Decade Favorites #33-31: A Bible, a Catalogue, and the power of Positive thinking

33 Stay Positive / The Hold Steady (2008)
Since my failed first date with these guys, two things happened. First, something intangible coalesced in Craig Finn’s writing. I can’t sum it up any better than to say that when Springsteen lamented the verbally paralyzed poets on the streets of “Jungleland”, he wasn’t looking at anyone like Finn.

Meanwhile, the band that at first was, in fact, ruined for me by too many E Street Band comparisons also raised its game. They have harnessed the occasional instrumental twist (harpsichord here, lack of snare or a random Neil-Schonesque guitar solo there) to their original shingle-shaking power. Put it all together, and you get first-rate sonic and verbal blasts of vivid rock, broken up by tremendously effective moments like “Lord, I’m Discouraged” or “Both Crosses”. These days, nobody does a better job of explaining all the ways that it’s hard to be a saint in the city.

(Pick 3 – One For The Cutters / Lord, I’m Discouraged / Sequestered In Memphis)

32 Neon Bible / Arcade Fire (2007)
Opener quibbles aside (“Keep The Car Running” still sounds like an automatic first track to me), Neon Bible executes a flawless mix of tempos while maintaining a near-constant level of intensity, throwing its musical heft and ensemble dramatic power into songs about war and other maladies —  institutional, societal, and individual. Neon Bible is rewarding, durable, inspired, and exhausting in the best artistic way. To that end, nobody released a better album in 2007.

But for a favorites list, usage has to factor in there somewhere. I'm not always in the right space for "Intervention", which may be the best rock song of 2007, or "My Body Is A Cage", the steely, unflinching closer that still gets me. While perhaps nobody else could tell these truths and put light in these corners the way Arcade Fire does, I can still hear and see what is revealed only so often.

(Pick 3 – Intervention / Ocean Of Noise / Keep The Car Running)

31 Catalogue Of Generous Men / Modern Skirts (2004)
The earnest “N.Y. Song” opener would make a songs list for the decade if I did attempt one, and that’s followed by the charming “Seventeen Dirty Magazines” and three more I’d recommend. After much anticipation, I found this Athens band’s recent follow-up tragically uninteresting, but their full-length debut is a keeper if you like a piano-based band and an engaging vocalist.

(p.s. Upon further listening, it really is a rare start-to-finish winner, not a dud in the bunch, and has climbed significantly during this little exercise.)

(p.p.s. Then more time passed before I relocated this entry, which originally ended with that last sentence. Now I'll also suggest that if you like Glee, you’ll like this disc: All of the musicality, none of the recurring plot annoyances!)

(Pick 3 – N.Y. Song / Seventeen Dirty Magazines / Pasadena)

Decade Favorites #36-34: Tears, Fears, Conquests, and Iceland's finest

36 Everybody Loves A Happy Ending / Tears For Fears (2004)
Taking a break can be good for your productivity. Sometimes, this means getting some fresh air or a power nap. In the case of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, it meant 15 years between putting a new album in the racks, but whatever. As the cover art suggests, this is no half-interested, half-baked reunion of convenience. Tears For Fears 3.0 is a full-on, Technicolor, three-ring experience, crammed with melodies and hooks, often aided by hairpin writing and production maneuvers that usually lead to more hooks.

Orzabal takes most of the lead vocals, but clearly the pair have a working chemistry that surpasses what either can do individually. If you liked classic TFF or if you like lushly produced songwriting — rife with both Beatles allusions in varying degrees of subtlety and whatever exactly makes something Brit Pop — then you owe this a full listen. Like, right now.

(Pick 3 – Everybody Loves A Happy Ending / Who Are You / Secret World)

35 The Historical Conquests Of Josh Ritter / Josh Ritter (2007)
It's always a pleasure when a sophomore-to-me release lives up to or even surpasses the disc that first caught my attention. Conquest’s first side is about pursuing love, the second side about dealing with it once you have it (and its challenges, such as the bummer of unfavorable geography).

