Best Music 2006 - Bryan Waterman

13 from 2006

13. Tagaki Masakatsu, Journal for People

12. Grizzly Bear, Yellow House

11. Radio Citizen, Berlin Serengeti

10. Vetiver, To Find Me Gone

9. Devics, Push the Heart

8. Silversun Pickups, Carnavas

7. Mountains, Sewn

6. Lambchop, Damaged

5. Bonnie "Prince" Billy, The Letting Go

4. Destroyer, Destroyer's Rubies

3. His Name Is Alive, Detrola

2. Final Fantasy, He Poos Clouds

1. Joanna Newsom, Ys

for commentary and links go to http://www.greatwhatsit.com/archives/1094

Happy New Year! bw

Best Music 2005 - Bryan Waterman

i've been stewing over my top 10 for 2005, wondering if i can even come up with one. i haven't heard from anyone else yet, so for all i know i may be either so predictable i'm pathetic or so out of tune (for spending my whole year listening to wfmu rather than new music) that i have no idea what's what and i'm starting to slide into routine in my buying habits. some years i have no problem hitting a top 20, this year i could probably have hit 15 if i were lucky. here's where i am this year. am i an aging indie rocker or what? all i have to say is: no antony and the johnsons, new pornographers, or sufjan stevens. fuck the demographic! not that i didn't enjoy some songs by any of the above scrolling across my ipod at random. i just didn't take to their albums as a whole. i'm writing this quickly, late at night, and with more than a couple drinks in me, so i'll reserve the right to amend if someone really lets me have it. for 2006 i aspire to buy an ecclectic enough selection of new releases to rival trouble's or hatch's awesome 2005 top 10s and break out of my little narrow indie window. (see trouble's and hatch's kickass picks at the dj picks at http://wfmu.org/bestof/bestof2005.html ).

these are all released in 2005. they probably don't match up with my favorite purchases of the year, but that's a different list for another night.

10. smog, A River Ain't Too Much to Love: smog grows up on this one, settles into his late 30s. countrified. i may be listing him (and listening to him) out of habit, but bill's songs still work for me by and large. between me and stephanie he got good air time.
9. superwolf, Superwolf. matt sweeny (chavez) and will oldham. the first song still gives me chills. it's a delicate little album with a hard edge nonetheless. i didn't care much for the live show: billy was too ironic, dancing his little jigs, though sweeny was fantastic. an amazing musician.
8. richard hawley, Cole's Corner. pulp's guitarist on a nick lowe groove. nothing can compete with this in terms of orchestration this year. he makes jens lekman sound like junior high school, though i liked the new jens lekman just fine. if anything defines the sound of my sensibility at age 35, this is probably it.
7. broken social scene, Broken Social Scene. it took me a long while to warm up to it. it's no You Forgot It In People, to be sure. but it gets better with repetition (as did YFIP, i have to remind myself). file under: bedroom rock for the 00s.
6. lyrics born, same !@#$ different day. Unlike Guerelito or The Silent Alarm Remixed, this one actually works. In fact, it's better than the album. This isn't just my token hiphop album of the year, it's my party album of the year. This man's voice trumps all the other motherfuckers.
5. my morning jacket, Z. on which the heroes of the post-Dead deadheads take an island vacation. i enjoy this entire album, but i would have included it on the merits of the second half of "off the record" alone.
4. devendra banhardt, cripple crow. I've enjoyed him to a degree before, never to the extent that i wanted to listen to his albums straight through. but this one has a gentleness and a coyness that really balance out. "heard somebody say" is my favorite song of the year.
4. caribou, Milk of Human Kindness. easily one of the most listened to discs i purchased this year. it's from early on--march or april?--but i still listen to it once a week at least.
2. sam prekop, who's your new professor? One of our two summer CDs this year. We couldn't stop listening to it. I did not enjoy the live show at Mercury, which was packed and hot as hell. Plus the band was not as attractive as I expected. (I imagined he looked something like Sufjan.)
1. feist, Let It Die. The album--and series of live performances--that defined my music listening year. I even bought the Bee Gees number ones because of her. Oh Lord what I wouldn't do to make this woman my friend. the other summer CD. but this was winter, spring, summer, and fall. I melt.

honorable mentions: paul mccartney, the fall, kings of leon, andrew bird, jens lekman, clap your hands, deerhoof, jennifer gentle, broadcast, magnolia electric co., animal collective with vashti bunyan, blackalicious, nouvelle vague, silver jews.

compilations: _hearing is believing: the jack nitzche story_; that french new wave anthology trouble played songs from (so young and so cold--i bought it and it's great too: also file under bedroom), the soundtrack to life aquatic

favorite song someone played at record club: jason spinning "lose that skin" by the clash. blew my mind.

favorite new alternatives to pitchfork in 2005: www.3hive.com and www.dustedmagazine.com (why did i arrive so late on these scenes?)

thing that's on everyone's list that my brother nathan told me about early, early in the year and he was actually cool enough to go and see live but like a lame-ass i missed: konono no. 1.

