Best Music of 2009, Pt. 5: Albums #5-1

#5
A Woman A Man Walked By
PJ Harvey & John Parish

A Woman A Man Walked By opens with the bombastic “Black Hearted Love”, but that one amazing track is actually wildly unrepresentative of the rest of the album. Its real emotional core lies in the twisted organs and PJ Harvey’s strained voice on “April” and the psychosexual intensity of the title track. A Woman A Man Walked By is not a comfortable album by any stretch of the imagination, but the feverish lyrics, combined with John Parish’s eerie, rustic music, create a fascinating and emotionally gripping ride from start to finish. Even the most beautiful songs on the album, like the mandolin-led “The Soldier”, are undercut by extreme tension. As always, Harvey is an absolute revelation as a singer, not performing songs as much as living them. A Woman A Man Walked By lets her show her full range, from terse growls all the way up to almost childlike shrieks. Harvey and Parish both bring a lot to the table as musicians and this album succeeds because both have an innate understanding of how all the various tools at their disposal can be combined into something great.

[original review]

#4
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II
Raekwon

Literally picking up exactly where the original Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… left off, Raekwon’s much anticipated (and much delayed) sequel finally arrived in 2009, becoming a welcome throwback to the great rap long-players that seem to be rapidly going out of style. While OB4CL2 has plenty of the usual Wu-Tang tricks (kung-fu movie samples, RZA’s crisp, dry production), the album also recognizes the amount of time that’s passed since Rae first started rhyming about crime, drug dealing and his Wu family. Multiple tracks pay homage to fallen Wu brother Ol’ Dirty Bastard, while Rae and the expected mob of Wu-related guests tackle the same old subjects from a wiser, more thoughtful angle. At the same time, OB4CL2 sounds immediate and more than a little brutal. “House Of Flying Daggers” is the best gangster rap anthem in years, while the queasy “Black Mozart” and “Surgical Gloves” maintain the dark edge the Wu-Tang Clan has always been famous for. Toss in a few great, radio-ready cuts (“Cold Outside”, “Mean Streets”) and you’ve got the best rap album of the past several years. It may have taken over a decade, but Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…Pt. II is worth the wait.

[original review]

#3
The Crying Light
Antony And The Johnsons

No album in 2009 could match The Crying Light for sheer beauty and grace. From the plaintive violins and fragile piano all the way to Antony’s peerless, unimitatable voice, this is simply a gorgeous album. However, tucked away behind all the wonderful, sparse music is a deep undercurrent of sadness. Antony’s voice may be beautiful, but it’s also incredibly haunting and filled with pain. The Crying Light is the sound of someone maintaining poise and composure in the face of a world that seems to be falling apart. When Antony sings “I need another world, this one’s nearly gone,” it feels like he’s ready to willfully fade away and leave this flawed world behind. When Antony’s voice finally begins to crack, during the powerful second half of “Aeon”, you start to becoming deeply worried about this vulnerable, pained figure. With only his astonishing voice, Antony evokes tremendous empathy in listeners. With music that matches his emotional-but-elegant style, The Crying Light is nothing less than a masterful artistic triumph.

[original review]

#2
Crack The Skye
Mastodon

How does an album that features lyrics like “the screaming arrows burst through my soul” and “please tell Lucifer he can’t have this one” become my second favorite album the year? The answer to the question is two-fold. First, Crack The Skye kicks ass. Mastodon have spent most of the decade refining their melodic reinvention of modern metal and all that work finally paid off with Crack The Skye, an album that’s simultaneously heavy as an actual mastodon, but also very accessible. They’ve got a Metallica-esque ability to craft great melodies out of distorted guitars, all while possessing a strong grasp on how to use dynamics to underscore the emotional content of their songs. But the second reason Crack The Skye is such an accomplishment is that it taps into a vein of very personal, human sadness. Written for and partially inspired by drummer Brann Dailor’s sister Skye, who committed suicide at the age of fourteen, Crack The Skye is a harrowing document of coping with painful loss and the disorienting confusion that comes with it. Of course, that’s all tied up in a semi-absurd story about Rasputin and astral travel, but the emotions are still quite visible. I sternly believe that Mastodon have been the best metal band of the 2000s and Crack The Skye is their best album, injecting some needed humanity into a genre that’s rapidly losing touch with its universal appeal.

[original review]

#1
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Animal Collective

I’ll never forget the first time I heard Merriweather Post Pavilion. It was late December and I was holed up in a house, trying to outlast the Wisconsin winter. I was putting the groundwork for what would become Pretzel Logic in place, but I wanted an album to review for my very first post. It was brought to my attention that Animal Collective’s latest album had leaked online and, despite my general distaste for their music, decided that they would be a good, well-recognized band to launch my blog with. I tracked the torrent down, cued up “In The Flowers” and did my best to listen with an open mind.

Two songs in, I felt like my life had been changed.

Merriweather Post Pavilion is an album of contradictions. It’s dense, but also very light and airy. It’s warm and welcoming, but also very metallic and jarring. It feels profoundly organic, but was made mostly with electronics. Strangest of all, it features songs that are, for the most part, unequivocally happy, yet it feels somewhat down, even a bit mournful. I still don’t completely understand how Animal Collective did it, but they combined all these disparate elements into one singular piece of work that stands as one of the most compelling slabs of music released in the past ten years. From the lighthearted fun of “Summertime Clothes” all the way to the hushed (and weirdly underappreciated) “No More Runnin’”, all the songs on Merriweather Post Pavilion are different shades in one massive, multicolored ocean of sound. The crowning achievement is “My Girls”, which is one of the most touching and honestly joyful songs I’ve heard in my life, but the whole album maintains a similar level of quality. Twelve months ago, I couldn’t even fathom that Animal Collective could make an album like this. Now, here I am, waxing poetic about it on my blog. MPP was the first album I ever reviewed on Pretzel Logic and I’m overjoyed that, one year later, I’m still singing its praises.