The writing, instrumentation, and delivery here all flash some decidedly un-folkish swagger as the first five songs swerve from joyous ramshackle to Spoonesque stomp, from suave pop to hushed storytelling with crafted turns of phrase. Ritter now realizes that his home genre doesn't have to be his only genre, taking the core songwriting values honed in his troubadour upbringing and integrating them deftly in some new areas, while gleefully ignoring them in a couple of others. All in all, this is a portrait of the artist as a young, formidable talent realizing that he is, in fact, fairly young and formidable.

(Pick 3 - Right Moves / The Temptation Of Adam / Rumors)

34 Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum / Sigur Rós (2008)
I’ve listened to this album maybe six times. So why is it here? One day this fall, I got some particularly bad news about a family member — the kind that shoves all the crap off your desk, grabs you by the collar, and makes you look it in the eye for longer than you might otherwise prefer. I almost certainly hadn’t owned it for long, but this was the music I dialed up.

It was perfect. A record that can thoroughly join and reflect a single moment has done as much for you as any recorded music can. Polyrhythmic and then simple, fragile then anthemic, the music is often crystal clear and the lyrics always totally unintelligible. Odd how something that sounds like nothing else in particular can come the closest to summing up the sound of everything worth mentioning.

(Pick 3 – Goggledigook / Góðan daginn / Inní mér syngur vitleysingur)

Decade Favorites #39-37: Dixie, Dave, and the Innocence Mission

39 Home / Dixie Chicks (2002)
Where were you when country radio took the Dixie Chicks to the Big D (and I don’t mean Dallas)? They were in London when Natalie Maines’ comment condemned them to airplay Elba, but the trio can still take comfort in Home. The opening “Long Time Gone” shines where anti-music-biz songs fail, thanks to tunefulness and clever play on the names of country legends. Later, the back-to-back “White Trash Wedding” and “A Home” careen from flat-out fun to ethereal introspection.

Ironically, “Travelin’ Soldier’s” portrait of small-town collateral damage is a highlight, and it’s a tribute to the Chicks that “Landslide” justifies the studio time. Maybe one song too long, the set relies on Maines’ formidable but blessedly non-divaesque voice, the trio’s musicality, and wisdom in picking great covers (including two from Patty Griffin) and collaborators. Some “patriots” may boycott, but among those with open ears, Home earned a few million hearts and minds.

(Pick 3 – Long Time Gone / A Home / White Trash Wedding)

38 Befriended / The Innocence Mission (2003)
Junior year — maybe my best year of college. RA in my old freshman dorm, played a lot of music, had a room with shag carpet coming a yard up the walls. And improbably, I found fantastic eponymous debuts from both Maria McKee and this band. Kind of like Natalie Merchant, Karen Peris focused on family and other issues rarely found in the rock section. Her brother, Don, spread out an assortment of guitar accompaniments in support, electric and acoustic, with the disc’s overall effect oddly both dynamic and calming.

Fast-forward fourteen years: Innocence Mission have shed the last remnants of ’80s production while keeping all of the pretty melodic instincts, tasteful multi-guitar support, and soothing vibe. Both siblings have only gotten better at what they do; with judicious help from piano/keys, occasional upright bass, and light percussion, these songs sway in the breeze or hang like mist, perfect for a brief escape in a way I appreciate twice as much as the 20-year-old me.

(Pick 3 – Tomorrow On The Runway / I Never Knew You From The Sun / When Mac Was Swimming)

37 Some Devil / Dave Matthews (2003)
My favorite work from Dave Matthews this decade is 2004’s hypnotic “Sugar Will”, unlike anything else he’s done but still awaiting a studio release. After that, it’s Some Devil, a solo effort finding Matthews airing a stash of strong songs and sounding quite comfortable without his usual lineup.

