Sunday, December 12, 2010

The Year in Music - 6th Favorite Album of the Year

Free Energy - Stuck on Nothing



The brother of a friend of mine from law school is one of the music writers for Chicagoist. He wrote an entry about these guys after I already had tickets to see them (they opened for Foreign Born), but before I had heard anything by them. That was the first of five Free Energy shows I saw this year.

There's a fine line between creative camp and parody. These guys walk that line as well as anyone. They're basically a band that plays a sort of late '70s semi-glam, reminding me a lot of Thin Lizzy. It has a way of sounding kind of cheesy (I hate that word), but they really make it work, especially in their live show.

And I should say, it's hard for me to separate a band's album from their live show. Obviously I haven't seen every band on this list, but it's not uncommon for me to come away from a show liking an album more than I did before the show, and vice versa. These guys got better and better every time I saw them. And it helps that this album was released on May 4th, just in time for summer. It's a terrific summer album. It's the type of stuff that should be blaring from every car stereo when the sun is out. Advertisers have noticed, with at least one of their songs being used in couple different commercials, including one for Flip video cameras. Here's a taste.

Free Energy (the song)


Bang Pop

5 comments:

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

They had me on the first song with the cowbell. Non ironic cowbell.

Seitz said...

That song sets up the album pretty well. Really great live act.

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