Fuel/Friends favorites of 2008

Another year packed with music has come and gone. Music is a language I can't create myself but it does me good to know that every hour someone out there is humming a snippet of a melody, returning to their seat at the bar with a head full of lyrics that just occurred to them, or tapping out a drumbeat on their leg in the car. People everywhere are trying to get it right, to get the music out just so they can be. I am glad that they do.

2008 was full of fantastic (and varied) music from all corners of the world for me. I sometimes feel overwhelmed with the quantity of music and the subjectivity that swirls around the ones that make it vs. the ones that no one ever hears. I wish I'd had more hours to listen to (and properly digest) more songs this year. As it is, these are ten albums (plus two EPs plus one carryover from last year) that affected me on a gut level in the past twelve months. These are the ones I listened to over and over, that knocked the wind out of me and made me glad I have ears.

These aren't "the best." These are just my favorites.


FUEL/FRIENDS FAVORITES OF 2008

Lucky
Nada Surf (Barsuk)
I've been surprised by the intensity with which I've listened to this album in 2008. I guess it's tapping into the introspective moments of my year as it pertains to "grown-up life," which Caws sings is like "eating speed or flying a plane -- it's too bright." The album cover hints perfectly at the feel of the music; the moment where it's still warm from the sun but the gorgeous pinpricks of light are starting to shine through. I talked today about the cascades of glory on this album, a blazing meteor from this band that's been around so long. I saw Matthew Caws perform solo last night and he said, "We feel blessed to have a second story," (post-mid-Nineties buzz band). "It's the story we always wanted anyways." I've listened to this album a hundred times this year and it still affects me deeply, makes it okay to be fragile -- and to be on a vector up.
[original review, interview]

Beautiful Beat - Nada Surf


Midnight Organ Fight
Frightened Rabbit (Fat Cat)
Coming from Scotland with their hearts held out for the offering, these two brothers plus two bandmates have crafted an album that is not for the fainthearted, but excellent for the honest. Over gorgeous melodies and with a thick and wrenching Scottish brogue, Frightened Rabbit guttingly dissect the moments of bravery and moments of weakness that go with a relationship ending. Peter Katis (The National) produced this lilting, rocking piece of perfection -- unflinching in its intimacy.
[original review, interview]

Backwards Walk - Frightened Rabbit


For Emma Forever Ago
Bon Iver (Jagjaguwar)
I didn't know when I started 2008 just how much I would need this album. Justin Vernon recorded this achingly vulnerable album in the Wisconsin woods in the dead of cold winter as he recovered from a breakup. The name he adopted means "good winter" in French, and I think the name fits the music as well as that ice-encrusted window on the cover. In winter, things move a little slower, but with more crisply defined edges, and the first time I heard this something was scraped loose inside of me. His music is wrapped in a thin skin but a current thrums powerfully under the surface. This is an album that I am unable to shake.
[watch: still one of the most perfect things I've seen this year]

Skinny Love - Bon Iver


Stay Positive
The Hold Steady (Vagrant)
I think the thing that gets me with the Hold Steady, this year or any past year when they've released an album, is that they are unabashed in their belief in rock and roll. Craig Finn is a modern day prophet who flails and explodes with the force of the catharsis of these fantastic sounding songs that they must get out. The lyrics trace some of the most intelligent, evocative stories you'll hear with characters I feel I know by now (they might as well be breathing). This is an immense album, with the pounding piano that crashes across the songs and the brass instruments slicing through. Gorgeously grand and subversively hopeful.
[original review]

Constructive Summer - The Hold Steady


The '59 Sound
The Gaslight Anthem (Side One Dummy)
If the Hold Steady filter their love for Springsteen through a lens of kids raised on punk and The Replacements, Jersey's Gaslight Anthem play with an urgency and passion of a pre-Born to Run Bruce, young and hungry. Lead singer Brian Fallon grew up in a home four blocks from E Street, and this band is crafting songs that hold up as well when howled out ragged as they do stripped down to their bare acoustic bones. There's a wisdom and sometimes a resignation beyond their years.

