the finest kiss

One more list before the lights go out on 2007, this one is for my favorite songs of the year. I purposefully made this list mutually exclusive with my albums list. So if you made a great album this year you were automatically disqualified from this list. I guess it’s kind of a cheat, but why tread over the same ground. A lot of great stuff either came out as a single, ep, or was buried on album that didn’t make my top 20 for the year. All of the above is what this list is for.

1. Wire - 23 Years Too Late [mp3]
This is the first song from read and burn 03, and the band say none of these songs will appear on their record slated for release next year. If this wasn’t good enough for the album, then the album will be amazing.
2. Ida Maria - Oh My God [mp3]
I’ve posted this song and written about this Swedish, nee Norwegian songstress/rock ‘n roll goddess a ton already. First album due in ‘08, don’t say I didn’t warn you….
3. Shit Disco - Another [mp3]
I saw their album on a few year end lists. Not mine, but this song got a lot of play. It’s about coffee, or is it? No matter, their Gang of Four sound totally caffeinates the song.
4. Ladybug Transistor - Always on the Telephone [mp3]
This shouldn’t have been the first song on their album, because how do you follow up such a great song? You don’t.
5. New Pornographers - Myriad Harbour [mp3]
Dan Bejar writes 2 or 3 songs for each New Pornographers’s album, no surprise. He totally steals the album this time and Myriad Harbour is the best of his 3 contributions. Kind of a surprise when you’re competing with Carl Newman and Neko Case.
6. MIA - Bamboo Banga [mp3]
Anyone who yanks Jonathon Richmond’s lyrics from Road Runner and makes them her own, has my undying affection.
7. Kristofer Åström - A Little Insane [mp3]
  Swede and (country) rocker Åström shows us his No Depression side, and it makes for a catchy combination.
8. Von Sudenfed - Chicken Yiamas [mp3]
Mark E Smith teams up with Mouse on Mars and reinvents the Fall, only he calls it Von Sudenfed.
9. The Answering Machine - Silent Hotels [mp3]
Another one from a band I’m anxiously awaiting a full album.
10. British Sea power - Atom [mp3]
I knew they had it in them, this song harks back to the maelstrom of their early singles, Spirit of St Louis and Childhood Memories.

11. Bees - (This is for The) Better Days
12. Watoo Watoo - Perdu
13. Dizzee Rascal - Hardback
14. Calvin Harris - Acceptable in the 80’s
15. Mary Onettes - Void
16. Shaky Hands - Why and How Come
17. Let’s Wrestle! - I Wish I was in Husker Du
18. Legroscube vs. Katerine - Le Jardin Boutanique
19. The Sleeping Years - You And Me Against The World
20. 1990’s - Arcade Precinct
21. Tegan and Sara - Hop a Plane
22. Bella - Give it a Night
23. Park Hotell- Born a Thief
24. The Shins - Sea Legs
25. Jason Falkner - The Knew
26. Fionn Regan - Put a Penny In the Slot
27. The Plasticines - Loser
28. Maximo Park - Our Velocity
29. It Hugs Back - Carefully
30. Radio Luxembourg - Eli Haul

Here’s what I was listening to. One of my criteria for getting onto this list was that you had to release two good albums in 2007. Not really the case, but it seems like a bunch of people had not one, but two good albums in them this year. It was actually hard to pick a top 20, there were at least 10 more records that could have nudged their way into this year end list. My first impression after compiling this thing is that Merge Records is very well represented here. It wasn’t intentional, it’s just that label just seems to get better and better. With the success of Arcade Fire and now Spoon they’ve got the cash-ola to keep bands on even when they don’t break it big after their first or second album and also have them tour a lot. Keep up the good work Merge!

Mp3’s are up until 2008 and then they turn into pumpkins. And for the buy links, I’ve linked to the label if it’s an indie, and if not, the link is to where the best price and most reliable mail I could find. Of course you can always make a trip down to your local record shop to get most of these, instant gratification can be a good thing.

