In no particular order, these are the records I most enjoyed listening to this year. Most are from 2007, others are older.
- Blue Bell Knoll/Cocteau Twins… Without a single discernable lyric, Carolyn’s Fingers warm the soul that wanders another brown dead Ohio winter.
- This Place/Ellie LaVeer… smelling the new CD that we’d all waited for so long to hear, putting it in the tray, and being happy from end to end.
- Transient Warehouse of Damaged Goods/Jonathan Penn… Dead Flowers on the highway, night driving.
- Children Running Through/Patty Griffin… Heavenly Day ushered in spring with the voice of an old friend.
- In Rainbows/Radiohead… waiting until release day, listening end to end, satisfied.
- Boxer/The National… the crescendo of Slow Show, waiting on the platform for the train in Barcelona, feeling with every fiber a citizen of Berninger’s fake empire.
- Sky Blue Sky/Wilco… south to West Virginia, bright sky, absolutely no work in sight.
- The Cost/The Frames… Irish rock and the swell of sound from downtown Cairo at 1am, knowing I would be home soon.
- Fox Confessor Brings the Flood/Neko Case… route 340 from Front Royal, stepping into my dead grandmother’s house for maybe the last time, and knowing the places we call home can never completely be home.
Others well worth the hearing:
- We Walked in Song/Innocence Mission
- Armchair Apocrypha/Andrew Bird
- We All Belong/Dr. Dog
- All Hour Cymbals/Yeasayer
- The Swell Season/Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
- self-titled/The Cake Sale
- A Year in the Wilderness/John Doe
- The Stage Names/Okkervil River
- The Trumpet Child/Over the Rhine
- Challengers/The New Pornographers
Post your own in the comments.
Not being nearly the music critic you are, my list will seem pedestrian. But there are a few records that I really couldn’t get enough of this year.
These are my top three, in order.
1. Throwing Punches in the Dark/Matthew Perryman Jones.
I love EVERYTHING about this record. Nielson Hubbard produced it, and I almost want to give him a kiss. I love the drummer, especially. Tasty fills, entrances, exits. This record has made me consider liking rock and roll again.
2. Hello Starling/Josh Ritter.
I’ve only had this record for a month, and I can’t stop playing it. Lyrics are delicious.
3. Retriever/Ron Sexsmith
Only a month here, too. Way different lyrical approach than Ritter, but scrumptious no less. Arrangements are a bullseye to me.
4. I Stood Still and Stopped the Sound of Feet/Emily Deloach
Also produced by Nielson Hubbard, although it has a very different feel than MPJ’s record. I saw her release show in Nashville when Ellie was making her record over the summer. Andy Osenga and Todd Bragg played in her band. Poppy, jazzy, unrequited love. She’s since found her true love, Jason Feller, four of whose new tracks we’ve downloaded and are really, really enjoying. On the 9th we’ll get the rest of his record. He also played in her band. (BTW, Cason Cooley sat in on MPJ’s set along with Bragg and Osenga following Emily’s set that same night in Nashville.) Emily’s CD probably has my favorite lyric of the year on it, although it comes from a cover: “Eighteen months/a year-and-a-half ago/whichever is longer/or shorter/that depends on whose point of view.”
5. Into the Black/Hannah Miller
We’re so proud of our favorite local artist and our first and most enduring Columbia friend. She’s come a really long way. I think that it’s a really excellent freshman LP. She’s got a really nice lyrical sensibility. We’re going to her CD release show on Friday.
VERY Honorable mention: Funnel Cloud/Hem; Trumpet Child/OTR; The Morning and Letters to the Editor EP/Andrew Osenga; Children Running Through/Patty Griffin.
Of course, I really like Ellie’s CD! I actually listen to it just about once each week—when she’s not around, of course! (Usually Deacon and I listen together. He dances, and I grin a proud grin.)
Ellie just mentioned that Dolly Parton’s greatest hits belongs to our list too, perhaps for the simple reason that she wooed Deacon to sleep for almost six months.
:)
I have a post lined up about this at some point myself, but I entirely agree about Fox Confessor (though prefer Blacklisted – only got into Neko Case this year).
Challengers by the New Stenographers: yes! Especially the title track. (Now who is it singing that, again? ;-))
Olivia’s favorite CD of the year is TNP Challengers. She calls it the Cd with the “funny singing.” She asks for it all the time.
I must say that it’s my favorite as well. The title track is quite addictive.
Hey guys! Last month I randomly picked up “Once” starring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. The characters were so tangible, and there were no ‘easy-outs’ for a happy ending… not that endings shouldn’t be happy. I can only describe it as heartfelt and real. After seeing it, I bought The Swell Season the next day – can’t get enough of that CD! BTW… I bought Ellie’s CD yesterday, Im still digesting it, but it sounds great.