Musical Chairs Is A Contact Sport.

Best Albums of 2011

2011-12-22T17:37:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again, folks. Time to objectively evaluate a completely subjective topic, music. I'm talkin' Albums of the Year lists. I'm sure that Dan, Daniel, Eric, Tyler, Mason, Blaine, Justin, and others will say they are making a Top Albums list, but rest assured they will all fail just like last year, leaving only mine, the originator, progenitor, OG, and granddaddy of all Top Album lists.

Smack talk aside, let's get down to the methodology. Simply put, there isn't one. Last year's track-by-track, whole album, sum, divide by tracks+1 nonsense was time consuming and ultimately fruitless. I still would have ordered the albums the same, except The Suburbs would have been higher. Sorry, Winny-pooh.

So this year I'm just going to give you my favorite albums, 20-1. Here we go.

20. The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow.

A wonderful little folk album. The title track brings the heat pretty good.

19. The Black Keys - El Camino.

It's good. So were the last seven Black Keys albums. Nothing ground breaking here, just good ol' high-energy, indie-power blues.

18. Friendly Fires - Pala.

Not as good as their debut, but it still keeps their signature energy, especially on "Live Those Days Tonight" and "Pull Me Back To Earth."

17. Explosions In The Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care.

There's not much left to say for EITS. They're just good. Really, really good. Like "tweet-about-how-much-you-love-them-when-you're-feeling-introspective" good. Don't act like you haven't. CALLED OUT!

16. Bon Iver - Bon Iver.

I'm Justin Vernon and I'm too good for my natural vocal range. But he does write beautiful music. Incidentally, he also inspires introspective tweets. Keep it to yourself, people.

15. M83 - Hurry Up,We're Dreaming.

It's too long, but damn is it pretty. Inspired my favorite Hipster Runoff tweet of the year: "Hurry up, we're meming."

14. Foster the People - Torches.

Fun, fun music. You've never sung along to "Pumped Up Kicks"? I don't believe you.

13. Foo Fighters - Wasting Light.

Standard fare from the Foos. "Walk" is a great track.

12. Blind Pilot - We Are The Tide.

Folky, poppy, indie, Pacific Northwest-y.

11. Cage The Elephant - Thank You, Happy Birthday.

Quirky alternative with just a touch of freak-out. "Right Before Your Eyes" is a standout track.

10. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues.

I saw a lot of this album live at ACL and was thoroughly impressed. Then I couldn't find a torrent fi....Imean I couldn't scrounge up the 10 bucks for iTunes. Yeah, that's it. Seriously though, it's a nice little bit of American folk music.

9. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up.

Prog-Hop? Hip-Prog? Prog Rap? All of the above, with a side of holy s*** these guys make some seriously trippy beats and flows.

8. Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto.

Move along. Nothing to see here.

7. Jay-Z & Kanye West -Watch The Throne.

From the beat on "No Church In The Wild" to the Dubstep Rap of "Who Gon Stop Me", this collab bumps from beginning to end. Endlessly quotable. Racks on racks, indeed.

6. Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys.

It's no Transatlanticism, but I'd argue that it's their best since.

These last five truly separated themselves from the pack. I could (and have) listen to these albums on continuous repeat for hours on end.

5. The Dodos - No Color.

Indie rock's power duo is back, and they've finally stripped out the avant-garde weirdness of past releases. Every song is intricately arranged and perfectly executed, but it keeps that signature raw energy that makes The Dodos so unique.

4. The Roots - undun.

Weren't The Roots number 4 last year as well with How I Got Over? Yep. Such a short time between albums will make it suffer, right? Nope. I think this is The Roots best album since Phrenology. ?uestlove truly is a master of hip hop artistry, and Black Thought brings it on every track. The guests are all on their game, as well. And to end it all there is a Sufjan Stevens inspired instrumental suite.

3. ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Tao Of The Dead.

There are only two songs on the album. First is the 35 minute "Tao of the Dead", split into 11 tracks. The second song is the 16 minute "Strange News From Another Planet", which they elected to leave as one piece with five distinct sections. I had written a long description, but I want to keep this short. Trust me, it was a really long track by track breakdown. You know I nerd out for prog-rock.

2. My Morning Jacket - Circuital.

Whenever I listen to this album I automatically play it two or three times before I have to force myself to listen to something else. The title track is making a strong play for song of the year (coming soon! (maybe)), and the rest of the album just oozes awesome. Jim James is reminding me more and more of John Lennon, especially on "Wonderful" and "You Wanna Freak Out." You'll wanna freak out after listening. In the good way.

1. Radiohead - The King Of Limbs.

I don't even need to go into "Why Radiohead is the greatest band of all time, and why TKOL was the album of the year" mode. I could. Trust me, I could. I just don't want to. This race was over in February. Sorry I'm not sorry. It's Radiohead. It's me. You do the math.

