As part of an ongoing series of new bands that this blog is 'tipping' as acts to watch in the current year, I humbly present the Irish lads of Two Door Cinema Club. Props goes to Danny Brown for this tip. Can't imagine them not finding success with tunes like this:
Equal parts Friendly Fires and La Roux, Delphic is already hotly tipped by the British music press and they've delivered up to this point with tracks "Doubt", "This Momentary", and "Counterpoint". The real question will be if they are able to put together a cohesive, nuanced album like Friendly Fires.
Chapel Club
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6Vfjjwgv6c
Embedding is disabled for this particular video, but please, for the love of all things holy, have a listen because if there is one new band I'm currently really excited about it is Chapel Club. "O Maybe I" (the video linked to above) is an instant classic and their other tracks "All the Eastern Girls" and "Surfacing" are epic, combining a bit each of Glasvegas, BRMC, and Echo and the Bunnymen.
It also helps that there are turtlenecks being worn in earnest in this video. This makes them a hot tip automatically.
Is Tropical
The music speaks for itself here... Is Tropical are your typical indie rock kids who formed a band and attempt to do as many different things in the space of a few minutes as possible. Luckily, unlike many of the bands who throw the kitchen sink in and end up with trash, they seem to know when to pull back and make sure that their song has a secure framework upon which to hang all of their silky, glittering linens.
Darwin Deez’ first official album comes out in 2010 and yet they have managed to land on this top ten list due to this self released album, much of which, I’m sure, will make up their forthcoming label debut. Despite this fact, though, I felt it absolutely necessary to include this album on this list.
The album has such joy and charm that it is nearly impossible for me to listen to it without smiling and looking around for four square feet within which I can dance.
It might be derivative of other acts (such as The Strokes) in places, but it is one hell of a fun record.
9 - Girls – Album
Vocals can oftentimes spell doom for bands when it comes down to my own personal taste, but the somewhat off-kilter and, what can only be described as, dirty vocals of Girls debut album are backed up by enough surf-and-sun merriment that it is impossible to deny the simple brilliance of Album.
Structurally sparse songs like “Laura” are stuffed with reverberating guitar strings clanging greedily against 1950s and 60s doo-wop melodies until, no matter how much one may wish to resist, a listener is left with nothing to do but smile, nod the head slightly, and hum along.
8 - Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career
Recreations of the 60s R&B Pop sound have been flying around popular music more and more in the last few years with varying degrees of success, but Camera Obscura are the nearly unchallenged masters of the art form and My Maudlin Career is their best album to date.
Taking pure bliss pop songs and layering in a Phil Spektor-esque wall of sound, Camera Osbcura raise their orchestral compositions to a new level and, coupled with the ever-sharp lyrics, have put together an album that is as solid an album front to back as one is likely to ever hear. It might not have one or two songs that stand out above all others in the such as many great albums, but this is really a tribute to the strength and charm present on every song on the tracklisting, and it is far from a criticism.
7 - Richard Hawley – True Love’s Gutter
Richard Hawley keeps plugging along in his quest to become the coolest man in existence and he is getting closer and closer to this finality with each of his album releases. To the uninitiated listener, Hawley might sound like a cheesy retread of some of the albums that are mothballing inside your grandparents’ old record cabinets, but to the trained ear, he is astonishing, taking tried and true themes and arrangements and putting his stamp of trademarked delay and throaty vocals to each.
There might be nothing better than putting on a Richard Hawley album, sitting in front of a roaring fire while the snow engulfs the walls around you, and allowing the songs to seep deeply into your consciousness.
There is a band to which White Rabbits have drawn and will continue to draw comparisons to, partly because of who produced their latest album It’s Frightening, but while this comparison seems to make sense on a quick listen to It’s Frightening, deeper consideration clearly indicates the dramatic differences in both aim and style and reveals that White Rabbits owes much more to The Bends-era Radiohead than the darlings of soul-pop, Spoon.
While Spoon frontman Britt Daniels production gives It’s Frightening the same minimalist, groove-based feel of a Spoon album, White Rabbits prove themselves to be a deeper band, crafting unique percussive arrangements and dropping in liquid-cool guitar lines that take from the best moments of Johnny Greenwood.
It may be difficult to imagine what a band created from equal parts Spoon and Radiohead truly sounds like without listening to White Rabbits, but the product is sparkling and infinitely listenable, which is the mark of any truly great album .
4 - Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
What is there left for any reviewer to say about Merriweather Post Pavilion? It’s a sonic boom slap to the brain that somehow manages to be both entirely unique and filled with genius despite staying relatively free of pretension.
It’s an album that, as I found out personally, almost exactly mirrors, in a good way, the effects of being drunk on wine.
3 - Noah and the Whale – The First Day of Spring
There is nothing that will split a listening audience more than a breakup album because it not only forces the listener to put themselves into a certain emotional state, but it oftentimes requires work and time to fully realize the intended effect.
