Top 25 of 2010: #1 Together by the New Pornographers

Panel by Gerald McCann from Frogmen comic book #7, January 1953

#1 Together by the New Pornographers (Matador Records)

I'm lurching across the finish line here, almost completely out of gas when it comes to writing about music for the year. I feel like this year's best album, Together, deserves better than what I have to offer at this point - you may be best off just reading my original, over-the-top enthusiastic review of the record here.

I'll say a couple things about Together and how I feel about it today, though. My strong feelings about this record don't really have that much to do with where it stands in the New Pornographers' discography. I could make an argument that the songs on the record are a perfect distillation of what Carl Newman, Neko Case, Dan Bejar, and friends have been doing since day one, combining the frenetic, keyboard-heavy power-pop of Mass Romantic, the skewed anthems of Electric Version, the catchy eclecticism of Twin Cinema, and the smooth and emotive retro pop of Challengers. But that's not really what makes me love these songs so much.

The thing is, I've listened to Together a lot this year, possibly more than any other 2010 release. I saw the New Pornographers perform twice in 2010, and they were great both times. And - this may be the key to the whole thing - my three-year-old son loves Together, and I find that my feelings for the record are tied to my desire to make my kid happy. Together makes him happy, and it makes me happy. And I never tire of these songs - we sing along to them while running errands together in the car, and their endless joyfulness has become synonymous to me with the happiness that comes from being with my family.

So that's where I'm coming from, and I know that it's not a very helpful or objective basis for putting the New Pornographers at the top of my Best of 2010 list. The fact that I can listen to Together so much without hating it means the songs are just perfect pop compositions as far as I'm concerned, but I'm not going to stray from my reasoning here. For the place I'm at in my life right now, right down to the sentiment of its title, Together is the perfect record - it just makes me happy.

"Crash Years" by the New Pornographers

Top 25 of 2010: #5 - #2

Detail of the cover illustration of Primer Acto magazine #155, 1973

We're into the home stretch of my Top 25 of the year, and I'd like to acknowledge that there are plenty of albums not on this list simply because I didn't get to them this year. There are plenty of great 2010 releases that are still on my to-buy list, and I'm sure I'll be picking some of them up (and kicking myself for waiting so long) in the coming months.

#5 Disconnect From Desire by School of Seven Bells (Vagrant Records)

My initial listens to Disconnect From Desire were tainted by high expectations set by School of Seven Bells' amazing debut record from 2008. I still think that a couple of the album's tracks are too direct/pop, but I now regard it as a thoroughly enjoyable success overall in finding a new accessibility without losing the otherworldly charm of their earlier work. And I'm more inclined to give this record the benefit of a doubt than I was, initially - with Claudia Deheza, one third of the band, exiting unexpectedly this year, I'm not sure what the future holds for School for Seven Bells. (here.)

"Windstorm" by School of Seven Bells

#4 Memphis by Magic Kids (True Panther Sounds)

I'm not a dedicated follower of breezy, summery indie-pop anymore, but it seems like it's been an interesting year for the genre. Pitchfork has promoted a lot of indie-pop music this year - bands like Twin Sister, Pearl Harbor, and Local Natives got a lot of attention, but I've been surprised to see Memphis not make much of a dent in the "end of year" lists. To my ears, this is easily the best thing to come out of the indie-pop scene all year, balancing Beach-Boys whimsy with elements of sophistication and occasional childlike, manic energy to keep things interesting. (Original review here.)

"Summer" by Magic Kids

#3 Revelation Skirts by the Capstan Shafts (Rainbow Quartz Records)

Sometimes it's difficult for a hardcore lo-fi hermit to step out of the basement and record an album fit for public consumption. Guided By Voices didn't really get it right until their final album Half Smiles of the Decomposed, and even the Mountain Goats took a couple tries to get to the perfection of The Sunset Tree. I'm not saying that Dean Wells has hit it out of the park on his first try bringing the Capstan Shafts out of the home-recording ghetto, but the sparkling pop of Revelation Skirts does pretty well on the steep lo-fi-to-mid-fi learning curve. And it helps that Wells is working with the same snappy lyrical twists and pop hooks as on his previous records. (Original review here.)

"Your Wasted Is a Talent Here" by the Capstan Shafts

#2 The Volebeats by the Volebeats (Rainbow Quarts Records)

If you'd told me back in January that my second favorite album of the year would be a 19-song alt-country record, I'd have scoffed openly (that's right, I "scoff" in the old-school fashion). I'm living in a post-Wilco world, but the Volebeats are making me reconsider my possibly premature dismissal of the genre. Matthew Smith of Outrageous Cherry and Jeff Oakes turn out an amazing set of country-rock songs on this self-titled record, veering from straightforward power-pop to old-school country and hitting every spot on the spectrum in between. I don't think it's the renewed novelty of enjoying alt-country that brings me back to this record again and again, though - I think the songwriting is just really, really good. (Original review here.)

