James Yorkston's third album is really about perfection. On it, Yorkston has perfected his songcraft, his lyrics, and his arrangements. Everything here is just right, every note fits perfectly in place and each word is meticulously thought through to give it just the right sound, flow, and inflection. But does that give it a cold, mechanical sound? Not at all, this is the lushest album he's released, it's chock full of all guitar, banjo, strings, and piano but also with other, odder instruments like bells or clarinet. "5 AM" is probably the triumph of Yorkston's career, music-wise, while spoken-word track "Woozy With Cider" is probably, from a purely lyrical standpoint, is the best song he's ever written. It makes you feel like you struggling with life in the city, just like the character. That's the genius of Yorkston's songs, he presents stories that you can relate to and character that are losers, with clear faults and struggles.29. The Fiery Furnaces: Gallowsbird's Bark
The Fiery Furnaces' catalog is a product of evolution, with each successive album they have add more complexity and layers, but their first and most stripped down album is their best. Though synths and electronics occasionally appear in the album, it's mostly just gritty electric guitars, drums, and piano. Unlike the ten minute epics on latter albums, there's no songs over four and a half minutes, in fact most of them in the two minute range. The songs hit hard though, packing tons of Mathew Friedberger's blues riffs while his sister Eleanor's strong vocals keep you on your toes as she twists through odd phrasings and pronunciations. It's odd that, besides the amazing "Asthma Attack" and "Tropical Ice-Land" there aren't very many standout tracks, the album as a whole flows perfect to the point that you sort of forget that you're listening to a bunch of songs instead of a whole piece of music.28. Okkervil River: Black Sheep Boy Appendix
Though an EP of "leftover" tracks may seem like it would be hit-or-miss, this is Okkervil River we're talking about, and for them nothing is impossible. This isn't an album so much of castoffs but one of songs that wouldn't fit on the Black Sheep Boy, the full-length that preceded it. There are no weak tracks on here, in fact all the songs are amazing, but take any of them and try to stick them on Black Sheep Boy and it wouldn't work at all. The pacing and flow of that album is perfect, and anything else in there would mess it up completely, so the Appendix was born. This one finds the band sounding more like the six-piece they are, with every musician playing on every track; the overall sound is a lot fuller and weightier as well as in some cases darker. "Another Radio Song" rest squarely in the middle of the EP, anchoring it as one of the very best songs the band has made while rockier songs like "No Key, No Plan" and "Last Love Song For Now" turn up the energy while "Black Sheep Boy #4" and "Missing Children" slow it down some. But either way the band decides to go, it always works.27. Björk: Vespertine
Where, honestly, does one begin with a Björk? She's accomplished so much in her career, and changed the face of music; essential revolutionizing electronic music and paving the way for albums as diverse as Kid A and It's a Feedelity Affair. Her two defining albums are Post and Homogenic, which both preceded the release of Vespertine. How does one live up to the hype? How does one recreate the magic of two one-of-a-kind albums? The answer is you don't if you have talent. If you have true talent you push forward to conquer the next challenge, and for Björk that challenge was to make a more personal album. And that's exactly what Vespertine is. Each song is it's own microcosm of minimalist beats and maximum emotions. Everything in the album seems closer to you, the music is much more subdued and Björk's lyrics allow you a hazy window into her life, which is about the best you're going to get with her.26. Belle & Sebastian: The Life Pursuit
After 6 albums and loads of EPs, Belle & Sebastian's twee-pop days were starting to run out. Though the band has never released a bad album, of late the quality was slowly declining in the music department, so what does a band that wrote the book on modern indie pop do? Why, they dig back through their record collection for other pioneers of pop for influence. And that's just what Belle & Sebastian did on The Life Pursuit, you can find pop from every era in the last four decades on this album, everything from beat to Motown to folk-pop to glam (especially glam), to synth-pop is stuffed into the album and sealed together with some classic Belle & Sebastian twee-pop to hold it all together. This the loudest Belle & Sebastian album you'll hear and the actually could be called a "rock" band for come of the songs, but the you come across tunes like "Dress Up in You" and you remember that the band will always be a chamber-pop band at heart, and I'm not complaining about that.25. Shearwater: Thieves
