The Clientele – Strange Geometry (Merge)
A terrific, moody jangle-pop album that reminds me of Galaxie 500, Robyn Hitchcock, The Church and The Go-Betweens, but all at once. Melancholy beauty.
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings – Naturally (Daptone)
It’s like time stood still in 1973. You can practically here the James Brown and Al Green ooze out of this soulful record!
The Fall – Fall Heads Roll (Narnack)
While this is not as strong as their amazing last record, it’s still a very impressive effort from the new, rejuvenated lineup with more of an emphasis on straightforward and dare I say “pop” songs.
The Gun Club -Miami(Sympathy for the Record Industry)
Of their 1st 3 albums, I consider this one to be the weakest. With that said, it’s still a stellar set of songs and it sounds fine unlike what you may have heard, but maybe the remaster really helped. “Brother and Sister” and “Texas Serenade” are 2 of the standouts here.
The Magic Numbers – The Magic Numbers(EMI)
“Love Me Like You” is one of my favorite songs of the year. The rest of this album is almost equally as gorgeous.
Gilmore Girls (Tuesday, WB)
This is the best show on television, complete with great musical and literary references and more importantly, terrific writing and characters.
The OC (Thursday, Fox)
I’m a recent convert to this show and yes it’s a bit of a soap-opera, but how can I diss any show that uses Bob Mould’s “Paralyzed” in an episode?
The Gun Club – The Las Vegas Story(Sympathy for the Record Industry)
I just got the 2004 reissue of this 1984 classic. Jeffrey Lee Pierce was quite simply the man (many of the great ones die young, don’t they) and Kid Congo Powers’ guitar playing on this is sublime as well.
Wilco -Kicking Television(Nonesuch)
The versions of the material from A Ghost is Born in some cases is far superior to the album versions. Otherwise, this is proof that Wilcoare one of the great live bands of our time.
Rogue Wave – Descended Like Vultures (Sub Pop)
It’s really hard to get past the excellent first 2 songs (“Bird on a Wire” and “Publish My Love”), but once you do, it becomes apparent that the rest of this album is quite stellar as well and more accomplished than their debut Out of the Shadow.
