1. Keyshia Cole - Woman To Woman
First of all, let me apologize for putting that album cover up there, that is a disaster. This is a solid album, though, maybe Keysh's best. In a weird way, I'm guess I'm lucky that I usually get to enjoy heartbreak music on a more abstract level, but I recently put this album on after having a rare fight with my wife and it was really helpful and cathartic. Keyshia has a great way of pulling every production sound into her orbit and making it a part of her sensibility, which is kind of rare among contemporary R&B singers -- love the way the computer love of "Stubborn" totally ends up in service of the usual weepy Cole world-building.

2. Mouse On Tha Track - Millionaire Dreamzzz
I'm still digging into this tape and finding new favorites -- "Raise A Finger" is crazy, and I love how "Money Mayweather" kind of reinvents the "Bad Chick" synths and then Mystikal comes in yelling about how he's not gonna pay a lot for this muffler. Mouse sometimes raps a little offbeat (although not as bad as his homie Webbie) but he's got such a great voice for the kind of tracks he makes, so rare that a rapper/producer is able to complement his own beats so perfectly.

3. Ne-Yo - R.E.D.
The hot streak Ne-Yo was on for his first three albums is never coming back but he's back on his game a little bit here. In any event, I love his voice and his whole songwriting style, and the inclusion of some dance pop songs and a Tim McGraw duet just helps broaden what he's capable of in ways that are surprisingly natural. Feels at this point like we're just setting the stage for his middle-age career rejuvenation when everyone remembers how good he is and let's him just do whatever.

4. Soundgarden - King Animal
I am generally not one to wish musicians wouldn't release music, or work again with old collaborators, just as so not to tarnish my old memories, because I think that's stupid. But Soundgarden are definitely one of those bands who I always felt were pretty incredible right up to the end and that if they ever came back they could blow everyone out of the water, so it was depressing to have that illusion totally shattered this year.

5. Fatima Al Qadiri - Desert Strike EP
Two things that are lightweight no-no's for me are all this post-dance post-IDM instrumental beat music out there that I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with, and learning about music from Pitchfork. But looking over the year-end guest list feature and seeing this fly lady raving about Jahlil Beats and Sonny Digital was like OK, I'm gonna check her shit out just out of respect. And this is pretty cool -- it'd be cooler if she got some rappers on these tracks like the producers she's influenced by, but it works well on its own, some interesting textures and melodic choices.

6. The Evens - The Odds
The Evens is such an unusual project, even in the context of usual "aging indie/punk icon mellows out" type projects, and there are things about just the chutzpah of the whole thing and the weird musical context they put these confrontational sentiments in that I really like. But I can also go years without thinking about or particularly wanting to play this stuff, even though their last album was probably my favorite, so it's nice to be reminded.

7. How To Destroy Angels - An Omen EP
I've always been a big fan of Trent Reznor as a musician and producer, while also feeling like Nine Inch Nails could be a little hemmed in by the fact that as a songwriter and vocalist he kind of only has one gear, one dark brooding emotional perspective. So Ghosts I-IV and the film scores were a fun way of hearing him toy with a wide variety sounds without his voice and lyrics instantly taking it in that narrow direction, and a new band with a second vocalist even moreso brings things to a more exciting and unpredictable place -- it's actually a lot like how The Evens offers a new way to hear Ian Mackaye, actually. "Ice Age" off this record in particular is really killing me, I'm now looking forward to the full-length, although when I went back and checked out the other EP from 2010 it didn't grab me nearly as much (and I'm gonna type their name the normal way because the stylization of "How to destroy angels_" is pretty corny I think).

8. Kadman - Rustbelt Hymnal EP
I've known Dave Manchester from Kadman around Baltimore for a few years, and a while back he moved to Pittsburgh, and I guess decided to end the Kadman project, which had gone through a few different lineups with him as the only constant. But he ended it on a high note with this 5-song EP of collaborations with The Water's Dan Cohan, who I'm a big fan of. Their styles are really compatible and it's cool to hear them join forces and kind of find a halfway point between Kadman's earthy slowcore songs and The Water's dense, bombastic sound (incidentally, Kadman's Bandcamp also has a recording of a show I was at shortly after Cohan started playing with Kadman). Manchester's new band Arlo Aldo also has a full-length coming out in February.

9. Brianna Perry - Symphony #9
I was really interested in this girl rapper after the single "Marilyn Monroe" about a year ago, and the mixtape that followed was OK but nothing super memorable. So a year past after she got a deal and nothing seemed to happen, so I started to give up hope, but it turned out there was a more recent mixtape after all, with some big name features (Future, Trey Songz, T-Pain, French Montana). This mixtape shows her potential still intact but not realized in any significant new ways, while she gets a little more industry-ready, which can be both a good and a bad thing. It's a frustrating listen, though, almost half the tracks are just snippets that fade out after a minute or so, like she's really saving the full songs for some album may never drop, which has always been a sucker move, either put out the songs now or don't. The closing track "Dat Bitch" really saves the tape a little bit, just a really top notch "Rack City" knockoff.

10. Sonic Youth - Smart Bar Chicago 1985
When it was announced that Sonic Youth was releasing an official live album from a Bad Moon Rising-era bootleg, I was kind of indifferent because that's one of my least favorite periods of the band's history and besides, I've already seen the Gila Monster Jamboree video. But then I realized that this was one of the first shows after Steve Shelley joined, i.e. the beginning of the band as I love them most, and it became a lot more interesting to me. It's fun to hear Steve ripping into the Bob Bert songs along with some very early performances of "Secret Girl" and "Expressway To Yr Skull." The Dinosaur Jr. live recording from 1987 that was also released in November had its moments but this is a much more exciting document, for me at least.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 27, 2013 at 11:31 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.