Veda Hille: Return of the Killdeer
I love her voice, her lyrics, her piano. But this album still doesn't quite reach the standard set by Field Study.
Gary Lee Moore: Uncle Pig
Unpolished, out of tune, real and heartfelt. This is a collection of older tunes, not these modern polished Texas contest tunes, but real traditional fiddle tunes from Gary's childhood in Oklahoma. This has been in rotation since June.
Spoon: Gimme Fiction
I'm still ambivalent about this one.
The Orchestra: No Rewind
There are a couple of great tunes on here. Parthenon Huxley writes a pretty good imitation of the ELO style. But there are a few clunkers as well. I suppose that is itself a good imitation of ELO.
Mono: Walking cloud and deep red sky, Flag fluttered and the
sun shined
Long flowing ambient noise rock.
Wild Band of Snee: Wild Band of Snee
I constructed this from downloads available on Rushad Eggleston's website. I hear there was an actual CD available somewhere, but I've never seen it. But I kept listening to this, over and over, and ended up learning three or four of the tunes as well, especially the magnificent and concise “Gree-himfeny”.
The Sugarplastic: 7x7x7
The CD collects the seven seven-inchers, and orders them by composer. A blessing and a curse, because Ben Eshbach's songs are amazing. And Kiara Geller's songs mostly come as a letdown after that. Otherwise this album would have rated a higher position in the list.
De Novo Dahl: De Novo Dahl
In constant rotation. Tight, concise, powerful. Pop songs in many styles, seemingly effortless.
Chris Thile: Deceiver
I hear this won an award for best engineering. If so, it's because Thile has obviously been spending too much time around Jon Brion. And that's a good thing. This album goes from angry pop rock to solo mandolin pieces without missing a beat. Just my cuppa tea. I can forgive the sometimes trite lyrics.
Iron & Wine: Our Endless Numbered Days
Incredibly powerful for being such a quiet and understated acoustic flavoured album. Like somebody whispering the secrets of the universe.
Brad Mehldau: Largo
A modern jazz piano album worth listening to! What a concept!
De Novo Dahl: Cats & Kittens
Twice as good as their other one. And four times as much music. This album has some amazingly good songs, and if I only listened to “Piggy's Adventure” it would almost be enough. But then they include a bonus CD of remixes! I love the way this band jumps between styles.
The Wrens: The Meadowlands
“Faster gun”. . . This was a favourite earlier in the year, in constant rotation for quite a while. But then it was supplanted by . . .
The Arcade Fire: Funeral
Words cannot describe. Includes the second best song of the year “In the backseat”. Majestic. Just writing about it makes me want to put it on again.
The Sugarplastic: Will
Everybody accuses The Sugarplastic of ripping off XTC. They are really the successors to Eno's pop albums. Songs begin in one space and end up somewhen completely different. Ambience is power. Change is your friend. The best song of the year is “The Harvestman (Daddy Longlegs)”, which in my mind follows in the footsteps of Eno's “Driving Me Backwards”. Just when you think it's built up to a crescendo, another element is layered on. Oh yes.