Below, are Bob Fish’s end-of-year Top 10 Albums which he has listed in numerical order starting with Number Ten:
10. Trippers & Askers: Acorn
With a name that comes from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” comes Tripper & Askers album Acorn. Based on a novel by Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower, Jay Hammond’s collective created something groundbreaking and unexpected, a tale of a society in collapse except for the super-rich (sound familiar?). The story of a new society unfolding plays out against striking instrumentation. Trippers and Askers Acorn is more than the tale of a new start, it becomes a pathway to revolutionary ways of thinking and communicating.
9. Heisk: Heisk
With an untraditional approach to traditional folk forms, Heisk prefer the disco to more traditional folk dancefloors. These six ladies have given their music an electricity while using instruments not often found on disco dancefloors. They mix speed and style to create the kind of moments that have you straining to keep up with them using both original and traditional songs. This is an audacious beginning to what will hopefully be a long career.
8. Crys Matthews: Changemakers
What makes Crys Matthews LP Changemakers so compelling is the sense of positivity that resides in every note. It’s no longer enough to simply talk about change, making it actually happen requires understanding that change comes when justice, hope and love intersect with a renewed ability to understand what is possible. Even in the moments when it would seem to be in short supply, Matthews understands being positive is the only way to fight against those who would use negativity to divide us. Standing up for hope is the only way to bring about true change.
7. Spencer Cullum: Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection
Transforming how one looks at the pedal steel guitar, Spencer Cullum has taken an instrument associated with America’s south and placed it in contexts one would never expect. Along the way, he has created a work of art that shines so brightly because he doesn’t feel any need to simply repeat the past. Incorporating jazz, Teutonic rock, along with sounds that wouldn’t be out of place on an album by the Incredible String Band is no easy trick, yet he does that and so much more. Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection recreates musical genres in the most delightfully unexpected ways.
6. Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird: These 13
Mathus and Bird are both driven by a need to create music that while sounding old is as new as today’s headlines, These 13 is another example of that. Using just guitar and a violin they have created what sounds like an album of traditional material. However, the material is all newly minted, illustrating how well these two understand musical forms and are able to subvert them in the most enticing ways. While they have the scholarly understanding necessary to play old-time music, rather than being tied to traditions, Mathus and Bird find ways to reinvent them.
5. Matt Sweeney & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy: Superwolves
The 16 years that have passed between Superwolf and Superwolves fades away in an instant. These two old friends immediately reconnect, making the sort of music that creates waves and takes no prisoners. With a guest list that includes Tuareg guitar virtuoso Mdou Moctar, and songs that challenge while they charge, Will Oldham and Matt Sweeney make the most of every moment. On “God Is Waiting” Oldham sings of a dying woman who takes on the deity in charge, “But I’m not waiting, no/ Not waiting anymore/ God can fuck herself/ And it does, hardcore.” Hopefully, the next volume by Matt Sweeney & Bonnie ‘Prince” won’t take quite so long.
4. The Weather Station: Ignorance
Tamara Lindeman played with notions on how to make Ignorance. Instead of writing on her natural instrument – guitar, everything got written on keyboards. Throwing out the rule book, her rhythm section plays things straight while the rest improvise freely. Inspired, she looks at a world that no longer makes sense. Filled with planetary concerns, Ignorance can also be taken on a personal level. Dealing with heart and soul, two commodities in short supply, The Weather Station makes it clear that ignorance is no longer an excuse.
3. Devin Hoff – Voices from the Empty Moor (Songs of Anne Briggs)
Devin Hoff had his life change when he heard the songs of Anne Briggs. Following thousands of hours of listening, he finally began to recreate them. This may seem like something of a strange notion for a bass player, but those notions are usually the ones that lead to the moments of greatest clarity. Voices from the Empty Moor (Songs of Anne Briggs) may have been recorded remotely, but the sessions created some of the best music you will hear this year or any year. That it took an American from Colorado to give Voices from the Empty Moor (Songs of Anne Briggs) the kind of radical reassessment that brings these songs to life in the 21st century is a tribute to the power of these songs.
2. Fruit Bats: The Pet Parade
As one-third of Bonny Light Horseman, Eric D. Johnson knew he had more work to do with bandmate and producer Josh Kaufman. Johnson weaves a web of sepia-toned tunes, creating a rich tapestry that has as much to do with influences like Van Morrison as it does with looking back at the 4th of July pet parades that were a part of growing up in Lombard, Illinois. With this album, Johnson’s Fruit Bats creates moments filled with the glory of a world where you have an opportunity to find your own place.
Album Review | Interview | Bandcamp
1. Steve Gunn: Other You
There is a dichotomy to Steve Gunn, the acoustic guitar player whose sense of taste and style is impeccable, and the guitar slinger whose solos in exotic tunings can leave you stunned and awed. Other You merges both these worlds in ways that have you going back again and again to hear everything that you missed. Especially telling is the one instrumental track, “Sugar Kiss,” where playing with Mary Lattimore his guitar matches the ethereal bliss of her harp. That he finds so many modes of expression while leaving the listener thinking that not so much has actually gone on is little short of amazing. Listen again and you are blown away by everything you missed. Steve Gunn’s sonic assault on Other You leaves one breathless.