9. Department of Eagles - No One Does it Like You

Although this could lead to a flurry of disagreement among my near double digit readership, I think that the Beatles have officially become underrated. It seems that every new, next big thing, Jerry and Jane on the block band seems to be paying their respects to the Beach Boys or Joy Division or even barely better than yacht rock performers such as Peter Gabriel. Not since the Shins' Chutes Too Narrow though has a band on my radar seemed to go out of their way to draw influence from the boys from Liverpool and even that didn't seem to draw all that overtly from that British invasion tradition. I hold the Beatles in such high regard that I think in order for John, Paul, George, and Ringo to get their proper due we would need to return to the hype level surrounding the Anthologies 1,2, and 3.

I hope that Department of Eagles awesome second LP In Ear Park represents the beginning of a renewed indie rock love affair with the Beatles, particularly as it is displayed in "No One Does it Like You." This track does indeed reflect the strange Pet Sounds obsession that seems to have reached a saturation point in their harmonies but that's where the similarities stop. This song sounds like an acid soaked B-side to Yellow Submarine if you substituted a good barbershop quartet* for Ringo's less than stellar pipes. If you listen closely, it seems as though you can even hear some of the nautical noise brick-a-brack that makes Yellow Submarine so strange and progressive in the first place.

So let this be a call to hipsters the world over to put away Pet Sounds, Rhino's Nuggets garage rock compilation, and Exile on Main Street for awhile and give Revolver, Rubber Soul, or Beatles for Sale a spin. I would love to have a strongly Liverpudlian soundtrack to 2009.