An Ear For An Era: 2010

Okay, let's get on with it.

I finished listening to 2010 a while ago but I have just been listening to all of the new music I can get my hands on because 2016 ain't half bad either!

But 2010 gives 2007 a run for its money. A ridiculously great year for music. So I'll probably just focus on the great, putting the merely "very good" in the bottom section.

The most significant thing in my personal life in 2010 is probably my trip to New Orleans. It is where I proposed to my wife and fell in love with the city. We went to Preservation Hall and saw the band there. Earlier in the year I had purchased An Album to Benefit Preservation Hall with such guests as Andrew Bird, Tom Waits, Jason Isbell, and many more. This was the first New Orleans jazz album officially in my collection and it will always be near to my heart for these reasons. Similarly, Kermit Ruffins put out Happy Talk, which will probably always be my favorite Ruffins album.

I remember Broken Bells were taken off my top whatever list at the last minute because I decided it was a little boring on my final listen-through. I'm bringing them back here because it is just so darn pleasant to listen to!  I think I like this more than anything The Shins have done, although I was never a huge Shins fan. Danger Mouse's bleeps and bloops compliment James Mercer's words and voice quite well.

Remember when we all first heard Sleigh Bells? I'm pretty sure "Crown on the Ground" just had me immediately thank the person who shared them on Facebook or whatever. Such an awesome unique combination of sounds, from the pop vocals to the hip hop beats to the metal guitars, it was one of the most exciting sounds I'd heard and I was immediately hooked. When Treats finally came out, it sure was a collection of Treats, am I right? But seriously, that song and "Rill Rill" are what it's all about.

Spoon was always and will continue to be super reliably great. Transference saw them returning "to form," whatever that means for them. Just dig that beat, dig that build, and dig those forays into otherness.

The Suburbs by Arcade Fire was exactly what I wanted from them. I've always enjoyed them, but on this album they somehow sounded less self-important than everything else they've done. I'm not sure how that is. I think there's just this playful element that keeps it breezy. It just floats by in a wonderful way. Not that they don't sing about some heavy subjects, but the delivery makes it that much more enjoyable.

OFF! had four great EPs combined into one release called First Four EPs. That's a total of 16 songs for a grand total of 18 minutes of music. These little bolts of hardcore punk lightning are just a shot of lightning into the lightning tree. Am I right?

That's curtains for the Man in Black. American VI: Ain't No Grave was officially the final release of new music by Johnny Cash. With how depressing American V was, VI was a nice batch of hopeful, uplifting tunes, perfect for bidding adieu to one of the greatest artists to walk this earth.

The tip top:

There were a few albums that could easily top the list at the end of whatever year, but since it was 2010 there could be only one (at the time; I'm not ranking anymore). So these are the exceptionally great ones. Just because.

I had gotten previous Hot Chip albums, but One Life Stand stuck with me hard. It's like I finally figured out what they were doing. I'd had it in my head that they were supposed to be some dancy thing to take to the parties, but then I gave them more attention here and heard something much closer to the heart. Very soulful and optimistic. The title track ended up obviously being a very appropriate song for my pending nuptials, but this song was the one I wanted played at my wedding, for my side of the wedding party.

Hot Chip, "Brothers"

I'm pretty sure I picked up The Monitor by Titus Andronicus based off hype alone. People were talking them up and without even really knowing what it would sound like I went for it. This is something I have done before and since, but probably the most successful I've ever been with it. This is an epic punk rock tale. This is a story of the civil war and it's a story of self and all the ugliness and beauty that goes along with that. This is pure passion, unrestricted. Throw it all out, burn it up, and breathe in the fire.

Titus Andronicus, "Richard II"

She seemed to be ignored in 2010 by the mainstream here in the states, but in the years that followed, it looks like Robyn started getting her due, as songs like "Dancing On My Own" made their way to TV shows and such. But we can call 2010 her Body Talk era, when she put out three EPs over the course of the year to culminate in the full album version toward the end. At the time I remember thinking of how criminal it was that she wasn't the queen of the pop world, but the pop world just wasn't ready for her. Innovative beats, heartfelt lyrics, and just something extra that I can't quite pinpoint combine for the pop album of the year or more. Perfection. Love. Adore.

Robyn, "Hang With Me"

LCD Soundsystem. As of now, their latest album is still This Is Happening (that will probably change any day now!). At the time, it was the perfect culmination of their short career. Starting with the best drop I've ever heard on "Dance Yrself Clean," it just proceeds to rock every bone in your body including your skull and ribcage (as in being thoughtful and heartfelt), knock you down, and pick you back up, swearing "I Can Change." Because of this music project I hadn't heard this album in a few years before seeing them live at Red Rocks this summer, and coming back to the songs off this album in that mindset was pretty mind blowing.

LCD Soundsystem, "All I Want"

I think I mentioned a couple of these ago that my introduction to the great Janelle Monae was that Outkast song she was amazing on. But that and even the EP that followed were nothing to prepare me for the dizzying The ArchAndroid. I declared this my #1 album of the year at the time and I have no regrets about that (I'm not going to rank these here though, just so you know. Too much greatness for any of them to fall outside the top 5!). She can PERFORM and she can SING and she can CONCEPTUALIZE and she can ENTERTAIN and she can MAKE YOU SMILE and she can MAKE YOU THINK AND QUESTION EVERYTHING. She is the future. So it's only fitting that she introduced herself to the world with a multi-part concept suite-of-albums about the future.

Janelle Monae, "Tightrope" (I used this version because the official video isn't on YouTube but she was amazing on Letterman! But track down the video for the Big Boi part!)

That guy from that song up there, Big Boi, finally put out a proper solo album Sir Lucious Left Foot...The Son of Chico Dusty. Previously I had remarked that Speakerboxxx was criminally Underrated, but this album just builds on that for the new decade to sound super fresh even now, six years later. It sounds like someone who has been holding it all in and has had so much to say. The energy of the beats here and his awesome delivery, I still haven't gotten any better at writing about hip hop have I?

Big Boi, "Daddy Fat Sax" or "Back Up Plan" - apparently he is not on YouTube! Listen to this stuff though using legitimate/legal methods!

