Best Of

While I've always enjoyed making "Best Of" lists, the last two years have been fairly lackluster. I still stand by giving The Hold Steady's Stay Positive "Album Of The Year," but it was hardly an "Album Of The Decade" contender. Unlike '67, '77, '87 and '97, 2007 wasn't a year where music underwent a massive change. It seemed like music genres were so fractured, it was nearly impossible to find any releases that were able to have any universal appeal. But it seems like popular music was just saving itself for 2009. This year felt like a huge cram session.…

11. Joshua Radin -- Simple Times The first I -- and I'm guessing many others - heard of Josh Radin was during a surprisingly sad conclusion to an episode of NBC's Scrubs. His song "Winter," when combined with the script, packed the sort of emotional punch rarely seen on TV; especially in 20-minute sitcoms. The problem with his first full length, We Were Here, was simply the curse of repetition. The other nine cuts just sounded too much like (and not as good as) "Winter."  Simple Times is by no means a radical variation on the Radin formula: it's still…

When I first joined the Daily Vault staff many moons ago, I was charged with the creation of my first “Best Of” list when December rolled around. After one attempt at it, I came to find the idea of ranking my top ten albums to be terribly unappealing. Since that point, I have taken a much more general approach to these yearly retrospectives, making up categories as I go along. Yet even that has grown stale. This year, I offer up a pseudo-commentary on the music of 2008. These albums may have been personal favorites, works that I felt were…

Turns out, I didn’t listen to a lot this year (which is probably terrible for a music reviewer to admit); but I tended mostly to fall for albums -- head-over-heels, hard, and wholly. Which is why Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago hasn’t left my stereo in approximately three months and I know every lyric to Viva La Vida backwards and forwards. It’s also why people around me either get converted to loving said overplayed albums…or ban me from playing them entirely. But most of this year’s heavy-hitters and indie sensations have gone right over my head, my old habit…

Like a lot of people, I barely had enough CDs in my collection to come up with a “best of” list this year. There was a lot of stuff going on in peoples’ lives in 2008, stuff where music could easily take a back seat. Folks who were busy obsessing over the presidential election might not have noticed that Lucinda Williams came out with a new album. Other folks would have liked to pick up those two covers albums by Cat Power, but were a bit busy reformatting and sending out their resumes because they feared for their job. And…

 10.  Sneaky Sound System -- 2The Aussie dance-pop trio had a big job ahead of themselves in following up a mega-selling debut, but they pulled it off with ease.  An explosion of finely-crafted pop songs, pumping bass/electronica arrangements, and Miss Connie’s powerful vocals all make for the year’s best pop release.9.  Whitesnake -- Good To Be BadYou either love or hate the Snake, and I really do love them.  Coverdale and his current line-up turned out a loud, heavy, and bombastic assault on the senses.  Overblown at times, it’s still classic Whitesnake and easily the band’s best album since 1987.8.…

 10.  The Dears -- MissilesSome fans have described Montreal’s The Dears in concert as “the sonic equivalent of seeing the face of God.” As outlandish a claim as that may be, listening to a Dears record, you at least get a sense of just what said fans are talking about. Missiles is a magnificent display of melancholy indie-pop where front man and chief songwriter Murray Lightburn flexes his muscles as a mope-rock visionary. Having rescued the writing from what on previous Dears albums was an overt and seemingly unapologetic tipping-of-the-hat to The Smiths, the songs on Missiles are concise and…

If last year was big, this year was more medium-ish, musically speaking.  Several of my favorite rock acts didn’t release anything bigger than the odd digital-only track or three (Springsteen, Switchfoot, Fountains Of Wayne, Ian Hunter, Chris Cubeta) and the prog scene was relatively quiet, other than well-received solo albums from David Gilmour and Billy Sherwood, and rumors of a Yes/ELP/Asia package tour in 2009.  Where that left me personally was focusing yet more attention on the ever-growing ranks of super-talented independent acts out there.  So this year for the first time, I’m offering five awards to label-backed releases and…

2007 will most likely be remembered, at least in terms of music history, as the year that DRM began to crumble and vanish. The technology and policies of the record labels have been the biggest stories of all; luckily there was some good music along the way.  Most Disappointing AlbumRadiohead -- In Rainbows God help me, I have tried to love Radiohead. I own the majority of their albums, and when In Rainbows was announced in a downloadable, choose your own price, form, I had to support the band regardless of what I felt about their music. In Rainbows had…

5. Prince -- Planet EarthFor disc jockeys not to give this album a chance to be heard was a downright shame. The single “Guitar” is funky fun of the first order, while “The One U Wanna C” is the most easily accessible Prince pop song in years. Harkening back to the age of disco, “Chelsea Rodgers” is the one throw-down dance track that will make you get up on your feet and, in Prince’s words, “shake it like a Juicy Juice.” The mid-tempo “Lion Of Judah” starts out sounding a little like the classic “Purple Rain,” but unfortunately that’s where…