Ultranormal

Everyone and their mother-in-law seems to be covering Beyonce’s Single Ladies these days, but you can all stop now. Really. No more. It’s over. I’ve found the best cover of the song, and I really don’t think anyone’s going to top it. See?

By the extremely talented Pomplamoose Music. Check out the rest of their stuff on YouTube, especially their version of La Vie en Rose – it’s gorgeous.

Some folks on twitter (I saw Mark Trammell and Corey Denis do it) have started posting their top albums from the 2000′s. Now that’s an idea I can get behind! So, here are my top albums from the 2000-2004. I’m going to try to do just three albums per year, but I love my music, so we’ll see how it goes. I’ll post my favorites from the second half of the decade soon.
* 2000
## Eels – Daisies of the Galaxy: This is still my favorite Eels albums. It’s heartbreaking and gorgeous throughout, except for the awesome and funny I Like Birds.
## The Crystal Method – Tweekend: Just for Name of the Game… that song is so awe-inspiringly awesome, there’s no reason for any other song to be on the album. The clean version, the explicit one, doesn’t matter. It’s ten tons of kickass in a two pound sack.
## Amon Tobin – Supermodified: Unlike anything I’d heard before, or probably since. This album, a lot like Massive Attack‘s Mezzanine is still used in commercials, tv shows and movies to make you think something is futuristic or scary. I’ll bet you’ve heard Get Your Snack On and Four Ton Mantis dozens of times.
* 2001
## Zero 7 – Simple Things: When I need to calm down and take a break, this is the band, and the album I turn to. The vocals are gorgeous and the music is lovely. In the Waiting Line and Simple Things are my favorite tracks, but I can listen to the whole thing on repeat for hours.
## Cake – Comfort Eagle: Yes, it’s commercial rock, but it’s infectious… oh so sweetly infectious. Short Skirt/Long Jacket is a fantastic song, and Comfort Eagle is great and not commercial at all. Give it up, this is just a great album.
## The Constantines – umm, The Constantines: If you want rock, you can’t go wrong with this band. I’ve written about them several times before, and they just keep getting better. But, this album has some of their best all-out rockers, and one of my favorite ballads of all time: the haunting St. You.
## Gotan Project – La Revancha Del Tango: Oops, we’ve already broken the rules. Here’s album number four from 2001, but I just couldn’t leave it out. It’s gorgeous latin tango with a trip hop twist and I still listen to this album all the time.
* 2002
## Lemon Jelly – Lost Horizons: Another album I can listen to on repeat for hours. This is the perfect coding music. It’s got great hooks but just flows from track to track. It’s not like anything else you’ll hear, but it lovely nonetheless.
## Sigur Ros – ( ): This is the first album I got by the band and I was hooked. If you don’t know who Sigur Ros is, shame on you. Second, go get this album. If you like it, then get Takk and everything else they’ve done.
## Luna – Close Cover Before Striking and Romantica: Cheating again! But, since they released two albums in the same year, and I love them both, you get a two for one. This band writes great songs that kind of fall outside of genres. I think that puts them firmly in “Alternative Rock”, but that sells them short. They’re just great songs, masterfully played and produced.
* 2003 – I am totally going to cheat on this one. 2003 was an amazing year of music.
## Fruit Bats – Mouthfuls: Kind of like Luna, these guys defy genre for me. They sound like a band out of another decade, but the songs are so… perfect… that I can’t help but love them. I sing along with every one.
## The Wrens – Meadowlands: Enough feedback to fill a dozen albums, but these guys make it work somehow. Alternating between kicking ass and crying in their coffee, this is a great album to try to sing along with… if you can understand any of the words through the feedback.
## Eels – Shootenanny!: This album has my all-time favorite Eels song on it, and one of my favorite get-up-and-go tunes. Saturday Morning rocks. It’s dumptrucking sugar in your morning cereal, playing outside from sun up to sun down and moving as fast as you can because there’s daylight a-wastin’. It also has one of the greatest ballads of ever on it: Somebody Loves You.
## Sufjan Stevens – Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lakes State: In one word, Sufjan Stevens’ work is heartbreaking. Always artful, gorgeous and layered, you just can’t get away from one of his albums without a tear in your eye.
## Mew – Frengers: Rockingly awesome and that’s all. I can’t really describe what’s so great about this album, but it grabbed me from the first chord on the first song and doesn’t let go through the whole thing.
## Massive Attack – 100th Window: It’s not as good as Mezzanine, but it’s still ten times better than almost everyone else. When Your Soul Sings is particularly good, though, and would have fit in nicely between Risingson and Teardrop on that album.
## The Polyphonic Spree – The Beginning Stages of the Polyphonic Spree: Jen calls them “Up With People for grownups”… and she’s not really wrong. They’re kind of goofy and happy, but the music’s so damned good. It makes me smile every time. This is my favorite album of The Spree’s three so far.
* 2004 – The year of the mashup!!
## The Kleptones – A Night at the Hip-Hopera: How can you go wrong mashing up classic Queen and hip-hop? You can’t. Well, at least, they can’t. I listened to just this album for over a month.
## Zero 7 – When It Falls: They successfully followed up Simple Things with another gorgeous album. The songs are a little more complex than on their first album, but still beautiful and mesmerizing.
## DJ BC and the Beastles – The Beastles: The Beatles + The Beastie Boys = AWESOME. It’s so freaking good, especially Tripper Trouble and Mother Nature’s Rump.
## Arcade Fire – Funeral: Granted, I didn’t actually buy this album in 2004, but it’s still really really good.
## David Byrne – Grown Backwards: I’m a huge David Byrne fan, and this is my favorite of his recent albums. I love his music because even though you really never know what you’re going to get, it always sounds like a David Byrne song – which is a lot of fun.
There you go… I only cheated, well, a lot.