Great Expectations - The Gaslight Anthem


Ode To Sunshine
Delta Spirit (Rounder)
Delta Spirit was formed in San Diego when lead singer Matt Vasquez was busking loudly by the train tracks and he met with Brandon Young at two in the morning. The honesty and sloppiness that bleeds through at 2am is captured well on this authentic album with a vintage feel. It basks in the warmth of the surf guitars, the singalongs and handclaps and banging on trashcan lids, the tinkly last-call piano over glasses clattering.
[original review]

Trashcan - Delta Spirit


Dual Hawks
Centro-Matic/South San Gabriel (Misra)
The cinematic desert beauty and chugging fuzz-rock found side-by-side on this dual album swooped in late in the year to win me over. I saw an acoustic video of Will Johnson, who helms both bands, performing "I, The Kite," from an album I'd passed over too quickly the first time around. Both bands are Will's and explore different dimensions of his music -- Centro-matic electric like the heat in the air even as the Texas August sun has just begun to rise, whereas the more muted, spacious South San Gabriel has tones of evening and fireflies. This album was written and recorded fast and pure in a handful of days in the studio, and has a feeling of distilled essentials.

Counting The Scars - Centro-Matic


Oh! Mighty Engine
Neil Halstead (Brushfire Records)
Taking six long years from his last solo release Sleeping On Roads, influential British musician Neil Halstead (Slowdive) comes quietly back with a humble album of acoustic folk melodies that rewards the listener for their patience. This is a slow grower for me, and I find that more hues in the songs are revealed to me the longer I sit with it -- a task I am eminently willing to take on. Halstead sings about trying to get the colors right, and with these unassuming tunes I think he does.

Paint A Face - Neil Halstead


The Great Collapse
Everything Absent or Distorted (self-released)
This Denver collective does things full tilt. They play with seemingly all the instruments they can find, in order to squeeze the earnest beauty out of every melody and every rhythm. They fearlessly meld incisive lyrics with a resilient hope, like on "Aquariums": "We are aquariums -- left outside, but we hold life and a bright light in our glass walls." With eight official members (and up to 15 on stage) EAOD is a joy to watch, and that joy transmits onto this smart album of sweeping scope. Amidst banjos and casio keyboards, trumpets and pots and pans, this band is ready for a larger stage. Literally.
[original review]

A form to accommodate the mess - Everything Absent and Distorted


Little Joy
Little Joy (Rough Trade)
It's as simple as this: Little Joy just makes me happy. Their thirty-minute debut album is short and occasionally rough, it's kitschy and danceable with Brazilian influences. I like the quiet Technicolor flicker of songs like the Portuguese "Evaporar" as much as the jerky fun of "How To Hang A Warhol," and all the shades in between. Binki Shapiro's vocal contributions on this album are especially charming, as she croons out of my stereo like an old-time Victrola.
[original review]

No One's Better Sake - Little Joy


HONORARY TOPS (should have been on last year's damn list):

In Rainbows (physical release)
Radiohead
Because I was overwhelmed and ignorant at the end of 2007, and didn't give this my undivided attention until someone sat me down in a darkened room and made me really, really listen to it.

And come on Heather. Come on.

Last Flowers To The Hospital (bonus track) - Radiohead



BONUS: FAVORITE EPs

Second Gleam EP
The Avett Brothers (Ramseur Records)
Scaling back from their potently explosive live show of punk bluegrass, the Avetts showed again this year that they can also craft devastatingly simple ballads relying solely on acoustic guitar, strings, and their pure voices that blend and compete as only brothers can. [original review]

Murder In The City - The Avett Brothers


The Confiscation EP, A Musical Novella
Samantha Crain (Ramseur Records)
Also from the excellent Ramseur label, 22-year-old Oklahoman Samantha Crain has Choctaw Indian roots and a dusky earnestness to her alto voice. The five songs here tell a cohesive story (a musical novella indeed) with shimmering, unvarnished truth.
[original review]

In Smithereens, The Search For Affinity - Samantha Crain



LISTEN: Once again this year, I'll be appearing on NPR's World Cafe with David Dye on January 1st to talk about stuff from this list! We have a lot of fun. You should listen (online, or via your local station that carries the show), and tell your mom to listen too. I know mine will be.


[top image credit tim!]

Fuel Favorites of 2007

For each year so far that I've been dabbling in this music-blog-writing hobby, there seems to be a greater proliferation of choices for my ears to make. It seems like more artists are making their voices heard, more albums getting out there in one form or another, more people being turned on to music outside the mainstream 35 songs you hear on the radio.

This is good news for ears, hearts, and souls, and bad news for listmakers.