Of course, maybe it’s easier to sound comfortable when the drummer is Brady Blade, Jr. (Daniel Lanois, Emmylou Harris) and your fellow guitarists are Trey Anastasio and Tim Reynolds. Despite their guitarslinger reps, here all egos are subsumed in the name of the greater sound. The often Lanois-esque, dusky palette is an alluring change, doing right by half a dozen songs that stand among the best Matthews has written, including “So Damn Lucky” (car-wreck cousin of “Airbag”) and the beautiful “Stay Or Leave” (where the relationship is what's beyond repair).

(Pick 3 – Dodo / Stay Or Leave / Save Me)

Decade Favorites #42-40: Indie pop, after-closing-time city pop, and dirty old men

42 The Rhumb Line / Ra Ra Riot (2008)
Ra Ra Riot was hanging out somewhere between Modern Skirts, Vampire Weekend, and Matt Pond PA when Bob Boilen found and delivered them to me via his All Songs Considered podcast (thanks, Bob). The group formed in 2006 and lost their original drummer (co-author of half these tracks) in 2007, but still released this first full-length in 2008. Wes Miles fronts the band with his engaging tenor, infusing even high-energy melodies with a slight melancholy strain. Behind him, three guys form your typical rock three-piece.

However, the twist (aside from Miles) comes courtesy of the women who comprise the two-piece string section. The violin and cello double the sonic depth of the several propulsive songs while adding counterpoint throughout. The resulting indie pop is somehow simultaneously lean and full, and unless it turns out their departed bandmate was their melodic guru, their sophomore release will be on the Tuesday list around here.

(Pick 3 – Each Year / Winter ’05 / Dying Is Fine)

41 Let It Die / Feist (2004)
People have made great albums with a rhythm section, percussion, a couple of keyboards, and a guitar. It’s harder to make one where maybe half of those instruments are being used at any given moment. These spare foundations set the stage for Leslie Feist’s vocals, engaging whether the mood is isolation (the fragile title track) or something groovier (the Bee Gees’ “Inside And Out”). That cover and the hit “Mushaboom” provide some “full-band” balance to what sound like several glimpses of city hearts weathering their fates in small apartments. It’s a lovely 38 minutes which would, in turn, set the stage for Feist’s breakout Apple ad (and its associated record).

(Pick 3 – Mushaboom / Lonely Lonely / Secret Heart)


40 Two Against Nature / Steely Dan (2000)
Twenty years after an extraordinary run that helped Becker and Fagen define the LP in the ’70s, nobody really expected another Steely Dan disc. However, the reclusive, jazz-steeped, sardonic two-headed poster boy for OCD did get it together — with several impeccably constructed and executed vignettes starring another bunch of occasionally creepy, generally harmless misfits (and their objects of attention).

Musically, the angular chord progressions alternate with crisp grooves (stretched nicely for Chris Potter’s sax on “West Of Hollywood”), while Becker and his guitar mercenaries work atop Fagen’s knotty-chorded keys and a lithe rhythm section. The overall quality of writing and Fagen’s vocals remain eerily intact. If things slipped a little with 2003’s Everything Must Go, the guys enjoyed a triumphant return here, no doubt chuckling all the way home in the limo after taking the Album of the Year Grammy over Radiohead, Eminem, Beck, and Paul Simon.

(Pick 3 – Janie Runaway / Jack Of Speed / Cousin Dupree)

Decade Favorites #45-43: Parachutes, Whiskey, and Love

45 Love / The Beatles (2006)
Is this a “new release”? Beatles favorites, remixed and mashed as a custom-made soundtrack for Cirque du Soleil? I see the purist's point, but the thing is, when I hear “Get Back” slam satisfyingly into “Glass Onion”, or the “Hey Bulldog” guitar solo expertly unleashed for “Lady Madonna”, or bits from five other songs planted in “Strawberry Fields”, I just don’t care anymore.