[original review]

Best Music of 2009, Pt. 4: Albums #10-6

#10
Veckatimest
Grizzly Bear

I’d resisted Grizzly Bear’s homespun, warmly fuzzy music for a long time, but Veckatimest finally knocked down my last defenses. At a time when everyone and their mom seems to be starting up indie pop bands, Veckatimest doesn’t represent a radical new way of doing things, but it shows how powerful indie pop can be when done well. Soaring melodies combined with rich vocal harmonies is nothing new, but Grizzly Bear just sell their songs to you so well. There’s still a bit of that rural twang hanging onto their music, but with their subtle keyboards and layers of choir-like voices, the songs on Veckatimest sound strong and assured. Plus, the album features the gorgeous “Two Weeks”, which single-handedly sets the bar absurdly high for every other indie band trying to find that one perfect crossover single.

[original review]

#9
Face Control
Handsome Furs

Wolf Parade are rapidly starting to look like one of those “one-and-done” bands, who release a single great album and then essentially vanish off the face of the earth. Thankfully, one half of Wolf Parade’s core songwriting tandem, Dan Boeckner, seems to be really hitting his stride with Handsome Furs, his other band, formed with his wife, Alexei Perry. Going back to the singer-and-keyboardist synth duo model of the 1980s, Handsome Furs play stripped down music, but don’t think for a second that Face Control sounds weak. Boeckner’s barbed guitar and Springsteen-strident vocals provide the force, while Perry’s brittle electronic beats and stabs of keyboard give the music an edgy, stark quality. Songs like “I’m Confused”, “Evangeline” and the devastating closer, “Radio Kaliningrad” stand as some of the most cathartic and thrilling music released this year. Handsome Furs may still be treated as “that band with the other guy from Wolf Parade”, but with albums this strong, that could change in the very near future.

[original review]

#8
Préliminaires
Iggy Pop

Of all the albums featured on the list, Préliminaires is possibly the hardest to really dig into and appreciate. It comes with a reading list (Michel Houellebecq’s The Possibility of an Island) and requires the listener to be aware of Iggy’s storied past. Clearly, this is a tall order for many music fans, especially as the world seems to be forgetting about Iggy at a frighteningly fast pace. However, as faux-New-Orleans jazz albums inspired by French science-fiction go, Préliminaires is an extraordinary accomplishment. Iggy does an admirable job of setting the themes of the book to music, but he also makes these songs deeply personal. Houellebecq’s story of an entertainer struggling to maintain his relevance and virility as he ages is something that must resonate deeply with James Osterberg, the sixty-two year old man behind the Iggy persona. After a demented career, full of ups, downs and too many self-inflicted injures to count, Iggy has finally let his mature, intelligent Osterberg side have free reign on his music.

[original review]

#7
Embryonic
The Flaming Lips

Yeah, no one saw this coming. Don’t even pretend like you did. The Flaming Lips spent the past decade getting increasingly mellower and mellower, recording some good music but getting frighteningly toothless in the process. All that changed on Embryonic, as the Lips unleashed a seething mass of static-drenched mind-fuckery upon the world. With its pounding bass lines, disembodied vocal samples and general formlessness, Embryonic is not for fans who were lured into orbit by the whimsical silliness of “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots”. Most of the songs have dark overtones, questioning the moral nature of humanity, with Wayne Coyne’s desperate, strained vocal performances leading the charge on many songs. The whole teetering mess reaches its inevitable climax with “Watching The Planets”, the cacophonous track that closes the album. Sure, the album may run a bit long, clocking in at seventy thunderous minutes, but the Flaming Lips have brought power and darkness back into their music. In my book, that’s a very, very good thing.

[original review]

#6
Fever Ray
Fever Ray

While it may not be the equal of the Knife’s Silent Shout, the 2006 masterwork by Karin Andersson’s more famous band, Fever Ray is still a stunning piece of music. While it shares Silent Shout’s icy, looming dread and disorienting vocal pitch manipulation, Fever Ray is ultimately a gentler, more personal record. This approach has strengths of its own, however, resulting in gloriously strange tracks like “Seven”, as well as desperately lonely pieces, such as the peerless “Keep The Streets Empty For Me”. Andersson has become a master of atmosphere, perfectly balancing industrial percussion, grinding electronics and twinkling keyboard riffs to create a sound that’s intensely oppressive, but also startlingly beautiful and haunting. While it may not be the most welcoming album ever created, Fever Ray is one solid, cohesive work from start to finish, from the bleak “If I Had Heart” all the way to the anthemic “Coconut”. The world might still be waiting for the next Knife album, but Fever Ray more than deserves the title of Silent Shout 2.

[original review]

Best Music of 2009, Pt. 3: Albums #15-11

#15
There Is No Enemy
Built To Spill

2009 taught me to never completely write bands off. Several of my favorite albums this year were released by acts that, this time a year ago, I was convinced had little redeeming value. Built To Spill were one of these groups and they showed me how wrong I was with There Is No Enemy. By paring down their sound to just the basics of jangling guitar, a strong rhythm section and ruthlessly catchy melodies, Built To Spill saved themselves from “overwrought guitar noodle-fest” land. “Aisle 13” and “Hindsight” provide the initial kick, before the album’s longer tracks take over. The subdued, mid-tempo sound of “Oh Yeah” and “Things Fall Apart” is something I could see myself becoming a huge fan of over time. Hopefully, Built To Spill will keep releasing music this well-crafted and steer clear of those monstrous guitar solos for a bit longer.

[original review]

#14
xx
The xx

I turned twenty-one this year. Conventional wisdom tells me I’m now entering the best years of my life. However, I also have to wonder what exactly I’m doing with my life. After all, this is also the year I saw a twenty-year-old pitcher beat my Seattle Mariners and the xx, a band of young English kids all younger than myself, release a beautiful, restrained and thoroughly complete debut album. While most people their (or, perhaps, “my?”) age record debuts full of raucous energy and angst, the xx shocked the world by recording mysterious, fragile songs, so totally at odds with what culture tells us “youth” is all about. The single “Crystalised” isn’t just their best song; it might as well be their mission statement. Stark, minimal and more than just a little romantic, the xx proved that English youth can do more with music than just rip off the Libertines.

