Song of the Week 3/21/07

The Killers -"When You Were Young"

Why a Killers track that's 18 months old? Well, I spent all of last week (which was my freaking vacation) glued in front of my TV set, ill with a wicked case of acid reflux that was most likely caused by all the coughing I did when I had the flu in January and February. (Guess what? The reflux is 1000 times worse than the flu. ) And during my 14 hours a day video marathon, I stumbled across an old Later With Jools Holland episode on Fuse where they played it:



The song burrowed its way into my brain and came out in full force as I took the bus home from the doctor's office. She gave me a prescription for pills to battle the reflux, as well as a bottle of tiny little tablets to bring down my blood pressure, which had spiked with all the stress my body was under. I started humming "When We Were Young," realizing that the song's title had finally come true for me on a Friday afternoon in March of 2008. She described the blood pressure pill as "a water pill"...which is exactly what my grandmother called it when she took the same drug. Yay, I'm following in the footsteps of the rest of my family!!!

I suppose it's the second sign that acting like a kid should be a thing of the past I've gotten in the past month. The closure of Magnetic Field a week from tonight hasn't totally hit me. I believe mostly because I wasn't able to fully enjoy our last Live Band Karaoke because of the beginning of my acid reflux fun. Five hours of drinking water in a bar is just not fun. No sir.

At least this clip from that last night is fun. Our beloved regular Abigail tears it up on the song we learned especially for her, Free's "All Right Now." And oh man oh man, check out the guest stick playing by our former drummer Troy.



I think that this was our most documented gig ever--and I'll remember every moment of it because I was sober. How odd.

Song of the Week 3/14/08

R.E.M. - "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"

Words escape me trying to describe our last Live Band Karaoke at Magnetic Field. All I can say is thank you to the hundreds of people who showed up and rocked out for 4 and 1/2 hours. A hat tip to our guitarist Paul Crane for suggesting this R.E.M. gem as our last tune.

And here's a pic from our first song of the night, Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days." I always loved that tie.

Song of the Week 3/6/08

Dusty Springfield - "Son of a Preacher Man"

At our next-to-last Live Band Karaoke at Magnetic Field, my friend Noreen finally showed up to see what I'd been emailing about for the past two and a half years. (Nothing like a bar closing to bring people out.) From the moment we learned this song two months ago, I knew that Reeny (a professional singer, unlike us amateurs) would kill it. And she did--big time. Made me wish I had a video camera. I could watch great singers do great songs on that stage forever. But nothing lasts forever.

If you're in the NYC area and reading this, come out this Friday. It will be a night for the ages.

Song of the Week 2/29/08

The Beatles - "Day Tripper"

I've witnessed some cool things happen on stage while being the MC extraodinaire for Bunnie England and the New Originals--but perhaps nothing will ever be cooler than playing at the Saturday Night Live afterparty and having Wilco guitarist-keyboardist Pat Sansone join the guys on stage to do "Day Tripper."

As I said to one perosn I know, now I can die a slightly less bitter man.

Here's Pat in action on keys with Wilco on SNL:

Song of the Week 2/22/08

Wilco - "Red-Eyed and Blue/I Got You (At the End of the Century)"

"When we came here today
We all felt something true
Now I'm red-eyed and blue"



Those last three lines in one of my favorites from Being There really struck me yesterday as I was looking at footage from Wilco's five night "play every song from every album" stand at the Riviera Theatre on You Tube. (The clip above is from the second night) My never ending/cold/flu/beast tackling the east died at the same time as two of my favorite music entities--No Depression magazine and my favorite bar Magnetic Field.

No Depression was one of the few places over the past eight years that wrote in depth pieces about artists I truly cared about. (Five pages on the Minus 5???!!?) They covered music that was true--intelligent rock/country/R&B that would never go out of style. And now due to the downturn in the music industry and the magazine world, they're closing up shop.

Magnetic Field...gosh, what haven't I said about this place on this blog? I'm sure I'll have more to say once the bar closes at the end of March. (And after Bunnie England has its last gig their on Friday March 14th--come on down!) But it was definitely a sad day when I was asked by one of the owners to write the release about the bar closing. On the plus side, the release I wrote is easily the most disseminated piece of copy I've had in my entire career. Not that that makes me feel any better about losing the place where I've lost most of my liver. At least I've 30 more days to enjoy doing that.

Song of the Week 2/15/08

R.E.M. - "Supernatural Superserious"



Holy crap. This song is AWESOME. Pleasepleaseplease let the rest of Accelerate be this good. It's such a joy to hear them rock like its 1994 or 1986 all over again. I could not stop listening to this song--15 times in a span of three day in my iPod alone. And that doesn't count the video:



And might I suggest this fun video site too?

Song of the Week 2/8/08

The Dismemberment Plan - "The Ice of Boston"

Back in August I posted a link to my friend Michael Boyd's Patient Boy blog where he deemed a song that myself and my bandmate in The 5th Joe S. co-wrote called "Drunken Agreement" was his song of the week. That song somehow inspired Mr. Boyd to invite me to take part in his own solo show, set to take place in October during Magnetic Field's Monday night local music showcase. The song he wanted me to provide the vocals for was called "The Ice of Boston" by the now defunct D.C. band The Dismemberment Plan. I'd heard the band's name, but had never heard any of their music. My first time through "The Ice of Boston" I thought to myself, "Damn, Boyd knows how to pick a song that plays to my strengths." "Boston" is a humorous song about pursuing a lost love (okay, I get that) that features weird spoken verses (yup, I can do that) and then screamed choruses (oh yeah, I got that down). It, quite simply, is a song designed for me to sing.

That gig in October didn't happen, but it finally got rescheduled for the night of February 11th. After one rehearsal, I had a good feeling. After a second rehearsal, I knew it was going to kick ass. And it did. I don't think I've ever had a prouder moment on the Field's stage than talking/singing "The Ice of Boston." So thanks Boyd, for seeing a talent in me I didn't even know I had.

BONUS: The day after Boyd and I first rehearsed the song, I decided to look it up on YouTube just to see how frontman Travis Morrison handled it live. And I found four very distinct examples.

1) 1997 Brownies, NYC
This was the same year the song was released on The Dismemberment Plan is Terrified, and the band sticks to the original.


2) 2002 Halloween, San Diego
At this point the band had established their gag of having fans crowd the stage and singing along. Morrison is still somewhat invested and enjoys the song.



3) 2003 Final Tour, Seattle
I can see why the band decided to call it quits--watch the disdain Morrison has for the whole entire spectacle of the song.



4) 2007 Reunion Show for Cal Robbins, Washington D.C.
Perhaps reuniting for a good cause of helping the son of J. Robbins made Morrison tolerate the song, as he kind of actually gave something in his performance. Of course, the fans give a whole lot more.