After much struggling, I've picked out ten albums that I'm happy with being my favorites from 2007; add all of these to your collections and be happy too. There were some very good albums that I left off this year (I am sure you will point them out to me in the comments) but these 10 are the ones that connected with me uniquely and viscerally. And they're listed in alphabetical order because even numerically ranking them defeated me.

If you would like to hear me talk more about these albums, and discuss my perspective as a music blogger in the digital music world in 2007, please tune in to NPR's World Cafe on January 1st. I'll be doing a piece with David Dye, Tom Moon from NPR and Marco Werman from BBC's "The World" program.

And yes . . . this is my poker face. I'm doing little freakout backflips on the inside.


TEN FUEL FAVORITES OF 2007

BECAUSE OF THE TIMES
Kings of Leon
Folks complain that this album isn't as loose and rough and gut-punch raw as earlier KOL efforts, and they're right. This album is bigger and hazier and more anthemic, but I find myself craving the riffs, the melody, the scowly drawl of the lyrics, and the unabashed rock. I agree with the fantastic Daytrotter piece that called this one "a sneaker" (as in it sneaks up on you, not a shoe). I like that KOL are experimenting with their sound and pushing the edges. Plus, they absolutely have the best live show I saw (twice) this year, all caged energy, confident strut and rock and roll.
Fans - Kings of Leon


BOXER
The National
This is the richest album in my top ten this year, in that the songs seep under your skin and percolate slowly. As we discussed, so much of this is 4am music; the late-night special, flawed but transcendent. Woven through songs that pulse restlessly with thumping drums, elegiac strings and evocative piano melodies, the lyrics here destroy me. Absolutely. They lament "another uninnocent, elegant fall into the unmagnificent lives of adults," then ruefully note that "we’re so disarming darling, everything we did believe is diving diving diving diving off the balcony / Tired and wired we ruin too easy, sleep in our clothes and wait for winter to leave." The purity of elemental urges and gorgeous expression makes me wants to live inside the stories of this album.
Fake Empire - The National


DIRTY BOMB
The Star Spangles
Here to save the rock and roll crown from the hands of slicker entries this year, The Star Spangles from New York are filthy and gritty and raw, making pub-chant punk with strong melodies. Full of heart, they are the real deal so don't mess with their work ethic. In addition to playing roughly 3,528 fiery live shows this year, they're not above doing things like playing a recent show at the Jesse Malin/Ryan Adams hangout Niagara in NYC wearing only a trenchcoat and a fedora (all the better to rock with less friction, I guess). Listen to this vibrant album loud, and feel the ebullient crush of youth.
Take Care of Us - The Star Spangles


FIGHTING TREES
The Swimmers
The owner of some trusted ears remarked upon first hearing this Philly band that "this is what Wilco might sound like if they just let their popness run rampant." Fighting Trees is a shimmering, delicious, intelligent album full of pop goodness but not too sugary-sweet. It's got the jangle and the thump, the three-part harmonies and the cohesive storyline lyrics that sweep me off to somewhere else; they weave a dream-sequence where you are floating above yourself, watching the actions below with a distanced eye. Loosely based around the 1964 short story "The Swimmer," both the grad-school premise and the resulting album deserve massive props.
[stream here, buy CD at shows, out via Mad Dragon in early 2008]
Heaven - The Swimmers


GOOD AND RECKLESS AND TRUE
The Alternate Routes
In a year when I was really hoping for a grand, rootsy, golden album from Ryan Adams that never materialized for me, The Alternate Routes warmed the speakers of my car all summer long with their expansive, windows-down, wholeheartedly good brand of alt-country rock. One of my favorite lyrical pictures all year comes from these opening notes: "I've been wasting my days good and reckless and true, I have danced in the dark at the edge of the water, swingin my hips at the black and the blue..." The songwriting is solid and incisive, highlighted by the aching tenor of lead singer Tim Warren -- and speaking of Ryan Adams, current Cardinals drummer Brad Pemberton pitches in on the skins here as well. Although the album swings effortlessly from rollicking to pensive, the common thread that I find appealing is the earnest commitment to simply playing their blessed hearts out.
Ordinary - The Alternate Routes


