We'll be Goonies forever.

Dec 22, 2010 02:53





10. Caribou - Swim

Kaili + Jamelia

I really like the contrast between Dan Snaith's streamlining of each song, making each piece fit perfectly together, when the music itself is so chaotic and the lyrics deal with so many confusing and negative emotions. And yes, Owen Pallett covering Odessa is a must-see.



09. Mountain Man - Made the Harbor

Animal Tracks + Soft Skin

Stripped-down folk that draws its influences from Celtic hymns, and and sweet harmonies at their absolute best. This album is like a dive into a lake at dawn.



08. Jenny and Johnny - I'm Having Fun Now

My Pet Snakes + Big Wave

Boy-girl pop songs that deal with heavy subject matters without ever becoming reprimanding or wallowing. The feeling I get from Lewis on this album isn't optimism, but more the will to go on, the need to keep creating and finding fun in it at the same time. It's refreshing, catchy and will make you come back to it again and again, not discovering new things, necessarily, but realizing that their simple formula works so well.



07. Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz

Age of Adz + I Walked

Sufjan's new record is expansive, dazzlingly ambitious and a stark contrast to the sound we've come to know. But the fact remains that the guy has the creativity to jump to just about any genre, and the talent to do it exceedingly well. The Age of Adz can feel alienating and cold at times, both due to the instrumentation and the lyrics, but there are still the little breathing rooms when you're brought down from the impossible highs and confronted with the simple truths Sufjan's so good at conveying.



06. Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid

Cold War + Tightrope

Janelle Monáe has made a record I've never heard the likes of before. It's creative, it displays her voice beautifully, it's always interesting. It's bold, both due to the effortless genre-hopping, and the grand theme that ties it all together: an android falling in love with a human. It displays a level of ambition unheard of in today's music industry, and it fulfills every expectation you could possibly have. More of this, please.



05. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

All I Want + I Can Change

To me, James Murphy is the guy who always delivers. He claims LCD Soundsystem is an unlikely band that can barely hold it together, yet every release sees them covering new ground while holding on to the elements that made them to begin with. The staples are here: the riffs, the world-weary and embarrassingly honest lyrics, the silliness. Yet they also seem to have grown since Sound of Silver, sounding more like a whole band where every contribution is important rather than the brainchild of a single person. And it's danceable.



04. The National - High Violet

Conversation 16 + Anyone's Ghost

Peter Silberman of The Antlers said "The National isn't so much "a band" as it's a piece of another person's life that helps yours make sense," and I think this expresses the band's biggest strength - taking mundane emotions, combining them with hard-hitting melodies and making them haunting and heartbreaking. I saw them in the Norwegian Opera and everyone, including the five year-old girl beside me were entranced in a way I've never seen at a concert before. My favourite parts of the record are the Dessner's angelic harmonies in Conversation 16 and Matt Berninger's characteristic, frantic shouting closing off Afraid of Everyone.



03. Deerhunter - Halycon Digest

Desire Lines + Memory Boy

On this record, Deerhunter perfect their ability to combine desperate lyrics with hopeful pop melodies. To me, Halycon Digest represents discovering music again, being entranced by every little detail and putting songs on repeat for hours on end.



02. Beach House - Teen Dream

Silver Soul + Walk in the Park

I want to use the word sensuous to describe this album, but I don't know how to do so without sounding like a complete douchenozzle. It's deliciously layered, each song sounding like a simple pop song but upon repeat listens revealing a haunting, dark sexuality. You can hear it's the same band that made Apple Orchard, but they've played everything up a notch, becoming more daring and more dynamic, and letting Victoria's voice come to its right.



01. Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me

In California + Baby Birch

This album combines Joanna's strongest feats. Meticulously crafted epics and gorgeous imagery, yes, but also perfect 2-minute melodies and simple, memorable chord progressions. Lyrically she reminds me so much of Nabokov, in that it's easy to get swept up by the sheer beauty of her words but at their core each of them is carefully thought out and placed in context. It deals with familiar themes such as a sense of home and belonging, and struggling to keep love alive during the course of a relationship, but even if the themes are banal this album will break your heart.

Other things I liked:

InnerSpeaker by Tame Impala
S/T by Beach Fossils
Clinging to a Scheme by The Radio Dept.
I Will Be by Dum Dum Girls
Ring by Glasser
Brothers by The Black Keys
Forget by Twin Shadow
Odd Blood by Yeasayer
Shallow Grave by The Tallest Man on Earth
Expo 86 by Wolf Parade

lists, music, 2010

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