Part 2: From Meklit Hadero to the Old 97’s

Artist: Meklit Hadero

Album: On a Day Like This…

Label: Porto Franco

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On a Day Like This

Meklit Hadero’s debut full-length album showcased the San Francisco-based singer-songwriter’s beguiling mix of experimentalism and tradition, taking in leftfield bossa nova, soul, scratchy improv, Ethiopian pop, and the kind of meandering songcraft that recalled the early 1970s work of Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell. Poetic beauty abounded in Hadero’s lyrics, sometimes complex, sometimes achingly, elegantly simple. There were also notable cover versions — Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good”, Mahmoud Ahmed’s “Abbay Mado” — that proved Hadero could take convincing ownership of material associated with others. Whatever the influences and comparisons that sprang to mind, the clearest message of On a Day Like This was that Hadero was a singular talent and one to watch.

Richard Elliott

 

Artist: Darren Hanlon

Album: I Will Love You at All

Label: Yep Roc

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Display Width: 200Darren Hanlon
I Will Love You at All

“Time heals” can seem like an ineffectual response to hurt. To know that all things pass, does not always fix the sting of the present. Darren Hanlon’s I Will Love You at All wrestles with time from just about every imaginable angle, attempting to repair a broken heart and overcome loss. Yet thanks to the droll Hanlon’s endlessly imaginative folk songwriting, the album spends very little time feeling sorry. Musical inventories of personal histories are often self-indulgent, but Hanlon is downright generous in the connection he provides to the listener. His songs invite us to appreciate the objects, spaces and persons that make up our own memories. In doing so, I Will Love You at All could be said to give solace to those mourning the passing of life’s treasures. As popular music of all types becomes increasingly concerned with youth and the present moment, it is the rarest of albums that rewardingly takes stock of things lost and hope of the future ahead. “Folk Insomnia” offers the album’s most potent and clear-eyed embrace of the march of time: “Hair it turns grey and skin it turns to leather, but the best thing about growing old is we all do it together”. Thomas Britt

 

Artist: Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3

Album: Propellor Time

Label: Satorial

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Propellor Time

Robyn Hitchcock could net a gang of chimpanzees to play on his next album, and he would still make melodiously arcane song out of it all. Luckily his Rolodex can do better: backed by three-fifths of the touring R.E.M., Mr. Sex-and-Insects continues his late-career arc that began with 2006’s Ole Tarantula!. Propellor Time is less rocking and more meditative than both Tarantula and its superb successor, Goodnight Oslo, as Hitchcock stares down age 60. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as this clairvoyant collection proves. Looser than ever, he sings about The Giver-style population control (“Sickie Boy”), the best bar in heaven (“The Afterlight”) and ordinary millionaires (“Ordinary Millionaire”). The 24-hour-media-conflictonator continues to blur the line between politics and reality TV, but alone on that shore pictured on Propellor‘s cover, Hitchcock has never sounded more at peace with the most bizarre show of all: real life. Alex Bahler

 

Artist: How to Dress Well

Album: Love Remains

Label: Lefse

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Love Remains

Love Remains plays out its 38 minutes like the distant, murmured echo of 1980s and ’90s R&B, suggesting, in the words of Pitchfork‘s Mark Richardson, “how sounds wear down and fade over time.” That’s one attempt to get at this unique record; here’s another: if Guided by Voices produced a D’Angelo album underwater on some horribly battered four-track, it might sound distantly akin to this — but even that only vaguely conveys how weirdly, hazily alluring this album is, sincere hooks and infectious loops emerging after multiple listens from the swamp of clipped reverb and endlessly tracked vocals. Somehow, this works. By day, How to Dress Well’s Tom Krell is a graduate student in philosophy, splitting his time between Brooklyn and Germany. Go figure. Zach Schonfeld

 