"1,000 Miles of Confusion" by the Volebeats

Top 25 of 2010: #10 - #6

Detail of the cover illustration of Frederick Arnold Kummer's Ladies in Hades, 1928

Two more entries in my Top 25 after this - I'll do the top five on Monday except for my #1 favorite album of 2010, which will get its own write-up on Tuesday. Then I think I'll probably take the rest of the week off, and start fresh in 2011.

#10 High Violet by the National (4AD)

It says a lot about the National that I was initially disappointed with High Violet, but they ended up in my Top 10 anyway. My bad first impression of the record had a lot to do with the album's murky opener "Terrible Love", which didn't live up to live versions I'd previously heard. That track still bothers me - they would have done better by using the alternate version included in the expanded release of the album - but there are half a dozen tracks here that are as good as anything they've done. (here.)

"Bloodbuzz Ohio" by the National

#9 Contra by Vampire Weekend (XL Recordings)

It may see seem an odd thing to question the broad appeal of Vampire Weekend, seeing how Contra went to #1 on the Billboard chart. But many Vampire Weekend songs ("Horchata", "California English", "Diplomat's Son") really come from a particular point of view, one that very few people have experienced first-hand (me included, although I might understand it better than some.) Is it socially aspirational music fandom, or are the hooks and melodies just that good? I tend to believe it's the latter. (Original review here.)

"Giving Up Your Gun" by Vampire Weekend

#8 Innerspeaker by Tame Impala (Modular Recordings)

I was at the record store the other day, and this album was playing over the PA - it just made me instantly happy. A lot of "retro" rock has to be applied to specific situations and contexts to be listenable, but the spacey psych-rock of Tame Impala's Innerspeaker doesn't work that way. I don't want to use the word "transcends" (or "transcendent"), but that's really how these songs feel to me. (Original review here.)

"Lucidity" by Tame Impala

#7 Majesty Shredding by Superchunk (Merge Records)

As a highly neurotic person, all my music tastes are governed by rules, and one of my rules is that you buy the albums from a band's peak years only - never sully your enjoyment of those best albums by dabbling in their later "downhill" material. Somehow, this rule doesn't apply to bands I've been following since my youth, though, which is why I have half a dozen mediocre REM albums on my bookshelf. But it's worth it for the occasional album like Majesty Shredding, and album that justifies years of fandom, ignoring chronology completely and delivering amazing energy, freshness, and top-notch songwriting. (Original review here.)

"Digging for Something" by Superchunk

#6 Treats by Sleigh Bells (Mom + Pop Records)

I'm noticing that my write-ups today are becoming increasingly long-winded and tedious. Luckily, I don't have a treatise to write about Treats - it is what its title says. In under half an hour, Sleigh Bells delivers a non-stop sugar rush of trashy guitar hooks, sing-song melodies, and blown-out drum-machine beats. My tastes don't always skew toward "fun" music, but Treats is the most "fun" I've had with a record this year. (Original review here.)

"Tell 'Em" by Sleigh Bells

Top 25 of 2010: #15 - #11

Detail of the cover illustration of Fantastic Universe magazine #2, 1956

Part three of my list of 2010's best new releases...

#15 Astro Coast by Surfer Blood (Kanine Records)

I have trouble remembering that Astro Coast really came out in 2010 - the buzz around the excellent "Swim" single goes back to late 2009. My two main comparisons for Surfer Blood are apt, I think, but also misleading and unappetizing for a lot of people - this band is really a combination of the best qualities found in the first two albums by Weezer and the Shins. It's true - deal with it. (here.)

"Swim" by Surfer Blood

#14 Personal Life by the Thermals (Sub Pop)

The Thermals are a more "punk rock" version of Spoon. They strip their music down to a few elemental, raw sounds - as a result, their songs can make an immediate connection with me the first time I hear them when the reduction process works just right. Personal Life's existentialist couples-therapy theme is one that hits home for me as well, elevating this record above its "treading water" reputation. (Original review here.)

"Never Listen to Me" by the Thermals

#13 Accept the Mystery by Graham Smith (Reesonable Records)

Smith once again drops his Kleenex Girl Wonder pseudonym to make a "songwriterly" album. A tidier piece of work, Accept the Myster lacks some of the manic energy and sprawl of the last two KGW records, but the music hits harder in its best moments because of the more fleshed-out and thoughtful arrangements. As usual, though, Smith's lyrics are the big deal here. (Original review here.)

"These Things Are Nice..." by Graham Smith

#12 The Winter of Mixed Drinks by Frightened Rabbit (Fat Cat Records)

The Winter of Mixed Drinks is the sound of a bedroom-project-turned-actual-band completely leaving its roots behind without being entirely sure where to go next. As a result, certain stretches of the record seem tentative or repetitive, but Scott Hutchison's emotive writing still packs a wallop on the album's best tracks ("Nothing Like You", "Swim Until You Can't See Land", "Living in Colour".) (Original review here.)

