eMusic » ZZ

Joe Lovano’s Top Six Saxophonists

Ken Micallef — Fri, 03 May 2013 17:34:35 +0000

Joe Lovano’s output is voluminous and encompasses an array of jazz styles. He blew an immaculate, straight-ahead tenor saxophone on 52nd Street Themes, honored Charlie Parker on Bird Songs and revisited the ’50s-era school of cool on Streams of Expression. And then there’s his blustery, innovative work as a member of the Paul Motian Trio with the late, master drummer and guitarist Bill Frisell. Throughout, Lovano’s tenor is as flexible as the material he pursues, a burly, angular, shimmering, even romantic instrument that’s grounded in jazz but is ultimately not chained to it.

Perhaps more than with his other groups, Us Five gives Lovano a lab in which to try out new ideas, new configurations, and new sounds. The group’s latest release, Cross Currents (Blue Note), takes the group forward while Lovano looks back. Over the course of its running time, Lovano plays an assortment of horns and percussion, from Hungarian tarogato and Belgian aulochrome to Nigerian log drum and gongs; the group group includes Grammy Award winning bassist Esperanza Spalding and drummers Otis Brown III and Francisco Mela. This amalgam of unusual instruments, and the group’s dual drummer configuration, recalls the boundary-stretching ’60s recordings of John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman.

“Some of the instruments I play on the album I have collected through the years,” Lovano says. “They’re ancient sounds, they go back in time in the history of the world of music, from Asia, North Africa, Nigeria. These sounds feel like the earth, like having it come from your soul. It’s not just a technical thing. When you vibrate on the tonalities of these instruments and don’t try to play any specific kind of music, you feel the soul of the music in a different kind of way.”

A similar philosophy extends to the makeup of Lovano’s group. “To have a quintet with double drummers, a lot of points of reference can happen,” he says. “Anything can happen if everyone is paying attention and sharing a space together. That’s the idea. The double drummer configuration was inspired by Art Blakey, Max Roach, Billy Higgins and Ed Blackwell with Ornette, and Rashid Ali and Elvin Jones with Coltrane.”

As the masters have influenced Lovano, he has in turn influenced the new guard of younger jazz musicians.

“I realize what a deep relationship I have with all of these cats.” Lovano says. “It’s a beautiful scene today. As a musician, for a long time you’re in people’s audiences. Then all of a sudden, they’re in your audience. I was in Joe Henderson’s audience a lot,” he continues. “And the audiences of Dexter Gordon, George Coleman and Clifford Jordan. Once when I was playing the Berkhausen festival in Germany, Dexter was in the audience. That night I somehow held my notes just a little longer. I got up the next morning and Dexter was just coming in and we hung in the hotel lobby. I got the chills. That happens for all of us and it’s happening for these cats now. It’s a continuum. That’s how these things are handed down: in real time.”

eMusic’s Ken Micallef asked Lovano to listen and comment on new recordings from his favorite current saxophonists.

Novela - arr. by Kris Davis

Tony Malaby
2011 | Clean Feed / The Orchard

Tony has a very hip, contemporary approach. He's a New York cat, playing in a lot of ensembles exploring different ways of playing. He reminds me of when I first came into town in the '70s and early '80s and the different loft situations I was involved with, which really carried me into today. He is experiencing a lot of stuff in those directions. And also he's had a chance to play... with Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra, which I joined in 1986. And he's been experiencing playing Carla Bley's great music, and he is putting together ideas and assembling his personal history. All of these cats are doing that. Novela is really reminiscent of Liberation Orchestra: the energy, the way he feels the music from within the ensemble and steps forward within it. Tony plays with a beautiful organic approach. To improvise and create music within the music is where I want to live.
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Gamak

Rudresh Mahanthappa
2013 | ACT Music + Vision / The Orchard

Rudresh really is developing a way of playing [that's drawn] from his roots and his personal explorations and the people he has been with. His sound on the instrument has a vocal quality that is really beautiful. I've known him since we met at the Gunther Schuller workshop in the early '90s. Then, he was coming from a certain alto approach influenced by Steve Coleman and cats from Chicago like Bunky Green.... On this recording, a lot of stuff is coming together for him: his lines, his story. He's got multi-dimensional roots. Some cats have deep roots, some have shallow roots, some have no roots. You can hear it in every phrase they play. The way you can make records today, there are no Bruce Lundvalls or Michael Cuscunas, it's easy to make your own CD now. It's good in one way. But in another way it stamps you if you're not ready. Maybe you only have 15 minutes in you and you have to record 70. That makes the listener want to hit the fast forward button instead of the repeat button. Not that these recordings were like that. But Rudresh is playing from very deep roots.
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Casting For Gravity

Donny McCaslin
2012 | eOne Music / Entertainment One Distribution

I heard Donny with Gary Burton when he first played in New York years ago in the '90s. He immediately impresses you, because he is very serious on his horn. He has more of a straight-eights feeling, an up-and-down approach in his rhythm that puts you in a certain direction. But he can play, man. The band on this record is strong and it's well-rehearsed and the execution is amazing. I think... they achieved their goal of trying to play perfect. It has that polished feeling to it. Donny is an incredible saxophonist, though this recording left me a little cold. It's about playing the layers, and I'm not sure if they played as a band or with a performance attitude in the studio as opposed to laying tracks. But everybody played their part incredible, like they were following a score, like it was already laid down on a computer. That is a way of recording, and that has its challenge. But it's not about interpretation as much as trying to play with perfection.
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The Sirens

Chris Potter
2013 | ECM

Chris has a lot of ideas. He plays beautiful bass clarinet and a number of horns. I've heard him through the years tackle a lot of different avenues and ways of playing with cats. He has a real special maturity all his own. He plays with a lot of trust and he really explores his dynamics within the music. He has beautiful rhythm and flowing ideas. The tunes on this recording have... a soulful expressive feeling to them. I first heard Chris playing with Red Rodney and he was playing alto. He didn't really start on tenor until he began playing with Paul Motian. He's real versatile and he has a strong presence in his tone and articulation and he can fit in a lot of settings because he's very free rhythmically on his horn. That's why you hear him with everyone from Steely Dan to Pat Metheny. He is definitely a disciple of Michael Brecker in a certain way, and he's gone in a direction that has led to those gigs. When Joshua Redman and Chris Potter and Eric Alexander played the 1991 Thelonious Monk competition, Alexander came in second. Eric was one of my students. Eric has great jazz roots in his playing, his study of Sonny Stitt and George Coleman, they taught him how to play. When I taught Eric at William Patterson College, he played a Sonny Stiff solo right off the bat. A lot is coming together for him now. He can play and he knows a lot of music. He's involved in the rich history of the music more than the others actually. Eric has a deep repertoire of his own. That's the depth of your soul and roots in the music, and Eric has a deep repertoire.
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Triumph of the Heavy, Vol. 1

Marcus Strickland
2011 | Strick Muzik / TuneCore

I've known Marcus for a while, he's got a real nice feeling. He plays relaxed and clear. He really needs to experience playing in a lot of situations. I've heard him with Roy Haynes's groups. But to put out a double CD like this, that's challenging and ambitious. I give him a lot of credit. He's playing tenor and alto and soprano and he's searching and discovering things all the time. He's... developing a sound of his own on those different horns. Beautiful. The people he's playing with on the record, they're like a family and you can really hear that comfort and flow; it's beautiful.
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Year Of The Snake

Fly Trio
2012 | ECM

Fly is a beautiful trio, they play with a wonderful clarity. And Mark plays with a brilliant execution on his horn. But he plays with more of a classical feeling in nature on the horn. He has a beautiful sound and there are soulful moments that appear, but his approach on the instrument is really a classical approach in a way. I mean his rhythm and execution, the way he plays up... and down the horn. He plays with an amazing range on his instrument. That trio has a classical approach in the way the music is written and the way they come off it in the rhythm and in the attitude they're playing. They're improvising but their dialogue is more classical in nature, the way it feels. They have soulful moments, but what is swing? That's expression, the waves, the life forms, the wind. Fly sounds lovely and beautiful and their music has a real presence, it captures you.
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Blood on the Dancefloor: 12 Essential Avant-Dance Albums

Andrew Parks — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:09:20 +0000

“I don’t think of music as cathartic or a release,” Dominick Fernow once told me in a cover story about his former band Cold Cave. “A release implies that something is leaving you. It’s not that so much as a transformation.”

Whether he’s whipping up whirlpools of noise as Prurient or delving into the darkest corners of dance music as Vatican Shadow, Fernow has always followed that path — music as a purification process, only instead of the poison being drawn out of his productions, it’s harnessed in the form of distorted tape decks, chain-linked synths and rust-encrusted samples.

He’s not alone either; while house producers have been revisiting their rave cave roots as of late, underground techno has turned 50 shades of grey. Literally and figuratively, as melodies get maimed, tempos get turned on, and rhythms embrace the very notion of electronic body music.

In the following guide, eMusic breaks down 12 essential avant-dance albums that will flood your endorphin levels (or plunge you into a pit of despair) faster than a midnight screening of Spring Breakers. Think of it as EDM’s evil twin, music that makes you move without resorting to crowd-pleasing power chords or answering the question that seems to be on everyone’s minds these days: “Where’s the drop?”

And as a bonus, we’ve also included a secondary set of recommendations and a “Panic Room” collection of deviant downtempo tracks…

Suckfish

Audion
2005 | Spectral Sound / The Orchard

Matthew Dear was way ahead of the current deviant-techno curve with the debut album from this dearly missed alias. In case you couldn't tell from oh-so-subtle song titles like "Titty Fuck," "Just Fucking" and "Your Place or Mine," Suckfish funnels Dear's darkest fantasies through hardcore techno tropes, ravenous rhythms and hypnotist hooks that are the polar opposite of "you're getting sleepy, very sleepy." If anything, you'll be wired as hell after hearing... this record.
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Liber Dogma

The Black Dog
2011 | Soma / PIAS Digital

A cursory look at the Black Dog's mixes page (especially the aptly-titled "Dark Wave" series) is all it takes to understand how one of Warp's earliest (accidental) IDM adopters has only gotten more ashen with age. Sometimes that approach reveals itself in ambient stunners like the Eno nod Music For Real Airports — arguably an improvement on the original — and sometimes it lands directly on the dancefloor, as is... the case on this masterclass in metallic, muscular techno.
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Transverse

Carter Tutti Void
2012 | Mute Artists

A student of Throbbing Gristle's "industrial music for industrial people" teaching — Factory Floor's Nik Void -- meets two of its founders — Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, also of the incredibly influential Chris & Cosey — in a one-night-only collision of bowed guitar chords, metronomic melodies, HAM radio harmonies, and rhythms that won't let go. No wonder why the capacity crowd — part of Mute's celebratory Short... Circuit festival in 2011 — couldn't help but responding with resounding cheers at the end.
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LP

Container
2012 | Spectrum Spools / Kudos Records Limited

Ren Schofield is not as well-known as his fellow noise defectors — people like Prurient, Nate Young and Pete Swanson — but in a perfect world, he would be. Maybe even more so. Both of his Spectrum Spools albums are simply called LP, which makes them sound more vanilla than they really are. If there's any dance full-length worth a floor-punch or slamdance, it's this one, from the bendable basslines of... "Paralyzed" to the loony vocal lines of "Perforate," which might as well be considered the terrifying, long-lost twin of Cajmere's house classic "Coffee Pot (It's Time for the Percolator)."
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Faint Hearted

the miles
2013 | Modern Love / Revolver

As in "Not for the...," Miles Whittaker's first solo album under his own name is a three-car pileup of the highest order. Not quite as noisy as his Suum Cuique alias or witchy as his work with Demdike Stare, but demented dance music nonetheless. Even the most serene moments (the galaxy-hopping ambient loops of "Loran Dreams," the deep listening drones of "Sense Data") sound like they're seconds away from veering... off the tracks, and everything else is increasingly erratic and engrossing, as if Whittaker is trying to break on through to the other side — or at the very least, your living room wall — with his skittish samples.
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Man With Potential

Pete Swanson
2011 | Type Vinyl / Morr Music GBR

A couple of strange things happened after Yellow Swans broke up. On one side of the aisle, Gabriel Saloman went the cobweb-y neo-classical route with his Adherealbum. Pete Swanson swung to the other extreme, expressing his basement punk roots through mangled techno opuses like Man With Potential. Not exactly the kind of thing you want to blast at 1 a.m. when you're landlord lives right across the hall, but when... you need a reality check that's fallen from the same rotten apple tree as Surgeon and the Sandwell District fam, this is a decent start.
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Complete Works 1997 - 1998

Regis
2012 | Downwards

Minimal techno doesn't get any more murderous than Karl O'Connor's flawless run as Regis. Maybe that's why he formed BMB (a.k.a. British Murder Boys, a recently reactivated project with Surgeon) a little over a decade after delivering the steely slabs of sound that hammer away at the core of this chaotic compilation. Definitely one of the godfathers of gloom — cool, calculated and calm like a bomb.
Feed Forward

Sandwell District
2011 | Sandwell District

When Sandwell District — an audio/visual collective that counted Function, Silent Servant and Regis among its ranks — "repressed" this limited double LP in digital form a few years ago, its growing cult following interpreted it as a mission statement. Turned out it was more of a death knell. For the label at least; the group continues to tour and work together, from Regis's executive production credits on Silent... Servant's first solo album to the sprawling mix Function and Regis recently cut for Fabric under the now-familiar Sandwell District name. Witness the origins of it all right here, as truly underground techno takes on the form of tractor beams and centrifugal forces.
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Crossed Paths

Shifted
2012 | Mote Evolver / N.E.W.S. NV

Let's say you're really excited about finally getting into a secretive dance spot like Berlin's epicenter of underground techno, Berghain. The night's going great, but then this Shifted guy goes on, starting with nearly seven minutes of mood-manipulating drone tones, then dropping into a black hole of clouded chords and beats that murmur and moan like a heart in desperate need of a transplant. Maybe you should head home before things get... too bleak? Why does the door appear to be locked? Looks like you'll have to wait until the storm passes.
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Force+Form

Surgeon
2010 | Tresor / N.E.W.S. NV

Four songs, 40 minutes — zero bullshit. Bow down to the one of the undisputed bibles of club music that literally makes you want to club things. (Please don't; we're just making a point here.)
Ornamented Walls

Vatican Shadow
2012 | Modern Love / Revolver

So this is why Dominick Fernow suddenly left Cold Cave last year — so he could perfect the tranced-out Muslimgauze tributes with the project that was quickly eclipsing his endless stream of Prurient releases. In many ways, Ornamented Walls is a transitional record, using Side A to hint at the next direction of Fernow's infamous live show (with frenzied rehearsal footage of "Operation Neptune Spear") and showing us what's up his... sleeve studio-wise throughout the chemtrail cuts on Side B. That the record came out on Modern Love — the same label as Miles, Demdike Stare and Andy Stott — sealed the deal even further for Fernow's emerging role in the sadomasochistic techno scene.
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Luxury Problems

Andy Stott
2012 | Modern Love / Revolver

Considering he's been doing the whole shadow boxer thing since 2006's Merciless LP, the recent attention foisted upon Andy Stott is long overdue. That, and understandable considering how far he's raised the bar with Luxury Problems, a gorgeous exploration of electronic music's Darth Vader side, complete with melancholic melodies (from Stott's old piano teacher!), an endless supply of murky fog machines, and beats that'll make you break into a cold sweat.... Think of this as the blissful breather you're gonna need after having your head bashed in by the rest of these records.
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Further Dancefloor Destruction

15 Best Late-Career Bowie Songs

J. Edward Keyes — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:13:24 +0000

The history of rock music is full of artists with catalogs so vast and sprawling it can be difficult to know where to start. David Bowie is not one of those artists. Repeat after me: Ziggy, Berlin Trilogy, half of Let’s Dance, pause, repeat. What you don’t often hear about are the many high points that arrived later in Bowie’s career. After the travesty that was 1987′s Never Let Me Down — a record Bowie has mostly disowned — and his weird dalliance with the hard-rock group Tin Machine, Bowie began an on-again/off-again relationship with his muse, one that yielded a healthy number of high points that are routinely, unjustly overlooked.

“The Heart’s Filthy Lesson”

Outside

David Bowie
2004 | Iso/Columbia

One of the infinite upsides of Bowie's oft-heralded chameleonic musical personality is that he can rightly claim to be the godfather of just about anything — glam, goth, garage, you name it. So in 1995, when Trent Reznor started talking incessantly about Bowie's influence on his own music, Bowie did what came naturally and cannily ret-conned himself into being an early pioneer of industrial music as well. The result was Outside, the... first in a planned-but-scrapped trilogy about a dystopic future in which something called "Art Crime" — the murder, mutilation and display of human corpses — has become a sensation in the underground art world. The album is creepier and more skin-crawling than it typically gets credit for (particularly the spoken interludes, for which Bowie eerily altered his own voice in order to portray both the story's host of malevolent characters and trembling, helpless victims). "The Heart's Filthy Lesson" is the album's grimy, stomach-churning aesthetic at its most fully-realized, drums pounding and wheezing like a turbine and guitars corkscrewing like a trepanning pole.
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“Little Wonder”

Earthling

David Bowie
2004 | Iso/Columbia

Outside may have found Bowie asserting his place as a genre inventor, but he was candidly a follower on 1997's Earthling. Expressing enthusiasm for the burgeoning drum and bass scene, Bowie set about crafting his own version of the movement. The results were mixed: Some of the experiments crackled with life and vitality; the others felt leaden and, 16 years after its release, sound woefully dated. "Little Wonder," though, falls firmly into... the first camp. A bright, jittery number, it felt like throwing open the shutters after the gloomy Outside. The drum machine clatters like a tin can full of pop rocks, and Bowie's vocal melody is strangely graceful — gliding beatifically through the song, a benevolent ghost in the center of a hiccupping machine.
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“Sunday”

Heathen

David Bowie
2002 | Iso/Columbia

"Nothing remains." Those were the first words on Bowie's 2001 reteaming with producer Tony Visconti. The album, Heathen, was an ethereal affair, as if someone had put lyrics to the ominous instrumental B-Side of Low. "Sunday," its opening track, handily sets the tone for the album that followed. Synths glow and expand like bands of sun in early morning, and Bowie — never sounding more like his hero Scott Walker than he... does here — surveys a desolate landscape, looking for "cars or signs of life." Though the album was mostly recorded before September 11, the album's — and particularly this song's — lyrics about a vanished humanity and deep-seated existential dread rang eerily true.
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“New Killer Star”

Reality

David Bowie
2003 | Iso/Columbia

"See the great white scar over Battery Park" goes the first line of this song. If Heathen was the accidental meditation on the events of September 11, Reality, released two years later, starts with that tragedy (quite literally) and then pushes forward, trying to make sense of an increasingly puzzling world. And while the title of this song is ominous, its contents feel triumphant; if Bowie often struggled to write memorable choruses... in his later period, "New Killer Star" compensates by having two — one gently gliding, the other charging and euphoric ("I've got a better way!"). In between are odd, impressionist lyrics that imagine Jesus on Dateline and look out at a world where gleaming buildings and verdant trees compete for real estate.
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“The Next Day”

The Next Day

David Bowie
2013 | Iso/Columbia

As it turned out, Bowie's choice to use a modified version of the artwork from his 1977 masterpiece "Heroes" as the cover for The Next Day was no coincidence. The title track, which opens the album, plays like a garish bizarre-world version of "Heroes"-opener "Beauty and the Beast," right down to its sproinging, rusty-coil guitar and seething Bowie vocal. After a 10-year absence, which was preceded by a pair of albums that... were respectable but hardly adventurous, "The Next Day" braces like an ice water bath. Its chorus snarls and chomps, Bowie grunting about bodies rotting in hollow trees before diving into the maddening monotony of "And the next day, and the next, and another day." In it, you can hear Bowie regarding his much younger self in the mirror and announcing, "You're still here — so now what?"
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“I’m Afraid of Americans”

Best Of Bowie

David Bowie
2002 | VIRGIN

At first pass, David Bowie's collaboration with Nine Inch Nails for 1995's dual-headlining Outside tour seemed like a passing fad — another of Bowie's canny alignments with a young disciple as a way to gin up his legacy. In truth, though, the pairing was a lot more earnest. As it turned out, Bowie and Trent Reznor were truly simpatico, a fact proven by Reznor's nervy remix of Bowie's 1997 Earthling track "I'm... Afraid of Americans." The song, and its brilliant accompanying video, perfectly captures late-'90s pre-millenial panic, Bowie's sly lyrics about globalization perfectly undermined by Reznor's nervous reworking of its jittery digital backdrop. When it finally heaves into the pissed-off bug-eyed humanoid chorus, the terror is almost palpable.
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“The Loneliest Guy”

Reality

David Bowie
2003 | Iso/Columbia

Anchored by a mournful, rising-and-falling piano line by Mike Garson, "The Loneliest Guy" feels like an extract from the moody Heathen rather than the mostly uptempo Reality. Bowie's voice teeters at the upper reaches of his register, sounding reflective and despondent. The title is a misdirection: Bowie declares himself the exact opposite in the song as he takes candid stock of his life reviewing, as he puts it, "pictures on my hard... drive," and concluding still, after "all the errors left unlearned," that his life has been full of good fortune.
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“Seven”

Hours

David Bowie
2004 | Iso/Columbia

After the dual attack of Outside and Earthling — both, in their own way, attempts to bolster Bowie's cultural currency — 1999's hours… felt like an exhale, a measured, mostly downtempo offering, the album was easily Bowie's most reflective, taking stock of his career and stripping away most of his legendary artifice in favor of open contemplation. All of this comes through in "Seven," a beautifully moody number based on simple acoustic... guitar strumming and Bowie's restrained delivery. Its chorus also feels like a callback to one of Bowie's most indelible numbers, Ziggy Stardust's "Five Years." In that song, Bowie proclaimed "Five years — that's all we've got." Twenty-seven years later, he sang, "I've got seven days to live my life and seven days to die."
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“Strangers When We Meet”

Outside

David Bowie
2004 | Iso/Columbia

Proof that Bowie is still capable of absolute loveliness — even in the context of an album about ritual murder — "Strangers" is as gorgeous a song as Bowie has ever penned. Its graceful melody and high-arcing chorus recalls the optimism and determination of "Heroes," and its muted instrumentation, guitars and keyboards fading in and out with no fixed end or beginning, adds to the song's dreamlike feel, and Mike Garson's cascading... piano is elegiac and deeply moving. And beneath it all, a trace of sorrow: "All your regrets ride roughshod over me," Bowie sighs. "I'm so glad that we're strangers when we meet."
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“Dirty Boys”

The Next Day

David Bowie
2013 | Iso/Columbia

The most encouraging thing about The Next Day is hearing Bowie wake with a tremor from his trance of benign respectability. "Dirty Boys" is the most wickedly sleazy he's sounded since Outside, its fat saxophone and nauseous, staggering tempo feeling like 4 a.m. at the world's creepiest old-man bar. For his part, Bowie plays the part of the weird Lothario perfectly, injecting the chorus with a bleak determinism ("When the die is... cast, you have no choice") and croaking out the rest of the lyrics in between a guitar that quacks like a poisoned duck.
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“Slip Away”

Heathen

David Bowie
2002 | Iso/Columbia

Originally recorded for Bowie's scrapped 2001 album Toy, "Slip Away" was mercifully rescued and re-recorded for the next year's Heathen. The song, which contains strangely unsettling allusions to bonkers 1970s children's program The Uncle Floyd Show, drifts along spectrally, Bowie's voice sounding melancholy and reflective, as if he's observing his own life dispassionately from some capsule out in space. The invoking of Floyd's puppets Bones and Oogie make the song sound like... a lament for lost childhood, except that Bowie was already a grown-up pop star by the time the show debuted in 1974. Instead, it feels surreal and disjointed, its minor-key melody and lines like "down in space it's always 1982" making it feel like the unacknowledged third act in the Major Tom trilogy.
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“I’m Deranged”

Lost Highway

Various Artists
2010 | Interscope

Fittingly used to score the opening credits to David Lynch's 1997 homicidal fairy tale Lost Highway¸ "I'm Deranged" is a song full of dark portent. Its opening line — "Funny how secrets travel" — is instantly unsettling (even more so when heard in the context of a film about a man who saws his wife in half and then scrubs his memory of the act), and Bowie's word choice in the chorus... — not "insane," but "deranged" — only accents the overarching mood of malice. It's the sound of a man who's losing his grip but is helpless to stop it, and can only observe in panic.
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“You Feel So Lonely You Could Die”

The Next Day

David Bowie
2013 | Iso/Columbia

In 1972 Bowie wrote "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide," a song that turned '50s doo-wop inside out and put it in service of lyrics about teenage alienation. Forty-one years later, "You Feel So Lonely You Could Die" accomplishes the same thing with what feels like the saccharine balladry from the same decade. Bearing a passing similarity to the Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" — now unendurable thanks to countless covers — Bowie belts out a... dewy-eyed Exquisite Corpse crooner where each line feeds seamlessly into the next but adds up to a particularly puzzling whole. It's a song that projects "emotion" more than emotion — proof that this deep into his career, Bowie is still the master of meta.
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“Hallo Spaceboy”

Outside

David Bowie
2004 | Iso/Columbia

When David Bowie decided to throw himself a 50th-birthday party at New York's Madison Square Garden, he invited a host of friends — among them Sonic Youth, Frank Black, Billy Corgan and the Cure's Robert Smith — to join him in performances from songs across his catalog. For "Hallo Spaceboy" he recruited Foo Fighters, and the casting makes perfect sense. The song is a piledriver, a nonstop avalanche of pulverizing percussion... and a vicious Bowie vocal that glancingly references his past ("Do you like girls or boys?") before diving full-bore into empty-eyed nihilism ("So bye bye, love"). It's the nastiest Bowie has ever sounded, the sound of someone cackling as they shove you down a well.
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“Slow Burn”

Heathen

David Bowie
2002 | Iso/Columbia

Opening like an odd inversion of "Heroes," "Slow Burn," replaces that song's determination and optimism with the long shadow of doubt. Bowie walks us through a house haunted not by ghosts but by memories, singing in a cracking, panicked voice as Pete Townshend's guitar claws and howls around him. The lyrics are deliberately opaque (and have generated incredible internet speculation), but as with many of Bowie's best songs, "Slow Burn" is... more about mood than meaning. The song feels fraught with uncertainty, somber and foreboding.
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Top 10 Non-Smiths Johnny Marr Moments

Annie Zaleski — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 13:47:25 +0000

Johnny Marr is best known as the guitarist of ’80s icons the Smiths, but in the quarter-century-plus since he left the group, the 49-year-old Manchester, England, native has carved out a diverse career as a trusted sidearm. Besides joining several other bands as a touring and/or recording member (The The, Modest Mouse and, most recently, the Cribs), he’s worked with an impressive roster of British and American musicians—including Talking Heads, the Pretenders, Beth Orton, the Cult, and even Girls Aloud. To celebrate the release of his first solo album, The Messenger — and honor his colorful catalog — here are 10 of his best collaborations.

The Pretenders, “Windows Of The World”

Pirate Radio [Digital Version]

The Pretenders
2006 | EP/SINGLE

This collaboration was likely quite an honor for Marr, as he's cited late Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott as a formative influence. A Nick Lowe-produced cover of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David chestnut, "Windows Of The World" boasts very Smiths-like chiming strums from Marr. Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde matches the feathery 12-string guitar and weepy orchestral touches with a stunning, glamorous vocal performance. A one-off single, "Windows Of The World" also appeared on... the soundtrack to the Winona Ryder/Kiefer Sutherland flick 1969.
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Talking Heads, “(Nothing But) Flowers”

Naked [w/Bonus Track]

Talking Heads
2006 | Rhino/Warner Bros.

Marr actually played on four songs on Talking Heads' final studio album, Naked, although his contributions are most prominent on "(Nothing But) Flowers." More breezy jangle reminiscent of you-know-who (which Marr himself admitted to Guitarist in 2009: "I pulled out the biggest sound I could — which was my Sunburst 335 12-string — and came up with this really big, kinda Smithsy part"), his riffing blends in nicely with the track's... pleasant rhythms and tropical feel.
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Billy Bragg, “Sexuality”

Beck, “Milk + Honey”

Midnite Vultures

Beck
2004 | Geffen

You have be patient to hear Marr on this screwball highlight of Beck's Midnite Vultures, but the wait is worth it. After the tune's sped through cosmic electrofunk, classic rock swoons and robotic R&B ecstasy, it winds down into a spacey coda featuring Marr on electric guitar. "Beck reminded me of David Byrne in the best possible way," Marr once told Magnet. "He can get on pretty much anyone's sense of... humor and sense of the absurd…I think he's the real thing because he's not afraid to go down some necessary sideroads rather than just take the main highway."
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Oasis, “(Probably) All In The Mind”

Heathen Chemistry

Oasis
2008 | Reprise

Britpop hooligans Oasis wouldn't have a career if it weren't for the Smiths, so it makes sense Marr would one day turn up on an album to show the band how it's done. On this rustic, psych-tinged sprawl from 2002's Heathen Chemistry, Marr contributes a solo that sticks to the tune's bleary-eyed spirit. Smudged with bar-band charm, faint twang and just the vaguest hint of psychedelia, his appearance is brief but memorable.

Electronic, “Tighten Up”

Electronic

Electronic
1991 | Warner Bros.

In the late '80s, Marr teamed up with New Order's Bernard Sumner and formed Electronic, a group whose guitar/keyboard hybrids teased out the nuances of each man's talents. Case in point: The needling, catchy "Tighten Up." The song's lightning-strike synths and blooming keyboards meld with Sumner's conspiratorial vocals and Marr's insistent acoustic strumming, which adds the perfect amount of bite and urgency.

The The, “Slow Emotion Replay”

Dusk

The The
2002 | Epic

Besides being an ace guitar player, Marr plays a pretty mean harmonica. As a member of The The from 1988-94, he had the chance to display both of these skills in spades — especially on "Slow Emotion Replay." As if the tune's bereft protagonist wasn't morose enough (lyrics: "I'm just a slow emotion replay of somebody I used to be"), Marr underscores the melancholy by adding watery riffs and weary harmonica.

7 Worlds Collide, “Learn To Crawl”

The Sun Came Out

7 Worlds Collide
2009 | SIN/UK

One of the Marr's underrated endeavors is the 7 Worlds Collide project, a loose collective formed by Crowded House's Neil Finn to raise money for charity. The Sun Came Out, the group's second album, features hefty contributions from Radiohead and Wilco. However, the understated "Learn To Crawl," a Marr co-write, boasts anguished vocals from Neil and son Liam, Radiohead-like ghostly rhythms and uneasy guitar arpeggios. Impossibly lovely, even though it aches with... longing.
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Modest Mouse, “Dashboard”

We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

Modest Mouse
2007 | Epic

Initially, Marr was unclear whether jamming with Modest Mouse would amount to anything. That changed — fast. "On the first night, I came up with the riff and music to 'Dashboard,' then straight away we did another song called 'We've Got Everything,' and then at the end of the 10 days I changed my plane ticket," he told The Quietus. "Dashboard" indeed is one of Modest Mouse's boldest statements, a horn-... and string-peppered whirling dervish with stomping beats and square-dance riffs.
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Johnny Marr, “Lockdown”

The Messenger

Johnny Marr
2013 | Sire Records

The Messenger delivers exactly what you would expect from a Marr solo album: aggressive guitars — touching on glam, blues, psych-rock and jangle-pop — mixed in with moments of acoustic delicacy. Still, the album's not predictable — or pedestrian. For proof, start with "Lockdown," a soaring '90s Britpop throwback with yearning vocals and expansive hooks; in fact, the song feels very much like Marr tipping a cap to his pals in Oasis.

25 Must-See Bands at SXSW 2013

eMusic Editorial Staff — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 18:25:16 +0000

Do we even need the preamble? You know what next week is and, like any right-thinking person, you’ve probably put off working out a schedule until the very last second. So as you start to hammer out your crazymaking week — probably on the plane, probably an hour or so before touching down — here are our picks for the 25 must-sees in Austin next week.

Free SXSW Sampler

Pissed Jeans

Honeys

Pissed Jeans
2013 | Sub Pop Records

Snarling and spitting, growling and kicking, Honeys won't surprise those who love the Allentown, Pennsylvania-based Jesus (Lizard) freaks Pissed Jeans, nor is it likely to attract those that deplore the band. "Write what you know," as they say, and Pissed Jeans knows pummeling, antisocial punk. When lead yeller Matt Korvette isn't "in the hallway screaming" (that's from riotous opener "Bathroom Laughter"), he can often be found smirking. You'd think four dudes who... all recently became fathers would be tamer than this. — Austin L. Ray
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Marnie Stern

Marnie Stern

Marnie Stern
2010 | Kill Rock Stars / Redeye

In years past, Marnie Stern's shorthand description usually involved the words "guitar" and "shredding," but the New Yorker has grown equally adept over her career at revealing just how big her heart is. Stern's frenetic fingertapping and the bonkers drumming of Kid Millions illustrate the way that the best response to bone-crushing sadness is, sometimes, a pealing laugh. Confidence and the lack thereof are also common lyrical themes, although the bravado with... which Stern wields both her guitar and her anguished voice masks those facts on first listen. — Maura Johnston
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Waxahatchee

Cerulean Salt

Waxahatchee
2013 | Don Giovanni Records / Believe Digital

As Waxahatchee, Katie Crutchfield uses her brief tracks to paint a very specific but familiar portrait of 20-something American youth, first on the deeply personal, lo-fi acoustic guitar-filled American Weekend, and now on the plugged-in Cerulean Salt, in which her subtle gut-punches translate just as powerfully once the volume's been dialed up. — Carrie Battan

Charles Bradley

No Time for Dreaming

Charles Bradley
2011 | Daptone Records / The Orchard

It's time to put to bed, once and for all, Charles Bradley's oft-repeated origin story as a James Brown impersonator. The Screaming Eagle of Soul, The Original Black Swan and, most recently, The Victim of Love, Bradley is at this point a performer fully his own, possessing boundless charisma, gallons of passion and the kind of unstudied, unadulterated joy that SXSW — a week fully fucking lousy with marketing and branding and... consumer-facing outreach opportunities — desperately needs. To stand in the presence of Charles Bradley is to be basked in 100 percent pure love — so completely unsullied and unpolluted you feel yourself choking up before the first song ever hits the chorus. To put it another way: if James Brown were alive today, he'd be impersonating Charles. — J. Edward Keyes
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METZ

METZ

METZ
2012 | Sub Pop Records

On their debut album, Canadian trio METZ has delivered a sound that's reasonably scarce in 2012: post-hardcore, pre-grunge, noise-addled punk rock. You can hear the influence of the Jesus Lizard in particular everywhere: in Alex Edkins's strained screams; in Hayden Menzies's crashing drum assault; in their relentless wave of screeching guitars, in the frenzied pace of "Wet Blanket," in the sludgy industrial instrumental "Nausea," and in their grim, dour lyrics. But the... sheer volume and force of the music don't take away from their musicianship. — Evan Minsker
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Torres

TORRES

TORRES
2013 | TORRES / TuneCore

Torres's songs feel as if they were bound to come crawling out of singer-songwriter Mackenzie Scott's body no matter what she did or where she was. Dominated by the wavery tones of her Gibson 355 electric, the songs explore the fragile architecture of human relationships, often finding Scott standing amid a steaming pile of rubble, wondering not about what caused the house to fall but what to do, now, with all the... shattered pieces left behind. — Rachael Maddux
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Parquet Courts

Light Up Gold

Parquet Courts
2013 | What's Your Rupture?

On Light Up Gold, the irresistible debut from Brooklyn band Parquet Courts, the principal songwriters Andrew Savage and Austin Brown cast a jaundiced eye on our troubled times with a series of infinitely quotable bon mots: On regional cuisine? "As for Texas: Donuts Only. You cannot find bagels here." On the value of wisdom? "Socrates died in the fucking gutter." These nuggets are dropped between jagged guitar lines that sound like they... were lifted from Wire's 154 — bent-coathanger leads that teeter on the steep incline between punk and post-punk. — J. Edward Keyes
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Matthew E. White

Roc Marciano

Reloaded (Deluxe Edition)

Roc Marciano
Decon

Roc Marciano's music exists to remind you what NYC rap sounds like in the idealized bubble of your memory, and he's frighteningly good at it. He's so good, in fact, that after awhile you forget that his music is a kind of Civil War reenactment, one in which Swizz Beatz plays General Sherman and the Battle of Five Forks is the moment he started fooling with a Casio. Marciano's rap world exists... before all of that, a vanished kingdom of urban despair, gnarled street slang, and unglamorous night shifts conducted out in front of public housing. — Jayson Greene
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Mac DeMarco

Solange

True

Solange
2012 | Terrible Records / The Orchard

Sure, Solange is the sister of R&B/pop princess Beyoncé — a fact that will probably never be omitted from her CV. But while her musical means (a soaring soprano; wisely chosen collaborators) are similar to the elder Knowles, the ends are significantly different. For her 2012 EP True, she enlisted production help from Blood Orange's Dev Hynes and ended up with a candy-coated, left-of-center R&B playground. — Laura Studarus

The Coup

Sorry To Bother You

The Coup
2012 | Anti/Epitaph

Boots Riley has had a few other things to do than rap for Oakland collective the Coup as of late — appearing at the forefront of the Occupy movement, for one. But for their seventh album in 20 years, Riley's loose sense of humor remains intact in much the way as his taste for lyrics that spell out rebellion. — Michaelangelo Matos

Samantha Crain

Kid Face

Samantha Crain
2013 | Ramseur Records / The Orchard

Oklahoma singer-songwriter Samantha Crain has always sounded like an old soul, her dusty alto worn down by restless thoughts and free-floating anxiety. On her latest LP Kid Face, she comes into her own as a lyricist, using the songs to examine her place in the world. — Annie Zaleski

Autre Ne Veut

Anxiety

Autre Ne Veut
2013 | Software

Arthur Ashin typically spends the duration of his performances as Autre Ne Veut curled up on the ground like a potato bug. So if you go to see him at SXSW, you should kind of prepare for the fact that you might not actually see him. That's OK, though: His music is more about feeling than seeing. If Terence Trent D'Arby returned from self-imposed exile and pulled off the perfect comeback record,... it might sound a lot like Ashin's recently-released Anxiety: supple, R&B-informed vocal lines glide over stormy-sea synthesizers, the tensions perfectly mirroring the existential unease in his lyrics. Case in point? His most beautiful song, the slinky "Counting," is about his terror that his grandmother was going to die. How can you expect a man to have the strength to stand upright while singing about things like that? — J. Edward Keyes
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Maria Minerva

Will Happiness Find Me?

Maria Minerva
2012 | Not Not Fun / Revolver

Maria Minerva, a somewhat mysterious artist from Estonia, has a playfulness that's alternately cerebral and coy, and a lightness of touch at the controls. She sings too, with a voice that stretches out and rises up from deep pools of echo. On her latest effort, Will Happiness Finds Me?, she plays with different sounds and different tempos, with a mind toward both vintage club music and futuristic pop at once. — Andy... Battaglia
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My Gold Mask

Leave Me Midnight

My Gold Mask
2013 | Goldy Tapes / CD Baby

Chicago duo My Gold Mask amplify the effects of a breakup album on their debut, Leave Me At Mightnight. They don't skimp on dramatics, with Gretta Rochelle's pleading vocals, Jack Armondo's spiraling guitar riffs, and lyrics that grapple with psychosis and reference Gothic literature and Italo horror flicks. The result achieves a spellbinding emotional intensity that's easy to inhabit. — Marissa G. Muller

Skeletonwitch

Forever Abomination

Skeletonwitch
Prosthetic / The Orchard

Hands-down the most fun you will ever have a metal show, period, Skeletonwitch combine blasphemous guitar firepower with a self-aware sense of humor without ever tipping once into icky archness or loathsome, smirking heavy meta. It helps that they're an astonishingly tight band, whipping from one burst of split-second riffery to the next with all the frenzy and fury of a speed-of-sound rollercoaster car desperately hugging the curves. Who knew unabashed Satanism... could be so uplifting? — J. Edward Keyes
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Icona Pop

Iconic EP

Icona Pop
2012 | Big Beat Records/Atlantic

Here is Swedish duo Icona Pop summed up in six words: "I don't care! I love it!" That refrain — cribbed from last year's giddiest breakup song — perfectly captures Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo's exuberance and reckless abandon. Their songs are straight-up sugar shots, firework synths and hollered vocals and drum machines that wallop and squelch like medicine balls full of purple Kool-Aid. It's the sound of pure joy — a... nonstop barrage of leaping neon exclamation points. — J. Edward Keyes
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Pearl and the Beard

Killing the Darlings

Pearl And The Beard
2011 | Family Records / The Orchard

Pearl and the Beard are a trio of loud and goofy Brooklyn songwriters, their songs a mix of acoustic folk and jazzy cabaret via a soft-voiced guitarist (Jeremy Styles) and a cellist and percussionist (Emily Hope Price and Jocelyn Mackenzie) who seamlessly switch between brassy wails and Disney-princess croons. — Laura Leebove

Chelle Rose

Ghost of Browder Holler

Chelle Rose
2012 | Lil' Damsel Records / TuneCore

Even Satan knows better than to fuck with Chelle Rose. That's the truism she lays out in the center of the slow-moseying, creepy-as-hell "Leona Barrett," seething, "I don't know who I trouble more: The mean ol' devil or the good ol' Lord." Need further proof? It's all over the brooding, beautiful Ghost of Browder Holler, a record that takes the same sinister spirit found in bands like Nick Cave & the Bad... Seeds and transplants it to ragged booze-bucket country music. Rose's voice is a wonder, a smartass sneer that jabs like a hundred middle fingers. Her pronunciation drips with delicious contempt: she shrugs off a louse of a lover by drawling, "My skin ain't sowft enuff, my kisses would not douww." She dispenses with him like she's flecking a fly from the lip of her MGD. — J. Edward Keyes
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Night Beats

Night Beats

Night Beats
2011 | Trouble In Mind Records / TuneCore

Here's the ideal environment for enjoying the music of gloomy garage ghouls Night Beats: It's 4 a.m. and you've ended up, after a long night of boozing and carousing, at some sparsely-attended party in a barely-furnished loft apartment in some remote part of the city, and a band is bashing out sneering numbers that sound like Nuggets with an upset stomach while a movie projector beams lava-lamp-like images on to their swaying... bodies. Also, it's 1967 and you're in an instructional film about the hazards of LSD. Failing that, a stage in the sunlight in Austin, Texas, is the next best thing. — J. Edward Keyes
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Dana Falconberry

Leelanau

Dana Falconberry
2012 | Antenna Farm Records / The Orchard

Dana Falconberry writes delicate orchestral-folk songs; her airy mezzo accompanied by plucked strings, fingerpicked guitar and gentle rim clicks. Though she's now based in Austin, her debut LP is an ode to her childhood spent in northern Michigan's lush Leelanau peninsula. — Laura Leebove

Royal Thunder

CVI

Royal Thunder
2012 | Relapse Records

One of last year's best new bands by a long sight, Royal Thunder's greatest asset is the unsettling, purple-blue bellow of frontwoman Mini Parsonz. Over a bevy of murky, churning chordage, she serenades the undead, sings of ancient family curses and groans out the very kind of infernal incantations those old Christian anti-rock 'n' roll videos used to warn against. That the songs are so tuneful is a sly infernal trick: the... best way to get people to sing the praises of the devil is to make that praise hooky as hell. — J. Edward Keyes
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Holydrug Couple

Noctuary

The Holydrug Couple
2013 | Sacred Bones Records / S.C. Distribution

In case the name didn't clue you in: This is heavy-lidded, slow-moving, psyched-out, pinwheel-eyed bliss. The Chilean duo Holydrug Couple imagines what might happen if you put a brick on the turntable while you were playing old Byrds records. A loose netting of guitars drifts down slowly, drums thud and shudder and vocal lines — keening and melodic — expand like echoes in the Grand Canyon. In the midst of the hyperactive... Austin chaos, Holydrug Couple provide a grinning, dreamy respite. — J. Edward Keyes
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Jacco Gardner

Cabinet of Curiosities

Jacco Gardner
2013 | Trouble In Mind Records / TuneCore

Indie rock's own Little Prince, Jacco Gardner's music is magic and precious, sumptuous orchestral pop that summons the spirits of The Zombies and The Left Banke while sounding openly derivative of neither. In fact, it's Gardner's own assured gift for melody that makes Cabinet of Curiosities such a wonder — even more than the swirling, meringue-like strings. His vocal lines dart off at odd acute angles, poking rude holes in the tissue-paper... orchestration. Witness opener "Clear the Air": xylophones and mellotrons and violins pirouette like tiny ceramic music box ballerinas; but then Gardner's weirdo trapezoidal voice spirals in, making what was once simply soothing seem suddenly ominous and mysterious. It's like the unadulterated versions of Aesop's Fables, where childlike fantasy often gives way to moments of genuine, thrilling danger. — J. Edward Keyes
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10 Things You Didn’t Know About Robyn Hitchcock

Victoria Segal — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:17:28 +0000

Robyn Hitchcock first emerged as the singer with The Soft Boys, Cambridge misfits whose against-nature fusion of punk, prog and psychedelia peaked with 1980 masterpiece Underwater Moonlight, an album that would later burrow into the brains of US heroes The Replacements and REM. As a solo artist (or with backing bands The Egyptians and The Venus 3), he continued to explore the clammy absurdities and cosmic mysteries of human existence with a slew of beguiling albums, alt-rock heaven Fegmania! (1985), emotional exorcism Eye (1989) and the richly spun Ole! Tarantula (2006) among the very best. On the eve of the release of his 19th solo album, the luminous Love From London, he turned 60 and celebrated with a birthday retrospective show. As he sings on “End Of Time,” Love From London‘s closing track, “it’s been wonderful.”

You may think you know all there is to know about Robyn Hitchcock, but Victoria Segal uncovered 10 little-known facts about the iconic singer-songwriter.

He is available for weddings.

“I’m a minister of the Universal Life Church of Arizona: I can marry people in the States, although I’m not sure I can do it in Britain. I married Colin Meloy of The Decemberists and his wife [artist] Carson Ellis five years ago. I haven’t done a marriage recently, though.”

