FAVES
Partly as a joke and partly as the price of admission for an online discussion, I started compiling lists of my favorite new releases in 1999. Although my participation in the discussion ended years ago, I keep making the lists. Some of my best friends receive compilations of tracks from those CDs in late December (or early January) each year. Periodically, I’ll post my musings about what I’ve been hearing on the Musings page. What you see below are the best-of lists for the last three years. To see others, use the More… link to the right.
2009
- Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion
- Atlas Sound, Logos
- Califone, All My Friends Are Funeral Singers
- Vic Chesnutt, At the Cut
- The Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca
- Steve Earle, Townes
- Fly, Sky and Country
- Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest
- Joe Henry, Blood from Stars
- Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
- Will Johnson, Vultures Await
- The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, Here Be Dragons
- Natalia Lafourcade, Hu Hu Hu
- Cass McCombs, Catacombs
- Maxwell, BLACKsummers’night
- Rose Melberg, Homemade Ship
- Múm, Sing Along to Songs You Don’t Know
- Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions, Through the Devil Softly
- Lhasa de Sela, Lhasa
- Oumou Sangaré, Seya
- St. Vincent, Actor
- Sweet Billy Pilgrim, Twice Born Men
- David Sylvian, Manafon
- M. Ward, Hold Time
2008
- American Music Club, The Golden Age
- Erykah Badu, New Amerykah, Part 1 (4th World War)
- Brazilian Girls, New York City
- Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, Season of Changes
- Calexico, Carried to Dust
- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Dig, Lazarus, Dig
- Thomas Feiner and Anywhen, The Opiates (Revised)
- Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
- Flying Lotus, Los Angeles
- Gang Gang Dance, Saint Dymphna
- Emmylou Harris, All I Intended to Be
- Steve Jansen, Slope
- Kings of Leon, Only by the Night
- Jenny Lewis, Acid Tongue
- Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Real Emotional Trash
- Juana Molina, Un Día
- My Brightest Diamond, A Thousand Shark’s Teeth
- Sam Phillips, Don’t Do Anything
- Portishead, Third
- The Roots, Rising Down
- Santogold, Santogold
- South San Gabriel, Dual Hawks
- TV on the Radio, Dear Science
- Wire, Object 47
2007
- Apostle of Hustle, The National Anthem of Nowhere
- The Besnard Lakes, The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse
- Björk, Volta
- Blonde Redhead, 23
- Celebration, The Modern Tribe
- Crowded House, Time on Earth
- Feist, The Reminder
- Grinderman, Grinderman
- PJ Harvey, White Chalk
- Joe Henry, Civilians
- His Name Is Alive, Xmmer
- Hanne Hukkelberg, Rykestrasse 68
- Low, Drums and Guns
- Nick Lowe, At My Age
- Menomena, Friend and Foe
- Múm, Go, Go Spread the Poison Ivy
- David Murray/Black Saint Quartet, Sacred Ground
- Me'shell Ndegéocello, The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams
- New Buffalo, Somewhere, Anywhere
- Panda Bear, Person Pitch
- Piano Magic, Part Monster
- Radiohead, In Rainbows
- Fionn Regan, The End of HIstory
- St. Vincent, Marry Me
- A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Scribble Mural Comic Journal
- Suzanne Vega, Beauty and Crime
- Rufus Wainwright, Release the Stars
- Wilco, Sky Blue Sky
2006
- Asobi Seksu, Citrus
- Jessica Bailiff, Feels like Home
- Patricia Barber, Mythologies
- Richard Buckner, Meadow
- Califone, Roots and Crowns
- Neko Case, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
- Cat Power, The Greatest
- Lloyd Cole, Antidepressant
- Ornette Coleman, Sound Grammar
- Toumani Diabate’s Symmetric Orchestra, Boulevard de l’Independance
- Donald Fagen, Morph the Cat
- Kenny Garrett, Beyond the Wall
- Lisa Germano, In the Maybe World
- Miho Hatori, Ecdysis
- Van Hunt, On the Jungle Floor
- Junior Boys, So This Is Goodbye
- Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat
- Mahogany, Connectivity!
- Eric Matthews, Foundation Sounds
- Rose Melberg, Cast Away the Clouds
- Juana Molina, Son
- My Brightest Diamond, Bring Me the Workhorse
- Sol Seppy, The Bells of 1 2
- Sparklehorse, Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain
- Tom Waits, Orphans
- Cassandra Wilson, Thunderbird
- Thom Yorke, The Eraser
2005
- Akron/Family, Akron/Family
- Andrew Bird, Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs
- Broadcast, Tender Buttons
- Broken Social Scene, Broken Social Scene
- Kate Bush, Aerial
- Freakwater, Thinking of You…
- Edith Frost, It’s a Game
- Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd, Mysterious Skin—Music from the Film
- Hanne Hukkelberg, Little Things
- Eric Matthews, Six Kinds of Passion Looking for an Exit
- Mercury Rev, The Secret Migration
- Murcof, Remembranza
- My Morning Jacket, Z
- Nine Horses, Snow Borne Sorrow
- Pajo, Pajo
- Piano Magic, Disaffected
- Ron Sexsmith and Don Kerr, Destination Unknown
- Sigur Rós, Takk…
- Spoon, Gimme Fiction
- Sufjan Stevens, Illinois
- Erwin Thomas, Songs from My Apartment
- Chad VanGaalen, Infiniheart
- M. Ward, Transistor Radio
