some of the numbers make sense to me and some of them don't.. I panic when rating things so after too much thought I just let 'em land where they fell...
This album almost didn't make my list because I hadn't really had a good chance to listen to it super well. I already had my favorite tracks off of it chosen but hadn't really vibed with the album on a whole yet. Last week I listened to the album every morning all the way through to see if it deserved to be on my list. I didn't want to be clouded by whatever hype I'd read before. I was talking to Serena the other night and explaining how Jay Z will never have another album that will get me in the same way "The Blueprint" did.. but that's my fault not his.. American Gangster is awesome and has some of the best wordsmithery ever.. he got several 4 star songs in my iTunes
It should probably be higher than 11 but hey it was a late comer!
This cd reminds me of the day I bought my van. I was driving home from marin in a new to me 1991 VW Westfalia van that I had just bought. I had checked it out the day before and made an offer. The guys wife wasn't around so he had to wait and talk to her. Serena and I then went to San Francicsco and went to a party and got pretty lit. We then slept on a futon that resembled cardboard. At 7:45 in the morning the guys wife called up and accepted our offer. I then got a ride to marin with my father in law after having 2 cups of coffee. I was totally dehydrated from booze and coffee but when I got to marin the lady wasn't back from running some errands. My father in law dropped me off at a coffee shop were I had another cup of coffee that I didn't need. I made the van deal and drove home to Santa Cruz at about 40 mph freaking out on what I had just bought, hungover, crazy jittery from caffeine and listening to this cd on repeat because I was too scared to take a hand off the steering wheel to change cds... It has good songs on it!
I can't remember if many other people liked this cd but I sure did. I really like the part in "Sunday Morning" where he says..
"If we get up now we can catch the afternoon
Watch the under 15's playing football in the park"
It makes we want to do that but then I think it'd be creepy for me to be hanging out in a park watching kids that I don't know. Also I still don't understand off sides..
Moody New York music? yes please... I like it on rainy days and most other ones too. I was excited about this album coming out and it totally delivered. Thanks New Yorkers!
Man if I look half as rad as this guy when I'm old then I'm stoked. I've loved Nick Lowe for ever and sometimes he's done some really rad as well as some not so rad stuff . This album is as awesome as it is consistent.. Chrissie Hynde sings on it too! What more do you want...
Several favorite tracks on this one.. including but not limited to "Long Limbed Girl" and "Hope For Us All".. "I Trained Her To Love Me" seems kind of mean but I'm sure he's got his reasons...
It's got good retro album cover atwork as well. Put this one on a Sunday morning or a quiet evening.. good stuff Nick!
My friend brian tried to get me into these guys a couple of years ago. At the time he was into a lot of beard music that I wasn't feelin' (Iron and Wine etc...). This year someone told me these guys were good so I used some of my eMusic credit to download them.. totally worth it and not beard music-esque at all.. do any of them have a beard?
oh fuck.. now I hate* these guys!
* I don't hate them.. in fact I have a really crappy beard myself right now..
These guys let Outback Steakhouse re-imagine on of their songs for a commercial. I think thats awesome.
That song is not on this cd... I totally love this cd though. One song that is on this cd made my top 10 singles of the year. That song can make me dance for days!
check this rhyme scheme from Opening Up if you need more proof
Don't take it as some kind of diss / I'm trying to be autonomous
But every time you're gone, I miss / Your type of touch, your type of kiss
I never thought I could be monogamous / I guess that it is not a myth
I won't be having none of this / Calling Lovers Anonymous
oh the flow is tight!
These guys are awesome. When making a compilation with my friend brian for his wedding I was looking through his itunes and he had band of horses.
me: "these guys are awesome!"
brian: "you should put them on the cd"
me: "the song name of theirs that I remember is called 'The Funeral'"
him: "thats probably not a good song for a wedding"
me: "yeah"
oh wait that song is not on this album... oh well, these guys are awesome...
