That's a tough one, no clear winners so far. Some fine ones, not all of them rock & all on vinyl:
Magnetic Fields: Realism
Shearwater: The Golden Archipelago
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists: The Brutalist Bricks
Bill Callahan: Rough Travel for a Rare Thing(Live)
I want to hear David Byrne's Imelda Marcos album but can't bring myself to it. Anyone try?
Though released in '09, vinyl appeared this year:
Neil Young: Dreamin' Man Live '92
Monsters of Folk |
Chazro, yes that is a tasty group.
http://www.guitar-channel.com/rich_murray/2010/01/videos-robben-ford-michael-landau-perform-instudio-on-the-bob-rivers-show.html |
Initiate is good nue jazz on the heels of several worthy Cline side-projects(particularly New Monestary and Downpour(live 06.) Or is Wilco the side project?
Enjoying Sea of Cowards and Flaming Lips DSOTM. Dead Weather is a very cool Jack White project and they obviously had a great time making it. Parts of the Lips album are hypnotic and like Cowards a refreshing lark of a project.
Best so far is Magnetic Fields Realism. Whatever one thinks of Stephin Merritt's various incarnations, with Mag Fields he is a ligit rock persona of rare wit & sophistication. |
Yeah, Besnard Lakes may be the best yet from the Montreal collective scene. Dense energetic orchestration in the vein of Arcade Fire, but with tighter R&R focus. Also some great girl-group vocals. I spun this up after listening to Chris Bell's "I am the Cosmos"-- and heard more of Big Star's genius in Besnard Lakes than in Bell's mostly dismal cul de sac. |
Second the recommendations(especially the vinyl) of Widespread Panic "Dirty Side Down." I had lost track of this band. Very tasty/tasteful southern rock, at moments with a feel for Clapton circa '73-5. |
Nick Cave's Grinderman 2 way out in front. Well above the first Grinderman project in terms of psyched-out eerieness & grandeur of Cave at his best. LP SQ is about perfect, and the included CD is uncompressed and close enough. Add to this a well-done thick illustrated book and full-sized poster and it becomes clear that he deserves double credit for 12x12. |
Pleasantly surprised to hear a song from the Mumford album open the Fox TV series Lone Star. |
Blonde Redhead Penny Sparkle, aptly subtitled "your OTHER WORLD (DREAM) IS INSIDE HERE----> Here sometimes, not getting there, will there be stars, my plants are dead, Cove or prison, Oslo, penny sparkle, everthing is wrong, black guitar, spain." As hypnotic & original dream pop as has been heard in a long while. A few minor defects on the 4AD pressing, but otherwise a demo-quality LP. |
Deerhunter "Halcyon Digest". Digest is correct as it's stylistically slipperier than Microcastle, ranging from anticipated alt. psychedelia to Conner Oberst-style crooning(but with less angst and a better sense to melody) to only slightly bent surprisingly strong pop and R&B song structures with just a halo of trippiness. Probably the most fertile imaginations of all of the newer bands. Excellent SQ with production values suggested by an illustration of a RTR tape hub on the LP label. Add to that the supplicant transvestite dwarf in a communion dress on the cover and we've got a big winner.
And OH YEAH, Neil Young "Le Noise" is his best in decades. Excellent if expensive Reprise vinyl. |
The last few Robyn Hitchcock with The Venus 3 have been good, but "Propeller Time" is special. Less cuteness and more like channeling the spidery trippy spirit of Syd Barrett. Assisted by John Paul Jones, Nick Lowe, Johnny Marr, and some cool mellotron. Excellent LP. |
"John Cale & Band Live" MIG/WDR limited edition DDM vinyl of Rockpalast concert recorded 1984 at 3AM in Essen Germany. Fierce, corruscating performance that's much better than the mostly bland commercial release that year of "Cale Comes Alive." |
Sorry, meant to say DMM vinyl. |
Martykl, thanks I wasn't aware of Ron Wood soloing again. However notwithstanding nostalgia "I Feel Like Playing" is lackluster. Nothing from him really hits the mark since "I've Got My Own Album to Do" and "Now Look"-- IMO both of which surpass the Stones during those years.
Yep, Mumford & Arcade Fire are among the best of 2010. The Arcade Fire LP doesn't sound compressed, though there is a bit of wall of sound going on there. |
Marty, perhaps you're right. My reaction on first pass was the same as with Elton John on the Leon Russell duet album. Through aging or booze, both are so down in vocal range as to be unrecognizable and drained of energy. Maybe the compression on Napster has something to do with it, or my expectations being frozen in the past. |
