Canasta’s album We Were Set Up has been in constant rotation since I first discovered it back in 2006. That’s why I am so excited about a little project I am working on with them this month - more details soon! In the meantime - check out John Cunningham’s “Best Of” List!

1. Radiohead, In Rainbows
Lost amid all the hullabaloo of its distribution scheme (which has been discussed to death, anyway) was the fact that In Rainbows pulled off the feat of sounding relaxed and luxuriant without wasting a single note. A gem of a record.

2. Field Music, Tones of Town
A couple of years ago, Max Tundra put together an incredible remix of the Futureheads’ “Decent Days and Nights,” dressing up their spare, angular rock with orchestral touches: a marimba here, a violin there. Field Music build upon this formula, assembling a cycle of compact XTC-like miniatures crammed with hooks and delicious flourishes.

3. Fujiya & Miyagi, Transparent Things
In the spirit of their Krautrock forebears, Fujiya & Miyagi ride a motorik drum machine with precise little guitar licks, tiny synth drones, and whispered mantras. Like the melodic end of Can but without the noodly sprawl.

4. New Young Pony Club, Fantastic Playroom
I tried to like the new M.I.A. record, but when so much of it seemed half-formed and tedious, I turned to another brown-skinned, beat-happy British woman, Tahita Bulmer of New Young Pony Club, whose weird incantations found a perfect new-wave groove on the bright, infectious Fantastic Playroom. They also put on the best show I saw all year, capping it off with an electrifying cover of Technotronic’s “Pump Up the Jam.”

5. Kanye West, Graduation
For the first time sounding like he doesn’t have anything to prove, Kanye reaches to such unlikely sample sources as Daft Punk and Steely Dan, gets poignant and self-deprecating as he pays tribute to Jay-Z, and still comes up with another batch of instant classics.

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