There were a slew of other recordings I could have also recommend, some you're likely already listening to: solid disks by Ryan Adams and Wilco (long since shaking their "alt country" past), followup albums by Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes that surpass both their impressive debuts, and of course Adele's fine 21. But the eight disks below gave me special pleasure with the freshness of their sound, the insight of their lyrics or their genius for reinventing the familiar.
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Dawes, Nothing is Wrong, Dawes - And speaking of 1973, here's a band that will put you right back in the front seat of your first car, listening to the Eagles on the radio -- not the fat, coked-out, Hotel California Eagles, but the lean, young Desperado Eagles. There are big debts here to Jackson Browne, Neil Young and Warren Zevon, too, with the stinging guitars, the high, tight harmonies and the lyrics about misadventure in Southern California. In songs like "Time Spent on Los Angeles" or "Little Bit of Everything" they neatly capture life poised between the cool and the desperate.
Elbow, Build a Rocket Boys - There's really no US equivalent to the UK Mercury Prize, awarded annually for the best UK or Irish recording. But the list of nominees, never mind the winner, is always a great guide to smart, original pop and rock that stretches boundaries (think Radiohead and PJ Harvey). Elbow won the 2008 Mercury and this disk got them nominated again in 2011. I know, you never heard of them. Just start here, with the voice of Guy Garvey channeling Peter Gabriel on a disk about childhood.
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX, We're New Here - A remix album? Really, Jack? You betcha. Gil was a spoken word visionary, whose "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" was the 1970 well-spring of rap; "The Bottle" was the coolest tune you could spin at a party in 1974. But then he disappeared, derailed for decades by addiction and madness that he never shook. He returned to recording before he died this year and on this disk, the British producer and artist Jamie XX remixes his last one from 2010. With a dub and techno vibe that's worlds apart from Gil's earlier work, this sounds beautifully haunted by his ghost -- a world-weary specter. Rest in peace, Gil.
Fountains of Wayne, Sky Full of Holes, - Just when you think you've had enough of FOW and their smarty-pants pop ("Stacey's Mom"), they tone it down and remind you that they are the genuine article, song craftsman as gifted as Cole Porter. There, I've said it. Because in their wry, observant wordplay, this is the tradition they tap, even if they package it in a "Cheap Trick" wrapper. This is a simple pleasure that in a perfect world would be all over the radio. Listen to "Action Hero", "Workingman's Hands" or "Acela". Cole should be flattered.
James Blake, James Blake - Hypnotic. There's simply no other word for James Blake's self-titled disk. I hear echoes of D'Angelo's 2000 masterpiece, Voodoo. But this is not a hip-hop album. Instead it has an other-worldly soulfulness, a spare electronic setting and a call-and-response rhythm that hails from a church somewhere on the south side of the twilight zone.
Real Estate, Days - It's hard to believe these guys share New Jersey with Bruce Springstein, but here they are, proud sons of Ridgewood. They weave a musical spell with strummed guitars that's a little bit hippie stoner and warm as the Avalon sun. Echoes of the Beach Boys and Bob Welch-era Fleetwood Mac. Get me to the beach.
Anthony Hamilton, Back to Love - This year's soul man for me, Hamilton has been recording for nearly twenty years. If radio still worked the way it did back in the day, you'd have a shelf full of his disks sitting right next to Al Green, Bobby Womack and Marvin; all like Hamilton have R&B voices that can beg, plead and shout. Full of new quiet storm classics, there's nothing "neo" about this soul.
Best singles list still to come for those of you with short attention spans.
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