Best Albums of 2009: 11-20

Posted on December 15, 2009 by Jason

Every December, I compile my list of the best albums from the previous year. (I know. I. Am. A. Dork.) The rules are simple: these are albums that were released THIS YEAR. Thanks to the glory of eMusic, I’ve been able to stock up my catalog of older releases that I’d never purchased (like some of Springsteen’s earlier work, etc.), but I also came across a TON of new music this year for relatively cheap. (Thanks to special offers and free downloads, I was able to get most of these albums for about .10 cents per song. Awesome.)

Anyway, this year I’ve expanded my album list to 20. Truthfully, there were several other albums by some of my favorite artists (Michael McDermott, David Gray) that narrowly missed the cut. I’ll post my Top Ten tomorrow; until then, here are #s 11-20.

20. Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come

Dark, reflective, poignant. Such is the tone of this collection of songs based on verses from the Bible. The Scriptures are used mainly as jumping off points for John Darnielle’s meandering lyricism. Death, murder, life, estrangement; these universal themes are pondered in light of the language of Scripture. Best of all: this album made me get out my Bible to see how these lyrics parallel Scripture. Download this: “Genesis 3.23”, “Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace”.

19. Ben Kweller – Changing Horses

Kweller has indeed changed horses with his latest album, a pedal steel drenched ode to alt-country Americana. While his earlier material exudes mainstream goofy white boy indie-pop sensibilities (pianos, guitars, synthesizers, drums lite, emo lyrics), Changing Horses delves into the country / western genre and the results are pretty surprising. When I first heard Kweller was going country with this album, I wondered if it would work. It does. Kweller’s voice fits these songs like a pair of old weathered jeans. The album’s opening number “Gypsy Rose” sets the tone early with the crackling Dobro work of newcomer Kitt Kitterman. And “Old Hat” and “Ballad of Wendy Baker” lilt and sigh in all the right (read: depressing and heartbreaking) ways a good country and western song should. “Sawdust Man”, however, is far and away my favorite track. Every time Keller sings “I’m on top of the Greyhound station / Won’t you please come home?”, the lyric is stuck in my head for a week. The image is iconic for the album’s theme of yearning and love lost. Download this: “Sawdust Man”, “Wantin’ Her Again”.

18. Andrew Bird – Noble Beast

From the opening note of “Oh No”, Andrew Bird plies his craft with understated mastery. Categorized as “folk pop”, Noble Beast floats along on a bed of melody, whistles, and cadences that sound as fresh today as they did when I first picked up this album 11 months ago. Download this: “Anoanimal”, “Oh No”.

17. Regina Spektor – Far

First of all, I dare you to find a catchier pop hook than “The Calculation”, the spunky, love drenched piece of piano pop that kicks off Far. This album might rank higher if not for Spektor’s dolphin impersonation on “Folding Chair”. (Yes, you read that correctly. A dolphin impersonation.) But all quirky shlock is exchanged for existential musing on “Laughing With”: No one laughs at God in a hospital / No one laughs at God in a war / No one’s laughing at God / When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor. Few artists strike the balance between absurd and sublime quite like Regina Spektor. Download this: “The Calculation”, “Laughing With”.

16. David Bazan – Curse Your Branches

Disclaimer: this is not music for the faint of heart. David Bazan (of “Pedro the Lion” fame) has composed a deeply personal and vulnerable reflection of faith and doubt. Take “In Stitches”, for instance. Bazan sings of the collision of his own spiritual doubts while his daughter “is lately full of questions about You.” It sounds as if the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, for Bazan asks plenty of questions of his own here. This album’s beauty is found in its rejection of pat answers to these gut-wrenching interrogations. The journey is sometimes harrowing, but this kind of honest spiritual reflection is both uncommon and refreshing. Download this: “In Stitches”, “Curse Your Branches”.

15. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

Grizzly Bear seems to be everyone’s crush band right now; this Brooklyn group’s fourth studio album has already been named to several year-end top ten lists. And Veckatimest will probably go down as their best. But how do you describe it? The scope of this disc is hard to get your arms around. “Chamber pop” is an apt description; “psychedelic folk-jazz” is another. The harmonies here are lush, the atmosphere is rich and layered, piling up song after song, culminating in the haunting, beautiful final moments of “Foreground”. The album gets a little repetitive in the middle for me, but Veckatimest is still a solid and worthy of most of the praise its been receiving. Download this: “Two Weeks”, “Foreground”.

14. Great Lake Swimmers – Lost Channels

This Toronto-based folk trio exudes a lyrical elegance and a light, airy sound that makes it perfect for an early spring drive under cloudless skies. GLS has a Jayhawks-esque quality about them: lush harmonies over sparse acoustics reminiscient of 1970s AM radio. There’s no great underlying thesis at work here, just really good music. Download this: “Walking On A Line”, “Everything Is Moving So Fast“.

13. Magnolia Electric Co. – Josephine

Josephine is a tribute to fallen bandmate Evan Farrell. Jason Molina’s vocals, enveloped by the band’s stripped down country & western instrumentation, makes this pain and heartache palpable. “Shenandoah” swoons with yearning and a dizzying sense of isolation. “O Grace!” gently holds on to hope amid the tears: “If you stop believing / that don’t mean that it just goes away.” But the album’s second half – notably “Heartbreak at Ten Paces” and “Little Sad Eyes” – takes a more reflective, even somber tone, bringing gravity to the hopeful closer “An Arrow in the Gale”, an ode to keeping your head down and plowing on, even when you hurt. A fitting end to a great album. Download this: “Josephine”, “O Grace!”

12. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit – Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

Isbell, former songwriter and guitarist for Drive-By Truckers, has produced a quality Southern rock / alt country offering with his second solo effort. “Streetlights” tells the same story plenty of other songs try to tell; it just sounds more lived in coming from Isbell. “Soldier Gets Strange” is about as grisly a commentary on post-traumatic stress disorder as you could find. But the rock jams are still here, too, balancing out the album’s more introspective moments. Download this: Seven-Mile Island, “Sunstroke”.

11. Slaid Cleaves – Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away

(If you can’t tell by now, I’ve been in something of an alt-country mood this year. These albums are superior to 90% of the dreck coming out of Nashville these days. It’s a shame that most people’s only association with country music is the overproduced power pop that Music Row develops.)

The title of this one pretty much tells you all you need to know; this is depressing fare. I came across Cleaves on eMusic earlier in the year and his album quickly emerged as one of my favorites. If Ecclesiastes were set to music, this is what it would sound like. Everything You Love… has been described as a “sepia toned record” and that’s an apt description of what’s going on here. The album title comes from a line from the stellar “Cry”, the best and catchiest tune of the lot.

Every bond is a bond to sorrow
Your blue sky turns grey
Everything you love will be taken away

Love here is lost, yearned for, unrequited. Dreams are chewed up and dashed on the rocks in the world Cleaves imagines, a world that will be all too familiar to many a listener. But amid the bleakness, the moments of hope stand out in stark contrast. Consider this line from “Beautiful Thing”:

A dark age looms, there’s evil at hand
Somehow I still believe in the goodness of man
It’s a beautiful thing

The older I get, the more I’m drawn to music that exudes hope, but also art that doesn’t shy away from grim realities, either. This album hits on both of those cylinders. Download this: “Cry”, “Beautiful Thing”.

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LOST Season Six: Radiohead and Espanol

Posted on December 15, 2009 by Jason

The producers of LOST have asked ABC not to show ANY of the footage from the upcoming Season Six in any of the promo ads. The producers want to keep as much of this season under wraps as possible; even the slightest screen shot might give away something.

