1. Grizzly Bear — "Southern Point" / Download
No doubt at the top of most lists this year, Grizzly Bear really came into their own. Every track on this album is beautiful, complex and (finally) approachable. This song is the most stunning, skillful piece on the album and my favorite song of the year. Complex guitar work, beautiful harmonies, soaring vocals, crashing crescendos; it's a glass shattering against a wall at 1/1000th speed.
2. Andrew Bird — "Anonanimal" / Download
Delicate, and heartbreakingly beautiful. Bird's last two albums have seen him finally maturing as a songwriter to match his masterful musicianship.
3. The xx — "Islands" / Download
This could have easily been my number one pick. The fact that this is the band's first album is unbelievable. The duet vocals offer a wonderful balance of Romy Madley Croft's smokey charm and Oliver Sim's throaty, muscular sound. The beats behind them feel programmed, but perfect. They're simply amazing.
4. A.C. Newman — "Like a Hitman, Like a Dancer" / Download
With it's incessant sticks, thumping drumbeat and pretty, sing-along harmonies, there's nothing here not to like. This song makes me want to jump around.
5. Neko Case — "This Tornado Loves You" / Download
Neko largely left the vocal fireworks behind her on this album, but her skill as a songwriter and storyteller continues to thrill me.
6. Friendly Fires — "Skeleton Boy" / Download
Technically, this album is a 2008, but it didn't hit the states until it's US release this year. And boy did it hit. If this song doesn't make you want to shake your ass, you're not invited to my dance party.
7. Animal Collective — "Summertime Clothes" / Download
I appreciate when a "weird" band makes music that's approachable; Animal Collective have done this, but still kept their edge. It's sharp as hell.
8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs — "Zero" / Download
Karen O. Electro-rock. What more do you need?
9. Phoenix — "1901" / Download
Forget all the commercial's you've heard this song on already. Forgive Phoenix their mainstream transgressions (if you need to), because these guys are geniuses of pop-rock.
10. Florence + The Machine — "Dog Days Are Over" / Download
"Happiness hit her / like a bullet in the back." And so did this irrepressible, upbeat song.
11. Sunset Rubdown — "Idiot Heart" / Download
Sunset Rubdown has always been one of the odd side projects to come out of Wolf Parade, but this song is gem of straight-ahead rock music. Except for the twisting lyrics and Spencer Krug's straight-backed vocal style, this song would be the best kind of stadium rock.
12. Edward Sharpe & Magnetic Zeros — "Home" / Download
This is not a band I would expect to like. Much too of a hippie/jam band for my taste. I heard this song live, after spending the preceding 35 minutes rolling my eyes. But, but but… there's something infectious about it. It's the twangy rhythm, the call and response vocal duet, the campfire sing-along. Whistles, claps, foot stomps. It's a village kind of music, and it's hard to shake once it gets into your head.
13. Dirty Projectors — "Stillness Is The Move" / Download
I have trouble recommending this band because they're so difficult. But it doesn't diminish my love for the music. This song is a quirky, deconstructed paean to melody and harmony. And if you don't believe me, go find the Solange Knowles cover.
14. Volcano Choir — "Island, IS" / Download
Another side project, Volcano Choir is the second home of Justin Vernon, the heart of last year's favorite, Bon Iver. It is every bit as haunting, pushed along by a incessant beat.
15. Wilco — "One Wing" / Download
Only Wilco could sing a breakup song and make it seem so new and important.
16. The Mountain Goats — "Hebrews 11:40" / Download
I was put off at first by the idea of a biblical concept album, but if anyone can weave those stories into wonderful, orchestrated spiderwebs of song, it's John Darnielle.
17. Beirut — "The Concubine" / Download
This year's split EP ("March of the Zapotec" and "Realpeople Holland") was a split personality vision of Zack Codon's immersive, anthropological style. "The Concubine" brilliantly marries both halves of the EP, bringing the electric and the eclectic together.
18. The Middle East — "Blood" / Download
Who the heck are these guys? Holy shit.
19. Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse, featuring Gruff Rhys — "Just War" / Download
Collaboration is a powerful thing. This year, collaboration produced a new Sparklehorse album (good), introduced us to David Lynch's singing voice (not good), and brought Super Fury Animal's singer Rhys back to the mic for this song (extra good). Too bad it was never released.
20. Charlotte Gainsbourg feat Beck — "Heaven Can Wait" / Download
Even though the album doesn't come out until next year, we were lucky enough to get this beautiful first single right at the tail end of 2009. Gainsbourg is a hypnotic, romantic singer, and this duet with Beck (also the album's producer) is a superb, cinematic piece of music.