Kanye West. Oh, Kanye West. Whatever problems your ego causes, whatever the hell 808s and Heartbreak was, it is all worth it if it leads to something like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. You certainly have something you are good at, and that is constructing something of beauty from the ground up. My favorite moments from his early albums are the moments when he shows a little bit of vulnerability and he finds just the right times to do that here (while still showing the duality of his ego all over the thing). It's like a hip hop of Montreal. Showing one thing by demonstrating the opposite.

Kanye West featuring Pusha T, Tony Williams & The-Dream, "Runaway" - also can't emebed from YouTube! Get Tidal or whatever!

Is The Age Of Adz by Sufjan Stevens all that different of an album than that Kanye album? Maximalism to hide-which-also-reveals the underlying pain? Although it seems like he's taking a different approach to his maximalism. He's always had his heart on his sleeve, even if the sleeve is adorned in sequins and neon colors. It just draws you in with its unusual sounds so you're close enough to feel the gut punch which you saw coming from a mile away. There is this pain, this very personal pain, but it shows the spectrum of human emotion with its spectrum of even more neon colors. The joy and the fear, the sorrow and the hope, all culminating in my favorite 25 minute song. It is tempting to post that song, but I don't know if people have time for that, so I'll post this one instead.

Sufjan Stevens, "I Walked"

Other things that were very (very very very) good:

• I enjoyed Miles Kurosky's solo album, although maybe not as much as Beulah proper.
• Free Energy was an interesting product of my tendency these days to check out a lot of stuff that got good reviews. My wife ended up a bigger fan than me, but they are a good band to work out to.
• Love is All put out the wonderful Two Thousand And Ten Injuries, featuring mixtape staple "Less Than Thrilled,"  one of the best breakup songs of this century. Great energy. They still haven't followed up on that album 6 years later, but I'm excited to hear it whenever (if ever) they do.
• I'm New Here by Gil Scott-Heron is a really great collection of poetry and deep introspection.
• Sisterworld is yet another fantastic record by Liars.
• She & Him Volume 2 isn't all that different from Volume 1 but why change? They evolve a bit on subsequent releases and it does suit them but these early ones are just so charming.
• Oh yeah, Beach House! Teen Dream was my intro to this band and still my favorite of theirs.
• Black Francis continued his prolific hot streak with Nonstoperotik, a very good collection of vaguely and not-that-vaguely sexual innuendo with some heart.
• The Like went from 70s throwback to 60s throwback on Release Me. I enjoyed this shift in their sound immensely, particularly in the song "He's Not a Boy."
• The Magnetic Fields are always enjoyable and there's always a few standout tracks. On Realism, those standouts were "The Dada Polka," a signature clever song, and "Seduced and Abandoned," a signature sad song, from the master.
• Ol' reliable Ted Leo & The Pharmacists put out The Brutalist Bricks, a shot of adrenaline early in the year. 
• Sadly the most memorable thing to me about Devil's Music by Teddybears was the overly snarky article about it by Pitchfork when it was announced. But the song with Robyn is obviously awesome, and a few of the others are quite good as well.
• Surfer Blood!
• Phantogram!
• I remember impressing a hip hop friend by getting The Stimulus Package by Freeway & Jake One. He then introduced me to other Jake One stuff. I just got it because of curiosity and the fact that I bought a LOT of music in 2010. And it had guests like Raekwon and Bun B. Those Jake One beats are great for running though!
• Plastic Beach by Gorillaz cemented the fact that Damon Albarn didn't need some big name producer to produce great songs for this project. 
• Night Work had Scissor Sisters returning "to form" for an amazing celebration of excess.
• Assume Crash Position by Konono No 1 was quite revelatory. Such awesome sounds, it was like african post rock or something.
• CocoRosie continued to be underrated with Grey Oceans.
• The more beat-oriented Caribou found on Swim is a sound I like a lot.
• The New Pornographers always deliver and Together was no exception. "My Shepherd" has become possibly my favorite Neko Case fronted NP song.
• Is Outlaster the last Nina Nastasia album we've been treated to? Shame.
• How I Got Over showed The Roots settling into their TV gig and expanding their reach to things like Dirty Projectors and Monsters of Folk, both of which were featured (along with Joanna Newsom!). So indie! Of course, my favorite songs are the ones with Dice Raw, including the FIRE title track (and "The Fire" featuring John Legend). Lots of passion on this album.
• I Learned The Hard Way could potentially be my favorite Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings album, but that might just be because that's when I really started getting in to them.
• Medications were a band I discovered that appeals to both me and my wife, with their odd combination of post rock experimentation and pop vocals.
• I never quite spend enough time listening to Without Why by Rose Elinor Dougall, formerly my favorite member of The Pipettes. It is good and sassy even if it's not quite on the level of her old project's peak moments.
• Damn you, Twilight: Eclipse for having an exclusive Battles song "The Line" on your soundtrack (possibly the last Battles song to feature Tyondai Braxton)! Hopefully they found some new fans because it's a nice deceptive number that starts out easy and goes full Battles about halfway through. 
• High Violet by The National is another of their very good albums. This is actually the point where I decided I liked them. Or was that 2009?
• Grinderman 2 is everything it needs to be. And has the best album cover.
• Maximum Balloon had some of the best non-TVOTR TV On The Radio songs ever recorded. The party version of TVOTR.
• I guess I should put All Delighted People, the Sufjan Stevens EP, down here just because I didn't want to take away from my Age of Adz write-up. It does happen to include one of my favorite Sufjan Stevens songs of all time though, "Enchanting Ghost." For a surprise release that he just threw out there before blowing all our minds with his "real" album, it is an amazing accomplishment that is doomed to be a footnote like this.
• Lisbon includes one of my favorite Walkmen songs, "While I Shovel the Snow." Just so perfectly captures that winter feeling.
• M.I.A. put out the purposely polarizing MAYA (/\/\/\Y/\) that is just finally getting the respect it deserves. It still sounds a little slight compared to some of her other accomplishments, but it's just such a bold move that I appreciate it for that.
• of Montreal got Solange on a track for False Priest. And Janelle Monae on a couple. I always like of Montreal albums and then they kind of blur around this time. Still a nasty little fun time.
• !!! was in the midst of their great period that they haven't left yet. Strange Weather, Isn't It? is just a big party.
• Les Savy Fav was also partying on Root For Ruin. Not sure if it will end up being their final album, but it is a great one to go out on.
• That Girl Talk mash-up mix thing All Day became of my favorite things to run to, just like that  last one!
• National Ransom has all the ingredients to be a favorite Elvis Costello album for me. I just haven't been listening to him as much as I used to. But whenever I give it another shot, I remember that yes, I do quite enjoy this one.
• Neon Indian is pretty good, huh?
• Write About Love is a very enjoyable Belle & Sebastian album featuring the likes of Norah Jones and Carey Mulligan. 

