Top Albums

1. Pistol Annies One of the smartest documents about capital in this age of economic dissatisfaction, profoundly feminist, and despite that as entertaining as we could have hoped for.
2. Let England Shake, More Wilfred Owen than The War Horse, as England seems to have disappeared into a corrupt police state, and as the wars away from home and the wars at home seem inseparable, as we all seem unable to be pulled into something resembling order, Harvey returns with one of her best.
3. Book Of Mormon OST As someone who grew up queer and Mormon, this one hit close to home. A broadway spectacle, that made money, telling people that God kicks them in the cunt, there is some subversion left.
4. So Beautiful or So What--Paul Simon. This year's token rockist/boomer selection, like all the little hipsters, I am still drunk on his harmonies.
5. Clams Casino Instrumental Mix Tape Atmospheric and lonely, one of the great documents of urban life. There could be a discussion about how digital culture changes music, or the distribution method, or about what exactly hip hop is, the text welcomes those conversations, but mostly it's just a beautifully isolating work about what it means to be in the city.
6. Rhianna As Ann Powers notes for NPR, it's filthy, but blues and rock have always been filthy, and I love the r and b pull of a free and less anxious sexuality that suggests she has worked out some shit since the last time.
7. Fucked Up, David... A narrative about Thatcherite England, it works well in concordance with PJ. The aggro vocals, the grinding power of the music, and the skill at making instrumental narratives, mean that you have to listen for the lyrtics, but the story telling is just bright.
   
8. All Eternal Deck It's less tight and conceptual than he has been before, and the looseness works for the free ranging, culturally aware stores. Also, the Liza track is fantastic.
   
9. Sulla Sulla Ilaiyaraaja We continue to live in this miraclous age, where it seems we can find collections of everything we ever wanted, or didn't even know was nessecary until this moment. This collection of the Kollywood's master, has pure funk and dramatic intrigue for every moment you could possibly want.
10. This Might be My Last Time Singing. Black church congregation choirs would get money together, and record 45s, sometimes as a gift to the congregation, sometimes as a tool of evangelicalism, sometimes because the idea of an object brings permanence to something you are proud of. Mike McGonigal has been collecting African American Vernacular music for decades, and has put three CDs of it out of these 45s. The thing is, that he calls it raw, but the production values on these church songs are so tight, so well constructed, and so careful that I worry that having Raw on the packaging would preclude people from listening to the sophistication of the texts. These were choirs from Nashville, and Detroit, and LA, so at least some of them knew there way around a studio, and it shows.

Top Singles

1. Lady Saw Matrimony--had one of the great lines this year: "matrionomy, cermony, testimony, alimony--take a hint it's all about the money"
2. Pistol Annies Hell on Heels Unapologetic gold digging as a kind of female liberation has a long, long history--but nothing so charmingly constructed as this.
   
3. Patrick Wolf House He moves adroitly between sexual decadence and domestic comfort, this track is so settled, so joyously happy. Queer domesticity, the after effects of the marriage, or choosing not to be married, is still considered to be exotic, and these "two boys together clinging" show that it is possible.
4. Something About A Truck, Kip Moore I may be rating with my dick, but in this year where country decided boundaries and territories, this argument for localized pleasure got more fun with each listen.
   
5. Adelle Rolling in Deep It's one of my rules, that if i hear it for most of the summer, and still love it, then it goes on the Pazz and Jop list. It's a bit polite, and lacks all grit or strum und drang, especially for a song about drowning, but it's so beautifully sung, and almost unique in it's phrasing--which seems odd to say for someone who has internalized 60s pastiche so completely.
6. EMA California Atmospheric and angry, even the Dead Kennedys thought there were moments and histories worth saving, this one--an anthem for just letting the whole thing slide into the ocean. The inclusion of Camptown Races adds kerosene to the nightmare fuel.
   
7. Big Freedia Almost Famous I am late on the bounce band wagon, but anything that encourages so systematically this amount of ass shaking, makes me happy.
8. Azeillia Banks 212 Hip hop anthem to female superiority, and cunnilingus, fantastic flow, and delightful push into quite lovely singing. Plus it squeeks when it should.
9. Wild Flag Romance Tight and quick, with a monster chorus---it's great to see craftsmen work at the top of their game, mostly for fun.
10. Travis Garland and Jo Jo Paint. The smooth r and b, and the sexual strangeness is pure R. Kelly, but the beat gets in the way, in a way that adds to the mess of what is occuring; JoJo maintaining her own autonomy, which is different than a lot of R and B, the matching of choruses, of desires is appreciated--but where it gets really interesting is a bout a minute in, where electronic noise pushes out the vocals, and it mutates into a barely controlled chorus--it loses it's smoothness. Smart track.