1. Pelle Carlberg - In a Nutshell
In a nutshell, this is a great album. Pelle Carlberg has been making records for a while now, but he totally hit his stride with his second solo record. It’s funny, heart wrenching, and very clever. You get an excellent duet with Ida Maria, a song about Mike Joyce of the Smiths and a one that Billy Bragg coulda written in Middleclass kid. Throw in the fact that this album contains my son’s favorite song of the year (he’s nearly killed it for me he’s played it so many times) Crying all the Way to the Pawnshop! It has literally been in the stereo since April.

mp3: I Love You, You Imbecile
buy: Pelle Carlberg - In a Nutshell

2. Sondre Lerche - Phantom Punch/Dan In Real Life
Really the number two album here is Phantom Punch, but the soundtrack to Dan in Real Life is so good that you should hear that too. Phantom Punch was a total departure for Lerche, adding power to his pop, think Jason Falkner, and Elvis Costello. In fact when I first heard Phantom Punch I immediately though of Falkner and how he can create a pop song that on the surface is so basic and catchy, and only on subsequent listens do you begin to appreciate the complexity of musicianship. Each song is like a erm, Phantom Punch. Get Phantom Punch, and have your socks knocked off.

mp3: Airport, Taxi, Reception
buy: Sondre Lerche - Phantom Punch

3. Electrelane - No Shouts No Calls
Like they know what they’re doing, Electrelane decided to call it a day after releasing their best album yet. Going out at the top, at least at your artistic pinnacle is definitely the way to go. At first I thought that they had made the girl version of Up for a Bit with the Pastels, but the more I listened I realized they had just incorporated more pop hooks into their kraut crossed sonic youth infused guitar grooves. What resulted was an Electrelane record you could not only groove to, but one you could sing along to as well.

mp3: Electrelane - To the East
buy: Electrelane - No Shouts No Calls

4. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
From the beginning stolen guitar riff from the Cure’s 10:15 on a Saturday Night to the Tubular Bells feel of the Ghost of You Lingers to the Motown horns of You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb to the Billy Joel sound of the Underdog, and then the nothing but Spoon influencing themselves of Don’t You Evah and Japanese Cigarette Case, this album stole from some great sources and made them all their own. I remember thinking when I first heard it that I’d be tired of it in a month because it was so immediate, the hooks were right out in front just asking to be snatched up, but it’s December now and these songs still stand up and sound just as fresh as the first listen. It’s a record that the Britt Daniel and Jim Eno had been building to all along and in the end it’s Spoon pure and simple and one of the best American rock n’ roll records in a very long while.

mp3: Spoon - Don’t You Evah
buy: Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

5. Arthur & Yu - In Camera
Steeped in sounds of the 60’s, something of a cross of the Velvet Underground and the Free design, this album is a study in a melancholy sound that even sounds like it was recorded somewhere on a dusty road. It wasn’t really a dusty road where it was recorded, but at home and I think that’s what makes it so immediate and warm, these songs burst out of your speakers and take you back to a time where you actually listend to music on your stereo…beautiful stuff.

mp3: Arthur & Yu - Come To View (Song For Neil Young)
buy: Arthur & Yu - In Camera

6. hollAnd - The Paris Hilton Mujahideen/Love Fluxus
I suppose if push came to shove, I’d pick PHM, but barely. After nothing for something like five years, this year we got two albums from Trevor Kampan’s hollAnd. Both albums are cut from the same minimalist cloth, with lyrical bent being the only real difference between the two records. PHM takes a political, anti war them while Love Fluxus is more about L.O.V.E. Put them together and you get an excellent double album worthy of the title Love and War, only much shorter.

mp3: hollAnd- Anna Winter Stasi
buy: hollAnd - The Paris Hilton Mujahideen/Love Fluxus

7. Caribou - Andorra
Why this album is found in the electronic section of every record store, I will never know. Dan Snaith has forsaken his previous electronic bedroom creations and gone full on psychedelic shoegaze with a real band. Granted those psychedelic, shoegaze sounds could be found on previous Manitoba/Caribou albums, but this is the first record that he’s made that will hold you by the collar from start to finish. If A.R. Kane were still around today, they would be in Caribou.

mp3: Caribou - She’s the One
buy: Caribou - Andorra

8. Gruff Rhys - Candylion
It may seem a little strange, me picking this album as #8 instead of Gruff’s full time Super Furry Animals Hey Venus. Where Hey Venus seemed like the band weren’t sure what direction to go, Candylion suffers no such problem. Gruff new exactly what he was aiming for with this acoustic flavored, Moricone crossed with Donovan collection of songs. What is even stranger about this album for me was that it wasn’t the excellent pop hooks of Candylion or King Arthur that kept me coming back, but the 16 minute Skylon!, a tale about a bomb disposal expert that saves the day,hooks up with the actress, and has a love child all on a single flight. Rhys is full of ideas and this album contains some of his best.

