Just North of Something Important

Music roundup

1. 2009 so far has been the best period for albums I can think of since at least a few years ago; throw in the end of 2008 and it’d be even better.  I found some good stuff with my year-end catchup binge, but I was still mainly disappointed by a lot of 2008’s biggest releases.  I suppose the excitement here is premised on the rest of the year keeping up this pace, which it presumably won’t, but nevertheless, we’ve got a hell of a crop right now.  The following 2009 albums are all at least good and worthy of a listen, if you have not already. 
   
   • Andrew WK - The Japan Covers
   • Handsome Furs - Face Control
   • Fever Ray - s/t
   • Fight Like Apes - And The Mystery Of The Golden Medallion
   • Franz Ferdinand - Tonight!
   • The Lonely Island - Incredibad
   • Kelly Clarkson - All I Ever Wanted
   • Lily Allen - It’s Not Me, It’s You
   • Morrissey - Years of Refusal
   • Neko Case - Middle Cyclone (I know! This is me saying this!)
   • Shout Out Out Out - Reintegration Time
   • The Juan MacLean - The Future Will Come
   • The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - s/t
   • War Child Presents Heroes
   • Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It’s Blitz!
   • I suppose most people would also include the Animal Collective album.
2. I am feeling worse and worse that I left Max Tundra’s Parallax Error Beheads You off my year-end list, even though no one read it.  So let me correct that now.  If I had to redo the list now, it would probably place at #3 or #4, and it is currently one of the two albums I am listening to the most.  (The other is the Fight Like Apes album, which I really can’t reccommend highly enough.)  Like all Max Tundra albums, it requires repeat listening, but by design.  There are perfect pop songs contained in each track, but rather than being complicated with noise or obscured behind reverb as a lot of bands do these days, it’s almost like they’ve been broken into a Magic Eye drawing for your ears: once you learn how to listen to them, you can put the pieces of the puzzle together, and from then on they sound whole.  But making your ears do that work makes the songs even more rewarding, because moment-to-moment they’re being forced to make discoveries.  I’m still finding new things here; yesterday it was realizing just how many massive hooks are thrown off in “The Entertainment.”  If you have not heard and listened a few times to this album, you really, really should.
3. I can’t find my copy of Max Tundra’s Mastered By Guy At The Exchange but I literally could not give my copy of the stupid Louis XIV album away.  Sigh.