Before I get into all this I want to preface by saying this is a list of the best albums I heard this year. Now, I am merely one person (with a very limited amount of income) and thus there were a lot of albums I simply didn’t hear this year. In fact, there were a lot of albums this year I wanted to hear, but sadly didn’t.
Also so many critics like to present their opinions as though they were God’s last words to mankind. This is why I hate critics. Having said that, I also realize the very nature of this post places me in that category. I’ll get over it.
Now that’s off my chest, here’s my list of the 25 best albums I heard this year.
25)
This album had to grow on me. It took me a while to get passed Will Sheff’s voice. The lesson to be learned here is if you wanna make hipsters happy, blatantly reference their favorite albums in your own music. It works almost every time.
24)
This album also had to grow on me. After 2005’s Lullabies to Paralyze failed to do anything but highlight Mark Lanegan, I was really afraid to even touch this album. Fortunately it turned out to be Josh Homme’s strongest album to not feature Dave Grohl. If only Mark Lanegan were on more tracks.
23) Band of Horses – Cease to Begin
Almost all the reviews I read of this album talked about how the band had moved from
22) Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
I was really just glad this album didn’t suck. Having to follow up 2004’s Good News for People Who Love Bad News seemed a daunting enough task as it were. Then the news of Johnny Marr joining the group didn’t exactly warrant the warm fuzzy feeling you’d expect. Proving my fears totally wrong, Marr not only adds to the Mouse’s sound, he redefines it in a way that is both subtle and unexpected.
21) Dinosaur Jr – Beyond
Again, I was really glad this album didn’t suck. Not that I expected J Mascis to suck, but few people are able to pull off albums this good when they seem to be passed their prime.
20) Explosions in the Sky – All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
I used to argue that if you’d heard one Explosions album you’d heard them all. I don’t believe that anymore, although I can see where the casual listener or a Friday Night Lights fan might see it that way. While they’ve never been quite as good as 2003’s epic The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place, this is a different kind of album. It’s the shorter tracks like “What Do You Go Home to” and “So Long, Lonesome” that bring out their best this time around.
19) Animal Collective – Strawberry Jam
I find that the harder an Animal Collective album is, the better it is. Strawberry Jam is painfully brilliant. I considered every track on this album for a mix CD I made this year, and only “#1” actually made it. I guess that means “#1” is the easiest track to listen to, which I guess also means it’s the worst track on the album.
18) Jesu – Conqueror
Considering Justin Broadrick basically did all of this by himself, and it sounds nothing like Napalm Death (of which Broadrick was once a member), I have to say this might be the best metal album of the year.
17) Amy Winehouse – Back to Black
Not since Dusty in Memphis has a British woman sounded this soulful. Tabloid headlines, associations with Pete Doherty, and her husband’s drug bust aside… hell all of that just seems to make her cooler, somehow! This album was everything Joss Stone could never be.
16) Black Moth Super Rainbow – Dandelion Gum
Man is this album strange. I don’t even know where to begin, really. Its brilliance lies buried somewhere deep beneath melotrons, synthesizers, and acid-trip vocals. If nothing else it certainly sets a mood.
15) Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha
Andrew Bird simply took his already well defined sound and tightened it. This is a very focused, very mature album made by an exceptionally talented musician who’s vocal power is more than a little reminiscent of Jeff Buckley.
14) B.R.M.C – American X
Every song on this EP should have been on the full length Baby 81. Everything that B.R.M.C. does well can be found here. However, if you want a quick and easy cookie cutter version of the band, get Baby 81 instead.
13) Boris & Michio Kurihara – Rainbow
Boris is easily the loudest live band on earth and yet somehow this album is more about understatements and juxtapositions than blowing out your eardrums. Kurihara’s guitar playing adds yet another layer to this already dense thicket of genre-defying talent. Since once again the liner notes are badly translated I still have no idea what they’re saying, but who cares. This is more about musicianship anyway.
12) Battles – Mirrored
The sound of this album is nothing if not huge. It’s also nothing if not eclectic, at least in texture. It’s quirky, rhythmic, percussive, and well, weird. Think Animal Collective meets Minus the Bear and you might get some idea of what Mirrored sort of sounds like occasionally. Needless to say, I loved this record.
11) Deerhoof – Friend
When you’re already an experimental art rock group who goes on tour with Radiohead and the Flaming Lips, you make this album.
10) Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
After A Ghost Is Born it seemed like Wilco’s forward motion was slowing off a little. At first glance Sky Blue Sky would seem to indicate it had stopped completely. This is far from the case, however. By stripping their sound down to simple in-studio live performances with absolutely no special effects (even though they added Nels Cline to the arsenal) Wilco made one of the most brilliant records of the year. Backwards is forwards, apparently.
9) The White Stripes – Icky Thump
Every White Stripes album simultaneously feels like a return to form and a giant leap forward. Icky Thump just seemed to do it better.
8) The Good, The Bad, & The Queen
I’m always weary of anything resembling a super group, and rightly so. It’s rare that any band can support more than one huge ego. However this is not a band of super egos, except for maybe Damon Albarn. Thankfully just about everything Albarn does these days is at least worth a listen or two. The Good, The Bad, & The Queen is not only that, but is easily better than the last Blur album.
7) Menomena – Friend and Foe
This album falls somewhere between TV On the Radio and Tapes ‘n Tapes. Actually if Tapes ‘n Tapes made Return to Cookie Mountain it might have sounded like this.
6) Various Artists – I’m Not There
This album is a hipster’s wet dream. Iron & Wine, Stephen Malkmus, Sufjan Stevens, Jim James, Cat Power, Eddie Vedder, Sonic Youth, Karen O, Jeff Tweedy, Mark Lanegan, The Hold Steady, Yo La Tengo, and the Black Keys (among others) all doing Bob Dylan songs. Need I say more?
5)
Releasing both this EP and the full length The Flying Club Cup this year, Zack Condon proved to be a formidable force to be reckoned with. While the full length sets a more somber mood, Lon Gisland feels like the perfect summer album for the French Riviera in the early 1920s.
4) Feist – The Reminder
When I bought this album I seriously thought I was going to have to convince people it was good. I know I’m not the only person in the world who’d ever heard of Feist, but I couldn’t believe how good it was. I also didn’t believe it when suddenly she was huge. How does any member of Broken Social Scene get that huge so quickly? This album is certainly a strong possibility.
3) Radiohead – In Rainbows
I could tell you this album is brilliant because of how it was released through the band’s website in light of their release from Capitol. I could tell you this album is brilliant because it’s a new Radiohead album. I could tell you it’s an excellent blend of reworked older material and road-tested new material. I could tell you all of that, but you should already know it.
2)
Neon Bible didn’t just pick up where 2004’s Funeral left off, it made some heavy forward progress. Not only did the songs get tighter, they got more epic. It seemed as though everything Win Butler did, the rest of the band matched. This is the kind of album that most bands will spend their whole career trying to make. I just hope that’s not too much for the Fire to handle.
1) Iron & Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog
Sam Beam’s rugged roots sound comes into its own world, finally. We first got a taste that Beam was ready to branch out from his simple folkish sound when he released 2005’s Woman King, which merely left his listeners wanting more. The Shephard’s Dog is not so much an extension of that as it is the sound of a man who’s found a real home playing with a full band. It’s the kind of album made by someone who’s excited at the prospect of seeing what he’s capable of doing when his possibilities are no longer limited. This is far from self-indulgence, however. It’s simply the most rewarding album of the year, for both Beam and his audience.
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