Second Favorite Music Video Of The Year
Battles - "My Machines"
When their first full-length album Mirror came out it was an istant summer classic for me. It's all fucking mathy, like Hella, and tightly arranged, like Hella, but it never gets so weird you get lost, like Church Gone Wild/Chirpin' Hard by Hella. I didn't have time to check out their new album Gloss Drop but this video makes up for that. It it's a simple narrative (guy trying walk up an elevator) that is played up comedically, while approaching an almost horrific climax. And in contrast to my favorite video from this year (see below) the gimmick of one continuous shot also helps to sell the insanity of the situation. There's nothing more eerie-whilst-funny you'll watch this year than this video.
Favorite Movie Of The Year
((Every movie you watched as a kid that had fantasy elements to it [Princess Bride, Labyrinth, The Neverending Story] + every movie set in ye olde England) x (1oz. of weed + David Gordon Green + Tim Orr) ) - anything serious = Your Highness
Ambient Album Of The Year
Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place
Woman sings non-descript phrases in a large room with a loop pedal. Add layers of loops. Add reverb. Add more layers of loops. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome!!!!!
TRY IT: Julianna Barwick - "Bob In Your Gait" (live)
Favorite R&B Song That Samples Coldplay Of The Year
Frank Ocean - "Strawberry Swing"
Get this mix tape if you don't already have it. Oh, you don't feel like it? Okay, well at least listen to the song. What? So, just because it sample Coldplay you're not going to listen to it? Right, because you're above them right? You know that Coldplay hatred is 90% social cultivated hatred of a perceived obsolescence, right? And you know that most people love Coldplay right? Because otherwise they wouldn't sell 2 million albums a year, and sell out stadiums, etc. But you already knew that.
Just listen to the fucking song, because you're better than that and you need a pleasant, unique song like this in your life.
Quietly Awesome Movie Of The Year
The Lincoln Lawyer
I try to be as open minded as I can about movies, and music and books, and art in general. But this movie had several highly questionable features working against it:
This last point is especially critical because the answer of course is there will never be enough crime procedurals Ever. There will always be crime and law dramas no matter what because the story of injustice is universal. (And when it's not, there's Matt McConaughey.) I know this and I hate it. So if we can't control quantity then we can at least expect quality and The Lincoln Lawyer is a great example of taking a rote genre and still telling a compelling story. This isn't a gimmicky movie either. This isn't Momento, or Vantage Point, where the director is actively challenging the limits of the genre. Those movies are more technical in the mechanics of storytelling, and are usually considered to be amazing as a result of the success of this technical execution. Sometimes though a movie is executed and structured in a very common, very popular way and succeeds on it's story alone, using the common, boilerplate tropes of filmmaking to enhance the story, rather than fight them. No, this is just a well told, well made, well acted story, and sad as it may be, this came as a complete surprise to me. There's noreason incentive for Hollywood to make a movie with a good story, only good publicity. This alone should be worth your time because who knows when it will happen again.
Favorite Sophomore Album Of The Year
Ambient Album Of The Year
Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place
Woman sings non-descript phrases in a large room with a loop pedal. Add layers of loops. Add reverb. Add more layers of loops. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome!!!!!
TRY IT: Julianna Barwick - "Bob In Your Gait" (live)
Favorite R&B Song That Samples Coldplay Of The Year
Frank Ocean - "Strawberry Swing"
Get this mix tape if you don't already have it. Oh, you don't feel like it? Okay, well at least listen to the song. What? So, just because it sample Coldplay you're not going to listen to it? Right, because you're above them right? You know that Coldplay hatred is 90% social cultivated hatred of a perceived obsolescence, right? And you know that most people love Coldplay right? Because otherwise they wouldn't sell 2 million albums a year, and sell out stadiums, etc. But you already knew that.
Just listen to the fucking song, because you're better than that and you need a pleasant, unique song like this in your life.
Quietly Awesome Movie Of The Year
The Lincoln Lawyer
I try to be as open minded as I can about movies, and music and books, and art in general. But this movie had several highly questionable features working against it:
- So this isn't about Abraham Lincoln?
- Matt McConaughey stars? Lemme guess, he plays a "hot lawyah'"?
- How many more fucking crime procedurals does the world need?
