James and 2009

This year's been a bit too tumultuous to wrap up easily, so I shall, for the most part, stick to the records that got me through it.

THE OBSESSION BAND
I, not infrequently, will have a year wherein I have a sudden craving to listen to a band with whom I've had little contact previously. Upon hearing one record, I usually then seek all the rest (being a completist, and all). Past obsessions have included the Flaming Lips, the Eels, Blur, Erykah Badu, Dire Straits, the Frames, and Peter Gabriel, to name but a few. This year, it was the Grateful Dead. For some reason, about March, I just HAD to hear American Beauty. Just had to. Then it was Workingman's Dead, then Europe '72 (which is still in a weekly rotation). Since then, I've dug up all the studio records (though my preference is still that early 70s era) and a couple gigs worth of live shows (preferring the later 70s). While, as a lifelong Phishhead (more on that later), I have an ear for jamming, what really blows my mind about the Dead is the way nothing is cemented in their performances. The Dead were 5 (or 6 or 7 or 8) people who all knew a lot of SONGS, not a lot of PARTS. From night to night and tour to tour, songs would be completely loose, arrangement-wise, based on every member knowing, not just their part, but really knowing the SONG, and approaching it each time as if it were wholly new. Listen to any 4 versions of any song, and you'll hear what I mean: vocal harmonies come and go, instrumental solos or bridges appear at different times and for different durations, tempos, rhythms, accents vary widely from show to show... A really underrated aspect of the band.

DISCOVERY OF THE YEAR: NON-2009 RELEASE
While I obsessed over the Dead this year, I had, certainly heard them, and of them, before. That wasn't the case with the Jayhawks, who Dan and I discovered this year. I'm fairly perturbed that no one pointed them out to me before, since with my particular (some would, I'm sure, say "poor"... Justin!) tastes, this band is EXACTLY WHAT I WANT IN A BAND. Amazing tight harmonies, sad bastardness, subtle guitar work, that Americana swing without being overly twangy... In much the same way that August and Everything After had a huge impact on me as both a musician and a music fan, I think that Hollywood Town Hall would have redirected my life quite a bit, had I but heard it in 1992 when it came out, rather than last June. Better late than never, I suppose.

BEST RECORD FROM AN OLD FAVORITE
As someone with a fair detachment from modern pop music, quite the number of records I pick up in any given year are new releases from bands/artists with whom I've previously been acquainted. This year, the top dog in the pile is easily Phish's Joy. I've been a fan of the band since I was about 14 when my sister gave me Nectar and Hoist for my birthday. Since that time, I've seen 20 or so shows, and heard them make better and better studio albums (Billy Breathes, Ghost), followed by worse albums and lackluster shows (Undermind, the whole of the post-Hiatus, pre-Breakup era). When they announced they were splitting in 2004, I regret to say I was almost relieved. Finally they could just be the band I'd loved in the 90s without having to really talk about the Oughts. Until this year, when they returned (predictably) to the stage and the studio. But listening to the first shows back, despite their occasional unsteadiness, I could hear that, for the first time in a long time, they really seemed to be listening to each other, to be reacting to each other. They sounded as if they'd been practicing, and as if they were really having fun again. Joy is confirmation of that: it's the richest, fullest record since Ghost, and with an excellent collection of tunes, from lengthy composed epics (Time Turns Elastic) to off-the-cuff gigglers (I Been Around) to tight rockers (Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan, Kill Devil Falls) to loose jam platforms (Ocelot, Backwards Down the Number Line) and those odd, slight left turns that they've always done so well (Sugar Shack, Light). Joy just grows on me every time I hear it.

Honorable Mentions: We Are the Same (Tragically Hip), Through the Devil Softly (Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions), The Mountain (Heartless Bastards), Embryonic (Flaming Lips), Draw the Line (David Gray)

BEST RECORD FROM A NEW DISCOVERY, 2009 EDITION
It's a tie this year, between Middle Cyclone by Neko Case and Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, by Phoenix.
Neko Case is someone I've been aware of but never really heard for awhile now; I think I may have been in a cafe when someone played The Tigers have Spoken, but before this year, I think I would have said "Neko Case? Redhead, big voice, countryish." Middle Cyclone is so much more, though, that I've since gone back and started checking the previous records for signs of its imminence. Case has managed to wholly abandon pop structure in favor of songs that lyrically drift from idea to idea in a haphazard way, bending and careening as they dance from metaphor to image and back. She showcases her (admittedly big) voice over a warm blend of acoustic instrument and electronic texture, so that even once her lyrics are understood, there's layers and layers more to discover.
As for Phoenix, I have very little to say besides that, apparently, if someone's gonna make a danceable record for me, they better damn well be French. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is glossy, shiny, yet somehow analog and homey. Simultaneously slick and breathy. I know little about Phoenix, and haven't yet gotten any previous records. But I will. You bet yer ass.

Honorable Mentions: Yours Truly the Commuter (Jason Lytle), Monsters of Folk (Monsters of Folk), Merriweather Post Pavilion (Animal Collective)

MOST ENJOYABLE, COMEDIC DIVISION
Incredibad, the Lonely Island. Beats out Scream by Chris Cornell because it is intended to be funny.

MOST OVERRATED
Bitte Orca, Dirty Projectors. I almost like this record. Almost. I think if there were songs, it would be much improved. The thing most people who grave-rob the Talking Heads forget is that the grooves and weirdness worked to benefit the songs, not to replace them.

MOST DISAPPOINTING
A Positive Rage, the Hold Steady. I ADORE this band, but this live album is sorta flat and out of date. I have not seen the Hold Steady live, but I can not imagine them being flat and out of date in person. Perhaps the DVD is better...

And Finally:
MY FAVORITE RECORD OF THE YEAR
Strict Joy, the Swell Season. Strict Joy occupies the territory between the lovely, sparse, minimal arrangements of the first Swell Season record and the dreamy-yet-oddly-bombastic sad bastardness of the Frames. It's a warm, close, lushly harmonized affair. Glen Hansard, a Van Morrison acolyte, ranges from whispers to histrionics, while Marketa Irglova struggles to keep her voice under tight control. It's also one of the rare instances where a couple splits up and makes the breakup record together (see also Mac, Fleetwood: Rumours), and yet it is a stunningly harmonious experience. From the opening swing and mellow horn section of Low Rising, to the quick drive of Feeling the Pull, to the whispered loss of In These Arms, to the thick harmonies that conclude the heartbreaking I Have Loved You Wrong, the record quietly, politely, warmly, stabs you in the chest and leaves you staring out the window in silent contemplation.

I could talk much longer about the music of the year (to say nothing of, you know, the REST OF THE YEAR, the parts that didn't come out of my headphones)... but I shan't. At the moment.

Happy New Year, all... Maybe this year will be better than the last.

J