mp3: Gruff Rhys - Skylon!
buy: Gruff Rhys - Candylion

9. Timo Räisänen - Love Will Turn You Around
A majority of the pop music coming out of Sweden is heavily influence by the UK scene of the late 80’s. Timo Räisänen has a bit of that going on, but he’s more in tune with some of the hair bands of that time too. Maybe it’s his voice which can easily slip into a falsetto, that makes me think of Asia, Journey or even Europe. I know by writing that last sentence, may have caused your eyes to roll, but I mean those comparisons in the best possible way. It’s the heartfelt angst of his delivery, really that reminds me of those bands, the rest of it is pure Swedish pop pleasure.

mp3: Timo Räisänen - Sweet Marie
buy: Timo Räisänen - Love Will Turn You Around

10. The Clientele - God Save the Clientele
The Clientele haven’t changed a whole lot since their first recordings on Suburban Light, but each album sees the band adding a little something new to make it just a little bit different. This one was recorded in Nashville with Mark Nevers (of Lambchop) with Louis Philippe providing string arrangements again. They’ve become a foursome, adding Mel Draisy to fill out their sound on keyboards and violin. It’s all the same, yet different. Nothing here is going to make you a Clientele fan if you weren’t already, but if you already are a fan, then you know that this is easily the best Clientele of them all hands down.

mp3: The Clientele - Bookshop Casanova
buy: The Clientele - God Save the Clientele

11. Monkey Swallows the Universe - The Casket Letters
The second album in this list by a band that decided to go on infinite hiatus. Unlike Electrelane, Monkey Swallows the Universe specialize in acoustic based rock. No sophomore slump here, in fact the band greatly improved on their debut with a more confident sounding record that wasn’t afraid to be beautiful and quiet on Statutory Rights, or rock out like on Mary & Elizabeth. But don’t miss the stand out duet on this album the Ballad of the Bride. Sorry to see this band leave us, just as they seemed to be hitting their stride. Main monkey Nat Johson looks like she may be going solo, check out her myspace page for the latest.

mp3: Monkey Swallows the Universe - Statutory Rights
buy: Monkey Swallows the Universe - The Casket Letters

12. The Rakes - 10 new Messages
Unfortunately this never saw the light of day in the US. I remember when it was released back in March, a lot of people didn’t think it was as good as Capture/Release and so it seemed to fall along the wayside. Yes it’s not as good as their debut, but it’s still really good. The first half of the record is nearly flawless with Trouble, We Danced Together, and the World Was a Mess. The Rakes were trying to stretch their legs a bit and try to go beyond the one trick post punk pony, and they largely succeed. I still don’t know what the song When Tom Cruise Cries is all about though.

mp3: The Rakes - Trouble
buy: The Rakes - 10 new Messages

13. Euros Childs - Bore Da/Miracle Inn
Another guy that thought one album in a year was not enough. Bore Da is this former Gorky Zygot Mynci’s Welsh album and Miracle Inn is the English one. Which one is better and really number 13? I choose the double album that has The Welsh answer to the Beatles Good Morning (Bore Da), Henry A Matilda Supermarketsuper, Over You and the M Ward-ish Horse Riding. You really should have both.

mp3: Euros Childs - Henry A Matilda Supermarketsuper
buy: Euros Childs - Bore Da/Miracle Inn

14. Shout Out Louds - Our Ill Wills
The first thing I always seem to read about the Shout Out Louds is that singer Adam Olenius sounds like Robert Smith of the Cure. Yes he does but no one was saying that around the time of Howl Howl Gaff Gaff. This album trades in the power pop crunching guitars for more moody numbers, and I suppose that Our Ill Wills’ mid-80’s influences of New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen, and yes, the Cure, bring out that voice resemblance more on Our Ill Wills. There are some great string arrangements on Normandie and South America, but The song that made this album for me was Hard Rain. It’s the last one on the record and is 7 minutes and 27 seconds of great guitar, cowbell and moodiness.

