1.21st Century Breakdown-Green Day - Worthy follow-up to "American
Idiot" though it feels a tad bloated and would have been better with some editing. Great punky lead single "Know
Your Enemy" along with Lennonesque "Last Night On Earth" and "Restless Heart Syndrome."
2.Habeas Corpus-Living Things - Heavy lyrical statement with titles like "Mercedes Marxist" and "The
Kingdom Will Fall" but Since the songs are mighty catchy and you can't understand the words anyway - who cares? Good
loud glammy rock guitar songs - "Let It Rain"
3.Fame & Glory-Fairport Convention
- After 40+ years still going strong with perhaps their best album in many years - Celtic/Arthurian music with guests from
Pentangle, Jethro Tull, Asia, etc.
"Pilgrams" "Dragon Breath" "Castle Rock"
Found on their website Fairportconvention.com
4.Shaka Rock-Jet - Their third album of guitar-based
new wavy rock and roll. The best song of the year is "She's A Genius" that recalls the Knack's "My
Sharona" - "Goodbye Hollywood."
5.Lucky One-Raul Malo - The best solo work from the
former Mavericks frontman. Pretty ballads like "So Beautiful" highlight his Orbison voice. "Lonely Hearts"
is chugging country.
6.Collective Soul-Collective Soul - The one with the out-of-focus rabbit on the
cover sounding much like everything else they've ever done. Good if not memorable guitar rock. Have to love the whistled
hook of "Fuzzy" - "Lighten Up" "Dig"
7.
Cogs, Wheels &Lovers-Steeleye
Span - Still putting out excellent British traditional music with a rock sound 40 years on. Great jigs including "Gallant
Frigate Amphitrite" &
"Creeping Jane".
8.Working On A Dream-Bruce Springsteen -
While this isn't as strong as his last few albums, he seems to be surprisingly upbeat & poppy on some songs ("Surprise
Surprise") "My Lucky Day"
9.Tangle-Free World-Anny Celsi - No clue who
she is (on a small label - Ragazza), but she sounds like Aimee Mann fronting the Bangles on 'Tangle-Free World"
due to great support from various members of Brian Wilson's band. Great cover of "Some Velvet Morning".
10.Backspacer-Pearl Jam - Never would have checked this out without prompting from fine Colo. lawyer Colin McCallin
(thanks!). A real rocker (actually sounds like Bob Seger on "Supersonic") - "Gonna See My Friend"
Nice acoustic ballads too - "Just Breathe".
11.Mr. Lucky-Chris Isaak - Did the 2 Roy Orbison
sound-a-likes decide to include 'Lucky' in their album titles for a reason this year? Excellent mostly ballad album
("Cheater's Town" "We Let Her Down"). Just wish he'd do a rockabilly album sometime more
like his first record.
12.The Further Adventures Of-Los Straitjackets - You always get great '60s
sounding Ventures-like guitar instrumentals. Best enjoyed in concert! "Tubby" "The Wild Mouse"
13.The Ghost Of You & Me-Colin Blunstone - Formerly of Zombies and still possessing one of the best voices in
rock. Very similar to first solo album One Year with orchestrations carrying most songs on this import CD. ""Second
Avenue" "The Sun Will Rise Again"
14.The Latest-Cheap Trick - Not as good as
the last one, but Zander still sings hot '70s guitar rock and roll cooked up by Rick, Tom & Bun E. "Sick Man
Of Europe" "California Girl"
15.Now & Then-Mary Hopkin - Hard to believe
it's over 40 years since "Those Were The Days" - this is the third CD of unreleased songs sold only on maryhopkin.com
"Who Will Be?" has lovely vocals over Mary's piano riff. "If You Love Me" should be from a
French Disney movie.
16.Giddy-Pugwash - Uncannily sounds like XTC which means late '60s Beatles/Beach
Boys motif on quirky pop songs. "Monorail" "It's Nice To Be Nice"
17.Blue
Ridge Rangers Rides Again-John Fogerty - Originally a '70s1-man band tribute to classic country. This one is full-band
and features too many hackneyed song selections like "Garden Party." Fine version of "Paradise" and "I
Don't Care (Just As Long As You Love Me)"
18.Resistance-Muse - Roll the theatrics of Queen
and Bowie into a ball with less interesting songs and you get Muse. "Uprising" "I Belong To You (+Mon Coeur
S'Ouvre & Ta Voix)"
19.Meteor-The Shazam - For a fairly unknown pop/rock band, these
guys have always sounded pretty cock-sure. The production by Mack makes it sound like Billy Squier bringing the Zep custard
on "Time For Pie". "Hey Mom I Got The Bomb".