If anything, the weak moments are the three or four tracks that go largely untouched. And the bit of Lennon banter at the end may border on the unfair, but it’s priceless. Technology and judicious creativity have allowed us to enjoy music burned into our brains in an entirely new way, unless you’re the type to never mix your chocolate with your peanut butter. I wish they’d do one of these a year.

(Pick 3 – Get Back / Strawberry Fields / While My Guitar Gently Weeps [essentially solo Harrison with a new string score by George Martin])

44 Big Whiskey & The GrooGrux King / Dave Matthews Band (2009)
The last 18 months have been the best and worst of times for DMB. Here’s the background. As for Big Whiskey, it is easily their best effort of the 2000s, and not just because it’s been an inconsistent decade. The lyrics run that old gamut from simple attraction to more worldly (and now, familial) ruminations. Jeff Coffin (formerly of the Flecktones) assumes the saxophone helm with predictable, if squonkier, prowess.

Meanwhile, friend/guest Tim Reynolds’ electric guitars become (too?) prominent at times. But the heavier moments, the overdue return to more involved compositions, the oddly hooked statement of purpose (“Why I Am”) … it’s all an honest snapshot of a group once again putting a distinct musical stamp on the competing human impulses to look at and look away from the big picture. Sure, let's call it a comeback. Big Whiskey is map and momento of how they got out of the woods and into whatever's next.

(Pick 3 – Why I Am / Lying In The Hands Of God / Squirm)

43 Parachutes / Coldplay (2000)
Chris Martin reliably annoys me. Saying they want to be the next U2. Punting some of the worst, so-self-effacing-it-can-only-mask-a-giant ego, in-song banter of all time into the crowd. It goes on. But even so, making this list reminded me that despite a popularity that always brings a backlash and a level of earnestness that inevitably invites ridicule, Parachutes is a classic debut.

I’d forgotten, honestly. I originally dialed up the band to revisit A Rush Of Blood To The Head, which has great moments but weakens later. No such dip here, between the textures of “High Speed” and “We Never Change”. The melodies (including that falsetto), the conventional lineup's dynamic and committed sound, the lyrics and arrangements that acknowledge the darkness without cursing it -- nobody knew it a year in advance, but in the wake of 9/11, these elements had already formed the best available retreat in rock.

(Pick 3 – Don’t Panic / Shiver / High Speed)

Decade Favorites #48-46: Theresa, Ben, and moods Indigo

48 Hummingbird, Go! / Theresa Andersson (2008)
A New Orleans resident by way of Sweden, Andersson made one of the more charming discs of last year. Her singing has that particular Scandinavian quality of perfect English sung as a second language. Yet it’s anything but sterile, with her voice’s natural appeal, absorbed local flavor, and an ability to belt it or coax it as the moment requires. The tracks selectively deploy creative drum/percussion beds, acoustic and rare electric guitars, multiple violin textures (she plays that, too), and other instruments ranging from a banjo to what sounds like partially filled and tuned drinking glasses. If this sounds folky, it ain't.

Ironically, the other key support is Andersson’s voice, which she overdubs in ways where “background vocals” isn’t always a sufficient term. Her alternate tilts towards old-school jazzy and occasional quirk, the mix of straight-up hooks with atmospherics, and its overall distinctive feel made Hummingbird, Go! a sleeper of a keeper.

(Pick 3 – Na Na Na / Innan Du Gar / Japanese Art. [This was a social media victory: Thanks to Reid for the tweet about the Na Na Na video on YouTube. I downloaded the album from eMusic that day.])

47 Songs For Silverman / Ben Folds (2005)
Songs For Silverman holds a place similar to Foo Fighters’ There Is Nothing Left To Lose. Like Grohl and company, Folds is like a meteor whose music usually doesn’t veer close enough to my taste for a full-album purchase … except for this one. Here, whatever I find too clever about the pianist’s catalog was bumped upstage, all the other interesting elements of his talent edged their way downstage, and bam! … my perfect Ben Folds disc.

