Results tagged “theglowingcity”

While the steady hand of democracy steers most end-of-year best of lists towards not only the very good but also the very well known, we here at the Austinist feels it's important to give a little face time to the lesser knowns, especially now that 2009 has closed the door on that last year that happened, whatever it was called. So while we were plenty pleased with our own official list, we thought it important to take note of those albums that shook us this year, even if they didn't make it through the primaries--let's consider them the Dennis Kuciniches and Mike Gravels of the race, if only those guys were any good. As a result, this list is unnumbered, obscure, sometimes strange, and features those underexposed greats that shouldn't be forgotten even though the calendar's turned.

We thought Bright Blue Dream was the main course, but it was really just an appetizer – Sunset’s pu-pu platter, the tasty lead-up to the onslaught of almond or orange chickens and tofu surprise. Could we have predicted that just a few months after unleashing Bright Blue Dream into the world that a follow-up was hot on its heels? Sure. Bill Baird, the moody progenitor of Sunset’s tunes, has been known to record and release albums with a reckless abandon that crawls closer to Ryan Adams’ near-endless output every day. Before Bright Blue Dream came Sunset’s Pink Clouds cassette release, and even that followed two discs in 2006 (recorded as Bill Baird’s Sunset, or something similar). And so, to quote Sunset’s label Autobus records, “the song cycle continues,” with eighteen(!) more expertly produced, carefully crafted studio art-pop tracks.