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Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Jim Connelly's
Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Monday, January 15, 2007
Jesse Steichen's Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Friday, January 12, 2007
Bill Bentley's Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Tom Ridge's Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Lee Templeton's Favorite Recordings Of 2006
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Anthony Carew's 13 Fave Albums Of 2006
Monday, March 27, 2006
SXSW 2006: Finding Some Hope In Austin
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Letter From New Orleans
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Jennifer Przybylski's Fave Albums of 2005
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Music For Dwindling Days: Max Schaefer's Fave Recordings Of 2005
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Sean Fennessey's 'Best-Of' 2005
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Lori Miller Barrett's Fave Albums Of 2005
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Lee Templeton's Favorite Recordings of 2005
Thursday, January 5, 2006
Michael Lach - Old Soul Songs For A New World Order
Wednesday, January 4, 2006
Found In Translation — Emme Stone's Year In Music 2005
Tuesday, January 3, 2006
Dave Allen's 'Best-Of' 2005
Monday, January 2, 2006
Steve Gozdecki's Favorite Albums Of 2005
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Johnny Walker Black's Top 10 Of 2005
Monday, December 19, 2005
Neal Block's Favorite Recordings Of 2005
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Jenny Tatone's Year In Review
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Dave Renard's Fave Recordings Of 2005
Monday, December 12, 2005
Jennifer Kelly's Fave Recordings Of 2005
Thursday, December 8, 2005
Tom Ridge's Favorite Recordings Of 2005
Tuesday, December 6, 2005
Ben Gook's Beloved Albums Of 2005
Monday, December 5, 2005
Anthony Carew's Fave Albums Of 2005
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Prince, Spoon And The Magic Of The Dead Stop
Monday, September 12, 2005
The Truth About America
Monday, September 5, 2005
Tryin' To Wash Us Away
Monday, August 1, 2005
A Psyche-Folk Heat Wave In Western Massachusetts
Monday, July 18, 2005
Soggy But Happy At Glastonbury 2005
Monday, April 4, 2005
The SXSW Experience, Part 3: All Together Now
Friday, April 1, 2005
The SXSW Experience, Part 2: Dr. Dog's Happy Chords
Thursday, March 31, 2005
The SXSW Experience, Part 1: Waiting, Waiting And More Waiting
Friday, March 25, 2005
Final Day At SXSW's Charnel House
Monday, March 21, 2005
Day Three At SXSW
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Day Two In SXSW's Hall Of Mirrors
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Report #1: SXSW 2005 And Its Hall Of Mirrors
Monday, February 14, 2005
Matt Landry's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Wednesday, February 2, 2005
David Howie's 'Moments' From The Year 2004
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Lori Miller Barrett's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Noah Bonaparte's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Kevin John's Fave Albums Of 2004
Friday, January 14, 2005
Music For Those Nights: Max Schaefer's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Dave Renard's Fave Recordings Of 2004
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Neal Block's Top Ten Of 2004
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Jenny Tatone's Fave Albums Of 2004
Monday, January 10, 2005
Wayne Robins' Top Ten Of 2004
Friday, January 7, 2005
Brian Orloff's Fave Albums Of 2004
Thursday, January 6, 2005
Johnny Walker (Black)'s Top 10 Of 2004
Wednesday, January 5, 2005
Jennifer Przybylski's Fave Albums (And Book) Of 2004
Tuesday, January 4, 2005
Mark Mordue's Fave Albums Of 2004
Monday, January 3, 2005
Lee Templeton's Fave Recordings Of 2004
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Friday, January 11, 2002
Jim Connelly's Faves For 2001
Neumu's Michael Goldberg writes: Hey, what could I do? Just
when I really thought we were finally done with the "best-of" lists,
what happens? My man Jim Connelly sends one in. So, while I think
this is the last list we'll run 'til it's time to consider the albums
of 2002, it just might not be. And without further rambling, here is
Neumu contributing editor Jim Connelly's take on the music of 2001.
Jim Connelly writes: It was an impossible year to define. It
started with the destruction of a virtual country and ended with the
destruction of a real one. I think, musically, it was the best we've
had in several years, though I'm really not prepared to defend that
because it was such a fucked-up year on a personal level: first off,
I got caught up in the dot-com wreckage for several months, and just
as things were looking up for me, the entire world changed.
Literally: I had my first interview at my new job at 8:30 a.m. on
Sept 12.
So while I think it was a better year for music, the fact that the
zeitgeist was so terrible might have made it seem better: music's
always been a comfort and solace, and doubly so during the bad times.
So here's my list and some comments.
1. Bob Dylan, Love and Theft (Columbia): It really
isn't any wonder that the old reprobate's best album in 25 years is
his funniest and scariest in 35. He's seen the apocalypse, and
goddamn, is it funny. Conventional wisdom has always said that almost
dying in 1966 is what took the edge from him — that maybe he
needed to slow down and see the roses or whatever — so how
ironic is it that almost dying in 1997 seems to have given it it
back? Message: I used not to care, but things have changed.
2. Whiskeytown, Pneumonia (Napster): What I mean here
is the version that was available from Napster: a perfectly sequenced
set of songs that flowed from start to finish. (Which, BTW, also
"came" with at least a whole disc's worth of outtakes and demos.) The
import version, if you will. Imported from the first country ever to
suffer a coup d'etat from the RIAA. And there is no question that if
the album had come out here in that Napster configuration, all of the
lukewarm reviews would have been raves. While comparing it to what
happened to the UK Beatles albums in the 1960s is pure heresy, and an
imperfect analogue, it hints at what got lost in the final recording.
