TK #38: LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver (2007)

If Talking Heads had been birthed in a Detroit auto plant instead of CBGB, they’d be LCD Soundsystem and this would be their Remain in Light, a dark, hypnotic, rhythmic tour de force. But where the Heads sweltered in the African heat, James Murphy opts for Rust Beld cold, producing something mechanical yet still human, like a factory worker operating the world’s funkiest machine press.

Sound Of Silver - LCD Soundsys...

TK #39: Bob Dylan – Love and Theft (2001)

By releasing his best album in a quarter-century on the day that the whole world seemed to go to hell, Bob sent amateur Dylanologists over the edge of the batshit-crazy plateau, but these post-apocalyptic blues have their roots in a time long before the flood. The man breathes fire into long-extinct forms, turning the past into the future and reaffirming his status as the culture’s dominant creative force. When he sings “I’m going to stand undefeated, I’m going to speak to the crowd,” who could possibly doubt him?

Love And Theft - Bob Dylan

TK # 40 - Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker (2000)

Hot on the heels of the implosion of the mercurial and semi-brilliant Whiskeytown, Heartbreaker seemed to signal Ryan Adams as the leading light of the sometimes moribund alt-country movement. But ten years on, it looks like a freak - the one complete, coherent, riveting statement where we saw Ryan Adams channel Ryan Adams instead of the chameleon who half-heartedly channeled his heroes on later records. It’s an album of maturity, hope, despair and promise that’s lifts your spirit every time it breaks your heart.

Heartbreaker - Ryan Adams

TK #41: Spoon – Kill the Moonlight (2002)

Let’s face it, anyone who can rhyme “discern” and “taciturn” and actually make it catchy is a full-blown pop genius, and Britt Daniel achieves that and many other unbelievable feats on this album that helped cement Spoon’s status as indie rock’s leading lights at the turn of the century.

Kill the Moonlight - Spoon

TK # 42 - Jeremy Fisher - Goodbye Blue Monday (2007)

If Paul Simon circa “Me And Julio”, “Mother And Child Reunion” and “Kodachrome” scratches your itch for jangly, strummy, clever, hook-filled pop songs, you should check out Canadian moptop Jeremy Fisher. He’s on the short end of the unrequited love stories of “Cigarette” (check out the adorable wiggly video below), “Scar That Never Heals” and the title song (heck, maybe the whole album), but Fisher’s misery is set to choruses so irresistible you’ll want to savor every pang of his heartbreak.

Goodbye Blue Monday - Jeremy F...

TK # 43 - Jesse Malin - The Fine Art of Self Destruction (2003)

A small record with a thin voice and a big heart, The Fine Art of Self Destruction bridges the gap from glam-punk to alt-country power pop with the best weapon of all – an album full of top notch songs. This album oozes New York, as Malin brings that high and lonesome sound to the five boroughs, tracing a lost love who “liked Tom Waits and the poet’s hat / Sixties Kinks and Kerouac” in the anthemic “Wendy” and tracing lost youth in the unsentimental lament “Almost Grown”.

The Fine Art of Self-Destructi...

TK #44: Sloan – Never Hear the End of It (2006)

It takes a set of stones to even try to pull off a near-seamless suite of thirty songs in seventy-eight minutes, but to pull it off with such utter conviction and perfect execution is a towering achievement. The veteran Canadian power-poppers aren’t cowed by the influence of the Beatles; instead, they take Abbey Road as an idea to be expanded on. This silver disc is chock-a-block with ideas the way Manhattan is packed with tall buildings, each gleaming in the light and casting their own long shadows.

Never Hear The End Of It - Slo...

TK # 45 - Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (2005)

Of all the Noughties New Dylans, none were more divisive among rock fans than Conor Oberst. The haters found him cloying and overwrought, his champions saw the voice of a generation. On I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, he fulfills his promise with a toned down, subtle, beating not bleeding heart, confessional alt-country classic. It’s the soundtrack to a million disaffected teenage lives.

I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning -...

TK # 46 - Josh Ritter - The Animal Years (2006)

The Animal Years is Josh Ritter’s march to .400, his 30 win year, his 55 homer campaign. To belabor the baseball analogy a little bit further, it’s a journeyman’s MVP season. While his prior three releases hinted at greatness, The Animal Years swings for the fences (sorry) and delivers a perfect game (I’ll stop) bookended by the twin classics of the topical, urgent “Girl in The War” and 9 and half minute stream-of-consciousness harangue “Thin Blue Flame”, a Dylan-inspired song poem that shouldn’t work but succeeds on every level.

The Animal Years - Josh Ritter

Merry Christmas 2009

Well Darlene Love has just rocked out yet another joyous version of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" on Letterman, so it's officially Christmas. We'll pause our countdown to wish everyone a safe and Merry Christmas... hopefully you get to share it with the ones you love.