"Nothing Like You" by Frightened Rabbit

#11 Before Today by Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti (4AD)

Ariel Pink hasn't sold out - there is enough intentional clumsiness and ugliness on Before Today to drive away most people with "mainstream" tastes (e.g. "Butt-House Blondies"), but there are also plenty of moments that show Ariel Pink's ability to write a killer pop song when he's in the moood. "Round and Round" single-handedly got this album to the outskirts of my Top 10, but songs like "Can't Hear My Eyes" and "Menopause Man" make this more than a one-hit-and-filler record. (Original review here.)

"Round and Round" by Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

Top 25 of 2010: #20 - #16

Illustration from Anatomiae amphitheatrvm effigie triplici, more et conditione varia, designatvm by Johann Theodor de Bry, 1623

Part two of my list of 2010's best new releases...

#20 Odd Blood by Yeasayer (Secretly Canadian)

Back in March, I said the following, and my basic feeling hasn't changed through regular play of the album since then: "I think that the only way that Odd Blood won't end up as one of my favorites of 2010 is if I spend too much time looking at its terrible packaging and not enough time listening to its contents." (Original review here.)

"Ambling Alp" by Yeasayer

#19 The Suburbs by Arcade Fire (Merge Records)

With this album getting Top 20 placement in at least ten of the big Best of 2010 list (with a #1 placement in Q magazine), it's tempting to be a contrarian bastard and say something negative about this record. But, overlong and plodding as it can be at times, The Suburbs has got its fair share of really emotionally engaging moments and pop hooks. (Original review here.)

"The Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" by Arcade Fire

#18 The Weight's on the Wheels by the Russian Futurists (Upper Class Recordings)

Sometimes I'm so worried that I'll never see the release of a much-delayed album by a favorite artist that, when it finally comes out, I have no ability to evaluate it objectively. I'm still in that place with The Weight's on the Wheels - I love the dancey, verbose synth-pop of the Russian Futurists so much that I'm willing to put this album in my Top 25 just because Matthew Adam Hart got his crap together for a minute and got the album into my hands. (Original review here.)

"Hoeing Weeds Sowing Seeds" by the Russian Futurists

#17 The Big Black & the Blue by First Aid Kit (Wichita Recordings)

This may be the most surprising inclusion in my Top 25 - to me, at least. Released way back in January, The Big Black & Blue isn't an album that imposes itself - it's just a tidy little folk-pop album that flew under most people's radar. But there's something in the voices of the Söderberg sisters that has wormed its way into my heart, and now I can't deny my love for large chunks of this record. (Original review here.)

"I Met Up with the King" by First Aid Kit

#16 Our Cubehouse Still Rocks by Boston Spaceships (Guided By Voices Inc.)

It's a competitive year when Robert Pollard can't crack my Top 15, and maybe I'm underrating this release a little. The truth is that I could play this record more or less endlessly - the combination of Pollard's weary Beatles voice and high-energy power-pop arrangements is like catnip for me, but I was too busy listening to more "exciting" releases this year and shelved this one too soon. They say that "Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" - for the record, Pollard is the one whose consistent. I'm both the fool and the little mind. (Original review here.)

"Come On Baby Grace" by Boston Spaceships

Top 25 of 2010: #25 - #21

Illustration by Philip Hays from New York magazine, February 1970

Here's the first part of my Top 25 of 2010 list. I've included a link to my original review of the album (where available), as well as a brief comment on my current feelings about the album. I know it's not a very diverse list - when it comes to new releases, I don't wander as far afield from my "indie rock" home as I do with older stuff.

#25 Shadows by Teenage Fanclub (Merge Records)

The Fannies' ninth proper album isn't loaded with "wow!" moments, but the band uses its talent for power-pop hooks to make a surprisingly ingratiating '70s soft-rock pastiche, with the songs of Norman Blake being good enough to edge this one into my Top 25. (Original review here.)

"Baby Lee" by Teenage Fanclub

#24 Broken Bow by Eux Autres (Bons Mots Records)

I've only had Broken Bow in my hands for couple weeks, but I'm already certain it belongs in this list. The band's erudite indie pop comes across as a co-ed Vampire Weekend, but the real story here is Heather Larimer, one of my new favorite vocalists. (Original review here.)

"Queen Turner" by Eux Autres

#23 The Bluebirds of Happiness Tried to Land on My Shoulder by Tobin Sprout (Moonflower Records)

One of the highlights of my year was seeing Tobin Sprout take the stage as part of the reunited Guided By Voices classic lineup, but the counter-balance to that get-the-boys-back-together reunion is Sprout's new LP, a beautiful meditation on aging and letting go. (Original review here.)

"Pretty" by Tobin Sprout

#22 Heartland by Owen Pallett (Domino Records)

With Heartland, Canada's honey-voiced violinist drops the Chocobo-imagery-laden Final Fantasy pseudonym and makes an impenetrable concept album in which he is a deity having an extended dialogue with a farmer named Lewis. Luckily, the songwriting is strong enough to compensate for the concept. (Original review here.)