mp3: Shout Out Louds - Hard Rain
buy: Shout Out Louds - Our Ill Wills

15. Emma Pollock - Watch the Fireworks
I’ve said this before, that I think this album is better than anything the Delgados ever did. I probably shouldn’t repeat that, because I know there are a lot of Delgados fans out there. I always appreciated the Delgados, but their music never really reached out and grabbed me like Fireworks did this year. With it’s straightforward pop songs that have a slight country feel (Here Comes the Heartbreak), or reminiscent of label mates the Throwing Muses (Acid Test), or a more close to home Delgados sound (New Land), she does it all and does it all very well.

mp3: Emma Pollock - Here Comes the Heartbreak
buy: Emma Pollock - Watch the Fireworks

16. Pants Yell! - Alison Statton
Indie Pop is funny thing (at least with me) if it’s too twee it makes me roll my eyes and pass it by, Even bands that seem to have all the right ingredients and influences like Voxtrot can fall short. When it’s done right, and I don’t know what right is, I just know it when I hear it, it can be oh so good. These guys have got it going on (save the name), excellent use of horns, a good singer, cool organ and a tight sound, obscure references, and those horns! (yeah, I know I already mentioned them, but they really are killer). They’ve got a little Lucksmiths thing going on, I’m convinced that the beginning of Reject, Reject is a Lucksmiths song. If you’ve got 10 bucks and don’t know what to do with it, go out and buy this record, it will make you happy.

mp3: Pants Yell! - More Purple
buy: Pants Yell! - Alison Statton

17. Richard Hawley - Lady’s Bridge
More of the same quipped many reviews for Lady’s Bridge. Yeah, but when you have a back catalog like Richard Hawley that’s a pretty big compliment. His fourth album doesn’t so much break any new ground, but it does incorporate some new things like rockabilly on Serious, and politics on Tonight the Streets are Ours. What is amazing is that Hawley seems to knock these records off without breaking a sweat, solid record after solid record, and Lady’s Bridge is no different.

mp3: Richard Hawley - The Sun Refused to Shine
buy: Richard Hawley - Lady’s Bridge

18. The Fine Arts Showcase - Sings the Rough Bunnies
What do you do when you are obsessed with a band and you have a band of your own? Well if you’re Gustaf Kjellvander, you record an entire album of that band’s songs. Rough Bunnies songs are striped down affairs and the Fine Arts Showcase dress them up a bit, giving them a more fleshed out sound. It seemed a little odd when I first heard of this project. Why do Fine Arts Showcase cover a bunch of someone else’s songs when their own stuff is so good.? The album turned out so well, I don’t ask that question anymore.

mp3: Fine Arts Showcase - Word of Love
buy: Fine Arts Showcase - Sings Rough Bunnies

19. Richard Swift - Dressed Up for the Letdown
The Kinks? Harry Nilson? The Beatles? Elton John? I know, I know those names are thrown around quite a bit when describing bands and singers. Richard Swift rightly deserves the comparisons, and this album should be heard by more than just a few music geeks. Swift specializes in the oh so depressing beautiful pop song with lots of horns and piano to move things along under the cover of what sounds like a happy pop song. Dressed up for the Let down is cut from the same cloth as last years excellent Beneath the Branches from Kelley Stoltz, more good company to be in.

mp3: Richard Swift - The Songs of National Freedom
buy: Richard Swift - Dressed Up for the Letdown

20. The Elephants - The Elephants
A late entry in this years album race, but the Elephants happy, feel-good pop songs quickly won me over. This Danish band’s self-titled debut was packed full of high energy songs, powered by boy-girl vocals, harmonicas, twangy guitars, banjos, strings and the very important hand claps. If they would have thrown in the kitchen sink this may have charted higher.

mp3: The Elephants - Caroline Knows
buy: The Elephants - The Elephants

I know it’s a little late to be talking about best of lists for 2006, but I’m going to anyway. Seattle’s go-to website for indie music is Three Imaginary Girls. This site focuses on mostly music from the Pacific Northwest, giving us record reviews, interviews and a comprehensive concert calendar for Seattle. Each year they they do a poll for the best NW releases, and each year that I’ve lived here I’ve voted. With the Decemberists, Pearl Jam and Band of Horses all having records out this year I fully expected to see them 1-3 or at least in the top five. What I didn’t expect was to see Boat at number 1, but that’s exactly what happened. I don’t know if it’s because we’ere a bunch of contrarians up here, or we just appreciate the obscure, you gotta hand it to Pacific Northwesterners, or at least readers of the Three Imaginary Girls, they’re always out there looking for new music. I don’t know how many people voted in the pole, but I find it refreshing and a bit crazy that Boat beat out the likes of the Decemberists and Band of Horses. And no it’s not what you’re thinking, I only voted once!

