My Favorite Albums of 2014

Vanishing Act /
Edward O'Connell

I've been a fan of this guy's work ever since I happened across his 2010 album Our Little Secret. What a pleasure to find this new installment of his trademark wordsmithery and power-pop songcraft. Here's a taste:

I've always been a sucker for laid-back rock waltzes, a particularly apt choice for this regret-soaked song about a relationship that can't live up to its promise. O'Connell can work a metaphor like nobody's business, and he masterfully threads imagery of a magician act throughout -- the blindfold, the smoke and mirrors, a "trick to amaze and astound."  He wraps it all up in the chorus:

The years disappear
But is love hiding near
In a heart where it needs to be found
Let nobody see that we're bound
To burn the ropes, 
Break the chains and then kill the magician 
There's no point in wishing 
For a curtain to pull back 
If our love's a vanishing act.

Let's call the whole thing off, in other words, but he uses his own verbal prestidigitation to soften the blow. 

The thing is, it isn't just clever word play, it's intimately tied to hard-won wisdom about how love can slowly veer off the rails, racking up disappointment after disappointment, souring and curdling until there's nothing left. Yes, O'Connell's voice and singing style bear an eerie resemblance to Elvis Costello, and you know in my book that's a huge plus.  But whereas Costello's early deft word play was sometimes empty cleverness, O'Connell's always reflect some psychological acuity.  Music for Grown-Ups, to the nth degree.

Early Elvis was bitter and sometimes downright mean;  O'Connell instead has a gently weary persona of the sympathetic loser, the good guy who's been unlucky at love.  It's a bit of a magic trick to combine that wittiness with true-hearted yearning, but he masterfully pulls it off, track after track -- and it's immensely satisfying.  Engaging head and heart -- that's not so easy to do.  Kudos, Mr. O'C.

My Holiday Album Buying Guide

Nothing I like better Christmas morning than to find neat little 5-by-6-inch wrapped rectangles under the tree.  (Used to be 12-by-12-inch -- but there, I'm dating myself.)  And if you're like me, you don't want to leave the selection of your new holiday tunes up to chance and the questionable tastes of your friends and family -- you want a readymade list of excellent new CDs to request ahead of time. Why, you might even want a list of CDs to buy for other people, while we're at it! Normally I'm not much of a list-maker -- well, not like Uncle E, at least -- but as a public service, herewith is my end-of-year round-up . . . .

1. Imaginary Television
Graham Parker 

I  love this record for many reasons, but mostly because it's the album that got me back into Graham Parker, launching a months-long voyage of discovery.

I first blogged about the track "Always Greener"...


2.  Lonely Avenue

 Ben Folds and Nick Hornby

 Well, technically it's just Ben Folds -- British novelist Nick Hornby
 doesn't perform on the records, he just contributed the lyrics.  Just.

Check out my blog post on "Belinda."

3.  No Better Than This
John Mellencamp 

I won't defend every record John Mellencamp's ever made -- I'll just say that this stripped-down, acoustic, monoaural, back-to-the-roots effort may be the finest thing he's ever done.

Here's my take on "Love At First Sight."

4. The Grand Theater, Volume One
The Old 97s

This Austin-based outfit definitely keeps the alt in alt-country, and I have never yet heard a track by these guys that I didn't like.  This new album is just insanely smart and funny and fun to listen to.

Check out "A State of Texas"... 


5. My Dinosaur Life
Motion City Soundtrack

Neurotic emo-pop is so not my thing -- so why I'm such a fan of this band?  Witty little portraits of slacker angst, amped up with tons o' melody and a mosh-pit tempo.

Exhibit A: "Skin and Bones"

6.  A Word to the Wise
Bill Kirchen

Now for something completely different -- the rumpled musings of veteran musicmaker Bill Kirchen, accompanied by an amazing set of equally experienced guest stars. 

Take a spin with "Shelly's Winter Love" and you'll see what I mean...

7.  ContraVampire Weekend

Okay, so those duelling Subaru and Hilfiger commercials have pretty much ruined the perky world-pop charm of "Holiday." Nevertheless, the fresh sound and lively indie energy of this young band started 2010 out on a very high note for me, and I still grin when any of this album's song rotate up on my shuffle.

Here's where I started, with  . . . yes, I'm afraid it was "Holiday".  But maybe someday we'll be able to enjoy it again!

8. The 88
The 88

I'll admit that Ray Davies' seal of approval gave this L.A. band a huge boost in my estimation.  But there's nothing not to like about this tight, melodic album, which takes pop music back from the schlockmeisters and gives it a good name again. Sorry, I never got around to posting here about this album, but I did review it for Blogcritics.

9. Junky Star
Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses

Bingham's work on the Crazy Heart soundtrack vaulted him onto my alt-country playlist; this album proved to me that was no fluke.  I've only started listening to this one -- haven' t done a blog post on it yet -- but trust me, there are plenty of dark, nuanced, twangy pleasures to be found here. Townes Van Zant would approve, I suspect.

10. Propellor TimeRobyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3

I want to resist -- but I can't.  If Robyn Hitchcock's peculiar psych-folk-punk music is a minority taste, then count me in that minority.  The odder his lyrics get, the more off-kilter the melodies become, the happier I am.Inexplicably, I never got around to reviewing any tracks from this album; in lieu of that, may I provide a link to the weird and wonderful video for "Ordinary Millionaire".


11. Brothers
The Black Keys

So who says we have to quit at 10? If we did, I wouldn't be able to mention this album -- another fairly new acquisition that I haven't yet written about -- a deeply, deeply funky artifact by a duo that look like standard-issue Williamsburg hipsters.  Go figure.  All I know is, these tracks put me in a souled-out trance, putting the hip in hypnotic.

12. Soulsville
Huey Lewis & the News

Let's make it an even dozen, then, and throw in my old boyfriend Huey Lewis, who delivers a heartfelt tribute to the vintage soul numbers that inspired his own career. A guilty pleasure, perhaps, but it is full of that patented Huey Lewis genial charm, and if it's not a groundbreaking, it is listenable as hell.

I did blog about this one, homing in on "Respect Yourself."


Still got room for a few more stocking stuffers?  Let's throw in Jon Lindsay's Escape From Plaza-Midwoodand Edward O'Connell's Our Little Secret, my two great slush-pile finds of the year.  Of course we're already looking forward to 2011 for the US release of Ray Davies' See My Friends and Greg Trooper's Upside-Down Town (no Amazon link yet but I'll keep you posted). The music never ends!

Our Little Secret"I Want To Kiss You" / Edward O'Connell

Out of nowhere I get this email -- this guy likes my blog and he's just recorded a CD and would I like him to send me a copy? If you're me, you report the email as spam and change your password pronto, right? Wrong. Something stopped me from hitting that 'delete' button, and instead I responded. What the hell, I figured.

So a few days later this thing arrives in the mail. I pull it out of the envelope, and my eyes bug out when I see that album cover, a blatant rip-off of Nick Lowe's Jesus of Cool. How did this guy know of my Nick Lowe obsession? (Well, duh, he's read your blog, you silly fangirl you.)















So I'm a little leery when I put this disc into my player. But I'm telling you, it only took me about thirty seconds into track one to be glad that I had let Edward O'Connell send me this record. Not that he sounds much like Nick -- more like a slightly husky Elvis Costello, to my ears. But hey, if you've got the clever snarky lyrics to live up to it -- which Edward O'Connell amazingly does -- even that works. I have to admit, I laughed out loud at some of these songs -- like "Partially Awesome," about a guy who falls short of being totally awesome, or "Pretty Wasted," with its clinching line "she's pretty wasted, / pretty wasted on you." Loaded with hooks and highly sing-along-able, these songs have a jangly mellow quality -- power pop with the tempo notched down slightly, so that you don't miss any of that intelligent word play.

Here's a taste:



Listen to those shrewd lyrics, like: "You may be longing to hear / Something everlasting / But the men who will tell you that / All come from central casting." Or in the bridge: "I can't part the oceans / Or charm you like the Prince of Zales / I'll leave it to feckless ones / With empty arms and their fairy tales." Slipping in the name of the jewelry store Zales where you expect to hear Wales is clever enough, but I'll tell, anyone who uses the word "feckless" in a pop song -- well, he has me at hello. (Extra points to anybody who can name another pop song with the word "feckless".)

But perhaps the finest stroke in this song is the refrain, where all the word play falls away in a surge of lust: "But I yi yi YI-Iii / Want to kiss you." Sometimes it IS that simple. (Mind you, the echo of Ricky Ricardo in that "yi-yi-yi" keeps the light comic touch firmly in place.) Sure, there are other guys flocking around her, he's all too aware. But refreshing honesty just may be the thing that wins her heart.

Who is this girl? His long-term sweetheart, or just some cute chiquita walking down the street? None of that is clear; none of that needs to be clear. It's a pop song, kids. All that really matters is how he's transported by desire. Even an intensely verbal guy like this may be at a loss for words when love finally slaps him upside the head.

So who is this Edward O'Connell? you may well ask. Well, all I know so far is that he's from Washington D.C., he's been knocking around in various local bands for years, and he's got a pretty serious day job as a lawyer. (Aha! says my inner Nancy Drew -- a lawyer, hence the verbal wit.) Maybe, like many of us, he's deferred his music dreams because of that respectable, lucrative day job. But hey, after a while, you gotta give it a shot. This is Edward O'Connell's shot -- and I really hope it goes somewhere.