8. The Residents, The Voice of MidnightIf you were one of the (literally) dozen people who bought the very first Residents album back in 1973, it's doubtful that you would have expected them to still be around 34 years later, given that they have not only been utterly devoid of any commercial potential, but have actively avoided the merest scintilla of commericalism. (They espoused, at one point, the Theory of Obscurity, producing an album--Not Available, one of the strangest recordings ever made--that was created without taking into account any potential listener and in fact was not supposed to be released until the band had completely forgotten about its existence.) Of course, since The Residents have always remained completely anonymous and faceless (except for their iconic giant-eyeball-and-top-hat masks, I have no idea if it's the same people, but the Singing Resident at least sounds like the same guy who's been there since the beginning. Anyway, The Voice of Midnight is a musical adaptation of the short horror story "The Sandman" by E.T.A. Hoffman, updated and given a uniquely Residents-like (and creepy) twist ending. Unlike several other Residents narrative albums, this time the story is told via straightforward dialogue, with only occasional singing, although the musical accompaniment is still decidedly Residential. The usual creepy synths and outstanding guitar work (thanks to guest soloist Nolan Cook, who appears to be an apt replacement for the Residents' late lamented collaborator Snakefinger) is enhanced by real strings, probably courtesy of the Film Orchestra of Budapest, who graced The Residents' 2006 Tweedles album. There is no way this album is for everyone's taste, but then nor are The Residents, who have spent the past 34 years making some of the weirdest music ever made. I like them--but then I've been called pretty weird myself.
7. The New Pornographers, ChallengersThe New Pornographers are an alternative rock collective based in Vancouver, B.C. Comprising A.C. Newman, songstress Neko Case, Dan Bejar, and a bunch of others, all of whom have their own bands and solo careers, they come together every couple of years to create a CD's worth of shimmering power pop gems. Challengers is a more subtle, quieter album than its three predecessors (I particularly love 2003's Electric Version and 2005's Twin Cinema), and as a result is not as immediate (they have added strings and other acoustic instruments this time around), but a few listens soon reveal the record's charms. Standout tracks are "My Rights Versus Yours," "All the Old Showstoppers," "Mutiny, I Promise You," and "Myriad Harbour." One almost can't wait until 2009 for their next album.
6. The Arctic Monkeys, Favourite Worst NightmareThe Arctic Monkeys' 2006 debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not was one of my favo[u]rite albums of last year, even if it wasn't the most musically groundbreaking record in the world (just basic good old-fashioned Northern British pub rock, with fairly good lyrics and clever turns of phrase). If their follow-up seems a bit rushed out, it certainly doesn't sound it. If it's at all a disappointment, it's only because its predecessor was such a hard act to follow. The band have improved musically, but aside from that, little has changed. Standout tracks are the punnily titled "Brianstorm," "D is for Dangerous," "This House is a Circus," and "If You Were There, Beware." Maybe they'll take their time to put out their third record.
5. The Arcade Fire, Neon BibleMontreal's Arcade Fire burst onto the scene in 2004 with their critically acclaimed debut album Funeral (it may even have been a hit, too), although I had not heard of them until a couple years later. Since I came late to the party, I really wasn't expecting anything from their long-awaited follow-up Neon Bible. As a result, I liked it almost immediately and it stayed in heavy rotation on my iPod for much of last spring. The album is dark and brooding, with a world-weary air to it, with a dash of the obligatory post-fame cynicism. Vocalist Win Butler reminds me a little of Echo & the Bunnymen's Ian McCulloch with a little of Pink Floy'd Roger Waters' histrionics thrown in (there's a combination!). Pipe organs and other unusual instrumentation abound, and stylistically they are all over the map, from the murky and brooding ("Black Mirror") to the infectious ("Keep the Car Running") to the faintly progressive ("The Well and the Lighthouse"). It does take a few listens to get into, but once you do, it's hard to stop.
4. Rush, Snakes and ArrowsWho'd have thought that the Canadian power trio Rush would still be around after 30 years, or that I would still like them (they were one of my favorites in high school, as they were for a lot of people my age) after almost as long. By the end of the 1990s, it began to seem that they had vanished (personal tragedies affected drummer Neal Peart, leading to his temporary "retirement"), but when they returned in 2002 with a new album (Vapor Trails) and tour (which I was fortunate enough to catch at SPAC), they were back and, if not better than, at least as good as, ever. If Vapor Trails was the sound of a band getting back into the swing of things (albeit with a vengeance), the follow up, Snakes and Arrows, is the sound of a band restaking its claim and is at the top of its game. All the classic Rush touches are their: intellectual lyrics, virtuosic power guitar (the intro to "Far Cry"--which, by the way, will stand up there with any Rush track, IMHO--even reprises the classic "Hemispheres" chord), inventive bass playing, and, of course, the unparalleled drumming of Peart. Happily, Geddy Lee's voice has gotten lower over the years, so there's a lot less of the piercing shrieks you used to get circa 2112. And they have wisely dispensed with the synthesizers that made many of their 1980s records sound like they had been recorded through a giant ball of cotton. After lo these many years, Rush have earned the right to do what they want when they want to do it and if Snakes and Arrows lacks the brilliance of, say, Moving Pictures or Permanent Waves, it presents bandmembers that are still challenging themselves musically and, most importantly, sound like they have having a ball doing it. (By the way, out of sheer geekiness, I got the DVD-Audio version of this album, which boasts 5.1 surround sound, which I have to say is an incredible experience--Neal Peart's drums are everywhere! I strongly protest re-buying things I already own, but if they ever remaster the classic Rush albums in 5.1 surround, I would consider them...)
