Will A's Top 15

15. Passion Pit - Manners
Six months ago this album could have been top 5, but it seems to have dropped with the temperatures. It's just harder to enjoy when I'm waiting for the train in in 5 degree weather. With that disadvantage aside, it's one of the catchiest albums of the year. See Wade's review for a much better description than I could give. Highlight: the keyboard riff that starts "Little Secrets"


14. Justin Townes Earle - Midnight at the Movies
I'm not usually big on country stuff, but this year my folky/twangy side seems to be creeping out a bit more. This is an album that makes me wish I was more of a whiskey drinker. Think Wilco circa 1995, or even Uncle Tupelo. Highlight: the tearjerker "Mama's Eyes"


13. Wilco - Wilco (the album)
Speaking of Wilco... I've done a scientific study which shows that ever since the creative peak of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco's age has had an inverse relationship with the level of innovation and edginess in their songs. However, it also has a direct relationship with the number of badass guitar solos so it comes out about even. They've aged better in the 15 years they've been around than most bands do in just a couple albums. Highlight: track 1 chorus, "Wilco will love you, baby". I can count on one hand the number of bands that can get away with that.


12. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
If you asked me at the beginning of the year what albums I was looking forward to most, this one was up there with Animal Collective, so #12 is kind of a disappointment really. Although you just can't resist some of these songs. When it comes to layered arrangements, harmonies, sounds coming from instruments that don't sound like instruments, intricate and complex song structures, they are pros beyond their years. Highlight: the video for "Two Weeks", which is the definition of creepy/cool.


11. Iron & Wine - Around the Well
This one surprised me in a good way. I had started to lose touch with ol' Sam Beam the last album, but this double disc collection goes back to when he was at his best. Simple, acoustic with a focus on the song and lyrics instead of the production and percussion. For a b-sides, rarities, and covers album, this one is remarkably consistent all the way through. Highlight: the cover of The Flaming Lips' "Waitin' For A Superman" might be better than the original.


10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz
Another "surprising in a good way" album for me. Album 1 will always be a classic for what it symbolizes in NYC indie rock, Album 2 was more of the same, but this one finally shows them maturing a bit. If "Maps" was your favorite song on Fever to Tell then there is more of that on this album. The ballads are just as powerful as the rockers and probably are longer-lived. Highlight: the last 1:30 of "Skeletons" when the whole band has kicked in and swirls around the guitar melody


9. Alela Diane - To Be Still
I only listened to this because Joanna Newsom's name was attached to it. I think they were high school buds or something. (side note: Newsom is getting frighteningly close to the Thom Yorke zone for me, meaning I will listen to or read anything that she or her second cousins were remotely involved in. She's soooooo good.) This album isn't groundbreaking but I just can't stop listening to it. She has such incredible control over her voice that she does things that would sound like a nasty yodel coming from me, but she pulls them off amazingly. Highlight: closer "Lady Divine" is just straight-up beautiful


8. The Mountain Goats - The Life of the World Yet to Come
Every time this guy releases a new album I always give it a try, but very few (of the 573 so far) have actually stuck. This one is up there with The Sunset Tree for me. Some would see the songs written on a Bible verse to be a bit gimmicky, but I think it's really cool. I've even started incorporating the songs in to my quiet times... anyway... concept aside, even without the Bible theme, the songs and lyrics are some of his best. He's one of the best storytellers in indie music. Highlight: "Genesis 30:3" - becoming a dad probably has something to do with that


7. The xx - xx
The first time I heard this I thought, "this is such Grant music." I love albums where it's obvious that anyone can could play and sing what they are doing. There is nothing special about this band's musical talents - it's just exceptional writing and knowing how to not overdo it. Highlight: the first ("Intro") and last ("Stars") songs - warm up with a Euro guitar/drum instrumental, close it down with single chord piano