He likes a birthday party.

“There’s nothing more significant in your life than your birth. I’ve signed on for the long haul, like John Lee Hooker or Bob Dylan or Martin Carthy. You no longer have to knock off when you hit 30. As far as I’m concerned, the songs aren’t necessarily better now, any more than they were at 40 or 50, they’re just expressing different things and reacting to different things as your metabolism changes. But I’m really happy to put flags in the map of my life and anyone who is interested can come along and celebrate with me.”
　
He was born with trousers on.

This is a line from my song ‘Birds In Perspex’ (1991). It’s a very British angle. You are born already embarrassed, concealed, shamed by emotions and your physical existence. I came from a very squeamish kind of middle-class background — we were all born with trousers on. But I don’t necessarily think the Brits have a monopoly on it — I think it can be universal.”

He played at Yoko Ono’s 80th birthday show.

“It was a complete accident. I was in Berlin, visiting my daughter. I knew Michael Stipe was also there, and we were going to meet up. We attempted to get tickets to Yoko Ono’s show, but it didn’t happen so we went to get coffee and then Michael rang up and said, ‘You’ve got tickets.’ So we bolted down some prawns, hopped on the U-Bahn, then Michael texted and said, ‘You’ve got front-row seats.’ We squeezed past everyone and sat down. And then Yoko and Sean appeared. I’d never seen either of them before. Legend central, really. They did an amazing show. Sean’s a great bandleader, I’ve never seen a mother-son thing like it — I tried to imagine my mother and me doing a similar thing and I couldn’t at all.

Then Michael tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘We’re on in the encores.’ I didn’t even have a shirt on — I was wearing a V-necked sweater, and was basically dressed for coffee on a chilly Berlin night. Thank God I was wearing trousers! So these encores came and we were duly hauled up to sing ‘Give Peace A Chance.’ Then they gave us some birthday cake.”
　
He’s not prone to Soft Boys nostalgia.

“The Soft Boys didn’t have any fun. I hadn’t really learned how to write songs — I’d bring in all these lines and the other guys would play them back like a very mild version of Captain Beefheart. Then we’d try to play in bars but often I’d have drunk too much to be able to play — I hadn’t worked out the alcohol-to-performance ratio at that point. What we left behind was better than how it was at the time. I like to meet up with Morris [Windsor, drums] and Kimberley [Rew, guitar] and talk about who’s alive and who’s dead , but it’s not something I pine for at all.”

The Soft Boys played at The Mudd Club and Danceteria, bringing neurotic British rock to the epicentre of NYC grooviness.

“We were very excited to be in America. Lenny Kaye always says how he saw us at the Mudd Club. It had a garage door — you’d stand on stage and this garage door would just roll up and reveal you. I don’t know if anyone ever went on stage naked to play with that. It wouldn’t have happened with us — we all had our trousers on.”

Arthur Lee wanted to kill him.

“I’d written this song, ‘The Wreck Of The Arthur Lee’ [on 1993's Respect]. Arthur hadn’t taken this very well and had issued various threats to kill me in interviews after which he was put away for waving a gun in a supermarket. I was then invited to be a guest on stage when they did Forever Changes [at London's Royal Festival Hall, 2003]. It was very odd. Arthur invited me up on stage a song early so I had to play something I’d never played before, introduced me as ‘Alfred Hitchcock’ and mimed shooting me with a gun. After that, he was very friendly.”

He suspects cats may one day rule the Earth.

“The dinosaurs ruled for something like 100 million years and we’ve been here 30,000 years. I don’t know if we’re going to outdo the run of the dinosaurs. Will a feline dynasty in 5 million years be looking back at us, the super-cyber cats who survived the next apocalypse? Have you seen those Bengal cats with silver skins? I can imagine them walking around museums that have our iPhones in, looking in wonder.”
　　
He doesn’t like “schlepping electric guitars around.”

“I prefer playing acoustic. Electricity is a barrier. Jonathan Richman said the fewer plugs and wires between you and the audience the closer you can be. I’m not really drawn to widescreen gestures — I don’t make widescreen records either which may be the limit of my appeal. I’m not like a hoarding or a poster, I’m more like something in an antique shop next to the stuffed owl.”

He isn’t giving in to despair.

“My elegiac records were when I was much younger. Things like I Often Dream Of Trains, I wrote that sort of stuff in my 30s. Love From London is celebration — we may be having a party on the Titanic but it’s still a party. Time is finite for all of us, whether one of us goes or everybody goes, each of us only dies once. Look on the label, it never said we were going to last too long.”

March Music Days: The Crucial 100

J. Edward Keyes — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 12:45:00 +0000

Enter for a chance to win $500 in eMusic Credit!

I’m going to be candid about the inspiration for this list: In 1995, Alternative Press published a list of the 99 best records to be released since they began publication 10 years prior. As an amateur student of rock music, by that point I’d consumed dozens of lists like this, all of them in established, respectable music publications, and all of them bearing an eerie similarity to one another. So you can imagine my surprise when I scanned the Alternative Press list and came across not familiar glorified workhorses, but names like The Dwarves and PJ Harvey and the Fastbacks.

That list was revolutionary for me. It was the first list that dared to say the canon was wrong. It was the first list that redefined which records mattered and why, and the first list to present popular music through a decidedly defiant perspective. Most importantly, it was the first list to suggest that maybe you don’t really need to own all those James Taylor records. It is in the spirit of that list that we present eMusic’s Crucial 100: 100 albums that we think it’s important you own. These are the albums that rearranged our brains, and influenced the music that we care about. And for you lucky winners of our $500 credit contest: This is where we think you should start spending.

Songs of Unrest & Revolution

There's A Riot Goin' On

Sly And The Family Stone
2007 | Epic/Legacy

No one — not Bob Dylan sneering at Mr. Jones, not Roxanne Shanté tearing other female rappers to ribbons, not U-Roy sending up "gal-boy I Roy"— has put so vicious a mockery on record as Sly Stone did with There's a Riot Goin' On. Only he wasn't attacking a straw man or the competition: as his band disintegrated around him (Sly did much of the instrumental work himself, with few full-band performances... and a handful of guitar parts handled by Bobby Womack), Stone was side-eyeing his impossibly hopeful earlier records. Riot turns everything he'd ever done inside out — and, as the ultimate proof of his genius, made it even stronger. Here, the affirmations of old turn queasy, and set up withering denouements: The brave and strong survive . . . But you're crying anyway 'cause you're all broke down. When I'm lost, I know I will be found . . . Look at you fooling you. That extended to the music, too, most clearly on "Thank You For Talkin' to Me, Africa," in which the audaciously celebratory 1970 single "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" is sent back on the road covered in soot and at a third of its previous gear, but it's equally easy to hear the stuttering horns of "Brave & Strong" and the jagged guitar vamp of "Africa Talks to You 'The Asphalt Jungle'" as Bizarro World versions of "Dance to the Music" and its kin. It's the longest, darkest night of the soul ever put on record; it's also the deepest, most compulsively listenable album Sly — or anybody else — ever made.
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Things Fall Apart

The Roots
2004 | Geffen

In February 2000, the Roots won their first and only Grammy for "You Got Me," the lead single from fourth studio effort Things Fall Apart. In its chorus, Erykah Badu sings as if she's already lost hope in her tour-diary romance; remorse breaks her words into two. But Things' Grammy-winning single barely indicates just how much the Roots had learned to illustrate the hip-hop stories they'd grown so adept in telling —... tales of a pained, conscious existence rather than a drugged-up one, orchestrated by mellowed-out arrangements far more nuanced than even Badu's masterful aching. In "Table of Contents (Parts 1 & 2)," ?uestlove's cymbals whirr as if being sucked into a vacuum cleaner as Black Thought ricochets across his retelling of the band's origins in South Philadelphia. A playful tit-for-tat with Mos Def ("Double Trouble") simmers and pops around gently pulsing chimes. Scott Storch's fingers listlessly drag their way through a keyboard melody over which a fraught Black Thought cries: "Building his fifth foundation in the wilderness/ thoughtless, trespassing into the Thought's fortress." "You Got Me" helped the Roots sell more than 900,000 copies of Things Fall Apart — more commercial attention than the Philadelphia band's ever received before. But as soon as the Grammy-winning single thrust the Roots into mainstream airwaves, the band decided to stray as far from Top 40 territory as possible. The result? The genre-bending Phrenology.
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Radio Ethiopia

Patti Smith Group
1996 | Arista
New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)

Erykah Badu
2008 | Motown

The C.D. Version Of The First Two Records

Bikini Kill
1994 | Bikini Kill Records

"We're Bikini Kill, and we want revolution girl style noooooow!" On this album's first song, nestled between shards of feedback, lead singer Kathleen Hanna howled the battle cry that lit riot grrrl afire. But it wasn't a double dare, it was a promise: for an instigative seven years, Bikini Kill dealt fierce blows to punk rock's misogynist "White Boy" (as one song is titled) through abrasive guitar blasts and lyrics that combined... feminist polemic with the distinct intellectual valley-girl patois of their progressive hometown — teeny-tiny Olympia, WA. Encouraged by the DIY dictum that playing music sloppily was better than not playing music at all, Bikini Kill tore through their riffs with punk-rock vehemence and vision — but it was Hanna's exceptionally raw singing style that really got the band motoring. Sounding like the final hour of an exorcism, she growls, grunts, sasses, snarls, whines and screams this mother out; witness the snotty, possessed energy of "Suck My Left One" (a song congruous with X-Ray Spex's "Oh Bondage Up Yours"); the bloody shrieks and feedback tilt-a-whirl of "Thurston Hearts the Who"; and the self-determined anthem "Feels Blind," where Hanna spits, "I eat your hate like love!" Though their best album, Pussywhipped, arrived two years later, these tapes (half-produced by Fugazi's Ian MacKaye) seethe with untamed, eruptive energy and the thrilling first spark of ideation.
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Money Jungle

Duke Ellington
2002 | BLUE NOTE
We Can't Be Stopped

Geto Boys
Rap-A-Lot Fontana

Legalize It

Peter Tosh
1999 | Columbia/Legacy

The token communal house/dorm room/juice bar/island resort's reggae album (second only Bob Marley and the Wailers' Catch A Fire), Peter Tosh's solo debut Legalize It remains a stone classic, even if most of its fans rarely explore beyond the dense foliage of the front cover and title track to the treasures within. As a teen in the early '60s, Tosh befriended Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer and the trio became... a vocal group before eventually evolving into the Wailers. After two smash successes (Catch A Fire and Burnin') as well as a car accident that fractured Tosh's skull, Island refused to release a Tosh solo album and he left the fold to pursue his own rebel path to stardom.

While "Legalize It" has remained a rallying cry for decades (most recently in California), it's actually his least politically-charged album, though it is his most emotionally-fraught. Aside from the lilt of "Ketchy Shuby," Tosh grapples with darker moods. The heave of "No Sympathy" has Tosh match his aching guitar line: "Only me feel the pain/ not one good word of advice/ from any of my so-called friends" and "Why Must I Cry" — despite its bright synth line and island meter — finds him isolated by his heartache. On the roiling piano of "Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praised)," Tosh conjures up biblical disasters to scatter non-believers and his enemies "as the smoke was driven away." And he doesn't mean that kind of smoke.
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Fear Of A Black Planet

Public Enemy
1994 | Def Jam/RAL
London Calling

The Clash
2000 | Epic

Repeater (Plus 3 Songs)

Fugazi
Dischord Records

If 13 Songs was a soup of dubbed-out Stooges songs, Repeater boiled it all down to screeches and thuds, welding shards of feedback, bass thrum and tom rolls — a sound as stark as the album's blue-and-white cover, and as dynamic as the interior photos. Lyrical impressionism mixes with guilt and rage. At one end: "What a difference/ a little difference would make." At the other: "We are all bigots/so filled... with hatred /we release our poisons." The title track bellows at D.C.'s crack crisis; "Merchandise" reminds you of what they don't sell on tour. "Provisional" from Margin Walker gets a two-guitar reboot as "Reprovisional," hinting at power that was once only implied. "Shut the Door," a compassionate, furious look at a heroin overdose, is almost haiku-like in its simplicity and all the more powerful for it.

The CD pressing of Repeater was appended to include the 3 Songs 7-inch. "Joe #1" is a thudding instrumental, "Break-In" an older song about assault, but "Song #1" is a almost a post-hardcore manifesto: "Fighting for a haircut?/ Then grow your hair/ Crying for the music?/ I doubt you really care/ Looking for an answer?/ You can find it anywhere/ It's nothing."

Dig the new breed.
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Pink Flag

Wire
2009 | CAROLINE WORLD SERVICE
Lyte As A Rock

MC Lyte
2010 | Rhino/Elektra

Dark Nights of the Soul

Exile in Guyville

Liz Phair
ATO Records

In 1991 — at least five years before the first blog was identified as such — Oberlin art history grad Liz Phair quietly sent around a series of home-recorded cassettes she'd made under the moniker Girly Sound. The recordings were crudely rendered, rudely conceived (covering such post-feminist subjects as "Black Market White Baby Dealers" and "Willie the Six-Dicked Pimp") and immediately caught the ear of alt-nation's underground cognoscenti, who recognized an art-damaged... rebel without a cause when they heard one. Those recordings quickly went down in rock history as one of the finest albums of its era, maybe even of all time: she released 1993's Exile in Guyville, which for all intents and purposes reads today as an eighteen-track, album-length blog, replete with all the technologically-enabled oversharing and snarktastic, hit-and-run gender politics this description implies.

Phair was living at home with her parents in Winnetka, Illinois (suburbia being the best locale from which to wage war on an unsuspecting, male-dominated rock hierarchy) when she began re-recording some of her early Girly Sound demos with producer Brad Wood. What took shape was originally touted as a song-by-song response to Pussy Galore's noisy assassination of the Rolling Stones classic Exile on Main Street — a claim that no longer seems plausible (is "Girls! Girls! Girls!" really Phair's answer to "Turd on the Run?"); the record helped paint her as something of a pop-culture pirate princess from the get-go. The album quickly established its no-holds-barred M.O. with "Glory," an ode to cunnilingus ostensibly meant to "empower" but equally intended to shock, to determine which people were paying attention (and most certainly, the little girls understood, championing Phair as their tough-talking older sister almost immediately). This was followed in rapid succession by rough-and-ready autobiography that portrayed Phair as little but "a cunt in spring, you can rent me by the hour" ("Dance of the Seven Veils"), a scheming pleasure addict who "jumps when you circle the cherry" ("Canary"), a commitment-phobic tramp who secretly wishes for a boyfriend who "makes love 'cuz he's in it... and all that stupid old shit" ("Fuck and Run"), employs devastatingly personal self-critique ("How sleazy it is, messing with these guys") on "Shatter" and showcases her signature Girly Sound tune "Flower," a multi-Liz madrigal promising some anonymous indie rock dude she'll be his "blowjob queen" and "fuck you and your minions too" (unfortunately changing the "and your girlfriend too" lyric from her original tapes). All of this devastation was delivered in a voice so deadpan and emotion-free it was described by Rob Sheffield as "Peppermint Patty on a bad caffeine jag" and came across like the alt-nation's musical answer to another Liz, Prozac Nation author Elizabeth Wurtzel, whose self-skewering pseudo-confessional narratives also oddly prefigured the stylistic norms of the blogosphere by a number of years.

How an album so prescient and influential — one can argue that Alanis Morrissette owes the entirety of her career to the firewalk first traveled on Guyville — ever disappeared from Matador's catalog is beyond me, particularly when you consider that in this post-digital, file-sharing age, nothing should ever truly go "out of print." But the album's re-release, while not offering anything particularly revealing in the way of extras save for Phair's interpolation of "Wild Thing" as something of a Mean Girls rewrite, does underscore its importance by stripping away the pretend-porn veneer that originally defined it and revealing the core of what it was, is, and always shall remain: the document of a generation of women in transition, preparing the way for what the New York Times recently described as the lingua franca of the internet, a dialogue that, by turn, has emerged as "smart yet conversational, funny in a merciless way, righteously indignant but comically defeated, where every man [cheats] on his partner and all the women are slutty." Welcome, boys and grrls, to the 21st Century.
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De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

Mayhem
1997 | Century Media / The Orchard
Blood On The Tracks

Bob Dylan
1984 | Columbia

Low

David Bowie
1999 | VIRGIN

"One day I blew my nose and half my brains came out." That was David Bowie in 1976, nearing the end of a years-long coke binge that had burned through the better part of his nasal passages and rendered him so clammy and paranoid he was diving into black magic to escape, drawing pentagrams on the floor of his L.A. apartment, keeping his own urine in jars in the refrigerator and burning... black candles as protection from evil spirits. He was seeing ghosts, giving loopy interviews heavy on Hitler-praising pull-quotes and his marriage to Angie was on the verge of collapse.

And so Bowie, with Iggy Pop in tow, went to Berlin to get clean (an aim at which he only fitfully succeeded) and, as he put it, "[to discover] a new musical language." Low, the first part of his celebrated Berlin Trilogy and the first stage in a full sonic reinvention. Unlike the plastic soul of Young Americans or Station to Station's manic panic, Low revels in total existential blankness. Bowie was openly in the thrall of bands like Neu! and Kraftwerk, and Low clearly reflects the influence of the former's stentorian, motorik rhythms and the latter's subzero synthesizers.

The album is famously divided into two halves, with a batch of Bowie-sung "song fragments" counterbalanced by a suite of gorgeous but deeply unsettling ambient-instrumentals; what's most notable is that, spiritually, Bowie feels as ice-cold and absent on the songs where he sings as on the ones where he doesn't. Herky-jerk "Breaking Glass," with its hectoring Carlos Alomar guitar line finds Bowie as self-referential as he'd ever been, darkly warning "don't look at the carpet — I drew something awful on it," before snidely declaring: "you're such a wonderful person — but you've got problems." De facto pop single "Sound And Vision" — if only because no other song on the album features an immediate hook — finds him distrusting his own senses, cooing "Don't you wonder, sometimes, 'bout sound and vision?" over the kind of chilly cascading synths that typically turn up on Joy Division albums.

As solid and striking as the vocals are, though, Low's back half is where it moves from experiment to masterpiece. Using layer upon layer of unholy synthesizer, Bowie — with the help of producer Brian Eno, himself no stranger to the power of ambiance — create an entire, flickering nighttime urban cityscape, where hustle and busyness ("A New Career in a New Town") slowly give way to the awful eeriness of nighttime ("Subterraneans"). Bowie's voice appears in fits and starts, mostly chanting strange, monosyllabic nonsense words — a thin, pale warlock looking glumly into his cauldron, drawn and spent. Taken together, the two halves of Low offer a picture of an artist at a crossroads, unsure of where to go next, but knowing all roads lead to darkness.
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Children of God/World of Skin

Swans
2003 | Young God / Revolver

Up until 1987, the last place in the world you might have expected to hear an acoustic guitar was on a Swans album. But with Children of God, the band augmented its brute physicality with a "New Mind," as the opening track put it, and a new palette to match. ("I will be there/ With my eyes wide open/ I will be there/ I will be ready/ To receive/ The new mind.")... From the cover alone, with its puce-and-fuchsia color scheme, its swirls and crosses, you could guess that Swans had entered a new phase, and the album's first three tracks made that abundantly clear. "New Mind" sounded more or less like the Swans of yore — more cleanly produced, perhaps, but still displaying the same doomy riffs, the same war-dance drums, the same call-and-response vocals — but the "In My Garden" came from a different universe entirely, with a high-necked bass melody inspired by Joy Division, limpid pianos reminiscent of Harold Budd, and a wraithlike Jarboe intoning, "In my garden/ We'll never die." "Our Love Lies" completed their transmutation with strummed acoustic guitars and tambourine and Michael Gira not just growling but singing, his baritone sinking to the lower limit of his register like a body weighted by stones. The rest of the album alternates between slow-motion head-bangers, like "Our Love Lies" and "Like a Drug," and deathly folk songs judiciously touched up with synthesizers and effects, like "Blood and Honey" and "You're Not Real, Girl." On the hypnotic title song, Jarboe's ecstatic mantra ("We are children/ Children of God") swirls above see-sawing guitars and stark, metallic drum beats; there's little doubt that, whatever their previously nihilistic outlook, Swans finally see the light of redemption, however fleetingly.

A few months before Children of God, Gira and Jarboe explored even more gentle textures on a pair of albums recorded under the name of Skin. Jarboe's voice carried Blood, Women, Roses, while Gira assumed center stage on Shame, Humility, Revenge, but both albums shared the same downy textures, forsaking Swans' usual sturm und drang in favor of strings, acoustic guitars, hushed synthesizers, and echoing electronic drums — a mixture that could almost have been mistaken for This Mortal Coil. Both records were repackaged in 1988 as the double LP, The World of Skin, and 14 songs were selected for 1997's Children of God / World of Skin reissue.
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Sister

Sonic Youth
1987 | Squeaky Squawk / TuneCore
American IV: The Man Comes Around

Johnny Cash
2013 | American Recordings

Bone Machine

Tom Waits
1992 | ISLAND RECORDS

Released after a five-year break between albums — then the longest in his career — Bone Machine marks the beginning of a era in which Waits's records are isolated and self-contained, as if he goes dormant after each session and reemerges only after he's come up with something to say. The marionette march of "Earth Died Screaming" recalls the clatter of Rain Dogs' "Singapore," but Waits strips the songs bare as he... goes, paring away the excess; "Jesus Gonna Be Here" is just upright bass, dobro, and Waits's voice echoing in what sounds like an empty warehouse. On "In the Colosseum," he sounds as if he's been to hell and back and might just consider repeating the journey, the clanking percussion forging a concrete link to the album's title. Like the contemporaneous The Black Rider, Bone Machine risks falling into a fire-and-brimstone rut, but "Black Wings" shifts the album into a slightly less apocalyptic register. "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" could be a demented Disney theme, and "That Feel" closes with a dash of ghostly gospel harmony. It's hardly Waits's most approachable album, but its skeletal embrace is surprisingly welcoming.
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Enter The Wu-Tang

Wu Tang Clan
1993 | RCA Records Label
Pornography

The Cure
2006 | Rhino/Elektra

Funhouse [Deluxe Edition]

The Stooges
2005 | Rhino/Elektra
The Queen Is Dead

The Smiths
1986 | Rhino

Rid Of Me

P.J. Harvey
1993 | ISLAND RECORDS

The cover of PJ Harvey's second album shows her in the shower — a typical setting for a male fantasy, but one that she upends by being depicted mid-hair-flip, creating an arc of wet hair and water that frames her gently grinning face. That upending of traditional tropes of desire was all over her debut, Dry, but it becomes even more in-your-face on Rid of Me, which is littered with body parts... and fluids and the emotions brought forth by their deployment. Engineered by Steve Albini in such a way that it brought the essential tensions of Harvey's music — masculine/feminine, beautiful/ugly, ecstatic/unfulfilled — right to the forefront, Rid of Me contains some of the most iconic songs of Harvey's career — the ode to swagger "50ft Queenie," the low-end-plumbing depiction of female frustration "Dry," the take-the-reins cover of Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited." There's also "Yuri-G," a depiction of romantic madness that might be one of the most-overlooked songs in her catalog, despite its garage-borne chorus and fearless troop toward its endpoint.

But it's the differing treatments of the gender-flipping "Man-Size," which are presented as both a straightforward, slow-build rock song and as a piece arranged for strings and voice (called "Man-Size Sextet"), that perhaps best encapsulate the tension that's all over the album; while the Albini-engineered "Man-Size" has at least a bit of foreplay involved before Harvey breaks into a caterwaul on the song's final chorus, on the string-assisted version (which was arranged by Harvey's percussionist Robert Ellis) nerves crackle and snap against each other thanks to the strings clashing against each other in an icy, dissonant way as Harvey declares her dominance — at times, though, she does it in such a controlled way that it sounds like she's communicating through a jaw wired shut from repressed desire. The beauty brought forth by the strings only serves to underscore the jitters brought on by the idea of possibly possessing what is desired; that fear isn't brought on by the idea of possible transcendence as much as it is borne by the idea of losing that always-desired feeling, and subsequently having to root around the ugly, unfulfilling world of debasement and thwarted intentions explored elsewhere on the album.
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Sonic Terrorists

The Cold Vein

Cannibal Ox
2001 | Definitive Jux / The Orchard

The enduring idea of a hip-hop underground relies on our faith in the entrepreneurial spirit. Nobody wants a boss, and this is part of what compelled El-P to leave Rawkus in the late 1990s and form his own label, Definitive Jux, future home of Aesop Rock, Cage, Mr. Lif, Murs and others. He poured himself into the label's first album, the debut from Harlem rappers Vast Aire and Vordul Mega. The Cold... Vein remains an outlier classic, El-P channeling his inner Eno, and Vast and Vordul looking up from their comic books and imagining their escape from the present might come in the form of teleportation.
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Richard D. James Album

Aphex Twin
2005 | Rhino/London-Sire

Arguably Aphex Twin's definitive album — and not only because it bears his birth name — 1996's Richard D. James Album keeps you guessing. How can something feel at once so slight and so substantial? Whimsical melodies play out like music-box fantasias against forbiddingly complex drum programming; James has never seemed more like a trickster, with his self-evident sense of humor running from goofy ("Milkman") to deranged (the strange outro to "Girl/Boy... (Redruth Mix)"), but tracks like "Boy/Girl Song" and even the quadruple-time "4" hide an unmistakable sense of melancholy beneath their cartoonish folds. Many of the tracks here run to a measly two or three minutes — a blink of the eye, compared to the epic inclinations of so much electronic music. But with tempos racing to 180 BPM or so, and with chopped and rearranged breakbeats sprayed in a kind of hyperrhythmic slurry, James squeezes more action in his short-form sketches than many producers manage in an entire album. Hyperactive and/or mischievous listeners will get their fix in the brazenly kinetic antics of "Corn Mouth" or "Inkey$"; sensitive types are advised to start with the coy "To Cure a Weakling Child" or the plangent "Figerbib."
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Dummy

Portishead
1994 | Island Def Jam
Screamadelica

Primal Scream
1991 | Sire/Warner Bros.

Untrue

Burial
Hyperdub / The Orchard

We all know about the "Difficult Second Album" — the oft-rushed record made amid suffocating expectations and incessant touring. But some follow-ups not only make good on a promising debut but also retroactively imbue the entire enterprise with more intrigue than could have been recognized at the start. In 2007, M.I.A.'s Kala and LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver entered the ranks of this special kind of second album, and so did Burial's... Untrue.

Part of the allure of dubstep, the sound that Burial — an anonymous London musician — helped establish, is that it's so sparse and elemental that it eludes description almost by design: To formally address the qualities of dubstep is to paradoxically do damage to its most evocative parts — the parts that aren't there, the haunted parts, the spectral spaces that surround the tangible sounds and make it all happen through the force of their very absence. It's complicated, but it's also extremely compelling — and more immediately so on Untrue than it was on the self-titled 2006 debut that made Burial's name.

Untrue benefits from the conspicuous presence of vocals that prove newly forceful and free. Whereas voices served as atmospheric agents on the debut, here they drive tracks into the space of certifiable songs. "Archangel" announces the change at the start, with a mercury-mouthed male diva singing about "kissing you" and "holding you" in desperate, unsettling tones. A similar strategy plays out in "Near Dark," in which the vocal sentiment in the refrain "I can't take my eyes off you" applies just as much to ears.

The way that Burial foregrounds vocals as melody-makers veers back toward 2-step garage, the poppy post-jungle sound that ultimately evolved into grime and then into dubstep. The formal lures of dubstep proper remain here, but they also sound more kinetic and progressive. Even when the voices fade and drift like mist in the background, there are moods to be gleaned from the beats — the ticks and trips that toggle like drum 'n'bass risen from the grave as something irretrievably decayed but also irresistibly angelic.
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Homework

Daft Punk
1997 | VIRGIN

The mid-1990s was a prosperous time for aspiring dance artists, as big beats graced TV commercials and briefly invaded the charts. But the album-length statement of genius remained an elusive quest. That's what made Homework, the debut album from the mysterious French duo of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, so absorbing. Rather than a collection of singles — massive though they were — Homework managed to capture a feeling of discovery... and exploration.

So there were the era-defining hits "Around the World" and "Da Funk," as well as throbbing club wonders like "Phoenix," "Revolution 909" and "Indo Silver Club." But there were also occasions for reflection and nostalgic pauses, like the ethereal, cresting "Fresh" and the noisome funk of "Oh Yeah," or skits like "Daftendirekt" and "WDPK 83.7 FM," a tribute to the teachers broadcasting daily along the FM dial. As the name suggested, Homework resulted from years of careful study of the finest house, techno, electro and hip-hop records. Perhaps this appreciation for musical history is what compelled Daft Punk to even greater heights in the years to follow. Despite the mystery around their true identities, this is a debt they were never above repaying, from the elaborate, reference-filled Homework album sleeve to "Teachers," a roll call of the duo's personal heroes.
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The Raincoats

The Raincoats
1979 | We ThRee / The Orchard
The Shape Of Jazz To Come

Ornette Coleman
2005 | Rhino Atlantic

Short Films & Diary Entries

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

Lauryn Hill
1998 | Ruffhouse

Wanting to shed the sexist perception that fellow Fugee and ex-boyfriend Wyclef Jean had shaped her, Lauryn Hill retaliated by creating one of the best albums of the 90s. "Music is supposed to inspire," she sings on "Superstar" — perhaps to Jean, her failed svengali, perhaps to her label bosses, perhaps to her own demanding audience. "So how come we ain't getting no higher?" She then sets out to answer the... question for herself.

Like Marvin Gaye's epic albums of the 1970s, "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" is an emotionally raw set of performances. Hill's voices proliferate, sometimes moving in unison or harmony, sometimes commenting on or responding to one another, sometimes pleading, preaching, declaring and doubting all at once.

The incendiary, hard-rocking "Lost Ones," the witty, winning "Doo Wop (That Thing)," the angry, avenging "Final Hour," and the sweetly remembered "Every Ghetto, Every City" are her moments of clarity. But for the rest of the record, she works through the confusion and ambivalence wrought by love and betrayal — never more intensely than on "Ex-Factor" and "I Used To Love Him." Even the songs about uplift, like "Tell Him," "Everything Is Everything" and "Forgive Them Father," are rooted in the possibility things truly might not improve.

"The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" reached its commanding heights only by ruthlessly plumbing the depths. It remains a searingly honest, deeply wrung portrait of a great artist at the peak of her powers.
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Mama Tried

Merle Haggard & The Strangers
2001 | CAPITOL
What's Going On

Marvin Gaye
2003 | Motown

Court And Spark

Joni Mitchell
1975 | Rhino

At a time when the lyrics "ro-ma, ro-ma-mah/ ga-ga, ooh-la-la" can land a singer a spot high up on the Billboard charts, it's fun to play an album like Court & Spark, if only to remember the range of feeling that the English language can express when one knows how to use it. A quintessential Joni Mitchell record, Court & Spark looks at loneliness, solitude and love from many sides, and... concludes that no matter whom you're with or what good times you may be having, the sad, gray days will soon come calling.

At least it's not a bummer to listen to. Far from it, in fact. Mitchell's voice is clear and lovely, as fresh and flawless as spring. And her music is a wild, beautiful tangle of jazz and folk that gives audible form to love's crazy contradictions. (Not surprisingly, it's the best-selling album of Mitchell's career). Listen to Court & Spark, and you might imagine that, instead of giving her lover a clutch of pretty flowers to show how she feels, Mitchell would take him by the hand and run with him through a fragrant garden labyrinth. A simple woman she is not.

Court & Spark yielded her highest-ranking single: "Help Me," which reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1973. It also features a cover of the Wardell Gray bebop composition "Twisted," which jazz singer Annie Ross popularized with her swinging 1952 rendition. But for me, its telltale track is "Down to You." Mitchell sings, "Everything comes and goes/ Marked by lovers and styles of clothes/ Things that you held high/ And told yourself were true/ Lost or changing as the days come down to you." It's practically a Joni Mitchell manifesto: feeling love fully yet expecting — no, knowing — that it will end and that we are all ultimately alone. Oh, Joni.
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It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best

Karen Dalton
2006 | CAPITOL
Illmatic

Nas
Columbia

My Life

Mary J. Blige
1994 | Geffen

Both singer and sound were more confident on this second album from Mary J. Blige, the first she co-wrote, and considered by many fans her best. Out went the chilly New Jack Swing echo and synth deco of her debut; in came an extended heart-to-heart with fans by the fire over a beat that meant business.

Let it be admitted that the sound is more conventional: The '70s soul samples of... the title track and "Be Happy" are seamlessly blended or recreated rather than recontextualized in a rap way — the direction executive producer Sean "Puffy" Combs and frequent studio guest the Notorious B.I.G. were taking hip hop in general. But if D.C.-hired producer Carl "Chucky" Thompson was brought in to make Blige sound like a true soul singer at home in her mother's music, he did his job: Blige makes Rose Royce's "I'm Goin' Down" her own, in part because down was exactly where she was going.

Or as she would sing 11 years later, "'94 was My Life, and my life wasn't right, so I reached out to you and told you what I been through." She also told you what she was still going through: "I'm satisfied even when I cry," she sings on "No One Else," presumably to the track's co-producer K-Ci Hailey, whom she later described as the inspiration for much of My Life's blueness. "Mary's Joint," with its longing melody later borrowed for Janet Jackson's "I Get Lonely," sounds like hopelessness kidding itself, while the No. 1 dance hit "You Bring Me Joy" seems unconvinced. Most double-edged of all is "I Love You," with its repurposed Isaac Hayes piano line and dog-whistle synth (a nod to Dr. Dre), as funky and resigned as Marvin Gaye at his most autumnal. Has the title sentiment ever sounded more doomed?

Blige put the question to herself squarely on "Be Happy": "How can I love somebody else, if I can't love myself enough to know when it's time, time to let go?" The album sold 2.8 million copies in the U.S. and was nominated for a Grammy in the R&B album category. But it marked the twilight of Uptown Records and a parting of ways with Puffy.
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The Belle Album

Al Green
Hi Records / Fat Possum
Car Wheels On A Gravel Road

Lucinda Williams
1998 | Island Def Jam

Coat Of Many Colors

Dolly Parton
2007 | RLG/Legacy

Coat of Many Colors is the moment when Dolly Parton became a star. Its title track a Top Ten narrative of Dolly's humble origins a story that follows her still Coat brought her out from Porter Wagoner's shadow and cast her as country's Self-Made Woman No. 1. It also wonderfully encapsulates every element of the nearly 40 years of Dolly's career that have passed since its release: it dabbles in bluegrass and... roots music, features triumphant, Memphis-style R&B, and winks at the majesty of pure pop, all in a tidy 27 minutes. It's a killer. The best song by a long shot is "Here I Am," a song so stupendous it's a miracle it was never an enormous, career-defining hit. Written by Dolly (as is almost every song here), "Here I Am" is a big, '70s-style power ballad, a finger-wag to any man that might underestimate how great even a little bit of Dolly would be in your life. "I can help you find what you've been searching for," she brags with stunning boldness. No bashful lady, she. It's hard to call Coat of Many Colors a country record; it's so much more than that. But every song has its roots in Americana, in the humble hollows of the Appalachians and the songs and tunes passed down through God, through love and through sorrow. Dolly knows all of these. She sings from experience "Traveling Man" and "My Blue Tears" (which can make you weep from its beauty) and it's one she boldly shares. Dolly's career has been incredible in its longevity and its sincerity. And even amidst all of her success, this is her best moment.
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Different Class

Pulp
1996 | ISLAND RECORDS
Ready To Die The Remaster

The Notorious B.I.G.
1994 | Bad Boy Records

Leviathan

Mastodon
Relapse Records

Featuring two ex-members of influential noise-metal band Today is the Day, Mastodon creates fringe music for the mainstream — proggy, rhythmically complex torrents of melodic noise that incorporate elements of death metal, grindcore, hardcore, thrash and math rock, and somehow still groove like Skynyrd on crank. With Leviathan, the band funneled its multifaceted attack into a concept album based on Herman Melville's literary classic Moby Dick. Nothing could seem less metal;... little sounds more metal.
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Bakesale

Sebadoh
Sub Pop Records
Being There

Wilco
1996 | Reprise

Innervisions

Stevie Wonder
2000 | Motown

Early '70s protest soul had as much silliness and bandwagon jumping as any other musical era. But it can't be a coincidence that Stevie Wonder's greatest album is also his most deeply pessimistic — not only because there was so much to rail against in 1973, and that the government's and society's crimes against humanity had a special sting that would dissipate the more frequently they occurred (familiarity breeds disinterest at least... as much as contempt), but Stevie has always been at his sharpest when he has a direct target to aim for.

On Innervisions, Wonder took stock of the world around him and found a good deal of it wanting — yet he refused to give in to despair, even when sneering at drug abuse on "Too High," cutting a flim-flam man to pieces on "He's Misstra Know-It-All," or, most unforgettably, turning his voice to gravel to warn against damnation on "Living for the City." There's an inherent optimism that lights the darkest passages of this very dark album; that fits with Stevie the activist. But surely the amount of wrong to lament in the early '70s did its share to spur Wonder to his peak.

Rather than a soothing, instantly iconic rolling electric-keyboard melody of the sort that opened Talking Book ("You Are the Sunshine of My Life"), "Too High" worms in at a daunting angle, heavily informed by jazz (Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters was released only two months after Innervisions) as well as funk, and sounds as slippery as the song's subject. The falsetto doo-doo-doo refrain is a little shticky the first time it appears and mournful the last, after the woman who lets drugs take her life over dies: "What did her friends say?/ They said she's too high." "Misstra Know-It-All" and parts of "Jesus Children of America" dig at false preachers. "Living For the City" ends on a sermon. Stevie was a scold, all right, but he picked his targets perfectly.

The mammoth Songs in the Key of Life is rightly seen as Wonder's I-can-do-it-all culmination, but Innervisions ranges more confidently across nearly as much terrain. "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing" goes to Cuba and brings back a great spoken intro: "I speak very, very, um, fluent Spanish." "Visions" is a spiderweb of guitars (and Stevie's Fender Rhodes) that could have been on any number of the period's folk albums. The moony synths of "Golden Lady" turned prog heads around; "All in Love Is Fair" will surely end the first act when Broadway finally gets around to a Stevie jukebox musical (step on it).

And "Higher Ground" is classic rock, flat out: the rhythm swinging and jittery, pounded along by Wonder's sinewy drumming, the twining synthesizers and clavinet tangling like guitars, and Stevie at his most call-the-troops. It's like a totally sober version of John Lennon in "Tomorrow Never Knows": "Believers, keep on believing/ Sleepers, just stop sleeping." Yet listen close to the song's fade-out. There's an ad-lib, just barely audible: "Don't you let nobody bring you down — and they'll sho' nuff try." Brrr.
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Mystic Visions

Judee Sill

Judee Sill
2005 | Rhino/Elektra

With her tender, imperfect vocals, lank brown locks and low-slung acoustic guitar, the singer and songwriter Judee Sill embodied the earnest, folksy spirit of California's Laurel Canyon in the 1970s. Sadly, Sill also embraced the era's excesses, and her dark biography is befitting of a martyred cult idol: After running away from home as a teenager, she married an aspiring gangster, was arrested for armed robbery and hauled off to reform school,... picked up a heroin habit, and hustled for cash as a petty thief. But with help from Graham Nash, David Crosby and David Geffen, Sill channeled her personal lapses — and the gospel hooks she collected in reform school — into two stunning folk records before dying of a drug overdose in 1979.

Judee Sill was released in 1971, and — unsurprisingly — it's lyrically preoccupied with grand notions of redemption and hope. "Sweet silver angels over the sea, please come down flyin' low for me," Sill begs on the impeccable "Jesus Was A Crossmaker," over building piano and eventual percussion. On opener "Crayon Angels," Sill lodges another plea for rescue: "Nothin's happened but I think it will soon, so I sit here waitin' for God and a train — to the Astral plane," she sings. Like Nick Drake, Sill's records weren't particularly appreciated in her lifetime, and her posthumous canonization feels almost cruel, but Judee Sill remains a haunting, evocative portrait of a singer using her voice to seek salvation.
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Ah Um

Charles Mingus
1999 | Columbia/Legacy

If you're looking for a first serious jazz album to listen to, this might be the one. Charles Mingus occupied a unique place in jazz, one foot planted squarely in tradition — particularly the composer's tradition of Duke Ellington — and the other in the new thing which, in 1959, when this was recorded, was in the process of coming into existence. Both tendencies are in full display here, with one... of Mingus's finest bands (although he referred to it as a "workshop," which is quite accurate) running through a brace of originals that pay tribute to the past ("Open Letter to Duke," "Jelly Roll") and express the present ("Fables of Faubus" refers to the governor of Arkansas 'bitter opposition to racial integration).

There are first recordings of two of Mingus 'immortal classics here. "Better Git It In Your Soul" is infused with a gospel feeling, with Mingus yelling encouragement in the background, and was a shout-out to the "soul" movement in jazz, which stood in opposition to some of the more hyper-intellectual stuff on the scene. "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" was Mingus 'obituary for the great tenor saxophonist Lester Young, who had just died. The overwhelming sadness of the melody disguises the fact that it's absolutely of its moment in structure and harmony.

Mingus, as a bassist, relied heavily on his reedmen, and three of his best, John Handy (alto sax, clarinet), Booker Ervin (tenor sax), and Shafi Hadi (alto and tenor sax), are on board. The trombone underlying the ensemble is Jimmy Knepper on some tracks, Willie Dennis on others, piano is by the incredibly underrated Horace Parlan, and Mingus 'long-time rhythm partner, Dannie Richmond, sits at the drums.

It doesn't get much better than this: I've been listening to this album for over 30 years, and I hear something new every time I sit down with it.
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Fables Of The Reconstruction

R.E.M.
1998 | IRS CATALOG
Sign 'O' The Times

Prince
2007 | Rhino/Warner Bros.

Manos

The Spinanes
Sub Pop Records

The first indie-label album ever to hit No. 1 on the college radio charts was an unlikely one: this debut by the peculiar, wonderful duo of singer/guitarist Rebecca Gates and drummer Scott Plouf. The Spinanes had initially been very much a part of the early-'90s "international pop underground" scene ("Entire" mentions a cassette by Olympia, Washington, band the Go Team), but they quickly became as interested in precision and complexity as in... soft, fragrant melodies. Gates's lyrics here are impressionistic and emotive, but the duo plays so crisply that they sound absolutely specific. It helped that half of their hooks were rhythmic: "Spitfire" is built around Plouf's snare cracks, "Noel, Jonah and Me" around variations on a stop-time lurch. And they had a sense of negative space that's rare for a rock band — Gates's dreamy murmur and resonant, open-tuned riffs up top, Plouf's inexorable attack at the bottom, and nothing but air between them.
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Psychedelic Soul

The Temptations
2003 | Motown

When Dennis Edwards replaced David Ruffin in the Temptations in 1968, producer/songwriter Norman Whitfield gave a brand new bag to Motown's most popular male group. Introduced to the psychedelic sounds of Sly and the Family Stone via Temp's member Otis Williams, Whitfield took Stone's fusion grooves and made them cinematic. Starting with "Cloud Nine," Whitfield de-emphasized Ruffin's departure by distributing the vocal line across the Temptations' widely differing voices á la... Sly and Family, while white session guitarist Dennis Coffey brought the wah-wah of Jimi Hendrix. "Cloud Nine" won Motown its first Grammy, and it established the label's new sophisticated, yet streetwise style soon embraced by all of its stars. For its 1969 sequel "Runaway Child, Running Wild," Whitfield expanded the track's length to nearly 10 minutes, and the prototype for disco's extended mixes was born.

What distinguished Whitfield's sprawling productions from lengthy acid-rock tracks was that they weren't mere jams. Based on verses and choruses just like the group's early hits, "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" and the others are paced as miniature symphonies with multiple peaks and valleys. The same strings that gave Motown its density during the mid '60 were now isolated over the beat. Instead of a constant blare, instrumentation came and went, swelled and subsided. The constant fluctuations made the listening experience more like a journey — a key disco metaphor. Rather than encouraging dancers to sprint, Whitfield paced his records to suspend them in rapture.
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All-Night Dance Party

Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6

Soundway: Various Artists
2011 | Manufacturer / Believe Digital

Some compilations that highlight a particular sound during a particular time follow a straight line. But when that time and place is as relatively under-documented as early '70s Nigerian pop, such tidiness isn't so necessary — it's enough to just crack the door and to keep it open for an enticing while. That's why Nigeria Special, a brilliant two-hour tour through a musical world that ranged far more widely than even a... serious fan of this era and place might have been aware, is such a triumph. Covering the period just after the Biafran War (1967-70) had ended, Nigeria Special concentrates on the region's late highlife and the post-Fela Kuti fallout of Afrobeat — Kuti was an exemplar of the style, but by no means the sole model of success. If that means the collection's focus blurs a little, that's more than made up for the sheer breadth, range and intrigue on display here.

Many of Nigeria Special's cuts are so juicy it's impossible to believe they've never been made available outside of Nigeria before. The Funkees'"Akula Owu Onyeara" — originally released in two parts, and edited together here for the first time — works like Fela at his most rhythmically sinuous; the simple keyboard figures could be Morse Code signal for uncut funk, and it has one of the most perfect endings you'll ever hear. George Akaeze & His Augmented Hits'"Business Before Pleasure" is delectably light-footed Afrobeat with laconic chants and jazzy horns so friendly they belie the title: this is business as pleasure. The nonstop forward motion of the Semi Colon's "Nekwaha Semi Colon" is formally disco — the hi-hat/kick-drum pattern points right at it — but it's so hypnotic it seems rooted in something far older (and more intrinsically Nigerian). The highlife tracks are equally hot: St. Augustine & His Rovers Dance Band's "Onwu Ama Dike" is made even lovelier by its slightly messy rhythmic feel, not to mention the semi-sweet horn line.

