The Top Ten Rock Albums of 2009 – The Weekend Review

By Chris Moore:

Welcome to The Weekend Review in a different time slot, as the first part of a Chris Moore Monday two-fer.  This week, I took a look – and a listen – back at all of the great and, well, not so great rock music of 2009.  While I plan to release many mini-articles and lists over the next couple weeks, this seemed like a topic of enough substance for a full Weekend Review report.  So, without further ado, here are the top ten rock albums of 2009…

Honorable Mention:

My Old, Familiar Friend – Brendan Benson:

Better known this decade as “the other singer/guitarist” in the Raconteurs, Brendan Benson released a power pop gem this year in My Old, Familiar Friend.  Track after track, this album harkens back to some of the best, Byrds-iest sounds of the sixties.  This is not to say that it is overly derivative, but it is certainly a throw-back and will be a blast for any fan of tight, poppy classic rock songs.  And “A Whole Lot Better” is a nod to “Feel A Whole Lot Better,” right?

Number Ten:

Keep It Hid – Dan Auerbach:

Even though I initially rated this as a “Maybe Not” in my one-sentence review back in February, I have found this album to have a lot of staying power.  I remember thinking that this album might not wear well, that it would lose its initial luster upon too many listens.  And yet I’ve found just the opposite to be true.  Although Auerbach may be working solidly within a certain genre and sound, he stretches a considerable amount within that classification, incorporating a range of instruments – most notably acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and keyboards.  The songs range from gritty blues to soothing acoustic ballads to scorching rock numbers and back again several times before the album is over.  “Trouble Weighs a Ton” and “Goin’ Home” are fitting bookends for an album that deals largely in the distortion-drenched currency of the rock guitar soloist.  “My Last Mistake” channels the Jimi Hendrix Experience.  “Heartbroken, In Disrepair” and “Mean Monsoon” make you wish you could play like this.  In the end, this is only Auerbach’s first solo effort, and it certainly doesn’t show.

Number Nine:

Working on a Dream – Bruce Springsteen:

I will be the first to admit that Bruce Springsteen is an over-hyped artist, particularly by such popular rags as Rolling Stone, and yet the man can still produce an album.  Or, rather, Springsteen and his band.  You know, the E Street Band.  You may have heard of them.  Working on a Dream is thematically and sonically interwoven from start to finish and offers up some very interesting tracks to balance out the more formulaic ones.  “Queen of the Supermarket” is a classic story in song, written and sung as only Springsteen ever could.  “Outlaw Pete” provides an unusual but fitting opening for the album.  “What Love Can Do” is the track that would have attracted the interest of rock music fans back in the days when rock ruled the radio waves.  “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Life Itself” are as beautiful as “The Last Carnival” and bonus track “The Wrestler” are bittersweet.  This provides proof positive that even this far into the game, the Boss is still progressing, maturing, and making great music.

Number Eight:

Horehound – The Dead Weather:

Better known to many as Jack White’s second side project, the Dead Weather have found a niche all their own, experimenting with the odd, the abstract, and the obscure.  If the Raconteurs provide a channel for White’s more mainstream rock leanings, then the Dead Weather more than satisfy the other end of that spectrum of musical desire.  From start to finish, you can’t quite be certain what they will throw at you next – “they,” of course, meaning lead singer Alison Mosshart, guitarist Dean Fertita, bassist Jack Lawrence, and drummer (that’s right, drummer!) Jack White.  “I Cut Like a Buffalo” is great metaphor and great rock.  Others, like “Hang You From the Heavens” and “Treat Me Like Your Mother,” are best described as infectious.  “New Pony” is the musical equivalent of finding a decimated muscle car in a junk yard, rotting away, and rebuilding it to shine with the best of the modern sports cars.  The first half of this album is admittedly stronger than the second half, but this is a debut effort, after all.