Medic! Medic!

Yeah, been letting the blog lapse for a couple weeks. It may be a couple more as I'm battling this wicked bronchitis/flu. Hopefully I'll return to posting by the first weekend of March.

Song of the Week 2/1/08

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - "Runnin' Down a Dream"

There's no escaping the Super Bowl, and there was no escaping this song this week.

Damn Fox Sports.



Mike Campbell still rocks like a mofo, even if they made him cut his solo short.

Song of the Week 1/25/08

Nada Surf - "Whose Authority"



Damn, this song is so fucking catchy. I've had an advance of Lucky since early December but put off really exploring into it until the calendar hit '08. It took a few listens, but it's really growing on me. And I credit "Whose Authority." I always thought the song was kind of odd because there are two lengthy verses before the chorus kicks in. Then one day while I was walking to a gig the chorus just hit me. I had to start pumping my fist and soundlessly mouth these words:

"On whose authority/I have none over me/on whose authority/there's none that I can see/on whose authority/I have none over me/on whose authority/nothing speaks to me/on whose authority/I have none over me"

It's hard to describe just how anthemic it is, so let's have YouTube and a guy from The Adventures of Pete and Pete explain it all:



There's a point at 1:57 in where he just throws his hands in the air as the chorus is going...and it's absolutely perfect. This song brings me that type of a moment of exhilaration. I can't explain why, I can only revel in it. Next Friday (2/8) they're playing at Bowery Ballroom and I am so excited to see them. Fist pumping and singing along for everyone!

Song of the Week 1/18/08

Joe Jackson - "Too Tough"

This week I couldn't escape this first single from Rain, Jackson's first album in four years. WFUV, WXPN, the World Cafe--they all seemed to know exactly when I would be listening and would play this track. Not that I'm complaining--it's a great song, reminiscent of Jackson's more mellow work on albums such as Night and Day and Body and Soul. And just like those discs he's gone guitarless once again, playing in a piano trio with his original rhythm section of bassist Graham Maby and drummer Dave Houghton. "Too Tough" features some gorgeous piano playing, especially when Jackson hits the chorus. And oh my gosh, it's a somewhat bitter chorus. Who would have thought I would enjoy a line like this?

"And if I try hard enough/to do or die/when we push and shove/I know that I will be too tough/ Too tough to fall in love/With you"

After transcribing that line I realized that "Too Tough" might be my favorite Joe Jackson song in at least 17 years...and that song ("Stranger Than Fiction") was released when I graduated college. Sigh.

Song of the Week 1/11/08

Kate Nash - "Pumpkin Soup"



Kate Nash's Made of Bricks is the best album released in 2008. Of course, that's not saying much since we're only two weeks into the new year. However, I still predict that this infectious collection of songs about break-ups and relationships going all sorts of wrong will end up on many best of lists 11 months from now. Nash returned to the U.S. last week to play a few shows to promote the release of Made of Bricks, which is already a smash hit in the U.K. I'm not sure if the American audiences will fully embrace the songs from this talented 19 year-old since she sounds exceedingly British when she sings and incorporates lots of British slang in her lyrics. I figure since I liked this album immediately when I heard it last fall that its got no chance here, but I could be wrong.

"Pumpkin Soup" isn't the lead single here in the States (it was the third single in the U.K.) but I can't get the chorus "I just want your kiss boy" out of my head. And the video's kind of fun too:



The first single "Foundations" is a winner too, as is its video:

Song of the Week 1/4/08

Paul McCartney and Wings - "Arrow Through Me"



Ah, its a long and winding road to explain this one.

(Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

It was almost a year ago that blogger extraordinaire Matthew Perpetua wrote about this track on the always top notch Fluxblog. I downloaded the MP3 and was instantly transported back in time--actually, two times.

When "Arrow Through Me" and Back to the Egg were released in the spring of 1979, I was just becoming aware that Paul McCartney had done other music after The Beatles. In the late winter I had bought the 45 for the non-LP track “Goodnight Tonight” with my allowance. The song sounded pretty funky and disco-ish, which was right up my “I Love the Nightlife” and Village People (I had Go West and Macho Man on 8-track!) digging brain. The station always on in my house was WGY-AM. Even though it was on the AM dial WGY was still mostly a Top 40 station, playing much of the softer hit tunes of the day. The Fender Rhodes sound of “Arrow Through Me” fit snugly with station’s musical direction and the Walt Fritz’s Music Magazine. The show started at 3:00 p.m. every weekday, just in time for me to get home from school, and features a weekly countdown and daily musical history nuggets. (Hmm, wonder if that had an impact on me.) Alas, I never bought the “Arrow Through Me” single--I think my comic book interest was also starting to gear up around that time, so I’m sure my tiny amount of money went to Spider-man or Batman. I do remember being fascinated by the Back to the Egg cover, which seemed to be on display at the Zayre store over the border in Great Barrington, Mass. I’m positive it had to be the same copy that sat there for four months.

My other flashback came from my 2002 stint as a roadie for The Figgs. As Mike Gent drove the van down to Philadelphia so we could pick up Pete Donnelly he asked me to go through his CD case and pick out some stuff. The first one disc I came upon was Back to the Egg, which I poked fun at by saying “I didn’t know you wanted to sleep when you drove.” He dismissed my insult and said it was a much underrated album. So I put it into the van’s CD player, and I’ll be damned if Mike wasn’t right. I had forgotten about the album’s other single “Getting Closer,” which was a great little rocker, and how much I liked “Arrow Through Me.” I made a mental note to get Back to the Egg somewhere on the tour, but then I promptly forgot during our first stop at Waffle House 11 hours later.

So last January I listened to the “Arrow Through Me” MP3, decided I needed Back to the Egg on CD and went to Amazon. Alas, I discovered (and you’ll discover for yourself if you click here) Back to the Egg has been out of print for a while in the U.S. So once again I forgot about the song and the entire album until Apple made a big deal about Macca’s catalog going upon iTunes. The first day the albums were up I put Back to the Egg in my shopping cart, secure in my knowledge that I would soon enjoy the last album by Wings.

Yet I never pulled the trigger on downloading it. I always felt like I had something else more pressing to place on my iPod. Back to the Egg got buried in the load of crap I stored in that shopping cart. To buy everything I stashed in that queue would have cost 363 bucks as of last Thursday. Then I was given a 50 dollar iTunes gift card by one of my work superiors as a token of appreciation for the number of times I helped him out in 2007. It was by far the best Christmas/holiday gift I got. And the first thing I downloaded was Back to the Egg. I listened to that album twice on Thursday and then again while doing laundry on Saturday and on the way into work today.

