Week of January 5, 2006, Issue #533
MUSIC
Give yourselves a hand
DAVID BERRY (Music Writer)
1. Wolf Parade, Apologies to the Queen Mary (Sub Pop) Where would the
world be without songs like “I’ll Believe in Anything”? Well,
it’d still have a fantastic album, I guess, but surely it would be a bit
sadder.
2. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Independent)
What The Talking Heads would sound like if they were born in 1980. That’s
really good, by the way.
3. Antony and the Johnsons, I Am a Bird Now (Sonic Unyon) A six-foot-something,
bald, gay man who sounds like Nina Simone at her most emotional and sings about
transgendered longing and sadomasochistic love. “Hope There’s Someone”
is as scary as it is yearning.
4. Sufjan Stevens, Illinois (Sonic Unyon) There’s no possible
way the actual state of Illinois is as beautiful as this album.
5. The Go! Team, Thunder Lightning Strike (Sony) This is cheating,
since it was actually released last year, but it had its North American release
this year, and no one has done anything this purely fun since.
Honourable Mentions: The Decemberists, Picaresque; Dangerdoom, The
Mouse and the Mask; The Ladies and Gentlemen, Small Sins
PAUL MATWYCHUK (Everything Writer)
1. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Independent)
Yeah! Yellow-toothed pop music tailor-made for people who wish Talking Heads
never broke up and were still making albums like More Songs About Buildings
and Food.
2. LCD Soundsystem, LCD Soundsystem (DFA) If there’s some kind
of formula out there for irresistible dance-rock music, LCD Soundsystem’s
James Murphy seems close to cracking it with songs like “Daft Punk Is
Playing at My House,” “Disco Infiltrator” and the unstoppable
“Yeah.”
3. The Mountain Goats, The Sunset Tree (4AD) John Darnielle aims his
peerless songwriting skills even more unmercifully upon himself with this album-length
memory piece about the alcoholic, abusive stepfather who made his teen years
so miserable. “This Year” is my new January 1 anthem.
4. Bloc Party, Silent Alarm (V2) Their sound (crisp, all-business,
percussive London post-punk) draws you in, and then the oblique but fiercely
declaimed lyrics (dealing with politics both sexual and global) keep you listening
once the novelty’s worn off.
5. Robyn, Robyn (Konichiwa)/Annie, Anniemal (Big Beat) Scandinavian
dancefloor pop done right, guaranteed to wash the taste of ABBA out of any hipster’s
mouth.
ROSS MOROZ (Local Music Enthusiast)
1. Cadence Weapon, Breaking Kayfabe (Upper Class) Breaking Kayfabe,
the debut album from local rapper Cadence Weapon, is a world-class piece of
post-modernist hip-hop, somewhat unbelievably written and recorded in and about
the City of Champions.
2. The Wolfnote, Sacred Bodies (Reluctant) Edmonton’s premier
Wolf band show their teeth on their best album to date.
3. The Vertical Struts, The Vertical Struts (Pop Echo) This stylish,
sexually ambiguous garage-rock duo prove they’re more than just a one-
(or two-) trick pony with their debut full-length.
4. All Purpose Voltage Heroes, Already Haunted (Rectangle) Possibly
the only record to ever make you wish you would have stuck with those awful
keyboard lessons your parents forced you to take in the early ‘90s.
5. Twin Fangs, Street Sweeper (Rectangle) PJ plays guitar, Penny plays
drums, rock ensues.
Honourable mentions: The Wet Secrets, A Whale of a Cow (Independent);
Whitey Houston, Whitey Houston (Rectangle)
LEAH COLLINS (Smug Torontonian)
1. The New Pornographers, Twin Cinema (Outside) It’s like they
added a fresh 100 or so feet to their usual wall of sound. The West coast supergroup
perfects the pop—with epic results.
2. The Go! Team, Thunder Lightning Strike (Sony) Right at home on a
shelf of Sesame Street and Motown LPs.
3. The Decemberists, Picaresque (FAB) Eleven stories plus many more
characters—from military wives to a doomed gypsy lover—equals one
devastatingly good listen.
4, Annie, Anniemal (Big Beat) Guilt-free dance pop that kicks Madonna
in her well-defined rear end.
5. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Independent)
Let me be the kajillionth music writer with a penchant for indie rock to say
this one deserves a hand.
