Lots of great releases in October (Ray LaMontagne, Ingrid Michaelson, Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, etc.) and plenty of reason to be listening to calm music, even when life isn’t always so calm (and maybe especially so in that case). Seeing Sigur Rós was a great way to start things off, and seeing Death Cab for Cutie last week was a great way to end it.

And, just for the record, “Swagga Like Us” may be the best hip hop song ever recorded. M.I.A., Kanye West, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and T.I. all on one track. My mind is blown.

1. Earth - “Omens and Portents 1: The Driver” (The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull)
2. TV on the Radio - “Halfway Home” (Dear Science)
3. T.I. - “Swagga Like Us” (Paper Trail)
4. Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip - “Thou Shalt Always Kill” (Angles)
5. Ray LaMontagne - “Meg White” (Gossip in the Grain)
6. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - “My Love for You is Real” (Follow the Lights)
7. Ray LaMontagne - “You Are the Best Thing” (Gossip in the Grain)
8. Ingrid Michaelson - “Can’t Help Falling In Love” (Be OK)
9. Todd Snider - “Is This Thing Working?” (Peace Queer)
10. Brett Dennen - “Make You Crazy” (Hope for the Hopeless)
11. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - “Magick” (Cardinology)
12. TV on the Radio - “DLZ” (Dear Science)
13. Bloc Party - “Ares” (Intimacy)
14. mewithoutYou - “Son of a Window” (Catch for Us the Foxes)
15. Death Cab for Cutie - “Transatlanticism” (Transatlanticism)
16. Marnie Stern - “Clone Cycle” (This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That)

Yep. Fall is here. Gone are the sunny pop songs of spring and summer. In come the introspective, calm-but-questioning sounds of autumn.

Change is afoot.

1. Jakob - “Pneumonic” (Solace)
2. The Velvet Underground - “Who Loves the Sun” (Loaded)
3. Radiohead - “There There” (Hail to the Thief)
4. M83 - “Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun” (Before the Dawn Heals Us)
5. The New Pornographers - “These Are the Fables” (Twin Cinema)
6. Joshua James - “Today” (The Sun Is Always Brighter)
7. dan le sac vs. Scroobius Pip - “Letter from God to Man” (Angles)
8. Neko Case - “Look For Me (I’ll Be Around)” (Blacklisted)
9. Joshua James - “Winter Storm” (The Sun Is Always Brighter)
10. Neko Case - “I Wish I Was the Moon” (Blacklisted)
11. mewithoutYou - “Carousels” (Catch For Us the Foxes)
12. TV On the Radio - “Crying” (Dear Science)
13. Jay-Z - “Renegade” (The Blueprint)
14. Hammock - “We Will Say Goodbye to Everyone” (Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow)
15. Ingrid Michaelson - “The Way I Am” (Girls and Boys)
16. Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile - “The Farmer and the Duck” (Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile)

P.S. If you get a chance to, go see Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile live. I saw them last weekend in Irvine and was thoroughly impressed. It’s a beautiful thing to see modern legends collaborate so well with each other. And if you don’t get a chance, at least pick up a copy of the album.

May? What happened to April? I guess I’ve been busy or something.

April was a month of playing artists on repeat: Bon Iver; Jimmy Eat World; Foals; Does It Offend You, Yeah?; Portishead; Grizzly Bear. There was also some Coachella reminiscing and a healthy scoop of bitterness towards Western evangelical culture (check out the Chris Thile song), but those are rants for another time.