Sound Opinions’ most recent podcast listed their favorite albums of the year so far. I did this last year, and there’s been so much good stuff so far this year, it’s time to do another one. So, here’s my list of the best albums of 2009 so far:
# Hazards of Love by The Decemberists: I love everything on this album. The fact that it’s basically a Rock Opera only helps. It’s great on a lot of different levels, but my favorite thing about it is that it’s great at many volumes. Turned up loud in the car or through headphones, the fantastic guitar work comes through. When quieter, the lovely vocals and lyrics are the stars. Really, you should get this before you do anything else.
# Hombre Lobo by Eels: Another rock opera from one of my all-time favorite bands, this one doesn’t disappoint at all. It’s got the sad ballads, and the ass kicking rockers that the band does so well. Fresh Blood is now my second favorite Eels song of all time (after Saturday Morning). The whole album is great, and it was hard to choose which album to be at one or two, but this album could have easily been number one.
# Eating Us by Black Moth Super Rainbow: Silly band name aside, this band is amazing. They’re somewhere between Zero 7, Massive Attack and Holy F*ck. Great analog techno, fantastic beats – this is an awesome headphone album.
# Lost Channels by Great Lake Swimmers: Ongiara is one of my all-time favorite albums, and this one picks up where it left off, adding some new sounds, but generally keeping the masterful folk ballad front and center. I love the addition of harmonies and some of the new instruments, but the heart of their sound is the lyrics.
# Dark Was the Night by a bunch of great people: I don’t normally get compilations, but this has a ton of my favorite artists on it, so I couldn’t resist. This album is worth the price just for Grizzly Bear‘s heart-breaking Deep Blue Sea and The New Pornographers‘ Hey, Snow White. The album is solid throughout, and the collection of bands they got to perform on it is staggering.
# Hospice by Antlers: This is firmly in Massive Attack territory, so I’m going to instantly perk up at anything that follows in one of my all-time favorite bands’ footsteps. It’s melancholy, atmospheric and so layered, it took me a dozen times through it with headphones on to pick them all out.
# Fantasies by Metric: This album is a little uneven, but the high points are worth the price of admission. If you like The Breeders or Luscious Jackson, you’ll love this album.
There are a few albums that came close to making the list that are still good, but not quite good enough for the list. The latest from Vetiver, Malajube (I liked their previous album more), Sunparlour Players and Portland Cello Project are all worth checking out as well.
What are your favorite albums of 2009 so far? Come on, share!