I did a two-album set for my mix of 2010.

'Twas 2010a:

1. LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean

2. Robyn - Dancing On My Own

3. Gorillaz featuring Mick Jones and Paul Simonon - Plastic Beach

4. Flying Lotus featuring Thundercat - Mmmhmm

5. The Roots featuring Dice Raw - How I Got Over

6. Kanye West featuring Dwele - Power

7. Big Boi featuring Andre 3000 - Lookin 4 Ya (Jedi Remix)

8. Janelle Monae - Cold War

9. Sleigh Bells - Rill Rill

10. Broken Bells - The High Road

11. Arcade Fire - Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

12. Hot Chip - One Life Stand

13. Sufjan Stevens - Vesuvius

14. The National - Lemonworld

15. Titus Andronicus - The Battle of Hampton Roads

'Twas 2010b:

1. Love Is All - Less Than Thrilled

2. Maximum Balloon featuring Aku - Tiger

3. Reflection Eternal featuring Bun B - Strangers (Paranoid)

4. Charlotte Gainsbourg - Dandelion

5. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - When I Come Home

6. Grinderman - Evil!

7. Snake Rattle Rattle Snake - Ornament

8. Liars - Scissor

9. Gil Scott-Heron - Me And The Devil

10. Beach House - Zebra

11. The Magnetic Fields - Seduced and Abandoned

12. Nina Nastasia - Cry, Cry Baby

13. Tussle - Soft Crush

14. Caribou - Leave House

15. Free Energy - Young Hearts

16. The Like - He's Not a Boy

17. The New Pornographers - My Shepherd

18. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Bottled Up In Cork

19. Les Savy Fav - Excess Energies

20. Spoon - Written In Reverse

21. Battles - The Line

22. Black Francis - Nonstoperotik

2011:

Antlers, Battles, Beastie Boys, Bon Iver, Deerhoof, Fleet Foxes, Jay Z & Kanye, M83, Shabazz Palaces, St Vincent, Thao & Mirah, Tom Waits, TV On The Radio's triumphant return, Wild Flag, and another classic album by Mr. "Weird Al" Yankovic.

An Ear For An Era: 2007

I've been putting off writing this one for some time now. Maybe not on purpose. Mostly just because I was busy with Christmas and catching up on the ton of music I'd acquired in the previous couple months in an attempt to have some sort of grasp on the music of 2015. Not that I ever felt I even sort of caught up on that. But I've spent the past month listening to recent acquisitions released from 2013-2016. 2016 is Bowie. That's a whole other thing. I always make it a big deal to myself what my first album of a year is and I'm so glad it's Bowie this year.

Okay, where am I?

2007 was my favorite year for music. So much so that I was hoping to get this up by the end of the year so I could say something like "2007 was my favorite year of 2015!" but at least that's here, so that's something.

When I started this project I was looking forward to 2007. I was wondering if context would make a difference, if I'd change my opinion on 2007 music because it might have just been the sheer quantity I consumed that year that helped me find so many albums I loved (and in many cases, my introductions to many artists that I love). But that's not really how it works. Because these are albums I loved and they will always be albums I love. Regardless of context. Are there some lesser albums? Of course. Just like every year. But the top bunch are amongst my tip top bunch of all time.

I'll try to not make this too long but I feel like there will be a lot I will want to write a lot about. And things that deserve full paragraphs might end up in the notable things at the end just because there's so much great here.

I guess I can get started since I've already made the intro much too long.

It started this time with Ted Leo & The Pharmacists. I'd long respected them and lots of my friends liked them, but Living With The Living was where I finally really got it personally. The energy, the passion, the politics...they really captured my feelings during the Bush years and the aftermath of the war in Iraq. And then the slightly softer songs were just so damn catchy, it's just a great album from front to back. And it has one of my favorite lines that really exemplifies the whole reason I have this blog project, from "The Lost Brigade." Repeating and repeating, more and more earnest...

"Every little memory has a song."

2007 was a year I was so into music that it was the year I got to go to SXSW in Austin for work. We interviewed tons of bands, saw tons of shows, just absorbed the whole thing, and it was amazing.

We had to run to try to catch Les Savy Fav's set and only caught the last song. To this day that is the only time I witnessed LSF live, which is a big regret (but not as big as if I had missed it completely!). We interviewed Tim and he gave us some fun soundbytes because he is a very clever man. Anyway, the album. Let's Stay Friends is the album from this year and is a huge ball of energy, just like the band.

The other SXSW story I have to share is when we went to a "US vs Norway" showcase. We went through the line outside and asked people "US or Norway??" and got some great answers. Then we went inside and a band was playing called The Lionheart Brothers. I was supposed to get some footage of bands playing so I sat there taping them. And continued to. And was completely mesmerized by this band with its spacey guitars and lovely vocal harmonies, matched by a driving beat. They don't have very good distribution in the states but I got their album Dizzy Kiss on itunes, one of the few albums I've ever bought on itunes.

When we headed back home after an amazing few days with very little rest, I think it was an early morning flight. Everyone was so tired and I listened to my iPod in the airport. And this memory has this song. And the lyrics don't really fit it much other than being tired, but I was picturing the film of our journey, and it was the end credits, and I saw everybody sitting half-dead or napping at the airport, everyone with their own favorite adventures and memories, and this song played.

Sundowner, "This War Is Noise"

Yes, Chris, best known for The Lawrence Arms, one of my favorite songwriters in two of my favorite band, and the man who wrote my senior quote, put out his solo debut as Sundowner. Four One Five Two. Just a great set of songs, including a couple Lawrence Arms covers that he completely transforms. But "This War Is Noise" will always take me back to that airport in Austin and the recovery from one of the best weekends of my life.

