MUSIC THREAD

Thanks for the link, I'll be looking forward to giving it a listen. I hope it's better than American Slang and that Brian Fallon has been able to curb his rampant Springsteen infatuation.

 

Reviving this one to discuss the return of Ben Folds Five.

I'm a huge fan of Ben Folds. Love his solo stuff, but it doesn't have the same pop as his stuff with the Five. The new album, "The Sound of Life and Mind," is outstanding. Really happy to have them back.

Also really digging the new Mumford & Sons.

 

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis -- WOW.

Thrift Shop = fun and funny:

My Oh My = ode to Mariners and Dave Niehaus:

Otherside = poignant and inspirational:

 

I suck at remembering album names, so my favorite albums of the year came from these artists:

Fiona Apple
Grizzly Bear
Alabama Shakes
Gary Clark, Jr.
ZZ Ward
Mika
Delta Spirit
Kendrick Lamar
Ben Folds Five
Regina Spektor
Beach House
The Lumineers
Frank Ocean
and some others that I'm probably forgetting at the moment.

 

There is some bad-ass shit on that Gary Clark album.

 

He's quite the guitar player.

 

Saw Delta Spirit a couple weeks ago. Very good live band. Crowd was very into it.

 

I saw them back in May. I first heard of them when their song played over the final five minutes of FNL and I have a friend who's a fan so we decided to go. I agree with you, they're fantastic in concert. Them, Mika, Regina Spektor, and Florence and the Machine were the best concerts of my year. I have the Hold Steady on December 29 to finish off a good musical year.

 

Wow, didn't realize DS was the song for the end of FNL. Going to have to go back and rewatch that.

 

I think he probably means the TV show.

The end of the movie (and the whole soundtrack) is from Explosions in the Sky. They're a kickass Texas based instrumental post-rock band.

They re-purposed this song for the movie and added strings. Amazing song.

 

Was this considered a good or bad year in music? I know that's especially broad, but after a run of four or five years of me finding more great music than I could listen to, I struggled to find a lot to latch onto this year. I don't know if I just wasn't looking hard enough or if it really was a down year.

I think Shovels & Rope's 'O Be Joyful' was my favorite album of the year. Which is strange given I'm not a huge country music fan. There's just enough folk and indie in it to make me love it, though.

Not surprisingly given his good taste, Dre's list is really good. I liked almost everything there give or take one or two. But I didn't think it was an especially good year in music.

 

I feel like I had an easier time finding stuff this year than in recent years. Fiona Apple's album is the only one I love, but I really like quite a few others and even albums that I just thought were okay, like The Gaslight Anthem's, have 3-4 songs that I enjoy when they come up on my iPod. Kendrick Lamar's album is my favorite rap/hip-hop album since My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Gary Clark, Jr. and the Alabama Shakes have really nice, classic rock sounds, which you don't hear all that often anymore.

A couple of the albums that critics loved that I just couldn't get into were the ones by Tame Impala and Swans. Also, while I've usually enjoy Jack White's stuff when I hear it, I don't seek it out, so I haven't heard his album yet.

Scratch that, I listened to the Jack White album today and really like it. The original stuff is good, and his cover of Love is Blindness is fantastic.