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30 Dec 11

My Top 10 Albums of 2011

As you get older, you get more set in your ways and it’s hard to keep up, seek out and absorb new music and much easier to just flip on Pandora (or the radio, if you’re 100), and just go with the flow. Keeping up with your favorites is easy but generally your favorites tend to disappoint just an album or two after they’re anointed with the distinction. Albums by The Strokes and Radiohead fell short this year which left room for some discoveries. The music I listened to most in 2011 was a mix of my favorite bands (Okkervil River, Handsome Furs), newer artists (Smith Westerns, Lykke Li), bands I’d already written off (Fountains of Wayne, Wilco) and a few artists that had been around for decades but had never clicked with me until now (PJ Harvey, Stephen Malkmus).



1. Okkervil River - I Am Very Far
Favorite Tracks: Piratess, Rider, Wake And Be Fine



2. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Favorite Tracks: Let England Shake, The Last Living Rose, The Words That Maketh Murder



3. Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde
Favorite Tracks: Weekend, Imagine Pt. 3, Dye The World



4. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
Favorite Tracks: I Follow Rivers, Unrequited Love, Get Some



5. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Favorite Tracks: My Ma, Vomit, Jamie Marie



6. Stephen Malkmus - Mirror Traffic
Favorite Tracks: Tigers, Stick Figures In Love, Long Hard Book



7. The Black Keys - El Camino
Favorite Tracks: Lonely Boy, Dead And Gone, Run Right Back



8. Fountains of Wayne - Sky Full of Holes
Favorite Tracks: The Summer Place, Someone’s Gonna Break Your Heart, Cemetery Guns




9. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Belong
Favorite Tracks: Belong, Heavens Gonna Happen Now, Heart In Your Heartbreak



10. Handsome Furs - Sound Kapital
Favorite Tracks: Memories Of The Future, Repatriated, No Feelings

Notable: Alex Turner, Beirut, Bon Iver, Cults, Drive Soundtrack,Fleet Foxes,Radiohead, The Strokes,TV On The Radio, Wilco.

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19 Jul 11

Fountains Of Wayne – Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Fountains of Wayne were always a band that power pop fans and music critics wondered why they weren’t more famous. Until ironically they become one-hit-wonders for the novelty hit “Stacy’s Mom” but by that point I’d been listening to them for nearly a decade (since their 1996 debut). The album it came from “Welcome Interstate Managers” was good but seemed to be the band reaching their stylistic limits, with songs emcompassing 60s rock, country, 80s pop amongst others. With only a few stumbles (the Cars aping mega-single wears out its welcome quicker than most) it was a great summer album.

Their follow-up unfortunately was not as successful, both commercially and artistically. The band seemed to be trying to replicate the success of their previous album by redoing all of its songs except now the lyrics were too cute, too self conscious and at times, grating. And I thought for several years after that I might be done with them as a fan. On first listen of their latest, “Sky Full Of Holes” I thought, ‘This is an acceptable apology for “Traffic & Weather.”’ After a dozen more listens I’m convinced it’s also a great FOW album. They’ve scaled way back on trying to ape every genre of music and just written some plain, catchy songs. In other words, it’s vintage Fountains of Wayne and I’m happy to have them back.

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8 Oct 10

Fountains of Wayne @ Bowery Ballroom 10/7/10

Fountains of Wayne @ Bowery Ballroom 10/7/10

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