3. They Might Be Giants, The ElseAnother of the "who would have expected them to last this long?" bands, They Might Be Giants have now been at it for 22 years. (One can't help but think of the song "Number Three" on their 1986 debut album: "There's only two songs in me, and I just wrote the third.") And yet, they just keep getting better. They seem to be trying to make a distinction between their "kids'" records (No!, Here Come the ABCs, and the forthcoming Here Come the 123s) and their "adult" records, but really, the distinction is an artificial one. Much was made about how The Else was produced (at least in part) with the Dust Brothers (Tone-Loc, Beck, Hanson) but They have worked with them before ("Snail Dust," a remix of "Snail Shell" found on the 1996 Back to Skull EP). The first two tracks ("I'm Impressed" and "Take Out the Trash") give the "Band of Dans" (well, actually, only two Dans are left; Marty Beller is now the drummer) a workout before things get eclectic, and just plain weird. Take "With the Dark": it starts deceptively tenderly, "She's in love with her broken heart/Shes in love with the dark", there's an instrumental break and suddenly there's a recitative sung by a pirate ("Bustin' my pirate hump/Rockin' my peg-leg stump/My mind naturally turns to taxidermy"). Who else would write a song like this! Even when things get dark "The Shadow Government") things stay silly. And "Bee of the Bird of the Moth" has one of TMBG's patented hyperlocutions: "It's just a humming bird moth that's acting like a bird that thinks it's a bee." And Contrecoup has to be the only song I can think of that is about phrenology. And just try not singing along with "The Mesopotamians." I like The Else a lot better than its predecessor The Spine (2004) but even better than the proper album is the bonus disc Cast Your Pod to the Wind, a collection of songs from Their regular podcasts (the 21st-century equivalent of the old answering machine-based Dial-a-Song), which are not as fussily produced as the rest of the album, and are far more diverse and whimsical, from the accusatory "Why Did You Grow a Beard?" ("I can't leave you alone for five minutes") to the opening line of "We Live in a Dump" ("Hanging out while the monkeys type away") to "Greasy Kid Stuff" ("I've got the hairdo of a child!") to faux heavy metal of "Homunculus" to "The Deranged Millionaire" ("Gold is diamond-encrusted and diamonds are covered in gold"). The hotel detective is back; recall "She's a Hotel Detective" from their debut album, the sequel "She Was a Hotel Detective" from Back to Skull, and now "Hotel Detective of the Future" ("She had 100 mechanical fingers...she has the replicant motives of a cyborg..."). And how can you not like a song called "The Haunted Floating Eye"? Several songs also mention the "rainbow has a beard"--I guess They have been listening to Cream's "Swlabr."
2. Fountains of Wayne, Traffic and WeatherSome time ago, I found Fountains of Wayne's third album Welcome Interstate Managers (2003) in a used CD store and picked it up for the heck of it, having heard good things about FoW. It immediately grabbed me--even if the "rent-a-Cars" hit "Stacey's Mom" was my least favorite track on it--and when their fourth album, the long-awaited Traffic and Weather came out, I picked it up and it didn't leave my iPod rotation all last summer and fall (along with FoW's three previous records). FoW leaders Cris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger are perhaps the Difford and Tilbrook of the 1990s/2000s and, indeed, FoW sounds at first blush like like a power-pop version of Squeeze. Collingwood and Schlesinger are top-notch songwriters, but they often get unfairly criticized for the fact that their songs are not especially serious; that is, FoW songs are character-based and are often satirical and downright derisive toward their subject matter.