This last point is especially critical because the answer of course is there will never be enough crime procedurals Ever. There will always be crime and law dramas no matter what because the story of injustice is universal. (And when it's not, there's Matt McConaughey.) I know this and I hate it. So if we can't control quantity then we can at least expect quality and The Lincoln Lawyer is a great example of taking a rote genre and still telling a compelling story. This isn't a gimmicky movie either. This isn't Momento, or Vantage Point, where the director is actively challenging the limits of the genre. Those movies are more technical in the mechanics of storytelling, and are usually considered to be amazing as a result of the success of this technical execution. Sometimes though a movie is executed and structured in a very common, very popular way and succeeds on it's story alone, using the common, boilerplate tropes of filmmaking to enhance the story, rather than fight them. No, this is just a well told, well made, well acted story, and sad as it may be, this came as a complete surprise to me. There's no
Favorite Sophomore Album Of The Year
Adele - 21
Where 19 was playful and homemade, 21 is professional, and more soulful. Where 19 seemed lost and willing to wander, 21 is not so much sure of itself as it is confidant to maintain a consisten direction. Where 19 was catchy and so quick to give you goosebumps, 21 is pretty much identical. There's no doubt that there are better albums to come from Adele who, in my dumb ass opinion, is still somehow better than the five number one singles, and the other five that might as well be singles too. One of her best attributes is the ability to let. every. fucking. thing. go. and blast the shit out of the song, and one of these years she's going to release one that is even more cutthroat, more dynamic, and more her. Until then, I think we can all settle for mere brilliance like that of 21.
Best Song By A Band Featuring An Already Famous Singer/Musician
Pistol Annies - "Hell On Heels"
Another favorite from my unpublished 2010 list was a retrospective on the album Revolution by hit country music recording artist Miranda Lambert. (NOTE: I included it on the 2010 list despite being released in 2009 because I HAD TO WRITE SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!) To summarize: I never thought I would love a modern country album this much. I was surprised not because I dislike the genre. Nay, I'm on record (or did I not publish that one either) vehemently defending country music of all kinds, past, present and future. As much as I accept that country music has morphed (and is continuing to morph) into "Pop (with fiddle/mandolin/banjo)," and as much as I still love listening to "today's country hitzzz!!" on the radio, I never thought there would be an album that I love beyond its pop affectations. Revolution was everything that I never knew a modern country album could be, which is to say, completely jarring to me.
Naturally this sort of discovery obligates me to follow Miranda Lambert where ever she goes until the end of time. Because that's what people who don't think highly of themselves and invest too much energy into trivial meanings do, right? Pistol Annies is something of a supergroup if you prefer your supergroup members to be only known within Nashville writing circles. Instead of making three solo albums people may or may not listen to, they mashed them together under the name of a group. Accordingly it never finds continuity between all the members and all the personalities ("Lonestar Annie," "Hippie Annie," and "Holler Annie"). Still this album is far and away better than most everything released in the country genre this year, and certainly the closest thing to my dear sweet Revolution.
"Hell On Heels" is the most like songs on Revolution in how un-country-but-still-not-pop-sounding it is. Like the best Lambert songs seem to do, it subtly attempts to challenge the country genre in terms of instrumentation, and songwriting, while remaining very much in the throes of it. And unlike Revolution it succeeds further with the three distinct voices singing each their own verse. This also helps to characterize each "Annie" as a modern, cunning woman able to take advantage of the proclivities of rich men. Maybe that's nothing really new, but it still pushes the envelope of what we've come to expect from country music. I hope there's more where this came from.
Favorite Music Video Of The Year/Favorite Kanye Release Of The Year
Kanye West and Jay Z - "Otis" [MUSIC VIDEO ONLY]
If only I had posted my Wyatt's Favorite's of 2010 last year, you'd understand how much I look forward to new Kanye West projects like this. Off the heels of his masterpiece (though still not my favorite) My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy he teams up with his mentor and sometimes-nemesis Jay Z, flies to France, and puts out a really, really good collaboration. (Yes, really good. There are some great moments but its still just really good, not quite enough to compel me to include it on this list. Still, it's worth checking out).
As good as the album is, the best and strongest moments for me are found in the video for the worst song on the album. "Try A Little Tenderness" is one of the greatest Otis Redding songs out of hundreds of great songs, because he was far and away the best singer and the most soulful singer I think I'll ever hear. So for Ye to take a beautiful, incredibly impassioned song like "Try A Little Tenderness" and cut the sample down to 1 and a half seconds? That's insane and a huge disservice to the original song. There's so much material in that song, so much passion and soul, it's beyond me as to why it's so short.
Fortunately, and surprisingly, the video somehow changes all of that. All of my negative feelings about the song structure go out the window when I watch the video for it. The video is understated and incredibly simple for a Spike Jonze video in that there's no ulterior motive. There's no plot, no video gimmicks no twist at the end. It's just Kanye and Jay Z riding around in a ridiculous Maybach and rapping into the camera set on the ground like every other hip-hop video ever made. That's it. It's so incredulous, and un-self-aware that it comes off as totally badass to me. And the song makes complete and total sense with all the mayhem going on in the video that it renders my argument about the sample completely false. The samples make sense--how??? I still don't fucking know.
