Part Two 33) Dirty Projectors - Offspring are Blank
This is kinda a weird song (although not really by Dirty Projectors standards). But even weird songs can kick ass.
32) El P - Oh Hail No
El P is a very good producer and a competent enough rapper. The reason this song is ranked where it is though is because at the 1:40 mark, Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire gives my favorite rap verse of the year.
31) Kelly Hogan - We Can't Have Nice Things
Is it enough to say I find her voice pretty? Because that's all the analysis you're going to get.
A.C. Newman - Shut Down the Streets
This is New Pornographer Carl Newman's third solo album (I don't know why he goes by A.C. Newman for his solo efforts either). His first two solo albums, 2004's The Slow Wonder and 2009's Get Guilty are both quite good and almost entirely indistinguishable from The New Pornographers' official albums in a way that Destroyer's or Neko Case's solo stuff isn't: it's not hard at all envisioning songs like "Miracle Drug,'"On the Table," and "Prophets" appearing on New Pornographers' albums. In fact, if any of you like the New Pornographers and haven't yet listened to A.C. Newman, you really owe it to yourself to do so.
When I heard that Neko Case was going to be making guest appearances on Shut Down the Streets, I expected this third album to continue the trend of sounding very similar to the New Pornographers' work, but upon listening to it, I'm somewhat surprised to learn that this isn't the case. In many ways, this album is what you would expect from a solo album by the principal songwriter of a rock band: the mood here is much more subdued, mimicking the AM Gold vibe of the singer-songwriter era of the 70's, and songs are far more likely to meander lazily about. Make no mistake, this is still Carl Newman: the album still has its fair share of pleasing melodies, but if you're looking for something like the New Pornographers' more rocking numbers or soaring choruses, you're not going to find it here.
All in all, I still enjoy the album - I tend to just like the way Newman writes songs - and I really enjoy lead single "Encyclopedia of Classic Takedowns," which has the bigness that some of the New Pornographers' best has. This won't top my list of favorite New Pornographers albums (that would be Electric Version or Twin Cinema, depending on the day), and this isn't even my favorite Newman album (the aforementioned The Slow Wonder), but it is a solid addition to the rotation.
Green Day - Uno
Initially, I would say this album was a return to form for Green Day, but upon further reflection, I'm not sure that's really the case. For some reason, I've linked Green Day with bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers or Weezer, bands who have seemingly suffered a decrease in quality while bidding to stay relevant in today's music scene. Green Day has undoubtedly managed to stay relevant - it's still weird to see them on the music-playing portions of the MTV empire (usually MTV2 around 2 in the morning) right next to Katy Perry and Lady GaGa - but I do question whether that sustained relevance came with a cost in quality. Green Day's last album 21st Century Breakdown seemed a little underwhelming coming after American Idiot, but it still was a fairly solid album, and despite those two albums completing Green Day's transition from a snotty punk band to an arena rock band, the music never stopped sounding like Green Day, at least not to my ears.
All that said, their newest release Uno does seem to hearken back to pre-American Idiot days. Billy Jo Armstrong's voice does sound a little overproduced on this album, but the majority of the songs are the kind of driving three chord punk songs that wouldn't seem out of place on Dookie or Insomniac. We can debate whether at this point the band could write these types of songs in their sleep, but who cares about the difficulty of creation: the formula still works.
