Music

Here are my picks for my favorite albums of the decade.

1. Funeral – Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire changed the face of indie rock with their powerful, exciting sound. Although there are a lot of familiar elements, their music sounds totally unique.

2. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – Wilco

The drama surrounding this album is almost as exciting as the album itself. After being dropped by their record company for not being commercial enough, they regained control of their music and got it released. Wonderful pop songs with cryptic lyrics and noise which only adds to the music.

3. In Rainbows – Radiohead

Another artist that went against the record industry and won. Beautiful blend of electronica, pop, and rock.

4. Egypt – Youssou N’dour

Youssou is Africa’s most important musician who has always used his influence to bring the world’s attention to the issues that affect Africa. On this album, his greatest achievement, he shows the beautiful, poetic, tolerant side of Islam that we rarely hear about. This is a sharp departure from his usual style, featuring a large Egyptian string orchestra rather than his usual band, the Super Etoile.

5. Neon Bible – Arcade Fire

This album is even more epic than “Funeral” with the addition of a pipe organ and full orchestra, although the songs aren’t as consistent.

6. The Crane Wife – The Decemberists

One of the most intelligent & literate groups, bringing back classic rock with a concept album.

7. Aman Iman: Water is Life – Tinariwen

They bring their intoxicating desert blues sound from the Sahara desert to the world. They blend traditional vocals with blazing electric guitars for a unique sound.

8. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

Modern folk music with breathtakingly beautiful vocal harmonies.

9. Illinoise – Sufjan Stevens

Sufjan is one of the best singer/songwriters around, who also plays every instrument on this album. Some of his songs like “Chicago” are instant classics.

10. Ágætis Byrjun – Sigur Rós

One of the most beautiful sounding albums ever. The stark, haunting beauty makes me want to visit their native Iceland.

I also really want to include Vampire Weekend for their wonderful afro-pop touches and intelligent lyrics that make it a worthy successor to Paul Simon’s “Graceland”. Hopefully like Graceland it will introduce a new generation to afro-pop.

Update: Hear all 10 albums in this 8track mix:

Via World Music Central:

In a special event to mark the closing stages of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen, Senegalese star Baaba Maal will be interviewed by BBC Hardtalk’s Stephen Sackur on Thursday, December 17, at 8pm CET at the Pumpehuset, Copenhagen. The interview will later be broadcast on BBC World Service’s ”The Strand”.

“In Conversation with Baaba Maal” will hear the acclaimed singer talk about his life, discuss his concerns about climate change in the developing world and play a short acoustic set. Baaba Maal is attending COP15 as the climate change ambassador for Africa Talks Climate, a research and communication initiative from the BBC World Service Trust, the BBC’s international development charity.

I hope this will bring him more mainstream recognition. Most people who aren’t African music fans have never heard of him.

As usual, my favorite music of the year has very little in common with the Grammy nominations. The only Album Of The Year nomination I even like is “Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King”. I don’t like any of the choices for Record or Song of the year.

Here are my favorite albums of the year:

1. Fanfarlo – Reservoir They’re my favorite new group of 2009. Their sound is reminiscent of Arcade Fire, but not as powerful & epic.
2. Wilco – Wilco (the album)
3. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
4. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
5. The Decemberists – Hazards of love
6. Imogen Heap – Elipse She’s simply amazing.
7. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
8. Tinariwen – Imidwan (Companions) I can’t get enough of their Desert Blues sound.
9. Baaba Maal – Television Very interesting collaborations with Western artists.
10. Ashley Maher – Amina Bringing Senegalese sounds to mainstream pop.

Honorable Mention: Dark Was The Night (various artists) – a compilation album featuring new songs by Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens, The Decemberists, and Spoon, among many others.

And my favorite songs:

1. You Never Know – Wilco
2. Brother Sport – Animal Collective
3. Luna – Fanfarlo
4. Lenin – Arcade Fire
5. The Wanting Comes in Waves – The Decemberists
6. 1901 – Phoenix
7. Earth – Imogen Heap
8. Why I Am – Dave Matthews Band
9. Horchata – Vampire Weekend
10. (I Keep On) Rising Up – Mike Doughty

Next year, I’m really looking forward to the new albums by Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Vampire Weekend, and Jonsi’s solo album.

