Artist Opinion: Daniel Werb of Woodhands
Woodhands frontman Daniel Werb gives us his top albums of the decade.
Jay-Z – The Blueprint - I love hip hop. All the music that I make is made from hip hop. The thing I love the most is the swagger – the way that great MCs work around a song, and not just through one. I’m always amazed when I hear an MC doing that: it’s as if the song is entirely peripheral to the energy, the throwaway vocal percussion, the overdubs. I could’ve chosen a dozen great hip hop albums of the last decade, but The Blueprint stands out for me because of Jay’s swagger, the effortlessness, and the amazing production. I always go back to this album when I’m trying to remember what it is that makes a song or a concert fun.
Vitalic – OK Cowboy - I rang in the Naughts with a phase of only listening to Kraftwerk. I hadn’t ever listened to electronic music before (not intentionally, at least), and I couldn’t get over how ahead of it’s time Man/Machine was. But then I discovered the French electro producer Vitalic, whose album OK Cowboy is one of the most moving, emotional and hard-hitting electronic albums I’ve ever heard. The range of moods is striking, and the almost complete lack of vocals lets you lose yourself in this album in a way that I find rare in most electronic music. At it’s best, like the songs Trahison and The Past, Vitalic pulls at your heart and gets the adrenaline coursing all at the same time. Complex and sublime.
Destroyer – Your Blues - Dan Bejar is on a whole other trip, and the rest of the world is just trying to catch up. What a treat that we are privy to his continual evolution as one of the world’s most interesting songwriters. Never afraid to try something new, Your Blues sees the guitar hero set aside his strings for some perfectly retro synths, judicious sequences, while continuing to write songs about…everything? Your Blues is as lyrically indecipherable and complex as his other outings, but there’s something about the synths that it makes it a little lighter, a little cleaner, and a little more fun.
Hot Chip – Made in the Dark - Hot Chip is the best band in the world. Flat out. And this is their best record. And, while we’re on the topic of ‘bests’, Ready for the Floor might just be the best pop song of the last decade too. It would be doing a disservice to call this a dance album: rather, it’s a wide-ranging, eclectic, and emotional record that somehow fits together while defying every convention of the genre.
A Band of Bees – Free the Bees - If it’s not already clear, I don’t naturally gravitate towards rock music. There’s definitely a part of me that doesn’t quite get what all the fuss is about. Maybe that’s why I love A Band of Bees so much: sure, they make rock music, but there’s a light touch to it, and a classic feel in the production, songwriting, and arrangements that makes it feel like you’re listening to something that’s just been unearthed from the same vault that’s holding the entire Kinks discography. Throughout, Free the Bees sounds unadulterated and live off the floor, and there’s warmth to the record that I find sorely lacking in a lot of contemporary rock. Also, Chicken Payback is right up there with Andre 3000’s Hey Yeah! as most fun song of the decade.
Posted by Wes Soltis on Jan 07, 2010 @ 9:10 am