Number Seven:

Secret, Profane, & Sugarcane – Elvis Costello:

There couldn’t be an album more out of touch with the sounds and textures of modern music, and yet so inherently attuned to the emotions and undertones of that same aforementioned modern music.  As I mentioned earlier this year, these tracks sound like they could have come straight off of American folk music figure Harry Smith’s shelf.  Finally, I repeat, this is an acoustic album that sounds original and truly acoustic.  So many acoustic records of late have been helmed by otherwise successful rock artists looking for a way to stir up their recording process.  This feels more authentic than that.  “Sulphur to Sugarcane” is wonderfully humorous, less subtle than it is chauvinistic.  “Hidden Shame” and “Complicated Shadows” are so fun that you’ll quickly forget that they’re scaled-back numbers, while there is no ignoring the stark sadness in “I Dreamed of My Old Lover,” “How Deep is the Red,” and “Red Cotton.” 

Number Six:

Wilco (the album) – Wilco:

Few bands could pull off a song like “Wilco (the song),” but Wilco are not like other bands.  They’ve been everywhere – alt-country, folk rock, experimental music, alternative rock, jam-mentality work – and now they’ve arrived at a wonderfully entertaining conglomeration of many of their styles from the past fifteen years.  The aforementioned track is sincere and explores the true power and potential for healing that music provides.  “Country Disappeared” takes a bleaker view of things, while “Solitaire,” “I’ll Fight, and “You Never Know” take a more positive angle.  And, of course, “Deeper Down” and “Bull Black Nova” hint at the experimental possibilities that await us on future Wilco recordings…

Number Five:

Humbug – The Arctic Monkeys:

Humbug, for me, is one of the best albums of the year by a band that has stirred up much controversy over their excellence or lack thereof, depending on who you ask.  This should be a breakout album, a set of songs with the potential to unite – if only fleetingly – the sensibilities of fans of classic rock, punk rock, and more modern rock.  I was certainly surprised at how much I enjoyed this release, and it’s so wonderfully sequenced with sounds layered in all the right ways to keep you coming back to the individual tracks as well as the album as a whole.  “My Propeller” sets the tone for the record wonderfully.  “Cornerstone” is, well, the cornerstone for this release – it’s a witty, subversive little track that I can’t get enough of.  “Crying Lightning” and “Dance Little Liar” are driving, quirky, and catchy gems.  “Fire and The Thud” is a highpoint at the midpoint.  Although I would never have guessed it before this year, I will now be awaiting the next Arctic Monkeys release with excitement.

Number Four:

The Ruminant Band – The Fruit Bats:

The Fruit Bats put out a little disc called Spelled in Bones a few years ago.  I had it recommended to me, so I listened and even liked several of the songs.  After a few listens, though, I got tired of it.  It faded.  But there was something about the sound of the Fruit Bats that I found fantastic, and I felt like I saw more potential in them than they had managed to make good on.  I expected the same here, but what I found in The Ruminant Band was a quirky, catchy, lyrically provocative, and instrumentally exciting record.  I can find no better way to say it: this is one of absolute favorite little albums of the year!  The title track is straightforward, but fun.  “Tegucigalpa” is less straightforward and more heartfelt.  “Singing Joy to the World” is the best acoustic song to be released in a good long time.  “Primitive Man” is one of those great songs that you can entirely lose yourself in as you listen.  This is a home run for the Fruit Bats, one I didn’t see coming and yet couldn’t be more excited about.

Number Three:

Backspacer – Pearl Jam:

Let me start off by noting that this is simply not Pearl Jam’s best material.  Moving past that, let me continue by saying this is one of Pearl Jam’s most cohesive efforts since their debut Ten.  Track after track, this is a Vedder-led attack of tight, finely chiseled rock songs with some real gems.  As the title implies, the thematic common-ground throughout the record is that of assessing the issues at hand and erasing obstacles, bad blood, and just about everything that stands in the path to peace, independence, and self-confidence.  “Got Some” is one of their best efforts ever, which is really saying something.  “The Fixer” and “Supersonic” are perfect tours-de-force and redefine what great Pearl Jam tracks may sound like in the coming years.  “Just Breathe” is the closest they’ve gotten to a love song, as Vedder put it in an interview.  At every turn, Backspacer pleases and at just about a half hour in length, this is an album, that can be played over and over again. 

