By Chris Moore:
Crazy For You cover (Best Coast, 2010)
(July 27, 2010)
Review:
Best Coast sounds like the product of Zooey Deschanel and Tegan & Sara meeting on a drizzly day in sunny Californ-i-a, deciding to form a band; unfortunately, though, not much is surprising after the first couple tracks, but the band oozes potential and hints at what they may be capable of in the future.
Top Two Tracks:
“Crazy for You” & “Boyfriend”
By Chris Moore:
With this being the season of togetherness and all, it only seems right to present the “Best Collaborations of 2010” category. This is a pretty short one, as there are so many collaborations of different sorts throughout the music industry — I wanted to highlight only a few standouts. Number one with a bullet, at least for me, has to be this year’s Beach Boys reunion on “Don’t Fight the Sea,” a track on Al Jardine’s solo album that found not only surviving Beach Men Jardine, Brian Wilson, and Mike Love but also Carl Wilson collaborating on lead and background vocals. This was, of course, due to Carl Wilson’s vocals being posthumously remastered and added to the mix.
The next collaboration is one of the great partnerships of recent years: rock/alternative pianist Ben Folds and novelist/lyricist Nick Hornby teamed up this year for some of the smartest sounding rock the former has turned out in years.
Danger Mouse has been extraordinarily productive in recent years, but his collaboration with Sparklehorse — a particularly quirky one at that — is one of the darkest albums of the year, and a standout among this year’s music releases.
My honorable mention belies the soft spot I have for all things Wallflowers-related, one that is not nearly satisfied by Jakob Dylan’s solo catalog.
So, enjoy this brief list today, and check back for a top fifteen tomorrow!
BEST COLLABORATION
1) Al Jardine, Brian Wilson, Mike Love, & Carl Wilson (“Don’t Fight the Sea” – A Postcard from California)
2) Ben Folds & Nick Hornby (Lonely Avenue)
3) Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse (Dark Night of the Soul)
Honorable Mention: Court Yard Hounds & Jakob Dylan (“See You in the Spring” – Court Yard Hounds)
The Gaslight Anthem's "American Slang" (2010)
(June 15, 2010)
Review:
If you ever wondered what Bruce Springsteen would have sounded like had he been born into the alternative/punk rock legacy, well… the time has come; American Slang suffers a bit from homogeneity of sound, but each of the ten tracks here unfolds as a vivid landscape that transports the listener to a new and yet not entirely unfamiliar locale.
Top Two Tracks:
“Orphans” & “The Diamond Church Street Choir”
The Jimi Hendrix Experience's "Axis: Bold As Love" (1967)
(December 1, 1967)
Review:
Although this album suffers from a few inferior tracks (an issue absent from the debut), one sentence simply doesn’t do this record justice; Axis: Bold As Love finds the Experience more conceptual, Hendrix conscious of his lyrical content and thematic cohesion, and all the while managing the most interesting guitar soundscapes yet supported by drumwork few other bands could muster.
Top Two Tracks:
“Wait Until Tomorrow” & “Bold As Love”