Here's Part Two (of two) of my self-important rant on the year in music. A reminder: all of these songs have been compiled on an iTunes 'iMix', entitled "FINNEGAN'S GUIDE TO POPULAR MUSIC 2008. Check it out, if you want to hear clips of any of these little ditties.
NOTE: Scroll Down for Part One, to see numbers 27 through 15.
14. AL GREEN, "Wanna Say" – I promise I'm not just throwing this one on here in an attempt to break up the unending stream of white people. The term "return to form" is way overused by lazy music critics, but here it really applies. He seems to have recaptured not only the sound but also the intimacy of his classic Seventies albums.
13. SON LUX, "Raise" – This album is relatively new to me, having learned about it on NPR's "All Songs Considered" year end wrap-up (yeah, I know). But wow, is it something special. Each song managed to be simultaneously beautiful and bleak as all living hell. Still, I probably won't listen to it constantly. It's kind of like the film "Children of Men"—sometimes you just don't have the energy, you know?
12. THE CURE. "This. Here and Now. With You." – At this point, The Cure probably isn't going to pick up any new fans. If you haven't liked them in the past, you won't like this. But there are songs on "4:13 Dream" that stand up with the best stuff they've ever recorded. And this is the Cure in 'giddy' mode, which I always love. If you used to be a fan and gave up on them years ago, this is worth checking out.
11. NADA SURF, "I Like What You Say" – This a nearly perfect pop song by a band that specializes in nearly perfect pop songs. I've been a huge fan for years and they just keep on churning out great albums. The word I'd use for Nada Surf is "tasteful", which sounds like an insult but it's not. I'm never not in the mood to hear this song.
10. DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE, "No Sunlight" – Like Nada Surf, Death Cab writes mature power pop songs for adults. A lot of Ben Gibbard's lyrics resonate with me in ways I'm not entirely comfortable with—not this song, specifically, but in general. They definitely have a style that they stick to, but it's great to buy an album knowing that it's going to be check-full of fantastic songs with smart lyrics, expertly performed and produced.
9. BON IVER, "Skinny Love" – Another 'critic's darling' that totally lives up to the hype. After a few listens, at least. It took me a while to adapt to the main dude's near-constant falsetto, but now I find it eerie and beautiful. The songs on "For Emma, Forever Ago" are ultra-simple, but become more evocative with each listen. This is one of those lay-in-the-dark-while-wearing-noise-canceling-headphones albums. As such, it doesn't quite attain Iron & Wine status, but it's still pretty amazing stuff.
8. M83, "Kim & Jessie" – Lots of bands these days use the early 8'0s as a musical jumping-off point. But for the most part, they're working with a very specific strain of Eighties Pop—angular, up-tempo New Wave, a la The Jam. This song is different. It harkens back to the blissed-out Casio queerfests of Thompson Twins and Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark*. It's music to make you want to sit Indian-style on a glass dinner table, making out with Samantha Baker (or Jake Ryan, depending on who you'd prefer to be in that scenario).
* Typing out these words, I felt a wave of revulsion at how ridiculous a band name this is. When I was a kid I assumed it was just some abstract combination of words, like "The Electronic Walrus Party" or something. I now see it as the foppiest, most pretentious, most PLEASE-GIVE-ME-A-WEDGIE five words ever composed in English. Egads!
7. GOLDFRAPP, "A&E"—This song's actually from the same neck of the woods as the M83 song, in that it's lush, keyboard-heavy stuff. But it's even more airy-fairy. The whole album feels like it was recorded inside the movie 'Legend', if that an be construed as a good thing. I give them credit for taking things in a different direction after having garnered a huge following over the last couple of albums, doing a techno burlesque kind of thing. Here's the litmus test: Where do you stand on Kate Bush? If you're 'pro', you'll probably love this song.
6. TV ON THE RADIO, "Halfway Home"—A real step forward for a band that was already great. I don't think there's a band recording today more confident in its musical vision than TV on the Radio, with the possible exception of Radiohead. How in the world would you classify a song like this? How in hell would you go about writing it? It's as if they've created their own genre of music.
5. KINGS OF LEON, "Notion"—Holy fuck do I love this band. When they debuted, I wrote them off as a blues-rock gimmick. But now I'm a true believer--over the past three albums I've listened to KOL as much as any other band in my collection (do people even call it that anymore? Would referring to it as my 'Library' be more or less worthy of scorn?) I feel like they've caught a bit of indie backlash for making a 'bigger' sounding record, which is typical. But I don't think the best bands, the bands that really end up "mattering", shy away fro a smidgen of grandiosity. I don't think there's any fear of this band going all 'Coldplay' on you.
4. MATES OF STATE, "The Re-Arranger"—There was one day where I listened to this song eight times in a single afternoon. It's funny, there are a bunch of the songs I consider to have universal appeal. And yet, my four favorite songs of the year are all ones I could understand any rational human being loathing. This is especially true of "The Re-Arranger". This is peppy shit, so if you can't do 'peppy', best to move on. But if this is up your alley, you should watch the YouTube video of their daughter (Mates of State are a married couple) dancing offstage to this song during an outdoor concert. Pretty life-affirming stuff.
3. THE HOLD STEADY, "Constructive Summer"—I remember seeing "Dazed and Confused" for the first time and thinking about director Richard Linklater, "Man, that guy really gets it." I wasn't talking about all of the period references and goofy bellbottoms; what struck me was how well that movie evoked what it's like to be a teenager in the suburbs. The Hold Steady do the same thing for me, only with a huge dose of restlessness. Singer/writer guy Craig Finn is like Springsteen for kids who grew up going to soccer practice. The line, "We're going to build something this Summer" is, to me, the ultimate expression of suburban hope and desperation.
2. DR. DOG, "The Rabbit, the Bat and the Reindeer" – I love it when a band sounds like nothing you've ever heard before. But I also kind of like it when an artist says, "Fuck it, this is the kind of music we want to make, and we end up sounding like something you might have heard before so be it. (That's how I earnestly defended Lenny Kravitz for his first few albums.) Dr. Dog gets thrown under the 'revivalist' bus, as if they're nothing but a novelty act because they sound like the Beatles, as impersonated by The Soggy Bottom Boys. But people forget that Beatles were only the Beatles because they wrote great songs. This too is a great, great song.
1. MGMT, "Time to Pretend"—On paper, this is the kind of band that I hate: two predictably unkempt Williamburg hipsters making music where you can't tell if they're trying to be sarcastic. But geez, this is kind of extraordinary. It's not my favorite album overall (that would probably go to TV on the Radio or Bon Iver), but as songs go, "Time to Pretend" kicks me in the buttocks. It sounds like being invited to a Smurf orgy. Butt then, one of the Smurfs drops some bad E and ends up doing a nosedive through a fourth floor window.
What? Why did it get so awkward her all the sudden? Is it weird that my favorite song of the year makes me imagine getting a reach-around from a blitzed Handy Smurf? Where are you guys going?! COME BACK!!
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Okay I guess that's all. I'm going to make a sincere attempt to make regular blog posts in 2009 (I refuse to use 'blog' as a verb). But just in case I turn out to be a liar, see you whenever!
Still more regards,
Christian
