10. Cody ChesnuTT :: Landing on a Hundred
You would be forgiven if you assumed Cody ChesnuTT went the way of Lauryn Hill or D'Angelo. Back in 2002 ChesnuTT came out of nowhere and self-produces an indulgent and genius debut double album that touched on just about every popular genre of the last 40 years. Just like that a star was born. R&B had their next cross-over star that would keep one foot in the past while bravely pushing the genre into the next millennium. It never happened. ChesnuTT went underground and we heard very little from him for nearly a decade.
Considering both the splash The Headphone Masterpiece made and the amount of time spent waiting for a follow-up, expectations for Landing on a Hundred have tended to be a bit high. Obviously I can only conjecture but I think many were expecting another double album of genre hopping mad genius. Instead we've received a focused work of neo-soul and R&B that sounds an awful lot like an update of Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder. We all love Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye but perhaps we wanted more? If this is true I do not believe it is fair to ChesnuTT. When evaluating music I've always believed refinement can be just as good, if not better, than innovation. I appreciate novelty but there is something to be said for a man spending a lifetime studying the classics of a genre and re-working him to his own ends. With that we should be thankful for albums like this: it's a big bold blast of horns, back-up singers, keyboards, hooks, choruses, and exuberance.
Considering both the splash The Headphone Masterpiece made and the amount of time spent waiting for a follow-up, expectations for Landing on a Hundred have tended to be a bit high. Obviously I can only conjecture but I think many were expecting another double album of genre hopping mad genius. Instead we've received a focused work of neo-soul and R&B that sounds an awful lot like an update of Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder. We all love Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye but perhaps we wanted more? If this is true I do not believe it is fair to ChesnuTT. When evaluating music I've always believed refinement can be just as good, if not better, than innovation. I appreciate novelty but there is something to be said for a man spending a lifetime studying the classics of a genre and re-working him to his own ends. With that we should be thankful for albums like this: it's a big bold blast of horns, back-up singers, keyboards, hooks, choruses, and exuberance.
9. Bonnie Raitt :: Slipstream
As a child of the 90's Bonnie Raitt always struck me as a bit cheesy. She was parent rock par excellence*. "Let's Give 'em Something to Talk About" may have spoken to parents but not an angry kid with not much to be angry about. Naturally I wrote her off without giving her much of a chance. Moving to college and beyond it was easy to ignore Raitt. She had her audience. I wasn't it. It wasn't until I heard her duet of "Angel with Montgomery" with John Prine that I begin to think my opinion of her might have been a bit misinformed.
Upon learning that Joe Henry produced a third of the album AND it featured two of his best songs off his mindblowingly good Civilians—"You Can't Fail Me Now" (perhaps the best love song of the decade) and "God Only Knows" I figured this would be a good opportunity to put past biases behind me and give it a chance. (Did I mention it also has two Dylan covers? It does. Trust me when I say Slipstream was set up to succeed.) Even though it shouldn't have surprised me Slipstream is consistently good throughout (even if the songs with the Henry touch rise above the rest.) Raitt utilizes her ace band of industry veterans to mix rock, blues, and funk with her soulfully rich voice. In an industry that worships at the altar of youth it takes albums like this recognize the wisdom of age. The production is too good, the playing is too tight, and there is too much truth in her words to overlook this one.
*I'm a parent now. Maybe the shoe fits.
Upon learning that Joe Henry produced a third of the album AND it featured two of his best songs off his mindblowingly good Civilians—"You Can't Fail Me Now" (perhaps the best love song of the decade) and "God Only Knows" I figured this would be a good opportunity to put past biases behind me and give it a chance. (Did I mention it also has two Dylan covers? It does. Trust me when I say Slipstream was set up to succeed.) Even though it shouldn't have surprised me Slipstream is consistently good throughout (even if the songs with the Henry touch rise above the rest.) Raitt utilizes her ace band of industry veterans to mix rock, blues, and funk with her soulfully rich voice. In an industry that worships at the altar of youth it takes albums like this recognize the wisdom of age. The production is too good, the playing is too tight, and there is too much truth in her words to overlook this one.
*I'm a parent now. Maybe the shoe fits.
8. Allo Darlin' :: Europe
In 2010 I watched Allo Darlin' play the back room of a Seattle restaurant to all of 50 people as the second band on a three band bill. Those four members played like it was Madison Square Garden. They played as if there was no place they'd rather be. They played because they had to. Not out of obligation but because that's just what they do. In 2012 I watched Allo Darlin' again. Those same four people once again made the long journey from London to Seattle. They once again crammed themselves in a van and lugged their own equipment. This time they played for maybe 100 people. I'd have to imagine this would be discouraging for most bands. If they were discouraged it didn't show. Once again they played with verve, joy, and reckless abandon. They played because they loved it.
Allo Darlin' has made their (smallish) claim to fame by playing cheeky lo-fi indie-pop. The emerged from the still bustling DIY anorak scene of the United Kingdom and have risen to the top of the heap. Of course rising to the top of a scene who rewards novelty singles and where fame has the shortest of half lives is sort of a dubious honor. But an honor just the same. Even better Allo Darlin' has been able to rise to the top through quantity. A band might be able to make one song as good as Europe's "Capricornia"--a jangly Go-Betweens influenced ode to lead singer Elizabeth Morris' friends she left behind in native Australia. Allo Darlin' just happen to have written dozens of them. On Europe we find the band doing what is anathama in the indie pop scene: growing up. Instead of fetishizing youthful kitsch Allo Darlin' took the daring leap to write about the isolation one feels in a global village while maintaining their exuberant playfulness. For Allo Darlin' it becomes the little things: stars in the sky, postcards in the mail, drinking with friends, reggae bars, and girl bands that keep them from floating away. And it's these little details that give Allo Darlin' their populist appeal. It's their minute particularity that allows them to so touchingly name the universal.