Another memory has a song (or an entire album!). I had just gotten The Shepherd's Dog by Iron & Wine and I got sick. Sicker than usual. I never take sick days but I had to go home and take some drugs. And I put it on the turntable and listened to it. And about halfway through the album I realized that no, there wasn't a female guest vocalist on all of those songs. My record player had gotten all messed up and was playing everything at some rpm between 45 and 33. Oh, and the album itself: it's great!

Hey guys, Shellac only puts out an album every several years and it is always an event. Excellent Italian Greyhound was my first "new" Shellac album. The End of Radio kicked off my "it was 2007" mix CD and was a great statement on the state of music. The rest of the album is just pure Shellac. Rage, calculated rage, and aggression (calculated aggression).

Speaking of calculated aggression, I have a confession. I didn't really start listening to Nick Cave until Grinderman. Their self-titled debut as Grinderman is so great and it introduced me in a more official capacity to the genius that is Nick Cave.

Deerhoof came onto my radar with Friend Opportunity. Kind of. I had heard a few songs but it always seemed so weird and abrasive (both qualities I've loved for a while, but for some reason I couldn't get into them). Friend Opportunity was my opportunity to really understand them and spend more time listening to them (particularly because it came out early in the year!) and really find the catchiness aspect they excel at. Catchy and weird rather than abrasive and weird. With pieces of the right kinds of abrasive.

Another band known for being catchily abrasive and weird is Animal Collective. After reading some great reviews and loving the idea in theory I picked up Strawberry Jam and I tried. I really, really tried to get into it. But I couldn't. It just wasn't the right kind of catchy or abrasive. The right kind of weird maybe. But I gave it a bunch of spins and it didn't do much for me. Cut to a couple months later. Riding in a friend's car. He has it playing on the stereo. Suddenly I love it. It had snuck into the back of my brain!

Panda Bear (of said Animal Collective) had the highly lauded Person Pitch album that year as well. Less weird, more beautiful in general, and a similar burrowing quality.

I listened to 23 by Blonde Redhead a lot at work that year. It was one of just a few albums on my computer there but it always made me feel so good to put it on. I don't know if they've hit this balance of synthiness and catchiness in the years since.

Perennial favorite Enon had what ended up being their final album Grass Geysers...Carbon Clouds. This one was a little more focused than usual, almost to its disadvantage. I always like the kitchen sink approach of their albums and this was more rock-centric. But that made the songs that stray from the straightforward beat (such as "Pigeneration") that much more interesting in this context. They are having a lot of fun on this album and you can tell.

Okkervil River really hooked me with The Stage Names. As good as Black Sheep Boy was (and I was too much of a latecomer for it to be "my" Okkervil River album), The Stage Names is just so catchy and smart, sad at the right times, and really reminds me of the French New Wave of cinema. Will Sheff is so learned about music and he has so many references that are placed at the perfect place while putting his own spin on everything, it's just fun to listen to and catch everything flying by. But especially when the last song goes into "Sloop John B" and gives me such a rush of joy.

Okkervil River, "John Allyn Smith Sails"

Spoon has always been on a hot streak. I remember we ambushed Britt Daniel at the Monolith Music Festival and talked about his new album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (even he had to count on his fingers to get the title right). This one might even be better than the average Spoon album. It seemed like they really expanded their sound here without losing their core. It's great fun.

The Shins hit a high point (and I got them the same day I got my first album of 2007) with Wincing The Night Away. Or I just accepted them into my world. Friends and loved ones already loved them, and they were hugely popular because of Garden State, but I didn't have much interest in them until I decided to have interest in EVERYTHING around this time. And I liked it, some catchiness reminiscent of The Beach Boys, and a great kickoff beat to start the whole thing.

Speaking of a great kickoff beat, how about that LCD Soundsystem? Sound of Silver could have been #1 and maybe if I take everything into account it is now. Just the one-two punch of "Someone Great" and "All My Friends" hit me on such a personal level and are some of my favorite 14 minutes of music.  Surround that with some great party jams and end it with an earnest ballad and you've got a classic on your hands. I don't know how necessary it is for me to write much about this since everyone seems to know about them (how about the hype around their reunion only 5 years after their hiatus?!), but this is really something special.

LCD Soundsystem, "All My Friends"

I feel like !!! started off their still-going streak of greatness with Myth Takes. I really dig their earlier material (and you may recall that their EP/single thing was basically at the top of my list in 2005) but they did what they kind of set out to do. They reached a certain kind of maturity here (keep in mind that they are still as gleefully juvenile as ever with lyrics and antics; I'm talking about the way they handle a groove) that has propelled them way beyond anyone's expectations.

Talib Kweli had a banner year in 2007. He started it off with a free collaborative EP with Madlib. This was kind of what kicked off my interest in Talib, and I ended up ranking the free EP very highly on my year-end list. It felt like nobody remembered it since it came out at the very very beginning of the year, but it sits close to my heart. I'm guessing a big part of that is because he is such a great artist and it was my window to a world of talent. But he also put out a very long, very acclaimed album called Ear Drum. Probably the most successful he has been at the pop thing. I was less interested in it at the time but upon revisiting it, it really works for him. He's tried a few times to be a popular rapper and shed the "conscious" label even though he's so good at that as well.

How are we already to the end of the great Guru? Guru's Jazzmatazz Vol. 4 was released in 2007 and was my real intro to his great voice. His delivery had a certain knowing swagger to it, an authority that makes me take notice. Gang Starr was before my time and just about all of the Jazzmatazz stuff was as well. He came into the studio once and talked about his new vegetarian diet and healthy lifestyle, which made his heart attack just that much more shocking. I don't feel like I'm doing justice to the album or the man, but just give him a listen.

Guru's Jazzmatazz featuring Kem, "Connection"

I finally "got" Kanye West when he put out Graduation. He has gone on to even greater heights, but I just really liked how vulnerable he allowed himself to be (briefly) on this album, it made him human. Plus he'd just dissed George W Bush on national television so he was getting good will from me.