Compiler Miles Cleret claims that there are thousands more such goodies that have just been sitting in Nigeria waiting to be rediscovered. The 26 included here are such a pleasure to listen to that, for anyone who loves them, they could inspire fantasies of booking a flight to Lagos and starting a treasure hunt of one's own.
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New York Dolls

New York Dolls
1987 | Island Def Jam
In the Jungle Groove

James Brown
2003 | Polydor

Get Happy

Elvis Costello & The Attractions
2007 | Hip-O Records

After a drunken quarrel on the Armed Forces tour turned into a disaster that left Costello looking like a dick at best and a racist at worst (in retrospect, it was definitely "dick"), he took solace in old soul records — the deep Southern soul of Stax most of all — and somehow ended up cranking out even more amazing songs than he had been over the previous few years. The album... that subsequently came out of a frantic recording session in Holland speeds through 20 songs in 48 minutes, and it's the Attractions' most impressive work as a group: flexible, powerful, psychically synched-up, and above all fast. They effortlessly pull off one soul groove after another (keyboardist Steve Nieve cops licks from Booker T. and the M.G.s all over the place), as well as tear-in-my-beer country ("Motel Matches"), ska ("Human Touch") and garage rock ("Beaten to the Punch"). Those last three, by the way, all happen in a seven-minute span.

If some of these songs are formal exercises, they're fantastically entertaining formal exercises: The opener "Love for Tender," for instance, is the riff from "You Can't Hurry Love" taken at bottle-of-amphetamines speed, wrapped around approximately five thousand puns about money ("I pay you a compliment/ You think I am inno-cent"), and executed in less than two minutes. The first single, oddly, was a cover — Sam & Dave's downtempo soul duet "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down," reworked as crazed new wave — but Costello's original songs reward ungnarling their tightly-knotted wordplay, especially "New Amsterdam," a little waltz about portable exile that he recorded on his own. The big lyrical picture of Get Happy!! is a bitter young man measuring himself against the guys that the girls he likes seem to be more interested in, and figuring out reasons to despise them all; by the end, though, he's figured out that he's kind of a dick, too.
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Rocks The House

Etta James
1992 | Geffen

This 1963 show from Nashville's New Era Club is a candidate for best live album ever, and you need only hear her version of Jimmy Reed's "Baby What You Want Me to Do" to realize that. It's one of the sexiest things ever recorded, with Etta wailing and moaning before making erotic nonverbal sounds — you can't even call it scat-singing — that bring the house down. The raunchy band, featuring David... T. Walker on guitar, is torrid; the audience, which roars out call and response with Etta, is fevered. "Tell Mama," indeed. Or else.
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Gold

Buddy Holly
2005 | Geffen
Aquemini

Outkast
1998 | Arista/LaFace Records

One Night Stand - Sam Cooke Live At The Harlem Square Club, 1963

Sam Cooke
2005 | RCA/Legacy

1963, Miami, Florida — below the Mason Dixon line. Jim Crow was still law, Martin Luther King was just about to march on Washington, and the bluntly named Chitlin Circuit (the collection of clubs where black artists played and sang for black audiences) was still in full operation. Sam Cooke had been a star for most of his life by the time of this now-legendary gig at the Harlem Square Club. At... 32, the singer already had a best-selling Greatest Hits album, and had entranced legions of church-goers as a certified gospel sex symbol through the fifties (including a very young Aretha Franklin, who has always admitted her melismatic signing style was a straight-up tribute to her friend's liquid vocals). Cooke had been working his audience members, especially those of the female persuasion, into bosom-heaving frenzies for years — and not just because of his movie-star good looks. The plain truth: Cooke could sing like no other man before or since.

This live recording shows off all of Cooke's gifts. "It's All Right," is the gospel classic "Touch the Hem of His Garment" (which, not coincidentally, Cooke had already made into a hit with the Soul Stirrers), secularized. Except instead of praying to Jesus for mercy, Cooke advises each man in the audience to "shake and wake" his woman up when he comes home at night, wait until she "wipes all the sleep from her eyes," and tell her "Believe me baby, it's all right." A perfect lullaby.

Songs such as "Cupid" or "Twistin 'the Night Away" may sound retro now, even corny at times, especially to ears used to the tough funk of James Brown or George Clinton. But that's because it's almost impossible, in our current Yes We Did era, to imagine what it must have been like back then for a soul singer whose rough edges were so easy to smooth. Cooke could charm with such ease, it would have been a piece of cake for him to go the Sammy Davis route. But he didn't. And JB and Dr. Funkenstein, not to mention Prince and (early, fantastic) Michael Jackson, wouldn't have been the same if he had. Live At the Harlem Square Club does have a bit of a preserved-in-amber quality. That's not the record's fault, however. By 1964, Cooke was dead, shot to death in a motel under circumstances that were never clear (his last masterpiece, the introspective, heartbreaking, "A Change is Gonna Come," was not released until after his death). It's wonderful to be able to hear his voice here, so relaxed and true, and with the audience he knew and loved the best. As Cooke tells the ladies in the crowd, and they ecstatically croon back, "I think of you every morning, and dream of you every night."
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Off the Wall

Michael Jackson
1983 | Epic
Absolute Belter

Various
2010 | FINDERS KEEPERS

Bruised Knuckle Bottle-Breakers

Dig Me Out

Sleater-Kinney
2009 | Kill Rock Stars / Redeye

t the end of the decade of "women in rock" (yes, Virginia, we only get one), this trio born of the Northwest "riot grrrl" scene defined feminist punk by ingraining the lessons they'd learned in their Women Studies classes as deeply into their music as phallocentrism is etched into the sound of Led Zep or Snoop Dog. Go beyond the lyrics (which do read like a punk Sisterhood Is Powerful) to revel... in the non-linear dialogue of awesome yowler Corin Tucker and chatterbox Carrie Brownstein, the taut-yet-flexible song structures rising up from Janet Weiss's Amazonian drums and Brownstein's guitar heroism, which sparkles in circles instead of hammering for the gods. Dig Me Out has the anthems any grassroots movement needs, but the band can also do lovestruck ("One More Hour"), funny ("Little Babies") and spooky ("Jenny") —` thus proving conclusively, for any doubters, that grrrls are people, too.
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Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous

Big L
1995 | Columbia
New Day Rising

Hüsker Dü
1985 | SST Records / The Orchard

Exile On Main Street

The Rolling Stones
2010 | UME Direct

The re-release of a treasured cultural touchstone is occasion for seeing how the work in question has telescoped the years, and, more to the point, how your own perceptions and persona have evolved and grown along with it. With the second coming of Exile On Main Street, the Rolling Stones' controversial and iconic masterwork, the looking-back not only encompasses myself, but the glimmering binary stars of the Stones, Mick and Keith; and,... in some ways, these responses overshadow the album itself.

I have particular reason to welcome a chance for reappraisal, since two weeks after Exile's original release in the late spring of 1972, I reviewed the album for Rolling Stone, giving it a medium-cool analysis I've had some cause to regret over the years. It was a classic case, as the cliché goes, of not seeing the forest for the trees. Song by song, even over the kitchen sink of a double album set, individual highlights seemed hard to come by, though the thrill of hearing "Happy," "Rip This Joint," and "Shine A Light" has been burnished on this reissue by their many sing-alongs over the years, and "Tumbling Dice" is a undeniable classic. But to my then rock-critical ears, thinking with head instead of heart, this was a comedown from the Stones scaling the peaks of some of the most cataclysmic music of their career, an arc that seemed to ascend around Beggar's Banquet, continue through Let It Bleed and burst into fireworks with Sticky Fingers, when, not so coincidentally, they were at their apex of creativity and influence. I was spoiled, and my disappointment showed, especially given the first long form double album of the Stones' career.

But Exile, as the title implies, is more about time and place, a mood and atmosphere, and its sprawling, ramshackle track listing, trying on blues forms and extending heightened jams, stretching out for long solos from Stones' sidemen like sax player Bobby Keys and pianist Nicky Hopkins, with an especial nod to the group's slide guitarist at the time, Mick Taylor, gives the album a documentary in-the-making feel, enhanced by a remastering, which seems to clear up some of the tube-driven haze of the original vinyl edition (whether this is a good or bad thing I will leave to your speaker system).

The tale has oft been told of the Stones setting up a mobile recording studio in Keith Richards's basement in the south of France, inside a mansion called Nellcote, though the album was later pieced together in sessions that transported tapes from London to Los Angeles; and it is within this compressed, hothouse atmosphere, a heart of darkness on the verge of tropic (see the claustrophobic "Ventilator Blues," and the booklet photos of sprawled bodies on the floor of the makeshift studio, not to mention Charlie's striped jacket being used as a bass drum muffler!), that the Stones put together the loosest, most freewheeling album of their career.

That's the way Keith wanted it, and his current view of Exile is that it is a sacred text, allowing no tampering within its concentric circles of recorded groove. Mick, however, couldn't resist and in the bonus disc, gathered with the help of Don Was, adds new lyrics to four songs that are a call-and-response to his younger self: "You always brought out the best in me," he lays his heart on the line in the frankly beautiful "Following The River," and I wonder if he's talking about Keith. The alternate takes and "bonus" material don't change Exile so much as show its process, the tracks that didn't make the official release holding their own: "I'm Not Signifying" is lascivious in its cakewalk, and "Plundered My Soul" is all impassioned romp, galvanized by Charlie Watts' archetypal loping drums, affectionate regret coloring the remembrance.

Beyond bonus, however, it is Exile's remarkable resilience as an album that pushes play in this decade. Much of its myth is just that — a celebration of lifestyle and rock stardom that took root in a fecund, overheated basement as the hours ticked till dawn. It was Mick who gathered the tapes of the Nellcote sessions and overdubbed the gospel-ish feel that imbues Exile with its sense of redemption amidst decadence. The duality of the Stones' was never more manifest than here, with Keith's voice entwining harmonies with Mick, Mick slightly back in the mix, and the force of the band carrying them forward. It's interesting to compare the two versions of "Soul Survivor" with each fronting the song, just as it is fascinating — now almost four decades later — to contemplate the roads not taken: In the opening "Rocks Off," one of the Stones' many nigh-trademark barrelhouse stompers, a bridge appears out of nowhere, and the song slows, turns psychedelic as tremolo phasers wash over the guitars and vocal. It seems almost contrary to the festive mood, a malevolence and an intimation of gathering storm clouds, and I find myself wishing they would have followed its tangent.

But then, I'm not so different than I was when I first took a stroll down Main Street. Neither is Exile.
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Walk Among Us

Misfits
1982 | Rhino/Slash
Songs For The Deaf

Queens of the Stone Age
2007 | Interscope

The Black Album

Jay-Z
2010 | Roc-a-fella Records

The song that has always enchanted me on The Black Album is the last song, which is called "My 1st Song," which is meant to be the last song of Jay-Z's career. Got that? It is a beautiful, bedeviling denouement; Jay has rarely rapped better, more intricately, and with such purpose. It's because he knew exactly what he was meant to be doing: Saying goodbye. "Goodbye, this is my second major breakup/... My first was, with a pager/ With a hooptie, a cookpot, and the game/ This one's with the stool, with the stage, with the fortune/ Maybe not the fortune, but certainly the fame."

Knowing what we know now — Jay-Z would be back to full-time recording artist status in three years — makes examining the self-flagellation of The Black Album something of a fool's errand. Elizabeth Mendez Berry wrote for The Village Voice that he'd become "bored by the alter ego he'd outgrown." So how seriously do we take the musings on a half-hearted retirement? Well, maybe without that specter hanging, we can hear it for the achievement it is: a great Jay-Z album.

Originally conceived as a single-producer venture in 1998 with DJ Premier, The Black Album wouldn't come together until years later. It was later advertised with a one-producer, one-song plan, which also never panned out. Finally, it became a typical sort of Jay-Z project, featuring contributions from trusted collaborators, in-house Roc-A-Fella super-producers, Kanye West and Just Blaze, sensing the moment as much as Jay, and crucial additions from a murderer's row of sound men (Timbaland, Eminem, DJ Quik, The Neptunes twice, Rick Rubin, out of rap retirement for a spell) and a handful of then-unknowns and never-heard-from-agains (9th Wonder, The Buchanans, Aqua). Together, there are canonical songs: "Public Service Announcement (Interlude)," initially just a tossed-off one verse proclamation of pride that became a defining document for the MC, with lyrics — from "got the hottest chick in the game wearing my chain" to "like Che Guevara with bling on, I'm complex" — that became rallying cries. Rubin's stomping "99 Problems" still sounds like a tank full of cowbells taking a 40-foot drop onto the pavement. Kanye's "Encore" is a convivial farewell song, though it comes early in the mix. Eminem's "Moment of Clarity" is tightly wound, but never tight-lipped, as Jay raps, "I've dumbed down for my audience and doubled my dollars/ They criticize me for it yet they all yell holler." Even "Threat," the then-ascendant 9th Wonder's contribution, returns Jay to the creeping majesty of his debut, Reasonable Doubt.. And what would a pro forma Jay-Z album be without a Neptunes trifle? At the time of release, "Change Clothes" seemed a grievous error, a cold calculating move designed to ensure record sales. So many years on, it is what it was supposed to be: a palate cleanser.

"My 1st Song" still kills me. It's that "maybe not the fortune" line. Jay-Z has long been a dramatist, a self-styled orchestrator of his own mythology. And nothing could be more grand than a ceremonial retirement. Except, maybe, for the even grander comeback. But then, there is one more Easter egg worth parsing on The Black Album. From "Encore": "When I come back like Jordan, wearin' the 4-5/ It ain't to play games with you/ It's to aim at you, probably maim you." Considering said comeback, he was more right than he knew.
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The Score

Fugees (Refugee Camp)
2008 | Columbia
Let It Be [Expanded Edition]

The Replacements
2008 | Ryko/Rhino

Moody and Beautiful

Post

Björk
1995 | 143/Lava/Atlantic

Having established herself on the pop stage with Debut, follow-up Post (1995) saw Björk's ambitions go widescreen.With everyone from Tricky to Howie B to 808 State's Graham Massey fighting over the producer's chair and a musical palette ranging from ambient dub ("Possibly Me") to strident techno-pop ("Army of Me") Post boasts a musical vision to match Cecil B. DeMille.

And then there's the lyrics. Bizarre, brazen and remorselessly tongue-in cheek,... songs like "Enjoy" and "You've Been Flirting Again" are dark, delirious examinations of the mating game whilst "Hyperballad" is euphoric — "We live on a mountain/ Right at the top/ There's a beautiful view" — but only to disguise a damning rejection of consumerism. It was smash hit "It's Oh So Quiet" which kept the accountants happy, however. A reworking of Betty Hutton's Hollywood showtune "Blow a Fuse" delivered with a kindergarten cutesiness, confirming her role as indie-rock's reigning queen of weird. From this point on, Björk was in the big league.
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Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul [Collector's Edition]

Otis Redding
2008 | Rhino Atlantic
Tapestry

Carole King
1999 | Ode/Epic/Legacy

Sketches Of Spain

Miles Davis
Columbia/Legacy

Arranger Gil Evans was one of Miles Davis's key allies throughout his career. Starting in 1957 they collaborated on four projects for trumpet and orchestra, beginning with the fine Miles Ahead and ending with the problematic but still rewarding Quiet Nights. The series 'middle volumes are Porgy and Bess, where Gershwin's music inspires some of Miles's most poignant trumpeting, and the exquisite Sketches of Spain. Its long flagship number recasts a... slow movement from a 1939 guitar concerto by Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo; it's enlivened by Evans 'gorgeous dissonances for flutes and massed brass, and flamenco echoes from rattling castanets. But the album's real marvels are a pair of shorter pieces derived from field recordings, which push Miles into previously uncharted territory. "The Pied Piper" is based on a Peruvian Indian pennywhistle melody, played by a pig castrator to advertise his services as he makes his rounds. Miles imbues it with such deep feeling, it's as if he empathizes with the pigs. "Saeta" draws on music for a Spanish Holy Week procession, right down to the sound of a brass band advancing from and then retreating into the distance, like something out of Charles Ives; the dire, wounded sound of Davis's trumpet is unforgettably stark.
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Bandwagonesque

Teenage Fanclub
1997 | Geffen
My Favorite Things

John Coltrane
1998 | Rhino Atlantic

Voodoo

D'Angelo
2000 | NOO TRYBE

The success of his 1995 debut Brown Sugar left D'Angelo in a minor funk, irked by the music industry and suffering from a bout of writer's block. The unease that accumulated during his sabbatical surfaced with his 1998 single, "Devil's Pie." Built on a paranoid, tail-chasing DJ Premier bass loop, D'Angelo turned away from the earthly delights of Brown Sugar and crooned about the spiritual crisis in hip-hop and beyond: "Drugs and... thugs, women and wine/ Three or four at a time/ Watch them all stand in line/For a slice of the devil's pie." From its very title to its dark aesthetic, Voodoo fixed on the possibility of purpose and redemption beyond the material world — this was an album that explored the meaning of "soul" as something more than a musical classification. There were still crushing moments of conventional beauty, like "Untitled (How Does it Feel)" or the charming "Send it On," and Method Man and Redman lend their intimate chemistry to the muscular "Left and Right." But on moments like "Chicken Grease," with its sketches of a bygone Southern simplicity, and the captivating "Africa," Voodoo felt ghostly and haunted, as though D'Angelo and Soulquarians were trying to conjure a portal to the past during their marathon jam sessions.
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The Bends

Radiohead
1995 | CAPITOL
Nina Simone Sings The Blues

Nina Simone
RCA/Legacy

Lady Soul [w/bonus selections]

Aretha Franklin
1987 | Rhino Atlantic

The first four songs here, including the gigantic hit "Chain of Fools," are Aretha the newly minted superstar stepping out from behind the gospel pulpit to address the secular world. The rest, from the "I Never Loved a Man" outtake (!) "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" to her sister (and backup singer) Carolyn Franklin's deep ballad "Ain't No Way," are all about the pulse and ache of sex —... they're not come-ons, exactly, but meditations on what happens behind the bedroom door, and what that means to everything outside it. And the all-star band, featuring Bobby Womack, Spooner Oldham, and (briefly) Eric Clapton, rolls toward the blues right alongside her.
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Veronica Falls’ Favorite Sophomore Albums

Michael Tedder — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 21:19:00 +0000

One listen to Veronica Falls’ sophomore album Waiting For Something To Happen and it’s clear that the band knows both their reference points — Johnny Marr jangle, Lush reverb — and what to do with them. Like any indie-pop group worth their rare colored vinyl, Veronica Falls are as much a coalition of amateur underground rock academics as they are a music-making entity. We decided to celebrate the release of Waiting by asking them to talk about their favorite follow-up records of all time.

Patrick Doyle, drummer

Underwater Moonlight

The Soft Boys
2010 | Yep Roc Records / Redeye

I first heard The Soft Boys in a club in Glasgow, where the DJ blasted "I Wanna Destroy You." They sounded like a pissed-off Beach Boys. Needless to say, I bought the album the next day. Making an album in 1980 that sounds like an angst-ridden incarnation of the Byrds might not have been the coolest thing at the time, but Underwater Moonlight's wit and effortless use of its influences still seems... like the last word in cool. The great thing about collecting records is that just when you think you've heard it all, an album like this comes along and you wonder how you ever got by without it. If Roger McGuinn and Brian Jones had a son, his name would be Robyn Hitchcock and Underwater Moonlight would be their favorite grandchild.
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Marion Herbain, bassist

Modern Life Is Rubbish

Blur
2012 | VIRGIN

I think the quintessential Englishness of this album appealed to me a lot at the time. I also like how different it sounds from the two albums that immediately surround it — which I think shows how tricky second albums can be for a band.

Roxanne Clifford, singer-guitarist

The Good Earth

The Feelies
Bar/None Records

I felt like this album found me when I came across it in a record shop as a teenager. I had no idea who The Feelies were or what they would sound like, but the sleeve stood out as something I might like. After listening to "On the Roof" for 30 seconds, I fell in love and bought it. I like how primal and bold their debut album, Crazy Rhythms, is, but... The Good Earth will always have a special place in my heart for its subtlety and relaxed brilliance. The vocals sound like whispers from a distant conversation that draw you in, and the guitars and percussion feel like they're playing from the corner of the room. The Feelies had less to prove on this record, and it's all the better for it.
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James Hoare, singer-guitarist

Odessey and Oracle

The Zombies
2003 | Marquis Enterprises / AWAL

By the time the Zombies' second album was released they'd split up, and with virtually no money behind it, Odessey sold very poorly. It seems almost impossible now to listen to the record and not hear a classic album with huge potential, both critically and financially.

Why the record label didn't realize this at the time is a mystery — although the incredibly high standard of rock and pop music at that time... could explain why it would go unnoticed. The band had a surprise US hit single with "Time of the Season," but initially the album wasn't available and [by the time it was], it was too little too late. It's clear, timeless production, interesting arrangements and, above all, brilliant songwriting, have thankfully earned it a place in history, and these days, it's regarded as a masterpiece.
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Stand-Alone Soundtracks

eMusic Editorial Staff — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 21:27:19 +0000

Though it’s often taken for granted, scoring a film is no easy task. Go too minimal and you risk killing dramatic tension. Too grandiose, and an entire film can become ham-handed. Striking the perfect balance is a feat few have truly mastered. Even harder, though, is constructing a soundtrack that stands on its own — creating a work that’s less a companion piece, more a bona fide, start-to-finish album. The 11 soundtracks in this list, remarkably, do just that. These soundtracks are full of music that’s compelling, engaging and entertaining, whether or not you’ve seen the movie it was designed to accompany.

The Point!

Harry Nilsson
2006 | RCA/BMG Heritage

Inspired by an acid trip in which singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson realized that trees and houses and more or less everything in some form or another has a point, this soundtrack to ABC Television's 1971 animated movie is presented as a children's bedtime story. Although the narrator-father's voice was originally supplied on TV by Dustin Hoffman (and Ringo Starr for home video), Nilsson here tells his own story about how even apparent outsiders... all fit into nature's plan: At one point, you can even hear him turning a page. Despite the running, punning theme, there are few hard edges to be heard: Whether speaking or singing, Nilsson is as gentle as any dad could be with his child, and the music – deftly arranged by early Nilsson collaborator George Tipton and executed by such studio session greats as Carol Kaye – ranks among his most melodious. That's a high standard indeed. — Barry Walters
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Trouble Man

Marvin Gaye
1998 | Motown

As a movie, Trouble Man is mediocre at best, but it'd have to be a stone-cold film noir classic to live up to Marvin Gaye's haunting, moody score. Gaye took the creative clout he earned from What's Going On and poured it into Trouble Man, giving a fittingly cinematic blues-tinged soul-jazz cast to compositions that incorporated sumptuous orchestral strings and cutting-edge synthesizers alike. While his voice is scarce on the LP, Marvin... makes it count: the title theme is one of his most moving performances, showcasing both his smooth falsetto and his raw power. — Nate Patrin
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The Master: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Jonny Greenwood
2012 | Nonesuch

As long as PT Anderson is making movies about uber-driven weirdos, Jonny Greenwood's piercing, experimental classical compositions are going to fit the bill. And though Greenwood brings some of the same, eerie glissando effects to this film that he also contributed to There Will Be Blood, the sonic palette is a little broader this time around — as in the chamber lyricism of "Time Hole," or else "Alethia," where the gorgeously woozy... arrangement recalls some of Anderson's own attractive-yet-unsettling vistas. — Seth Colter Walls
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Paris, Texas - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Paris, Texas Soundtrack/Ry Cooder
2001 | Warner Bros.

The soundtrack for Wim Wenders's 1984 Palme d'Or-winning existential desert noir Paris, Texas is as sparse and mysterious as the South Texas landscape from which Harry Dean Stanton arises in the film's opening shot. Composed by hired-gun guitarist and chameleonic solo artist turned soundtrack master Ry Cooder, his mesmeric bottleneck lines slither in the arid ambient space provided by accompanists David Lindley and Jim Dickinson, touching upon blues, folk, and rancheras. Evocative... with just a handful of notes, this is a stark, dustbitten classic. — Andy Beta
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Rushmore

Various
2011 | ISLAND RECORDS

Few directors define their characters through music as succinctly as Wes Anderson, never more so than when he pegged the Creation's "Making Time" to afterschool overachiever Max Fischer. Although it's heavy on the British invasion, Rushmore's soundtrack is as peripatetic as the film's beret-sporting protagonist, ranging from Yves Montand's Francophone croon to the mock-baroque contraptions of Mark Mothersbaugh's score. And yet it all hangs together splendidly, telling a story all of its... own. — Sam Adams
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Anatomy Of A Murder

Duke Ellington
1999 | Columbia/Legacy

This soundtrack for Otto Preminger's classic legal thriller isn't often placed in the front-rank of the Duke's output, which is natural for an album that features some cues meant to serve purely as background. But as moody, noir-ish accompaniment goes, this is hardly anonymous work: The band's swagger in "Flirtbird" and "Grace Valse" is unmistakable. The main title theme snarls with intrigue; when it swings into action, you'll perk your head up... (just like those who were in the film's first audiences probably did). Look for Ellington's cameo in the film, too, in the role of Pie-Eye: a character that inspired the pianist's catchy-as-hell "Pie-Eye's Blues." An early run-through (titled "More Blues") is now included in Columbia's remastered edition of the album. — Seth Colter Walls
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Moog: Original Film Soundtrack

Various Artists
2004 | Hollywood Records

Synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog had an extraordinary connection with machines: "I can feel what's going on inside a piece of electronic equipment," he says in this 2004 documentary. This soundtrack brings out the human side of his creation. The space-oddity freakouts in Bootsy Collins's "When Bernie Speaks" play like unfettered stoner comedy, while the muted bell tones in the Album Leaf's "Micro Melodies" evoke late-night isolation. A second disc showcases the Moog's... place in rock history, from prog (Yes's "Close to the Edge") to new wave (New Order's "Blue Monday"), from cheesy (Gary Numan's "Cars") to sublimely deranged (Devo's "Mongoloid"). — Karen Schoemer
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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Various Artists
2006 | Fantasy Records

While this 1975 film from Milos Forman swept every category save Best Soundtrack (that went to Jaws), the score from Phil Spector and Neil Young associate Jack Nitzsche is a masterpiece in its own right. Nitzsche enacts musical mood swings that match the film's subjects. There are gentle orchestral strings that act as medicated haze, bits of sprightly Hawaiian guitar licks and marimba, and for the theme itself, a gorgeous amalgam of... orchestra with Indian tom toms and singing saw. Freak-folky, elegant and stunning. — Andy Beta
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The Fountain OST

Clint Mansell / Kronos Quartet
2006 | Nonesuch

It may be Darren Aronofsky's most (wrongly) maligned movie, but even those who flinched from his cosmic fairy tale can luxuriate in its score. Availing himself of the Kronos Quartet and Mogwai, composer Clint Mansell, who also penned the much-recycled theme for Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, moves from melancholy strings through Tibetan chant and feedback storms, climaxing with the stellar sweep of "Death Is the Road to Awe." Both epic and... intimate, The Fountain's soundtrack goes around the galaxy only to find its way back home. —Sam Adams
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La Planète Sauvage (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Alain Goraguer
2011 | Master Classics Records / The Orchard

This strange and wonderful album didn't single-handedly invent trip-hop, but it could've: Air, Portishead and DJ Shadow all sound like it, while Madlib, Big Pun and many others simply sampled it. The soundtrack for a supremely trippy 1973 French-Czechoslovakian animated sci-fi flick, it's comprised of small but buttery-smooth and nearly seamless pieces by Alain Goraguer, former arranger for Serge Gainsbourg, France Gall, Juliette Gréco and other Gallic pop titans. His ability to... combine rock instrumentation, orchestral strings, horns, woodwinds, jazz-funk percussion, wordless choirs and avant-garde experiments with layers of audio trickery is so advanced that even now, 40 years later, the whole thing still sounds as though it seeped out of some fantastical symphonic synthesizer of the future. — Barry Walters
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Suspiria

Goblin
2010 | Cine Vox / Believe Digital

A creepy hybrid of up-to-the-'70s electric prog rocking and acoustic medieval evil, Italian group Goblin's expressionist score to Dario Argento's gory 1977 giallo masterpiece is as startling as the film itself. In addition to the film's memorable fourteen-note theme, keyboardist Claudio Simonetti (on Mellotron, Moogs and celesta) and company explore "Sighs" (acoustic guitars and heavy breathing), the mechanically motivated "Markos," and more orthodox jazz-rocking evocations of Argento's characters ("Black Forest") as... they are variously sliced, diced, and covered with maggots. — Richard Gehr
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Warren Ellis Picks His Favorite Albums

Andrew Perry — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:30:24 +0000

[To celebrate the release of their 15th studio album, Push The Sky Away, we invited Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds to take control of eMusic's editorial for a week. You can read our exclusive interview with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis of the Bad Seeds here. The band also asked us to interview Australian rock legend Ed Kuepper as part of their takeover — you can read that here. And Warren Ellis reveals the band's favorite albums on eMusic, below. — Ed.]

Nina Simone: The Tomato Collection

Nina Simone
2005 | Tomato Records / The Orchard

Supreme sampler of the uncompromising jazz-blues diva's oeuvre. Includes big-hitters "I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl," "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and 35 other gems.

Nina Simone is a huge inspiration. I was put on to her back in Australia in the '80s and '90s, then I discovered her version of "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" on the 1970 live album Black Gold. She's one of the only people who... can interpret Bob Dylan in an amazing way. Live, if you look at any footage of her, she's one of the purest performers you've ever seen. I saw her at Meltdown in the '90s [the London festival curated by Nick Cave] and it was still one of the greatest concerts I've ever seen in my life, terrifying and extraordinary on every level. I'd never seen anything like that, and probably never will.
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A Way of Life

Suicide
2012 | Cherry Red Records / The Orchard

New York electronic punks' oft-overlooked third album from 1988.

Suicide are an extraordinary band. Just the way they combine the cool electronic thing with punk rock attitude and those vocals. There's something really beautiful about their songs. Plus Alan Vega and Martin Rev are two of the coolest guys in the industry. I put Alan Vega on at All Tomorrow's Parties when the Dirty Three curated the festival in 2007. When he turned... up, it was the first time I'd met him, and the door opened, and he goes, "You never told me there were fucking cows! I hate cows!"

And then, Martin Rev — what a musician. He's got this great jazz sensibility combined with punk rock. We played with them one night with Grinderman, and did a couple of songs, and man, that guy can fuck shit up. Martin started this song totally different to the way we'd played it at soundcheck, and he just lifted his glasses up, and gave me a wink. He's a sonic terrorist, with a glint in his eye.
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Electrical Storm

Ed Kuepper
Hot Records

Erstwhile guitarist with Aussie punk-rockers The Saints, Kuepper is now a touring Bad Seed. This 1985 album is from the beginning of his prolific — and amazing — solo career.

Ed Kuepper is one of the great guitar players. I remember seeing the Saints on TV when I was a kid in Australia, doing "Stranded." It was extraordinary to see that among the other stuff, in the same way that seeing AC/DC at... the time was so extraordinary. Like, what the fuck…? Ed is so prolific and his output is very diverse. He has written some fantastic songs. The Laughing Clowns, his band between The Saints and going solo, were amazing, just phenomenal. He has had a really long, significant career, but he just keeps moving and creating.
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The Complete Sun Singles, vol. 1

Jerry Lee Lewis
Sun Records

The motherlode of late-'50s rock 'n' roll, as "The Killer" rattles off "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On" and other Sun Records classics.

You can't go wrong with The Killer, can you? We tried to get to play at ATP, and the fee he came in with was more than the budget of the whole festival — for a 38-minute set. That was a shame. But I saw him play in Paris a few... years back and the gig was up there with Nina Simone. He looked like he wanted to murder somebody, just insane, they were holding him back. He was really doing the showbiz thing, and he had that piano sound, which was like a piledriver going through your head. It was one of the greatest 38 minutes of live music I've ever seen in my life.
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Gimme Some Skin

The Stooges
2009 | Vanilla OMP / The Orchard

Sleazy, in-the-red proto-punk-rock 45 from the dying days of Iggy Pop's legendary combo.

The Stooges are one of those bands that just got it right. They're like The Velvet Underground: You remember the first time you heard them, and you know that things aren't gonna be the same after that. I met Iggy once at a festival, back in the '90s. I don't feel like I have any right to comment on him... now, or whether he's carrying the torch still. I'm just a stupid dick from Ballarat (Victoria, Australia), you know? And he's Iggy Pop!
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Love a Kind of Hate Story

Tim Rose
2009 | Popgear / AWAL

1970 album from the gutsy white-soul/blues author of "Morning Dew" and "Long Time Man" — the latter covered by the Bad Seeds in '87.

Tim Roses's stuff is all beautiful. His voice is unbelievable — the delivery, and the sense of narrative, the way things can unfold. And his sense of space, too. We did a couple of shows with him on the Boatman's Call tour — it was kind of his comeback.... It's hard to judge a person on 35 minutes spent with them backstage, but I was amazed just to see him standing there. He was one of those people, you like their stuff, and you hear somewhere along the line that they've died, or they don't exist anymore, and then you see them!
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Walking On The Wild Side

Lou Reed
2009 | Vanilla OMP / The Orchard

New York's most ornery avant-rocker caught live post-Velvet Underground. Features an interview enthusiastically celebrating of his recent alliance with David Bowie on Transformer.

When I heard The Velvet Underground, it was the first time I'd heard a stringed instrument [John Cale's viola] used like that. I couldn't believe how it was played. It blew my mind. Their music still does. I'd always played classical instruments, and I'd always listened to rock 'n' roll,... but I didn't really see where they'd fit together. When I heard the Velvet Underground, I was like, Wow, it can be done. It was amazing.

I saw Lou Reed do Metal Machine Music and I would've liked to have seen him with Metallica. I felt like that was his attempt to do something different, and get himself outside of the comfort zone. It was so refreshing. I don't put that album on every day, but it's nice to know it's out there.
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Back in the Motherland (Live)

Leonard Cohen
2011 | Left Field Media / The Orchard

Homecoming live set from Laughing Len in '88, featuring consummate takes on "Suzanne" and "Tower Of Song" (also once covered by the Bad Seeds).

Everyone says Leonard Cohen is miserable and morbid, but they say the same about Nick, too. Everybody focuses on the dour thing, when in fact there's a real sense of humour in there. Leonard Cohen's certainly got his dark spots. Songs Of Love & Hate is one of my... favourite albums ever. Sure he gets 'down there', but there's always this humanity that you can latch onto. Even at his most nihilistic, you can ride with him.
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Kollaps

Einstürzende Neubauten
2003 | Potomak / Zebralution

The Berlin metal-bashers' astonishing and ground-breaking (often literally!) debut from 1981. Blixa Bargeld, their incandescent leader, was a Bad Seed until 2003.

Einstürzende Neubauten are a great band. A lot of groups, you hear where they've come from — you hear the influences. This band, they're more like a jazz band in that they have this language of their own. They've come up with this way they play together. I read a great... interview with Blixa recently. They were doing a tour, and he said, "Anybody expecting to see a bunch of people smashing things up is going to be very disappointed." His quote of the century [shortly before departing the Bad Seeds] was, "I didn't get into rock 'n' roll to play rock 'n' roll." He's another one-off!
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Miss America

Mary Margaret O'Hara
2010 | Mary Margaret O'Hara / CD Baby

Solitary classic from brittle Canadian country chanteuse, released in '88.

Mary Margaret O'Hara has such an amazing voice. I almost don't even listen to the music, because it's not my sort of thing, but her voice is just phenomenal. Watching her perform is something else too. Her performance always seems to be on the brink of either absolute genius or total collapse, and you're just like hanging in there. But then when it... takes off, it's just amazing. I did a show with her and Howe Gelb in London. It was a real treat. Again, she's a one-off, and I mean that in a very respectful way.
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Mondscheinsonate - Single

Beethoven
2011 | Mondscheinsonate / TuneCore

The funereal yet exquisite Piano Sonata No 14, by the great Ludwig Van, written in 1801.

The Moonlight Sonata is beautiful. I like Beethoven because he always seemed to know where to go with his music. He could always keep moving, he didn't get stuck on a riff. I really enjoy that about listening to him.

I was visited by the ghost of Beethoven when I was about 24. He sat on the... end of my bed, and I took that as a sign that I should get on with my life. We didn't have words. He actually appeared twice, once when I was playing in an orchestra, and then the second time I was just totally fucked up, in a state, and I had this wonderful visitation. If you're gonna get one, it might as well be someone like Beethoven.
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A Winter Project

A. Pärt
2011 | KrysaliSound

Present-day classical composer from Estonia brings his trademark stark beauty

Pärt's music is very pure and simple. He usually writes for large ensembles, like choral groups with orchestras, but sometimes he'll write for just piano and violin. It's so soulful, the music, it's some of the most beautiful you'll hear. People hear him and just connect. He's been copied and imitated so much in the last ten or 15 years — he's probably... one of the most imitated contemporary composers.
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Hurt me

Johnny Thunders
2010 | Last call / Believe Digital

Unusually unamplified and stripped-down solo recordings from the late New York Doll

He's great, Johnny Thunders. I like the fact that in interviews he'd say, "Listen, I don't play punk rock, I play rock 'n 'roll." It's so true. He seemed to have a real pride in what he did, he wasn't this sort of smash-it-up punk guy. That attitude was what he objected to and why he saw himself as a rock... 'n' roller. This is an acoustic album and I love it. It was recorded in Paris for the New Rose label.
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Barbed Wire Blues

Wilko Johnson
1989 | Jungle Records / The Orchard

The Dr Feelgood guitarist, recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, here on fire with his long-running trio circa '89.

I love Wilko. I always thought there was a bit of Rowland Howard [late Birthday Party guitarist] in him. Rowland got something from Wilko. With Wilko, if you watch any footage of him from back in the day, you just think, how did he come up with that style?

We bumped into him in Heathrow... airport, him and [bassist] Norman Watt-Roy drinking Bloody Marys at some horrendous hour in the morning. The biggest smiles on their faces, and affable as you could imagine — in their 60s, eyes bulging. I hope I'll get to see him again before he goes.
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The Namedroppers: Getting to the Bottom of 10 Musical Shout-Outs

Arye Dworken — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:22:12 +0000

Musicians are narcissists. It’s the chief qualification for getting on stage and soaking in the adulation of the masses. So when a band or a songwriter references another performer in a song, there’s almost always a reason for diverting the attention.

Considering the rareness of this generosity, we decided to highlight a handful of those shout-outs — the best well-intentioned, intra-musical nods

But knowing that musicians are also legendary canard-makers, we wanted to consider the plausibility of the scenarios as well. What are the chances that, let’s say, Katy Perry was, in fact, listening to Radiohead as she was making out — which she alleges in “The One That Got Away?” We get to the bottom of this, and more, in the list below.

Miley Cyrus

The Time Of Our Lives

Miley Cyrus
2009 | EP/SINGLE

The song: "Party In The USA"
Lyric sample: "And the Jay-Z song was on."
Which song is being referenced: MIley is riding in a cab and she hears Hova on the radio. It's natural to assume she's listening to Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind," because it was ubiquitous, kind of like God. But Blueprint 3, from which the heartfelt Manhattan homage is taken was released a few weeks after "Party In The USA"... had already hit the charts. So which track could it be? Well, since Cyrus admits to putting her hands up in the air — or as high as a cab roof will allow — and thus thereafter appropriates the song as her own ("they're playin' my song"), she presumably relates and connects to the lyrics on a substantive level. Therefore, the Jay-Z song that's on is "Girls, Girls, Girls," because Miley Cyrus happens to be one.
The probability of this scenario? After "Party In The USA" became a mega-hit, Cyrus was asked in an interview about the Jay-Z song. Her response: "I have never heard a Jay-Z song. I don't listen to pop music." This is a direct quote.
Altruistic nature of the shout-out: None. Jay-Z is very famous, Cyrus or no Cyrus.
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Katy Perry

Teenage Dream

Katy Perry
2010 | CAPITOL

The song: "The One That Got Away"
Lyric sample: "Summer after high school, when we first met/ we made out in your Mustang to Radiohead."
Which song is being referenced: The chances of anyone owning a Mustang listening to Radiohead beyond Kid A are improbable. This limits the teens' make-out sesh soundtrack to a select track from one of three albums: Pablo Honey, The Bends and OK Computer. Now, factoring in the high... school reference in the lyrics, Perry, at the time, assuredly felt alienated, misunderstood, and that she didn't belong here wherever "here" was at the time. These two teens were undoubtedly listening to "Creep."
The probability of this scenario? Before Katy Perry ejected whipped cream from a plastic cupcake bra, she was a Christian pop singer — which, ultimately, would make this scenario unlikely. However, if the lyrics were "We made out in your Mustang to Jars of Clay," we might have a real autobiographical moment.
Altruistic nature of the shout-out: Small. Yorke and company are plenty famous without a pop singer's endorsement even though, according to many disgruntled fans, they're trying hard to reverse that progress.
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Snow Patrol

Up To Now

Snow Patrol
2009 | Polydor/Fiction/Geffen

The song: "Hands Open"
Lyric sample: "Put Sufjan Stevens on and we'll play your favorite song."
Which song is being referenced: In the next line of the song, singer Gary Lightbody specifies The song: It's "Chicago," from the orchestral folk singer's album Illinois. The thing is, though, "Hands Open" is about a hopeful man courting an emotionally resistant woman who — side note — has a real affinity for a six-minute song about... the Windy City. But writing a new song about playing a song for a girl seems like long route to wooing someone. Just play her the song she likes, don't write her a new one. Look at how much time I saved you, Gary.
The probability of this scenario? Incredibly likely. After soundtracking Grey's Anatomy with his compositions a number of times and presumably watching select episodes of the series, songwriter Lightbody is looking for sad, folksy and introspective music to help him deal with Meredith Grey's constant heartbreak.
Altruistic nature of the shout-out: Well-intentioned. Or, in the parlance of the show, Lightbody is McWell-Intentioned.
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MGMT

Oracular Spectacular

MGMT
2009 | Red Ink/Columbia

The song: "Brian Eno"
Lyric sample: "We're always one step behind him, he's Brian Eno."
Which song is being referenced: Psychedelic hipsters Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden insist that Eno "taught [them] so many things," one of which was how to follow up a hit debut with a difficult follow-up. In 1977, Eno released Before And After Science, which many consider by to be his last "conventional" rock album as a solo artist.... After that, he recorded a surreal ambient album which confounded the fans accumulated with his five classic glam rock records. MGMT took that lesson to heart. The duo's prog-heavy second album Congratulations confounded fans looking for more "Kids."
The probability of this scenario? Two kids from Wesleyan University listening to Brian Eno? That's practically a curriculum requirement.
Altruistic nature of the shout-out: High. Eno's early output is, inexplicably, still underrated.
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Regina Spektor

Begin To Hope

Regina Spektor
2006 | Sire

The song: "On The Radio"
Lyric sample: "On the radio, you hear 'November Rain,' that solo's awful long, but it's a good refrain."
Which song is being referenced: "November Rain" from Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion. And just to clarify, there are three solos: the first being 47 seconds long, the second one 24 seconds and the final, epic one at a goose-bumping 1:35. It's unclear as to whether Spektor considered the culmination... of all three solos to be too long, or whether one of the three individual solos were superfluous. Or just maybe Spektor had a beef with Slash and chose to take it out on him here. That's possible, too.
The probability of this scenario? The songwriter, having emigrated from Russia in high school, was inevitably listening to hard rock, as most Soviet expats were inclined to do. Having been in Russia myself, the listening choices are pared down to either t.A.T.u., Michael Jackson or metal.
Altruistic nature of the shout-out: High. We all need a reminder of how great Axl Rose and his band used to be.
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Counting Crows

Recovering The Satellites

Counting Crows
1996 | Geffen

The song: "Monkey"
Lyric sample: "Got nowhere but home to go/ Got Ben Folds on my radio now."
Which song is being referenced: In 1996, when Adam Duritz and the gang released Recovering the Satellites, the Chapel Hill trio Ben Folds Five had released just one album, and that was the self-titled debut. Therefore, there were only 12 songs for the dreadlocked frontman to play on his radio. "Monkey" also depicts Duritz as his... most introspective, referencing a "lonely spiral" and a feeling of being "all messed up." It's a reference to his depersonalization disorder, which causes a person to live life as an imitation of himself. Adam Duritz was listening to Ben Folds Five's "Best Imitation of Myself."
The probability of this scenario? Highly probable. Crows that count enjoy band names with numbers.
Altruistic nature of the shout-out: Even. Back then, Ben Folds Five was an indie act on a small label which lent Duritz some cred.
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Mary Lou Lord

Mary Lou Lord

Mary Lou Lord
2008 | EP/SINGLE

The song: "His Indie World"
Lyric sample: The whole damn song is a reference.
Which song is being referenced: In a span of two-and-a-half minutes, folk singer Lord references a total of 34 obscure indie rock artists, many of which her snobby boyfriend prefers over more common classic rock fare like Joni, Neil or Bob. There's Velocity Girl, Rocket from the Crypt, Slant 6 and Butterglory and a tossed salad of what... was once considered alternative rock. Ultimately, the snob's lack of interest in her love may not be because of the lack of vinyl overlap. Dude may be too cool to, like, have a — insert air quote — relationship.
The probability of this scenario? Likely. Back when Lord wrote the song, people who differed in musical tastes still interacted with one another and even tried dating.
Altruistic nature of the shout-out: Even. Everyone's obscure.
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Ben Lee

Awake Is the New Sleep

Ben Lee
New West Records

The song: "Catch My Disease"
Lyric sample: "I hear Beyoncé on the radio and that's the way I like it."
Which song is being referenced: It's a strange thing to write a love song about "opening your heart" and moments thereafter reference the possibility of a transmittable disease. But Lee is an open and communicable guy. When he invites a potential love interest to a two person viral party, he even says "please." Considering... his politeness, the Australian songwriter could not be listening to Beyoncé's rude and fierce alter ego Sasha Fierce. However, "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)," which many consider as a literal admonition, could also serve as a veiled and metaphorical warning to "put a ring on it," or, in common parlance: wear protection at all times.
The probability of this scenario? Beyoncé and diseases are a pretty unlikely pairing, but then again, Ben Lee dated Claire Danes and that's an unlikely pairing, too.
Altruistic nature of the shout-out: Beyoncé doesn't need your altruism, mortal.
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Clem Snide

You Were A Diamond

Clem Snide
1998 | Tractor Beam / The Orchard

The song: "Nick Drake Tape"
Lyric sample: "That Nick Drake tape you love, tonight it sounds so good."
Which song is being referenced: In "Nick Drake Tape," the song's narrator attempts to lull a stressed-out lover into slumber. They're listening to the "When the Day Is Done," a sweet lullaby about the culmination of the day's events.
The probability of this scenario? In 1999, Volkswagen used Drake's "Pink Moon" in what's considered... one of the finest commercials in advertising history. The spot, titled "Milky Way," inspired a posthumous appreciation for the soft-spoken British folk singer. Yet, Eef Barzelay, the frontman for the rustic folk collective Clem Snide, wrote and recorded "Nick Drake Tape" in 1998, one year ahead of the trends. This would make Barzelay a genuine Drake Aficionado who can recognize the genius in any and every song from Drake's limited three-album catalog.
Altruistic nature of the shout-out: High. It's hard to imagine, but Drake was a forgotten gem only rediscovered in the last decade.
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Diddy Dirty Money

Last Train To Paris

Diddy-Dirty Money
2010 | Bad Boy / Interscope

The song: "Coming Home"
Lyric sample: "'Tears of a Clown,' I hate that song."
Which song is being referenced: Not to be a stickler here, but the title of the song Diddy references is missing the all important "The." We're not simply talking about the collective tears of a clown over his or her lifespan. We're meant to consider a singular event in which the clown was brought to uncontrollable sobbing. Upon further inspection,... "The Tears of a Clown" by Smokey Robinson is about heartbreak. And while Diddy is coming home, he's probably only coming home because he has Coulrophobia, which is an irrational fear of clowns.
The probability of this scenario? Diddy, who likens himself to a New Jack Sinatra, appreciates the old school and could just as easily be listening to Smokey as he could be listening to Danity Kane. Which is to say his taste in music is inconsistent. And that he is afraid of clowns.
Altruistic nature of the shout-out: Diddy isn't familiar with this "altruism" you speak of. Is it a vodka drink?
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Eddie Huang’s Top 5 Hip-Hop Albums

Elisa Ludwig — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:00:29 +0000

Eddie Huang, celebrity chef, TV host and author of the memoir Fresh Off the Boat, is pretty sure that hip-hop saved his life when he was a bullied, racially “other” kid growing up in Florida. Even now, the influence is obvious in everything from his restaurant’s playlists to the cover of his book to his Source-esque wardrobe.

