before i forget...

[peripeteia]

Music released this year was consistently good without being great, but a few albums did knock me on my ass:

1. the Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
   
2. Stars - Heart
   
3. the Tokey Tones - Caterpillar & Butterfly
   
4. Sufjan Stevens - Michigan
   
5. Rachel's - Systems/Layers
   
6. Ted Leo/Pharmacists - Hearts of Oak
   
7. Nina Nastasia - Run to Ruin
   
8. the Lucksmiths - Naturaliste
   
9. Head of

Comments

[foggynotion]

no tokey tones on just one near-perfect thing?

:(

[peripeteia]

but there isn't jus one near-perfect thing on either of those cds. there are about eight!

(i couldn't decide.)

[foggynotion]

you're forgiven - although i will hide it from scott.

i've played him the mix you made for me several times. he has fallen in love with the fruit bats - "dragon ships" (as did i)

[peripeteia]

...which reminds me that i left a very necessary fruit bats song off this mix. and the ladybug transistor. i haven't burned a copy yet, so maybe i can still fit some tokey tones action on there, while i'm at it.

[canonfire]

i saw Ted Leo open for Iggy Pop last year. It was a lot of fun! :)

[pistolstar]

rocking taste in music!! eric and i have been listening to ted leo & the pharms and the shins constantly...

[bizza]

i still kinda can't believe augie march did that cover.

nice list. i've investigated sufjan stevens recently, and i'm liking what i'm hearing. what are stars and the tokey tones like? never heard of them. naturaliste is a nice album, probably their best in a lot of ways. it's odd that you picked "sleep well", because that song doesn't stand out much to me; i should go back and give that one a good listen.

tim.

[peripeteia]

i picture them all wearing the same huey lewis mask, except glenn, who looks like michael j. fox. it's weird - you know it's them, but the song itself does everything to convince you otherwise no matter how many times you listen.

this was what i wrote about stars before realizing i'd never post a list if i waited to write proper descriptions of the top ten...
With the ballsiest opening I've heard in a long time - each member of Stars asserting with answering machine clarity that "I am _____, and this is my heart" - this record treads the thin line between sweet idealism and cloying sentimentality, most of the time with surprising success. Stars offer up 11 radio-friendly (in a world with friendlier frequencies) pop songs full of shimmering keyboards augmented with strings, theremin and woodwinds aplenty on their second full-length. They could have done without the moribund fifth track, but the dreamy fuzz of "What the Snowman Learned About Love" and the melody driving "Look Up" to nosebleed heights - at which it's easy enough to

[longlines]

thank you! funny thing, i was about to shoot you an email about this, as i'd been where your annual best of the year mix went. (amazing we've known each other long enough for me to think it's strange when it's late.)