After 35 years of constantly hanging out on New Release Tuesday and reviewing albums I just cannot get into what passes for great music anymore. Radiohead is overrated and even Wilco have bummed me out half the time and most of the bands that i have followed that are still around are no longer the complete classic band that everybody knows. New Riders Of The Purple Sage still around you ask. Drivin N Cryin? Booker T? Actually they have been and even Queensryche I managed to take a listen to and actually enjoyed more than the average Rolling Stone critic who gives four stars to Wolfmother but only 2 and half stars to Alice In Chains.
Music has been a long love of this life and my impending retirement will still find me at Half Priced Books in the clarence bins, looking for things that I overlook in the first place but at this moment onward the new bands will have to go on without me. I tried getting into Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective and cannot. Paramore is for the younger generation, for myself I still remain faithful to three chords and good boogie, and if this ten best album list is full of boogiesonics then strip me of my credituals and banish me from Rolling Stone or SPIN. This is my final testament to what I think is the best of the year and the ones that will have still have shelf space and I'm sure I'll listen to them from time to time. You know you're getting old when you dont know who the hell SPIN or Uncut or NME is touting, or much less care. But these ten selections are my best of the bunch.
1. LEONARD COHEN-Live In London (Columbia) The man came out of retirement after his former manager left him high and dry and this 2 CD set captures him at the height of his powers. He never had much voice but he has more voice in him than Bob Dylan and he's so gracious with the audience and his band that you can't help but follow along with him. Not exactly rock and roll but it does swing quite well.
2. PORCUPINE TREE-The Incident (Roadrunner) The prog rock band of the moment, Steven Wilson puts together a 55 minite song cycle in 14 moments. Porcupine Tree, once they picked up Gavin Harrison on drums have become the best prog rock band that's out there and that includes the overrated and annoying Mars Volta. Four great albums in the row, this band is destained for classic rock in twenty years from now, when they switch the format over classic rock bands of 2000.
3. THEM CROOKED VULTURES (DGC/Interscope) What do you get when you cross a Queen Of The Stone Age, A Foo Fighter and Led Zeppelin musician together? Answer is some pretty damn good rock and roll that nobody plays much anymore.
4. MIRANDA LAMBERT-Revolution (Columbia) The best thing that ever came out of Nashville Star, Miranda continues to make great rockin country albums although I think this is a bit more rock than what they would like you to believe and Dead Flowers is one of Miranda's finest songs that she's written. This record feels a bit more unfinished despite it's 51 minite time but next to Porcupine Tree, Miranda Lambert has never failed to make an album lesser than an A minus.
5. DRIVIN N CRYIN-Great American Bubblegum Factory (Vintage Earth) First new album from Kevn Kenny and company in 12 years and still rocking out like they never left. I think this record is a bit more honest than Bruce Springsteen's Workin On A Dream. Kenny still loves that American Ruse it seems.
6. NORAH JONES-The Fall (Blue Note) No longer that jazz pop star that gave us Come Away With Me, Jones has quietly moved into a type of Americana that started with The Little Willies and progessed onward, she co writes a song with Ryan Adams who practially laid low this year and even though this record didn't sell as well as expected, I still think that this is her best record to date. Has to be since it made the top ten best of right?
7. MONSTERS OF FOLK (Shangra la) This is perhaps my favorite album from Mr. Saddle Creek himself Connor Oberst and Mr. My Morning Jacket Yim Yames and Mr. He And She M. Ward and whoever Mike Mogis plays in. It's been a good year for supergroups be it heavyweights or Independents. Sometimes folk but sometimes rock too, it kinda makes me forgive Yames or Oberst's last albums with their respective bands.
8. MANIC STREET PREACHERS-Journal For Plague Lovers (Columbia) The band that will not go away from Sony Music, this album was released in the UK a good half year before making it's debut in September. They found a bunch of unused Richey James lyrics and the guys put some hard rock and roll melody to them. This is the followup to their 1994 import only The Holy Bible if you think about it but whereas that album was pretty bleak, this record sounds a bit more upbeat.
9. STATUS QUO-In Search Of The Fourth Chord (Eagle) The Quo has been around for over forty years and still remains unknowns in the US outside of Pictures Of Matchstick Men, but The Quo have continue to put out boogie woogie rock and roll that has been outdated for 20 plus years and they don't care and neither do I. I never get tired of this type of music ever.
10. NEW RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE-Where I Come From (Woodstock) Another band that has return from hiatus and on this record, they go for all out jamming to which 9 of the 12 songs go over five minites and all but one over four. And Robert Hunter co writes half the songs with Dave Nelson. Even with their classic lineup their albums were spotty and uneven at best but I do think this album is by far the most consistant listen even for it's 73 and half minites. They actually sound inspired and alive this time out. Took a while for me to warm up to this album but I do find this to be a good cd to listen while driving on that long lonesome highway to whereever I'm going.
Honorable Mentions
11. DAN FOGELBERG-Love In Time (Full Moon)
12. REM-Live At The Olympia (Warner Bros)
13. THE BOTTLE ROCKETS-Lean Forward (Bloodshot)
14. CRACKER-Sunrise In The Land Of Milk & Honey (429/SLG)
15. ALICE IN CHAINS-Black Gives Way To Blue (Virgin)
16. LOVE AND THEFT-World Wide Open (Carolwood)
17. CHICKENFOOT (Redline)
18. BOB DYLAN-Together Through Life (Columbia)
19. THE DEAD WEATHER-Horehound (Third Man/WB)
20. NEW YORK DOLLS-Cuz I Sez So (Atco)