Artist: Jaga Jazzist

Album: One-Armed Bandit

Label: Ninja Tune

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One-Armed Bandit

Not since the likes of Frank Zappa has a group managed to create such a virtuosic pop album, presenting highly orchestrated psychedelic works laced with a equal parts humor and sci-fi absurdity, albeit less abrasive and surreal than Zappa. Manned by nine stalwart Norwegians under the guiding vision of one Lars Horntveth, the good ship Jaga Jazzist set sail for an epic journey far beyond that which was hinted at by the now-legendary soundscapes heard on their earlier, more electronic-based albums. With a helicopter sample bookending a progression from raunchy horn-laden funk to hard hitting techno to fuzzed-out hard rock and back, “Touch of Evil” sounds like a Karlheinz Stockhausen dropping in on a recording session of Pepe Deluxé and James Holden. The title track from One-Armed Bandit sounds like a reimagining of Roy Budd’s legendary theme to the 1971 Michael Caine film Get Carter with a Japanese game-show interlude. At once imaginative and evocative, many of the songs from this album will be played for generations to come. They’re that good. Alan Ranta

 

Jason & the Scorchers and more…

Artist: Jason & the Scorchers

Album: Halcyon Times

Label: Courageous Chicken

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Halcyon Times

A record so slept on by the music community, I had to confirm Halcyon Times‘ existence wasn’t a dream when I sat down to write this. It’s a shame this record hasn’t found a larger audience (yet!), because Jason Ringenberg, Warner Hodges and friends — including the Georgia Satellites’ Dan Baird and Ginger from the Wildhearts — bring the heat on Halcyon Times, rivaling the output from their mid-’80s cowpunk heyday. Opening manifesto “Moonshine Guy” (about a guy who “loves the Stones, hates the Doors [and] thinks the Beatles sing for girls”) bounds out of the gate and into a world full of blue collar coalminers (“Beat on the Mountain”), souped-up rockabilly cornpone (“Fear Not Gear Rot”), country soul (“Mother of Greed”), music industry disillusionment (“Twang Town Blues”) and of course, girls (“Mona Lee”, “When Did It Get So Easy (To Lie to Me)?”). I don’t know how a record released less than 12 months ago can already be due for rediscovery, but here we are. Stephen Haag

 

Artist: jj

Album: jj nº 3

Label: Secretly Canadian

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jj nº 3

The critical response to nº 3 was a classic case of an album being condemned for what it wasn’t rather than considered for what it was. The Swedish pop duo’s debut album, nº 2, was heralded for its fresh mixture of dreampop and hip-hop, its deliberate confusion of irony and humor, and its very good songs. nº 3 got a lot of flak for being more of the same, only less substantial. True, jj didn’t take a quantum leap, but was anyone other than most hard-to-impress web critics really looking for them to? Especially when nº 2 was shorter than a lot of bands’ EPs? Yes, a few bits of nº 3 were too flaky or too Enya-like. But most of these songs were well-crafted pop disguised as indie slacker toss-offs. The near-ambient “Light” was genuinely shiver-inducing. The sampled sports announcer on “Into the Light” was the kind of brilliant off-the-wall touch Saint Etienne would think of. And throughout, Elin Kastlander’s voice had a kind of sweet/trashy edge that most of this kind of music lacks. Compact yet sprawling with good stuff to catch your ears’ attention, nº 3 was one of the year’s most endlessly-listenable albums. Isn’t that enough? John Bergstrom

 

Artist: Angela Johnson

Album: It’s Personal

Label: Purpose

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It’s Personal

The U.S. tends to keep some of its greatest artists under wraps while other countries recognize and appreciate the talent of singers and songwriters from North American shores. Ever since debuting with They Don’t Know (2002), singer/multi-instrumentalist/producer Angela Johnson has made an impact on audiences in Japan, France, and the United Kingdom. No matter the geographical orientation, It’s Personal (2010), Johnson’s fourth solo project, should be on the radar of any self-respecting music lover. Johnson excels in song craft, whether in the bass and beats of “Better” (arguably, one of her best compositions to date), the intimately soulful melody of “All in Me” (a duet with indie soul man Darien), or on the rousing, jazz-infused anthem, “It’s Personal”. Across the album’s 11 songs, Johnson exhibits an engaging, accessible, and impressive musicality that positions her as one of the greatest architects of contemporary R&B. Christian John Wikane

 

