ShareThisThe summer is slipping away. Before you know it, all of your vacation days will be dust in the wind. If you're looking for CDs to make the trek out of town to your favorite vacation spot more interesting, look no further.
These are my candidates for best CDs of the year so far. They're all guaranteed accessible, too:
-- "The Archandroid," Janelle Monae. Because you like your R&B experimental and nearly impossible to categorize, you're usually doomed to disappointment. Not this year. On this follow-up to her 2008 EP, Monae puts beats together worthy of James Brown and shows as much intellectual curiosity and sonic range as Prince on tour with Sly & the Family Stone. She's bighearted enough to wrestle with orchestral strings, moody indie rock, CSN&Y-style folk and old-school soul and make it all sound organic. "Mushroom & Roses" is my candidate for song of the year on what is easily the CD of the year, so far.
-- "Homeland," Laurie Anderson. Who would have thought that the emotion-fraught aftermath of 9/11 would make such compelling performance art and music? There's nothing didactic here -- just brilliant vocals, thought-provoking narratives, hypnotic violins and the most finely attuned poetic sensibility in rock.
-- "Darker Circles," The Sadies. Producer Gary Louris, formerly of The Jayhawks, imbues the latest offering by the world-beating Sadies with the coherent sound and structure that has eluded them for a decade. Sultry pop and twang combine with memorable hooks for an unforgettable romp on the Sadies' best album to date.
-- "Heaven Is Whenever," the Hold Steady; and "American Slang," The Gaslight Anthem. Both bands benefit from an almost slavish devotion to Bruce Springsteen's sound at its best. The Hold Steady's Craig Finn is rock's reigning bard of the bar bands, but Gaslight Anthem's Brian Fallon shamelessly updates the mid-to-late-period sound of their mutual hero to sound like Springsteen fronting The Replacements.
-- "How I Got Over," The Roots. Now that The Roots have a steady late-night gig on NBC, the band's Rolodex is full of numbers of musicians eager to work with them. Joanna Newsom, John Legend and Monsters of Folk are only a few of the luminaries who grace the second-best hip-hop CD of the year.
-- "Distant Relatives," Nas and Damian Marley. When this came out in the spring, I was convinced it would launch its two collaborators into the stratosphere. No such luck, but there's no disputing the fact that "Distant Relatives" is the finest synthesis of hip-hop and reggae riddims ever. Yes, it's better than what the Fugees were doing, too.
-- "Shame, Shame," Dr. Dog. Hands down, this Philly-based band has the worst name in rock. I ignored them for years because of it. When I actually heard them, I made up for lost time by grabbing every recording they've ever done. "Shame, Shame" is Dr. Dog's best, though not as immediately accessible as the previous two. Imagine The Band crossed with the Beach Boys and My Morning Jacket and you're roughly in the neighborhood.
-- "The Foundling," Mary Gauthier. Nearly 50 years ago, Gauthier's unmarried mother gave her up for adoption. Decades later, while visiting the town where she was born, the folk singer stumbled across her mother's identity. She reached out with a phone call and was rebuffed. This second rejection accounts for harrowing, but unaccountably beautiful music. Keep your hankies handy; you're going to need them.
-- "High Violet," The National. I'm reluctantly recommending "High Violet" because it took several spins to get beyond the band's surface bleakness and despondent vocals to the crunchy, life-affirming music beneath it. Now it is in heavy rotation, but it will be a hard slog for those who'd rather not work as hard for an emotional payoff.
-- "The Big To Do," Drive-By Truckers; and "Mojo," Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. There are only a few bands that can make rock 'n' roll sound effortless and the songs they play logical extensions of their personalities. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and the Drive-By Truckers are at the top of the heap of bands that can do this. This year, each released their best music in years.
-- "In Person & On Stage," John Prine. Iris DeMent, Emmylou Harris, Josh Ritter and Sara Watkins join Prine for a live performance of 14 of his best songs.
-- And here are two experiments in collaboration that flirted with failure -- but succeeded beyond everyone's wildest dreams: Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse present "Dark Night of the Soul" and Roky Erikson with Okkervil River on "True Love Casts out all Evil."
(E-mail Tony Norman at tnorman(at)post-gazette.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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