Perhaps this is why so few breakup albums appear in my collection of music and why even fewer ever appear on my Top Ten Lists, but regardless of the reasoning, the fact that The First Day of Spring made it onto my list (and with such a high ranking no less) should speak volumes about the music present on this album
Ranging from Sigur Ros orchestrations to The Edge-like guitar lines, complete with crisp reverb, The First Day of Spring manages to present a wide assortment of styles and sounds, but never comes even close to losing its narrative thread thanks to the jittery and sincere vocals of Charlie Fink, who, despite threading together a story of complete misery, never loses sight of the hopefulness of the horizon.
The album as a whole is a beautiful piece of musicianship that should be truly appreciated for its earnestness.
2 - Grizzly Bear – Veckatemist
There might not be a more interesting band that Grizzly Bear at the moment. Not even Animal Collective.
Grizzly Bear are the rare act that not only creates incredible songs, but is so technically sound and skilled that it’s almost unfair that they should also be able to write such diverse and hook-laden songs.
To be fair, it shouldn’t work. Harmonies and chamber vocals aren’t supposed to be as hip as Grizzly Bear makes them, yet somehow, on every single composition they put together, they manage to string numerous lyrical and melodic threads together to create incredibly unique and mind-blowingly addictive songs.
Veckatimist is the rare album that gets better on every listen, even nearly a year down the line.
1 - The Cribs – Ignore the Ignorant
Johnny Marr must have ADD. The man can’t seem to keep himself occupied with playing in a band or even a genre for more than a few years at a time. After his name-making go-round with The Smiths, he’s bounced around from The The to Electronic to his own disappointingly generic Johnny Marr and the Healers and most recently to Modest Mouse, all while providing bands like Oasis and Pet Shop Boys with part-time work on the side.
Marr has now joined as a full-time member of English band The Cribs; they of the no-nonsense, recorded-is-live-is-recorded approach to what could easily be categorized as full-tempo neo-brit rock, if such a classification actually existed.
Marr says his work with The Cribs is his best in 25 years… and he’s right. Not only are his guitar lines as crisp and creative as they have been in years, but they provide a crucial underscore to the ruggedness of the Jarman brothers’ quick pace.
While his addition to the band doesn’t change what The Cribs are or have been, it does help to accentuate their already fully formed identity, bolding in the sometimes-hazy lines of structure and brightening areas that before were pastel.
But while Marr’s influence takes The Cribs to a higher plateau musically, it is twins Gary and Ryan’s songwriting that allows this album to peak so high. Their songs are tightly packed balls of energy and unadulterated hooks, which lead any listener to a definitive and clichéd, but ultimately true, finality: this album rocks.
Be sure to read Jaymo's Vampire Weekend review below as I feel it is not only pretty much spot on, but posts usually get a bit more time in the 'most recent post' slot than just a few days and I feel slightly bad about unseating it so quickly.
That said, here's the continuation of my 100 favorite songs of 2000-2009:
A shining example of the power of laid-back, still-lying-in-bed vocals juxtaposed with shuffling drums.
88: The Decemberists - Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect
This was the first Decemberists song I ever heard, having stumbled across their website on one of my many late night/early morning scourings of t'internet. I told a friend at the time that the vocals reminded me of I Am Kloot (number 89) and I still stick by that.
87: Hope of the States - The Red, The White, The Black, The Blue
The forcefulness of this song is staggering... and, as with all Hope of the States songs (or at least the good ones) it gives one full reign to use as many synonyms for 'epic' as one could possibly ever want.
86: The Stills - Lola Stars and Stripes
A glossy exercise in noise-pop that resulted in many drunken nights with my hands in the air and no voice in the morning.
85: Interpol - NYC
I never fully jumped on the Interpol bandwagon when "Turn on the Bright Lights" came out, but it's impossible to deny that NYC is simply a fantastic song.
84: Band of Horses - The General Specific
Honestly, what's more fun than harmonizing while clapping your hands and stomping your feet?
83: Ambershades - Clap, Clap, Clap
The amount of fun that it sounds like Ambershades are having on this song is almost unfair. Makes me want to harmonize in a high-pitched Super Furry Animals-like voice too.
82: Coldplay - Brothers and Sister
I know what you're thinking... "Really? Brothers and Sisters? You're full of it."
For reasons that I cannot even begin to comprehend myself I simply love this song. I sang it accapella on the way to school senior year of high school every day (literally every damn day) because our family computer didn't have a CD burner.
81: Helio Sequence - Hallelujah
I've posted this video before, during my top ten of 2008(which was posted quite a ways into 2009, much like, it seems, my forthcoming 2009 list), so if anyone reading this didn't check it out previously, feel free to bask in the space-guitar stomp.
I had actually started writing one of my old school music reviews where I take it really seriously, and treat it like I am an actual music writer of sorts with significant readership. Honestly, the intro alone name-checked both Kid A and Merrieweather Post Pavillion. You can probably imagine the themes; winter albums vs. albums that come out in the winter. The word "thaw" was used liberally. At the end of the day though, I have insignificant readership (in quantity, not quality), and anyone potentially reading this is probably just looking for a way to kill time at work, or fill some down time after dinner and before prime time television starts.
