19. Face to Face – Laugh
Now….Laugh Later (People Like You). SoCal punk rock legends Face to Face
reunited to tour back in 2009, after going on hiatus in 2004. And then they
went back into the studio in 2010 and released Laugh in mid-2011, during their 20th
anniversary year. For those expecting early Face to Face, you’ll be
disappointed with this album. It lacks a lot of the ferocity and speed that
their early to mid 90’s albums had. But it definitely picks up where they left
off on their previous studio album, 2002’s How to Ruin Everything. The
hard-hitting punk rock songs are still here, along with more melodic stuff,
more reminiscent of a combo of old Face to Face and singer/guitarist Trever
Keith’s solo projects. Highlights
include “It’s Not All About You” (cool video), "All Or Nothing", "Blood in the Water", "Invisible Hand" (cool live clip from Spain in September), "I Don't Mind and You Don't Matter", and "Should Anything Go Wrong."
18. Times New Viking – Dancer Equired! (Merge). TNV, a trio hailing from the great state of Ohio, have been around for about 7-8 years now. I was tipped off to them back on
their 3rd album, Rip It Off, in 2008 thanks to the Robert Christgau (DaveLikesTapes) of Philadelphia.
They had a 60's pop sound mixed with heavy distortion, making them stand out a
little among their peers. I always respected their innovative recording
techniques, but I wasn't able to appreciate the end result as much until this
more straight-forward garage-y indie rock album. This album was actually
recorded in a real studio and not through some rigged up speaker/tape recorder
thing at home. So they didn't really sacrifice any of the energy or catchy
melodies from their previous records, but just made them sound cleaner. Not so
much "over-produced" as, well, "produced." The high points
are the more upbeat "Fuck Her Tears" and "It's a Culture", but really
so many songs are standouts - "Ever Falling in Love" (cool
video), "No Room to Live" (cooler
video), "Try Harder", "Don't Go to Liverpool", "Ways to Go", etc.
17. Wye Oak – Civilian
(Merge). Hailing from the great state of Maryland, Wye Oak is a 2-piece
consisting of Jenn Wasner (guitar, vocals) and Andy Stack (drums). I didn’t
care for this album as much when I first heard it, then it rose very high on
list, only to fall again as the year ended. For some reason I thought this band
was on Vagrant, so I was expecting something totally different and was kind of
put off listening to their previous 2 LP’s, prior to checking this out. But
after awhile this album of well-crafted indie/pop just grew on me. Compared to
their previous albums, the songs on Civilian are just a little tighter, and more
produced, and more upbeat. Wasner’s vocals are very unique and for the longest
time I thought there were multiple vocalists in the band, since at times her
voice sounds very feminine and other times it has a huskier sound, recalling a
male vocalist trying to hit a high note. The title track, “Holy Holy” (cool video that's been viewed by DaveLikesTapes several thousand times), “Fish” (video), and
“Plains” were really strong tracks and most of the rest of the tracks work well
together as a cohesive statement.
16. Deer Tick – Divine
Providence (Partisan). I
didn’t get this until late in the year and it rose quickly on my list. This is the Providence, R.I. band’s 4th
studio album already. I had never really listened to Deer Tick much before,
even though I had heard good things about them. They combine folk with pub rock
and it works pretty well to create a slightly different version of the indie
rock sound du jour, sounding at times like Spoon or Cracker or even some of
Wilco’s more rocking songs. Even though it has not always shone through on
their previous folkier albums, singer/songwriter John McCauley is a big fan of
bands like Nirvana (prompting some to call them “Deervana”) and the
Replacements. On this album they definitely seem to get their inspiration from
the early 70's garage rock of the Stooges and Exile
on Main St-era Rolling Stones. Highlights for me are “Funny Word”, "Let's All Go to the Bar", "Clowning Around", "Main Street", "Chevy Express", and "Make Believe."
15. Wilco – The
Whole Love (dBpm). This is probably the lowest a Wilco album has ever been ranked on my
list, and I liked this album. After a progression with the same band
members in tow from 2007’s Sky Blue Sky to 2009’s Wilco (The Album) to this,
expectations were higher for me. Both of those previous records were more
straight-ahead rock albums for the band, showing off the band members’ abilities,
especially the killer solos of guitarist Nels Cline. This is an
experimental album, more similar to 2004’s A Ghost Is Born or 2002’s Yankee
Hotel Foxtrot. But it’s sort of experimental in the same way, which makes it
old hat for Jeff Tweedy and company. It follows the same blueprint:
Beatles-esque pop/rock melodies, hidden beneath noisy interludes and long jazzy
intros. There are some definite highlights like “Standing O”, “I Might” (Live on Letterman), “Dawned on Me”, and “Born Alone” (live on Letterman). The opener, “Art of Almost” (Live on Letterman) is similar to previous
album openers in style and sound like “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” and “At
Least That’s You Said”, starting slowly and then building. And the epic
12-minute closer “One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)”, tells
of a fractured relationship between a father and son, and the son’s relief/joy
at the death of his religiously judgmental father. Overall, it was a good album of “Dad Rock”,
but at this point I just feel that Wilco has done everything they can do within
this framework. What they have been doing since the late 90’s and are still doing
now, was considered very edgy stuff 10-12 years ago. But now the edgy has
become mainstream and they deserve credit for helping to make that happen. Could
you imagine back in the mid 90’s that a band with Wilco’s sound would ever be
one of the most consistent-selling and popular bands in the land, among both college
kids and elders alike? But they’ll probably spend the rest of their careers
releasing mostly good albums that I’ll be looking forward to hearing and will no doubt enjoy, but they will likely never have a
great album again.
