(no subject)
10. Mount Eerie - No Flashlight
A lot of people don’t like this album and I don’t blame them. This album was made for Phil Eleverum fans. He’s thrown away all that casual fans knew about him from The Microphones- the pop sensibilities, the galloping drums, the accessible, universal lyrics, and the fun. Instead, he aimed for lowest of lo-fi; at times it sounds like he didn’t even drums and guitars clip and hiss. But this album wasn’t just a collection of songs, it was a project and you can tell that within a few seconds of reading the mammoth liner notes/poster that comes along with the LP. Eleverum’s whole world perspective and philosophy is within this album. With that in mind, it’s hard to judge this album on just the music alone; if I did that, I doubt it’d even be in the top 20, but even in an album devoid of melody, great instrumentation and lyrics that make sense, there’s something a lot bigger to be heard.
09. Jason Forrest - Shamelessly Excited
I suppose this is the complete opposite of No Flashlight. Jason Forrest is all about hooks and catching your attention. In the vein of 2 Many Djs, Forrest is a mashup artist who blends samples from all over (including Yes, Blondie, Blood, Sweat, and Tears, and in one of albums highlights, 36 different punk bands) over and under his own beats and scratches. “War Photographer,” the album’s gem and a great representative of the rest, blends dueling guitars, triumphant trumpets, and Viking-like drum beats and features one of the sickest closing refrains I’ve ever heard.
08. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
Um, hello, James Murphy? Yeah, buddy, dance punk is dead. I know DFA Records is still bringing in the money and all the hip kids like to hear remixes of their favorite songs, but an entire album of it? Please. But, y’know, this “fat guy in a t-shirt playing all the songs” made an entire CD full of incredible singles, dance floor jams, and barnburners that people looked past the newest trends and just knocked backed their PBRs and started backspining on their friend’s coffee table because fuck it, “Tribulations” kicks that much ass.
07. Sigur Ros - Takk...
I wouldn’t say ( ) is a bad album by any means, it’s just, well... a bit boring. It’s background music for me, music to put on right before I go to bed or while I’m studying. Takk... however, is a return to for for our favorite Hopelandic speaking group, with sprawling, triumphant epics such as “Glosoli” and “Saeglopur” that show us that post rock isn’t always about the crashing finales and crescendos, but sometimes its about how music can sound so tender and so epic at the same time.
06. Bright Eyes - I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning
The press has given Conor Oberst a lot of titles in the past year. Having already been tagged with “the next Dylan” and countless other hyperboles, you’d think he’d get a ego. And, if you’ve ever seen him in concert, your suspicions might even be proved right, but what’s also apparent is that he put out his strongest album of his career this year. A, at times rowdy and at times precious, account of Omaha’s first son in New York, Wide Awake is a showcase of the finer points of Oberst, namely his penchant for telling his straght-forward, unrestrained recollection of the stories from his life. Musically a reaction to Lifted, this stripped down Bright Eyes strikes an even more powerful chord than he did even with a full orchestra behind him.
05. Architecture in Helsinki - In Case We Die
The genre of twee wasn’t just about playing fun, childish music. It was about being an adult and making a statement, of sorts, against the music you’re expected to play. “I have my friends and our instruments and we’re going to play what’s fun.” There were plenty of new bands striving that this year, but Architecture in Helsinki nailed it down. It’s not unrestrained, it knows when to calm down and take a break, but the album is sure to break out with the amount of excitement of a kid waking up on Christmas morning and seeing, yes, that is the bike he asked for.
04. Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree
We’ve heard about West Texas and we’ve heard about Tallahassee, but it was about time John Darnielle finally got back to the most interesting topic he knows- himself. In the normal vein of the Mountain Goats, intricate but sometimes frenzied acoustic guitars and metaphor and wit heavy lyrics, Darnielle took on his childhood and step-father and created one of the most powerful and hard hitting albums of the year.
