My computer is, of course, still on the blink. I've been too busy to really take a look at it yet, so I don't know when it's going to get fixed. K. really hopes I look at it soon, as I'm using her laptop right now, but I don't know when things will return to the status quo. If I was home early enough these days to consult with Tony that would be one thing, but I'm not.
So this week I was trying to think of what to do for WES, and although I had a few good ideas (some of which were spawned listening to Six By Seven's superlative The Way I Feel Today, which somehow got onto K.'s computer), I've decided to do a bit of a review. It's about half of the way through the year, and for me at least, it's been a pretty big year for music. I'm not going to actually try to formulate my list for the year yet, of course, but there's already been more than enough albums that could wind up qualifying. They're in no particular order, as I haven't even begun to think about that sort of thing.
The Delgados - Hate
In some ways this is going to be the one to beat for me this year. This was the year that the Delgados became my favorite band, and released one of their best albums. But, to be honest, Hate alone wasn't what converted me. It's a great album, filled with great songs (especially the opener and closer, 'The Light Before We Land' and 'If This Is A Plan', possibly the most joyous song I have ever heard about fucking up), but it wasn't until I saw them live that I really fell in love. and although their music certainly has a fair bit to do with that, so do a lot fo other intangibles. So maybe I will decide that I love another album more this year, but I doubt I'll find another favorite band.
The Dears - No Cities Left
I'm not going to write too much about this album, as I already have; but right now it looks like the frontrunner to take Hate's position away from it. I may have overdosed on it a bit, but by the end of the year it could still be the most impressive album I've heard.
Radiohead - Hail To The Thief
This is their best album since The Bends. Yes, that means I think it's better than OK Computer. It flows better, it's more sonically adventurous while avoiding the air of aimless experimentation that occasionally blighted Kid A and Amnesiac (the only part of their career that is really subject to excerption), it rocks again, and sadly enough, in wake of world events Thom Yorke's writing finally makes proper sense. '2 + 2 = 5' is the most electrifying opener Radiohead have ever had (I love 'Planet Telex', 'Airbag', 'Everything In Its Right Place' and 'Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box', but they're all slow burns of various descriptions), and 'The Gloaming' actually sounds otherworldly. Music to listen to on darkened public transport, surrounded by people you don't know.
Blur - Think Tank
Now this was unexpected; I bought Think Tank half expecting a disaster, instead getting Blur's best album of their career. Now, as with Radiohead, you can argue the merits of individual songs, but as much as I loved The Great Escape, it sounds more like a collection of songs than an album. Here Albarn finally sounds happy and healthy and the whole thing practically glows with relaxed vitality. Still a bit patchy in spots compared to the above, but a major pleasant surprise.
Idlewild - The Remote Part
You know those albums that you can't remember how much you like? When you're listening to them, they're great, but a few days later you're not sure whether they're better than the band's other work? For me, The Remote Part is a textbook example of the phenonemon. 'A Modern Way Of Letting Go' is astounding, as is at least half of the album, but I vacillate wildly about the other half. I'm tempted to say that it's just not as good as 100 Broken Windows, but (a) I'm always leery of criticizing a band for not rehashing past work and (b) an Idlewild album I feel ambiguous about is still better than at least 95% of the stuff out there.
Massive Attack - 100th Window
Just think of it as a 3D solo album and it makes much more sense. Trust me. But it's a beautiful one, albeit not terribly close to what we tend to think of as Massive Attack, and certainly not trip hop. The vocal pieces, for Horace Andy and Sinead O'Connor (doing some of the best work of her career) are great, but it's where Del Naja goes it alone ('Butterfly Caught', 'Small Time Shot Away') that it gets interesting. The Church Of Me has somewhere in its archives an exhaustive appraisal of the album, and he's pretty much on target.
The Libertines - Up The Bracket
Easily tied with the first half of Gemma Hayes album for most exciting debut of the year, albeit for entirely different reasons. The whole 'garage' thing has gotten pretty tiresome, although it has given us some great music (Strokes, Hives) and tangentially pointed at some even greater stuff (Interpol). The Libertines are far from more of the same, with the "Clash/Kinks" comparison actually making a small amount of sense. That point in 'I Get Along' where either Carl or Pete (I don't know which is which) says "some people try to tell me I'm wrong" and the music stops and he spits out "fuck 'em" is possibly the most fun moment in music this year, and definitely one of the most rock and roll, in the classic sense. Suprisingly solid as well, for such a shambolic band (I'm pretty sure 'Horrorshow' is what Steely Dan hear in their nightmares).
Wire - Send
A toughie. A great album, to be sure, but also mostly released on EPs I already owned. It's great to see Wire back and in fighting form, at least as good as they were in the 70's, but I couldn't honestly believe they released an album with just 4 new tracks. All 11 tracks are great, mind you, but I can't really judge the album on its merits alone.
Manitoba - Up In Flames
I want to say I don't get what all the fuss about Up In Flames is about, but I guess I do. Sure, 'Everytime She Turns Round It's Her Birthday' is Mercury Rev (I don't mean it sounds like Mercury Rev - I mean Dan Snaith found a time machine and rescued some lost tapes from Yerself Is Steam), and sure there are influences smeared all over the psychedelic candy coating of the record, but it is a pretty good one. I don't buy the whole 'record of the year' hype, though, as parts of it just leave me cold. The good bits are almost terrifying in their potential.
Calla - Televise
I like this record. All of it. Sure, some tracks might be charitably described as 'becalmed', but there's a sleepy late-summer-night feel to the proceedings, along with an undisputible air of menace to keep things interesting. But I probably wouldn't be mentioning it here if not for 'Strangler', the lead off track and probably the best thing Calla has ever done. It's a bit louder than the rest, but no faster, and when Aurelio Valle croaks out We can get the same effect/If you strangle me, it's one of the creepiest and most bitter (also best) moments of music I've heard this year. The rest, although fine, pales in comparison.
Fischerspooner - #1
Ah, Fischerspooner. How easy it would have been for you just to be a gimmick, with no actual value. Then all the critics could have had a field day! But no, in addition to proven (and justly so) smash 'Emerge' and the best cover of Wire's 'The 15th' ever, you had to pull out everything from the chaos of 'Sweetness' to the poignacy of 'Tone Poem' to the outright hilarity of 'Megacolon'. Accomplishes the difficult goal of creating (a) perhaps the greatest, bitchiest 'electroclash' record (Ladytron are too diverse to be pigeonholed like that) and (b) an excuse to like Fischerspooner.
Chris Whitley - Hotel Vast Horizon
Just about the polar opposite of #1, Hotel Vast Horizon features Whitley and a pair of German musicians holed up last December creating beautifully minimalist music. What type of music? I don't know. Not rock, not folk, not country, not 'roots', but partaking of them all, this is a small, perfectly formed gem. Hopefully its virtues will not be forgotten months down the road.
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