What finally came out on Lost Highway is still full of great songs,
but misses key tracks like "All Choked Up" and "Tilt-a Whirl," and
just doesn't quite cohere as an album. Too bad. And with Adams
concentrating full-tilt on his new music, Whiskeytown will no doubt
just end up a sad legend. Which, after all, just might be what Ryan
Adams wants.
3. Pete Yorn, musicforthemorningafter (Columbia): While
I'm still a sucker for the beauty of songs like "June," "Closet" and
"Sleep Better," even a sucker like me is getting sick of all of the
promotional firepower Columbia is using to try to foist Yorn on an
indifferent public. The low list price is one thing, but the bus stop
ads, free T-shirts, live recordings, etc. — it's all too much.
Hell, supposedly, they've even gone so far as to introduce him to
Winona Ryder. My question: if they actually ever do break him big,
will the second album also sell for under $10?
4. Guided by Voices, Isolation Drills (TVT): Robert
Pollard's strategy remains the same: record everything that his muse
spews up. Lately, though, he puts the songs that were written 15
minutes after they were recorded on his Fading Captain Series of solo
projects; while there is the occasional gem ("Pop Zeus!") on those
records, they are mostly for the hardcore fans. Because he still has
dreams of rock 'n' roll glory, he puts the great stuff on the GBV
records, and Isolation Drills is full of it. Songs like "Fair
Touching," "Glad Girls," and "Run Wild" are the shit, all full of
chunky guitars, rumbling drums (courtesy of ex-Breeder Jim McPherson,
one of the great drummers of our time), sing-along melodies, and, as
an extra added bonus, lyrics that nearly make sense! It also feels
darker then their previous records; when celebrated onstage
beer-chugger Pollard stops to ask "How's My Drinking?" you not only
get sense that while he still dreams of rock 'n' roll glory, it's
also beginning to seep into his nightmares.
5. The Velvet Underground, The Bootleg Series, Vol. 1 The Quine
Tapes (Polygram): As I start seeing 40 dead ahead, I
sometimes wonder if my life was more cursed by rock 'n' roll than
saved: that the life-long commitment to bohemianism it instilled in
me in a early, tender age has made things more difficult for me in
the long run. And, every time I hit the wall during that long run,
something like this comes along and saves me once again.
6. Ryan Adams, Gold (Lost Highway): Cruising around
with my best friend Tim, listening to the extended coda of "Nobody
Girl," we were time-warped to digging similar songs by Neil Young and
the Rolling Stones during our late-'70s teenage years, and could only
wonder if (and hope that) current 17-year-old rockboys will find him
past all the nu-metal, emo and hip-hop that dominates their lives.
It would be great if his inadvertent anthem actually broke him, but
somehow, I doubt it.
7. Old 97s, Satellite Rides (Elektra): Alt-Country
purists might decry Rhett Miller's inevitable descent towards writing
rock songs even more than Jeff Tweedy's and Ryan Adams' — the
former always was a careerist and the latter always a fuck-up
(though, this year, it's actually the other way around), but Miller
was one of their great hopes, and probably could have continued to
ride their early country-punk sound for at least a few more albums.
That all changed on 1999's Fight Songs, the rare transition
album that was solid from start to finish. Satellite Rides
sounds even more confident: it's impossible to deny songs like "Buick
City Complex" and "Designs on You," and when Miller stops the album
dead in its tracks to ask the "Question," there's no doubt about the
answer.
8. Radiohead, I Might Be Wrong (Capitol): I know that
most people will pick Amnesiac, and more power to 'em. But I
love the focus they bring to the arrangements of these songs, and
when the guitar kicks in in "Morning Bell," this takes off, cruising
through definitive versions of "Idioteque," "Dollars and Cents" and
most especially the ultra-spooky "Everything in its Right Place."
9. The Strokes, Is This It (RCA): Yes, they are too
pretty. No, they aren't too hyped (not compared to Michael Jackson or
Britney or even Pete Yorn). Yes, the production is awful. No, they
don't sound like Television or even Lou Reed. (The guitars remind me
of That Petrol Emotion, of all people, and the white-boy rock 'n'
roll soul rhythms remind me of late-period Jam.) There is no way, of
course, that any band could withstand the hopes and dreams and
attention of a million frustrated rockers looking for the next great
band to lead us to the nirvana of a pop scene where a great rock 'n'
roll band has the attention of the world. The idiots of the year, of
course, were the indie purists who dismissed the band without hearing
a note, but if 2001 taught us anything, it taught us that purists of
any persuasion should be exposed for the narrow-minded idiots that
they are. And where does that leave the Strokes? With a debut album
that feels like just the beginning.
10. Preston School of Industry, All this Sounds Gas
(Matador): It's always sad when an era-defining band breaks up,
but at least from the wreckage of Pavement, we get two great solo
debuts, each of which is more committed than their next record would
have been. While Steven Malkmus got most of the buzz, I prefer
this one. "Don't you want to follow the sun?" chants the once and
future Spiral Stairs early on, and that pretty much defines the sunny
shambling vibe he cooks up here: looser than any Pavement record
since Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, while sounding like it could
have come after Terror Twilight.
Honorable Mention
R.E.M., Reveal (Warner Bros.)
Steve Wynn, Here Come the Miracles (Blue Rose)
Radiohead, Amnesiac (Capitol)
Stephen Malkmus, Stephen Malkmus (Matador)
New Order, Get Ready (Reprise)
Sparklejet, Bar Guest (DynoGroove)
The InsiderOne Daily
Report appears on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9 AM PST, except when it doesn't.
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