No. 10

Dirty Projectors

Bitte Orca

June 9, 2009

Domino

I'm still struggling to fully “get” this album. Bitte Orca features complex composition that is skillfully pulled off on all fronts (most notably the guitar work and female background vocals). The music pretty universally feels avant-garde and at times that oddness can be grating. However, Dirty Projectors deserve some measure of credit for doing something different, and doing it well. I just remain undecided on whether or not what they're doing is worth listening to. A year from now I'll end up either regretting having included this album at all or wishing I'd placed it higher.

Highlights: Cannibal Resource, Stillness is the Move

No. 9

Dan Deacon

Bromst

March 24, 2009

Carpark Records

Dan Deacon creates songs by taking layers of noise, random bleeps & bloops, and woody-the-woodpecker vocals and somehow giving us inventive electronic music that feels surprisingly epic in scope and is often undeniably fun.

Highlights: Build Voice, Red F, Snookered

No. 8

Mastodon

Crack the Skye

March 24, 2009

Reprise

Crack the Skye may not have the same relentless fury of Mastodon's first few albums, but it does feature the same exemplary musicianship the band is known for. The guitar work is fantastic and Brann Dailor's astounding drumming is a show stealer. While not as “in your face”, Crack the Skye is just as heavy as anything Mastodon has done before and it provides seven exceedingly well-crafted songs.

Highlights: The Czar, Divinations, The Last Baron

No. 7

Neko Case

Middle Cyclone

March 3, 2009

ANTI-

Not sure what to say about this one. Neko Case's vocal ability is undeniable (a fact that clearly doesn't escape her) and on Middle Cyclone she's doing her alt-country thing as perfectly as she usually does it. Chock-full of quality songs, each of which is a perfect vehicle to showcase her extraordinary voice.

Highlights: This Tornado Loves You, People Got a Lotta Nerve, Magpie to the Morning

No. 6

Sunn O)))

Monoliths & Dimensions

May 18, 2009

Southern Lord

What you'll find here is a brand of metal that requires a patient listener as it largely consists of slow, deep droning guitars that blend into one another and is largely devoid of rhythm. Patient listeners will be rewarded with striking compositions that are simultaneously sinister and beautiful.

Highlights: Alice, Big Church, Hunting & Gathering

No. 5

Emm Gryner

Goddess

February, 2009

Dead Daisy Records

Emm Gryner has consistently put out high quality pop music over the last decade or so, but Goddess finds her performing with an edginess not found on her previous efforts. Without a doubt it's a nice, subtle change of pace and it just may be my favorite album of hers.

Highlights: Killing Spree, Young as the Night, Empty Hole

No. 4

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

It's Blitz

March 9, 2009

Interscope

It's Blitz finds the Yeah Yeah Yeahs giving us an album heavily tinged with 80s new wave. The writing is stronger and more consistent than ever and their ability to stray from the standard verse-chorus-verse song structure at just the right moment keeps things interesting.

Highlights: Zero, Dragon Queen, Hysteric

No. 3

Animal Collective

Merriweather Post Pavilion

January 6, 2009

Domino

Animal Collective has always seemed to be a band that receives far more credit than they deserve simply based on the fact that their music is “spontaneous” and “different”, which for me has always translated into something largely unlistenable. With Merriweather Post Pavilion they finally manage to marry their idiosyncrasies with quality music.

Highlights: My Girls, Guys Eyes, Daily Routine

No. 2

Grizzly Bear

Veckatimest

May 26, 2009

Warp

I can't help but feel that some of the magic found on Grizzly Bear's first album, Yellow House, is missing here on Veckatimest. Yellow House felt like some previously unexplored musical island whereas Veckatimest mostly feels more constrained and exists within a more common set of musical boundaries. That said, it is nothing short of magical how the band's voices come together to form such perfect harmonies.

Highlights: Two Weeks, While You Wait for the Others, Foreground

No. 1

St. Vincent

Actor

May 5, 2009

4AD

With Actor, St. Vincent gives us an exercise in contradictions. Just about every song features a level of whimsy reminiscent of old Disney movies which is mixed seamlessly with ominous and menacing guitars. Annie Clark writes with striking clarity of vision and inventiveness and here she has a diverse album that oozes personality from top to bottom. No other album this year blew me away as consistently as Actor and it continues to get better with each listen.

Highlights: The Party, Laughing With a Mouth of Blood, Actor Out of Work

No. 10

Nine Inch Nails

The Slip

May 5, 2008

The Null Corporation

Maybe it's the freedom of not being on a label, or maybe not, but this is the first Nine Inch Nails album I've enjoyed in quite a while (probably the best since 1994's The Downward Spiral). Nothing ground breaking, but solid throughout.