20.
The Rose Hotel-Robert Earl Keen
- Tough countryish Americana including a great Townes Van Zant cover "Flyin' Shoes" + a cool tribute to Levon
Helm on
"The Man Behind The Drums"
Best Boxset:The Live Anthology-Tom Petty &
The Heartbreakers - "Century City" points up what a great drummer Stan Lynch was for this band - Come back!!
Great 4 CD live set.
Best Boxset:The Live Anthology-Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers -
"Century City" points up what a great drummer Stan Lynch was for this band - Come back!! Great 4 CD live
set.
2009 Orphan Songs - The
Best Songs Not On Top CDs
1.Significant Other-Steven Wilson- Sounds more like side project
Blackfield than Porcupine Tree. Moody Pink Floyd gets your hair on end when the loud guitars/female vocals kick in.
2.Gimme Sympathy-Metric - On their Fantasies CD, Emily Haines kind of gets a Neko Case sort of style going
- this track asks "who would you rather be, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones" - great video (especially the 'making
of' version) probably sold me.
3.Devil Dust-Davie Allan & The Arrows - This song is a classic
screaming '60s fuzz guitar instrumental - one of a few new tracks in an album of remakes or so-so old vocal covers.
4.The Sun's Gonna Shine In The Morning-Dennis Diken with Bell Sound - Smithereens drummer with Pete DiBella as
a two man show abetted by various pop heavyweights at times like Andy Paley and Jason Falkner. Lotsa smart Beach Boys and
'60s retro. This one cops the Who.
5.Johnny Thunder-Ray Davies - New solo album is Kinks Choral
Collection - a small band with ethereal chorus singing klassics with Mr. Kinks himself. Works ok on lesser songs, but
not so well on things like "All Day & All Of The Night" From the "Village Green Medley."
6.Sing The Changes-Paul McCartney - A bit of a cheat, this is a live version of the 2008 Fireman track on the Good
Evening New York City album. Much more direct when done by full band.
7.Kiss Me-Bleu - Quirky
pop guy. This song actually up '60s R&B - very different than rest.
8.Copenhagen-Strawbs -
Disappointing album (Dancing To The Devil's Beat) + a horrible CD cover - but, this is an excellent quiet acoustic
song evoking falling leaves on the guitar riff.
9.Get On Your Boots-U2 - Good rocker on an ok album
that didn't deliver as hyped.
10.Do It For Free-Sarah Borges & The Broken Singles - Her sorta
retro rock has worked better previously. This song kinda channels Joan Jett's snotty attitude. A coupla other good songs
here.
11.If I Die Sudden-John Mellencamp - Full band live version of a song that underwhelmed on last
years attempt at Americana. Not wanting to give up on the songs he put out a live EP called Life Death Live & Freedom
proving that these songs were better than their initial presentation.
12.Born Lover-George Thorogood
& The Destroyers - The Dirty Dozen CD was 6 old tracks and 6 new tracks all classic if samey sounding rocking
slide boogie. This track was the best.
13.Saint Jerome-Coconut Records - On the Davy album,
actor and one-time Phantom Planet drummer Jason Schwartman gave out a lot of Mystery Tour Beatles sounds. Not a bad album.
14.Cold Floors-The Steps - A 5 song EP called Take It All In (wearethesteps.com) with skinny tie 1980 sounding
chunky guitar riffs and snotty vocals. It's all been done, but it sounds good.
15.Your Hearts Desire-Gerry
Rafferty - Another cheat as this was 1 of 6 previously unreleased tracks (including a gorgeous "Because" - the
Beatles) by Mr. 'Baker Street' on an import comp called Life Goes On which finds him singing Christmas carols
& "Kyrie Elieson".
16.You Never Know-Wilco - Jeff Tweedy has been obviously listening
to George Harrison LPs.
17.A Short Weekend Begins With Longing-The Leisure Society - A fairly delicate
almost folky song from an album that feels sorta pastoral (The Sleeper).
18.I Box Up All The Butterflies-The
Boy Least Likely To - Two-man band with quirky memorable pop hook you can't get outta your head. From CD The Law
Of The Playground.
19.Pulling On A Line-Great Lake Swimmers - Sort of Canada's Fleet Foxes
more stripped down and Americana with mandolins. On the Lost Channels album.
20.
Airstream Driver-Gomez
- Never been a fan, but dig the cowbell and the dancable beat.
copywrite 2009 by Dr. George W. Krieger DDS