03. Explosions in the Sky - The Rescue
Since most post rock doesn’t include lyrics, the listener is forced to make up the story for themselves. They’re given hints here and there by way of sound clips and tempo or mood changes, but there’s not much there. All EitS give us on they latest were titles. With a name like The Rescue and song titles of “Day One” to “Day Eight,” what are we suppose to think? Do the melancholy peaks indicate that this the tale of a kid in a well? Men gasping their last few breaths as workers try to save them from the collapsed mine shaft? Or is it something as simple as a broken down van in the middle of a tour? This is the beauty and mystery that The Rescue is made of.
02. Broke Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
BSS tried their hardest to not only make an album as exciting, sublime and remarkable as You Forgot It In People, but to surpass it. And, in my humble opinion, they got really damn close. And that’s a compliment for such a touchstone of an album as that one is. Focused more on what seems like singles and the dance-ier side of their catalog, Broken Social Scene is one of those albums that is not only put so well together musically, but it’s sequenced in such a way that it mounts your excitement at just the right times and calms down right when it needs to. This is the band finally moving out from the cramped basement apartment to a huge beach party.
01. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
The scope of an album or artist is something that isn’t considered much by reviewers or even musicians anymore, but Sufjan Stevens has it in spades. Whatever your opinion on his 50 states projects (breathtaking, pretentious, a waste of time, praise-worthy, etc), it’s something not many other people could undertake and certainly they wouldn’t be able to pull it off so majestically as Stevens has. Illinois is so large in scale, even the song names had to be lengthened. There is nothing about this album that is half-baked; Stevens takes the story of the people of Illinois and weaves it into his own so skillfully, you can’t tell whose is whose. A strong album all the way through, it wasn’t hard to put this as my number 1.
Thanks for reading. I did this mostly as a way to stave off boredom. I’m sure you all know what bands you like and don’t need my opinions and half-assed writing samples to justify your tastes, but I hope atleast you liked reading it. Also, I didn't intend for them to come out sounding so magazine blurb like, but I also didn't want to have a few sentences where I just kept saying how awesome or sick each album was.
A lot of people don’t like this album and I don’t blame them. This album was made for Phil Eleverum fans. He’s thrown away all that casual fans knew about him from The Microphones- the pop sensibilities, the galloping drums, the accessible, universal lyrics, and the fun. Instead, he aimed for lowest of lo-fi; at times it sounds like he didn’t even drums and guitars clip and hiss. But this album wasn’t just a collection of songs, it was a project and you can tell that within a few seconds of reading the mammoth liner notes/poster that comes along with the LP. Eleverum’s whole world perspective and philosophy is within this album. With that in mind, it’s hard to judge this album on just the music alone; if I did that, I doubt it’d even be in the top 20, but even in an album devoid of melody, great instrumentation and lyrics that make sense, there’s something a lot bigger to be heard.
09. Jason Forrest - Shamelessly Excited
I suppose this is the complete opposite of No Flashlight. Jason Forrest is all about hooks and catching your attention. In the vein of 2 Many Djs, Forrest is a mashup artist who blends samples from all over (including Yes, Blondie, Blood, Sweat, and Tears, and in one of albums highlights, 36 different punk bands) over and under his own beats and scratches. “War Photographer,” the album’s gem and a great representative of the rest, blends dueling guitars, triumphant trumpets, and Viking-like drum beats and features one of the sickest closing refrains I’ve ever heard.
08. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
Um, hello, James Murphy? Yeah, buddy, dance punk is dead. I know DFA Records is still bringing in the money and all the hip kids like to hear remixes of their favorite songs, but an entire album of it? Please. But, y’know, this “fat guy in a t-shirt playing all the songs” made an entire CD full of incredible singles, dance floor jams, and barnburners that people looked past the newest trends and just knocked backed their PBRs and started backspining on their friend’s coffee table because fuck it, “Tribulations” kicks that much ass.