Six years later, Mike Gent is still right--it is an underrated work, and “Arrow Through Me” is a great little single that’s much better than most of McCartney and Wings’ 70s hits.

AND NOW FOR SOME POST-CHRISTMAS BONE-I: Check out the video for “Arrow Through Me.” It’s not as slick as the song, that’s for certain.



When I was searching for that video, the second clip that came up was New York’s own long-running songwriter’s tribute Loser’s Lounge covering the song last month. I scrolled down to what else they had tackled and found my friend Jed Parish (of his own amazing solo career and the just as amazing Gravel Pit) just tearing up “Maybe I’m Amazed.” Listen to the crowd go nuts when he hits some high notes:



Best. Cover. Ever.

The 18th Annual is Up

Look over to the right and down and click on 2007. Or just click here.

Song of the Week 12/28/07

Okkervil River - "Plus Ones"

I just can't stop listening to this track from my number-four album of the year (online version coming soon, I promise). Here are the amazing lyrics:

"No one wants to hear about your 97th tear, so dry your eyes or let it go uncried, my dear. I am all out of love to mouth into your ear, and not above letting a love song disappear before it's written. And no one wants a tune about the 100th luftballoon that was seen shooting from the window of your room, to be a spot against the sky's colossal gloom and land, deflated, in some neighbor state that's strewn with 99 others.

8 Chinese brothers; well, there's a reason why the last is smiling wide and sitting higher than the others, swinging his arms.

You would probably die before you shot up 9 miles high, your eyes dilated as light plays upon the sight of TVC16 as it sings you goodnight. Relaxed as hell and locked up in cell 45, I hope you're feeling better. The 51st way to leave your lover, admittedly, doesn't seem to be as gentle or as clean as all the others, leaving its scars.

All in the after hours of some Greenpoint bar, I told you that I can't listen, baby, about the 4th time you were a lady, and how your forthrightness betrayed a secret shyness, stripped away by days of being hailed as "Your Highness." And what's new, pussycat, is that you were once a lioness; they cut your claws out. Kitten, not everyone's keen on lighting candle 17. The party's done. The cake's all gone. The plates are clean. The chauffeur's leering from the cheerless mezzanine. And, in just 1 year, the straight world can pay to see what they've been missing.

You were caught kissing 8 Chinese brothers, but there's a reason why the last is smiling wide and sitting higher than the others, stinking with charm. And he says, "Let's get lost. Let them send out alarms." He says, "Let's get crossed out and come to harm. Let's make the world's stupidest stand and truly mean it. Let's hit the limit of laws over lovers' arms - no, let's exceed it."

Genius.

Song of the Week 12/21/07

John Fogerty - "Rockin' All Over the World"

This track from Fogerty's self-titled 1975 solo album must have gotten some airplay on WGY, the A.M. Top 40 station in Albany while I was growing up. I remember this song 32 years later as clear as any of my Top 20 Singles from 2007. Fogerty put it on his great live album Premonition a decade ago, but thanks to the interesting out-of-print blog Rock Is Dead I now have a pristine copy of the studio version.

Speaking of the Premontion version:

The 18th Annual Reynolds Top 20 List

Competent Things Come to Those Who Wait

2007: The Year Where Idiocracy Got Its Start

2007's Top 20 Albums

Top 10 Headlines I Hope I Don't Write in 2008

2007's Top 20 Singles


Other Musical Stuff From 2007
--Compilations, Reissues, EPs, Soundtracks, Etc.

--Concerts

--Discovery of the Year

--Rediscovery of the Year


2007's Top Visual Aids

Top 5 Songs Steve Should Have Never Sung (or Never Should Sing) With Bunnie England and the New Originals

Compentent Things Come to Those Who Wait

I bet you opened up this envelope just before or after New Year’s Eve. And you’re probably thinking, “What the heck took so long? Did you get the flu again?” No, no flu this time. But I did come with a multiple choice list of ready-made excuses:

a) I threw out my back singing Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You” bunch of hot drunk chicks.

b) It took three weeks for me to realize I wasn’t a member of the Writer’s Guild of America East and that striking against Steve Reynolds was kind of idiotic.

c) My 16 year old sister got pregnant and it caused a nationwide controversy.

d) First I had to finish writing this long overdue term paper called the Mitchell Report.

The real answer? I got tired of missing things that happened in December. Invariably some compilation would be released, some film would come out or I’d go to a Figgs Christmas show—and immediately regret not having that event or album on the list. When the Figgs announced three nights of shows in New York December 14th through the 16th, I realized that I need to push back my own deadline.

Now the Top 20 deadline hasn’t always been right before Christmas. The second list I did I sent out in mid-January 1992. And the 13th edition some people didn’t see until just before February because of that dreaded flu and writers block. At first this list was my cheap way of doing a Christmas card, so it needed to go out by December 15th. Then when I moved to New York and made friends in the record industry I needed to ship copies out even earlier because record companies closed up shop the last two weeks of the year. Now that the record industry barely exists and I don’t giving a flying fuck about December 25th because the tourist season has made me one jaded bastard, I have no reason to get this out until the very end of the year. So I set my deadline to get it all done for December 22nd, which is the day after my Top 10 albums and singles were due in to both the Village Voice and Idolator critics’ polls.

There’s something else I considered with this list—doing it online only. It would save a whole shitload of time copying, doing layout, labeling, sealing envelopes. And that’s not counting the numerous paper cuts on my fingers and all the trees and staple plants I’ve killed the past 18 years. I thought about either making it a downloadable PDF or just posting it straight to the Top 20 blog (home of the trademark pending Song of the Week). Once I finished writing the list I could have been done with it for the year just an hour or so later. In the end I decided against it—for this year.

So what I’m looking for is a little feedback. Email me at Figgsrock2@aol.com and let me know—do you prefer paper, or would you like for the Reynolds Top 20 list to go ahead into the 21st century?

Speaking of the 21st century, I did decide to cook up a podcast for this year’s list. Starting December 31st you’ll be able to download me talking about this year’s music and playing some of the best tracks at the Reynolds Archives. It won’t be as slick as the 15th Anniversary Special, but it will still feature my hungover soaked pipes.

2007: The Year Where Idiocracy Got Its Start

About a month ago I stumbled upon a film called Idiocracy on one of the 67 HBO channels I get through digital cable. It’s a Mike Judge film that barely got released but found some second life on DVD (sound familiar?) and now has a tiny cult following. Luke Wilson plays an average guy who takes part in an army experiment only to wake up 500 years later to discover he’s the smartest person on Earth. Judge’s vision of a truly stupid society is one of the funniest things I saw on the small screen all year. Imagine Planet of the Apes played for laughs and satire, but it’s just a planet of stupid humans. The second time I saw the film I laughed just as hard until a disturbing thought raced across the neurons in my brain:

This could actually happen.