Ike Reilly - "Christmas Star"

The Olympic Ass-Kickin' Team - "Christmas in The Faces"

TK #47: Alejandro Escovedo – A Man Under the Influence (2001)

Escovedo emerges from his gritty cowpunk roots and achieves pure grace on this set, where his sharp eye and commanding voice conspire to push beyond any artificial constraints imposed by the alt.country label. “As I Fall” should’ve been a hit, and “Velvet Guitar” is a classic, no matter how many folks never heard it.

A Man Under The Influence - Al...

TK # 48: Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes (2008)

Fully embracing the power of the beard, the Fleet Foxes debut album is filled with the sound of a thousand voices, ranging from Laurel Canyon to the hills of West Virginia. Like a beam of sunlight on a cold winter day, Fleet Foxes will warm you up and wrap you in a blanket of harmony. It’s ethereal, other-worldly magic.

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

TK # 49: Green Day - American Idiot (2004)

Name the one band over the last decade that was best able to combine artistic significance, commercial clout and critical accolades with arena filling power. You might say Radiohead or Wilco, but you’d be wrong. It was Green Day, and American Idiot was a political manifesto that was too long, had its share of clunky lyrics, but bristled with the power and the fury found only in the greatest rock and roll records.

American Idiot [Deluxe] - Gree...

TK #50: The Hold Steady – Stay Positive (2008)

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. When Stay Positive came out, I wrote a lot of words comparing the arc of Craig Finn and company to that of Bruce Springsteen, and I stand by every one of them. Here’s The Hold Steady’s Darkness on the Edge of Town, an album about the complications of growing up, bolstered by hope, and powered by the relentless belief that rock and roll is a bridge to better things, an idea that sounds naïve only until you hear it come to life.

Stay Positive - The Hold Stead...

TK # 51: Roddy Frame - Surf (2002)

A completely solo affair with a surplus of indelible melodies, Surf features only the acoustic guitar and wounded tenor of the once precocious, teenaged linchpin of Aztec Camera, who burst on the scene in 1983 with the brilliant High Land, Hard Rain. These are late night, love gone wrong songs, and often the pain is self-inflicted. This particular refrain crystallizes the album’s lovelorn mood:

“When I was young the radio played just for me. It saved me,
And now I don’t want anyone who wants me, baby
Tuning out the darkness,
Turning on the dawn,
If life was like songs, I’d surf into the waves,
And in a flash of silver she’d be gone’

Roddy Frame - "Surf"

TK # 52: Linda Thompson - Versatile Heart (2007)

Linda Thompson has kept a spectacularly low profile (3 albums in 25 years) since her high profile personal and musical split with uber-guitarist ex-husband Richard. Versatile Heart is a subtle, austere collection of brusied heart ruminations on the pains of being pure in love, bathed in an acoustic glow that sits somewhere between Olde English folk and Nashville pop. But the stone cold stunner is a solemn live reading of Tom Waits’ “Day After Tomorrow”, a heart-breakingly gorgeous plea from a soldier who wants nothing more than to see his 21st birthday. Goose bumps.

Versatile Heart - Linda Thomps...

TK # 53 - Hayes Carll - Trouble In Mind (2008)

For those who believe Steve Earle lost his way after 2000’s Transcendental Blues, you need to check out Hayes Carll’s Trouble in Mind. His world-weary drawl and slyly dry sense of humor give just the right amount of punch to beat-up narratives like “Drunken Poet’s Dream”, “Bad Liver And A Broken Heart” and the how-could-he-compare lament of “She Left Me For Jesus”.

Trouble In Mind - Hayes Carll

TK #54: Ron Sexsmith – Retriever (2004)

Ron Sexsmith’s brilliance lies in making a hard thing seem easy. Melodic, concise songs pour out of him with such stunning consistency that it’s easy to think that anyone can do this. But anyone can’t, which is why he’s earned the respect of masters like McCartney and Costello even while toiling in relative obscurity. But don’t let the professionalism fool you, there’s a vulnerable, sentimental heart behind every song, always willing to go out on a limb, like on “Whatever It Takes.” That song would be sap in lesser hands, but it’s pure amber in Sexsmith’s.

Retriever - Ron Sexsmith

TK #55: Santogold – Santogold (2008)

The perfect album for the multi-culti new millennium, it effortlessly crosses barriers of race, gender and nationality. It takes all the shop-worn pointless questions (Is it pop? Is it rock? Is it rap?) and responds “who the $%#& cares?” It’s music, and damn fine music at that.

Santigold - Santigold

TK #56: U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000)

Once I would have considered this a pejorative, but now it’s a high compliment: This is a thoroughly professional rock album. The songs are perfectly constructed and executed. Bright, sturdy, resilient. And the sound is clean and huge, the kind of thing that effortlessly reaches the back row of a football stadium. And despite all the technical brilliance, it retains the trait that has always marked the band – a big, overwrought, generous heart.

All That You Can't Leave Behin...