Album of the Year: Dirty Projectors, “Rise Above”

The year is done and scribbling hipsters are brandishing their lists to prove it. These lists, of which none are in agreement, a fact that seems a point of pride, proliferate in this blog-sodden world. I hereby join them.

And, keeping with tradition, to disagree with most all of them, my nomination for album of the year: Dirty Projectors, “Rise Above.”

But you’re Dr. Burrito, you say. Stick to topic, you say. Ha! As if. I am more than just burritos, cruel world. Burritos are simply my medium, my metaphor, but I have eyes that see and ears that hear and hands that touch and so long as I do, so long as I do—mark me—I shall sing! With burrito breath, I shall! Ha ha!

I say: This album is one fine burrito-o!

If you like Black Flag you will probably hate this album that is, sort of, a collection of Black Flag songs. You will hear lyrics you know and some you don’t and the tone is all changed and you’re there, bereft and confused with nothing to mosh or skateboard to.

But I, for one, have grown old and soft and in this dotage enjoy music besides Black Flag.

They provide the reference. Their lyrics and delivery—with some variation depending on the vintage—was blunt, violent, dissatisfied, alienated. Almost to a nerdy degree was it these things, and on the march.

The Projectors take these emotions and layer upon them more. The music is—with a few jarring exceptions—tonal and lush and bright, a far departure from Ginn’s no-tube-amps-ever, shouting-is-singing approach. There are Prince-like excursions and woman’s voices in harmony fawning over lyrics like: “They say I’m fucked up all the time/What they do is a waste of time …”

The Projectors are on to something here. Ginn to me was, especially around 1985, a bit like Ornette Coleman in his approach to guitar. That is to say, he hits notes but obliquely. He’s almost there but always off, like the lyrics. This album is proof: Black Flag was not who you thought they were.

And even if you’ve never heard Black Flag, you might love this album. It’s gorgeous and rich, with wonderful singing. It’s somewhat tropical (the guitars a-plucking), as well as urbane (they are from Brooklyn). There is a modern classical element that comes through in string sections and the general approach to song structure and tonality.

In short, a great album that will continue to reward listening. The best of the year, I say (but I suppose that’s what these lists really are: rundowns of what the scribbler has heard–and I’ve heard more than just this).

I say: A fine effort. Play it again.