"Lewis Takes Action" by Owen Pallett

#21 Undercard by the Extra Lens (Domino Records)

A lot has changed since John Darnielle's early days of wailing into his boom box while thrashing a battered acoustic guitar. A lot of his songs still sound like a bundle of raw nerve endings, but his willingness to emphasize mood with additional sounds in the mix works best when he partners with someone like Franklin Bruno, the other half of the Extra Lens. (Original review here.)

"Only Existing Footage" by the Extra Lens

In Stores Now: Broken Bow by Eux Autres

Illustration from "Christmas Traditions Strengthen Families", a pamphlet published by North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service, November 1961

In what will probably be my final "In Stores Now" entry of 2010, I want to talk about Broken Bow by Eux Autres. This comparison will not be helpful to a lot of people, but this record reminds me a lot of Tullycraft's 2007 album Every Scene Needs a Center, a criminally ignored indie-pop opus that was one of my favorite records of that year. Like Tullycraft, Eux Autres are a West-coast (San Fran) indie-pop band that specializes in bouncy pop songs and boy-girl vocals. Like Every Scene Needs a Center, Broken Bow comes across as an album with a not-immediately-apparent depth, with lyrics that weave the songs together with repeated motifs and themes. It's a thinking person's indie-pop record, if there is such a thing.

For me, the main draw of Eux Autres is the voice of Heather Larimer - whether she's yelping joyfully ("Queen Turner"), growling seductively ("Go Dancing"), or cooing like a French chanteuse ("Jamais"), her phrasing and personality make Eux Autres' propulsive songs more ear-catching than standard-issue indie pop. The album's best moments are exercises in restraint, where a decent pop song chugs along for a couple minutes and then explodes into an out-of-nowhere soaring chorus ("You're Alight"), emotional bridge ("Go Dancing"), or sing-along outro (the excellent album closer "Cover Rights").

Heather's brother Nicholas provides vocals as well, and they provide a nice counterpoint, but he sings in a familiar pinched indie-music tenor and, most unfortunately, he gets saddled with the album's two weakest and over-long songs, the interesting-narratively-but-not-musically "A Band Undone" and the just-plain-boring "Take It or Leave It". I should also mention the Springsteen cover on Broken Bow, too ("My Love Will Not Let You Down") - it was a big draw for me here because of my current infatuation with the THE BOSS, and it doesn't disappoint. Eux Autres are at their best with their most tightly-coiled numbers, bristling with (sexual?) tension and punctuated with moments of pure melodic joy - there's no shortage of these on Broken Bow, the best being "You're Alight", "Cover Rights", and (presented here) "Queen Turner".

"Queen Turner" by Eux Autres

Probabilistic Jukebox: "A New Home" by Gaze

Painting by Arthur Heming from The Drama of the Forests: Romance and Adventure, 1921

Gaze! Now there's a band I haven't thought about in ages. A British-Columbia-based indie-pop trio that recorded for K Records in the last '90s, Gaze caught my attention because of the involvement of Rose Melberg from the Softies and Tiger Trap. Well, that and the fact that they covered a song by my beloved Game Theory, the excellent "Nine Lives to Rigel Five".

The album Shake the Pounce didn't really meet my expectations, though - the wistful, lovelorn tone and breezy pop sound were right, but Melberg was really more of a supporting player in the band, and frontwoman Miko Hoffman's unpolished voice didn't really appeal to me much. "A New Home" was one song on the album that I liked immediately, though - probably because it sounds just like the Softies. I'm pretty sure it's Melberg singing lead on this track and the yearning chorus really hits home with its close harmonies.

"A New Home" by Gaze

It's New to Me: 154 by Wire (1979)

Illustration by Dick Sargent from an ad for Post Grape-Nuts Flakes, 1958

I wasn't planning on posting about 154, even though I just got it and it kind of knocked my socks off, just because I don't really have anything new or interesting to say about it. But I'm pretty burnt out right now and biding my time until I can start spewing my "Best of 2010" filler entries, so I thought I'd at least post my new favorite Wire song.

I've had the other two albums from Wire's trio of classic late-'70s post-punk records, but I'd shied away from 154 because I'd always heard that it was the most arty and least accessible of the three (more "post", less "punk). I finally picked it up because it has "Map Ref 41N 93W", one of Wire's best-known and best-loved songs. Here's a summary of my impressions of 154: (i) I really like all the odd-numbered songs on the record, but the even-numbered ones are all kind of "meh"; (ii) I was surprised to find that 154 has one song that I like even better than "Map Ref 41N 93W" - "The 15th" is everything I like about Wire in a single 3-minute blast; and (iii) today is the 15th of December, so there is a kind of synchronicity that this post fell on this date! That last one isn't really about the album, but apparently I only had two things to say about 154.

