Вторник 15 Янв 2008, 22:09

It just occurred to me that I can use Last.fm's cool tracking tools to figure out what I listened to the most last year. So that's what I did, and it turns out to be an interesting hodgepodge of albums I deliberately chose and pieces from well-endowed collections or compilations, whose large number of songs made them low hanging fruit for the randomizer.

20
Benjamin Faust - Start
My son's album should have been much higher, but unfortunately I spent the first half of the year istening to the demos of the album - before it had a title.

19
Talking Heads - The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads
The expanded iTunes version with about a hundred extra tracks. No wonder it showed up here. After 2007 I was left wondering if the Heads ever made any studio albums.

18
Stan Ridgway - Holiday in Dirt
My #1 (and favorite) artist appears for the first time here. The compilation album that does not sound like a compilation album. Everyone else's leftovers should be this good.

17
Fay Lovsky - Origami
She has a great voice. She sings in at least three languages, and can sing anything: pop, sultry jazz, country. She plays the theremin among other things. And she's Dutch. I wonder if she would marry me?

15 tie
Stan Ridgway - The Big Heat
Stan Ridgway - Mosquitos
How appropriate. I couldn't tell you which of these two albums is best.

14
Steve Hackett - Defector
Hackett's best album. I finally caught up with it on CD this year. It was better than I remembered.

13
The Chemical Brothers - Push The Button
I love the Chemicals - and this album was no doubt propelled here because of Hold Tight London, which may be their best moment ever.

12
The Residents - The Commercial Album
One disc, 40 songs, all one minute long. My iPod Shuffle loves this album because at the end of a fill it can cram a couple of songs from this in where few others will fit.

11
Ian Gomm - Summer Holiday
Wonderful power pop. I must've listened to it more than I thought.

10
Stan Ridgway - Anatomy
The highest ranking Ridgway. I realized this year that Anatomy was not the weak album I first thought it to be.

9
Geoffrey Downes - The Light Program
A masterpiece of electronica. Better than anything he did in Asia.

8
The Dandy Warhols - Odditorium or Warlords of Mars
Neo-psychedelia. The Dandies are my favorite band in the world whenever I'm listening to them.

7
Brad Sucks - I Don't Know What I'm Doing
A one man band with no fans. Techno with crunchy guitar. His stuff is great.

6
Rosemary Clooney - The Best of the Concord Years
A 2-disc collection with a huge number of songs. The only thing better is when Clooney sings with Harry James.

4 tie
T-Bone Burnett - Twenty Twenty: The Esssential T-Bone Burnett
Ian Dury and the Blockheads - Do It Yourself
Forty essential tracks? Of course! It's T-Bone Burnett! And the Ian Dury set is one of my top 15.

3
Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
A brilliant record and instant newcomer to my top 15 albums.

2
Robert Johnson - The Complete Recordings
A bit of a surprise. Of all the big compilations I have, this is the one the randomizer liked this year.

1
Cowboys International - Revisited
Only fitting - this is my all-time favorite album.

By the way, I thought about doing this with the Top Twenty tracks as well, but the top ten were all off of my son's album, followed by Hold Tight London. The rest was congested with a couple of other artists like Brad Sucks and Cowboys International. Oh, well. I was always an album listener instead of a song listener anyway.

And by the way, I already have a number one song for 2008: Oh Comely by Neutral Milk Hotel. Since the new year began I've heard it four times already…