Highlights: Demon Seed, 1,000,000, Lights In the Sky

No. 9

MGMT

Oracular Spectacular

January 22, 2008

Columbia

It took a while for me to warm up to MGMT, but it was so nice to hear those thick , fuzzy guitars that I kept coming back for more. Some parts sound a bit over-the-top and potentially ridiculous, but as the songs come together everything seems to fit.

Highlights: Time To Pretend, The Youth, Electric Feel

No. 8

Deerhunter

Microcastle

October 28, 2008

Kranky

Deerhunter provides a very lo-fi rock feel that is very reminiscent of Sonic Youth. As such, it's taken a number of listens for the music to grow on me. The layers of guitar often provide a slow build to a climax that'll catch you off guard.

Highlights: Nothing Ever Happened, Agoraphobia, Twilight at Carbon Lake

No. 7

Kings of Leon

Only By the Night

September 23, 2008

RCA

This feels like a bit of a step backwards from their last effort, Because of the Times. Only By the Night is a decent album with few low points and, disappointingly, no real high points.

Highlights: Closer, Cold Desert, Sex On Fire

No. 6

Beck

Modern Guilt

July 8, 2008

Interscope

I was pleasantly surprised by Modern Guilt. Nothing on it is ground breaking for Beck, but there's not a bad song in the bunch. What you'll find here is more mature songwriting and more restrained production. The music benefits from both.

Highlights: Chemtrails, Walls, Modern Guilt

No. 5

Duffy

Rockferry

March 3, 2008

Polydor

A 60's soul album with a few really great songs and not a single bad one. The album features strong songwriting, production, and arrangement, but what really makes this album is Duffy's singing.

Highlights: Rockferry, Mercy, Distant Dreamer

No. 4

The Black Keys

Attack & Release

April 1, 2008

Nonesuch

Here The Black Keys add a touch of the bayou into their blues/rock formula. Attack & Release lacks some of the consistency found on all of their previous efforts, but it's nice to hear a slight shift in direction.

Highlights: Lies, All You Ever Wanted, Psychotic Girl

No. 3

Portishead

Third

April 28, 2008

Island

After a decade of waiting, Portishead returns with an album that sounds nothing like their previous albums (outside of Beth Gibbons' trademark vocals). They did a great job of making good music that sounds distinctly Portishead while achieving relevance in 2008.

Highlights: The Rip, We Carry On, Silence

No. 2

Department of Eagles

In Ear Park

October 7, 2008

4AD

A nice collection of concise songs oozing with subtlety. Many of the songs seem to find their way to an unexpected peak. In Ear Park is a deep album that takes a number of listens before it fully reveals itself.

Highlights: In Ear Park, No One Does It Like You, Floating on the Lehigh

No. 1

Bon Iver

For Emma, Forever Ago

February 19, 2008

Jagjaguwar

Simple music. Simple production. Simply beautiful.

Highlights: Flume, re: stacks, Skinny Love

I guess I'll throw in my playoff picks:

Eastern Conference:

Round One

• Boston over Atlanta in 4 (Boston in 7)
• Detroit over Philadelphia in 7 (Detroit in 6)
• Orlando over Toronto in 5
• Cleveland over Washington in 7 (Cleveland in 6)

Round Two

• Boston over Cleveland in 7
• Detroit over Orlando in 5

Conference Finals

• Detroit over Boston in 6 (Boston in 6)

Western Conference:

Round One

• Lakers over Denver in 5 (Lakers in 4)
• Dallas over New Orleans in 6 (New Orleans in 5)
• San Antonio over Phoenix in 7 (San Antonio in 5)
• Utah over Houston in 6

Round Two

• Lakers over Utah in 6
• San Antonio over New Orleans in 7

Conference Finals

• Lakers over San Antonio in 5

Anyway, I just wanted to explain the new digs and brag about my home team…at least a little bit.

I've been putzing around with it for about an hour now, just kind of checking out various sites and seeing how they behave. Here's a quick run-down of my first impressions:

Positives

• In general, CSS support does seem to show a marked improvement over that provided by previous versions. I certainly haven't spent enough time nor done enough testing to say just how compatible it really and truly is.
• It no longer takes 30 seconds just to open a new tab.
• It passes the Second Acid Test.
• The version targeting meta tag will be a life-saver for my company, which is beginning a complete system overhaul. As the lead developer, I have no interest in fixing all of our legacy systems so they are compatible with IE8 as they will all be obsolete within a couple years.

Questionable

• Most sites I've visited (including this site) have some rendering quirks in IE8, though they mostly seem to be minor.
• Links defined as block elements (for example, the links in my sidebar) only activate on the text, instead of on the entire block.
• I've noticed a few quirks related to hover properties being properly recognized.
• Sites reliant on JavaScript are going to have a tough time, I fear, though version targeting should help in the short-term.