Happy New Year.

SXSW Recap!

2011-03-20T12:26:00.000-07:00

My whole body hurts. A week of little sleep, lots of walking, the occasional open bar, and most importantly GREAT MUSIC has culminated in SXSunday. Exhausted and still putting this International Trade paper off, here's a recap of my SXSW.

Films I saw:
Terri - John C. Reilly plays a school counselor for an obese middle schooler named Terri. Dark turn toward the end but quite good.
In A Better World - Won Best Foreign Film at the Oscars. Powerful film with great acting. From Denmark.
Elevate - Inspired by UT baller Alexis Wangmene, this doc follows four Senegalese basketball players as they go from Africa to play prep ball in the US. Great film.

Films I want to see now:
Hesher, Detention, Bellflower, Instead of You.

Celebrities I saw:
Josh Lucas, Dane Cook, Rainn Wilson, (maybe) Michael Ian Black, Brittany Snow

Music Festival:
Wednesday 3/16 - Saw The Black Lips and Talib Kweli at Emo's. Talib Kweli is great.

Thursday 3/17 - Went to The Strokes with Eric, Allicia, and Matt where we were part of an angry mob that tore down the fence and ran past cops to get in. It. Was. Awesome. The Strokes were great, played 5 songs of the new album (according to P4k) along with my favorite song "I Can't Win", and closed with "Last Nite" accompanied by fireworks. Wonderful Night.
Also saw Friendly Fires that night. They are a great live band. Check them out.

Friday 3/18 - Saw Austin locals The Bright Light Social Hour at Momo's with my friend Burke. They rocked. Obviously have deep roots in classic rock. One of their songs reminded me of "Black Dog". They broke it down in the middle for soloing from each band member (guitar, keys, bass, drums) before ending it with a big ol' rock finish.
After BLSH we saw Robert Earl Keen at ACL live at the W. Great venue. He was pretty good but obviously didn't care for playing a short set.
After REK I met up Tyler and Eric at the Blue Moon, a blues bar on 6th street and watched this amazing blues band til about 1:30.

Saturday 3/19 The Big Finish. Eric, Daniel, and I went to stand in line for the Kanye show at 4:00. Yes, that's eight hours early. Well, eight hours if the show had actually started at midnight, but VEVO doesn't know how to run an event efficiently at all. Read about it on the internets. Turns out the long wait, horrible lines, and mass of pissed off people was incredibly worth it. Somehow Daniel got in (The Hip Hop Gods were smiling on us) and the show started at around 1 am.

The G.O.O.D. Music All-Stars were on hand for the event and the opening acts were Mos Def, Pusha T, Kid Cudi, Prince Cy Hi, and Mr. Hudson. Then out came Kanye. He played mostly songs off the new album and was joined by John Legend and all the openers. A mini-marching band joined him for "All Of The Lights." Then, oh goodness, out comes

JAY-Z. Seriously.

Played a couple songs together before Hov played "Public Service Announcement" and the place went absolutely nuts. Seriously, there is nothing like a bunch of mostly white people screaming along to "Allow me to reintroduce myself, my name is HOOOOVVVVVVVVVV!!!"

Bon Iver showed up for "Lost in the World" which was great. Then the whole crew came back for "Monster" to close the show at about 4 am. Wow.

Now I'm tired, my whole body hurts, and I have a paper to write due Tuesday. WORTH IT.

Top Albums of 2010

2010-12-21T13:18:00.001-08:00

It's that time of year again. The Top Albums of 2010. I'll list of 20-11 then write a little something for 10-1.

First a little background. This year my roommate decided to join me in doing album lists, but this year we would have a rating system. It goes a little something like this:

∑(track 1+...+track N + (N*album)/(2*N).

Or more simply, rank each song and add them up. Rate the album as a whole, taking into account flow, theme, length, etc, then multiply by the number of songs. Add that to the song rankings then divide by twice the number of songs. That way the album rating counts for half of the total rating and individual songs account for half. It's been pretty accurate. Onto the list, with each albums rating next to it.

20) B.o.B – B.o.B. Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray 7.125

19) Kings of Leon – Come Around Sundown 7.481

18) Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks 7.523

17) LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening 7.611

16) Broken Bells – Broken Bells 7.675

15) Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma 8.117

14) Good Old War – Good Old War 8.200

13) Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More 8.229

12) The Reign of Kindo – This Is What Happens 8.269

11) The Tallest Man On Earth – The Wild Hunt 8.275

10) Vampire Weekend - Contra 8.450

Vampire Weekend returns with Contra, a wonderful display of pretentious Ivy-League douchebag Baroque-Pop. And it's wonderful. They keep much of the same sprightly pop guitar and vocal combinations from their first album, with an added synth element on many of the tracks.

Some of the standout tracks are "Horchata", "Holiday", and "Giving Up The Gun".

