Yes, I know Paste Magazine did this already, but I wanted to put my 2 cents in.
Haunting and beautiful and a graduated step up from For Emma. The question now remains: where to go from here? Eventually, the economy will get better and we as a listening public will not want to listen to music that makes us want to hide under the covers and sleep all day.
Beginning to end a superb album. Does a slowed and almost “hula” version of Buddy Holly’s “Rave On,” and the single “Never Had Nobody Like You” is a worth the cost of the entire record (if we still lived in a time where you had to buy the whole CD to get one song).
Elvis Perkins - Elvis Perkins in Dearland
Sounds like the same vein as M. Ward (perhaps if you had another M. Ward from a different part of the country—perhaps “Bizarro M. Ward?”). There’s not much to say other than you will find this record on a lot of folks’ end of year best of lists. This is my dark horse contender.
Another consistent and solid offering from Chicago. Even when they aren’t innovating the sound of folk or alt country, they still hit it out of the park with unbelievable songwriting and genius and lush arrangements.
A nice mashup and collaboration of a lot of popular indie artists. I particularly like the Bon Iver and the Ben Gibbard/Feist collaboration. Oh yeah, it’s also for charity. That too.
