Let's get lost

Sandy - Caribou

It's an embarrassment of riches, this song. A feast of components layered like berries and cake and whipped cream in a trifle bowl -- and every bite the best you've ever tasted. Should I single out the light-tripping skip of flute? Or the human fumble of clattering drums. The sleigh bells or the harp trills or the divine harmonies? Or the definite line I can't believe what we've found, followed bitterweet by something that sounds indefinite, merely hopeful: I know in time we'll be together. Should I remind you that Caribou is just one guy, Dan Snaith, responsible for the extremely good forbears to Andorra -- The Milk of Human Kindness (one of my favorite albums of 2005) and Up in Flames? But say that Andorra and its glorious psychedelic pop-folk pastiche is actually better than either? And should I confess that singling out just one track is like choosing your favorite animal at the zoo or walking into Tiffany and seeing the graceful bend of that silver bangle, the twinkle of that diamond, the flash of that gold watch, and taking only one item home in your little robin's-egg blue bag?

I feel fickle saying this, but right now Andorra (Amazon, eMusic) is my favorite record of the year. Fickle, because last week it was Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam, and two weeks before that is was ... something else. Does this make me a typical short-attention-spanned music blogger? The kind music journalists, (rightfully) nervous about the economic viability of their profession, regularly lob spitballs at? Actually, I think this is just a very good year for music -- and promises to get better before I have to commit myself to a year-end favorites list.

Caribou's Myspace.