Tony's Music Blog

Just a quick rundown of the top five records of June 2005:

• Gavin DeGraw: Chariot (Stripped) This young man has proved me wrong so many times. A good-looking kid with a country-sounding name, you had to tie me down to get me to listen to him. While I was ranting about the hopelessness of his generation, he quitely slipped onto a stool and started playing like he was raised in a cathouse. His first single, "I Don't Wanna Be" slipped by ok, but when I saw him live, playing "Chariot" on Ryan Seacrest's American Top 40, I heard something crack my heart. This double-disc set includes an acoustic remix of the original Chariot-- not quite necessary, but interesting to say the least. The bonus track "Change Gonna Come" tells me that the kid's alright.


• Brian Eno: Another Day on Earth That's right, he's back! The musical wunderkind who's been hiding behind U2's console almost two decades has come out again to release a truly beautiful work. Still, I miss the raucous rock he did in the seventies, so this disc doesn't have the multi-spin appeal of John Cale and his collaboration LP, Wrong Way Up (1990). I am dying to know how he sounded reunited with Roxy Music last spring. Eno is like grass: he's everywhere, yet you don't notice it. "Another Day on Earth" is quite similar-- ubiquitous, yet not ambient nor "Drop." It is a thick sonic tapestry of alien soundscapes, punctuated by profound archetypes. Great for working or sunday mornings.
  


• Various Artists: Motown Remixed I got this album looking for DJ ?estlove, but his credits don't appear anywhere on the iTunes version. I didn't want to like it because somehow it felt like a bastardization of the classics, something like Turner-colored movies. Besides, I already had some club remixes that sounded pretty dynomite. But the quality of some of the tracks made up for it. Michael Jackson's prebubescent voice on "I Want You Back" gives the song more versimilitude than he could ever accomplish after Thriller. Into the summer, this album has become a party staple. Clicking teeth over pederasty at a hand of Spades, reminiscing about the club days, arguing over which version is better than the original, (sorry, there's no improving the Supremes' original "My World Is Empty," but Rick James' {GRHS} "Mary Jane" goes down right nice) this disc is becoming a souvenier of this year.
  


• The Residents: Animal Lover These Lords of the Underground have erupted again for the fourth decade in a row. This release is the one you can play for your mother. "Animal Lover" is the most accessible Residential opus yet. There is very little of the cheesy Tennessee drawl that often raises a guest's eyebrow, suggesting you look for something else to play; there are some magnificent choral treatments, and masterful instumentation that stand with some of the hungriest Residential releases. I am so glad this enigmatic quartet keeps getting stronger and more sophisticated.
  


• Gorrilaz: Demon Days Who are these guys? Well, they ain't Josie & the Pussycats! What a stupendous release--Kick-ass tunes that you can let you kiddies listen to. Great stuff, 'nuff said.
  

Best Single, Spring 2005: "Undone" by Todd Deatherage and The Sixes. Great straight-ahead Hard Pop. Trampoline says the song "unfolds like the perfect theme music to the next big sitcom." I suppose that means Todd's got great commercial potential. To me, he just makes me feel like The Smithereens used to.

Got your own favorites? Please comment and let everyone know what your favorite albums of the month are.