9) Big Boi – Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty 8.467

The wait was worth it! Big Boi’s debut solo album has been a long time coming, trapped in development hell. Some of these tracks have been sitting around since 2004 waiting to be included on the album. Turns out that didn’t hurt it at all. Sir Lucious Left Foot a booty-shakin’, head-bobbin’, foot-stompin’ piece of Southern Hip-Hop mastery. Though it does drag in the middle, the first five tracks and last six tracks are unbelievable. Vintage Big Boi rapping, meaning even if the song is slow Big Boi goes at full speed (“Hustle Blood”). He also loves putting those harmonies in choruses of songs (“Turns Me On”, “The Train part. 2").

The best tracks are “Shutterbugg”, “Fo Yo Sorrows”, “Shine Blockas”, and “Back Up Plan”.

8) Band Of Horses – Infinite Arms 8.542

After leaving the legendary Sub Pop label for pure independence I was excited to see what Band Of Horses would do on Infinite Arms. Well, they kept doing exactly what makes them great, composing great songs with gorgeous instrumentation and vocal harmonies. Their brand of pure American rock is at times serene, at times energetic, and at all times terrific.

The best tracks are “Factory”, “Compliments”, “Laredo”, and “Older”.

7) Arcade Fire – The Suburbs 8.563

Arcade Fire has delivered its masterpiece to us in The Suburbs. The lyrical themes of isolation, abandonment, malaise, and reminiscing a home lost in time burst out of your speakers along with the wonderfully crafted Indie rock behind them. Arcade Fire knows exactly how to captivate their listeners, create lush soundscapes with whatever instruments they happen to be holding, put a driving rhythm behind it and build to a wonderful climax. One reviewer likened it to OK Computer. I agree but for one point. OK Computer was the perfect length. The Suburbs has three completely unnecessary tracks on the back end. They disrupt the flow and add nothing. So unfortunate for an album that would have placed even higher.

Best tracks are “Ready To Start”, “City With No Children”, “Suburban War” and “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”.

6) Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy 8.750

Does he know he’s an a-hole? Absolutely. Is he sorry for being an a-hole? Absolutely not. Kanye pulled out all the stops for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, featuring everyone from Bon Iver to Kid Cudi, Rick Ross to John Legend. He even brought in Elton John to sing BACKUPS on “All Of The Lights.” The production is dark but grandiose at times. I didn’t think I would like this album as much as I did, but after multiple listens it just kept growing on me. My one beef with Kanye and MBDTF is some of the guest appearances are just unnecessary. They make the songs drag. So while they sound great, they are just too long. Example, cut Raekwon from “Gorgeous”, cut Rick Ross from “Monster”, and cut Pusha T from “So Appalled”. Boom.

The standout tracks are “All Of The Lights”, “Runaway”, and “Lost In The World”.

5) Janelle Monae – The ArchAndroid 8.764

Janelle Monae is, without a doubt, the best female vocalist alive. Better than Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, and even Norah Jones. She also happens to be the weirdest of the bunch, with the obvious exception of Gaga. Her 2010 effort, The ArchAndroid, is Suites II and III of a piece called “Metropolis” that she begun on her debut EP, which chronicles the journey and struggles of a messianic android named Cindi Mayweather. Interesting. The musical styles on The ArchAndroid are eclectic and eccentric, accompanied by Monae’s wondrous vocal styling, which is, at all times, effervescent. R&B, Funk, Jazz, Soul, and Pop are all represented wonderfully on this album.

The best tracks are “Cold War”, “Tightrope”, “Neon Valley Street”, and “Say You’ll Go.”

4) The Roots – How I Got Over 8.857

Proving that you don’t need a five million dollar mixing board to make wonderful hip-hop (Lookin’ at you, Kanye), The Roots continue their run of excellence with How I Got Over. This is more of a return to form for the Philadelphia based legends, after Rising Down's dark synth and bass heavy beats, How I Got Over features the return of the (oh so soulful) Fender Rhodes keyboard. The Roots craft a magnificent album with great instrumentals, perfect guest appearances by their favorite underground rappers, Truck North and Dice Raw, all held together by ?uestlove’s relentless drumming, tasteful as ever. The first six tracks are all sequenced into each other, a lost art among recording artists today. The John Legend sample on “Doin’ It Again” is awesome. I could really go on and on about this album. So why isn’t it higher? Horrible ending. The last two tracks are really awful. “Web 20/20” has a nasty glitchy electronic beat and “Hustla” just sounds like a reject track from Rising Down. A poor showing at the end of the album. Otherwise it’s a masterpiece.

