It’s that time of year, again…
I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about music lately. Not just because it’s year-end, and everybody (and I’m sure there’s a dog or two out there) has a best-of list up, but because I’m thinking of getting a turntable and starting to pick up vinyl of some of my favourite albums.
Vinyl. Records. The mere thought of it gives me a tingle in my musical place. And there’s a lot of vinyl out there. And the thought of listening to Kind of Blue, or Southern Rock Opera, on vinyl… it gives me a shiver, it really does. But I do wonder: do I really need another cash-sucking fetish object?
Oh, who am I kidding. Give me the slightest opportunity and I’m Rob Gordon in High Fidelity. No question about it.
But I digress…
This is my first crack at a Best Music of 2008 list. Did you get that? This is provisional.
Normally I don’t caveat these things, but there are several highly regarded albums (including She & Him and Ben Ivor, which I haven’t heard yet, and Blitzen Trapper, which is making a strong play) which might skew the final list. Oh, and I was going to do this without commentary, but where’s the fun in that?
Best New Albums of 2008:
10) Cardinology — Ryan Adams & the Cardinals
The nice thing with being a fan of someone as prolific as Adams is that there’s ALWAYS gonna be a new record for consideration. And if he keeps putting out albums like Cardinology, there will always be room on this list. Now, I must confess that I prefer the druggy, relentlessly experimental Adams of a few years ago, but Cardinology is solid from beginning to end, and the Cardinals are starting to carve out a place for themselves as one of THE great backing bands.
9) Rockferry — Duffy
This is, largely, a triumph of style over substance (unlike, say, Winehouse’s Back to Black, which had emotional guts to spare), but it’s a great style.
8) Third — Portishead
It’s the general concensus of several people I know that Portishead’s Dummy is THE best sex album of all time. I’m not sure I’d want to field test their latest one… This is dark, disturbing music, but affectingly atmospheric. Not the sort of thing you want to play on a sunny day, but it’s dangerous in the dark.
7) med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust – Sigur Ros
What the hell? 3 and 4 minutes songs? Melodies? What…
This is a very different Sigur Ros, but one that is just as affecting as the earlier, more abstract soundscapes and Scandinavian-gothic-classical leanings. A little pop can be a bad thing, but here, it’s terrific.
6) Consolers of the Lonely — The Raconteurs
Have I mentioned recently that I want to be Jack White when I grow up? No? Well, here’s why. On an off year from The White Stripes, he delivers a classic album of straightforward rock. And Old Enough is the best, condescending “screw you” song since Bob Dylan…
5) Warpaint — The Black Crowes
You have to like a band that realizes they’ve hit their level and that they’re now free to do EXACTLY what they want to do. Warpaint is the sound of a band simultaneously stretching its wings and focussing on the fundamentals: quality songwriting, spontaneous performances.
4) 19 – Adele
The flip-side to #9, 19 is all about substance over style. Adele is a wounded bird of the old school, and there are moments on this album that will break your heart. A decent enough songwriter, the highlight of the album, for me, at least, is her cover of Dylan’s To Make You Feel My Love, one of the rare instances in the Dylan canon where the cover makes you forget the original.
3) Brighter Than Creation’s Dark – Drive-By Truckers
How, exactly, did I miss out on DBT for so long? They’ve spent more than a decade making some of the finest music in the US, and it took the Rock and Roll Means Well Tour for me to discover them. While I spent more time with Southern Rock Opera, this is probably the finest album from the DBT, from the keening opener of Two Daughters and A Beautiful Wife to the incindiery The Man I Shot to the slice-of-a-boring-life Bob. You and Your Crystal Meth is two minutes of minimalist hell on earth, the sort of song that reaches directly into your chest and crushes your heart.
2) Fleet Foxes — Fleet Foxes
Wow. I’m a sucker for harmonies. And pastorals. And baroque.
And if you had asked me last year if I would ever find those things in a single band, working today, I’d have laughed in your face. Sorry bout that.