Here, he shares the top five albums that got him through his formative SPAM-launching/skateboarding/security fence-hopping years.

Camp Lo, Uptown Saturday Night

Uptown Saturday Night

Camp Lo
1999 | Arista

I can't even explain it — this album is just my a-alike. From the first time I heard it, I never stopped listening to it, every week. It doesn't even speak to me as literally as it does subconsciously. I've listened to this album over and over, but I think the flow on the tracks just taps into my idle mind. A lot of the lyrics are nonsensical, but Cheeba and... Geechi just sound like two kids in high school, talkin' shit, and it transports me back to childhood.
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Notorious B.I.G., Ready to Die

Ready To Die The Remaster

The Notorious B.I.G.
1994 | Bad Boy Records

Lyrically, this is my favorite album of all time (this and Illmatic). It's hard to say anything about B.I.G. that hasn't already been said. I related a lot to his story about coming up by any means, owning how he was a fat ass and still having more game than any pretty mofucker out there. "Heartthrob? Never! Black and ugly as ever! However, I stay Coogi down to the socks." I... mean, peep the rhyme scheme, the swag, and the Coogi.
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The Diplomats, Diplomatic Immunity

Cam'Ron Presents The Diplomats - Diplomatic Immunity

The Diplomats
2003 | Roc-A-Fella

"Put your two arms up/ Touchdown." The Ramones ran downtown NY in the '80s from Forest Hills; Diplomats ran it in the '00s all the way from uptown.

Wu Tang Clan, Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers)

Enter The Wu-Tang

Wu Tang Clan
1993 | RCA Records Label

I was never as proud to be Chinese as I was the day I heard Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). I was always a hip-hop head, but a lot of people tried to tell me I couldn't be part of the culture. When these brothers from Shaolin took over the game — with inspiration from Shaw Brothers Films — we felt like we belonged. THANK YOU, RZA.

Outkast, ATLiens

ATLiens

Outkast
1996 | Arista/LaFace Records

People know OutKast post-Stankonia, for the most part, but down South we were bumpin' Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik and ATLiens. Outkast was the defining group from the Field that repped for flip-flops and socks and sweatpants. This was the perfect album to smoke to, listening to André and Daddy Fat Sax drop knowledge about Jazzy Belles and Elevators.

Let’s Stay Together

eMusic Artists — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:38:56 +0000

You don’t have to squint too hard to see the ways that being in love is a lot like being in a band. Both take patience and dedication. Both require open channels of communication. And both have the potential to yield either beautiful music or dissonant clamor. With that in mind, we asked 23 bands to share their secrets for staying together. Take them to heart, and happiness is sure to follow.

Lenny Kaye, The Patti Smith Group

Banga

Patti Smith
2012 | Columbia

It's all about work-in-progress. If shared differences highlight a band's reason for becoming, they can also potentially cleave and separate. For us, a strong leader and sense of communal vision helps the decision-making process. Any group can encompass the widest range of style and personal taste listening to each other instead of oneself. Respect the music you make together as a family.

Liars

WIXIW

Liars
2012 | MUTE

We're fairly scientific in keeping Liars together — more specifically, we rely heavily on pheromones. At the end of each week we swap T-shirts and for the next two nights use each other's shirts as pillow cases. The pheromones permeate our dreams and we become one another in them, thus internalizing empathy for our band mates and creating a harmonious working relationship for all.

Alex Naidus, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Belong

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Collective Sounds / The Orchard

A short, half-to-three-quarters-serious list of staying together-related things: inside jokes, forward momentum, state-of-the-band-union talks (but not too often), crossword puzzles, headphones, touring-in-moderation, nostalgia, continental breakfast, Japan.

FIDLAR

FIDLAR

FIDLAR
2013 | Mom & Pop Music / The Orchard

For us, at least on tour, we have a strict morning routine that we do daily before heading to the next town. It consists of a 6 a.m. wake-up call leading into a brisk morning stroll, where the four of us walk single file for two miles, followed by 30 minutes of individual meditation, into a 15-minute group meditation where the four of us sit in a circle with our eyes closed,... chanting, with our left hand placed on the person to our left's right shoulder, while our right hand holds the person on our right's genitals. The after a light breakfast of birdseeds and eucalyptus leaves, we all smoke da herb and pray to Jah for good travels. Then we head out to the next show. It's really the only way we keep from losing our shit.
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Allo Darlin’

Europe

Allo Darlin'
2012 | Slumberland Records / The Orchard

How does a band like ours stay together? It's not always easy and as fun as it looks to play in a group. We need to find day jobs when we're not on tour in order to pay the rent, and we're always trying to keep costs down (or jam econo, as the Minutemen said). That aside, our intentions are good, and if we keep those in check, financial problems tend to... fade away. Traveling the world and playing our songs is an amazing privilege, and we try to remember that. We don't take ourselves too seriously and we laugh a lot. If we feel down, we watch Team America. Everything is worth it when we finally get to play.
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Ladytron

Gravity The Seducer

Ladytron
2011 | Nettwerk Records

The relationship between us is complex. It's like being family, friends and colleagues all at the same time. For a large part of the year, we live within seven inches of each other on a tour bus, so things can get heated. It is very important to know how to give yourself and those around you space. Our advice is to get out of that bus/van/studio and get some air. Go visit... a gallery or a zoo. It's all about respecting each other, and it's easy to forget that if you spend too much time together.
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Al Spx, Cold Specks

I Predict a Graceful Expulsion

Cold Specks
2012 | MUTE

Touring extensively with a party of eight can be difficult at times. As much as we all adore one another, being in a confined space with so many human beings for extended periods of time is very unnatural. Here are my tips for staying together:
1) Keep tabs on your trash. A clean van is a happy van.
2) Bring a book and learn to acknowledge quiet reading time
3) Bring a box set of... Black Adder, Band Of Brothers and/or Curb Your Enthusiasm for group viewings. A good series will make everything OK.
4) Bring a pack of cards. Beware, I will kick your ass.
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Jamie Lidell

Compass

Jamie Lidell
Warp Records

Slow it all down. Sing a duet. Ride Bikes. Make ice cream. Make whoopie. Nobody's perfect so just start loving the imperfections and things might just start getting perfect!

Zak Stevens, Savatage and Circle II Circle

Seasons Will Fall

Circle II Circle
2013 | Eagle Rock / Armoury Records

What's really been working for us over the past few years is having open and clear communication at all times about everything going on with the band. We don't assume the guys will hear news items from each other. We send announcements to everyone via e-mail. With six guys in the band, this is something that helps us avoid unnecessary frustration and it keeps everyone in the loop.

Mike V., The Everymen

New Jersey Hardcore

The Everymen
2012 | Killing Horse Records / TuneCore

Wanna stay together? Simple. Just adhere to the two simple rules The Everymen follow. 1. Don't practice — that's usually when bands break up. 2. Do whatever I say and never question my authority, or you're out of the fucking band.

Alyse Lamb, EULA

Maurice Narcisse

EULA
2012 | eMusic Selects

Staying together is not about love, honesty or respect — those are all givens. The true secret to staying together is tact — knowing when to soothe, knowing when to vex. Give a compliment when someone's feeling shitty, and keep your fucking mouth shut when someone misses a chord on stage.

Big Deal

Lights Out

Big Deal
2011 | MUTE

Look out for each other. Designate a silly happy song to play when everyone gets down. Our current favorite is New Radicals "You Get What You Give." Never laugh when someone's showing you a song idea — even if you think it's really funny. Don't be gross in the van. And when making tea, make a cup for everyone. It's the little things.

Sinosa Loa, Fol Chen

Part II: The New December

Fol Chen
Asthmatic Kitty Records / SC Distribution

When you've been with your band for a while, you have to make an effort to keep it fresh and exciting. So we like to mix it up a bit. For instance, sometimes we'll practice in public, like in a park or a movie theater. Sometimes we'll practice blindfolded, or with the curtains open. Our favorite is to surprise each other with a spontaneous 3 a.m. practice — whatever keeps the spark... alive!
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Gretta, My Gold Mask

A Thousand Voices - EP

My Gold Mask
2010 | My Gold Mask / CD Baby

Jack and I are pretty intense people at times and have really strong personalities, but I've found that for us it's easy: good beer and a sense of humor. Throw in some dark chocolate, and I'm not going anywhere.

Max Henry, Suuns

Zeroes QC

Suuns
Secretly Canadian / SC Dist.

There's something to be said for keeping "that old feeling" alive in the band. In my experience, it's really no different from an authentic interpersonal ("persons" — that's what you call those pink, fleshy things that aren't synthesizers, right?) relationship.

Like you would any "significant other," never forget to be amazed by your bandmates. I'm lucky to be playing with exceptionally talented and capable musicians. It's not a written rule, but when Joe's... solo melts my face off (which is often), I let him know.

Cultivate your sense of self — read a book, write a journal entry. Leave your poor bandmates alone for a second. On tour, don't hold each other's hands. Not every meal has to be a hang. Don't be that guy that talks all the time. If you're annoying yourself, you're probably annoying others too.

Don't let the band become your sole purpose. If the band is your only raison d'etre it will consume you. Like a new love, play it cool. The glass is already broken.

On a similar note, don't ask for anything from the band; focus on what satiates you as a creative person. Take a page out of Chekov's book (or Williams's or Kafka's or Eliot's or Stevens's): Get a job. Ideally, one that you like. It will afford you the flexibility to make what you want without compromise. With little exception, the only full-time rock musicians are professional children of rich moms and dads.

Look, I could be way off here. These are as much reminders to myself as anything else. Of course, don't be a ding-dong — help load in and out, show up on time (I'm great at that), etc. Love them, love yourself, love what you do, and you should be alright.
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Nick Krill, Spinto Band

Cool Cocoon

The Spinto Band
2013 | Spintonic Recordings / Redeye

Be friends and family, and then be understanding and rational. We have been playing music together for 15 years now, with all original band members intact. Being friends or family can sometimes be a volatile mix in a band, but i think as long as everyone remains understanding of one another's points of view, and rational when it comes to decisions, being best friends and family before you are a band is... a good foundation to build on.
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Kemble Walters, Aeges, Juliette & The Licks, The Rise

The Bridge

Aeges
2012 | The Mylene Sheath / Redeye

The best way for bands to stay together is to be honest and up front. As much as a band is fun and a way to shake off the day job it, in turn, is also a job that should be taken seriously if you wanna succeed. If there's a "problem-child" in the band who's not pulling their weight, let it be known and get it out in the open so they... can shape up or ship out before they become a dead anchor.
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Mean Creek

Youth Companion

Mean Creek
2012 | Old Flame Records

Being in a band with someone is pretty much the same thing as being in a relationship with someone. Honesty, good communication and respect for one another are the most important parts of maintaining any relationship. As long as you have those things, you can work through anything. Being friends, first and foremost, and being on the same page about things has helped us as well.

Wooden Indian Burial Ground

Wooden Indian Burial Ground

Wooden Indian Burial Ground
2012 | Mon Amie Records / The Orchard

Drink lots of El Jimador. Tour in tiny station wagons. Play shows instead of practicing. Don't eat more than once a day on tour. Make sure that one thing you eat is a salad lifted from Whole Foods. Do jumping jacks, pushups or jump rope every time you stop at a rest area, even when drunk on El Jimador. Forget about having full time "jobs" or that stuff called "money" These things... only get in the way of fun and art.
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Horsehands

Sirs

Horsehands
2013 | Horshands / CD Baby

I find sobbing uncontrollably while screaming, "DON'T YOU EVER LEAVE ME!" before and after practice is helpful. Also, little things, like warming up the neck of the bass guitar with my sweet, sweet breath and gently crying on the drum sticks, add a much-needed personal touch.

Vin, Caged Animals

Eat Their Own

Caged Animals
Lucky Number / The Orchard

We've only been a band for a few years, but the four of us have been together, as friends and family, for a while. Despite the tightness we've got going just based on that, I don't think we'd be able to pull things together as a band without the following credo: Eat a healthy group lunch before practice, eat a delicious group dinner after practice, and only say mean things that make... the song sound better.
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Solvents

Forgive Yr. Blood

solvents
2010 | Bee Resin Records / The Orchard

Woo the band with your songwriting skills, sex and promises of eventual pop stardom. Book a West Coast tour. Hop in the sedan and romance them from Olympia to Los Angeles. Book a tour of Europe and romance them from Brussels to Berlin. Make a couple albums then ask them to marry you.

Pat Hull

Shed Skin

Pat Hull
2013 | Pat Hull / TuneCore

Form a basketball team within your band and find a court to play in every city/town you're touring. The way each member plays on the court will inform your chemistry and band dynamic.

eMusic’s Alternate-Universe GRAMMY Nominees

eMusic Editorial Staff — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 14:25:52 +0000

Let’s be honest: The Grammys are a great spectacle and fun bit of junk food TV, but few of us take it seriously as any kind of measurement of musical innovation. Even this year, when more indie-bred artists are on the ballot than ever before, with the notable exception of Alabama Shakes it still feels like the Grammy-nominating committee is getting to the party a little too late. So we decided to take 10 of this year’s nominees and use them to introduce you to your next favorite band. Like The Black Keys? See why we suggest Two Gallants. Loving the Lumineers? Read why we think Trampled By Turtles is a good next step. This way, when the 2014 Grammys roll around, you can say, “Those guys? Man, I was into them forever ago.”

Like The Lumineers? Try Father John Misty.

Nominated For: Best New Artist, Best Americana Album
On a recent Saturday Night Live, the Lumineers grinned and stomped their feet. Last summer on Letterman, Father John Misty’s Joshua Tillman swiveled his hips like a lecherous lounge act. But both the Grammy-nominated Denver folk-rockers and the L.A.-transplanted former Fleet Foxes crooner share a fascination with strummy Americana. And the Lumineers’ best moment so far, the aptly titled “Slow It Down,” leans toward Tillman’s own shadowy intensity. Father John’s debut showcases a broader range of all-American styles, from Gram Parson’s country-rock to Lee Hazlewood’s symphonic cowboy-pop comedowns. Luckily, though, Fear Fun isn’t so aptly titled. With the wild-eyed sincerity of a cult leader, Tillman riffs on sex, drugs, and his own newfound hometown for some of 2012′s wickedest lyrical wiseassery. — Marc Hogan

The Lumineers

The Lumineers
2012 | Dualtone
Fear Fun

Father John Misty
2012 | Sub Pop Records

Like Carly Rae Jepsen? Try Chairlift.

Nominated For: Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance
“Call Me Maybe” lords over an album — Kiss — that pleasingly serves up more than a few scoops of pink-and-purple Cars-indebted pop. Chairlift’s “I Belong in Your Arms” was a smash hit on a much smaller scale — it rubbed elbows with “Call Me Maybe” on various year-end lists, but not the radio dial — and similarly lords over an album that goes deep into the ’80s, though now we’re talking Cocteau Twins and Kate Bush. From both, the plea is the same: love the single, but pay attention to the album. — Jordan Sargent

Kiss

Carly Rae Jepsen
2012 | Interscope
Something

Chairlift
2012 | Kanine/Columbia

Like Taylor Swift? Try Waxahatchee.

Nominated For: Record of the Year
“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” is Taylor Swift’s brightest blast of pop, a thrilling and antagonistic break-up exultation. But the foundation of her music — even last year’s Red — lies in the same type of bracing, lacerating relationship autopsies set to plaintive acoustic guitars that make up Waxahatchee’s American Weekend. Allison Crutchfield won’t soon be mistaken for a pop star that dates a Kennedy — her guitar tones are more ragged and her imagery much grimier — but in her songs the unrelentingly personal becomes universal all the same. — Jordan Sargent

Red

Taylor Swift
2012 | Big Machine Records, LLC
American Weekend

Waxahatchee
2012 | Don Giovanni Records / Believe Digital

Like Gotye? Try Radical Face.

Nominated For: Best Alternative Album, Record of the Year
Xylophones? Who needs that first-world instrument when handclaps and a tambourine can craft an equally irresistible groove. On this stellar cut from Floridian Ben Cooper’s project, he matches Gotye’s inescapable tune in the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink department. But Cooper’s resulting rollicking anthem — powered by double-tracked acoustic guitars, rustic piano and Cooper’s high, keening croon — is less like wandering the Australian outback and more like cruising in a boxcar with a bunch of hobos. — Kevin O’Donnell

Making Mirrors

Gotye
2012 | Samples & Seconds / Republic
Always Gold - EP

Radical Face
2012 | Bear Machine Records / CD Baby

Like Kelly Clarkson? Try Corin Tucker.

Nominated For: Song of the Year, Record of the Year
Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” is a Nietzschean testament to the strength gained from overcoming a bad relationship. The girl-as-survivor anthem functions as heroic storytelling in pop, giving voice to female empowerment. But what about the struggle for respect that happens within a committed partnership? The Corin Tucker Band’s Kill My Blues celebrates strength in vulnerability by reflecting what it feels like when you turn your relationship into a family. And frankly, while Clarkson has never sounded better, nothing compares to Corin Tucker’s voice when it soars like a jet plane. — Tobi Vail

Stronger

Kelly Clarkson
2011 | RCA Records Label
Kill My Blues

The Corin Tucker Band
2012 | Kill Rock Stars / Redeye

Like Jack White? Try Dead Sara.

Nominated For: Album of the Year, Best Rock Album
Jack White seemingly rifled through his classic rock collection to create Blunderbuss, but that album’s guitar-god moments pale in comparison to Dead Sara’s self-titled debut. The Los Angeles quartet storms through gnarly hard rock influenced by bluesy grunge (“Test On My Patience”), punk (the snarling “Monumental Holiday”) and metallic twang (“Timed Blues”). Credit for this raw power goes to the talents of lead guitarist Siouxsie Medley and vocalist/guitarist Emily Armstrong. The latter’s gravelly, vibrato-laden wail especially commands attention; think Stevie Nicks possessed by a demon — or the ghost of a wizened blues warbler. — Annie Zaleski

Blunderbuss

Jack White
2012 | Third Man/Columbia
Dead Sara

Dead Sara
Pocket Kid Records

Like Mumford & Sons? Try Trampled By Turtles.

Nominated For: Album of the Year, Best Rock Performance
The dramatic sine curves of Mumford & Sons’ acoustic anthems, which begin quietly and progress straight to rousing climaxes, get tweaked and trampled on Stars & Satellites, the sixth album by Duluth, Minnesota, veterans Trampled by Turtles. Supporting Dave Simonett’s self-reckoning lyrics and earnest vocals, the band has grown into one of the most accomplished and ambitious string bands around. Each song here contains some lively flourish — the majestic fiddle cascades on “Midnight on the Interstate,” the tectonic rumble of cello on “Alone” — that shows these Turtles not only mastering the new folk genre but thinking well beyond it. — Stephen M. Deusner

Stars and Satellites

Trampled By Turtles
2012 | Banjodad Records / The Orchard

Like Frank Ocean? Try Elle Varner.

Nominated For: Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Best New Artist
A confident R&B debut that isn’t afraid to reach across genre boundaries in order to make its point — that might describe Frank Ocean’s much-ballyhooed channel ORANGE, but it also serves as an introduction to the first album by Elle Varner. Not only can she out-falsetto Odd Future’s resident crooner, tracks like the fiddle-strung “Refill” (up for Best R&B Song) and the saucy “Sound Proof Room” have a brash confidence that demands repeat listens. — Maura Johnston

channel ORANGE

Frank Ocean
2012 | Def Jam Records
Perfectly Imperfect

Elle Varner
2012 | RCA Records Label

Like fun.? Try Foxy Shazam.

Nominated For: Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Best New Artist
Like fun., this Cincinnati septet draw from glam-rock, pop and R&B for a holler-from-the-rooftops, glory-glory-Halllelujah kinda vibe that totally cops to its own exaggeration and earnestness. Foxy Shazam, though, rock a lot harder; in fact, they never do anything to less than extremes: When they embrace Queen-like overdubbed choirs and scuzzy Led Zeppelin-eque stolen blues riffs on this, their fourth and most realized album, they really, really go for them. And so any appraisal of their most popular song, “I Like It,” where singer Eric Sean Nally repeatedly wails Robert Plant-style, “That’s the biggest black ass I’ve ever seen/And I like it, I like it – a lot!” should take into account that everything Foxy Shazam stand for is larger than life, including the soulfulness that’s intertwined with their innate ridiculousness. We all have obsessions that others could judge harshly, and if one of his is African-American backsides (he’s featured them the cheerleader-adorned cover of Introducing and similarly themed “Oh Lord” video), he’s also bold enough to admit it. This guy does not hold back, and, in the bigger picture, it’s endearing. — Barry Walters

Some Nights

fun.
2012 | Fueled By Ramen
The Church of Rock and Roll

Foxy Shazam
2012 | CAPITOL

Like The Black Keys? Try Two Gallants.

Nominated For: Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Best Rock Album
They say that you don’t sing the blues to wallow in them; you sing ‘em to rise above ‘em. This folk-blues duo’s reunion/comeback album draws its considerable power from a somewhat similar dichotomy. While embracing (really, for the first time) bloom as well as blight, they create a sound more crunching, grinding, shredding and thrashing than ever even as they are softer, sweeter, more soothing and intimate. So they come off as just like themselves only more so and there’s this whole new feeling. That ain’t easy, folks. — John Morthland

El Camino

The Black Keys
2011 | Nonesuch
The Bloom and the Blight

Two Gallants
2012 | ATO Records

A 10-Point Plan For Getting Into Zappa

Richard Gehr — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 19:20:37 +0000

In 2012, the Zappa Family Trust reissued Frank Zappa’s original 58-album catalog through Universal Music, with nearly two dozen early-ish titles benefiting from a significant audio upgrade. So what better time to introduce yourself to the peculiar and prolific genius of Frank Zappa — composer, bandleader and guitarist extraordinaire? We’ll even make it easy for you: Simply follow this handy 10-step introduction to the 20th century’s most daring and wickedly satiric rock-classical crossover genius. It starts off easy and becomes less so. Save his Synclavier experiments and confrontational mid-eighties sampler sallies against the Parents Musical Resource Center (aka the “Washington Wives”) for later. This is what you need to consume right now!

“Peaches En Regalia”

Hot Rats

Frank Zappa
2012 | Zappa Records

Begin here. The opening track of 1969's Hot Rats, with which Frank Zappa pretty much invented jazz-rock fusion, is a regal distillation of Zappa's musical personality at its most slyly inviting. With Ian Underwood's keyboards and winds simulating an entire orchestra, an immaculately concise FZ guitar solo, and a teenaged Shuggie Otis on bass, "Peaches" blends pomp, wit, rock, jazz and classical flavors into a rich, palate-cleansing overture for the extended jams... that follow.
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Over-Nite Sensation and Apostrophe’

Zappa’s two most commercially successful albums, recorded mostly during the same 1973 sessions, tantalize with psychedelic scatology and catchy comedy-rock tracks. Initiate yourself into the mysteries of yellow snow, dental floss and Sears ponchos, but don’t miss the subtly akimbo arrangements, rocking set pieces, and stellar guitar playing. Fun fact: Tina Turner and the Ikettes sang uncredited backing vocals for $25 per track.

Over-Nite Sensation

Frank Zappa
2012 | Zappa Records
Apostrophe (')

Frank Zappa
2012 | Zappa Records

Waka/Jawaka

Waka/Jawaka

Frank Zappa
2012 | Zappa Records

Zappa's thoroughly entertaining 1972 sequel to Hot Rats recalls the sort of sophisticated big-band jazz played by Don Ellis and Bob Brookmeyer. Bookended by the 17-minute "Big Swifty" and the 11-minute title track, W/J makes 7/8 and 11/8 time signatures sound as normal as 4/4. Also, "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow plays one of the finest pedal-steel solos ever on the hallucinatory "It Just Might Be a One-Shot Deal."

Roxy & Elsewhere

Roxy & Elsewhere

Frank Zappa
2012 | Zappa Records

Percussionist Ruth Underwood earns MVP honors on this 1974 live album that balances Zappa's compulsive perfectionism with gleeful improvisation and infinite hooks. The original double-vinyl's side-long sequence of "Village of the Sun," "Echidna's Arf (Of You)," and "Don't You Ever Wash That Thing" contains as much heart as humor thanks to George Duke's vocals, Chester Thompson's ridonkulous drumming, and the ringmaster's obvious delight at the fleet-footed mischief he hath wrought.

“The Adventures of Gregory Peccary”

Studio Tan

Frank Zappa
2012 | Zappa Records

Zappa considered himself first and foremost a modern classical composer, and often complained about needing to tour with a rock band to subsidize his serious stuff. Somewhere between three-chord rock and Webern-ian dodecophony, however, he sometimes hit a sweet spot of semi-serious rock operatics, most notably in this 20-minute orchestral work from 1978's Studio Tan. Zappa's subtlest social satire, "Gregory Peccary" mocks consumerism, mechanization, religious exploitation, and the very nature of time... itself with blithe melodic pastiches.
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Burnt Weeny Sandwich

Burnt Weeny Sandwich

Frank Zappa
2012 | Zappa Records

After disbanding the original Mothers of Invention in 1969, Zappa released both this album of (mostly) studio leftovers and the (mostly) live collection Weasels Ripped My Flesh the following year. Weeny is a grand gateway into the Mothers' peculiar mix of high and low styles. Doo-wop gems "WPLJ" and "Valarie" bookend a classically inclined set whose nineteen-minute multipart centerpiece "The Little House I Used to Live In" features a fiery Don "Sugarcane"... Harris blues-violin solo.
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“Inca Roads”

One Size Fits All

Frank Zappa
2012 | Zappa Records

Considered Zappa's quintessential composition by many, the rhythmically treacherous One Size Fits All (1975) opener pokes fun at progressive-rock pretension even as it inspired some of FZ's most beautifully composed guitar solos. This version's solo, played originally onstage in Helsinki, exemplifies Zappa's notion of xenechrony, a recontextualizing of material between stage and studio. Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar's title track, for example, snags a particularly stunning "Inca Roads" solo from a... 1979 tour.
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Make a Jazz Noise Here

Make A Jazz Noise Here

Frank Zappa
2012 | Zappa Records

Zappa's final tour, in 1988, featured an ultratight 12-piece band with a hard-swinging five-man horn section. The third of three live albums documenting the excursion, Jazz Noise mixes artfully arranged Mothers classics like "Cruisin' for Burgers," extended sample-driven improvisations such as "When Yuppies Go to Hell," and jazz-inflected instrumentals like "Black Napkins." The whole affair runs more than two hours, contains numerous quotes from the classical canon, and has a valedictory maturity... reminiscent of Dutch jazz oddballs like the Willem Breuker Kollektief.
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We’re Only in It for the Money

We're Only In It For The Money

Frank Zappa
2012 | Zappa Records

Beginning with Cal Schenkel's Sgt. Pepper's-spoofing cover art, the Mothers of Invention's 1968 conceptual masterpiece satirized the hippie "flower punk" subculture even more venomously than Zappa had skewered their parents a year earlier on Absolutely Free. Short, sharp melodies, musique concrète, analog electronics, astounding tape-speed manipulation, orchestral leftovers from Lumpy Gravy, and both broad and laser-sharp parodies of contemporary hits (e.g., "Hey Joe") add up to a brain-scorching album of singular collagic... velocity.
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Uncle Meat

Uncle Meat

Frank Zappa
2012 | Zappa Records

Notoriously gnarly but endlessly rewarding, Zappa's often-conflicting pop and "serious" sides come to a jittery and often transcendent resolution in the grooves of this double album containing "most of the music from the Mothers' movie of the same name which we haven't got enough money to finish yet." The title track and Zappa ür-theme "King Kong" emerge and dissolve throughout the album like Wagnerian motives performed by a Darmstradt serial composer conducting... Arkham Asylum's institutional orchestra — only funnier.
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eMusic’s Best Albums of 2012

eMusic Editorial Staff — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:59:34 +0000

Every year, when eMusic’s editorial staff compiles our annual best-of list, the goal is never to come to some kind of academic determination of the year’s best records via a series of complicated formulas and criteria. To do so would be as maddening as it is impossible. I’ve been thinking a lot about the way our list comes together over the course of the last few weeks and I think, above all else, what we try to do with this list is to tell a story — to represent the music that mattered most to us at eMusic in an almost narrative form. We don’t really give much consideration to which albums may or may not make other people’s lists. We don’t care a whole lot about which albums were popular or unpopular, or which albums may or may not have resonance 10 or 20 or 30 years from now. And we certainly don’t care about which albums sold the most. Instead, we try to collect the albums that impacted us the most, with the belief that these are the albums that will impact other people, too. If an album is on this list, it means we love it and we endorse it, and we think you’ll love it, too. And if it made our Top 20? We consider it essential. These are our picks for the 100 Best Records of 2012. — J. Edward Keyes, Editor-in-Chief

#100 Gentleman Jesse, Leaving Atlanta

Leaving Atlanta

Gentleman Jesse
2012 | Douchemaster / Revolver

"No turning back, I gotta get out of town," Jesse Smith sings on Leaving Atlanta's "What Did I Do." Four years in the making,Atlanta power-pop king Gentleman Jesse's sophomore album was inspired by a series of wildly unfortunate events in his life. The album is dedicated to friends he lost to cancer (ATL punk staple Bobby Ubangi) and drugs (Jay Reatard), and in the time between his debut full-length and this one,... Smith had his nose broken in a violent mugging, the result of which graces the cover of his 2010 HoZac single. For a time, it seemed like the only away Smith could get away from the drama would be to flee the city.

But, as he told ATL alt-weekly Creative Loafing in a recent interview, "Atlanta is like an abusive lover that you can't leave." And even on opener "Eat Me Alive," one of the album's strongest statements musically or otherwise, Smith sings that "this city's trying to eat me alive," but tempers the statement instantly with the follow-up, "it's as good a place as any to try to survive." A handful of Leaving Atlanta's tracks reinforce the album title's thematic leaning, but there are also songs of triumph ("Rooting for the Underdog"), and lost love ("You Give Me Shivers," the fantastic "I'm Only Lonely [When I'm Around You)]") mixed in throughout.

While the years may have been rough on Smith, they've been kind to his songwriting. As he's admitted frequently, the former Carbona rarely emphasizes lyrics, instead focusing on titanic melodies and infectious guitar licks. And yet, Leaving Atlanta boasts several inspired lines. Milton Hammond's organ parts flesh out the arrangements, and three-part harmonies delight. There are several distinctly Springsteenian moments, too, and these, along with an utterly dark tale of a killer on the run ("What Did I Do"), show that Smith is not content to be "The Power-Pop Guy" forever. Much like his self-titled debut, Leaving Atlanta concludes with a quintessential closer, this one called "We Got to Get Out of Here." As the groove-locked tune barrels along, it becomes clear that the "here" in question could be referring to a negative mindset as much as a locale.

"I know you're feeling kind of uptight/ but you should come out with me tonight," Smith sings on "Kind of Uptight." Is he talking to a girl? Maybe, but it could just as easily be a self pep talk to and from a guy who needs to break free of the drudgery of a city turned against him. After all, you can give up on a situation when things get difficult, but it takes real character to push forward and find the bright spots, even if they're obscured by all manner of death and nastiness. Or to take on an optimistic attitude, as Smith sings in the very same song: "Everything will be all right/ So, come on, and take my hand tonight."
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#99 ERAAS, ERAAS

Eraas

ERAAS
2012 | felte / The Orchard

Like urban explorers, Brooklyn post-rock duo ERAAS haunt the gloomy husks of krautrock, darkwave, industrial and dreampop, finding pulsing life within them. Their dark and beat-driven self-titled debut draws on well-established subgenres, but feels utterly new: The immaculate production, full of audible space and teeming with intricate layers, is part of the reason, but most of it is due to the duo's keen command of their style. The result is a clean... draught of weird beauty.

The vocals are mostly blurred or submerged, but the rhythmic music itself gibbers and groans volubly, intimating all kinds of fearful and wonderful things. Each track combines the sensuous with the spiritual and the highbrow with the underground in some fresh way: Some tracks, like "Crescent," toy with dissonance and subtle tonal tension, yet go silky across the ears. Others, like "At Heart," ride quasi-house beats and post-punk bass lines while somehow evoking sepulchral stillness. It's so varied that listening can feel like they're scanning through netherworld radio stations. Ghastly drones resolve into haunted new-wave hooks. Horror-film score movements give way smoothly to tribal folktronica. And it's all relentlessly pretty and surprising, beguiling expectations at every turn. The musical ideas are complex and abundant but never tedious, so it's a visitation as satisfying as it is eerie.
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#98 Pop Zeus, Pop Zeus

Pop Zeus

Pop Zeus
2012 | Pop Zeus / TuneCore

Like a John Singer Sargent trapped beneath a greasy glass frame, Pop Zeus – the project of one Mikey Hodges – smothers opulent hooks in buckets of scuzz. It's no surprise he nicked the project's name from a Bob Pollard song; like the Fading Captain himself, Hodges cuts sweetness with sand, nodding lazily towards '80s jangle pop but ruthlessly chipping off the high-gloss, making what's left feel as raw and as... twitchy as an exposed tendon. But don't be fooled: The attention to melodic detail – the graceful melodic slopes and canny moments of counterpoint between vocals and guitars make it clear Hodges is no yawning, indifferent de-composer. "Devil's in the Details" is the album's dollar-store "Lust For Life," its rangy guitars and busted-jalopy percussion doing its best impersonation of Pop's raw thunder. "It doesn't even matter to me," Hodges hollers over and over as the song winds down. That he sings it with such conviction is proof that he's lying.
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#97 Maria Minerva, Will Happiness Find Me?

Will Happiness Find Me?

Maria Minerva
2012 | Not Not Fun / Revolver

"I hate the idea of 'gigs,'" Maria Minerva told eMusic earlier this year. "It's boring! When I go out, I just want somebody to DJ from about 10 to 6." Maybe that's why Minerva's second proper LP unfolds like a break-of-dawn set from one of her crate-digging 100% Silk compatriots. Caught in a K-hole where disco balls spin in time to handclaps, rubberized bass lines and glitter-dusted beats, it's woozy and... weightless — dance music meant for actual moon walking.
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#96 Fresh & Onlys, Long Slow Dance

Long Slow Dance

The Fresh & Onlys
2012 | Mexican Summer

By virtue of their hometown (San Francisco) and the labels they've worked with (In the Red, Captured Tracks, Sacred Bones, and now, Mexican Summer), The Fresh & Onlys are often grouped with shaggy-haired maniacs such as Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees. In reality, their gorgeous, glassy-eyed pop is more in line with The Shins, or, to use an era-appropriate comparison for the Nuggets-inclined set, the Zombies. The noisier, feedback-drenched reference points... made a little more sense when the band was just getting started, but with each subsequent release, The Fresh & Onlys have refined their tunes, trading lo-fi riffs for jangling strums, garage rhythms for elegant, choral-enhanced accompaniment. What once could've served as the soundtrack for a Vice-funded documentary now sounds appropriate for starring placement in a Wes Anderson flick, and we mean that in the best possible sense.

Long Slow Dance feels like a young band discovering their true calling. The title track meditates on finding true love alongside an acceptance that nobody's perfect. "Presence of Mind" grapples with precisely that, trying to attain it amidst a world of lies and disappointment. Multiple tracks feature a protagonist longing to unshackle himself from foolishness, sometimes over clean, dramatic guitars, other times backed by horn sections seemingly borrowed from an epic Calexico jam. The whole thing feels like a coming-out party for a band that's been leaning toward its destined path all along. Perhaps the finest distillation of this weight-off-the-shoulders thesis comes in "20 Days and 20 Nights," when frontman Tim Cohen sings, "Something so heavy in my mind/ I think I wanna try and let it out." Feels good, doesn't it?
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#95 John Talabot, Fin

Fin

John Talabot
2012 | Permanent Vacation / GoodToGo

John Talabot's Fin opens with a quiet halo of evocative nighttime sounds – owls, crickets, croaking frogs. It evokes a David Attenborough-narrated nature film, and is definitely not the intro one might expect from a house DJ based in Barcelona, let alone a guy who grabbed so many ears with a song called "Sunshine." The mist-filled seven-minute song that emerges from this dark bog, called "Depak Ine," an inscrutable reference to the... seizure medication Depakote, gathers force like a nagging doubt, accruing melodic force and rhythmic layering as it goes.

It is the first of the 11 consecutive welcome surprises that comprise Fin, a record that quietly upends whatever narrative expectations you assign to it at every turn. If you heard the first single, the fleetly throbbing "Destiny," and expected a record full of moody Depeche Mode-aping synth pop, you will hit a big red Stop sign the second the following track, a motionless, melted pool of sound called "El Oeste," begins. I have listened to it 30 times or more so far this year already, and my memory still hasn't quite nailed down the track listing's pretzel logic – always a good sign.
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#94 Laurel Halo, Quarantine

Quarantine

Laurel Halo
2012 | Hyperdub / The Orchard

There's something wonderfully unsettling about Laurel Halo's debut full-length Quarantine. A beat-less electronic album, its 12 tracks bleed into one another, creating a kind of woozy, ambient cloud cover. Hints of pop periodically break through; "Holoday," in particular, feels like the receding echo of dance music past. But ultimately, song structure is bypassed in favor of a sense of ghostly possibility that echoes both early Dntel and classical composer Steve... Reich.

Halo coaxes a stark beauty out of her cascading ones and zeros, and Quarantine's tension and character stem from Halo's juxtaposition of moments of disquieting minimalism with her all-too-human voice. Prime example: "Thaw," which begins with a sentimental synth refrain that's paired with Halo's Nico-like warble — hesitations, missed notes and all. She loops her vocals on "Years" to create a breathy choir, but for most of the record they're left unadorned, sitting naked at the front of the mix, the masterpiece-defining chip in an otherwise elegant sculpture. Halo's is a world of supernatural unease, splitting the difference between the ethereal and the haunted.
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#93 Jimmy Cliff, Rebirth

Rebirth

Jimmy Cliff
2012 | Jimmy Cliff - Rebirth

In 1972, Jimmy Cliff's performance in The Harder They Come introduced U.S. filmgoers to the vibrant desperation ofKingston life, and his inspirational yet tough-minded songs highlighted the movie's soundtrack. Already an established hitmaker at the time, Cliff seemed poised to become Jamaica's first international superstar. Instead he misjudged American audiences, pitching vague homilies and pop professionalism to the AM crowd, allowing Bob Marley to leapfrog past him by assuming a prophetic mantle... and exciting hip FM rockers with his political defiance.

On Rebirth, Cliff now eyes a more judicious audience: middle-aged rockers weaned on punk and alternative. Shepherded by his producer, Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong, the 64-year-old rides the lithe throwback grooves of reggae revivalists the Aggrolites and Hepcat with a young man's grace, particularly on two smartly chosen covers — the Clash's "The Guns of Brixton," which transplanted Cliff's character from The Harder They Come into a London slum, and Rancid's "Ruby Soho." ("Rebel, Rebel" is good too, but it's not the Bowie tune.) Cliff's political complaints haven't grown much more specific — "World Upside Down" cries out against "Too much injustice," then proposes "love" as the answer. But his exhortations not only retain the warmth and humane spirit of old but have gained depths of pained sympathy with age, especially when he laments how "They took the children's bread/ And gave it to the dogs."
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#92 Pilgrim, Misery Wizard

Misery Wizard

Pilgrim
Metal Blade Records / The Orchard

The debut full-length by Rhode Island's Pilgrim may be one of the most heralded doom-metal albums of the year (along with Pallbearer's Sorrow and Extinction), but the members of Pilgrim are completely uninterested in the recent rise of hipster doom, which is probably why Misery Wizard sounds so authentically effective. Pilgrim's apocalyptic tones are generated from piles of Lovecraft, some powerful weed and intensive study of the giants of the first two... generations of sludge, Black Sabbath, Pentagram, Trouble Saint Vitus, Sleep and Electric Wizard. By never breaking above a bloody-kneed crawl (with the exception of the mid-paced "Adventurer"), Pilgrim's lengthy, down-tuned songs maintain a genuine sense of despair and enough rhythmic variation to keep them captivating and transcend the artificial bleakness of many of their peers. When vocalist The Wizard emotes the melodic lines, "In solitude I lie alone/ In the void, a sweet release/ In darkness I can feel at peace" he sounds like he's not play acting, he's crying for catharsis, or at least some good SSRIs. But as the title implies, The Wizard's misery is our gain. Just don't let him near any sharp objects.
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#91 Alice Russell & Quantic, Look Around the Corner

Look Around the Corner (with The Combo Barbaro)

Quantic & Alice Russell
2012 | TRU THOUGHTS LTD

A band manager of my acquaintance used to regularly warn his acts against "flutes and bongos." And he was mostly right. When modern musicians — especially British musicians — start affecting the signifiers of conscious 1970s soul and jazz, it tends to be just that: affectation. Even Tru Thoughts, one of the finest jazz/funk/hip-hop labels in the U.K., has had its misfires on this front, bands and records that may brim over... with virtuosity and good vibes, but fail to match to the heart, guts and, well, soul of their inspirations.

In fact, even Will "Quantic" Holland, Tru Thoughts's star producer/bandleader, has veered into pastiche in the past. Not here, though; not by a long chalk, even though flutes and bongos abound. Alice Russell has previously voiced many of Quantic's finest moments in England, and in these sessions recorded in Holland's adopted home of Cali, Colombia, over a couple of visits by Russell between 2007 and 2011, it's clear that absence had made the heart grow even fonder.

Russell's voice remains formidable, but it's her song-writing that comprises the core of this record. The arrangements and production meticulously recreate the feel of Minnie Ripperton and Rotary Connection, or vintage Colombian cumbia, but they are backdrops for the songs with a life all their own, rather than knowing retro nods. There are great stylistic twists, too: "Boogaloo 33" reminds us just how much mambo there was in classic rock 'n' roll, and the opener "Look Around the Corner" delivers the same liquid-sunshine string arrangements and grooves of Nuyorican soul. Through all of this, Russell is Quantic's anchor, singing with her characteristic blend of toughness and smoothness, and investing these impeccably written songs with emotional life.
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#90 Donny McCaslin, Casting for Gravity

Casting For Gravity

Donny McCaslin
2012 | eOne Music / Entertainment One Distribution

Donny McCaslin has long seemed a prime candidate to update and upgrade fusion jazz-rock. Since as far back as Seen From Above in 2000, his tenor saxophone style has been fueled by a rambunctious lyricism that isn't afraid to leave skid marks on his phrases. By "Rock Me," off Declaration in 2009, he'd discovered a fertile and yet phosphorous crossroads between prog-rock and hard bop, and a year later ... href="http://www.emusic.com/album/donny-mccaslin/perpetual-motion/12340045/">fattened the mix by adding electric bassist Tim Lefebvre.

But Casting For Gravity represents McCaslin's most dogged effort thus far to redefine fusion. Lefebvre is back, paired with powerhouse drummer Mark Guiliana for a potent yet still ruggedly jazz-centric rhythm section, the backbone of the quartet. Versatile keyboardist Jason Lindner occasionally steps out for a spirited solo, but is more influential in helping to determine the texture and in setting and coloring the mood. Along with producer David Binney, a longtime McCaslin ally who also sparingly adds synthesizer, they provide McCaslin with the ability to create grand gestures. There are stop-and-go grooves that escalate in intensity and fall back on themselves in dramatic tension-and-release; tonal layers that morph from liquid silk to electric sizzle and evaporate; rhythmic struts containing melodic swagger and impulsive outbursts.

