I wrote this up back in December for the Springsteen newsgroup, and I thought I’d post it here while I think about death and winter and other uplifting things like that. Giving it a quick re-read, nothing has changed in the last month (though the M.I.A. album might be creeping up toward the top ten, the more I listen to it).
(And my apologies to those of you reading along on LJ for clotting up your FList with this – it’s pretty long, but I don’t think there’s anything I can do…)
Oh, and with the exception of the first one on the first list, these aren’t in any kind of order…
Favourite New Albums of the Year:
Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
This was a no-brainer for my favourite album of the year (a real rarity, that, for me who is chronically whimsical and tempermental). It’s a near-perfect piece of post-modern art-pop perfection (and still not as good as Funeral).
White Stripes – Icky Thump
As I told an audience in Toronto when I was launching Before I Wake, “I want to be Jack White when I grow up”. Another beautiful, compelling album of truly timeless music, building on roots and blues to create something new and vital. Old wine, new bottles and all that.
Ryan Adams – Easy Tiger
Damn this is a fine album. That’s all.
The Waterboys – Book of Lightning
Not really a return to form — Mike Scott and the Waterboys haven’t really gone anywhere — but a good reminder of the power of this band. A great bridge between their “big music” of the early 80s and their later Celtic/folk/spiritual stuff. The concert I saw in Toronto in November was a revelation: two and a half hours of flat-out rock, with Mike Scott seeming to channel the spirits of everyone from Bob Dylan circa 66 to Neil Young circa 79 to Joey Ramone…
Amy Winehouse – Back to Black
When I first heard Back to Black, I figured it would be my summer pick, a perfect album for cruising with the top down (previous summer picks include Gnarls Barkley), but it’s so much more than that. Heartfelt and cool, post-punk and classic, it really does have it all. I hope she pulls herself out of her tailspin, but if all she leaves behind is this (and Frank, to a lesser degree) it’ll be a hell of a legacy.
Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
See Ryan Adams above: just a damn fine album. Jeff Tweedy really is all that.
Eddie Vedder – Into the Wild
An unexpected treasure: rough and ready, but deep and insightful. An album (and a singer) with a lot to say, and the means to say it in a transporting way. And with a ukelele at that.
Iron & Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog
Devendra Banhart – Smoky Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
I couldn’t decide between these two, and then I figured out why: released on the same day, they’re of a piece in my mind, two slices of neo-hippie infused singer-songriterism. Both of them brave and comfortable at the same time.
The Stars – In Our Bedroom After the War
I thought I’d round things off with another bit of post-modern, Canadian art-pop. Not as brave or as compelling as Arcade Fire, this is, nonetheless, a fantastic album.
(For the record, the longlist, of 21 albums, did include Bruce Springsteen's Magic. It almost made the first cut, to the top fifteen. Not quite, though.)
Live/reissues/compilations:
Bruce Springsteen and the Sessions Band Live in Dublin
This is the Springsteen release of the year, as far as I’m concerned, and one I’ve listened to easily three times as often as Magic. This would be a perfect album save for the fact Springsteen doesn’t take the vocal lead on the “smiling skull ring” verse of Further.
Whereas Magic felt, to me, like a deliberate and safe return to form and friends, this live album is all about risk-taking. A re-write of 10th Ave Freeze-out? That’s not brave. A jump-blues/swing version of a song from Nebraska? Brave and unexpected and utterly compelling. Open All Night is probably the single song I’ve listened to most this year.
Grateful Dead – Three From the Vaults
The five-piece Dead, from the Port Chester run… need I say more?
Gram Parson Archive Volume 1: Flying Burrito Brothers Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969
Sweet country Jesus – two complete Burritos shows from 69, including Hot Burritos 1 and 2 and a harrowing Train Song… Damn.
Counting Crows – August and Everything After Deluxe Edition
One of the best albums of the last twenty years gets better with a fresh coat of paint, a handful of demos (a couple of them as strong as the album proper) and a full-throttle live show from near the end of the accompanying tour (the sound of the band imploding under the attendant pressures of fame).
Richard Thompson – 1000 Years of Popular Music
Richard & Linda Thompson – In Concert 1975
Live Richard Thompson: do I really need to explain?
REM Live
A perfect, to my ears, blend of old and new. The Around the Sun material really comes to life, and sits comfortably with a carefully chosen selection of classics. The encore alone is worth the price of admission.
Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds – Live at Radio City Music Hall
Say what you will, this is good stuff.
Neil Young – Live at Massey Hall
All I can say: about fucking time.
Warren Zevon – Stand In the Fire
It really is as good as I had always heard.
Non-rock:
Pentangle – Time Has Come
Four discs of… jeez, what the hell is this, anyway? It’s Pentangle, that’s what.
Keith Jarrett Trio – My Foolish Heart
Keith Jarrett – Carnegie Hall Concert
Two sides of Keith Jarrett, solo and with Peacock and DeJohnette. He burns just as brightly in both settings.
Miles Davis – Complete On the Corner Sessions
Six discs of sludgy, driving, throbbing fusion, pierced with the aching, plangent cry of Miles’ horn. Is this the end of the Columbia reissue boxes? If so, it’s the end of an era.
Herbie Hancock – River
Nominated for an album of the year Grammy, and it’s easy to see why.
Spring Awakening – Original Broadway Cast
I haven’t been this excited about a cast recording — or a Broadway show — since Rent back in 96. Damn it’s good.
Company – Broadway Revival Cast
I’m a Sondheim junkie, and this was my year, with two different stagings of Company. This one, the Broadway revival, really plays up the isolation and disconnect of the book — it’s a lonely, cold world, and a lonely, cold, wonderful musical.
John Coltrane – My Favourite Things: Coltrane at Newport
Two Newport performances, two versions of My Favourite Things. If you have to ask…
Fairport Convention – Live at the BBC
Some well-known stuff, some previously uncollected, this is Fairport in their raw, live to tape late 60’s glory.
DVDs (some with CDs):
(I do a lot of my writing — most, in fact — with music dvds flickering in the background. Well, right in my line of sight, actually. )
Cowboy Junkies – Trinity Revisited
There was no good reason for the Junkies to return to Toronto’s Trinity Church and re-visit The Trinity Sessions (with guests Natalie Merchant, Ryan Adams and Vic Chesnutt), but damned if lightning didn’t strike twice. It’s not the same magic as imbues the original album, but it’s a new alchemy, at once an homage and an original work.
Brothers of a Feather: Rich and Chris Robinson Live at the Roxy
The Black Crowes unplugged. Stripped down stoner-rock. Yummy.
David Gilmour – Remember that Night (Live at Royal Albert Hall)
What a setlist. What a great bit of music to write to. And then there’s David Bowie on Arnold Layne and Comfortably Numb to bring the world back…
Sigur Ros – Heima
Aural and visual orgasm. Or is it aural and visual crack? Let’s just call it nirvana… Beautifully shot, utterly compelling, this is a bottomless feast.
U2 – PopMart Live In Mexico City
REM Live (DVD)
Bruce Springsteen and the Sessions Band Live in Dublin
It’s extraordinarily hard to get any writing done when these are playing. And that’s to their credit (but to my eternal disadvantage).
Loreena McKennitt – Nights From the Alhambra
God she’s a new-agey flake. And that’s only part of her charm. This is Celtic infused, harp based world music that goes down like honey… When I die, I want her The Lady of Shalott playing…
Nirvana – Unplugged in New York
I’ve been waiting a long time for this one, and it is as good, as heart-breaking as I remember…
And that’s it. A year’s worth of listening (and viewing).
What’s on YOUR list?