Last Year's Best Music

So here we are again, a new year. Personally, I had a pretty great '08. I DJ'ed some parties, spun an impromptu two-hour set at a Fort Lauderdale bar, and dug up some great vinyl. (Including a fifty-cent copy of Mandrill's "Composite Truth" and an out-of-print Ike and Tina Turner LP.) I got a chance to see Radiohead, Bruce Springsteen, My Morning Jacket and R.E.M., four of my all-time favorite bands. I had my filthy, sweaty head blown off at the Langerado Music Festival by the astoundingly good Thievery Corporation. The Phillies won the World Series. I feel foot over face in love with the girl of my dreams. And I heard some amazing music. It was a good year. So here's the ten best albums I heard last year:

10. Tindersticks- The Hungry Saw
Anyone that knows me understands that I am obsessed with this band, so no surprises that they'd be on this list. And honestly, I didn't think they ever would be. After five years since their last record, a reported split, and a few solo albums, I thought it was the end for this brooding Nottingham, England quintet. But ends are overrated. The Hungry Saw is classic Tinderstickss, which means it is not a very cheery affair. Full of delicate strings and tinkling pianos, and with singer Stuart Staples' soulful warble whispering in your ear, this may be the bands most intimate-sounding, saddest album in a catalog full of intimate-sounding, sad albums. Enjoy with whiskey and cigarettes. Grey flannel suit optional.

9.Hercules And Love Affair- self titled
At the beginning of the decade, disco-punk acts like the Rapture and Fischerspooner ruled the press. Perpetually hailed as "The Next Big Thing" until everybody realized it wasn't. Dance music this decade has mostly been a fairly dormant scene, unless you count those annoying Baltimore warehouse scene hipsters (Dan Deacon et al.) who forget to actually write songs while either having loads of fun or pretending to look like it. Somewhere along the way, we forgot that sometimes a DJ really could save your life, and that a good night out clubbing could cause euphoria with or without E. Splitting the difference between Chicago House, Detroit Techno and New York Disco, this record sounds like being stuck in a sonic time warp between 1981-88. ("You Belong" even references Inner City's classic house track "Good Life") Effortlessly cool, hip and groundbreaking, this album proves dance music still sounds relevant with one foot still planted firmly in the past.

8.Erykah Badu- New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)
I first fell in love with Ms. Badu back in '98 when her classic debut came out. This woman is the definition of keeping it way real. She's had a couple of kids, some baby daddy drama (Andre 3000, Common), and managed to actually convince people that her giant Afro wig was real until she ripped it off in the middle of Dave Chappelle's Block Party. (That was dope.)New Amerykah may be the best statement she's ever made, full of personal introspection and political finger-pointing that makes her one of our finest artists. Partnered with the likes of Madlib, Sa-Ra, Roy Ayers (wtf? Roy Ayers is still alive?) and the omnipresent ?uestlove, homegirl is in good hands. This album sounds like George Clinton's dreams, full of languid funk, atmospheric, futuristic soul, and the occasional foray into outer space. Definately reccomended.

7. The Sea And Cake- Car Alarm
There must be some code written into the DNA of this band that makes them unable to make bad albums. Even though all the elements of their sound are present on each track, (Sam Prekop's breathy vocals, John McEntire's Tropicalia-influenced drumming, Archer Prewitt's tasteful jazz guitar noodling), every song is singular and beautiful in its execution. Few bands are this efficient, this modern, and this perfect.

6.The Roots- Rising Down
Even before the economy took a nosedive, these guys were not celebrating much this year. Full of diatribes against the cops, the music industry, fake-ass rappers and the prez, there wasn't too much to celebrate. But somehow, through all the gloom, the band finds a silver lining, the last song, "Rising Up" finds joy in the thing I've loved them forever for, not being on the radio.Watch for these guys five nights a week this year as they become Jimmy Fallon's house band for his late-night talk show.

5.Vampire Weekend- self-titled
I wanted to hate these guys. I really did. Tennis sweaters?Check. Sperry Top Siders?Check. Name-checking Hyannis and Mystic Seaport in their lyrics? Check. A singer named Ezra?Check.
But when I heard this album, it was impossible to hate. Because I love smartly written pop songs and these guys must have discovered some magic formula somewhere for them. So let's remember this album for what it is when the inevitable backlash happens. It is a smart, fun record that both glamorizes and satirizes university life. And say what you want about the vaguely African guitar work, if more bands ripped off King Sunny Ade instead of Joy Division, what a wonderful world it would be.