I really really liked American Gangster by Jay-Z. It seemed like he really found some inspiration from that movie and had to put it out there. It's just full of great songs, from the catchy ones (Roc Boys) to the inspired (Pray).

Saul Williams and Trent Reznor released an optionally free album (around the same time as Radiohead)  so I really tried to help get the word out. The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! is a very intense and confrontational album about race in America, with some great production by Trent Reznor. It was like nothing I had heard before, the mix of industrial and beat-poetry-hip-hop, and should have been more successful than it was.

Janelle Monae finally released her EP and the beginning of her Metropolis arc and it was just so great right out the gate. The two follow-up LPs are absolutely amazing, but the kickoff EP is more than just promising. It is a full chapter of greatness, an introduction to a very interesting career indeed.

I didn't really like M.I.A. at first but then we got the video for "Boyz" at the station. As obnoxious as it was, it really dug into my brain and I ended up getting the album. Kala. And I really really got the appeal. Such a fantastic album, including the never-going-out-of-style "Paper Planes."

I picked up a single by Jesca Hoop out of a free bin because it had a quote by Tom Waits. Turns out she worked as a Nanny for Mr. Waits, which is a pretty funny concept to me. But his endorsement was not unfounded. Her debut album Kismet is really something special. I'd call it my introduction to "quirky" female singer-songwriters. Because my ignorant brain always equated them to softer folky stuff. But Jesca Hoop jumps all over the place with her vocals and her production and her rhythms and lyrical content in a way that is so engaging and fun to follow.

Nicole Atkins will always be related in my mind to Jesca Hoop because she was the other great woman singer-songwriter I discovered around the same time. But her stuff is less bouncy and more brooding. I always wanted to edit together a dramatic dance sequence set to "The Way It Is."

Jens Lekman too?? When I first got Night Falls Over Kortedala I thought he was getting too soft. Particularly the front end of the album sounds almost new agey in its mix (despite the usual lyrical brilliance). But it works and you get used to it. Plus this has the very personal song "It Was a Strange Time in My Life," which also takes me back to walking my dog around Congress Park when I lived over there. For whatever reason. I know I listened to that song pretty obsessively and probably listened to the album a few times while doing that.

My #1 album at the time, after much internal debate, was Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? by of Montreal. I have written a lot about this album so I won't spend too much time here except to say that I still love it, and this time around I could really feel the transition from the front end (gleeful depression) and the back end (gleefully shoving that depression back so far you can almost pretend it's not there). Such nuance on an album that feels so much like a circus is quite an accomplishment. Making me feel like a sad clown at a psycho carnival but still wanting to dance and sing along, no wonder it was the best of the best.

And the other other album that could have been #1 with a different order of operations was Mirrored by Battles. When it came out I was producing a show where we talked about the new albums every Tuesday. I took on the research portion myself because I really didn't want to miss anything. I didn't know anything about this band except what I was reading about the pedigrees of the members (including someone from Don Caballero) but it turned out we had a video available! We played this video after I made the host talk about how cool this band was, and that day I went out and bought the album. And listened to it a lot.

(Note: I can't find the video on YouTube so this is just the song)

Battles, "Atlas"

Other Stuff of Note:

• I feel like I'm being a jerk putting Neon Bible by Arcade Fire way down here. It's probably lots of people's favorite album of the year. But to me this is where it felt like they started to believe their own hype. Self importance. Revisiting it 8 years later, my tune has changed a bit and it has a lot of great songs, I just wish it didn't feel like it thought it was as great as it is.
• My official first acquisition was Best Kept Secret by Ultramagnetic MCs. It still took me a long time to get any of their earlier material but I wasn't huge on this anyway. I like the other sides of Kool Keith.
• I didn't listen to Modest Mouse as much as I probably should have but We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank was a good one.
• Dinosaur Jr: same. Beyond is way beyond expectations for a reunion album, it's like they didn't miss a beat.
• Wilco kind of officially went "dad rock" with Sky Blue Sky, but that just means it's something my dad and I would probably both enjoy. I have a specific memory of going to a shoot for work and listening to this album for the first time in a couple weeks and deciding I quite liked the direction they were heading.
• There was an Amnesty International benefiting John Lennon tribute album, and when I was listening to it I was remembering how boring most of the contributors were and I was wondering why I'd bought it. Then I remembered it was a benefit. And also there are a couple gems on there, including a rare Postal Service cover of "Grow Old With Me." That stuff's way at the back though after lots of U2, Christina Aguilera, Aerosmith, etc etc.
• The I'm Not There soundtrack is much more successful. A great Bob Dylan tribute album with heavy Calexico involvement.
• I really dug the party mode White Stripes on Icky Thump after they started taking themselves seriously on the previous album.
• You know how KRS-One is the Teacha? I learned a lot about hip hop just listening to his album with Marley Marl called Hip Hop Lives.
• There's an Evil Dead musical and it came out in 2007. I just got the cast recording to play at our Evil Dead party when the show premiered. Pretty ridiculous but I enjoy much of it.
• I continued to be loyal to CocoRosie even though they just wouldn't quite be exactly what I hoped for.
• I really really wanted to like the Chrisette Michele album but couldn't get beyond the production and the lyrics. Great voice though.
• Simian Mobile Disco, they were pretty awesome.
• Kate Nash writes some pretty interesting songs. At the time she kind of felt like a Lily Allen ripoff but upon further investigation I can appreciate her style and her songwriting is on a much higher level.
• Dirty Projectors' experimental Rise Above is a cool way to do a tribute. But the best is yet to come with them...
• Boxer was my introduction to The National but at the time I just thought it was serviceable indie singer-songwriter stuff. It would take me a bit to really appreciate them.
• I also got back into They Might Be Giants! The Else is a lot of fun.
• The New Pornographers are too damn consistent. Everything feels new and great with them.
• Feist! The Reminder was a great reminder of her powers. "One Two Three Four" was inescapable but the whole album is fantastic. I really should have put this in a full paragraph form. But I love the sound of her voice and the songs and the words and all of it!
• I dug Joss Stone at the time.
• More Nina Nastasia please! 
• Also where I got into Aesop Rock. None Shall Pass was almost too much for me to handle.
• Qui had David Yow in them for a little bit. Love's Miracle is what they have to show for it. One of my more favorite abrasive albums of recent memory.
• Rumblings of some guy named Bon Iver.
• Radiohead too!?!? How much stuff is there to write about?! In Rainbows was that crazy industry changing album (or not) that allowed people to pay what they wanted to a band that was in a position to do something like that. The music itself is quite good.
• Do you like to D.A.N.C.E.? So does Justice!
• Old dudes Paul McCartney and Neil Young remained relevant with some quite good albums.
• Andorra is the end of a certain part of Caribou's trajectory. I dig it.
• I was still sleeping on some Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings at the time but 100 Days, 100 Nights is some classic throwback soul. Obviously.
• Sentai, including former member(s) of Black Eyes, are way too overlooked.
• The Weakerthans too man! Too much stuff.
• Lupe Fiasco's The Cool.