[original review]

#13
The Eternal
Sonic Youth

Speaking of youth, how about Sonic Youth, who are, in fact, driven by a core of musicians who are now all in their fifties. Although their most volatile days are long behind them, Sonic Youth have been one of the few steady constants in music since the 1980s, mostly because they actually change their sound every few albums. After the relatively tepid Rather Ripped in 2006, the band turned things around for The Eternal, unleashing a cataclysmic wall of gritty guitar and shrieking noise, all carefully disguising some very sweet melodies. The exquisite “Antenna” may steal a chord progression or two from King Crimson, but it’s still one of the most beautiful and expressive songs the band has ever recorded. Plus, it’s nice to be reminded that Sonic Youth can still rock, as heard on “Anti-Orgasm”, “What We Know” and “No Way”. The band may be getting older, but you really can’t hear it at all in their music. They’re still more than willing to melt your face off with guitars.

[original review]

#12
Two Dancers
Wild Beasts

As British indie rock gets increasingly formulaic, predictable and just plain bad, bands like Wild Beasts should be treasured. Two Dancers, as an album, is essentially one huge creative risk, combining Hayden Thorpe’s effervescent falsetto with unorthodox percussion (bongos are a main instrument) and fey, wispy guitar melodies. Reinventing glam for our gentler, indie-oriented age, Wild Beasts’ music does so many things rock isn’t supposed to do. The band seems to play in some parallel musical universe, where the overt masculinity of most guitar music has been sucked away, leaving an elegant, stately, yet propulsive sound in its wake. There simply aren’t many bands that sound like this running around these days. However, based on the strength of Two Dancers, I wouldn’t be surprised if a few more start popping up in future years.

[original review]

#11
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

Unwieldy name or not, there’s no way around the fact that the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are absolutely adorable. Sunny, exuberant and virtually exploding with energy, it’s impossible not to get swept up in the waves of positive energy that radiate out from their songs. Then, once you’ve cracked through that joyous surface layer of their music, you’re rewarded with surprisingly detailed lyrics, tackling the usual themes of young love and romance from all kinds of entertaining angles (just check out the library-lust of “Young Adult Friction”). In many ways, the Pains are just the latest link in a chain of bands that can be traced back to Belle & Sebastian, the Smiths and beyond, but for at least one album, they’ve proven that they deserve a spot next to all those other great purveyors of geek-love anthems.

[original review]

Best Music of 2009, Pt. 2: Albums #20-16

[Note: only full-length studio albums were considered for this list. Therefore, EPs (Animal Collective’s Fall Be Kind) and compilations (Nick Cave & Warren Ellis’ White Lunar and the AIDS benefit Dark Was The Night) are not included here, as awesome as they may be. Making lists like this is arbitrary enough as is. Adding compilations and short-form releases only makes things more complicated. But seriously…go check the other 2009 Favorites out. They’re all quite impressive.]

#20
Rain Machine
Rain Machine

Escaping the narrow confines of simply being a “side project,” Kyp Malone, who by day sings and plays guitar in TV On The Radio, came into his own in a big way this year with Rain Machine. Without TVOTR’s furious guitar rush and Tunde Adebimpe’s roaring vocals to distract attention, Rain Machine reveals Malone as a gloriously emotional and potent songwriter. He can do the whole in-your-face rock thing, with songs like “Give Blood”, but he can also restrain himself and write tracks like the eleven-minute long “Winter Song”, while magically keeping something that unwieldy from becoming boring. Topped off by his expressive voice and urgent delivery, Malone and his band have created something that should be familiar to TVOTR fans, but engaging and unique in its own right.

[original review]

#19
Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs)
Patterson Hood

The Drive-By Truckers are a wildly prolific band and it almost feels weird to have a year go by without a new studio album from Alabama’s finest. Thankfully, the band did treat us to two solid stopgap releases this year: The Fine Print, an impressive b-sides and rarities collection, and Murdering Oscar, the second solo album from the band’s guitarist, singer and all-around leader, Patterson Hood. Playing with his band, the Screwtopians, Hood has compiled a frighteningly strong set of songs, written at various times over the past decade. Yet, over the course of the album fifty minutes, a cohesive sound and style emerges. Party country shitkicker and part keen social observer, Hood and his band churn out blistering southern rock and heart-wrenching balladry to back up Hood’s sharp lyrics and nuanced character sketches.

[original review]

#18
Years Of Refusal
Morrissey

There’s something about Morrissey that can be insanely frustrating. The Pope of Mope has made an entire career of his self-fulfilling lyrical obsession with no one ever loving him. Plus, when he’s not singing about that lack of love, he’s singing about the qualities that make him unlovable. It’s a vicious cycle and Moz has shown no signs of jumping off his specific hamster wheel anytime soon. The upside to all this is that Morrissey is in the middle of a full-fledged career renaissance as of late and Years Of Refusal is the best album he’s released since the 1990s. Heaven knows he’s still miserable now, but his dourness is balanced out by the short, sharp rock of his songwriting compatriots, Alain Whyte and Boz Boorer. At the ripe old age of fifty, the Mozfather sounds as vibrant and caustic as ever.

[original review]

#17
The Sound The Speed The Light
Mission Of Burma

As far as I know, there is literally no precedent for what Mission Of Burma have accomplished this decade. How many other bands can break up after recording only a single (admittedly legendary) album… and then reunite nineteen years later and end up recording material that sounds just as immediate and thrilling? It helps that during that absence, alt-rock was flung into the mainstream and Mission Of Burma were retroactively given demi-god status, but still… The Sound The Speed The Light is almost too good. The dry, brittle sound of their 1982 debut, Vs., is replicated wonderfully on this new album, full of angular guitars, dissonant bass and pummeling drums. It only took, y’know, twenty-seven years, but Mission Of Burma have recorded their second full-length masterpiece.