Fleet Foxes debut full-length is a was of pure joy (even when it’s not exactly joyous). Stop what you’re doing, go out and buy it. And if I do get a turntable, this is going to be one of the first records I buy. Because…. wow. Just, wow.
1) Stay Positive — The Hold Steady
You knew this was coming, right? If you’ve talked to me anytime in the last six months, you had to know that there would be no competition for the top slot on this list.
That said, it’s a bit difficult to separate out the music from what the music means to me. Are there better records this year? Sure, probably. Probably some on this list. But no album — no band — has hit me as deeply as this record, this band, in more than twenty years. And that’s no small thing. A balance of youthful exuberance and approaching middle-age world-weariness, this album just spoke to me, from start to finish. And isn’t that what we’re all looking for, whether we know it or not?
Those that just failed to make the top ten:
Mudcrutch
Harps & Angels — Randy Newman
All I Intended to Be — Emmylou Harris
Modern Guilt — Beck
Attack & Release — The Black Keys
Evil Urges — My Morning Jacket
I Know You’re Married, But I’ve Got Feelings Too — Martha Wainright
Best Re-Issues/Old Material/Live Material (in no particular order):
Bob Dylan — Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Volume 8
A lot of people have put this one in the general “Best of” column, but that’s a bit of a cheat. That being said, this is one of the finest albums of the year, a collection of crumbs from the table that holds together as a vivid portrait of the psychological darkness of our times. The only drawback? The blatant, disgusting cash-grab of the three-disc version. Thankfully, there are ways around that… or so I hear.
The Waterboys – Room To Roam Collector’s Edition
Room to Roam has spent almost two decades in the shadow of Fisherman’s Blues (which is an enviable place to be, actually, considering FB is one of the best albums of the last 25 years). Despite the addition of a disc worth of bonus and live tracks, RtR doesn’t measure up to FB, but that’s all right: it’s a stunning album on its own, and should be listened to as such.
Belle & Sebastian — The BBC Sessions
Sad bastard music at its finest. Delicate, but tough as nails.
Neil Young — Sugar Mountain: Live at Canterbury House
Fresh out of Buffalo Springfield and with a sterling solo career ahead of him, this is young at his embryonic finest. What must it have been like to hear songs like Sugar Mountain before they became canonical? I’d put it on the same level as seeing Hamlet on opening night.
The Clash — Live at Shea Stadium
Put the world’s angriest band in a hostile environment and what do you get? One of the most powerful concerts I’ve ever heard.
Best Concerts:
Well, this is a bit of a gimme, really. I don’t see enough concerts in a year to see any really bad ones. The worst of the year (John Cougar Mellencamp — rote and by the numbers; Fleet Foxes — not enough material; Beck — not enough high points) were all very strong, and really only suffer in comparison. At any rate:
Band of Horses (opening for Beck) — I’d see Band of Horses again (before I’d see Beck). Hell, I’d travel to see BofH. Moody, atmospheric but hooky. Dark. What’s not to like.
The Black Crowes — I may actually still be deaf from this show. Awesome, spontaneous, searching. Hampered by a too-loud, too-crappy sound system.
Bruce Springsteen — Three shows to choose from here. For the full-on experience, Vancouver has it by an edge, what with being in the front row, having a friend’s daughter’s sign get pulled from the crowd (but John, why not Incident? Why Waiting on a Sunny Day? I mean, I know she’s just a little girl, but still… I’m STILL chasing Incident), and introducing Colin to the marvel that is a Springsteen concert. Show-wise, though, Portland has the edge, if only for the long version of Reason to Believe (the intro was appreciably shorter in Vancouver). Though Seattle had Point Blank and Trapped… decisions, decisions.
Leonard Cohen — wow. For a septugenarian, that Cohen can bring it. Second night in Toronto and the place was alive. I’ve never heard an audience response like the one for Hallelujah — I thought the roof was going to blow off the place.
The Hold Steady/Drive-By Truckers — Sacrilige, I know, but these were my favourite shows of the year. Again, it’s impossible to separate the music from the personal… shit… but it’s been a long time since I’ve felt as alive as those two shows made me feel. And hey, cheaper than therapy!