3) Gorillaz – Plastic Beach 9.000

Damon Albarn, the mastermind behind Gorillaz, has delivered a landmark record in Plastic Beach. With an even bigger and more varied guest list than Kanye, Plastic Beach features Lou Reed, Mos Def, De La Soul, Snoop Dogg, Sinfonia Viva, Bobby Womack, The National Orchestra For Arabic Music, and the incredible Little Dragon. The guests all buy in fully to Albarn’s musical philosophy and no one seems out of place. Albarn’s compositions are beautiful on each song, from the trip-hop of “Stylo” to the serene in “Empire Ants” to the frenzied in “Glitter Freeze”. All the songs come together to make a truly expansive sound. Plastic Beach is a gem and Albarn’s magnum opus, Gorillaz or otherwise. (Also the only album of the bunch to hit a whole number.)

Standout tracks are “Stylo”, “Superfast Jellyfish”, “Melancholy Hill”, and “To Binge.”

One thing that sets the top few albums from the rest is that the artists creating them actually care about music. They give a crap about what they release. They take an intense amount of time and effort to make their albums perfect. The last two releases on this list are incredible examples of this. There are NO songs on either of these albums that I don’t like. Neither album had any tracks below an 8.5. No other album this year can say that, not even Plastic Beach (one 7.5 and 6.5). Without further ado, here are the top two albums of 2010.

2) The National – High Violet 9.364

The National’s latest release, High Violet, is just another The National release, which means it’s fantastic. Matt Berninger’s baritone vocals and passionate, emotional lyrics are perfect for the compositions created by guitarist Aaron Dessner. The arrangements for each song are incredible. Different parts will come in softly, layering up until the song is something new from what it started as. Each time I listen to High Violet I hear something new, whether it be a subtle brass accompaniment in “Afraid Of Everyone” or keyboard backing in “Conversation 16”, which features Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire. The National are incredible musicians, and High Violet is just another example of that proven fact.

The best tracks are “Terrible Love”, “Bloodbuzz Ohio”, and “England.”

1) Local Natives – Gorilla Manor 9.688

From the get-go of “Wide Eyes” I knew Gorilla Manor was going to be special. It wasn’t until I listened to it a few more times that I knew how special it would be. Local Natives take the utmost care in crafting their music, evidenced by the fact that nearly every lyric sung is sung in perfect three part harmony. They’ve put a tremendous amount of work into Gorilla Manor, but they never sound pretentious (Animal Collective) or heavy handed (Grizzly Bear). Local Natives just sound like they’re having a great time playing great music. And, boy, is it great. I could go song by song for the whole album, but I’ll stick to the two best. “Wide Eyes” has wonderful guitar interplay in the intro. The bass actually plays the climactic riff during the intro, but its subtle enough that you don’t notice it fully. The drums are clickety clackety-ing along throughout, which works perfectly for the driving guitar lines. After the bridge another verse without drums builds up to the climax with a thunderous riff obviously played by a student of the Radiohead songbook. “Who Knows Who Cares” is the best track on the album, featuring gorgeous harmony in the chorus, a rip-roaring guitar riff toward the end, and the drummer thundering along with no regard for human life in the second verse. The jam at the end is wonderfully epic, all the instruments playing like there’s no tomorrow, joined by the voices in wonderful harmony to close out the song and bring the musical climax of Gorilla Manor to a close. I can’t believe I missed Local Natives at ACL.

Other great tracks are “Sun Hands”, “World News”, “Cubism Dream.”

Thanks for reading!

Playlist I can't get enough of

2010-02-17T22:04:00.000-08:00

This playlist has been playing on repeat on the iPod for the past month. It's a genius playlist generated by iTunes based of "F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X." by The Fall of Troy. A few songs it put in I didn't like so I trimmed it down to 22 songs. Go.

1) "F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X." - The Fall of Troy
2) "Reptilia" - The Strokes
3) "My Name Is Jonas" - Weezer
4) "Suck My Kiss" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
5) "Be My Escape" - Relient K (Odd being after RHCP, but the lead in from "Suck My Kiss" to this is absolutely brilliant.)
6) "Closer To The Sun" - Slightly Stoopid
7) "All Around Me" - Flyleaf
8) "Crooked Teeth" - Death Cab For Cutie (another great transition)
9) "A-Punk" - Vampire Weekend
10) "Tom Sawyer" - Rush
11) "Be Yourself" - Audioslave
12) "Otherside" - RHCP (There were two songs between "Be Yourself" and this that I wasn't too fond of so I cut them out)
13) "12:51" - The Strokes (Again, one song between RHCP and this that I didn't like)
14) "Higher" - Creed (I know, I know...)
15) "Knights of Cydonia" - Muse
16) "Somewhere Out There" - Our Lady Peace
17) "Still Waiting" - Sum 41
18) "Say It Ain't So" - Weezer
19) "Alive" - P.O.D. (The playlist starts to rock pretty hard from here on out)
20) "Beast and the Harlot" - Avenged Sevenfold (Oh yeah)
21) "Stellar" - Incubus
22) "Monkey Wrench" - Foo Fighters (On repeat the transition from this to FCP is awesome)

If I were a rock music fan I would get those songs, put them in that order and go. Enjoy.