Not that it went soft, as the opening indictment of “Bastard” or the brutally resigned sentencing of “Trusted” prove. But from the single (“Landed”) to the note to Elliott Smith (“Late”) to the pounding piano showcase (“You To Thank”), the process caught him in the right mood to do something that packs a new resonance over 11 songs. Probably won’t happen again for another five albums, but that’s fine.

(Pick 3 – Bastard / Landed / Late)

46 Become You / Indigo Girls (2003)
These women – OK, usually Emily – have written some of my favorite motivating music over the years. None of those songs are here. This time, it’s personal (or rather, interpersonal), and a lot of it will strip those exterior coats of disaffected hipster demeanor right off. And I have to admit, Amy Ray serves up the highest highlights, from “Moment Of Forgiveness” and “Become You” to the upbeat tonic of “Bitterroot”. (Saliers is no slouch, fitting into the flow with songs like the rolling “Collecting You”.) The vocals show they haven’t lost those arrangement instincts, either, and predictably, I’d suggest the occasional prominent piano / electric piano helps the cause, too.

There’s a lot in modern times to distract you from the matter of how you are, and have been, with the person closest to you. Become You deserves its spot for bringing it all back home.

(Pick 3 – Moment Of Forgiveness / Bitterroot / Collecting You)

Decade Favorites #51-49: Surf, Funk, and Blood Money

51 What Happened To Television? / Greyboy All-Stars (2007)
Nothing else in these 60 sounds like the All-Stars’ mix of funky/jazzy/groovy goodness. The tight rhythm section, taut rhythm guitar, and classic keyboards carry this collection, along with the flute and sax of Karl Denson (who terms them a “boogaloo” band). The vocals are the cherry on top, on the tracks that have any. A rarer treat is the sweet girl-group type vocals (featuring Inara George, Lowell’s daughter), such as on ‘How Glad I Am”, which I guess you’d have to consider the whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and sprinkles. It’s not quite accurate to say this is soul in a bowl, but don’t ask me to share.

(Pick 3 – What Happened To TV? / Deck Shoes / How Glad I Am)


50 Lucky / Nada Surf (2008)
For several years, I recognized Nada Surf as the name of an indie band that I knew nothing about. Now, I still don’t know any members’ names or own anything else, but I know I like Lucky, an exceptionally consistent album of two-guitar rock that also works in some piano (or a cello or violin) now and then. My introduction was probably hearing “See These Bones” on WNRN. If you want to hook me out of thin air, an ambitious lyric along the lines of “Do You Realize?” and a nice full sound is a smart strategy. Throw in a Sharks & Jets reference in the first verse, and you’re practically cheating.

In short, I do about 90% of my listening on the iPod. In a freak oversight, Lucky never made it onto the iPod, and it still made the list.

(Pick 3 – See These Bones / Weightless / Are You Lightning)

49 Blood Money / Tom Waits (2002)
Look, I don’t know how to explain the peculiar joy to be had in a song like “God’s Away On Business”, Waits barreling over ideas we prefer to cultivate like he’s a Great Dane trampling award-winning tulips. To be fair, the dog has no clue what it’s crushing, while Waits knows exactly what he’s doing, fusing bleak and jaunty to produce a perversely enjoyable two-step. (What do you expect from a disc that opens with “Misery Is The River Of The World” and “Everything Goes To Hell”?)

But then he comes back with something like “All The World Is Green” or “Lullaby”, and the picture is completed. There’s something life-affirming about an unabashed reminder that life has limits (and, in fact, may often be tilted against you) but that sometimes, miraculous things are crammed in the crannies.

(Pick 3 – God’s Away On Business /  Lullaby /  All The World Is Green)

Decade Favorites #54-52: A New Tide, a Funnel Cloud, and The Dark Horse

54 Funnel Cloud / Hem (2006)
Despite a track called “Not California,” every time I hear this, I imagine it being played live, on some small amphitheater or soundstage, on a starry Southern California night. Hem marries a small American orchestra of instrumentation with the clear, warm voice of Sally Ellyson.