Artist: Tom Jones

Album: Praise & Blame

Label: Island/Mercury

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Praise & Blame

As Tom Jones hit 70 this year, it already seemed like a good year to rediscover a guy who has been melting audiences for decades with the power of his awe-inspiring vocals and his panty-magnet stage charisma. What made Jones’s 2010 most remarkable, though, was Praise & Blame, his most impressive record in ages and, even for a storied artist, a major artistic step forward. Other aging legends — Robert Plant, Elton John, etc. — got all the attention in 2010 for rediscovering their roots, but Jones’s return to grizzled, glitz-free gospel and blues was one of the year’s nicest surprises. The record, produced by Kings of Leon cohort Ethan Johns, crackles with stripped-down, live-in-the-studio Americana arrangements, as Jones, in miraculous form, takes the temperature of his own soul. And, as always, this gentleman runs hot. Steve Leftridge

 

Artist: Kid Cudi

Album: Man on the Moon 2: The Legend of Mr Rager

Label: Universal/Motown

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Man on the Moon 2: The Legend of Mr Rager

In 2009, the demise of hip-hop was one of the great pop music memes of the year. As the narrative then went, the genre was all but dead, stagnated by a lack of innovation and its inability to captivate the larger pop culture. But what a difference a year can make. Vitality was injected back in the genre by a little existential introspection, with the likes of Kanye West undercutting his self-importance on Twisted Fantasy, the Roots’ anxious probing on their 2010 release, the self-examination on Drake’s debut LP and the dark confessional Bastard by bedroom rapper Tyler, the Creator. Even Eminem canned the gratuitousness for the sake of introspection, leading to his best album in a decade. But the silver medal winner to West’s opus was Kid Cudi’s psychedelic-rap psychodrama Man on the Moon 2. A follow-up to his lackluster debut, Cudi continues to bring the angst but without the catchy choruses and the shiny production found on his last effort. This makes for an uncomfortable first listen but this agonized beast is a grower in the truest sense of the term. Given the time it deserves, it demonstrates that it is one of the best hip-hop releases — indeed one of the best albums period — of 2010.

Eric Allen Been

 

Killing Joke and more…

Artist: Killing Joke

Album: Absolute Dissent

Label: Spinefarm

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Absolute Dissent

It’s not as if Killing Joke made a miraculous comeback after years of inactivity. In fact, they’ve put out a pair of very strong, vital albums this past decade. If anything, when the original 1980 lineup decided to reunite in the wake of the death of bassist Paul Raven, it led some of us to wonder if they could equal the visceral intensity of Killing Joke and Hosannas From the Basements of Hell. Absolute Dissent, however, sees the post-punk veterans rediscovering the magic of their ’80s incarnation in a way that few had expected. Geordie Walker’s riff still slice away savagely and Jaz Coleman is still carrying on with his political rants and conspiracy theories, but those mid-’80s hooks have returned with a vengeance, ranging from the dub of “Ghosts of Ladbroke Grove” to the brilliant Brighter than a Thousand Suns knock-off “European Super State”. And if you thought these old guys forgot to mercilessly throttle their audience, “The Great Cull” and “This World hell” swiftly erases any doubt. Adrien Begrand

 

Artist: Lake Street Dive

Album: Lake Street Dive

Label: Signature Sounds

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Lake Street Dive

I have a confession to make. I was going to vote for Lake Street Dive’s third album when submitting my Best of 2010 nominations, but something held me back. Part of it was that the record was released in November, and I felt that it was too “new” to look at it objectively. A larger reason though was that I felt I would be wasting a vote on a band that’s, well, obscure and that nobody else had heard of, let alone voted for. (That might sound like peer pressure forcing me to cave in, but there it is.) I have had my share of regrets because I’ve returned many times to the wonderful Lake Street Dive, and it magically holds up on repeated listens. Lake Street Dive have a soulful, jazzy sound that honestly just doesn’t get made anymore, and the fact that the band members appear to be in their 20s just adds to the charm, as though they’ve honed their sound simply by raiding their parents’ record collections. That’s not to speak of Rachael Price’s awe-inspiring singing as the cherry on top of the cake. I could do it all over again, Lake Street Dive would come very close to the top of my Best of 2010 list. This is music for people who love music, and there is much joy, infectiousness and wonderful beauty to be found here. Zachary Houle

 

Artist: John Legend & The Roots

Album: Wake Up!

Label: Columbia

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Wake Up!

