2010: A Year In Music Awesomeness: Update 1

Around November time last year I wrote up a long list of all the albums, some confirmed and some rumoured, that were scheduled for 2010 releases (which can be found here). I mentioned that I would keep up to date with how the albums were actually received upon release, and if the anticipation was deserved. Seeing as there have already been a handful of notable releases, as well as important news regarding other 2010 releases, I decided now would be a good time to offer an update on how 2010 is panning out in terms of music awesomeness.

Released Albums:

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Owen Pallett – Heartland

I’ll start things off with an album I didn’t mention in my original post, but one I’ve quickly grown to love. An 80 on Metacritic is a very positive sign from the critics (despite Q stating in their review that the record was by Final Fantasy), and Pallett is starting to step out of the shadows of the bands he has previously attached himself to, with notable success. Personally, I adore the album, its giddy introduction to string-pop is rife with clever lyrics and a capability and control over the music rarely heard from a solo artist. I hope it will inspire a few more artists to invest in violins, especially if they have the ear for pace that Pallett confidently showcases here.

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Vampire Weekend – Contra

The nature of the anger which churns between Vampire Weekend’s fans and haters meant that this would always be a big release. The sophomore record could be fuel on the fire of their negative image as creators of simple, irritating mock-rock, or it could be a musical step forward that makes the detractors sit up and take notice. In the end we got more of the same, the difference being a lack of a killer single to follow “A-Punk”. Reasonably reviewed by the critics, there is a sense that they are doing well at the moment, but some change or evolution would need to be seen come LP3 if they are going to prove themselves as a serious long-term band.

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Yeasayer – Odd Blood

Washing around the Internet for a good two or three months, Yeasayer’s second record is not actually released until tomorrow. Nevertheless, it has caused a stir in a lot of places, and there is much talk of Yeasayer taking Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective’s lead with an equivalent challenging and moody album that still breaks into the fringes of the mainstream. Whilst the singles have certainly gone some way to achieving this, and some tracks have carried on the current trend of subtly dropping pop into supposedly experimental albums, the consistency is not there.

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Beach House – Teen Dream

Beach House made a fairly good impression with their first two albums, but there was a sense of them lacking identity. They were Grizzly Bear mixed with My Brightest Diamond mixed with Portishead mixed with… well… a fair few bands. There is still that feeling surrounding Teen Dream, the difference now being that they have some monster singles to back it up, gorgeous opening track “Zebra” has graced many a late-night show, and the video for “Silver Soul” is no doubt giving them a decent amount of exposure in the right places. Beach House threaten to overtake those they once imitated with powerfully dreamy melodies and almost alien vocals provided impressively by Victoria Legrand.

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News:

As well as the handful of notable releases thus far this year (Spoon and Four Tet deserve a mention), there has been much news. In some cases there has been massive, major news. The National, who have already whetted indie appetites worldwide with the likes of “Karamazov” and “Bloodbuzz, Ohio”, have given a definite May release to their forthcoming album. Not much more details, except that there will be an accompanying tour this spring. Broken Social Scene plan on solidifying the excellence of that particular month, May 3rd specifically, which will feature usual suspects Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning along with their usual ever-shifting background of guests (Leslie Feist amongst them).

Sooner on the horizon than these two albums is a release that threatens to overshadow both of these critically, Laura Marling’s “I Speak Because I Can”, which is out 22nd March. Following “Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)” and the success of her debut, it may be that Marling will be able to break out of the limitations of the folk genre and appeal to the masses. From what I’ve heard, there’s no doubt on the quality, and together with Mumford & Sons’ surprise success, this could be a golden age for British folk.

With Blur’s reunion and superb Glastonbury show out of the way, Damon Albarn can get back to attracting famous friends with a new Gorillaz project. And this time he has outdone himself, the third album, entitled “Plastic Beach”, Mark E Smith, Lou Reed, Mos Def and Bobby Womack (the last two appearing on the impressive single “Stylo”), are just a few of the big names to listen out for.

Fans of harpists/bloody-good-folk will rejoice at the news that Joanna Newsom is to return on 23rd February with “Have One On Me”, and will then be forced to rejoice a second and third time, because Newsom will be releasing a full 3-disc set. Two songs from the 18-track, 126-minute epic, “81″ and “Good Intentions Paving Company” have already been made available, giving much reason for anticipation amongst fans of “Ys”, Newsom’s previous album.

