatles were the greatest band of all time; and that The Clash were the most important band of all time. But Swervedriver are my most favorite band of all time. It was a slow burn love that started with Raise, their 1991 debut that I liked a fair bit until something clicked one day, like a beneficial aneurysm, hooking me for life. Three brilliant albums followed (Mezcal Head, Ejector Seat Reservation, and 99^th Dream) each housing some of my most favorite songs of all time (Swervedriver appears 9 times in the Top 500, more than any other band). Horribly and painfully, they called it quits in 1998 after chronic label problems and the scourge of modern alternative radio shut the door on a band that failed to produce the required hits. They had a brief time in the sun with Mezcal Head’s “Duel”, which got some airplay and accolades as NME’s best new music. But like their UK peers of that era, they disappeared with the quick evaporation of the “shoegaze” movement.

“Shoegaze”. A horrible inapt term that says nothing of the music itself, but instead derides the sombre-looking blokes who stare at their effects pedals and can be barely heard over the din of their distorted guitars. Times have changed, and the term now has some historical grounding and dignity. Many contemporary bands now revere the godfathers of the genre – those being My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, Swervedriver, Lush, Catherine Wheel, and a few others – revitalizing the woozy collective sound of fuzz, flange, delay, and phase. Simultaneously, reunion tours and comeback albums have been commonplace the past few years, with all of the aforementioned bands strapping on their Jags and Jazzmasters and repopulating their pedal boards. New music by Ringo Deathstarr, Yuck, Asobi Seksu, Fleeting Joys, No Joy, Pains of Being Pure of Heart, School of Seven Bells, Alcest, and Cheatahs all have shoegaze/dreampop pedigrees and have been great favorites of mine in the past 5 years or so.

Swervedriver’s association with the shoegaze movement appears to be quite beneficial to them in recent years, as old and new fans re(convene) around their music. But shoegaze was an unfortunate label in those early years, because they got unfairly stereotyped in a movement that died out before its time – and Swervedriver never quite fit to begin with. They could do dreamy and ethereal with the best of them, but they also had a far more powerful and varied delivery than their counterparts. I can’t claim to know what all their mates were listening to at the time, but lead vocalist/guitarist Adam Franklin’s tastes are as eclectic as they come. In their time, Swervedriver covered The Velvet Underground, The Who and T. Rex, and post-breakup, Franklin’s solo work has included interpretations of Wire, Nick Drake, Elliot Smith, Gregory Isaacs, The Stranglers, ABBA, The Clientele, Jimi Hendrix, Syd Barrett, Wolf Parade, The Beach Boys, and Sonic Youth. Add to this wonderfully rounded set of influences is the unmatched dual guitar sound of Franklin and childhood mate, Jimmy Hartridge, the band’s second lead. Their technical chops are astounding. They use numerous tunings I can’t begin to understand. In a live setting, the two guitars sound like some unbridled army of rock. And, finally, they are both visionary wizards with the use of their effects pedals – ominously long and complicated chains of beautiful little boxes that sculpt audio signals into otherworldly soundscapes.

As you can probably guess, when they split 17 years ago, I was pretty gutted. Four albums and numerous b-sides (almost always as good as the album tracks) kept me going for a long while. (I admit that Arcade Fire threatened to overtake Swervedriver as my favorite band. But then of course they released Reflektor, that boring mess of an album, and I lost the faith). Furthermore, Adam Franklin kept up the good musical fight. While Hartridge, bassist Steve George, and drummer Jez Hindmarsh moved on with their non-musical lives, Franklin kept releasing excellent stuff as Toshack Highway, Magnetic Morning (with Sam Fogarino of Interpol) and Adam Franklin and Bolts of Melody). His habit of reworking past Swervedriver songs, sometimes into acoustic singer-songwriter formats, helped keep my Swervie love alive.

A 2008 reunion tour took me by surprise; as did subsequent tours in 2010 and 2012. And then sometime in 2013 Franklin let it drop that there were plans to work on new material. I had been wringing my hands in anticipation since. It seemed unreal, but suddenly the band appeared live on Jimmy Fallon with a new song, “Deep Wound” and it seemed a new record was going to happen. The song was released as a single in 2014 and it was, well, it was just fucking great. It was, happily, pure Swervedriver – a pounding, crunchy rocker with a supremely catchy riff and melody. I did, however, have some minor reservations. Where would this track stand in any of their first four albums? I confessed to myself that it would be middling at best (which is still “great”, but just not exceptional). When the album release date was established they released a second single, “Setting Sun”. Setting Sun is not a great track. It has meandering circular chord progression that never resolves and the melody is drab. I was suddenly worried.

Reunion albums are dangerous and are immediately exposed to a critical minefield. At the top of this post I mentioned the disaster that is the new Waterboys album. When The Verve put out Forth I almost flushed it down the toilet. Liz Phair’s attempt at pop reinvention was a crime against humanity. Perhaps I am not thinking hard enough, but I can only think of one stellar return, that of My Bloody Valentine’s long-awaited follow up to Loveless, 2013’s M B V. There is simply a very good chance that recapturing the critical success of bygone musical triumphs is too tall an order. It is rife with risk and many hearts stand to be broken. I was worried that the new Swervedriver would come across as a new Adam Franklin record, with the old band members along for the ride in his current vehicle. Franklin’s solo work is very very good, but it is not Swervedriver. I was worried that the well-received touring may have led the band into the studio with renewed energy but no real ideas – and without the requisite time and focus to truly put together and album worthy of the name.