14. Foo Fighters – Wasting Light (RCA). This is probably
the album I’m most surprised is in my Top 20. When it first came out, I panned
it. But after giving it another chance a few months later, I found myself
enjoying it more. And now in retrospect, I’d say it’s arguably their 2nd
best album, and at worst is the band’s 4th best album behind The Colour and the Shape, S/T, and In Your Honor. It definitely has a more of an immediacy to it,
which recalls Colour in both the
energy and just how brief and filler-free it is, at a mere 11 songs. Butch Vig
(Nevermind) produced the album,
pairing Grohl and him for the first time since 1991 I believe, which I guess is
fitting in this year of retro-Grunge with 20th anniversaries of Ten and Nevermind being celebrated.
And even Krist Novoselic has a cameo on bass on “I Should Have Known.” Ex-Germs/Nirvana/Foos
guitarist Pat Smear rejoined the band during a tour in 2007 and brought that
vibe back. Also, the legendary Bob Mould guests on guitar and backing vocals on
“Dear Rosemary.” Other highlights include,
“Rope”, “Back and Forth”, “These Days”, and “White Limo” (with Lemmy in the
video!), which sounds like something leftover from Grohl’s collaborations with Josh Homme in Queens of the Stone Age or Them Crooked Vultures. This is
the sort of tight, no nonsense, rocking album Foo Fighters fans have been
waiting for the band to make since they returned to the studio to make the
follow up to Colour. Better late than
never.
13. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals – III
/ IV (Pax Americana). As noted earlier, a 2-year break (excluding his vinyl-only
metal album, Orion, in 2010) with no
new releases from the prolific Ryan Adams is a lifetime. And he returned at the
end of 2010 with this double album of outtakes from his recordings with Cardinals from 2006-2008. Now, normally for most artists when you hear “outtakes” it refers
to a bunch of mediocre songs which were not good enough to make the cut the first
time around. But for someone like Adams, a lot of his outtakes are golden. He
writes so many songs, that within the dozens of outtakes, there is usually
enough to make another pretty good album. And here is a 21-song double LP. It’s
kind of all over the map, but mostly follows his previous stuff in the
Cardinals, but this time delving into alternative as well as alt/country
rockers. In both spirit and execution, it actually recalls his 2003 album, Rock N Roll (one of the most underrated
releases of the previous decade), where he essentially pays tribute to his many
rock influences on the same disc. The standout tracks include “Breakdown Into the Resolve”, “Dear Candy”, “Wasteland”, “Happy Birthday” (“Happy Birthday, I’m
your birthday cake \And I’m lit \And I’m late….”), “Stop Playing With My Heart”,
“Ultraviolet Light”, “Star Wars”, the Replacements-esque “P.S.”, and “No.” Really there are no
clunkers at all.
12. Dum Dum Girls – Only
in Dreams (Sub Pop). If I were doing these rankings in September, this
would have likely been my favorite album of the year. But it slipped a little
as the year wore on. This sophomore follow up to the solid I Will Be was produced by Sune Rose Wagner of the Raveonettes and I
think that pushed Kirstin Gundred (Dee Dee) into a "bigger" cleaner sound, recalling the
Raveonettes and Best Coast. It definitely is more of a vocals-oriented
pop/rock record. With so many girl bands around now who sound like this, for me the
difference is really in the quality or uniqueness of the vocals. And Dee Dee
really sets a pretty high bar in that area. The first time I heard this, I immediately
thought of Chrissie Hynde/The Pretenders and that probably is most fitting
comparison. “Bedroom Eyes” (video), “In My Head”,
“Just a Creep”, “Teardrops on My Pillow” (live in Berlin), and “Caught in One” highlight a very
tight 10-song LP.
11. R.E.M. – Collapse
into Now (Warner Bros). I guess we should have seen this coming in
retrospect. For the first time in their careers, an album cover features a picture of the band, with Michael Stipe sort of waving goodbye. The lyrics for “All the Best” make it pretty clear it's their goodbye song
(“I think I’ll sing it and rhyme \I’ll give it one more time \I’ll show the
kids how to do it fine, fine, fine……It’s just like me to overstay my welcome…”).
And I already paid tribute to them in a blog post a few months ago, without
really even mentioning this album, and how they went out on top on their own
terms. Collapse Into Now is
definitely my favorite record of theirs since 1996’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi, and because it is so similar musically, you
could argue it was their best since Out of
Time or Automatic For the People.
As mentioned “All the Best” (video) is song about the band’s place in the music world
and as Stipe noted in his farewell statement, about not becoming the “guests
who stayed too long at the party.” Tracks like “Uberlin” (video), “Oh My Heart” (live in studio), “It Happened Today” (video), “That Someone Is You”, “Mine Smells Like Honey” (live in studio), and “Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter” (video) are all worthy additions to the R.E.M. song
catalog. Farewell guys, you will be missed.
Next: Part Five: Albums 1-10
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