There are also ambient, gossamer shadings and trip-hoppy segments and songs (most obviously on the title track, "Love Song for an Echo" and "Alpha and Omega") to which McCaslin credits Richard D. James of Aphex Twin as his inspiration. While they impressively broaden the bouquet, the bolder, burning tracks like "Tension," Binney's "Praia Grande" and the shifting, suite-like "Losing Track of Daytime" feel more impressive for blending the brutish revelry of rock with the harmonic complexity and gymnastic improvisation of jazz. Or, put more simply, "blazing a trail."
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#89 Hundred Waters, Hundred Waters

Hundred Waters

Hundred Waters
OWSLA

Gainesville, Florida-based avant-folk outfit Hundred Waters defy easy definitions on their beguiling, absorbing and richly detailed debut album. They've toured with Skrillex and recorded for his OWSLA label, and Hundred Waters has an expensive-sounding attention to production value. But it's cheap to sound expensive these days, and singer-percussionist Samantha Moss's fleetly wandering vocals here, swathed in sinuous electronics, have more in common with those of Björk, Bat for Lashes or another recent... tourmate, Julia Holter. Or a smokier-voiced Joanna Newsom: The twinkling synth tones and winding harmonies of "Boreal" belie a heroic narrative that lets its freak-folk flag. Hundred Waters run deep.
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#88 Peaking Lights, Lucifer

Lucifer

Peaking Lights
2012 | Mexican Summer

Peaking Lights — husband-and-wife duo Aaron Doyes and Indra Dunis — make distinctly modern music of understated joy and optimism. The pair, clearly both avid crate diggers and knob twiddlers, refract their love of Krautrock, dub and analog synth music into an enthusiastically lo-fi jumble. Listening to Lucifer, where Doyes and Dunis irreverently tinker with, poke and prod these influences, can feel like peering down into the basement of a record store... through a kaleidoscope. It's an album of guts-out experimentation tamed into something intimate and sweet.

The duo have said Lucifer is largely about "play and playfulness" and it's hard to disagree. "Beautiful Son," a lilting ballad about, you guessed it, the couple's new son, is a gently warped groove of electronic pulses buoyed by a spare piano melody and Dunis's simple and tender vocal. On "LO HI," baby Mikko can be heard cooing over a shuffling reggae interlude. Talk about playful. Elsewhere, Lucifer teems with sportive sounds — the bubbly romp of a bass line on the frolicking "Live Love" and the addictive, gurgling groove of "Dream Beat" stretch out nearly seven minutes each and set the rollicking tone.

Despite the seemingly weighty recipe of obscure influences and tangled electronics, at the heart of Lucifer is a fun, hallucinatory, rampant spirit. It's evident the album was a joy to create and, appropriately, it's a contagious and joyous listen.
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#87 PAWS, Cokefloat!

Cokefloat!

PAWS
2012 | FatCat Records / The Orchard

"She wasn't only just my mother," Phillip Taylor slurs over rickety, distorted guitar in the opening seconds of PAWS' Cokefloat!, continuing, "She was my friend, a good friend." As an introduction to the Glasgow trio's rowdily impressive debut album, it could hardly be more fitting, showing off both the band's throwback slacker-rock style and Taylor's blunt, decidedly un-macho lyrics. But on this 13-track, 42-minute set, what separates PAWS from so many other... garage-bound pop-punks printing out Pavement and Sonic Youth guitar tabs is how expertly – and emotively – they assail a relatively wide range of song types. "Sore Tummy" and "Miss American Bookworm" put bubblegum melodies beneath heavily scuzzed noise-pop and throat-rending screams, like early Foo Fighters but more awkward and relatable. While "Get Bent" comes across as a post-Girls acoustic kiss-off to a distant father, the stylishly chiming "Pony" steps back to critique parent-funded underground scenesters. Best of all is mid-tempo anthem "Homecoming," which begins as a bully-baiting comeuppance but morphs into a self-actualizing mission statement recalling recent European tour-mates Japandroids: "Thanks for the punches of encouragement/ I've turned my world into sing-alongs." Shout-alongs, even – punchdrunk and easy to love.
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#86 Roomful of Teeth, Roomful of Teeth

Roomful of Teeth

Roomful of Teeth
New Amsterdam

Unless you have already seen and heard Roomful of Teeth live, there is little to prepare you for the effect of this avant-garde a cappella octet from New York. Well, actually, there's a lot to prepare you – if you've heard, say, the chanting of Tibetan Buddhist monks, and Bobby McFerrin's Circlesong improvisations, and John Cage's Songbook, and the Swingle Singers – and, let's say, pygmy yodeling and Meredith Monk – then... you're good to go. Roomful of Teeth creates a richly-textured sound that uses a seemingly endless palette of vocal techniques: overtone chant, rhythmic clicks and buzzes, luminous chords and piercing Balkan-style close harmonies, drones, and spoken word (usually to found texts). In the wrong hands, this kind of thing could be dangerous, but Roomful of Teeth has fallen in with the right crowd.

Released by New Amsterdam Records, which has become a home for the so-called indie-classical movement, the group's debut release includes new works written specifically for the band by some of that movement's leading lights, including composers Judd Greenstein, William Brittelle, Sarah Kirkland Snider and indie rocker Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs. With such a distinguished list of guest composers, it might be a little surprising to find that some of the record's highlights come from the group's own Caroline Shaw, whose suite of pieces named after Baroque dance forms (Passacaglia, Courante, Allemande and Sarabande) is a tour de force of vocal mischief-making, with collage-style spoken texts woven into a web of singing, semi-singing, and other less easily identified vocal noises. Again, in the wrong hands it would be a mess, but Roomful of Teeth is never less than completely musical, even lyrical.

Snider's "Orchard" is sensuous and beautiful, and possibly a little darker than it seems at first. Greenstein's works are the most reliably rhythmic and will appeal to fans of Meredith Monk; this particular Meredith Monk fan thinks "Montmartre" might be the best of the three. And Brittelle's "Amid the Minotaurs," on the surface one of the most conventionally-structured pieces here, is a truly subversive piece of anti-pop.
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#85 Jeremy Siskind, Finger-Songwriter

Finger-Songwriter

Jeremy Siskind
2012 | Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records / The Orchard

There is a classic intimacy to the piano, sax, vocals of the Jeremy Siskind's Finger-Songwriter. Siskind's piano is a mix of elegance and storyteller charm. The slow burn of Nancy Harms's vocals is an enchantment oftentimes dispelled with a smoldering vulnerability. On sax, Lucas Pino is drifting smoke, and on clarinet, a brooding melancholia. Siskind's love of literature the inspiration for each album track, he's created an album of songs about heartbreak,... loss, and hope, delivered with a warmth and immediacy that brings the late-night jazz club to the listener.
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#84 Family Band, Grace & Lies

Grace and Lies

Family Band
2012 | No Quarter / SC Distribution

Grace and Lies: two ghostly characters envisioned by Family Band vocalist (and former visual artist) Kim Krans as a pair of girlish sirens with wily intentions, capable of quick seduction and even quicker betrayal ("I saw them in a field behind our cabin, singing and slow dancing," she's said). It's a sinister and defeating image, but fitting; Krans and her guitarist husband Jonny Ollsin, formerly of the metal bands Children and S.T.R.E.E.T.S.,... make aching, languorous goth-folk, vaguely reminiscent of the Handsome Family and Beach House, but slower, stranger, more hollow-eyed. Grace and Lies, their second full-length, isn't a record for the nights you have people coming over, or for a midday stroll through the park — Ollsin's stark, velvety guitar and Krans's disconcertingly affect-less vocals are better suited to those very-early-morning, there's-the-sun slumps, the moments when you catch yourself reconsidering every last decision you've ever made. If that sounds impossibly depressing, fear not: Grace and Lies is buoying, a meditation on darkness that yields light. As Krans explains in "Moonbeams," it's the questioning that'll save you: "If you wonder what I need/ I'll tell you just what I need/ But I gotta hear your wondering sounds."
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#83 Pig Destroyer, Book Burner

Book Burner

Pig Destroyer
2012 | Relapse Records

Like other extreme acts, Pig Destroyer write songs about murder, insanity and mayhem, but there's something grimier and more disconcerting about their tunes than your average Cannibal Corpse gorefest. With the release of 2004's Terrifyer, the band was already rising above the constraints of traditional grindcore, incorporating industrial sound bites, death-groove riffs, doomy atmospherics and math-metal tempo changes into their schizophrenic songs. Brutally misanthropic, their songs grimly reflect the rage, intensity and... social disconnect of minds on the edge. Book Burner is no different: "The Bug" begins with a dissonant audio collage, over which a demented voice declares, "I will sing while you croak, I will dance over your dirty corpse" and from there evolves through cacophonous blast beats, propulsive riffs, and pained moans. Equally nightmare-inducing is the opening track, "Sis," where vocalist J.R. Hayes (ex-Agoraphobic Nosebleed) roars, "My sister's dangerous/ She climbs the barbed wire fence/ Changes clothes in the back seat/ Medical gown to red jeans." There is nothing "pretty" about their music, but visceral savagery has its own allure.

Book Burner delivers all flesh and no fat; Pig Destroyer attack with pinpoint precision, plowing through 19 cuts in just under 33 minutes and mapping out when to pummel, trudge and lacerate. The tag team of acrobatic drummer Adam Jarvis (who also plays in Misery Index) and guitarist and producer Scott Hull (ex-Anal Cunt) both boast the ability to turn sick, horrific and off-kilter clamor into coherent, memorable compositions.
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#82 Sea of Bees, Orangefarben

Orangefarben

Sea of Bees
2012 | Team Love Records

When I was 11 my parents sent me to a hellhole of a sleepaway camp where I was miserable (one of the counselors made me eat tomatoes – gross!). It was at that terrible camp where I first heard the song "Leaving on a Jet Plane" played over and over, and to this day I have a Pavlovian response to those familiar lite rock folk chords: When I hear them I'm overtaken... by homesickness. It's fitting, then, that Sea of Bees' sophomore effort – a tearjerker of a breakup album written by Julie Ann Bee in response to the demise of her first relationship after coming out to her friends and family – features a lovely (and much hipper) reinterpretation of the song (simply called "Leaving") that zeroes in on that same panicky feeling, that same sense of dread. Homesickness and heartbreak, after all, come from that same sad place located in the gut-area.

With sunny-sounding guitars and a sweet, ethereal voice that belies the agony of which she sings, Bee makes Orangefarben a meditation on mind over matter, the importance of gasping "I'll be fine" again and again, even when it's clear you're not. "And I know I shouldn't think those thoughts/ but I've gone ahead and thought those thoughts and I'm fine," she confesses on "Teeth," as if convincing herself that the worst may be over, that time might go about its business and provide some relief. And if that grief is never fully eradicated, if she still finds herself longing for the comfort and safety of old attachments (oh, the sad letters I wrote to my parents from summer camp!), then at least the baggage she lugs around with her will be beautiful.
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#81 Christian Mistress, Possession

Possession

Christian Mistress
2012 | Relapse Records

The full-length debut byOlympia,Washington, quintet Christian Mistress is more than a savage, irony-free '70s metal flashback. It's an honest and lovingly composed epic that combines the sludge of Black Sabbath, the guitar harmonies of Judas Priest and the amphetamine bursts of MotÃ¶rhead.

Several elements levitate Christian Mistress above their peers. The most blatant is vocalist Christine Davis, who unleashes a barrage of skin-stripped melodies that support even the heaviest songs. Equally important are... the band's immaculate arrangements, which range from thuggish to progressive, recalling cult heroes like Angel Witch and Diamond Head as much as Priest and Sabbath. Also, while the Mistress clearly love great metal, they also covet classic and southern rock (check out the ZZ Top-style lick in the chorus of "Black to Gold" and the gloomy slide guitar on the acoustic intro of "The Way Beyond"). Possession offers NWOBHM and doom fans a dragon's lair of gems to behold, but to pigeonhole Christian Mistress as sword and sorcery "retro metal" is a crime worthy of a squeeze in the ol' iron maiden.
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#80 Glen Hansard, Rhythm & Repose

Rhythm And Repose

Glen Hansard
2012 | Anti/Epitaph

There's irony in the fact that Glen Hansard's first solo album comes just a week after the Broadway musical Once triumphed at the Tony Awards. 2007's film-version original of that musical, starring Hansard and the wispy Czech pianist Marketa IrgolovÃ¡, brought the romantic and creative duo widespread fame. The duo, who eventually dubbed themselves The Swell Season, began recording together in 2008, but the love affair didn't last: They announced... their breakup after touring behind 2009's Strict Joy, and IrglovÃ¡ married producer Tim Iseler in 2011. Hansard, meanwhile, has been living in New York, keeping an eye on Once while breaking in a new set of collaborators. While the end product isn't leagues away from his work with IrglovÃ¡ or his longtime band, The Frames, Rhythm and Repose steers away from the latter's anguished anthems and the former's fragile harmonies.

R&R is a heartbreak album through and through, but it leans more towards self-reflection than self-laceration, like a more melancholy, less pissed-off Blood on the Tracks. (It's not surprising that the late Levon Helm was asked to guest on a track.) Those sifting for shards of autobiography will seize on lines like "We talked about talk of a gold ring/ You brought me one step closer to the heart of things" and "We married on an August night/ No priest, no church, just the big moon shining bright," from "You Will Become" and "Maybe Not Tonight." Unless you've got a chronic weakness for Irish melodrama, the album's front-loaded breast-beating starts to wear thin after a while; it's hard to hear "The Storm, It's Coming," nestled just after the midpoint, and suppress the temptation to remark that it's already done come.

Fortunately, Hansard pulls out of his emotional nosedive with "What Are We Gonna Do," where a female voice (not IrglovÃ¡'s) lifts him out of his torpor and sets him on the path to recovery. He's still only beginning to heal by the time Rhythm and Repose draws to a close; a little "Revelate" style catharsis would have done much to lift the album out of its perpetual doldrums. But its limited palette is a lovely one, sustaining a mood that lingers like the bittersweet scent of lost love.
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#79 METZ, METZ

METZ

METZ
2012 | Sub Pop Records

On their debut album, Canadian trio METZ has delivered a sound that's reasonably scarce in 2012: post-hardcore, pre-grunge, noise-addled punk rock. You can hear the influence of the Jesus Lizard in particular everywhere: in Alex Edkins's strained screams; in Hayden Menzies's crashing drum assault; in their relentless wave of screeching guitars, in the frenzied pace of "Wet Blanket," in the sludgy industrial instrumental "Nausea," and in their grim, dour lyrics. But the... sheer volume and force of the music don't take away from their musicianship – no individual element is covered by fuzz, thanks in part to production work from Graham Walsh (of Holy Fuck) and Alexander Bonenfant (who was behind the boards of the first two Crystal Castles records). The production shows off an intricate variety of textures lurking beneath the noise: On "Get Off," a chaotic drum barrage toward the end of the track is paired with a wavering high-pitched screech of white noise, bolstering an already-urgent moment. It's small details like that on METZ that sharpen the band's anger and attack, elevating them from your average Touch & Go apostles into a seething, unique operation.
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#78 Lotus Plaza, Spooky Action at a Distance

Spooky Action at a Distance

Lotus Plaza
2012 | kranky / The Orchard

That Lockett Pundt, he'll sneak up on you. In Deerhunter, frontman Bradford Cox's outsize personality makes him an easy lightning rod, but Pundt has played a hardly less electrifying role as the band's guitarist. His first solo album as Lotus Plaza, 2009's The Floodlight Collective, was woozy, winsome dream-pop that confirmed Pundt's familiar gifts for ethereal sonic textures but only hinted at his growing strength as a songwriter. This follow-up is strikingly... the work of the man who wrote "Desire Lines," the rousing centerpiece of Deerhunter's peak so far, 2010's Halcyon Digest. Crystalline guitar arpeggios meet precise krautrock pulses, time-bending codas – and ear-catching '60s pop melodies. Wistful stoners' anthem "Monoliths" distills the album's shoegaze-informed style most concisely, but equally essential non-album single "Come Back" best previews the mesmerizing yet propulsive live show. Proof soft-spoken daydreamers can pump their fists, too.
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#77 Amit Friedman, Sunrise

Sunrise

Amit Friedman Sextet
2012 | Origin Records / The Orchard

Creating his own mix of jazz and Middle Eastern music, saxophonist Amit Friedman offers a debut album of richly-textured tunes full of bombast and beauty. The use of additional percussion and an oudist brings intricacy and detail to the music, but it's Friedman's crafting of simple yet vivid melodies that elevates the songs to something very special, a splendid balance between the complex and the catchy. Furthermore, the addition of a string... trio lifts songs up to euphoric heights, but amidst all that soaring, Friedman doesn't forget to let his jazz ensemble swing. This is the kind of majestic album that'll sweep listeners up out of their seats.
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#76 Gonjasufi, MU.ZZ.LE

MU.ZZ.LE

Gonjasufi
2012 | EP/SINGLE

It's one of the more unlikely stories from U.S.beat culture: San Diego's Sumach Ecks moves to Las Vegasto work as a yoga teacher, but not before contributing an edgy, Billie Holiday-like vocal to one track on Flying Lotus's 2008 debut Los Angeles. Impressed with his distinctive scatting, Warp Records offer him his own deal. It's a nice creation myth, and Ecks, who records under the suitably wigged-out moniker Gonjasufi, has thus far... lived up to its billing.

Warp Records are classifying this as an EP, but MU.ZZ.LE – the follow-up (in 10 short tracks) to 2010's A Sufi and a Killer - sounds in many ways like the bigger record. Taped somewhere out in the Mojave, this dubbed-out desert music occasionally trips into emotional ditches that are bleak enough to soundtrack an end-times movie like The Road. MU.ZZ.LE sounds like it was recorded on filthy equipment salvaged from RadioShack dumpsters, with Gonjasufi's searing, blurted vocals dissolving immediately upon emerging from the speaker cones. Vinyl flecks dot the opener "White Picket Fence," whose dread-fuelled electric piano chords are reminiscent of Tricky's mid-'90s debut. "Rubberband' is slow, sad and stately as a Procol Harum anthem, strained by DJ Shadow through a sieve of hiss; while "Blaksuit" is a chopped-and-screwed, syrupy jam over garage punk guitar chops.

You never quite know if MU.ZZ.LE's gloopy, ramshackle character is painstakingly crafted or the genuine record of serendipitous moments of improvised dementia; whatever, it breathes new life into the corpse of "triphop" and confirms Gonjasufi as a gloriously eccentric new broken beatmaster.
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#75 Neurosis, Honor Found in Decay

Honor Found In Decay

Neurosis
2012 | Neurot / Revolver

Like the band's last album, 2007's Given to the Rising, Neurosis's 10th studio album in 27 years, Honor Found in Decay, is a cinematic, multi-dimensional exploration of texture and emotion that weaves together doom-metal, atmospheric rock, dark psychedelia, tribal metal and proto-industrial. But the experimental post-metal pioneers also delve deep into the apocalyptic folk that frontmen Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till have explored on their recent solo albums. "At the... Well" starts with slow, reverberant guitar strums and cryptic existential musings: "The blaze of a Helios sky/ Rage will blossom into iron/Blind as a worm in the earth." And "Casting of the Ages" opens with dual acoustic guitars and deep, rattling vocals atop a lolling bass line and a lazy accordion before sparking into a thudding, trudging doom trek.

Honor Found in Decay is hardly uplifting; here's the opening line from the propulsive opening track"We All Rage in Gold": "I walk into the water to wash the blood from my feet." Yet the bands presentation is so artful and symphonic it reveals sheer beauty in lyrical hopelessness and inspiration in rhythmic ugliness. Unlike many post-metal albums that seesaw between reflective calm and turbulent chaos, Neurosis's dualism is more subtle and natural, and at times almost spiritual in its nihilism.
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#74 Ab-Soul, Control System

Control System

Ab-Soul
2012 | TopDawg Ent. / TuneCore

Ab-Soul is the resident word-nerd of Black Hippy, the rap crew that includes the Dr. Dre-anointed young rap prince Kendrick Lamar and the brooding, heavy-lidded, ex-Crip leader Schoolboy Q. He's easily the most cerebral of a fairly brainy crew, and on the ferociously excellent Control System, he produces an immersive, dark and wide-ranging piece of work that takes listeners to Saturn and Andromeda ("Pineal Gland"), sardonically salutes Obama as a "puppet" ("Terrorist... Threat"), breaks our heart with a devastating first-person tale of young love and loss ("The Book of Soul"), puffs out some post-Tribe Called Quest weed clouds ("Bohemian Grove") and oh, also finds room for a sex joke as goofy as "She got that magical vag/ Let me hocus poke."
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#73 Lilacs & Champagne, Lilacs & Champagne

Lilacs & Champagne

Lilacs & Champagne
2012 | Mexican Summer

Alex Hall and Emil Amos are the personalities behind Grails, a Portland instrumental rock collective that's happily traversed so much sonic terrain over the past decade and a half that they'd seemingly make side projects unnecessary. But where Grails absorbs and perverts genres, Hall and Amos's self-titled debut as Lilacs & Champagne is an act of deconstruction and rebuilding: The duo were inspired by Madlib's dank crate-digging and sample-stitching technique, and they... also share a love for similar source material. Unquestionably stoned in demeanor, L&C leans heavy on underground hip-hop, Krautrock, '70s psych and even an occasion Jayne Mansfield recording to create ambient music for the kind of people who find the idea of ambient music boring, or a solution for anyone who wished the sample-happy travelogues of Avalanches or Quiet Village transported them to somewhere darker.
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#72 Pop 1280, The Horror

The Horror

Pop. 1280
2012 | Sacred Bones Records / S.C. Distribution

"Burn, burn/ burn the worm," goes the ominous chorus of The Horror's pissed-and-pulverizing opener, the perhaps-unsurprisingly titled "Burn the Worm." Subtle, Pop. 1280 is not. But you don't really need a gentle hand when your band regularly and fiercely recalls the finer moments of Liars, the Birthday Party and Swans. Where 2010's The Grid EP sported the occasional synth-heavy hook, The Horror is positively relentless, piling brutal rhythmic grinding on top of... lyrical references to dead people, bodies, death, and, well, the kind of horror that's often reserved for the cinema. Perhaps it's the addition of Twin Stumps former drummer Zach Ziemann or the apparent improvisational, on-the-spot writing process that created The Horror, but the album is a relatively bleak and corrosive listen - an accomplishment for a band that's previously broached topics including bed bugs in low-income housing projects and dystopian future worlds. But that's also part of the fun. Like their fellow wall punchers the Men, Pygmy Shrews and White Suns - bands the Village Voice has credited with drudging up the pigfuck spirit of yore - Pop. 1280 is making quite a glorious racket. If you can't stand it, maybe you should get out of the basement.
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#71 Lianne La Havas, Is Your Love Big Enough?

Is Your Love Big Enough? (Deluxe Edition)

Lianne La Havas
2012 | Nonesuch

While inspired by the more robust Who Is Jill Scott?, Lianne La Havas's promising debut Is Your Love Big Enough? ponders dating an older man (fluttering ditty "Age") and lobs bitter accusations of betrayal (downbeat duet "No Room for Doubt") over finger-picked, reverb-tinged guitar tinged. Over top, La Havas's vocals beckon like flickering candlelight.

#70 Frankie Rose, Interstellar

Interstellar

Frankie Rose
2012 | Slumberland Records / The Orchard

Frankie Rose spent the early part of her musical career as a member of a ragtag coven of Brooklyn retro-garage bands, including Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts and Dum Dum Girls. Interstellar, her second solo album since moving on from those groups, shows exactly how to move your music out of the garage: Clean out all the grit and grease, put on some makeup, imagine yourself as a dragon's teardrop... on the moonscape of a Yes album cover, and blast off into a colder space. An appreciation for early-'80s new wave blankets Interstellar with a certain iciness - drum machines, oscillating keyboards, brittle-sounding guitars - but it's not frozen solid. Rose's voice unlocks these songs like a key; rather than apply the steely, remote effects given to so many electronic-pop vocalists, producer Le Chev (whose very name makes this album seem even more tilted toward the '80s) keeps Rose's voice at a tender, close distance. Though some fairy-dusted moments occur (such as the feather-light title track or the strange wood-sprite chanting on "The Fall"), this isn't a Cocteau Twins record. Rose has pop songs to sing, from winning A-side "Know Me," with its brisk Smiths rhythms, to the I-am-a-bird-now ballad "Wings To Fly." There are big, warm choruses here, and an almost childlike sense of joy and dreaming, that would seem to clash with Interstellar's cold-pressed instrumentation . But mismatched styles never seem to bother Frankie Rose - her music contains galaxies.
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#69 Chris Cohen, Overgrown Path

#68 Liars, WIXIW

WIXIW

Liars
2012 | MUTE

With every release, invigorated both by self-imposed limits and half-baked experiments, Liars discover new aesthetic worlds. Consider the 30-minute dance-punk-to-drone closer "This Dust Makes That Mud" off their 2001 debut They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top. Nothing specific about that song, just you know, that it happened. And chew on the go-for-broke concepts of 2004's They Were Wrong So We Drowned (witches, dude) and 2010's... Sisterworld (Los Angeles, man).

On WIXIW, the goal is retrofitting the past's electronic pop and dance presets into rhythmic, art-damaged dirges. Save for acid-squelch rave-up "Brats," WIXIW's songs are all nervous tension and no cathartic release. Imagine the brutal minimalism of Iggy Pop's The Idiot sharing a slow dance with the transcendent cheapness of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85-92. As sun-faded synths unfold on opening track "The Exact Colour of Doubt," you almost expect lead singer Angus Andrew to croon, "I want my MTV." So retrolicious, and therefore, totally right now. For the first time since their debut, Liars sound of-the-moment rather than out on a limb. That may be the only affront left to savvy listeners anticipating the latest sea change from these puckish, post-post punks.
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#67 Miguel Zenon & Laurent Coq, Rayuela

Rayuela

Laurent Coq & Miguel Zenon
2012 | Sunnyside / Entertainment One Distribution

Argentine novelist Julio Cortázar's 1963 classic Rayuela – in English, Hopscotch – is a fragmented tale of a Bohemian adrift on two continents. To underscore his hero's dislocation and odd thought processes, Cortázar maps a zigzag alternative route through the book for adventurous readers. On their Rayuela, Puerto Rican alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón and French pianist Laurent Coq variously evoke the novel's playfulness with language, mobile-like structure, transatlantic breadth and fascination with... jazz, as well as the bittersweet nature of expatriate life. Ably abetted by instrument switchers Dana Leong on cello and trombone and Dan Weiss on drums and tabla, they make smart, inventive, heartfelt music.
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#66 Flying Lotus, Until the Quiet Comes

Until The Quiet Comes

Flying Lotus
2012 | Warp Records

What was Flying Lotus supposed to do, twist our synapses till they turned blue every single time out? Please – not even Hendrix could have done that. British DJ Mary Anne Hobbs may have declared FlyLo Jimi's modern equivalent, but Until the Quiet Comes, his fourth album, plays like something Jimi didn't get to stay around and make: both reflective and madcap, full of details scurrying in the margins. Take "Tiny... Tortures," which rides a near-subcutaneous bass pulse, twitchy, subtle clicks and clacks, ruminative jazz guitar flecks and flurries. Is it fusion? Maybe, but it doesn't show off the way most fusion does – it's too busy sneaking up on you.

Seventies cosmic jazz has always been a FlyLo touchstone, and his forays into it can feel ponderous, such as on the brief "DMT Song," on which Thundercat's vocals are echoed into gauze over glittery electric piano and twisting double bass. But mostly he's impish, as is evident even on broader-stroked tracks such as the overtly daffy "Pretty Boy Strut," where a walking bass line meets cartoon-voiced keyboards and insistent electro-handclaps. There are fewer giant flourishes of the sort that marked 2008's Los Angeles or 2010's Cosmogramma, though. Even the big guest starsâ€”Erykah Badu on the circularly rhythmic "See Thru to U," Radiohead's Thom Yorke on the dense whorl of "Electric Candyman" – are ingredients he stirs into the mix with impunity. As always, the signature is FlyLo's alone.
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#65 Screaming Females, Ugly

Ugly

Screaming Females
2012 | Don Giovanni Records / Believe Digital

New Brunswick, New Jersey's Screaming Females have turned out roaring punk album after roaring punk album since 2006, amid booking hundreds of their own shows – some in basements and others in massive club venues warming up for the likes of Ted Leo, the Dead Weather and Garbage. Their Steve Albini-produced fifth LP Ugly is a darker, less melodic affair than its 2010 predecessor, which thrived on a perfect balance of... hooky choruses and frontwoman Marissa Paternoster's masterful guitar acrobatics. Paternoster hasn't lost any of the full-throated, low-alto howl, best showcased in "Rotten Apple" ("Hell is within me/ Hell's all around me now," she snarls), and as she bellows "I want you to tell me to expire" in "Expire." Ugly is long and it can feel that way, at 14 tracks, almost 54 minutes, but the high points ("Expire," "Help Me," the acoustic, string-backed closer "It's Nice") are high enough to make it worthwhile.
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#64 Bowerbirds, The Clearing

The Clearing

Bowerbirds
2012 | Dead Oceans / SC Distribution

In "Overcome with Light," Bowerbirds' Phil Moore and Beth Tacular sing, "Yes, we had some hard work, but now it's right." Their lush third LP, The Clearing, is about unexpected challenges: Tacular's near-death experience; the ending and rekindling of the couple's relationship; building a home by hand. And despite all of that, they pulled through with their best work yet: clear, full instrumentation and a celebration of new beginnings.

#63 Ty Segall Band, Slaughterhouse

Slaughterhouse

Ty Segall Band
2012 | In The Red / Revolver

Each Ty Segall record is a new outfit in the garage-rock prodigy's ever-increasing wardrobe. Slaughterhouse, his latest quick change, is the first release billed under his touring band, a group which includes punky wunderkinds Charlie Moothart and Mikal Cronin. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that this is a group that's been traveling the road together, Slaughterhouse is a loose, scrappy set. Some songs are given ample jamming room ("I Bought My Eyes"), while... others are haunted-house screamers ("Slaughterhouse"). There are inspired covers with humorous studio banter ("All right, here we go, extra fast," Segall says by way of introducing "Diddy Wah Diddy."), and staring-contest noise parties (the 10-plus-minute "Fuzz War"). It's a glorious grab bag, uncouth and unkempt in its exuberance, but with a worn-in feeling derived from the players' comfort with each other.

Like he did on his Singles 2007-2010 compilation, Segall forgoes the catchier, cleaner vocals he's sometimes showcased, opting instead for the feral yawls and yelps that earned the young Segall so many comparisons to the late Jay Reatard early on. Elsewhere, he does his best, fuzz-soaked Led Sabbath impression ("Wave Goodbye"), and only occasionally hints at the comfy, Nuggets-influenced jaunts he's so good at ("Tell Me What's Inside Your Heart," "Muscle Man"). Slaughterhouse isn't exactly a consistent record, but that doesn't exactly seem to be the point, either. If Segall's going to keep trying on new, inspired costumes every few months, who's complaining?
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#62 Grizzly Bear, Shields

Shields

Grizzly Bear
2012 | Warp Records

Remember when Grizzly Bear was Edward Droste's solo project? Didn't think so. And that's okay; while the disconnect between Droste's bedroom-pop beginnings and the band's longtime status as a democracy – with Daniel Rossen at the helm half the time – has been a source of tension in the past, their third album as a full-fledged quartet is sleek and self-assured. Or as Droste admitted in a Pitchfork interview this past June,... "As we get older, more confident and more mature, we're becoming more comfortable with stepping on each other's toes."

That doesn't mean that Shields is marred by muddled ideas and misdirected hostility. Thanks to several "songwriting retreats" in New York and Cape Cod, the effort is decidedly collaborative, an autumnal listen that feels alive and full of welcome left turns rather than heavy-lidded and hazy. The LP's leadoff single ("Sleeping Ute") is a perfect example of the group's push-and-pull dynamics – a tidal wave of rippled rhythms, honeyed harmonies and burbling synths. The rest of the record is much more subtle yet no less effective, as Rossen's rich melodies and spare riffs play a perfect counterpoint to Droste's fragile, emotionally-charged confessionals. Repeat listens reveal the hours that went into every hook, too, whether the finish line is reached through windswept strings and woozy jazz ("What's Wrong") or one long walk on the beach, a slow build that seems to be on the verge of a total breakdown ("Sun In Your Eyes"). Grizzly Bear emerges unscathed, however, as ready to assume the mantle of Brooklyn's most promising crossover band as they've ever been.
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#61 Woods, Bend Beyond

Bend Beyond

Woods
2012 | Woodsist / Revolver

When Jeremy Earl left Brooklyn for the tiny upstate town where he grew up – Warwick, New York, a rural, rail-side area best known for its annual Applefest – a few years ago, his decision wasn't surprising so much as long overdue. And not just because dude's the founder of a ramshackle rock band called Woods and a lo-fi-leaning label that goes by the name Woodsist. Forestry nods aside, Earl has always... seemed like a hippie who's constantly lumped in with "hipsters" – a soft-spoken Neil Young fan who'd rather hang out with his cat, a considerable wooden owl collection, and a freshly packed bong than a poorly ventilated house full of cool kids.

More important, however, is his musical vision, which has long hinted at but lurked just below the level of psych-steeped greatness that's achieved on Bend Beyond. Led by Earl's lovelorn falsetto and loose, fiery riffs, Woods' seventh album offsets its tales of frustration (lots of "it's so fucking hard" talk) with red-blooded arrangements and a clean mix that brings the frontman's hooks right into focus. It helps that the well-oiled quartet saved their jam-band tendencies for the stage and let their individual parts shine at the same time instead, from the rambunctious organ rolls and roaring guitar leads of "Find Them Empty" to the curve-hugging rhythm section of the title track. It's inviting enough to make us big city folks briefly ponder our own move to Deliverance-town, USA Well – almost.
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#60 White Lung, Sorry

sorry

White Lung
2012 | Deranged Records / The Orchard

White Lung's pummeling second album, Sorry, isn't for the faint of heart. "I'm the disease that you've already caught," frontwoman Mish Way spits on "I Rot," one of 10 punk bursts driven by tension-filled riffs, frantic drum assaults and macabre lyrics. Yet Sorry's violent imagery is also deeply poetic – more Plath than Poe – and the album has plenty of melodic moments (unexpected chorus harmonies on "Bag," lively guitar spikes on... "Take The Mirror" and "St. Dad") to temper the aggression. Urgent and inspiring.
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#59 Ravi Coltrane, Spirit Fiction

Spirit Fiction

Ravi Coltrane
2012 | BLUE NOTE

It's been a little more than two decades since saxophonist Ravi Coltrane fully broke into the top-shelf jazz world (as a member of drummer Elvin Jones's Jazz Machine), thus finally overcoming the daunting task of emerging from the shadow of his father, jazz god John Coltrane (who passed when Ravi was two). Now in his 40s, Coltrane continues to develop as an artist; for demonstration of his singular tenor/soprano saxophone voice and... his creativity and intimacy as a leader, look no further than his superb Blue Note Records debut, Spirit Fiction. He employs two primo bands as the anchors of the sessions: one, his longtime quartet of pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Drew Gress and drummer E.J. Strickland and the quintet he used on his 2002 sophomore album From the Round Box; the other, trumpeter Ralph Alessi, pianist Geri Allen, bassist Lonnie Plaxico and drummer Eric Harland.

Produced by Joe Lovano, Blue Note's modern-day tenor titan, Spirit Fiction shows how forward-thinking Coltrane has become as he continues to steer clear of standard formulas and aims straight for imaginative contrasts and convergences. He experiments with tunes developed by disparate layers of improvisation, notably on the doubleheader of the scrambling "Roads Cross" and the sprightly "Cross Roads", where pairs of players from his quartet are recorded individually with the results spliced together. Coltrane also opts to record in a variety of instrumental formats, including duo ("Spring & Hudson," an original with Strickland that bursts with brio), trio (a redolent take on Paul Motian's "Fantasm" with Lovano and Allen), and sextet (as Lovano joins in again with the quintet's rollicking-to-reflective spin through Ornette Coleman's "Check Out Time").

On Coltrane's ballad "the change, my girl," his tenor delivers a lyrical mix of melancholy and joy, and on the three Alessi-penned tunes, the two ebulliently converse and criss-cross. As a saxophonist, Coltrane may not be a flashy, blow-with-bravado type, but his playing communicates on levels ranging from the vigorous to the ruminative. Spirit Fiction is yet another giant step in his maturation.
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#58 How to Dress Well, Total Loss

Total Loss

How To Dress Well
2012 | Acéphale / S.C. Distribution

When one-man R&B deconstructionist Tom Krell, aka How to Dress Well, released his 2010 debut Love Remains, he was one of a a host of bedroom artists – Krell, plus James Blake, the Weeknd and others – re-interpreting FM-radio slow jams and twisting the slinky genre into new shapes. Since then, the number of contemporaries has grown while unchartered paths have shrunk, so it's commendable that two years later, Krell has distinguished... himself again, this time with tighter arrangements and more substantive lyrics.

While Love Remains' longing murmurs and blown-out falsettos kept listeners at a distance, Total Loss sees Krell laying out his diary pages in tight close-up for everyone to read. Written while he was grieving the death of his best friend and recovering from a recent breakup, songs like "Cold Nites," "Running Back" and "How Many?" bare the heartbreak in Krell's somber croon. Without the low fidelity of his previous offerings (and with help from the xx producer Rodaidh McDonald) it's clear that the scratches and crackles weren't a cover for a lack of a voice: Krell's falsetto soars when refined. It's a remarkable evolution: Somewhere in the time he was fine-tuning his warped take on the genre, How to Dress Well has moved towards becoming a real R&B artist.
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#57 Yellow Ostrich, Strange Land

Strange Land

Yellow Ostrich
2012 | Barsuk Records

Yellow Ostrich mastermind Alex Schaaf has said that the title of his new album refers to his move in 2010 from Wisconsin to New York City. Yet after making last year's The Mistress under humble bedroom-recording conditions, Schaaf upgraded to a professional studio for Strange Land, and it's that unknown habitat he seems most intent on exploring here. Opener "Elephant King" shows his hand straightaway, riding in on a sparkling guitar figure... that slowly accumulates all kinds of indie-pop filigree: harmonized singing, sustained horn tones, and an escalating parade-drum beat by Michael Tapper, whose consistently inventive percussion work comes to distinguish Strange Land in a way that recalls Steven Drozd's avant-Bonzo beats on The Soft Bulletin. Elsewhere, Schaaf builds intricate loops from tiny vocal slivers ("Marathon Runner") and chops up Tapper's playing into a kind of nimble white-guy funk ("I Want Yr Love"). None of this high-end studio tricknology distracts the frontman from making memorable melodies, as the elemental fuzz-rock gem "Stay at Home" demonstrates; "Daughter," too, should satisfy Built to Spill fans impatiently waiting for that band's new one. But it's definitely a kick to hear him let Yellow Ostrich run wild.
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#56 Wymond Miles, Under the Pale Moon

Under the Pale Moon

Wymond Miles
2012 | Sacred Bones Records / S.C. Distribution

When he wasn't conjuring dust storms of noir-ish, twanging guitar with San Francisco garage-rockers Fresh & Onlys, Wymond Miles was quietly stockpiling his own songs. Not that we're sure where he finds the time: aside from the building buzz of F&Os, Miles earned a degree in the humanities and also became a father. Earlier, he released Earth Has Doors, which evinced a deep appreciation for the lyricism of Scott Walker. His full-length... debut is darker and more somber than the Fresh & Only's; Miles indulges his inner goth, singing of torn desires and fragile flesh on opener "Strange Desire" and sounding at times like Robert Smith fronting the Bad Seeds. Though his words tend towards the lugubrious, it's Miles's hooks, expert six-string playing and tactful placement of sounds that make the album a luminous whole. See how the theremin sweeps in during "The Thirst" or how the guitar feedback upticks on "Lazarus Rising" before receding to its original jangle. Perhaps his strategy is laid out best on "Singing the Ending," where he croons about "go(ing) gentle into that goodnight."
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#55 Esperanza Spalding, Radio Music Society

Radio Music Society

Esperanza Spalding
2012 | Heads Up

Now Esperanza Spalding is making even the Grammys look hip. In her first outing since she was named Best New Artist in 2011, Spalding puts a dozen tunes into her stylistic spin cycle for a tour de force of pop glitter, jazz swing, folk moodiness and a dollop of hip-hop swagger on the dense-but-dazzling Radio Music Society. This is the work of an artist who refuses to choose, mocking genre labels with... guileless ambition. (Her original concept was to pair this disc with the classically-oriented, string-laden Chamber Music Society back in 2010, until her record company convinced her the menu would be too large for public consumption.)

By ignoring boundaries, Spalding upends expectations. She enlists august jazz tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano to provide a dulcet lilt to a Stevie Wonder cover ("I Can't Help It") and hip-hop titan Q-Tip to play glockenspiel and co-produce the jazzy tribute to her native Portland, Oregon("City of Roses"). Assembling a phalanx of 23 players and vocalists for a flashy, powerhouse "Radio Song," she sings about the giddiness of being seized by a new jam coming out of the speakers as her own electric bass wends its way through the song's buoyant center. Three songs later, with just the sparse backing of organist James Weidman, she tells the saga of a man falsely imprisoned for 30 years on a bogus murder conviction. On Radio, both extremes are fair game.

As was the case with Chamber Music Society, Spalding's vocals are her ace in the hole. Her range is limited, but her assured and agile phrasing is ideal for carrying out her talk/sung approach. It enables her to credibly pull off a bluesy, big-band-like torch song ("Hold On Me") and to surf atop a youth choir on the anthem "Black Gold." And then there's "Vague Suspicions," a dense and sophisticated number with Jack DeJohnette on drums, about the tacit accommodations Americans make to avoid thinking too much about the consequences of drone strikes and the other elements of remote-control war. It's a grim, simmering number, its closing moments featuring Spalding sarcastically cooing, "Next on channel 4: celebrity gossip." It's a typically astute and self-aware take from an artist who is the closest thing jazz has to a young celebrity.
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#54 Baroness, Yellow & Green

Yellow & Green

Baroness
2012 | Relapse Records

Before the release of Yellow & Green, Baroness frontman John Baizley stressed in interviews that the records were going to take some risks and expand the band's sound, partly by being more direct and placing greater emphasis on songwriting. Fans of the metal band's notoriously complex music weren't quite sure how to take this assessment; their responses tended toward wariness and curiosity mixed with guarded optimism.

As it turns out, the... double album Yellow & Green is pretty much just how Baizley described it: The burly metal fury of previous Baroness efforts has settled into something far more daring and diverse. Look no further than Yellow's "Twinkler" and "Cocainium." The former's primary sounds are throaty flute, stately acoustic guitar and stacked vocals — think Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven" at a Renaissance Faire, or a lusher version of Blue Record's "Steel That Sleeps The Eye." In contrast, the latter's tar-bubble riffs and oil-slick keyboards rumble like Iron Butterfly, before the song explodes into a fuzzed-out The Sword/Metallica hybrid.

Although this simmering tension between aggression and restraint permeates both albums, Yellow is more focused and accessible. A nimble bass line gives "Little Things" an elastic quality, while the cattle-stampede riffage of "March to the Sea" is classic Baroness. Still, these tunes exhibit impressive concision; even the turbocharged stoner rockers "Sea Lungs" and "Take My Bones Away" contain discernible (and catchy!) hooks.

Green overall is far moodier, slower and quieter than Yellow. The instrumental "Stretchmarker" is heart-wrenching psych-folk, while the ominous "Collapse" is nothing more than a tangled arrangement of folky acoustic guitar, some surging sound effects and a patient kick-drum thump. Other interesting influences crop up, too: The melancholy "Mtns. (The Crown & Anchor)" conjures Thrice's brooding post-hardcore musings, and the watery guitar textures of "Foolsong" and Green's closing instrumental track, "If I Forget Thee, Lowcountry" are reminiscent of Explosions in the Sky.

It's obvious these stylistically sprawling albums represent the next step for Baroness: Like Metallica once did, or, more recently, Mastodon, they have begun to grow beyond their niche and have accordingly set their sights on expanding beyond a cult audience. If much of Yellow & Green sounds like metal for people who don't necessarily identify as metal fans, then, it hardly means the band is hardly consciously dumbing down its music for the mainstream. On the contrary, these daring albums cement Baroness's reputation as an uncompromising group of musicians who's never been afraid to flout convention when pursuing ferocity.
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#53 THEESatisfaction, awE naturalE

awE naturalE

THEESatisfaction
2012 | Sub Pop Records

In this cloud-computing age where everyone is a fan of a bit of everything, it's good to see Sub Pop, the label most famous for bringing grunge to the world, continue to define itself not by genre but merely by brilliant music. They released their first hip-hop album in Shabazz Palaces' much-lauded Black Up last year, which featured Afro-futurist Seattle duo THEESatisfaction; the latter now get their own Sub Pop release with... their debut full-length.

Opening with a fanfare of stumbling polyrhythms and speaker-blowing pomp before swerving into nimble, pared-down poetry recitation, the pair recall the boom-bap collages of J Dilla and Madlib, with a touch of Erykah Badu's simultaneous languor and clarity. With constant gear changes like these, and songs that rarely break three minutes, the record is full of personality and verve, a feeling cemented by the rapped and sung vocals. Stasia Irons and Catherine Harris-White recite everyday dramas of sex and politics and give them a magic mushroom logic, full of tangents and florid imagery; Palaceer Lazaro of the aforementioned Shabazz Palaces returns the favor on a brace of tracks mid-album, laying his nimble non-sequiturs over "God," with its beat like an elegantly stuck Bill Evans record, plus the deranged funhouse of "Enchantruss."

Meanwhile, the filtered pop-rap of "Queens" could have come from Alan Braxe or Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter in their more laidback moods, and it's easy to imagine Lil B waxing surreal over the thickly aquatic "Juiced." Irons and Harris-White have lyrical flair, melodic gifts and a varied production voice, blending it all in a sensually blunted modern soul music. But like Sub Pop, you should forget genre labels — to tie this record to one is to undermine its richness.
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#52 Nas, Life Is Good

Life Is Good

Nas
2012 | Def Jam Records

Nas's career path has been a strange, contradictory one: It's clear that he's a legend, but he's always being pressured to live up to it, as though Illmatic was his own personal Citizen Kane. The last time he reasserted his status back in 2001, it was thanks to a feud with Jay-Z that lit a fire under his ass. But after a series of increasingly uneven late-career albums, Nas has found another... route back to form, embracing the idea that maybe his position is already secure and he doesn't have anything left to prove. But don't mistake this attitude for complacency: Life is Good, his 11th studio album, is steeped in reflection, a mixture of gratitude and regret, retrospect and foresight.

