The Best of Times, The Worst of Times (Part 1)

I guess we've exhausted all of the great new album releases for the year. I know I've been a little inactive as of late, but a lack of anticipated releases will do this to a guy. That being said, I literally cannot read a blog or music publication without avoiding an artist or editor's picks of the year. Rolling Stone's top-50 list is an abomination, fyi. I guess it's that time of season, so why not jump on the retrospective bandwagon? The rest of this year's blog articles (for the most part) will list the best and worst that this year had to offer in music. So here it goes, folks:

Best Comeback of 2008:
R.E.M.
For awhile, R.E.M. was arguably the most consistent band on this side of the Atlantic. These guys couldn't put out a bad record if they tried. That was, until Bill Berry left. The departure of an original member seemed to throw these guys out of whack. The band's last excellent effort was 1996's New Adventures In Hi-Fi. After releasing a string of mediocre albums in the late 90's/early 00's, the band came roaring back with the aggressive Accelerate, which came out this April. Not since 1994's Monster have we heard R.E.M. so inspired. These guys are like the Kurt Warner of rock bands. This album successfully rejuvenated what was otherwise considered as a finished career. Welcome back, boys.

Worst "Comeback" of 2008:
Counting Crows
I was rooting for these guys, I honestly was. August and Everything After changed my life in the 90's, and This Dessert Life was one of the most underrated albums of the past decade (aside from "Hanginaround"). I still believe Adam Duritz is an extremely talented songwriter in the same vein as Bruce Springsteen, so I marked my calender this past March when the Crows' oft-delayed first album in nearly six years (Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings) finally came out. The good news is that it did come out. The bad news is that it did nothing for me. I liked what I heard, but nothing stuck. Before I knew it, this one became undeserving of my iPod real estate. Too bad.

Best Album Artwork of 2008:
Sigur Ros - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Who doesn't love streakers? I can't think of an album cover that better accentuates the feel the music contained inside. "Gobbldigook" is as free-spirited as Iceland's best band has ever been. Why not get naked and run around?







Worst Album Artwork of 2008:
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
Yikes! This may be the only time I agree with Pitchfork Media, but they put it best when they said this looks more like "Brian Dennehey trying to crack the DaVinci Code."








Worst Album Artwork Trend of 2008:
Stealing masterpieces
If you know me, you know that I love art and history. Luckily, living in New York affords me the opportunity to check out the best that the world has to offer in these departments. For museums, this is just fine. Record shops, no thank you. For some reason, several bands in 2008 took the concept of album "artwork" too literally. Now I'm not asking for a simple mug shot of the band (a la Gaslight Anthem), but using a masterpiece to represent your own body of work is just too pretentious for me. Even if you are Coldplay. Still don't know what I'm taking about? Well Chris Martin and crew tapped Eugene Delacroix's "Liberty Leading The People" for Viva La Vida and then AGAIN for the follow-up EP Prospekt's March -- this time using "Battle of Poitiers". Coldplay's not the only guilty party here. As much as I love the band, the Fleet Foxes made the same blunder. They used Bruegel's 16th century painting, "Netherlandish Proverbs."

Do these look familiar? It's not just Joe Satriani's work that's being "borrowed" by Coldplay.



Best Attempted Crossover of 2008:
Panic At The Disco - Pretty. Odd.
The exclamation point at the end of the name wasn't the only thing this emo-branded band dropped. They also departed ways with the signature Fueled By Ramen sound most associated with acts like Fall Out Boy and Cobra Starship. Rather than duplicating the pattern that helped them bombard the VMA's two years ago, the guys opted to escape their inevitable kitschy fate by choosing to create a virtual homage to Sergeant Pepper's -- bells, whistles, and all. The end result is damn good. Songs like "Nine In The Afternoon" and "When The Day Met The Night" are crafted beautifully. One of the best surprises of the year for sure.

Worst Attempted Crossover of 2008:
Oasis (...again) - Dig Out Your Soul
The Gallaghers should one of two things: 1) take lessons from Brendon Urie about how to make a Beatles-sounding album 2) give up entirely on trying to make a Beatles-sounding album. Here we go again -- Oasis shamelessly trying to be something they're not. When this band was amazing, they sounded more like the Stone Roses and this just fit. The guitars were noisy, Liam's voice was distorted, and the bass was thumping. Bottom line, it rocked. They started going to shit at about album number four (Standing On the Shoulder of Giants), when they literally thought they were the next incarnation of Lennon/McCartney. Their sound has since waned, culminating in the utter failure that was this year's attempt at a psychedelic album. Whatever, I still love them.

Strange Currencies

I have always said my favorite year in music was 1994. I know this might sound absurd to many, because there is no denying that historically there have been more pivotal years for rock and roll (i.e. 1968, 1977). But for me, this was the year I started to truly appreciate music because this was the height of the alternative rock/grunge era and the triumphant return of songwriting. And it was HUGE! On pop stations you would hear "Today" by the Smashing Pumpkins and "Closer" by the Nine Inch Nails sharing song blocks with The Real McCoy, Mariah Carey, and TLC.

The other day I was reading about R.E.M.'s upcoming 14th studio release, Accelerate (which is already getting some rave reviews), and was then inspired to pop in their (highly underrated) 1994 album, Monster. People say that listening to a certain song or album can take you back to a particular time or place in your life. For me, Monster is the album that best exemplifies my favorite year in music. Although critics tended to agree that R.E.M. was past their prime when they released this record, I couldn't disagree more. Monster showed that R.E.M. held onto the rock lifeblood that was lacking in their two previous (extremely successful) efforts, Out of Time and Automatic For The People. The band proved that it hadn't gone completely soft, and in doing so redefined itself as an alt-rock mainstay. From the distorted glam sound of their first single, "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" to the sensational 70's throwback "Tongue", the album certainly lived up to its title. What I remember most about this record is that half of its songs were singles and/or had videos -- and deservingly so. Unfortunately, this was the last time that R.E.M. was able to achieve multi-platinum success, despite owning the title as the most consistently prolific rock band of the last twenty years. Soon after Monster, drummer Bill Berry called it quits, and the band was just never the same.

If you ever get as nostalgic for good music as I do, and have the urge to be transported back to an era when mainstream rock did NOT consist of Maroon 5, Nickelback, Linkin Park, here is a good place to start -- I give you my '94 Alternative Rock Mix:

1. Stone Temple Pilots - "Interstate Love Song"
2. R.E.M. - "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?"
3. Green Day - "Basketcase"
4. Smashing Pumpkins - "Today"
5. Nine Inch Nails - "Hurt"
6. Pearl Jam - "Yellow Ledbetter"
7. Dinosaur Jr. - "Feel The Pain"
8. Beastie Boys - "Sabatoge"
9. The Cranberries - "Zombie"
10. Cracker - "Low"
11. Nirvana - "The Man Who Sold The World" (Unplugged)
12. Gin Blossoms - "I Found Out About You"
13. Green Day - "Longview"
14. Smashing Pumpkins - "Disarm"
15. Live - "Selling The Drama"
16. Pearl Jam - "Better Man"
17. Hole - "Doll Parts"
18. R.E.M. - "Bang & Blame"
19. Stone Temple Pilots - "Big Empty"
20. Nirvana - "About A Girl" (Unplugged)