Thieves is a tiny little album, but inside these 5 songs are the best work Shearwater has ever released. The three Jonathon Meiburg led songs are dark and chilling. He uses his exquisite vocals perfectly with the music; as guitars and drums drone ominously, his choir-boy vocals slice through is with a resounding clearness. Will Sheff's two tracks, on the other hand, are take a more traditional folk route, while giving his unmatched lyrical ability a chance to shine in their full glory. Honestly though, even if "Mountain Laurel", Meiburg's smoky banjo and fiddle stomp, and "Near a Garden", Sheff's witty take on the fleetingness of life, were the only tracks on the album, it would still be the best in the band's catalog. Though, tracks like the slow-burners "You're the Coliseum" and "There's a Mark Where You Were Breathing" or the cold and gitty "I Can't Wait" don't hurt the case at all.24. Low: Things We Lost in the Fire
There's only a certain type of people that can listen to Low for more than just a few minutes. If you lack patience or comprehension of talent, then you probably aren't one of those people. For most, bands like Low or Red House Painters are boring, they can appreciate the beauty of the music and lyrics, but they couldn't take a whole album of it. It's true that Low's albums aren't always the most exciting affairs, but the band's understanding of song structure, their affinity for beautiful male/female harmonies, their stark sonic landscapes, and their morbid with a hint of sunlight lyrics more than make up for it. Low isn't for everyone, but for those people that do enjoy them, they truly strike a deep chord. Certainly deeper than most bands.23. Wilco: Kicking Television
Kicking Television is essentially a greatest hits album of most of Wilco's best songs being performed by the band in their best incarnation. This lineup features Wilco's only constant members singer-songwriter/guitarist Jeff Tweedy and bassist John Stirratt along with drummer Glenn Kotche, keyboardist Mikael Jorgerson, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone and most importantly guitar guitar Nels Cline. Together, the band rips through some of their classic songs while simultaneously breathing new life into them. Key to all this is Cline, a certified master a guitar, his solos and riffs are outstanding, and he brings clearity to some of the murkier songs from A Ghost is Born, turning an abstract overlong song like "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" into undulating guitar jams with twin, feedback drenched solos and pounding chord stomps. The only thing that could make this album better would be most Summerteeth tracks. Much more.22. !!!: Myth Takes
This is an album that really grew on me, but not in the traditional sense. I loved it when I first heard it, but I didn't appreciate it's depth and genius until over a year after I first heard it. On the surface it's booty-shakin' dance-punk, but underneath all that lies a dark beast, full of demonic urges, and mythic sound. Much like the album's cover art, the album is immediately pleasing yet incalculably complex. The album's only weak track is "Sweet Life" and Though it's not really because the song is actually bad but because it's not as good as the rest of the album. That's just how good this album is, it literally makes good songs sounds awful in comparison. There's a lot of Talking Heads in here, from the poly-rhythms to the funk infused art-punk, !!! takes Remain in Light and puts it through a meat-grinder with odd voodoo accents and jungle boogie.21. Girl Talk: Night Ripper
Night Ripper is the complete opposite of cohesive albums like Since I Left You and Endtroducing... albums that don't flaunt the fact that they are made completely of samples, and instead sound like they could be original recordings. Night Ripper is so obviously a collage of samples that you know it within seconds of the first song, but what you don't know at that point is just how many different "songs" you're going to hear. There's over 200 used in the albums forty-odd minutes, and they come fast and furious, to the point that sometimes it just sounds like you're flipping through the radio stations. Though hip-hop and pop make up most of what you'll hear, there's samples from the likes of Elton John, The Pixies, James Taylor, Sonic Youth, the list goes on... And even though it lacks the cohesiveness of the aforementioned albums, it flows perfect and each transition if flawless, just like the album. Flawless and the best party album of all time.
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