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20. mountain goats - the life of the world to come
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19. mos def - the ecstatic
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18. smith westerns - dye it blonde
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17. girls - album
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16. st. vincent - actor
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15. shabazz palaces - shabazz palaces / of light
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14. local natives - gorilla manor
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13. vetiver - tight knit
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12. megafaun – gather, form & fly
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11. bonnie 'prince' billy - beware
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10. the dead weather - horehound
This was a weird pick for me, because I didn't exactly fall in love with it. To be honest, I didn't really fall in love with very many releases this year - at least not as many as I usually do. However, I did love screaming "M-A-N-I-P-U-LATE!" at the top of my lungs while driving past Third Man Records on my way home from a frustrating day at work this fall. That alone is enough for this to crack my top ten. If I wasn't currently involved in a 7-year-long torrid love affair with Ryan Adams, I would say Jack White is the man of the decade, musically speaking.
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This was a weird pick for me, because I didn't exactly fall in love with it. To be honest, I didn't really fall in love with very many releases this year - at least not as many as I usually do. However, I did love screaming "M-A-N-I-P-U-LATE!" at the top of my lungs while driving past Third Man Records on my way home from a frustrating day at work this fall. That alone is enough for this to crack my top ten. If I wasn't currently involved in a 7-year-long torrid love affair with Ryan Adams, I would say Jack White is the man of the decade, musically speaking.
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9. grizzly bear - veckatimest
Absolutely gorgeous and complex, but I still find myself pining for Yellow House. I'm thinking I desperately need to see these songs performed live to gain full appreciation.
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Absolutely gorgeous and complex, but I still find myself pining for Yellow House. I'm thinking I desperately need to see these songs performed live to gain full appreciation.
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8. neko case - middle cyclone
This was the record that Audrey mailed me in St. Croix. I fell asleep to it almost every night there. It was one of those releases that really gave me a greater appreciation for the artist. I went back and revisited Blacklisted and Fox Confessor so much that I may have actually played them more than this one over the past year.
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This was the record that Audrey mailed me in St. Croix. I fell asleep to it almost every night there. It was one of those releases that really gave me a greater appreciation for the artist. I went back and revisited Blacklisted and Fox Confessor so much that I may have actually played them more than this one over the past year.
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7. port o'brien - threadbare
The guy and girl that form Port O'Brien don't actually do music full-time. He spends his summers on a fishing boat off the coast of Alaska. And she spends her summers working in a bakery in a tiny port town in Larsen Bay (very close to Port O'Brien, Alaska). I thought that was a good enough reason to check it out. Listen to the track "My Will is Good."
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The guy and girl that form Port O'Brien don't actually do music full-time. He spends his summers on a fishing boat off the coast of Alaska. And she spends her summers working in a bakery in a tiny port town in Larsen Bay (very close to Port O'Brien, Alaska). I thought that was a good enough reason to check it out. Listen to the track "My Will is Good."
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6. bill callahan - sometimes i wish we were an eagle
This gets my vote for the most beautiful release of the year. This is another one that I spent a good part of the year falling asleep to. I have always been a sucker for guys with bass-y vocals (think Stephen Merritt, Jens Lekman, or Will Oldham). They all lull me in the best way.
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This gets my vote for the most beautiful release of the year. This is another one that I spent a good part of the year falling asleep to. I have always been a sucker for guys with bass-y vocals (think Stephen Merritt, Jens Lekman, or Will Oldham). They all lull me in the best way.
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5. devendra banhart - what will we be
This one is definitely still growing on me, and its already at number five. I think this might be his best.
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This one is definitely still growing on me, and its already at number five. I think this might be his best.
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4. passion pit - manners
A blurb from Wade Holmes that can't be beat: "The song 'Little Secrets', or 'The Sunny Day Playground Jump Rope Song' as I like to call it, is a three minute and fifty-eight second summer day party, complete with frozen Jumbo Jet Star Pops from the Ice Cream Man and chalk drawn games of Tic-Tac-Toe displayed on the sidewalk. So, throw on some S.P.F. 45, hop on your bike and call all the kids in the neighborhood… because there’s a party going down and you’re all invited."
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A blurb from Wade Holmes that can't be beat: "The song 'Little Secrets', or 'The Sunny Day Playground Jump Rope Song' as I like to call it, is a three minute and fifty-eight second summer day party, complete with frozen Jumbo Jet Star Pops from the Ice Cream Man and chalk drawn games of Tic-Tac-Toe displayed on the sidewalk. So, throw on some S.P.F. 45, hop on your bike and call all the kids in the neighborhood… because there’s a party going down and you’re all invited."
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3. the pains of being pure at heart - the pains of being pure at heart
This is what I like to imagine I would have been a fan of if I had been a teenager in the late 80's/early 90's. That shoe-gaze fuzz gets me every time. And when it is coupled with pop perfection - look out. For my heart beating out of my chest. Because I love it.
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This is what I like to imagine I would have been a fan of if I had been a teenager in the late 80's/early 90's. That shoe-gaze fuzz gets me every time. And when it is coupled with pop perfection - look out. For my heart beating out of my chest. Because I love it.
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2. joshua james - build me this
This came out of nowhere. Well, Utah isn't exactly nowhere. But I had never even heard of this guy until one day when I was browsing in Grimey's and the cover jumped out at me. Apparently enough for me to slap down some cash and take it home. I would have never discovered Joshua James if it weren't for the good old brick & mortar. Internet, you let me down on this one.
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This came out of nowhere. Well, Utah isn't exactly nowhere. But I had never even heard of this guy until one day when I was browsing in Grimey's and the cover jumped out at me. Apparently enough for me to slap down some cash and take it home. I would have never discovered Joshua James if it weren't for the good old brick & mortar. Internet, you let me down on this one.
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1. dirty projectors - bitte orca
I listened to this on a sunny day in June on a long drive down the Natchez Trace Parkway, and it clicked SO hard. And I haven't stopped playing it since. This was the easiest number one pick for me in a long time.
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I listened to this on a sunny day in June on a long drive down the Natchez Trace Parkway, and it clicked SO hard. And I haven't stopped playing it since. This was the easiest number one pick for me in a long time.
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1 comment:
I actually think I agree with your No.1 pick. I feel very similarly toward Bitte Orca.
Have you seen "It Might Get Loud"? That might even add to your lust over Jack White.
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