(today’s) 5 best albums ever

In light of a meager day of new arrivals, here are five records you should check out instead.

01 Smart Went Crazy | Con Art | Dischord | 1997

Crazy future-music stuff, real hitchy (not Hitchy) but smooth. Totally owned the arty D.C. scene along with ideological brothers Shudder to Think, probably the only band who they sound like. Lots of strings played caustically, aggressively like the viola in “Venus in Furs,” but many more groovy, quaint, comforting. I love “Tijuana 3/28/96″ lots, but even more so “A Good Day,” the best indie answer to a hip-hop song (Ice Cube, in this case) that I have ever, ever heard. Check out this verbiage: “Almost all the hypocrites and demagogues were gone/ Like the sacramental moment in a Last Poets song/ [Unintelligible] came back just to bitch-slap Farrakhan/ It was a good day.” I’ve been crazy hooked — y tu?

02 Matthew Dear | Deserter 10″ | Ghostly International | May 10, 2007

I wrote loads on this song before, but today in the office we got a CD copy of the “Deserter” 10″ and OMG am I in love. “Deserter” is still perfect, of course (you can still stream here), but the other two songs are amazing, too. The Four Tet remix of “Deserter” is spindly and gorgeous — this glittering, twinkling thing — and the other new song, “You Know What I Would Do,” is also just wonderful, and sounds exactly like late ’70s Bowie. Man, this record is going to be incredible.

03 Fugazi | 13 Songs | Dischord | 1990

I was at a show a few weeks ago when the between-sets DJ started playing a rock song that was very familiar to me, but I couldn’t place even though I knew that I knew it. So I turned to my girl and said, “who is this?” (she was singing along) and, with a loving “yr so dumb” voice, she replied, “FUGAZI!” That song was “Give Me the Cure,” long ago one of my favorites, and basically this episode clued me into the fact that I’ve spent too much time the past few years with later Fugazi (The Argument and End Hits I love), and it was time I got back to the rough stuff. And so yeah, here it is. Such a tight, amazing record. The only song I skip is “Waiting Room.” (I might’ve finally reached my threshold with that one.) If you’ve been looking for a reason to revisit, by all means use this.

04 Times New Viking | Paisley Reich | Siltbreeze | 2007

What I love about Times New Viking is how pop their songs are, but how they insist on junking them up as much as possible — terrible recording quality, an instrumental prowess that suggests possible paralysis and real messy feel. I have always been a sucker for that (see my love for the Country Teasers, the Fall, the Intelligence, the Grifters and so many others), and TNV tweak me just perfectly. “New Times, New Hope” is my fave song on the new one, a real tumbler, and the rest is hot, too.

TNV live in New Orleans:

05 Ghetto Fabulous Gang | L’album | Just Like Music | 2007

Come for the novelty, stay for the beats. That’s the best way to approach the Ghetto Fabulous Gang, officially my favorite French hip-hop troupe of all time. L’album is ridiculously hot, bright and dirty beats that nibble on the best from this side of the Hotlantic, with “Regrets” still being my favorite. Better than novel: actually great.

One of many cool GFG vids on YouTube: