2008 & 2009, The Years In Music

Here’s a mix featuring these albums plus some particularly good blog singles.

(Buy music you like!)

 

I didn’t find time to review music last year, so I’m doing 2 years at once, which is probably fine since 2009 was a slow year.  I attempted to arrange this list in order of favoriteness.

 

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Black Kids – Partie Traumatic (2008)– New wave for the new millennium, walls of jumpy anxiety and crashing heartbreak, wails of self-hatred and charming confidence, overladen and danceable, witty and stylish, a broken young romantic seeking sustenance from a vacant Twitter world.

 

Hail Social – Modern Love and Death (2007) - Lockstep downer 70’s keyboard grooves a la Pinback refreshed some upbeat electro-disco.  Charged singalong pop, flat vocals with grim, modern takes on the classic topics.  Well-structured and smart, introspective, and a bit disarmingly awkward.

 

Deer Tick – War Elephant (2007) -Snaggletooth country/folk, personal ballads for holding your beer aloft with a stiff upper lip, like when the twangy bar band catches you off guard with something intensely heartfelt and powerfully close to home.

 

Metronomy – Nights Out (2008) - Citing influences like New Order and Aphex Twin, Metronomy has staked out a new branch of urgent electronic pop weirdness with sharp tonal inventions and elaborate song architecture.  A listen to Nights Out is like a dance through a difficult but rewarding modern art gallery.

 

Deadboy and the Elephantmen – We Are Night Sky (2006) - A thundery Viking from the swamps of the American South, an angry and bleeding poet, heavy trains of jagged guitars and growled ashen lyrics, too romantic to be metal, too brutal to be rock.

 

Tokyo Police Club – Elephant Shell (2008) – Raw, powerful, percussive.  Complicated but satisfying blends of tight indie and punk, innocent with the wisdom of youth, a glimpse into an agreeable future of strong, sensitive men.

Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping (2008) – Another hit album of dense, schizophrenic amalgamations of synth, 60’s pop, indie, funk, and studio experiments.  This picks up where the last journal/album left off; our unstable and hyper intelligent narrator had a slightly better year, reuniting uneasily with the world after his self-imposed Scandinavian exile/depression (prior album).

 

The National – The Virginia EP (2008) - A timeless and articulate tapestry of love, depression, reminiscence, hope, pride, shame, and mumbling.  Rich and warm.  Second only to Alligator.

 

Lykke Li – Youth Novels (2008) -  Swedish girl pop, light but with depth and complexity.  Unique instrumentation (courtesy Bjorn of PB&J), lyrics with personality, sensuous vocals. 

 

Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes (2008) – Soulful, deep organic folk / southern rock, sweet and intimate, ballads that echo across time like mountains and lakes.

 

Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend (2008) - I used to be iffy about them, too, they are so privileged and corny, and who needs Paul Simon pseudo-covers anyway?  When the bad taste from imagined smoking jackets faded, I realized these are rich, contemporary songs in the band’s authentic voice.

 

Larytta – Difficult Fun (2008) - Scandinavian boys with stellar post-IDM pop experiments and overly electronic fist pumping rock-outs.  Big clean new sounds, grungy lyrics, unpredictable constructions.

 

Ill Ease – All Systems A-Go-Go! (2006) – Thick slabs of growling guitars and agitated drums, pulsing rhythms, celebratory gutter anthems, smug lyrics about having a shitty attitude about stupid bullshit.  A big and hip sound you’d never suspect to be a solo effort.

 

Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer (2008) – Agitated and frantic collisions of crashing guitars, cymbals, yelps, and twisting keyboards over dark, smoldering rock.  Nearly as vital as their debut.

Miike Snow – Miike Snow (2009) – Melancholy electronic/techno pop layered with Scandinavian sophistication.  Gloomy questions, epic anthems, bouncy charm, round glassy sounds, and crunchy, light male vocals.

Coconut Records – Nighttiming (2007) - Jason Schwartzman is probably the best musician/actor, so much so I put the one profession before the other deliberately.  His cool, lackadaisical voice rambles through approachable rock songs that are keen and bouyant.  A lot like The Beatles but less grandiose, more humble and personal.

Thao – We Brave Bee Stings And All (2008) - Like a chipper and quirky Built To Spill, brightened up a bit, rolling around, earnest, and a little wild.

 

The XX – XX (2009) – Sexy and minimal, hip crisp beats and breathy vocals, longing and love.  Chris Isaak plus The Cure in their early 20s, merged into the most distilled, sparse form possible.

 

Hercules And Love Affair – Hercules And Love Affair (2008) - Art disco??? Yes.

Magik Markers – Balf Quarry (2009) – Art rock that can drift out into nowhere, or crunch your windpipe with a crowbar, or shred its own extremities in a grater, or bounce balloons in a cardboard box, or fall down on bloody knees praying to a false god.  Like Sonic Youth but way more dirty, none of that elaborate gossamer guitar ensembles.

Best Friends Forever – Romance Conflict Adventure (2008) – On the surface this sounds like majorly amped up twee, but get to know it and you realize it is dirty and off-kilter, sort of a Trojan Horse of glee that’s actually punk rock, crude, and smart. They feel just like YOUR best friends.

Woods – Songs of Shame (2009) – Low budget rock noises and falsetto voices wandering through well-crafted, sensitive songs that feel proud about being weird.

 

Clues – Clues (2009) – A post-Unicorns band with the same mystic/psycho grandiosity but less emphasis on arcane compositions and sounds, which makes it feel stripped to its essence, less gimmicky.  Young, dangerous, and wild-eyed.