Seriously, this may have been one of the stupidest years of all time. Look at this list of seriously dumb things people reported and talked about in 2007: Paris Hilton went to jail, yet Phil Spector didn’t; baseball players got raked over the coals for steroid use, yet the press barely yawned when plenty of football players got caught; Britney Spears shaving her head is worldwide news, yet Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize for trying to save the planet doesn’t even get a mention in the New York tabloids. I’m not absolving myself from this—I wrote more about stupid things bands did than ever before because that’s what radio stations like to talk about. I started asking questions of bands hoping to get them to say stupid things. And anyone who’s ever been in my office for more than 30 minutes would know we are a bastion, a castle, nay, a secret bunker of all things stupid.

There’s a lot of money to be made in smart people playing dumb. Look at the recent film careers of Vince Vaughn, Will Farrell, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and writer/producer Judd Apatow. These guys have made millions playing (or writing) characters that are likeable yet not that bright. The biggest selling rock album of the year came from a band led by a fourth place finisher on American Idol. And lesser “reality” TV programs (ratings-wise I mean) show plenty of people who are stupid, yet smart enough to scheme their way into 10 minutes of fame. (Andy Warhol would probably shorten his estimate down if he were alive today. He’d also be scratching at the inside of his coffin.) The question is this—when doing we stop pretending that we’re being dumb and actually become dumb?

I don’t know, it’s probably all Bush’s fault. Or maybe Chaney’s. And I’m sure Karl Rove had all the water the U.S. spiked with some stupefying drug.

Fortunately not all music was stupid this year. There are quite a few songwriters in the following pages who wrote smart, literate tunes that also happened to be very pleasing to the ear. Okkervil River’s Will Sheff explored the life of a rock and roll band and the connection to their fans and popular culture with a set of very cinematic songs. Bruce Springsteen once again wrote about average Americans and their everyday battles, disguising his political bent in a bunch of big hooks. Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy yearned for a simpler time and wrote tales of acceptance and hope. All three of these guys didn’t make me feel dumb when I listened to their works of art in 2007.

There were some artists who surprised me by releasing some incredibly bad albums. We’re not talking someone you’d expect to be bad (like Fergie or Nickelback). These are artists whose last albums I really enjoyed and couldn’t wait for the follow-up. The main offender was Rilo Kiley. Their Under the Blacklight has made plenty of critics’ year end lists—and these people are all fucking morons. When I took the CD out of the drive after playing it, I swear my computer made a sound like it had just thrown up in its hard drive just a little bit. Under the Blacklight reeks of contractual obligation—the songs sound half baked, the only halfway decent track is a rip-off of George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord,” which in itself a rip-off, and frontwoman Jenny Lewis somehow decided that the way to commercial success was wearing shorter skirts and hot pants and singing about sleazy sex and break ups. Ugh. Honestly, it was the most heartbreaking album of the year.

Australian teen punker-turned mid 20s poppy songwriter Ben Lee had a decent sized breakthrough in the U.S. two years ago with Awake is the New Sleep. Lee crafted a batch of smart and humorous pop songs for that disc. The title of his new album, Ripe, was more than appropriate as it stank. Every song screamed, “I want to be on Top 40 radio!!!!” Well, except for “American Television,” which screamed “I am very similar to that John Mellencamp song you hate from those Chevy ads so you’ll be able to sing along by the second time the chorus rolls around!!!”

I suppose I should write something about Radiohead’s idea to let fans name their own price for a download of their latest album In Rainbows since every other critic has chimed in. Let’s see, I paid exactly the same price as I have for every other Radiohead album (zero dollars) and for the first time I felt like I wanted my money back.

I also wanted to mention another disturbing trend happening in what’s left of the music industry—the extra or bonus track. Labels have been trying to double milk consumers by repackaging albums a few months after their original release with deluxe editions that have a few added songs or videos. To quote John Wayne, “it’s getting to be re-goddamned-diculous.” It makes the artist look like a money-grabbing prick to their fans, and those fans feel like suckers for buying the original album in the first place. The worst example of this took place in early November when the Eagles, with their lovely partners Wal-FuckOverYourWorkers-Mart, released a special edition of the album Long Road Out of Eden one week after its initial release.

One week. I think someone needs to re-record “Don Henley Must Die,” stat.

One more thing about this proliferation of bonus tracks—some of the extras (especially iTunes bonus tracks) are better than the songs on the original album. My favorite song on The Shins’ Winching the Night Away isn’t actually on the album—“Nothing at All” was available only if you pre-ordered the download through iTunes. Okkervil River’s The Stage Names had different bonus tracks for iTunes and eMusic, and both are just as good as if not better than the nine tracks on the disc you’d buy in stores. The same could also be said for the Bright Eyes song “Susan Miller Rag” on the iTunes version of Cassadaga. I’ve always been a sucker for B-sides and I dig that these songs are such high quality. But holy crap, I’m getting tired trying to track down which places have the most extras.

And don’t get me started on how Neil Young had six different bonus tracks for six different retailers with Chrome Dreams II.

Fuck.

All in all, 2007 gets a B grade, stupidity included. I saw a bunch of great shows. I got my favorite band in the world to play at my favorite bar. I played songs I co-wrote on stage in front of people I knew and didn’t know. One of those songs went over so well that someone (not me, mind you) blogged about it. I sang Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days” on my birthday with my band. I sang Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” with my band in Asbury Park, New Jersey. I danced my ass off at a couple of parties and didn’t care who saw me. I sang Justin Timberlake’s “Rock Your Body” in a Santa Claus suit. The Red Sox won the World Series. Roger Clemens was proven, once again, to be the world’s biggest scumbag.

And most importantly, Natalie Portman and Marisa Tomei both got naked in films. When that happens, a year like that can’t be all bad.

