The best in Minnesota music, 2008
Decider Twin Cities picks its top 10 local CDs of the year
Music appreciation is far more art than science, whether you’re a professional critic or just some guy with a stereo. (Not that there’s much difference.) So making an end-of-the-year top-10 list is something of a fool’s game. Certainly, there are quantifiable qualities to take into account—musical sophistication, clarity of lyrical approach, whether the lead singer rocks the latest in fashionable hatwear, that sort of thing—but it also comes down to ineffable judgment calls, and whether a song can reach you on a personal level no matter the technical merit. (If that were all that mattered, we’d all be Steve Vai fans.) Not to mention that putting two works from radically different musicians next to each other and choosing one over the other is sometimes like deciding between the Washington Monument and a monarch butterfly. There were dozens of local records that Decider enjoyed the hell out of this year, and for that reason we’re not going to try to rank any of our favorites past 10—in the best Spinal Tap tradition, we’ll take this one to 11. No. 40 and No. 11 both have their good points, and we’d recommend each. But there must be a No. 1 if you’re going to have a top-10 list, so let’s dive in:
1. Cloud Cult, Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes)
Weren’t these guys here last year too? Yes, Craig Minowa’s eco-friendly indie-rock crew also topped our local top-10 list in 2007 with The Meaning Of 8. Which meant that when the band’s next record was even more catchy, wise, emotionally resonant, and unforgettable, there was really nothing else to do but keep it right where it was.
Cloud Cult, "Everybody Here Is A Cloud":
2. Atmosphere, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold
The big guns of the Rhymesayers collective scored their highest chart success yet with their fifth disc, which debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200, but Slug and Ant didn’t have to change their music to chase the gold. (Though scoring guestwork from Tom Waits and TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe helped.) Lyricist Slug paints on his biggest canvas yet, with incisively introspective material about his own life joined more than ever by stories about people living too close to the edge, all told with cynical humor and genuine sympathy.
Atmosphere, "You":
3. Retribution Gospel Choir, Retribution Gospel Choir
If all he was looking for was a way to crank up the volume and the feedback, Alan Sparhawk almost wouldn’t need to bother with a side project like Retribution Gospel Choir, considering how much Low has evolved from its spare, still origins. But RGC shows what he can do with the throttle all the way open on the power-trio format, and the results are eminently satisfying.
4. Doomtree, Doomtree
There’s been no shortage of solo material from the Doomtree hip-hop collective, but when everyone finally got together for the official all-crew debut, it more than lived up to expectations. With five MCs that are so prolific, the bar must have been pretty high for songs to make the cut for Doomtree, and it’s clear that everyone brought their A game—though all the material is new, it feels like a greatest-hits record, with one insanely catchy song steamrolling along into the next.
Doomtree, "Game Over":
5. Paul Westerberg, 49:00
Few people don’t give a damn what anybody else thinks as well as Paul Westerberg. The grizzled Replacements icon put this shaggy collection of new material, covers, and random half-done songs together all on his own, self-producing and playing all instruments, mixing it as a single track that weaves in and out of songs like a radio with a broken tuner. The results are sometimes a little challenging, but perfectly suited for capturing the sloppy Westerbergian brilliance in its native habitat. Call it Here Comes An Irregular.
6. Dosh, Wolves And Wishes
Well before he became Andrew Bird’s chief collaborator, Martin Dosh was perfecting his loop-based, largely one-man approach to instrumental electronica, a sound he continues to explore and expand on his fourth full-length. Working this time with guests including Bird, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and Happy Apple saxman Michael Lewis, Dosh builds up a rich and multilayered sound built out of short samples that are manipulated and blenderized, but keeps the human touch by rooting everything in live performance.
Dosh, "Capture The Flag":
7. Solid Gold, Bodies Of Water
Synth-pop has a tendency to turn sterile and mechanical if it’s not handled properly, but this electronica trio (which has since expanded to a five-piece) is too adept with a pop hook to let that happen. Ironically, Solid Gold is a bigger success overseas than in its hometown, but Bodies Of Water deserves more love on this side of the pond.
8. The Deaths, Centralia
Debut records often capture a band in the fullest flowering of its early creative spark, but second records are what prove what’s in store for the long haul. The Deaths jumped that hurdle with ease on Centralia, building on 2006 debut Choir Invisible’s cheerful update of British Invasion pop, with textures reminiscent of Pink Floyd, Supertramp, and XTC.
9. First Communion Afterparty, Sorry For All The Mondays And To Those Who Can’t Sing
Psychedelic music has been around long enough to have gone through five or six fairly distinct generations, and FCAP seems to draw a little bit of the best from them all, blending the driving guitar of Jesus And Mary Chain or Black Angels with the communal hippie spirit and astral philosophy of Brightback Morning Light or Jefferson Airplane.
First Communion Afterparty, "Green Turns To Gold" (live):
10. Jeremy Messersmith, The Silver City
Singer-songwriter Messersmith, aided by the simpatico style of producer Dan Wilson, creates a gem of a second album with this unhurried, sweetly emotional but never overwrought set of pop balladry—a bit of Paul Simon without the maudlin streak or Elliott Smith without the crushing darkness.
Jeremy Messersmith, "Miracles":
HONORABLE MENTION
A Night In The Box, Write A Letter
The Autumn Leaves, Long Lost Friend
Aviette, The Way We Met
Bella Koshka, Slow Dancing On The Ocean Floor
Ben Weaver, The Ax In The Oak
Big Jess, High Rule
Bill Mike Band, Truce
Charlie Parr, Roustabout
Chris Koza, The Dark Delirious Morning
Dallas Orbiter, Motorcycle Diagrams
David Brusie, Flyover State
Dillinger Four, Civil War
Ed Ackerson, Ackerson 2
Ellis, Break The Spell
Gary Louris, Vagabonds
Heiruspecs, Heiruspecs
Jeff Hanson, Madam Owl
Kid Dakota, A Winner’s Shadow
Little Man, Of Mind And Matter
Lookbook, I Fear You, My Darkness
Loudray, The Lonesome Road Society
Lucy Michelle And The Velvet Lapelles, Orange Peels And Rattlesnakes
Luke’s Angels, Paulopolis
Mason Jennings, In The Ever
Muja Messiah, Thee Adventures of A B-Boy D-Boy
Nikki & The RueMates, We All Live Together
Now, Now Every Children, Cars
Parts For All Makes, These Arms Are Not Forever
Pert' Near Sandstone, Needle & Thread
Polara, Beekeeping
Roma Di Luna, Casting The Bones
Tapes N’ Tapes, Walk It Off
The Wars Of 1812, Ante Bellum
Trampled By Turtles, Duluth
White Iron Band, Devil’s Sweet Revenge
