[One day, I got an email from Peter saying that, after not writing for MONDO in a while, he was trying out a new format — "tidy and concise," he called it. What appeared in my inbox was fifty - count 'em, fifty - haikus summarizing pretty much everything Peter listened to this year. That's a lot of counting-syllables-on-fingers, my friends. I thought about cutting it down since we've covered a few of these albums already, but there's just something nice about the idea. Fifty haikus. Somebody give this guy a medal. - Ed.]
By Peter Gorman
7k Oaks – 7000 Oaks
Wynton can say what
he wants about baseball. This:
Worth preparing for.
Erykah Badu – New Amerykah, Part One (4th World War)
Sexiest record
of the year: nothing comes close.
A prayer for ‘09.
The Baseball Project – Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails
Scott McCaughey? So good.
Scott McCaughey singing about
baseball?! Holy shit!
Beck – Modern Guilt
“Chemtrails” alone makes
up for the lame go-go beats;
L. Ron would be proud.
Black Keys - Attack & Release
Ike ODs, misses
comeback D-Mouse collab; Keys
rip shit anyway.
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
Yes, it came out last
year – I (and Sub Pop) only
fell for it this year.
Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Lie Down in the Light
Public fellatio
set to straightforward country-
western – and it works!
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
Bad Seeds, Grinderman
meet halfway, light a fire [and
brimstone] under Cave’s ass.
Vic Chesnutt, Elf Power, and the Amorphous Strums – Dark Developments
“Dick the butcher, Tom
the bootblack” more compelling
than Joe the Plumber.
Jason Collett – Here’s to Being Here
Less Scene, more Paso
Mino brings focus; here’s to
the AM Dial.
Constantines – Kensington Heights
Fuck “Fugazi meets
Springsteen”; this sounds like the Cons:
“hard, hard, hard feelings.”
Deerhoof – Offend Maggie
Precise but, oddly,
irreverent and… a blast!
“God Speaking”? Ha! Quite.
Department of Eagles – In Ear Park
So intimate, and
so spacious. A headphones disc
for the great outdoors.
Bill Dixon with Exploding Star Orchestra - Bill Dixon with Exploding Star Orchestra
Forget the spoken
word; music speaks for itself,
nears Stellar Regions.
Dungen – 4
Less words, more damper-
pedalled keys. Less psych-rock, more
jazz-fusion… Still there?
Bob Dylan - Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8
What can I say? E’en
his leftovers are brilliant.
(Lincoln ads: less so.)
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Five guys in love with
the sound of their own voices:
Alvin-Lucier-folk?
Giant Sand – proVISIONS
Gelb’s same strange trip through
the Southwest; as always, full
of humanity.
Grand Salvo – Death
Literate – not like
Meloy. No gimmicks; just bear,
bird, rabbit, rat, man.
Matthew Herbert Big Band – There’s Me and There’s You
It’s “[something] of great
importance.” How’d politics
learn to swing like this?
High Places – High Places
Airy Mary on
one hell of a mellow brick
road: uncluttered mess.
Invincible – Shapeshifters
This is not “conscious
hip-hop”; this is wide-fucking-
awake hip-hop. Damn.
Johann Johannsson – Fordlandia
Henry Ford’s failure
is Johannsson’s success. Not
just icy landscapes!
Jacaszek – Treny
Cinematic might
be the word – if this wintry
sorrow could be filmed.
Ladyhawk – Shots
Like the Shakey tune
that shares its name, this one pulls
no punches – and rawks.
Lambchop – (OH) Ohio
Nashville’s best voice (e’er
a hushed whisper) cracks, rambles,
disses recycling.
Daniel Lanois – Here is What Is
Eno follows a
Chest of drawers, Lanois follows
The gods of reverb.
Stephen Malkmus – Reel Emotional Trash
“Meandering jams”?
Bullshit. Malk eats Trey’s [geetar]
noodles for breakfast.
Megafaun – Bury the Square
Apparently not
too bummed out from Bon Iver
breaking up with them.
Mercury Rev – Strange Attractor
Yep, the free one on
their website was quite gorgeous;
not Snowflake Midnight.
Mountain Goats – Heretic Pride
Darnielle uplifts; gives
his characters (and us) some-
thing to believe in.
Mt. Eerie f/ Julie Doiron & Fred Squire – Lost Wisdom
Uncomfortably
vulnerable, as one might
expect from this bunch.
My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
“Highly Suspicious”:
s’posed to be a man-rock joke.
“Peanut butter” wha?!
Randy Newman – Harps & Angels
“A Few Words in De-
fense of [Randy]“: “[haters] got
no reason to live.”
PAS/CAL – I Was Raised on Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Laura
They were raised on the
Kinks, New Pornographers, and
Belle and Sebastien.
Portishead – Third
Give Portishead a
decade – better be this good.
Cripes, it’s about time.
R.E.M. – Accelerate
R.E.M. master
sounding like R.E.M. (And
master this one loud.)
Retribution Gospel Choir - Retribution Gospel Choir
Turns out Sparhawk’s some
kind of guitar-god… who knew?
Low crank it to onze.
Silver Jews – Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
Berman – like Babars’
colonialism (see cover) -
still thrives… in new forms.
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band - 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons
Post-dozen tracks of
silence: (post-..?) (punk-…?) rock beauty!
Godspeed! You Efrim.
Tindersticks - The Hungry Saw
Wish my bad days were
as lushly orchestrated
as Stuart Staples’.
Shugo Tokumaru - Exit
Google translator:
“free as the wind, polished to
gentle sky mirror.”
TV On The Radio – Dear Science,
Pretension and self-
importance aside, they still
craft some shit-hot tunes.
Chad Vangaalen – Soft Airplane
Praire falsetto,
blippy electro-beats: what
is this, fucking Trans?
The Walkmen – You & Me
“In The New Year”: the
year’s best hook. Guitars shimmer
and, shit, dude croons hard.
The War on Drugs – The War on Drugs
Despite their name, they
don’t burn poppy fields – but sure
set something ablaze.
Dennis Wilson – Pacific Ocean Blue
Thirty years on, still
brings you to tears. I’ll drink to
that. (So would Dennis.)
Windy & Carl – Songs for the Broken-Hearted
Wholly cathartic,
reverb-drenched drones, blankets of
heartbreak keep you warm.
Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer
Krug and Boeckner fans
unite: this satisfies all!
(…well, except critics.)
Women – Women
The second-best thing
VanGaalen made this year. Beach
Boys meet Lou Reed: yikes!
I’m reading these aloud to my coworkers and they think they’re great.
I agree. Good stuff. I have to get that Portishead CD.