Number Two:

21st Century Breakdown – Green Day:

Up until the number one band on this list released their masterpiece, I thought that this would be the top album of the year for sure.  Instead, it suffers a minor bump down to the second position.  Regardless, Green Day has followed up American Idiot – which was hailed as their masterpiece – with an even better album.  They have really stretched out for this record, painting no less interesting a story than they did on their previous album.  The packaging is like a storybook, and the disc follows suit.  From beginning to end, 21st Century Breakdown tears it up and lays it out slowly in equal measure – and sometimes in the same song.  By the end of the album, the tone-setting title track has been followed up by what is one of the best concept albums in perhaps a decade.  “East Jesus Nowhere” and “Horseshoes and Handgrenades” are driving, unstoppably angry scorchers.  “21 Guns” and “Restless Heart Syndrome” are more subtle, beautiful tracks.  “21st Century Breakdown,” “Peacemaker,” “American Eulogy,” “See the Light,” and just about every other track on the album contributes in a similar but significant way to the overall theme of the whole.  Then there is “Know Your Enemy;” the decision to promote this is proof positive that boneheaded rock really does still sell.

Number One:

Forget and Not Slow Down – Relient K:

This has been a year of unexpected releases, not the least of which were noted below in Elvis Costello’s acoustic release, the Arctic Monkeys’ masterful album, and the Fruit Bats’ brilliant record.  It is fitting, then, that Relient K should score the number one album of the year with a release – not unlike The Ruminant Band – that I expected to like, not love.  And yet I love this album.  Forget and Not Slow Down is one of the most entertaining, energetic, and thoughtful post-breakup albums that I’ve had the pleasure to hear.  In many ways – and this is practically sacrilege – I would place this album in the company of Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks and Paul McCartney’s Memory Almost Full, to name a couple.  It is certainly more focused as an artistic expression than an album like Ben Folds’ Way to Normal could ever be.  Matthew Thiessen isolated himself from society to work on this album, and the result is clear: the best Relient K album to date.  To be fair, I wasn’t a fan from the start, but it appears that I’ve become a huge fan just as the band has faded into the background, this outstanding record being ignored by just about all critics this year.  What have they missed?  They’ve missed “Part of It,” a somber and catchy song at the same time – a difficult combination to pull off.  They’ve missed “Therapy,” a song that I wish I could have available on many a similar drive through the country.  They’ve missed the beauty of “Savannah” and the bitter, bile-fueled “Sahara,” the blending of the tracks made possible by the intros and the outros, and a powerful pairing in the final two tracks.  Simply put, this is the year’s best album.

“Brilliant Disguise” (Bruce Springsteen cover)

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, welcome to another edition of Jim Fusco Tuesdays here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog!  Views have been increasing by leaps and bounds here on the blog, fueled by posts by Chris that were picked up by popular Bob Dylan sites in anticipation of his new album, “Together Through Life”.  I’ll be picking that album up in a couple weeks when it comes out, but for now, I hope you’ll consider tiding-yourself over with my brand-new album, released just one week ago, “Halfway There”.  I’m very proud of it and it’s been getting some great reviews.

Onto tonight’s music video- a cover version of Bruce Springsteen’s classic song, “Brilliant Disguise”.  This is a simple, yet great, tune that actually took me a few weeks to perfect.  The choruses are very similar each time, but have very important differences, so I had to practice when each one came in.

Funny story- when my brother Mike and I were growing up, we always thought he said, “Brick in disguise”.  Of course, it probably didn’t help that our father would always sing, “Brick in the sky”.  We were never quite sure whether he was messing up by accident or on purpose.  I think the general consensus is that he just loves messing with us! 🙂

I love the recorded version of “Brilliant Disguise”- that perfect clean sound that starts off with the drums and then comes in with just the right amount of synthesizer and guitar.  To me, this is what a great song should sound like.  I love the chorus, too- not only the tune, but the words.  That last time through the chorus, “You better look hard and look twice…” is so well-worded, it gets me every time.  And, it’s true- with many people at many times in our lives, we have to ask ourselves whether we’re seeing the really person or just a “brilliant disguise”.

It’s been a long week- we finally got away for a night in Providence, RI (went to the Providence Place mall and saw “Monsters vs. Aliens” in 3-D) and had a very nice time.  But, I had to do so much video work over the next three nights that it completely wiped-out any happiness I had built-up over that tiny vacation.  I can’t wait to go again.  Couple that with two incredibly busy and stressful days at work and you get, ‘All work and no play makes Jimmy a dull boy” syndrome.  Hopefully the second half of the week will be a bit better- I hear we’re getting nicer weather and that just gives me more of an excuse to school Chris for the um-teenth time in baseball.