Favorite Dumb As Fuck Pop Song Of The Year
Avril Lavigne - "What the Hell?"
I'm finding a lot of comfort in knowing that once every year there's going to be a female lead pop song that kicks my ass into oblivion. I think K Clarkson's "I Do Not Hook Up" still sits in the "Diamond Room" of my personal pop singles hall of fame, but "What the Hell?" will easily be in the adjacent "Post-Platinum Room" next door. But why? I'm tempted to say that "What the Hell?" is the fully realized version of the bratty-but-not-douchey young woman--no longer a girl--that you'd expect Avril to be at this age. This is yet another pop icon trying to re-imagine her brand in the light of her now slightly advanced age. What that line of thinking leaves out is huge: this is just a pop song. Whether we could extrapolate what it says about Avril as a person is as irrelevant as it is ridiculous. This is just a pop song. It exists solely to sell perfume and clothing lines and Kia Soul's in YouTube ads to 15 year-old girls. This will never change, and yet here I am, year after year, trying to justify that things have changed, that there is meaning beyond the melody! Never again. This is just a stupid, trivial pop song and god damn if I don't love it.
Favorite User Created Content YouTube Video
"Blake Griffin and Bill Simmons Review Bill's Dunks from His Childhood"
1. Slam dunks. Slam dunks are awesome
2. They're talking about slam dunk videos. If you're going to talk about slam dunks, which don't need narraration, you just need careful editing and this is edited perfectly. Absolutely perfectly.
3. Blake Griffin.
4. Grainy VHS footage from the '80's
5. White kids with the expensive basketball goals where the hoop can be raised and lowered.
6. These same white kids who lower it all the way down and film themselves for their own dunk reel.
7. Making fun of white kids who make their own dunk reel on a 6 foot hoop.
That's all.
Favorite Instrumental Album Of The Year
Explosions In The Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
I don't think I'll ever tire of Explosions In The Sky albums. Mostly it's because I don't think I'll ever truly understand them, but it's also because of how easy it is to allow to be transcendent. It's probably beyond a cliche at this point, but if you blasted this album while bowling, you'd probably find someone trying not to cry.
This new album is as amazing as all the others but it expands the sound slightly, adding voices, more keys, and tiny digital programming artifacts. As with all the other albums it will probably take me years to fully unpack its weight, but for now it's just plain ol' amazing. Ho hum.
Favorite Back In Time Album of the Year
Dashboard Confessional - Dusk and Summer
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Favorite Back In TIme Album of the Year will probably be a reoccurring category where the author highlights an album NOT released during the calendar year, but one in which he listened to a lot, rediscovered, just discovered, or just wants to discuss without having to worry about the restriction of the calendar)
For a band built out of one person, Christopher Carrabba, with the intention of adding a full band as he goes, this album may (unfortunately) be the peak of that vision. The solo period at the very beginning, marked by the simple and so-brutal and so-compelling debut Swiss Army Romance and the more popular, slightly more developed The Places You Have Come to Fear The Most, were meant to be temporary. As amazing as those two albums were it's hard to understand where Carraba wanted them to go and why they ended up recording a nearly-flawless concept album about living in a tourist town called Dusk And Summer. Maybe because he'd been around so many punk bands in Florida he ultimately wanted to be in his own. Maybe he wanted to lean on others when it came to writing. Maybe he just wanted to be on the radio and a Spiderman soundtrack. Whatever the reason it's worked, with varying degrees of success.
Dusk and Summer was and has proven to be the album furthest from his beginnings and succeeds because of it. This album is slick and begs to be placed on your favorite teen movie soundtrack but that's what works in it's favor: this is supposed to be a soundtrack to a teen movie because it is one. The narrative is understated and there are no names, but it's there. It follows the narrator in the middle of summer of a tourist beach town and shows us how futile romantic relationships are. They're so transient, so bittersweet because of the built-in expiration date. She's with her parents and they're only staying a week--it's a perfect excuse to pour on as much drippy, thick romanticism as possible.
The beauty is really in the details and he gets them all right, both in the lyrics and the melodies. The most refreshing element though is how confident it is. Where the early albums are uneasy and self-loathing and are successful for it, Dusk and Summer knows exactly what it is. And though I'm hard pressed to pick one favorite out of their discography I think this one may be the most interesting.
