Year-End Music Post

[reldnahkram]

Albums of the Year:
Peter Case - Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John
Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
Uncle Earl - Waterloo, Tennessee


It Shouldn't Work, But it Does:
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand

Most Disappointing Album of the Year:
Lyle Lovett - It's Not Big, It's Large

Album that Would Be Most Improved By Cutting Half the Songs:
Richard Thompson - Sweet Warrior

I'm Just Going to Coast Along and Make a Album That's Hard Not to Like:
Mark Knopfler - Kill to Get Crimson

Best Album Ignoring All Musical Developments Post-1975:
A Band of Bees - Octopus

I Tried Too Hard To Make Another "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" but Made a Pretty Good Album Anyway:
Levon Helm - Dirt Farmer

My Two Albums Are Better Than Your One Album:
Erin McKeown - Sing You Sinners
Erin McKeown - Lafayette

Most Anonymous Band:
Phonograph - Phonograph

Don't get me wrong, the only one of these albums I didn't actually like is the Lyle Lovett. Also, I suppose I should mention Cake's B-sides and Rarities and Chuck Prophet's single, "Freckle Song", off of the otherwise bland Soap and Water.

Discuss.

I'll try and get the compilation CDs out shortly - the track list is finalized, I just need to see people. And it's not too late to request one.

Comments

[alwaysregal.livejournal.com]

Requesting. :)

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Can do. We going to get together some time this week?

[think-too-much.livejournal.com]

I Tried Too Hard To Make Another "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" but Made a Pretty Good Album Anyway:


BESTAWARDEVAR

[uncleamos]

Nothing is ever improved by cutting any RT! Ever! Sure, only half the songs are brilliant, but the other half are still awesome.

Did I mention that I have 5th row tickets to see 1000 Years? One can be yours if you can fast talk it away from Marie!

Can You Say Man Crush?

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

There is nothing awesome about Francesca, Poppy Red, and Sneaky Boy. She Sang Angels to Rest, Too Late to Come Fishing, and Bad Monkey are pretty subpar, and Johnny's Far Away is weak. That's half the album I could do without.

I think we've already established that DC is outside of my RT radius.

Re: Can You Say Man Crush?

[uncleamos]

I enjoy Poppy red, Too Late to Come Fishing, and Bad Monkey. I have a soft spot for Johnny because of hearing it live way back when. Francesca, Sneaky Boy, and She Sang Angels to Rest are more whatever, but I suspect they need more listens. Certainly there is nothing wrong with the album.

Re: Can You Say Man Crush?

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

I tend to agree. Then again, I didn't care for most of Front Porch Ballads, save "Miss Patsy"

::drool::

Re: Can You Say Man Crush?

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

I think there are quite a few songs on Front Porch that suffer from the same heaviness as the songs on Warrior. However, I think the production on Warrior compounds this, whereas it's much harder for the acoustic songs to be as bogged down.

Re: Can You Say Man Crush?

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

I find Poppy Red ponderous. Bad Monkey is, to me, similar to Wrong Heartbeat - it's fine to listen to occasionally, but it's really best if you need a kick - like you're blasting along the turnpike at 80 a few minutes late for where you need to be, or something like that. Too Late isn't bad, but it's a little heavy. Actually, I think that's my problem with the whole album - many the songs are so heavy and languid that it's hard to listen all the way through.

[think-too-much.livejournal.com]

Well, how was the Cake?

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Interesting...

It's generally good, but the covers are so straight-ahead (sometimes to their detriment) and there's so little original material that it's hard to say anything about it. Cake's level of musicianship is high enough that they can pull off anything they want, and that's basically all they do here.