"The 15th" by Wire

It's New to Me: Rough Mix by Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane (1977)

Illustration by Sybil Corbet from The Outpost, magazine of the 17th Battalion Highland Light Infantry, June 1915

Every now and then, I reach a point where I think I've got rock music figured out - I know all the major players and albums, I know where the new stuff is going - nothing's going to surprise me. And then I find an album like Rough Mix. A collaboration between the Who's Pete Townshend and the Small Faces' Ronnie Lane from 1977, Rough Mix is a really interesting album, but I had never ever heard it mentioned anywhere prior to finding it in a used CD store last week. How had I never heard of this? We're talking about two of the greats to come out of the UK "mod" scene playing together, with help from Eric Clapton, Charlie Watts, and John Entwhistle. I guess the story that goes around about this record is that Lane was obligated to record an album for Atlantic as part of his brief participation in a Small Faces reunion, so Townshend agreed to make a quick album with him to get him back on his feet.

I'm not sure that's strictly true, but it would explain the sound and feel of Rough Mix which doesn't sound like a set of collaborative jams. You can tell that each guy brought a set of songs to the table and then rounded up some friends to help get them recorded. Lane's songs are folky acoustic numbers, and they are generally considered to be the weaker half here, but I think I prefer them to Townshend's overall. Of his contributions, only the honky-tonk workout "Catmelody" is a throwaway. Townsend puts in five songs to Lane's four (plus a co-written title instrumental and a cover of "Till the Rivers All Run Dry"), and although one or two of them may be Who By Numbers cast-offs, they don't sound like b-sides. Album opener "My Baby Gives It Away" is crass and unappealing, but "Keep Me Turning" and "Heart to Hang Onto" are solid Who-style power-pop, the latter being the album's most collaborative-sounding track, with Lane and Townshend trading off on vocals backed by a horn section directed by Entwhistle.

Rough Mix is much more polished than its title suggests, and any of a half-dozen tracks could be my favorite here. Lane's delicately lilting "Annie" is a keeper, as is Townshend's orchestral urban epic "Street in the City", but today I'm really liking "April Fool". It's almost a sketch of a song, with Lane singing a verse or two before a couple minutes of acoustic jamming. Lane's melody is very effective, though, and the noodling at the end is Eric Clapton on dobro and is also quite sweet.

"April Fool" by Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane

In Stores Now: Blood/Candy by the Posies

Cover illustration from a booklet published by Wheeling Hospital, 1928

Here's another one of those earlier-in-the-year releases that I am just now getting around to. To be honest, at this point I don't know if I would have gone looking for a new Posies album, but this one kind of fell in my lap. I'm glad it did, too, because it's reminded me why I loved the Posies in the first place - they're still making that grungy power-pop that sounded perfect in the mid-'90s, but it honestly still sounds pretty non-nostalgically good to these ears. Blood/Candy is a very uneven album - any album recorded in fits and starts of the period of a couple years is bound to be - but the variety/inconsistency actually makes it a less boring listen than you might expect.

The band's core members/songwriters Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer have evidently reached the point in their life where the focus is on doing the work that does the best job of paying the bills, but they're still willing to put out the occasional release under the Posies name. They don't seem that interested in acknowledging current trends - you might say they go to far the other way in making a big deal over guest vocals by Kay Hanley on one track (she was the lead singer of Letters to Cleo, a band best known for being on the Melrose Place soundtrack). The song she sings on, "The Glitter Prize", is one of a trio of tracks starting the album that all tout guest vocalists - surprisingly, this track is the only one of the three that is any good. "Plastic Paperbacks" (featuring Hugh Cornwell of the Stranglers) is clunky and never really gets off the ground, and the too-baroque "Licenses to Hide" (featuring Lisa Lobsinger) is a chimera of tempos that doesn't hold together too well (although it is not, as alleged by a reviewer at Popmatters, the worst song of the year by any stretch).

Things pick up remarkably on Blood/Candy once those first three tracks are out of the way, though. "So Caroline" comes next and is easily my favorite track on the record - it has the soaring melodies and crunchy guitar hooks that elevate the Posies' best materials above '90s nostalgia. From there, Stringfellow and Auer evoke a decent mix of their earlier highs - "For the Ashes" brings to mind the moody Dear 23, "Cleopatra Street" and "Enewetak" are swirling pop numbers a la Frosting on the Beater, and the heavier numbers like "Notion 99" bring back the mixed feelings I had about Amazing Disgrace. I'm tempted to say that Blood/Candy is a Posies album for hardcore Posies fans, but I'm not sure I'm qualified to say that, so I'll just say that it's an uneven but satisfying album that delivers a lot of what I like about the Posies.

"So Caroline" by the Posies

In Stores Now: I'm Having Fun Now by Jenny and Johnny

Poster by Peter Markovic for Aeroput Jugoslavija airline, c. 1935

I know this album came out months and months ago, but I'm trying to catch up on a couple 2010 releases before I try to put together a "Best of 2010" list, and this one could be a contender.

Anyway, Jenny Lewis is having fun now - good for her. And good for us too - the Rilo Kiley front-woman is in love and making pop duets with her Scottish boyfriend Johnathan Rice (who I have finally stopped confusing with Irish singer Damien Rice), and the result is that her music sounds more fun than it has in years. I'll admit that I'm a sucker for anything with boy-girl vocals in the indie-pop vein, but Lewis is one of my favorite female vocalists and she pushes that to another level entirely with the vocal interplay on these songs. And Rice isn't bad either - a lot of reviews led me to believe that (at the risk of losing my cred with Yoko fans from yesterday's entry) the Jenny/Johnny pairing was more John/Yoko than Lennon/McCartney, but I don't find his presence to drag the songs down at all.

