I spent Saturday and Sunday driving across the country in my new 08 mercury Mariner. In anticipation of the drive I bought 10 new Cds, 9 of which belonged to bands I had never heard. I listened to Each CD exactly twice. Oh, and in case you were wondering,  I picked 7 of these CD's by reading Pitchfork's top 50 for 2009.  This year I had only discovered 1 of the 50 on 'my own', I preserving  my indy credentials by a thread.

TV on the Radio. Dear Science.
This is the one CD by an artist I was familiar with, and it is clearly their best work. A perfect synthesis of the immediacy of Desperate Youth and the challenge of Cookie Mountain. This is the must have CD of the three for anyone with a modicum of patience (It won't take much, but some people with short attention spans may need a heady dose of Staring at the Sun, off their First CD before plunging into this)

the XX, eponymous
Not having the perfect sound system, and also due to the call and response duet format in a lot of the songs I questioned this bands depths after the first listen.  Oh, I enjoyed it, and I enjoyed it even more the second time around, but I was feeling a little guilty.    It's something like that Jesus and Mary Chain song that featuring Mazzy Star. Rememebr that song? Come on, I think it was called. It was good right?  This is like that but with sultry beats throughout.  I listen to this last night on my stereo and I can't imagine someone not liking this. Compared to almost everything else I bought for the trip its very simple and light, but that's everyone else's problem, not theirs.

Animal Collective. Merriweather Post Pavillion.
If it weren't pitchfork's album  of the year I'd call it Shins on Avery Island and move on. Oh, I'd keep listening to it, when noone was looking, in hopes all the flourish and layers might crystallize into something more triumphant, because as it stands now, it's giving me very little to get behind. (And you thought Shins + Neutral milk = good review?   I should clarify that I was referring to the bad parts of that band and that album). We'll see, it's probably a great album and this time next year I'll proclaim it the new OK Computer.

Grizzly Bear.  Veckatimest.
Like Animal Collective, this guys are a bit too precious. They are slightly more linear, especially when they get all pastoral, like on the opening track Southern Point. And were my last four years only ventures into indy music not Fleet Foxes, Midlake, and Tallest Man on Earth, I'd be more impressed with that song.  Still,  I'm looking at Grizzly Bear as the gateway band for Animal Collective, although I am convinced yet by neither.    Somewhere between Nashville and Chattanooga I worked on an analogy of using one beer bottle to open another but I couldn't make it work... you try

Mos Def. ecstatic.
His Quiet Dog bite Hard is my official theme song for this ski season.  It was the song of the drive. I don't listen to a lot of rap, so I can't relate this album to much... Slick Rick makes an appearance, which was cool.  Most rap albums seem uneven to me, and this is no exception, but I find Mighty Mos compelling.

Pains of Being Pure of Heart. Eponymous
You can taste the early nineties pop wafting off of the New Yorkers.... Once I tuned the stereo to balance out the washed out tinny production on my CD (It could be my ipod connection) I started to appreciate that these guys sounded like bands I knew, but whose names I probably never learned.  It's melodic pop...circa My Bloody valentine?  Yeah, you knew of them, but who can say what they sang?  Given the only vague familiarity I have with the source material (Ride?), these guys are are going to have lots of aural room to manuever.  I need to listen to it with headphones though.

Anthony and the Johnsons. The Crying Light.
The perfect album for environmentalists who like Buckley's Lilac Wine and his Edith Piaf impressions. That's not fair though, because as quick as I am to flush an artist  for purveying cheap environmental sentiment, these guys aren't cheap in any way. (The score now is 2.5 to 345,342 with bright eyes and cowboy junkies providing the other 1.5 points)). So yeah, it's chamber pop.  A guy in a gayed out falsetto singing over a spare orchestra about the environment. And you like it.  I did, anyhow, by the second listen. Well, it's good, else can I say.  I wish it weren't?

James Mcmutry. Life at the Aught/
I spent the 8 hours between listens coming up with a bunch of mean things to say about this album.  And then I realized I was doing what Rich always does with bands not Named Dave Mathews: making stoopid comparisons against my idol. So yeah, lyrically, he's not townes. He's not John Prine or Guy Clark, or Mike West either. That second list makes for better comparisons anyway since they all rely heavily on humor, as does James.  But James actually sounds more like Alejandro Escavedo, in that the music is at least as important as the lyrics as the mood, and it's made for the bar crowd.  And I'll go ahead and say that musically, this guy is more consistent than all those others.  The band kicks ass, and I wish I was at the show.    but yeah, he gets too complacent with the lyrics on some songs.... I had to say it.

Phoenix. WolfGang Amadeus Phoenix
Easily the most accessible of the bunch,save maybe The xx. I found myself clapping along, or thumping parts of the car on even the first listen. They're French, but what are you going to do. It's pop, it's catchy, its got a lot going on.  If the drive were a contest, these guys won it.

Yo-Yo Mah; Unaccompanied Bach Concertos
I dont' think I am in love with unaccompanied cello concertos, period.   The guys is good, and I listened to his Christmas album, and that little bit of familiarity was all it took to make me enjoy that album. But this album, in my situation, was suboptimal. I'll need to listen to it a few more times, in the background hopefully, before I can find something to latch on to.