4. Seun Kuti + Fela's Egypt 80- self titled
Seun Kuti is the other musical son of late Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti (his brother Femi is quite well-known here in the States) and currently leads his father's huge backing band. Afrobeat is full of polyrhthymic drums, brassy horns, melodic bass lines and funky guitars, which pretty much means this band can wake the dead. Full of righteous anger and political fury, Seun bristles at corrupt politicians and oilmen, and on "Mosquito Song", pleads for an end to the malaria that still plagues his continent. Fela would be proud.

3.TV On The Radio- Dear Science
Brooklyn is fertile ground for art-punk bands and this one is the best of the bunch. An eccentric, brainy bunch, TV On The Radio made the most topical album of '08, addressing the state of the world with an attitude that's as much "Fuck It" as it is "We're Fucked". Slightly less dense than their last album, (although guitarist-producer Dave Sitek still needs to excercise slightly more restraint in his recording techniques) Dear Science is smart, wickedly funny and occasionaly sexy. And thank heavens for an indie band that addresses carnality without use of allegory or metaphor. (Can you picture Conor Oberst singing a line like "I'm gonna make you cum" or Colin Meloy crooning "Ball so hard we'll smash the walls"? I didn't think so.)

2.Portishead- Third
Welcome back, sounds like Bristol was still cold and gloomy. After twelve years between albums, this record is not an update of the classic Portishead sound, but a complete reinvention. A revamp so dire this album may not settle in on the first, or tenth listen. But keep listening, and delight in the Can- influenced motorik beat of "The Rip" or the warring drum machines leading to synthetic, Kraftwerkian beauty of "Machine Gun". This is music that is both haunting and haunted.

1.M83- Saturdays= Youth
Ah, the 1980s. You had early MTV, Punky Brewster and Michael Jackson before he went off the deep end. Bono at Red Rocks. OMD. Echo And The Bunnymen. All wonderful. Frenchman Anthony Gonzalez remembers. He remembers the rafter-filling, lovelorn whoosh of early synth-pop, even when Depeche Mode and New Order starting playing stadiums. He remembers that even little things in the 1980s sounded very, Very Big. And that's what this album sounds like. "Up!" could be early Kate Bush and "Graveyard Girl" is the best song Tears For Fears never wrote. Cinematic music to the core, this album makes you feel like you're in an unreleased John Hughes film. Brilliant.

Other Notable albums:

R.E.M.- Accelerate
I am so pleased to be putting one of my very favorite bands on this list. After two downright awful albums, these guys got it together and began playing like a band again. It's as if they suddenly remembered they used to be the biggest band in the world (Post-Nirvana, Pre-Oasis) and realized they could do it once more. Bravo.

Flying Lotus- Los Angeles
This record is strange, bit in a really good way. It sounds like what would happen if Timbaland got drunk at Richard D. James' (Aphex Twin) house. Abstract Hip-Hop beats that will freak you out if you let them.

Benga- Diary of An Afro Warrior
Dubstep is big in Britain, it's kind of slowed-down, bass-heavy Drum N' Bass, and this album is a pretty good intro to that sound.

The Cool Kids- The Bake Sale
Fun, tag-team rhymes over cheap-sounding beats. Not exactly the most cerebral hip-hop record, but one of the most fun in recent memory.

Jamie Lidell- Jim
Futuristic neo-soul by an egghead former techno producer. This is great party music.

R.I.P's

Isaac Hayes- Who brought a grandiose, psychedelic edge to soul music. The man posessed one the greatest voices in music. His influence is incalcuable.

Mitch Mitchell- The bebop-schooled drummer that gave Jimi Hendrix the backbeat he needed to blast off.

Mikey Dread- Legendary dub reggae producer who produced the Clash's "Bankrobber" single.

So there it was. I have great expectations for '09. Let's take back our country and keep living beautiful lives.

-R

The statement.

This blog is about a lot of things. It's about life, art, and the pursuit of truth and meaning in a world that gets a little bit smaller every day. But mostly it's about the thing I love the most, this thing we call music. Specifically, it's about music and me. It's about trying to navigate this business as an outsider. It's about industry politics and frustration at the system. It's about about the joy of discovering something beautiful and needing to share it with the world. So welcome. Let's start the show.


"It's not where you're from, it's where you're at."
-Rakim