There’s nothing like a good collaboration to get one excited about the state of music. In the grand tradition of such historic power jams from Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway to Beck, Bogert and Appice, new school R&B great John Legend, inspired by the hope and positive vibes emanating from the U.S. in the advent of Barack Obama’s groundbreaking presidential campaign in 2008, got together with his homies the Roots to deliver a gritty, organic collection of old soul covers that plays out like the days of Auto-Tune, iced grills and booty claps never even existed. And when you dig into the conviction by which this winning combination transforms such deep catalog black American anthems like Baby Huey and the Babysitters’ Curtis Mayfield-penned classic “Hard Times”, Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes’ “Wake Up Everybody”, Bill Withers’ “I Can’t Write Left Handed” and Marvin Gaye’s “Wholy Holy” among several others into their own funky performances, the parallels they draw between yesterday and today without changing a word is nothing short of eye-opening — hitting the listener exactly the way a great covers album should. Ron Hart

 

Artist: Liars

Album: Sisterworld

Label: Mute

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Sisterworld

Liars reside on the more experimental side of indie rock and the more mainstream side of experimental music. Sisterworld represents that split-identity perfectly. A song like “Scarecrows on Killer Slant” hits hard, featuring top-volume distorted guitars and screamed vocals. But then a tune like “Proud Evolution” comes on — with a bass line that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Talking Heads song — and it’s clear that they’re just as capable of carrying a solid groove. All the parts come together to form an album that unites the band’s different sounds and is enthralling throughout. Liars wear their heavier tendencies on their sleeve, but they have just enough of a pop sensibility to take this album from niche record to plain outstanding. Tomas Hachard

 

M.I.A. and more…

Artist: Librarians

Album: Present Passed

Label: Postfact

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Present Passed

Given the amount of bands that garner a sizable amount of buzz/hype via blogs (deserving or otherwise) in any given year, its truly bewildering when a group so deserving of said love goes almost completely ignored. Of course, this raises a lot of questions about the importance of label, location, dumb luck, etc., but I won’t get into that. Here are the facts: Librarians are a young quartet from West Virginia that previously dabbled in dance-punk. Neither of these are particularly attractive truths, but Librarians has since blossomed into something unrecognizable: a band that effortlessly weaves psych, new-wave and post-punk into stellar jams that feel destined for mixtape immortality. Granted, Librarians do channel a handful of fashionable influences (Animal Collective, the Zombies and Modest Mouse), but that hasn’t done them any favors yet. Above all, what made Present Passed one of my favorite albums of 2010 was its consistently compelling and quotable lyrics. Whether they’re dishing out surreal imagery (“Lucifer’s jumping up and down / Watching reruns of history”) or sensual come-ons (“I want to be the drink in your shot glass / I want to see how long we can make this sip last”), Librarians exhibits a casual brilliance for tapping into the universal human condition via their own personal experiences. Ben Schumer

 

Artist: Los Lobos

Album: Tin Can Trust

Label: Shout! Factory

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Tin Can Trust

Los Lobos occupy a rich spot between cultures, so their music has a wealth of traditions to draw from. What makes their sound work so well, though, is that they don’t seem to care where the boundaries are supposed to lie. They’re just as likely to record a traditional cumbia as they are a straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll rave-up, but you’ll also find them bringing all of their influences together into a savory blend. Like its predecessor, 2002’s The Town and the City, Tin Can Trust is full of understated snapshots of daily life full of warmth and heart. It doesn’t hurt that Tin Can Trust has about as much tasty guitar work as you can fit into an album, but what sets it apart is the humanity. When it seems like more and more voices are yelling at us to create fault lines from our differences, the quiet voice of this album reminds us of the rewards to be gained from coming together. This is the sound of daily life being lived through good and bad, and ultimately celebrated. Andrew Gilstrap

 

Artist: Julian Lynch

Album: Mare

Label: Olde English Spelling Bee

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Mare

Julian Lynch’s hazy, ambient yet largely acoustic-based album came out in a perfect storm: all the elements — his hometown of Ridgewood, New Jersey shared with other breakout groups, the buzzy genre mix of chillwave/hypnagogic or just plain bedroom pop, the flurry of interesting releases by his label, Olde English Spelling Bee — coincided to back up his second “proper” release. Lucky for Lynch, the ethnomusicologist in training, that this album can actually back up the buzz. It’s a solid, well thought out piece of work. Mare is pastiche; each track has a central idea, whether it’s an acoustic guitar line, a bass rumble, a horn part, around which Lynch pins contributions from other instruments. His mumbly vocals work more like another musical layer than as a provision for lyrics. What makes this album superior to many other “bedroom” projects is its looseness, the non-synthesized aspect that lets you know there actually is someone there playing the instrument: the hand beaten drums loses a beat on the island swing of “Ears”, or the two acoustic guitar tracks on “Still Racing” step on each other’s rhythm a bit. It may not be a band playing, but it sounds real. Scott Branson



 

Artist: M.I.A.