Mix From The Time: 2007 Was It

1. Shellac - The End of Radio

2. Battles - Atlas

3. Blonde Redhead - Silently

4. The Lionheart Brothers - Hero Anthem

5. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends

6. Kanye West - Can't Tell Me Nothing

7. Talib Kweli & Madlib - Time Is Right

8. Animal Collective - For Reverend Green

9. !!! - All My Heroes Are Weirdos

10. Enon - Dr. Freeze

11. Jesca Hoop - Intelligentactile 101

12. Jens Lekman - It Was a Strange Time in My Life

13. M.I.A. - XR2

14. KRS-One and Marley Marl - Nothing New

15. Jay-Z - No Hook

16. of Montreal - A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger

17. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - (Hidden track from the bonus EP)

18. Okkervil River - John Allyn Smith Sails

Next Time:

2008! Great! Breeders! The return of Del! DeVotchKa! Gnarls Barkley! The Roots! She & Him! TV On The Radio! And More! This was the year I was unemployed and got a job and moved to the suburbs so...yay!

An Ear For An Era: 2005

I am very well aware that 2005 was a decade ago. That weighed on my mind as I went through this. 2005 was arguably the best year of my adult life personally. I went through a whirlwind and came out on the other side something resembling a grown up.

2005 was the year I...

• Completed my final film for school
• Graduated from said school
• Moved in with my sister
• Got this very computer I'm typing on right now (it's damned ancient)
• I was trying to log on to myspace to see if I posted my year-end list thing there at the time...and now...my computer is too out-of-date for myspace! 
• Using my phone, it appears that the blog entries might not even be available anymore on myspace, just old pictures and top 8s.
• I could now potentially just sort the music by "date added" and be even more granular in when stuff comes on and all that! Weird! I don't think I'm gonna do it, too many complications. But still weird!
• Joined the hipster scene with the kickball and the dancing and the dancing some more
• Met some of my best friends
• Got that full-time gig at the Internet TV station
• Moved into my first studio apartment in Denver
• Met my wife
• Went on our first date
• All that jazz.

I remember in college I kept thinking I was doing it all wrong. I did not party, I did not drink until I was 21, I just went to class and didn't have many friends. Spent a lot of evenings alone. Went to a lot of shows at least. Then senior year I finally started hanging out with the friends I should have been hanging out with the whole time. But really, when people refer to college as "the best  years of [their] life," I just thought I wasn't having the fun I was supposed to be having. But then the summer of 2005, when the freedom just hit me, that was when I had that experience. Out of school, paying very little rent to my sister, working for very little money but it was okay (and having a crazy schedule, 4am-noon), going out multiple times per week, it was a very good year.

Is it time to talk about music now? I am scared of doing this.  I started listening to 2005 a month and a half ago. It took awhile. There was a lot. So I apologize if I'm short-worded on some of this stuff. Some of it was so long ago.

It was a pretty significant year in music. If 2003 was the end of my punk/"emo" dominated days, 2004 was the big dance year, then 2005 was when I went full hipster with the indie rock. But still lots of dancing. Lots of indie dance rock, if you will. So let's start there.

Remember Datarock? They were goofy. But "Computer Camp Love" was fun and quoted Revenge of the Nerds. Witching Hour by Ladytron had the hit "Destroy Everything You Touch." They ended up having a lot of really great songs. I also closely associate Goldfrapp with them. Supernature was one of their bigger hits. Both of those groups had already established themselves over the years before and had mature albums, great craft, and just kind of owned the synthy indie dance stuff in 2005. Fischerspooner held up surprisingly well. Or it was just coasting on my nostalgia. But Odyssey was fully entertaining to listen to all the way through. The Juan Maclean's got a groove for sure. But of course there's the other half of the DFA coin...LCD Soundsystem just blew the whole thing up for me. Their debut self-titled full length was such a blast of fresh beats. I kind of got sick of the inescapable single "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House" but upon revisiting it, it makes me want to jump all over the dance floor with all my friends. But the rest of the album is great. "Movement" is a great rock song, and the beat to "Thrills" will get stuck in your feet.


My second favorite album of the year was even less of an album than my #1 (to be seen later in this entry). It was a single! Kind of a double sided single. Two songs available only on this single. And both covers. Okay, enough teasing. !!! put out a cover of The Magnetic Fields' "Take Ecstasy With Me" backed by a cover of Nate Dogg's "Get Up." And it took everything I loved about !!! into two separate but equal directions. I've given both of the songs five stars. The most consistent the band has been (not that consistency over two songs is a great accomplishment). "Take Ecstasy With Me" takes the essence of the Magnetic Fields song and spaces it out and turns it into a real ecstatic experience. Then "Get Up" is a pure party track with a huge build to a huge ecstatic climax.

 

!!! "Get Up"

Metric was a favorite of my wife's. "Monster Hospital" is a pretty undeniably awesome track. I liked the new New Order album Waiting for the Sirens' Call..."Krafty" showed that they still could pack a dance floor.


And just like, indie indie. You know? Indie like indie rock or whatever. One song that persisted in my brain for weeks after hearing it here was this one:

The Decemberists "16 Military Wives"

It's just so damn catchy and beyond that, it demonstrated to me the power of a great protest song that didn't have to be punk rock. It can be catchy pop folk music. I remember we played this video a lot. But this time, listening to it again, it just reminded me of my rage over the Iraq war and it just fired me up. And made me mad about it all over again. That is one powerful song. The rest of the album is quite good but that song in particular wouldn't get out of my head. And now I'm listening to it again so that's sure to happen again. I forgot to put the band's name in here to bold it. The Decemberists. Great group.