This is kind of cheating, because according to iTunes, the album was released in 2007, but I discovered them this year (again, thanks to CBC Radio 3). According to iTunes, I’ve listened to this song 85 times since I added it at the end of April. It may not sound like a lot, but for me, that’s huge. What is it? It’s Holy F@ck‘s Lovely Allen!! Here, listen:

How awesome is that? It never fails to make me bop my head and get the chills. It builds and builds until it reaches a fantastic crescendo of sound that just makes me happy to be alive. It’s not often I find a song that does that, and that does it every time I listen to it.

I’ve been trying to write this post for almost a week now, and just couldn’t decide how to pick my “favorite” albums of the year, since there are a bunch of them. But, iTunes has rescued me and taken any and all opinion out of it, and given me a way to empirically prove which albums I consider my favorites this year. How? I created a Smart Playlist in iTunes where Year was 2008 and then sorted by Play Count. I then picked the albums from the list with the songs with the most plays and ta-da, I’m done.
So, in order of plays, here are my favorite albums of 2008:
# Kensington Heights by The Constantines – This is their best album yet, solid throughout with two or three songs that are destined to be all-time classics (*New King* and Time Can Be Overcome in particular).
# Everything That Can Happen Will Happen Today by David Byrne and Brian Eno – This album is just plain gorgeous. In fact, I’ve already declared it the best album of the year. Of course, my formula has proven me wrong, but that’s OK.
# Accelerate by R.E.M. – I haven’t listened to it much in the past couple months, but it was on constant repeat for a while there, hence its position at the top of the list.
# Earth to the Dandy Warhols by The Dandy Warhols (duh) – I love this band without guilt or any shame at all. Yes, they’re kind of poppy and weird, but they’re also full of awesome. They fly all over the spectrum and their latest album is just more of it, but better. Love Song is my favorite track on the album, followed quickly by Talk Radio.
# Parallel Play by Sloan – A full-on rocker, there’s no guesswork involved in this album. It’s just good ass-kicking rock and roll.
# These are the Good Times People by The Presidents of the United States of America – This one sort of rocketed up the charts, seeing as I only bought it this week, but two songs are already on my empirical list. The playlist doesn’t lie, people. Sharpen Up Those Fangs may be a perfect pop song.
# The Odd Couple by Gnarls Barkley – Three songs put this album in the top ten: Going On, Run and Blind Mary
# Med sud I eyrum vid spilum endalaust by Sigur Ros – It’s not my favorite album by the band, but it’s more good stuff from them, and that’s fine with me.
# Parc Avenue by Plants and Animals – Another great band discovered through the CBC Radio 3 podcast.
# Anything by DJ Earworm – Really. He’s the best mashup artist around and doesn’t get the credit he deserves. Girl Talk gets all the press, but Earworm’s the real thing.
2008 was a great musical year. There are albums released last year that I listened to a lot this year are LP by Holy Fuck (yes, mom, that’s really their name), Challengers by The New Pornographers, Live from Austin, TX by The Polyphonic Spree, anything by The Shins and recently rediscovering The Wrens. Now that I work for a music company, I’m listening to a lot of stuff and always on the look out for new music to sink my ears into.
I can’t wait to see what comes out next year.

I don’t say this lightly, because there have been some fantastic albums this year already, but David Byrne and Brian Eno’s brand new joint effort Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is unbelievably good. It’s rich, gorgeous and the songs are beautiful. I can’t stop listening to it.
Don’t believe me? Listen for yourself (especially Everything That Happens, Life Is Long and One Fine Day):

It really is amazing. The ethereal music behind David Byrne’s fantastic vocals are transportive in the best sense of the word. I don’t even know how else to express it… it’s just beautiful.
Oh, and who did they beat out? Here are the rest of my favorite albums that have come out this year:
* The Constantines – Kensington Heights
* Sigur Ros – Med sud I eyrum vid spilum endalaust
* Sloan – Parallel Play
* REM – Accelerate
* Plants and Animals – Parc Avenue
That’s some good company to beat out, especially The Constantines best album ever…

