32. Thao With The Get Down Stay Down – Know Better Learn Faster
Andy: Unranked :: Dave: 20
Recently, a good friend was telling me how much he liked a song we had posted from Thao with The Get Down Stay Down on this here blog. I told him that particular song wasn’t even my favorite off of the record it was released on. That honor went to one of my favorite songs of last year entirely, Beat (Health, Life and Fire ). I advised him the entire record was worth his while to check out. This little exchange illustrated to me the value of music blogs, however fleeting, in that songs/bands are revealed to people when they may not have heard of them otherwise. This is no new revelation, but every once in a while a situation like that occurs and justifies why I enjoy writing about music so much.
While none of the individual songs on 2009′s follow up quite reach that same level of excellence for me, the album as a whole perhaps reaches a little higher. The material is focused on the ever most popular of topics, the breakup, yet these songs are playful and accessible, with coy, though intelligent lyrics. That Thao has grown up is apparent in the increasingly mature and intimate lyrics and there is no lack of catchy and impressive hooks in this collection of diverse and eclectic sounds. It’s a shame more people haven’t read our blog (tongue in cheek) and subsequently given her music a chance yet.
Thao with The Get Down Stay Down – Know Better Learn Faster (mp3) from Know Better Learn Faster
31. Brazos – Phosphorecent Blues
Andy: 18 :: Dave: Unranked
You know when you’ve found something so good that you have an innate need to share it with everyone you know – regardless of whether they will actually be intrigued by what you’ve found? That’s Brazos’ 2009 release Phosphorescent Blues for me. It’s a dusty, handclaps-and-stomps album, punctuated by the indie snap of the drums and Martin Crane’s mournful voice.
Phosphorescent Blues unfolds itself at it’s own pace, tells you stories you want to hear again and again. Not unlike the river from which the band derives its name, the music ebbs and flows, smoothes over the rough parts, and washes the listener clean. Each song had valid reason to be posted as representative. This is an album with depth and width and height, all-encompassing, and if it had been released earlier in the year, it would have almost certainly found itself higher on this list.
Brazos – Tell (mp3) from Phosphorescent Blues
![grover cleveland picture [mp3] Happy Labor Day!](http://www.visitingdc.com/images/grover-cleveland-picture.jpg "[mp3] Happy Labor Day!")
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![[mp3] Happy Labor Day!](http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=tympanogram-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0012615QO "[mp3] Happy Labor Day!"){kind=small}
This track from 2008’s We Brave Bee Stings and All has been bouncing around in my head for the last couple of weeks. I didn’t give Ms. Nguyen much of a listen last year, despite the fact that her album ended up on a lot of Best of the Year-type lists. And to be fair, I still haven’t given the whole thing its fair shake.
