Bringing together elements of Mumford and Sons and their Oxford brethren Whispering Bob (pre-Goldrush era Goldrush) along with a penchant for catchy harmonizing, there's not much not to like about Stornoway.
This particulary track, "Zorbing", has been in my head constantly for the better part of two weeks and I'm not sure it's going to go anywhere anytime time.
I've heard most of their soon to be released album, and it's a doozy. Definitely worth more than a few spins on the table.
This is nothing like it was in my room... in my best clothes... trying to think of you.
69: Radio Dept. – Where Damage Isn’t Already Done
The Radio Dept.’s first album absolutely has to rank among my favorites of this decade. It’s breezy, yet manages to be poignant and this song is a perfect example of how they manage to pull off that balance.
68: Richard Hawley – Open Up Your Door
I posted this video just a few months back, so I apologize for the reiteration, but it really is a great song… takes one back to a smoke-filled dive bar in early 1960s New York listening to Chet Baker sing and play his head off while high as all hell. It barely beat out Hawley’s “Motorcyle Song” for this particular spot, so if you’re sick of hearing this particular tune, go check out t’other.
There isn’t a better song for driving home late on a frigid winter’s night.
66: The Black Keys – Stack Shot Billy
There could be any number of Black Keys songs on this list, but I still can’t get over just how phenomenally fun the percussion is on this track.
65: The Shins – New Slang
Barely beating out “Girl Inform Me” and “Your Algebra”, “New Slang” might be the most generic choice thanks to its mass-media-zation by Garden State, but it is still an incredible track with a beautiful simplicity that is rarely matched.
64: South – Threadbare
It’s somewhat odd to pick a track for a band that I was once very much obsessed with that in no way indicates the type of band that they are, or were at the time, or why I find them to be a phenomenal band, but tastes are tastes and I am still mesmerized by how much noise, back-beats, and utter thickness they managed to cram into this rather short song. Really great stuff.
63: Doves – Pounding
Doves at their anthemic best; creating a song with significance and beauty that requires stomping of feet, clapping of hands, and top-of-the-lungs singing.
62: Nada Surf – Hi-Speed Soul
I never thought I would like anything created by the purveyors of the 90s alt-rock turd “popular”, but Nada Surf have evolved into one of the better pop-rock acts of the 2000s and Let Go is a true gem. “Hi-Speed Soul” is the best of the album, though “Blonde on Blonde” and “Blizzard of ‘77” are both also phenomenal.
61: Franz Ferdinand – Outsiders
“Take Me Out” could probably have made this list, but I cannot exclude the brilliant groove and drums of “Outsiders”.
The level of charm on display on Two Door Cinema Club’s debut album demands attention. It takes guile and skill to successfully sustain the amount of youthful exuberance found in this record while not falling into the traps that would take their music from serious to semi-laughable popular drivel. So, while Two Door Cinema Club are indeed quite young and proudly wear this badge on their sleeves in their music, they have managed to create an album that synthesizes their quirky, fun, and poppy side with songs that represent a very real piece of popular art.
Perhaps this is overstating what is really just a great pop-rock album, but it represents one of the first truly great albums of 2010, so it deserves some accolades. It’s an album with the same sort of gloss and precision as Woflgang Amadeus Phoenix (not inconsequently, it was recorded in the same studio with the same producer/mixer, Phillipe Zdar), but it ends up sounding more like a fusion of Vampire Weekend and We Are Scientists than Phoenix. This sounds rather weird, but it works incredibly well as the dance hall tendencies add a slight edge to the somewhat cherubic vocals and musical idiosyncrasies.
The liveliness and joi de vivre of the album makes it instantly memorable and incredibly addictive. It is, simply, a nearly perfect first step for a band that will almost certainly demand attention for years to come.
You wander down the beaten concrete path of a dimly lit, brick-lined alley; intently following the vibrations of a fuzzy bass that is barely audible, but which still manages to roll around heavily in your chest cavity.
Drops of dirty rainwater slip off of the side of a sheet-metal roof onto your head as you reach a corroding dumpster with a small window hovering above. The music is louder: muffled, raspy vocals can be distinctly heard between the sounds of the cars passing by the entrance to the alley.
You hoist yourself up onto the dumpster, staining your palms orange with damp rust. Steadying yourself against the brick wall, you come up to your full height and gaze through the window into the poorly lit room below. Several lamps giving off slightly different shades of cream silhouette the steel columns holding up the empty warehouse and cast harsh shadows on the faces of the band who are gathered in the middle of the room.
