Sometimes being an habitual listmaker is kind of a pain, and the close of this year is providing a prime example of that: I am having the hardest damn time coming up with my year-end best-of list. For about a week, I had actually convinced myself that I just wasn’t going to do one this year, because it was too damn hard. Too many worthy CDs, too many different genres to integrate into one list, too many CDs that I either didn’t spend enough time with* or didn’t get to hear at all, for various reasons. My top 3 records have been set in stone since they were released, but after that, it gets almost impossible to come up with any kind of order that makes sense.
But I’m a listmaker. I make lists. I can’t not make a best-of list. So it’s driving me completely nuts, and I’m torn between wanting to just toss one out off the top of my head—even if it would differ from the list I’d make a day later—and wanting to put everything in order carefully and write up annotations, the way I usually do. I may end up doing both, who knows.
At least the first three are definites:
1. Son Volt, “Okemah and the Melody of Riot.” Some people will tell you that whenever Jay Farrar puts out a record, that record will automatically occupy my number 1 spot, but they’re lying. There have been years when he’s put out records that have come in as low as number 3. This is my number 1 not just because of near-blind devotion to Jay’s work—though I confess that I’m somewhat guilty of that—but also because it’s the record that drew me back in most often this year, the record that excited me most, and the record that I consider the most successfully realized overall. And hearing Jay rock out again, well, rocks.
2. Robbie Fulks, “Georgia Hard.” Hand on heart honest: if this record were two or three tracks shorter, it would be my record of the year. (I think.) The first three tracks on this record are as powerful a beginning to a record as I’ve heard in years, and though the pace of the record isn’t always quite right (it seems to sag a little in the middle, even though I can’t identify any one song that causes this), it’s a masterpiece of songwriting and performance overall. Of course, it helps that I share Robbie’s fondness for the particular brand of ’70s mainstream country that influenced the record, but the record is a lot more than the sum of its influences. There’s no one like Robbie—probably a good thing, on balance—and he’s once again outdone himself with “Georgia Hard.”
3. Malcolm Middleton, “Into the Woods.” It’s possible—not definite, but possible—that I would be less completely captivated by this record if the rueful, biting, and often very funny lyrics weren’t sung in Malcolm’s deadpan Falkirkian accent, but they are, so that’s a moot point. As it is, I am completely captivated by it. The music on its own is strong enough to win me over—kind of lo-fi pop, which is right up my street—and then when you throw in lyrics like “You’re gonnae break my heart, I know it/But if you don’t/You’re gonna break my run of unhappiness/And destroy my career,” well, how can I resist?
I thought the number 4 spot was easily the property of Steve Dawson, whose wonderful, soulful side project “Sweet Is the Anchor” dominated my CD player for weeks after its release. But some serious competition has come up in the latter half of the year: the everybodyfields, The Clientele, The Morning After Girls, Gary Allan, John Doyle⿦I think Steve will probably still be at number 4 because I’m endlessly loyal to him and Dolly Varden and anything related to them⿦but it’s going to be a tough call. And after that, it gets even tougher.
So, back to tearing my hair out.
*On that subject, I would like to “thank” Sony BMG for the fact that I’ve only listened to Patty Loveless’s current release twice because of the copy protection, arguably the single most idiotic strategy ever pursued by a company. (“Hey, here’s a great marketing idea. Let’s punish people who buy the record legally and make it vastly preferable to download it illegally!”) I’ll be trading in my copy-protected disc for a new, “safe” one as soon as I remember to stop by the UPS Store, but that won’t give me enough time to fairly assess the record for year-end purposes. Good thing it’s a little bit of a disappointment after her last couple of records anyway.