Top 5 - Chelsea Spear
1) Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (Merge). That a line on this remarkable record goes "the music and medicine you needed for comforting" is quite prophetic, for the spiritual noise created by this otherworldy ensemble could well cure cancer. No one expected a band whose lineup suggests a fusion of heart-on-sleeve folkiness and the tarnished brass filigree of the Salvation Army Marching Band to take off so incendiarily, but passion overrides any doubts carried by such a musical format. Milk-man Jeff Mangum suggests the aesthetic offspring of a union between Mary Margaret O'Hara and Tom Rapp, making music so pure that you don't just hear it with your ears, but absorb it with your pores.
2) Bob Mould, The Last Dog and Pony Show (Rykodisc). On his last go-round as an electric rocker, punk's founding father Mould voices his dissatisfaction with the purist punk scene that spawned him with brevity and articulation, putting his angry thoughts about being left in the cold to cathartic, melodic pop nuggets. Fans of Mould's previous work with the passionate power pop trio Sugar might not find much deviation from form, but the real reason to listen to LDAPS is for the beauty that Mould finds in such rage.
3) Tori Amos, From The Choirgirl Hotel (Atlantic). After surviving a miscarriage, the faerie spawn of Joni Mitchell and Patti Smith turned to her piano to bring the spirit of her dead daughter back to her. The album derives a great amount of beauty from Amos's baroque sense of melody, as well as her spiritual and sexual drive. However, she must also be saluted for trying a different take on her confessional, acoustic approach by bringing in some elements of electronic, which shade the album with the pulse-racing urgency of a Formula 1 race. Kudos, Tori.
4) Throwing Muses, In A Doghouse (Throwing Music/Rykodisc). Not strictly a reissue, this unique pair of discs blends the first two official releases of this scintillating cult band with previously unreleased demo tapes of the band's childhood years, and some newly-recorded versions of old songs. If you've never heard the Muses -- an influential band of the college-rock mid-80s -- or are looking for music that's visceral, emotional, and real, this is as good a place as any to start. Their potent, cathartic blend of beautiful, snaking melodies and uneasy mood has its roots in this collection of songs.
5) Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (Mercury). After a five-year absence from "the scene", Williams returns to the fore with an energetic, intelligent collection of songs that should appeal to most anyone with an ear for energy, melody and heart. Her cut-to-the-chase, no-bullshit approach is evinced in spades here, and her gift for melding a well-observed truth to an imminently hummable tune and appealing rhythm should make this one of the best albums of the decade. If Carson McCullers ever picked up a guitar, the end result would sound something like this album.
