1.)Belle and Sebastian - The Boy With the Arab StrapMakes me happy to be alive. What more needs to be said?
The way I see it there's always going to be good music and bad music. Unfortunately the bad music has a nasty habit of rising to the top of the charts. People are always going to be attracted to the least threatening and most accessible form of a certain musical trend simply because they don't want to take the time or effort to listen to music. They want a quick fix, which I suppose is fair enough. But you can't live on Frosted Flakes alone, my friend.
So if you're genuinely interested in music with a bit of substance and heart I offer you ten of the albums released last year which managed to set my heart a-flutter. Of course, I usually only find the year's best music AFTER that year is over, so think of this as a first draft...
1.)Belle and Sebastian - The Boy With the Arab Strap
Makes me happy to be alive. What more needs to be said?
2.)Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Just when you think that everything that can possibly be done in
rock and roll has been done a band like Neutral Milk Hotel comes
along to prove how wrong you are. I've never heard anything quite
like NMH. Not just this year, but ever. Horrifically
beautiful.
3.)Sloan - Navy Blues
Older fans will disagree but this is Sloan's most consistent and
solid album to date. Totally derivative classic rock from start to
finish. I love it.
4.) Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Gorky 5
Less diverse and challenging than last year's Barafundle, but
no less beautiful. The fact that Gorky's were dropped by Mercury
Records two weeks after this was released only once again proves
the complete ineptitude of the music industry.
5.) Pulp - This is Hardcore
If the last half of the album was as good as the first half it
would probably be #1. Optimistic Pulp-by-numbers songs like "Sylvia"
and "The Day After the Revolution" seem to be a bit of a cop-out
after "The Fear". Still, the title track just might be the most
devastating "pop" song ever to be released as a single.
6.) Elliott Smith - XO
This album really didn't hit me until the third or fourth listen.
And by then it was too late - I was hooked but good. I woke up in
the middle of the night with these songs in my head which is a sure
sign that Smith is doing something right. The songwriting isn't
anything particularily groundbreaking but it's a
good album nonetheless.
7.) Velvet Goldmine - Soundtrack
In an age of quicky soundtracks shovelling us the same old hits
(If I hear "Semi-Charmed Life" in a movie trailer ONE MORE TIME...)
this is a refreshing change. Supergroup covers, glam classics and
period piece originals. Grant Lee Buffalo and Shudder To Think's
contributions alone make it the sountrack of the year.
8.) Air - Moon Safari
I usually can't stand electronica for any long spell but Air are
an exception. They create music with mood and atmosphere, rather
than a tiresome pumping dance beat. "Sexy Boy" is one of the best
music videos of the year too.
9.) Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach - Painted From Memory
Proof that not all adult contemporary music needs to be boring (
Sting, Phil Collins) or cheese (Babyface).
10.) The Inbreds - Winning Hearts
"When is the right time to say goodbye?" sings Mike O'Neill on
the Inbreds fourth CD. Apparently O'Neill and fellow bandmate
Dave Ullrich felt it was the right time to say goodbye since the
two have since gone their seperate ways. Winning Hearts
was a criminally underrated Canadian record. Someone kill Our
Mother Moist Mason Good Band NOW!!
Um, that's all for now. Go back to
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Kathleen Gallagher (02/02/99).