I shouldn’t have been worried. I Wasn’t Born To Lose You is the album I was waiting for. Even Setting Sun, in the context of the whole, makes sense and feels right. The album is the perfect distillation and updating of the bands first four releases, yet has its own unique character and place in their catalogue. The production goes into the red at times, but the sound separation is beautifully defined, putting layer upon layer of guitar drones, chimes, flourish, and feedback, into sweet relief. George’s bass is where it needs to be at all times, a booming underbelly that drives songs forward in perfect syncopation with and counterpoint to the guitar lines. New drummer, Mikey Jones, doesn’t hit as hard as the old guard of Graham Bonnar (early years) and Jez (later years), but he is otherwise their equal, and super tight.

“Autodidact”, the lead track, seems to pick up where 99^th Dream left off, with vocals moved further up front and guitars combining trebly arpeggios with meaty backdrop chords. “Last Rites” follows the same recipe, while also showcasing improved vocal harmonies and super compressed and overdriven guitar runs. “For A Day Like Tomorrow” shimmers and chimes and ends with an instrumental coda of pure serenity that reminds me of the outro to “Duel”. “Everso” is this album’s Duress – an almost 7 minute slow burning drone with multiplying builds and crescendos, and a time signature I can’t manage to successfully count out. “English Subtitles”, my favorite song of the year and one for the ages, recaptures the pop-single sensibilities of Ejector Seat Reservation’s “The Birds” (and channels the Byrds!). Swervedriver has never sounded so elegant in their vocal harmonizing – Adam Franklin’s intervening years of singing has greatly improved his voice.

“Red Queen’s Arms” race is the only “non-Swervedriver” track on the album, and feels like a total outlier in the band’s discography. I have to say I don’t love it, because I don’t really dig the genre, but I damn well respect it. It’s got that sort of psychedelic stoner scuzz rock style harkening back to MC5 and similar to Queens of the Stone Age, or a number of other current blues-metal outfits. It’s like the band said, “let’s give this style a shot”, and then proceeded to completely dominate it, as if they have been perfecting the sound their whole lives. It really does kick some serious rock ass. “Deep Wound” gets a noticeable production remixing, with everything turned up louder, greater vocal presence, and probably some additional tracks thrown on. It’s greatly improved to the point that the original single sounds like a 4-track demo. “Lone Star” is another grandiose high point and is the sort of track I would point to provide a listener with the “Swervedriver sound” – words cannot convey what this means exactly, but Lone Star encapsulates it. Distinct component sections of the song recall “Stellar Caprice”, “Deep Seat”, “Laze It Up”, “99^th Dream”, and several others.

The album ends with “I Wonder”, and what an ending! This would be the closest a song on the record comes to the classic shoegazer sound, in that there are a monstrous number of fuzzy guitar drones, swirls, and chimes backdropping languorous spacey vocals. Franklin sings “And if the night falls around you / a dream within a dream / and if the light dies within you / it’s never what it seems / behold this rhythmic creation / it’s beautiful and true / and if the boundaries divide you / take care of what you do. That last line repeats and song grows, dissolves, and decays over the last 3:00 minutes of the album. The wall of sound is momentous and communicates in no uncertain terms that the mighty Swervedriver has returned. Album of the year, and for me, probably album of the new millennium. Welcome back. Choice tracks: “English Subtitles”, “I Wonder”.

5 Years Later: Necessary Alterations to the Top 500

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 05:23:00 +0000

Update February 2015! While I pledged to leave this list untouched, several years have passed and I felt a need to make a few alterations. Not by adding new songs, mind you - the list is limited to the first 40 years of my life - but by correcting some omissions and "mistakes".

Click here for the master list.

Here are the changes:

"Tradition" by Burning Spear was added at #487, bumping out "Low Is A Height" by Great Northern wholesale. "Low Is A Height" is obviously great, but it was a newer song at the time of my list making and I was sort of overly taken by it. It doesn't stand up by the list standards over time. "Tradition" on the other hand! Thank you Soundhound! I had this on an old warbly mixed cassette and I never knew the name. Soundhound recognized it, hallelujah, before the sound was lost forever to time and tape degradation. A fave reggae tune.

In the first go around, I missed "Waiting Room" by Fugazi, probably the best post-punk song ever written. This had to rate pretty high so I slotted it in at #44. I knocked "Hey Ya" by Outkast down about 50 spots, which in turned bumped another and I had to deal with the snowball. I looked for songs that I could justify moving down the list. After "Hey Ya", in approximately 50 slot increments, these were: "Shakey Dog" by Ghostface Killah, "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" by The Ramones, "Respect" by Otis Redding, "Working Out Words" by the Diableros, "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" by the Smiths, "Lazy Days" by Enya, and "Standing Stone" by Flying Saucer Attack. The final bump right out of the list was "Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night" by The Hold Steady. A favorite, obviously, but it was ultimately a casualty. I also exchanged out wholesale "Spring Unseen" by Magnetic Morning for "Two Step" by Low, which should have always been on this list, ffs.

