Record Library Fun

Another Friday afternoon in the record library. Some of you may be excited to know that we added a portrait of Nigel Young to the rotation of images on the iMac desktop in there. We also listened to a very well-done 90 minutes of radio devoted to Mariah Carey.

Nick showed me that the Eddytor's Dozen column at the Village Voice has links to MP3s, which is nice.

Adam got us started on a discussion of the best album of the year so far, which eventually devolved into a philosophical debate. Lizzie was with me on Antony and the Johnsons. Adam picked LCD Soundsystem, I think, which I might agree with if you include the bonus singles disc. I liked the Caribou album a lot the first time through, but I haven't listened to it again, so I don't know. There's also a list that I haven't heard, but could be in contention: Justus Köhncke, MIA, and Keith Fullerton Whitman.

I never really tried to figure this out for 2004, but I'd probably include the Arcade Fire, Death from Above 1979, Devendra Banhart's Rejoicing in the Hands, The Futureheads, Jason Forrest, Juana Molina, Junior Boys, Loscil, M83, Panda Bear, Ratatat, and The Streets. If forced to, I would probably say that the Arcade Fire was number one, but I'd rather not be forced to make such a decision.

I'll be doing a radio show tonight at 10, and somehow my randomized list of "New Singles", or non-album tracks with a play count of zero, has generated a perfect show so far. I'm pretty sure that this will be the end of it, at 8 tracks and 34 minutes, because the Mountain Goats should probably never follow Mouse on Mars, even if it's a Mountain Goats remix.