Summer of Fear

Might be the best album I've heard all year

     

God, the ambition of this album! A gorgeous sprawling, beautiful cumulus. Even some of the cliches and messy parts are endearing because this album so honestly strives to be great. It's so antecedent rich: It is part Bruce Springsteen's lyrical quirkiness and obsessive alliteration on 'Ashbury Park', part Elvis Costello's vocal mannerisms, part darkly-tinged atmosphere of Counting Crows' 'August & Everything' -- and the horns are straight out of Van Morrison's 'Moondance' album. MBAR has Tom Petty's effortless ability to rock out with nonchalant swagger, the fuzz of the Velvet Underground, U2's guitar crecendoes, early Bowie idiosyncracy -- with the inventiveness of Bob Dylan's 'Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.' (Seriously, just listen to 'More Than a Mess.') It's a really dizzying album to listen to, as it goes scortched-earth over the modern musical landscape. It might be the best album I've heard in 2009.