Old and new dreams

Local pop - the year in review

Cellars by Starlight by Brett Milano

1. The Gravel Pit, Silver Gorilla (Q Division). An obvious choice to be sure, but this was the Gravel Pit's year for a few good reasons. Instead of cloning the much-liked Manifesto album, the follow-up took a more adventurous turn, loaded with sharply cynical lyrics, offbeat hooks, and rich arrangements that only enhance the pop appeal. Though it was a blast of fresh air on the radio, "Favorite" isn't even close to being the best song.

2. Betwixt, The Salty Tang (Archenemy). Smart music for smart people, with a lot of cheap thrills attached. If the debut album Moustache showed Betwixt as an inventive pop band, this one shows them going further into the abstract. Leah Callahan remains a magnetic frontwoman, and the band goes sailing off in all directions, from heavy to spacey.

3. Slide, Pulling Teeth (Your Name Here). Slide remain one of the few East Coast bands who can play a New Orleans groove in New Orleans without getting beaten up. Their unique mix of roots and punk has previously fueled a strong pair of albums; but this time they've let a crummy year push them into making a more individual statement. The topics at hand -- relationship break-ups, friendship fallouts, creeping mortality -- bring out an especially swampy sound, with an achingly poignant turn toward disc's end.

4. The Shods, Thanks for Nuthin' (Poorhouse/Lunch). The Shods' follow-up to Bamboozled (which topped this list last year) has bigger production and more sophistication -- but then, it also has a song called "Fuckin' Around." Their songwriting's taken a poppier turn and the sound's absorbed some mid-'60s organ punk. And the band still lacks a pretentious bone in its collective body.

5. Abunai!, The Mystic River Sound (Camera Obscura). Perhaps the first great art-rock concept album ever to come out of Boston, this purports to be a compilation album documenting a long-buried underground scene from the north suburbs. Of course it's the same band playing under 11 different guises, giving free rein to their eclectic tastes, pulling out all manner of in-jokes and cross-references. Only one kind of band would ever draw equally from whacked-out progressive rock, Celtic folk-rock à la Fairport Convention, and teenage garage punk. And that is, of course, my kind of band.

6. Meaghan McLaughlin, Meaghan McLaughlin (Press). As a die-hard rock-and-roll type, singer/guitarist McLaughlin apparently had mixed feelings about releasing an acoustic solo album. But this is at least as grabbing as the raunchier music she makes with Barbaro and Rock City Crimewave. It's the first set that reveals her full strengths as a singer and lyricist, telling well-observed tales of love and squalor. Many of her songs catch the ambiance of a seedy club just before closing time, and she comes across as the kind of smart, creative person one always hopes to meet there.

7. Fuzzy, Hurray for Everything (Catapult). Some long-delayed gratification for Fuzzy fans, who got to hear the band play a pair of terrific songs for more than a year at live shows before they finally showed up on disc. Those two songs -- Chris Toppin's wistful "Summer" and Hilken Mancini's snarling "True Colors" -- are the obvious highlights of Fuzzy's third album, but are typical of the album's sweet-and-sour mix.

8. Patty Giurleo, Long Time (449). Intensely confessional songs are arguably harder to write than oblique ones: if you're laying the messiest parts of your life on the line, you have to provide a little catharsis, not to mention a reason for anyone to care. Patty Giurleo proves a master of the genre on this debut, chronicling a long spell in the love/sex wars with equal parts heart and gritty detail. Her sharp lyrical eye, warm voice, and melodic flair all assure that she'll be doing strong work long after her personal life's quieted down.

9. The Sugar Twins, Patio-A-Go-Go. If the title characters in the cult film Revenge of the Teenage Vixens from Outer Space had a band, they'd be the Sugar Twins. Chirpy, gregarious, and proudly sex-crazed, the Twins and their back-up crew (including folks from Eight Piece Suit and Seks Bomba) take the surf/cocktail trend to new heights on these 12 musical mash notes.

10. The Outlets, Outlets (Hendrix Music). Surprise of the year: a long-running, nearly forgotten local band makes its first album in 15 years -- on Jimi Hendrix's family's label, no less -- and it sounds like the Outlets at their best, which is pretty damn lively. Most of their long-time standards, including the oft-covered "Knock Me Down," finally make it to CD; but the real news is that the newly written material is no slouch, and the songs go together as a solid, hard-working whole.