The first four tracks are the kind of intricately constructed, human-level crime narratives Nas has always excelled at — statements of influence ("No Introduction"; "Loco-Motive"), tense come-up/fall-down scenarios ("A Queens Story"), payback gone tragically wrong ("Accident Murderers") — but tinged with the bittersweet undertone of not having enough peers who made it big alongside him. The last three — the ruminative, frustrated "Stay", the romantic-daydream "Cherry Wine" and the Kelis breakup wrap-up "Bye Baby" — reveal that he's just as adept talking about the aspirations and frustrations of love. And in between there's Nas figuring out how to be a model father ("Daughters"), reconciling his hood roots and his jet-set present ("Reach Out"), invoking his origins to dress down pretenders ("Back When"), and doing the memory of Heavy D proud with his hardest got-mine anthem since "Made You Look" ("The Don"). The production fits the legacy-minded tone — no brostep or Guetta, no attempts at exhuming an ossified '94, just a slate of good-to-excellent beats from names that've always suited him well (Salaam Remi, No I.D., Buckwild) and A-list R&B hooks (Mary J. Blige, Anthony Hamilton, Amy Winehouse). In a hip-hop era where the most pivotal icons are dealing with the idea of becoming elder statesmen, Life Is Good is the kind of album an Illmatic acolyte would hope a pushing-40 Nas could make.
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#51 Vijay Iyer Trio, Accelerando

Accelerando

Vijay Iyer Trio
2012 | ACT Music

Let's not mince words: Accelerando is a source of rippling power and resplendent beauty that deserves to be called a masterpiece. (Except I suspect that Iyer, who recorded this a month before his 40th birthday, might top it on some future project.) As with the acclaimed, chart-topping Historicity in 2009, the pianist leads his trio through a stimulating collection that blends sharp originals and a surprisingly disparate array of cover tunes, from... Heatwave to Herbie Nichols to the Thriller track, "Human Nature." But in the nearly three years between the discs, the trio has been able to turbo-charge the force of their ensemble collective, without sacrificing the depth of their interactions. There are magnificent stretches throughout Accelerando — the rising to crescendo of the last half of "Optimism," much of Henry Threadgill's agile and agitated "Little Pocket Sized Demons," the title track, and Iyer's "Actions Speak," among others — where the effect is like a rock power trio along the lines of Cream or The Who, but using the language of jazz, and with a piano instead of a guitar. Iyer's two-handed chordal phrasings are cavernous, anthemic and intensely personal — he says he wants his music to be visceral, and he succeeds in spades here. Bassist Stephen Crump is a great enabler of intensity — his plucking (especially "Wildflower" and "Little Pocket Sized Demons") and bowing ("Accelerando") are brusque and bristling with contagious energy. Masterful drummer Marcus Gilmore keeps time and regulates the current with aplomb and unerringly good judgment. Accelerando feels like a unified magnum opus: The opening "Bode" pleasantly ushers you in, and the closing "The Village of the Virgins" carries the amiable goodwill of a benediction. In between is a wild, wonderful ride.
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#50 Robert Glasper, Black Radio

Black Radio

Robert Glasper
2012 | BLUE NOTE

Pianist Robert Glasper has jazz chops sophisticated enough to satiate diehard purists and an affinity for hip-hop and R&B that has resulted in collaborations with Q-Tip, Maxwell and Mos Def. Black Radio scrambles these influences, with Glasper's Experiment quartet (including Derrick Hodge on electric bass, Casey Benjamin on sax and vocoder, and Chris Dave playing drums), laying unpredictable music beneath a bevy of high-profile guests. In this era of... Pandora-style musical-profiling, where listeners can narrow down exactly what they think they want, the project absorbs genres like a sponge and squeezes out surprises with a tinge of tang and froth. It avoids the sappiness of "smooth jazz," the stilted self-reference of "hip-hop jazz" and the suffocating cushion of "quiet storm," yet there's a lush sensuality that permeates the beats, bop rhythms and bracing moments of curiosity and intellect.

Glasper understands that this Experiment is best undertaken as a tactile experience - as Shafiq Husayn rap-drawls in the opener, "Lift Off," all you need is your ears and your soul. To drive home the point, the beguiling yawl and coo of Erykah Badu sends the Afro-Cuban classic "Afro Blue" into the air like a large kite in a steady wind, its tail trilling. Rappers Lupe Fiasco and yasiin bey (better known as Mos Def) variously distill verbal science and wig out on wordplay ("turtles from a man hole"?), knowing the live quartet can alter the texture and freestyle the route as the situation warrants, on "Always Shine" and "Black Radio," respectively. There is a throwback nature to Black Radio, and not only because Sade ("Cherish The Day," with Lalah Hathaway on vocals), David Bowie ("Letter to Hermione," featuring Bilal channeling Stevie Wonder) and Nirvana (a deconstructed and vocoderized "Smells Like Teen Spirit") are covered. There are moments reminiscent of the soul-jazz fusion of Bobbi Humphrey and Donald Byrd back on Blue Note in the late '70s, or Soul II Soul and Me Phi Me back in the '80s, or Alphabet Soup and Mint Condition in the '90s, with a dollop of 21st-century hip-hop on top. Why reinvent the wheel when you can modify the ride?
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#49 Dum Dum Girls, End of Daze EP

End of Daze

Dum Dum Girls
2012 | Sub Pop Records

Sporting black leather jackets, bright red lipstick and hangdog poses, Dum Dum Girls resemble high-school dropouts from another time – the '50s, maybe; or maybe it's the '60s; or maybe it's the '80s. Whenever it is, it's not now. But no assembly of retro references, however clever, will get you to sing with a voice as bold, outsized and sad as Kristin Gundred, nor will they get you to write melodies as... instantly indelible as she can either. Over the course of two albums, and now two EPs, her band has gone from playing misfit little garage songs punctuated by "bang-bang"s and "la-la"s to dark, glittering music exploring resignation, regret, and other big subjects that sound surprising coming from a band calling themselves "Dum Dum Girls."

End of Daze, their latest, follows in the footsteps of convincingly sad bands from the Shangri-Las to the Smiths: They treat raw emotional vulnerability with musical confidence. Guitars buzz, drums boom and everything cocoons comfortably in reverb. At 18 minutes, End of Daze has no standouts and no weak spots: It's beautiful all the way through. The spiritual heart of the EP comes from the lone cover, of 1980s Scottish pop-rock group Strawberry Switchblade's "Trees and Flowers." "I hate the trees and I hate the flowers," Gundred sings over shimmering, reverberant guitars – "I hate the buildings and the way they tower over me." With just the slightest push, the simplicity that once made them playthings gets elevated to metaphor. As a title, End of Daze might be a little joke about their own maturity: The fog lifts and leaves nothing but clarity, naked and bittersweet.
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#48 Eternal Summers, Correct Behavior

Correct Behavior

Eternal Summers
2012 | Kanine Records

Nicole Yun only knows a handful of guitar chords, but she plays them passionately. Her band, Eternal Summers, has expanded sizably on sophomore effort Correct Behavior, building on their debut's ramshackle indiepop foundation with stadium-sized hooks, extra layers of guitar, and loads of reverb. But in spite of their sonic makeover, Eternal Summers (now a trio with the addition of bassist Jonathan Woods) still understand the power of brevity and focus, striking... a balance between the naÃ¯ve, home-spun charm of early gems like "Running High" and "Safe at Home" and the more expansive style they've branded "dream-punk."

"Millions" is a hell of a re-introduction. With its jangly guitar lines and see-sawing chorus melody, the track sounds like New Pornographers stuck in the garage, with Yun channeling her inner Neko Case. They have their stoner-poet moment with the atmospheric prog-pop of "Heaven and Hell," Yun philosophizing "Death itself will die" over cavernous distortion – epic shit for a band who probably used to record in their mom's basement. Eternal Summers seem to have a blast exploring the limits of a legitimate studio (check the skronky, drunk toddler guitar solo on "Disappear," or the rocket-snare blast on "You Kill," or the Beach House-y preset keyboard beat on closer "Summerset"), but they rarely experiment at the cost of joyous, chest-pounding pop. Correct Behavior indeed.
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#47 The Men, Open Your Heart

Open Your Heart

The Men
2012 | Sacred Bones Records / S.C. Distribution

There's nothing quite like a good old-fashioned, skull-splitting album-opener. Judged on those merits alone, Open Your Heart's "Turn it Around" completely fucking aces its final exam. Moreover, it's a refreshing, accessible upgrade for the Men, the Brooklyn noisemakers who set speakers smoking with last year's overdriven, occasionally overindulgent and ultimately overwhelming Leave Home. Its mix of shoegaze grandiosity and punk grit was exciting and powerful, but there were moments where one... wondered what they'd sound like if they reined it in with a couple of hooks.

Open Your Heart is the answer. The album is divided roughly into three categories: rockers (the abovementioned "Turn it Around," the Buzzcockian power pop of the title track, and the straight-up hardcore "Cube"), chill-outs (the aptly titled instrumental "Country Song," the halcyon-era-Meat-Puppets-doing-Poison drinking song, "Candy") and Leave Home sister songs (building, stretch-outs "Oscillation" and "Presence"). These categories aren't compartmentalized. Instead, they mix and mingle like you do at any great party, screamers butting elbows with blue-collar laments, rave-ups doing shots with the burnouts.

It's uncommon for a rock 'n' roll band to show such proficiency in genre-dabbling, but the Men pull it off, and it's exciting to think about what they might do given full-on immersion into one of the many directions hinted at on Open Your Heart. When American Sun's Holly Overton shows up to croon on a couple tracks, her feathery backing vocals providing balance to a screaming mix that often threatens to push too far into the red, it's tempting to hope she'll join the band. A record-length meditation on upbeat, Big-Star-inspired love songs would thrill, no doubt, but hey, what if they did a full-on country album? The potential, clearly, is unending. Thankfully, so are the rewards.
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#46 Bat For Lashes, The Haunted Man

The Haunted Man (Deluxe Version)

Bat For Lashes
2013 | Parlophone

As suggested by its striking cover art, The Haunted Man is the moment where Natasha Khan, aka Bat For Lashes, proves she's strong enough to stand naked, both figuratively and literally. Her third, gentlest and most ballad-oriented effort yet is lightly adorned with autoharp, electronically estranged guitars, gossamer keys and symphonic orchestration that never upstage her whole-hearted vocals. As co-producer, Khan favors an incorporeal approach, placing phantasmic textures before hooks. She makes... room for beats, but they are typically halting, stopping and starting again as if to reinforce the album's underlying theme of building up and letting go – sometimes at the same time – of intimate yet unstable connections.

Over and over again, Khan sings of lovers traumatized by the past, and how those ghosts haunt the present. In the album's most immediate track "All Your Gold," Khan sings of "a good man" that she struggles to trust with a heart that a previous lover turned black. She often adopts a motherly protector role, as on the percussive "Rest Your Head," but she also battles with her own demons: In the slow-burning title track, she aims to heal a wounded soul, but admits, "Yes, your ghosts have got me too." Khan may be the most self-contained and confessional of the current crop of female sing-songwriters, yet she resists over-sharing. Instead, she balances empathy and aching sincerity with understatedly nervy arrangements that favor mystery over familiarity. What might come off as austere in others simply seems natural for Khan.
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#45 Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras, The Congos, Icon Give Thank

Icon Give Thank

Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras, The Congos
2012 | RVNG INTL. / SC Distribution

After six installments of Johnny Cash's American series and well-received late-career efforts by Mavis Staples and Jimmy Cliff, there's very little novel about a weathered pioneer musician teaming up with a younger admirer in the hopes of lending a bit of the old fog-and-polish to their artistic reputation. The results are, broadly speaking, similar: a restrained, tasteful facsimile of the artist's best work, prim as a pressed suit and comforting as a... cup of afternoon tea. Which is what makes the thoroughly batshit, opium-gobbling collaboration between reggae legends The Congos and the Austin musician Sun Araw so irresistible. Rather than focusing on the sound of their legendary Heart of the Congos, Araw set about to recreate the mood: murky, mysterious, vaguely occult and more than a little spooky. Like Heart, the songs still center around glassy-eyed, endlessly-repeated choruses, but on Icon Give Thanks they're distended and wobbly, strange voices drifting eerily through some narcotic hallucination. And though it can't rightly be called a resurrection – it's stranger and spookier than anything the band did in their prime – Icon Give Thanks undeniably feels like the work of the undead, coming back for a final haunting.
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#44 Orrin Evans, Flip the Script

Flip The Script

Orrin Evans
2012 | Posi-Tone Records / The Orchard

As a pianist, Orrin Evans features a muscular attack with a meaty tonality and impatience with elongated or predictable phrasing. As an artist, he has emerged as a formidable, increasingly indispensable presence in jazz, whether leading the balls-to-the-wall Captain Black Big Band, the politically charged Tarbaby, or small ensemble recordings. Flip The Script is a trio outing with bassist Ben Wolfe and drummer Donald Edwards, both necessarily sturdy, exceptionally sentient players when... charged with accompanying Evans's dynamic approach, which blends supple conception with bold, brawny execution. Like Faith In Action from 2010, it contains Evans originals that are often jagged and fragmented but ever-purposeful, brimming with rough-and-tumble rhythms and ruminations variously reminiscent of McCoy Tyner, Muhal Richard Abrams, Bud Powell and Art Tatum. They are gusty and assured, with apt titles like "Clean House," "Flip The Script" and "The Answer." On a slower note, "Big Small" is a steadily stalking, rough-hewn blues that cuts deep into the blues tradition without losing a jazz sensibility.

Evans's choice of covers are generally revealing for their contrasts and/or message. The four here begin with "Question," a chopped up bebop number by Tarbaby bassist Eric Revis; and a rendition of Luther Vandross's "A Brand New Day" that finds Evans in full McCoy Tyner mode much of the time. But the final two inject poignant reflection into the mix. The standard "Someday My Prince Will Come" is performed with prolonged, lingering resonance, highlighting the wistful and sadder aspect of a song usually framed more hopefully. And the closer, Gamble and Huff's "The Sound Of Philadelphia," is a touching eulogy for Soul Train creator and emcee Don Cornelius, who died six days before this recording session. "TSOP" was the Soul Train theme song, and Philadelphia also happens to be Evans's hometown and ongoing wellspring of musical inspiration. His soulful take carries that weight just right.
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#43 Swans, Seer

The Seer

Swans
2012 | Young God / Revolver

Whether he's conjuring up a quiet storm with an acoustic guitar or sharing the asphyxiated psalms of "Sex, God, Sex," Michael Gira has never been the subtle type. That's especially the case with the second coming of Gira's iconic post-punk band Swans, which obliterated the notion of a cash-grab reunion with a series of resoundingly LOUD shows, and 2010's uniformly excellent, AARP-be-damned album My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to... the Sky.
Now just two years away from turning 60, Gira has delivered a double album that may be his bravest release yet. Clearly the sound of someone who still doesn't give a goddamn what you think, The Seer isn't just a sprawling listen. It's a record that just went off its meds, a striking, supremely challenging mix of manic melodies, endless experimentation, ritualistic drones and rigorous repetition.

Which is to say, it's not for everyone. Aside from a couple palette cleansers ("The Daughter Brings the Water," "The Wolf") and a delicate duet with Karen O ("Song For a Warrior," which recalls the Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer's recent rock opera run), The Seer devotes most of its two-hour running time to destroying any semblance of sane songwriting. That goes for everything from the murderous chase scene that is "Mother of the World" to the way Alan and Mimi of Low chant "lunacy!" until the word really sinks in on the record's opener. And then there's the "A Piece of the Sky," "Apostate" and the title track, a trio of EP-length epics that shift between showers of nihilistic noise, hypnotic vocals (including contributions from two key Gira collaborators, Akron/Family and former Swans member Jarboe), ominous orchestral parts, and unexplained phenomena (the "acoustic and synthetic" fire sounds of Ben Frost come to mind).

Amazing stuff — if you can make it to the other side without blowing your speakers.
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#42 Bill Fay, Life is People

Life Is People

Bill Fay
2012 | Dead Oceans / SC Distribution

Life is People is the first new record from Bill Fay since 1972, a British singer-songwriter whose beatific and keenly observed music might remind you of Randy Newman or Wilco. It's a worthy addition to a small but hallowed canon of material. Wilco have covered him over the years, and he returns the favor with a solemn, still rendition of "Jesus, Etc." Fay's voice is ragged, pleading, and gentle, and his music... sits in a glowing pool of "Hallelujah" chord changes and restrained, soul-inflected touches. It has a numinous simplicity that feels healing; when he enlists a gospel choir to swell up on the chorus of "Be At Peace With Yourself," you find that suddenly you are.
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#41 Actress, R.I.P.

R.I.P.

Actress
2012 | Honest Jon's Records / Finetunes

With a sound that's nearly as heady as its concept – "a conceptual arc taking in death, life, sleep and religion" – Actress's third album burrows its way into your brain and stays there long after you hit stop. If 2012 was the Year of EDM, R.I.P. signals a return to Intelligent Dance Music. And not the bloodless kind that's more concerned with plugins than an actual pulse. More like an... elegantly designed surrogate for the album Aphex Twin's been threatening to drop for more than a decade.
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#40 Alabama Shakes, Boys & Girls

Boys & Girls

Alabama Shakes
2012 | ATO Records

The chatter that southern blues-rockers Alabama Shakes have generated in the months leading up to their debut is usually reserved for legends twice their age, or at least groups with more than a couple of songs to their name. There have been Janis Joplin and Otis Redding comparisons, endorsements from the likes of Jack White and Adele, and fans talking about their raucous live shows like they're enough... to convert you to a new religion. And — if you can believe it — the Athens, Alabama quartet's full length debut Boys & Girls lives up to the hype.

The first thing that will bowl you over is that voice. "Bless my heart, bless my soul/ I didn't think I'd make it to 22 years old," howls singer/guitarist Brittany Howard in the opening moments of stellar single "Hold On," showing off her gritty, soulful pipes and making those Joplin comparisons feel earned. But they're not the whole story, either: Boys & Girls finds the Alabama Shakes pulling from the greats of rock and blues (catch the Bo Diddley reference in the opening lyric?) into a distinctive, and occasionally downright personal, sound. ("Come on Brittany!" she hollers to herself. "You gotta come on up!")

From the barroom piano stomp of "Hang Loose" to the Stones swagger of "Be Mine," Boys & Girls sounds like the work of a group of weary, wizened road warriors who've been playing together for decades, rather than a group who formed a couple of years ago when its principle players were still in their teens. With all this talent and confidence already on full display on their debut, imagine all they can do with the years ahead.
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#39 Kathleen Edwards, Voyageur

Voyageur

Kathleen Edwards
2012 | New Rounder

The too-obvious shorthands here - given that this album was produced by her new beau Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) in the wake of her marital split from her longtime guitarist Colin Cripps - is that this is Kathleen Edwards's "indie rock" record and her "divorce" record. Both may be true, but only to a point, and neither gets to the heart of Edwards's voyage on Voyageur. Though Vernon has an imposing... indie pedigree, it's not as if his own records are that far removed from the rugged Americana that has been Edwards's turf up to this point; and for another thing, her albums always sounded more "alt" than "country," anyway. And so it's not surprising that the clearest reference-point here is Neko Case, another singer who, like Edwards, has both Canadian and American ties. It's the latter Edwards sounds most excited about on the opening "Empty Threat"; the cool confidence in her voice as she repeatedly insists, "I'm moving to America," amid gliding acoustic and electric guitars indicates this isn't an empty threat at all. True enough, that song relates to her divorce, as do "Change The Sheets" ("and then change me"), the elegiac John Roderick co-write "Pink Champagne" and the wistful relationship postscript "For The Record." But the record also offers a way forward. Edwards and Vernon harmonize exquisitely on the redemptive ballad "A Soft Place To Land," and on "Sidecar," co-written with her longtime confidante Jim Bryson, Edwards exults in finding a new companion after "feeling so lost for so long." With a little help on Voyageur, she finds herself as well.
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#38 Death Grips, The Money Store

The Money Store

Death Grips
2012 | Epic

The first impulse after listening to Death Grips' The Money Store might scan similarly to the initial take of their debut Exmilitary: hip-hop as skater thrash, the more aggro strains of both worlds fused in some Bomb Squad meets Bones Brigade shit. But that's what second impressions are for. As easy as it is to draw parallels to the old punk-rap touchstones, there's something about this vital noise that makes it hard... to situate it at any specific moment in either genre's hardcore continuum. MC Ride's raspy bellow has the kind of harsh tone East Coast heads will appreciate — think Bobby Digital-era RZA shouting himself hoarse, cranked up to Waka Flocka Flame levels of intensity, turning cryptic threats and manic free association into shout-along lines. Meanwhile, the clamor throbbing beneath his voice pulls more from the brain trust of contemporary West Coast bass music — a la the popular L.A. club night Low End Theory — than anything else. Southern bounce, electro and boogie funk all with the gloss beaten off are full-Nelsoned into raw-hamburger renditions of grime and dubstep, with the EQ levels pushed into snarling, aching overload. If that sounds a bit brutal, it's the kind of brutality that pulls you along instead of dragging you under — no matter how belligerent the sound gets, it's less a confrontation than an appeal to shared catharsis.
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#37 Standard Fare, Out of Sight, Out of Town

Out Of Sight. Out Of Town

Standard Fare
2011 | Melodic / Southern Record Distributors

In "Fifteen," on their 2010 debut The Noyelle Beat, Sheffield trio Standard Fare sang about being 22 and not knowing what to do. On the band's sophomore effort Out of Sight, Out of Town, they talk about mindless day jobs, crushed hopes and being "destined to die unknown." Bassist-vocalist Emma Kupa, guitarst-vocalist Dan How and drummer Andy Beswick have carved out a space alongside like-minded British indiepop acts Los Campesinos! and Allo... Darlin', with songs that will resonate with fellow 20-somethings trying to figure their lives out through dead-end jobs and romantic missteps. Among the best tracks is "Call Me Up," a hilarious but probably-relatable number about a post-nightclub hookup ("I never said you weren't hot, it's just that all this drinking does these things to me," sing How and Kupa). The rest of the set finds them musing on older women ("Older Women" — a stark contrast to "Fifteen," the last album's tale of lusting after and going home with a teenager), reconnecting with a love interest from teenage years ("Kicking Puddles"), and the nervousness of starting a new relationship ("051107"). It's not a musical change from their first LP — clean, bouncy guitars, quick, punchy bass lines, occasional use of horns or strings, and Kupa and How's back-and-forth vocals — but it's a solid display of pop hooks and quick wit.
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#36 Mac DeMarco, 2

#35 Jessie Ware, Devotion

Devotion

Jessie Ware
2013 | Interscope/Cherrytree

In the video for breakout single "Wildest Moments," UK singer Jessie Ware appears, dressed in white, in front of a blank white backdrop and begins to sing. And that is pretty much all that happens. But the thing is, not much more needs to happen: The song itself is potent, big, "Paper Plane"-style bass drums and Ware's smoky alto preaching the gospel of two-way love as a path to self-actualization. It's like... that throughout Devotion, Ware's sneakily seductive debut that fuses the best parts of '90s R&B with current trends in UK dance. Throughout, the music is deliciously underplayed: cool blankets of synths, percussion that percolates like an 8-bit coffeepot and the occasional filigree of guitar. It makes for a new kind of high-tech lover's rock, cruising sleek and quiet as a sports car on a city street in the hours just before the sun comes up. Like all the best crushes, it sneaks up on you unexpectedly, and takes a firm, unwavering hold.
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#34 Animal Collective, Centipede Hz

Centipede Hz

Animal Collective
2012 | Domino Recording Co

The word on the street is that Animal Collective's ninth studio album – yes, ninth – is a red-blooded response to the sunshine and puppy dogs of Merriweather Post Pavilion. Which is true in regards to its approach (bashed instruments rather than stacked samples) and overall vibe (wild and wooly), but it's not like the group's core quartet is back to baking batches of incoherent noise rock. To understand where they're coming... from this time around, it helps to first cue up the podcasts that Animal Collective leaked in the weeks leading up to Centipede Hz's release; namely Geologist's set, which is based on an elaborate mix he made for producer Ben Allen before Animal Collective hit the studio.

"We put together a list of songs that either encompassed the overall sound and vibe, or just had specific things we liked, such as drums sounds, or vocal effects," Geologist wrote in his Mixcloud notes. "For the final show of AC Radio we thought it'd be cool to play this inspirational mix and the album back to back."
Sure enough, Animal Collective's leading loop surgeon offers more than a few clues about the background of what's initially a very bewildering listen, from Barrett-era Pink Floyd and latter day Portishead to slivers of psych, rarified garage rock and manic world music. None of which are immediately apparent on the first or 50th spin. Instead, Centipede Hz unfolds like a series of scrambled radio transmissions, right down to the tortured transitions between each track. It's as if the band's tapping into a broadcast from the great beyond, with little regard for the amphitheater-ready hooks that made Merriweather Post Pavilion such a joy. Where that album's leadoff single ("My Girls") flooded the endorphin levels of anyone within earshot, this one is prefaced by the stuttering rhythms and ravenous "let, let, let, let, let, let GO!" choruses of "Today's Supernatural." Listen to any of these songs loud enough and you'll be forced to step back a few feet; it's that harsh and heavy, from the trash compactor intro of "Moonjock" to the skittish synths of "Wide Eyed," the first song to feature lead vocals from the group's guitarist, Deakin.

In conclusion, do not take the brown acid at your next Animal Collective show. Your synapses will thank you.
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#33 Christian Scott, Christian aTunde Adjuah

Christian aTunde Adjuah

Christian Scott
2012 | Concord Jazz

New Orleans native Christian Scott has often shown a penchant for pushing the envelope. Though reliably anchored by his warm, typically muted trumpet work, his previous albums have incorporated influences from fusion to funk to world music. But with Christian aTunde Adjuah, the 29-year old takes a bold leap: A two-CD release comprised of 23 tracks, Christian aTunde Adjuah draws on New Orleans second-line rhythms, the African Diaspora and the electronic loop... programming of Squarepusher and Aphex Twin. These influences aren't always literal, but they dance around the edges of Scott's charged compositions like ghosts haunting a dream.

Scott and his explosive, adventurous band — guitarist Matthew Stevens, drummer Jamire Williams, bassist Kris Funn, pianist Lawrence Fields, tenor saxophonist Kenneth Whalum III, alto saxophonist Louis Fouche IIII and trombonist Corey King — tackle some pretty serious themes, including, as the liner notes mention, "ethnic cleansing, kidnapping andâ€¦the rape of 400 indigenous African Sudanese." And that's only in the first track, "Fatima Aisha Rokero 400." Instrumentally, the group's common language, beyond their serious improvisation skills, is based on manually cycled loops, with each musician performing repetitive figures that recall electronic dance music, or, some might say, Live Evil-era Miles Davis. Scott's band imbues the music with a playful and fragmented nature, and his muted, Miles-inspired trumpet lends the music an eerie, forlorn quality.

Disc two takes a similar approach, though with backbeats suggesting a contemporary, if still dark, pop-funk approach. "Jihad Joe" spirals and dances over a trancelike 7/4 pulse, Scott spewing trumpet scrawl, drummer Jamire Williams soloing like a spongy Tony Williams roving over the kit. "Liar Liar" could be Miles Davis's "Decoy" sampled and spliced for contemporary ears. The album closes with "Cara," a surprisingly gentle, piano based ballad that has the feel of sunrise to it, not the catharsis that came before.

Though his band's cyclical rhythms sometimes sound static instead of propulsive and Scott's trumpet has a sameness in tonality and mood, there's no denying that Christian aTunde Adjuah is one hell of a growth spurt. The only moment in the set's two-disc sprawl where Scott acknowledges straight-ahead jazz bears a telling, sardonic title: "Who They Wish I Was," The message is clear: Scott will not be categorized.
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#32 Anais Mitchell, Young Man in America

Young Man In America

Anais Mitchell
2012 | Wilderland Records / The Orchard

AnaÃ¯s Mitchell is a writer whose medium happens to be music. As a musician, though, her writerly achievements are undeniable: Her previous effort, 2010's Hadestown, reconceived the myth of Orpheus, coming to life first as a touring theater production and then as a 20-track album. On the follow-up (which also launches her own label), Mitchell avoids trying to top it and simply turns in 11 confident, moonlit folk songs that hang together... as a loose narrative concerning the dire state of the world, especially for those younger people who might have been more optimistic in another time. "Nothing's gonna stop me now," she sings repeatedly in "Coming Down," with hope replaced by weariness. Mitchell's voice is high and nasal, and it's to her and producer Todd Sickafoose's credit that the varied arrangements, which can evoke naturalistic scenes much like in Laura Veirs's music, are so complementary (especially on the dramatic one-two punch of the opening songs, "Wilderland" and the title track).
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#31 Converge, All We Love We Leave Behind

All We Love We Leave Behind

Converge
2012 | Epitaph

In an era of decreasing album sales, making a living as a long-running band requires extensive touring. And yet, the longer a band has been around, the harder it is for them to drop everything and hit the road. Converge's eighth album, poignantly titled All We Love We Leave Behind, is a revealing glimpse into the kinds of personal frustrations that the band has typically kept behind closed doors. Songs like "Empty... on the Inside," "Sadness Comes Home" and the title track, in which frontman Jacob Bannon laments, "You deserve so much more than I could provide," vent pain and self-contempt with every verse.

And yet it's these very same frustrations that have ironically helped keep the band fresh. Not only do Converge rage as hard as they did in 1994, when they released their first album Halo in a Haystack, they have developed numerous approaches with which to pummel listeners. "Aimless Arrows" contrasts speedy salvos of melodic guitar with hyper-kinetic drumming. The ironically-titled "Tender Abuse" matches death-metal blast beats with feral vocals and guitars that ring like sirens before ending with a half-speed breakdown that would put most metalcore bands to shame. "Trespasses" contrasts double-bass drumming and short, sharp riffs with angular flurries of blues-inflected guitar that sound more like Jesus Lizard. And "Sadness Comes Home" is augmented with Van Halen-style fingertapping that pogos through a kinetic hardcore forest fire. With All We Love We Leave Behind, Converge have expanded their horizons both lyrically and musically without compromising an iota of intensity, proving in the process that speed isn't the only path to sonic demolition. Twenty-two years into their career, Converge continue to craft sincere, relentless and aggressive metallic hardcore.
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#30 Mount Eerie, Clear Moon

Clear Moon

Mount Eerie
2012 | P.W. Elverum & Sun / The Orchard

Phil Elverum almost never writes a song that's entirely its own thing. His body of work, initially as the Microphones and more recently as Mount Eerie, is full of missing twins, separated partners, self-pastiches and negative space. Clear Moon is itself a twin (he made another album, the forthcoming Ocean Roar, at the same time). It begins with "Through the Trees Pt. 2," a sequel to a song from 2009's Wind's... Poem. That's followed by (different!) songs called "The Place Lives" and "The Place I Live," both of which appeared in drastically different versions on a recent single. As usual, Elverum's lyrics draw on a tightly circumscribed vocabulary of phrases and nature images; the closest thing to a conventional song here is "House Shape," which resolves into My Bloody Valentine-style dream-pop after a couple of minutes of squinty drone-and-beat, as if he's finally worked out its shape.

But Clear Moon is also just about the darkest recording Elverum has ever made — he's talked about how he was inspired by Werner Herzog's soundtrack composers Popol Vuh and black-metal band Burzum. Most of these songs are dominated by menacing, echoing synthesizer drones, punctuated by occasional terrifying shifts, like the blast-beat barrage of drums that crushes the final 30 seconds of "Over Dark Water." Elverum's voice is as naked and subdued as ever, and in the context of the slow, thunderous tracks here, it sounds as if he's pacing helplessly toward a final judgment.
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#29 Mirel Wagner, Mirel Wagner

Mirel Wagner

Mirel Wagner
2012 | Friendly Fire Recordings / The Orchard

"All day I stay by her side," Mirel Wagner sings of her beloved in "No Death," the undeniable buzz cut from this Ethiopian-Finnish singer-songwriter's self-titled debut. "But death has a claim and a right to my bride." In fact, death has already exercised that claim: A stark minor-key blues made only of voice and guitar, "No Death" turns out to be one of an exceedingly small handful of tunes about the joys... of necrophilia. "Her body is cold/ Well, it's gonna get colder," Wagner acknowledges over carefully fingerpicked arpeggios, "But my love will ignite what was left to smolder." (Think she was tempted to sing "what was left of her shoulder"?) Elsewhere on this haunting nine-track set Wagner dials down the lyrical shock-and-awe a bit; in the relatively jaunty "No Hands" she even pauses a bike ride long enough to admire "the sun filter[ing] through the trees." But there's never any of the sweetening you expect from folks working in this kind of post-Nick Drake mode: no pillowy string arrangements or harmony vocal parts designed to reassure you that somebody else is out there. Wagner keeps her music as lean — and as sharp — as a razor's edge.
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#28 The Walkmen, Heaven

Heaven

The Walkmen
2012 | Fat Possum / The Orchard

If you want to know why your smartest, most iconoclastic friends speak in hushed tones about The Walkmen, check out the opening track of their new album Heaven. In five minutes, this band seemingly sums up rock history, referencing doo wop, "The Duke Of Earl," folk-rock and Lou Reed's street poetry. All crowned by Hamilton Leithauser's winsome croon. This might explain all the hipster fuss.

Still, Heaven isn't pastiche, despite betraying its influences.... Take "The Witch." Sure, the organ icily echoes Elvis Costello circa '78. But here, Leithauser's brings his very own romantic anomie. "It starts like this," he sings, "A kiss is just a kiss." Which introduces the overarching theme of the record: Love, man! Love so right. Love gone wrong. Guys who drive through Michigan just to taste it. But this album ain't just a mopefest for lovelorn eggheads. The band, especially guitarist Paul Maroon, backs Leithauser like an indie U2. That means muscle, not bombast. And U2 could never play a roadhouse instrumental like "Jerry's Tune."

Maybe such eclecticism hasn't helped the band's commercial fortunes. But slip on these Walkmen and you won't care. Ten years on? Hah! These "Men" are just hitting their stride.
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#27 Spiritualized, Sweet Heart Sweet Light

Sweet Heart Sweet Light

Spiritualized
2012 | Fat Possum Records

Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space is undoubtedly Jason Pierce's masterwork, but that hasn't stopped him from trying to top it from a variety of quixotic angles — witness the orchestral overkill of Let It Come Down, Amazing Grace's fairly unconvincing garage-rock rebranding, and Songs In A&E trying to micromanage spiritual epiphanies. Fortunately, Sweet Heart Sweet Light is a record that feels like a sigh of relief, his least labored... since Ladies and also the best since then. As you might be able to tell from the fact that two of its fantastic songs are titled "Hey Jane" and "Mary," and a song that begins "My mother said/ When she was so concerned/ Don't play with fire and you'll never get burned," this is quintessential Pierce, redemption rendered in seven-minute epics with bombastic string arrangements, gospel choirs, and the most transparent Velvet Underground references possible right alongside instantly memorable melodies. The glorious thing about Sweet Heart is how colorful, portable and manageable it is — every bit as skyscraping as Ladies And Gentlemen but nearly a half hour shorter, it's the closest thing to a Spiritualized "pop album" and subsequently one of the best of 2012 thus far.
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#26 Matthew Dear, Beams

Beams

Matthew Dear
2012 | Ghostly International / The Orchard

At this point — 13 years, five albums, and several side projects into a preconception-skirting career as a producer/DJ/performer — it shouldn't be surprising to find Matthew Dear fully embracing his inner Eno, Bowie and Byrne. And yet, longtime fans still shout "play 'Dog Days'!" at some of his shows, as if they wish he'd stop trying to be a bandleader and return to his twisted techno roots behind the soft glow... of a laptop and some MIDI triggers.

That's not gonna happen. Beams is yet another step in Dear's welcome evolution as a songwriter. Not a party-rocker. Not a floor-filler. A songwriter. And since he started off as more of a club crawler — a micro-house auteur, to use the short-lived, oh-so-2003 term — Dear isn't quite a pop star just yet. He's getting there, though, as proven by the unparalleled perfection of this album's lead-off single, "Her Fantasy." A career standout, it's willfully wild and downright weird, from its Kenneth Anger-cribbing music video to its woozy rave whistle and incessant sampled chorus of "Pump it!/ Pump the bass!" The rest of the record follows suit with one decidedly strange detour after another, including the tortured nervous tics of "Earthforms," the lava-like loops and minor-keyed downward spiral of "Shake Me," and the deviant disco of "Up & Out."

It takes at least 10 listens to sink in, and even then it's a grower, but Dear's released yet another record that's completely removed from the rest of his catalog. Now all he needs to do is cut 10 tracks that are as tight as "Her Fantasy." Then he'll have a true classic on his hands.
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#25 Angel Olsen, Half Way Home

Half Way Home

Angel Olsen
Bathetic Records

"You won't always be walking the safest street/ but you can find your way home," Angel Olsen sings in "Lonely Universe," from her sophomore album Half Way Home. The album's seven-and-a-half-minute centerpiece is a poignant, gut-wrenching account of losing a loved one: "Goodbye, sweet Mother Earth/ without you now, I'm a lonely universe," she laments. But instead of just sulking, she assures others in her position that if they've even begun to... think about the path back to normal, they're already halfway there. Throughout these 11 tracks, Olsen attempts to make sense of the journey from lost to found, and she does it gracefully with songs about birth and death, darkness and lightness, and giving and receiving love.

Olsen, who's spent the last couple years singing alongside Bonnie "Prince" Billy, has a soulful voice that often cracks as it slips into her higher register, setting her somewhere in the same range as '70s folkie Judee Sill. Her songs are often founded on acoustic fingerpicking and vocals, best in delicate tracks like "Safe in the Womb" and "You Are Song." But in "The Waiting" she channels jangly '60s girl groups as she sings, "I need you to be the one who calls," and it's easy to imagine the album closer "Tiniest Seed" with a gospel choir singing behind her.
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#24 Royal Headache, Royal Headache

Royal Headache

Royal Headache
2012 | What's Your Rupture?

In the end, it all comes down to Shogun's voice, a ragged rasp that falls somewhere squarely between young Rod Stewart and sad Otis Redding and infuses every one of the songs on Royal Headache's roaring debut with a big old battered heart. It's easy to miss the first few times: The songs whoosh by like vintage funny cars whipping around a red-dirt race track, antic and spitting flames. But look a... little closer and it's clear the driver is crying: On "Girls," he howls, "Didn't I tell you over and over I want the key to your heart?" and on "Really in Love," which kicks and struts like a rough demo from the first Jam record, he asks, "Maybe you think you're smartâ€¦but are you really in love?" It's as if Shogun got lost en route to a Stax cover-band audition and ended up sitting in on a Buzzcocks tribute instead. His searing yelp and full-body delivery make Royal Headache's songs feel instantly vital. Call it the Sound of the Young Down Under.
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#23 Tame Impala, Lonerism

Lonerism

Tame Impala
2012 | Modular Fontana

Aussie psych-rocker outfit Tame Impala's sophomore effort opens not with a bang, but a whisper – a literal whisper, breathy and insistent, that lazily warps into something else. Fractals of reverb and pedal effect peel off into a glass-eyed haze. Frontman Kevin Parker sings like a latter-day John Lennon, Instagrammed and amplified and fed through subpar speakers. The whole thing builds to a psych-rock anthem so shimmery, so positively prismatic, that it's... easy to forget that Parker prefers downers to stimulants. There lies the weird, cognitive dissonance at the heart of Lonerism: It's an album about sadness that sounds anything but sad.

In the U.S., at least, that's a pretty novel concept; we demonize loners and introverts to the point that PhDs give TED talks on the subject. But Lonerism, like Innerspeaker before it, plays more like a celebration of isolation than a confession or defense. Songs like "Elephant" and "Why Won't They Talk to Me?" are trippy Rorschach blots – full of sun and slow burn if you don't listen to lyrics, and subsumed by self-pity if you do. "Elephant" seems particularly destined for edgy car commercials or dancey dive bars, with its obstinate one-two baseline and weird organ whorls. It's too bad Tame Impala draw so much inspiration from loneliness – Lonerism will make them plenty of friends.
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#22 Beach House, Bloom

Bloom

Beach House
2012 | Sub Pop Records

On Bloom, the fourth record by Baltimore duo Beach House, there aren't hooks so much as sultry tendrils perpetually beckoning towards some smoky, purple-lit back alley that never entirely materializes. Alex Scally's guitar ribbons and diddles over synths that twinkle and grind, and Victoria LeGrand's voice is woozy and dark and supple. Increasingly, the words she sings hardly seem to matter, but listen close and there are snippets of sleepless nights, strange... paradises, and the ability of the world to swallow you whole. Bloom's tracklist looks slight, but with every song pushing five minutes it's actually a long, slow burn; there's even an old-school hidden track tacked onto the nearly seven minutes of silence that following thrumming closer "Irene." It's a record that almost expects to hang around in the background, pulsing and twirling and ebbing in and out of consciousness. But it also functions incredibly well as an intimate headphones album: Even piped through dinky earbuds, it makes one hell of a private soundtrack, rendering the most gloriously mundane moments of life unreasonably, fiercely cool.
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#21 godspeed you! black emperor, Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!

Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!

godspeed you! black emperor
2012 | Constellation / SC Distribution

When Godspeed You! Black Emperor disbanded in 2003, they didn't exactly go out with a bang: Their last album, 2002's undercooked, over-thought Yanqui U.X.O., was upstaged by its packaging, which included a chart that linked missile companies to major labels. So when the group reconvened in late 2010 to play a handful of dates, including All Tomorrow's Parties in Minehead, England, it seemed like a second chance. Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!, their... comeback full-length announced just two weeks ago, offers resounding redemption.

Along with their penchant for cryptic, seemingly coded titles, the group's facility with sprawling, majestically apocalyptic suites remains intact. 'Allelujah!, like their best material, conveys an unnamable dread that lies well outside the purview of lyrics (they don't have any) and standard song structures (which they explode). The expected elements remain – heraldic guitars, jarring sound collages, disquieting drones, roiling crescendos – yet they combine in new and unexpected ways. In fact, it shows the band rediscovering and reclaiming its primary mission, which is to make music that is heavy in both sound and concept.

'Allelujah! contains four tracks: two short drone/collage pieces as well as two towering compositions that lurch and lumber well past the ten-minute mark, contorting into unexpected shapes along the way. Despite being persistently tagged "post-rock," Godspeed do not stray far from actual rock, specifically the proto-metal of the late '60s and early '70s. "We Drift Like Worried Fire" moves with an apocalyptic stomp similar to Black Sabbath, while a Zeppelinesque exoticism/eroticism defines opener "Mladic." That heaviness lends the album a gravity and immediacy that Yanqui lacked, yet there are no solos, no lead instruments, no blazing displays of technique. In short, no egos. That each Godspeeder is absorbed into the collective makes 'Allelujah! sound bracing and bold, instilling these doom-laden songs with a sense of renewed promise.
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#20 The Twilight Sad, No One Can Ever Know

No One Can Ever Know

The Twilight Sad
2012 | FatCat Records / The Orchard

White-knuckled brooding, it turns out, is a many-splendored thing, as the Twilight Sad fortuitously discovers on its triumphantly depressive third album. The gloomy Glasgownoise-rockers' 2007 debut, Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters, introduced a cathartic, tempestuous band in the tradition of other downcast Scottish racket-makers like Mogwai or Arab Strap. 2009 sophomore outing Forget the Night Ahead, meanwhile, did away with the arena-ready choruses and dialed up the churning My... Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth guitar tempests, intensifying the guilt-wracked emotional purge but doing away with easy entry points. From there, it wouldn't have been unreasonable to predict a career of diminishing returns. Or else implosion.

The latter, in a sense, is what happens on No One Can Ever Know, and it's a brutally gripping thing to behold. Working with famed U.K. producer-remixer Andy Weatherall, who's credited as having "anti-produced" the album, lead moaner James Graham and the lads delve deeper into the recesses of their own unfathomable personal darkness, and emerge with a compelling new sound salvaged from the scrap metal of a previous recession's industrial blight. Mechanical beats and icy synths spar with stormy guitar and Graham's ever-richer Scottish burr in a jagged, lonesome space that updates the band's forebears in foreboding. See the Radiohead-haunted guitar of advance single "Sick," the Depeche Mode bass line of "Another Bed," or the hammering Krautrock throb of "Dead City." Setting it all apart are Graham's obliquely harrowing vocals, which end the album almost a cappella, the scent of blood in the air.
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#19 Julia Holter, Ekstasis

Ekstasis

Julia Holter
2012 | RVNG INTL. / SC Distribution

Julia Holter makes music for an ever-changing carnival of the mind. One moment she's cooing dreamily, like a woman lost in the clouds of her own imagining, and the next she's thinking her way through incisive lyrics about the cerebral '60s art-film Last Year at Marienbad. Some of her sounds come across as childlike and lost, others are clearly and thoroughly composed. She demonstrates incredible range, often in the space of a... single time-defying song. It makes for an impressive mix of moods, one that Holter first revealed on Tragedy, her striking debut from late 2010 that wowed most of those who heard it. Just a few months later comes Ekstasis, another album made up of its own distinctive charms. "Marienbad" opens in a stately fashion, striking out into in an expectant expanse between the Beach Boys at their most elegant and the smeary psychedelic surplus of bands like Broadcast. Somehow, even as it invokes allusions to styles from distant pasts, Ekstasis sounds contemporary and new. Parts played on what sounds like lutes and harpsichords mingle with ethereal electronics, and Holter's affecting voice - small but resourceful in the way it wanders - makes for a sense of immediacy that rewards full attention in the here and now.
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#18 First Aid Kit, The Lion’s Roar

The Lion's Roar

First Aid Kit
2012 | Wichita Recordings / Redeye

Stockholm's a long way from Folsom Prison, a fact that hasn't escaped First Aid Kit. The Lion's Roar, the Swedish duo's sharp, sepia-toned sophomore album, bridges that gap with "Emmylou," an homage to Ms. Harris that makes the ultimate offer for lovers of Woodstock-era country: "I'll be your Emmylou and I'll be your June/ if you'll be my Gram and my Johnny, too," sisters Klara and Johanna SÃ¶derberg pledge. As it turns... out, though, they're not looking for leading men: "No, I'm not asking much of you/ just sing, little darling, sing with me."