Do you need any further reason to love 2010? There are still unconfirmed reports of the likes of Foals, Wolf Parade, Fleet Foxes, of Montreal, Arcade Fire and The Strokes having new albums out this year, plus there are somewhat uncertain, but nevertheless noteworthy, rumours from Stereogum that Radiohead have in fact wrapped up their new album, with a summer release a possibility. Noteworthy indeed…

The Wednesday Countdown: I Saw Animals, And They Saw Me

Musicians are well-known for talking in metaphors (I have already covered colours and countries in Wednesday Countdown form, notable examples of one thing representing another), and this week we turn to the animal world for inspiration. It isn’t difficult to see why writers would use the kingdom of beasts to draw a parallel to the human condition. In our culture there has always been certain archetypes that writers can allude to, the lion looking for lost courage, the primal wolf that was once a man, the bird longing to stretch its wings and fly away.

Rules for this particular countdown are as follows, only one song for each animal (otherwise “A Wolf at the Door”, “The Wolves” would have also made appearances), one song per artist (thus re-igniting the Pigs vs Dogs debate) and ten songs in total.

Top 10 Songs with an Animal in the title:

10. The National – Theory Of The Crows

9. Damien Rice – Elephant

8. Foo Fighters – Monkey Wrench

7. The Beatles – I Am The Walrus

6. Thom Yorke – Black Swan

5. REM – King Of Birds

4. Beach House – Zebra

3. Mumford & Sons – Little Lion Man

2. TV On The Radio – Wolf Like Me

1. Pink Floyd – Pigs (Three Different Ones)

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Pigs > Dogs

(The title of this post is taken from Dead Clown Society’s “I Saw Animals”, whose miscellaneous projects can be found here)

Great Years In Music – 2005

The 2nd Great Year in Music is celebrating a year very much close to home. If the past is a foreign country, then 2005 would be a bordering land, one we affectionately mock and have rivalries with in a variety of sports. Unlike 1997 there was not a great broadening of genres, or progression of mainstream attitudes. What occurred in the middle of the recently-deceased decade was a specific genre from a specific country producing a number of excellent records, the volume and quality of which are astounding considering the mere 52 weeks that bands had to release them. Yes, yet again I turn to perhaps my favourite music movement, the great American Indie-Rock scene.

At the time I was just 15, slowly feeling my way into music geekery, content with the bare minimum Radiohead, Muse and The White Stripes, who released “Get Behind Me Satan” in June, a record which was down on their best work but still had the band’s classic pulsating power and addictive simplicity in spades. I’ve been catching up on 2005’s treats for the last few years, and given that I was a depressed teenage outcast at the time, maybe some of the downtrodden lyrics that typified the core of the scene would have hit home a little more.

That feeling of wishing I had poked and pried a little more behind the obvious choices when I was younger is no more acute than with The National, who I have spent the last 18 months listening to with growing awe and a mounting suspicion that I could have used their baritone magnificence earlier in life. Though their first album on a label that wasn’t their own, “Alligator”, didn’t cause much of a buzz when it was released in April of this year, it has swelled to become almost the definition of the term “a grower”, not giving away all its secrets too early and savouring the cerebral, the joyously inventive yet immature. It celebrates the adolescent mind trapped in an adult body, paranoid (“Secret Meeting”), drunkenly invincible (“All The Wine”) and abrasively neurotic (“Abel”) in equal measure, dripping in gorgeously obtuse lyrics and spidery Smiths-esque guitar lines. Easily my favourite album of 2005, probably the pinnacle of its genre and a serious contender for one of my all-time top five albums, it bears many similarities to its competitors in terms of style, but none match it for quality.

The majority of said competitors that were released in 2005 came from the same stable of American narrative-weaving indie. The one most commonly mentioned is Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois”, although personally I find it flat and extravagant. This may be a little to do with the expectations which surround it, as it certainly has moments of quality and surprising profundity, but these moments are hidden behind irritating smarm. Still, it is one of the best critically-received albums of all time, and transformed Sufjan Stevens, deservedly or otherwise, into the indie darling he is today.

Whilst Stevens was blowing folk out of proportion, there was a background resurgence in a more intimate and compelling style of folk, courtesy of Andrew Bird and Conor Oberst. Oberst’s band Bright Eyes simultaneously released two albums “Digital Ash In A Digital Urn” and “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning”, with the latter being particularly worthy of note. At times haunting, from the insecure spoken-word opening of “At The Bottom Of Everything” to the Beethoven-infused “Road To Joy”, “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning” is consistent and shows Oberst’s capability at mixing simple, single-guitar folk with more monumental fare without making the record feel too scatter-gun. Andrew Bird’s “The Mysterious Production Of Eggs” is less consistent, but it hits similar highs, especially on “Fake Palindromes” with its rising strings and rhythms and its central call of “she’s got blood in her eyes, in her eyes for you”.