The absence of "Soon Enough" by The Constantines seemed an atrocity to me, perhaps because friends and I have been jamming on it over the past few years - it just became that much more meaningful. It was also one of the last cuts to the original list. I swapped it out directly at #201, replacing "Deep Red Bells" by Neko Case. That song should not have been on the list, never mind at #201. I think I wanted Neko Case represented somewhere because she is so damn amazing, but in retrospect I should have let the songs stand on their own, rather than conceding to a need to represent the artist in some fashion.

Another horrifying mistake was omitting "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. What was I thinking? I think I was thinking that the song was everyone's favorite and overplayed and simply too emblematic of a whole musical movement. Which is not a reason at all. This has been corrected by swapping it in at #68 to replace "Telephone and Rubberband" by Penguin Cafe Orchestra. This wonderful instrumental was rated too high in retrospect and was moved to #391; this turfed "No. 1 Rock Station" by Guitaro out of the list completely. The Guitaro tune is a wonderfully fuzzy pop-drone piece, but I recognized it's not essential.

"I Don't Like Mondays" by the Boomtown Rats replaced "Still Life" by Russian Futurists at #367. The original omission of this hit was intentional, and I felt that "Someone's Looking At You" showcased them perfectly -- but really, "I Don't Mondays" is a masterpiece.

I also added a two Neil Young songs ("My My, Hey Hey" and "Old Man"), since having only one ("Pocohontas") was an insult. And "Tom Sawyer" by Rush.

In the high 400s, I made some necessary exchanges:

"One Great City!" by The Weakerthans jumped into #458, replacing "Standing Stone" by Flying Saucer Attack. One Great City was a later discovery by a band I had initially dismissed. "Standing Stone", while a wonderfully fuzzy, droney, lo-fi gem, feels non-essential now.

"Keep On Moving" by Bob Marley was slotted in #474, pushing out "Time To Say Goodbye" by Paul Potts. At the time I was making this list I was being moved by Potts' version. I defended its inclusion against detractors but they were right in the end.

"Better Man" by Pearl Jam turfed "Bridges and Balloons" by Joanna Newsom at #490. I adore Newsom, but had to admit that her whiny warble subtracted too much from her gorgeous harp playing and skewed pixie lyrics. Meanwhile, "Better Man" has aged like a fine port.

"Making Plans for Nigel" by XTC replaced "The Ballad of Scarlett Town" by Johnny and the Moon at #491. The latter is a great foot stomper but in the high 400s it was the last man out against XTC's classic track.

So there you have it. I feel much better.

The Top 20 Albums of 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 23:03:00 +0000

Greetings!

Ideally a Top Albums of the Year list should arrive no later than December 31^st, but I am tardy at the best of times. In this particular year, 2015, my list is egregiously past-due on the account of a new baby boy. Little time for listening and judging, even less for writing. I have enjoyed beginning the musical education of the new human, however. In his room (David is his name) designed for feeding, napping, and vacant staring, copious amounts of diverse tunes have already been played. He is thus far partial to Ty Segall, Beirut, Mark Orton’s soundtrack to the film Nebraska, Jim Guthrie, and Akron/Family. This is a nice start. I'll set to work on making him a Clash fan as soon as possible.

May it seep into his pores.

So here is my top 2015 list with apologies to all of you (i.e., maybe 5 people) that have been actively waiting. 2015 had no clear identity somehow. I’ve seen this sentiment echoed by a number of music writers. The most regarded music of the year was spread across a pretty diverse landscape. I found myself attracted a little bit more to lo-fi, quirky guitar pop, but there was also ample representation from the shoegaze and psych-60s camps, orchestral pop, and electronic outfits. And a whole lot of other stuff. But like 2013, there were few standouts – only one album broke the illustrious 9.0/10 barrier of my personal rating system. I usually expect a few of these each year. All that said, there are once again some stellar albums this year. And, unlike last year, there were only a few albums that fell short of high expectations.

Top songs of the year? Probably these:

"45's and 33's" by Drew McIvor
"Enemy" by Merchandise.
"Marching Orders" by The New Pornographers
"Geographic" by Cheatahs
"Talking Backwards" by Real Estate
"Rainbow" by Robert Plant

And now…
The Top 20 Albums of 2014

20. The Black Angels – Clear Lake Forest (8.3/10)

This entry should probably not even qualify for the list due to its brevity – 7 songs coming in under 30 minutes is more of an EP by definition. But it’s just too good to ignore. In the indie rock world, there have been a lot of 60’s throwback bands attempting to capture that vintage garage sound. Contemporary bands like Woods, Crystal Stilts, Allah-las, Temples, Hooded Fang, and so on, sound like they could easily appear on a Nuggets box set. The Black Angels do it perfectly - amazing lo-fi reverbed psych gems, channeling the Velvet and Paisley Undergrounds. Choice track: “Diamond Eyes”

