Dean Peteet's blog

Well it's been a while since I posted so I think now I might actually have something to say. Now Of course it’s also the end of the year, which means it's Top Five time. However because such an enormous amount of good music came out this year were going to make it the Top Ten. Music: #10 Band Of Horses: Cease To Begin This bands sophomore effort definitely outshines their debut with a much more solid batch of tunes, with it's brand of melodic rock reminiscent of Neil Young, as well as The Red House Painters, and even some older U2. #9 The Good, The Bad, & The Queen: Damon Albarn that British wearer of many hats (Blur, Gorrillaz)with the help of former members of the Clash, and the Verve gives us one of the most authentic sounding London records made since about oh I'd say 1994. #8 Bat For Lashes: Fur and Gold At first hyped as a Bjork wannabe we begin to see through the course of the record (even though there obviously needs to be some growth in the lyric department) there is a really captivating artist here that appears to have a lot of potential up her sleeve. #7 Andrew Bird: Armchair Apocrypha The former Violinist for the Squirrel Nut Zippers now on his third record as a solo artist continues the glorious trend we see this year of artist's returning to beauty, well executed orchestration, and song craft. #6 The National: Boxer This melancholy band sounds born to play smoke filled rooms with it's brand of beautiful sadness sounding like New Order Melodies channeled through the voice of Leonard Cohen. #5 Modest Mouse: We were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank Well, If Pirates were rockers or rockers were pirates they would probably sound a lot like this record. Apologies to Tom Waits and Keith Richards. Oh, and Johnny Marr plays guitar on this record. #4 Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga if there is such a thing this year as a pure rock’n’roll record, it comes in the shape of the tight swagger of this Austin Texas Quartet's new offering. #3 The Arcade Fire: Neon Bible Probably the second most anticipated record of this year. For myself as well as others this record seemed at first not to live up to the preconceived expectations some of us had, but over time I noticed that it merely transcended them. #2 Grizzly Bear: Yellow House Yes I know technically this record came out last year, but I just heard it this year. Wow, very few records come along these days that are both beautiful and innovatively brilliant, as well as being as eccentric as the old lady with the glass eye that lives up the street. Three cheers for Grizzly Bear, they pull it off well. # 1 Radiohead: In Rainbows Yeah we know all about the pay what you want download, but is the music good? Yes it is. The irony of the In Rainbows controversy is that this album is probably the band's most accessible record since the bends. It is full of lush melodies and orchestration as well as one of their best rockers in years (Body Snatchers). The lyrics are a lot more straightforward on this one as well. Well there you have it my Top Ten in music for this year. So what were the low points this year? Well I would have to say that this year you definitely saw the final death knell for the Post-Punk/New Wave revivalism of the last four or five years. Starting with the bland, tuneless record Weekend in the City by Block Party, then the over the top new fiasco of a record called Sam's Town by the Killers, where they claim that they were trying to channel Bruce Springsteen, but in actuality sounded more like they were channeling another New Jersey band but who had bigger hair. Lastly this year saw my favorite band from this era Interpol release their third record, which was terribly disappointing. I can't remember the last time I heard a record where you could almost hear the steam leaving the studio. With only a small handful of memorable tunes composed by bass player Carlos D. the rest of the record sounds like a bunch of B-sides from their last record. If they were really smart in the future they’ll put Carlos in charge. Stay tuned next time for my top 10, Urm I mean my top 5 list of movies. Now I just have to figure out what came out this year that I actually liked.