Back In Time Favorite Album Of The Year Runner Up: Lync - These Are Not Fall Colors
Favorite Unexpectedly Awesome Song Of The Year
Manchester Orchestra - "Simple Math"
At least once a month I will compulsively binge on playing tracks I've never heard by bands I've never heard about. Usually I'll read a post about a song, like, "This band sounds like Jeff Magnum started to write a musical about prohibition, gave up half way into it, and made it into a pop album!" There's always a very specific band or name reference, or two or three where possible, and then a smilie bringing together two unlike things, yes, but more importantly two unlike and irrelevant things together, as though the irrelevance carries more weight. This kind of writing is catnip for people who feel like they're slowly falling out of what's cool in indie music, as though the significance of indie music or culture lies solely in the hands of blog writers. It's stupid--INCREDIBLY stupid--but still part of the cold realism of aging. We're trying to quit smoking and drinking as much because we have to get real jobs and we just don't have the time like we used to. We can't just up and go to the Justice show in Atlanta, you know? We have an interview tomorrow! Right?
About 96% of the songs I "discover" this way I either skip after 30 seconds or I download never to be heard of again. I beleive this is supposed to be "sad" in that it shows how disposable music has become. This has been discussed adnauseum over the past two years and in fact, I'm feeling sick thinking about it right now. I understand that the internet is responsible for how easily it is to see and hear new things and how that's made it even easier to forget these same things a mere five seconds after viewing or listening. I get that and I'm in no position to dispute the extent of these effects. My problem is that there are those special songs, like "Simple Math" that transcends all of this. "Simple Math" kicked my ass upon first listen and then it kicked it even harder and more resolutely upon the second one. I played it based on a computer generated recommendation and somehow, this wacky bunch of code and recorded user data directed me to one of my favorite songs of the year. This is how things work now I guess.
Favorite Electronic Single
Where 19 was playful and homemade, 21 is professional, and more soulful. Where 19 seemed lost and willing to wander, 21 is not so much sure of itself as it is confidant to maintain a consisten direction. Where 19 was catchy and so quick to give you goosebumps, 21 is pretty much identical. There's no doubt that there are better albums to come from Adele who, in my dumb ass opinion, is still somehow better than the five number one singles, and the other five that might as well be singles too. One of her best attributes is the ability to let. every. fucking. thing. go. and blast the shit out of the song, and one of these years she's going to release one that is even more cutthroat, more dynamic, and more her. Until then, I think we can all settle for mere brilliance like that of 21.
Best Song By A Band Featuring An Already Famous Singer/Musician
Pistol Annies - "Hell On Heels"
Another favorite from my unpublished 2010 list was a retrospective on the album Revolution by hit country music recording artist Miranda Lambert. (NOTE: I included it on the 2010 list despite being released in 2009 because I HAD TO WRITE SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!) To summarize: I never thought I would love a modern country album this much. I was surprised not because I dislike the genre. Nay, I'm on record (or did I not publish that one either) vehemently defending country music of all kinds, past, present and future. As much as I accept that country music has morphed (and is continuing to morph) into "Pop (with fiddle/mandolin/banjo)," and as much as I still love listening to "today's country hitzzz!!" on the radio, I never thought there would be an album that I love beyond its pop affectations. Revolution was everything that I never knew a modern country album could be, which is to say, completely jarring to me.
Naturally this sort of discovery obligates me to follow Miranda Lambert where ever she goes until the end of time. Because that's what people who don't think highly of themselves and invest too much energy into trivial meanings do, right? Pistol Annies is something of a supergroup if you prefer your supergroup members to be only known within Nashville writing circles. Instead of making three solo albums people may or may not listen to, they mashed them together under the name of a group. Accordingly it never finds continuity between all the members and all the personalities ("Lonestar Annie," "Hippie Annie," and "Holler Annie"). Still this album is far and away better than most everything released in the country genre this year, and certainly the closest thing to my dear sweet Revolution.
"Hell On Heels" is the most like songs on Revolution in how un-country-but-still-not-pop-sounding it is. Like the best Lambert songs seem to do, it subtly attempts to challenge the country genre in terms of instrumentation, and songwriting, while remaining very much in the throes of it. And unlike Revolution it succeeds further with the three distinct voices singing each their own verse. This also helps to characterize each "Annie" as a modern, cunning woman able to take advantage of the proclivities of rich men. Maybe that's nothing really new, but it still pushes the envelope of what we've come to expect from country music. I hope there's more where this came from.
Favorite Music Video Of The Year/Favorite Kanye Release Of The Year
Kanye West and Jay Z - "Otis" [MUSIC VIDEO ONLY]
If only I had posted my Wyatt's Favorite's of 2010 last year, you'd understand how much I look forward to new Kanye West projects like this. Off the heels of his masterpiece (though still not my favorite) My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy he teams up with his mentor and sometimes-nemesis Jay Z, flies to France, and puts out a really, really good collaboration. (Yes, really good. There are some great moments but its still just really good, not quite enough to compel me to include it on this list. Still, it's worth checking out).