When Sufjan Stevens released Illinois, I was concerned with one thing: how could I make money off this thing? See, right before the album came out there were news reports about a last minute change to the cover art, and how for copyright reasons they were trying to recall the cover art that included an image of Superman. There were stories of the version with Superman going for lots of money on eBay. And I went to my favorite local record store and there was the version with Superman! So I bought a few copies and left them unopened. Then I heard the album was good so I opened one copy for myself. Then I found out that the Superman version was really not that rare, just the first pressing. So I had a few extra copies. Luckily, I had a few friends to give them to. The moral of the story? Buy this album (with or without Superman on the cover). Because it is amazing, as many know. It's not some big secret. An album of folk songs accented by lush orchestral arrangements. Some of the saddest songs and some of the most joyous. All beautiful. And since Illinois, every major album he has put out has been nothing short of a masterpiece. This is where it started for me. I'm glad I hatched my hair-brained money making scheme because it ended with me having a copy of this album.

Sufjan Stevens "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead! Ahhh!"

In early 2005, since I was kind of keeping track of when music came out, I reluctantly let Bright Eyes be my first 2005 album. It's always such an honor in my mind, being the one that kicks off the music of that year for me. I'd always been pretty skeptical of Bright Eyes, but I liked Desaparecidos so I figured I'd check out his "electronic" type album Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. You know, anything to kind of mask the whiny voice because I can admit that he is a good lyricist and songwriter, I just couldn't stand that voice. But he has gotten better at that and later in the year I learned from my new girlfriend that his folky album (he put out the same day) I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning was actually a better album and showed a new level of maturity and has a bunch of really good songs on it. Fine, Bright Eyes. You win.

And Okkervil River. Black Sheep Boy was kind of the peak of their slower, folkier period. I would become a huge fan on the next one when it was a bit more rock, but going back to Black Sheep Boy is such a pleasure. Just absolutely brilliant.

A guy in my film class found out I liked The Pixies so he realized I had impeccable taste in music. Once when we were at the hipster bar he was telling me about Spoon, and how I HAD to check out Gimme Fiction because it is just amazingly amazing. I listened to him and got the album. And then couldn't get away from "I Turn My Camera On" at work. But still. I'm glad I got it because he turned me on to who may be the most consistently great band in indie rock.

Another consistently great band in indie rock is Sleater-Kinney. This year (2015) there was all that hype around their new album, their first since 2005. And the hype was justified because it is simply amazing and they didn't lose a beat over those 10 years off. But The Woods, that's...also simply amazing. I think they are one of the truly great guitar based bands of our time. By guitar based I mean really guitar based. They use it as more than just filler or a necessary sound...they really make the guitar mean something and it's just so much fun to hear. I probably could have written that better. But they couldn't have written The Woods better (see what I did there? Lazy, I know).

The album I ended up voting as my #1 of the year was an odd choice. An EP that wasn't particularly groundbreaking but just had two artists combine their visions into one in such a perfect way. I'm talking about Iron & Wine and Calexico and their collaborative EP In The Reins. I'd gone into it as an Iron & Wine fan. They also had the Woman King EP this year which had them incorporating a lot more sounds into the once minimalist folk music. I was familiar with Calexico, but on the strength of this EP I became a big fan, particularly in every album they put out going forward. But what was it about this EP that drew me in so strongly?  Just the perfect compliment of Iron & Wine's lyrics and vocals with the southwestern flavor of Calexico's instrumentation? It's even a subtle thing for the most part. A slide guitar here, some moody atmospheric percussion there. Calexico's not stepping on anyone's toes. Sam Beam has a delicate voice and they compliment it just perfectly.

Calexico and Iron & Wine "Sixteen, Maybe Less"

CocoRosie followed up their great debut with Noah's Ark. The album itself was a small disappointment for me personally. Like my idea of what the band should sound like, how they should evolve, was different from the direction they evolved into. In retrospect it is a solid album, but when I first heard the single "Noah's Ark" before the album came out, I loved it so much and the rest of the album couldn't live up to it. Here is my ideal version of CocoRosie:

CocoRosie "Noah's Ark"

The joy of The New Pornographers on Twin Cinema, it doesn't get much better than that. Every time I hear the coda to "The Bleeding Heart Show" I can't help but bang on my steering wheel/leg/whatever's available as hard as I can and sing at the top of my lungs. So damned catchy! The dictionary definition of power pop, if you ask me. Underline the word power. And the word pop. Twice. Put a few exclamation marks at the end of it too, why not.

The White Stripes. I finally got into them with Get Behind Me Satan. I listened to that album a lot. I think at the time I didn't acquire a ton of music so what I got I listened to a lot. In the car on my daily commute. And my nightly commute back into Denver to party. You know. Anyway, I remember this album was on in my car a lot. I really liked "My Doorbell" and the video with Conan. Was that for "The Denial Twist?" I think so. Catchy songs. And lots of more low tempo songs. I liked the kiss-off vibe of "I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)."

Other stuff happened too! Like hip hop!

Blackalicious released their follow-up to the brilliant The Blazing Arrow and did everything one could hope for.  Full of bangers, full of catchiness, The Craft was kind of a victory lap but in a very acceptable way. Not the cohesive, singular statement but just an expression of...the craft. Good songs. Great songs even. Fun songs. Fun Fact: this was the first album I ever ripped to this computer.

Beauty & The Beat by Edan was quite brilliant, very good recommendation (but I do need to listen to it more). 

Is this where I put Gorillaz? When Demon Days came out I felt bad for Dan the Automator but I don't know what politics or personal relationships were involved when Damon Albarn went to Danger Mouse to produce this one. I think at this point Danger Mouse was just known for The Grey Album. So Demon Days, the 2005 Gorillaz album, started his hot streak of being on top of the crossover pop world. "Feel Good Inc" and "Dare" were such hot tracks and more or less defined the year in pop music. I ended up liking it more for the darker songs (the vast majority of the album).