The Grammy awards always pick the same kind of bland, mainstream pop music and shy away from anything different or innovative.

Some of their category selections are bizarre, like nominating “Wilco (the album)” under Americana rather than a more mainstream pop or rock category. Other categories like “Alternative” & “World Music” are dumping grounds for artists with very little in common, while the dozen or so Latin categories are overly specific.

The big category nominations are always “artists” with big labels promoting them. The worst thing about people like Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and the others is there’s no innovation and nothing personal in their music. It’s more about fashion, costumes, and carefully choreographed dance moves than the music itself, and their whole image is designed and packaged by their manager and record company, not by the artists themselves. When they play a live show, everything is carefully scored & choreographed to look & sound exactly like their albums & music videos, with nothing spontaneous.

With bands like Arcade Fire, Dave Matthews Band, Wilco and others, their shows are completely spontaneous and they never play a song the same way twice. Their live recordings are collector’s items and fans have favorite shows or performances because each one is unique. I can’t see anyone collecting Lady Gaga live recordings because they’ll always be exactly the same.

If you enjoy Vampire Weekend’s Afro-pop sensibility, you’ll probably love Ashley Maher. Ashley is a California-based singer songwriter who sounds a bit like Joni Mitchell, but her music has a strong west African influence.

Her 5th album, “Amina” is her most authentically Senegalese. Produced by Cameroonian producer Andre Manger, portions of it were recorded at Jimi M’baye’s Studio Dogo in Dakar featuring Jimi, tama player Assane Thiam, and other Senegalese musicians.

The song “Joy” tells the story of her trip to Senegal, which you can also read about in her blog. She gives shout outs to several Senegalese musicians and alludes to Youssou N’dour’s song “Old Tucson”.

Ashley is not only a wonderful singer, she’s also a master of complex Senegalese dances like the Sabar.

So far 2009 is turning out to be a fantastic year for music, and it’s only about half over. The latest album that caught my ear is Wilco’s new self-titled album.

Wilco’s output tends to be inconsistent, like they were constantly searching for the right sound, but they seem to have found it on this album. I preferred their more rock-oriented sound of “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” to the more laid back sound of “Sky Blue Sky”, although YHF had a bit too much noise that detracted from some of the songs.

Wilco (the album) reaches the ideal middle ground between the two extremes, with songs that are instantly catchy and will have you humming them for days. These are some of Wilco’s happiest and most positive songs ever. “Wilco (the song)” is just plain fun. “You never know” & “I’ll Fight” may be their best songs. There are no weak songs on this album; this is another album I can listen to from start to finish without skipping any songs.

In the months leading up to the release, I discovered and started reading Spencer Tweedy’s blog (Jeff’s son), which is always interesting in its own right, as well as often giving an insider’s view of their current tour.

It’s still much too early to start making my best album list, but there are so many great albums I’ve been listening to recently. Here’s a partial list.

• The Decemberists – The Hazards Of Love A rare album that needs to be listened to in its entirety.
• Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest Simply beautiful music.
• Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion Almost the entire album is now on my workout playlist.
• Fanfarlo – Reservoir This one is by far my current favorite. They sound a lot like Arcade Fire, yet they still sound fresh and original.
• Dark Was The Night (various artists) A must have album for indie music fans. The highlights include “Lenin”, a great new track by Arcade Fire; “Happiness” by Riceboy Sleeps (a side project by Jonsi of Sigur Ros), A new version of “Lua” by Conor Oberst, and new tracks by Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver, and The Decemberists.
• Baaba Maal – Television Once again he proves that he can blend modern & traditional music better than almost anyone else. He still has one of the world’s greatest voices, although the arrangements frequently overshadow it.

DMB’s “Big Whiskey & the Groogrux King” would be on my list, but I didn’t get it until I returned from my trip and I haven’t had a chance to load it into iTunes yet.