Part 5
20. Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
This album is weird for me. While i think it's much better then Rabbit Fur Coat (sorry doc about insulting your sisters!), it isn't an album I have listened to straight through a lot. Then why, you ask, is it #20? Isn't that a little high? Not exactly. While, I maybe don't play the album front-to-back a lot, I play around 3-4 songs on a pretty constant basis. Like, there was one period after this album came out that I played the title track, Carpet Baggers, Pretty Bird, and a few others twice a day. I think Acid Tongue is one of the best songs Jenny has ever done, and it's naturally beautiful. Carpet Baggers is just a terrific duet with music hero to many, and myself Elvis Costello. The way how Costello just comes into the song BELTING the lyrics is one of my favorite music moments of the year.
So am I saying the album is bad? No, not really. From what I remember it's a pretty strong album, but I haven't had the time to play it a lot. Some songs though... those are always getting played by me.
Best Songs:
01. Acid Tongue
02. Carpet Baggers feat. Elvis Costello
03. Pretty Bird
19. Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules & Love Affair
There wasn't a better dance album this year then this one. Not even close. DFA Records is on a roll, and Antony's voice is a natural fit to the Italo-Disco style of the album. I can't recommend it enough.
Best Songs:
01. Blind
02. Hercules Theme
03. Time Will
18. Santogold - Santogold
Santi White sure came out of nowhere this year. One second she's an up-and-coming artist and the next her songs are featured on nearly every American product you can think of (I can remember seeing her ads in some car commercial, Bud Light Lime, and definitely some others). This album, as well as her mixtape Top Billing with Diplo, really showcase Santi's revolving-door-of-styles. Which is probably what i like about her so much. Pretty much every song is different. One song is 80's new wave, the other is modern rock, another is Dub, another sounds like M.I.A. Just a real fun album to listen through.
btw, to Bad Brains fans: check out her cover of the song "The Right Brigade" on the Diplo mixtape Top Billing. It's probably the best cover I heard this year.
Best Songs:
01. Lights Out
02. I'm a Lady
03. Creator
17. The Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely
Jack White has been a constant presence on my Top 40 albums list since I started doing it. One year it's a White Stripes album, the next it's Raconteurs, the year after it's White Stripes album, and now we're back to the great Raconteurs. I may be wrong in saying this (I should know my own stats), but Consolers of The Lonely is the highest charting album by Jack White yet. I would have to agree with that, as I think this album is top-to-bottom better then the previous three albums.
I just really love this group. You can't explain to people why The Raconteurs rule, you just have to listen. It isn't complicated, deep music. It's just really well-done rock songs. Brendan Benson gets more time to shine on this on songs such as highlight "Many Shades of Black" (BOW BOW BOW BOW BOW BOW /trumpetpart). Probably my favorite song since first listen is the country-rocker "Old Enough". That song is just great. I recently saw a video on Yahoo of The Raconteurs playing the song with Ricky Skaggs and some alternative country singer and it was really cool. I suggest you seek it out.
Oh yeah, and again, this album really rules.
Best Songs:
01. Old Enough
02. Carolina Drama
03. Many Shades of Black
16. Raphael Saadiq - The Way I See It
Talk about a surprise!
I can't take credit for this comment, but this is an album if you placed the vinyl in a hardcore oldschool R&B fans collection, they wouldn't know it was from this year. It sounds completely retro, and I can't get enough of it. I have said that I really can't stand modern R&B quite a few times on this list already, but i'll say it again: I really can't stand modern R&B.
This is a purposeful throwback to artists like The Delfonics, The Stylistics, Stevie's 70's albums, and just so much classic R&B. Stevie Wonder is even featured on a track, but in a pretty genius move, to only play his trademark harmonica. Saadiq sounds so much like 70's era Stevie already that it would have ruined the flow of the album to have the real Stevie singing alongside him. I first got wind of this album when ?uestlove (how many ?uestlove mentions have I done now? 5?) was RAVING about how much Saadiq got the time period right. Take it from a music genius like ?uestlove when he says this is the real deal. Please do yourselves a favor and check it out. It's way too good to be ignored.
Best Songs:
01. Oh Girl
02. 100 Yard Dash
03. Never Give You Up feat. CJ and Stevie Wonder
woo! thanks for the comments, and i'll have something for you in the coming days. I'm done school on Thursday, so i'll be able to get these out on a quicker pace then.
as a tease, my next albums set (15-11) is the strongest pre-Top 10 list I have had in all my years of doing this list. Any of these albums could be #10, and at the moment, i'm still figuring out which one it will be. See you then!