An unlikely good year in music

posted by Jeff | Friday, January 22, 2010, 7:55 PM | comments: 0

When I was thinking about the last year, I neglected to talk much about what it meant as far as music. I think the reason for that is that there wasn't a lot of volume in terms of musical awesomeness. For me at least, what the year lacked in quantity was made up for in quality.

The year started off exceptionally well with Schuyler Fisk. After knowing her only as half of the duet who did "Paperweight" on The Last Kiss soundtrack years before that (and the girlfriend in the movie Orange County), just by some chance we learned that she was coming to town. In the space of a week, we got tickets, bought her album and saw her perform a day later. The Good Stuff is appropriately titled. I'm honestly not sure how she's not fantastically rich by now, other than the fact that she's worked outside the record industry to get her record out. She's lyrically wise and vulnerable, can rock out on the guitar and you can't stop hearing her songs in your head. Oh, and she's so fucking charming in real life. I hope she's wildly successful.

Juliana Hatfield put out a new album late in 2008 called How To Walk Away, and it's the first one I've bought from her since 1993 or something. It's a little dark, but I dig it. It worked well with the Cleveland weather melancholy. Weezer had the red album about the same time, which I really enjoyed. U2's No Line On The Horizon was not a stand out for them, but had a couple of songs that definitely add to their amazing history.

Schuyler really carried us into spring, making great background and history with our wedding and honeymoon. But if I had to designate a summer album, tied to Cedar Point trips, bike rides and sunny afternoons on the deck, that has to be 311's Uplifter. The weird thing about 311 is that their sound has obvious influences, yet no one sounds like them. You never think they have any remarkable musicians in the band (or even good singers), but the songs are catchy. I personally never found anything that interesting about 311 beyond "Do You Right" as a single, and that was a billion years ago. But this album only has one track I could do without ("Jackpot"), and the rest is solid to above average. "Sun Come Through" on the Amazon version worked its way into my list of all-time favorite songs. It's got that great story about finding your way in life, great changes and a guitar piece in the bridge that reminds of some of the better 80's solos. I love that song.

Then there was nothing that caught my ear until Imogen Heap released Ellipse in August. We sure had a long time to wait for this album, but it was worth it. It has the dark kind of stuff you'd expect from her like "Canvas," more upbeat stuff like "First Train Home" and sonic assaults like "Tidal" and "Aha!" (the latter of which sounds like she got knocked up by Danny Elfman or something). I hate "Half Life" because of its pathetic codependent theme, but other than that, this was the fall album.

Venus Hum marked the beginning of the moving era with Mechanics & Mathematics, and it's probably their best album so far (though the Songs For Superheroes EP was a lot of concentrated goodness). The title track is some outstanding ass-shaking goodness, as is "Get Out Of The Way!"

Beyond that, there weren't a lot of stand-outs, but these records absolutely were killer. Just as the year ended, I got new stuff from 30 Seconds to Mars, which I'm getting more into, and the new Weezer album is just completely outstanding. Still, I hope there's more to hear this year, because all these changes need a soundtrack.


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