Best Albums of 2011: 1st Draft.

1. Best of 2011:

   
   

   1. El Camino - The Black Keys
   2. 21 - Adele
   3. Wasting Light - Foo Fighters
   4. Circuital - My Morning Jacket
   5. Inclusions - Ben Sollee
   6. Hurry Up, We're Dreaming - M83
   7. Hot Sauce Committee Part Two - Beastie Boys
   8. Ceremonials - Florence and the Machine
   9. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
   10. Burst Apart - The Antlers
   11. Kiss Each Other Clean - Iron & Wine
   12. The Whole Love - Wilco
   13. Kaputt - Destroyer
   14. Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will - Mogwai
   15. All Eternals Deck - The Mountain Goats
   16. Undun - The Roots
   17. Codes and Keys - Death Cab for Cutie
   18. Native Speaker - Braids
   19. Odd Soul - Mutemath
   20. The Road from Memphis - Booker T. Jones
   21. So Beautiful or So What - Paul Simon
   22. Watch the Throne - Jay Z and Kanye West
   23. The Year of Hibernation - Youth Lagoon
   24. American Legacies - Del McCoury Band and Preservation Hall Jazz Band
   25. Gimme Some - Peter, Bjorn, and John
   26. Showroom of Compassion - Cake
   27. Let England Shake - PJ Harvey
   28. Rome - Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi
   29. Stone Rollin' - Raphael Saadiq
   30. Blue Slide Park - Mac Miller
   31. The King of Limbs - Radiohead
   32. The Big Roar - The Joy Formidable
   33. The King is Dead - The Decemberists
   34. James Blake - James Blake
   35. In The Cool of the Day - Daniel Martin Moore
   36. No Devolución - Thursday
   37. Rare Bird Alert - Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers
   38. Ukelele Songs - Eddie Vedder
   39. Zonoscope - Cut Copy
   40. Strange Mercy - St. Vincent
   41. Degeneration Street - The Dears
   42. Belong - The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
   43. Mylo Xyloto - Coldplay
   44. Dye It Blonde - Smith Westerns
   45. Take Care, Take Care, Take Care - Explosions in the Sky
   46. Smart Flesh - The Low Anthem
   47. Born This Way - Lady Gaga
   48. Rolling Papers - Wiz Khalifa
   49. The Long Goodbye (Bootleg) - LCD Soundsystem
   50. Tron Legacy Reconfigured

Jukebox of Win Selection 1A: The Pretender by Jackson Browne

I'm back. I know I have this long list of blog posts to follow up on and I was trying to get this started but here I am. Enough bullshit. Let's light this candle.

Everyone has phases of music. Artists and bands have their phases. No one can say Bruce Springsteen recent phase touches that unusual hot streak from 1975-1985. More personally though, everyone has their periods which could be box sets of their own lives. Artists and bands come and go in your musical consciousness at will, either totally saturating your listening patterns or lost deep in your record or iTunes collection collecting dust. I definitely don't listen to as much Guster as I did in high school. The Beatles come and go as they please. My favorite moments though are when artists that have been around for a long time stroll in and knock you on your ass.

Recently, that artist has been Jackson Browne. Maybe it was his songwriting for the Eagles that turned me off earlier or I just hadn't reached a maturity to really enjoy his songs. I mean there was that one time in 1994 when I pulled out my dad's copy of Running on Empty after hearing it during Forrest Gump's Run Across America and played it on end but that was the end of that dalliance. Or again in high school when my friend Jeff loved to play his cover of Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs' "Stay" again another cut from Running. Of course, no one will forget Jennifer Jason Leigh getting busy to "Somebody's Baby" over and over again in Fast Times in Ridgemont High. Thanks a lot, Cameron Crowe.

There's one track in particular that has been on constant repeat in my mind that I hadn't really listened to until now. That track is arguably his most famous, "The Pretender". Browne so gloriously pines about probably the biggest choice in modern American life that caught in the crossroads you can feel as if he's singing right to you. To myself, being 27, right around the age Browne wrote and released "The Pretender," I can see through the eyes of the song's protagonist. I've felt a definite change in the last few years. I was once ready to strike out on my own. With Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road" as my anthem I wanted to be "pulling out of here to win" but now with a job creeping on 4 years this October, I can feel "caught between the longing for love and the struggle for the legal tender." Do I stay in it for the money and comfort or leave it all behind for my dreams? Browne's protagonist sells out for the money as most people do. It's the only way the song can end effectively. It has to be tragic. If he didn't, the whole story would be pointless of course.

The struggle of money vs. happiness also couldn't have been wrapped in such a lush song. As expected with a Jackson Browne song, the piano is the lead instrument but it locks in with a tight band. Fred Tackett plays a guitar texture lost on many recordings and Jeff Porcaro strikes a delicate balance, driving the song when needed and laying back not to over power. The main coup though is David Crosby and Graham Nash providing tight harmonies, giving the vocals a full sound that hammer home the words to the listener. A string provides some sophistication to the track but are not necessarily a must have on the track.

Either way, the song is very moving and if you're at a crossroads in your life, I highly recommend some headphones and taking a listen. Oddly, the song is not on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" but the album did make #391. I'd give it another go and see if it makes the list.

The Pretender - Jackson Browne

Trying To Get Back That Feeling

A long time ago, back in that critical year of Two Thousand and Four, when Kerry was trying to save the American empire from the Bush dynasty and hope was years away, I wrote album reviews for the Daily Orange, the student newspaper at Syracuse University. It was probably one of the best things I ever did in college.

Well, mushrooms on Halloween was pretty killer too but really seeing my printed word on the page was epic. Especially when they probably could've pulled someone from the award-winning journalism school to do the job. Of course, it helped begin music director at the hip underground college radio station, WERW 1570.

I've always wanted to get back to that but with media the way it is, I'm more likely to win the Powerball jackpot than land my dream job. So until I get my Ph.D in Musicology, here I am. In this space, you'll find all my ramblings. Concert reviews, album reviews, links to videos and live show downloads, concert etiquette, music industry faux pas, and all my other ramblings I can put down here. I'm also going to continue an idea from another blog I created, The Jukebox of Fail, music that really should not be played in public spaces anymore. I hope you enjoy what you read and if you do, please spread the word around. If your sick of Rolling Stone magazine, Pitchfork Media, and all the other music journalism bullsh*t out there, you're in the right place. Contact me if you'd like to contribute. Thanks for reading and keep on rocking in the free world.