top 20 albums 2010

Okay, so 2010 has been a pretty exciting year. Heard loads of new bands and upcoming artists from all over the place. This is just my opinion, these are my personal favourite albums to grace 2K10.


20. - Foals - Total Life Forever.


On this LP Foals have really matured and their sound has changed quite alot. This album is a lot more serious than "Antidotes", songs are alot deeper and production is very nice. Yannis's vocal's come out alot stronger, melancholic and even haunting.


19. - Twin Shadow - Forget.


Twin Shadow came out of nowhere, and debut "Forget" is a New Wave tinged album seeming very 80's revival, which feels alot what 2010 has been. Not to be sidelined with alot of potentially pretentous "chillwave" artists, Twin Shadow boasts some really catchy synth driven pop hooks guarenteed to make you move!


18. - Tame Impala - InnerSpeaker.


A really strong pschedelic ridden album that sounds like it could be mistaken for some lost rock gem from the 70's. Imagine "Cream" with John Lennon on vocals tinged with nostalgia and you're not far off. Brilliant.


17. - New Young Pony Club - The Optimist.


NYPC have a darker sound on this follow up, not losing their catchy dance beats and attitude. They've proved their worth on this one.


16. - Wild Nothing - Gemini.


Wild Nothing have a mix of shoegaze/dream pop, indie rock maybe even some post-punk with an excellent album. Melancholic vocals with textured guitar layers, excellent lyrics. Highlights include "Chinatown" and "Live in Dreams" but this LP is great throughout.


15. - Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo


California's Avi Buffalo bring an excellent summer album with catchy indie pop and some really unique vocals. Excellent guitar work and beach vibes. They sound innocent, fun and with some pretty bizzare yet brilliant lyrics.


14. - Dr. Dog - Shame Shame


Lo-fi indie rock, with a whole bunch of influences from alot of 60's pop. This is there best to date, excellent pop songs. Great beatles-esque guitar work and drum kicks, this is guarenteed to make you dance. it's may be mostly upbeat but the instrumental build ups and lyrics might just break your heart.


13. - Harlem - Hippies


Garage rock with songs full of aggression and attitude. Really stripped down lo-fi set of tracks generally short and thrashy but catchy and sounds ranging from punk rock, 60's rock and even nirvana(!?). Well worth a listen, expect good thing's to come from Harlem.


12. - Surfer Blood - Astro Coast


Arguably a one trick album, reverb; lots of it. Surf rock with songs about (you guessed it) sunny beach's, girls, drinking, as you'd expect. Excellent arena rock vocals, great atmosphere, and "Swim" has to be one of 2010 summer anthems.


11. - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today


LA's Ariel Pink has his first properlly recorded album after 10 year's worth of 4-track tapes of bizarre pop songs. Huge range of genres, only let down being that they're not all completely new songs, rather re-workings of and more polished versions of older songs. Still you can hear his influences from all over the place, Frank Zappa, Michael Jackson, The Cure to name a few. This album even feels more like a mixtape as there is so much variety. This is excellent pyschedelic pop with Ariel's wierd take on everything which is just the perfect touch making it unique in it's own right.


10. - Belle and Sebastian - Write About Love

Okay so it's not Belle and Sebstian's best album, this seem's like a pretty safe album, they haven't varied much from older work. However, I can hear a jazz influnce and other sounds which have probably brushed off from Stuart's work with side project "God Help The Girl". This may not be as good throughout as previous albums but the highlight's are excellent "I want the world to stop" "I didn't see it coming" and "Come on sister" to name a few. Not as personal and literal as older albums, but a damn good LP. Belle and Sebastian can do no wrong.


9. - Vampire Weekend - Contra


Indie pop with a very different approach which is both a breathe of fresh air and fun. This album proves their debut wasn't a flook. They fuse world music with indie with really joyful vocals and flangey guitars. "Contra" has some even more impressive vocal melodys, impressively intellectual yet cool lyrics and longer songs. I can hear influences from Paul Simon, and even fellow new yorker's Animal Collective. They even use autotune and pull it off without sounding ridiculous.


8. - Yeasayer - Odd Blood


New York's Yeasayer have risen from complete obscurity this year with "Odd Blood" applying their previous electronic highly experimental world music influenced sound to a more accessible sound. This LP is great from start to finish, with great pop catchs. They sound similar to Gang Gang Dance with almost tribal percussion being really important part to the sound, but more song structure. Some of the best song's i've heard this year are on this "Ambling Alp", "O.N.E" both with great build ups and beautiful sing along chorus's.


7. - Four Tet - There Is Love In You


Kieran Hebden AKA Four Tet has been around about 10 or so years now, coined as "folktronica" by many places. This his first album in a while and it is beautiful. A great electronica album with influences from house music and minimalist techno. The perfect chill out album, these songs are mixed so well with excellent samples all blended into great danceable tunes.


6. - Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History


Two Door Cinema Club have arguably the pop album of the year, there is not a bad song on this album. These 10 tracks are so catchy and will make you want to move. Fast indie rock guitar melodys, and smooth vocals throughout. They are on their way to big things, this is already clear.


5. - Caribou - Swim


Caribou has come a long way since his last album, this is kind of a change in direction after a more straight forward album with more vocals and guitar. A collection of electronic experimental dance tunes with alot of percussion, which after seeing them live this is clear, 2 drummers even. This album is an experience, it layers some brilliant sounds and textures and has some songs that build up gradually introducing new layers and samples into a cluster of awesomeness.


4. - Arcade Fire - The Suburbs


Only Win Butler could take a 16 track concept album on growing up in the suburbs in texas and make it work excellent from start to finish. This LP show's how much they've grown since "Funeral" and "Neon Bible" and 3 years in the making it's incredible. Touching on alot of the artist's they grew up listening to Neil Young and Depeche Mode. There's even a 80's synth New Wave sounding song, who'd of ever thought Arcade Fire could pull it off?


3. - Warpaint - The Fool


Forget everything you think when you hear Hollywood, this band are so far from the stereotypical band from Hollywood, and as an all girl band, they just about break every stereotype from that too. This is hands down the best debut i've heard this year, quite a dark theme, heavy guitar influence and soaked in psychedelia. They don't even have a lead singer, vocals are shared and very melodic. Song structures vary and only one song even sounds like it could be a single (Undertow). They sound something like earlier Cat Power, Electrelane or even a jammy psychedelic version of the xx (but way more exciting). This Album is a must have, only better is their live act.

2. - Deerhunter - Halycon Digest


Deerhunter are a indie rock band with heavy shoegaze influences from Atlanta. They have made a trully wonderful album here with a mixture of fast, slow, short, long and all awesome songs. And if there's one thing Deerhunter know, it's how to jam out, stand out "Desire Lines" builds up so well into a psychedelic jam that sounds almost improvised yet completly nostalgic. The lyrics touch on growing up alot, and some pretty dark stuff and "reflecting on the past, no matter for good or bad" (meaning of the word Halcyon). There is a big variety of sounds on here, ambient, shoegaze, psychedelia, garage rock etc... the list goes on; Deerhunter gel all these genres seeminglessly into a near perfect album in my opinion.


1. - Beach House - Teen Dream


I've had this one on repeat since January and I can honestly say I haven't heard any thing as good. Victoria Legrands vocal's are something else; her voice has texture, authority and is so alluring and distinct, the clear centerpiece of Beach house. This album is not immediate, it will take a few listen's but is it worth it! They're dream pop sound is reminisant of Cocteau Twins instrumentally, and vocal's are constantly compared to Nico, though i think they're even better, guarenteed to send shivers down your spine. Guitars are great walls of sound, the drum machine actully works and chiming keyboards create this great wintery sound which is cold, dark, abrasive yet magic. You must own this album.

Texture over tune.

Sonic Youth have been around for nearly 30 years now. They were spawned out of the New York No-Wave scene in 1981, over the years they've covered more ground than pretty much any other band that I can come to think of. After listening to the majority of their back catalogue i can hear their influence all over the place.





They're second major label album "Dirty" mistaken to be grunge influenced, but listening to earlier albums and seeing how they had developed, it's not very grunge at all. The early 90's era of their music saw them with a much more stripped down sound, however without leaving their noisey delivery and aesthetics. "Goo" and "Dirty" probably they're most popular albums, are very unlike their other albums, the bands general sound is much more noisy, experimental and jammy.


Sonic Youth took the very foundations of rock music and abandoned them, they re-defined the structure. They were really more punk influenced than rock, I hear more contemparies Husker du in there sound even The Velvet Underground. But what Sonic Youth had was even more experimental, a sound more about texture and layers than the tune or melody. Walls of sound if you might. This would later influence bands like "The Jesus And Mary Chain" and later "My Bloody Valentine" and they further built on this. They were even a key influence in "post-rock", with the "Washing Machine" albums ender "The Diamond Sea" and later album "A Thousand Leaves".


But now in 2010 I can hear their influence everywhere, the growing noise rock scene with bands such as "No-Age", "Lovvers", or "Wavves" all sound fairly Sonic Youth-esque. Though now there are even more far out experimental bands out there, they owe some debt to Sonic Youth and they're different outlook on noise and song structure.

Autumn playlist

Just thought i'd post some good music, what i'm listening to this autumn.

Arcade fire's "The Suburbs" (seeing them headline Reading festival was mad!)

Belle and Sebastian's "Write about love"

Avi Buffalo

Twin Sister

Mogwai

Le Loup

Warpaint (saw them at Reading and will be again next week in Brighton, my favourite new band and easily the best debut of the year)

Will try and post more reviews soon.