I think this makes them great, but perhaps it's just me--but then I am not likely to be a biker, go to laser shows, or get a tattoo to impress my girlfriend. If Traffic and Weather isn't as consistently good as their second album (1999's Utopia Parkway) it might be because it had been worked on for so long that it sounds a bit too labored over. Still, it's a great record, from the opening take of missed love connections "Someone to Love" which is the only song I know of that name-checks Schenectady, to the love song of someone who spends way too much time souping up his car "'92 Suburu" ("Pumping in oxygen from some Swiss mountain/Alarm system so confusing you can't even get in"), to the lusting after DMV clerk "Yolanda Hayes" ("Behind window B, explaining patiently how she needs to see six forms of ID"), to the rapid-fire couplets of "New Routine," which has one of the best opening lines ever ("Two men sit in the corner of a diner/Both of them look quite a bit like Carl Reiner"). And the title track is a strange tale of anchormen who suddenly cut loose and start propositioning each other on the air ("We belong together like traffic and weather"). Anyone who has lived in New York City will laugh out loud at the line "Chuck Scarborough turns to Sue Simmons/Says 'Sugar you don't know what you're missin'." Not every song is a gem ("Revolving Dora" is just an excuse for the title) but I've listened to this album about 100 times already and haven't tired of it yet.
And my favorite album of 2007:
1. Andrew Bird, Armchair ApocryphaI first heard of Andrew Bird two years ago when his Mysterious Production of Eggs came out and got a good review in Magnet magazine. That album quickly became my favorite of that year, and when the follow-up Armchair Apocrypha came out, I was the first on my block to pick it up (of course, that could apply to just about any album I own...). The opening four tracks could very well be a "best of" Andrew Bird album--the opener "Fiery Crash" (my mantra this year, whenever I got on a plane), "Imitosis" ("Turning to a playground in a Petri dish/Where single cells would swing their fists at anything that looks like easy prey"), "Plasticities" ("We'll fight for your music halls and dying cities/They'll fight for your neural walls and plasticities and precious territory"), and "Heretics" ("Tell us what we did wrong and you can blame us for it"). "Armchairs" slows things down a bit before "Dark Matter" kicks off with the line "When I was just a little boy/I threw away all my action toys/while I became obsessed with Operation." The best was saved for last: "Scythian Empires" is utterly beautiful and "Spare-Ohs" closes the album (well, prior to the final short instrumental "Yawny at the Apocalypse") with perhaps a summation of Bird's M.O.: "Such a reckless choice of words/when you tell me that I'm too obstruce [sic--I believe he means "abstruse"]/I just thought it was a kind of bird". A great great album--arguably as good as The Mysterious Production of Eggs. I hope he doesn't take another two years to release another record.
Honorable Mention: The other day I received in mail from Jessa Callen a copy of the debut album from The Callen Sisters (for those of you in Saratoga: Kim's daughters).
The Callen SistersJess and Beth Callen play harp and guitar, respectively, and both are singer/songwriters. While I have only ever seen them perform unplugged as a duo (the harp and guitar interact beautifully and the sisters harmonize like angels) the album was recorded with a full band, the result being, for want of a better term, folk-rocky. The set kicks off with "Anomie," one of my candidates for the best track on the album, with a chiming Byrds-via-R.E.M. guitar jangle that I've always been a sucker for. "Irrelevant," another top track, will likely remind folks of Tori Amos or Fiona Apple, but since I'm very old, I was reminded of Never For Ever-era Kate Bush (who, after all, influenced Amos 'n' Apple). "Like You" will likely not affect most listeners the way it affected me (or will affect anyone who knows Jess and Beth), as it is about their mother Kim, a very dear friend of mine who passed away in 2004 after an 11-year battle with cancer. They performed this song live and unplugged last year at Caffe Lena, and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. On the record, though, it is given a rousing, almost Celtic arrangement, turning a sad song into an Irish wake-like celebration of a person's life. Likewise, "Lullaby" (I think one of Jess's songs; each sister wrote six of the 12 songs) is a standout solo acoustic song live, but on the record it starts off very sparely with vocal and solo harp, and other instruments gradually come in and built until the full band kicks in. It's very effective.
A lot of talk naturally focuses on the harp--after all, it's not the typical rock band instrument. (And for good reason; having seen Jess lug it around I have often asked her if she wouldn't be better off taking up the harmonica.) It doesn't have that typical arpeggio-y "harp-y" sound that everyone expects from a harp, but gives the songs a distinctive sound, without being distracting in its novelty. Half the time, you don't even realize you are hearing a harp.
Much kudos should probably be given to producer and arranger Dan Castellani who really did an excellent job of highlighting the sisters' talents while not letting the arrangements overwhelm the subtlety of their performances.
Lyrically, the songs focus on love and loss--given their family history, it would be difficult for them not to--but it's not all a dirge-a-thon; there is hope and beauty here (I also wish there had been a lyric sheet, or that the vocals had been brought up a tad further in the mix). And there are moments when they seem to be having a lot of fun, too.
Despite my obvious bias, I am extremely impressed with The Callen Sisters. It's a stunning debut album; my initial thought (and I've listened to the album about five times now) was that "I knew they were good; I just didn't know they were this good."
If you're interested, the CD can be bought via CDBaby here (I have ordered via CDBaby before and they are excellent). And, I have to say, whoever wrote their bio is utterly brilliant... ahem... You can also hear song samples on their Web site or on their MySpace page.
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