Off the Hook in '09 & Overlooked in '08

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca (2009)

"Isn't life under the sun just a crazy, crazy, crazy dream?" asks Amber Coffman of the Dirty Projectors in "Stillness Is the Move," the first single off Bitte Orca. If music can sound this crazy good all the time, then I think it must be.

The Dirty Projectors have finally cleared the hurdles of over ambition and lack of cohesion. Bitte Orca pulses with life, a full out celebration of everything under the sun. Mind blowing arrangements of vocals and all instruments take flight over grooves you'll swear were inspired by your heart and soul on your best day. If David Longstreth's impulsive YEAH!s won't get you, the African beats and queer harmonies will.

All female vocals, precise to the point of sounding alien-like at times, show auto-tuner what's up and then some on "Temecula Sunrise" and "Stillness Is the Move." A seamless transition into "Two Doves" follows, a love song with a gorgeous hook. Love seems to be the order of the day on Bitte Orca, and you will feel it all over; it's impossible to sit still when the electric finale of "Useful Chamber" hits and breaks you into a million happy pieces as Longstreth shouts, "Bitte orca, orca BITTE!" over raging guitars. Even darker lines such as, "... beckoning everyone in for the good news that / no one has any good reason to live!" heard on "The Bride" are delivered as a cause for rejoicing in a big way.

Bitte Orca makes me want to run out into the streets, conjure up an impromptu cultural festival in a major metropolitan area, and then embrace all parties involved under a blazing setting sun. Take that as you wish, but if you give any album a chance this summer, please let it be this one.

Other Top Contenders:

St. Vincent - Actor : Annie Clark is back for another round of weird fantasy meets tragedy storytelling on her sophomore effort, and she's now even harder to pin down. Rock "Marrow" at your house dance party or bring on nightmares with "The Neighbors."

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest : Another harmony and unorthodox instrument party. See review.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line (2008)

I'm not sure why I slept on Ra Ra Riot's debut full-length release, but after seeing them live, it's sure got my attention (and love) now. Wes Miles' vocals are disarming, sad but sweet, while violin and cello accompaniments class things up with a gravitas you don't often find in young bands. Their wise-beyond-their-years vibe may very well be rooted in the tragic death of band member John Pike back in 2007. Standout tracks such as "Winter '05" and "Dying is Fine" are given new weight as a result: "If you were here / Winter wouldn't pass quite so slow...."

Still, with the heavy-heartedness comes a bright and steady light of optimism that permeates the album. "Oh, la! / We've got a lot to learn from each other, we have got to stick together," pleads Miles on "Oh, La." The sunny "Each Year," inspired by literary children's classic To Kill a Mockingbird, can sum up the spirit of Ra Ra Riot: innocent but mature, hopeful, and well-meaning. The infectious "St. Peter's Day Festival" is instant favorite material while album closer "Run My Mouth" sports a bridge that will earn repeat listens for days.

The Rhumb Line succeeds because it works on so many levels. It can be poignant and emotional or uplifting, heels-a-clicking fun. It can keep you company in the dead of lonely winter or spring you back to life for summer. Either way, there is not one throwaway track on here.

Also worth checking out:

The Kills - Midnight Boom: Lead singer Alison Mosshart is dangerous (irresistibly so), and she will take you for a ride on her crazy train. "Tape Song" and "Cheap and Cheerful" showcase the album's gritty, sexy and so very rock & roll attitude.

- Jessy Bartlett

2008 - The Music Year in Review

As 2008 comes to a close, we wrap up a particularly whacky year in music. There was much of the familiar—Britney Spears ruled the charts (and our hearts), Coldplay solidified their spots as worldwide rock superstars, and Radiohead made headlines with their seventh full-length release—and then there was the downright weird. Top album lists saw indie folk records saddled up cozily next to F*cked Up and just below TV on the Radio, whose sound is harder to figure out than Kanye's decision to trade in samples and puns for a whole album's worth of auto-tune singing over 808 beats. And to top it off, Lil Wayne is up for Album of the Year! Whoa, whoa, whoa.... Lois, this isn't my Batman cup.

So what does it all mean? If we learned one thing in COM 101, the world of communication is changing! There is more music out there than ever before and all of it is virtually just a click away; it seems like this musical sonic boom was more apparent than ever in 2008. Generation X is in the building—we know our way around the internet and, with so many choices, we will have it our way.

With so much competition and so much that's already been done before, artists have been forced to think outside the box, underground, through the wire, back inside the box and then some. The result: genre-mixing, label-bending sounds; innovation brought to us by an increasingly diverse and offbeat cast of characters.

The biggest story of the year has to be that of Lil Wayne, one of the hardest working and most eccentric acts out there. Love him or hate him, his rise to fame and acclaim has been nothing short of amazing. With every bizarre verse, he is making mainstream hip-hop interesting again by appealing to the masses without compromising his art. In all of his sizzurp-sipping glory, an unmatched ear for rhythm and a creative eye for hits make Lil Wayne the fascinatingly unpredictable megastar he was in '08.

Other popular artists have made careers out of crossover genre appeal—Linkin Park, Rihanna and Chris Brown come to mind—but it takes something extra to excel to the point of explosion in the ranks of Lil Wayne and other big time players. Coldplay reached new heights with rock hybrid Viva La Vida, and TV on the Radio made some noise with their indie rock/soul/electronic/rap/everything-else you-can-think-of album, Dear Science. And then there was Erykah Badu, with her neo-soul snapshot of a warring New Amerykuh that demands our minds and hands. Meanwhile, Lady GaGa rocked the pop world internationally with her dance/ disco/80s-influenced The Fame, which regularly features such delightfully trashy lyrics as "C-c-c-crazy, get your ass in my bed" and "Our hair is perfect / While we're all getting sh*twrecked."

For me, 2008 was a year of outstanding individuals who defied categories, a blending of styles, and many variations of what it means to live in these high times. 2009 will only see more cross-genre excitement and originality, which I am all for. Because I don't know what to say when people ask me what kind of music I like the same way I don't know what to put down when a form asks me to choose an ethnicity. And it's looking like I'm not the only one! God bless America.

- Jessy Bartlett