wow, I made this post and abandoned this page for six months without finishing it. and I have forgotten what number 11 was. I guess it's a top 10 after all. (though if you have an idea what the 11th might have been, let me know) -june 3, 2007ah, the year end list. the list of lists!
last year I made a top 25 albums list, this year it's a top 10. eleven of the sweetest things heard in 2006 (you didn't think I couldn't squeeze in an extra? limits are made to be, well, limiting, but in this kind of context, boxes are made to jump out of). I changed the order around since I played it on the show (switched #5,6 & 7).
1. sunset rubdown: shut up I am dreaming
my list went through many shifts, but this never considered not being the best thing brought into existence in the past 12 months. spencer krug lifts the stuff of life to the stuff of myth with sounds never used in such a way and an emotional intensity that soars and whispers and declares itself above it all and in the midst of it all, anyway rock solid relevant.
2. final fantasy: he poos clouds
you can use this like a classical record, when you feel like that sort of thing. only if you listen to the words, matter of fact in content, dark in delivery, matter of fact in delivery, dark in content, just so with the drama all around it, d&d references whatever, magic, okay, it's just true. maybe I'm sympathetic to a cynic, but the outbursts throw me over the top. you know, dark, just how, with builds and little and big explosions of intensity--restraint doesn't get you to the top of my list.
3. swan lake: beast moans
in light of things said, beast moans says it all, alive, alighted. sometimes a challenge to listen to, with clashes of sound commanding your attention and outbursts making up the melody. the perfectest concoction of the ecstatic elements that just sparsely pepper some masterpieces, with three wizards spicing up each other's magic. so much to listen to.
4. jenny lewis and the watson twins: rabbit fur coat
jenny lewis conjures her roots and reveals a seasoned wisdom, full with the heaviness of pain and tears, but with a quiet recognition of their value and the things gained from them, and a strong resolve of how to stand tall in honesty. jenny's voice is pure beauty, classically presented here with the support of the watson twins and the old countryish style, for a more mature and composed effect than her rilo kiley work.
5. johnny and the moon: johnny and the moon
I had an arcade fire reaction to the finely crafted songs and compelling sound of this record. that means I had to just stand there in the record store in full command of what was coming through the headphones and absorb full songs instead of flipping through for tidbit impressions. it's got old-style folk elements and straightforward production and a casual enthusiasm that lifts the songs from charming simplicity to. . . lifted to the heights and depths that a combination of words and voices and instruments and sounds and sincere playfulness on a record sometimes reaches. god, those guys in wolf parade are the BEST guys.
6. emily haines and the soft skeleton: knives don't have your back
this album is so soft and subtle I was disappointed at first. I wanted to be hit over the head with emily's hard-won convictions, choked out failures and hopeful outbursts. um, who was I thinking of. this sank in through my skin when my defenses were down, like a comforting nod, hand-squeeze from a cynical comforter. be careful out there. it's a similar kind of accomplishment to jenny lewis' project, both departing from their regular bands to focus on their voice and its huge wisdoms. I find emily a little darker, but always thought-provoking.
7. the grates: gravity won't get you high
this rocks the most, in the sweetest, most exhuberant, most insistantly demanding way. with a smile and punch in the face of stuff that sucks. with a shrugging, flowing, determined self-awareness.
8. rock plaza central: are we not horses
this reminds me of a more positive, uplifting, a little less emotionally challenging and mystifying, but still deeply moving and thought-provoking and "yes!"-inspiring neutral milk hotel. it's beAUtiful, full with rough outbursts and la la las and modernly intellectual moral contemplation and love and hopeless struggles full of hope and something clasped in an insistant fist and apocolyptic angst and dancing and rejoicing in the face of despair, and horns.
9. islands: return to the sea
10. joanna newsom: Ys
