Last year, starting on Rosh Hashanah and ending on Yom Kippur, I listed my 20 favorite albums of the Jew year. I don't have many regular features on this site, and Lord knows I'm not the most religious guy in the world, but I thought it was a good gimmick. So there. The albums covered stretch over the last 13 months, so I'm trying to keep in perspective how much I liked an album and for how long both when it first came out and still today. I've tried my best to keep this list balanced, rather than too new release heavy.
So here are #'s 19 and 20 of 5765. Enjoy.
#20 - Bright Eyes - Digital Ash in a Digital Urn
At the beginning of the year, if you told me I'd have a Bright Eyes album on my list of favorite albums of the year, I would most likely have been insulted you'd think I was that lame. I was never a fan of Connor, but over time he's grown on me quite a bit. This album in particular, which seemed somewhat buried on release due to the more popular traditional sound of "Wide Awake...", really struck me. While it took a long, long time to fully grow on me, I had always preferred this to the other album. The lyrics stand out more to me, and the darker, electro beats actually signal a step forward for an artist who could very easily fall into the trap of settling in on a genre too early. I hope Connor continues to experiment, for better or worse, with different musical elements. His type has a tendency to grow tiresome at times.
MP3: Bright Eyes - Gold Mine Gutted
#19 - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
I was never the loudest or most persistent CYHSY supporter in the world, but I am a big fan. This album has gotten a ton of listens from me over the summer and I've enjoyed it more and more over time. That being said, I am sick to fucking death of hearing about them, so I'm gonna stop here and avoid repeating what everybody with good taste and a bit of imagination has already been saying for months now.
I can totally relate to the Digital Ash pick. Never liked the Oberst much before. But there's just something so simultaneously crisp and sloppy about this album that has made me love it with a passion. Favorite tracks: 'I believe in symmetry' and 'down in a rabbit hole.'
Posted by: Honey | October 04, 2005 at 09:41 PM
Mazel Tov!
Posted by: Jason | October 05, 2005 at 11:10 AM
Can I be the first to score scenester points by saying I'm sick to fucking death of hearing people say they're sick of CYHSY's hype. It's only fair I lead the post-backlash backlash, since I WAS THE FIRST to hate on them when they got popular! Now that enough people are calling them "Clap Your Hands Say Eh" - WHICH I COINED - I can safely buck the trend again and say they are actually KIND OF cool, actually.
By the way, does anyone have a copy of their CD they can burn for me?
Posted by: DJ COGNOSCETI | October 05, 2005 at 12:57 PM