Sunday, December 14, 2008

Before we hit the list, let me say two quick things: First, I had a lot of good material to chose from.  This year was unnaturally prolific for Austin musicians, with many of them garnering more and more national attention.  Second, I focused primarily on up-and-coming artists who had yet to receive resounding national attention (i.e. Shearwater, Okkervil River, Black Angels), but are still recognized as somewhat "established" in the local scene.  That yielded the following list of albums that blew me away this year:
 

5. Leatherbag - Love & Harm

So many things are wrong with Leatherbag’s Love & Harm.  The album clocks in at barely under half an hour and lead-singer Reynold’s influence bleed through the songs so readily that you often have to check the jacket to confirm that you put in the right album.  But the album has one rare quality that both justifies it flaws and propels it past its contemporaries: honesty.  Love & Harm, I came to find, is marked by the honesty of a man looking for truth in a time where music is more often about regurgitating past ideas.  How does he do it?  The simple dichotomy is the title itself: "Love and Harm."  How can you properly embrace your love of Summerteeth without ruining our own album?  How can you steal lines from your favorite authors without disgracing your claims to originality?  Unlike other albums, which answer questions like "Does this get us on Gorilla vs. Bear?," Love & Harm tackles (with killer hooks and guitar riffs) the great schism between Past and Present that you’d more readily find in the works of great American authors and the Sunday Times Book Review than a pop album.

:Leatherbag - Love And Harm:
 

4. Sunset - The Glowing City

Bill Baird could both single-handedly support our city’s :Keep Austin Weird" ethos, and tell you to "go-fuck-yourself" for trying to sum up his creative drive with an overused, dry corporate slogan.  The Glowing City, which was released this year along with another album, Bright Blue Dream, is weird for sure, but perhaps not as much as you’d expect.  Baird is a extremely capable pop musician, keenly aware of a good melody and guitar hook, but also completely unafraid to mow down convention with an onslaught of scathing noise and inventive rhythms that aren’t as listener friendly as the big-time exec’s would hope.  Unparsable influences mark the album: everything from psych-rock to the weather to Walt Whitman to the album’s muse, "Sandy" drive the songs such that you feel almost vulnerable as a listener.  Ultimately, an undeniable fact emerges: Bill Baird is an artist in the truest sense of the word - you might never understand his motives or intentions as completely as he intends, but you’ll find yourself transfixed at his work for hours without a reason, even though perhaps the reason is right in front of you.

:Sunset - The World Is Awaiting:
 

3. Graham Weber - Door to the Morning

Graham Weber’s Door to the Morning was the album I listened to the most this year, and though it was recorded nearly a year ago, the simple Americana that Weber almost naturally emotes has yet to dull its edge.  The success on the album only shows that even the tried-and-true way of making music is still relevant in the modern world: the brilliant lyrics undoubtedly spent time fermenting in notebooks, and the studio musicians who sit behind the organs, pianos, and underplayed electric guitars round out the songs without a single hint of obnoxious flair to be heard, all amounting to an album that sounds both 40 years old and brand new every time you listen to it.  Door to the Morning is like any good album of its kind: easy to listen to and love, but harder to appreciate if only for the seamless production and arranging.  The album is classic, near perfect, and after nearly a hundred listens, still deserving of another as you come to love it piece by piece, line by line.

:Graham Weber - Snow In July:
 

2. Hello Lovers - Gone With The Wind

"Original" is a term we throw around quite often in the music criticism business, but very rarely does a band warrant the term as Hello Lovers do. At the heart of the music is a chamber orchestra comprised of a violin, a cello, a piano, and a other odd contributions by the band’s classically-trained players.  The centerpiece though is the unavoidable, unyielding voice of J. C. King, which slides lucidly from a raw and blemished guttural grumble to a warming croon as easily as the violinist draws her bow.  As the title suggests, many songs plant their roots among Southern Gothic traditions, and indeed the album has a prominent dark side both to its lyrics and instrumentation.  While no other album so wholly creates and embodies a world of its own like Gone With The Wind, it is the modern take on a style of chamber music that dates back centuries that set this album aside, perhaps even in a category of its own.

:Hello Lovers - Snakeskin Thunderstrike:
 

1. The Lovely Sparrows - Bury The Cynics

Bury The Cynics takes the cake for both the "Best Album of the Year" and "Hurry It Up Already, Shawn Jones" awards.  With two years separating this album and the Sparrows’ landmark EP, Pulling Up Floors, Pouring On (New) Paint, lead-singer/songwriter Shawn Jones certainly took his time with the album, a fact which is immediately obvious from the ornate instrumentation and stunning lyrics.  As with Pulling Up Floors, emotional themes seem to be the impetus for many of the songs, but unlike it’s predecessor, Bury The Cynics is more expansive, developing imagery and sarcastic commentary that the single-minded Pulling Up Floors left unsaid.  To Jones, leftover love and flooded living rooms are as readily seen as serious ails as they are the punch line to complicated jokes.  The most revered quality of Jones’ songwriting is his awareness of what to put to poetry, and what to casually hint at.  It is that same quality that leaves the listener wishing to pull back the curtain to question Jones on his motives, but knowing that to do so would violate the fundamental premise separating art from the artist, and making this album so good.  As John said already, do yourself a favor and buy this one immediately if you haven’t yet done so.

:The Lovely Sparrows - Department Of Foreseeable Outcomes:

A few last notes before I bid a fond farewell to 2008:

Other Local Albums of Notes:
Aster - Some Things Seldom Heard
The Calm Blue Sea - The Calm Blue Sea
Drew Smith’s Lonely Choir - Drew Smith’s Lonely Choir
Aliens - Head First
The Black and White Years - The Black and White Years
The Weird Weeds - I Miss This
Balmorhea - Rivers Arms

EP’s of Note (i.e. Bands to Watch Next Year)
Sarah Jaffe - Even Born Again
Canopy - Canopy//Anopy
Frantic Clam - Celebrity
Peel - August Exhaust Pipes

Best National Album Of The Year:
Broadfield Marchers - The Inevitable Counting

I think John covered the major releases well this year, so I wanted to quickly mention my favorite non-major label release this year: The Inevitable Counting.  Despite the inexpensive recording equipment that likely yielded this release, The Broadfield Marchers have made an album that I simply can’t listen to enough.  Masterful songwriters who take cues from bands like The Kinks and the Zombies, these guys know how to stretch the simple guitar/bass/drum combinations past the traditional limits.  I’m literally on the edge of my seat for a new release from the band, hopefully with improved recordings and more of the same timeless songs.

:Broadfield Marchers - Amazing Wheels:

- John Michael Cassetta -



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