pop culture, reviewed

So, finally, here are my favorite albums and songs of the year. Asterisks denote whether I saw them live this year, and how many times. They are in no particular order, except that I can safely say that Okkervil River’s The Stage Names is my clear Album of the Year, with the close runners-up being the Once soundtrack and Josh Ritter’s The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter. My favorites of the year are:

The Avett Brothers, Emotionalism. Favorite songs: “Salina,” because of the line, “Carolina, one day I’ll, some day I’ll come home;” “I Would Be Sad,” because of how awesome the whole thing is; “The Weight of Lies” because of how pretty it is and because of the chorus, ” The weight of lies will bring you down, And follow you to every town, ‘Cause nothing happens here that doesn’t happen there, So when you run make sure you run, To something and not away from, ‘Cause lies don’t need an aeroplane to chase you anywhere;” “All My Mistakes” because it’s beautiful and I love the line “I have some ‘friends’ who don’t know who I am, so I write quotation marks around the word ‘friend,’ but I have a couple that have always been there for me.” (Incidentally, how happy am I that 2008 is starting off already with a January visit to Atlanta to see two of my favorite and best friends, friends who definitely fit into the Avetts’ latter category? So happy. Beside myself happy!)

*Andrew Bird, Armchair Apocrypha. This was an early favorite of 2007 that has so far stood the test of time. Over the course of the year, favorite songs have been: “Scythian Empire;” “Heretics;” “Imitosis;” and “Plasticities,” but basically trust me when I say that the whole thing is so good that it’s hard to pick favorites.

*****Ryan Adams, Easy Tiger. Although Easy Tiger only ranks in the middle of the rest of Ryan’s albums for me, I would be lying if I said it wasn’t still one of my most-played of the year. Without question, my favorite songs are “The Sun Also Sets” (“Oh be SUUUUURE”) and “I Taught Myself How to Grow Old.” Two of my other favorite songs of the year were from his October EP, Follow the Lights — the Cardinals’ version of “Blue Hotel” as well as their cover of “Down in a Hole.”

*The National, Boxer. I don’t want my cool indie music card taken away, so the inclusion of this one is a no-brainer. It’s worth the high praise, though. Favorite tracks: “Squalor Victoria;” “Mistaken for Strangers;” “Slow Show” (“You know I dreamed about you for twenty-nine years before I saw you”).

**Brandi Carlile, The Story. As good as her albums are, you are totally missing out if you pass up the chance to Brandi Carlile live and in person. As I’ve said before, she is the real deal and can almost out-Buckley Jeff on her version of “Hallelujah.” At her show this fall, she played a cover of “Madman Across the Water” that Jake is still talking about, and she played “Raining in Baltimore” and made it more beautiful than Adam Duritz ever dreamed possible. That’s not to say her own work is second best. “The Story,” “Turpentine,” and “Downpour” are my three most-played songs from the album, but the whole thing is solid. Even when her song-writing is average (and that’s only sometimes), her outstanding voice makes her songs something special.

*Band of Horses, Cease to Begin. All hail a South Carolina band made good! “Is There a Ghost” is my song of the year. If you can find a better one, please let me know, but in the meantime, play “Is There a Ghost” about three hundred times. If you are at all like me, you will be awed by it with each and every listen.

**Josh Ritter, The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter. One of my two favorite shows of the year was Josh at the 9:30 Club in October. There was much swooning. I love his lyrics and his humor and the way you can hear the smile in his voice and get a tiny inkling of what a joyful performer he is even when you are just listening to the album. It is, I believe, impossible to listen to “To the Dogs or Whoever” without smiling. And if I hadn’t already bestowed Song of the Year on “Is There a Ghost,” I might give that award to “The Temptation of Adam,” which is the best song about love in an underground bunker that you could imagine. (“What five letters spelled ‘apocalypse,’ she asked me. I won her over saying, ‘W-W-I-I-I.’ She smiled and we both knew that she’d misjudged me.” Love!)

Dan Wilson, Free Life. What a sweet guy that Dan Wilson seems to be. He sure writes sweet songs. My favorites: “All Kinds,” and “Breathless.” This album relaxes me.

*The New Pornographers, Challengers. I even liked the Dan Bejar contributions on this one, particularly “Myriad Harbor.” Other faves are “The Old Showstoppers” (you can totally hear Carl’s lisp, which is endearing), and “Your Rights Vs. Mine.”

*The Good, The Bad, and The Queen. This one came out so early last year that I almost forgot about, it but it is excellent through and through and was a really good show, too.

White Rabbits, Fort Nightly. So fun, I am not even kidding. The best: “Kid On My Shoulders” and “I Used to Complain Now I Don’t.” I’m sad we missed them at the Rock’n’Roll Hotel a few weeks ago.

**Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, Once soundtrack. I have probably documented my love for this one enough on this blog, and it’s too hard to pick favorites when I love all the songs so much. If I had to pick a couple right this minute, I’d pick “Say It to Me Now” and “Leave” just because I love the ones where Glen eventually just starts to wail. Oh, how I love his wailing. My other favorite show of the year had to have been one of the Swell Season shows. They lifted my heart up.

Okkervil River, The Stage Names. As promised, coming in at number one. There is not a bad song on this album. It is magnificent. It is gorgeous, seamless, catchy, smart, funny, and tragic, all at the same time. There are parts that make you snicker (“And you look your age, which is 37, by the way, and not 28” in “You Can’t Hold the Hand of a Rock and Roll Man”) and parts that make you cringe (the opening of “John Allyn Smith Sails,” which starts “By the second verse, my friends, my heart will stop, my head will burst, so I’d like to start this one off by saying, ‘Live and love’”). If I had to pick one singular moment that I love the most, I’d fail, but I would strongly consider the part in “Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe” when Will Sheff absolutely screams out “clicking.” And, if I didn’t already love them, I’d still give Okkervil River my 2007 Congeniality award for releasing a totally free covers album (Golden Opportunities Mixtape) on their website just for fun. Bad ass.

My other favorite songs of the year: “Hot Knives” and “If The Brakeman Turns My Way” from Bright Eyes; “100 Days, 100 Nights” from Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings’ album of the same name; the Hot Puppies’ “How Come You Don’t Hold Me No More;” *Wilco’s “You Are My Face;” The Arcade Fire’s “Keep the Car Running;” The Clientele’s “Dreams of Leaving;” “Fifteen” by *Rilo Kiley; “Young Folks” by *Peter Bjorn and John (of course, ubiquitous); St. Vincent’s “All My Stars Aligned;” and the White Stripes’ “You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told)”.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten a bunch. It was a pretty good year, I think.