2. Andrew Bird — "Anonanimal" / Download
Delicate, and heartbreakingly beautiful. Bird's last two albums have seen him finally maturing as a songwriter to match his masterful musicianship.
3. The xx — "Islands" / Download
This could have easily been my number one pick. The fact that this is the band's first album is unbelievable. The duet vocals offer a wonderful balance of Romy Madley Croft's smokey charm and Oliver Sim's throaty, muscular sound. The beats behind them feel programmed, but perfect. They're simply amazing.
4. A.C. Newman — "Like a Hitman, Like a Dancer" / Download
With it's incessant sticks, thumping drumbeat and pretty, sing-along harmonies, there's nothing here not to like. This song makes me want to jump around.
5. Neko Case — "This Tornado Loves You" / Download
Neko largely left the vocal fireworks behind her on this album, but her skill as a songwriter and storyteller continues to thrill me.
6. Friendly Fires — "Skeleton Boy" / Download
Technically, this album is a 2008, but it didn't hit the states until it's US release this year. And boy did it hit. If this song doesn't make you want to shake your ass, you're not invited to my dance party.
7. Animal Collective — "Summertime Clothes" / Download
I appreciate when a "weird" band makes music that's approachable; Animal Collective have done this, but still kept their edge. It's sharp as hell.
8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs — "Zero" / Download
Karen O. Electro-rock. What more do you need?
9. Phoenix — "1901" / Download
Forget all the commercial's you've heard this song on already. Forgive Phoenix their mainstream transgressions (if you need to), because these guys are geniuses of pop-rock.
10. Florence + The Machine — "Dog Days Are Over" / Download
"Happiness hit her / like a bullet in the back." And so did this irrepressible, upbeat song.
11. Sunset Rubdown — "Idiot Heart" / Download
Sunset Rubdown has always been one of the odd side projects to come out of Wolf Parade, but this song is gem of straight-ahead rock music. Except for the twisting lyrics and Spencer Krug's straight-backed vocal style, this song would be the best kind of stadium rock.
12. Edward Sharpe & Magnetic Zeros — "Home" / Download
This is not a band I would expect to like. Much too of a hippie/jam band for my taste. I heard this song live, after spending the preceding 35 minutes rolling my eyes. But, but but… there's something infectious about it. It's the twangy rhythm, the call and response vocal duet, the campfire sing-along. Whistles, claps, foot stomps. It's a village kind of music, and it's hard to shake once it gets into your head.
13. Dirty Projectors — "Stillness Is The Move" / Download
I have trouble recommending this band because they're so difficult. But it doesn't diminish my love for the music. This song is a quirky, deconstructed paean to melody and harmony. And if you don't believe me, go find the Solange Knowles cover.
14. Volcano Choir — "Island, IS" / Download
Another side project, Volcano Choir is the second home of Justin Vernon, the heart of last year's favorite, Bon Iver. It is every bit as haunting, pushed along by a incessant beat.
15. Wilco — "One Wing" / Download
Only Wilco could sing a breakup song and make it seem so new and important.
16. The Mountain Goats — "Hebrews 11:40" / Download
I was put off at first by the idea of a biblical concept album, but if anyone can weave those stories into wonderful, orchestrated spiderwebs of song, it's John Darnielle.
17. Beirut — "The Concubine" / Download
This year's split EP ("March of the Zapotec" and "Realpeople Holland") was a split personality vision of Zack Codon's immersive, anthropological style. "The Concubine" brilliantly marries both halves of the EP, bringing the electric and the eclectic together.
18. The Middle East — "Blood" / Download
Who the heck are these guys? Holy shit.
19. Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse, featuring Gruff Rhys — "Just War" / Download
Collaboration is a powerful thing. This year, collaboration produced a new Sparklehorse album (good), introduced us to David Lynch's singing voice (not good), and brought Super Fury Animal's singer Rhys back to the mic for this song (extra good). Too bad it was never released.
20. Charlotte Gainsbourg feat Beck — "Heaven Can Wait" / Download
Even though the album doesn't come out until next year, we were lucky enough to get this beautiful first single right at the tail end of 2009. Gainsbourg is a hypnotic, romantic singer, and this duet with Beck (also the album's producer) is a superb, cinematic piece of music.]]>
These guys completely escaped my radar this year. How did that happen, when the band (really one-man producer/artist Benjamin Plant, with live accompaniment, similar to LCD Soundsystem) managed to craft the perfect throwback 80's disco-pop? It's a little Prince, a little Depeche Mode, a little David Bowie. Sometimes, from a 2009 EP of the same name, is the kind of dance music I love to love, and always hope to hear at the club.