Here’s the top 10

1 BOAT Songs - That You Might Not Like
2 The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
3 The Long Winters - Putting the Days to Bed
4 Band Of Horses - Everything All the Time
5 The Thermals - The Body, The Blood, The Machine
6 Built to Spill - You In Reverse
7 The Trucks - The Trucks
8 Math & Physics Club - Math and Physics Club
9 Viva Voce - Get Yr Blood Sucked Out
10 The Gossip - Standing In the Way of Control

Check out 11-50 at the Three Imaginary Girls

After making this year’s list, I went back and found my year end lists of the last 5 years.  I think I started geeking out and making a best of list back in 1996.  In 96 and 97, I did a show on WCDB and counted them down.  In 98 and 99 I wrote them down on scraps of paper and told anyone that would listen.  So this starts with 2005 and goes back to 2000.  The 2000 list really isn’t a list so much as a rant against how bad the year was for music.  Although looking back on that rant, I want to take back everything I said about the band Moose.  I really like High Ball Me and actually think it is one of their better records.  I’d also like to retract the bad things I said about Babybird’s Bugged album, because I’ve since come around to that record as well.

There are likely a bunch of albums on these lists that I no longer like and never listen to…Razorlight comes to mind. 

Anyway, Click the link to check out my best of lists for 2000 through 2005, the pre-blog days.

Continue reading Never Look Back or the Pre-Blog Days…

Every music geek loves to make up a good list, and I am no exception. I know, how predictable is that, eh? It seems like everybody with a blog is putting out a top whatever of 2006. It’s kinda cool, because inevitably you get turned on to something you totally missed in the past year. Largehearted Boy is keeping track of all these lists over here. Seeing how many lists there are is a little overwhelming, but overwhelming or not, I’m adding to the cacophony.

1. Blumfled - Verbotene Fruchte
Blumfeld have been around since the early 90’s quietly putting out superb records in their native Germany (with a one leaking out to the US, L’etat et Moi back in ‘95). This could be the best record they have made in their career. It has the familiar elements of the 50’s garage rock, but their sound has developed over the years to incorporate piano, keyboards and even prog-ish elements like in Atem und Fliesch. No matter the genre, Blumfeld like to sink their teeth onto a good riff and ride it, while Jochen sings in German, dropping in a English phrase here and there. Though the entire album is sung in German, language should not be a barrier to you listening to this record, cuz it’s the language of rock and roll that Blumfeld use!

2. The Whitest Boy Alive - Dreams
You may have heard of Erlend Øye from his main band Kings of Convenience. Apparently Erlend got tired of the electronics, because this band consists solely of guitar, bass and drums. It’s a soup of American Analog Set, Steely Dan and Joe Jackson and is totally different from anything he’s done. It’s a soulful, funky, and anxious record with a simplicity you don’t find in a lot of stuff these days.

3. The Fine Arts Showcase - Radiola
Not really a band but a vehicle for Gustaf Kjellvander to amaze you. This is such a gentle melancholic record. It’s actually down right sad, but his soothing voice and pop hooks carry you through it. He’s a Swede that grew up in Seattle and now lives in London, and you can hear that excellent pedigree in his songs.

4. Kelley Stoltz - Below the Branches
Kelley moved into an apartment that had an old abandoned piano in it. He decided to write the songs for Below the Branches on it and he came up with a masterpiece. It’s sparse, spartan, percussive yet has a warmth and playfulness to it that conveys his on stage personality. The songs are catchy as hell. Listen this a few times and you will be humming the songs throughout the cold winter months.

