Putting together this list, I pinged friends to ask what albums I absolutely should not have missed this year. Sixty replies quickly poured in. Only one release -- the big rock mountain “Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds -- was mentioned twice. Some picks were already in my best-of pile; many haunted my get-to-it list. Others I hadn't heard, or even realized existed.
The fragmentation of pop is getting to be an old story. As personal and music-industry budgets shrink, it's less likely than ever that we'll all end up purchasing the same music and sharing a conversation about it. For variety addicts, that's great; for believers in the dream of a common language, it's depressing. For a critic, it seems like a mandate to rethink one's entire enterprise. In the meantime, here are a few trends and individual efforts that made me happy this year.
Martha Wainwright, “I Know You're Married but I've Got Feelings Too" (Rounder): The singer-songwriter who's too often been stuck in the back row of her famously musical family made a gorgeous, hungry, sad, sweet album anyone who's ever been recklessly in love should hear.
Carrie Underwood singing “Just a Dream," and Various Artists, “Body of War: Songs That Inspired an Iraq War Veteran": It's hard to deny the hope that greets the upcoming Obama presidency -- or the economic fears of year's end. But both distract from the long sorrow of America's ongoing military struggles. Underwood's single and the accompanying video, in which she transforms from bride to war widow, is top-notch tear- jerking melodrama. The album compiled by “Body of War" subject Tomas Young, a paralyzed vet turned peace activist, is gritty protest. Both vividly remind us that war is hell.
Africa resurgent: Like Vampire Weekend? Try music from the continent itself and its diaspora. A few top picks: the desert blues of the French-produced duo Toumast; the cross-cultural “Soul Science" of Brit guitarist Justin Adams and Gambian riti player Juldeh Camara; the dazzling urbanity of veteran Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab; and the wackadoodle beauty of mixes by Malawian emigrant DJ Esau Mwamwaya.
THE WORST
Katy Perry, “One of the Boys" (Capitol): Knock-off New Wave from a former Christian music artist trying to fashion herself into a hot sinner, this album is retrograde in every way: musically, politically and especially in its attempts to titillate. Perry makes Gwen Stefani seems like Gloria Steinem and defiles the memory of Bettie Page.