I love the 60's folk-pop sound of this entire album. It's great music, but it's also music with a great vibe. The San Francisco based band is centered around Jason Robert Quever, and has made a major stylistic shift on this latest album from previous recordings. Style, not substance. The music was and remains graceful pop, crafted with a certain timelessness. It feels like something old, but rings with newness. 2007's wonderful Can't Go Back did the same thing in a completely different way (see the track "John Brown"). It's a sound that stands out from a crowded field this year.
Where do band-name meme's come from, anyway? 2005 gave us so many wolf bands you'd have thought we'd learned our lesson. And yet, here come the bear bands. Grizzly Bear, Panda Bear, Minus The Bear, and these guys, Bear in Heaven. (Actually, there are a few more, but I'll spare you.) That said, if you can get over the weirdness of this recent bear explosion (there, that could be another band name…), you might find something to like. Especially with Bear in Heaven. It's what I would call space disco, although that's too reductive to do the band justice. Really, it's a kind of space synth new wave thing that owes a great debt to the darker edges of IDM. On "Lovesick Teenagers", an incessant beat drives forward, while singer Jon Philpot drones his way in-between the soaring, reverbed falsetto chorus that lifts the song up to a state of emphatic drama. The texture of the music during the chorus, densely layered, only adds emphasis to this emotional crescendo. With lyrics like "Lovesick teenagers / Don't ever die / they will live forever" don't exactly promise an uplifting moment, but it's a haunting experience nonetheless.
Dirty Projectors are so much Teh New that it's almost impossible to write about them. There's a little 70's folkiness to the guitar work. There's a little charming awkwardness to the lead vocals. And there's that atonal call-and-response chorus. It's a great effect, and really utilizes the power of voice for instrumentation. This band, and this album, feel different from what is going on elsewhere in music; with bands like Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective, they're pushing us towards something unique and new.
Animal Collective gets just a little easier for me to swallow with each successive album. Merriweather Post Pavillion manages to take the wonderful, almost antagonistic strangeness of the band and make it not only listenable, but practically poppy. It feels as if the band has discovered the secret scientific formula for making a song infectious and enjoyable. "Summertime Clothes" feels like it might have been written on graph paper, but it gets me up out of my chair every time. It's as difficult to explain as it is to avoid; you can't help but love it.
Alan Wilkis last album (reviewed last July) gave me the impression of someone cultivating an early-80's radio rock sound. His new album, Pink and Purple has a much, much more pop-funk sound. Add in lots of electronic instrumentation and you get a Prince-esque sound; in fact, this song even has something of (gasp!) an early-Michael Jackson thing going on. I can testify however (based on when I first heard the album) that the MJ connection is nothing more than a convenient (or inconvenient, perhaps) coincidence. "Gotta Get You Back" is a great, funky track with an easy beat and a lot of synth. At 3:09, it delivers the goods without getting tiresome (sometimes re-invention can). While it feels like a complete left-turn from where Wilkis was this time last year, the songs are good; why question that?
I love Doves. "Kingdom of Rust" (album and track) is a reliable piece of work by a reliable band. I once thought these guys might save the R in rock music, but I've since given up that hope. They seem to have given it up as well. It may be more of the same, but who am I to complain?
Much has changed for Antony Hegarty since Secretly Canadian released Antony & The Johnsons' second album I Am A Bird Now. But you wouldn't be able to tell from their latest work, The Crying Light. And that's a very good thing. Hegarty's voice is still beautiful, complex and touching. The music remains stark, almost painfully simple. The title track is a stunner, affecting and mournful. But so is the rest of the album. Nothing from Hegarty's efforts with Hercules and Love Affair has rubbed off here, but that's ok. When you do something well, there's no reason not to keep doing it. Bring your kleenex.
Just in time for July 4th: some of my current favorite tunes for your listening enjoyment.
Remember when the "Wonder Years" was relevant? And Fred Savage was in a Pepsi commercial in the netheryears of the early 90s and he was writing a love letter, looks at the Pepsi can on his desk, and decides to use the word "effervescent" in the missive?
My music taste is intensely seasonal. Depending on whether it's spring, summer, fall or winter, my listening habits range from doggedly moody to superficial poppy. With 80 degree temperature and spring in full bloom in NY, my music tastes have definitely skewed towards the latter.