As good as the album is, the best and strongest moments for me are found in the video for the worst song on the album. "Try A Little Tenderness" is one of the greatest Otis Redding songs out of hundreds of great songs, because he was far and away the best singer and the most soulful singer I think I'll ever hear. So for Ye to take a beautiful, incredibly impassioned song like "Try A Little Tenderness" and cut the sample down to 1 and a half seconds? That's insane and a huge disservice to the original song. There's so much material in that song, so much passion and soul, it's beyond me as to why it's so short.
Fortunately, and surprisingly, the video somehow changes all of that. All of my negative feelings about the song structure go out the window when I watch the video for it. The video is understated and incredibly simple for a Spike Jonze video in that there's no ulterior motive. There's no plot, no video gimmicks no twist at the end. It's just Kanye and Jay Z riding around in a ridiculous Maybach and rapping into the camera set on the ground like every other hip-hop video ever made. That's it. It's so incredulous, and un-self-aware that it comes off as totally badass to me. And the song makes complete and total sense with all the mayhem going on in the video that it renders my argument about the sample completely false. The samples make sense--how??? I still don't fucking know.
Favorite Double Album Of The Year
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Like My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy was for Kanye last year, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming is for M83 in that it's EVERYTHING they've done up to this point. The patience and expanse of Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts and the pointed intensity of Before The Dawn Heals Us and the slick, almost-'80's style production of Saturdays=Youth are all packed into this album and it succeeds as a result. This is the M83 masterwork: everything you love about M83 is on here and in more than one place. The biggest change on this album is how direct it is. Usually there are spots where M83 mastermind Anthony Gonzalez is exploitative without placing a lot of concern how it works with everything else. These are the parts that people call "self-indulgent" but I never think they are. They're part of why I love M83. But on Hurry Up... there aren't any spots like this. This album is pure M83 concentrate, no pulp, so it makes sense that it had to go on two discs. I wonder where they go from here?
Favorite Dumb As Fuck Pop Song Of The Year
Avril Lavigne - "What the Hell?"
I'm finding a lot of comfort in knowing that once every year there's going to be a female lead pop song that kicks my ass into oblivion. I think K Clarkson's "I Do Not Hook Up" still sits in the "Diamond Room" of my personal pop singles hall of fame, but "What the Hell?" will easily be in the adjacent "Post-Platinum Room" next door. But why? I'm tempted to say that "What the Hell?" is the fully realized version of the bratty-but-not-douchey young woman--no longer a girl--that you'd expect Avril to be at this age. This is yet another pop icon trying to re-imagine her brand in the light of her now slightly advanced age. What that line of thinking leaves out is huge: this is just a pop song. Whether we could extrapolate what it says about Avril as a person is as irrelevant as it is ridiculous. This is just a pop song. It exists solely to sell perfume and clothing lines and Kia Soul's in YouTube ads to 15 year-old girls. This will never change, and yet here I am, year after year, trying to justify that things have changed, that there is meaning beyond the melody! Never again. This is just a stupid, trivial pop song and god damn if I don't love it.
Favorite User Created Content YouTube Video
"Blake Griffin and Bill Simmons Review Bill's Dunks from His Childhood"
1. Slam dunks. Slam dunks are awesome
2. They're talking about slam dunk videos. If you're going to talk about slam dunks, which don't need narraration, you just need careful editing and this is edited perfectly. Absolutely perfectly.
3. Blake Griffin.
4. Grainy VHS footage from the '80's
5. White kids with the expensive basketball goals where the hoop can be raised and lowered.
6. These same white kids who lower it all the way down and film themselves for their own dunk reel.
7. Making fun of white kids who make their own dunk reel on a 6 foot hoop.
That's all.
Favorite Instrumental Album Of The Year
Explosions In The Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
I don't think I'll ever tire of Explosions In The Sky albums. Mostly it's because I don't think I'll ever truly understand them, but it's also because of how easy it is to allow to be transcendent. It's probably beyond a cliche at this point, but if you blasted this album while bowling, you'd probably find someone trying not to cry.
This new album is as amazing as all the others but it expands the sound slightly, adding voices, more keys, and tiny digital programming artifacts. As with all the other albums it will probably take me years to fully unpack its weight, but for now it's just plain ol' amazing. Ho hum.
