Momar's End of the Year List

I will post my own in a minute but my cat Momar's is so short that I thought I'd just post it quickly here. He only liked two albums this year, which stands in stark contrast to the omnibus list I plan on posting if I ever get around to it. This was a rad year for my ears, but Momar turned his little nose up at everything except for Hope Sandoval and the Warm Invention's Through the Devil Softy and No Age's Losing Feeling

I should explain. Momar has had several previous owners, all of them known to me, who are pretty dedicated music fans. I can't say for sure but that may be why he is more responsive to music than any cat I've ever met. He grew up competing with the record player for attention. He hates The Clash and he loves Coco Rosie. (I may have explained this all before.) He was a big help when I was putting together a year end list for Empty-Headsmind last year and I tried to get him to listen to some Japanese hardcore and some Screaming Females for this blog earlier in the year and I guess maybe he started to feel kind of exploited and just went on strike until I put on these two albums. So these endorsements should count for a lot.

It should be noted that Through the Devil Softly is pretty high on my own list.It's a deadly pretty album; soft and velvety enough to sooth an upset stomach, but soulful and sharp enough that you won’t feel like you’re going soft: a little bit chamomile and a little bit chai spice. This is how psych-pop is too be done, unless you want to put one part of that phrase or the other in quotes. Somehow it pairs very nicely with the Mountain Goats’ release this year, The Life of the World to Come. Momar favors soft focus soundscapes, poppy touches, and I think he prefers female vocals. He curled up very near the laptop, apparently in blissful repose, but with ears just slightly cocked, listening to Sandoval's demonically delicate songs hovering somewhere between madrigal and country ballad. This after almost a year of leaving the room if there was music playing.

Losing Feeling gets more of an honorable mention on my list but it was nice to hear from some masters of the fuzzy and the poppy in a year when so many people tested those waters. And Momar did stay close to the record player while it was on, absenting himself as usual when I changed the record. I might have put on the 5.6.7.8s. He likes female vocals, just not those.

If you don't believe my cat reviews albums, well, you can come over. He might do it right in front of you. Maybe.