Instead

     I think instead of a top-ten year-end list of 2009 albums, I'm going to do one of 2008 albums I now love but managed to miss during 2008.

     Just kidding!

     But if I did, topping the list would be Amanda Palmer's Who Killed Amanda Palmer? I've proclaimed my love for its fierceness of spirit and glorious piano playing several times now, so that's not really news. Second would probably be Windmill's Puddle City, Racing Lights, a gorgeous, piano-driven album of broken relationships and attempts to move on, which I fell deeply in love with back in January. He has a way of tapping into a primal place in the heart.

     Thirdly, I'm becoming quite fond of The Helio Sequence's Keep Your Eyes Ahead. It was on one of Linda's 2008 year-end lists and that should have been enough for me to pick it up right then and there, but I'm kind of slow sometimes. I posted their song "Can't Say No" as an alternate choice for the "Yes" episode of the contrast podcast but didn't really say anything about them.

     Brandon Summers and Benjamin Weikel are a duo from Portland, Oregon and I can't pin down their indie-tronic sound. Sometimes it's layered and has a tendency to soar and be poppy and then other songs are less full and more introspective. The lyrics are wonderful, especially in the track "Lately," which is all about how no, he hasn't thought of you lately, although that's the exact opposite of the truth. I think that and "Can't Say No" are my favorites.

The Helio Sequence--"Keep Your Eyes Ahead" mp3 off  Keep Your Eyes Ahead (buy)

The Helio Sequence--"Can't Say No" mp3 off  Keep Your Eyes Ahead

     They're splitting their time these days between doing a few shows here and there and working on their new album, so hopefully they'll have something new and wonderful for us in 2010.

tags: 2008 music still moving me  

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