(via Celine)
box of boom
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Stunning live acoustic performance of “Cosmic Love” by Florence & the Machine for BBC Radio 2.
the stars, the moon/they have all been blown out/
you’ve left me in the darkno dawn, no day/i’m always in this twilight/
in the shadow of your heart
Sia - “You’ve Changed” (official video)
my top 10 favorite albums of 2009
10. Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul
I remember seeing posters all around town in Austin at SXSW in March and being very intrigued by the premise of this project (David Lynch working with Danger Mouse and Mark Linkous with a roster of vocalists including Nina Persson, Julian Casablancas, the Flaming Lips, Suzanne Vega and Iggy Pop), so i was very disappointed when the record label basically shelved this project [though the book of Lynch’s photos is still being sold, cleverly packaged with a blank CD]. The production is top-notch, layered and more upbeat than you might expect from a Lynch project. you can still hear the whole album on NPR’s site.
9. Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
Such a leap forward from her debut, both the production and songwriting are so rich and intricate. I did think it had one of the worst album covers of the year (the deluxe edition cover is a huge improvement).
8. The Gossip - Music for Men
So slick and rock steady, defiant but ultimately just a knockout of a dance record. “Four Letter Word” was one of my top 10 favorite songs of the year.
7. PJ Harvey & John Parish - A Woman A Man Walked By
There was a great quote I read from Uncut’s review that said “Parish and Harvey sound confidently experimental, like two soldiers daring each other to ever more stupendous feats of bravery” - I think it’s truly incredible how PJ continues to find new ways to use her voice as an instrument and, especially on this album, uses it to conjure up a whole cast of characters, ranging from creaky and ancient (“April”), to child-like (“16, 15, 14”), to straight-up maniacal.
6. the xx - xx
I wouldn’t usually associate words like “hushed” and “subtle” with pop, but this album manages to combine great pop melodies with impressively restrained production. One of the things i love most about this album is that it sounds like it could have been released anytime during the last 30 years.
5. Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
I think David Fricke hit the nail on the head when he called this album “a triumph of determined simplicity by a band that has been running from the obvious for most of this decade” - it reminds me of A.M. and Being There and it’s refreshing to hear these guys a little more stripped down, rocking out like the amazing live band they are. my favorites are”One Wing,” “I’ll Fight” “Wilco (The Song),” and “Deeper Down.”
4. Florence & the Machine - Lungs
The first two songs I heard from Florence were “Blinding” and “Between Too Lungs” and i was floored. I do think the album could be more focused stylistically, but it makes sense that a roaring debut would cause a bit of a frenzy.
3. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
I didn’t give this album enough attention until the last couple months of this year, but i’ve been hooked ever since. I’ve heard this album described as almost giddy, and I’d have to agree. It’s a solid record, really textured and so refreshingly upbeat, it’s hard to resist wanting to make it my soundtrack anytime I’m out walking around the city.
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It’s Blitz!
I think the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are officially my favorite band making music today; so much style, so much substance, so much swagger. I love that they continue to push themselves into new territories of sound, and that they can rattle a dancefloor with Karen O commanding “off with your head! dance til you’re dead!” one minute, then do a sweeping, heartfelt ballad like “Hysteric” or “Little Shadow” the next. 
1. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
This album has definitely become a new classic for me over the course of this year. Ican’t say enough good things about it without resorting to tornado metaphors, from her soaring vocals to how she can spin one genius lyric like ”yes there are things that i’m still so afraid of but my courage is roaring like the sound of the sun/because it’s vain about its mane and it will reveal them to no one”) after another (“can’t give up acting tough, it’s all that i’m made of/can’t scrape together quite enough to ride the bus to the outskirts of the fact that i need love.”).
Technical disqualification: Beach House - Teen Dream - I would have this album at #2 had it been officially released this year. I was swept away by “Zebra” on my very first listen, and the rest of the album follows suit.
Honorable mentions: White Rabbits’ It’s Frightening and Mumford & Sons’ Sigh No More were two records I listened to quite a bit. And I enjoyed and respect what might seem like glaring omissions from Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, St. Vincent and Dirty Projectors but I just never connected with them on the same level as the albums that edged them out of the top 10. I will also say Tori Amos’ Abnormally Attracted to Sin was much better than I expected, but I can’t get past her refusal to edit for the sake of cohesiveness or quality control. But it’s still nice to know she’s got songs like “Lady in Blue” and “Fast Horse” up her sleeve. Passion Pit’s Manners had some great tracks but the album as a whole didn’t stick with me.