On the sports front, the Longhorn Men's Basketball team continues to lose and disappoint. Dexter is a pansy in the paint. Damion is not confident in the clutch. Balbay is a turnover machine. The freshmen are hit or miss. Fail.

The Mavs trade interests me. Caron Butler is a similar player to Josh Howard, but it looks to me like a new team has energized him, especially defensively. He showed that tonight against Phoenix. I hope they can keep it up.

-Christian

What Eric Johnson has been waiting for

2010-01-01T14:39:00.000-08:00

After a long hiatus filled with finals, skiing, and Christmas, I'm back like Jordan for some END OF 2009 Lists. Let's start with the Best Albums of 2009.

Honorable Mentions: Albums that I enjoyed but didn't have the mojo to crack the Top 10.

HM 1: Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca - An interesting experimental album. A tad overrated in my opinion, but solid nonetheless.
HM 2: Mos Def - The Ecstatic - In a bad year for Hip Hop, Mos Def's latest release stood out for it's lyrical ingenuity, varied musical styles, and commitment to sampling.
HM 3: Switchfoot - Hello Hurricane - A great effort from Jon Foreman and Co, one that convinced me they weren't the same bunch of hacks that gave us Nothing is Sound and Oh! Gravity.
HM 4: The Avett Brothers - I And Love And You - What a difference Rick Rubin in the booth can make. This is musically the best Avett Brothers album yet, and could have cracked the final 10 if the lyrics didn't leave me disappointed.
HM 5: The Mars Volta - Octahedron - The result of stripping back the noise and effects and just playing music. This is the best TMV album since Frances the Mute back in '05. Unfortunately for TMV, it came in at number 11 on this list.

The Holy 10.

10: The Flaming Lips - Embryonic - An acid-rock tour de force. This album plays like Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, except with words. What set this album apart for me was it's staying power. I liked it more after the 2nd listen. Of course, rock odysseys are not for everyone, but for those of us who like to sit down and listen to music, no matter how long it takes, Embryonic is 70 minutes of greatness. Definitely worthy of a spot in the top 10.

9: Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - The catchiest album on this list by far. Phoenix reminds me of what MGMT could be if they used real instruments. Great hooks, tap your feet beats, fun sounds, great textures. Thanks, France.

8: mewithoutYou - It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright - I distinctly remember listening to this album after reading a review of it in Relevant. mewithoutYou finally let their lyrics write the music, rather than adding lyrics to the god awful noise of their previous albums. The result is a brilliant sound, much like The Decemberists crossed with The Shins, I like to describe as "symphonic alt-folk" with some of the most inspired lyrics on this list.

7: Andrew Bird - Noble Beast/Useless Creatures - A lot like Andrew Bird's previous efforts, and just as impressive. His musicianship is stunning, as is his sense of texture and mood. Bird's songs are captivating. His lyrics are the usual nonsensical fare, but they don't have to make sense to be meaningful. Just think of his voice as the final instrumental piece of the puzzle. Useless Creatures is the accompanying instrumental disc and is an absolute gem if you can find it. Where else in music will you find a singer-songwriter who plays guitar, mandolin, violin, glockenspiel, and whistles?

6: Modest Mouse - No One's First, And You're Next - You know a band has officially become the best in the biz when their EP of castoffs and b-sides makes an end of the year list. The tracks on this EP are remarkably cohesive even though they have been floating around since 2004 for some. "The Whale Song" is an instrumental powerhouse and has become one of my favorite Modest Mouse songs. I'm glad that it didn't make the final cut of We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank because I don't think it would have fit that album as well as it fits this EP. That's the case for all the songs on this disc; they are good individually but would have been out of place on previous Modest Mouse albums, but together on this EP they all work beautifully. Also gotta love the Dirty Dozen Brass Band on "King Rat".

5: Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest - This album is beautiful. I love it. Grizzly Bear thrives on creating an atmosphere in their music. It's perfectly evident that they recorded this album in a cottage in New England. You can almost hear the ocean in the background, as well as the beautiful reverb of the room they're in. What sets Grizzly Bear apart from other indie bands is their creativity. Much like mewithoutYou (I got their albums at the same time, wow!) Grizzly Bear takes the instrumentals to a whole new level. They use xylophones, glocks, accordions, and all manner of instruments. And topping it all off are Ed Droste's pure vocals and human lyrics. At the end of the day, that's why this album scored so high. All parts work together to form great music. The instrumentals are brilliant but subtle, in your face but restrained, and above all are perfectly in tune with the lyrics.

