1. WANT ONE – Rufus Wainwright A bucket of rhymes he threw up threw up somewhere. Big, bold and beautiful.
2. SOME DEVIL – Dave Matthews Sweet, sad and soulful.
3. A MARK, A MISSION, A BRAND, A SCAR – Dashboard Confessional “…like you meant it and I knew that you meant it.”
4. YOU ARE FREE – Cat Power “Cool hands from the get go can feast on the real one….”
5. KIMI GA SUKI / RAIFU – Matthew Sweet “rocket with a heart”.
6. LLOR N KCOR – Ryan Adams I’m spinning ‘round the room in awe. This is the way I like my Ryan.
7. ELECTRIC VERSION – The New Pornographers All for swinging me around.
8. FEEL IT – Some Girls The phairest of them all. White girl groove. Turn it on and turn it up!
9. EVOLVE – Ani DiFranco “Partly it’s the boots but mostly it’s the chi.”
10. SINGS THE ROSEMARY CLOONEY SONGBOOK – Bette Midler Yea, Bette Midler. You gotta problem with that? The songs are classics. The production is flawless and the singing is reverent and surprisingly restrained. A distant cousin to Want One……..
11. HAIL TO THE THIEF – Radiohead “dropped from moonbeams and sailed on shooting stars”. Sometimes this is a fun listen. Othertimes it’s radioheadache. I like it and admire it more than I love it.
12. SAY YOU WILL – Fleetwood Mac Will Linsey Buckingham ever be appreciated for the incredible arranger, producer and guitarist that he is? Pop music that pushes the limits ever so slightly. Minus a star for the absence of Christine McVie.
13. THE YOUNG AND THE HOPELESS – Good Charlotte Good junk punk music for the tattooed, single-parented, trailer park twenty year old that pogos inside us. Just try not cheering along to “Girls and Boys”.
14. ELEPHANT – The White Stripes I exhausted this by too many plays I think…..
15. TRY THIS – Pink The perfect “fsck-you-too”. Give all the good songs about an ex away to another woman who sings it straight at her. Better than Tim’s band’s own record and way better than his ex’s. Trouble, indeed.
16. THE CURSE OF BLONDIE – Blondie Where they should have gone after Autoamerican. A return to form.
17. THE THORNS (acoustic version) Didn’t like this much before I heard it without all the stuff behind it. Now it’s pretty and the melodies come through. But CS&N they ain’t..
18. FEVER TO TELL – Yeah Yeah Yeahs yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah….some good beats and hooks behind a miss potty mouth who’s not quite out to lunch enough to be Lydia Lunch but a lot more strokin’ than those strokes blokes, folks.
19. DOLL REVOLUTION – The Bangles More of what they did best. Jingles with jangles. It’s like they never left us. And they put the fire into Elvis’ limp song, too.
20. HE WAS FAB: A LOVING TRIBUTE TO GEORGE HARRISON – Various Artists The title says it all.
Honorable Mentions:
WORLD WITHOUT TEARS – Lucinda Williams
THE BEAUTY OF THE RAIN – Dar Williams
IDENTITY CRISIS – Shelby Lynne
WE’RE A HAPPY FAMILY: RAMONES TRIBUTE – Various artists
DEMOLITION DAY – Drive-By Truckers
THE HOUSE CARPENTER’S DAUGHTER – Natalie Merchant
SHE WHO DWELLS….. – Sinead O’Connor
FLEETING DAYS – Dan Bern and the IJBC
INDESTRUCTABLE – Rancid
LIZ PHAIR
RULES OF TRAVEL – Roseanne Cash
COME FEEL ME TREMBLE – Paul Westerberg
THE WIND – Warren Zevon
TIL THE WHEELS FALL OFF – Amy Rigby
DO THE UNCLE WILLY – The Delmonas
REGRET OVER THE WIRES – Matthew Ryan
LET GO – Nada Surf
OHIO – Over the Rhine
SINGLES GOING STEADY:
“Pain Killers (Summer Rain)” – Turin Brakes
“True To Myself” – Ziggy Marley
“All Green “ – Clem Snide
“Hey Ya!” – Outcast
“Girls and Boys” – Good Charlotte
“Like a Stone” – Audioslave
“12:51” – The Strokes
“Commerce, TX” – Ben Kweller
“Bad Day” – REM
“Hands Down” – Dashboard Confessional
and of course “I Don’t Know What It Is” – Rufus Wainwright
Other highlights:
Joni Mitchell Live at the Gene Autry Museum, 1996 – The CD I played most this year:
Lucinda Williams – Carwheels on a Gravel Road (alternate version)
…..home to oblivion…..elliot smith….. Train of love now hasten ….. johnny cash…