The wave of complex indie-rock that sailed through the decade was spearheaded, some might say, by collectives as opposed to static bands. Few bands have a line-up as fluid as Broken Social Scene, who released a self-titled album this year, which alongside “You Forgot It In People” formed one of the decade’s most lauded one-two combos. Another collective, Wolf Parade, (whose lead singer Spencer Krug has become a less visible version of Jack White amongst the indie landscape) upstaged this record, however, with their debut “Apologies To The Queen Mary”. Though it followed in the footsteps of much of the early decade of indie music, Modest Mouse in particular, the individual tracks hit a high enough quality to really make it stand out in the crowd, and the emotion worn by both the frantic guitars and Krug’s mournful vocals shot the album straight into the hearts of thousands. It would be a stretch to refer to My Morning Jacket as a collective, despite Jim James’ often erratic personal work, but it would not be a stretch to call “Z” an exceptional album that took on board enough prog to accommodate their talent but balanced it with classic rock skilfully enough to avoid alienating the audience.

The other ever-shifting band of note, although at the time they were not at all of note, as life-long fans are at pains to point out, are Animal Collective, who converged often enough in 2005 to release “Feels”, which went under the radar of many until “Merriweather Post Pavilion” last year, when suddenly all manner of hipsters were claiming it had always been their favourite album.

Other American indie bands were churning out excellent albums at the same time, the ever-reliable Spoon released “Gimme Fiction”, The Decemberists cemented their oddball persona with “Picaresque”, Beck put out the steady (if unspectacular by comparison) “Guero” and Okkervil River announced themselves fully with “Black Sheep Boy”, as unnerving as it is beautiful. Most other years these would be riding high in memory and in stature, but for 2005, this was merely the B-material.

And as this wealth of high-quality but narrowly-genred albums came about, there was going to be someone who came along to dig a little fun at it. And aren’t we all glad it was James Murphy who decided to do that? LCD Soundsystem’s self-titled debut infused electro-rock with a shock of danceable delights, daring the introverted indie kids to let loose to the pounding “Tribulations” or the emphatically swaggering “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House”.

It would be churlish to completely overlook the British influence on the year, miniscule as it was in comparison. There arrived in 2005 two debuts which borrowed (read: stole) many ideas from bands from the past, often quite blatantly, but nevertheless caused a great sensation not just because they harked back to past masters but because they really brought them tearing into the new decade with aplomb. Kasabian’s self-titled debut gave Stone Roses’ fans a more relevant Second Coming, showcasing a viral swagger and making themselves known with forceful persistence and the odd controversial NME interview, whilst Bloc Party introduced themselves with “Silent Alarm”, a selection of classic rock shout-outs that, at its best, were powerful, smart and moving.

Outside my personal genre of preference there was more to discover. Kanye West almost lived up to his own hype with “Late Registration”, Sigur Ros had critics frothing at the mouth yet again with “Takk”, Kate Bush made a welcome return, her “Aerial” was close (but not close enough for some) to her best. But I must admit that it isn’t because of these albums that I put 2005 in my series of Great Years. It is because this year represented the undoubted height of a tidal wave of American indie records that has engrossed me ever since my discovery (which, alas, came a couple of years too late). It is my great wish that half a decade on some of these bands, and their successors, can coalesce to reproduce this fantastic year. And looking at some of the anticipated 2010 albums, that wish might not be so far-fetched…

Owen Pallett – Heartland

Dropping the name “Final Fantasy” and replacing it with his own is a step in the right direction for Owen Pallett. It signifies that he is willing to step out from behind the veil and show himself and his personality off without fear. The likes of Arcade Fire, Grizzly Bear and Beirut may have been blessed by his golden strings in the past, but by releasing a record under his own name, Pallett seems finally ready to show a piece of himself.

It is odd, then, that “Heartland” sounds more complex and layered than not only Pallett’s previous work, but damn near everything else that can be heard these days. It is a shock at first to hear the skill of a single person wrought large across a cinematic landscape of luscious strings and tones. Pallett has brought his personality to bear on the music he crafts.

But what is his personality? Judging by “Heartland”, it is one with haughty aims, not just for the operatic, but also for the integration between the operatic and the joyfully addictive. Whilst the opening few tracks are something of a slog to get through, the bleakly catchy syncopation of “Keep The Dog Quiet” notwithstanding, Pallett relaxes the listener as the album progresses, and saves some of the best tracks for the back-end of the record.

