1. YOB, The Great Cessation (Profound Lore)
Yup, this is still the best album that came out last year. Check.

2. Los Natas, Nuevo Orden de la Libertad (Small Stone)
Also still rules. Like YOB, I keep this one on me almost all the time.

3. Masters of Reality, Pine/Cross Dover (Brownhouse)
I think I was just really happy Chris Goss put a new album out, although I’ve started to listen to it again now that it’s getting a domestic US release and there are a couple really quality tracks.

4. Truckfighters, Mania (Fuzzorama)
Every time I listen to this album, I’m reminded of how much I dig it. It’s in the same CD wallet as YOB and Los Natas, but I don’t reach for it as much.

5. Shrinebuilder, Shrinebuilder (Neurot)
I hardly ever listen to this anymore, but killer album, killer performances, killer personnel. Can’t wait to get swept up in the hype for the next one, then do the same thing.

6. Crippled Black Phoenix, The Resurrectionists/Night Raider (Invada)
I like the art so much for this album, I don’t even touch it because I’m afraid of screwing it up or leaving fingerprints. It’s gathering dust on my shelf. Pretty dust though, so that’s alright.

7. Wino, Punctuated Equilibrium (Southern Lord)
Am I the only one who thinks maybe Wino meant “punctured” instead of “punctuated?” I just happen to be wearing my t-shirt of the album cover today, so I guess it still curries favor. “Smiling Road” rules.

8. Yawning Sons, Ceremony to the Sunset (Lexicon Devil)
This one still gets listened to regularly, is in that CD wallet. If I was making this list today, it might be number three.

9. Om, God is Good (Drag City)
Cool album, but I never put it on anymore. Maybe I will now.

10. Them Crooked Vultures, Them Crooked Vultures (Interscope)
Josh Homme could take a dump on my brand new cupcake and I’d still have a man-crush on him, so this one was bound to show up. Needless to say, I went back to the first couple Queens of the Stone Age albums shortly thereafter.

If I had the list to do over, I’d put Blood by Snail on it, and maybe Church of Misery‘s Houses of the Unholy, which has kept its appeal pretty well. Other than that, I stand by most of the picks above. Let me know if there’s something I missed out on or anything you can think of that you never returned to once January hit.

In also-ruling news, The Brought Low also recently finished their new album, Third Record, for upcoming release via Small Stone. They’ve just put up a new track, “The Kelly Rose,” on their MySpace. This year is looking better and better.

Here’s the deal in the band’s own words:

Just confirmed we are opening for Them Crooked Vultures this Monday night, February 8th @ The Roseland Ballroom in NYC! Super duper psyched!

Also, just posted a song from the new album Third Record called “The Kelly Rose” on our MySpace page so check it out! Should be up on iTunes in a few weeks and available as an actual CD later this spring.

I also just set up a Twitter account for the band so if you’re into that sort of thing check it out: http://twitter.com/TheBroughtLow.

Also looking very likely we will be playing some shows in the Midwest on our way down to the Small Stone Records South by Southwest Showcase in March. Stay tuned for tour dates.

Blah blah blah supergroup, blah blah blah Josh Homme, John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl. That’s all been said already, by me and just about everyone else out there. I’ll spare the slobbering worship of the past work of any of the three players involved in Them Crooked Vultures (this time), and just say that they managed to make a slyly subversive and edgy rock record in an era when the entirety of the corporate environment in which they’re working is geared toward the exact opposite. This record came out on the same label as Lady Gaga and Puddle of Mudd, if that’s any indication. I felt guilty buying it, but each listen provides justification. It’s just a bunch of cool songs. Some clunkers, admittedly. Nature of the beast.

So, for the memorable songwriting, and if for nothing else, that riff in the first track, Them Crooked Vultures makes the top 10. It’ll probably show up higher on a lot of other lists, but since it’s a late release and I don’t want to be the guy gushing all over the popular record, it is where it is. To not acknowledge it in some way would have been neglectful on my part, especially since, at least thus far, it’s kept me coming back with steady regularity.

