(no subject)
20. Xiu Xiu - La Foret
On first listen, people will tend to notice Xiu Xiu’s ability to strike at their core. This isn’t background music- Jamie Stewart always finds the right words to make you wince. But what I notice is how well Jamie and Caralee can create a deep electronic soundscapes out of, what seem like, noise and static. La Foret strips away a lot of the pop and accessability from Fabulous Muscles, but it’s still one of their strongest albums yet.
19. Wilderness - Wilderness
Talk to anyone about music nowadays and you’ll get a lot hyphenated terms, prefixes, sufixes, and otherwise nonsensical terms to describe the newest music. But Wilderness strikes back to when it was just one straight forward term: post-punk, and it's one of the genre's best efforts since Fugazi. Even without the blast beats, the wall of sound guitars, and wild screaming, Wilderness takes hold of the punk spirit, calms down, and turns up the reverb.
18. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Yeah, there are plenty of other up-and-coming, catchy British rock groups with angular, buzzing guitars, dance beats, and album structure of “fast song, slow song, fast song, slow song” but Bloc Party has something that the Ferdinands and Razorlights and countless other NME hype machines don’t- shelf life. I find myself going back to this album very often, even after having it for nearly a year now.
17. Andrew Bird - Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs
Oh great, another Nick Drake clone. Smooth voice, acoustic guitars, and flourishes of strings and horns. But Andrew Bird makes this usually ho-hum effort into a flowing, beautiful run through the forest, across the beach, and into the sky where it might be a bit overcast, but the sun is still out.
16. World End Girlfriend - The Lay Lie Land
The commune that is Godspeed You Black Emperor might be busy with a whole plethora of side-projects right now, but Japan’s World End Girlfriend picks up the slack and expands upon it. There are the crescendoes and seemingly out of place sounds bytes, but WEG adds a electronic layer to the mix; the peaks and valleys of these movements are full of undulating glitches and atmospheric noises.
15. Animal Collective - Feels
Feels is this Ani-pals of a group finally getting bored of the ghost stories and s’mores of the campfire jams from their previous albums and deciding to run around the tall grass, playing an intense game of flashlight tag at 2 in the morning.
14. Final Fantasy - Has A Good Home!!!!!!
If you’ve ever used a loop pedal, you’ll know it’s a good fun- for maybe a few hours. Maybe you’ll even use it to jam out one day by yourself. But Owen Pallet, the one man band who put together the string arrangements for bands such as the Hidden Cameras and Arcade Fire, the loop pedal is his backbone. A song may begin as a few plucks and pulls of his violin strings, but the layers soon pile up into a wild, precious melody.
13. Lightning Bolt - Hypermagic Mountain
If 2004 was year indie rock broke- bands like Modest Mouse and the Killers were getting big and you precious venue was always selling out- then 2005 was the year noise rock noticed and said “fuck you.” The two Brians created their strongest album yet, filled with mountains of distrotion and never ending build ups that went no where except louder. Disco beats and funky basslines? No thank you.
12. M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us
“Teen Angst” has been described to me as “the perfect Ecstacy song ever made.” In fact, that sums the entire album- it peaks at the exact moments you want it to, and just when the album has laid low for long enough and you’re getting a bit antsy if it’ll get back to that incredible high, it comes out of no where and hits you like a punch in the face, but goddamn, you don’t care.
11. WHY? - Elephant Eyelash
Is this guy rapping? It certainly seems it at times, but this isn’t an album you’ll see burning up the clubs anytime soon. Instead, it’s a mashup of thoughts- sung, yelled, and spat out over a backing band of equal parts Belle and Sebastian and the Microphones.
On first listen, people will tend to notice Xiu Xiu’s ability to strike at their core. This isn’t background music- Jamie Stewart always finds the right words to make you wince. But what I notice is how well Jamie and Caralee can create a deep electronic soundscapes out of, what seem like, noise and static. La Foret strips away a lot of the pop and accessability from Fabulous Muscles, but it’s still one of their strongest albums yet.
19. Wilderness - Wilderness
Talk to anyone about music nowadays and you’ll get a lot hyphenated terms, prefixes, sufixes, and otherwise nonsensical terms to describe the newest music. But Wilderness strikes back to when it was just one straight forward term: post-punk, and it's one of the genre's best efforts since Fugazi. Even without the blast beats, the wall of sound guitars, and wild screaming, Wilderness takes hold of the punk spirit, calms down, and turns up the reverb.
18. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Yeah, there are plenty of other up-and-coming, catchy British rock groups with angular, buzzing guitars, dance beats, and album structure of “fast song, slow song, fast song, slow song” but Bloc Party has something that the Ferdinands and Razorlights and countless other NME hype machines don’t- shelf life. I find myself going back to this album very often, even after having it for nearly a year now.
17. Andrew Bird - Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs
Oh great, another Nick Drake clone. Smooth voice, acoustic guitars, and flourishes of strings and horns. But Andrew Bird makes this usually ho-hum effort into a flowing, beautiful run through the forest, across the beach, and into the sky where it might be a bit overcast, but the sun is still out.
16. World End Girlfriend - The Lay Lie Land
The commune that is Godspeed You Black Emperor might be busy with a whole plethora of side-projects right now, but Japan’s World End Girlfriend picks up the slack and expands upon it. There are the crescendoes and seemingly out of place sounds bytes, but WEG adds a electronic layer to the mix; the peaks and valleys of these movements are full of undulating glitches and atmospheric noises.
15. Animal Collective - Feels
Feels is this Ani-pals of a group finally getting bored of the ghost stories and s’mores of the campfire jams from their previous albums and deciding to run around the tall grass, playing an intense game of flashlight tag at 2 in the morning.
14. Final Fantasy - Has A Good Home!!!!!!
If you’ve ever used a loop pedal, you’ll know it’s a good fun- for maybe a few hours. Maybe you’ll even use it to jam out one day by yourself. But Owen Pallet, the one man band who put together the string arrangements for bands such as the Hidden Cameras and Arcade Fire, the loop pedal is his backbone. A song may begin as a few plucks and pulls of his violin strings, but the layers soon pile up into a wild, precious melody.
13. Lightning Bolt - Hypermagic Mountain
If 2004 was year indie rock broke- bands like Modest Mouse and the Killers were getting big and you precious venue was always selling out- then 2005 was the year noise rock noticed and said “fuck you.” The two Brians created their strongest album yet, filled with mountains of distrotion and never ending build ups that went no where except louder. Disco beats and funky basslines? No thank you.
12. M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us
“Teen Angst” has been described to me as “the perfect Ecstacy song ever made.” In fact, that sums the entire album- it peaks at the exact moments you want it to, and just when the album has laid low for long enough and you’re getting a bit antsy if it’ll get back to that incredible high, it comes out of no where and hits you like a punch in the face, but goddamn, you don’t care.
11. WHY? - Elephant Eyelash
Is this guy rapping? It certainly seems it at times, but this isn’t an album you’ll see burning up the clubs anytime soon. Instead, it’s a mashup of thoughts- sung, yelled, and spat out over a backing band of equal parts Belle and Sebastian and the Microphones.