3. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwa). Another largely acoustic gem this past year. Justin Vernon goes into the Wisconsin woods to “rout all that was not life and reduce it to its lowest terms,” and like Thoreau, emerges with something spare, haunting, and profound. Like fellow indie Americana torchbearers Fleet Foxes, Vernon sometimes resembles his 90s forebear Palace and their lead singer Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy), and before them, perhaps even Crosby, Stills, and Nash.
Acoustic guitar dominates, but moving horn complements and vocal harmonies also lace the album and Vernon’s peculiar and slightly doleful falsetto. Lyrically? “When your money's gone/And you're drunk as hell/On your back with your racks as the stacks as your load/In the back and the racks and the stacks are your load.” Indeed.
4. Fleet floxes, Fleet Foxes (Subpop). This Seattle quintet seduced critics near and far with a tremendous first album sampling multiple genres of folk, country, and pop in a highly textured sound. While every instrumental detail is essential, that sound is ultimately one that privileges vocals, and songwriter Robin Pecknold’s acapella harmonies are as goosebump-worthy as the varied landscapes and emotions the rich lyrics evoke. Again, Crosby, Stills, Nash and (certainly) Young haunt this music. In a song like “Your Protector” or “Blue Ridge Mountains” one has the sense of riding on the range, faint poundings of native American drums and howling wolves in the distance; stopping to light a fire; grabbling one’s guitar. Bon Iver, you are not alone.
5. Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal (Back Porch). Like former fellow Bloodshot alt.country artists Jon Langford and the Waco Brothers, Alejandro Escovedo’s musical rite of passage was in 80s punk. Unlike aforementioned genre-benders, Escovedo negotiated his punk legacy by cultivating a sensitive songwriter side heavily indebted to a discovery of honkytonk and outlaw country, while inevitably retaining hist Tex-Mex roots, ably shifting from song to song something more resembling his early years with the True Believers and the Nuns. His struggle with Hepatitus-C has only enhanced his songwriting content and his existential if sometimes very personal psychic musings. 2008’s Real Animal shows him at his best, giving us Bo Diddley and Iggy Pop reminiscent anthems like “Chip n Tony” and the title track “Real as an Animal,” swinging country blues like “People (We’re Only Gonna Live So Long),” and tender, violin-buffered ballads like “Slow Down.”
6. Okkervil River, The Stand Ins (Jagjaguwar). Already established as orchestral popsmiths with their last album, The Stage Names (itself a staple on last year’s “best of” lists), OR met the pressure for a solid followup. One of a handful of artists that can plumb the various depths of human experience in their lyrics and meet that effort note for note in their instrumental compositions. “La, la, las” meet horns, tambourines, nimble piano, and Strokes-like syncopated pop chords—perfect with your morning coffee, or meditations from the bridge.
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