You push the window open and the sound rushes out; it’s still not quite clear thanks to the lack of a proper PA or sound system, but it has such immediacy that you don’t even seem to notice. Despite the precarious foundation upon which you are currently standing, you begin to move your body with the beat and smack your hand against the side of your thigh in rhythm.
The music feels like something you’ve heard before, which helps you to forget about the occasional gusts of wind that prick up the hairs on your arms. The consistency with which the band propels itself forward is slowed only by the occasional break between songs; time filled with the lighting of cigarettes and deep swallows of brown-bottled beer.
Before you know it, the band stops playing for good and the lights go down to black. You jump down onto the buckling pavement and walk home. You have a hard time picking out one track from another as the music plays over in your mind, but despite this, you can’t help but feel that you’ve heard something special.
You only wish you could hear it again.
****************************************
Turn the record back over to side one, start the turntable, and put the needle on the soon to be well worn grooves.
In case you were not aware, 2010 is shaping up to be a pretty great year for music. We have already seen a number of great records released in the first two and a half months of this new decade (i.e. Beach House - Teen Dream, Vampire Weekend - Contra, Surfer Blood - Astro Coast, Local Natives - Gorilla Manor...to name a few), and we are expecting records from many more bands that I have been known to rep in these parts in the past (i.e. the Hold Steady, LCD Soundsystem, Broken Social Scene). Another band that has most certainly seen some "press" around this blog in the past, the National, is set to release a follow-up to their most recent album, Boxer. The new album, High Violet (see artwork above), is slated for a May 11 release. If this clip (their performance of new track, "Terrible Love", last night on Fallon) is any indication, we are in for yet another great album from one of the best bands currently making music in the States. Enjoy.
Field Music have always been an act that has kept its audience on their toes; whether it be releasing a huge catalog of albums, b-sides, and one-off singles in rapid succession, a rather abrupt announcement of the need for the band to take an indefinite “break”, or the announcement and quick release of a double album with almost no hint that anything was in the Field Music pipeline.
Measure, the aforementioned double album, maintains the Brewis brothers ability to keep their fans guessing with an absolute wealth of music. Although the announcement of the double album brought initial elation on my part, it was quickly followed up by a sneaking suspicion that Field Music’s style might not translate well to a longer playing album. Their knack for constructing pop-rock gems with more moving parts than a Thomas Pynchon novel works beautifully in a normal length album because they are really packing in a double-album’s worth of music and ideas into a single album, but a double-album could very well have been the aural equivalent of attempting to jam fourteen people into a compact car for a karaoke night.
In the end, Measure does indeed fall victim to the excess of its creators, but not because the music is not up to their usual, exceptionally high standards. Instead, Measure simply becomes an album that is quite difficult to properly listen to in one sitting due to its nearly overwhelming trove of melodies and musical flourishes.
That said, David and Peter Brewis have still managed to create a work of beauty with enough moments of clarity and genius to firmly put Measure in contention for album of the year consideration and the musical ‘curve’ associated with the album should in no way dissuade anyone from buying a copy of the album and enjoying it for what it really is: a work of musical art that shows Field Music stretching themselves to the breaking point on genre-bending works of metered precision.
If you read this blog and haven't heard this yet, then you aren't reading very well.
79: Hope of the States - Nehimiah
Sam Herlihy has one of the weirdest voices ever, but you can't argue with HOTS ability to craft one hell of an epic.
78: The Kooks - Jackie Big Tits
A phenomenal song for winding down a party, this song is impossible not to start singing along to even during one's first listen... it just sounds so damned familiar.
The Natural History are a secret fetish of mine... short and simple, but incredibly fun little tunes. This is their best, in my humble opinion.
76: The Strokes - Under Control
Bold choice, I know, but the groove in this song speaks to me... it has such a cool vibe that it wasn't even close for me when choosing a favorite Strokes song.
75: Vampire Weekend - Mansard Roof
How can anyone deny the brilliance of a song that mentions eaves?
74: Kings of Leon - King of the Rodeo
Long before their breakout success, Kings of Leon were the soundtrack to many a drunken night with King of the Rodeo... nobody is better for creating soundalike lyrics than Kings of Leon.
"You taco roller! You taco roller!"
73: The Bees - Chicken Payback
I still wish I had made my brother dance to this at my wedding rather than John Denver during the hog trough dance... ah well.
72: The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Sister Surround
The true kings of Swedish garage rock are TSOOL, not The Hives. This song is so good live it is scary.
71: Ikara Colt - At the Lodge
Dirty as hell and with more attitude than should really be legally allowed, it's too bad Ikara Colt didn't last long enough to make more of an impact.
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