Tame Impala, “Elephant” (technically, last year I know but c’mon, it’s my fave of the whole year)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, “Jubilee Street”
Lorde, “Royals”
Josh Ritter, “Hopeful”
Arctic Monkeys, “R U Mine?”
Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes, “Love Letter”
The White Buffalo, “Joey White”
Billy Bragg, “Handyman Blues”
Daft Punk, “Get Lucky”
Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside, “Party Kids”

1 Nick Cave; Push The Sky Away
2 Smith Westerns; Soft Will
3 The White Buffalo; Shadows, Greys & Evil Ways
4 Queens of The Stone Age; Like Clockwork
5 Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes; Baby Caught the Bus
6 Elvis Costello & The Roots; Wise Up Ghost
7 David Bowie; The Next Day
8 Richard Thompson; Electric
9 Foxygen; We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic
10 Palma Violets; 180

Having a chance to speak to Nick Cave is among my most favorite interview opportunities. As Jack Nicholson said of Stanley Kubrick, “Everyone pretty much acknowledges that he’s the man, and I still feel that underrates him.” With The Bad Seeds, solo, and through collaborations with other artists, Cave has built a multifaceted and profound body of work in the studio while growing into a towering figure on the live stage. As readers of The Red Hand Files know, he’s razor sharp, funny, and expresses himself with remarkable candor and piercing specificity.

This interview occurred about five weeks after the release of Push the Sky Away by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. I might say it was an especially creative period for the artist but the guy has sustained a prodigious multimedia output for decades. It’s probably more accurate to say this is my favorite stretch of his career following up the 2008 LP Dig Lazarus Dig with The Bad Seeds, his 2009 novel The Death of Bunny Munro and the Grinderman albums. His approach to writing and recording was changing and he drilled down on why and how.

See our interview here.

Links are to my reviews…

1 Massive Attack/Thievery Corporation/Nada Surf; Beacon Theater/Mercury Lounge
2 Grinderman; Best Buy Theater
3 New Orleans Jazzfest; Dr. John, Simon & Garfunkel, Terrence Blanchard, etc.
4 Corinne Bailey Rae; Terminal 5
5 Brendan Benson & The Posies; Highline Ballroom
6 Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
7 Buffalo Tom; Mercury Lounge
8 Specials; Terminal 5
9 Aerosmith/J.Geils Band; Fenway Park
(Peter Wolf Show at Highline was great too)
10 Lou Barlow; Mercury Lounge
11 Rodrigo y Gabriela; Radio City Music Hall
12 Villagers at Mercury Lounge