Album: ///Y/

Label: Interscope

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///Y/

Oh, how easy it is to miss a point when the speaker refuses to filter! For her third LP, Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam (M.I.A.) drafted her notion of the Age of Enlightenment’s inalienable rights and uploaded it for the Information Age, and scored it with jack hammers, distortion, and industrialized pop, rock, rap, and reggae. Here, the social contract involves the Internet’s instant delivery and deluge of data, signifying possibilities and limitations. Massively paranoid and musically daring, Maya (stylized in net-speak as // / Y /) is synonymous with its maker, a personal statement living in the moment as much as any Tweet. This is M.I.A. reporting live from The Machine, as equal parts freedom crusader and weblog cruiser (“Teqkilla” = “Tech Killa”, see? It’s “hactivism”). The struggle resides in surfing the built-in complacency, finding meaning among chaos, and logging off with your identity intact. The only mistake was reserving the four tracks that round out the album’s philosophy (“Internet Connection”, “Illy Girl”, “Believer”, and “Caps Lock”) for the deluxe edition. Quentin B. Huff

 

Artist: The Magnetic Fields

Album: Realism

Label: Nonesuch

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Realism

While the kids in 2010 were railing against the suburbs or shaping the path where popular music would go, the adults in the Magnetic Fields’ Realism took a folksy (albeit brief) stroll through the past. Songs like “We Are Having a Hootenanny” and “The Dada Polka” sound like they could have formed at the turn of the last century. Going back even further, “Interlude” and “The Dolls’ Tea Party” sound like they could have been penned during the Renaissance. Stephin Merritt still has one of the sharpest tongues in rock, and on Realism, he created an excellent companion piece to the experimental Distortion. On “Everything Is One Big Christmas Tree”, Merritt declares “If they don’t like you, screw them.” On Realism, Merritt gives his own, beguiling version of the middle finger to modern music conventional wisdom. Sean McCarthy

 

John Mellencamp and more…

Artist: Male Bonding

Album: Nothing Hurts

Label: Sub Pop

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Nothing Hurts

Male Bonding, a young punk band from London’s artsy Dalston neighborhood who sprung from the rib of English noise rockers PRE, completely eschew the trappings of Sub Pop’s newer, softer era by creating a debut LP rife with the kind of harmonious caterwauling that made the label’s first ten years in business so revolutionary. An educated ear can pick up several of the primary sonic touchstones these young Brits levy across this scant-yet-powerful half-hour set: a scent of Bleach on tracks like album opener “Years Got Long” and “TUFF”, a chunk of pure Every Boy Deserves Fudge on “All Things This Way”, even a little vintage Sebadoh, both Jason Lowenstein raveups (“Nothing Remains”) and the Lou Barlow comedowns (the acoustic album closer “Worse to Come” featuring guest vocals from the Vivian Girls). And when coupled with a heaping dose of vintage English shoegaze and a touch of frenetic surf guitar, Nothing Hurts coalesces into one of the loudest, proudest and purest Sub Pop albums to come out since the heyday of Eric’s Trip. Ron Hart

 

Artist: Olivier Manchon

Album: Orchestre de Chambre Miniature, Vol. 1

Label: Obliqsound

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Display Width: 200Olivier Manchon
Orchestre de Chambre Miniature, Vol. 1

Musical crossovers can be tricky. Despite the best of artistic intentions, the mash up of two musical styles stand to be remembered for what they got wrong rather than creating anything exciting or new. And no crossover attempt has been more forgettable or insufferably brainy as the rise of “baroque pop” (take indie songs, add a string section, you’re done). And although Olivier Manchon has lent performing and arrangement talents to the likes of Clare & the Reasons and Sufjan Stevens, Manchon tucked his violin under his arm and chose to paddle up the third-stream when it came to having a his own solo career. Orchestra de Chambre Miniature, Vol. 1 is a delicately arranged and expertly performed synthesis of classical and jazz forms. Given the slim variety of third-stream music being composed today, this album deserves to be remembered as a 2010 highlight. John Garratt