2007's Top 20 Albums

20) Jesca Hoop - Kismet (3Entertainment/Red Ink/Columbia) The first time I heard a Jesca Hoop song it was preceded by this introduction: “She used to be Tom Waits’ nanny, and now she has a major record label deal.” That was one of the most mind-blowing sentences I heard all year. I actually sat up from my bed (it was one of those periods where I wake up in the middle of the night every night) and cocked my ear towards my speakers, as if I expected them to say, “Ha, just joking Steve!” Taking care of Tom Waits’ kids gets you a recording budget? What’s next, Randy Newman’s housekeeper being a judge on American Idol? That first track I did hear was the gloriously overdubbed with multitudes of Hoop’s vocals “Summertime.” Her harmonies upon harmonies weren’t anything I would associate with the man who sang “The Piano Has Been Drinking.” So I’m glad I listened to this album all the way through. The rest of Kismet is filled with the twists and turns that Waits has made a career staple. “Silverscreen” sounds like Hoop stole one of Waits’ old backing tracks and laid her vocal over it. That’s not to say it’s a total Waits imitation. The way “Seed of Wonder” moves from hip-hop to Native American chants and beats sounds completely natural. Its speaks well to the diversity of these songs that she can have Police drummer Stewart Copeland guest on one song and Incubus drummer Jose Pasillas on the next. Since I spoke about Mr. Waits so much in this paragraph I think it’s only fitting I let him have the last line, as cribbed from the sticker they included with my copy of Kismet: “Her music is like going swimming in a lake at night.” Best Tracks: “Money,” “Enemy,” “Seed of Wonder”

19) The Mooney Suzuki - Have Mercy (Elixia)
The last time I heard the Mooney Suzuki was a few years ago when I played “Electric Sweat” during a DJ gig. That song, the title track to their 2002 album, was a smoking bit of garage rock perfect for mix tapes. I never heard their next album Alive and Amplified, but from all accounts their decision to slicken things up with the Avril Lavigne hit-making team The Matrix was very, very bad idea. One could call Have Mercy a return to form, but is it a return when the band sounds nothing like its previous two albums? Have Mercy a truly enjoyable good old fashioned rock record, yet it is miles away from the Electric Sweat days. These songs are mostly acoustic guitar based tracks that hearken back to '70s power pop (“First Comes Love,” “Rock n’ Roller Girl”), late ’60s Rolling Stones (“99%”) and, um, Urge Overkill (“Adam and Eve”). The second half of the album gets even better with a trio of fine mellow tunes. “Good Ol’ Alcohol” sounds like a song written in pre-Prohibition times with its’ tuba and gang lead vocal, “The Prime of Life” is a ballad rooted in ’50s rock and “Down But Not Out” could have been a Faces outtake. These could have been one of the best closing triads on an album this year, but then band had to go and tack on two extra songs recorded after the Have Mercy sessions to make up for the fact the disc leaked last year after their label V2 went under. (What did I tell ya about those extra tracks?) Best Tracks: “Down But Not Out,” “Alcohol,” “Rock n’ Roller Girl”

18) Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond (Fat Possum)
Steve’s Indie Rock Credibility Damaging Statement # 46: I hate to say it, but I didn’t like Dinosaur Jr. until after Lou Barlow split (or rather moped away from) the band. When the original trio of Barlow, drummer Murph and singer-guitarist J. Mascis got back together in 2005 for a tour I didn’t even think about trying to catch them because the band was only doing material from the Barlow era. I enjoyed Dinosaur Jr. when Mascis took over every aspect of the band and made the slicker sounding major label albums Green Mind and Where You Been virtually by himself. So imagine my surprise when Beyond came across like missing link between their first three albums and Green Mind. It’s still got the massive amount of overdubbed guitars and lengthy solos that marked Dinosaur Jr. when it was just the Mascis show, yet it retains the harder edge of their earlier material. It’s quite simply a stunning return to form for a songwriter and guitarist I had given up on over a decade ago. And shockingly one of the Barlow songs (“Back to Your Heart”) is one of my favorite tracks. I guess now I have a reason to get off my ass and see them at some point before Mascis mumbles Barlow out of the band again. Best Tracks: “Almost Ready,” “Back to Your Heart,” This Is All I Came to Do”

17) Son Volt - The Search (Transmit Sound/Legacy)
The creative rebirth of Jay Farrar and Son Volt continues full speed ahead on The Search. Like its predecessor Okemah and the Melody of Riot, Farrar is still pissed off at our current administration. “The Picture” is about as direct a song Farrar has ever written: “Flotsam and jetsam in charge of the agency/Where truth gets twisted in danger of dissolving/When war is profit and profit is war.” Almost every song is populated with lyrics that ponder our country’s fate over the past seven years and what’s happening to the average American. Farrar’s newfound political lyric book probably would have fallen flat if he stuck to the same musical palate as the band’s original lineup. This new band knows how to shake things up a bit. The rhythm section of Andrew DuPlantis and Dave Bryson make a couple of these songs (“Circadian Rhythm,” “Beacon Soul”) almost swing in parts, while keyboardist Derry DeBorja is all over the place adding touches that flash out the picture Farrar is trying to create. I’m optimistic about the future of this band, as Farrar seems to have found a perfect cast of musicians who can take his restlessness about America and put it into musical terms. As Farrar sings in the title track, “it’s the search not the find” that drives him. Best Tracks: “The Search,” “Methamphetamine,” “The Picture”

16) Mike Viola - Lurch (Good Morning Monkey Records)
This latest solo pop gem from the esteemed Candy Butchers leader makes me very happy I pushed back my usual publication date this year. If I hadn’t I never would have gotten a chance to experience this batch of hook-filled tunes. Viola always had the knack for writing big hooks and a melody that was hummable after just one spin. This time around the hooks sunk into my head so quickly that I found myself listened to some tracks (“Girly Worm,” “The Strawberry Blonde”) one time through, pausing my iPod, and starting it over again because I needed to hear it again. As I write this piece I’ve only had Lurch for six days—and I’ve listened to it every one of those days. Viola and producer/drummer Ducky Carlisle have created a truly intriguing sound. These songs have a pop gloss all over them (those amazing stacked harmonies provided by Viola along with The Gravel Pit’s Jed Parish, The Figgs’ Mike Gent and Pete Donnelly and Candy Butchers drummer Todd Foulshom) yet it’s still rough in all the right places. To these ears it evokes that great homemade sound of Paul McCartney’s one man band albums. If I finished this list after New Year’s Day, Lurch might lurch its way into the Top 10 next the Beatle I just namechecked. Best Tracks: “So Much Better,” “It Comes in Waves,” “The Strawberry Blonde”