1. Grizzly Bear - “Alligator (Choir Version)” (Friend EP)
2. Does It Offend You, Yeah? - “Let’s Make Out” (You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into)
3. Jimmy Eat World - “Firefight” (Chase This Light)
4. Grizzly Bear - “Little Brother (Electric)” (Friend EP)
5. Foals - “Two Steps, Twice” (Antidotes)
6. Does It Offend You, Yeah? - “We Are Rockstars” (You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into)
7. Jimmy Eat World - “Kill” (Futures)
8. Bon Iver - “Skinny Love” (For Emma, Forever Ago)
9. Bon Iver - “re: Stacks” (For Emma, Forever Ago)
10. Chris Thile - “The Believer” (Deceiver)
11. mewithoutYou - “The Sun and the Moon” (Brother, Sister)
12. Bon Iver - “The Wolves (Act I and II)” (For Emma, Forever Ago)
13. Vampire Weekend - “Mansard Roof” (Vampire Weekend)
14. Portishead - “Machine Gun” (Third)
15. International Superheroes of Hardcore - “Dirty Mouth” (Tip Of The Iceberg/Takin’ It Ova!)
16. Man Man - “The Ballad of Butter Beans” (Rabbit Habits)
17. Les Savy Fav - “The Sweat Descends” (Inches)

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to working 24/7 and getting the life sucked out of me by tactless people that I still try hard to love.

I’ve been neglecting you. I swear I have stuff to say. I’m just trying to organize my thoughts right now. Maybe I’ll make an attempt at expressing it soon. For now, here’s my monthly playlist for May.

1. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - “All You Do Is Talk” (Baby 81)
2. Of Montreal - “Labyrinthian Pomp” (Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?)
3. Interpol - “NYC” (Turn On The Bright Lights)
4. mewithoutYou - “Paper Hanger” (Catch For Us The Foxes)
5. Anathallo - “Hanasakajijii (Four: A Great Wind, More Ash)” (Floating World)
6. The White Stripes - “Icky Thump” (Icky Thump)
7. Kings Of Leon - “On Call” (Because Of The Times)
8. !!! - “All My Heroes Are Weirdos” (Myth Takes)
9. Grizzly Bear - “Knife” (Yellow House)
10. He Is Legend - “(((louds” (Suck Out The Poison)
11. Devendra Banhart - “Now That I Know” (Cripple Crow)
12. Zozobra - “The Blessing” (Harmonic Tremors)
13. Ray LaMontagne - “Be Here Now” (Till The Sun Turns Black)
14. Grizzly Bear - “Lullabye” (Yellow House)
15. Mono - “a thousand paper cranes” (Walking cloud and deep red sky, Flag fluttered and the sun shined)
16. Neko Case - “Star Witness” (Fox Confessor Brings The Flood)
17. Eightball - “Drama In My Life (feat. Psycho Drama)” (Lost - Chopped and Screwed)
18. Ryan Adams - “The Shadowlands” (Love Is Hell)
19. Neko Case - “That Teenage Feeling” (Fox Confessor Brings The Flood)
20. Ryan Adams - “Hotel Chelsea Nights” (Love Is Hell)

A while back my best friend started keeping a monthly playlist. Any particular song that she felt was a favorite or most-played item was added to this list. The idea is that, at some undefined point in the future, she’ll appreciate being able to go back and see what she was listening to at a particular era of time.

I took the idea and changed the rules to fit me a little better. I create a monthly playlist but it not only contains favorites of the time, but any song that caught my attention (in a good way) during the month, whether or not I really listened to it a huge amount.

So now I’m going to post these on my blog at the end of each month. For this introductory post I’ll post January’s because it’s the first playlist and I need to catch up. February is soon to follow. Oh, a little disclaimer: the songs aren’t sorted in any order other than whatever order they went on the list.