Ironic

• Gmail appears to run perfectly fine.
• Hotmail does not.

I'll post more when I get a chance to do some thorough testing, but I think my first impressions validate my apprehension. While the browser does show improvements in standards support, it doesn't appear it's all the way there yet. Hopefully most of the problems are sorted out by the time IE8 sees its official release.

It's obvious Microsoft's browser team is making great strides in providing a standards compliant browser, but as a developer I'd prefer not having to code my way around three distinct, and bug-riddled, versions of Internet Explorer.

The need to get new phones had finally come to a head as neither of our phones liked to participate in phone conversations lasting longer than 10-15 minutes. Unfortunately, T-Mobile still suffers from the same line-up they did two years ago, so both of us couldn't find a phone we wanted. We ended up switching to AT&T, and I'm now a proud owner of a BlackBerry Pearl (which, yes…I could've gotten from T-Mobile).

Previously, I was never interested in getting a smartphone as I barely used my regular old dumbphone. A recent shift in my working environment, where I'm not in the office a few days a week, made me think moving away from dumbphones might be a worthwhile thing to do. The biggest factor being mobile email as it'd enable me to maintain silent communication with my company while out of the office.

The Pearl took a while for me to configure, but that's probably just because I'm a compulsive futzer. So far I'm loving the apps provided by Google, particularly GooMaps and GooChat. The other really nifty Google app is GoogleSync, which allows you to sync your BlackBerry calendar with your Google Calendars. I've never made much use of calendars in the past, but this got me started. I've come to the conclusion that I don't really have much use for calendars, but at the very least it lets me have instant access to the Lakers upcoming schedule…and I'm so all over that!

What does this mean for the Lakers? In the short term, they should be able to better withstand the recent barrage of injuries to key players such as Andrew Bynum and Luke Walton. Pau gives them a quality seven-footer who can produce the points, rebounds, and inside presence they've so sorely missed since Bynum went down a couple weeks ago. In the long term, assuming that Bynum returns healthy, it makes them an incredibly scary team come playoff time.

It's also worth noting that the Lakers beat a fairly solid Toronto Raptors team tonight, which is impressive considering that, with the absence of the newest Grizzlies, they were even more shorthanded than they have been. They appeared to play more freely than they have since Bynum's injury and I can't remember Kobe Bryant having a better game this season. If merely the thought Pau Gasol joining the team inspires them this much, imagine what they'll look like once Pau has settled in. Tantilizing for Lakers fans. Frightening for everyone else.

I'm trying not to get overly hopeful here, but I can't help but imagine this trade making David Stern squeal like a little girl. The prospect of a Celtics/Lakers NBA finals has to make him positively giddy.

It seems that Eli Manning has grown into an elite quarterback over the last few weeks. He seems to be playing with a high level of confidence, and he's appeared to be relaxed in those high pressure moments. It seems, for Eli at least, the real homefield advantage comes from playing on the road. Here's hoping he can lead the Giants past those Patsies in two weeks.

I hope those damn New Yorkers enjoy the taste of crow.

I typically try to get these things posted before the end of the year, but the sheer number of quality entries to consider slowed me down a bit. I tried to give each album a fair number of listens before judging them too harshly. Anyway, onward we go…

No. 10

John Vanderslice

Emerald City

July 24, 2007

Barsuk

I've never been one to give Mr. Vanderslice the credit he probably deserves, but here he's near top form. This probably isn't even his best album (that honor likely belongs with 2005's Pixel Revolt), but there's plenty here to like. John Vanderslice has a finely honed sense of his songwriting style. He knows how to make the music say what he wants it to say, and he knows how to do it with his own unique flair.

Highlights: Time To Go, The Parade, Kookaburra

No. 9

Tegan and Sara

The Con

July 24, 2007

Vapor/Sire

You've got to give Tegan and Sara some credit for creating an 80s power pop throwback album. Dimishing this album to only that, though, would be doing a disservice to the Quin sisters. The Con shows their sharp sense of melody, which is highlighted perfectly by the addition of the 80s style keyboards. They also have a tendency to use nonsensical lyrics (or maybe it's just them using a strange Canadian language I don't understand) which makes an odd pair with the earnestness of their vocals. All in all, these oddities make The Con that much more charming.

Highlights: Back In Your Head, Burn Your Life Down, Like O Like H

No. 8

PJ Harvey

White Chalk

October 2, 2007

Island Records

This was the most difficult album of the year for me. I've been a huge fan of just about everything PJ Harvey has done and I've come to expect the unexpected from her. With that in mind, White Chalk was still tough to digest. It isn't just different, it almost sounds like another artist entirely. With time invested in getting to know these songs, there's tons of classic PJ Harvey material to be found lurking in the shadows…it's just wrapped up in a softer package.