And - who knows? - maybe his contributions are part of what makes I'm Having Fun Now work so well. I just know that the best songs are the ones where Lewis takes the lead vocal and the lyrics are full of her caustic wit. Except for the too-atmospheric "While Men Are Dreaming", but even that track is okay as a palette-cleanser. The classic sounds on the record, like the slap echo on the rhythm guitar, work nicely, but the similarity that struck me most was that a lot of these songs sound like the country-tinged Shirley-Simms-sung songs on the Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs. I wondered if this similarity could be intentional, and then I heard "Slavedriver" for the first time - it's a late-in-the-tracklist highlight, and it bites the synth intro of the Magnetic Fields' "Born on a Train" in a way that can't be coincidence.

"Big Wave" isn't the best Jenny-sung song on I'm Having Fun Now, but it's the promo track that's been passed around, and I don't want to risk posting something else - this is a Warner Bros. release, after all. "Big Wave" is a good example of Lewis having more fun with her songwriting - it's clearly about the recent US economic recession, but it doesn't turn into an unpleasant polemic like the some of the tracks on Rilo Kiley's More Adventurous. The tone is light and the lyrical focus is personal and she sounds like she's having fun. Good for her.

"Big Wave" by Jenny and Johnny

Title Fight: "Love"

Illustration from the children's book Madejowe łoże by Lucjan Rydel, 1909

Last night, I somehow ended up watching VH1 Classic (I think at first because A Hard Day's Night, one of my favorite movies ever, was on) - I ended up watching several hours of John-Lennon-related programming, including Imagine: John Lennon, most of the 1972 concert film, and (I hate to admit this) an episode of Behind the Music about Lennon's death.

By the end of the evening, I was convinced that it's time for me to start ingesting Lennon's post-Beatles work. I think my expectations are properly set at this point, and I am at a point in my life where I'm cool with Yoko and can probably get understand/appreciate her music. My plan is to get Double Fantasy and/or Milk & Honey ASAP, and work backward from there. But the first thing I have to do is admit that I do have but don't really like John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, so I'm putting Lennon in a Title Fight he's bound to lose. I will then do penance by working to appreciate Lennon's post-Beatles records.

The songwriting on Plastic Ono Band is just THIN. I actually really like John's singing on this record (even the screamy stuff), but the arrangements are barely there, and the song structures and lyrics simply don't appeal to me at all. Even a song like "Love", one of the more accessible numbers on the record, doesn't have much going on. The piano part played by noted future murderer and producer Phil Spector is pretty nice, and the melody actually has a hook to it, but the repetition in the lyric is just ponderous.

Robyn Hitchcock's "Love" is simply a better song - for one thing, it has something to say about love that goes beyond platitudes for one thing. It also has some interesting parallels to Lennon's "Love". It was recorded for Hitchcock's 1981 album Black Snake Diamond Role almost exactly a decade after Plastic Ono Band came out, and Lennon was killed during its recording sessions, as Hitchcock mentions in the album's liner notes. Spector's contribution to Lennon's song is mirrored in Thomas Dolby playing on Hitchcock's track - he is credited with playing the "ocean". I'm not saying that Hitchcock is superior to Lennon as a songwriter, vocalist, or player, but I find his "Love" to be more poignant. There's a good argument, however, that his song would not exist without Lennon having come before. So I'm off to buy some John Lennon records.

Winner: ROBYN HITCHCOCK

"Love" by John Lennon

"Love" by Robyn Hitchcock

Probabilistic Jukebox: "The Teacher" by Super Furry Animals

Detail from a poster for the movie Isle of Destiny, 1940

"The Teacher" is the song that really sold me on Super Furry Animals - I remember my first listen to the band's 1999 album Guerrilla being a disorienting experience, as each song defied my expectations in a totally different way. Then I hit the album's last stretch of excellent songs ("The Teacher", "Fire In My Heart", "Chewing Chewing Gum", and "Keep the Cosmic Trigger Happy") and the whole album made sense to me. I was a permanent fan at that point. And it was really "The Teacher" that did it - that Kinks-on-speed rhythm guitar, the manic exuberance, the grade-school doggerel lyric, and especially the organ-handclaps-and-screaming intro bring a smile to my face every time it comes up on the jukebox.

"The Teacher" by Super Furry Animals

It's New to Me: A Grown-Ass Man by Dump (2003)

Collage titled Students in Heidelberg by Max Ernst, 1921

"Stockholm Syndrome" was one of the best songs on Yo La Tengo's 1997 album I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, and hearing it when it came out made me take notice of Yo La Tengo's bassist James McNew for the first time. I'm not the best at differentiating between vocalists in bands, so it took me several listens to realize that McNew sang lead on "Stockholm Syndrome", which meant that he probably wrote it as well - I was impressed. That song by itself is basis enough for going out and buying the records of McNew's solo project Dump. I wrote earlier this year about his Prince covers album That Skinny Motherf***er with the High Voice, but A Grown-Ass Man is the first album of Dump originals I've acquired. I picked it up at the Matador 21 show in Vegas, where they had pretty much any Matador-released or Matador-related CD you might be looking for.