 

Artist: Mares of Thrace

Album: The Moulting

Label: Arctodus

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The Moulting

Comprised of guitarist Thérèse Lanz and drummer Stefani MacKichan, Calgary, Alberta’s Mares of Thrace pulled off one of the most confident metal debuts of 2010 with an album that left the majority of their male peers choking on their dust. Deriving equally from the noise of Unsane and the massive style of Neurosis, The Moulting quickly finds its own niche thanks to some rather unique touches. Lanz’s baritone guitar riffs find an even balance between pure force and melody, and her screaming/singing does likewise, while MacKichan is a powerhouse behind the kit, bringing such a fluidity to her complex cadences that it feels more derived from jazz than, say, the Dillinger Escape Plan. Most importantly, though, these talented women are good composers and arrangers, capable of moments of devastating heaviness, but never coming at the expense of the song. It’s catchy, it’s brutal as all get-out, and it could very well be the beginning of something truly special. Adrien Begrand

 

Artist: Laura Marling

Album: I Speak Because I Can

Label: Astralwerks

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I Speak Because I Can

Released a month after her 20th birthday, I Speak Because I Can is already the second album by the ridiculously precocious Laura Marling, a young woman whose astounding depth and maturity suggests both a female Nick Drake and a 21st century descendent of English folk luminaries June Tabor or Sandy Denny. But if Marling suggests yet another step in the UK music scene’s current retro tendencies, what she has over soul wannabe’s like Amy Winehouse and Duffy is a truly authoritative command of her adopted genre and the sheer confidence to infuse her personal narratives with the weight of tradition. Still, what really impresses about I Speak Because You Can is neither the prodigious age nor the uncanny authenticity of its creator but rather her flawless songwriting chops. It’s an album that is always dramatically forceful and urgently melodic despite what would appear to be polite trappings, boldly obliterating any perceived stylistic or generational barriers by not even acknowledging them. Jer Fairall

 

Artist: John Mellencamp

Title: No Better Than This

Label: Rounder

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No Better Than This

John Mellencamp established long ago that he’s an artist with his own voice and not just a poor man’s Springsteen. Now, easing into his 60s, Mellencamp is writing music to fit his life’s new chapter. Recorded in mono to a vintage recorder with a single microphone and no studio trickery, No Better Than This finds Mellencamp visiting familiar themes about making it through life (and now looking towards life’s end). Sonically, it ranges from rockabilly to Sun-era Johnny Cash to Robert Johnson, but none of that ever overshadows the songs. Recorded while Mellencamp was touring to support Life Death Love and Freedom, No Better Than This joins that album in encouraging listeners to re-evaluate Mellencamp as more than the anthem-singing firebrand. It puts his songwriting skills front-and-center, and the songs don’t wilt in these unadorned arrangements. Andrew Gilstrap

 

Artist: Menomena

Album: Mines

Label: Barsuk

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Mines

In a year where Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs has drawn much attention, Portland’s Menomena also released their third album. Both artists are at the pinnacle of their career, both have produced equally challenging albums, yet Mines, whilst somewhat overlooked, is arguably a more unique and rewarding experience. Initially, it may seem like the band is moving towards something more straightforward, as this album has less immediate pop-art bombast and avant-garde loop-tinkering than in previous outings. However, Mines is deceptively layered and the band’s most mature collage of isolation and heartbreak to date, fuelled by a dark core of enchanting sadness, which is only illuminated over time. Menomena have always seemed to thrive on division, as ostensibly the three members work separately, with a compartmentalised writing and recording process, often working alone, turning what might be perceived the endgame for more conventional bands, into their greatest strength. So with the recent news of Brent Knoph’s departure from the line-up, it leaves the future unclear for a band who, in Mines, have finally distilled their sound to its perfect essence. Tom Fenwick

 

Of Montreal and more…

Artist: Anaïs Mitchell

Album: Hadestown

Label: Righteous Babe

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Display Width: 200Anaïs Mitchell
Hadestown

