Draw.Us.Lines Blog: Top Ten Records You May Have Missed
Draw Us Lines By Pat Driscoll
As blogosphere music geeks, we are all, myself included, prone to fits of indie snobbery. It’s just the way it goes, but sometimes said snobbery ensures that we’ll miss some pretty great records oftentimes based on an artist’s name alone. In the same way a film snob might dismiss a movie as awesome as, say, Point Break (dating myself much?), one of us indie snobs may turn our nose at the mere thought of listening to a new record by John Mellencamp. This is where I come in. I’m here to make it all a bit easier by presenting the ten best records you may have missed while you were listening to Crystal Castles. The list varies in stripe from some great country records, some records you may have thought was more suited for you dad and some records that just got slept on for one reason or another – but all ten are worth your time as I have spent much of mine on each one.
7.) John Mellencamp – No Better Than This
I can’t explain it either, guys but here it is. I loved this record. Absolutely loved it. And I’m not even a Mellencamp guy. I am, however, a T. Bone Burnett guy and he’s a real star here. He and Mellencamp recorded these songs in mono into a single microphone which captured the whole band at once. As a result, you can kind of hear these songs live and breathe. Yes, it’s old fashioned and a bit precious but at the same time, it’s also kind of new all over again. There’s no mistaking it either. No Better Than This just sounds different from any other record released this year and “Coming Down the Road”, “No One Cares About Me” and “Love At First Sight” as is good a three song run on a record this year.
As blogosphere music geeks, we are all, myself included, prone to fits of indie snobbery. It’s just the way it goes, but sometimes said snobbery ensures that we’ll miss some pretty great records oftentimes based on an artist’s name alone. In the same way a film snob might dismiss a movie as awesome as, say, Point Break (dating myself much?), one of us indie snobs may turn our nose at the mere thought of listening to a new record by John Mellencamp. This is where I come in. I’m here to make it all a bit easier by presenting the ten best records you may have missed while you were listening to Crystal Castles. The list varies in stripe from some great country records, some records you may have thought was more suited for you dad and some records that just got slept on for one reason or another – but all ten are worth your time as I have spent much of mine on each one.
7.) John Mellencamp – No Better Than This
I can’t explain it either, guys but here it is. I loved this record. Absolutely loved it. And I’m not even a Mellencamp guy. I am, however, a T. Bone Burnett guy and he’s a real star here. He and Mellencamp recorded these songs in mono into a single microphone which captured the whole band at once. As a result, you can kind of hear these songs live and breathe. Yes, it’s old fashioned and a bit precious but at the same time, it’s also kind of new all over again. There’s no mistaking it either. No Better Than This just sounds different from any other record released this year and “Coming Down the Road”, “No One Cares About Me” and “Love At First Sight” as is good a three song run on a record this year.