Number 11: Magic by Sean Rowe
Leonard Cohen for the new generation? Something like that. He’s definitely a poet and unique musician. I love this stuff, and thought I’d make it the best album of the year for a while there. Sophisticated songwriting and a truly unique sound. He’s also a naturalist, fascinated with Native American culture, and has “gone on solo survival quests, carrying little more then the clothes on his back and a pocket knife.” He recorded Magic in a studio above an old Italian restaurant his grandfather used to run.
“Surprise”
“Wrong Side of the Bed”
Number 12: Last Night on Earth by Noah and the Whale
The band name is an homage to a fantastic movie The Squid and the Whale, and its director Noah Baumbach. The increasingly popular folk favourite Laura Marling (Number 90-something in my list this year) was in the band … until a break up with head man Charlie Fink. They’re a very unique and unpredictable band, with a nuance of Mumford & Sons meets indie rock, and were off to a dashing start with their 2008 debut, Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down. It’s an amazing blast of fun music … but then Charlie and Laura broke up. The 2009 follow up The First Day of Spring, was a very raw, melancholic break-up album. It was morose, really. A damn good break-up album. Laura left the band to go solo, which included a project/EP with Mumford & Sons. In March, they came back with a fantastic album, Last Night on Earth,that has a laid back and nostalgic optimism, and a sound clearly crafted from blending the sounds on the first two albums. So, the break-up wasn’t for nothing. The finer qualities of the sound on The first Days of Spring have clearly become part of their new unique new sound. Buy this album.
“L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N”
“Give it All Back”
Number 13: The Place I Left Behind Deep Dark Woods
There are perfect songs on this album. It’s called The Place I left Behind and that blatantly reflects the mood and lyrical focus of the album: longing, throbbing introspection, and a search for things abandoned that only held significance in hindsight.
“Mary’s Gone” is the best Done-My-Woman-Wrong Hurtin’ Tune since Willie Nelson’s “Always on My Mind,” and a far better song.
The Deep Dark Woods, for years, have been one of the best contemporary folk-country acts in North America, but with The Place I Left Behind there’s an authenticity that marks them as modern musical pioneers, and a solid sound and that catapults them past anything that they’ve done. Musically, it’s like a mashing together of the two most anticipated albums of the year: Fleet Foxes meets Ryan Adams. They’ve taken the best of old and new country, old and new folk, and woven them together into a perfect album, with a sound that is somehow orchestral, full, and yet minimalistic and, at its best, haunting.
Here’s the title track, and one of the best songs of the year, “The Place I Left Behind”
Number 14: Rumble Shake and Tumble by Wagons
The new Wagons record is called Rumble, Shake, and Tumble, and that about sums up the wild twang, big rock sound of it … It’s like Johnny Cash came back to life as a talented, witty hipster. And the best ridiculous song you’ll ever hear is on here, “Willie Nelson.” I meant to interview Henry Wagons to confirm if Willie really “likes some salt and pepper with his evening meal.”
“Moon into Sun”
“Willie Nelson”
Number 15: Wild Country by Wake! Owl
Number 15 is pretty generous for an EP, but that’s kind of why I am putting it here, it’s an EP as good as most LPs. I’ve had this album on for three days straight as I recover from the haze of the holidays, and I’m not tired of it.
“Wild Country”
“Gold”
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