The Best Album I've Heard All Year

I normally don't like to make predictions on what my favorite album of the year is until at least December. And this year is particularly difficult to throw that title around willy-nilly; after all, it's a year that saw a new Joni Mitchell, and in a few weeks, will welcome new works by two other divae I've loved for over 25 years--Alison Moyet and Annie Lennox.

But back in March, an album was released that was so transcendent, so fantastic, so extraordinary that I knew without a doubt I wouldn't like anything as much as I liked it. The album is Out of the Woods by Tracey Thorn (you'll know her from her days as singer for Everything But the Girl, who had a few extraordinary albums--Walking Wounded and Amplified Heart among them--of their own).

I stumbled upon Tracey's MySpace page back before the album was released, and based on the strength of the first single, a bouncy, very early 80's sounding track called "It's All True"--think an updated version of Shannon's 1982 watershed single "Let the Music Play"--I was hooked and couldn't wait for the rest of the album. A second track appeared before the album was released--which is actually Tracey's current single, the glorious "Grand Canyon," which is my favorite song of the year so far and will likely be loved by everyone who loved the great soaring vocals over driving electronic beats that made EBTG's last two efforts so astounding.

And there's this fantastic, Scritti-Politti sounding, driving dance song called "Raise the Roof," which is also retro and completely of its time. The other uptempo number, a ditty called "Get Around to It," was actually a cover by Arthur Russell, an underground hero of the New York dance/electronic scene back in the 80s, and a guy I never heard of until Tracey remade his song (I've since learned to love him).

I really think you should stop what you're doing right now and either listen to "Grand Canyon"--ignoring the fact that the 'video' for this is somebody's 2 motorcycles parked in a garage--or go buy Out of the Woods immediately. People, it's that good. Ask my friend Rob, who I essentially forced to purchase it (via Amazon, I think, and at a damned good price) whilst I was visiting him Friday evening.

I haven't even talked about the ballads--and I admit, this is a slower album overall than the tracks above would indicate. Again, Thorn's vocals--plaintive, pure, and sad--give this album a beautiful aural texture that comes through most predominantly in songs like "Hands Up to the Ceiling," an ode to the way life was as a teen and how we can miss some of that energy as we mature; along with "Easy," and "Falling off a Log" and the gorgeous "By Picadilly Station I Sat Down and Wept."

I've mentioned nearly every song on here...because there isn't a stinker in the bunch. "Nowhere Near" was the song that took me the longest to really get into. Tracey says it reminds her producer Ewan Pearson of "the Carpenters on acid," and that is truly the best way to describe it. You really have to hear it to understand, but you will.

Out of the Woods is Tracey's second solo album, as a matter of fact. The first was called A Distant Shore--and was released in 1982. Although EBTG may not ever record something as a duo again (Ben Watt is busy with his DJ/producer career), I pray for another Tracey album...I simply can't wait a quarter century for something else this good.