These performances are not shy in their desire to evoke emotion; there’s no use in stocking this array of sounds if you’re not going to try to pull some strings, so to speak. But they, and she, always sound genuine, employing occasional punch and consistent elegance in delivering their open-hearted songs. In fact, hearing some of this reminds me of the four- or five-year-old me, seeing Jiminy Cricket sing “When You Wish Upon A Star” on the big screen. Something about Hem summons the rare ability to recall the best Disney music, but grown up for grown-ups.

(Pick 3 – Great Houses Of New York / The Pills Stopped Working / Reservoir)

53 The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse — The Besnard Lakes (2007)
(What I wrote in 2007) It’s impossible to listen to this peculiar disc (well, even the first song)(OK, the first minute of the first song) and not think of Brian Wilson. "Disaster" kicks off with horns, strings, guitars acoustic and electric, and non-pop contemplative passages -- not all at the same time. Eventually, even a banjo makes a cameo. All this weaves around a voice that through natural timbre and artificial production does mightily echo The Bathrobed Genius.

Some CD’s on this list, I don't necessarily want tracks popping up on shuffle. They are destination albums, and they really nail it when you're ready to go there. But specifically, the drum break and subsequent re-lowering of the main riff into the listener's cranium around 4:15 into "Devastation" turned out to be the most surprising/exhilarating sheer-force rock moment of 2007 by a band not named Arcade Fire. And it may be a tie.

(Pick 3: Disaster / Devastation / Cedric's War)

52 A New Tide / Gomez (2009)
I’m going to have to give up on Gomez. Well, not on them, just on that question you harbor before every new album by any band that you loved early on: “Will this be the disc that breaks them?” The previous CD did raise their profile but stopped them short of arena-sized stardom. With A New Tide, that profile may ebb back out to sea.

Why? A lack of radio hits. Sure, there’s solid writing and singing from all three(!) frontmen, plus an ocean of instrumental layers in compelling arrangements. But even the simpler single (“Airstream Driver”, sounding built for girls to Double Dutch to it) can’t help but get more adventurous toward the end. Gomez’ playing hasn’t lost a step, and they’re mastering the studio. This is actually their most consistent disc. However, they might just be too interesting for fame in an ADD world. So why can’t I stop wishing it for them?

(Pick 3 – Little Pieces / If I Ask You Nicely / Other Plans)

Decade Favorites #57-55: McCartney, Mead, and a 'Computer' transplant

57 Radiodread / Easy Star All-Stars (2006)
A reggae collective covers Radiohead’s OK Computer, start to finish. Sure, it’s a gimmick. But if the songs are good enough, and the players can keep enough of what you loved about them while adding enough new details to make for fresh listening, then it’s a pretty good gimmick. Unlike similar classical or bluegrass efforts, Easy Star is more successful because they treat the songs less like launching pads for their own virtuosity and more like valuable cargo to be transported smartly into their new genre. (The two bonus mixes also sound good.) All in all, not for everyone, but if you’ve loved both your Radiohead catalog and your copy of Legend, then this dub’s for you.

(Pick 3 – Airbag / Let Down / Lucky)

56 Tangerine / David Mead (2006)
When it came to this list and David Mead, you can make the argument that Indiana is every bit as good as this disc, with its spare backdrop for Mead’s true tenor and the nervy but triumphant cover of “Human Nature” to boot. I’m going with Tangerine, though, because instrumentally it gives new listeners a lot more to chew on while they’re getting to know his unusual voice.

A lot of songwriters have to make choices about melody based on their limitations; Mead doesn’t really have that problem. His range, though, is equaled by his devotion to melody in these songs, which are easy on the ears while showing a little theatrical flair now and then. The “extra” production is clean and varied, never obscuring his vocals and bumping Tangerine's sweetness from simple singer/songwriter territory into the more complex adult alternative end of the pool.