6. Fever Ray - Fever Ray
Do not listen to this album (or especially) watch any of her music videos if you are prone to nightmares. This crosses the creepy/cool line in to creepy/cool(?) territory. Take the Knife, subtract the guy and about 85% of the sounds and you get Fever Ray. Yet, somehow its biggest strength is the hollowness and emptiness of the songs. Highlight: the video for "When I Grow Up" - has WTF written all over it


5. Japandroids - Post-Nothing
Probably the easiest album to describe: guitar w/ distortion pedal, loud drums, screaming. With that formula it would be really easy to suck, but it doesn't. Highlight: pick one - it's solid from start to finish


4. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
I can see why a lot of people might not like these guys. There aren't many bands where the lead singer is in falsetto nearly every song (R&B genre excluded), so that takes some getting used to. But it definitely keeps the songs more interesting. Great guitar/bass work make this good, and the crazy vocals make it even better. Highlight: the lyric "This is a booty call... my boot, my boot, your asshole!" from track one


3. Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
Another guy quickly approaching the Thom York zone, Spencer Krug has yet to disappoint me in any way. But somehow I think his non-Wolf Parade band is one of the most underrated bands today. I went to see them in Madison, WI a few weeks ago and got there right on time at 7pm to make sure I was there if it packed out, and of course, it didn't. The club even kept them from playing an encore so they could clear people out and start karaoke at 9pm (no joke). Why don't they get more recognition? Every album has been on pitchfork's best new music but they never make the top 50 at the end of the year. I don't get it. But anyway, this album, just like all their others, is ridiculously good. 8 songs of completely unstructured, lyrically insane indie rock songs. Highlight: the one at a time build of muted guitar, drums, bass, keyboards, vocals, and then really loud guitar "You Go On Ahead For a While"


2. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
So much has been and will be written about this album that I don't know what's left to say about it. All I can say is that I hope this isn't their peak. Each album has been consistently better so I have to think they will continue trending that way. If they do, they really are headed for Radiohead status, not just in my book but mainstream too. If I could buy stock in these guys I would have done it yesterday. Highlight: what else could it possibly be other than "My Girls"?


1. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
#1 and #2 are really a toss-up for me, but Phoenix wins out because I think I've listened to it more. And I can't stop listening to it. It will probably be the kind of album that I look back at this time next year and think "That was really 2009? But I was just listening to it the other day." These guys have always been catchy, but I didn't see this coming. They are as tight of a band as the Strokes in their prime, but with less chance for egos and addiction to make them fall of the earth. Well done, Frogs. Highlight: The one-two punch of "Lisztomania" and "1901"


That took me way too long to write. I'm going to bed. Merry Christmas.

Best Albums of 2009

OK, end of the year, time for a Top Seven Albums of 2009. (Why seven and not ten? Because, The Man wouldn’t let me have ten.) For all of you Albums out there who I neglected, or forgot, to mention I hope you can forgive me… you’re all winners in my book (and, the title of that book is Everyone’s a Winner).

Trying to get this list out before Pitchfork and all the other websites start doing their end of the year lists. One, so as not to be perverted by other people’s opinions. And, two, because I am quite certain that this list will change world history. Enjoy…

7. The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
For people who got into the Flaming Lips over the past three albums this is quite a departure. For people have been Lip Lickers for years, this is almost a return to their original weirdness… not that it sounds at all like they’re earlier stuff, it just doesn’t have the pop-ness that the past few albums had and it seems that they feel a real freedom to explore on Embryonic. I mean, I know the last few albums haven’t at all been “safe” but, there is something much broader here.

6. U2 – No Line of the Horizon
Yeah, I’m old and I’m including U2 on my list. And, yes, I’m allowing the fact that I saw this tour, in all of its space ship absurdity, live to sway my opinion. But, I still like it. And, that’s all I have to say about that.

5. The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love
OK, first of all, let me just say that I’m a sucker for a concept album… Frank Sinatra’s September of My Years is my favorite Sinatra album and it contains no hits but works more as a single storyline, Willie Nelson’s Red Headed Stranger is an album built on a single storyline and it is truly a thing of perfection. But, I digress, just saying that I know that I can get sucked into a concept album more than most people (and, I’m not absurdly claiming that this album is on the same level as those two classics, blah blah blah). Thus, I realize that Hazards of Love is not for everyone, but it really was one of my favorites of 2009. One thing that shocked me is how The (usually un-rocking) Decemberists threw out some nasty and dirty guitar riffs and wailing vocals.