Best Music 2004 - Bryan Waterman

I threw this together kind of fast. I'm sure I left something out. Of Montreal should have been in the top 10 somewhere, for instance. But as you'll see below, I started one of these last year and never sent it out, so I wanted to make sure I got it out this year, since the critics'lists are kind of annoying. happy new year. bw

Bryan's Top 10 of 2004

10. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans

He also played a nice set in DC over Thanksgiving weekend. Nice little guy from Michigan. Lots of Christian lyrics-so many that it can be annoying, but it can also catch you off guard, especially if you have a lot of Christian text backed up on your own harddrive. This isn't as good as his Michigan album, but it's a tender little number.

9. A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder

The guy from New Pornographers. McCartneyesque structures, mean-ass hooks. Music for interstate driving in the summer.

8. Erlend Oye - DJ Kicks

The guy from the Norwegian folk duo Kings of Convenience. My favorite voice of the year. Here he plays the role of "The Singing DJ," laying his vocals over other people's tracks on half the songs. Highlights include a cover of The Smith's "There Is a Light": Morrissey never made the opening request sound so plaintive. Another highlight is a cover of the first track off KoC's Quiet Is the New Loud. I think it's track 16 here.

7. The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike

The Avalanches meet TV music of the early 80s, mixed with a little Grandmaster Flash. One of the most fun things I've listened to this year.

6. Iron and Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days

Back to softsville. I liked this better than the debut because of the additional instrumentation. Best track: "Love and Some Verses." You have to love philosophy professors from Florida who make this kind of a career change.

5. Bjork - Medulla

I think it's her best album. It's of a piece with the folk freak scene, though people haven't generally made that observation. It's the best vocal album of the year, for sure-the best use of human voices.

4. various artists - The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered, Covered

Treasure chest of the year. There's so much here-a disc of fantastic songs by the man himself, and another disc full of covers by fantastic bands and singers from Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips and Beck to Vic Chesnutt, Tom Waits, and M Ward. On my iPod, when I play songs in alphabetical order, I get the original followed by the cover or vice versa, which is also a great way to listen to these two amazing sets.

3. Animal Collective - Sung Tongs

They spawned the freak folk movement, together with Devendra and Joanna. Pure pleasure to listen to-primal yet happy, fully modern yet old as hills and musical instruments and campfires. Made me wistful for Navajo singing, so I bought an old CD of recordings from the 50s called Natay, Navajo Singer. The most original rock album of my year.
Plus they played a fantastic live set.

2. Electrelane - The Power Out

Sounds a little like a lot of different things-Stereolab, early post-punk bands (esp in the drums), but also has great choral tracks and rough-edged female vocals in at least three languages. Infectious, driving, sexy as hell.

1. Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender

The girl who made the harp an indie rock instrument. I can listen to this one hours on end, her whiny, sing-song voice working its way deep into my subconscious. It wins my top slot by sheer virtue of its staying power: while others above have come and gone, this one is still in my CD player more often than not. A little Appalachian, a little Bjork, a little Cat Power imitating Devendra, a little Elizabeth Smart, a little e.e. cummings, a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll. Well, not so much of the latter, but we'll keep her around for good company.


Top 20 of 2003

20. dm and jemini -- ghetto pop life
19. !!! -- me and giuliani down by the schoolyard (a true story) EP
18. my morning jacket -- it still moves
17. manitoba -- up in flames=20
16. lost in translation
15. death cab for cutie -- transatlanticism / the postal service -- give up
14. radiohead -- hail to the thief
13. lyrics born -- later that day
12. grandaddy - sumday
11. (smog) -- supper=20
10. cat power -- you are free
9. outkast -- speakerboxxx/the love below
8. m ward -- the transfiguration of Vincent
7. bonnie "prince" billy -- master and everyone
6. belle and sebastian -- dear catastrophe waitress
5. fruit bats -- mouthfuls
4. the decemberists -- her majesty
3. the shins -- chutes too narrow
2. broken social scene -- you forgot it in people
1. magnolia electric co. + bonus disc