19. Soft Science – Detour (8.3/10)

I find I frequently and reverentially reference a particular album from 1990 to describe many of my current fixations: Gala by Lush. Gala was a not a proper album, but rather a compiled reissue of their first 3 Eps and some outtakes. It was released as their debut and predates their edgier records that put them closer to Elastica than to the Cocteau Twins. Gala marks for me a primary musical touchstone that serves to define what I (we) mean by “Dream Pop”. With airy, ethereal female voices over top of chorused/flanged guitar, it is the place where “fuzz” and “gossamer” co-exist peacefully. And it’s also sort of detached and cool and mysterious. Without Gala, I wouldn’t be listening to School of Seven Bells, Eternal Summers, and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, to name a small few. (Other fun fact – Gala was the first ever album I bought on Compact Disc). Okay, enough about Lush. Soft Science fits the same mold and shares the same lovely musical space as The Sundays, The Cranberries, Lush (of course), and The Cocteau Twins. And with some glide guitar obviously informed by My Bloody Valentine. Choice track: “Nothing”.

18. Mac DeMarco – Salad Days (8.3/10)

I admittedly dismissed Mac Demarco based on his geek-redneck album cover for his album "2". I somehow acquired the perception that he was a disingenuous knob who was peddling some sort of ironic frat rock. This is a rather presumptuous bias to take, but it happens sometimes when so many listening options are flying my way. And there were some disconcerting words, such as Pitchfork remarking that DeMarco “tinkered with yacht rock, AM radio gold, and Bowie-like glam. The mixture injected an unsettling sleaziness into a funny, occasionally creepy collection of songs that walked the line between irony and sincerity.” That's a turn off. ANYWAY, I finally gave a listen and his 2014 release, Salad Days, and it is a languid and lovely gem of sparkly guitar folk. It’s an appealing mixture of Kurt Vile, Al Tuck, and, most obviously, Jonathan Richman. These little songs are quirky, heartfelt, and seemingly naïve – but with repeated listens you can discern some serious song-writing talent and execution. What I don’t understand is how he gets so out of hand on stage. He’s a bit gross. Look online – there are some stories. Choice track: “Goodbye Weekend”.

17. Hamilton Leithauser – Black Hours (8.3/10)

The Walkmen announced an indefinite hiatus in late 2013. I was a peripheral fan, and liked a good chunk of their stuff, but was often turned off by Leithauser’s propensity to sing just beyond his range into a sandpaper falsetto. It was fortunate to see the band itself re-emerge as the back-up to Quentin Stolzfus’ post-Mazarin return in Light Heat (see my review from last year at #17), but assumed I would be indifferent to whatever Leithauser pursued. I was wrong – this is quite a reinvention. Shedding the indie rock shackles, Leithauser has produced a mature and marvelous solo record with Black Hours. Reminiscent of Jeff Buckley, Leonard Cohen, and Paul Simon, the songs appear to stretch back a generation or two. Rollicking, jazzy, theatrical, but also intimate and tender, Leithauser sings like a seasoned pro. A great accomplishment. Choice track: “11 O’Clock Friday Night”.

16. Real Estate – Atlas (8.3/10)

Real Estate have always been in that slightly frustrating category of bands who release records I deem good enough to acquire, but always falling short of excellence. The potential is there but something is always missing to full grab my attention. Other examples: Grizzly Bear, Elf Power, and the last 4 Belle and Sebastian albums. Real Estate has always been pleasant to my ears, but Atlas has entered a new category. The mid-tempo, day-dream formula is the same, but this time around those signature jangly hooks are much more engaging. Real Estate always put out comfortable records, but these tunes are simply superior, recalling the best moments of Fleet Foxes, Kingsbury Manx, Go-Betweens, and Galaxie 500. Choice track: “Talking Backwards”.

15. Solids – Blame Confusion (8.4/10)

One bright afternoon a couple summers ago, I took in the first set of Montreal’s rather monstrous Osheaga festival at one of the smaller side stages. Solids took the stage and I was immediately smitten. A power-trio outfit, they began my day with a perfect assault of fuzzy, anthemic indie rock. At the time, they were touring on back of their Generic Dogs EP and I had been waiting ever since for their debut full length. Blame Confusion finally appeared and it was worth the wait. This is pretty simple three chord riffage, but it is eagerly and urgently delivered with that earnest punk-informed rally singing that really gets the brain-blood pumping. It’s the foundation that fueled much of the success of Matador Records and bands like Chavez, Guided By Voices, Versus, and Superchunk. Good to see young Canadian bands like Kestrels, Dog Day, and now Solids, waving this torch. Choice track: “Off White”.

14. Inventions – S/T (8.4/10)

Matthew Cooper’s ambient neo-classical output as Eluvium has been transfixing me over the past few years, culminating in the triumphant Nightmare Ending, which placed 2nd in the Top 20 list of 2013. Then word came of a collaboration between Cooper and Mark T. Smith of Explosions in the Sky, called Inventions, and it’s gorgeous. Moving into Brian Eno’s ambient-pop territory and further away from the solo piano emphasis of Eluvium, the tracks are pretty, minimalist cycles of keys, guitars, vocal dubs, and found sounds. With titles such as “Flood Poems”, “Echo Tropism” and “Luminous Insects”, you get the idea. Always challenging but never difficult, this is an inspiring piece of modern sound and music. Choice track: "Flood Poems".