(Pick 3 – Fighting For Your Life / Hunting Season / The Trouble With Henry)

55 Memory Almost Full / Paul McCartney (2007)
In which the Cute One stares down 65 by occasionally turning it up. Here, McCartney continues some of the chamber vibe of Chaos & Creation In The Backyard, but Memory is the more memorable, dynamic set. “Dance Tonight” feels somewhat throwaway, but the mandolin, melody, and quirky bridge stick. “Only Mama Knows” rocks in Wings’ classic windows-rolled-down fashion that belies his age, while “That Was Me” flashes a full life before our ears in a vivid 2:38.

Surprises await down the homestretch, with his stadium solo in “House Of Wax” and the poignant “End Of The End”, but the biggest surprise upends that would-be perfect conclusion: the noisy closer, “Nod Your Head”. It suggested, as last year’s sleeper Fireman release echoed, that Sir Paul wasn’t ready to go gentle into that good night quite yet. Good for us.

(Pick 3 – Only Mama Knows / My Ever Present Past / That Was Me)

Decade Favorites #60-58: Béla, Broken, and Ray

OK. It's a favorites list, not a "best" list. There's too much I haven't heard, my tastes are too narrow, and I like taking a personal desert-island approach with these things. Not having to hit skip-track earns big points for a disc, but so does containing a song that gave me one of those fantastic listening moments over the past ten years. I did tend to judge discs against others by the same artist (encouraging more artists included). And there are 60 because I couldn't muster enough ruthlessness to get below 56, and a Top 56 would just be weird.
  

60  Now Or Heaven / The Broken West (2008)
I’m not sure this is better than its better-named predecessor, I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On. However, it gets the nod on start-to-finish strength after a great opening run. Side one (can I still call it that?) features writing along with a marked move toward a more refined production and performance style. Personally, I don’t mind that the rock gets more nocturnal and stays more buttoned up throughout. And it’s certainly not like anyone is on autopilot: call me a geek, but the measures of 7/8 that start dropping into the second half of “Embassy Row” (to almost subliminal ear-catching effect) make up one of my favorite listening moments of recent years.

(Pick 3 – Gwen, Now And Then / Auctioneer / Embassy Row)

59  Perpetual Motion / Béla Fleck (2001)
In which Béla dives into the genre closer to his namesakes than to the rest of his career. For this set of classical pieces arranged for solo, duo, and sometimes trio, Fleck enlists top-notch players Chris Thile (Nickel Creek), old friend Edgar Meyer, Joshua Bell, and others. None of the 20 tracks are especially long, so the mood keeps moving as Fleck and company alternately tiptoe, spiral, lilt, and occasionally chase each other’s tails. If you do like classical music, or virtuosity in general, or this instrument, then this will surely be the only classical banjo album you’ll ever need. At least until he makes another one.

(Pick 3 – Hardly matters. The first three tracks will do fine. Scarlatti, Bach, and Debussy.)

58  Till The Sun Turns Black / Ray LaMontagne (2006)
In the case of the Maine singer/songwriter who turned pro late in life, LaMontagne’s airy voice suggests more what used to be: maybe some cigarettes along the way, nights of working on his music quietly while family slept. “Three More Days” earned some airplay with a nice groove and some Dusty-in-Memphis flourishes. “You Can Bring Me Flowers” keeps the horns, a swaying but tense farewell in ¾. Ballads continue to be the go-to gear, but the disc is literally and figuratively topped by the title track, an audaciously quiet 6-minute-plus opener that disavowed me of any intention to play this as background music. I specifically remember my first listen, surprised and transfixed by the piano lines, the lyric and melody, and strings. Maybe you had to be there, but I’m glad I was.

(Pick 3 – The three mentioned.)