THE HISTORICAL CONQUESTS OF JOSH RITTER
Josh Ritter
A pal recently asked me who I thought the best modern-day songwriter was. At the time it was 2am, and I mumbled something about how I thought Josh Ritter was pretty dang incredible. Upon coherent reflection, I take that back; I think Josh absolutely may be the best songwriter of our generation that I've heard. His penetrating lyrics consistently blow me away, and the rock influences of his new album ramp up the folk sounds I've loved in the past into something that definitely hits harder and leaves me all itchy and excited-like. You must see him live in 2008, the new material is amazing in concert. As Josh weaves his intricate, literate songs on stage, he overflows with each lyric as if he were birthing every line afresh for the first time. That same refreshing joy is palpable on this album, and we are grateful for it.
To The Dogs or Whoever - Josh Ritter


I CAN'T GO ON, I'LL GO ON
The Broken West
When I first heard this new Merge Records signing last January, my post title was "I want to listen to The Broken West all weekend long, maybe until my eardrums crystallize into sugar." That pretty much sums up how vividly I crave the sounds on this disc. Catchy hooks and fuzzy power-pop sounds blend with a blast straight from the '60s in terms of sheer listenability -- and you're having 100% Fun with Matthew Sweet while the Kinks play in your garage. Hailing from Los Angeles, the guys in the Broken West wrap up all kinds of California imagery while also underscoring a bit of the shadow as well: "Sun down, blood horizon, now it feels all right/ No one feels the darkness down in the valley tonight." Musical novocaine.
Down In The Valley - The Broken West


NIGHTTIMING
Coconut Records
This clever, humble, and thoroughly enjoyable album from Coconut Records (the nom de rock of actor Jason Schwartzman) came out of absolutely nowhere this year in a stealth digital-only release that spread like wildfire. Normally we can all agree that actors making music spells disaster, but in this case it absolutely spells y-a-y. Schwartzman blends some of the jangly California indie-pop of his previous work with Phantom Planet with his experience in composing film scores for this aural delight. No two tracks alike: the Weezer rock of "Back To You" flips over the lo-fi duet on "Mama" (with Zooey Deschanel?) and the scratchy dabble into Beatles pop with "Easy Girl" is a million miles from the disco beats of the title track or the Franz Ferdinand stomp on "Minding My Own Business." The album is eclectic, stripped of pretension and ready to make you smile.
Back To You - Coconut Records


THE REMINDER
Feist
The completely charming and effortlessly cool Leslie Feist covers a lot of ground on this album, her third of original solo material, in addition to her releases with the Broken Social Scene. Feist is musically adventurous with a sound that is impossible to pin down. Moving easily from intimate songs like "The Park" that aches like a midnight dirge sung lying flat, looking out a darkened window, to the spiritual-gospel handclap community of "Sea Lion Woman," you never know what the next track will bring. The only common thread among the songs is her gorgeously honey-drenched, knowingly sly voice. Feist possesses a welcome imaginative streak that she’s not afraid to reveal on this album. She deserves every ounce of recognition that Apple commercial got her in 2007; anyone who conceives of the idea to do a rainbow-hued dance video clothed in spangles to a song that good gets my respect. I wait in breathless anticipation to see what she does next.
My Moon, My Man - Feist


WE BELONG TO THE STAGGERING EVENING
Ike Reilly Assassination
Call it defiant pre-punk, cranked-up '50s rock'n'roll that slipped past the censors, or just some seriously good music. Ike Reilly writes unflinching rock songs full of bluesy, boozy, humid, rock riffs and intelligent, biting, evocative lyrics that make me want to take off with him through the desert on the run from the cops, the windows down and a knowing glance between us. Ike's not ripping off a halcyon era of memories past like some of the retro-influenced acts today (Brian Setzer, I love you, but I'm talking to you), but rather he feels like an earnest, fierce character who somehow slipped in from a time when the music was rawer, the sex was furtive, and the liquor was bootlegged. This is a fiercely fantastic album that provocatively edged itself into my top ten the first time I listened to it.
Valentine's Day in Juarez - Ike Reilly


And yes, since you asked, my membership in the bloggers guild is currently under review for revocation for not listening to Arcade Fire or Radiohead in 2007. I'll keep you posted.

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My favorites of 2006

Ah, 2006. I think it was a great year for music -- but then again I think that if you're open to listening to a whole bunch of different things without much regard for major/minor/no label, "coolness" factor, or obscurity, then every year can be a very good year.

