Dallas' Best Music

The simplest way for me to judge whether an album makes my "best of the year" list is gauging how often I want to listen to it after forming my initial opinion. With the exception of Radiohead's In Rainbows, I found myself playing Sean Kirkpatrick's Turn on the Interference more than any other record this year—local or not. Its fantastic, guitar-free mix of warped melodies and dramatic piano pounding is sure to blow out all the junk between your ears. Amazingly, this is the first solo effort from the Paper Chase member and former Maxine's Radiator frontman. —J.H.

Mom
Little Brite
Pancakes for Mattie Records

A fittingly named band—since they make experimental music even your mom could love—this instrumental Denton duo first blew our minds at a Good Records in-store, appropriate since Little Brite's been among the top five local releases there ever since. You could chalk it up to the fact label owner and Mom cheerleader C.J. Davis works there, but then you'd be selling Little Brite short. Granted, at only six songs it's the shortest record on this list, but no other local record this year felt so complete—Little Brite plays like an electro-acoustic symphony, each track flowing into the next, full of delicate ebbs and tides, with Joel North's nimble acoustic notes darting like dragonflies, chasing the ghost of John Fahey through the hot summer air. —N.W.B.

Laura Palmer
Johnny Cashin' In
Self-released

Everything about Laura Palmer and her devious debut album, Johnny Cashin' In, is at once wickedly subversive and wonderfully warm. A cursory listen may belie the elegant balancing act at work, as romantic poetry and raunchy punch lines become indistinguishable in an orgy of ridiculously hummable country folk satire. Drugs and love are lost with equal remorse. Honky-tonk homophobes and hipster rapists are put in their proper place, aptly sharing the same sleazy corner. Within a single lyrical couplet Palmer swiftly swings from sweet to sardonic with the schizophrenic ease of a pornographic nun. God bless her and her pristinely vulgar craft. —G.J.

Glen Reynolds
In Between Days
Idol Records

Former Chomsky guitarist Glen Reynolds must have been hiding away many of his best (and coherent) ideas for several years, as his solo debut, In Between Days, goes in directions never hinted at by his former band. Literate, lush and full of surprising nuances, songs such as "Hitchhike to Nowhere" and "Setting Sun" display a range of emotion and subtlety that speaks well for Reynolds' continued growth as a songwriter. Mature and melodious, In Between Days rocks when it's warranted, but it's also capable of a restrained beauty when it counts. —D.S.