before i forget...

[peripeteia]

Music released this year was consistently good without being great, but a few albums did knock me on my ass:

1. the Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
   
2. Stars - Heart
   
3. the Tokey Tones - Caterpillar & Butterfly
   
4. Sufjan Stevens - Michigan
   
5. Rachel's - Systems/Layers
   
6. Ted Leo/Pharmacists - Hearts of Oak
   
7. Nina Nastasia - Run to Ruin
   
8. the Lucksmiths - Naturaliste
   
9. Head of

Comments

[peripeteia]

i picture them all wearing the same huey lewis mask, except glenn, who looks like michael j. fox. it's weird - you know it's them, but the song itself does everything to convince you otherwise no matter how many times you listen.

this was what i wrote about stars before realizing i'd never post a list if i waited to write proper descriptions of the top ten...
With the ballsiest opening I've heard in a long time - each member of Stars asserting with answering machine clarity that "I am _____, and this is my heart" - this record treads the thin line between sweet idealism and cloying sentimentality, most of the time with surprising success. Stars offer up 11 radio-friendly (in a world with friendlier frequencies) pop songs full of shimmering keyboards augmented with strings, theremin and woodwinds aplenty on their second full-length. They could have done without the moribund fifth track, but the dreamy fuzz of "What the Snowman Learned About Love" and the melody driving "Look Up" to nosebleed heights - at which it's easy enough to forget its unremarkable lyrics - suggest that this quartet should be headlining sold-out shows instead of opening them. So go ahead: Kill the bastard in your life with love.
you can listen to the whole record in realaudio here.

i love twee, but i'd hesitate to describe the tokey tones that way because it kind of underscores the range of songs on the two cds (each ten tracks and half an hour long) and just how much they were able to accomplish in terms of arrangement and production. i still notice new details every time i listen. half the songs from each cd are up here. caterpillar is a bit more acoustic and cohesive, and "love done me no good" features vocals from heather of the brunettes, another great auckland band. "observatory" sounds like a long-lost olivia tremor control song. it's almost uncanny. i'll stop rambling now, but i can't begin to say how thrilled i am to have randomly stumbled across their music.

"sleep well" won out because of the melody, but it could just as easily have been any of the other tracks on the album.

congratulations, also!!