Monthly Playlist - January 2007

1. Band Of Horses - “The Funeral” (Everything All The Time)
2. The Black Keys - “Thickfreakness” (Thickfreakness)
3. Brand New - “Sowing Season (Yeah)” (The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me)
4. Calexico and Iron & Wine - “He Lays In The Reins” (In The Reins)
5. Calexico and Iron & Wine - “Sixteen, Maybe Less” (In The Reins)
6. DragonForce - “Through The Fire And Flames” (Inhuman Rampage)
7. Eluvium - “The Well-Meaning Professor” (An Accidental Memory In The Case Of Death)
8. Fujiya & Miyagi - “Ankle Injuries” (Transparent Things)
9. Fujiya & Miyagi - “Collarbone” (Transparent Things)
10. Gomez - “See The World” (How We Operate)
11. Jeremy Enigk - “Been Here Before” (World Waits)
12. John Mayer - “Slow Dancing In A Burning Room” (Continuum)
13. John Mayer - “Bold As Love” (Continuum)
14. Birdman & Lil Wayne - “Stuntin’ Like My Daddy (Street)” (Like Father Like Son)
15. Neko Case - “Star Witness” (Fox Confessor Brings The Flood)
16. Ratatat - “Wildcat” (Classics)
17. Ray LaMontagne - “Be Here Now” (Till The Sun Turns Black)
18. Regina Spektor - “Fidelity” (Begin To Hope)
19. Ryan Adams - “The Shadowlands” (Love Is Hell)
20. The Crystal Method - “High Roller” (Vegas)
21. The Decemberists - “The Perfect Crime #2″ (The Crane Wife)
22. The Shins - “Phantom Limb” (Wincing The Night Away)
23. Damien Rice - “9 Crimes” (9)
24. Caspian - “Quovis” (You Are The Conductor)
25. Caspian - “Further Up” (You Are The Conductor)
26. Portishead - “Glory Box” (Roseland NYC Live)
27. mewithoutYou - “Carousels” (Catch For Us The Foxes)
28. Explosions In The Sky - “The Only Moment We Were Alone” (The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place)

The final part of my four-part series. The list to end all lists. I present to you the best new albums in 2006.

1. mewithoutYou - Brother, Sister
2. This Will Destroy You - Young Mountain
3. Mew - And The Glass Handed Kites
4. Jeremy Enigk - World Waits
5. Joshua Radin - We Were Here
6. Malajube - Trompe-L’Oeil (US Release)
7. Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time
8. John Mayer - Continuum
9. P.O.S. - Audition
10. Norma Jean - Redeemer
11. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
12. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
13. Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
14. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
15. The Appleseed Cast - Peregrine
16. Damien Rice - 9
17. The Knife - Silent Shout
18. Underoath - Define The Great Line
19. Angels & Airwaves - We Don’t Need To Whisper
20. Muse - Black Holes And Revelations

Well, that’s all folks. I had fun making these lists and you probably hated reading them. Or maybe you found something new to love. If that’s the case, my goal has been met.

Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Keep on discovering.

Part three of four. Of all the music I listened to that was released this year, these are the ones that mattered most.

1. This Will Destroy You - Quiet
2. Jeremy Enigk - Been Here Before
3. mewithoutYou - O, Porcupine
4. This Will Destroy You - The World Is Our ____
5. Mew - An Envoy To The Open Fields
6. mewithoutYou - In A Sweater Poorly Knit
7. Joshua Radin - Sundrenched World
8. mewithoutYou - C-Minor
9. Band Of Horses - The Funeral
10. Sufjan Stevens - Chicago (Acoustic Version)
11. Mew - The Zookeeper’s Boy
12. Thom Yorke - Harrowdown Hill
13. P.O.S. - Half-Cocked Concepts
14. Norma Jean - The End Of All Things Will Be Televised
15. Malajube - Montréal-40ºC
16. Mew - Special
17. The Mars Volta - Viscera Eyes
18. Malajube - Casse-cou
19. P.O.S. - P.O.S. Is Ruining My Life
20. Angels and Airwaves – The Adventure
21. Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
22. The Knife - Silent Shout
23. Jay-Z - Show Me What You Got
24. Angels and Airwaves – Valkyrie Missile
25. John Mayer - Bold As Love
26. Underoath - A Moment Suspended In Time
27. Joshua Radin - Star Mile

And, if by some random chance you happen to have Rhapsody, you can listen to this playlist there.

Part two of four of my evil list-making scheme.