When I first watched the video for the Money Maker single at work I thought I might be verging into sexual harassment territory if the wrong person happened by my desk. I wasn't really into it at the time.. months later I got re-excited by the thought of a new Rilo Kiley cd by the Spin cover that asked if they were the next Fleetwood Mac with a question mark... I got the whole cd from Jesse after drunkenly listening to it one evening at his and Erin's lovely apartment. Then I was in love with it. Next step was convincing my wife. At first she was not sold, after I explained to her through the use of photos, videos and various graphs just hot Jenny Lewis is she finally saw things my way...
"Dreamworld" is the Fleetwood Mac connection and it kills... When I used to work at the bar on Sunday evenings one of my favorite cds to put on when I came on shift at 6:00 was my best of Fleetwood Mac double disc. I vividly remember one late fall sunday evening putting it on and the 8 regulars who were sitting there, not really interacting with one another, either starting singing, lip synching or nodding along with "Dreams"... I would love to walk into a bar on a Sunday evening and see that same scenario playing out with "Dreamworld" in thirty years...
This is one of the first albums I really remember rocking to a lot this year.. Like the true girl I am I played a bunch of these songs on repeat. I have the least to say about my number one album.. to me that somehow makes sense...
The way the girl sings in this song is one of the best things ever...
Don't stop talking to me please / baby cut me off a piece of your nearly blonde hair
This song even has a freakout part that I usually don't really care for but her voice makes up for it all!
I like most every Ryan Adams song. If you don't that's totally fine but please don't talk to me about it. On many of his songs he's got ways of delivering lines that just gets me everytime. Lots of times they are semi cliché but he kills it somehow. That line in this song is
I give up
Ok so maybe that's not even considered a "line" but just give it a listen after drinking some whiskey.
I bought this album because I kept seeing the album cover all over the place and hearing people saying good things. I didn't really listen to it for awhile and then on the second time around I think I played this song like 6 times.
Interpol one time made my least favorite music video in the world*.. they've made up for it and then some with this song.
And from the birth strings of life I go right
But controlling the agents takes a toll on my brain
WTF? who cares though.... Another song that makes me go girl and hit repeat!
*no I won't link to it becuase I want to punch it..
I have this weird thing where certain things trigger the same thoughts every time they happen. For instance there is the one road that is on this bike ride that I like to do that always makes me think of this dude that I don't really like, I have no idea why. This song always triggers this weird like memory lane for me of something that I never experienced... heavy huh? wait you all took a bong rip before reading this right? Anyways I have like a whole storyline inside my head going on everytime I listen to this one. I also love how he breaks down the 4th dimension* with his talking about what he just ryhmed about..
Damn,.....
Ay baby, i said i'm, i'm Off The Wall, i'm like a...
young Michael Jackson, these other niggas is Tito....
Shout out to Randy, Real Talk!
Total genius..
* that's probably and incorrect usage of 4th dimension really but it sure blew my mind!
Holy shit I love this song! Often when I'm really amped on a band I'll be all like "this is the kind of band I would be in if I were in a band"... in reality I think Chromeo is really that type of band and this is the type of song I'd write.. Usually I'd picture myself being some crazy rocking dude like Hives lead singer or maybe some arty verging on beard* music guy. However I'm too much of a dork and not coordinated enough to rock that hard.. These guys are dorky but still retain coolness (which I don't really have but this is my rock and roll fantasy). Plus they've been best friends since the were little. Too bad they didn't have Garageband when we were fucking around with Kid Pix huh Jesse?
Extra bonus points for the take off on the Dire Straights music video..
*dude why am I talking about beards so much?
I have vivid memories of the first time that I heard both of these songs. The first time hearing "Dashboard" was while viewing footage for a skate video that I was involved in for work..
I first heard "Missed The Boat" at Serena's Aunt's house on the radio while on our honeymoon. I then finally bought the cd in my Aunt's town of Driggs Idaho... These two songs are my faves and for some reason go together in my head. I also really love the edit that Eric Noren did for the link that I supplied above. Modest Mouse do some things really well and some things really shitty. These two songs are done amazing..