Favorite Back In Time Album of the Year
Dashboard Confessional - Dusk and Summer
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Favorite Back In TIme Album of the Year will probably be a reoccurring category where the author highlights an album NOT released during the calendar year, but one in which he listened to a lot, rediscovered, just discovered, or just wants to discuss without having to worry about the restriction of the calendar)
For a band built out of one person, Christopher Carrabba, with the intention of adding a full band as he goes, this album may (unfortunately) be the peak of that vision. The solo period at the very beginning, marked by the simple and so-brutal and so-compelling debut Swiss Army Romance and the more popular, slightly more developed The Places You Have Come to Fear The Most, were meant to be temporary. As amazing as those two albums were it's hard to understand where Carraba wanted them to go and why they ended up recording a nearly-flawless concept album about living in a tourist town called Dusk And Summer. Maybe because he'd been around so many punk bands in Florida he ultimately wanted to be in his own. Maybe he wanted to lean on others when it came to writing. Maybe he just wanted to be on the radio and a Spiderman soundtrack. Whatever the reason it's worked, with varying degrees of success.
Dusk and Summer was and has proven to be the album furthest from his beginnings and succeeds because of it. This album is slick and begs to be placed on your favorite teen movie soundtrack but that's what works in it's favor: this is supposed to be a soundtrack to a teen movie because it is one. The narrative is understated and there are no names, but it's there. It follows the narrator in the middle of summer of a tourist beach town and shows us how futile romantic relationships are. They're so transient, so bittersweet because of the built-in expiration date. She's with her parents and they're only staying a week--it's a perfect excuse to pour on as much drippy, thick romanticism as possible.
The beauty is really in the details and he gets them all right, both in the lyrics and the melodies. The most refreshing element though is how confident it is. Where the early albums are uneasy and self-loathing and are successful for it, Dusk and Summer knows exactly what it is. And though I'm hard pressed to pick one favorite out of their discography I think this one may be the most interesting.
Back In Time Favorite Album Of The Year Runner Up: Lync - These Are Not Fall Colors
Favorite Unexpectedly Awesome Song Of The Year
Manchester Orchestra - "Simple Math"
At least once a month I will compulsively binge on playing tracks I've never heard by bands I've never heard about. Usually I'll read a post about a song, like, "This band sounds like Jeff Magnum started to write a musical about prohibition, gave up half way into it, and made it into a pop album!" There's always a very specific band or name reference, or two or three where possible, and then a smilie bringing together two unlike things, yes, but more importantly two unlike and irrelevant things together, as though the irrelevance carries more weight. This kind of writing is catnip for people who feel like they're slowly falling out of what's cool in indie music, as though the significance of indie music or culture lies solely in the hands of blog writers. It's stupid--INCREDIBLY stupid--but still part of the cold realism of aging. We're trying to quit smoking and drinking as much because we have to get real jobs and we just don't have the time like we used to. We can't just up and go to the Justice show in Atlanta, you know? We have an interview tomorrow! Right?
About 96% of the songs I "discover" this way I either skip after 30 seconds or I download never to be heard of again. I beleive this is supposed to be "sad" in that it shows how disposable music has become. This has been discussed adnauseum over the past two years and in fact, I'm feeling sick thinking about it right now. I understand that the internet is responsible for how easily it is to see and hear new things and how that's made it even easier to forget these same things a mere five seconds after viewing or listening. I get that and I'm in no position to dispute the extent of these effects. My problem is that there are those special songs, like "Simple Math" that transcends all of this. "Simple Math" kicked my ass upon first listen and then it kicked it even harder and more resolutely upon the second one. I played it based on a computer generated recommendation and somehow, this wacky bunch of code and recorded user data directed me to one of my favorite songs of the year. This is how things work now I guess.
Favorite Electronic Single
M83 - "Intro"
"Midnight City" is the ONE TRUE SINGLE from Hurry Up, We're Dreaming but I think the "Intro" sets the table for "Midnight City," and the album itself so well it accidentally steals the show. M83 is great at these intro tracks: "You, Appearing" from the woulda-been-coulda-been-a-John-Hughes-movie-soundtrack album Saturdays = Youth, works equally well and is equally as powerful.
Favorite Recently Reunited Band Album Of The Year
Blink 182 - Neighborhoods
It's hard to know whether your feelings about this album, whatever they may be, are actually justified if only because the length of anticipation has lasted for so long. Do I like this album because it finally came out? Is my like or dislike of this album directly affected by the fact that I'm thinking about this album in terms of "am I thinking about the context of this album too much"?