So…..we’re left with promos like the one I posted yesterday — a montage of previously released footage set to music. Same thing with this one (again, don’t worry….it doesn’t reveal anything new), only this promo is way cooler. I mean, how could you top this Spanish-speaking narrator with Radiohead playing in the background?

Enjoy, LOST fanatics.

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LOST Season Six: Willie & Amazing Grace

Posted on December 14, 2009 by Jason

I was going to post tonight about my favorite albums of 2009.

But I came across this instead.

Very cool.

Feb. 2nd can’t get here soon enough.

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Albums of the Decade #4: Viva La Vida

Posted on December 12, 2009 by Jason

It’s either love ’em or hate ’em when it comes to Coldplay. Sure, some of the criticisms are valid: they’re built as an arena-ready rock band, complete with vapid lyrics and monosyllabic choral moans. But you can count me squarely in the “love ’em” camp. Coldplay’s success validates for me that commercial doesn’t always have to sound terrible.

For their fourth album, Coldplay promised a different sound, a more lush, textured environ than their previous work. Enlisting the help of uber-producer Brian Eno (among several others), the band was able to fulfill that promise while not tinkering too much with the formula that made them global superstars. Make no mistake: this is no Achtung Baby or Kid A. No, the changes here are more subtle, but no less effective. Chris Martin claims that the album’s nuanced lyrical imagery resulted from his reading copious amounts of Charles Dickens during the recording process. Maybe, but we should also probably attribute it to the band’s continued artistic growth.

Viva La Vida opens with “Life in Technicolor”, an instrumental atmospheric piece that bookends the album. What comes in between is a wide range of sounds and songs: the string-infused anthem of “Viva La Vida”; the organ / stomp of “Lost!”; the kinetic activity of “Lovers in Japan” melding into the quiet balladry of “Reign Of Love”; the sweetly intoned “Strawberry Swing”. A more globally-influenced sound, Chris Martin’s experimentation with his lower register, rumors of delays in production…there was plenty that could’ve gone wrong with this album. But these risks and the extended production time paid exponential dividends as Coldplay expanded their sound and Viva became the most legally downloaded album ever. Even the “leftovers” that didn’t make the album are incredible. (See “Glass of Water”, one of the band’s live staples now. How did this one not end up on the album?) Some critics want to knock Viva La Vida for its universal themes, but personally, I think that’s one of the album’s strengths. Love, death, life, ghosts…honestly, what else is there worth singing about?

Is this the most important music of the decade? No, not by a long shot. But it IS an incredible album from one of the world’s biggest bands at the height of their creative and sonic powers. Easily one of the most listened-to albums of the past 10 years for me.

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Albums of the Decade #5: My Mother’s Hymn Book

Posted on December 10, 2009 by Jason

Johnny Cash's sparse and brilliant "My Mother's Hymn Book"

Johnny Cash has always been the Bybee family bard. Some of my earliest memories are of the times my Dad would get out his guitar and play “Folsom Prison Blues” in our living room. My Dad was a huge Cash fan and I grew up sitting around the record player with my father, listening to old 45’s of “Hey Porter” and “I Walk the Line”. I remember in the third grade, Mrs. Sills had us all write a one page paper on our favorite song. Unbeknownst to her, she lost major cool points in my book when she told me she’d never heard the song “Big River” by The Highwaymen.

Cash has always been this mythical, larger-than-life sort of figure in my life. When he would sing about shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die, my imagination fired off into all kinds of outlaw images. When he sang of “Ghost Riders in the Sky”, the result was more powerful than any Gospel meeting or come-to-Jesus discussion with my Mom; truthfully, I’m still a little haunted by the line, “If you want to save your soul from Hell a-riding on our range / Then cowboy change your ways today or with us you will ride.” And when the Man in Black sang “There’ll Be Peace In the Valley”, I believed it.