This week has been one to forget at Chez Lawver. Jen, Brian and I have all had the stomach flu, and it hasn’t been pretty. So, as a break from the disgusting offal-ness of it all, here are some musical recommendations for your Friday afternoon. These are all things I’ve picked up in the last couple of months, many of which are Canadian. I blame the recent Northern influence on my iTunes library on CBC Radio 3 and their wicked podcasts.
* Holy Fuck – I prefer LP to their self-titled album, but this is some wicked butt-moving stuff. If you crossed Beck with The Chemical Brothers and took away the lyrics, you’d have Holy Fuck (sorry mom, that’s really their name).
* R.E.M.‘s Accelerate – I love the band’s early albums, especially Document, but this is a return to that style of garage awesomeness. Absolutely fantastic stuff, especially Supernatural Superserious.
* Sunparlour Players‘ Hymns for the Happy – I first heard If the Creeks Don’t Rise on one of the CBC podcasts. It’s just good folksy rock – no pretense, just great vocals, lots of instruments and some harmonies.
* The Polyphonic Spree – Jen calls them “Up With People for grownups”, and I’m OK with that. They’re an alt-rock band backed by a horn section, a full choir and sometimes strings, and they sing some seriously happy stuff. My current favorite, though, is their cover of Nirvana’s Lithium.
* And only because I can’t remember posting it before, Great Lake Swimmers‘ Ongiara is one of the most beautiful albums I’ve ever heard. It’s acoustic and the lead singer’s voice is hypnotic. Where in the World Are You is one of my all-time favorite songs. It’s heartbreakingly romantic and forlorn and never fails to choke me up.
There you go. That should keep you busy for a while. And yes, those all go to the Amazon MP3 store. It’s cheaper than the iTunes store, and they give you mp3′s instead of annoyingly locked down AAC files. Enjoy!

I frequently whine to anyone who will listen about the lack of good used cd stores in Northern Virginia. But, that’s definitely not a problem in the Bay Area, so when I’m out here, I always try to make a run to Rasputin to stock up on cheap tunes. I may have overdone it a bit yesterday. Here’s what I got:
* Massive Attack – Singles 90-98: I’ve wanted this set for years and I found it for $30 (it’s $120 on Amazon). It’s totally worth the wait. Twelve CD’s of the 12 best songs from their first three albums. Each CD is one song, with several remixes. The Teardrop CD alone is worth almost the purchase price.
* Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It In People: I keep hearing about them on the CBC Radio 3 podcast and decided to take a flyer on this one. I listened to it in the car, and it’s good stuff – deep rich layers of instruments, which I can’t wait to go over with headphones on and pick out the layers.
* Annie Lennox – Medusa: Two bucks. How could I not?
* Something for Everybody: It’s a collection of remixes of songs from Baz Luhrman’s movies and stage shows. Yeah, it was two bucks too. Another flyer.
* Wintersleep – Wintersleep and Untitled: I just got their latest album and love it (and now everyone on the project I’m working on does too because I keep playing it for them). I found these in the Indie bin and had to get them. I had to order their new album from Canada, so figured I should get these while I could.
* Mountain Goats – All Hail West Texas: I love Get Lonely and the gimmick on this album was too good to pass up (ten songs about seven people from West Texas). I haven’t listened to it yet.
* The Clash – Combat Rock: After Tim’s Joe Strummer tribute, I had to pick this up. Another $2 steal.
* The Shins – Oh, Inverted World: I love both Chutes Too Narrow and Wincing the Night Away. This one was on sale, so why not?
* Art of Noise – Ambient Collection: The Seduction of Claude Debussy is one of my all-time favorite albums. I’m not a huge fan of their other stuff, but for two bucks, I was willing try this one out.
* New Pornographers – Challengers (Executive Edition): It was only two bucks, so I figured I’d see what was “executive” about it. Turns out, it came out before the album and has a code to download a bunch of b-sides, demos, and live tracks from a super-secret website. Very cool. And yes, I already have the album.
* Kimya Dawson – I’m Sorry The Sometimes I’m Mean: She’s all over the Juno soundtrack, and I love her lyrics. A really good angsty folk album.
* Take Action! Volume 5: Yeah, no idea why I got this one. It was a dollar. I think it was because the Dropkick Murphys have a song on it. Yeah, that must have been it.
So, that’s a grand total of twenty-four CD’s (there are three CD’s in the New Pornogaphers set even though you have to burn them yourself) for a little over a hundred bucks. I love used cd stores!