I've been refreshed in 2006 to be reminded that music is literally an endless fount that is constantly gushing. You plug up one hole only to have a new leak spring up somewhere else, a new voice, a fresh sound. It's really quite freaking fantastic.

Now of course I am not any sort of musical expert just because I tip-tap away on this blog. I am just a melodiphile (I made that word up) who loves to share -- and these are the albums that I wanted to share the most this year with everyone I met, the ones I listened to over and over, and the selections that I feel have the staying power to stick with me for a while. I don't think there's many surprises here since I've been pretty verbose about all these artists.

It's not exhaustive for all 2006 releases (and I must not be cool cuz there's very few of these folks); it's just my personal tops.


HEATHER'S TOP TWENTY OF 2006

20. WESTERNS EP
Pete Yorn (Columbia)
I find myself listening to this much more than Yorn's full-length album of 2006, Nightcrawler (which does have its strong points); Westerns is a seamless little 7-song odyssey that fits together just right with all the flow that Nightcrawler lacks. Yorn called it “twang-rock” and indeed it is a golden and scratchy-warm rootsy collection of tunes. It may be a little cruel to put this on the list since I don't think it commercially available at the moment (except to those who were fortunate enough to make it to shows on his recent tour where it was sold), but it's out there to be found by the diligent. And worth your hunting.

The Good Advice – Pete Yorn


19. NIGHT RIPPER
Girl Talk (Illegal Art)
Undeniably exciting, a thousand samples a minute: Songs you know in ways you never thought you'd hear them. My first comment on this said “This looks horrifying,” and to please ignore the album art. And though it’s nothing I ever thought I'd put on a best-of list, I cannot deny how much I like this instant party-on-a-disc [previous post]. And I find that sometimes when I hear the original songs now, I hear this overlaying it in my mind, so it's forever warped me. But that’s okay.

Bounce That – Girl Talk


18. THE LEMONHEADS
The Lemonheads (Vagrant)
The Lemonheads come in more flavors and incarnations than almost any other band I know of (the current lineup includes former members of The Descendents and Black Flag), but the one constant is Evan Dando and he still sounds as good as ever. After several solo albums, he’s brought back some of the rocking sounds and undeniably great pop hooks that made me love his music in the first place. I feel like I should be contentedly laying on my back on my dorm room loft bed listening to this one loudly on headphones with a huge smile on my face.

Become The Enemy – The Lemonheads


17. PEOPLE GONNA TALK
James Hunter (Rounder)
I still sometimes mistake this for Sam Cooke or Van Morrison for a split-second when it comes up on my shuffle, even though I know better. James Hunter flawlessly channels the spirits of smooth sounds from decades past with this perfect summer BBQ soundtrack. This feels like a record full of oldies that you somehow missed - you pull it out, put it on the turntable, and there is a sense of recognition, like you've heard them before. Solid retro-goodness.

People Gonna Talk – James Hunter


16. WHAT'S MINE IS YOURS
Eliot Morris (Universal)
I mean no disrespect to Mr. Morris by saying this, but he's put out the best Counting Crows album of the year. By all means, he has his own unique lyrics and sound, but the similarities are undeniable -- and that's quite alright with me. The entire album is filled with great piano breaks and vocal builds, heartfelt tunes that you will have a hard time not tapping your toes to. Featuring guest appearances by Glen Phillips, Inara George, Gemma Hayes, Lisa Germano and David Immergluck, he’s got an all-star cast of friends who believe in his music, and I think we’ll definitely be hearing more from him in the future.

Anyway – Eliot Morris


15. CORINNE BAILEY RAE
Corinne Bailey Rae (Capitol)
Absolutely charming and never over-cloyingly sweet, this British belle circles back from her days of fronting a ‘90s rock band with this enchanting disc. Corinne’s smoldering voice really shines in front of these songs with a neo-soul vibe & a variety of alluring influences from rock to swing to jazz. Plus she cites the moment that she knew she had ‘arrived’ as when Eddie Vedder grabbed her for an impromptu waltz on British television, so she’s definitely a girl after my own heart.

Put Your Records On – Corinne Bailey Rae


14. ANIMAL YEARS
Josh Ritter (V2)
From the first time I heard Ritter's epic song "Thin Blue Flame," I knew I had heard something special and unique. Ritter comes from the heartlands of America with a rambling folk masterpiece of sweeping lyrical panoramas and intelligent, thoughtful songwriting. A light hand in production by Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine) gives these tracks an immediate and unrehearsed quality. Literate and eminently listenable, this is an album whose depths I still feel I haven’t completely plumbed despite multiple listens. And I love that richness.