Of Montreal seem totally nuts in the raddest way possible. Well the lead singer performing naked this year was maybe something that I wouldn't be super hyped on* but whatevs... anyways I really like this song. I think it's about being depressed. Guess I'm stoked that I don't really relate to it/understand it.
*don't worry I'll make a statement about the song below that will totally negate such a hetero seeming stance..
Here's a neat thing about me. Every year at some point I get drunk and claim that "I'd go gay for Ryan Adams*".. I think I even worked it into my wedding vows (I was too busy crying to remember what I said)... anyways yeah I do that everyyear. However I do owe him a lot for instance he did get me into wearing cowboy button up style shirts which came in handy during my one bar room brawl. Umm.. this song is awesome its one of those ones that's gone like one 3 second part that I want to hear over and over again.. I'll let you find that.
*BTW it would never work between me and Ryan. He likes to smoke pot a lot and I'm not very good at doing that..
The samples, the beats and the rhymes just all fall into place for me on this one.. Common can be hit or miss for me but this track hits on all levels. We rocked this one a lot on our x-country honeymoon a lot. Two honky's in a Westfalia Vanagon pumping this track must have looked odd but it never failed to make me happy.
now if only I could get my facial hair on par with his... crap! more beard talk!!
umm..
See you on the outskirts where the wasteland meets the night
behind the railway tracks where we first found our souls
Cause when the world is over we're still the boys from nowhere
and tonight, tonight we're coming home
Turbonegro are genius. Watch Turbonegro's The Reserection if you don't believe me.. They were also one of the best shows I saw this year. It was the third time that I'd seen them but the first time I'd seen them and feared for my life for a bit. "Retox" is a great album* and it was hard for me not to put it into my top 10. I'll probably look back and be bummed that I didn't... but hey? single #2 of the year isn't bad... wait up... who am I talking to?
Scarier than fear but thats alright
Good good stuff... never fails to make me stoked.
* if you don't already have Apocolypse Dudes or Scandinavian Leather get those first... if your not into homo-erotic Norwegian death punk then never mind!
This song makes me think of my wife.. For serious if a song clearly captures absolute comfort in another human, this is it...
I feel like just by admitting that I just got into this album will result in someone from Pitchfork coming to my house and taking my fixed gear bike away from me. Better late than never right?
I get hit up by "video delivery" and "content manager" companys all the time at work. One such company was trying to get my worked psyched on their video delivery service. They had some skate/surf/snow board videos as well as some music videos. The system sucked but when I was checking it out they had the Kooks video for "Eddie's Gun" and I got really stoked on it and bought the album. It's good all the way through!
Have you seen the don't let him waste your time video?
Just one of the many amazing things that came from this album!
I've been an Idlewild fan for years and last time I saw them play the did it all acoustic. When I first heard that it was going to be acoustic I was bummed because they blow doors when they're plugged in. It ended up being one of the best shows I've ever seen. When I heard that Roddy Woomble was going to put out a more acoustic-y record I knew that it was going to be good. Finally I procured the album from Jesse this year and it is indeed amazing... His wife* sings on the album too! How cute it that?
*Roddy's.. not Jesse's...
Their first album started out with steel drums which always reminded me of that part in Seasame St. where they made a steel drum. This album does not have any steel drums but is the same type dreamy anglophile pop music that I freak out for. I really love the album cover too..
03 Turbonegro - Slims
02 Morrissey - Paramount Theatre
01 Rod Stewart - HP Pavillion
Anything by Neko Case
Jermaine Stewart - We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off
want to see me dance? probably not.. but if so give me a beer and this jam and stand back.
Jeremy Enigk - World Waits
Coconut Records - West Coast
The Pippettes
Destroyer
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Kool and the Gang - Get Down On It
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
I don't really have guilty pleasures but if I had to pick something for this section it would any of the 600 songs that Akon was on.. the only thing I feel guilty about is knowing that he lost his Verizon sponsor ship due to his onstage indiscretions... poor guy, I guess there was nothing I could have done about it..
M.Ward - Chinese Translation
this song will forever mean 2007 to me
thanks for reading...