13. EMA – The Future’s Void (8.4/10)

Erika M. Anderson – or EMA – took me by storm with the apocalyptic manifesto “California”, the lead track on 2012’s Past Life Martyred Saints. This personal and powerful record slotted in at #2 of my top list that year. Were it not for the stunning glory of PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake, EMA would have taken the crown. Her follow up, The Future’s Void, does not disappoint. While less terrifying and inspiring than her debut, the same elements conspire here – bleakly distorted and pummeling beats driving emotionally wrought gothic rock. But there are reprieves from the angst here, with some softer edges and more conventional song structures. EMA is unforgivingly (post)-modern and it all melds together into another powerful statement of despair and beauty. Choice track: "So Blonde"

12. Mounties – Thrash Rock Legacy (8.4/10)

Mounties is a sort of Canadian indie supergroup, comprising Hawksley Workman, Steve Bays of Hot Hot Heat and Ryan Dahle of Limblifter. They kind of emerged out of nowhere (apparently after forming after hobnobbing at the Junos) and I was looking forward to their show at the Hillside Festival – sadly this show was cancelled due to a dangerous thunderstorm. What is remarkable about the record is how uniquely Canadian it sounds, if there is such a thing. The lead track could have been put together by The Payolas and several tracks mine 80’s analog synth pop and new wave. The rest is more contemporary, sounding a lot like Wolf Parade/Sunset Rubdown, Broken Social Scene, and Plants and Animals. Tremendously catchy, complex, and fun. I hope it’s more than a one-off collaboration. Choice track: “Waking Up On Time”.

11. Wunder Wunder – Everything Infinite (8.4/10)

Hailing from Los Angeles via Australia, Wunder Wunder come gloriously out of the gate sounding like an early 2000s Elephant 6 recruit. The lead and title track is a welcome psychedelic burst sounding like Olivia Tremor Control, The Sunshine Fix, The High Dials or The Minders. Multi-tracked vocal harmonies that would be at home on The Beatle’s Yellow Submarine swirl around sunny and jangly guitar lines and bouncy bass notes. As the album progresses, synthesizers enter the fray, recalling contemporaries Hooray for Earth, Miracle Fortress, or The Ruby Suns. And there is also a dancey Northern Soul quality threaded throughout as well. This was a great find. Choice Track: “Everything Infinite” (this is a clip, along with snippets of other songs).

10. Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire For No Witness (8.4/10)

Having assembled a full band Angel Olsen has suddenly moved out of the realm of folky singer-songwriter into the high-end arena of inspired indie rock. The musical references are simply amazing. I apologize for the gendered nature of this list (surely Olsen sounds like many different male artists as well) but I hear them so clearly and powerfully. In one album she has managed to draw upon such luminaries as PJ Harvey, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sharon Van Etten, Hole, Linda Perhacs, Fairport Convention, Juliana Barwick and Mazzy Star. Although this reads like calculated name-dropping, trust me, she’s the real and versatile deal. A fabulous outing, top to bottom. Choice track: “Windows“.

9. Cousins – The Halls of Wickwire (8.4/10)

Excitedly waiting to see The Constantines for the third time of their 2014 reunion, I was taken aback by the opener, Cousins. My tinnitus immediately suffered as this power duo (real cousins, I think) managed to produce a raging wall of guitar and drums that shook my ribs. Taking a page from Japandroids, Cousins does a lot with their simple set up. Overdriven guitar, propulsive drums, and high register yells and yelps combine into the aural experience of skateboarding down a mountainside. I love this DIY lo-fi indie fuzz. Fans of Japandroids, Times New Viking, No Age, and Women take note. Messy and honest noise. Choice track: “Alone”.

8. Eagulls – LP (8.5/10)

These young upstarts expertly sledgehammer out that particularly British brand of first-wave post-punk, and would fit comfortably on a cassette mix with early Cure, The Killing Joke, The Adicts, Still Little Fingers, The Alarm, and The Three Johns. With the cold reverb turned to 11, it’s taut, acerbic, and punishing, but always having the hooks that drag you flailing through the gravel. Eagulls have kind of helped replace the small hole left by Iceage, who opted to make their sophomore effort last year way too difficult to listen to. If I was back in Grade 11, I’m sure this record would wear out my turntable. I’d play it for my friends, and they would be immediate fans. And at least once, it would indirectly fuel some sort of youthful destruction at a house party. And then it would remind me of my youth 30 years later and show up on mp3 mixes for old friends who now live in Vancouver. Choice track: "Tough Luck".