15) Graham Parker - Don’t Tell Columbus (Bloodshot)
The 21st century has been very good to the creative well of Graham Parker. His previous three studio albums—2001’s Deepcut to Nowhere, 2004’s Your Country and 2005’s Songs of No Consequence—stack up comparably with any of his classic albums released in the mid-to-late ’70s. That creative streak continues of Don’t Tell Columbus. This album leaves the driving rock sound of Songs of No Consequence behind to focus on more mid-tempo works where the listener’s attention is pointed squarely at Parker’s always interesting words. Oh, those words can be rather pointed when Parker set dead aim at a target. “Stick to the Plan” just eviscerates the Bush administration on their dealings with New Orleans and Iraq, their religious zealotry and their “my way or the highway” of doing things—and tops it off with a jaunty kazoo solo. It’s easily the funniest (and perhaps smartest) song I have heard inspired by the incompetence in the Oval Office. (One can only hope that Parker’s U.S. residency doesn’t suddenly get revoked.) Parker also takes pot shots at his home country, slamming both musician/fuck-up Pete Doherty for his laundry list of fuck-ups and the English tabloids for propagating the breathless coverage of such stupidity. Amongst all this Parker found time to write one his best songs of the past 30 years. Don’t Tell Columbus draws its title from “I Discovered America,” in which Parker tells the tale of coming to the U.S. looking for success and finding himself love. This line in the first bridge always makes me smile—“Well I knew one day she’d let me in/I knew I’d get the girl/And live in a town called/Veteran pork capitol of the world.” Huh, I never knew that anyone even sold pork in Parker’s adopted hometown of Woodstock. Who knew all those old hippies liked their BBQ? Best Tracks: “I Discovered America,” “Total Eclipse of the Moon,” “Stick to the Plan”

14) PJ Harvey - White Chalk (Island/IDJMG)
Warning: do not put this latest album from PJ Harvey on at a party, a bar at 4 a.m., while you’re driving a dangerous piece of machinery (like a backhoe) or for a roomful of suicidal mental patients. Trust me, it would not end well. The most important female artist of the past 15 years strikes again with another shift in tactics. This time Polly Jean decided to sing in the highest register of her voice, making it sound thin, breathy and most of the time very disturbing. Now I’m not trying to persuade you to NOT listen to White Chalk—it’s another miraculous entry in Harvey’s stellar catalog. It’s just that all of these low key mostly piano-based songs are quite dark. Very dark. They could be the darkest and bleakest songs she’s written yet, and that’s saying something for a woman who’s penned songs about drowning a daughter and chopping up a significant other. Even with the creepiness that inhabits all of these songs, they get stuck in your brain. The first time I heard White Chalk was when one of my co-workers played it at his desk. By the time it was done I couldn’t stop thinking about “When Under Ether.” It’s kind of hard to work when the melody from a brutal song about someone undergoing an abortion gets stuck in your heard for a couple of hours. Best Tracks: “When Under Ether,” “Grow Grow Grow,” ”Broken Harp”

13) Josh Rouse - Country Mouse, City House (Bedroom Classics)
Yawn—another year, another great album from Josh Rouse. He’s found a groove (quite literally in the case of “Hollywood Bass Player”) in exploring the ’70s singer-songwriter template. Whether penning a song about his own life (“Sweetie”) or exploring other characters he observes, Rouse writes interesting little short stories that happen to make you bob your head up and down. The storytelling aspect of his songwriting—both fact and fiction—came into focus this past fall when I saw Rouse and author Nick Hornby take part in a reading/performance at a Barnes & Noble in Manhattan. Rouse performed “Domesticated Lovers” with his girlfriend Paz Suay providing some very sweet backing vocals. Rouse explained how the song had sprung from watching two people eat dinner and not say a single word to each another. A few days later I was in upstate New York visiting my aunt. We stopped at a Friendly’s restaurant (my upstate and New England peeps will know what I’m talking about) in suburban hell just south of Albany. My aunt picked out a couple, one of whom she used to work with at her hospital. She whispered across our table (in the way that older folks do when they have something bad to say about someone else), “They’ve been eating without saying a word for the entire time.” I slowly turned and glanced at the couple, and in that moment I could see exactly who Rouse was writing about. Best Tracks: “Hollywood Bass Player,” “Nice to Fit In,” “Sweetie”

12) The Shins - Wincing the Night Away (Sub Pop)
Five years ago I started a new tradition to make doing the Top 20 just a bit easier. The first day of work in January I created a new document, labeled it “2002 Stuff” and saved it to my desktop. This way I figured I would always have a handy place to write down albums and single that caught my ear throughout the year. There were many times over the previous years I would forget albums that were released in January by the time October rolled around. The “2007 Stuff” list I started before the 2006 Top 20 was finished. At that point I’d already spent a couple of months listening to an advance of Wincing the Night Away. It didn’t change my life like Natalie Portman’s character said the band would in Garden State (actually, that short film with Natalie Portman naked in it changed my life more than the Shins, but that’s a topic for another day). I did find myself with a bunch of cool songs running around my head—which I promptly forgot by April of this year. By the time this list reaches its 20 year anniversary, I’ll forget what I’m writing about when I get down to this far in a paragraph. Pork chops, paper towels, chili, two cans of soup…crap, that’s my shopping list. I’m already losing my short-term musical memory. Where was I? Right, The Shins. To me, the words are completely secondary with every Shins album. The melodies are the crucial part and what gets stuck in my head. To prove my point I just looked up the first verse of “Phantom Limb” and I had no idea it mentioned one of my favorite pork products: “Frozen into coats/White girls of the North/Fire past one, fire the one/They are the fabled lambs/A Sunday ham/The ancient snow.” Mmm…ham. Best Tracks: “Australia,” “Phantom Limb,” Turn on Me”

11) Buffalo Tom - Three Easy Pieces (Ammal/New West)
After nine years between albums I couldn’t wait to welcome back one of Boston’s best bands back into my CD player. Three Easy Pieces was definitely worth the wait. It’s got all the elements I expect for the trio—great ballads (“You’ll Never Catch Him”) and fist pumping rockers (“Bottom of the Rain”) delivered in a passionate voice from singer-guitarist Bill Janovitz, with a couple of lyrically interesting tunes sung by bassist Chris Colburn. The time away seems to have sharpened Janovitz’s lyrical skills, and his two songs sung from the perspective of a female (“You’ll Never Catch Him” and “Good Girl”) carry empathy for their subjects that most male writers could never capture. Even with all of that positive ink spilled, I’ve got a bit of a hang-up about Three Easy Pieces. Who sequenced this sucker? The best songs on the album—“September Shirt” and “CC and Callas”—are tucked away at the very end of the disc, while the two weakest tracks—“Bad Phone Call” and the title track—are the one-two opening punch. I found myself not wanting to listen to this album because I was so down on those songs. Fortunately the two great BT shows I saw this year made me dive back into Three Easy Pieces again and again. And as much as I hate to admit it, I would always skip those first two tracks and pretend it was an 11 track album. Best Tracks: “September Shirt,” “CC and Callas,” “You’ll Never Catch Him”

10) Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger (Lost Highway)
I’ve wondered what would happen if Ryan Adams decided to actually focus on making one good album in a year. Not three in a year, not releasing one and scrapping five others, not going crazy and yelling at hecklers and rock critics. What would happened if he was to use his obvious abundance of talent and just focused on a set of high quality songs, get a group of great musicians to play them and sing them for all he’s worth. Dear reader, I believe Easy Tiger is the byproduct of such an experiment. Adams cleaned up while making this album, kept the same touring lineup of his backing band The Cardinals together for more than a few weeks and handed the producing reins over to Jamie Candiloro (who engineered Adams’ Rock N Roll album and much of R.E.M.’s post-Bill Berry catalog) and wrote a bushel of great songs with members of the Cardinals. Sure it’s slick sounding, but songs this catchy and concise deserve a bright shiny package. Hell, Easy Tiger could just consist of album opener “Goodnight Rose” and 12 tracks of silence and it would still make it into the Top 20. “Rose” might be my favorite song Adams has written since Whiskeytown was still a band and not just a place I wanted to visit late at night. Best Tracks: “Goodnight Rose,” “Halloween Head,” “Tears of Gold”

9) Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter (Victor/Sony/BMG)
I interviewed Josh Ritter last year for his album The Animal Years. The album, was, well, deadly dull and depressing. It was full about songs about war and how crappy life can be. Normally I’m down for a full dose of in your face depression. But having to listen to that album was a real chore. I found myself longing for a third rate grunge band I could interview. So who could have predicted that that the same guy from Idaho could make an album that’s such a joyful listen. Starting with its cheeky title, The Historical Conquests of… is crackling with energy, wit, infectious music and choruses and some rocking performances by Ritter’s band. The lyrics come fast and furious in songs like “Right Moves” and “Real Long Distance,” echoing early Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan at his ’60s peak. Ritter’s more subdued acoustic side still shows up on tracks like “Heart Still Beating” and “Wait for Love.” But he seems to be having too much fun to stay contemplative for too long. Heck, Ritter even reprises “Wait for Love” at album’s end as a singalong with his band as they happily clank percussion (and maybe a trash car at one point) as the track fades. Ritter’s greatest conquest? Perhaps it was beating his own reservations of having fun with his own music. Best Tracks: “Right Moves,” “To the Dogs or Whoever,” “Real Long Distance”

8) Paul McCartney - Memory Almost Full (Hear Music)
Yup, Paul McCartney in the Top 10. A man, pardon me, a Beatle who hasn't released a single song in the past decade that I've given more than a couple of cursory listens. Yes, he’s that guy who wrote perhaps the worst non-country post-9/11 song, the hackneyed “Freedom.” A guy who with every interview he gives sounds bored by hearing himself speak. With all of this against him, McCartney somehow released his finest album in 25 years. (Yeah, I’m still a sucker for Tug of War). Memory Almost Full sounds like McCartney wanted to make an album made for the iPod that sampled his entire solo career. I've listened to it through regular speakers and it just doesn't have the same impact. But my oh my, it’s an incredibly addictive pop gem when I'm riding on the F train with the headphones cranked. Some songs remind me of the 1980 quirky entirely DIY work McCartney II, others of the great Wings single “Junior’s Farm” and at other moments XTC and (I swear) Guided by Voices. Could his ugly divorce have inspired him to actually focus on his incredible songwriting craftsmanship? Maybe he finally cut down on the legendary amounts of pot he’s reported to have smoked over the years. (Quick thought: wouldn’t the guy who scores McCartney’s pot have access to the best herb in the world?) Maybe when he signed with Starbucks they gave him a lifetime supple of chai tea? Who knows. Whatever he did, it’s nothing short of miraculous. Best Tracks: “Dance Tonight,” “The End of the End,” “Mr. Bellamy”

7) Bright Eyes - Cassadaga (Saddle Creek)
As I was listening to this latest effort from Conor Oberst and company to prep for this year’s list I decided to do a little research. I’ve dug through some reviews and fan comments about Cassadaga and it seems the biggest complaint is that he stopped writing about himself, which has weakened the power of his songs. I’m here to say that’s as much crap as watch two girls and one cup. I think Oberst has gained great depth in his songwriting as he’s started to look more and more at the world around him. And with a larger lyrical worldview, the sound of Bright Eyes is has gotten bigger as well. Cassadaga is the most produced album in the Bright Eyes catalog, with strings, horns, loads of guitar overdubs and multiple background vocalists fleshing out the alt-country direction Oberst embraced on 2005’s most excellent I’m Wide Awake Its Morning. And the guy seems to have reigned in his tendencies to scream when he wants to evoke powerful emotions. All of this is blasphemy to old school Bright Eyes fans. I’ve got a message for those folks—get over it. Bands and songwriters change over time (unless they’re AC/DC) just like every other person on the planet. Change is an essential part of life and the creative arts. So these folks should just appreciate the path the Oberst is leading them down right now, and be happy when he busts out an old song once in a while at a show. (Wow that was a wee bit angry. Guess I should stay off message boards for a while.) Best Tracks: “Four Winds,” “Soul Singer in a Session Band,” “Classic Cars”

6) Peter Bjorn & John - Writer’s Block (Almost Gold Recordings)
I need to give thanks and mad props to my friend Bill Pearis and his blog Sound Bites for my PBJ fandom. I had heard “Young Folks” a couple of times at the beginning of the year and dismissed it as nothing more than novelty track. “All that whistling? Come on, give me a break,” I thought. Then I read Bill’s extensive accounts of the band’s first U.S. shows. I highly respect Bill’s musical opinion, so after a couple of email exchanges with him I decided to give the Swedish trio another shot. And wouldn’t you know that Bill was right. Peter Morén, Björn Yttling and John Eriksson craft incredibly catchy tunes that are all about the ups and down of romance. Most of these songs would have sounded fine with the standard guitar-bass-drums backing, but with each track they seem to find a perfect arrangement that adds another hook. The steel drums on “Let's Call It Off,” the shh-shh-shh percussion and fast paced drum machine on “The Chills” and the tubular bells of “Roll the Credits” each add another level to all of these tracks. I will admit I found myself skipping “Young Folks” by the time September rolled around, so I hope the Levi’s ad that uses “Up Against the Wall” will disappear from every sporting event soon. Best Tracks: “Let’s Call It Off,” “Amsterdam, “Roll the Credits”

5) Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge)
With each album Spoon singer-guitarist Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno keep paring down Daniel’s compositions to their bare essentials. Just like Gimme Fiction, there is not a single wasted note in any of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga’s arrangements. Each tambourine shake, perfectly recorded handclap, ominous piano chord, distorted guitar lick and idle moment of studio chatter (Daniel talking to Eno at the beginning of “Don’t You Evah” is essential to that song to these ears) is placed in the exact right spot. It’s remarkable that this band has used one sonic template over the past four albums, yet it hasn’t gotten old. The biggest sonic change is the use of horns on “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb” and the unlikely semi-hit “The Underdog,” and even those departures mesh perfectly with the band’s constant approach. One thing that Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga has over its predecessor is a stronger lineup of songs from start to finish. Gimme Fiction started running out of steam during the last three tracks, while this album closes on one of its strongest “Black Like Me.” As long as Spoon keeps making high quality albums like this, they can name every other album they record after more nonsensical baby talk. I nominate Da Da Pee Pee for the disc that’s bound to come out in 2009. Best Tracks: “Rhthm and Soul,” “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb,” “Black Like Me”

