Until I heard the album that sits on top of this list (only a few weeks ago), I didn’t think anything would unseat The Shin’s Port of Morrow as my favorite album of the year.
This is the band’s fourth album and far and away their best, though if you listen to many of their fans you’ll hear just the opposite. For some people, the presence of monster hooks and indelible choruses is somehow a bad thing.
Like John Mayer, Rufus Wainwright released a “comeback” album this year inspired by pop songwriters of the 1970s. In Wainwright’s case, the influences are more Elton John and David Bowie than Neil Young and Joni Mitchell — more glam-rock than folk-rock.
And Wainwright isn’t coming back from a creative slump but a personal one: the death of his mother in 2010, shortly after the release of his sixth studio album, All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu. That record was written while she was hospitalized, with several songs referencing her impending demise, and it’s a stark, sometimes difficult listen.
It’s a testament to how good this year has been for new releases that John Mayer’s Born and Raised can climb to only number four on this list.
Since his great 2006 record Continuum, Mayer has made headlines for everything but his music. He gave two disastrous magazine interviews, had ugly break-ups with Jennifer Aniston and Taylor Swift (with the latter excoriating him in song on her most recent album) and developed granulomas on his vocal chords that prevented him from singing.
Picking up where I left off last week, I’m counting down the best new albums I’ve purchased this year. This week I’ll feature the top five, and it’s an impressive bunch.
This group includes albums by two of my very favorite artists, the best work yet by a great indie band, a wonderful comeback album by a struggling pop star and — today — a rousing work by a rock-and-roll legend.
A tiny portion of my music collection — maybe half of one percent, tops — belongs to my wife.
She and I both enjoy a lot of the other music I own, but those are all albums I purchased. I can probably count on one hand the physical CDs she has purchased herself.
One of those is Dream Another Dream by Nuclear Valdez, the title track of which is today’s random selection.