Have a great night and I’ll see you in a week’s time.  Enjoy this Bruce Springsteen cover!

Super Bowl Halftime Show: Bruce Springsteen’s Set List

By Chris Moore:

Hello, football fans. More specifically, hello Super Bowl XLIII Halftime Show rock music fans! I’m writing this post mid-game, anticipating Bruce Springsteen and his Halftime Show songs.

Yes, as I’m sure you’ve heard, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are performing a 12 minute set at the half time of tonight’s big game. For those of you who don’t know me, it’s those twelve minutes of Springsteen live songs that I’m eagerly anticipating. Some people bet on the game and who will win. Me? I try to guess which songs the Boss will decide to play.

Luckily, Jim invited me to his parent’s home, which hosts a big screen television and lots of snack food — the best of circumstances for watching the game!

My bet? I’m personally predicting (and hoping) that Springsteen’s set list of songs will include four tracks — three greatest hits and one from the new album, “Working on a Dream.” With only twelve minutes to work with, it seems like four songs will be a tight squeeze, but we’re talking about a crowd of football fans and party-goers with predictably short attention spans. Also, even though the great majority of Super Bowl fans won’t recognize the new songs, playing a new song just might interest some of the viewers of Super Bowl XLIII to buy “Working on a Dream.”

Okay, so here’s the predictions for specific songs, understanding of course that I don’t expect any of these to necessarily come true.

Hits: “Born in the USA,” “Brilliant Disguise,” & “Hungry Heart.” Maybe “My Hometown” as a fall back. Pretty random guesses here from a recent Springsteen fan, so take these for what they’re worth…

New Song: “My Lucky Day” or maybe “Working on a Dream” (the former is the single, but the latter IS the title track…)

Some other predictions from the Laptop Sessions peeps:

Mike and Jim agree: “Born to Run,” “Born in the USA” and “Dancing in the Dark”; something from the new album.

My bet is that they’ll be more accurate with the hits; they’re usually amazingly intuitive and/or logical with these types of music trivia and predictions.

And now, courtesy of the WordPress app on my iPhone…

The Super Bowl XLIII Bruce Springsteen Halftime Show Songs (Set List):
1) “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”
2) “Born to Run”
3) “Working on a Dream”
4). “Glory Days”

Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong in my predictions, but I was right about one thing – Springsteen and the E Street band ROCKED! He really gave it his all. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more energetic performance from anyone at any age, never mind a rock legend pushing 60 years of age…

See you tomorrow for my all-new “Chris Moore Monday” Laptop Session music video!

Music Review: Bruce Springsteen’s “Working On A Dream”

Working On A Dream has all the best qualities of his previous three albums

RATING:  4 / 5 stars

By Chris Moore:

I have to get this out there before I begin:  I have a bias against producer Brendan O’Brien.  I have cringed at the sight of his production credits ever since he took the lead on Rebel, Sweetheart, the Wallflowers’ flat-sounding follow-up to their amazing Red Letter Days album.

That being said, the time for me to forget that association is well past due.

Working On A Dream sounds like you would expect it to sound after Bruce Springsteen’s previous three albums.  And yet I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense.  Rather, it plays like an amalgamation of all the best qualities of his recent work without any of the pitfalls.

Purpose flowed for Springsteen following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and the result was a concept album.  On The Rising, there is a sense of “purpose,” to quote a term he used in his recent Rolling Stone interview.  Then there came Devils and Dust, Springsteen’s stripped-down solo effort.  It lacked the production luster of The Rising — rubbed the edges purposely raw, to be more precise — but it was evidence of an artist going back to his roots.  This became even more apparent when he released an album of folk covers called The Seeger Sessions a year later.  I recall having mixed feelings when I reviewed Devils and Dust in 2005, feeling particularly strongly that the album had been overrated.  I still maintain that.

And yet, I’m happy he recorded that album, because I hear echoes of it here.  There are moments on Working On A Dream where you can hear him let go, usually vocally or while playing harmonica.  For those brief moments, the song doesn’t need to be perfect — it needs to feel emotional and real.