7. Cheatahs – S/T (8.5/10)

I hate band names with altered spelling and double entendres. Like the Dandy Warhols or Ringo Deathstarr. It takes me awhile to get past it. In this case, it took me all of 25 seconds of “Geographic”, track 2 on this self-titled behemoth. Now THIS is a band who knows how to replicate the intricate craft of their forebears. I throw the “shoegaze” label around quite a lot to refer to that gauzy, psychedelic brand of layered guitars, but this is positively definitive and just about as authentic as you could hope for (with a respectful nod to the aforementioned Ringo Deathstarr). Cheatahs sound more like Swervedriver (my all-time favorite band) than any other I have heard, a near impossible task. Even their videos (see "choice track" below) look like Raise-era Swerve documents. They also emulate and honor the beautiful sonic waves of Ride, Sianspheric, My Bloody Valentine, and Slowdive. But they make it their own. Instant classic. Choice track: “Geographic”.

6. The New Pornographers – Brill Bruisers (8.5/10)

The New Pornographers have to be one of the most consistently good rock bands to grace my personal airwaves. Every album is a confectionery treat of boisterous, celebratory high-end indie rock. They have done it again in 2014 with Brill Bruisers. Carl Newman and Neko Case trade gorgeous vocal lines over an endlessly lively backdrop of insistent and uber-catchy guitars and keyboards. The band produces impossibly hooky multi-voice choruses and those signature builds that unite all listeners in a common fist-pumping purpose. The only drawback, once again, is Dan Bejar’s songs, which almost always feel like secondary and inferior after-thoughts. They are not horrible or anything, but with his basic staccato guitar rhythms and annoying vocal delivery, it sounds like a different band. A full album of the main Pornographers would be welcome. Regardless, this is another awesome record. Choice track: “Marching Orders”.

5. Ty Segal – Manipulator (8.6/10)

Ty Segall is one of those artists that is difficult to commit to because he's too damn prolific. Since 2008 or so, he has put out 11 albums and even more singles and EPs. Within this large catalog, as far as I can tell, are variances in style and quality, ranging from snotty Strokes-inspired rock, singer-songwriter fare, and old 60's garage. Not knowing where to start or what I was getting into, I ignored him. His most recent, Manipulator, got enough attention for me to bite (who am I to disregard Jack Rabid?). So I’ve bit down hard. This is a tremendous recording of vintage 60's psych-pop, stoner jams, and glam rock. The guitar work is wonderfully varied and highly skilled, and it easy to hear classic touchstones like Brian May, Keith Richards, and Ron Asheton. Now I have the pleasure (or pain) of working through this guy’s past catalog. Choice track: “Feel”.

4. Elliott Brood – Work and Love (8.6/10)

Elliott Brood feels like home. They are local boys who cut their teeth on the road all over Southern Ontario and across Canada. Their songs are fist-pumping, crowd-swaying hootenannies. A live EB show seems to be experienced universally through the crowd - sharing this brand country/folk/rock makes the community stronger. Certain songs in their back catalog are so nostalgia inducing and so loved by some of my closest friends that the band feels like part of the family. Though they are a 3 piece, the effect is a veritable jamboree. Have I said enough about Elliott Brood for you? Each album they put out is damn great and Work and Love is no exception. I just wish it was a little longer (it’s 33 minutes). The production has taken a leap as has the supporting instrumentation. Beyond the drum/bass/guitar/banjo set up we are treated to great swaths of pedal steel, strings, mandolin, and keys to round out the sound. So while they have lost some of that stripped down DIY aesthetic that plays perfectly in a dilapidated barn or tiny bar, they have gained greater presence and depth. But it’s still signature Brood. Every song is a catchy, foot-stomper that speaks about work and love, and hope and truth. Choice track: “Jigsaw Heart” (also check out this version is from the Paper Bag sessions, which are included on a second disc on the deluxe edition).

3. Merchandise – After The End (8.8/10)

A good chunk of the population maligns the vapid cultural wasteland that was the 80’s, including its music. This was the era of my musical coming of age, however, and I would take it over the bloated and boring 70’s any day, aside from the explosion of punk that ended the decade. It was punk that informed all the post-punk, goth, and new wave artists that were to follow, intermixed among the bad hair, heavy metal, and questionable fashion choices. Referencing the 80’s effectively in new music may be superficially straightforward (synthesizers, digital drums, chorused guitar and brooding vocals) but to absolutely nail it is rare. M83’s Saturdays=Youth (my #4 of 2008) is ridiculously authentic in every sense and would have been the album that a fedora-wearing John Hughes would cry to in the rain. Burning Hearts, a fairly obscure Swedish synth-pop band, produce that delectable poppy 80’s sound recalling O.M.D. and Blancmange. Young Galaxy also often pull off that Canadian 80’s Parachute Club sound. But here we have Merchandise’s After The End, a brand new record that takes me straight back to Grade 12. Beginning with an airy instrumental, the album takes off with the second track, “Enemy”, which imparts like Duran Duran dancing with Echo and the Bunnymen. It is lush and jangly and simply oozes the DNA of mid-80's underground and new wave. Carson Cox’s rich baritone vocals, as well as the tunes, sound like a combination of Ian Curtis, Steve Kilbey, and Ian McCulloch. And what’s that I hear? Shriekback? Now it’s the Aztec Camera wrestling with INXS. And that goofy bass line could be off Sandinista or a mid-80's Stranglers record. The depth of this record is extraordinary. Merchandise sound contemporary only by way of the enormous sound they put forth – most songs radiate a gooey-thick wall of sound, not unlike M83. Oddly, they’re from Tampa. Highly recommended. Choice track: “Enemy”.