More artists should take chances like Anaïs Mitchell did with Hadestown, the Vermont singer-songwriter’s epic folk opera. Featuring guests like Ani DiFranco, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Grammy nominee Greg Brown, and Ben Knox Miller (The Low Anthem), Mitchell ended up taking a supporting role on her own album. Instead, the aforementioned list of folk and indie legends performed various marquee roles in an adaptation of the Greek myth of Orpheus and his ill-fated attempt to rescue his better half from depths of hell. While it may seem like a gimmick, setting the tribulations of characters Eurydice, Persephone, Hermes, Hades, and the Fates in Depression-era America, the album succeeded by the clearly showcasing the astounding commitment of Mitchell and her band of misfits to this work of art. Lushly produced by frequent Ani DiFranco collaborator Todd Sickafoose, Hadestown was imagined in vivid lyrical detail and supported by a rich, varied, immaculately played sonic palette. This album is a Coen Brothers movie waiting to be filmed. Alan Ranta

 

Artist: No Age

Album: Everything in Between

Label: Sub Pop

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Display Width: 200No Age
Everything in Between

It’s all too easy to overlook No Age as one of indie rock’s most innovative and artistically ambitious bands. That might have to do with the assumption that there’s only so much that’s possible from a guitar-and-drums format, especially compared to the over-the-top experimentation of those in the L.A. duo’s peer group. But there are no limits to No Age’s sophomore full-length, Everything in Between: Dean Spunt and Randy Randall use their vast technical skills, imagination, and instincts to find beauty in ear-splitting noise, coaxing nuance out of brute force. Just listen to how they shape what sounds like the roar of an airplane engine into something almost spiritual on “Katerpillar” or the way they transform screeching feedback into anthemic riffs on “Fever Dreaming”. What’s more, No Age seems to be growing into its own skin thematically, with the everyday existentialism of “Common Heat” and “Chem Trails”. If any band can continue grow and expand on a bare-bones formula, No Age is it. Arnold Pan

 

Artist: Of Montreal

Album: False Priest

Label: Polyvinyl

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Display Width: 200Of Montreal
False Priest

Most contemporary indie bands — and indeed a good number of the music writers who cover indie for that matter — are by and large one skittish bunch when it comes to tackling sex head-on. Sure, the cultural landfill is chockfull of indie music that awkwardly toe-dips in romance and the apparent anguish caused by its absence. But when it comes to downright erotic desire, most indie music-makers and their boosters are nothing more than closet cultural conservatives. More specifically, they habitually shun sexual jouissance — and the rhythmic vigor that usually follows — for the sake of preserving their fetishism for adolescent innocence. And as a result of this milieu, Of Montreal’s inhibition breakdown on False Priest — seemly induced by Prince’s syncopation and David Bowie’s plastic soul period — makes for one sonically rousing event. On the album, Kevin Barnes finally completes his transition from twee eunuch to sex-crazed psychedelic funk-lover, wholly embracing the cadential animalism that is in scant supply in the indie stratosphere. A wonderfully bizarre project that’s still surprisingly accessible, False Priest illustrates why indie and groove can make such fantastic bedfellows. Eric Allen Been

 

Artist: The Old 97’s

Album: The Grand Theatre Volume One

Label: New West

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Display Width: 200The Old 97’s
The Grand Theatre Volume One

Dallas stalwarts the Old 97’s are one of those rare bands that keep churning out reliably stellar rock ‘n’ roll over the years without ever getting flat-out famous. They don’t have to work dayjobs, but they ain’t rich. You hear them on NPR and see them on Jay Leno, but your mom doesn’t know who they are. Which all might serve to be perfect scenario for fans, because the band gets to write great music and record it and tour behind it, without ever turning into asshole divas or imploding into their own Behind the Music episode. The Grand Theatre, Volume One rocks much harder than its last two predecessors, 2008’s Blame It on Gravity and 2004’s Drag It Up, and shows off co-founder Murry Hammond’s fabled-but-seldom-displayed Oasis fixation. Occupying that rare space of comfort-level success affords the freedom to throw it all in: Hammond’s Britpop love, frontman Rhett Miller’s smart-guy literary leanings, Ken Bethea’s melt-the-chrome-off-the-trailer-hitch guitars, and drummer Phillip Peeples’ unerring knack for sewing it all up with the beat. Jennifer Cooke