Allo Darlin' has made their (smallish) claim to fame by playing cheeky lo-fi indie-pop. The emerged from the still bustling DIY anorak scene of the United Kingdom and have risen to the top of the heap. Of course rising to the top of a scene who rewards novelty singles and where fame has the shortest of half lives is sort of a dubious honor. But an honor just the same. Even better Allo Darlin' has been able to rise to the top through quantity. A band might be able to make one song as good as Europe's "Capricornia"--a jangly Go-Betweens influenced ode to lead singer Elizabeth Morris' friends she left behind in native Australia. Allo Darlin' just happen to have written dozens of them. On Europe we find the band doing what is anathama in the indie pop scene: growing up. Instead of fetishizing youthful kitsch Allo Darlin' took the daring leap to write about the isolation one feels in a global village while maintaining their exuberant playfulness. For Allo Darlin' it becomes the little things: stars in the sky, postcards in the mail, drinking with friends, reggae bars, and girl bands that keep them from floating away. And it's these little details that give Allo Darlin' their populist appeal. It's their minute particularity that allows them to so touchingly name the universal.
7. Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson :: Wreck & Ruin
Of the two names on the album cover, the Australian country singer Kasey Chambers is the better known of the two. She's a musical veteran boasting six albums under her own name. Her solo work leans towards the sounds of modern Nashville country (via Australia of course) with a voice that leans closer to the richness of a Gillian Welch as opposed to the ballads of a Carrie Underwood. Shane Nicholson has also recorded his own name and is no slouch in his own right. Although the two have been romantically involved and married since the mid 2000's Wreck & Ruin is only the second album that they have recorded together. It makes you wonder why they waited so long. In a musical year dominated by roots revivalism this stands near the top of the heap. Thematically most of the songs dwell on how awesome it is to be married (see the subdued yet playful "Quiet Life"--an gently plucked number where the duo harmonize over the subtle beauty of ... the quiet life). To their credit Chambers and Nicholson forgo trading in schmaltz. As someone happily married I appreciate the effort to celebrate little things that make living with the love of your life so dang great without selling it out to sentimentality. Perhaps it is because on Wreck & Ruin they do it by celebrating things like drinking together ("Sick as a Dog") or fancying themselves as Bonnie and Clyde figures re-invented as Adam and Eve and on the run from God ("Adam and Eve"). It doesn't hurt that they use the banjo, acoustic guitar, fiddle, harmonica, and other like-minded instrument to write a dust-kicking slice of American folk that will leave you stomping along for days.
6. Justin Townes Earle :: Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel about Me Now
In an attempt to make a big business feel a bit smaller, my employer had all employees fill out little bios that would be shared via the break room marquees.One of the fields asked for what you've been listening to lately. I answered Justin Townes Earle.
More than a fair number of music critics have been down on this album. I can't figure out why but here's my best guess: Justin Townes Earle's dad is musician Steve Earle. If you're wanting Justin Townes Earle to fill those enormous shoes the probability of disappointment grows. Steve Earle has the benefit of a long and illustrious career. To compare his son to him at this point just isn't fair. But if you wanted to compare their first four albums, go to town. They'll compare favorably on a case by case basis. My second guess is that Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel about Me Now just isn't quite as good as its predecessor Harlem River Blues. It's possible that Harlem set the bar just a bit too high. Be that as it may it's no reason to punish this album. Further, if Earle is faced with comparing strength to strength I'd say he's doing fairly well for himself thank you very muche. My third guess is that's he's been punished for overreaching. Earle moves between Memphis blues, rockabilly, R&B, down tempo country, rock, country ballads, and americana folk. (And not always sequenced well. That's a weakness I can't explain away.) With no musical center to grasp it sounds as if he's trying to hard. Fair enough. To me this overreaching is a strength. Nothing's Gonna Change is an unpredictable jaunt through jealousy, desperation, addiction, honesty, and hope for recovery. To me it points to the work of a highly talented musician who isn't content to rest on talent. To me it points to a restless innovator who is only scratching the surface of what he is capable and just so happened to make an eclectic and dynamic offering on the way.
View the Rest of the List: 20–16 | 15–11 | 5–1
More than a fair number of music critics have been down on this album. I can't figure out why but here's my best guess: Justin Townes Earle's dad is musician Steve Earle. If you're wanting Justin Townes Earle to fill those enormous shoes the probability of disappointment grows. Steve Earle has the benefit of a long and illustrious career. To compare his son to him at this point just isn't fair. But if you wanted to compare their first four albums, go to town. They'll compare favorably on a case by case basis. My second guess is that Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel about Me Now just isn't quite as good as its predecessor Harlem River Blues. It's possible that Harlem set the bar just a bit too high. Be that as it may it's no reason to punish this album. Further, if Earle is faced with comparing strength to strength I'd say he's doing fairly well for himself thank you very muche. My third guess is that's he's been punished for overreaching. Earle moves between Memphis blues, rockabilly, R&B, down tempo country, rock, country ballads, and americana folk. (And not always sequenced well. That's a weakness I can't explain away.) With no musical center to grasp it sounds as if he's trying to hard. Fair enough. To me this overreaching is a strength. Nothing's Gonna Change is an unpredictable jaunt through jealousy, desperation, addiction, honesty, and hope for recovery. To me it points to the work of a highly talented musician who isn't content to rest on talent. To me it points to a restless innovator who is only scratching the surface of what he is capable and just so happened to make an eclectic and dynamic offering on the way.
View the Rest of the List: 20–16 | 15–11 | 5–1
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