[original review]

#16
Album
Girls

“Do we really need a Californian Elvis Costello?” This is the question I’ve been asking myself since Girls debuted with Album earlier this fall. Without a doubt, the San Francisco-based band wears its influences on their thrift-store-bought sleeves: two parts Costello pen-wielding nerd vocals, one part Beach Boys harmonies, some Buddy Holly to taste and voila! However, the appeal of Girls is that they take all those classic pop touchstones and turn them into something that sounds weirdly contemporary. The growls of static and noise that underpin songs like “Morning Light” and “Big Bad Mean Motherfucker” show that the band see themselves as more than just a jukebox on legs that waltzed out of a 1950s diner. Plus, few bands this year could match Girls for sheer, heartstring-tugging balladry, with the heartfelt “Lust For Life”, “Laura” and “Hellhole Ratrace” proving that teenage angst and emoting can still be wonderfully appealing in this post-emo age.

[original review]

Best Music of 2009, Pt. 1: The 1st Annual Pretzel Awards

True fact: music bloggers love December. After a whole year of listening and reviewing and so forth, we finally get to write up organized lists, showcasing what we feel has been the best music of the past twelve months. We wait all year for this chance to arbitrarily declare one album better than another, then brace ourselves for the inevitable deluge of outraged comments. Maybe it all sounds dumb and a bit pointless, but there’s something strangely thrilling about lists, countdowns and crowning one specific set of songs the “Album of the Year.”

I’ll be counting down my twenty favorite albums of 2009 over the rest of this week, but to start things off, I’m sharing the 1st Annual Pretzel Awards, showcasing some of the best non-album accomplishments in music this year. So, without further ado, I give you the best music of 2009:

Best Songs of the Year (alphabetically by artist):

-“My Girls”, Animal Collective, from Merriweather Post Pavilion
-“Least Favorite Rapper”, Busdriver, from Jhelli Beam
-“A Machine For Loving”, Iggy Pop, from Préliminaires
-“Fuckingsong”, Jarvis Cocker, from Further Complications
-“Oblivion”, Mastodon, from Crack The Skye
-“Belvedere”, Patterson Hood, from Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs)
-“Black Hearted Love”, PJ Harvey & John Parish, from A Woman A Man Walked By
-“These Are My Twisted Words”, Radiohead, non-album single
-“House Of Flying Daggers”, Raekwon, from Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II
-“Hooting & Howling”, Wild Beasts, from Two Dancers

Short-Form Release of the Year:
-Fall Be Kind EP, Animal Collective

Musician of the Year:
-Noah Lennox, for having a hand in Animal Collective’s amazing album-and-EP one-two punch, as well as his winning guest vocals on Atlas Sound’s “Walkabout”.

Music Video of the Year:
-“House Of Flying Daggers”, Raekwon, dir. Erick Sasso and Brian Wendelken

Debut Album of the Year:
-Fever Ray, Fever Ray

Most Promising New Act:
-The xx

Best Opening Track of the Year:
-“Oblivion”, Mastodon, from Crack The Skye

Best Closing Track of the Year:
-“Foreground”, Grizzly Bear, from Veckatimest

Most Disappointing Album of the Year:
-Begone Dull Care, Junior Boys

Acclaimed Album I Didn’t Understand of the Year:
-Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Phoenix

Single Worst Thing to Happen to Music This Year:
-Auto-Tune reaches its maximum cultural saturation point

My Top Drummers, Pt. 5

#2
Name: Stewart Copeland
Associated Bands: The Police

While all three members of the Police don’t get enough credit for the instrumental skills, Stewart Copeland’s flowing, complicated drum patterns deserve the most praise. Finding a middle-ground between rock’s force, jazz’s subtlety and reggae’s emphasis of off-beats, Copeland’s work as a member of the Police is exquisitely intricate and smooth. His snare hits always have a startling crack to them, giving songs some energy, but his crisp cymbal-playing recalls the steady beats of jazz. To top it all off, you’ve got the drum breakdown in the middle of “Walking On The Moon”, which threatens to fly off the rhythmic rails entirely but still somehow works.

Required Listening: “Walking On The Moon”, “Driven To Tears”, “Spirits In The Material World”

#1
Name: Phil Selway
Associated Bands: Radiohead

Most of the drummers on this list play in rock bands, but few really play in that heavy, forceful style usually associated with rock music. Those that do (McNeilly, Dailor, Carey) are noteworthy for their intricacy or unearthly sharpness. Phil Selway is amazing because he can do both. To this day, I’ve never heard as drummer as versatile as this bald, mild-mannered Englishman. As Radiohead has warped and evolved creatively over the years, Selway has been there all along, contributing whatever types of rhythm the band needs at the time. He can play smash-your-face-in-rock, or he can dial it way back and play funereal jazz. He has even sampled and programmed drum tracks on Radiohead’s more techno-influenced material. Phil Selway is the Swiss Army knife of drummers, ready and willing to supply the perfect rhythm for every musical problem imaginable.

Required Listening: “My Iron Lung”, “Climbing Up The Walls”, “Dollars & Cents”

My Top Drummers, Pt. 4

#4
Name: Danny Carey
Associated Bands: Tool

My high school-era love for Tool has faded greatly, but my respect and appreciation for Danny Carey’s mind-warpingly intricate drummer remains. Most metal drummers favor speed and soul-crushing power, but Carey’s brilliance lies in his subtly and overall restraint. While he can certainly shift into higher gears when a song demands it, his best moments are when he unleashes nuanced, detailed drum patterns that twist and squirm. He has an unpredictable, technically demanding style that suits Tool’s music perfectly. Even with all myths about his supposed “unicursal hexagram” patterns, Carey’s is one impressive drummer.

Required Listening: “Prison Sex”, “Schism”, “Vicarious”

#3
Name: Pete de Freitas
Associated Bands: Echo & The Bunnymen

The postpunk years contained many incredible, unique drummers, but none stand as high as the late, great Pete de Freitas. His playing in Echo & The Bunnymen is veritable whirlwind of percussion, surging forward with more energy than any of his peers. While he shared his precise sound with drummers such as Joy Division’s Stephen Morris, de Freitas never became one of those human drum machines, devoid of primal, rhythmic energy. His drumming always sounded wonderfully, thrillingly alive, which made his death in a motorcycle accident 1989 all the more tragic.