I also have a special spot in my heart for: The Grates, The Ouch. The Touch;
Gorillaz, Demon Days; The Fiery Furnaces, EP
TYSON KABAN (Music Writer)
1. Kathleen Edwards, Back To Me (Universal) Alt-country with a rock
sensibility, Edwards’s skill as an affecting songwriter can’t be
matched. Both helpless victim and potty-mouthed instigator, when she’s
not busy breaking someone’s heart, she’s sweeping her own off the
floor.
2. The New Pornographers, Twin Cinema (Outside)/ Broken Social Scene,
Broken Social Scene (Arts & Crafts) Which Canadian super-group released
the better album this year? I’ve obviously made my decision.
3. Sleater-Kinney, The Woods (Sub Pop) I put you on the list not because
I’m afraid you’ll beat me up, but because your exceptional brand
of loud, distorted, intimidating modern-rock is surprisingly palatable.
4. Aimee Mann, The Forgotten Arm (Outside) A sublime, pop-rock novella
revolving around an addicted boxer bouncing in and out of rehab in post-Vietnam
America. Yes, it’s as fantastic as it sounds and no, I’m not 40.
5. Annie, Anniemal (Big Beat) The year’s guiltiest pleasure comes
courtesy of a Norwegian club-kid who’s sick beats and cheeky lyrics are
perfect for dancing around your basement suite in your underwear. Or so I’ve
been told.
Honourable Mentions: Martha Wainwright, Martha Wainwright; Metric,
Live It Out; Bettye LaVette, I’ve Got My Own Hell To Raise
CHRIS BOUTET (Managing Editor)
1. Wolf Parade, Apologies to the Queen Mary (Sub Pop) From the opening
smash of “You Are a Runner and I Am My Father’s Son” to the
final jubilant cacophony that closes out “This Heart’s On Fire,”
this Montreal five-piece delivers the most refreshing and giddily exultant rock
album I’ve heard in years. An instant classic.
2. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Independent)
No, Leah, let me be the kajillionth reviewer to give these boys from Brooklyn
the big double-guns for gracing the world with this infectious collection of
indescribably meaningful indie pop. Yow.
3. Bright Eyes, Digital Ash in a Digital Urn (Outside) Simultaneously
released with the more instantly likeable (but in retrospect, somewhat uninspired)
I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, Conor Oberst’s foray into rhythm-heavy
electro-pop is an uneven effort at best—but man, when it’s brilliant
(“Arc of Time,” “Light Pollution”), tell me when your
nipples have ever been harder.
4. The Decemberists, Picaresque (FAB) Whimsy! Theatricality! Costumes!
Adorable rhyme schemes delivered with an endearingly fey affectation! It’s
all enough to bring out the drama major in anyone.
5. The National, Alligator (Beggars) Released back in April during
one of the best years for indie music in recent memory, you could be forgiven
for forgetting about The National. But do yourself a favour, pull this one off
the shelf and be reminded what a touchingly sexy collection of tunes Alligator
is.
Honourable mentions: Fembots, The City; Youth Group, Skeleton Jar;
Sleater-Kinney, The Woods; The Ladies and Gentlemen, Small Sins
EDEN MUNRO (Music Writer)
1. The Hugh Dillon Redemption Choir, The High Cost of Low Living (Universal)
The former Headstones frontman returns with a new band full of intertwining
guitars and keyboards, making for a dynamic, more refined sound. And he still
rocks hard, too.
2. Elliott Brood, Ambassador (Warner) Death-country stomped out with
banjos, guitars, and a drum kit built around a suitcase. The sound is well-travelled
along the dark back roads, and the miles serve it well.
3. Krista Hartman, Passport (Independent) It’s refreshing to
hear an album that has folk influences without sounding whiny and contrived.
Hartman wraps her stories up in a gritty reality and she doesn’t bother
to pull any punches.
4. Leeroy Stagger, Beautiful House (Boompa) Stagger conjures his songs
out of the ashes of the best from the history of pop, rock and country, and
the result is an album that is thick with a variety of flavours, but unified
by Stagger’s voice and vision.
5. The Maybellines, The Maybellines Are Dead (Independent) Seven years
after their demise, the Maybellines finally let their dirty, ragged, rock ‘n’
rollin’ country escape on disc. They sound like they’re barely holding
it together, and that gives the music an edge that cuts deep.
Honourable mentions: Twin Fangs, Street Sweeper; The Agnostic Mountain
Gospel Choir, Fighting and Onions; Jon-rae and the River, Old Songs
for the New Town V