So, this new record has the sense of purpose that emanates from The Rising, and there is a maturity only possible after Devils and Dust.  The third predecessor, released in 2007, is Magic.  This is my favorite Springsteen album by far, largely because I enjoy every track time and time again.  There is a pop/rock sensibility on this album that I loved instantly, and I have returned to Magic far more often than any other album he has released recently.

Well, I think Working On A Dream has captured that sensibility as well.  Only time will tell, but there is a variety and vitality to the tracks that I am far from exhausting after five listens in the first twelve hours of owning this album.  Rolling Stone has gone so far as to give it the five-star nod.  I’m not convinced.  A solid four stars?  Absolutely!

The album opens with a somewhat unusual choice, an eight minute track titled “Outlaw Pete.”  Immediately, I can’t help but hear the country/folk tradition that Springsteen has paid homage to recently — with a distinctly E-Street Band rock’n roll edge and beat to it, of course.  I was skeptical at first, but this tale of a toddler who “at six months old [had] done three months in jail” keeps your interest until the final refrain of “Can you hear me?  Can you hear me?”

Fittingly, the album closes with “The Last Carnival,” another character tale, this one about a character named Billy.  Maybe it’s just the Dylan fan in me, but I hear a country/western nod in that name, one which was an integral aspect of Dylan’s soundtrack to Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (the same soundtrack that spawned “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” a simpler but similarly  morbid and bittersweet song).

“My Lucky Day” is fast and fun.  The third and title track lumbers along as it opens, Garry Tallent unwinding a great bass line, and works up to a classic Springsteen vocal on the chorus.

There really is no way to take a song titled “Queen of the Supermarket” seriously until you have heard it.  Springsteen transforms the supermarket into a breeding ground for fantasy and poetic descriptions of life, love, and – of course – dreams.  I found myself wondering where the logical conclusion to the song would fall.  I didn’t want them to get together; that would be too contrived.  But I also didn’t want him to leave unsatisfied.  The final lines of the final verse? “As I lift my groceries into my cart, I turn back for a moment and catch a smile that blows this whole fucking place apart.”  It certainly surprised me to hear a swear in a Springsteen song, but it is indeed the perfect ending.

Well, that and the outro that comes complete with synthesized sounds reminiscent of a scanner in a grocery store checkout lane.

The album doesn’t really start until the fifth track.  “What Love Can Do” has it all – cool acoustic guitar strumming, moments of scorching electric guitar, great bass line, catchy beat, and a nice vocal arrangement.  Having mentioned vocal arrangements, it’s difficult not to acknowledge the Beach Boys-esque opening of the next song, “This Life.”  If Magic‘s “Girls in Their Summer Clothes” garnered allusions to Brian Wilson’s work, then this track certainly deserves a comparison.

The album changes direction a bit as “Good Eye” delivers rough vocals and a Devils and Dust-esque harmonica riff.  “Tomorrow Never Knows” (no, not the Beatles song; far from it, in fact!) is the most stripped-down effort on the album and perhaps the most pleasant and soothing.  Springsteen capitalizes on that feeling by following up with his dreamy sounding, poetic “Life Itself.”  Fittingly, the Working On A Dream booklet is — either purposely or not — set up to feature the lyrics to these two songs side by side, the text over a background picture of Springsteen lying in a field, classic Telecaster in hand, fast asleep.

“Kingdom of Days” is one of my favorites on the album, if only for the fact that it is one of the least formulaic, forced love songs that I have heard in some time.  It is cheesy without being too saccharine.

The opening progression of “Surprise, Surprise” reminds me of Brian Wilson’s “Love and Mercy.”  It progresses from there into a song that is equally as catchy and as hopeful as that classic Wilson tune.

You are in for a not-so-unexpected surprise after the final notes of “The Last Carnival,” as “The Wrestler” fades in and begins.  This is the title track to the Mickey Rourke film that has earned Bruce Springsteen some attention recently.  This is, of course, in addition to the attention he will be receiving for his half time show performance at Super Bowl XLIII.  And he just released a greatest hits album exclusively at Wal-Mart a couple months ago…  Sound like perfect timing?  This writer thinks so.

And I also think it is a good time to be Bruce Springsteen fan.  He has released three great albums in this decade alone.

And now, less than two years after Magic, he has released a fourth.