It was fitting then that this album served as my own personal soundtrack in the aftermath of my grandfather’s passing in 2007. If you know anything about Cash, you know he was always — even in his darkest periods — a gospel singer at heart. Prior to his death, Cash went to the studio to record some of his mother’s favorite gospel hymns, taken directly from her ragged old hymn book. These were the songs Johnny’s mother first taught him as a child in rural Arkansas. Years later, Cash found himself returning to those songs for the peace and comfort they provided him. The record is simple: Cash’s guitar is the only accompaniment to his lived-in baritone. But the stripped-down production really is an exercise of “less is more”; the sparse production allows the lyrics of these great hymns to truly shine.

The older I get, the more I find myself looking back to the faith of my parents and grandparents. With my grandfather in particular, I’m thankful for the simple ethic by which he lived: Family. Good Neighbors. Hard Work. Jesus Christ. These were the core elements of my grandfather’s existence. I’ve said it many times, but I still believe the best sermons I’ve ever heard are the prayers my grandfather would pray before our family meals. I guess that’s why this record resonated so well with me; the simplistic beauty of this recording serves as an audible parallel to my grandfather’s well-lived life. Some of these songs — particularly “I’ll Fly Away” and “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder” — were among my grandfather’s favorites and Cash singing them was balm to my soul in the days following his death. I can see why this was Cash’s favorite album he ever recorded. It’s my favorite one, too.

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Albums of the Decade #6: All That You Can’t Leave Behind

Posted on December 8, 2009 by Jason

U2's 2000 classic, "All That You Can't Leave Behind"U2’s first album of this decade, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, was in many ways a return to the classic U2 sound of the 1980s. During the ’90s, the band satirized the whole rock star motif with Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and Pop. Outrageous, over-the-top personas and glitzy, kitsch tours (see: PopMart) were the vehicles U2 used to critique an entire decade of excess, greed, consumerism, and decadence.

But with the dawning of a new millennium came a reinvented U2…all over again. The experimentalism of the ’90s yielded a return back to the bands simple rock roots. In a very real way, All That You Can’t Leave Behind was the re-embrace of the U2 sound of The Joshua Tree and The Unfotgettable Fire: a guitar, three chords, and the truth.

The last song on the album has always been one of my favorites. “Grace” is such a beautiful, lilting soliloquy on the reverberations of grace in a world gone mad:

Grace
It’s a name for a girl
It’s also a thought that changed the world
And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness in everything

I love this song because the music is the message. Gentle synthesizers cresting and receding around Bono’s softly spoken tenor. I love this song because it sweeps me up and takes me back to those moments when “you can hear the strings”, when (to borrow N.T. Wright’s beautiful phrase) the world has been put to rights, if only for a moment. I love this song because it reminds me of grace’s beauty and simplicity. Grace finds goodness in everything. Indeed.

This album also possessed a prescient quality that infused it with tremendous resonance in the days that followed September 11th. This is seen most clearly on “Walk On”, one of my favorite songs for several years. Dedicated to Burmese activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the song has always been imbued with a prophetic, inspired tone. But in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, “Walk On” has evolved into a sweeping anthem of perseverance and hope in the midst of adversity. 10 days after the terrorist attacks, U2 performed “Walk On” on the telethon “A Tribute to Heroes“. This is where this ode to activism was transformed into a hymn for a hurting nation.

And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it’s a long way off
And if your glass heart should crack
And for a second you turn back
Oh no, be strong

Walk on, walk on
What you got, they can’t steal it
No they can’t even feel it
Walk on, walk on
Stay safe tonight…

You’re packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been
A place that has to be believed to be seen
You could have flown away
A singing bird in an open cage
Who will only fly, only fly for freedom

Walk on, walk on
What you got they can’t deny it
Can’t sell it or buy it
Walk on, walk on
Stay safe tonight

And I know it aches
And your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on, walk on

Home…hard to know what it is if you never had one
Home…I can’t say where it is but I know I’m going home
That’s where the heart is

I know it aches
How your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on, walk on

Lyrics like these take on a whole new meaning in light of September 11th. “Walk On” will articulates all of the pain and fear and doubt that plagued those days for me (“when your glass heart should crack / and for a second you turn back”). But the song is equally honest in reflecting on how we find purpose in pain: “And I know it aches / And your heart it breaks / And you can only take so much / Walk on…walk on.” In a moment of extreme and even justifiable anger, Bono’s lyric reminds us how we heal: by leaving it behind. As the chorus of “hallelujahs” rise at the end, we lift our eyes above for solace and strength and hope.