Required Listening: “Crocodiles”, “All My Colours”, “Back Of Love”

My Top Drummers, Pt. 3

#6
Name: Stephen Morris
Associated Bands: Joy Division, New Order

Drums are usually associated with a certain raw, primal energy and drummers are expected to tap into that with an appropriate passion. However, there are those drummers, like Stephen Morris, who seem perfectly content to play like a human drum machine. Steady as a metronome and often utilizing odd combinations of drums and electronic percussion, Morris’ work in both Joy Division and New Order formed unrelenting musical bedrock. There’s not much soul or power in his drumming, but that stark, mechanical coldness proves to be just as compelling.

Required Listening: “She’s Lost Control”, “Atrocity Exhibition”, “A Means To An End”

#5
Name: Brann Dailor
Associated Bands: Mastodon

Metal has long been the natural habit for insanely virtuosic drumming. The speed and sheer heaviness of the music lets drummers really showcase their dexterity and chops. However, the first metal drummer to really separate himself from the rest of the double-bass-drum-pounding pack was Mastodon’s Brann Dailor. On one level, he’s just ridiculously fast. Dailor’s drumsticks whip around that kit faster than the human eye can really track. At the same time, however, there’s a weird and not-always identifiable oddness to his drum patterns that really makes them stick in your mind. His stuttering, off-rhythm snare hits and ominously skipping cymbals help Mastodon create their uniquely masterful sound.

Required Listening: “March Of The Fire Ants”, “Seabeast”, “Crystal Skull”

My Top Drummers, Pt. 2

#8
Name: ?uestlove
Associated Bands: The Roots

Needless to say, as one of the few full-time rap drummers, ?uestlove has a unique style. The Roots identity is built around the fact that they’re a live band, not just a series of programmed beats and ?uestlove’s heavy percussion really drives that point home. While he still provides the sharp, crisp rhythms you’d expect from rap, his clattering drumming also has an organic, immediate quality to it, far removed from the slightly stale cut-and-pasted feel you get on normal rap beats. Add in his penchant for unorthodox drum sounds, like the trash-can-like crashes throughout “In The Music”, and you’ve got a wonderfully compelling and original drummer on your hands.

Required Listening: “The Seed (2.0)”, “In The Music”, “Get Busy”

#7
Name: Ginger Baker
Associated Bands: Cream, Blind Faith

Ok, so, sure, Ginger Baker has unleashed more than a few horrendously long drum solos in his lifetime. He’s definitely part of an older generation of drummers, who held showmanship and extravagance higher than the post-Bonham crowd might. But what separates Baker from the rest of those showoffs is his thunderous, tribal rhythms and intricate, jazz-influenced syncopation. In many ways, he’s just not a rock drummer. His patterns and fills are too nuanced and expressive to fit into the stereotype of the snare-pummeling lunkhead. Inventive and hard to predict, Baker has rightfully been given a place in the pantheon of great drummers.

Required Listening: “We’re Going Wrong”, “Deserted Cities Of The Heart”, “Had To Cry Today”

My Top Drummers, Pt. 1

So far here on Pretzel Logic, I’ve covered my all time favorite bassists (and instrument I play proficiently) and guitarists (an instrument I dabble around with). Therefore, it’s time to move on to an instrument I can’t even attempt to play well: drums! This month, I’m showcasing ten of my favorite drummers, drawn from a wide range of diverse musical styles. Now, as a non-drummer, I’m not really in a position to say how these drummers match up from a technical standpoint. All I know is that these ten men (female drummers seem few and far between) have managed to stick out in my mind over the years. While you won’t find any John Bonhams or Keith Moons here, these are the drummers who’ve lifted themselves beyond simple rhythm to become an integral part in my musical enjoyment of their bands.

#10
Name: Levon Helm
Associated Bands: The Band

While I may not nessicarily agree with Levon Helm’s hilariously stereotypical, “the south shall rise again” politics, there’s no denying that the man can absolutely make drums sing. Of course, he also sings himself on many of the band’s songs, but it’s his expressive flourishes and tendency to fall behind the count ever-so-slightly that really gives his patterns and drum riffs character. The Band thrived on their rural, curled-in-front-of-the-fire vibe and Helm’s charmingly simplistic drumming really added to that atmosphere.

Required Listening: “The Night The Drove Old Dixie Down”, “Up On Cripple Creek”, “Jawbone”

#9
Name: Mac McNeilly
Associated Bands: The Jesus Lizard

In the early part of their career, the Jesus Lizard depended on a drum machine to supply rhythm*. Then Mac McNeilly arrived and catapulted the band into the stratosphere. Heavy-hitting and muscular, McNeilly’s tight, virtually lockstep rhythms are integral in holding the Lizard’s chaotic music together. His pummeling snare hits and cacophonous cymbal crashes also give the band’s music a violent, powerful edge, hitting you hard in your chest while the rest of the band attacks your ears and better judgment.

Required Listening: “Nub”, “Puss”, “Destroy Before Reading”

*A sidenote: Big Black’s Roland, a drum machine credited as a full member of the band in press material, was #11 on this list.

Best Albums Of The 1990s, Pt. 5

#10
Gentlemen
Afghan Whigs
1993

Breakups suck. This is a universal fact, but few musicians have made breakups sound quite as horrifying as the Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli on Gentlemen. Screaming, howling and gurgling in the name of shattered love, Dulli’s vocal chords are positively abused on this album, resulting in songs that are both emotionally and physically painful to listen to. However, all this agony yielded a tremendous tour de force for the Cincinnati band, finally finding that middle ground between abrasive 90s rock and old-fashioned soul music that they’d struggled so hard to find. Some songs are immediate and in your face (“Debonair”) while others seethe and glower (“Be Sweet” and the heart-wrenching “My Curse”), but through the whole album, the band hurls acidic music at every failed relationship in history. It may have been cool to sing about how alienated and misunderstood you were during the 90s, but Dulli and the Whigs were just fine with writing about the ol’ romance blues.