2. Amen Dunes – Love (8.9/10)

Damon McMahon, as Amen Dunes, delivers homespun, splintered folk genius that one associates with the likes of Syd Barrett, Will Oldham and Robyn Hitchcock. The visceral impact of what is, at its base, straight up acoustic folk rhythms and melodies is rather astounding. It gives me pause. Oftentimes I have the tendency to pursue more expansive sonic explorations and I am drawn to layers (upon layers) of instrumentation. My love of shoegaze and psychedelia is evidence of this. It’s almost as if the drug of music needs its dosage upped to keep me suitably effected, and genres like traditional acoustic folk can’t possibly complete. There is some truth to this. But there continue to be singular artists that put forth creative and nuanced revisions of these old tropes that are fresh and revitalizing. Bon Iver, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, PJ Harvey, and Richard Laviolette are recent examples. Amen Dunes joins this list with Love. It sounds, and was, written in isolation and one gets the feeling that the presence of an audience was never considered. It’s simple stuff at its core – basic chord progressions on acoustic guitar or piano and nice accompanying melodies. But McMahon has enlisted members of Iceage and Godspeed You! Black Emperor to fill the space with effected strings, keys, and a range of other eerie sounds. McMahon’s warmly amateurish and sometimes crooning vocal delivery is alluring and homey. The whole package is wrapped in satisfying bed of reverb. This is some of the most engaging modern folk I’ve had the pleasure of hearing. Choice track: “Splits Are Parted”

1. Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra – Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything (9.0/10)

All reviews I’ve read of this record begin with a quoting of the adorable little girl who opens the album: “We live on the island called Montreal and we make a lot of noise because we love each other!” This carefree and sweet little statement immediately resounds as a powerful philosophical manifesto once Silver Mt. Zion explodes into their apocalyptic brain-frying attack. This album of the year absolutely shredded me when I heard it. In the past, this collective tended to alienate me with meandering experimental rock that was just a little too difficult to engage with. I saw them as the demanding cousins of Constellation label mates (and collaborators) Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Do Make Say Think. But with Fuck Off Get Free… I was blown over. The longer jams are desperate, urgent, and fiery, but the delivery feels far more profound than any metal, punk, or hardcore anything. This can be attributed, I think, to the instrumentation. Laid over the buzzing guitars is a chamber string orchestra that’s been dipped in acid and lit on fire. It’s like a philharmonic was commandeered by raging nihilists. Anarchy in the opera house. And so the tenuous linkage to highbrow art remains for the listener, despite the (wonderful) adulteration. This is orchestro-folk-punk that breaks down and builds back up, with commitment and love. The shorter tracks are provide the listener some space with great melodic sensibility and the equivalent passion. And throughout is the upper register “cry for help” singing of Efrim Menuck, giving the pieces added lyrical depth. When I hear this record, I find it a bit paralyzing. What am I doing sitting in my office doing whatever it is I am doing? There is so much more! I can hear it! Choice track: “What We Loved Was Not Enough”.

"Shout Outs" - Some Great Albums Outside the Top 20

As per usual, here are some quick reviews and acknowledgements of some really good albums that did not make the Top 20 cut (i.e., receiving from me a rating of 7.5/10 or greater).

Quilt – Darkened VU delights and pop-psych tidbits. (8.2/10)

Foxygen – These precocious twenty-somethings have an unerring knack of reproducing the psychedelic soul of the 60s. They put out my number one record of 2013. And Star Power…is also damn great, but the decision to put out a double long-player distracted from the best nuggets. (8.1/10)

Skygreen Leopards – Less freak in the freak-folk on Family Crimes has resulted in a whimsical, pastoral record. (8.1/10)

Beck – The veteran troubadour is miles away from his funky side on this lovely, contemplative folk record. Morning Phase is wonderfully produced sibling to Mutations and Sea Change. This is definitely the first Grammy winner on any of my lists. Oh, wait…Arcade Fire. (8.1/10)

Temples – Sun Structures delivers consistent and compelling homages to 60's-era psychedelia. (8.1/10)

Alcest – Apparently Alcest is typically a black metal outfit. But I checked out Shelter because it was tagged as more of shoegaze record, recalling Jesu and Slowdive (Neil Halstead appears!). Nice! (8.0/10)

Robert Plant and the Sensation Space Shifters – An unexpected surprise from the Zeppelin legend, Plant has tempered his rock squeal into a dignified voice on top of modern English indie folk. (8.0/10)

Parquet Courts – Two PC albums arrived in 2015. I have not heard the latest (Content Nausea) but Sunbathing Animal is more wonderfully skewed and strange indie guitar romps. (8.0/10)

Musée Méchanique – Lovely, pastoral orchestral folk appears on the crowd-funded From Shores of Sleep. (8.0/10)