And we keep on walking.

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Albums of the Decade #7: LOST (Original Television Soundtrack)

Posted on December 8, 2009 by Jason

For the past couple of years, I’ve been obsessed with ABC’s serialized drama LOST. If it weren’t for this show (and televised sporting events), I could probably do without a television. But LOST is hands down the best TV show I’ve ever watched. It’s just that good. The show has lost some viewers since it decided to fly the sci-fi banner, but I am continually drawn back to the show’s tremendous gift for narrative and the characters that fuel it.

2004's "LOST: The Original Television Soundtrack"One of the overlooked elements that separates LOST from any other run of the mill TV program is the rich, beautiful score of composer Michael Giacchino. Best known for his work on the Pixar films Up, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille, Giacchino was tapped by J.J. Abrams to oversee the orchestral score for the show. Over the past few seasons, Giacchino has developed an expansive cadre of leitmotifs that have become an integral part of each character’s narrative. One listen to “Locke’d Out Again” and I’m instantly taken back to my favorite episode, “Walkabout”, aka “the first John Locke flashback”. Or take “Kate’s Motel”, for instance; Giacchino’s motif has been used so often in the narrative process of these characters that it’s impossible to listen to them without recalling various points in the storytelling process. And what would LOST be without those sonic-blast, trombone “fall off” notes that always hit us at the end of a shocking or revelatory scene just before the fade to black? All of this reflects the genius of Giacchino, who prefers to watch the episode and write music for the scenes based on his primal, initial reaction to it.

I listen to a lot of music. I mean, A LOT. And it says something that this is music I return to over and over again. I have six songs that have a play count of 100 or higher in my iTunes; five of them come from this soundtrack. “Win One For the Reaper” sets the tone for the Season 1 mantra “Live together, die alone.” From the finale, “Parting Words” perfectly expresses the hope that the castaways have for the construction and launch of Michael’s raft; “Parting Words” captures the sense of mystery we felt as Jack and Locke peered headlong into the hatch, wondering for all the world what might be down there. Simply put, this is some of my favorite music of the decade. In fact, 10 years from now, I have a feeling I’ll still be listening to Giacchino’s beautiful score (ahead of some of the other albums on this list), bemoaning the fact that there’s no more LOST to pour over, analyze, and discuss.

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Naked and Cold

Posted on December 7, 2009 by Jason

Last night over dinner, Joshua just out of the blue turns to Abby Kate and says, “Babies are born naked.”

She looks at him, puzzled.

He continues, “Yeah, they come out naked. That’s why they cry.”

Her expression doesn’t change as she considers this.

Seeing that he’s not really getting anywhere, Joshua ratchets up his argument with a personal appeal: “You’d be crying to if you were naked and cold.”

Abby Kate nods and turns back to her chicken nuggets, unaffected by the conversation. Joshua shrugs his shoulders and does the same.

You can’t make this stuff up.

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Albums of the Decade #8: Mockingbird

Posted on December 4, 2009 by Jason

So far, I’ve been sharing common ground with a lot of other critics in my countdown of the best albums of the decade. I mean, everybody pretty much agrees that Radiohead is awesome and Is This It? set the bar quite high for rock records that work really hard to sound like they’re not even trying. But this is where I go oppo; after all, this is my list.

