Top 5 - Joe Silva
1) Squirrel Nut Zippers, Perennial Favorites (Mammoth). Now that they nabbed enough clout to get further airplay, they've done what all smart musicians do - grown slightly past their known parameters with little regard for their label's bottom line. "Low Down Man" shows that all that road work didn't dull their songwriting skills, while "Ghost of Stephen Foster" shows that they probably couldn't get any musically tighter. But the "The Kraken" displays that they're not so overly concerned with their ultra-hep status to play around a bit within their element.
2) Virginia Rodriguez, Sol Negro (Rykodisc). If her voice is derigueur in her native Brazil, it is wholly angelic when viewed from our turf. Against the odd and spacey vibrations of the berimbau in the opener ("Negrume da Noite"), her pipes are equally and wonderfully atmospheric. Never mind the other heavys that chime in (Gilberto Gil, Milton Nascimento), when she stands completely bare of instrumentation, as she does in "Veronica," any interlopers are inevitably forced to acknowledge her tremendous talent.
3) Lionrock, City Delirious (Time Bomb/Concrete/BMG). With a few mild exceptions, this hasn't been a hallmark year for the big market electronic artiste. The French have snatched a good bit of the wind out of other peoples sails (Air, Dmitri From Paris), but Lionrock's Justin Robertson is one of the Empire's best hopes for a rally in '99. He does a rapturous ska revival ("Rude Boy Rock"), retro-techno ("Push Button Cocktail"), and minimalist ambience ("Best Foot Forward") equally well. 14 cuts of salvation for any Saturday night.
4) Tuatara, Trading With The Enemy (Epic). Forget the Peter Buck aspect. That only becomes relevant when he takes these sounds back to his day job. What these errant rockers have conjured in their spare time is 12 vignettes that are tres savvy about dynamics and development. Their pan-global view of blending instruments does nothing but help further the sonic dimensions and create pieces that are ultimately down by law.
5) PJ Harvey, Is This Desire? (Island). While she might not feel quite as elegantly disordered as she did on her last outing, she is no less committed to her passion for drama. Musically as layered as she's ever been, Polly Jean still enjoys flirting with down home slide guitars and simple song structure. When she rocks ("The Sky Lit Up"), she's still desperate and convincing. Overall it's compelling stuff and heads above whoever you might hazard to call a peer, but what she'll do for an encore is what eats at you the most.
