Sleepers, but keepers
Too many CDs, too little time.
By late December, a music critic's workspace, den, hallway, car and about every other living area is filled with CDs, begging at least one listen -- maybe, hopefully, many more.
It's an impossible task, leaving several volumes of good, worthy albums unopened until many months after the fact.
Here, then, are a few albums that may have gone unnoticed in this column last year, undeservingly. Call them the sleeper albums of 2007 -- music still worth checking out but for reasons ranging from a lack of publicity to bad timing, did not reach as many ears as they should.
Let's remedy that. Take a listen and make some discoveries.
All Smiles, "Ten Readings of a Warning" (Dangerbird)
When the acclaimed psych-pop band Grandaddy called it quits, guitarist Jim Fairchild moved from the Northwest to Chicago where he immediately started recording as All Smiles. The result is as pleasant as the name he chose: Ruminative folk-pop featuring velvet guitars and warm piano chords that together make a perfect reason to stay inside on a rainy day.
For fans of: Elliott Smith, George Harrison
Visit: allsmilesmusic.com
ADULT., "Why Bother?" (Thrill Jockey)
Don't ask me why this married duo from Detroit insists on the all capitals and period in their chosen name. It is part of the frenzied, wonderful weirdness that is the music they make: hyper-kinetic electro-punk that might make a nice soundtrack to panic attacks. But rather than conjuring up boilerplate gothic dread, Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller inject a fair dose of dark humor into songs built with computer manipulations and emotional hysteria.
For fans of: Peaches, LCD Soundsystem
Visit: adultperiod.com
Dash Rip Rock, "Hee Haw Hell" (Alternative Tentacles)
A decade or more before Drive-By Truckers were knighted the auteur deliverers of the New South's Southern rock, this Louisiana swamp rock trio has been kicking up dust at honkytonks above and below the Macon-Dixon line with humor and white heat. Their latest showcases the wickedly fine songs of leader Bill Davis -- a Faustian concept album featuring Mojo Nixon as -- who else? -- the Devil, or here, "Beelzabubba." It's a gas.
For fans of: Drive-By Truckers, Drivin' N' Cryin'
Visit: dashriprock.net
Carolyn Mark, "Nothing is Free" (Mint)
This Canadian country singer-songwriter was once one-half of the Corn Sisters, a harmony duo featuring Neko Case. Unlike her former partner, Mark sings as if wearing a poker face. Her simple melodies hide the utter complexities of her songs, originals draped in reverb and laced with old-time instruments except "Destination: You," a watery digitized ballad that mesmerizes as it devastates.
For fans of: Neko Case, Gillian Welch
Visit: carolynmark.com
Nina Nastasia & Jim White, "You Follow Me" (Fat Cat)
At first glance, collaborations between singers and drummers shouldn't be knockouts, but this one is. New Yorker Nina Nastasia and go-to drummer Jim White (PJ Harvey, Dirty Three) are partners in building needlepoint tremors, slight but intense. White's drumming alone justifies a listen-- he finds tiny pockets within pockets. As Nastasia singing displays the song's fragility, he shows what's really going on: restless movement, backward, forward and beyond.
For fans of: PJ Harvey, Joanna Newsom
Visit: myspace.com/ninanastasia
1990s, "Cookies" (Rough Trade)
Glasgow keeps rolling out the instantly likable rock bands. The newest is power trio 1900s, whose debut album jumps out of the speakers at first listen. "Some Girls"-era Rolling Stones is a good touchstone: the songs ring with boozy abandon, hinged on immediate hooks and brash attitude. Producer Bernard Butler of Suede gives the music a high-gloss sheen: every guitar tone, harmony vocal and drum stomp is meant for the guiltiest of pleasures.
For fans of: Franz Ferdinand, The Cars
Visit: 1990s.tv