20. Rjd2 Since We Last Spoke (Definitive Jux) I picked this album up at the absolutely mind-blowing record release concert that Rjd2 held in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio. With four turntables and his sequencer, R.J. worked his various beats together into two half-hour sets that built in strength like Samson, shaking the pillars and bringing down the house. Maybe it’s the auspices of that night that stay with me, but I consider Since We Last Spoke to be a nigh great album that finds Rjd2 stretching beyond his usual elaborate funk rock reinventions into techno, pop, and AM radio dabbling, his prodigious compositional skill ever present. It’s not Deadringer, but, hey, not much is.
19. Rapider Than Horsepower This is My Big Night (Essay)
Pretty insanity makes music. Pitter patter drum, pitter patter drum, loud drum, loud drum! See-saw guitars, buzz, crank, snap, hiss, crackle, pop, now slowly, now hush, now gently, now tenderly, now arch your backs, and spit your words, now close your eyes, and explode! Explosion, explosion, energy and radiation, fall-out, winter, now comfort each other with the soft bubblegum center of your hard rock candy. These are the sing-along songs for a new generation of suburban spazzes.
18. New Buffalo Last Beautiful Day (Dot-Dash) I don’t like nearly enough female artists. It makes things especially hard when one tries to go about making mixes for females who do like them. Thank God, then, for New Buffalo and her gorgeous music that should be inspiring its own Paul Thomas Anderson romantic epic soon enough. You can have your Mirahs and your Joannas and, by all means, your Annies. Me, I’ll be sitting on the couch with a girl as we listen to “I’ve Got You and You’ve Got Me,” and when she leaves, I’ll be bawling to the sound of “Come Back.” New Buffalo’s gonna hold my hand.
17. Masta Killa No Said Date (Nature Sounds)
And now, bitches, we come to the Wu-Tang portion of the show. Masta Killa’s long-awaited solo debut shows a remarkable dedication to the Clan tradition of old and features a number of fine contributions from the whole pack. No Said Date works as an effective reminder of the Wu glory days, and by the time “Silverbacks” rolls around with GZA dropping a verse worthy of the Genius, fans will be holding the “W” high and shouting hallelujahs. Oh, and RZA’s production on “School” is the best beat he’s done in years.
16. Ghostface The Pretty Toney Album (Def Jam)
The most consistently good member of Wu-Tang moved on into his own realm years ago, and so Pretty Toney isn’t so much enjoyable because it sounds like classic Wu ’ it doesn’t. It’s enjoyable because it sounds like Ghostface. Yeah, it has some filler and a couple sappy tracks and that damn Missy, but that all works well enough within the context of an album that sports a number of the year’s best hip-hop songs. “Biscuits” and “It’s Over” and “Be This Way” and “Run” (the second best beat RZA’s done in years) have a natural energy and brilliance that’s not easily duplicated; it’s just too bad that a few of the weaker cuts weren’t replaced with “The Drummer” and “Guerilla Hood.”
15. The Walkmen Bows & Arrows (Record Collection)So, yeah, these guys were featured on The O.C. a few weeks ago. Oh damn, the original review archive has an interview with Walkmen lead singer Hamilton Leithauser’ so that makes my degrees of separation from The O.C. to be about two or three or something. Giggle, giggle. I took an online quiz to find out which O.C. character I am, and the highest affinity was like 78% with Sandy Cohen, which I am totally cool with, but then second place was 72% with that bitch Marissa. How the hell does that happen? Um, yeah, anyways, I figured that Bows and Arrows will show up on enough lists that you don’t really need to read my blurb about it. Let me just say that “The Rat” is great, but “Thinking of a Dream I Had” is even better’ oh, and that Seth Cohen’s a douche for preferring Summer to Anna.
14. Sonic Youth Sonic Nurse (Geffen)
Hooray for old people who’ve still got it.
13. cLOUDDEAD Ten (Mush/Big Dada) When I first heard “Rifle Eyes,” I think I began babbling a frothy-lipped fume of words about how cLOUDDEAD’s new album was going to be the future of music and people should start sacrificing cows to Odd Nosdam. I had just put on my leather apron and grabbed my butcher knife when I heard the rest of the album; I changed my mind and decided that a squirrel or two would be plenty for an offering. That most of the rest of Ten can’t quite live up to zeal-inspiring “Rifle Eyes” can hardly be held against cLOUDDEAD, though. Indeed, the fact that there’s one other song (“Physics of a Unicycle”) that’s as good, if not better, than “Rifle Eyes” is more heavenly blessing than we mortals should hope for.
12. Loretta Lynn Van Lear Rose (Interscope) Here’s a flower that exudes warmth and story and song and smiles and tears and memories and a rural evocation that’s mature and sincere, not cheap and dirty and ignorant. It’s everything that country music should be but usually isn’t. Loretta Lynn has an indefatigable spirit that shines on every song, and Jack White’s arrangements make for some of the best work that he can put to his name. Van Lear Rose is not only incredibly easy to like, it’s utterly worthy of love.
11. Les Savy Fav Inches (Frenchkiss) My CMG review for Les Savy Fav’s post-pop-punk collection of inches is long, intimidating, absurd, unwieldy, bloated, garish, bewildering, unclear, amorphous, reckless, self-indulgent, possibly pretentious, pseudo-humorous, an obtuse sort of mildly fruity with a hefty dose of vodka’ a cacophony of words, and if one could hold it, I think it would loudly vibrate. Basically, the review’s a lot like the album. Except that the album’s great.