Before we get to the Wondrous 4, I would like to take a moment and give a shout out to the other albums that were up for consideration for this list. These were good efforts by their respective artists, but in the end didn't quite impress me enough to give an HM too. Here they are: John Mayer - Battle Studies, Blakroc - Blakroc, Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse - Dark Night Of The Soul, Dave Matthews Band - Big Whiskey And The GrooGrux King, The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love, Lupe Fiasco - Enemy Of The State: A Love Story, Maybeshewill - Sing The Word Hope In Four Part Harmony, and Wale - Attention Deficit. Thank you all for making music. Try harder next time.

Now, my friends, the 4 Best Albums of 2009

4: Various Artists - Ben Folds Presents: University a Capella - This choice may seem like it came out of left field, but if you haven't heard this voices-only album or haven't even heard of it let me give you some background. Ben Folds held a contest where any a Capella group could send in videos of their performances of Ben Folds' songs. The result is wonderful display of voice and emotion. There's just something about the power of the human voice acting as an instrument that tugs on your heartstrings. The groups selected recorded these tracks as if they were a live performance and the result isn't always perfect, but that's part of the beauty of it. The standout track, one that does use modern recording techniques, is "Magic", performed by The University of Chicago's Voices In Your Head. This track is the ultimate example of the emotion the human voice can elicit.

3: Muse - The Resistance - Muse's newest release moves along like a golden locomotive. Drummer Dominic Howard and bassist Christopher Wolstenholme keep the songs driving as Matt Bellamy layers the guitar and keyboard sounds on top. This album succeeds because of that balance between driving rock and textural alternative. While I would like to act like "Undisclosed Desires" never happened, the remainder of the tracks are wonderful. The first 3/4 of the album are the more typical Muse tracks. The standouts are "Uprising", a protest anthem for this millenium; "United States of Eurasia", which shows that Muse has been listening to a lot of Queen; "Guiding Light", which has the most epic short-form guitar solo of the decade; and "MK Ultra", a song about the paranoia of being watched by the government. Look up MK Ultra on Wikipedia and you'll understand. The last fourth of the album is the 3 part "Exogenisis: Symphony." This is easily one of the most beautiful fusions of classical music and rock ever. A little research into the background of this piece gave me a little more perspective. The lyrics tell the story of a group of astronauts tasked with spreading human life to other planets as the Earth dies. Their struggle culminates in the realization that even if they succeed, the cycle will continue forever unless humanity changes its destructive ways. Phillip Glass' influence is evident, as is Pink Floyd's. "Exogenesis" is the crowning jewel of Muse's talents and their magnum opus to date. The truth is that without it The Resistance would have been a strong Honorable Mention, but with "Exogenesis" Muse's newest album is the third best of the year.

2: The Bad Plus - For All I Care (With Wendy Lewis) - I know what you're thinking. 'Who are The Bad Plus?' The Bad Plus are the best jazz artists around right now. A piano trio of epic proportions whose defining characteristic over the past decade has been their jazz interpretation of rock and pop songs, from "Iron Man" to "Life On Mars" to "Heart of Glass" to "Theme from Chariots of Fire". They are, quite simply, the jazz equivalent of rock stars. On previous albums they have combined covers with their own creative originals, much like Charlie Parker would have in 1953. On For All I Care they abandon originals and add Wendy Lewis, a vocalist well known in the Minneapolis indie rock scene (which means not well known at all, right). On this album they cover artists Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Wilco, Yes, Bee Gees, Heart, Roger Miller, and The Flaming Lips, as well as three 20th century classical pieces (without vocals). One thing about The Bad Plus, when they cover a song they don't play it note for note, they completely rework it as a jazz song. Every song is a masterpiece so choosing highlights is like choosing the hottest Stars Ice Girl (no easy task). But the absolute best songs are their cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb", Bee Gees' "How Deep Is Your Love?" and Roger Miller's "Lock, Stock and Teardrops". Nobody does ballads, original or cover, quite like The Bad Plus, so it fits that the best tracks are all slow, emotional pieces. "Comfortably Numb" is played with a simple bass part and brushes on drums before Lewis' haunting vocals enter. The piano takes a backseat in this song, allowing Lewis' pure voice to resonant completely. She is joined by bassist Reid Anderson on the chorus to form a gorgeous harmony. Their voices blend together perfectly with the bass to capture the feeling of isolation Roger Waters intended. The cover of Bee Gees' "How Deep Is Your Love?" is perhaps the most heartfelt song on the album, and is completely different feel from the original. The Bee Gees' version is an upbeat motown dance ballad, while The Bad Plus have turned it into a tragic plea for unrequited love. Her voice is perfect for these ballads because it is completely without vibrato, much like Miles Davis trumpet on "Blue in Green" or "Flamenco Sketches". (By the way, you know a jazz album is a winner when it conjures memories of Kind of Blue). Roger Miller's "Lock, Stock and Teardrops" is the most creative of the covers. The original is a country twang ballad; The Bad Plus' version is almost avant-garde in its musicality. Lewis sings the song straight ahead for the most part, while the left hand piano gives the chords every so often. The bass and drums are on their own, and give us accents and texture until the restrained climax when it all comes together in a deep bass chord. Before listening to this album, get the track listing and make sure you have listened to all the originals, especially the classical pieces, or the creativity of these guys won't make as much sense to you. This album is magnificent.