![moviesinframes:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004 (dir. Michel Gondry)[note: this is a re-framing; you can see the first one here]
My favorite movie of the decade. Hard to think of it without hearing this track. I’d love it if Beck worked with Jon Brion again.
Beck - “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Some Time”
The Brion-produced Beck-sung cover of Korgis’ “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime” is easily the album highlight.
The song combines much of what makes Brion great: moody, untraditional music, stitched together with harmonies, dramatic strings and playful clinks. As he often does, Brion plays all the instruments on the track, but somehow still captures the emotion within the song and within the singer. (source)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/fIYFIn7MLoigsfxrxoi3efC8o1_500.png)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004 (dir. Michel Gondry)
[note: this is a re-framing; you can see the first one here]
My favorite movie of the decade. Hard to think of it without hearing this track. I’d love it if Beck worked with Jon Brion again.
Beck - “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Some Time”
The Brion-produced Beck-sung cover of Korgis’ “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime” is easily the album highlight.
The song combines much of what makes Brion great: moody, untraditional music, stitched together with harmonies, dramatic strings and playful clinks. As he often does, Brion plays all the instruments on the track, but somehow still captures the emotion within the song and within the singer. (source)
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
I asked Neko if Steve Nieve and I might accompany her on a wonderful song from her recent album, Middle Cyclone. It took us a few rehearsals to find a way to play “Prison Girls” as a trio, and I commend Neko for taking the chance and believing that when the red light went on Steve and I would not fail her. Abandoning the regular cues of an arrangement is sometimes daunting, but this is what our evening of music was all about.
Neko gave us a couple of other great performances, one of which did not make the final cut, but her portrait “Margaret Vs Pauline” is a gem of writing. If we’d had another hour of two, I might have asked her to sing “Twist The Knife” from Furnace Room Lullaby or a number of her songs that seem to have more to do with the soul and mystery of country and don’t require that prefix of “Alt” as any kind of warning or apology – especially when the mainstream is so parched and barren.
— Elvis Costello on performing Neko Case’s “Prison Girls” on his show Spectacle on the Sundance Channel. Sheryl Crow, who was a guest on the same episode, provided very subtle/barely audible background vocals on this track towards the end. Neko performed similarly under-utitlized background vocals during Sheryl’s performance of “Leaving Las Vegas” then, strangely enough, was relegated to playing tambourine on “If It Makes You Happy.” A wasted vocal opportunity if you ask me, but this cool new arrangement of “Prison Girls” plus great performances by fellow guests Jesse Winchester (who brought visible tears to Neko’s eyes) and Ron Sexsmith.
5 favorite covers of 2009
my top 20 songs of the year list is coming soon along with commentary, but until then here are 5 of my favorite covers from the past year. All 5 of these are tracks that work as more than just a one-off novelty, worthy of repeated listens:
- Bon Iver - “Mercury” [Kathleen Edwards cover]
- Bat for Lashes - “Use Somebody” [Kings of Leon cover]
- Laura Marling - “Roll Away Your Stone” [Mumford & Sons cover]
- Solange - “Stillness Is the Move” [Dirty Projectors cover]
- Lady Gaga - “Viva La Vida” [Coldplay cover]
Updated links as of 12/17/09 - sorry about the downtime!
Highly recommend checking out Mark Romanek’s (director of classic videos like NIN’s “Closer”; Michael & Janet Jackson’s “Scream”; Fiona Apple’s “Criminal” and Johnny Cash’s “Hurt”) Posterous page, where he posts amazing photos like the one above, all taken with his iPhone camera.
In theory, she was an artist you want to root for— all these ideas about art and celebrity and a flair for the dramatic. But the first few singles made the Lady Gaga project feel so presumptuous, her artsy entitlement overwhelming her songs’ occasional strengths. “Bad Romance” was the moment where the music didn’t just live up to the (self-inflated) hype, but surpassed it. The track is epic in construction— by the time she gets to the bridge, more than three minutes in, the realization that there are hooks yet to come is thrilling. It helps that RedOne’s production matches the songwriting’s torrential drama; the churning, earth-shifting low-frequency synths are a programmatic reflection of the singer’s unsteady, perhaps unwise, infatuation. But it’s Gaga’s performance, the wholly unapologetic fools-rush-in carnal energy, that commitment to emotional bravery in a context of increasingly twee chart pop, that makes “Bad Romance” feel so necessary. —David Drake
Nothing tops the original, but no one needs help tracking that one down. here’s a pretty good remix (of which there are also many):
Lady Gaga - “Bad Romance” (Skrillex Radio)
(Photo by Brandon Wu - plenty of more incredible shots where that came from)
