Here’s a “great” album that I never listen to.
Jeff Buckley’s Grace, a brilliant debut to be sure, took on iconic status when he drowned a few years after its release. Its mix of soaring vocals, acrobatic guitar work and ambitious song structures heralded a fierce talent who would sadly never get to reach his potential.
Belle & Sebastian give good instrumentals. This cut from their Legal Man EP is a fine example.
It is more notable, however, for its title, which is both naughty and nonsensical. I have a pretty good guess what a “dick slap” is (and Urban Dictionary is there to support that guess in graphic fashion) but I’m not sure how Judy, or anybody, can be one.
Finishing up my week of favorite artists who didn’t make the cut on my list of decade-best albums is Mr. Elvis Costello.
Costello released two albums in the past five years: Wise Up Ghost, his 2013 collaboration with The Roots; and 2010’s National Ransom. If one of those records were to make my list, it would have been the latter.
Lucinda Williams released two albums over the past five years that received consideration for my decade-so-far list.
One was this year’s Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone, a double album that I am still getting to know after a few weeks. If I’d lived with it for a bit longer before compiling the list, it might have had a chance. It’s a grower, like most good albums.
Here’s another album that I kept off my list of the top 20 of the decade so far because I didn’t want to show undue favoritism.
Rufus Wainwright’s 2012 Out of the Game was a splendid return to art-pop form after a five-year span in which he released only an album of somber piano ballads.