The Lion's Roar is a record of romantic pragmatism and bold orchestration. Producer Mike Mogis (notable mainly for his work with Bright Eyes, whose Conor Oberst appears briefly here on "King of the World") helps clothe the naked twang of the band's debut with light-handed percussion, pedal steel, strings and rippling pianos, keeping the spotlight brightly on the SÃ¶derberg's familial harmonies. A Neko Case-like minor-key gloom rolls in on the title track and "I Found a Way," among others, but most of the songs stick to the sunshine. Gram and Johnny can rest easy - First Aid Kit can take it from here.
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#17 Passion Pit, Gossamer

Gossamer

Passion Pit
2012 | Columbia

Passion Pit's 2009 debut, Manners, had a childlike approach to music. The album's Technicolor electropop felt akin to messy fingerpainting experiments, with its sing-song vocals, playground-joyful keyboards and squirrelly synth effects. Gossamer isn't quite as playful, but that's a good thing: The album's forays into slinky R&B ("Constant Conversations"), sleek Swedish indiepop ("Cry Like A Ghost"), neon new wave ("Carried Away") and Disney-movie whimsy ("On My Way") evince more depth. The songs... themselves are also rich with detail, from the music-box-gone-mad twinkles at the start of "Love Is Greed" to the warm background coos from Swedish a cappella group Erato that are sprinkled throughout.

Gossamer's lyrics reflect this measured, meticulous approach, addressing fragile romance, fallible humanity and love's sweet simplicity. "I'll Be Alright," on which a soaring pop lilt gets mussed by what sounds like a malfunctioning cassette, chooses optimism in the face of self-loathing: "I've made so many messes/And this love has grown so restless/ I won't let you go the mess/ I'll be alright," sings vocalist Michael Angelakos. "Where We Belong" channels James Blake by way of BjÃ¶rk, grafting Angelakos's harrowing falsetto to glitchy programming and sweeping strings as he delivers aching sentiments: "But I believe in you/ Do you believe in me, too?"

For Angelakos, uncluttered headspace is a luxury — and, judging by his well-documented struggles, it doesn't come easy. However, his willingness to address this entire emotional continuum, while still maintaining Passion Pit's sense of adventure, makes Gossamer a win.
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#16 The Flaming Lips, The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends

The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends

The Flaming Lips
2012 | Warner Bros.

No one combines sawmill-roar noise, dying-planet sadness and mad-scientist glee with the heartfelt sincerity of The Flaming Lips. In return, the music world writes Wayne Coyne and his fellow Oklahomans a blank creative check, which they cash with sonic shenanigans that should leave a big, unruly mess but instead reliably yield something endearingly sweet. Amid all their gratuitous drug references and onstage theatrics, the Lips can shape chaos into emotionally comprehensible order... in a way that's uniquely their own, no matter how thoroughly they pillage classic rock's bathroom cabinet.

Here, they put that good will to daredevil use on a collaborative album that combines tracks from vinyl EPs recorded and released last year with other co-op cuts. The opening track, "2012 (You Must Be Upgraded)," pulls off an unlikely trick, uniting Ke$ha's bad-girl drunk-pop with the Lips' psychedelic noise in a one-chord dance jam that takes an unexpected turn into Strawberry Fields territory before circling back to where it spastically started. "Ashes in the Air," meanwhile, spoofs Bon Iver but with Bon Iver's actual participation on falsetto vocals. Like many of the duets on the album, its phantasmical balladry is violently interrupted by gusts of distortion, feedback and other baloney.

The influence of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" drifts like a specter throughout Heady Fwends: The Tame Impala collabo, "Children of the Moon," echoes it via kindred acoustic guitar strum and cosmic dada lust, while on the self-descriptive, Lightning Bolt-assisted "I'm Working at NASA on Acid" Coyne floats in his tin can until it blasts off, descends back to earth, and then buoys away again to be reconfigured with Neon Indian in "Is David Bowie Dying?" The clincher is the slo-mo rendition of Ewan MacColl's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face": Erykah Badu sings the Robert Flack-popularized standard an echo-laden childlike soprano even more spaced-out than her usual croon, and the Lips send her off like a helium balloon into a cotton candy cosmos. There's the strong suggestion that, like Bowie's Major Tom, she may never return to Earth.
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#15 Parquet Courts, Light Up Gold

Light Up Gold

Parquet Courts
2013 | What's Your Rupture?

Anyone looking for a shorthand to describe the devil-may-care attitude pervading Light Up Gold, the irresistible debut from Brooklyn band Parquet Courts, will find it 24 seconds into the first song, when Austin Brown first sneers the album's most indelible hook: "Forget about it!" It's meant sarcastically — he's playing the part of a privileged one-percenter looking down his nose through his monocle at the unwashed masses — but it's a good... indication of the jaundiced eye through which Parquet Courts view our troubled times. Like the most beloved cult movies, the thing that makes Light Up Gold so addicting is its infinite quotability. On regional cuisine? "As for Texas: Donuts Only. You cannot find bagels here." On the value of wisdom? "Socrates died in the fucking gutter." And on the job market? "The lab is out of white lab coats/ 'cause there are no more slides and microscopes/ But there are still careers in combat, my son." They drop these bon mots between jagged guitar lines that sound like they were lifted from Wire's 154 — bent-coathanger leads that teeter on the steep incline between punk and post-punk. But Light Up Gold's greatest irony is that its creators aren't ironic at all. In their interview with Douglas Wolk, they stressed the importance of emotional honesty, and as the album goes on it becomes clear their acrid wit isn't the result of disaffection but deep-seated alarm. Sarcasm is the scalpel they use to dissect contemporary culture, turning its ambivalence against itself and exposing is rotten core. Insight like that is as rare as a bagel in Texas.
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#14 Marina and the Diamonds, Electra Heart

Electra Heart

Marina And The Diamonds
2012 | Elektra

Writing performance art pop with titles like "Bubblegum Bitch" and "Teen Idle" for an insular indie audience is one thing. Doing it with A-level producers who've crafted hits for Madonna, Britney and Rihanna while coming on like an explicitly feminist cross between Tori Amos and Katy Perry is quite another. On her U.K.chart-topping second album, Welsh singer Marina Diamondis of Marina and the Diamonds battles errant boyfriends, critiques feminine societal roles, and... examines her own psyche and how it unravels in failed relationships — all in synch to relentless dance beats aimed squarely at the international mainstream.

Diamondis makes her message even more challenging by freely flitting from satire to sincerity and back again so that it's never really clear if she's playing at being a "Primadonna" — a deserved U.K. hit — or confessing that, yeah, she is indeed guilty of self-absorption. Her warbling, dramatic vocal tone magnifies that ambiguity; even when she's flat-out declaring, "My life is a play," Diamondis suggests that her theatrical disconnect from her own genuine feelings isn't simply personal; that it's part and parcel of being female in a conflicting world. What she sometimes lacks in nuance she compensates with hooks honed by Dr. Luke, Rick Nowels, Greg Kurstin, Stargate, a former Sneaker Pimp and one-third of Swedish House Mafia. This isn't a women's studies course taught by a seasoned professor; it's an unabashed dance record in which an ambitious young singer uses the tools of popular culture to examine both her self and her sex.
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#13 El-P, Cancer4Cure

Cancer 4 Cure

El-P
2012 | Fat Possum Records

El-P's music has always been a mix of sci-fi futurist grandiosity and old-school rap grime, like watching a chromed-out chromed-out, mile-long spaceship reenact the Licensed to Ill cover. Cancer 4 Cure has some familiar hallmarks: El still pushes analog synth distortion until it growls like a '70s stoner-metal guitar; he still sneaks classic hip-hop signifiers into an otherwise dystopian-tomorrow sound (Billy Squier and the J.B.'s always seem to survive the apocalypse), his... drums still break bones, and he still spits verbiage like he's letting loose internal-rhyme-twisting panic attacks. (His words, in opener "Request Denied": "I'm a 'holy fuck, what did he just utter' marksman".) But he's rarely sounded this full-throttle start to finish — the sounds aren't just pushed to the red but knifepoint immediate. And for all the hints of space-age debris on the margins, El recognizes that 2012 NYC is its own kind of Ridley Scott future. So he stays a master of reality, from the domestic-victim solidarity story of "For My Upstairs Neighbor" (the indelible sing-song chorus: "if you kill him I won't tell") to the police-state-ducking "Drones Over BKLYN" to the con-artist psyche-out "The Jig Is Up."
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#12 Japandroids, Celebration Rock

Celebration Rock

Japandroids
2012 | Polyvinyl Records

Japandroids' Celebration Rock begins and ends with fireworks — not the county-fair variety, but the cheap, barely legal kind you set off in the woods with friends and then run away, giggling uncontrollably. The sound sets the tone for a sizzling, incandescent burst of a record, one that conjoins punk-rock fist-aloft solidarity and weepy heartland-rock sentimentality in one 35-minute-long bro-hug. Expect a lot of sloppy back-patting, acres of generous sentiment and a... surplus of the sorts of lines perfectly calibrated to shout joyously in the face of your closest friends. "We're lashing out at evil's sway tonight," for example. Or "Don't we have anything to live for?/ Well, of course we do, but until they come true/ We're drinking." It's a record that demands to be heard, and loved, in groups.

Which doesn't make it mindless. As is usually the case with especially fierce good cheer, Celebration Rock is borne of desperation: The two-man Japandroids were minutes away from breaking apart, wilting under a lack of momentum, when they recorded its eight gasping, suitcase-compact anthems. Lead singer Brian King nearly died (perforated ulcer, an ailment about as far from "carefree rock 'n' roll" as you can get). A scan of the lyrics, excised from endorphins, unearths some fairly dark thoughts: "It's a lifeless life/ With no fixed address to give/ But you're not mine to die for anywhere, so I must live," King screams on "The House That Heaven Built." With just a guitar and a drum kit, meanwhile, the lifelong friends generate enough heat and momentum for an entire E Street band. Songs surge forward recklessly, explode, and then plow forward again. The relentless hurtling mirrors the philosophy expressed in the lyrics: Embrace life with the energy of an over-eager Labrador Retriever, no matter what it throws your way.
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#11 Dirty Projectors, Swing Lo Magellan

Swing Lo Magellan

Dirty Projectors
2012 | Domino Recording Co

Before Dirty Projectors' David Longstreth sings his first lead vocal on the Brooklyn sextet's sixth album, the bandleader clears his throat. Swing Lo Magellan is that kind of album — pointedly casual. It mixes dryly recorded, seemingly live-in-the-studio performances with strings/flute/clarinet/trumpet accompaniment on several songs by the avant-classical chamber ensemble yMusic. Most of Longstreth and Amber Coffman's guitars sound as though they were plugged directly into their amps without effects pedals or... distortion, and the band's harmonies appear similarly blunt and candid: Even when they emulate the twists and turns of contemporary R&B, there's nary an AutoTuned note. Yet few would deem anything here folksy, artless or improvised: This is strategically unpolished stuff from the complicated heads of well-educated aesthetes.

The result is both immediate and puzzling. More than ever, Longstreth writes accessible pop melodies, but he still puts the accents and the syncopations in unexpected places, like on the otherwise uncharacteristically direct love ballad "Impregnable Question." His singing evinces both the rawness of indie rock and the heart-on-sleeve emotiveness of mainstream pop, while the accompaniment boasts the bumpy time signatures and wrench-throwing extra measures the bandleader mastered while studying music composition at Yale.

And then there are the lyrics, which alternate between straightforward statements and allegorical poetry without any shifts in tone to suggest what's what. It's implied from its title that "Just from Chevron" deals with the evils of the oil industry, but Longstreth intentionally garbles some of the key lines; this song, like much of the rest, requires close, repeated studying to fully reveal itself. The notable exception is the last one, "Irresponsible Tune," which offers strummed acoustic guitar, bucketloads of reverb, and haunted background harmonies to suggest the gospel outings of Elvis Presley. In it, the toiling musician despairs over the ultimate significance of his artistic endeavors in a violent world until, suddenly, a bird at his window capriciously chirps. It's a moment that, unlike the enigmatic rest, needs no explanation.
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#10 Sharon Van Etten, Tramp

Tramp (Deluxe Edition)

Sharon Van Etten
2012 | Jagjaguwar / SC Distribution

Tramp, the emotionally candid third album from Brooklyn-based songwriter Sharon Van Etten, is a slow burn: most of the songs capture the intensity of the moments before a quietly smoldering tree becomes a raging wildfire. Take the lead-off single, "Serpents," which begins with calmly strummed yet unmistakably ominous chords. Then it explodes into something blazing and defiant: "You enjoy sucking on dreams," Van Etten seethes, "So I will fall asleep with someone... other than you."

Since her 2009 debut Because I Was In Love - which featured largely acoustic guitar work and her beguiling, cigarette wisp of a voice - Van Etten's sound has become more expansive with each release. Tramp isn't just her best yet, it's also her most densely populated, boasting an impressive roster of indie guest stars like Beirut's Zach Condon, Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner (who contributes vocals on "Serpents"), avant-chanteuse Julianna Barwick, Walkmen drummer Matt Barick, and most prominently guitarist Aaron Dessner of the National, who also recorded Tramp in his Brooklyn garage-turned-studio.

Tramp may be an unflinching chronicle of a relationship gone sour (check out the exceptionally poignant "Give Out": "It's not because I always give up/ It might be I always give out"), but it's at its most powerful when it's about more than just getting burned; Van Etten also sings about gathering the courage to build something new on charred ground. "Time is what I would need," she tells a new lover on "Leonard," while the lively mandolin strums spring up like sprouts after a long winter. Tramp finds transcendence in its final act, with the sparse closer "Joke or a Lie" glimmering like a new dawn. "It's bad to believe in any song you sing," she sings on the penultimate track, but the resonant honesty of Tramp proves 12 times over just how wrong she is about that.
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#9 Killer Mike, R.A.P. Music

R.A.P. Music

Killer Mike
2012 | Williams Street Records

Atlanta-based rapper Killer Mike and NYC rapper/producer El-P are local legends who have at times seemed like their best years were behind them. In that sense, R.A.P. Music is a little bit like Blaqkout, the excellent 2009 collaboration between DJ Quik and Kurupt — an album made that much sweeter by the fact that so few would've predicted it.

Mike is a classicist, a real-talk rapper doing what in his view, song and... dance men wouldn't dare: "This is church, front pew, amen, pulpit, what my people need and the opposite of bullshit," he boasts on the title track. Given how gifted he is, his own lack of commercial success serves as proof that the state of rap as popular music might be as fouled-up as he claims. Mike's clever this way: What might've been interpreted as failure has been recycled as badge of integrity. It's an angle he's been pushing at least since last year's Pl3dge: "I'm in positions that these other rappers envy/ They major-broke and I get-rich indie."

Part of what makes R.A.P. Music better than Mike's past efforts is its concision, but an even bigger part is El-P's production. For all its throwback talk and references, R.A.P. is a wildly diverse album, mixing north with south and '80s with aughts, an album so schizoid in its approach to time that it could probably only have been made now. As a lyricist Mike is, well, discontent — about politics, about black American life, about the state of the music he loves. At one point he manages to finagle two women into his garage and he still sounds pissed off. Whatever nuance is lost in his opinions is gained in how he delivers them — if for no other reason, appreciate Mike as a stuntman who, regardless of how long the jump, never falls. Despite all the wrist-slapping and heavy pretenses, it's a great album, one so carefully calibrated to sound like a rap classic that someday it might actually turn out to be one.
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#8 Miguel, Kaleidoscope Dream

Kaleidoscope Dream

Miguel
2012 | ByStorm Entertainment/RCA Records

Just what kind of R&B visionary is the ascendant star Miguel? While every bit as ambitious Frank Ocean and just as committed to the craft of songwriting as Terius Nash, aka The-Dream, Miguel is far less interested in making big conceptual statements. Because of this, it's hard to know right away who he is, exactly, or what his goals are. Is he a fearless freak? An introvert? A do-you crooner? Or a... canny chart-seeker?

The answer turns out to be all of the above. His first album ran 43 minutes and opened with a sharp, undeniable pop song ("Sure Thing"). Kaleidoscope Dream is 42 minutes, and kicks off with the already-popular lead single "Adorn," a supplicant's mid-tempo jam with a telling angle: Miguel makes the case for his lover-man bona fides not on it'll-move-the-earth-under-your-feet grounds, but because it'll work for what you've already got going on, like a sharp accessory: "Let my love adorn you," he pleads modestly. The self-negation involved in his come-ons — he openly requests to be defiled during "Use Me" — gives more insight into what might be driving Kaleidoscope Dream than its title does.

There's a bashful quality even on some of the more direct offerings. "Don't Look Back" starts out in radio-courting fashion but closes with a surprise coda that reveals a songwriter's affinity for making every part of a pop song count. He only stumbles towards the end, with "Candles in the Sun," which flicks at a social consciousness he hasn't figured out how to carry as convincingly as the seduction-and-pain material. But who said sharply played, tightly written R&B isn't meaningful all on its own? Miguel, rather like Prince, is a weirdo with a surfeit of hooks and the chops to put them over. In an age of outsized R&B innovators, he's our subtle auteur.
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#7 Cloud Nothings, Attack on Memory

Attack On Memory

Cloud Nothings
2012 | Carpark Records

For the last few years, 20-year-old Cleveland native Dylan Baldi has been recording a steady torrent of endearing lo-fi pop contagions. Released under the name Cloud Nothings, Baldi's songs are so simply constructed, so innately hooky, they almost sound easy: His 2010 compilation Turning On was a happy murk of lint-covered guitars, three-floors-below drums, and vocals so crackly, they could have been sampled off a ham-radio. Last year's self-titled follow-up was crisper... and snappier, bounding along with the sort of energy of school kids finally released into the wilds of summertime.

Baldi could easily have replicated that joyful noise sound for a few more albums, and no one would really have objected. Thankfully, though, he got bored. And bold. And kinda angry. Attack on Memory contains a lot of recognizable Cloud Nothings DNA - speedy riffs, forebrain-hugging melodies - but it grafts them onto a monstrous-sounding framework, courtesy of engineer Steve Albini. On Memory, Baldi's ostensibly straightforward power-pop numbers are stretched out and bulked up so efficiently, it feels like he somehow jumped three records ahead in less than year.

In fact, Memory veers so forcefully from its predecessors that, at first listen, it's a bit jarring: The opening track, "No Future No Past," is a slow-burn grind of spangled, in-utero guitars and tortured vocals, with Baldi intoning the words "give up/ come to/ no hope/ we're through" so harshly, it sounds as though his larynx is going to flip him off and jump out of his throat. Even more adventurous is "Wasted Days," a nine-minute(!) peal with a lithe, lupine guitar break that sounds like Greg Sage conducting Hawkwind.

Baldi hasn't given up on the quick-fix pop song, as evidenced by short, piercing numbers like "Fall In" and "Our Plan." But even those tracks feel mega, emboldened by Jayson Gerycz's battering-ram drums and Baldi's squeezed-dry vocals (by the time the album finishes, you're surprised he's able to get a word out at all). Those who've followed Cloud Nothings thus far will be happily walloped by Memory, yet even newcomers will find it a blast, in every sense of the word.
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#6 Matthew E. White, Big Inner

Big Inner

Matthew E. White
2013 | Domino Recording Co

Richmond, Virginia-reared singer/songwriter/arranger Matthew E. White recently confessed to music blog Aquarium Drunkard that he had made a pilgrimage of sorts to Randy Newman's home in L.A. a few years back. Rather than stalk the venerable songwriter/Oscar-winning soundtrack composer at a distance, though, White worked up the nerve to ring the man's doorbell and hand off his own music. If it was a copy of his poised debut, Big Inner, there's a... good chance Newman might soon be ringing White up.

The biggest man to ever utter a line like "I am a barracuda/ I am a hurricane" and make it into the gentlest of admissions, White emerges on Big Inner fully steeped in the nuanced, vigilant and incisive songcraft of the likes of totemic American tunesmiths like Newman, Allen Toussaint and Lambchop's Kurt Wagner. And while such debuts are usually tinged by youthful exuberance and metabolism, there's such patience in White's delivery and his backing band's pacing that belie their years.

Opener "One of These Days" simmers and sees through the temporality of the world, White assuring his betrothed that even though "we all pass away/ everyone finds a way," he still wants to be there "when the glory fades…and never turn away." His whispers mingle with Dixieland horns and a crisp backbeat on "Will You Love Me," and he sounds positively sage when he sings at that song's climax: "Darkness can't drive out darkness/ only love can do that." The dilapidated yet regal strings of "Hot Toddies" sound as drunken and quietly mirthful as vintage Newman, while the nine stirring minutes of closer "Brazos" cloaks itself in cresting strings, a driving bassline and gospel choir that evokes Spiritualized's sense of redemption through sound. Underneath almost every song there pulses New Orleans's second line strut. You can hear it buoy the uptempo "Steady Pace" as White ensures his love with the same sense of calm that he and his band deploy throughout this magnificent debut: "We can take our time."
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#5 Allo Darlin’, Europe

Europe

Allo Darlin'
2012 | Slumberland Records / The Orchard

"You said, 'A record is not just a record, records can hold memories/ All these records sound the same to me, and I'm full up with memory,'" Elizabeth Morris sings on "My Sweet Friend," the last track of Allo Darlin's sophomore album Europe. The U.K. indiepop band's 2010 self-titled debut was about the anticipation and excitement of new love: Morris sang about kissing on Ferris wheels, wondered where she'd end up... after the bar closed, and insisted, "One fine day, I'm gonna be your girl." Europe has the same emotional intimacy and nuance of its predecessor, but instead of sitting on the edge of her seat waiting for something to happen, this time Morris is writing from a distance, reflecting on love that's come and gone.

Many of Europe's songs begin with an idyllic setup — in the sun with a bottle of wine, in a car with the windows down, walking down a street in New York — with Morris implying that everything was better back then. In opening track "Neil Armstrong," she sings, "Then why did you say that you miss a simpler time?/ Well, so do I, and I find myself pining for you." In "Some People Say," she wishes "some things would stay the same," while remembering a perfect day and wondering what her then-lover is doing now.

The record also tells the story of music's power in a relationship — how certain songs suddenly Mean Something when you think you might be in love. In "Some People Say," a slow number with strings and bending lap steel guitar, Morris references "a song that to me has a hidden meaning," and in "The Letter," she looks back on a failed relationship, singing, "But we can't help the things we choose/ And I pictured you singing the Silver Jews." This arc shows how much the band has matured in the last couple years, and you can hear it in their sound as well. There's still a sunny surf-pop vibe in tracks like "Northern Lights," "The Letter" and "Still Young," and playful, triumphant guitars in "Capricornia" and "Wonderland." But on Europe, Allo Darlin' sound bigger and fuller, and they've found a perfect balance where everyone's heard but no one overpowers. Morris's voice also has more muscle, and they've left a tiny bit of the twee-ness behind without losing an ounce of charm.

But while part of what makes Europe so special is its grandiosity, its best song is its most simple. "Tallulah," played only on ukulele, begins in a car with bad music on the radio, until Morris's partner finds a cassette containing the Go-Betweens album Tallulah. Later, they're in a bar with a shitty DJ, so they flee to another one that's playing Toots and the Maytals. With letters written on magazine pages and postcards, and thoughts of what could have been, it's an anthem for all of us romantic saps who do things like make a mental playlist of songs and bands it'll be hard to listen to after the breakup. In that song she also sings, "I'm wondering if/ I've already heard/ all the songs that'll mean something/ and I'm wondering if/ I've already met/ all the people that'll mean something." In a way, those lines sum up all of Europe: There's no way to tell whether life would have been better had things worked out differently, or if the best is still yet to come, or if everything is perfect the way it is right now.
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#4 Kendrick Lamar, good kid, m.A.A.d city

good kid, m.A.A.d city

Kendrick Lamar
2013 | Top Dawg / Aftermath / Interscope

The connective tissue of Kendrick Lamar's major-label debut is a series of not-quite skits — prayers, voicemails, front-seat conversation — that string together an album that reveals itself as a long day in his adolescence. This isn't exactly a new trick in rap, but it's rare that found sound is so immersive, and so effective at absorbing the listener. Then again, the Compton rapper subtitled the album "a short film by Kendrick... Lamar," so maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise that good kid, m.A.A.d city is purely cinematic in scope and execution.

It is, to be clear, a striking achievement. Yet the truest strength of the album is that it still hits even once you've untangled its various knots. The complex narrative is a leap in ambition for Lamar, but in doing so he's retained the elements of his writing that made him famous in the first place. On his last album, Section.80, he showed a keen eye for observing, analyzing and understanding those close to him, and it's from that place this record grows.

The story isn't the only thing that stuns. Despite being raised in L.A. rap's epicenter and mentored for years by Dr. Dre, good kid sounds like it was stewed in the South. Its sonic bedrock is the same muted, plaintive future-funk that bathed the Alabama group G-Side's Starshipz & Rockets — a sound shaped for, and by, dark nights and deep thoughts.

In totality, the album awakens the spirits of Outkast's legendary Aquemini — no small praise, indeed. That is rarified air in hip-hop, but Kendrick Lamar, out from the jumble of a new class of rap stars, now finds himself in very different company.
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#3 Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheel…

The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do

Fiona Apple
2012 | Epic

"I just want to feel everything," sings Fiona Apple in "Every Single Night," the lead track and first single on her fourth album, which, just like her second one, comes bearing a title so ridiculous it dares you to dismiss her. She's got the problem that afflicts sensitive folks; that of piercing awareness. But instead of running from it, she repeats those words like a mantra to help her endure the pain... that comes with perception, truth, love and all those other difficult things that make life worth living. And while she's doing that, she lets us know what the rest of the album is like: There's Apple's piano, her voice (sometimes overdubbed), a celeste, some percussion, a sound effect or two, and not much else.

But there's a lot of Apple here. Throughout The Idler Wheel, she's front and center so simply that the starkness feels almost avant-garde. As she admits on that first cut, she's fighting with her brain and there is no referee — just Apple, her drummer/co-producer Charley Drayton, and generous doses of silence between notes. Nothing comes between her and us. This is the polar opposite of all those claustrophobic, super-compressed, "loudness wars" records, and the extra space gives the 34-year-old songwriter the room to be baldly ferocious, particularly when she's vulnerable. "Gimme, gimme, gimme what you got in your mind in the middle of the night," she implores in "Daredevil" with a lust so unguarded it borders on wacky. But it's nevertheless inviting, because she's musically, as well as emotionally, naked.

The Idler Wheel is a spectacularly erotic record. Its contours are irregular like the human body, constantly shifting its weight with the way Apple leans into her piano and then pushes away from it. And within that instability lies sadness: She sings a sweet but barbed "Jonathan" to her ex, writer Jonathan Ames, and in the very next song she's "Left Alone," admitting that she's making that isolation inevitable over a suitably restless piano riff that, like a lot of the album, recalls those ageless Vince Guaraldi jazz scores for Peanuts TV specials. But there's no melancholy: "Nothing wrong when a song ends in a minor key," she shrugs in "Werewolf." And although they're typically played and sung with disarming gusto, these songs often do exactly that. In the slowest, angriest one, "Regret," she screams so hard that the words almost fall away. Apple's feeling everything here the way she wants to. She fights the good fight.
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#2 Frank Ocean, channel ORANGE

channel ORANGE

Frank Ocean
2012 | Def Jam Records

R&B auteur Frank Ocean's masterful and disarming major-label debut channel ORANGE is meticulously structured like a long-planned confession, and as Ocean announced shortly before its release, it presents a major one: The first love Ocean alludes to in lead track "Thinkin Bout You"; the unreciprocated love that haunts him in "Bad Religion" and who ultimately runs away in "Forrest Gump" at the end, is a man. Celebrating an autobiographical same-sex attraction, however... anguished, and pinpointing its subject with masculine nouns, is nothing less than revolutionary for a mainstream African-American male performer. It would overshadow a lesser work, but it is but one revelation among many here. Ocean presides over his album like a visionary filmmaker, one who favors bright colors and stylized mise-en-scène to offset dark and raw emotional states.

Ocean narrates ORANGE as both participant and shell-shocked observer of "the sweet life": Drugs are everywhere. Women are riding him like an escalator to the heavens. Super-rich kids and their super-fake friends swarm around him like bees. Despite his bemused detachment, there's a fireball of hurt smoldering at the center of Ocean's psyche, and he drifts through ORANGE's dream-reality, hanging on to the memory of his painful but profoundly true first love as if it were the ladder of a swimming pool that suddenly got way too deep. Meanwhile, a fluidly shape-shifting backdrop morphs from kaleidoscopic soul grooves to bleak techno to lush orchestral interludes and beyond, further intensifying his inner and outer visions.

He cries out for help with a clarity that's both stunning and disarming, flipping double and triple entendres the way showier singers get churchy: He likens the "Pink Matter" of his lover's womb to peaches, mangos, cotton candy and Dragon Ball villain Majin Buu. His subject matter and vocabulary similarly bares the schooling of hip-hop bards: The multi-part epic "Pyramids" concerns a time-traveling Cleopatra the unemployed narrator ultimately pimps in a motel so shabby it's still got a VCR; "Crack Rock" bemoans the difference between the death of a dope-pushing cop and a brother who gets popped — one brings out a search party 300 strong, the other dies "and don't no one hear the sound."

Yet Ocean spins this grit with the luminous vibrancy of the best singer-songwriters, burnishing everything to brilliance with pleading delivery and love of wandering jazz chords. He's both R&B classicist and rebel; a buoyant Stevie Wonder with Elvis Costello's acerbic wit while serving up his own favorite flavor — bittersweet. "You run my mind, boy/ Running on my mind," he croons to his muse, then whistles to him like Otis as if sittin' on the dock of the bay, gazing at one of the album's many pink skies that mask the blues within.
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#1 Cold Specks, I Predict a Graceful Expulsion

I Predict a Graceful Expulsion

Cold Specks
2012 | MUTE

"A state of destitution is the starting point for I Predict a Graceful Expulsion, Cold Specks' stark, stunning debut and eMusic's Best Album of 2012. It's sung by a lost child, one who has moved from a place of great abundance to a place of great need. It is, by a good distance, the year's richest and most rewarding record..." Read more about why Cold Specks is our #1 album of 2012.

eMusic’s 13 to Watch in 2013

eMusic Editorial Staff — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:59:47 +0000

We hate to gloat, but last year, we predicted Purity Ring, Kendrick Lamar, Porcelain Raft and Nicolas Jaar would have big years in 2012. Were we wrong? That’s a decent success ratio, sure, but we’re aiming for an even better guess-rate for next year. And looking through our list of 13 to Watch in 2013, I feel confident in saying this year’s hopefuls will be next year’s breakouts. Take a few minutes to get to know them now.

Oh, and one more note on last year’s list? We also named Lady Lamb the Beekeeper and Bleached, both of whom may not have blown up in 2012, but who just signed significant record deals for 2013. As it turns out, we weren’t wrong. Just early.

Parquet Courts

White Lung

sorry

White Lung
2012 | Deranged Records / The Orchard

In 2012, the widespread acclaim for Japandroids bolstered the profile of other bands from Vancouver, including (and especially) thrashing punks White Lung. The quartet capitalized on this boost, touring with Ceremony and releasing a scabrous second album, Sorry, which melds corrosive guitars to frontwoman Mish Way's gritty lyrics and bellowing vocals. Like their sonic kindred spirits Pretty Girls Make Graves, the band succinctly confronts the anti-women sentiments that permeate society. And given... that those attacks are occurring with distressing regularity, White Lung's music – and fierce feminism – is vitally important. – Annie Zaleski
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Merchandise

Children Of Desire

Merchandise
2012 | Katorga Works / SC Distribution

While most of the U.S. hasn't even heard of Merchandise, the defiantly DIY band had a room full of record execs foaming at the mouth on the outskirts of Brooklyn recently. Listen to any of their self-released records (free of charge here for the time being), and it's easy to hear why; despite hailing from Tampa's hardcore punk scene, Merchandise whip up a racket that's equal parts Krautrock and noise-pop. Depending... on where they decide to go next, they could either implode spectacularly – like Death Grips did this year – or become The Next Killers. – Andrew Parks
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Icona Pop

Iconic EP

Icona Pop
2012 | Big Beat Records/Atlantic

There's been no shortage of pop ringers in 2012, but Swedish duo Icona Pop still managed to make a lot of noise with just a handful of EPs. The group, consisting of Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo, belong to the new class of underground artists pushing pop to new heights with massive hooks and thrashing beats that hit with the force of a champagne glass smashed on the dancefloor. They've had some... help: Their peer Charli XCX penned their celebratory breakup banger "I Love It" and Patrik Berger (Robyn) produced it. Lyrics like "I threw your shit into a bag and pushed it down the stairs" are proof enough Icona Pop are not to be underestimated. – Marissa G. Muller
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Pure Bathing Culture

Pure Bathing Culture

Pure Bathing Culture
2012 | Father/Daughter Records / TuneCore

Pure Bathing Culture are as tranquil and luxurious as their name implies – gently lapping guitars and rippling layers of synth, topped with Sarah Versprille's lazy purr. But listen closely to the lyrics of "Lucky One," the intoxicating first track on their too-brief debut EP, and that cool faÃ§ade starts melting fast. As Daniel Hindman's guitar does a sock hop slow dance in the background, Sarah Versprille rebuffs an indifferent ex-lover by... bragging about the suitors lining up at her door ("Who's the lucky one now?" she asks) and in "Silver Shore's Lake," in front of a rippling, translucent musical backdrop, she laments, "I wish my heart was deep enough." Pure Bathing Culture were 2012's most alluring mirage: foamy waves of sound that hide stinging nettles. – J. Edward Keyes
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Joey Bada$$

Savages

I Am Here

Savages
2012 | Pop Noire / Republic Of Music

The four women in London post-punk act Savages are bringing danger back to indie rock. Formed in late 2011 (and a U.K. media darling by this past May), the quartet turned heads with their abrasive concerts, androgynous look and a stark sound: doomy, greyscale post-punk with boiling basslines and a bleak outlook. (Think early PJ Harvey meets the Pop Group.) With just a live EP and 7-inch to its name, Savages have... kept demand high for new music – and primed itself to become massive in 2013. – Annie Zaleski
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Night Beds

Every Fire; Every Joy

Night Beds
2012 | EP/SINGLE

Like Justin Vernon in Bon Iver or Justin Ringle from Horse Feathers, Winston Yellen, of the Nashville-based chamber-folk outfit Night Beds, leads with his voice. Tensile and slightly androgynous, it swoops among the acoustic strums of their recent single "Even If We Try," and swells against the cinematic strings throughout their 2012 EP Every Fire; Every Joy. It all sounds like a warm-up for Night Beds' forthcoming debut, Country Sleep, out in... February from Dead Oceans; that will surely offer a richer showcase for Yellen's distinct instrument. – Stephen Deusner
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Sky Ferreira

Ghost EP

Sky Ferreira
2012 | CAPITOL

Between Sky Ferreira's Lolita-like stage presence, repeated Terry Richardson visits, and Pitchfork-approved repositioning as an edgier example of post-Robyn pop music (see also: her "Youth Quake" co-stars Charlie XCX and Grimes), the singer's bound to become one of 2013's Downtown 'It' Girls. Translation: when her long-awaited debut album finally drops, expect photo spreads and think pieces everywhere from Vice magazine to The New York Times. Scrappy in spirit yet... sleek in execution, this is Top 40 music for a Tumblr world. – Andrew Parks
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Daughn Gibson

All Hell

Daughn Gibson
2012 | White Denim / TuneCore

As first pointed out in an extensive eMusic piece earlier this year, Daughn Gibson's rural upbringing makes him a man of contradictions. On one hand, yes, he enjoys blasting country music, joyriding down back roads, and pelting watermelons with shotgun shells. But that's only half of the story. As first revealed on All Hell – a low-key release on the label of Pissed Jeans frontman Matt Kosloff – Gibson sings like... Johnny Cash but constructs his lonesome highway hooks around a thoroughly modern mix of thrift shop loops and spooky laptop samples. And now that he's joined the Jeans on Sub Pop, a joint tour/takeover mission can't be far away. – Andrew Parks
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Jessie Ware

Blut Aus Nord

Memoria Vetusta II - Dialogue with the Stars

Blut Aus Nord
2009 | CANDLELIGHT/TANGLADE

With Cosmography, the third album in their 777 trilogy, French iconoclast Blut Aus Nord (fronted by the cryptic Vindsval) completed its evolution from a strange, experimental black metal band into an underground entity that transcends borders and boundaries. Sounds ranging from ethereal choir music to Godflesh-inspired industrial rock are well within its grasp, as are more avant-garde electronic-based compositions, Pink Floyd-ish psychedelia, mesmeric drones, downcast goth, otherworldly Krautrock and ripping, blast beat... battering metal. It's staggering that the group released all three 777 albums as well as the 30-minute EP What Once Was… Liber II (the follow-up to 2010's What Once Was… Liber I) in less than 18 months. It's too bad Vindsval doesn't promote his achievements by playing live, conducting interviews or updating fans with Tweets. But given Vindsval's track record, it probably won't be too long until 888 – or whatever he chooses to call it – is upon us. Chances are it will be just as jaw-dropping and groundbreaking as 777. – Jon Wiederhorn
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Ducktails

Ducktails III: Arcade Dynamics

Ducktails
2011 | Woodsist / Revolver

Matt Mondanile, the guitarist of Real Estate, has been recording his one-man ultra chill psych pop project Ducktails as a one man project since 2007. But things have changed for his upcoming album The Flower Lane: He's added a full band (the members of Big Troubles), several prominent collaborators (Oneohtrix Point Never and Madeline Follin of Cults), and got signed to Domino. Early tastes of the album suggest that Mondanile and company... tap into some Steely Dan grooves to make catchy, smooth music. – Evan Minsker
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eMusic Members’ Top 25 of 2012

eMusic Members — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:56:33 +0000

We asked, you answered. And the results were as varied and eclectic as we’ve come to expect from eMusic members. Here are the results of our Member Poll for the Best Albums of 2012, along with some of your comments.

25. Gotye, Making Mirrors

Making Mirrors

Gotye
2012 | Samples & Seconds / Republic

The best tunes haven't made it to commercial radio, but this is a fun, retro album from a very talented musician. — frod2004

I know "Somebody that I Used to Know" became the overplayed hit of the year, but it really is a good track, but more importantly, the entire album of Making Mirrors is great. Radio stations should be playing more songs from it! Eclectic, experimental – pushing limits and expectations on... many tracks and keeping them together in one concise album. And Gotye is fascinating in concert blending sounds and visuals for a truly unique experience. It's the most interesting and fun album I've purchased this year. I tell all my friends they should listen to it — few will like all of it, but everyone will find something they like. Glad that Gotye pushed the norm of rock/pop music." – jmlyn23

The whole album is musically ingenious and lyrically substantive. — mtemccrary
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24. Alt-J, An Awesome Wave

23. Django Django, Django Django

Django Django

Django Django
2012 | Ribbon Music / Domino Recording Co

They got compared to the Beta Band so I couldn't resist. Love 'em. "Waveforms" is one of the tunes that got me through my first half-marathon (and I am quite possibly old enough to be your mother if you are under the age of 31). – Lucyland Solid album all around. Beach Boy harmonies over indie/alt music with great hooks. Perfect summer album. – musarter

22. Andrew Bird, Break It Yourself

21. Bob Dylan, Tempest

Tempest

Bob Dylan
2012 | Columbia

Varied styles throughout. Hard to believe he can still pull it off at such high quality. – markthompson123

50 years on, Bob Dylan releases an unexpected masterpiece, fiercely declaring his continued relevance at age 72. – zeppyfish

Dylan, like Van, has become a great producer (as Jack Frost) of his single artist roster: himself. Yes, the voice is rough on this one. But such lyrical and musical talent shines through it hardly matters. Another... triumph. — wallbanger7
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20. The Shins, Port of Morrow

Port Of Morrow

The Shins
2012 | Aural Apothecary/Columbia

What's not to love? Unique melodies, thought provoking lyrics, beautiful instrumentation and heartfelt vocals. Every track here is a winner and it's great to hear new material by a most talented artist. Standout tracks "The Rifle's Spiral," "Simple Song," "It's Only Life," "No Way Down," "For A Fool" and "Fall of '82." Thanks Mr. Mercer for reviving and reinventing The Shins. In doing so, you have created another classic disc. – Acardo

When... I saw The Shins on TV without the original band members I really wanted to hate this album. Unfortunately, love him or loathe him, Mercer is a talented songsmith and despite all my personal hangups about this not being the band I used to love I can't deny the fact that this is a great album — I just wish he could of come up with a new name." — FREECARVEJUNKIE
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19. Passion Pit, Gossamer

Gossamer

Passion Pit
2012 | Columbia

Michael Angelakos does what all the best pop artists do, he makes you want to dance with the devils that haunt him. — davissonma Well-written songs gussied up with pop sensibilities anchored by bleak lyrics. — nbtshirts After a long delay, Passion Pit returns with another brilliant album. Perhaps less immediately catchy than Manners, Gossamer has the depth to make it a classic. — londoncrockett

18. The Avett Brothers, The Carpenter

The Carpenter

The Avett Brothers
2012 | RRE, LLC / Republic Records

Their best overall LP yet. — markthompson123 ...and the talent and creativity continue to come from the brothers Avett...long time favorites...just making room on my list this year from some new mentions. However, I can't just leave them off... — h2gerberich Growing up never sounded better. — Cguido

17. First Aid Kit, The Lion’s Roar

The Lion's Roar

First Aid Kit
2012 | Wichita Recordings / Redeye

Beautiful harmonies in an alt-country mix. Heavy lyric themes and beautiful music. — musarter

Just the right amount of everything – vocals, harmonies, country twang, lyrics, production — all just right. "Not a bad song in the bunch, but the tracks that really stand out for me are "In The Hearts of Men" (track 3) and "I Found A Way" (track 7)." — emusicminer

If you like alt-country like Neko Case or Kathleen Edwards,... this is for you. Great harmonies. Young as the girls are, they can only get that much better. — madformusic

"The stylistic range is mind-boggling." — riccco
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16. The Lumineers, The Lumineers

The Lumineers

The Lumineers
2012 | Dualtone

Music to make you grin, whether you want to admit it or not. Such a totally lovable band. — zeppyfish

Well they ain't from around here, folks, but boy what a sound. I was looking for something "different," "Ho Hey" is about as different as it gets. That was my introduction to the album and then I had heard that some guy had put out an album by these guys. The search was... on and it was worth it, "Stubborn Love" is my favorite song, but there isn't a bad track on the album. — mkedor

My favorite stomp-a-long, clap-a-long, sing-a-long album of the year! — sbusby21
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15. The Walkmen, Heaven

Heaven

The Walkmen
2012 | Fat Possum / The Orchard

Amazing. After all these years they are still able to make some awesome albums. – jsf1190

Phil Ek polishes their familiar reverb, and their songs are as tight and direct as ever. – scatterbeard

I sure like what musical maturity is doing to this band. I just told somebody, "It's hard not having any new Harry Nilsson music being sent into the world; The Walkmen at least make this sadness a little easier." –... Jdarling
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14. Gary Clark, Jr., Blak and Blu

Blak And Blu

Gary Clark Jr.
2012 | Warner Bros.