Blonde Redhead - Penny Sparkle

Blonde Redhead - Penny Sparkle (4AD) released 13th September 2010


Blonde Redhead are a Alternative Rock band from New York. They've been around for nearly 20 years and often compared to Sonic Youth. Named after a DNA song, Blonde Redhead offer dreamy psychedelic-tinged rock music. After reading pitchfork's review of newly released "Penny Sparkle" I felt it was way too opinonated and I could do a better job.


"Penny Sparkle" follows there usual dream-pop sound but is a lot more electronic, sounding very 80's. The vocals are soft, sexy and ethreal; the overall sound of this album is a lot more quiet than previous work and less Sonic Youth-esque. I think fans of Beach House will like this album, it's got a lot to offer. Guitars and synths build walls of sound, creating very eerie dreamy sounds, almost sounding like "Fever Ray" though not that eerie (some of the producers on Fever Ray's album are also on this).


There's more drum machines than on last album "23", another reason why I think Beach House fans will like it. Vocals are a lush lullaby of echoes and whispers, think a mix of Rachel Goswell and Björk; they heighten the atmosphere on this album, which is really mellow. Despite pitchfork labelling this "chillwave" (as they like to give everything a label), it's far from, this is a mellow dream pop which is synth-heavy and sexy. Though maybe not there best work and definitley not there most experimental, this is definitely a solid album with good songwriting. You can hear the influences on it too, a fusion of Depeche Mode and My Bloody Valentine. Definitely worth a go if you'd like a fresh dream-pop album with plenty of synths.


7/10


Here's there brand new video "Not Getting There".

Villagers - Becoming A Jackal Album Review

Villagers - Becoming A Jackal



Villagers are an irish indie-folk band. They've played several festivals and were nominated for the mercury prize. So, what's so good about Villagers?



"Becoming a Jackal" is overall a mellow folk album, great lyrically and frontman O'Brien is a talented guy, doing alot of the instrumentation on the tracks himself. There's a very dark theme to this album, it's all quite depressing; the only upbeat track really is "The Pact-I'll be your fever". None-the-less this album is fairly interesting. Mainly acoustic instrumentation as you'd imagine, from a folk sounding artist, with some catchy riffs and enticing vocals.

Content-wise, alot of the songs to me sound pretty similar, There's potential in it but it's like the band doesn't have anything new to offer. They don't sound like any other bands really either, but thats not exactly a good thing, it's like they have the blueprint to something and they're not doing much more to it. If Villagers were more experimental I think they'd appeal more to me, but hey, they appeal to alot of other people, just not clicking with me. I'm not saying they're bad, or good. I really don't have an opinion. Lyricaly it's great, and overall it's a good folk/indie album, if only they had more variety.


So I'd recommend you give it a go, they're not my cup of tea. But if you like bands like Mumford and Sons or a dark folk album; give it a go!



5/10

Rain collapse

Lightly chiming raindrops cascade

Whistles and drips a serenade

It coats the town and resides

Passing as the tide

Soothing but a cackling bluster

Covers the ground in a porcealin luster

Shifting and rustling through the trees

Refreshing the land, hydrating in ease

Watch it sheen and from the sky collapse

Rolls down my window until it's humble elapse

Album review ! : Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest





Much has been written about Brooklyn band "Grizzly Bear", with earlier releases "Yellow House" and "friend" Grizzly Bear have quite a following. But with their latest album "Veckatimest" (2009) they have grown a much bigger fanbase and have been pushed into the limelight. They played alongside Radiohead and more recently the other stage at Glastonbury.


This album sounds like a summer campfire in an enchanted forest, full of whispers, melodies and Folk inspired sound. The production on the album is near perfection, a much less lo-fi sound to their previous work. The tempo is mellow and steady on nearly ever track but none-the-less this is a very interesting album and far from boring. There's some amazing walls of guitar sound, almost a shoegaze sound on the guitars (see track "Ready, able"), accompanied by pitch perfect vocal harmonies which really make this album; I don't like to make comparisons but think of a cross between Animal Collective's "Sung Tongs" meets a less crazy Dirty Projectors' "Bitte Orca" and you wont be far off. Opening track "Southern point" sets the mood for a dreamy psych folk album with a really sleepy sound which is full of energy at the same time.

The drumming is slow to mid-tempo yet quirky and unpredictable, they particularly build up really well on tracks like "Two weeks" "All we ask" and "Cheerleader". There is a few dull points on the album where it can feel a bit slow, but definitely a great album to chill to with some great harmonies. Just look at how many good things have already been written about it already! Listen for yourself, if you're looking for a mellow indie album with a unique sound you will not be disappointed.


8/10


Check them out!