4. Passion Pit – Manners
The song “Little Secrets”, or “The Sunny Day Playground Jump Rope Song” as I like to call it, is a three minute and fifty-eight second summer day party, complete with frozen Jumbo Jet Star Pops from the Ice Cream Man and chalk drawn games of Tic-Tac-Toe displayed on the sidewalk. So, throw on some S.P.F. 45, hop on your bike and call all the kids in the neighborhood… because there’s a party going down and you’re all invited.

3. Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
In my opinion Wilco (The Album) is their best album since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (which was certainly one of the best albums of the decade)… I realize that opinion means that I’m saying Wilco (The Album) is better than A Ghost is Born, but that’s what I’m saying. I know it sounds a bit stupid when someone who is a non-engineer or producer starts talking about the “production value” of an album… but, all I’m saying is “tell me any single instrument, (or sound effect) that doesn’t sound perfect on this album”. Great songs. Great melodies. Great band.

2. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimist
Fact: “Two Weeks” was the best track of 2009. Fact: the recent rebirth of Beach Boys based harmonies is the only thing that will end Global Warming and cure leprosy. Fact: unicorns are real and leprechauns are not. Having said that, this album is freaking awesome. The poppy, hooky harmonies are wonderful. There’s something full yet hollow about this album (“hollow” is not the perfect word… but the feeling of listening to this album in a huge wooden-walled room yet the sound is not empty at all, it is full and surrounds you on all sides).

1. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
Shockingly, 2009’s best album came out so long ago that I had to check the release date just to make sure it was released this year… it was released in January 2009. I had never gotten into Animal Collective until this year and all I can say is “Wow!” This album has it all (that’s a freaking generic statement), but nonetheless, it takes you up, then it takes you down, then it takes you straight to Chinatown. OK, now I really don’t know what I’m saying but what I’m trying to say is this album has a subtle beauty to it as well a bright and obvious warmth to it… it really has so much to offer on both ends and it needs to be appreciated on both ends of that spectrum. The beauty of the overt poppiness cannot be fully appreciated apart from the beauty of the subtle sounds taking place here. Me likey long time.

Big Ears

When will Vampire Weekend, Joanna Newsom, Bryce Dessner (of The National), St. Vincent, Andrew WK, The Ex, Gang Gang Dance, Clogs, 802 Tour (Nico Muhly / Doveman / Sam Amidon with Nadia Sirota), The xx , Javelin, DJ/Rupture (solo), DJ/Rupture and Andy Moor, My Brightest Diamond, the Calder Quartet, Gyan Riley, and jj all come to Knoxville at the same time?


In March.

miike snow

So have you heard of these guys?

I'm really digging "Sans Soleil" right now.

build me this by joshua james

This past weekend, I did something that I don't do nearly as often as I should - I went to Grimey's. And even better, I went there with no specific purchase in mind. I left with this:


Build Me This by Joshua James

Take a listen...

Joshua James - "Coal War"


Joshua James - "Pitchfork"


and a B-side from his debut, The Sun Is Always Brighter
Joshua James - "Lovers Without Love"

the antlers

i've had this album on repeat for the last month. which is kind of demented because it's one of the most depressing albums this year. with a title like "hospice," you should know you're getting into trouble. the band pretty much covers all the topics: death, depression, inadequacy, abortion, cancer, abuse. not exactly light listening. but it's really, really good. the music is beautiful, almost like a soundtrack to your dreams/nightmares.

so if music has a way of overcoming your emotions, listen with care. but i highly recommend this album.

Hospice - The Antlers

lil record player

[click on the image to get a good look]

I know this isn't music, but I think my love of industrial design overlaps into TLE territory here. Who collects vinyl? I might start again if I had one of these.