Highlights: When Under Ether, The Piano, The Devil

No. 7

Burial

Untrue

November 5, 2007

Hyperdub

Welcome to the obscure artist you've probably never heard of segment of our show. Burial's Untrue is a painfully beautiful album. From top to bottom you'll find an incredibly consistent listen with sparse electronic music that evokes strong feelings of desolation. The sampled vocals are chalk full of emotion. This is a perfect mood album to be listened to on a rainy day.

Highlights: Ghost Hardware, Archangel, UK

No. 6

Beirut

The Flying Club Cup

October 9, 2007

Ba Da Bing!

It took me a while to get used to Zach Condon's vocal style, but once I did it wasn't long before the obvious french influence and extremely strong vocal melodies took hold. Strip away the cultural overtones and you'd still have a solid set of quality songs. Beirut uses thick vocal layering to near perfection here. The light violins, present throughout the album, provide a perfect counterpoint to the thick vocals and instrumentation. The Flying Club Cup has the feeling of a classic album, while hinting at great things to come from this young artist.

Highlights: Cliquot, In The Mausoleum, Cherbourg

No. 5

Spoon

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

July 10, 2007

Merge

What really strikes me about this album is Spoon's deftness at playing with rhythm. The simple rhythmic interplay between the various instruments is artful and everything is perfectly punctuated by Britt Daniel's vocal style. They also have a knack for making layered music seem simple. On the surface everything seems simple, but with each listen there's something new left to discover.

Highlights: Don't You Evah, Rhthm & Soul, Black Like Me

No. 4

LCD Soundsystem

Sound of Silver

March 20, 2007

DFA Records

Sound of Silver is an interesting album. Its centerpiece is All My Friends, driven by a frenetic piano as the song relentlessly builds to its climax. Surrounding is an eclectic mix of dance music infused with elements of punk and disco. There isn't a weak track on the album and it's expertly sequenced, but more importantly, it's an album that exudes quality without taking itself too seriously.

Highlights: All My Friends, Someone Great, Get Innocuous!

No. 3

Kings of Leon

Because of the Times

April 3, 2007

RCA

Because of the Times was the first album this year that I completely got swept up in. Kings of Leon really showed significant growth in their music. There's an air of restraint to most of the songs as they let the music speak for itself. They don't hit you over the head with drum-fills and guitar solos. Everything is artfully put together and allowed to be absorbed on the listener's terms. I don't think the southern rock influence is absent here, I think the Followills have found a way to turn those influences into a sound wholly their own.

Highlights: Arizona, Fans, True Love Way

No. 2

Radiohead

In Rainbows

October 10, 2007

self-released

In Rainbows is a classic Radiohead album, but still manages to feel fresh and new. For the first time in a while, the band feels like just that…a band. Once again we are allowed to revel in just how talented each member of the band is at their particular field, as well as how perfectly the members come together and play off each other. That isn't to say those qualities weren't present in previous efforts, just that In Rainbows is the most complete showcase of their collective talents since the 90s. Without a doubt in my mind, this is Radiohead's best album since 1997's opus, OK Computer.

Highlights: All I Need, Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, Nude

No. 1

The National

Boxer

May 22, 2007

Beggars Banquet Records

Only one word is needed to describe this album: grower. Boxer is an album that will sneak up on you if you let it. Each song is overflowing with a simplicity that conceals the magic hiding just beneath the surface. The band has a tendancy towards subtle intensity, which kept me coming back for more. Each listen brings something new to the table and I've had a really difficult time choosing which songs to highlight. I honestly don't know if there's a single stand-out track on the album because each song is a stand-out in its own right. On first listen, you may not see what makes these songs so special, but give it some time and these songs just may worm their way into your heart.

Highlights: Green Gloves, Apartment Story, Squalor Victoria

I've taken pictures of everything I could think to take a picture of, and have uploaded them to Flickr.

Here are a few of the pictures:

So, what took so long? Mainly indecisiveness on my part, along with a struggle to create the perfect website design as it existed in my head. What you're looking at now is the Mysterion Edition of the site which is an embodiment of my inability to create what I had in my head. A while ago I decided it was time to just design something so I could get this up and running, and this is the result. I'm relatively pleased with how it turned out, but obviously you can expect some drastic revisions as time rolls on!

The site is running on a homegrown content management system, which I will write about more in the coming weeks. Every bit of code has been hand-coded by me, so I'm hoping that the work put into everything will motivate me to actually keep the site updated and relevant. The site will be updated with a number of features in the not too distant future, such as RSS feeds, search functions, and a more interactive (and complete) collection.

In the mean time, if you're interested, by poking around you can find out a bit more about me and maybe gain some insight into me from my music collection.