The Year's Top 10s

I know, I've slacked significantly in blogging during the last month. But I have been thinking about it! And I've been enjoying some really remarkable releases that have come out in the past 12 months. With some trepidation, I bring to you my (surprising) top 10 favorites of quite an interesting year, musicwise.

ALBUMS of the Year (I only really liked 7):
1. TIE: Out of the Woods by Tracey Thorn/Shine, Joni Mitchell
2. Beauty and Crime--Suzanne Vega
3. The Turn--Alison Moyet
4. River: The Joni Letters--Herbie Hancock
5. Raising Sand--Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
6. An End Has a Start--Editors
7. Betcha Bottom Dollar--The Puppini Sisters

SONGS of the Year:
1. TIE: "It's All True" and "Grand Canyon" by Tracey Thorn
2. TIE: "If"--Joni Mitchell (from Shine) and "The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms)"--Herbie Hancock with Joni Mitchell, voc. (From River: The Joni Letters)
3. "Gone Gone Gone"--Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
4. "Pornographer's Dream"--Suzanne Vega
5. "If I Had a Heart"--Joni Mitchell
6. "One More Time"--Alison Moyet
7. "You Can't Fail Me Now"--Loudon Wainwright III
8. "Fucking Boyfriend"--the Bird and the Bee
9. "We're From Barcelona"--I'm From Barcelona
10. "On With the Song"--Mary Chapin Carpenter

HONOURABLE MENSCHS:
"The Opposite of Hallelujah"--Jens Lekman
"Edith and the Kingpin"--Herbie Hancock with Tina Turner, voc.
"The Man in the Wings"--Alison Moyet
"The Boho Dance"--Bjork
"Smokers Outside the Hospital Door"--Editors
"Dark Road"--Annie Lennox
"Immigrant Song"--Ann Wilson
"Spider Pig"--from The Simspons Movie

COMPLETE IRRITANTS:

• Annie Lennox's Return--Could have been soooo much better
• Snuff-Jann Stevens' complete butchery of "Free Man in Paris" on the Joni tribute
• Elvis Costello's too scientific breakdown of "Edith and the Kingpin" on the same album
• The Joni Tribute itself--some of the tracks are over 12 years old!
• The Polyphonic Spree--why did I like them again?
• Why more people didn't absolutely fucking love Out of the Woods

Fave Albums of the Year

I can be thankful this year that so many great albums came out. Here are my top favorites.

If You Don't Find this Catchy, You're Probably Not Alive

This is a 24-piece Swedish band called I'm From Barcelona. Their single is called "We're from Barcelona." Their name derives from Manuel, a character on the classic Fawlty Towers.

It's as catchy as anything I've heard in years. And so fun and happy. What's not to love?

I think it's brilliant. Click on the pic for the flick.

But it's only been four years!

You know, an Annie Lennox album comes around about as often as a Sade album (nah, not that irregularly, but you get my point). Annie's last effort was 2003's Bare, an album that--although it had moments of beauty--is not the one I go back to (that one is Diva, which actually has achieved the rare quality of sounding better than it did 15 years ago).

So when I learned that Annie Lennox was releasing a new album, I was like, "Wait, so soon?" And when I first heard the leadoff single for this new work, "Dark Road," I was like, 'ehhh...'

I admit I wasn't the first one out at the crack o'dawn yesterday to pick up this fourth solo album, Songs of Mass Destruction. I held off until today, because frankly, I wasn't that into the idea, or the concept (one more aging diva giving us a collection of protest songs?). Well, I'm pleased to admit I was wrong.

Sure, Annie Lennox is political. Sure, she's enigmatic. But goddamn, can this girl sing. I have to say that Songs is possibly some of her finest vocal work, maybe ever. Maybe it's Glen Ballard, the man who produced the insanely successful Jagged Little Pill for Alanis What's-'er-Name 12 years ago (yeah, you read it right, 12 years ago). Ballard decided to drop the overly-theatrical production of Annie's last album and concentrate on her voice. Which works just beautifully.

This album is topical without being dated. It's got the right mix of heavy ballads and uptempo, gospel-ly rock and dance tracks. She sounds great and looks, as you can see, gorgeous.

Standout tracks: "Dark Road," "Coloured Bedspread" (even though as my friend pointed out, the lyrics make quite little sense), "Ghosts in My Machine" and the sublime "Fingernail Moon."

Oh, and I'm sure you've heard about the song "Sing," which Annie wrote to call attention to the plight of the HIV epidemic in Africa. It features 23 female artists from Madonna (who has a verse of her own) to KT Tunstall to k.d. lang to Gladys Knight to Celine Di-fawkin-on. The concept is great, but, I dunno, it doesn't do much for me.

Well worth a download, this album. It grows on you. Trust me.

Devoted to Beauty

You know, I've loved Mary Chapin Carpenter for about 15 years. She was the first country singer I actually identified with, and her work inspired one of my own songs, "Marked." So she's one of these artists--although my own musical tastes change and grow--whom I'll still buy anything new they release the day they do, sound unheard, if you will.

Chapin has, basically, mastered the art of writing the pretty, topical song. Her melodies have never faltered, her voice has maintained its rich, all-encompassing tone. But, in my opinion, her stuff is kind of boring these days. It's way too slow, way too pretty, way too samey-sounding.

That being said, the single from her 2007 album The Calling called "On With the Song" moved me when it was released in February. It's the sharpest and most biting social commentary she's ever made in song, and it ROCKS. For that reason, I was thrilled she had come back...but the rest of The Calling had me calling for my pillows. Sigh.

Well, download "On With the Song" anyway. And pick up her classic 1992 album Come On Come On for a glimpse of her at the apex of her popularity.