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Tuesday, January 16, 2007 Jim Connelly's Favorite Recordings Of 2006 Monday, January 15, 2007 Jesse Steichen's Favorite Recordings Of 2006 Friday, January 12, 2007 Bill Bentley's Favorite Recordings Of 2006 Wednesday, January 10, 2007 Tom Ridge's Favorite Recordings Of 2006 Thursday, January 4, 2007 Lee Templeton's Favorite Recordings Of 2006 Tuesday, January 2, 2007 Anthony Carew's 13 Fave Albums Of 2006 Monday, March 27, 2006 SXSW 2006: Finding Some Hope In Austin Tuesday, February 28, 2006 Letter From New Orleans Saturday, February 18, 2006 Jennifer Przybylski's Fave Albums of 2005 Tuesday, January 31, 2006 Music For Dwindling Days: Max Schaefer's Fave Recordings Of 2005 Wednesday, January 18, 2006 Sean Fennessey's 'Best-Of' 2005 Thursday, January 12, 2006 Lori Miller Barrett's Fave Albums Of 2005 Wednesday, January 11, 2006 Lee Templeton's Favorite Recordings of 2005 Thursday, January 5, 2006 Michael Lach - Old Soul Songs For A New World Order Wednesday, January 4, 2006 Found In Translation — Emme Stone's Year In Music 2005 Tuesday, January 3, 2006 Dave Allen's 'Best-Of' 2005 Monday, January 2, 2006 Steve Gozdecki's Favorite Albums Of 2005 Tuesday, December 20, 2005 Johnny Walker Black's Top 10 Of 2005 Monday, December 19, 2005 Neal Block's Favorite Recordings Of 2005 Thursday, December 15, 2005 Jenny Tatone's Year In Review Tuesday, December 13, 2005 Dave Renard's Fave Recordings Of 2005 Monday, December 12, 2005 Jennifer Kelly's Fave Recordings Of 2005 Thursday, December 8, 2005 Tom Ridge's Favorite Recordings Of 2005 Tuesday, December 6, 2005 Ben Gook's Beloved Albums Of 2005 Monday, December 5, 2005 Anthony Carew's Fave Albums Of 2005 Thursday, November 10, 2005 Prince, Spoon And The Magic Of The Dead Stop Monday, September 12, 2005 The Truth About America Monday, September 5, 2005 Tryin' To Wash Us Away Monday, August 1, 2005 A Psyche-Folk Heat Wave In Western Massachusetts Monday, July 18, 2005 Soggy But Happy At Glastonbury 2005 Monday, April 4, 2005 The SXSW Experience, Part 3: All Together Now Friday, April 1, 2005 The SXSW Experience, Part 2: Dr. Dog's Happy Chords Thursday, March 31, 2005 The SXSW Experience, Part 1: Waiting, Waiting And More Waiting Friday, March 25, 2005 Final Day At SXSW's Charnel House Monday, March 21, 2005 Day Three At SXSW Saturday, March 19, 2005 Day Two In SXSW's Hall Of Mirrors Thursday, March 17, 2005 Report #1: SXSW 2005 And Its Hall Of Mirrors Monday, February 14, 2005 Matt Landry's Fave Recordings Of 2004 Wednesday, February 2, 2005 David Howie's 'Moments' From The Year 2004 Thursday, January 27, 2005 Lori Miller Barrett's Fave Recordings Of 2004 Thursday, January 20, 2005 Noah Bonaparte's Fave Recordings Of 2004 Tuesday, January 18, 2005 Kevin John's Fave Albums Of 2004 Friday, January 14, 2005 Music For Those Nights: Max Schaefer's Fave Recordings Of 2004 Thursday, January 13, 2005 Dave Renard's Fave Recordings Of 2004 Wednesday, January 12, 2005 Neal Block's Top Ten Of 2004 Tuesday, January 11, 2005 Jenny Tatone's Fave Albums Of 2004 Monday, January 10, 2005 Wayne Robins' Top Ten Of 2004 Friday, January 7, 2005 Brian Orloff's Fave Albums Of 2004 Thursday, January 6, 2005 Johnny Walker (Black)'s Top 10 Of 2004 Wednesday, January 5, 2005 Jennifer Przybylski's Fave Albums (And Book) Of 2004 Tuesday, January 4, 2005 Mark Mordue's Fave Albums Of 2004 Monday, January 3, 2005 Lee Templeton's Fave Recordings Of 2004

Wednesday, January 5, 2005 Jennifer Przybylski's Fave Albums (And Book) Of 2004 n. Lannon, Chemical Friends (Badman): There is no getting away from Nyles Lannon's similarity to Elliott Smith and his unstudied acoustic silhouettes. Stirring ghosts, like taking your medicine and endless love, are paired with the half-toned electronics of, say, American Analog Set. Chemical Friends is an affecting, plaintive meantime for Lannon, who is probably better known for his alter n.Ln (not to mention membership in San Francisco's band-on-the-verge Film School). Here the heart breaks cleanly open, and it's beautiful. French Kicks, The Trial of the Century (StarTime): Just what to think of this less rock and more sleek French Kicks? Dashed (new) romantic vocals brushed up against cool synth and attendant hand claps in a record that didn't easily fit into the scene comparatives everyone was making (or even their previous releases). Punchy guitars layered in '80s keyboards didn't sound like blind nostalgia, but an exultant, after-hours retrofit. Comas, Conductor (Yep Roc): Limning heartbreak with starry motes and robot armies is one way to go. The Comas emerge from interim label hell with one of the best — indie or otherwise — releases of the year, as well as a silvery concept film to go with it. Television starlets ascend into the air and buildings consume the night sky. While the imagery is a bit darker than the lyrical content, it's a gambit that works. Sensual guitar lines, big rock and silvery electronics. Now Conductor is not just any release; it