4) Okkervil River - The Stage Names (Jagjaguwar)
I first discovered Austin’s Okkervil River last year under a blistering late afternoon sun at the Austin City Limits Festival. My friend Stacy suggested we stop and catch some of their set after Gnarls Barkley and the 20 or so minutes we got to witness were really good. Or at least they seemed good. At one point I thought I might pass out from the heat, so I might have misjudged their quality. Frontman Will Sheff—another vocalist I like who has an either love it or hate it voice—has crafted a loose concept album about the life of “midlevel rock band” as he sings in “Unless It’s Kicks.” Sheff’s lyrics tells multitude of stories covering both sides of the rock equation—the musician whose passion has lead him to a lonely life (“Savannah Smiles”) and the fan whose passion inspires and confounds that same musician. Sheff’s wordplay is dense and takes numerous listens to capture every offhanded reference or comment. The perfect example of this is “Plus Ones.” On the surface it seems like a typical picking apart of a failed relationship. Then one look at a lyric sheet shows just how incredible this song is:

“You would probably die before you shot up 9 miles high
Your eyes dilated as light plays upon the sight
Of TVC16 as it sings you goodnight.
Relaxed as hell and locked up in cell 45,
I hope you're feeling better.

The 51st way to leave your lover, admittedly,
doesn't seem to be as gentle or as clean as all the others,
leaving its scars all in the after hours of some Greenpoint bar”

And that’s just a small sample of song filled with great pokes at numbers throughout rock history. In any other year, this could have been my number-one album. And who knows—by this time next year I might still be discovering new lyrical highlights that will make me think I should have put this album up a couple of notches. Best Tracks: “Plus Ones,” “Unless Its Kicks,” “Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe”

3) LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver (Capitol/DFA)
I read a review of Sound of Silver online a few months ago that said it was “about as close to a perfect hybrid of what makes both dance and rock music great.” I don’t think I could come up with more apt description. Well, except maybe “It’s a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of dance and rock.” Nah, that doesn’t work, it just makes me hungry while I type. Don’t get me wrong, Sound of Silver rocks. It just rocks while using the atypical drum programs and synth parts and it does that much more successfully than Trent Reznor ever did. It’s an album that makes me want to get up and dance—and that’s not a statement to be taken lightly. In the past two years I’ve actually danced in public a few times and onlookers have somehow survived. My attitude about the whole “getting on a dance floor and making a fool of myself” has definitely changed. It’s evolved from my own parody of dancing to an “I know I suck but I’m having fun even though my heel spurs hurts” kind of thing. And if I saw a bunch of people dancing to LCD Soundsytem (and it wasn’t outside in the Texas heat) I would totally join them. LCD mastermind James Murphy is the same age as me and has a background of playing in punk rock bands. So I can see why I could understand and get his twisted take on dance music. All of that being said, the best Sound of Silver track is the most straightforward rock song of the bunch, “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down.” A slow building piano-based track, “New York” crystallizes a lot of the problems I have with my adopted hometown. For example: “New York, you're safer/And you're wasting my time/Our records all show/You are filthy but fine/But they shuttered your stores/When you opened the doors/To the cops who were bored/Once they'd run out of crime.” Yet like Murphy, I can’t stop loving New York. And I can’t imagine not wanting to dance to Sound of Silver. Best Tracks: “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down,” “North American Scum,” “All My Friends”

2) Bruce Springsteen - Magic (Columbia)
I knew there was something different about this Bruce Springsteen album when two people I know who aren’t normally fans asked me, “Hey, how’s that new Springsteen album? I kind like that single.” And when one of my co-workers, who hasn’t like Springsteen since Kitty was back in town, actually dug a few songs and gave it an overall positive review in a well known music magazine I was convinced something was afoot. At first I wasn’t sure I liked Magic. Brendan O’Brien’s muddled production (the term sonic sludge applies to the solo in “Radio Nowhere”) robbed the E Street Band of its muscular power on many of the tracks. And Springsteen’s crooner voice on “Girls in their Summer Clothes” made me cringe upon the first couple of spins. Then I started digging deeper into the album and could understand why people outside the usual Bruce cult might enjoy it—Magic is Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. for the 21st century. The parallels between the two are pretty obvious after a while. Each has a subtle message about the state of our country. Each was launched into the public eye by a track that didn’t sound like anything else in The Boss’s catalog, yet they’re unmistakably Springsteen songs. "Long Walk Home" seems to be a young cousin to "My Hometown," with its similar description of a small town with its closed diners. (Except the one in “Long Walk Home” has flags flying at half mast over a courthouse, for reasons we’re all too readily aware of.) Even the bridge in “Livin’ in the Future” seems cribbed from Born in the U.S.A.’s “Cover Me.” Springsteen has stated in interviews he wanted to make an album with hooks, and he most certainly did that. It just so happens that along the way he made his best album in 20 years. Best Tracks: “Long Walk Home,” “Radio Nowhere,” “Terry’s Song”

1) Wilco - Sky Blue Sky (Nonesuch)
After all the changes that have taken place in Wilco the past seven years, it’s nice to see Wilco finally land on some stable ground. The quiet confidence that frontman Jeff Tweedy has in this current lineup has rewarded us with one of the finest albums in their career. This post-rehab Tweedy has written his most direct and honest songs ever, and the rest of the sextet have created sympathetic arrangements that make those simple words and phrases shine. Alas, it seems most folks (a.k.a, the ones who bent over backwards for the experimental-leaning Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born) don't understand the open and tenderly optimistic vibe this album strives for. Oh well, it’s their loss. The opening lines to “What Light,” the lead track of the album, seem to sum up Sky Blue Sky’s mission statement: “Maybe the sun will shine today/The clouds will blow away/Maybe I won't feel so afraid/I will try to understand either way.” After making a couple of records that reflected their times (claustrophobic, paranoid and unrelenting in their darkness), perhaps Tweedy realized that everyone—himself included—could use a little bit of light and hope. Sky Blue Sky is another low-key achievement in a career filled with them. Let’s hope Tweedy and company will explore this path further. Best Tracks: “Either Way,” “Side With the Seeds,” “What Light”