It has been an amazing year of live music and fun with friends. I made a few new discoveries but found myself relying on a few favorites more and more. Here are my picks for the best music of the year, enjoy!
1. Bon Iver Bon Iver Justin Vernon spent last year collaborating with a children's choir, an arty folk collective, and Kanye West (!?) - extreme enough in their differences to make one wonder about Vernon's own artistic identity. On his second full-length, Vernon confirms himself as an elastic, soulful, inventive and genuine voice in Americana. The scale of his music has grown naturally to fit his ideas, yielding another beautiful, stirring group of songs.
2. My Morning Jacket Circuital If Evil Urges caught MMJ trying on some new threads Circuital finds them stitching those threads seamlessly into the fabric of past work. They sound confident, loose, entertaining and fluid in their transitions from jam band excess, blue eyed soul, spare folk, pop and angular rock. Their best work since Z.
3. Black Keys El Camino The boys from Akron bring back producer Danger Mouse (Attack and Release) and a tide of popular support to infuse their tried and true fuzzy throw-back blues with an extra dose of soul, pop, and straight Zeppelin rock to keep things moving.
4. Daniel Martin Moore In the Cool of the Day Hymns for an empty church, Moore's simple arrangements of some traditional religious material reflect a quietly abiding faith in music as balm for every soul.
5. Wilco The Whole Love With their recent run of studio albums [A Ghost Is Born, Sky Blue Sky, Wilco (The Album)] Tweedy and friends seemed to downshift from probing horizons to a steady pace ahead of the much maligned Adult Contemporary pack. The Whole Love finds the band ready to explore without leaving behind any fans they picked up along the way.
6. Blitzen Trapper American Goldwing Chicken-fried steak is a cut of beef breaded and fried like chicken. It is a staple of southern cooking. American Goldwing is T.Rex breaded and fried in The Band's Big Pink, completing their transformation from noisy punks to Americana mainstays.
7. Bright Eyes The People's Key Conor Oberst's artistic flourishes - drum machines, horns, spoken word interludes linking Christianity to aliens - can not diminish his still-excellent song writing.
8. Ben Sollee Inclusions Sollee is quietly making a name for himself with rousing shows, bicycle activism and by blurring the edges of folk, bluegrass, classical and pop. Ever thoughtful and courageously creative Inclusions is by turns gentle and effervescent in its language and arrangement, bringing to mind Sufjan Stevens at his most accessible.
8. Steve Earle I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive After albums that veer into very specific corners of his own past (Townes) and an urban present (Washington Square Serenade) Earle seems to have found a path to the future in the better parts of both, with a few good stories to tell along the way.
9. Destroyer Kaputt Dan Bejar continues to prove himself a brave and original voice in pop, this time looking more to jazz and soul to light his colorful stories. Kaputt is Bejar's confident take on looking back. It'll grow on you.
10. Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues The whiskery ensemble is fast making this the decade of great big folk sincerity. Their woodsy harmonies and 1970s jangle-psych melodies still resonate, furrowing the field for the success of acts like Mumford and Sons.
11. TV on the Radio Nine Types of Light Past albums have seen them fold strains of soul and funk into their unique brand of frantic, expansive indie rock. Nine Types of Light swings the balance toward soul and offers a more introspective and romantic take on their sound.
12. The Civil Wars Barton Hollow The no frills folk duo plays down the "aw shucks" country boy / girl act but still comes across all sweet and sincere, like The Swell Season for your front porch coffee commercial. Lovely...
13. Okkervil River I Am Very Far Will Sheff and co. add a deeper boom and a bigger bang to most songs reflecting the energy of their live show, but louder and heavier occasionally ends up being less tuneful and engaging.
14. Iron and Wine Kiss Each Other Clean Sam Beam is among the greatest folk singers of his generation, but dude needs to ease up on the weed and free-jazz. Seriously.
15. Jayhawks Mockingbird Time The band's first album with original members since 1995's superb Tomorrow the Green Grass finds them aging gracefully. The good news is this sounds just like a Jayhawks album, except for where it doesn't (High Water Blues).
16. various artists Rave On Buddy Holly Contemporary luminaries like The Black Keys, My Morning Jacket, Justin Townes Earle, and Cee Lo Green put their spin on the guy who should have been bigger than Elvis. Then again so do Kid Rock, Lou Reed and Graham Nash.
