Sounds of the Season: The Daily Snooze's Top Albums of the Year

Oh yes, it's that time of year again when everybody broadcasts their thoughts on the best songs and albums of the previous twelve months - and the result is often one huge heap of confusion and debate. It makes sense since the music industry doesn't really offer us the same kind of set-up, say, a sports season does in which performance can be judged through statistical inquiries and one-on-one success. Well, fear not faithful readers. Let's put our arguing sticks down and just admire the list you see below, for few can debate its merits. Feel differently? Then, please, feel free to post a comment with your list. In the mean time, Merry Christmas to everyone.


1. Panda Bear: Person Pitch

Panda Bear’s second solo offering is an absolutely wonderful lullaby for the insane, but in the most gorgeous and beautiful way. Person Pitch demonstrates what the future of music might sound like, and how futuristic noise can still summon the souls of Pet Sounds, The Magical Mystery Tour, and other genius relics of an oft-ignored past. A pure triumph in its production (to hear this record ring through headphones is a treat beyond comparison), Panda Bear, a.k.a. Noah Lennox, one-ups his Animal Collective band mates with this collage of majestic samples and layered vocals.

2. Arcade Fire: Neon Bible

Dark, brooding, politically charged, and full of an apocalyptic urgency, the fact that Neon Bible doesn’t come off as a total bummer is a feat in itself. Taken as a whole, the malcontent that bubbles below each of these 11 tracks fades in the light of Neon Bible’s message of action and courage. Blending U2 with Springsteen, these battle hymns are sure indicators of the Arcade Fire’s impending ascension to arena tour status, and a testament to this year’s theme of creative rage against a world gone bad. Self-produced and filled with anthems that stretch beyond the bone-chilling organ on “Intervention,” Neon Bible puts to rest any doubt that the Arcade Fire are here to stay.

3. Tim Fite: Over the Counter Culture

Overflowing with paranoia and disgust, Over the Counter Culture takes jabs at rappers (“I’ve Been Shot”), war mongers (“Camouflage”), and, most effectively, corporate America (“It’s All Right Here”). Tim Fite sees a lot of things going on these days, and he doesn’t much like them. Continuing on the post-modern musical path he continued to forge with 2005’s Gone Ain’t Gone, Over the Counter Culture combines elements of pop, rock, reggae, and rap to form a record that is surprisingly fun, considering its content. But while the music keeps our heads bobbing, Fite’s lyrics get us thinking. And the best part about this album? It’s free. Download at your convenience at www.timfite.com.

4. Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Hands down the best pop record of the year. Drawing from the pop genius of Prince and Freddy Mercury (tip of the cap to Greg Kot and Jim Derogatis' interview on "Sound Opinions" for that tidbit), Spoon frontman Brit Daniel knows that simple and stripped down is the best way to create a radio single, and this album contains at least 6 radio-worthy tunes to whistle along with. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, despite its horrendous title, is the most accessible and infectious Spoon record to date, propelled by intricate rhythms and the occasional horn section.

5. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss: Raising Sand

Melodic and mystical, Raising Sand is a true expression of shared talent, with Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, and producer T-Bone Burnett crafting pitch-perfect covers of songs about love and loss. Some swoon with robust rhythms (“Gone, Gone, Gone”), while others tug on your heart strings (“Please Read the Letter”). Breaking up never sounded so good.

6. Radiohead: In Rainbows

Another daring and haunting record from the best band in the world. In Rainbows showcases Thom Yorke’s steaming and newfound vocal prowess, while the rest of the band shape melodies that seem to linger in thin air long after you’ve stopped listening. And to those longing for the old days of power chords and computerless recordings, Radiohead present “Bodysnatchers,” the group’s hardest rockin’ effort since The Bends.

7. The White Stripes: Icky Thump

A lot has changed for Jack White since Get Behind Me Satan came out a few years back. He got married, moved to Nashville, wrote a couple of radio zingers with his buddies in the Raconteurs, and he quit smoking. But the more things change, the more they stay the same on Icky Thump. Okay, you’ve got an accordion and some trumpets on this record, but the old White Stripes formula remains, and with Jack and Meg, more than any other rock auteurs out there, the sure thing is almost surely the best thing.

8. The Super Furry Animals: Hey Venus!

If you let your ears blink while listening to the Super Furry Animals’ sixth LP, you might miss something. Packed to the brim with noises and surprises, the energy and bombast of Hey Venus! morphs into a majestic and orchestrated melancholy, and everything about the progression begs you to take it all in.

9. Kanye West: Graduation

Sure, Mr. West’s head has grown exponentially since he dropped College Dropout in 2004. But the themes of self-consciousness and inadequacy that bubbled throughout his first hit single, “All Falls Down,” still linger in Kanye’s brain, and the result is a “man, I can be a jackass, but at least I’m a rich jackass” kind of record. Fueled by his ego, the music pumps and groans like a pimped out locomotive, incorporating European sensibilities with his all-American persona. But the album shines its brightest when Kanye is waxing poetic on his struggle to be grounded amidst all his outrageous success. Now that he’s graduated, let’s hope West goes and gets his Masters Degree in psychology.

10. Wilco: Sky Blue Sky

Laid back and filled with intertwining guitar, Sky Blue Sky is both a straightforward and ambiguous reflection on overcoming the obstacles that pop up constantly in our daily lives. From coping without the ones we love the most ("Hate it Here" & "On and On and On) to improving our day-to-day interactions ("Please Be Patient with Me"), Jeff Tweedy and Co. have crafted an essential memoir of creativity and its inherent pitfalls. Oh, and Nels Cline reminds us what a guitar hero really sounds like.

11. LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver

12. Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam

13. The Battles: Mirrored

14. Deerhoof: Friend Opportunity

15. The Shins: Wincing the Night Away

16. Mavis Staples: We'll Never Turn Back

17. Arctic Monkeys: Favourite Worst Nightmare

18. Kings of Leon: Because of the Times

19. Beirut: The Flying Club Cup

20. Various Artists: I'm Not There OST

Penetrating the Polls: Presidential Personalities

With so much passive-aggressive campaigning taking place at every corner of the information superhighway, it can be difficult to develop an opinion of a presidential candidate that isn't in some way marred by the opposition, be it the media or the actual competition for commander-in-chief. Furthermore, an equally difficult endeavor is the process of getting past the sound-bite-ready self-descriptions the candidates use to promote themselves. Any way you look at it, it can be challenging to get a grasp of what makes these politicians tick aside from their desire to be leader of the free world.

Sure, you know John McCain was a POW in Hanoi during the Vietnam War. But did you know that his father was the Pentagon's commander in chief for the Pacific, a position that made his decision to raid Hanoi (where he knew his son was being held) with B-52 bombers that much more difficult? Of course you know about the drama surrounding Bill Clinton's draft-dodging. But were you aware that Hillary Clinton once attempted to join the Marines, but was turned away?

It is little facts like these that may give us a better glimpse of who exactly these candidates are, and from where they have journeyed to become such integral political players at this critical junction in American history. That's why the Washington Post's series The Frontrunners is so helpful and so intriguing. With profiles and fact sheets, as well as trivia, it is the best resource the Daily Snooze has come across for casual news readers looking to understand the candidates better.

Death By Denial: Baseball and Steroids

It's never a good sign when attorneys, and not athletes, are those releasing statements to the press when breaking news shatters the sports world. So it is today, as the publication of the long-awaited Mitchell Report informed us of many things that we already knew, and a few that we did not. Those things we didn't know? They're mostly names: Andy Pettite, Eric Gagne, Miguel Tejada, Gary Sheffield, Kevin Brown, and (*gasp*) seven-time Cy Young winner, and arguably the most talented right-handed pitcher of all time, Roger Clemens. These are among the nearly 80 Major League Baseball players tied to steroids that are listed in the report, which includes seven M.V.P.'s.

Clemens' connection to steroid supplier Dr. Brian McNamee, a former strength and conditioning trainer with Clemens in Toronto and New York, prompted this emphatic denial from Clemens' lawyer, Rusty Hardin: "Roger has been repeatedly tested for these substances and he has never tested positive... There has never been one shred of tangible evidence that he ever used these substances and yet he is being slandered today."

Donald Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, in a press conference this afternoon, was quick to defer responsibility from his organization as well, claiming that since 2002 the MLBPA allowed for the testing of players for use of steroids. He downplayed the report's veracity and encouraged the press to consider the individual sources for the Mitchell Report (a reference to an apparent plea bargain negotiated for McNamee in exchange for his testimony). Of course, Fehr failed to mention the lesson learned during the International Olympic Committee's dealings with tarnished Olympian Marion Jones, whose admission of guilt with regards to steroid use should have taught Major League Baseball that testing has yet to catch up with drug masking technology. He also ducked questions regarding his personal involvement in discouraging players from cooperating with representatives from the Mitchell Report.

While not to be condoned, Clemens and Fehr's reactions are to be expected. Innocent until proven guilty, these individuals, and the greater dilemma they represent, know well that the first step toward acquittal is denial, right or wrong. But with so many fingers being pointed today, it would be easy to dismiss the most stunning and damaging denial of this entire ordeal: Major League Baseball's explicit ignorance of steroid use in baseball since the storm clouds began to appear on the horizon in the early 1990s. MLB Comissioner, Bud Selig, dropped the ball repeatedly when faced with calls for accountability, and only recently has he made an effort to move America's pastime out of the past and into the future. But the dastardly deed was done. And now an era that breathed life back into professional baseball is doomed to die a slow and painful death, where even the innocent must pay a heavy price. If ever there was a real-life example of the old adage, "a stitch in time saves nine," this is it.

Shorties: Three Clips from Scorsese, Murray, and Anderson

Today we honor the short film. Since user-generated websites like YouTube and Funny or Die began cultivating a new marketplace for artistic expression, the prominence and quantity of short films has been on the rise, often at the expense of quality. Luckily, we have the PBS series Independent Lens to highlight up and coming filmmakers with movies that don't exactly fit within the time frames to which we have become accustomed. But we also have clips like these three shorts below.

The first is an odd little mockumentary by Martin Scorsese, who brings to life a four page script conceived decades ago by one Alfred Hitchcock, who never got around to making it... and the script is missing a page, which further exacerbates the challenge for Marty. (Tip o' the hat to Film Drunk)

The second is a hilarious short titled "FCU", as in Fact Checkers Unit. It follows two fact checkers as they hunt down Bill Murray in hopes of confirming a rumor about his sleeping habits.

And finally, I couldn't help but include the American Express ad made by (and starring) Wes Anderson from a year or two ago. Each of these short films have different aims and are made in extremely disparate manners. But they all engage and entertain without the benefit of time. And that's the long and the short of it.