California Love #4: The Decemberists > Los Angeles, I'm Yours

Hey hey, kids! I'm off to beautiful LA this weekend. I leave you with this gem, It's an ode to the City of Angels, which pretty much speaks for itself. See you later...

There is a city by the sea
A gentle company
I don't suppose you want to?

And as it tells its sorry tale
In harrowing detail
Its hollowness will haunt you

Its streets and boulevards,
Orphans, and oligarchs
And here's a plaintive melody
A truncated symphony
An ocean's garbled vomit on the shore:
Los Angeles, I'm yours

O ladies, pleasant and demure
Sallow cheek'd and sure
(I can see your undies)
And all the boys you drag about
An empty, fallow fount
From Saturdays to Mondays

You hill and valley crowd
Hanging your trousers down at heel
This is the realest thing
As anchient choirs sing
A dozen blushing cherubs wheel above
Los Angeles, my love

O, what a rush of ripe elan!
Languor on divans
Dalliance and dainty!

But the smell of burnt cocaine,
The dolour and decay
It only makes me cranky

O, great calamity
Dish of inequity and tears
How I abhor this place!
Its sweet and bitter taste
Has left me wretched, retching on all fours

Los Angeles, I'm yours
Los Angeles, I'm yours
Los Angeles, I'm yours

The Decemberists > Los Angeles, I'm Yours

This Year's Favorites...

(in this order, sorta...)

1. Asobi Seksu >> Citrus
2. Neko Case >> Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
3. Band of Horses >> Everything All The Time
4. Mogwai >> Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait
5. Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins >> Rabbit Fur Coat
6. Joanna Newsom >> Ys
7. Camera Obscura >> Let's Get Out of This Country
8. The Radio Dept >> Pet Grief
9. The Decemberists >> The Crane Wife
10. Cat Power >> The Greatest
    
11. Sparklehorse >> Dreamt For Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain
12. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan >> Ballad of the Broken Seas
13. Tom Waits >> Orphans
    

I didn't really get much new music this year, or at least it didn't feel like I did...but this is what I liked. Fairly predictable, if you know me, but there it is. I'm sure there's tons of stuff that I should be listening to, as well, so I'm open to any recommendations.

I have to say, after a so-so (to put it politely) debut a couple years ago, the Asobi Seksu album came out of nowhere and absolutely floored me. I mean, I was expecting nothing but greatness from Neko Case, but the way AS took me by surprise is the reason I placed it at number one.

Band of Horses took me by surprise, as well. I had read that they were a couple guys who used to be in Carissa's Wierd (sic), whom I really love. So I picked up the BoH album, not really knowing what to expect, and ended up with a wonderful album. I got to see them live, and they sounded fucking great.

I keep using the word, surprise, but it applies to the Jenny Lewis album as well. I'm not a huge Rilo Kiley fan, but I do enjoy their work. Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins caught me off guard with its...simplicity, I guess is the right word. The album is really charming and only gets better with repeated listens.

The Zidane album, to me, is a big improvement over Mr. Beast. I love the quiet beauty within. It's very subtle and understated. Don't get me wrong, I love the noise and fuzz as much as anyone else, but I love the opposite end of the spectrum as well.

**EDIT** I just realized I forgot to throw in Tom Waits' Orphans, even though I haven't listened to all of it. It's three discs long, but c'mon, it's Tom Waits. He's the man, okay?