Musical Year in Review.

Not so much a true musical year in review from a global perspective, and not so much stuff that necessarily came out this year, but more of "what have I been listening to this year". Also, I'm writing this after a heavy meal (greek chicken plate to go), so my sentences may or not be coherent.

First off, there was the unfortunate tendency for most of my favorite bands to release "'just okay' to mediocre" follow-up albums. The best of these was Starflyer's "Talking Voice Vs. Singing Voice"; the worst of these was Coldplay's "X+Y" (what a disappointment that was). Jimmy Eat World's "Futures" was somewhere inbetween. Oh well. Anyway, on with the reviews...

Grandaddy - "The Software Slump" and "Sumday" Both of these albums are a few years old, but I've just discovered them. Laid-back lo-fi slacker space pop rock with a pseudowestern flair. Or something. 'El Caminos in the West' is a great song.

Doves - "Some Cities" Semi-ambient Brit-pop rock. Doves' third album nicely mixes the mood of their first album with the song-writing flair of their second. It's really the first time one of their albums actually feels like a cohesive album, which is a good thing. My favorite of their albums thus far, although 'Catch the Sun' is still my favorite song.

Muse - "Absolution" Wow. This band sounds kinda like Radiohead, except they rock. They rock really, really well. Wow.

Thrice - "Vheissu" I did not expect to like this album, since I've really been getting out of the whole post-hardcore/post-emo/radio-rock scene lately, but Thrice has grown musically, apparently not wanting to get left behind as emo is finally thrown off the music bus. "Vheissu" intersperses the occasional post-hardcore flavor over a rather ambient and laid-back album. In a way, it reminds me of The Prayer Chain's "Mercury" album. Anyway, I like it.

Sufjan Stevens - "Come On, Feel the Illinoise" marks his second album in his 50 states projects (the first being Michigan). A great album, quite epic, but it still doesn't quite impart the same sense of beauty that his "Seven Swans" album did.

The Music - "Welcome to the North" A nice solid rock album from this British indie group, it's a strangely dancable record with classic rock influences.

Athlete - "Tourist" This Brit-pop band, with their 'mockney' vocals, of course gets comparisons to Coldplay and Doves. The album overall is good, but not great - but what really shines is their song 'Wires', which is one the most beautiful songs I've heard in a long time.

Other notable mentions: Yo La Tengo, Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter, The Dandy Warhols, Massive Attack, Magna-Fi (stop laughing at me), Dolorean, Phaser, The Pixies, Rubyhorse, Kasabian, Emiliana Torrini, Death Cab for Cutie, Thievery Corporation, and of course, various selections from the Nirvana box set.

Labels: music