New Year, New Best Of!

With a new year comes a lot of new opportunities, and this one I think will be a bit of fun. I’m starting this blog with the (semi) professional critic in mind. The parenthetical addition around the prefix semi is meant to refer to those who aren’t paid to be critics but are regardless. I had wanted to start a music focused website for some time now and decided that not only was now the time for this but that I would start it all off with a list of the albums that I found interesting and worthwhile this year. I won’t burden you with a long list, it’s only five items, and frankly that’s all I had time for this year anyway, but with no further ado, here’s the list.

Underoath - Define The Great Line:

This album is possibly the best thing that happened to Christianity in a couple hundred years. I am not a religious individual myself but I think that these guys capture the conflict between idealism and the truth of being human. This is heavy music that appeals to the faithful and the super-pierced warped tour crowd all at once. The band chug and swoon behind Spencer Chamberlain as his impressive caterwaul bounces between a high end wail and a low primal growl. This album is powerful and meaningful. Very highly recommended.

Copeland - Eat, Sleep, Repeat:

When a band sneaks up on you out of nowhere, especially when so many other bands were falling short of their own very high expectations it's a very satisfying experience. Copeland make something akin to a blend of Radiohead and Elliott Smith. Aaron Marsh has a voice that coos and keens in equal measure, but the joy of this band is in the quiet confidence it radiates. The song "Control Freak" especially is a demonstration in the hooky chops that you can expect in almost all of the songs on the album, though they're sometimes buried by wacky experimentation, this is never to the detriment of the album however, and the record comes out a cohesive and sublime whole.

the Roots - Game Theory:

the Roots are the most important presence in hip-hop, and I don't care who knows it. Kanye's too arrogant, but honestly if Common had released a new album this year I might have had a difficult time deciding which was better. The point is this album is excellent. The music combines the nervy study in musicianship that ?uestlove and company have mastered by this point, and Black Thought observes and destroys with rhymes about war, politics, and personal demons all in the same album. Few artists in any genre are even willing to cover that kind of a gamut and most of them shouldn't as the results are usually less than stellar, but these guys pull it off with polish and punch.

Taking Back Sunday - Louder Now:

The TBS emo die-hards won't like this but Where You Want To Be was a great album. It was the album that Tell All Your Friends wanted to be. I loved Tell All Your Friends don't get me wrong, but having come to this band nearly backwards, I heard Tell All Your Friends after Where You Want to Be, and the improvements were immense. That being said, Louder Now takes the progression further and makes TBS a commercially viable band that still maintains its own personality and allure. My Chemical Romance did a very similar thing a few years ago but were still the most annoying band in music with the make-up and songs that were trying desperately to find any identity they could. Taking Back Sunday now fully benefits from Fred Mascherino and his ability to craft powerful songs and complement Adam Lazarra's pained wail with the assured clear-headed voice needed to keep the lyrics interesting. This album would have had higher position if I hadn't felt the album was hurt by song selection. The B-sides Brooklyn and Sleep were good enough to not only be on this album but to take the place of a couple of cuts.

Sparta - Threes:

This is another band whose first album I thought was not their best work. Wiretap Scars showed potential but never fully capitalized on the promises. Threes is a great album that plays up the melody and molds Jim Wards vocals into a wholly satisfying experience. On the first two albums Ward seemed to be trying too hard and has finally reached a point where he can sing the lovely introspective parts alongside the elaborate emotional anthemic parts. I have to say that the band seems to be benefitting from line-up changes in the form of Keely Davis. The guitar parts are bigger better and the melodies are getting top billing in this outing which is a pleasant surprise since Wiretap Scars seemed to be cribbing At The Drive-In's notes a bit too much.

Well that's that. I hope you all enjoy this hastily produced and rather short best of list. If anybody out there actually reads this, feel free to suggest albums you think I missed, or even criticize the ones that I listed.

"Still Living in the one coastal Florida city that has more sharks on the land than in the water."