1: David Crowder Band - Church Music - Before I get into the review of this magnificent piece of art and worship, let me preface by saying that I don't really like Christian music that much. I think CCM sold out a long time ago to profits. They parade out Chris Tomlin's bubblegum worship that lacks any musical creativity or lyrical freshness. Not to hate on Tomlin, but his stuff has sounded the same for a decade. And a lot of people like it, which is a good ministry and certainly has a place. I just can't stand it. Luckily for Christians who want their worship music to have teeth and not sound like U2, there is David Crowder Band. Since 2003's Illuminate, DCB has evolved musically, releasing the Christian album of the decade in 2005 with A Collision that had bluegrass as well as anthem rock influences, followed by Remedy in 2007 which drew more from acoustic pop and electronica. Church Music fully embraces the electronic and fuses it with rock and gospel to produce the most musically creative album Christian music has seen in a long time. The lyrics don't fail to live up. Throughout the album Crowder tells the listener about the misery found in sin, the joy found in salvation, and the love found in the church. The album's flow is astounding. It is fully sequenced, making it like a 73 minute song of worship to God. The tracks ebb and flow together, introspective and restrained for a while then upbeat and happy then dark and heavy. The work these guys put into this album is also unbelievable. Basically they wrote the lyrics and instrumentals for each song, then electronically programmed them as one whole album without breaks, then had to go back and replace the programmed music with live instrumentation. The result is the most well thought out album on this list. There are no filler tracks and no awkward transitions. Church Music draws you in and does not let up for 70 minutes. In the end it leaves you feeling both musically awed and spiritually uplifted. The first standout track is "Alleluia, Sing", a no bones about it call to worship. The synthesizer dances on top of the anthem rock guitar chorus as the drums and keyboard pound away in response. The next song of note is "Shadows", which has the most uplifting hook on the album. The song is about finding encouragement and rest in Christ even in hard times. The glitch drums evoke Radiohead, while the chorus harmony might evoke 70s pop. "SMS (Shine)" is my second favorite song on the album. I'm guessing from the lyrics that SMS stands for Save My Soul. The song is a electronica with piano ballad calling God to shine his light on us. The subtle layering of electric guitar in the chorus is a nice touch. I'd like to know who sings backups on these tracks, because she has a magnificent voice. "God Almighty, None Compares" is the penultimate track and is a guitar-rock odyssey. A thunderous riff worthy of Muse starts the first verse off, while the chorus is backed by a heavy chord progression. After the vocal part of the song ends the instruments enforce Crowder's point with 4 minutes of flat out hard rock, guitar solo and all. I'm not kidding when I thought of a Christian version of Led Zeppelin. This track flows beautifully into the final track "In The End (O Resplendent Light), which assures the listener that salvation is found through Christ (Our bodies die, but our souls will shine). If I haven't convinced you of this album's merits, both spiritually and musically, let me tell you about one more song. John Mark McMillan's "How He Loves", my favorite song on the album, is preceded by a beautifully simple cover of Flyleaf's "All Around Me" which flows directly into the piano intro. "How He Loves" is simple in its lyrics and beautiful in its instrumental. The piano and voice are joined by the full band in the second chorus and crescendo up to a climax worthy of Sigur Ros. The song poetically describes the simple beauty of God's love for us (He is jealous for me/loves like a hurricane, I am a tree/Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy) while the bridge gives us the most heartfelt lyrics on the list:

We are His portion and He is our prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking
Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets
When I think about, the way…
That He loves us

That's the kind of spirituality you're getting on this album. The most musically sound album and most lyrically complete album. The most engaging album and most profound album. The most thoughtful album and most thought out album. It is your 2009 album of the year.

Esoteric Radiohead Moment/The Stars look good

2009-11-13T22:36:00.000-08:00

First off, let us begin with a qualifier. I am a huge Radiohead fan. The first section of this post may not make sense to you if you are not a Radiohead fan. Which means it will make sense to Dan and probably not many of the other three people that read this :P. Now let's get to it.