All that being said, the new Vampire Weekend album is really good. Seriously. The whole east coast affluence meets west african pop sensibility thing is still there (I still feel like a fraud even typing as if I know anything about west-african pop music. It is how all the people more cultured than me - including the band - describe the sound though, so I will stick with it for now). The guitars and production are still about as clean as anything I have heard. The flourishes of strings and keys just pop up all over the place after repeated listens. Ultimately, if you liked the first Vampire Weekend album (which, after all the hype/backlash dust settled, you should), then you will like this.
I should say that the band does jump the tracks a little on Contra from straightforward guitar rock though. You will find a little wider sonic reach here (read: some limited electronic tones, a track with autotune, and even a track that samples an M.I.A. song) but I think it ultimately makes for a more interesting/diverse listen, and shows the band is capable of really taking their sound a lot further than the standard four piece pop rock and roll thing they did so well on the self-titled record. Like I said though, aesthically speaking, this is still clearly a Vampire Weekend record.
As is now customary, I have included a couple of clips below. The first one is "Cousins", which shows them loosening the strings a little, and turning up the quirks. The second one is "Horchata", which I posted a link to previously, but is pretty unapollegtically Vampire Weekend doing what they do...and doing it very well. Enjoy.
In my continuing avoidance of posting my 2009 year-end list, my 00's decade-end list, or any number of posts about the great start that 2010 has gotten off to, I thought I would post a video of Grizzly Bear's cover of Hot Chip's "Boy From School" (see below for a link to a download of the track, as well). Maybe I have just been in Grizzly Bear fanboy mode for the past year or so, but am I the only one who thinks this band can do no wrong? Honestly, everything they record is so epic. Not in a showy Arcade Fire kind of way either (which is great, but a lot easier to do than what the Grizzlies are getting into), but in a "what's lurking in those open spaces" kind of way. Granted, they pick their holes wisely (Hot Chip's version of "Boy From School" is pretty great on its own), but Ed Droste and Co. let the air out of the tightly wound, electronic original, and then drop an eerie cloak over top of it all. Plus, as usual, the vocals are spot-on.
Even though I have all kinds of year-end/decade-end lists that I want to write with great fervor, I have for some reason been caught up in serious amounts of radio pop songs (i.e. Top 40) at the end of this year. That being said, I figured it would be fun to throw out my top five "Top 40" tracks of 2009. I must admit, I don't listen to a whole lot of radio, so the population from which these songs were selected was pretty limited. In other words, omissions are likely. For all of you who think I am a music elitist, blowhard...you may be right...but I can still enjoy a damn good pop song as much as the next guy.
5. "Use Somebody" - Kings of Leon This was basically the pop radio rock and roll song of the year. I first saw the "on the road montage" video for "Use Somebody" as I sat in a hotel by myself in Hopkinsville, KY while travelling for work, and while my work/travel life is in no way relatable to the Kings of Leon's, the video still felt really poignant. Plus its practically impossible not to sing the "Whoa Ohh" parts of the chorus.
4. "Run This Town" - Jay-Z (featuring Kanye West and Rihanna) Without even hearing this song, and just looking at the lineup, it was clear that it would be stone cold radio jam. Jay-Z may have softened a little in his old age, but Rihanna and Kanye are still rolling, and they sound as strong as ever on "Run This Town". It has been speculated that Kanye blows Jigga off the stage on this one, and that's probably a fair statement. I mean nothing Jay says comes close to "What you think I rap for, to push a fuckin' Rav4?"
3. "You Belong With Me" - Taylor Swift I don't care who you are, if you have not at least heard of Taylor Swift you are living under a rock. 2009 was the year Taylor Swift went from being a rising pop country star to being a legitimate pop music superstar. With "You Belong With Me" serving as her magnum opus it is no surprise. I guarantee you that every single girl/woman between the ages of 14 and 30 hears this song and immediately says "This is completely my life." That is great pop songwriting ladies and gentlemen; universal appeal.
2. "Bad Romance" - Lady GaGa I have to admit, I had not heard one Lady GaGa song until November of this year. However, after hearing "Bad Romance" recently on a television show, I was enthralled. Honestly, Lady GaGa is some kind of freak (in every form of the word). However, I will be damned if "Bad Romance" does not sound as good as anything Madonna ever released. Just listen to the pipes on this chick. It is completely bizarre, but there are hooks everywhere and the chorus soars over top of anything I have heard on the radio in a long time. I know that underage college kids are liquor drunk somewhere dancing to this song. As they should be.
1. "Empire State of Mind" - Jay-Z (featuring Alicia Keys) Jay-Z making yet another appearance on the list. However, similar to "Run This Town", Mr. Carter is outdone again by his guest star. Alicia Keys absolutely owns this song. Don't get me wrong, Jay has some pretty badass lines here (see: "MDMA got you feelin' like a champion, the city never sleeps, better slip you an Ambien"), but no one could live up to Ms. Keys' performance. People who hear it the first time are belting out that chorus by the second time it comes around. I read a review of the track on pitchfork that said it pretty well "...then Alicia Keys' elemental voice blows in on the chorus, and suddenly, we are all holding hands together and singing along on top of the Empire State Building." I have never been to New York City, but if it is half as inspiring as Keys makes it feel on "Empire State of Mind", then I am not sure the American Dream is dead just yet.
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