Girl In The War – Josh Ritter


13. RATHER RIPPED
Sonic Youth (Geffen)
It's a rather formidable task to remain as consistently good as Sonic Youth, with their own distinctive fuzz-laden sound, and yet keep exploring new boundaries and sounds after 25+ years and as many records. With Rather Ripped, Sonic Youth has shown that they are still absolutely unlike any other rock band out there, with a foot strongly in the art-experimental rock world, but with compelling rhythms and harmonic guitars that still seems to talk to each other; a parallel story being told alongside the singing of Thurston Moore or rock-goddess Kim Gordon. Incinerate indeed.

Incinerate – Sonic Youth


12. SUPPLY AND DEMAND
Amos Lee (Blue Note)
I still think his debut album is pretty hard to top, but Amos Lee brings back that achingly incisive tenor and a gentle soul vibe (with tinges of gospel) to his sophomore album. A former schoolteacher from Philadelphia whose debut album first blew me away one rainy weekend in Seattle, Lee returns with another collection of heartbreaking songs -- although he's having a little bit more fun this time around (check out the delightful "Sweet Pea" with ukulele). The way he sings the simplest lyrics on this album just devastate me: "Now she’s left me for something more sure . . . I don’t know if I can do this anymore.”

Skipping Stones - Amos Lee


11. TOWER OF LOVE
Jim Noir (Barsuk)
An exceedingly fresh sound from this 24-year-old from Manchester who clearly has done his sonic homework, and that BBC named “the musical oddball find of the decade.” The base of the album is formed from typical guitar pop with some heavy ‘60s undertones, but updated with elements of indie electronica. Noir sings winsome odes to his computer and how difficult it can be, the musical note of C and how “it’s easier to sing it,” and other minor things in life that often go unnoticed, or at least unsung. Fun but never silly, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Key of C – Jim Noir


10. THE GREATEST
Cat Power (Matador)
There’s an instantly-recognizable way that Chan Marshall (aka Cat Power) can nail a note with that melancholy voice of longing; it's distinctive, it's brutal, it's fantastic. While this album still has the elegiac piano ballads and the wrenching rainy-day songs that I love about her, we also see Chan kicking it up into a bit more of a romp with brass-heavy swingers like “Could We” or soulful jukebox grooves like “Lived in Bars.” Recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis (made famous by Stax Records) with Al Green’s musicians, that soul is painted all over here in wide strokes. It's a delicious album which still retains her trademark suggestive longing, but it’s a longing you can mooooove to.

Lived in Bars – Cat Power


9. AMERICAN V: A HUNDRED HIGHWAYS
Johnny Cash (Lost Highway)
This is a gritty posthumous release from The Man. Not even "The Man In Black," he's just The Man in my book. Each song possesses both a surety and a sadness (like the picture on the cover). As Stephen King recently wrote, “This is the voice of an Old Testament prophet on his deathbed, eerie and persuasive, full of power and dust and experience.” I admire how Cash wasn't afraid to experiment with different sounds, even right up to the end of this life. Many songs on this album are comforting in their traditional Cash feel (even his take on Springsteen's "Further On Up The Road" sounds like his own), but each album in this American series has had a few tracks that were unexpected (note the stomp-clap worksong feel of "God's Gonna Cut You Down"). What a legend.

God’s Gonna Cut You Down – Johnny Cash


8. AMERICAN MYTH
Jackie Greene (Verve Forecast)
Kid's all of 26, skinny as they come, but despite his unformidable presence he rocks and he wails as he creates rambling jewels of songs with a wisdom and a mastery that is well beyond his years. Discovered by Dig Records at an open mic in California’s Central Valley, then garnering rave reviews for his performance at a Bob Dylan tribute, Greene has released a string of albums with strong blues influence and folk-rock sensibilities. American Myth continues to showcase his abilities to let it loose on the harmonica or the keys, he tells rich stories with a lyrical depth and a rockin' feel.