07. Sigur Ros - Takk...
I wouldn’t say ( ) is a bad album by any means, it’s just, well... a bit boring. It’s background music for me, music to put on right before I go to bed or while I’m studying. Takk... however, is a return to for for our favorite Hopelandic speaking group, with sprawling, triumphant epics such as “Glosoli” and “Saeglopur” that show us that post rock isn’t always about the crashing finales and crescendos, but sometimes its about how music can sound so tender and so epic at the same time.
06. Bright Eyes - I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning
The press has given Conor Oberst a lot of titles in the past year. Having already been tagged with “the next Dylan” and countless other hyperboles, you’d think he’d get a ego. And, if you’ve ever seen him in concert, your suspicions might even be proved right, but what’s also apparent is that he put out his strongest album of his career this year. A, at times rowdy and at times precious, account of Omaha’s first son in New York, Wide Awake is a showcase of the finer points of Oberst, namely his penchant for telling his straght-forward, unrestrained recollection of the stories from his life. Musically a reaction to Lifted, this stripped down Bright Eyes strikes an even more powerful chord than he did even with a full orchestra behind him.
05. Architecture in Helsinki - In Case We Die
The genre of twee wasn’t just about playing fun, childish music. It was about being an adult and making a statement, of sorts, against the music you’re expected to play. “I have my friends and our instruments and we’re going to play what’s fun.” There were plenty of new bands striving that this year, but Architecture in Helsinki nailed it down. It’s not unrestrained, it knows when to calm down and take a break, but the album is sure to break out with the amount of excitement of a kid waking up on Christmas morning and seeing, yes, that is the bike he asked for.
04. Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree
We’ve heard about West Texas and we’ve heard about Tallahassee, but it was about time John Darnielle finally got back to the most interesting topic he knows- himself. In the normal vein of the Mountain Goats, intricate but sometimes frenzied acoustic guitars and metaphor and wit heavy lyrics, Darnielle took on his childhood and step-father and created one of the most powerful and hard hitting albums of the year.
03. Explosions in the Sky - The Rescue
Since most post rock doesn’t include lyrics, the listener is forced to make up the story for themselves. They’re given hints here and there by way of sound clips and tempo or mood changes, but there’s not much there. All EitS give us on they latest were titles. With a name like The Rescue and song titles of “Day One” to “Day Eight,” what are we suppose to think? Do the melancholy peaks indicate that this the tale of a kid in a well? Men gasping their last few breaths as workers try to save them from the collapsed mine shaft? Or is it something as simple as a broken down van in the middle of a tour? This is the beauty and mystery that The Rescue is made of.
02. Broke Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
BSS tried their hardest to not only make an album as exciting, sublime and remarkable as You Forgot It In People, but to surpass it. And, in my humble opinion, they got really damn close. And that’s a compliment for such a touchstone of an album as that one is. Focused more on what seems like singles and the dance-ier side of their catalog, Broken Social Scene is one of those albums that is not only put so well together musically, but it’s sequenced in such a way that it mounts your excitement at just the right times and calms down right when it needs to. This is the band finally moving out from the cramped basement apartment to a huge beach party.
01. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
The scope of an album or artist is something that isn’t considered much by reviewers or even musicians anymore, but Sufjan Stevens has it in spades. Whatever your opinion on his 50 states projects (breathtaking, pretentious, a waste of time, praise-worthy, etc), it’s something not many other people could undertake and certainly they wouldn’t be able to pull it off so majestically as Stevens has. Illinois is so large in scale, even the song names had to be lengthened. There is nothing about this album that is half-baked; Stevens takes the story of the people of Illinois and weaves it into his own so skillfully, you can’t tell whose is whose. A strong album all the way through, it wasn’t hard to put this as my number 1.
Thanks for reading. I did this mostly as a way to stave off boredom. I’m sure you all know what bands you like and don’t need my opinions and half-assed writing samples to justify your tastes, but I hope atleast you liked reading it. Also, I didn't intend for them to come out sounding so magazine blurb like, but I also didn't want to have a few sentences where I just kept saying how awesome or sick each album was.