Derek Webb's 2005 release "Mockingbird"

At first listen, Mockingbird exudes an easy-going ’70s-era AM vibe, full of mellow acoustics and intimate melodies. But upon further inspection, you realize the whole thing is a ruse. Sure, Webb has always been adept at the singer-songwriter thing, dating back to his time with Caedmon’s Call. But Mockingbird‘s airy atmosphere belies the album’s challenging lyrics.

Simply put, Mockingbird is a discipleship record, an unabashed declaration of allegiance to Christ. “My first allegiance is to a king and a kingdom.” The album’s title comes from Webb’s conviction that just as the mockingbird has no song of his own, so too does the follower of Christ mimic the ethic and way of Christ. Webb minces no words as he confronts the sinister idols vying for our devotion: greed, lust, anger. But what sets this record apart is Webb’s insistence that the call to follow Christ extends beyond the realm of individualistic morality. This is a clarion call to social justice, to follow Jesus into the grit and grime of our world. “Poverty is so hard to see when it’s only on your TV and twenty miles across town,” Webb sings on “Rich Young Ruler”. But Webb continues to push, addressing hot-button issues like politics, war, and nationalism on “The New Law”, “In God We Trust” and “My Enemies Are Men Like Me”. The message is clear: discipleship requires a complete reorientation of every facet of one’s life. Love songs like “Please Before I Go” and “I Hate Everything (But You)” stand as grace notes amid the more confrontational material, adding another layer of beauty to the truth on display.

Mockingbird came to me at a time when I was taking a lot of personal and spiritual inventory. As a follower of Christ, it’s easy to give intellectual assent to the notion that Jesus comes first in my life. But Mockingbird, with its relentless unwillingness to accept my pat answers, held up a mirror and allowed me to see some areas that were beginning to threaten my allegiance to Jesus. This is what true art is supposed to do: elicit reflection. This is why I consider Mockingbird one of the landmark albums of the decade. It has impacted me in a way few recordings can or ever will.

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The Sermon on the Mount 5

Posted on December 2, 2009 by Jason

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. — Matthew 5.3

It is common to think of the Beatitudes as popcorn statements that Jesus directs at the crowd of people who gather to hear Him preach on the mountainside. We envision Jesus turning to the poor in spirit and speaking a word of blessing, followed by a similar statement to the subset of the crowd that is well acquainted with grief, and so on. When we read the Beatitudes this way, we allow ourselves to gloss over the statements Jesus makes that might not especially appeal to us (I mean, let’s be honest, who really thinks of themselves as “meek” anyway?) and instead we latch on to the particular Beatitude that we think best describes ourselves. This, then, becomes OUR Beatitude. “I’m the peacemaker,” or “I’m the pure in heart,” and therefore the rest of the Beatitudes aren’t really directed at me.

I would suggest that this is a terrible way to read the Beatitudes. Clarence Jordan, in his book The Sermon on the Mount, argues that the Beatitudes should be read progressively; that is, each Beatitude builds on the preceding one. What Jesus seems to be doing is not directing specific comments to specific groups of individuals; instead, He is giving articulation to the eternal principles of the Kingdom of God. This is what Jesus is calling us to repent toward: a life that is characterized by meekness and purity of heart and peace and poverty of spirit.

In this way, Jesus builds for us a “stairway”, a progression of steps into the Kingdom, the territory where God’s reign is fully manifest. But in order to enter this Kingdom, one must begin at a place of poverty and brokenness. Jesus begins with the poor in spirit because this is where we first receive the Kingdom. It is not in our proud moments; it is not in our victories; it is not when everything seems to be falling into place or going our way. No, it is in the broken places that the Kingdom comes to us. We find God when we reach the end of ourselves; when we realize that our best efforts still aren’t good enough; when will power has met its end…this is when God’s power becomes the overriding reality in our lives.

To be poor in spirit is to recognize our own frailties and iniquities; to be poor in spirit is to recognize that we stand in need of what only God can do for us. Its antonym is to be proud in spirit. The poor in spirit are ready to repent. The poor in spirit are ready to receive the Kingdom. This is where we all find our beginning.

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