Cymbals Eat Guitars – Wonderfully varied comparisons to The War On Drugs, Titus Andronicus, Porno For Pyros, Comet Gain, and The Flaming Lips. Maybe lazy to provide such a list of references, but these guys are all over the place to great effect. (8/10)

Drew McIvor – Porchlight is a light-hearted lounge pastiche of Prince, rocksteady, soul-folk balladry, and samba. I've proclaimed “45’s and 33’s” song of the year. (8.0/10)

PAWS – Owls Talons Clenching My Heart (what a great album name) is tremendous lo-fi indie pop-rock. (7.9/10)

The Antlers – Familiars is expansive, nuanced chamber pop. Beautiful. (7.8/10)

BRONCHO – Just Hip Enough To Be Women, sounds like early 80s post-punk British pop. Think Squeeze, Joe Jackson, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello. (7.8/10)

Avey Tare – Enter The Slasher House is a solo jaunt from this Animal Collective co-lead. Happily, sounds like Animal Collective. (7.8/10)

Sharon Van Etten – Are We There continues Etten’s prowess at producing powerful soul-folk confessionals. (7.8/10)

Pains of Being Pure At Heart –Days Of Abandon is another great offering of wall of sound dream-pop. (7.8/10)

Woods –Catchy lo-fi psych-pop can be found on With Light And With Love. Not as monumental as previous efforts, but a damn fine record. (7.8/10)

Viet Cong – From the ashes of Women, this Calgary band launched Cassette, a reverb-drenched pop noise document referencing Pavement, Wire, and No Age. My expectations are huge for the new album, which just came out in January of 2015. (7.7/10)

Fanfarlo – Lush and spacey synth folk describes their third album, Let’s Go Extinct. (7.7/10)

The Men - Evolving from their blazing proto-punk anthems, The Men have drifted to more conventional rock on Tomorrow’s Hits.   Like Titus Andronicus interning with Tom Petty. (7.7/10)

Hooray for Earth – Racy is the third and, sadly, final album. New wavey indie rock. (7.7/10)

Stella Ella Ola – I Think We Should Hang Out All The Time is catchy power-pop reminiscent of Apples in Stereo and Fountains of Wayne. (7.7/10)

What Moon Things – Thanks to Dylan Taylor for passing along this s/t post-rock emo gem. Lots of touchstones, like Modest Mouse, The Cure, and Sunny Day Real Estate. (7.7/10)

tUnE-yArDs - Nikki Nack is perhaps the definition of musical innovation in 2015. Big soulful voice over tribal beats, wacky electronics, and enough pop hooks to ensnare you. (7.6/10)

Ought – More Than Any Other Day marks an amazing future for this young post-punk band that channels Talking Heads, Pulp, and Fugazi. (7.6/10)

Thom Yorke – The surprise web-release of Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes is a big improvement over the sterile Atoms For Peace record. Still jittery and clinical, but there is a smoother sort of ambience this time around. (7.6/10)

The War on Drugs – Lost In The Dream appeared in many Top 10 lists this year and it is indeed good. I just thought the nods to 70s rock tropes were at the expense of their previously sublime psychedelic outings. Great record, but it’s no Slave Ambient. (7.5/10)

Pink Mountaintops – These guys always bring the 70s-informed rock. Get Back is a slight let down from their previous records, which have appeared in my yearly top 20 lists in the past. But still a decent collection. (7.5/10)

Tycho – Awake is chill and spacey electronica; great background record for reading and lychee martinis. (7.5/10)

"Short Falls" - The Disappointments of 2014

As is tradition, here are my annual disappointments for 2014 – long anticipated records from much loved artists that fell way short of expectations. There weren’t all that many this year. Gord Downie and the Sadies’ record was drab to me, despite attempts to rock hard. Both partners are tremendous talents, but the outcome was like warmed over latter-day Hip. Hard to like when Downie’s solo outings have been so strong. Peaking Lights had put out two great whimsical electro-dub records, but their third effort borders on annoying, wherein repetition serves to rankle rather than inspire. Camper Van Beethoven’s second post-reunion album soured me, sounding a lot like Cracker but without the hooks. Saddened. Bob Mould sounded pretty average and well below his 80-90s punk heights. A revived Medicine continues to try too hard and you can tell there is the potentially for soaring, luminous songs beneath the self-indulgent mess that Brad Laner has put together. The Hidden Cameras have switched up their approach, leaning more heavily on keyboards and dance beats. Consequently, their uniquely engaging spark is gone.

And the big kahuna of disappointments goes to Sun Kil Moon’s Benji, which I should mentioned topped numerous year-end lists. Pitchfork called the album “astonishing” and rated it a 9.2, effusively proclaiming that “Kozelek all but forces us to recognize how the most emotionally moving art can be mapped directly on to our own lives.” What I hear is a guy muttering clunky uneconomical lyrics over drab, repetitive guitar lines. This is bland and featureless, and emotionally self-important. Perhaps, however, my ears have been tainted by Kozelek being a pathetic asshole in a one-sided battle of words with The War On Drugs. He is an awful person, and I can’t listen to anything new from him – I pretty much have to pretend the RHP catalog was authored by a whole other character. Go away forever, Mark Kozelek.