The resulting album, the product, released on maybe the most major of labels (Interscope/Geffen, both subsidiaries of Universal), is a 13-track romp through the rigors of modern commerciability, toying with our single-based culture even as it conforms to it. There is no coincidence that ?No One Loves Me and Neither Do I? is among the catchiest songs on Them Crooked Vultures; what?s really interesting about it is the fact that it?s also among the most ?stoner rock,? which, if you?re paying attention, quietly affirms the untapped commercial potential of the genre at large. Likewise, that follow-up ?Mind Eraser, No Chaser? features prominent vocals from Grohl along with Homme?s lead is clearly purposeful. Someone, be it label or band, thinks these are the strongest tracks, and so they?re up front, catching our limited, fickle attention. Cynicism is everywhere.

Stoner rockers will no doubt link Them Crooked Vultures to the 1998 self-titled Queens of the Stone Age. I will, anyway. Like that album, there is a full, natural sense of room in this recording. You can almost feel the mic being pulled just a little back from the amps to open up the sound. It?s high-tech garage with Alan Moulder and Alain Johannes recording, but nonetheless at work is a precision in songwriting the likes of which could only come from pairing the likes of Homme and Grohl — and that?s not to downplay Jones? considerable contributions either vocally or on bass. As to the individual members? contributions to each part of each song, I don?t know and refuse to speculate, but in listening, pieces of highlight tracks like ?Dead End Friends,? the appropriately stomping ?Elephants? (one of the album?s longer cuts at a bold 6:50) and the danceably handclapped, mellotronned ?Caligulove,? shades of personality leak through the songs that could be attributed more or less as the listener chooses.

That approach, of course, has expected benefits and drawbacks. If you?re going to sit and parse through each riff, each drum fill, each bass line, you?re going to miss out on the fun. One thing Them Crooked Vultures aren?t doing is pushing pop to places it hasn?t gone before. In terms of stoner rock (because those are the terms on which we deal with these things, for better or worse), the pop structures and songwriting aren?t necessarily any better than showed up with The Atomic Bitchwax?s TAB4, but Homme?s chic swagger, Jones? legacy and Grohl?s go-anywhere-anytime drumming elevate Them Crooked Vultures to a different level of presentation. There is as much about this album that is good because of who it is as there is because of what it is.

But if you want catchy, they?ve got it. ?Scumbag Blues,? the unexpected twist of ?Warsaw or the First Breath You Take After You Give Up,? ?Reptiles? are all memorable and infectious. The album is not without its filler material, though. What would have been lost by dropping the disco rock of ?Gunman,? or making it some kind of promotional download or independent stores only single or whatever they?re doing with non-album tracks these days, I don?t know. Them Crooked Vultures is as cohesive as you?d expect — hard not to hear moments where the band is reaching to find itself and subsequently imbue the narrative of ?this must be earlier in the writing? — and certainly an enjoyable listen, rife with standout grooves and lines that will burrow into your brain whether you want them to or not. But at the end of the day, it?s a pop record, albeit one you can dig into as a fan of underground heavy rock and roll. It?s important to keep this in mind since so much of the pre-release opinion has centered more on the band as an event rather than a gathering of three accomplished players.

By way of a bottom line, if you go into the album expecting to like it, you probably will. There?s nothing about Them Crooked Vultures to shirk off its appeal, ?Interlude with Ludes? notwithstanding, and the novelty of the band is fresh and central to the experience of listening. Whether this is going to be a one-off happening or a new band, I don?t know, but if they were to return with a sophomore outing, particularly in light of Homme?s tendency to squash expectation on second records (Kyuss? Blues for the Red Sun and Queens of the Stone Age?s Rated R walk by and wave), it would be intriguing to see the varied directions in which the project can go. For now, don?t think about it. Listen and have a good time.

Them Crooked Vultures on MySpace

Interscope Records

And in case you missed the recently-announced Them Crooked Vultures tour dates (tickets on sale Saturday, Sept. 5), here they are:

Oct. 01: Austin, TX - Stubb`s
Oct. 02: Austin, TX - Austin City Limits
Oct. 05: Nashville, TN - War Memorial
Oct. 06: Columbus, OH - LC Pavilion
Oct. 08: Detroit, MI - The Fillmore
Oct. 09: Toronto, ON - Sound Academy
Oct. 11: Boston, MA - House of Blues
Oct. 12: Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
Oct. 14: Washington, DC - 9:30 Club