Farewell, So Long, Goodbye – Jackie Greene


7. BEDROOM CLASSICS, VOL. 2 EP
Josh Rouse (Bedroom Classics)
Rouse’s other 2006 release Subtitulo had some ace tracks and was in the running for this list, but overall I just love the vibe and feel of this little collection more, which the talented Rouse says was largely inspired by his love of film scores. It’s indeed cinematic the way the songs blend pleasantly together under a common theme, and although two of the songs are strictly instrumental, they nonetheless speak volumes. Superb and atmospheric, the EP paints an intimate downtempo picture with that smooth-as-butter voice.

The Last Train – Josh Rouse


6. DOG PROBLEMS
The Format (Nettwerk)
I became obsessively addicted to The Format after seeing them perform most of the songs off this album live, where they spring to life in front of a full band (of 9 people or more at times), with a charismatic lead singer and plenty of opportunities for audience participation. No sophomore slump here, The Format have put out an effervescent disc of sheer pop goodness. Sometimes it sounds like a circus of trumpets, accordions, and xylophones, and sometimes they channel Queen a bit (and I really don’t even like Queen), but there is no denying the well-crafted nature of their songs, the creative lyricism, and the downright danceability.

She Doesn’t Get It – The Format


5. BOYS AND GIRLS IN AMERICA
The Hold Steady (Vagrant)
I was surprised by this one, which at first I wasn't sure I'd like – but it irresistibly taps into something within me that I can't even describe. This album makes me feel sad sometimes, and captures the urgent moments of youth -- like I want to drive off somewhere at night and drink in a dimly-lit bar, and lose myself in the loudness of the music to ease the sadness. Craig Finn is a master with the details in his story-songs, and these are some of the best lyrics all year, hands down. Start with "Stuck Between Stations," the first track on the album: “Most nights were crystal clear, but tonite its like it's stuck between stations on the radio. . .”

Stuck Between Stations – The Hold Steady


4. BEN KWELLER
Ben Kweller (Red Ink/ATO)
A magnetic and well-crafted pop album from former wunderkind rock prodigy Ben Kweller, the songs here are catchy and melodically expansive, with new levels of depth in the words -- plus Ben plays every single instrument on the album himself. That's dang impressive since it sounds so good. I’ve listened to this album over and over and I don’t foresee getting tired of it anytime soon.

Penny On The Train Track - Ben Kweller


3. OPEN SEASON: REMIXES AND COLLABS
Feist (Arts & Crafts)
With all charming honesty, Feist says of this album, "At first I didn't really understand what remixes were. If I squinted into the air I knew I could hear old songs with added beats piping out of radios, but I didn't know why or how that happened. It was so bizarre and exciting to hear a song that we had so carefully dressed, be undressed and re-addressed, and put into clothes it would have never thought to wear on its own." As if I didn't have enough reasons to love her with Let It Die, here those songs take on added dimensions, with her transcendent and throaty voice layered over it all. Irresistible.

Mushaboom (Postal Service remix) - Feist


2. PEARL JAM
Pearl Jam (J Records)
Just don't call them the grandfathers of grunge. In being as unbiased as I can with Pearl Jam, I will enthusiastically say that this is without a doubt their tightest effort in years, scorching and soaring back into #1 with passion and style. From the opening gates with the incendiary howls let loose on “Life Wasted” and “World Wide Suicide,” through the gorgeous Beatlesesque “Parachutes” and the absolutely masterful blues-soul ballad “Come Back,” there is a lot to love on this superb disc, which shows that after fifteen years they undeniably still have It.

Marker In The Sand - Pearl Jam


1. POST-WAR
M. Ward (Merge)
I cannot get enough of this album. With all its warm textures and fuzzy goodness, rich songwriting detail -- hands down the best thing to spin my turntables this year. M. Ward has crafted a distinctive album permeated with a humid beauty and a close immediacy that recalls sounds of eras past, but with an edge that's all his own. So much to love here: from the Daniel Johnston cover “To Go Home” which thrums along to borderline dischordant piano and Neko Case on BGVs, or the spirited and loose harmonies of “Magic Trick” about a girl whose only skill is the way she disappears (co-written with Jim James from My Morning Jacket) -- the varied tracks all work together in a very compelling way. If you only pick up one new album this year, make it this one.

To Go Home - M. Ward


Thanks for playing along this year, and I'll certainly lay awake tonight rehashing what I may have forgotten on this list, endlessly rearranging the list in my borderline OCD mind. I still have dozens of albums that I haven't had a chance to listen to yet from this year. I am sure that there are favorites I haven't even met yet.

Bring on 2007.