Best Albums of the Year: 25-21

With the prevlance of music sites offering multiple views of the scene things have officially gone insane. Take into account allmusic, pitchfork, cokemachineglow, stylus, the guardian, nme, q magazine, village voice, and the onion, and the number of "good" albums stretches into one a day. To even keep up with the recommended albums at Pitchfork would mean you'd probably have to quit your job and huddle in a bunker with some headphones. Tellingly, my original list stretched over forty. Many of those were cut because I just honestly hadn't had time to listen to them enough. Great albums require the time to listen to them. This list doesn't really tell you much about the year, as that was too big to possibly encompass. These really tell a better story about me. And I had it all this year, good and bad, heartbreaking and heartfilled. So consider this more a mix-tape, except only really Cameron Crowe does that anymore. So here is what fits on my ipod.

25.The Boy Least Likely To - The Best Party Ever
Introduced by one of the happiest xylophones ever clonked, this album maintains the “I’m just a very happy person right now” for most of its 37 minutes. Of course its not that simple, I’m sure there is much heart here. But when you make a song called “Monsters” and fill it with a banjo, tambourine, and what sounds like a casio keyboard, no matter how dedicated you sing, I’m still going to bop my head back and worth when I’m in the subway. Or maybe just move my foot back and forth. Or when the subway is really crowded I usually just smile. And that's a very hard thing to accomplish most days.


24. Vashti Bunyan - Lookaftering
Out of time doesn’t even begin to describe this drifting, haunting album. More subdued than even Nick Drake’s first two orchestrated albums, Lookaftering feels motherly and timeless, like old children’s stories. Sweet and eccentric, her voice never reaches dramatic heights, though it does feel oddly religious. And during I time when I haven't been feeling much of that, I needed this album.


23. Deadly Snakes - Porcella
I don’t know who the Deadly Snakes are or what they are trying to accomplish. Nearly every track could have been made by a completely different band with a completely different singer. One moment they are doing gloomy atmospheric blues on “High Prices Going Down” with some rumbly old man clanking on toy piano like he's going to soothe my soul. Then the giddy “Gore Veil” complete with mellotron and a completely different singer who sounds like Lou Reed just appears and we are going to Penny Lane. I’m confused. I’m lost. Did I mention he sounds like Lou Reed? When he used to kind of sing...and write pop songs.


22. Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine
Having heard both versions, I have to say I enjoy the stripped down “official” release because it doesn’t try and swamp every single second with strings, oboes, and other instruments I've never heard of before. “Not About Love” is allowed to breath at the beginning, before big stomping guitars stop the break-neak backbeat. New song “Parting Gift” solo piano opens up the middle of the album. But we’ll be honest. The reason this album played constantly on my ipod were the two Jon Brion produced tracks that were left. Closing track “Waltz (Better than Fine)” was my anthem of inactivity during my past relationship troubles. But it’s the stunning opener “Extraordinary Machine” that meant the most. The creeping bass and that wonderful, wonderful bell that clanged at the most perfect part every time. Yes, yes, I am an extraordinary machine. I could sing along with that.

21. Wilco - Kicking Television
I dearly missed poor Jay Bennett, the frazzled, balding tower-of-a-man that lead them through the wilderness of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and never found an inopportune moment to place a synthesizer. His presence was sorely missed on A Ghost is Born. Instead of hiding the huge gaping hole in their sound, they accentuated it like a bad sore. That certainly gave a different character to the record, one that they hadn’t explored before. But live they just sounded like they were missing something.
Well, the hole is gone. New guitarist, Nels Cline, who was apparently raised on a steady diet of Jazz scales, rips through every memorable guitar line and adds new heft. It’s thrilling hearing the band have so much fun with Summerteeth standout “A Shot in the Arm” as well as the ending to “Ashes of American Flags” where Cline goes berserk. But the real reason this live CD is so important is the way it sheds new light on A Ghost is Born. Even "Handshake Drugs" which has appeared on two previous Wilco recordings (More like the Moon, A Ghost is Born) sounds alive and brilliant. Simply, the ghosts are gone, and these songs have never sounded better.