#9
Jar Of Flies
Alice In Chains
1994

There are several things amazing about the fact that Jar Of Flies debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts in 1994. First of all, it was actually an EP, featuring only seven songs over the course of half-an-hour, making it the very first EP to ever claim the top spot on the charts. Second, it didn’t sound anything like the music Alice In Chains were famous for. Despite a variety of electric instruments used during the recording, Jar Of Flies has a decidedly stripped down, unplugged feel to it, emphasizing the intricate guitar work of Jerry Cantrell and Layne Staley’s expressive, emotionally charged vocal performances. Jar Of Flies also contains some decidedly upbeat numbers, particularly “No Excuses”, which was quite a one-eighty turn from their previous album, which was all about heroin addiction. Yet, it’s “Nutshell” that steals the whole show, a semi-acoustic tearjerker which stands as the finest single song to come out of the entire Seattle grunge scene (eat your heart out, “Teen Spirit”!). Eight years later, Staley would be dead and grunge the victim of some major cultural backlash. To this day, I couldn’t imagine a better epitaph for either the man or the genre than this exquisite EP.

#8
To Bring You My Love
PJ Harvey
1995

From the moment its first tentative guitar lick oozes out of your speakers, you know you’re in for something special with To Bring You My Love. After two albums of barbed fury and psychodrama, PJ Harvey pulled out all the stops with her third album, releasing a sprawling collection of songs that sounded like they just crawled out of a Louisiana swamp. As strange as it is to hear a woman raised in South England performing such a startling approximation of raw, American blues, the resulting album feels so natural for Harvey that you wonder why she’s never recorded another one like it. Her dynamic voice is in full effect, leaping from the bombastic “Long Snake Moan” all the way down to the wallowing “I Think I’m A Mother”. To Bring You My Love is genuinely frightening at times, especially during the whispered closing segment of “Down By The Water”. This is not a healthy album by any means, but PJ Harvey never sounds all that great when she’s comfortable. Her music thrives on passion, anger and desperation. To Bring You My Love has all three and more.

#7
Mezzanine
Massive Attack
1998

Despite starting the decade by releasing Blue Lines and then watching an entire genre of music pop up in its wake, Massive Attack had evolved far beyond trip-hop by the end of the 90s. Jettisoning trip-hop’s smoky atmosphere and retro-romantic cool, they released the dark and ominous Mezzanine, one of the most oppressive and claustrophobic records of the entire decade. Singles like “Risingson” and the slow-burning “Angel” heralded this new sound, leaving much of the band’s hip-hop influence behind them and replacing them with tricks stolen from modern hard rock, as well as electronica. From beginning to end, Mezzanine closes in around you, only loosening its grip on a reimagining of the reggae standard “Man Next Door” and the stunning “Teardrop” (since co-opted by FOX as the House theme song). Outside of those brief moments of relief, you’re trapped in Mezzanine’s pitch-black world.

#6
Loveless
My Bloody Valentine
1991

“Ethereal” and “noisy-as-all-hell” usually aren’t adjectives used to describe the same thing. Yet, they’re the two most appropriate words to describe Loveless, My Bloody Valentine’s jaw-dropping monument to the power of guitar overdubbing and thousands upon thousands of dollars. The three years it took to record the album destroyed MBV’s internal chemistry and almost bankrupted their label, but two generations of music lovers are more than thankful that they put in all that extra work. Loveless is nothing less than an ocean of guitar. You don’t listen to these songs; your ears surf on them. Yet, the whole thing doesn’t have any of the sinister weight of metal or the abusive energy of punk. All those multilayered guitars end up creating something very dreamlike and even whimsical in a way. It helps that the band’s virtually wordless blend of male and female harmonies creates a sonic atmosphere where things are blurred and barely intelligible. There are even a few catchy numbers stirred into the mix, culminating in the addictive closing song, “Soon”. My Bloody Valentine have never released a follow-up to Loveless and perhaps it’s a good thing. Music can’t really get much bigger than this.

#5
The Bends
Radiohead
1995

It seems hilarious in retrospect, but Radiohead where originally predicted to be one-hit wonders, joining all the other flash-in-pan bands that rode to success in a post-Nirvana era. “Creep” was certainly a great song, but did this odd English band actually have a future outside of Best Of The 90s compilations? Any and all skeptics were silenced by The Bends, which may not have featured “Creep 2.0”, but instead offered up twelve balanced, nuanced and frankly astonishing alterna-rock anthems. Radiohead were still a pop-oriented band (literally half these songs were released as successful singles), but The Bends showed that there were some much bigger ambitions under the surface. From the guitar spazzfest of “Just” to the wondrous ballad “Fake Plastic Trees”, The Bends transformed Radiohead overnight into a “serious” band, who were pushing the boundaries of modern music. Of course, people still weren’t prepared for what they would do next, but for the time being, The Bends announced that a new, bold musical force was arriving on the scene for good.

#4
Liquid Swords
Genius/GZA
1995

Wu-Tang solo records tend to be crapshoots. Without the collaborative magic that fueled Enter The Wu-Tang to push them along, most of the group’s nine members tend to sound a bit lost and overwhelmed when they go and record on their own. The grand exception to this rule is the GZA, whose Liquid Swords does the unthinkable and actually leaves Enter The Wu-Tang in the dust. Much of the credit goes to the RZA’s close production, conjuring up a dark, swirling atmosphere out of old samurai movie clips and insistent keyboards. Liquid Swords sounds cold and emotionally distant, lacking the party edge you hear on most other Wu-related albums. All this compliments the GZA’s style perfectly, letting his no-nonsense verses cut you to the core. Liquid Swords may be rather humorless and icy, but it’s not just heavy-handed preaching. GZA’s words are smart, always approaching his target from an unexpected angle, revealing some subtle details in the process. GZA may not have been Wu’s most dominating personality, but on Liquid Swords, he stakes his claim as their smartest and most piercing lyricist and storyteller.

