Reasons why were partially explained in my “prescript,” but I’m still amazed that I was able to rattle off eight heartily-endorsable albums released this very year, plus a song or two and a band or two, just to round things out. I didn’t even write a top ten last year! Again, as geeky and silly as it seems, it’s important to make these assessments. Top tens re-affirm the worth of all this stuff we pour into our ears; they remind us that it’s not any more fashion than it ever was, that these songs contain nutrients, and we’re smart to ingest them.
Animal Collective — Merriweather Post Pavilion
I was always attracted to the idea of this band, but on earlier albums the kitchen-sink approach grated as often as it beguiled, IMHO. But here, the synthesis of the gorgeous and the confusing seems more complete, more satisfying. Disorienting flushes of rhythm and chords serve the overall buoyancy. A joyous, immersive record.
Pains of Being Pure at Heart — s/t
The JAMC/C86 rips are so seamless that, yeah, you could wonder if there’s any heart under it all, if it’s just a calculated reaping of trendy influences. But the songs are so solid, and the approach so enthusiastic that initial misgivings dissolved by, say, the third listen. If you thought maybe My Bloody Valentine were better BEFORE Loveless…this is your cup of tea, with extra sugar.
Buttercup — The Weather Here
Buttercup is a friend of a friend’s band, and they live in San Antonio and crank out pop records with psychedelic touches. They haven’t gotten wide recognition, but then again, with the music biz being what it is, I’m not sure what that means. So it’s silly to say that they keep getting better “in spite of” their relative obscurity…but they do. These guys do indie in a grand style like the New Pornographers, but with a classic swing like Spoon. And all three of their songwriters keep stepping up their collective game.
John Aselin — Ever Near the Distance
Already wrote about this one, but it bears repeating. My friend John writes hook- and harmony-rich guitar-pop songs that only take up more of your brain as he pares down lengths and arrangements — which is something he’s been doing across the years I’ve known him. Hearing this album is like finding a stack of dateless-yet-classic 45′s — each song honed for maximum impact, yet feeling somehow lived-in and so goddamn cool…
Metrtic — Fantasies
This isn’t a numbered list, but seriously, this is #1, because it sounds like an update of the first Cars album. Catchiest album of the year, easily. I don’t know what makes music “popular” or “pop,” exactly, but surely refrains that jam into your head and never leave would have something to with it…? This is why I like Avril Lavigne and “Party in the U.S.A.” and all, but when that same aggressive hook-hunger is wrapped in an actual band setting…? How exactly is this indie? It’s not. It’s just amazing.
Mos Def — The Ecstatic
I understand Mos Def fell off for a couple albums there, but since I never heard those, it’s hard for me to think of this as a “comeback.” But I picked up the Black Star album this year, and I’ve always been astonished by Black on Both Sides, and so this sounds like business as usual for one of the best MC’s ever. This is a total smorgasbord of styles (both in terms of flow and production), peppered with rewind-worthy lyrics and a defiantly spiritual backbone.
The Thermals — Now We Can See
With the leap from Fuckin’ A to The Body, the Blood, the Machine, The Thermals were suddenly a band I would always follow. They have not added strings, they sound pretty much like a live trio, and the singer yelps more than he actually sings. I guess you could say they are about as far from “orchestral pop” as you can get. But somehow, this stuff moves me. Sometimes like a pep rally (“I Let It Go”), sometimes like an ode (“At the Bottom of the Sea”), but always as sure as three well-placed chords can, if you’re lucky.
Amon Amarth — Twilight of the Thunder God
My palette widens apace. All thanks to my North Carolina friend Chris, who spoke through my brother Scott to alert me to what has become…somehow…the first heavy metal album I’ve ever managed to thoroughly enjoy without irony. What’s even cooler is that it’s caused me to re-assess metal in general: Isn’t head-banging just a more emphatic version of toe-tapping? I mean, this stuff is catchy, and it makes me smile, and it is, as music has always been for me, a legitimate source of energy. That I could have these revelations in spite of the “Cookie Monster” vocal stylings is maybe the best praise I could offer, so I’ll leave it at that.
Atlas Sound [Ft. Laetita Sadier] — “Quick Canal”
A grand swelling rhythm, like early Spiritualized, and then the French lady from Stereolab sings stuff, and then the whole thing is drowned by waves of sound that might be guitar but is definitely shoegaze. And it takes more than eight minutes and yet I just want to hit repeat when it’s done. This won’t mean anything, but it’s MOST like something from Pink Machine by Reservoir. Headphone-friendly, leagues-deep stuff.
Mew — And the Glass-Handed Kites
&
St. Vincent — Actor
The Mew record is from 2006, and they had a new one come out this year, but this is so dense and internally inexplicable to me that I’m forcing myself to take my time here. Not since OK Computer have I heard an album so seemingly sourceless, so influence-free. I mean, it also rocks. And it’s also pretty. And it seems ever on the brink of pretension, but it forges ahead with such confidence that I’m sure they’re onto something, and I’m just totally enthralled by it. St. Vincent I just picked up, and I’ve only heard it a couple times, but even then I can tell it deserves to be here. I’m sure most people reading this have read other praise, so I’ll limit mine to suggesting that St. Vincent is the closest thing I’ve heard to a torch-bearer for Tori Amos.
