Owen’s Top 5 Albums
Posted on December 12th, 2011 by folkandtumble
In the first of our end of year reviews, Louisiana Joyride guitarist and songwriter Owen McNulty chooses his Top 5 records of the year. And so, in no particular order, here we go…
Gillian Welch: The Harrow & the Harvest
A full eight years after her last album, Ms Welch returned this year with a collection that was well worth the wait. It wasn’t anything new or innovative, more a continuation of where she left off with a compilation of melancholic vignettes demonstrating the wondrous interplay between her and cohort David Rawlings that’s one of the best duets around. There’s lots of darkness here – ‘Dark Turn of Mind’ being principal amongst it as she sings “Some girls are bright as the morning/And some girls are blessed with a dark turn of mind”. Album highlight ‘The Way It Goes’ demonstrated everything that’s great about the work of Gillian Welch; an engrossing story told with humour, played with austerity and decorated with flowing and weaving vocal and guitar harmonies – mesmerising.
Ryan Adams: Ashes and Fire
Similar to Gillian Welch, Adams returned to music this year after a long exile and he returned with an album that revisited the style that saw him come to our attention ten years ago with solo debut ‘Heartbreaker’ – honestly, I swear it’s been ten years! Early reviews were comparing it to his debut but it’s really nowhere near as good as that. ‘Ashes and Fire’ is still an excellent album in its own right. They comparable style of the two, with the quality of the songs to the fore and not the high production values is something that I adore in music. And this album is packed with quality. The title track waltzed into my head a few months back and hasn’t left it since. ‘Dirty Rain’ is another beautiful number and after a few listens songs like ‘Lucky Now’ and ‘Chains of Love’ start to stand up as highlights as well. It was great to see him back this year after so long away.
The Black Keys: El Camino
Blues-rock revivalists The Black Keys gave us another treat of an album this year in ‘El Camino’. The band has, over the course of three or four albums transformed from a garage band into Grammy award winning stadium fillers and this year’s release had them back in punk-blues mode with a collection that walloped me in the face when released last month. Album opener ‘Lonely Boy’, provided one of the year’s best videos and had everything the band are good at. Soulful lyrics, guitar riffs and a big thumping chorus. They’re a band that can do no wrong in my opinion.
The Decemberists: The King Is Dead
I wasn’t entirely sold on The Decemberists after I first heard them with ‘The Crane Wife’. I felt there was just a little too much going on and a lack of cohesion cost them. I never really bothered about them again until this year’s ‘The King Is Dead’. This is an album absolutely filled with quality songs. Folky and country-tinged it has start-to-end goodness. Celtic sing-a-long ‘Rox in the Box’ is a great example which juxtaposes bleak lyrics with an immense lively melody. ‘January Hymn’ is one of the most moving songs of the year which sees songwriter Colin Meloy remember his youth with mixed feelings and album closer ‘Dear Avery’ left me glowing knowing that I had just listened to a career highlight from The Decemberists. I was delighted to rediscover them with this album.
Metronomy: The English Riviera
I’m not sure if an electro-pop album fits in with the rest of my Top 5. In fact it’s not even an album I would usually even bother listening to thanks to the genre tags bands are labelled with. I just had too many people telling me that it was great that I had to relent and give it a listen. So yay for peer pressure as I’m very glad I did. It is a good cross of traditional rock and roll instrumentation and some electro bleeps and bips that accentuate an album packed with really strong melodies. It’s thoughtful and you can just hear the sheer amount of craft that has gone into this collection as it demonstrates good song writing, sensitivity and a great grasp of dynamics. ‘Everything Goes My Way’ is a highlight with its plaintive melody and lush vocal harmonies and when it tails off with the a capella refrain of “I’m in love again”, I remember how beautiful music doesn’t always need to be accompanied with an acoustic guitar.