This is a patently idiotic line of reasoning although I admit I've flirted with these ideas early on. The reason I enjoyed this album is because I found it enjoyable, simple as that. I could read a hundred more Spin reviews and AbsolutePunk.net message board discussions and bounce back and forth on certain issues: "Is Blink 182 the new Angels and Airwaves side project?"; "If things are so great between them, why did they record everything separately?"; "Does Tom have to sing? Really?"; "Meh!" etc. There's incredible relief in being able to shrug these sorts of questions off, even though I still like thinking about them a lot. Ultimately though they don't effect my opinion because they can't. I like it a lot because I like it a lot. It's not their best album (Blink 182) and it's far from their worst album (Cheshire Cat (?)). Objectively it sounds like a band struggling slightly at trying to be everything they could be and had been up to that point, and that's a hard thing to do consciously. But maybe I'm wrong. I think maybe we're all thinking too much.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Even though I bought the "Special Edition" version of this album, I'm writing this based on the "Standard Edition" tracklisting. Overall the special edition sounds like they crammed a couple of b-sides into the track list, which is exactly what they did. I don't think there's a perfect sequence (not yet--see the now-defunct Stylus Magazine's "Playing God" feature) but I prefer to the the standard edition is the closest version to what the group probably debated about for three months.)
Favorite Song Of The Year
Favorite Recently Reunited Band Album Of The Year
Blink 182 - Neighborhoods
It's hard to know whether your feelings about this album, whatever they may be, are actually justified if only because the length of anticipation has lasted for so long. Do I like this album because it finally came out? Is my like or dislike of this album directly affected by the fact that I'm thinking about this album in terms of "am I thinking about the context of this album too much"?
This is a patently idiotic line of reasoning although I admit I've flirted with these ideas early on. The reason I enjoyed this album is because I found it enjoyable, simple as that. I could read a hundred more Spin reviews and AbsolutePunk.net message board discussions and bounce back and forth on certain issues: "Is Blink 182 the new Angels and Airwaves side project?"; "If things are so great between them, why did they record everything separately?"; "Does Tom have to sing? Really?"; "Meh!" etc. There's incredible relief in being able to shrug these sorts of questions off, even though I still like thinking about them a lot. Ultimately though they don't effect my opinion because they can't. I like it a lot because I like it a lot. It's not their best album (Blink 182) and it's far from their worst album (Cheshire Cat (?)). Objectively it sounds like a band struggling slightly at trying to be everything they could be and had been up to that point, and that's a hard thing to do consciously. But maybe I'm wrong. I think maybe we're all thinking too much.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Even though I bought the "Special Edition" version of this album, I'm writing this based on the "Standard Edition" tracklisting. Overall the special edition sounds like they crammed a couple of b-sides into the track list, which is exactly what they did. I don't think there's a perfect sequence (not yet--see the now-defunct Stylus Magazine's "Playing God" feature) but I prefer to the the standard edition is the closest version to what the group probably debated about for three months.)
Favorite Song Of The Year
Miranda Lambert - "Dear Diamond"
In the past four or five years I've keeping track of my favorite things there have been few things that have hit as hard as this song did. No Ghostless Place by Raised By Swans still takes the cake, and Miranda's album Revolution comes really close, but it's still not quite the perfection that is "Dear Diamond." On the surface it sounds like a continuation of Revolution, utilizing the slow tremolo high reverb electric guitar, and laconic timing like that found on "Me And Your Cigarettes" for example. This time though it's the strength of the story and the lyrics that really sets it apart from an otherwise lukewarm album, Four The Record. The nuance and characterization the narrator gives herself is so careful, and subtle and still so moving. It's depressing without being morose. It's careful without being too overt. It's like the best Larry McMurty short story never written, and not like that Lonesome Dove shit either. Upon further listening I realize that it sounds very conventional and I can live with that. But if there are unexplainable things in art and why we like what we like, then there's no better example than this song. Goddamn.
Favorite Album Of The Year
Wye Oak - Civilian
This album caught me completely by surprise. It didn't floor me/destroy me/change everything I know like Raised By Swans did last year with No Ghostless Place. It didn't move me like Takk... by Sigur Ros did in 2007. It didn't pummel me track after track so resolutely like Sir Luscious Left Foot by Big Boi. In fact, I was ready to call Hurry Up... (see above) by M83 my favorite of the year until I played this in early October.
Civilian is musically, lyrically and conceptually challenging which is both it's strong point and why I love it so much. It's difficult while still being completely tangible and thrilling when it needs to be. The guitar sounds on this album approach a unaffected rawness that plays into the melody and the lyrics. Jenn Wasner's voice is a fucking serrated blade going effortlessly through an oak tree trunk. More than anything unlike every other album this year this is the only one that rewarded me with every listen. It will probably always be above me, and better than even I think, and I'll never get my head all the way around it. And for that it's worth more than anything else I heard this year.
