The Taxpayers - God, Forgive These Bastards
This grabbed my ear at Hymie's and never let go. The songwriting is powerful and immediate. The narrator blurs distinctions between himself and his subject and his audience. The cacophonous horns kick you into the street and the closest you get to B-side redemption is I love you like an alcoholic...I love you like a pack of dogs. Dave makes many of these points in his excellent review. For me the surprise was recognizing a depth of empathy as complex as Van Morrison's "Madame George" breathing inside songs as raucous as Titus Andronicus and as melodic as The Mountain Goats. It is overwhelming and it is brilliant.
(I Love You Like An Alcoholic)
Chastity Brown - Back-Road Highways
A reverent celebration of life's elusive beauty. On the first track, "House Been Burnin'", Brown introduces us to a broken-voiced singer: Oh just listen to him now/As he's breakin all his chains! We celebrate with him, but beauty lies in the work still ahead: Don't be scared, love/Just do what you got 'cause/You gotta do what you gotta do. When Brown describes her own impossible errand, on "Solely", beauty lies in not rushing the work: Had a day to get there/So I took my sweet time. She stretches across a full album the kind of hopeful solemnity that Roberta Flack conjures in "Go Up Moses," and her arrangements are similarly patient. On "Leroy" or "Could've Been a Sunday" or "If You Let Me" there are moments when it sounds like the guitar riffs from Flack's song have been drawn over an Indigo Girls arrangement of Cat Power's "Good Woman." Punctuating this mood is "After You," a celebration that underscores every quieter celebration on Back-Road Highways.
(After You)
Father John Misty - Fear Fun
J. Tillman's transformation from this to this produced the catchiest album I heard all year. We could do ayahuasca/Baby if I wasn't holding all these drinks!
(I'm Writing a Novel)
Cold Specks - I Predict a Graceful Expulsion
Haunting and almost redemptive, I Predict a Graceful Expulsion made it to number 1 on emusic's 2012 list. I hope that means doom soul is here to stay. This is a fully-realized debut, and Cold Specks has as much promise as the Mavis Staples + The National comparisons suggest. I am, I am/a goddamned believer.
(Blank Maps)
Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls
Tracks like "Going to the Party" and "On Your Way" give Boys & Girls dimension even beyond Alabama Shakes' rollicking, gut-bucket soul.
(Going to the Party)
Alt-J - An Awesome Wave
This album sounds like walking around October in the rain the same way that Deerhunter's Halcyon Digest sounds like walking around October when it's crisp and sunny. Intricate, pulsing, and gently textured with gloom.
(Something Good)
Lonesome Dreams is full of lush guitars and big, un-ironic hearts. Listeners will recognize the former from The War on Drugs and the latter from Cloud Cult, with less tragedy. "Brother (Last Ride)" and "Time to Run" are the best kind of sing-along anthems. I wanted everybody else in the world to know it!
(Time to Run)
Shovels & Rope - O Be Joyful
My favorite roots-country album of 2012. Any band you could imagine live on the West Bank is a strong candidate in any category, but this one especially. Shovels & Rope played the 400 Bar when they came through in November. Their album sounds like they might strike-up a conversation with you at any time. Whiskeyandawhiskeyandawhiskeyandawhiskey!
(O Be Joyful!)
The Mountain Goats - Transcendental Youth
This album opens with the directive: Do every stupid thing/that makes you feel alive! So not only is it one of John Darnielle's most accessible, pop-driven efforts, it also ranks among his most positive recordings. That is not to say that the album is devoid of sadness or melancholy. Both are present, but so are triumphant passages echoing those on All Hail West Texas, The Sunset Tree, We Shall All Be Healed and Heretic Pride. These earlier triumphs often came in service of adolescent rage or methamphetamine or dreams lost but defended, but on this album Darnielle seems willing to let them emerge more simply: Transcendental Youth, unsurprisingly, celebrates youthful transcendence. Play with matches/if you think you need to play with matches.
(Amy a/k/a Spent Gladiator 1)
Leela James - Loving You More: In the Spirit of Etta James...
There were a lot of things that could have been terrible about this kind of tribute. I was expecting it to be too safe or too sacharine - closer to Beyonce's covers from Cadillac Records; nothing I would ever choose to listen to over Etta James herself. But Leela James transforms these songs without bruising them. "I'd Rather Go Blind" and "At Last" sound impressively fresh as duets, and she mixes-in two originals alongside Johnny Guitar Watson's "I Wanna Ta-Ta You Baby" without losing Etta's blues. "Something's Got a Hold on Me" was the song that hooked me.
(Something's Got a Hold on Me)
Matthew E. White - Big Inner
This one took some time to grow on me, but it is much more subtle and textured than it might seem after a first listen. White's whispery vocals are down in the mix, which leaves the impression that he is following his mellow-New Orleans style band more than leading. As long as we are moving at a steady pace, baby, we can take our time.
(Steady Pace)
Schoolboy Q - Habits & Contradictions
On Habits & Contradictions, Schoolboy Q voices characters you know you almost know. One of my first-graders last spring was especially mercurial, hilarious and defiant. I imagined "There He Go" playing continuously in his head. Metapho'/how I come up with it?/I don't fuckin' know!
(There He Go)
-tc
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