5. Figurines - Skeleton
The reviews I read most about these guys was that they were carrying the torch of grunge. But they are oh so much more than that. I hear a bit of Dire Straits, Elbow, a bit o’ country, a little Beach Boys, some Creedence and some emo. The Figurines defy the grunge categroization, by drawing on a lot of musical history for Skeleton. I wholeheartedly agree with the Danish government in giving them a grant to make this music!

6. The Essex Green - Cannibal Sea
On their third record, the voices of  Sasha Bell and Christopher Ziter has totally clicked, hearing them sing these songs will put a smile on your face. Think the Mamas & Papas, Free Design and the Byrds, or for a contemporary reference, Sweden’s Acid House Kings. Bell’s voice really makes this record a winner, her timeless voice just sounds divine. This jem is out there just waiting for you to pick up and give it a home.

7. Mojave 3 - Puzzles Like You
I had nearly lost hope for these guys, their last record was a total snooze. But never lose hope (that’s what I say), they totally re-thought what they were doing and came up with beauty of a pop record. It still has that easy60’s SoCal sound, and Rachel Goswell’s not to be missed harmonies. This is hands down the best record in Mojave 3’s career(and the #7 best record of my year).

8. Brakes - The Beatific Visions
Leave it to UK band to put out the best war protest record of the year. Brakes record #2 surpasses their first by being a bit more refined, but still spewing loads of vitriol. The music is still a combination of punk, country and rock, but everything seems a bit more fleshed out this time. With the first lines of the record, ‘I woke up late and found my liberty lost, it had been written down in lore as a security cost’, you can tell that Eamon Hamilton is still good and mad at the U.S. government. He uses his anger as a muse throughout Beatific Vision to excellent effect. If you’re not mad as hell about the Bush administration and their bogus war, you will be after listing to the Brakes.

9. Human Television - Look at Who You’re Talking To
If you remember stuff by Dumptruck, the Feelies, the Bats and early REM and wonder why nobody makes records like that anymore, then this record may be the thing for you. It’s got jangling, chiming guitars and wistful lyrics that evoke that era, but put a modern day spin to it updating the sound with a bit of feedback and a nod to shoegazing. You’ll feel like your back in 1987… or 1992.

10. Babybird - Between my Ears there’s nothing but Music
Stephen Jones was somewhat of celebrity in his native England back in 1997 with his hit “You’re Gorgeous”. He was also very prolific, releasing 5 records in the span of a year. As it is in the UK the excitement died down and everyone moved on to the next latest thing. Jones kept recording sporadically under both the Baby Bird moniker as well his own name, but had been exceptionally quiet the last 3 years. This record combines the best of his early low-fi records with his later better produced, major label stuff. Between my ears reminded me how unique and catchy his songs can be.

You can keep reading (if you want). #’s 11 through 20 are availble after the leap! Continue reading The Best Long Players of 2006…

What the hell is a single these days.? It’s the song that you like best from the album. It’s the song that you downloaded and don’t even know if it’s a single or is on an album. It’s the song that you would pick to put on a mix. It’s the song that they made a video for. It’s the song from the MySpace page…Whatever it is, these are my favorite songs of the year. Are they singles? If not, they should have been.

1. London’s Alright by The Tacticians
2. Lost by Mary Onettes
3. You! Me! Dancing! by Los Campesinos
4. Young Folks by Peter Bjorn and John
5. Jimmy Down the Well by Monkey Swallows the Universe
6. Over and Over by Hot Chip
7. Lloyd, I’m Ready to be Heartbroken by Camera Obscura
8. Lights In The Trees by It Hugs Back
9. Money Matters by The Rogers Sisters
10. Coastal Affairs ep by Sambassadeur
11. Dirty Mind by The Pipettes
12. Song for the Fields by Fields
13. Airborn by My Architects
14. The Heritage Rock Revolution by Luke Haines
15. Soft as Snow by Turn-Ons
16. Hold Me In the River by Brakes
17. Velvet Girl by Howling Bells
18. Dawnsio Dros Y Mor by Euros Childs
19. Lust In Movies by The Long Blondes
20. I’m In Love With Arthur Dove by Portastatic
21. A Hiccup in Your Happiness by The Lucksmiths
22. The Worst Taste In Music by Radio Dept.
23. It’s not the end of the World by Le Sport
24. Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives by Voxtrot
25. From the Devil Himself by Viva Voce