#3
Laughing Stock
Talk Talk
1991

Some albums take a long time to be appreciated. They stretch and grow inside your imagination, going from “oh, that’s nice” to “my god, I have to listen to this album every eight minutes.” Discovering these “growers” is one of the things I enjoy most about being an obsessive music nut. That said…Laughing Stock was not one of those records for me. From the very moment I heard the shattered guitar strum that opens “Myrrhman”, I knew this would be a very important album in my life. This is an album built on a trembling skeleton of songwriting, letting open space and slow tempos set the mood, before sparse guitar and some relentless jazz drums flesh things out. But the real appeal of Laughing Stock lies in the stark and fragile emotions that are present in each and every moment of its all-too-brief forty minute running time. These songs should howl with desperation and hopelessness, but instead they whisper, making those powerful forces feel all the more strained and urgent. This is a very sad record, but it never fails to lift its head up high and compose itself with grace and dignity.

#2
This Is Hardcore
Pulp
1998

“This is the sound of someone losing the plot,” Jarvis Cocker sings, “making out that they’re ok when they’re not.” As always, Jarvis’ words render everyone else’s unnecessary and that brief quip, from This Is Hardcore’s opener, “The Fear”, remains the single best description of this seedy, warped and deeply troubled masterpiece. After becoming an inexplicable pop star (and sex symbol to boot) on the back of Different Class, Jarvis could have done several things to capitalize on this newfound success. Instead, he wrote “Party Hard” and then watched as the world desperately tried to come to terms with music this depressed, caustic and downright rotten. Fame did not sit well with Cocker, and the repulsion you feel when you first hear these songs is mutual. You don’t like them and Cocker doesn’t like you. Still, the thoroughness with which this album pushes you away is impressive. Whether it’s the terrifyingly obsessed “Seductive Barry” or the bitterness that lurks around every turn in “Help The Aged”, This Is Hardcore is never willing to throw the casual pop listener a bone. By the time you get to the world-obliterating title track, you realize that things are beyond your control. Nothing will get in the way of Cocker’s self-sabotage and listeners can only sit back and try not to get hit by the debris.

#1
OK Computer
Radiohead
1997

Radiohead defined the 90s with two key musical statements. The first was “Creep”, a song so perfectly suited to its time that the band almost never escaped from its imposing shadow. “Creep” takes its place alongside Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and Beck’s “Loser” as songs that completely capture the odd zeitgeist of apathy and negativity that characterized so much of 90s music and pop culture. “Creep” ensured that even if Radiohead never recorded another note, they’d be remembered. But that’s not what happened. Who could have predicted that five years later, that very same band would release the single best album of the entire decade, in the process slamming the door closed on the 90s (and three years early, to boot)? It’s still mind-boggling when you realize that “Creep” and OK Computer were recorded by the same band. One captures a moment in time. The other captures the entire future! The new millennium was already beginning to peek its big bald head over the horizon and Radiohead beat the Y2K craze to the punch by releasing an album positively quaking with modernist paranoia and existential fear. And yet…it all sounds so pretty.

This is the weirdest element of OK Computer. How does an album this distraught and unstable end up sounding flat-out beautiful? How can a song about alien abduction (“Subterranean Homesick Alien”) end up as a shimmering, sparkling wall of guitar textures and arpeggios? Much of the credit goes to Thom Yorke, whose voice is unlike any sound heard on Earth. Yorke’s slurred wail is both beautiful and deeply frightening, especially when all you can really understand are choice lyrical snippets like “this is what you get when you mess with us.” But what really galvanizes OK Computer is the chemistry between these five men from Oxford and the bond between them that has continued to give us incredible music more than a decade later. Ed O’Brien’s guitar textures and backing vocals give the music depth and resonance. Colin Greenwood’s bass gives it weight, while his brother Jonny contributes an endless supply of jarring guitar riffs and dissonant noise. Holding everything together, you’ve got Phil Selway, a drummer who can literally do anything. He can make drums sing if he needs to. When you put these five men together, amazing things happen. You get “Karma Police”. You get “Paranoid Android”. You get the blissful escapism of “No Surprises”, as well as the psychotic extremes of “Climbing Up The Walls”. You get songs about little people, clinging to anything they can to stay strong in the face of an uncertain and dehumanizing future. You get OK Computer.

Best Albums Of The 1990s, Pt. 4

#20
In Utero
Nirvana
1993

The shift in sound from Nevermind to In Utero is just staggering. Tossing Nevermind’s sparkling production out the window, producer Steve Albini brought out every rough edge he could find in Nirvana, particularly from Dave Grohl’s skull-crushing drums. Of course, Cobain gave him some pretty bleak material to work with. This album is nothing if not unhealthy, a seething, cancerous mass of anger, alienation and unspeakably black humor. It still topped the charts, but I think everyone listening to In Utero knew something was wrong. Even if they’re the voice of a rebellious generation, pop icons aren’t supposed to sound this damn tortured. In Utero is where the grunge party stopped being cool and become painfully real and personal, a feeling that is only magnified in retrospect.

#19
Illmatic
Nas
1994

No one, not even Nas himself, has ever released an album quite like Illmatic. Apparently, the recipe for its incredible combination of lyrical wit, storytelling and compelling beats has been lost to time, a sort of Holy Grail of album-oriented rap. It helps that there’s only one guest verse on the entire album, letting Nas himself do all the heavy-lifting and keeping things intense, focused and raw. The music doesn’t slouch either, whether we’re talking the grinding jazz of “N.Y. State Of Mind” or the smooth, radio-ready groove of “Life’s A Bitch”. As rap music becomes increasingly single-oriented, looking back to Illmatic seems inevitable. No rap album had ever sounded this complete and fully realized upon its release. In many ways, nothing has sounded that way since, either.