"I think we've witnessed the beginning of an amazing career. There was so much hype for this release, I couldn't imagine it could live up to it. But it did. And then some. His talent is simply off the charts." – randall.depew "An amazing guitar player, Gary shows he can construct a funky set of tunes as well." – ctgguy35

13. Fun., Some Nights

Some Nights

fun.
2012 | Fueled By Ramen

"I'm an old fart, now. But when I heard "We Are Young", it was the closest I've felt to what it was like being 20 in years." – randall.depew

"The most fun guilty pleasure ever." - michael.bryan

"Been following fun.'s songwriter/vocalist Nate Reuss since Dog Problems by the Format and I think he's one of the most undervalued talents in music right now. His gifts are showcased again here. Lyrically he opens a vein... and lets it spill out. Musically he's drawing inspiration from unexpected places. You'll hear things that sound like Queen, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, operetta, a children's choir and who knows what else. Experimental, touching and surprising. Just heard of these guys due to "We Are Young"? Get this and if you like it get all of Aim and Ignite and then Dog Problems by the Format, forthwith." – Happenstance
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12. Dirty Projectors, Swing Lo Magellen

Swing Lo Magellan

Dirty Projectors
2012 | Domino Recording Co

Dirty Projectors' music has always been easier to admire than to enjoy. With this collection, however, they have made their intellectually brilliant music more accessible by infusing it with heart. – tlmucla33

Not fully accessible, but great if you are willing to challenge yourself a little. – TianShan

It's not Bitte Orca, but it doesn't have to be. A crazy quilt of melodic and lyrical vibrations. "Render Unto Caesar" is the most fun you'll... have with headphones on this year. – zeppyfish
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11. Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheelâ€¦

The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do

Fiona Apple
2012 | Epic

Fiona's voice adds an emotionally engaging facet to her insightful and deceptively simple lyrics. The arrangements always feel like we're one beat away from the whole thing imploding on itself, and that insecurity fuels the energy behind this magnificent album. Best argument for pop music as art since The Beatles. – unplugged68

Fiona's finest album. It's a fun ride inside her unique mind. A great modern recording that captures all the wonderful dysfunction... of young, modern existence with incredible insight and honesty. And don't overlook the very last track, "Hot Knife." A gem. – wallbanger7

Fiona Apple returns with a sparely-produced set of songs that is as good as anything she's ever written. Her voice practically glows. A very fine artist that appears to only improve with age. – jakebridget
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10. Japandroids, Celebration Rock

Celebration Rock

Japandroids
2012 | Polyvinyl Records

These boys have captured the essence of being 20-something in the early 21st century. Excellent melodic rock music influenced by equal parts Springsteen and Gainsville Post-hardcore. This was in constant rotation on my summer playlist. – unplugged68 "Oh, oh, oh, oh-oh-oh, oh OH." Enough said. – cesikkenga Turn it up! – jamestomko

9. Tame Impala, Lonerism

Lonerism

Tame Impala
2012 | Modular Fontana

With Tame Impala, Kevin Parker manages to combine many of my favorite ingredients into one potent potion. Electronic deception, vintage rock landscapes, and catchy-ass melodies unite to form the strongest album I've heard in a while. What does it all mean? Parker tells us not to worry about that, just sit back and enjoy the tunes. And man, there's a lot to enjoy. – unplugged68

I can't get enough of Tame Impala. Lonerism... was well worth the wait after my beloved InnerSpeaker, and "Keep On Lying" is the best earworm one can possibly have while roaming around Sydney on vacay. – Lucyland

Like "Strawberry Fields"-era John Lennon, with soaring synthesizers and a hard-rock foundation. These songs are amazingly fierce when played live compared with the recordings, but the album is still completely delicious. – alt-gramma
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8. Sharon Van Etten, Tramp

Tramp

Sharon Van Etten
2012 | Jagjaguwar / SC Distribution

"Give Out" is the best song of the year. – palmerjl Brilliant songwriting and heart-wrenching music. – hwillensky Completely surprised I like this record so much. It holds together just enough. Rough and tumble music, with vulnerable lyrics. Love it. – rossd

7. Mumford & Sons, Babel

6. Jack White, Blunderbuss

Blunderbuss

Jack White
2012 | Third Man/Columbia

Maybe the most interesting musician in America right now. – jeff Jack White is awesomely strange and awesomely talented. This is the kind of music I would make if I could. So layered, so loud and so sexy. – randall.d I would buy anything with his name on it – davido

5. Alabama Shakes, Boys & Girls

Boys & Girls

Alabama Shakes
2012 | ATO Records

My biggest musical regret of 2012 is not seeing Alabama Shakes live. – sbusby21 Classic old-school R&B made new with edgy rock elements. The best new band to come along in many years. – jakebridget Boys & Girls is one of the most exciting releases in recent history. Combining the soulful vocals of Brittany Howard with a raw blues sound, it's at the top of its class. – frankf

4. Frank Ocean, channel ORANGE

channel ORANGE

Frank Ocean
2012 | Def Jam Records

Part of the reason the retro R&B artists like Raphael Saadiq, Sharon Jones, Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the like are so popular, in my opinion, is because new R&B has been stale. Ocean deserves all the hype and is the best new artist of the year. A sorely needed shot in the arm, Ocean uses hip-hop as inspiration, but channel ORANGE is R&B in spirit. – wallbanger7

Frank Ocean combines influences from across... R&B's storied history to create a convincing concept album. – unplugged68

It exists in that magic shared spot where my son and I agree on great music. – davido
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3. Of Monsters & Men, My Head is an Animal

My Head Is An Animal

Of Monsters And Men
2012 | Republic Records

You can try not to like them, but it won't work. – rossd Absolute worst record cover, but a great band that came to the world's attention after winning Iceland's national Battle of the Bands with folk-pop. – sandyandbrian This is one of those albums and bands that actually deserve the hype. – wm-jones

2. Grizzly Bear, Shields

Shields

Grizzly Bear
2012 | Warp Records

This is a band at their pinnacle of writing and production. A modern rock album with some classic rock sensibilities. – musarter Beautiful orchestration and pure-as-gold harmonies abound on Grizzly Bear's latest. I dare you to find music as compelling and beautiful as you'll find here. – unplugged68 A huge sound. No one else sounds like them. – paulg

#1 Beach House, Bloom

Bloom

Beach House
2012 | Sub Pop Records

This band has been building up to the greatness of this album for the past few years. Probably the indie rock album of the year. – mpg26 I don't want to be a trendy hipster, but this band is amazing. – rgiuff1 Exquisite, beautiful, classic. – sukanku

2012′s Overlooked Albums

eMusic Editorial Staff — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:59:42 +0000

The way we assemble our annual best-of list is this: Our editorial team creates a spreadsheet every January and then, over the course of the year, each of us adds to it albums that we love from month to month. And then, in November, we go through the list, album by album, argue it out and settle on an order each of us can live with. But even with a best-of list as long as ours, it’s inevitable that some albums are going to fall through the cracks. Here are some of our personal favorites of 2012 that just missed making the final cut.

In Limbo

TEEN
2012 | Carpark Records

It's easy to get lost in In Limbo, the promising debut from Brooklyn's TEEN. Led by Kristina "Teeny" Lieberson (with her sisters Lizzie and Katherine and friend Jane Herships), the band mixes reverbed girl-group harmonies with jangly guitars and woozy, psychedelic synths. Highlights are the album opener "Better," where Teeny defiantly asserts, "I'll do it better than anybody else, ha!" and the soothing title track, with each of the women cooing a... different layer of vocals over wavering guitars. – Laura Leebove
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Zingers

Milk Teddy
2012 | Lost and Lonesome / The Orchard

Seriously though, you guys: What's going on in Australia? Between Royal Headache, Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring and Woollen Kits, it's as if all of Down Under is rising up to stage a new international pop overthrow. Add to that list Milk Teddy, whose latest full-length, Zingers, is a sparkling slice of jangle-pop that sprinkles the best bits of the Paisley Underground with just enough angel dust to make the colors... start to run. Gently-bobbing melodies get tangled in glistening guitars like kites in telephone lines, making for one of the year's most subtle – and subtly infectious – records. – J. Edward Keyes
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Playin' Me

Cooly G
2012 | Hyperdub / The Orchard

Although its miasmic sense of anxiety suggested otherwise, Playin' Me was one of the heartbreak albums of the year, the seductive rush of "Come Into My Room" splintering into the unease of "Trying" and finally the devastation of "Is it Gone." This intensely soulful debut from the former queen of UK funky was as understated as it was unsettling, mixing slow-mo melodies with passages of beatless ambience to create a heady, hallucinatory... sound. It was probably unrealistic to expect such an low-key record to cross over in the Olympics year – even if it did include a cover of Coldplay's "Trouble" – but as a soundtrack to London in 2012, it suited the destabilized mood perfectly. – Amber Cowan
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Jessica Pratt

Jessica Pratt
2012 | Birth Records / Revolver

You'd be forgiven for thinking San Francisco songwriter Jessica Pratt's debut was some lost chestnut from the early '70s. Stark, soft and beautiful, it combines the mystery of Vashti Bunyan with the angelic wonder of Judee Sill, Pratt's gentle coo drifting over gentle guitar like a leaf down a river. Typically, music this spare and willowy can drift quickly toward the soporific. Pratt's, though, retains its sense of the strange and fantastic,... like it's being transmitted from the middle of an enchanted wood. – J. Edward Keyes
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Animal Joy

Shearwater
2012 | Sub Pop Records

Shearwater is known for bleak, brooding songs about birds and islands, at the hands of ornithologist and former Okkervil River multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Meiburg. Meiburg and co.'s 2012 release, Animal Joy (their first on Sub Pop), still has some of the sense of doom found on the band's earlier work – though not quite on the level of a bird apocalypse, as in the 2008 song "Rooks." But musically it's by far their... most accessible, especially in the triumphant opener "Animal Life" (easily one of my top tracks of 2012) and the piano layered with xylophone in "You As You Were." – Laura Leebove
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The Threnody Of Triumph

Winterfylleth
2012 | Candlelight Records / The Orchard

Manchester black metal quartet Winterfylleth combines folk and post-metal leanings with a streak of romantic nationalism and a fixation on early Anglo-Saxon history and poetry. The lyrics on their third album The Threnody of Triumph delve into Medieval traditions related to death and the afterlife. It's probably just as well that they're unintelligible though. All the real poetry is in their lovely, harsh music. Sometimes it sounds like sort of netherborn melodic... hardcore. At other times a wisp of Celtic fiddle or some deep, droning vocals underscores the folk and experimental inspirations. Wolves in the Throne Room comparisons are appropriate, but Winterfylleth deserves credit for following their own woodsy muse. – Amelia Raitt
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Look Out Mama

Hurray for the Riff Raff
2012 | Born to Win Records / TuneCore

Hurray for the Riff Raff continue to be one of our most beloved eMusic Selects alums, and their third album Look Out Mama is a reminder of why the New Orleans outfit caught our attention in the first place. Where singer/songwriter Alynda Lee Segarra's earlier releases were largely a solo act, this is a full-band affair: "Born to Win (Part One)" has a big group chorus alongside a harmonica, "Little Black Star"... is a hand-clapping gospel tune, and "Lake of Fire" is ramshackle rockabilly, complete with plenty of "shoo-wop shoo-wahs." Less acoustic strumming, more Southern twang. – Laura Leebove
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Blood Lust

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats
2012 | Metal Blade Records / The Orchard

Okay, so we know that this album was first released in 2011, but as that was on vinyl only and the digital release was this year, we decided to sneak it into our list – we'll take any excuse to shout about this band. Uncle Acid are a Black Sabbath-inspired “coven of freaks” (according to their label) whose second album, Blood Lust, is about a drug-crazed sadist who goes on a witch-killing... spree only to meet his own doom at the withered hand of Satan. The music sounds like Electric Wizard covering Queens of the Stone Age, with melodies that, Beatles-like, seem to inspire mass hysteria. Vinyl copies of this album sell for £700 and scratchy YouTube recordings have notched up hundreds of thousands of hits. However Uncle Acid do it — and we suspect it involves books, candles and incantations of the Lord's Prayer backwards — it's impossible to resist their awesome rocking power. – Amber Cowan
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Crystal Anis

The Liminanas
2012 | Hozac / Revolver

We could say that French duo Lio and Marie Liminana recall all that is great about the classic sound of their country's '60s pop heyday, but that almost feels like it's selling them short. It's true: in their songs you can hear both the smoky seduction of prime Francois Hardy and the grizzled Gitanes-huffing of Serge Gainsbourg, but the Liminanas only use that music as a base. "AF3458" has the same stone-faced... chug as the best moments of Neu! or Can, and "Hospital Boogie" tie-dyes country twang until it's a swirl of colors not appearing in nature. Crystal Anis raises gooseflesh; it's as gently provocative as the tip of a feather on the back of your neck. – J. Edward Keyes
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Movement

Holly Herndon
2012 | RVNG INTL. / SC Distribution

Movement is a fascinating and at times deeply disturbing album, in which Holly Herndon pulls apart sounds on a cellular level, taking forensic delight in how they can inflict acute discomfort. Her musical path began in Berlin clubs and ended with a composition degree, and Movement braids these two twisting paths into an unprizable know of conflicting impulses. Her music is a mesmerizing negotiation between propulsion and stasis. Half the time, it's... tugging coyly at your body; the other half, it's cruelly teasing your mind. Often, it's doing both. – Jayson Greene
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Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons

Max Richter
2012 | DG

Composed in 1723, Antonio Vivaldi's four programmatic violin concertos The Four Seasons have in recent decades been the subject of degrees of revision ranging from switching the featured instrument to switching all the instruments to introducing a wild card (on the album The Meeting, Dave Lombardo of thrash metal band Slayer played drums on Vivaldi pieces, including movements from The Four Seasons). None have been as drastic, or as interesting, as the... efforts of the German-born British composer Max Richter. Richter is classically trained, and co-founded the contemporary classical ensemble Piano Circus, but has also worked with electronic group Future Sound of London. His solo work combines ambient electronica with melodic minimalism, and in his recasting of The Four Seasons, everything is up for reconsideration except the classical instrumentation. Sometimes the melody is retained while elements of the accompaniment are reconstituted into a droning or minimalist style: Sometimes the rhythm is chopped up into uneven time signatures. Motifs are stretched through repetition in a way that reminds us of the similar construction of much Baroque music. Occasionally revisions practically result in a new melody, as in the opening movement of "Summer." Most of the time, though, Richter is inimitably Richter, even as he honors Vivaldi. It would have been very easy for Richter's Four Seasons end up a cheap gimmick. Instead it aligns the Baroque and the modern in thoroughly enjoyable and memorable ways. – Steve Holtje
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The Silk Pistol

Happy Jawbone Family Band
Night-People

Few things in indie rock make me reach for my revolver quite as quickly as the neo-beardy-roots-rock-choogle-catastrophe that's been foisted on all of us over the course of the last five years or so. So an outfit called Happy Jawbone Family Band pretty much automatically has me eyeing the exit. Here's the thing, though: That name is a huge canard. No one's holding hands or quoting Skynyrd or soloing for 20 minutes... here. Instead, there's clattering kindergarten instruments, three-sheets-to-the wind vocals, cassette-recorder quality production and a brass section that sounds like it's on loan from the "Pink Elephants on Parade" sequence in Dumbo. Fortunately, all of these gently-worn elements are put in service of genuinely cheery melodies. Anyone who misses the ramshackle, simultaneously ruined and ornate quality of vintage Elephant 6, Happy Jawbone Family Band are here to help you remember. – J. Edward Keyes
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2012′s Weirdest New Genres

Sharon O'Connell — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 08:30:53 +0000

Remember when music could be neatly divided into genre bins? Those days are long gone. Nowadays, artists mix and match styles so indiscriminately you’d be forgiven for thinking traditional categories have become almost completely meaningless, and you’re no one until you’ve coined your own neologism. Just ask Meshuggah (djent) or Dave Nada (moombhaton).

2012 was the year that doomstep moved out of the shadows and K-pop became a global concern. Sharon O’Connell celebrates our favorite micro-genres to have emerged the past 12 months.

Astral House & Future-Funky

As post-house and dubstep continued to splinter and mutate, myriad micro-genres emerged in less time than it takes to make a new tumblr tag. Astral house blasted into the stratosphere, using the fractured and trippy styles of Hudson Mohawke and Rustie as its launch pad. London’s Becoming Real unleashed his Technicolor Solar Dreams/Neon Decay album, Manchester’s Lone his Music For Reliquary House, half of a challenging and glitchy LP shared with Rene Hell. Hyperdub’s new gal on the block, Cooly G, represented the shift of UK funky into something deeper, moodier and sweeter with her dubby full-length debut, Playin’ Me, while erstwhile grime producer DVA ranged across techno, dubstep and nu-jazz with his cool melodic misfit, Pretty Ugly.

Editors’ pick: Lone, Galaxy Garden

Brostep

Bass music for meatheads? Maybe, but there’s no denying that 2012 was the year the US take on dubstep became a low-end force to be reckoned with, thanks largely to five-times Grammy-nominated fan of the shaved undercut, Skrillex. Characterised by an almost comically over-the-top wobble, lethally slamming breakdowns and pitch-shifted vocals, brostep mostly resembles a monstrously excessive Justice, although Canadian producer Datsik combined grimy bass and twitchy beats with Euro-trance synths on his Vitamin D album. Leeds producer Rusko — one of the UK’s main brostep players — delivered his Songs LP, which shifted his head-banging bass sideways, to align it with dub’s Jamaican roots. Rusko’s collaborator Caspa also had the UK scene’s Croydon roots more in mind with his Not For The Playlist EP, while seeming to shrug his shoulders with “It Is What It Is”. Indeed it is.

Editors’ pick: Datsik, Vitamin D

Djent

Not, as the name might suggest, a small town in Belgium, but a metal micro-genre — heavy and progressive/industrial and onomatopoeically suggestive of the digitally processed power chords favoured by its practitioners. Djent dudes — and the bands are all (very) male – tend to sound like Swedish tech-metallers Meshuggah (who actually coined the term and dropped their Koloss this year) — playing dubstep. Djent began very much as an online, guitar-geek concern but began leaving boys’ bedrooms via the likes of Engel, Swedish djent/hip-hop hybridists, and Denmark’s Mnemic, who added Mnemisis to their thoroughly modern metal canon. Scandinavia doesn’t have the monopoly on djent, by any means: As Surfaces Align and Exotype are from Australia and Florida respectively, while TesseracT, Red Seas Fire and Hacktivist represent the UK.

Editors’ pick: Meshuggah, Koloss

Doomstep / Dubtronica

Taking Burial and Kode9′s muffled and grimy illbient soundscapes as their blueprint, a new generation of moody post-house producers tweaked it and made it their own. Manchester’s Andy Stott dropped his acclaimed Luxury Problems, which featured some unsettlingly scratchy electronica and the haunting vocals of his former piano teacher. Mixing deep dubstep with ambient drone and techno, Stott’s label mates Demdike Stare released the dank Elemental, while self-confessed Earth fanatics Raime released their Raime EP that fused industrial dubstep, minimal techno and electronic hauntology. Vessel’s Order Of Noise followed an equally compelling clank-and-wobble path, along with Italian producer Madteo’s seductively sullen three-track release, Recast. Actress stuck another compelling spoke in the genre wheel with his R.I.P, a more four-to-the-floor affair than previous records, but more richly textured and deeply introspective, too.

Editors’ pick: Actress, R.I.P.

Drum ‘n’ Boogie

A broad church, running the gamut from Blawan to Untold, whose worshippers generally favored a twitchier, more minimalist techno interpretation of dubstep that showed its garage roots. In the case of Hessle Audio co-founder Pangaea, that didn’t exclude the odd (synthesized) orchestral interlude, either, as on his Release album. Pangaea’s compadre Pearson Sound typified the strand’s fondness for stressed-out, tachycardiac beats with his three-tracker Clutch / Underdog / Piston. Representing outside the UK were Milwaukee producer Lorn, with the oppressively corroded bass of his Ask The Dust LP and Holland’s Martyn who, after chasing serious club tunes with his second album, got back on his techno-informed dubstep horse with the Hello Darkness EP.

Editors’ pick: Lorn, Ask The Dust

Hypnotronica

A noticeably more housed-up development of the ubiquitous chillwave of recent years, with the focus as much on the old-school, build-and-release pattern as on woozy, sun-kissed atmosphere. Top of the list of 2012′s hypnotronica high achievers was Barcelona’s fêted John Talabot, who released his euphoric and neo-Balearic Fin, while the Montreal-based Doldrums took off on a psychedelic glitch-pop tack with his Egypt EP, and young London-based producer Slime dropped his beatific, markedly s-l-o-w-e-r second EP, Increases II. Slime associates Vondelpark shifted well away from the witch-house tag with their textured and in-fact-not-at-all gothy “Dracula” track, an online taster of debut album Seabed, set for release in February 2013.

Editors’ pick: John Talabot, Fin

Intellipop

Indie pop with structural and lyrical smarts — shock! — reared its head well above the guitar parapet this year. Sunderland veterans Field Music saw their Plumb album nominated for the 2012 Mercury prize, although the gong was scooped up by young intellipop pretenders Alt-J, with their debut An Awesome Wave. The self-titled debut from London Can fans Django Django suggested a clattery and minimal update on The Beta Band, while Manchester’s Dutch Uncles made kook-pop waves by opting for piano, analogue synths and marimba over guitar on the clever and dead groovy “Fester,” the first single from their upcoming second album, due in January.

Editors’ pick: Django Django, Django Django

K-Pop

Tangentially, we have Justin Bieber to blame for the globe-ravaging virus that was “Gangnam Style,” the ersatz rap smash sung and danced by South Korean artist Psy — signed by Bieber’s manager, Scooter Braun to his own record label. Of course, Korea has been manufacturing its own slick and hyper-bright hybrid of electro/hip hop/R&B/pop for years, but it made serious inroads into Western consciousness in 2012, abetted by the peppy likes of Wonder Girls and their 2 Different Tears, the nine-strong Girls’ Generation and the first world tour by all-boy quintet BigBang.

Editors’ pick: Wonder Girls, 2 Different Tears

Static House

A strand of deconstructed house and super-minimal techno that crackles and buzzes like a TV on the blink, but which may feature some or all of the following — astral jazz, illbient glitch, concrete noise and psychedelia, sometimes within the same confounding track. Chicago’s electronic iconoclast and Mathematics Recordings boss Jamal Moss is static house’s standard-bearer, Hieroglyphic Being representing the more out-there of his countless aliases. He drops a new album, Imaginary Landscapes in February 2013, sure to slay appreciators of HB’s So Much Noise To Be Heard. Along similar, if less extreme lines are fellow Chicagoan SvengalisGhost, whose Mind Control EP was a collage of ethereal/jagged, light/dark, upbeat/brooding and Berlin-based sonic shapeshifter Steven Warwick, who works as Heatsick and this year released his Déviation four-tracker.

Editors’ pick: SvengalisGhost, Mind Control

The 13 Best Rolling Stones Songs You Don’t Know

Yancey Strickler — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 14:44:14 +0000

As they branded themselves in a deserved fit of future-pique, the Rolling Stones are the world’s greatest rock ‘n ‘roll band, with singles too numerous to name dominating our hearts and loins from 1962 on. Though that burst of dangerous, sexual charge that impregnated “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” “Jumpin ‘Jack Flash” and others has subsided some 50 years after the fact, the throbbing energy of London’s favorite bad boys will never completely diminish; those first 13 ABKCO titles from 1964-70 are damn-near perfect, even in their flaws.

We know the hits; classic-rock radio has made sure of that. But beyond the big cuts – which are wonderfully collected on numerous compilations, including Hot Rocks, Big Hits and the latest, GRRR – there are many more songs deserving of your undying fandom. Below are 13 favorites, in order of preference, running the gamut from their first recordings to their triumphant Madison Square Garden set collected on Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out.

“Blue Turns to Grey”

December's Children (And Everybody's)

The Rolling Stones
2005 | ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.

"So now that she has gone/ You won't be sad for long," opens "Blue Turns to Grey," which is essentially the greatest song the Byrds never recorded. Roger McGuinn's jangle is lifted whole-hog for this light-but-meaty melody, Mick, Keith and Brian coalescing into a melancholy rumination on how you shouldn't try to beat the blues, you should simply join them.

“2000 Man”

Their Satanic Majesties Request

The Rolling Stones
2005 | ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.

"2000 Man" is a spectacular song, and a beautiful illustration of the Stones' quickly abandoned period of lighter, Kinksian fare that dominated their 1967 sound on both Satanic Majesties and Between the Buttons. The song moves through several distinct phases: The staccato opening verse with Charlie Watts 'awesomely off-tempo snare pop, a big, full-throttle chorus with Mick shouting "Oh daddy!" and a revving post-chorus/middle-eight wherein Keith Richards 'guitar packs extra... punch.
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“Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind”

Metamorphosis

The Rolling Stones
2005 | ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.

Recorded in 1964 but unreleased (by the Stones) until 1975, "Some Things" is the earliest Stones country song to my knowledge, and one of the few with genuine pedal steel. The production sound is also extremely odd – a hissy, thin sound, with Mick sounding particularly nasal. Arguably, this was their attempt at appropriating the Nashville sound of the early '60s, and there they succeed. The song itself is wonderful, with corny/"provocative"... non sequiturs for lyrics. Of further interest: Vashti Bunyan released a cover of this song as her first single.
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“No Expectations”

BEGGARS BANQUET

The Rolling Stones
2005 | ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.

Adding anything from Beggars Banquet or Let It Bleed to this list of "unheard" songs is a dangerous proposition, but then, how silly would it be to make a playlist without anything from either? It may be bending the rules, but the solemn beauty of "No Expectations" makes it all the easier. Here, Mick sounds more wounded and vulnerable than he had before (and wouldn't again until maybe "Angie"), and Brian... Jones's slide - one of the last things he did with the group - is wonderfully understated, funereal and tremendous.
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“I Am Waiting”

AFTERMATH

The Rolling Stones
2005 | ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.

The chorus owns this track, Mick bursting with ire/devotion/frustration, turning like a snake in the grass after the reserved, even tender, verses. "Stand up coming years/ And escalation fears/ Oh yes we will find out," he declares in one high point, that last couplet particularly sneering - conveying very quickly a sense of what it's like to be on his bad side.

“Midnight Rambler”

Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!

The Rolling Stones
2010 | ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.

This is a fairly popular Stones tune – it has seen some radio airplay – but this Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out performance takes the song to a whole other level. In the same way bluesmen censor their songs to suit the audience, this live Madison Square Garden version demonstrates how violent "Midnight Rambler" is in a way that the version onLet It Bleed cannot. Opening with an almost-jaunty feel, things quickly... succumb to violence and paranoia, the pace slowing to a painful crawl as Keith and Mick Taylor's guitars clash, sweat and seduce in the ugliest way imaginable. This is the Stones at their purest, most boorish essence.
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“That’s How Strong My Love Is”

Out of Our Heads

The Rolling Stones
2005 | ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.

Though Mick's vocal pales in comparison to Otis Redding's original, to paraphrase the Stones themselves, it's the song, not the singer. And Mick's performance does improve over the course of the track; you can feel him surrender to the spirit of things as his voice builds in passion and strength. Also notable is Charlie Watts's drumming - smooth and just a bit flashy, especially in the middle-eight and outro.

“Who’s Been Sleeping Here?”

Between the Buttons

The Rolling Stones
2005 | ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.

Between the Buttons is an odd record. All of the songs feel slightly off, and there is far less overall cohesion than on any of the other Stones records. This was a rough period for the band - they were felled by legal troubles, they had stopped playing live, and the Beatles were evolving much faster – but they still had their moments. "Who's Been Sleeping Here?" is a bit of a... semi-colon, musically. It never really starts, never really stops, just keeps going, rambling from piece to piece without a clear sense of direction. There's such a great groove to it, you'll hardly care.
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“Country Honk”

LET IT BLEED

The Rolling Stones
2005 | ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.

While "Honky Tonk Women" has become certified karaoke platinum, the country version of the song is far better – so good that even Mick's fake Southern accent is more than tolerable. The cascading and clanging acoustics mesh wonderfully with the surprising fiddle solo, and the everyone-sings-at-once chorus is particularly inviting. From the book-ending car horns to the overall feel, this is close to perfect, and one of the Stones 'most thoroughly American... moments.
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“Out of Time”

FLOWERS

The Rolling Stones
2005 | ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.

Brian Jones rightly gets credited for both "Paint It, Black" (the sitar) and "Under My Thumb" (marimba), and he should get his due for the excellent "Out of Time," as well. It's basically an "Under My Thumb" retread – similar instrumentation, and even melodic echoes in the pre-chorus – but it's a far lighter and less misogynist tune. The backing doo-wops are un-Stones, but the rest swings.

“What a Shame”

The Rolling Stones, Now!

The Rolling Stones
2005 | ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.

One of the Stones 'best early blues tunes, "What a Shame" may be a bit amateurish, but it's super-competent as well. Mick does his thing, Keith bites hard into the solo, Brian plays well and Bill and Charlie hold down the rhythm section. The best bit though, is Ian Stewart's boogie piano playing deep in the right channel. Stewart was originally a member of the band, but the Stones rudely booted him... in 1963 (among the factors: he is not a handsome man). Amazingly, Stewart agreed to stick around and be their roadie, occasionally laying some keys down on some tracks. This is one of them.
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“You Better Move On”

December's Children (And Everybody's)

The Rolling Stones
2005 | ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.

'50s soul singer Arthur Alexander is the only person to be covered on record by the Stones, Beatles and Bob Dylan, and "You Better Move On" is his most famous song. "You Better" is a treat – a harrowing and heartbreaking ballad about losing your one true love to another man. "Who are you to tell her who to love/ That's up to her and the Lord above/ You better move... on," he sings.
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“Parachute Woman”

BEGGARS BANQUET

The Rolling Stones
2005 | ABKCO Music & Records, Inc.

More from that stripped-down prime Stones era, "Parachute Woman" is probably more familiar than most of the songs on this list, but it's still worthy of inclusion. In some ways, "Parachute Woman" is a traditional blues tune, except everything feels just a bit skewed: The harmonica mimicking Mick's voice is haunting, the vocals weirdly distant – as if sung from beyond the grave - to say nothing of those apocalyptic closing 30... seconds.
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A Skeptic’s Guide to Deftones

Ian Cohen — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 14:03:08 +0000

If you haven’t given the Deftones a minute of your time in the past 15 years, that’s understandable. Their name is a tremendous liability, still invoking the bored and angsty nu-metal of their debut Adrenaline. That “nu” misspelling does them as much a disservice as the “Def” one – Deftones are truly a new metal band, one that’s always sought to grow with their fanbase, maintaining their brutality while incorporating the influence of shoegaze, electronic pop and IDM into a heady and heavy whole. White Pony is their clear pinnacle, and the latest in the collection is Koi No Yokan, but every one of their records is worth a listen and their discography boasts more than enough examples of a band being at the forefront of artful and melodic metal in the 21st century. These are 10 of them – our Skeptic’s Guide to Deftones.

“Digital Bath”

White Pony

Deftones
2000 | Rhino

Deftones were awfully fond of namedropping the Cure as an influence and this is perhaps the one time they really nailed it. The chord clusters of the verse recall the inky despondence of Faith or Seventeen Seconds before a typically pummeling chorus conveys a sensuality and lust that was as foreign to rock radio then as it is now.

“U, U, D, D, L, R, L, R, A, B, Select, Start”

Saturday Night Wrist

Deftones
2006 | Maverick

One of the many instances of the Deftones' impeccable taste in song titles, "Contra Code" bisects Saturday Night Wrist with dubbed-out ambience and jazzy interplay that invokes Tortoise's TNT. It's the only instrumental in their discography and one that makes you wish they made more.

“You’ve Seen The Butcher”

Diamond Eyes

Deftones
2010 | Reprise

Diamond Eyes was the first Deftones record made without Chi Cheng and while his presence is clearly missed, it forced the band to relearn their approach to rhythm. "You've Seen The Butcher" is an example of this, a total outlier that resembles the fractured jazz-punk of Jawbox's "Cruel Swing," the title of which is an apt descriptor of what Deftones do here.

“Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)”

Around The Fur

Deftones
1997 | Maverick

The first true sign of greatness from Deftones comes courtesy of the second single from Around The Fur. They'd attempt to emphasize its prettiness with acoustic versions and a post-OK Computer remix, but this is the definitive one, essentially "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" for alt-metal kids.

“Change (In The House Of Flies)”

White Pony

Deftones
2000 | Rhino

A debauched Sophie Muller video underlined the narcotic bliss that courses through throughout Deftones' finest song, whether in the pulverizing wall of guitars or Chino Moreno's striking harmonies during the transcendent bridge. Hands down one of the greatest singles of the 2000's, and the embodiment of White Pony's merging of sex, drugs and metal without devolving into Sunset Strip parody or groupie-bating mythology.

“Minerva”

Deftones

Deftones
2003 | Maverick

Deftones followed up their commercial and critical breakthrough by making a logical sequel to "Change," distilling the loud/soft dynamics of the former into a consuming tidal wave of slow-motion, churning distortion somewhere between the obliterating metal-gaze of Jesu and Hum's saturated alt-rock.

“Hole In The Earth”

Saturday Night Wrist

Deftones
2006 | Maverick

Saturday Night Wrist is Deftones' murkiest and most difficult record, one that anticipated a much-needed break that would span nearly four years. "Hole In The Earth" is reflective of their state of mind, the single that exaggerates both the Cocteau Twins influence on their guitars (check that chorus riff) and the abrasiveness.

“Sextape”

Diamond Eyes

Deftones
2010 | Reprise

There's always been a bit of Bono's emotive stridency in Chino Moreno's voice, but Deftones never aspired to retrace U2's steps until this intriguing experiment in unapologetic prettiness. The guitars glisten and peal without slamming on the distortion pedals, the tempo remains elegiac throughout and when Moreno belts "the sound of the waves collide tonight," the last word is cooed in a feminized harmony.

“Knife Party”

White Pony

Deftones
2000 | Rhino

If you needed any more proof of Deftones making their own lane in a time where "Nookie" and Puddle of Mudd's "Control" were what passed for sexualized rock, here's their alluring and rhythmically daring tribute to complicit bloodsport in the bedroom. If you listened to any Jane's Addiction record after Ritual De Lo Habitual, this is what you were looking for.

“Poltergeist”

Koi No Yokan

Deftones
2012 | Reprise

Typically, the most "ambitious" Deftones songs are signified by longer song lengths or softer textures. "Poltergeist" is an exception, three and a half minutes of coil-and-strike math-rock dynamics punctuated by drum machine claps that suggest the Sacramento band might just be keeping their ear titled north towards the Bay Area's hip-hop scene.

10 of the Best: Daniel Miller’s eMusic Picks

Daniel Miller — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:53:41 +0000

2012 has been a brilliant year for independent label Mute. As well as acclaimed releases from Liars, Can, Cold Specks, Yeasayer, Carter Tutti Void and Beth Jeans Houghton, label boss Daniel Miller was recently awarded the Association of Independent Music’s statuette for Pioneer, recognition for the toweringly influential catalog he has built up over almost 35 years. As home to artists as diverse as Depeche Mode, Erasure and Laibach, Mute has always felt like a true label of love, celebrating the most exciting, forward-thinking music around. We invited Daniel Miller to sit in the editor’s chair at eMusic for a site takeover all this week. We interviewed two of his favorite new artists of 2012: Diamond Version and Land Observations. See his favorite albums on eMusic (below); and read our exclusive interview with Miller here.

WIXIW

Liars
2012 | MUTE

For me, Liars are almost the perfect band. They're very adventurous and don't adhere to any traditions and every record they make is different from the last. Plus they're great people to work with.
I Predict a Graceful Expulsion

Cold Specks
2012 | MUTE

[Aly Spx] has an amazing voice and presence and her lyrics are incredible. She's one of the least obvious artists to be on Mute, in a way, but I like that; I don't want Mute to repeat itself.
The Seer

Swans
2012 | Young God / Revolver

Michael Gira's just one of those guys who keeps pushing the extremes all the time. Swans play very, very loud and that's easy to do, but they use volume as an art form, rather than just to make your ears bleed.
Lost Tapes Box Set

Can
2012 | MUTE

This is something that's incredibly close to my heart. They moved Can's Cologne studio to the Gronau Rock 'n' Pop Museum, and when they were taking it apart, they found boxes containing 60 hours' worth of tape. Irmin Schmidt and Jono Podmore whittled it down to about 10 hours and brought it over to the UK. I couldn't believe what I was listening to — it was like a brand new Can... album.
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Fragrant World

Yeasayer
2012 | Secretly Canadian / SC Distribution

Every record they make sounds different, but they have a very clear identity. This record is more complex than previous albums, and maybe takes a bit longer to get into, but is extremely rewarding. In terms of musicianship, Yeasayer are arguably the best musicians on Mute, but they use that in very interesting way.
R.I.P.

Actress
2012 | Honest Jon's Records / Finetunes

I think he's one of the most innovative British electronic artists around. It's very hard these days to have your own electronic sound, because there's so much of that music out there and the technology is available to everybody, but Actress has managed to do that. He's somebody I'd love to work with.
SSSS

VCMG
2012 | MUTE

Vince Clarke left Depeche Mode after the first album and subsequently didn't have much contact with the rest of the band. But about a year ago he emailed Martin Gore out of the blue and just asked if he fancied making a techno record. And that was it.
"Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose"

Beth Jeans Houghton and The Hooves of Destiny
2012 | MUTE

I think she's amazing in terms of her breadth of talent. I see her as a new artist who's going to really flourish with time, because she's still very young. This is a strange hybrid of folk and electronic music, with unusual arrangements – it's a very adventurous record.
Lights Out

Big Deal
2011 | MUTE

They're a boy/girl duo, just two guitars – no drums and no bass. Alice Costello was only about 15 when she wrote most of these songs and they're brilliant, teen-angst love songs – very simple and minimal, with really observant lyrics. It's a charming record, but I think they're going to make big steps with their next one, which they're about to start recording.
Order of Noise

Vessel
2012 | Tri Angle Records / SC Distribution

It's always exciting when a new electronic artist comes along with a sound that is completely unique to them. This is a really immersive listen and stands out as one of the best and most inventive albums of the year.

13 Satanic Folk Songs

Jon Wiederhorn — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 19:37:04 +0000

By definition, folk music is music by and for the people. The songs are more about the simplicity of the melodies than the complexity of the arrangements and the lyrics often relate tales of struggle and protest. But while most folk heroes have passed down an oral tradition of peace and a strong sense of community, there have also been more transgressive and rebellious musicians that have fueled their anger with confrontational, subversive and blasphemous songs. In the 1920s, Samuel J. Wishbone recorded what might be the first Satanic folk song, “The Devil Made a Man out of Me,” which includes the line, “He doesn’t mind your cursin’ or sacrificing virgins/ Oh, the Devil made a man out of me,” and ends with cheers that turn into volleys of screams accompanied by the sounds of crackling flames and gunshots.

As dramatic as Wishbone’s ode to the Prince of Darkness was, the first well documented devil music came from American blues singer Robert Johnson, who, according to legend, was an unskilled musician who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for talent and fame. In the years that followed, he became a sensation, but died of mysterious causes at age 27.

The dark (but not explicitly Satanic) songs of Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits inspired a wave of British ’80s martial folk bands, which incorporated elements of early industrial music with acoustic folk strumming, militant beats and lyrics about death, the apocalypse and the devil.

With black candles positioned in a pentagram around our speakers, eMusic delved into the history of evil, politically incorrect and murderous music to assemble the 13 best Satanic folk songs.

Rome, “Fester”

Fester

Rome
Trisol

Weaving otherworldly samples and spare, haunting piano between acoustic folk strums, Luxembourg native Jerome Reuter followed the lead of the martial folk pioneers to create bleak, shivery odes to death and pain. "Fester," the title track from Rome's 2012 EP, opens with pulsing, droning guitars and female whispers, then evolves into a muted acoustic strum that gradually builds into a deceptively chiming strum.
Satanic Verses: "Here comes the chopper to chop of your... head/ Chip-chop, the last man is dead" (taken from the British children's nursery rhyme and singing game "Oranges and Lemons").
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Backworld, “Holy Fire”

Holy Fire

Backworld
2010 | Backworld / CD Baby

Gothic keyboards, jarring sound effect, spare reverberant percussion and teary strings accompany melodic guitar strumming and despondent vocals on the title track of Backworld's 1996 debut. The tones are very European, especially the English-sounding vocal, but the group is actually the brainchild of Nebraskan born, New-York-based multi-instrumentalist, Joseph Bude Holzer, whose experience working on theater and film music with Lydia Lunch, Foetus frontman JG Thirlwell and Richard Kern reflects in his atmospheric... compositions.
Satanic Verses: Holy fire is burning as the world is turning/ As the world is burning/ Holy fire is churning."
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Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio, “Lucifer in Love”

Songs 4 Hate & Devotion

Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio
2010 | Out of Line Music / GoodToGo

Formed in Stockholm in 1993, Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio write brooding songs inspired by Aleister Crowley, William Blake and Ayn Rand, sounding at times like an acoustic Joy Division. "Lucifer in Love," from the band's 11th and latest album, Songs 4 Hate & Devotion, is a sorrowful ballad built around a framework of piano, strings, horns and near-monotone vocals.
Satanic Verses: "The angels are feasting on blood of the meek/ In blossom with treason... I play with the weak/ Fading roses cover me/ and semen makes my spirit free."
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Swans, “Song For Dead Time [M.G. Version]“

Various Failures: 1988-1992

Swans
Young God Records / Revolver

While Michael Gira's Swans have masterfully delved into apocalyptic folk, it's just a small piece of their musical puzzle, which includes post-punk, experimental noise, goth, country, modern orchestral and art-rock. "Song for Dead Time" comes from the group's compilation album Various Failures: 1988-1992, which features a variety of material from out-of-print releases. Originally a B-side, "Song For Dead Time [M.G. Version]" is the starker, more stripped-down of two versions on the album.... The song is composed of melancholy baritone vocals, repeating guitar arpeggios, two-and-three note passages and a strummed chorus, all atop slow, thudding percussion.
Satanic Verses: "Now the earth bleeds cold water in my open hands/ But their bodies bleed poison and they swallow the sand/ And we'll walk to the river, where we will die of a thirst/ And my fate, it's no question: every fool he is broken beneath the same holy curse."
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Neither/Neither World, “Devil’s Lullaby”

Alive With The Taste of Hell

Neither/Neither World
1996 | Dark Vinyl / Finetunes

Taking their name from a trance-inducing practice by English magician Austin Osman that supposedly allows patients to recognize their atavistic impulses, Neither/Neither World write striking gothic folk songs about death, murder and their favorite serial killers. "Devil's Lullaby," from their 1996 album Alive With the Taste of Hell, is blends lazy acoustic strumming, creepy piano, spare clinking harpsichord and the baleful vocals of Church of Satan devotee Wendy Van Dusen into a... delightfully nefarious brew.
Satanic Verses: "The devil starts crawling at night and the feeling of evil's so right/ Yeah, come on walking again towards the sweet, sweet smell of sin."
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Blood Axis, “Bearer of 10,000 Eyes/Lord of Ages”

Sol Invictus, “Angels Fall”

Against the Modern World

Sol Invictus
2011 | Auerbach Tonträger

Ex-Death in June member Tony Wakeford formed Sol Invictus after dissolving his controversial fascist-themed outfit Above the Ruins. With Sol Invictus, Wakeford abandoned neo-Nazi ideas, replacing them with anti-Christian and anti-materialism dogma. "Angels Fall," from the band's 1987 debut EP Against the Modern World weaves galactic effects and descending keyboard sounds through a framework of acoustic strumming, spare bass drum strikes and sing-songy vocals.
Satanic Verses: "We're here to witness the coming of... the end/ We shut our eyes and we try and laugh/ But we know full well that it's all falling apart."
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Death in June, “Jesus, Junk and the Jurisdiction”

The Rule Of Thirds

Death In June
2008 | NER / Iris

Forefathers of martial folk, Death in June launched in the early '80s fueling their music with industrial and post-punk rhythms. As the years passed, their approach became more folk-based, but no less inflammatory. Their controversial production has included imagery from the Third Reich, and original member Tony Wakeford had fascist leanings, but co-founder Douglas Pierce is openly gay and he has performed with Jewish musicians. After Wakeford was fired in the mid... '80s for his beliefs, Death in June has been primarily a solo project. Released in 2008, The Rule of Thirds combines folk guitars with psychedelic and industrial underpinnings. The dualistic "Jesus Junk and the Jurisdiction" with starts with an echoed, repeated spoken word sample, then locks into a three-chord acoustic rhythm interjected with heavy breathing and a faux-cheerful "ba,ba-ba,ba" chorus.
Satanic Verses: "The guilt, the Christ, The caned and bound/ With nothing more from nothing less/ This is how you end our ritual best?"
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Current 93, “Lucifer Over London”

SixSixSix: SickSickSick

Current 93
Durtro/Jnana / Revolver

Borrowing his band's name, Current 93, from an Aleister Crowley text, frontman David Tibet has recorded more than 20 albums since forming the band in 1984. A peer of Death in June, Current 93 combines folk strumming, industrial sound effects, occult lyrics and occasionally fascist imagery to create haunting modern folk. "Lucifer Over London," from the 2004 compilation SixSixSix: SickSickSick, opens with a sample from Black Sabbath's "Paranoid," then segues into a... droning number driven by monochromatic guitars, acerbic rants and melodic background vocals.
Satanic Verses: "Lucifer flickers all around me, his hooded eyes alight/ In the smoky musk, look into him just a little longer/ See the true face of the moon."
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Of the Wand & the Moon, “Lucifer”

Lucifer

Of the Wand & the Moon
2003 | Euphonious/Vme / The Orchard

After leaving Danish doom metal band Saturnus in 2000, guitarist Kim Sindahl devoted himself to his apocalyptic, experimental folk group Of the Wand & the Moon, which he formed in the late '90s. "Lucifer" is the title track of a bleak b-sides collection released in 2003. The song starts with 60 seconds of harrowing ambient noise, then becomes a trudging acoustic folk song with a blackened theme.
Satanic Verses: "Lucifer walk with me,... Lucifer enflame this heart/ Lucifer embrace this soul for I am fallen just like you."
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King Dude, “Lucifer’s the Light of the World”

Love

King Dude
Dais Records / The Orchard

The strummy track from King Dude's second album Love, "Lucifer's the Light of the World" is lyrically dark, yet musically uplifting enough to invoke wide-grinned singalongs. Structured after the Son House's spiritual "John the Revelator," the song tells the story of The Garden of Eden from the perspective of the Devil.
Satanic Verses: "Eve walked down to the garden, Serpent said, "Shall we begin?"/ If the God up above wants you so dumb,... what the devil does that make him?"
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Charles Manson, “Devil Man”

Charles Manson: The Ultimate Collection

Charles Manson
2012 | Charles Manson / SongCast

No music is more sinister than the demented ramblings of a convicted mass-murderer. Charles Manson always considered himself a gifted artist, and might have made a tiny dent in the California music community had he not been arrested for ordering members of his Manson Family cult, to commit a slew of murders that he believed would precipitate a race riot, which never came. "Devil Man," from Charles Manson: The Ultimate Collection, is... a raw demo that features repetitive, rapidly strummed chords, insane laughter and ends with a bizarre spoken word segment interspersed with bluesy guitar noodling.
Satanic Verses: "She'll take you where you're free to drink, Down in the pit where sin is fake/ â€¦Keep your gold/ all we want is your evil soul."
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Robert Johnson, “Me and the Devil Blues”

Me And The Devil Blues

Robert Johnson
2004 | Synergy Entertainment, Inc. / The Orchard

Though his music is more clearly defined as blues than folk, there might never have been a Satanic folk movement if Robert Johnson hadn't given the horned beast a prominent role in his compositions in the 1930s. "Me and the Devil Blues," from the album of the same name, is a prototypical example of Johnson's simple (and in this case violent) storytelling, and the choppy guitar strums and emotive string bends that... accompanied his soulful vocals are captivating and groundbreaking.
Satanic Verses: "Early this mornin' when you knocked upon my door and I said, "Hello, Satan, I believe it's time to go"/ Me and the devil, was walkin' side by side/ Me and the devil, ooh, was walkin' side by side/ And I'm goin' to beat my woman, until I get satisfied."
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