My Jerusalem - Preachers (2012)

Maybe a whole new brew of “cosmic American music,” incorporating strains that didn’t yet exist back when Gram Parsons was first coining the term. I hear the expected melodic folk and rootsy Americana in this soup, but they’re boiling in a mishmash with the smooth gloom of 80s goth and the noisy clamor of 90s alt.rock. That’s a gumbo I ain’t never even smelled before, let alone tasted. Their debut last year was similarly schizo, but nowhere near so clearly the work of a single artistic vision (possible kudos to the production of Spoon’s Jim Eno, but probably more to do with the simple math of time x distance), and that makes all the difference.

My Jerusalem on Amazon

Ian Hunter - When I'm President (2012)

In a year that tossed accolades at the geriatric set, further lionizing the likes of Neil, Bruce, Van, and (that charlatan of charlatans) Dylan, the one old guy who truly delivered has been roundly ignored. Hunter is over 70 years old, and here he’s put out the album I would’ve hoped the Stones to make as a follow-up to Exile. Profound, pissed off, and still plugged in to the r’n’r source, he also benefits from having an actual touring band rather than an assemblage of session musos. They don’t simply back him up, they step on his toes and elbow for space. Hunter’s Achilles Heel remains his penchant for the same tune-challenged ballad he’s been writing since “Trudy’s Song” derailed The Hoople (although his apparent insistence on hideous album covers is perhaps an even bigger weakness), but he keeps those moments down to a minimum, instead concentrating on the kind of surging rockers he’d mostly abandoned after Mick Ronson tragically skipped out on his mortal coil. Easily his best since ’78.

Ian Hunter & the Rant Band on Amazon

Foxy Shazam - Church of Rock and Roll (2012)

I didn’t know how to take this at first, then realized that’s a function of the band’s genius. Lead singer Eric Nally is equal parts Freddy Mercury and Andy Kaufman, and in concert the band behind him is capable of the kind of clowning that can upstage their frontman at any given moment, but on record the obvious weapon is the songwriting. As well as these guys can play (in at least two definitions of the word), they also manage to write songs brimming with hooks, intelligence, power, sensitivity, vulgarity and outright weirdness, each one better than the last, and all polished to a professional sheen. I can stand back and laugh at it all from a distance of detached irony, or I can get sucked into the moment, helpless to resist the pop drama in every 3 minute over-the-top opera they concoct. Either and both. Genius.

Foxy Shazam on Amazon

Blackfoot Gypsies - On The Loose (2012)

Don’t look here for anyone re-inventing the wheel. Instead, it’s all about looking at that worn-out old radial and realizing what a miracle of perfection that simple shape represents. This is yet another guitar ‘n’ drums duo, a configuration that has been abused a fair amount since you-know-who (White) and you-know-what (Black), but Blackfoot Gypsies mostly stay away from blooze and instead stick to rollicking party R&B, sounding a whole lot like ’65 Dylan fronting ’65 Stones (although occasionally breaking out the Ronnie Lane “Ooh La La”-style ballad). Yeah, you’ve heard it before, but you’ve also seen the hero’s journey a million times before and yet you’re still gonna line up for that next super hero flick at the multiplex, arncha? Some things are just part of human DNA. Might as well appreciate it when it’s done right.

Blackfoot Gypsies on Bandcamp

The Pilgrims - It's Not Pretty (2012)

Roughly a zillion bands have worshipped at the stained altar of the Replacements in the last couple decades, and maybe five of them have even come close to matching the glory of their ragged idols. It’s the contradictory vectors that give most bands (and casual fans) the trouble, because the ‘Mats simultaneously distrusted success even while they held ambitions of immortality. The Pilgrims somewhat miraculously contain that same magic dichotomy. It’s Not Pretty sounds like it took as long to record as it took the band to run through a first take, and at the same time it sounds like a buncha guys putting it all on the line, reaching for the moon and stars, and taking a shot at greatness. For anyone who still believes in that stuff of old dreams, it’s like getting a hit from a defibrillator.

The Pilgrims on Bandcamp

Wanderlust - Record Time (2012)

One of the 90s most criminally neglected bands (although that’s a long list) reunited for this master class on power pop. First single “Lou Reed” is perfection manifest; a muscular riff gives way to a plaintive verse that builds to a soaring chorus, and by the time of the final fade-out all you wanna hear next is this same song all over again. That fact that almost every song on the album comes close to a similar quality pretty much ensures that Wanderlust will be included on that even longer list of criminally neglected bands in the ‘10s.

Wanderlust on Amazon

Pat Todd & the Rankoutsiders - Outskirts of Your Heart (2007)

Ex-mainman of the Lazy Cowgirls Pat Todd released this opus to little or no fanfare. Two discs and 28 songs, ranging from sparse folk to the raging garage punk that the Cowgirls excelled at. Todd has a way of melding every style of Americana into a glorious, decadent whole and the guitar leads come straight out of the tradition of Johnny Thunders, which is to say they shouldercheck the rest of the band out the way and fight for space. This is a sprawling, messy, warts'n'all masterpiece about crushed dreams and the loss of youth, and it joins Bob Forrest's You Come and Go Like a Pop Song (released under the band name the Bicycle Thief) as one of the most profoundly personal releases of its decade.

Outskirts of Your Heart on Amazon