#18
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Neutral Milk Hotel
1998

To this day, I’ve never understood the mass love affair people have with this album. People positively drool over this album, throwing praise at it like they were afraid it would somehow sneak out the door forever if they didn’t lavish it with attention and care. All I know is that In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is an impressively difficult album, finding ways to be enjoyable despite a multitude of factors that should keep people away. You’ve got the unusual, bombastic-yet-acoustic musical background. You’ve got trumpets and French horns and other non-rock instruments. You’ve got Jeff Magnum’s obnoxiously nasal voice. And then there’s the whole fact that the songs are all pretty damn depressing, populated by weird characters like the King Of Carrot Flowers and the Two-Headed Boy. Yet, somehow, Aeroplane has hit a chord with listeners for over a decade. I may never understand why, exactly, but perhaps it’s a mystery better left unsolved.

#17
Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Wu-Tang Clan
1993

If you can get past the surface bleakness and street-level social reporting of the rapping, it becomes obvious that ­Enter The Wu-Tang is basically one huge party from start to finish. With nine emcees wandering through the studio and running all over each other’s tracks, the recording sessions for this album must have been an absolute blast. This is reflected in the cool confidence and chemistry between all the Clan members, weaving their verses around each other to create this giant, multifaceted rap masterpiece. The album also gives each member just enough time to establish a personality, each with their own distinct flavor. With the whole thing tied together by the RZA’s airtight production, Enter The Wu-Tang is a timeless album that documents one of the most impressive collections of raw musical talent ever assembled.

#16
Pinkerton
Weezer
1996

Two years after their debut album showered the world in winning power-pop, Weezer unleashed Pinkerton to a confused and generally unhappy reception. Suddenly, those cute songs about sweaters and surfing were replaced by Rivers Cuomo’s angst and sexual frustration. It would be several years before fans finally realized what an impressive album Weezer had released, eventually being considered a founding cornerstone in what would become emo music. However, for all its self-flagellation and indulgence, it never reaches the whinny extremes of these modern, mascara-streaked doofuses. Pinkerton may not have been all that poppy, but it was still smart and catchy, especially on the paint-peeling diatribe “Tired Of Sex”. Plus, Cuomo found a way to make songs about lusting after 18-year-old Japanese fans and lesbians hummable. If that’s not impressive, I don’t know what is.

#15
Goat
The Jesus Lizard
1991

It’s really astonishing that an album this fierce and sonically brutal could be so damn funny, but sure enough, Goat is one of hard rock’s most enduring comedy albums, even if few people realize it. Take “Mouth Breather”, a song that sounds like pure evil but is actually about nothing more sinister than house-sitting. The same goes for the pounding lead single, “Nub”, which makes amputations sound positively giddy (“hey man, say man, have you been rubbing your nub?”). The music reflects this inherent combination of ferocity and absurdism, blending Big Black-style aural assault with nothing less than country music, harkening back to the band’s Texan roots. You may never really understand what the Jesus Lizard are singing about, thanks to David Yow’s madman yammering, but it’s always best not to take them too seriously. The band’s members aren’t and neither should you.

#14
Bone Machine
Tom Waits
1992

Ever since the 1980s, when Tom Waits’ music took a turn for the weird, darkness lurked on the edges of his music. However, it wasn’t until the 90s and Bone Machine that he really gave himself over to these inclinations. The result is a festering album, crammed full of rot and death. Whether its people dying (“Murder In The Red Barn”) or the entire world (“Earth Died Screaming”), vitality and life have very little place on this album. What really makes Bone Machine a masterpiece, however, is the way Waits doesn’t let his subject matter drag his music down into a depressed murk. His voice is as ragged and croaky as it’s ever been, but throughout this album, he sings with a newfound air of defiance and confidence, best heard on the swaggering “Goin’ Out West”. On Bone Machine, Tom Waits sings like the devil, toying with life and death and enjoying every minute.

#13
Tilt
Scott Walker
1995

After falling off the face of the musical map for twelve years, eccentric ex-pop star Scott Walker returned in 1995 with his album Tilt. The world wasn’t ready for it then and it still might not be now. Quite simply, Tilt isn’t like any known type of music. There’s some operatic elements mixed in, along with bits and pieces snatched from classical art music and even hard rock, but the end result is nothing but unique. Scott saturates his voice with emotion, letting the pathos virtually bleed out of your speakers, all while colossal blocks of avant-garde noise crash around you. Yet, if you can weather the assault and get to the eye of the storm (the haunted closer “Rosary”), you begin to realize just what an incredible journey you’ve made. Tilt is a bold, challenging and often harrowing piece of music, but it also offers a unique set of rewards, guiding you through some very untamed musical grounds.

#12
Let Love In
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
1994

If Murder Ballads was Nick Cave’s mature album, Let Love In was his last glorious romp through youth. Finally dispelling the aimlessness that characterized his post-drug albums, Let Love In roars with energy, letting fierce songs like “Jangling Jack” and “Thirsty Dog” run wild and free. Even the ballads on the album have some viciousness lurking just beneath the surface, as “Ain’t Gonna Rain Anymore” and the album’s title track prove. Let Love In was a necessary turning point in Nick’s career, but unlike other transitional albums, it isn’t plagued by awkward experiments or forced stylistic changes. Cave and the Seeds simply got all this fury, rage and passion out of the system in one fell swoop, creating a wild and highly enjoyable musical experience in the process.

#11
Vs.
Pearl Jam
1993

Between their debut album and Vs., something changed in Pearl Jam’s approach to writing music. Instead of writing the big rock anthems that catapulted them to success, they began to trim their music down, creating lean, barbed songs that practically foamed at the mouth. Perhaps they were already subconsciously chafing against the mainstream music machine they would eventually abandon (and sue), but Vs. benefits from this shift immensely. “Go”, “Animal” and “Rearviewmirror” form the angry heart of the album, all leaving bruises when their finished. At the same time, Vs. was where Pearl Jam really unveiled their ability to craft masterful ballads. “Daughter” and “Indifference” open new doors for the band, letting their strong passions and emotions out without the roar of electric guitars driving them home. Vs. is the only Pearl Jam album where these two styles are in perfect balance, showing both sides of this powerful band in all their glory.