I guess it makes sense to use this to transition to Danger Doom. The other big Danger Mouse production of the year. I was already a fan of the Adult Swim stuff so it was just a fun, silly album to listen to that had Brak rapping on it. And Meatwad, he was pretty good. But it was also really my introduction to MF DOOM and turned out to be more than just a novelty. And Talib Kweli was on that track which was just so great and maybe that was my introduction to Talib Kweli. And Ghostface. Really it introduced me to a whole other side of hip hop.


Hey, who's this Kanye West guy? Late Registration is such a great piece, even if I got oh so sick of "Gold Digger" and Jamie Foxx doing his Ray Charles impersonation (though he was great in the movie). We should keep an eye on this dude though, I think he's going to say and do some interesting things in the public eye and if we don't pay attention he might just disappear. Seriously though, Late Registration was the last Kanye album I was late to, so it's still one I need to pay more attention to, but all of the singles are so great and there's not really a weak track on the thing.


Also Notable...

• Sharon Jones! I didn't know who she was until '07 but Natually is a good collection of throwback soul goodness.
• Similarly, Bettye LaVette!
• Common! I'd heard about him because in some American music class some classmates did a project about him and praised him for being all progressive and whatnot. So then Be came out. And it's got stellar Kanye production and that "Testify" song. We played that one a lot at the ol' station.
• Coldplay sucks! So for some reason Amazon once thought it'd be fun to charge like a buck each for their albums so I went for it. Mostly so I could have the relics when I was doing this project, this is what 2005 sounded like to the mainstream or whatever. But all I could think while this played was, why did I pay money, as little as it was, for Coldplay music? Why is this taking up space on my hard drive(s) and why is it taking up my time when I could be listening to something else? I think I'm gonna get rid of it...
• When The Buzzcocks were at the studio a Wolfmother song played and the guys liked it and asked about it. So ManiaTV!, amongst our other accomplishments, introduced Wolfmother to The Buzzcocks! Umm anyway, Wolfmother is pretty neat sounding. A better mainstreamish rock band of 2005 than stupid Coldplay.
• Jens Lekman gave away free downloads of a bunch of tour EPs and let me tell you...they have some of his catchiest material. Check out "Run Away With Me."
• Beck too, Guero might be my favorite Beck album. Certainly among the most fun he's put out.
• I liked Frances the Mute by The Mars Volta, but it was a bit tough and too proggy and it turned out to be the last Mars Volta album I actually bought.
• TV On The Radio put out a free song called "Dry Drunk Emperor" and I loved it and made everyone at work listen to it a lot.
• Animal Collective, they were on to something with Feels.
• Antony & The Johnsons, how great were they??
• Yeah Yeah of Montreal, The Sunlandic Twins. Their last album before I found out about them! "The Party's Crashing Us" is great fun though.
• Old favorites Polysics moved from Asian Man Records to Myspace Records (???) and reached a strange level of popularity and it was weird. But it resulted in them playing a show in Denver so I got to see them live, so I am super appreciative that it worked out that way. Now Is The Time isn't quite as great as Neu, but it's still a lot of fun and resulted in opportunities to introduce them to more people.
• No more Black Eyes but Hand Fed Babies, one of many offshoots, were pretty great.
• Remember that "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?" song? That was ridiculous.
• Bruce Lee Band EP! Acceptable ska. But I do like their next one (just came out recently!) better.
• Kaiser Chiefs were another good "Target" band that I checked out because they were cheap at Target. Lame I know. But like Franz Ferdinand, I ended up liking it way more than I'd ever have expected.
• Speaking of Franz Ferdinand, that second album was also quite good!
• Thunderbirds Are Now! Turned out to be Jess' friends but I discovered them when they opened up for Enon. That Justamustache album is audio crack.
• Junior Senior put out a second album too! It's entertaining too!
• Bang Bang Rock & Roll by Art Brut was one of the most fun releases of the fun year, and whenever "My Little Brother" came on at Lipgloss or other such dance nights I would go so crazy. I could see myself as the little brother who just discovered rock & roll.
• When M.I.A. came out with Arular (and the infectious "Galang") I didn't know what to think. I didn't particularly care for it. But after finally "getting it" with the follow-up album, I came back to Arular and realized it was quite amazing. 
• I was just looking through the stuff from a future year and discovered that Robyn's self-titled album was actually 2005. So I then listened that. "Konichiwa Bitches" is still a huge blast to listen to. Of course, she's more known for the great progressive-ish pop of her recent Body Talk series, but the level of sass hits some dangerous levels here in '05. Irresistible.
  

EDIT: I can do this now!
2005 Mix From 2005:
It Was 2005
1. LCD Soundsystem "Daft Punk is Playing at My House"
2. Thunderbirds Are Now! "Eat This City"
3. Franz Ferdinand "Do You Want To"
4. The New Pornographers "The Jessica Numbers"
5. The Kaiser Chiefs "What Did I Ever Give You"
6. Bright Eyes "Hit the Switch"
7. CocoRosie "Noah's Ark"
8. !!! "Take Ecstasy With Me"
9. Gorillaz "O Green World"
10. Danger Doom feat. Ghostface "The Mask"
11. Blackalicious feat. Lateef & Pigeon John "Side to Side"
12. Fischerspooner "Never Win"
13. Out Hud "The Song So Good They Named It Thrice"
14. New Order "Krafty"
15. The White Stripes "I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)"
16. Sufjan Stevens "Casimir Pulaski Day"
17. Calexico and Iron & Wine "Dead Man's Will"

Next Time:
Amy Winehouse's big breakout, those Arctic Monkeys, remember Bat for Lashes? And one of my favorite Belle & Sebastian albums! Beth Orton's angelic voice made me swoon. Big Bob Dylan combeback. Cursive come on back, I finally get really into The Decemberists, the crazy Gnarls Barkley, Hank III's finest moment (perhaps), The Hold Steady, Islands, Dilla's Donuts, SexyBack, The Knife, the last Lawrence Arms album for awhile, remember Lily Allen? Food & Liquor was good! Nas was hip hop's coroner, Neko Case's brilliant Fox Confessor album, Pipettes, Game Theory (!), Teddybears, Yo La Tengo is not afraid of you, and MUCH more. These are getting really long you guys.