Though the first half of the album has plenty of highlights, Pallett begins to unfold his music into the realms of magic from “Oh Heartland, Up Yours!” onwards. Suddenly a narrative thread is introduced, giving credence to the suggestions that this album has a Heaven/Hell style concept. The titular Heartland that at this point in the album seemed to be a wondrous place of beauty and isolation (not unlike the island Veckatimest that Grizzly Bear focused on last year) is shunned by the protagonist, Lewis. This thread runs through the rebellious “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt” and the ultimately uplifting (despite its place amongst the concept) “Tryst With Mephistopheles”.

It feels as though a monumental amount of work was put into this album, because not a single thing sounds out of place. The tempo and balance remain faultless throughout, even the off-putting rhythms of “Flare Gun”, which comes across as a demented Fantasia outtake, do not knock the listener out of stride. “Heartland” is ambitiously ornate, but accessible for the most part, creating a classical/pop crossover album that does not sound as if it is forcing itself into that category. And the moods sway from optimism to pessimism (note the contrast between the closing two tracks) cleverly enough to make it appear that the style is constantly evolving as the album progresses.

Really, Heartland is an exceptional album that stutters at the start to achieve its lofty targets, but has a breathtaking second half. Every element that makes up its composition, all the simple but necessary things, has been expertly put in place by Pallett, whose ethereal vocals and charmingly ambivalent lyricism should not be overlooked simply because the melodies create to assist it are so luscious. A true all-round victory for The Former Mr. Fantasy.

The Wednesday Countdown: A Spineless Laugh

Oh dear. Two Wednesday Countdowns in two posts means only one thing. I have gone a whole week without writing anything, which is a shame, because I seem to have been enjoying more music recently than for a long while. Unfortunately, it has coincided with exams, so I don’t write while I listen. But there are many plans in my mind for future posts, starting with reviews of the new Owen Pallett, Beach House and Vampire Weekend albums, leading into my next Great Year In Music (2005) and culminating in a post observing how well the anticipated releases in 2010 have been received, with updates on news for future releases.

For now, however, I have a list designed to unnerve, to be spine-chilling. My top 20 most unsettling songs ever, maximum one per artist (its worth noting that clearly I enjoy this music particularly, as I have managed to get 20 as opposed to the usual 10). These are not the best songs that happen to carry the air of tension necessary for inclusion, but the songs that do that particular job the best. Emotion is always important in music, and a track that can, on its own, create an atmosphere of unease, is probably one of the most challenging types of song to create.

Not all of the songs I have selected are necessarily based on the tone of the music, they do not all carry the same eeriness that an “unsettling song” might infer. It may be down to the lyrics, or just a personal attachment to the song. In one case, it is not the song itself, but the connection between the song and the death of its writer that creates the necessary shivers. In another, there is no music, but the spectral arpeggiated backing vocals and the heart-breaking lyrics make up for it totally.

Anyway, the point is, this list is personal, and therefore you cannot argue with it. But please leave your own favourite unsettling songs in the comment box below.

Top 20 Unsettling Songs:

20. Frightened Rabbit – My Backwards Walk

19. Massive Attack – Inertia Creeps

18. The Smiths – How Soon Is Now?

17. REM – Daysleeper

16. My Morning Jacket – Dondante

15. Mumford & Sons – Thistle & Weeds

14. Blur – No Distance Left To Run

13. Bright Eyes – Lua

12. Broken Social Scene – Lover’s Spit

11. Modest Mouse – 3rd Planet

10. Grizzly Bear – Knife

9. Jeff Buckley – Mojo Pin

8. Neutral Milk Hotel – Two Headed Boy

7. Hope Of The States – Me Ves Y Sufres

6. The National – Lucky You

5. Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart

4. Pink Floyd – Brain Damage

3. TV On The Radio – Ambulance

2. Portishead – Threads

1. Radiohead – Exit Music (For A Film)

If you know me, then you probably could have guessed the number 1. I was a wafer away from handing the same son two Wednesday Countdowns in a row, but, inevitably, the beautifully melodramatic lyrics coupled with a near-silence slowly builds into a cacophony of hatred, directed at the unknown “You” won the day in the end. The point where the fuzz bass first hits in still gives me the creeps (pun intended), but Radiohead could easily have made up a top 20 unsettling songs list all on their own. Placing Exit Music above How To Disappear Completely was a tough choice for me, but although HTDC is better, it remains too beautiful, a pearly apparition. Climbing Up The Walls, Street Spirit (Fade Out), Fog and 4 Minute Warning are all worthy of note in this category, but somehow it is possible for me to overlook their unnerving effect by appreciating their quality. With Exit Music I can’t even go a whole listen through without shivering at the sentiment.