Casiotone For The Painfully Alone – vs. Children (2009) – For years Owen Ashworth has been flirting around a truly meaningful application of his dreary lofi indie pop, and with this album he finally found it  - a unique and artistic look at a domestic criminal romance story, replete with abandonment and tragedy.

 

Peter, Bjorn, and John - Living Thing (2009) – The sound is a little more stompy and complicated, but the songwriting is still refreshing and deceptively catchy and the lyrics still carry a modest power. 

The Wooden Birds – Magnolia (2009) - Andrew Kinney (American Analog Set)'s mellow, rhythmic, acoustic signature sound and peaceful, dark, soft compositions.

 

Portugal. The Man – The Satanic Satanists (2009) – Serious and glossy, Bowie-esque anthems, power without theatrics, a merge of very traditional classic rock concepts and some modern unrest.

 

Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak (2008) – Pop superstardom reaching ably to capture emotional breakup torture with an indie rock mix tape style amateur simplicity.  An impressive and uncomfortable combination of vulnerability, introspective thoughtfulness, and owning a dozen sports cars.

 

Jape – The Monkeys In The Zoo Have More Fun Than Me (2004) – Full and clear heartfelt mellow rock and Irish folk.  An observant, innocent freshness similar to Erlend Øye but with more echoes of the ancestral sea.  (This is an old album, but it really got to the US in 2007.)

 

Pictish Trail – Secret Soundz, Volume 1 (2008) – Sounding sometimes like a painfully intimate Scottish solo folk dude (along the lines of Jape, above), and other times like an epic noisy Montreal indie rock band, and still other times like an experimentation with old keyboards, I’m super impressed with both Pictish Trail’s range and impact – song after song is solid.

 

Hockey – Mind Chaos (2009) – Like an actually talented former iPod Ad buzz band, self-consciously washed up years after their big hit single, doing their best work to date.  Only this is their first album.  Lots of groove and funk and glam, as organic, hip, and 70's as Luke Skywalker.

 

Get Back Guinozzi – Carpet Madness (2009) – Quirky, cute, exotic indie rock with strains of Cibo Matto.  Weird enough not to be disposable. 

 

The Whitest Boy Alive – Rules  (2009) – This album is a lot like their first, Dreams, which was one of my all-time favorites: “Erlend Øye’s quiet murmuring sweet boy voice over crystal clear guitar, bass, and drum arrangements. Snappy, uptempo, casual, beautiful, and soaked in sentiment.”

 

Brazilian Girls – New York City (2008) – Sexy and worldly exotica/lounge/electronica jams.  Solid and appealing with a safe tone like a grown-up party or an inside joke you’re a part of. 

 

Handsome Furs – Face Control (2009) – Worked much better for me than their first album for no apparent reason.  Elegantly expressed anxiety and anger, insistent glitch electro percussion, clashing guitar sounds, Wolf Parade guy and his SO/GF. 

^ Dance / Electro ^

Largely went downhill after a 2007 peak, but here are the best ones:

 

Black Ghosts – The Black Ghosts (2008) – Electro soul and unpretentious synth pop, snappy drums, fresh sounds, and slick vocals.  Makes a worthwhile time out of dancing at the Beauty Bar.  

CSS – Donkey (2008) -  A bit less punk-electro-audacious than their debut, but the added maturity makes it no less dance-fun-pop.

The Presets – Apocalypso (2008) – Tense and energetic dance-electro. Bold and sloppy, thick and sharp.  

Walter Meego – Voyager (2008) – Tight and punchy electro pop with a nerd-cum-superstar vibe with all the dangerous ego and dance routines that come along with that.

Zeigeist – The Jade Motel (2008) – Definite shades of The Knife but a more consistent 80's vibe.  Urgent and weird dance synth.

 

 

^ Honorable Mentions ^

Antlers – Hospice (2009) – Arty and depressing, sonically full and dramatic.

Beck – Modern Guilt (2008) – First Beck album I’ve liked since Mellow Gold.  It feels like it’s for the listener’s benefit, even if we don’t choose to shower him with confetti while listening.

Cold War Kids – Loyalty To Loyalty (2008) – More traditional than their debut, but still very powerful, capable, emotional, and modern blues/rock.

Crystal Stilts – Alight of Night (2008) - Awesome mumbly psyche/art rock drone.

Explode Into Colors – The Sean Rocky Zach and Dekum Tape (2009) – Frantic, percussive, careening art rock with warm, hissing production.  Actually released on cassette.

Maus Haus – Lark Marvels (2008) – Arty and shifty, angular male experimental pop built from guitars, sound effects, and household items.  Almost hip and dangerous, but a little too smart and self-aware.

Nightmares On Wax – Thought So (2008) – Still making stoner groove electronica as though the last 10 years didn’t happen, but it’s still as smooth and satisfying.

Poni Hoax – Images of Sigrid (2008) – French dance rock/electroclash, sharp, slicked back, and stylish and maybe a tiny bit silly. 

Santogold  - Santogold (2008) – Really fantastic full length but the sense that it’s a thin veneer took some of the luster out of it for me.  From a prior review: “Lean dancehall glowing with punk rock, like liquid blue lightning, alternately evokes No Doubt and M.I.A..”

TV on the Radio – Dear Science  (2008) – Like everyone else, I liked it. 

Volcano Choir – Unmap (2009) – If you can’t get enough Bon Iver, this is the same guy, similar, more experimental.

Wild Beasts – Two Dancers (2009) – Somewhere between Antony and the Johnsons and Hercules And Love Affair.

Okay, now we're caught up.