14. Tift Merritt See You on the Moon
Just so you don’t think I only listen to indie rock, here’s my two americana albums of the year.
Of the two, Tift Merritt is the more diverse. Merritt seems more willing to break free of the confines of americana and embrace a wider musical palette. She certainly embraces the typical singer-songwriter and rootsy stuff that generally passes for the genre. Merritt, however, dips into soul and even into a bit of adult-contemporary soft pop rock (think Sheryl Crow). Merritt is talented enough writer to make it sound her own without sounding derivative.
Patty Griffin made a gospel album. This, as one would expect, is a good thing. Produced by the great Buddy Miller, Griffin showcases her always getter better voice with numbers that have shaped her as an artist. I’m not a big gospel music fan, but I am a big Patty Griffin fan and she didn’t let me down. And the album closers “We Shall All be Reunited” and “All Creatures of Our God and King” are stunners.
Patty Griffin "Move Up" (Live)
Patty Griffin "Move Up" (Live)
Tift Merritt "Mixtape"
13. Belle & Sebastian Write About Love
Although it’s a coincidence that Belle & Sebastian and Damien Jurado fell next to each other in this list, it’s fitting. They both suffer from the same fate: a large and consistent back catalogue that features a fair number of stone-cold classics.
With that, it’s not entirely fair to compare Write About Love to albums/songs that preceded it. It just doesn’t stand up to albums like If You’re Feeling Sinister, Tigermilk, or The Life Pursuit. There is no “Boy with the Arab Strap”, “Piazza New York Catcher”, or “Lazy Line Painter Jane”.
Instead it’s another standout collection of Belle & Sebastian doing what they do best. The 11 songs alternate between the jangly twee-pop and plaintive ballads. They feature the same bittersweet storytelling of love and loss, joy and pain. It continues the large sound forged by the previous two albums. But rather than being a re-tread, dance-fueled numbers like “I Want the World to Stop” push the band in new directions. The more familiar songs like the title-track continue to refine and perfect a formula that has been working for years. The patient listener is able to pick up on just how well the band has been able to tweak what they’ve done well for so long.
It might be more of the same, but more of Belle & Sebastian’s same is a winning deal.
Belle & Sebastian "I Want the World to Stop"
Belle & Sebastian "I Want the World to Stop"
12. Damien Jurado Saint Bartlett
I don’t know how he does it. Jurado keeps making strong album after strong album. In a fair world, the attention bestowed on Bon Iver and Iron & Wine would go Jurado’s way. Instead, Jurado seems content with his cult followers and growing number of acolytes.
The pre-release hype of Saint Bartlett centered on Richard Swift's production. Considering Swift's pedigree is one of an immaculate producer who mines the past for updated time capsutle's of am gold and 50's and 60's minimialist rock 'n' roll and the fact that lead single "Arkansas" was a little nugget of late 50's rock meets Jurado's folk pop sensibilities, the hype seemed to be warrented. Then opening track, "Cloudy Shoes" and its multi-tracked vocal, layered, and dare I say lush orchestration, comes along and it seem like Jurado has re-invented himself.
Then the rest of the album comes along, which sounds a bit like every other Jurado albums. The final 8 songs alternate between Jurado in his guy and a guitar storyteller and Jurado in his low-fi, a guy with an electric guitar and an amp, minimalist rockers. He tells a good story. His sad sack, stock characters seemingly transcend their usual origens and become someone you care about due to Jurado's attention to songwriting detail. He checkers his stories with enough geography and artifacts to root them in a real history. Finally, the low-fi rockers give the album a balance that keeps it from getting too bogged down.
Still, there is no killer singles that allows it to rise drastically above some of his best work (e.g. Rehearsal's for Departure's four killer tracks strewn about a pretty unimpressive six tracks makes it seem much better than it is.). As a result, it's MOR Jurado. Not nearly as good as I Break Chairs, Ghost of David, Caught in Trees, or some of his outstanding eps. But, overall it's consitancy and variation makes it much better than and now I'm in Your Shadow and On my Way to Absence. Plus, MOR Jurado is better than a whole lot else out there.
On a personal note, one of its best songs "Kalama" is the name of my hometown. It's a dinky, blink of a town on I-5 in southwest Washington. It's full of sad sacks, losers, drinkers, forgotten dreams, deadbeats, and dead ends. It's the perfect setting for a Jurado song.
Damien Jurado "Arkansas"
Then the rest of the album comes along, which sounds a bit like every other Jurado albums. The final 8 songs alternate between Jurado in his guy and a guitar storyteller and Jurado in his low-fi, a guy with an electric guitar and an amp, minimalist rockers. He tells a good story. His sad sack, stock characters seemingly transcend their usual origens and become someone you care about due to Jurado's attention to songwriting detail. He checkers his stories with enough geography and artifacts to root them in a real history. Finally, the low-fi rockers give the album a balance that keeps it from getting too bogged down.
Still, there is no killer singles that allows it to rise drastically above some of his best work (e.g. Rehearsal's for Departure's four killer tracks strewn about a pretty unimpressive six tracks makes it seem much better than it is.). As a result, it's MOR Jurado. Not nearly as good as I Break Chairs, Ghost of David, Caught in Trees, or some of his outstanding eps. But, overall it's consitancy and variation makes it much better than and now I'm in Your Shadow and On my Way to Absence. Plus, MOR Jurado is better than a whole lot else out there.
On a personal note, one of its best songs "Kalama" is the name of my hometown. It's a dinky, blink of a town on I-5 in southwest Washington. It's full of sad sacks, losers, drinkers, forgotten dreams, deadbeats, and dead ends. It's the perfect setting for a Jurado song.
Damien Jurado "Arkansas"
11. Jonsi Go
Jonsi is best known for the nymph that fronts Sigur Ros. Wait, Sigur Ros doesn’t have a nymph as its vocalist? Then who sings? Jonsi? Oh.
Colored me surprised by how much I liked this. Sigur Ros had made a great career of these operatic, grandiose, stirring spectacles. It was music from and for another world. Consequently, Sigur Ros was perhaps the most exciting band of the 2000’s. But I for one had grown weary of it. Each progressive album felt more and more like a re-tread. Things got so bad, I didn’t even bother with Med sud I eyrum vid spilum endalaust. The notable exception from that album was lead track “Gobbledigook”. “Gobbledigook” told me that the band wasn’t content to operate on its own insular plane. They began to look outward and look to their peers for inspiration. In “Gobbledigook’s” case it was the giddy playfulness of the Animal Collective. It worked.
On Go, Jonsi splits the difference between the ground well-traveled, but well loved by early Sigur Ros and combines it with the laughter of “Gobbledigook”. Not surprisingly it’s the “Gobbledigook-esque” tracks like “Go Do” and “Lillikoi Boy” that got me. They sound like Jonsi found a crayon box and when to town with a youthful abandon. Playful and definitely childlike, Jonsi recaptured the wonder of those early Sigur Ros albums and does it in the brightest of colors.
Jonsi "Animal Arithmetic"
Albums 25-21 | 20-16 | 15-11 | 10-6 | 5-1
Jonsi "Animal Arithmetic"
Albums 25-21 | 20-16 | 15-11 | 10-6 | 5-1
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