becomes an event, like the shortlist of artists who release two albums on the same day. The Comas are good for it, owning their biggest sound yet but still aware of the softly lit corners. Le Concorde, Le Concorde EP (Spade Kitty): This release was the first recording I reviewed for Neumu, but putting that aside, I just love this EP. The arrangements are perfect reminders of other favorites in my record collection (and most likely Stephen Becker's own). Prefab Sprout. Aztec Camera. OMD. Rather than simply sounding like a record that was made during the early '80s, Le Concorde imparts the same delicacy with a contemporary sophistication. A full-length is scheduled for 2005. I can hardly wait. Tracy Shedd, Louder Than You Can Hear (Devil in the Woods): While song craft was never in dispute, Tracy Shedd makes the most of new beginnings on the Devil in the Woods debut Louder Than You Can Hear. The band seems to have realized that the best complement for vocalist Shedd's smart-fragile delivery is a wall of Loveless guitars and excitable percussion. Titles like "If You Really Cared About Me You Would Have Kept in Touch All These Years" suggest that despite the controlled distortion, the diary-style reflections are what matter. Imagine Lois with swirling noise-pop guitars, no less intimate, just more daring. Here those references sound like a revelation. Camera Obscura, Underachievers Please Try Harder (Merge): If your record title sounds like the instruction of a dutiful prefect, you should expect comparisons to Belle & Sebastian (and double that if Stuart Murdoch produces "Eighties Fan," a perfect single for your 1996 debut). Underachievers Please Try Harder reminds me of what made Belle & Sebastian so remarkable on first listen — the gorgeous arrangements, the storytelling. But here it is a girl's romantic diffidence, among other matters, that gives this album a similar luster. Vocalist Traceyanne Campbell is appealing and real. Her vintage microphone delivery on "Teenager" is just what any wrongheaded boy deserves: "You're not a teenager/ So don't act like one." Those who say this music is too nostalgic for the times really don't have a clue. Junior Boys, Last Exit (Kin): Rarely has an electronicscape been so of the evening. The Junior Boys, a Montreal duo whose singles include remixes from both Manitoba and Fennesz, enfold the halting detail of Vini Reilly into two-step into Talk Talk into glimmering dance music. Jeremy Greenspan's see-through vocals will send you. The tensile firings of early electronics, with its unfeeling bonk and synthetics, don't sound nearly as remote here. Besides, you swayed to Yaz and Marc Almond, didn't you? Last Exit exudes not only synth-pop gloss but a supple, forward modernity. Ken Stringfellow, Soft Commands (Yep Roc): Informed by classic pop arrangements, Ken Stringfellow's Soft Commands is a burnished, mature collection. The diversity of song styles represented here appears to number the postcard locales in which they were written: Paris, Los Angeles and Senegal among them. Golden piano ballads ("You Drew") alongside Spector-like comets ("When U Find Someone") and dub forays ("You Became the Dawn"): it's easy to see how such range may read as pretense elsewhere. But Stringfellow is so good at what he does, and with such an unerring reach. Soft Commands is a gorgeous example of intricacies and awareness. The Go-Betweens, Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express, Tallulah and 16 Lovers Lane (Jetset): A cheat, with three titles, but these are the Go-Betweens, after all. Literate pop broaching thoroughly adult conversations, articulate and full of longing. Songwriters Robert Forster and Grant McLennan wrote of love and apartments and coy remainders. It was the other '80s. To that end, the Jetset label added the band's biggest selling — and out of print — titles to their list of Go-Betweens reissues (with extras). The music sounds just as good as it did when you first heard it, maybe even more rarified. There really aren't bands like this anymore, and if you didn't already know that, these titles are a great place to start. Courtney Eldridge, Unkempt (Harcourt Press): These stories connect with such a charged rapport, I had to include them in this list. Unkempt is a rather startling, baring even, debut. Rarely do you see what you think is inside someone else's head — the watery dissolve of daily lists and friends with irrational, yet riotous, but also obstructive fears (like sharks in public swimming pools). Most appealing is the ease in which it's delivered. The whole is so conversational — this happened and then this happened — but told exceptionally well. That ease belies a hold much like Carver, who took even measure of frailty, reconnection and choice. And again, it follows. If it suddenly turned out OK, you wouldn't trust it. Same goes for the ignobleness of retail. Unkempt splits it all so honestly, you never doubt the life inside. The InsiderOne Daily Report appears on occasion.