TRY IT: Wye Oak - "Holy Holy" - If you can listen to this song and it doesn't tear your ass up...fuck you.
Favorite Thursday Album Of The Year / Favorite Dave Fridmann Produced Album Of The Year
Thursday - No Devolucion
Big surprise. Surely the reader is tired of me showering praise on this band, release after release? Yes? No? Okay, I'll make it quick:
This is their most atmospheric album, and most electronic sounding album to date, which seem to have led reviewers to describe this album as being "dark." Maybe that's accurate. For me it's not as bold as War All The Time, it's not as progressive as City By The Light Divided, and it's not as raucous as Common Existence, but it's still deeply affected and sincere and resolute. In the documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart Jeff Tweedy describes his band Wilco's album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as having "a lot of holes" in it, and that's a great description of No Devolucion. There's more space in this album than ever before and that space makes a huge difference. In the years to come I think this will be one of my most favorite of theirs. I can't wait.
Favorite Electronic Based Album Of The Year
James Blake - James Blake
Favorite Album Of The Year
Wye Oak - Civilian
This album caught me completely by surprise. It didn't floor me/destroy me/change everything I know like Raised By Swans did last year with No Ghostless Place. It didn't move me like Takk... by Sigur Ros did in 2007. It didn't pummel me track after track so resolutely like Sir Luscious Left Foot by Big Boi. In fact, I was ready to call Hurry Up... (see above) by M83 my favorite of the year until I played this in early October.
Civilian is musically, lyrically and conceptually challenging which is both it's strong point and why I love it so much. It's difficult while still being completely tangible and thrilling when it needs to be. The guitar sounds on this album approach a unaffected rawness that plays into the melody and the lyrics. Jenn Wasner's voice is a fucking serrated blade going effortlessly through an oak tree trunk. More than anything unlike every other album this year this is the only one that rewarded me with every listen. It will probably always be above me, and better than even I think, and I'll never get my head all the way around it. And for that it's worth more than anything else I heard this year.
TRY IT: Wye Oak - "Holy Holy" - If you can listen to this song and it doesn't tear your ass up...fuck you.
Favorite Thursday Album Of The Year / Favorite Dave Fridmann Produced Album Of The Year
Thursday - No Devolucion
Big surprise. Surely the reader is tired of me showering praise on this band, release after release? Yes? No? Okay, I'll make it quick:
This is their most atmospheric album, and most electronic sounding album to date, which seem to have led reviewers to describe this album as being "dark." Maybe that's accurate. For me it's not as bold as War All The Time, it's not as progressive as City By The Light Divided, and it's not as raucous as Common Existence, but it's still deeply affected and sincere and resolute. In the documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart Jeff Tweedy describes his band Wilco's album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as having "a lot of holes" in it, and that's a great description of No Devolucion. There's more space in this album than ever before and that space makes a huge difference. In the years to come I think this will be one of my most favorite of theirs. I can't wait.
Favorite Electronic Based Album Of The Year
James Blake - James Blake
Thumb through every review of this album and you'll get: DUBSTEP, DUBSTEP, DUBSTEP, DUBSTEP.
While this may be technically true, this ain't DJ D's dubstep. In fact, throw the dubstep description out all together. This is just a soul album wrapped in Kid A/Amnesiac- packaging. Simple as that.
TRY IT:
While this may be technically true, this ain't DJ D's dubstep. In fact, throw the dubstep description out all together. This is just a soul album wrapped in Kid A/Amnesiac- packaging. Simple as that.
TRY IT:
- James Blake - "Limit To Your Love" - Most soulful and probably the best song on the album. Also includes your precious dubstep wubbawubba, you fucking baby.
- James Blake - "I Never Learnt To Share" - Wittle wubbawubba flourishes for wittle baby. Maybe my favorite song on the album.
- James Blake - "Wilhelm Scream" - Lead single and all around great song. Simple build up to simply kick your ass.
Favorite Country Single by Lady Antebellum Single Of The Year
Lady Antebellum - "Just A Kiss"
"Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum was amazing, easily one of my favorite songs of the year, and one of my most favorite country songs ever. Keep in mind I realize how pathetic that is, but I don't care. Have you played that song after you're 13 deep and you just ate half a frozen pizza and you're thinking about drinking three year old liqueur your girlfriend left in the freezer? No? Then you're hardly in a position to judge.
"Just A Kiss" is just about as good: it's not quite as brutal or visceral but the chorus has a hook that is razor sharp. Good luck getting it out of your head anytime soon. Lady Antebellum singles are, like all pop songs, transitory but that doesn't mean they're brilliantly written. So expect another blurb like this next year.
