Jack Rabid’s Top Ten — February 24

by Jack Rabid
24 February 2008

1. R.E.M – Accelerate (Warner Bros.)

   Who expected them to make an LP in the Document or Green mode? They haven’t sounded this energetic in years.

2. Various Artists – One Kiss Can Lead to Another; Girl Group Sounds, Lost and Found four CD box set (Rhino/WEA)

   This knockout 120-song collection (with 200 page book), would be the ultimate female-singing guide to the inexhaustible 1960s if they’d secured the rights to the catalogs of Motown, Stax, and the various PHIL SPECTOR-aligned acts, etc. That said, it’s hard to imagine who they neglected otherwise, and even to those of us who have eating up this sound all our lives, a good half of these tracks will be unknown or barely remembered and unlikely to be in your collection. Which makes it the blockbuster box set of 2006, hands down! Go wild for the girls!

3. Robert Forster – The Evangelist (Yep Roc)

   Beautiful and wistful and inspired solo LP by a guy likely reacting to the sad death of his longtime GO-BETWEENS partner GRANT MCLENNAN

4. American Music Club – The Golden Age (Merge)

   A new lineup and a surprisingly mellow record, but still fantastic stuff.

5. Max Romeo and the Upsetters – War ina Babylon (Hip-O/UNI)

   Thank you, JEFF KELSON, for the tip on this fabulous ‘70s reggae star. Once “I Chase the Devil” from this 1976 classic gets its hooks in you, you’ll never stop playing it.

6. Nada Surf – Lucky (Barsuk)

   While hardly a departure from their last two great LPs, this Brooklyn trio deliver the goods once again for melodic, breezy, fulsome indie pop.

7. The Effigies – Reside (Criminal IQ)

   This Chicago punk-turned-post-punk band’s also revived 1980s-punk/indie era contemporaries have already proven that bands could regain bygone inspiration on LP in the ‘00s. But by picking up on 1986, not 1981, thus seizing their own post-punk thread never continued, The Effigies have no modern stylistic peers. And like Ink, it will take several plays before the layers of _Reside_’s smarts and subtleties become as apparent as its strident authority.

8. Band of Horses – Cease to Exist (Sub Pop)

   Yes, they remind me of THE SHINS and I don’t care. Good is good.

9. The Libertines – Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 (Libertines Music)

   Just for the monumental opener, “Bad Memories Burn,” from 1988’s overwhelming Tilt-a-Whirl, the sardonically but in-truth-accurately-titled Greatest would be a must. That 20 other flavors of its awesome blueprint follow, is enough to crown this collective the great unknown band of their time; that Greatest is fittingly dedicated to my late pal BEN VOSS, whose tragic 1999 loss to leukemia remains haunting, and whose dream it was to release this collection himself, makes its arrival smell like 4000 marigolds. Best $13 you’ll spend all year.

10. Antietam – Opus Mixtum double CD (Carrot Top)

    Nice comeback from these still-going ‘80s vets, full of chunky guitars and keyboards from the underrated TARA KEY. They don’t make LPs often, so this is always a welcome sight.