ALBUMS:
1.SUFJAN STEVENS "Illinois" (#18 in my all-time list)
Ambition is a word that falls short to describe Sufjan's attitude. His concept albums about the USA States displayed amazingly well-documented lyrics keeping a confessional tone and a meticulously detailed and rich instrumentation keeping a lo-fi feeling. Later Sufjan made some masterpieces using a more intimate and subdued approach, like "Carrie & Lowell" or "Javelin," but some of us are still waiting for a third installement of his States project and its expansive, all-encompassing and... ambitious sound.
2.ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS "I Am a Bird Now" (#210)
Her sophom*ore album was the big leap forward for the most acclaimed transgender artist ever, even if her throne could well be reclaimed on the next update by Scottish artist Sophie. And the acclaim is understandable, here we have the aching throats of pre-rock divas like Edith Piaf or Billie Holiday and the decadence of the ladyboys of the Warhol Factory in the same person.
3.RICHARD HAWLEY "Coles Corner" (#239)
Chamber Pop at its best, Hawley's fourth album found him in an unabashedly retro mood culling elements from rockabilly, country, vocal jazz and blues and giving them an extra flair of bombast and romanticism with Roy Orbison in the horizon.
4.BRIGHT EYES "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning"
5.THE DECEMBERISTS "Picaresque"
6.VASHTI BUNYAN "Lookaftering"
7.GORILLAZ "Demon Days"
8.FIONA APPLE "Extraordinary Machine"
9.KANYE WEST "Late Registration"
10.RY COODER "Chávez Ravine"
11.DEVENDRA BANHART "Cripple Crow"
12.MY MORNING JACKET "Z"
13.PAUL McCARTNEY "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard"
14.SR. CHINARRO "El fuego amigo"
15.REFREE "La matrona"
16.ESBJÖRN SVENSSON TRIO "Viaticum"
17.ALI FARKA TOURÉ & TOUMANI DIABATÉ "In the Heart of the Moon"
18.MARY GAUTHIER "Mercy Now"
19.M.I.A. "Arular"
20.SLEATER-KINNEY "The Woods"
21.THE WHITE STRIPES "Get Behind Me Satan"
22.THE NEW p*rnOGRAPHERS "Twin Cinema"
23.BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE "Broken Social Scene"
24.JOSH ROUSE "Nashville"
25.PAUL WELLER "As Is Now"
SONGS:
1.SUFJAN STEVENS "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." (#48 in my all-time list)
Among the many jewels we can find in the superb "Illinois," this song feels like the album centerpiece to me. Here Sufjan tells us the scary story of John Wayne Gacy, Jr., a famous serial killer born in Chicago, Illinois, that killed "twenty-seven people / even more". But the most disturbing is the gentle and sweet tone that Sufjan applies to that tremendous story. And its devastating conclusion: "And in my best behaviour / I am really just like him / Look beneath the floorboards / for the secrets I have hid".
2.MARY GAUTHIER "I Drink" (#243)
This chilling country ballad, a heartbreaking cry-in-your-beer song modeled in Lucinda Williams stylings, has a deep confessional tone. Mary Gauthier's adoptive father was alcoholic and she faced a serious alcohol and drug addictions in her youth, you can read about her back story here). "Fish swim / Birds fly / Daddies yell / Mamas cry / Old men sit and think / I drink." Devastating.
3.BRIGHT EYES "Old Soul Song (For the New World Order)"
4.RICHARD HAWLEY "Coles Corner"
5.ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS "Hope There's Someone"
6.REFREE "La reina de les neus"
7.DEVENDRA BANHART "Santa Maria de Feira"
8.SUFJAN STEVENS "Chicago"
9.JOSH ROUSE "Streetlights"
10.MADONNA "Hung Up"
11.KANYE WEST featuring JAY-Z "Diamonds From Sierra Leone"
12.GORILLAZ featuring NENEH CHERRY "Kids With Guns"
13.M.I.A. "Pull Up the People"
14.RY COODER "Chinito Chinito"
15.RICHARD HAWLEY "The Ocean"
16.THE DECEMBERISTS "16 Military Wives"
17.ARCTIC MONKEYS "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor"
18.PAUL WELLER "From the Floorboards Up"
19.THE WHITE STRIPES "Blue Orchid"
20.GOLDFRAPP "Ooh La La"
21.BRIGHT EYES "First Day of My Life"
22.SUFJAN STEVENS "Casimir Pulaski Day"
23.VASHTI BUNYAN "If I Were"
24.COCOROSIE "Noah's Ark"
25.ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS "Fistful of Love"
26.SLEATER-KINNEY "Jumpers"
27.CSS "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above"
28.ROBYN "Be Mine"
29.AMERIE "1 Thing"
30.KANYE WEST featuring LUPE FIASCO "Touch the Sky"
31.GORILLAZ featuring DE LA SOUL "Feel Good Inc."
32.SUFJAN STEVENS "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!"
33.FRANK BLACK "Sunday Sunny Mill Valley Groove Day"
34.RICHARD HAWLEY "Hotel Room"
35.JOSH ROUSE "Winter in the Hamptons"
36.SR. CHINARRO "El peor poema"
37.LORI MEYERS "El aprendiz"
38.CLEM SNIDE "End of Love"
39.MY MORNING JACKET "Wordless Chorus"
40.THE DECEMBERISTS "The Infanta"
41.SUFJAN STEVENS "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!"
42.ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS "Spiralling"
43.DEVENDRA BANHART "I Feel Just Like a Child"
44.EDITORS "Munich"
45.FRANZ FERDINAND "Do You Want To"
46.LCD SOUNDSYSTEM "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House"
47.DAMIAN MARLEY "Welcome to Jamrock"
48.SÓLO LOS SOLO "Todo el mundo lo sabe"
49.SALIF KEITA "Yambo"
50.ALI FARKA TOURÉ & TOUMANI DIABATÉ "Ai Ga Bani"
FAVOURITE COMPILATION: FABRIZIO DE ANDRÉ "In direzione ostinata e contraria"
The summa of works by the Italian troubadour, "about suicide, prostitution and drugs" (AMG). Obstinate and contrary.