1. Bon Iver Bon Iver Justin Vernon spent last year collaborating with a children's choir, an arty folk collective, and Kanye West (!?) - extreme enough in their differences to make one wonder about Vernon's own artistic identity. On his second full-length, Vernon confirms himself as an elastic, soulful, inventive and genuine voice in Americana. The scale of his music has grown naturally to fit his ideas, yielding another beautiful, stirring group of songs. 2. My Morning Jacket Circuital If Evil Urges caught MMJ trying on some new threads Circuital finds them stitching those threads seamlessly into the fabric of past work. They sound confident, loose, entertaining and fluid in their transitions from jam band excess, blue eyed soul, spare folk, pop and angular rock. Their best work since Z.
3. Black Keys El Camino The boys from Akron bring back producer Danger Mouse (Attack and Release) and a tide of popular support to infuse their tried and true fuzzy throw-back blues with an extra dose of soul, pop, and straight Zeppelin rock to keep things moving.
4. Daniel Martin Moore In the Cool of the Day Hymns for an empty church, Moore's simple arrangements of some traditional religious material reflect a quietly abiding faith in music as balm for every soul.
5. Wilco The Whole Love With their recent run of studio albums [A Ghost Is Born, Sky Blue Sky, Wilco (The Album)] Tweedy and friends seemed to downshift from probing horizons to a steady pace ahead of the much maligned Adult Contemporary pack. The Whole Love finds the band ready to explore without leaving behind any fans they picked up along the way.
6. Blitzen Trapper American Goldwing Chicken-fried steak is a cut of beef breaded and fried like chicken. It is a staple of southern cooking. American Goldwing is T.Rex breaded and fried in The Band's Big Pink, completing their transformation from noisy punks to Americana mainstays.
7. Bright Eyes The People's Key Conor Oberst's artistic flourishes - drum machines, horns, spoken word interludes linking Christianity to aliens - can not diminish his still-excellent song writing.
8. Ben Sollee Inclusions Sollee is quietly making a name for himself with rousing shows, bicycle activism and by blurring the edges of folk, bluegrass, classical and pop. Ever thoughtful and courageously creative Inclusions is by turns gentle and effervescent in its language and arrangement, bringing to mind Sufjan Stevens at his most accessible.
8. Steve Earle I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive After albums that veer into very specific corners of his own past (Townes) and an urban present (Washington Square Serenade) Earle seems to have found a path to the future in the better parts of both, with a few good stories to tell along the way.
9. Destroyer Kaputt Dan Bejar continues to prove himself a brave and original voice in pop, this time looking more to jazz and soul to light his colorful stories. Kaputt is Bejar's confident take on looking back. It'll grow on you.
10. Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues The whiskery ensemble is fast making this the decade of great big folk sincerity. Their woodsy harmonies and 1970s jangle-psych melodies still resonate, furrowing the field for the success of acts like Mumford and Sons.
11. TV on the Radio Nine Types of Light Past albums have seen them fold strains of soul and funk into their unique brand of frantic, expansive indie rock. Nine Types of Light swings the balance toward soul and offers a more introspective and romantic take on their sound.
12. The Civil Wars Barton Hollow The no frills folk duo plays down the "aw shucks" country boy / girl act but still comes across all sweet and sincere, like The Swell Season for your front porch coffee commercial. Lovely...
13. Okkervil River I Am Very Far Will Sheff and co. add a deeper boom and a bigger bang to most songs reflecting the energy of their live show, but louder and heavier occasionally ends up being less tuneful and engaging.
14. Iron and Wine Kiss Each Other Clean Sam Beam is among the greatest folk singers of his generation, but dude needs to ease up on the weed and free-jazz. Seriously.
15. Jayhawks Mockingbird Time The band's first album with original members since 1995's superb Tomorrow the Green Grass finds them aging gracefully. The good news is this sounds just like a Jayhawks album, except for where it doesn't (High Water Blues).
16. various artists Rave On Buddy Holly Contemporary luminaries like The Black Keys, My Morning Jacket, Justin Townes Earle, and Cee Lo Green put their spin on the guy who should have been bigger than Elvis. Then again so do Kid Rock, Lou Reed and Graham Nash.