1. Sufjan Stevens
2. Explosions in the Sky
3. mewithoutYou
4. Radiohead
5. The Appleseed Cast
6. Nickel Creek
7. The Dillinger Escape Plan
8. Godspeed You! Black Emperor
9. The Mars Volta
10. A Perfect Circle
11. Andrew Bird
12. MxPx
13. AFI
14. Alison Krauss
15. Project 86
16. Tom Waits
17. Sigur Rós
18. The Faint
19. Chris Thile
20. This Will Destroy You
21. Mew
22. Iron & Wine
23. Coldplay
24. Cloud Cult
25. John Mayer
26. Opeth
27. Joshua Radin
28. Killswitch Engage
29. Incubus
30. Ryan Adams
31. Norma Jean
32. Robert Johnson
33. The Black Keys

Once again, thanks to Last.fm for making this list possible.

Part one of four in my 2006-list-making extravaganza.

1. This Will Destroy You – Young Mountain
2. Cloud Cult – Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus
3. Mew – And The Glass Handed Kites
4. Joshua Radin – We Were Here
5. mewithoutYou – Catch for Us the Foxes
6. Ryan Adams – Love Is Hell
7. Explosions in the Sky – The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place
8. The Three Sounds – Live at the Lighthouse
9. Explosions in the Sky – Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live
10. Jay-Z – The Black Album
11. Band of Horses – Everything All the Time
12. Nickel Creek – Nickel Creek
13. Chasing Victory – I Call This Abandonment
14. Nickel Creek – Why Should the Fire Die?
15. Thom Yorke – The Eraser

Thanks to Last.fm for making this list possible.

Occasionally it’s nice to go through my music collection and highlight the new stuff I’ve discovered that I can’t stop listening to:

• Jeremy Enigk
  Enigk is best known as the front man for Sunny Day Real Estate, but his solo releases, especially his newest, World Waits, are phenomenal. I think I’ve listened to the track Been Here Before a thousand times in the last few weeks (you can download it here).
• …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
  They’re not a new name to most, but their new album goes above and beyond all their previous work, in my opinion. This is probably why I’ll never work for Pitchfork, considering the somewhat negative review they gave So Divided. Check out Wasted State Of Mind on their PureVolume page.
• Dragonforce
  It’s embarrassing to admit how good these guys are, because they are definitely marketing on the irony of being serious about a long-deserted genre of wankeriffic metal rife with dual guitar solos (think The Darkness, but five years later). But those solos… they’re so good…
• Malajube
  This is one band I’m proud to admit I discovered before they were a twinkle in Pitchfork’s eye, thanks to a friend in Canada who gave me a heads-up. It’s almost syrupy sweet at times, and I can’t understand a word of French so I have no clue what they’re singing about, but they’re inexplicably irresistible.
• Mew
  They’re definitely a buzz band right now, but for good reason. Beautiful falsetto vocals with a satisfyingly complex rhythm section. And The Glass Handed Kites is one of my most-played albums of the last few months.
• Tom Waits
  I’ve just recently realized the value of his work. I picked up a copy of Nighthawks At The Diner at Amoeba Music a while back, which has been great for putting me in a happy and relaxed mood. His newest release, Orphans, is impressive, even in its excessive length.
• The Knife
  Dark, dramatic electronica with haunting vocals. I would almost say it borders on goth, but it’s not quite as pessimistic. Apparently their live show is a theatrical jaw-dropper.
• Oh, Sleeper
  I had to throw in some hardcore somewhere, right? The Armored March is a solid Norma Jean-esque metalcore release, and something about the overall sound keeps it from getting boring like so many bands in their genre.
• Ray LaMontagne
  If you like Damien Rice, LaMontagne will be your best friend. ‘Nuff said.
• Sparrows Swarm and Sing
  Mostly instrumental post rock in the vein of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. I actually just heard them for the first time today, but they’re definitely worth a mention.

And here’s a few older favorites that are still topping the charts:

• Explosions In The Sky
• This Will Destroy You
• Godspeed You! Black Emperor
• mewithoutYou
• Cloud Cult
• Sherwood
• P.O.S.
• Damien Rice