As my faithful readers will readily attest to, I love to talk about the music I have been listening to and enjoying. I don’t consider myself some sort of great music critic or elitist but I definitely have strong opinions that I’m not afraid to share with whoever will listen. I think this makes me more of a ‘blowhard’ than an ‘elitist.’ Oh well.
On that note, I have been taking a look at the music I have really enjoyed over the last couple of years and decided to blog about my findings in the ever-popular list format.
Specifically, a top ten list of my favorite albums released since Jan. 1, 2006.
An important caveat: This list is not meant to be read through the eyes of music criticism so much as personal opinion. I love these albums and they were my favorites for possibly completely subjective reasons,.. and I may or may not make any attempt to tell you why they should be objectively lauded.
Lastly, I would love to hear your list or alternate opinions/choices. Tell me why I’m full of it about Radiohead or why I totally missed the boat on Springsteen’s ‘Magic’ (yep, not on my list). The list will count down from number 10 with a new album each day.. Here we go!
10: Neon Bible (The Arcade Fire)
9: April (Sun Kil Moon)
8: Raising Sand (Robert Plant & Allison Kraus)
7: Modern Times (Bob Dylan)
6: Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards (Tom Waits)
5: The Trumpet Child (Over the Rhine)
4: Ash Wednesday (Elvis Perkins)
Elvis Perkins’ music seems to be thoroughly detached from any specific time period. His melodies are fresh and original, but also seem like they could’ve been sung by any court jester pos-War of the Roses. His instrumentation of choice lends to this feeling – pump organ, stand-up bass, acoustic guitar, jazz drums. His vocals endlessly walk the line between outright apathy and simple concession.
I happened to stumble across this record at a used music store and decided to buy it after speaking to the guy behind the counter. He told me that if I like folk (check) and singer-songwriter stuff (check) then this was the guy for me. He was on point. There is a simple uncontrived magnetism that seeps into your brain from this album. Before you know it, you’ve listened to it a couple times through and can’t seem to convince yourself that it’s time to listen to something else.
Elvis doesn’t seem to deal in constructs like ‘optimism’ or ‘pessimism’, but instead he sees the world in terms of ‘things to laugh about’ and ‘things to cry about’.. and those things overlap a whole hell of a lot. There isn’t much music coming out today that makes a person feel the need to reexamine their life – love, choices, family, etc – but this album feels like a call to be cleansed from all the things in life that neither make us laugh NOR make us cry.. in the end, will anything matter but the times we laughed and cried with those we love? Mr. Perkins’ uses his 11 songs and 51 minutes to remind us what really matters. This reminder is all the more poignant when combined with the story of Elvis’ loved ones – His father died of AIDS and his mother was killed in the 9/11 tragedy. Sometimes we just don’t realize what is important until it’s too late – Elvis’ warning comes through loud and clear.