When I get bored with whatever music I happen to be listening to on any given day I have a few backup artists that I know I can always go to. The Mars Volta, Tool, The Bad Plus, David Crowder, and most of all, Radiohead. The other day I got bored of folk. I had been listening to folk for a few straight days and needed some quality alt-rock. So I popped on Radiohead's entire discography. I always listen to it chronologically, starting with The Bends (I don't particularly enjoy Pablo Honey), moving on to OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail To The Thief, and finally In Rainbows. On Thursday I was listening to OK Computer in my earphones. While the song "Let Down" was on (a personal favorite) I had a rather esoteric moment. I realized that by listening to music through my headphones, wearing sunglasses, and ignoring the people around me, I was being the lyrics of that song. It was uncanny. One of the overarching lyrical themes on OK Computer is isolation; modern man living in a stupor, searching for significance but ending up with nothing. I had never actually looked up the lyrics to "Let Down" before, but knew by the feel of the song and some of the intelligible lyrics the general idea of the song. After I looked them up I realized how much the song was about me in that moment. Here's a snippet:

Transport, motorways and tramlines
Starting and then stopping
Taking off and landing
The emptiest of feelings
Disappointed people clinging on to bottles
And when it comes it's so so disappointing

It was a very interesting moment.

Not too much sporting observations to report, other than the DALLAS STARS finally won an OT game. The Stars comeback win over the San Jose Fishies was a great win with great goaltending, great offense, great defense, and most of all a clutch-tastic SO goal by Robidas when the game was on the line. This team is scrappy and is really starting to gel in Marc Crawford's system of offense first. When you think of the defensive style the Stars have played for the past two decades and consider the age of our team, it is a great sign that the players have bought into Crawford's new way. Also, James Neal is a special player. I predict that in 4 years he will be the NHL points champ for that season. He is a great attacker, he can split defenders, he is aggressive with rebounds and he can facilitate, as we saw with his sweet pass to Mikey Mo last night. Love it.

That's all for now. Mavs won again, hope the 'Boys will do the same on Sunday.

-Christian

The Importance of a Good Closer: Thoughts on Blind Pilot and Mariano Rivera

2009-10-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

Thursday night I attended a concert at the Parish on 6th St. The band I saw is called Blind Pilot, an Indie/Folk/Pop group that specializes in incredibly crafted music, brilliant textures, introspective lyrics, and emotional expression to create their distinct sound. The core of the band is the duo of the guitarist/lead singer and the drummer, but they tour as a 6 person ensemble featuring a female vocalist, trumpet/Fender Rhodes player, upright bass player, and (my personal favorite) a vibraphone player. The trumpet and vibraphone are a brilliant touch to the shimmering textures the band makes. The band's only album 3 Rounds And A Sound provided most of the songs on the setlist, including the hauntingly beautiful "Oviedo", "3 Rounds and A Sound" and "Two Towns From Me". The best song of the evening was the pre-encore finale, an off album piece entited "We Are The Tide", which brings me to the point of this post.

Closing numbers make or break a concert. This song absolutely made this show. "We Are The Tide" is best described as a Folk Anthem. Imagine if U2 was playing "Walk On" with acoustic guitars. "We Are The Tide" begins with a drum beat that was purely tribal. The guitar enters briskly, followed by the bass, vibes, and Rhodes. The chorus simply makes you want to get up and dance. This song nearly moved me to tears. Here's a video of the song played in LA about a week before the Austin Show.

As I make my college foray into folk music, Blind Pilot is quickly becoming one of my new favorite bands.

Onto the Sports side of this coin: I hate the Yankees on principal, but I could watch Mariano Rivera pitch forever. He is amazing. I obviously missed game 2 of the series because of the show, but I did watch it on DVR and can say it never ceases to amaze me how brilliantly Rivera pitches with the game on the line. 38 postseason saves, 9 of those to clinch series, 3 to clinch World Series. And he'll be 40 at the end of November. The man is a monster. Did you see the pitch he got Matt Stairs out with to end the game? Are you kidding me? The break on that is ridiculous. I love Mariano Rivera and will enjoy him being in the HOF.

Also, the Mavs beat the Lakers tonight. Owned, Kobe and Pau.

Bowling/Tool

2009-10-27T19:20:00.000-07:00

Bowling is one of those special activities that all college students must do. Bowling is the quintessential social activity for young people. It's too bad that bowling has lost significance in American culture. Bowling alleys used to be the place to be every Friday night. What happened to Bowling? Let's bring bowling back.

I challenge all of you to bowl more often. Bowling is fun, relaxing, and a great group activity. I'm about to bowl with my cell group. Call me if you want to bowl with me.

I've been on a huge Tool kick lately. The riff in "The Pot" from 4:11 to 4:25 is so great. Seeing them over the summer was one of the most amazing experiences, both visually and aurally. The lights were sick, as were the video screens. What is most incredible about Tool, however, is the way they blend complex musicality with raw energy. The best example that night was "Lateralus" played as a 15 minute epic metal tour de force. The time signatures in that song are impossible to understand, let alone play along to, but they do it while rocking incredibly hard. Tool is awesome.

Thank you for reading. Hook Em Horns, Go Mavs, Go Stars, How 'Bout Dem Cowboys, (Go Rangers?) and listen to good music.