If you're looking for an album that fully delivers on the promise of "Stockholm Syndrome", A Grown-Ass Man might be a disappointment. Nothing on the record quite reaches the pure pop goodness of that song or a few others that he has done with his main gig (like "Tiny Birds" or "Mr. Tough"). But it's a pretty good lo-fi version of the Yo La Tengo approach to pop music, if that's what you're looking for. McNew throws out a few folky tracks, a couple covers, a few soulful numbers, and two extended jams. Surprisingly, the album has a lightweight feel to it that you might not expect from a bass-player's music, but it's a good match for McNew's thin falsetto voice. Neither of the album's extended tracks is very groove-oriented, for example - "Sisters" is stretched-out twee pop, and "Daily Affirmation" is a shoegaze-y guitar workout.

The covers on A Grown-Ass Man are well-chosen and well-executed - the best is probably his version of the Marvin-Gaye-Mary-Wells duet "Once Upon a Time" (sung with Sue Garner), but he also turns in creative versions of Thin Lizzy's "Cowboy Song" and, most surprisingly, "Mr. Too Damn Good" by '90s R&B singer Gerald Levert. Predictably, though, my favorite tracks on A Grown-Ass Man are those that stick close to the "Stockholm Syndrome" mold of delicate acoustic balladry with a '70s-AM sound. "I Wish/You Wish", "I'm On Your Side", and "Silver Lining" are all pretty great, with the latter track being my favorite on the record.

"Silver Lining" by Dump

In Stores Now: The Weight's on the Wheels by the Russian Futurists

Panel from Judo Joe comic book issue #2, October 1953

The Russian Futurists (aka Matthew Adam Hart) have finally delivered their long-promised fourth album, The Weight's on the Wheels, and it delivers the bouncy indie-pop that Hart's been creating since 2000's The Method of Modern Love. I've followed the Russian Futurists for years, and, while Hart's been a strong songwriter from the beginning, it's been interesting to see his murky, Magnetic-Fields-influenced synth-pop morph into something more compelling and creative.

However, most of the familiar Russian Futurists characteristics are still in full display on The Weight's on the Wheels. Drum machine beats bop along under Hart's squeakily-sung, verbose lyrics with keyboards, some neat samples, and various embellishments. My ear was immediately drawn to new sounds, like the squint-and-its-Daft-Punk intro sample of "Golden Years" and the use of female vocals (Ruth Minnikin, prominent on the call-and-response "One Night, One Kiss" and Johanna Maloney, more subtly used in "Walk With a Crutch"). The album's excellent closing track, "Horseshoe Fortune", adds acoustic guitar and mandolin for a nice organic feel as well.

Not all the experiments on The Weight's on the Wheels work well. The promising "Register My Firearms? No Way!" takes a nosedive when it hits the chorus, where a vocal sample playing under the chorus lyric makes for a muddy mess, uncharacteristic for a band that keeps its choruses clean and direct with sing-song melodies. The '80s hip-hop sounds on "100 Shopping Days 'Til Christmas" don't really work either and the song sounds monotonous. I'll admit, though, that my favorite songs on The Weight's on the Wheels are the ones that stick closes to the Russian Futurists playbook. "To Be Honest" would sound at home on 2002's Lets Get Ready to Crumble, as would the album opener "Hoeing Weeds Sowing Seeds" - these two songs use a straight-forward approach that emphasize Hart's clever turns of phrase and deceptively simple melodies.

"Hoeing Weeds Sowing Seeds" by the Russian Futurists

Why Does This Exist?: "Visit to the Doctor" by Andy Partridge

Detail of a poster by Vadim satirizing Kaiser Wilhelm, 1914

A few years ago, I won two little Internet raffles almost simultaneously, and the prize of each drawing was a copy of the Fuzzy Warbles Collector's Album, an 8-disc set of rarities and home demos by XTC's Andy Partridge. I gave one copy to my brother, and the copy I kept is one of my most prized musical possessions (particularly as one of the discs in the set randomly bears a Partridge autograph). The set is a wealth of riches, but like any extensive rarities set, it has plenty of "Why Does This Exist?" moments. I had originally planned to post "No One Here Available", a musical answering-machine message that features Partridge doing a terrible, borderline-racist Jamaican accent.

But there are better (if less WTF) songs on the Fuzzy Warbles set that probably shouldn't exist. Take "Visit to the Doctor", part of an ill-conceived project that XTC pitched to Virgin in 1993, during the darkest years of the contract stalemate between the label and the band. Partridge wanted to release a fake compilation album of blatantly sexual bubblegum pop songs, ostensibly recorded in the early '70s. If Virgin wouldn't cooperate in releasing XTC's "Wrapped in Grey" single, what made Partridge think that the label would want to release such an album? Good sense obviously didn't stop Partridge from demoing several songs for the project ("Candymine", "Standing in for Joe", "Cherry in Your Tree") and presenting them to the label for approval.

The label didn't bite, obviously, although I wonder what must have been going through their minds on hearing a loony song like "Visit to the Doctor" for the first time. To be perfectly fair to Partridge, it's a great bubblegum tune, balancing lewdness with infantilism and going all-out with the bonkers backing vocals. To tell the truth, I mostly wish that this demo doesn't exist because it's tantalizing enough to anger me that the project didn't get green-lit - it would have been awesome.

"Visit to the Doctor" by Andy Partridge

We Love the Ronettes: The "Be My Baby" Drum Intro (Part III)

Poster promoting hiking by Shari Weisberg for the WPA, 1939

On two different occasions, I have taken time to praise the "Be My Baby" drum beat on this blog. By discussing the reuse of this drum beat by various artists, I think I may have implied that I endorse this practice. And it's true that I have posted songs I like that use the drum intro in an interesting way, but I want to be clear that I never intended to issue an across-the-board endorsement of using the "Be My Baby" drum intro.

Let's look at some cautionary examples. I find that using the "Be My Baby" drum intro wrongly is judged on a very subjective basis - it doesn't work when it makes you groan and/or roll your eyes (inwardly or outwardly). For me, this occurs most often when the use of the intro is too "on the nose", as the kids say. A couple of this year's best releases have included songs with "Be My Baby" drum intros ("Lewis Takes Action" by Owen Pallett and "Save My Love" from Springsteen's The Promise spring to mind), but that's because they put the intro to use in an interesting context. It rubs me the wrong way primarily when its use just screams, "Check it out! We're influenced by the Ronettes!"

Camera Obscura is good example of a band that doesn't need to scream, "We're influenced by the Ronettes!" so it bugs me a little to hear the "Be My Baby" intro at the beginning of "Eighties Fan" on their debut album, Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi. The same is true of the drum beat showing up at the beginning of "Tension", from the second album by Brooklyn's Vivian Girls. I already know you like the Ronettes? How do I know? Because I have heard more than sixty seconds of your music! And, for some reason, I find the same to be true of '80s retro-pop band the Three O'Clock. The classic '60s pop sound was such a basic part of their appeal that using the "Be My Baby" beat just seems like too much.

Having said that, though, I like all three of these songs. "Follow Him Around" has a nice vocal break and guitar solo in the middle, making it one of the stronger tracks on 1986's underwhelming Ever After. "Tension" is also a highlight on an underwhelming album, with charming/almost-grating off-key vocals and a rumbling momentum provided by that beat. And "Eighties Fan" was one of the most promising songs on Camera Obscura's debut, showcasing Tracyanne Campbell's darkly whimsical lyrics and lilting, uncertain soprano. Three nice songs that would have been just as nice without referencing "Be My Baby" in such an obnoxiously obvious way.

"Eighties Fan" by Camera Obscura

"Follow Him Around" by the Three O'Clock

"Tension" by Vivian Girls

It's New to Me: The Book of Spectral Projections by Outrageous Cherry (2001)

Panel from Monte Hale Western comic book #44, January 1950

I've been catching up on the past releases of Detroit retro/power-pop combo Outrageous Cherry and, by my rough calculations, my write-ups on these albums are among the least popular things I post here. I'm not sure why that is, but Outrageous Cherry is a great band, so I will continue to proselytize in the face of faceless opposition. Also, I had to write about The Book of Spectral Projections because it's a crazy fun record.

Outrageous Cherry released the concise and hook-filled power-pop record Out There in the Dark in 1999, but the band went in a totally different direction with the album that followed. 2001's The Book of Spectral Projections is an 80-minute epic exploration of deep psychedelia with an outer-space/occult theme, twenty songs with titles like "The Unseen Devourers", "Wide Awake in the Spirit World", and "Electric Child of Witchcraft Rising" (that last one being one of my favorite song titles EVER.) But the album isn't all heavy Hawkwind-style craziness, with all the major psych-pop classics (Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Magical Mystery Tour, Their Satanic Majesties Request, SF Sorrow) referenced at different points.

I'll admit that The Book of Spectral Projections gets bogged down a little by a turgid middle section, but I'll stand behind the album's marathon length as being essential to its charm. The album deliberately starts hard and heavy, with the opening title track setting the tone, and then stretches out in the middle with longer guitar work-outs and moody numbers before coming back with a very pop-oriented final third. The lyrics are fun and walk the serious/parody line without provoking eye-rolling, and the spacey guitar effects and harmonies add up nicely to create my preferred style of psychedelic pop. "Is It Time?" has one of the record's less creative titles, but it's still one of my favorite tracks and gives a good idea of what you'll find in The Book of Spectral Projections.

"Is It Time?" by Outrageous Cherry