mmurch
a culture notepad
devtwitter
So much
There’s been a lot of great music out lately. And I have some great concert tickets purchased for the next month. I’m going to try to write a little bit about each of the shows: Man Man, The Dodos, and Flying Lotus.
As for new albums, the new Man Man, Life Fantastic, is significantly better than I anticipated. What I read is that the kazoos were out and that they got a decent string section behind them. I was not excited about that report. But they’re still Man Man, and they still bring a ruckus. Bangkok Necktie is a really strong track.
I’m not sure what to say about Panda Bear and Fleet Foxes yet, other than I’ve been listening to their new albums a considerable amount.
I hate to sound like the douchebag who prefer’s a band’s earlier work blindly, but I am a little disappointed (at this stage) with The Antlers’ sophomore effort. Maybe further listening will change that. There are some really strong tracks throughout (especially this closer), but several tracks sound like half-baked ideas that they filled in with some unfortunate songwriting tropes (like the repeating “try” seven times in those parts of “Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out”, a track that sounds like it should have been on a demo tape a few years ago but gone no further). It seems like people who really adored Hospice are going to be a little disappointed by this album and the people who liked but didn’t really get into Hospice are delighted by it. I still love them overall and will keep listening to it, or at least the parts of it that I do love.
Back to Work
I’m very excited that Merlin Mann is back into podcasting with this new vehicle, “Back to Work.” I just love listening to this man talk.
Top 5 Albums of 2010: #1
Beach House - Teen Dream
This album makes me feel warm all over. It’s not in a rush, but it certainly brings you places. This third full length album really shows them hitting their stride. They’ve come out of the darkness of the previous albums and have hit a real consistent and impressively confident tone in this one. This trend appears to be continuing as a new song (pardon the poor sound quality, actually looks like someone got the whole song and better than I did here) they played at a show I was at demonstrates. The title of the album really nails it, as the key adjective is dreamy. These are dreamy pop songs that float on floods of organs and get pushed around by sliding guitar melodies and Victoria’s amazing vocals. Take Care might be my favorite track of the year.
So if you know me, this is not an unsurprising conclusion to my 2010 list. I hope nobody was expecting a shocker. Enjoy the end of the year. Don’t forget to comment!
Top 5 Albums of 2010: #2
Sleigh Bells - Treats
The group bringing by far the “newest” sound to my top 5, Sleigh Bells caught me off guard. I did not expect to like this after the first few seconds of the album. This band is pure energy. It is hands down the most successful original combination of angry electric guitars with hip hop rhythm I’ve ever heard. It is impeccably mixed. Its a male/female duo, the lady with the mic. From the pictures I’ve seen, it looks like a wild live show. Its hard to categorize, but I’d describe it as a post-Merriweather Post Pavillion gritty pop album. It is a rock/beats album for a world where electronic pop is the norm. It sounds like your speakers are exploding at every volume. If you listen to Infinity Guitars and Rill Rill you would probably see the breadth of the album before you. It is fresh, seductive, and bad ass.
Top 5 Albums of 2010: #3
The Black Keys - Brothers
When the Black Keys are at their best, they are just amazing. However, their albums usually have a fatal flaw. Lack of consistency, lack of variety, trying something they shouldn’t be… all problems they’ve had. This album is everything right about the Black Keys in spades. It is the same soulful fuzzed out blues you have come to expect, but they managed to up the degree of soul and the degree of catchiness at the same time. It debuted along with some very nice music videos, the best of which being for Tighten Up. As they often do, they frontload their album with some bound-to-be-popular songs, but some of my favorite tracks are in the second half. The groove in Sinister Kid… just try to stop me from bobbing my head. The smokey, moody purple of I’m not the one is just spot on. If it weren’t for the lyrics about infidelity in Never Gonna Give You Up, I would be putting it in the running for my first dance at my wedding next year. This is a really solid album from a band from whom we have all begun to expect great things. They deserve the expectations and the attention they’ve been getting recently for fulfilling them in this album.
Top 5 Albums of 2010: #4
The Walkmen - Lisbon
I have to admit, I’m quite late to the Walkmen party. This album was my introduction to them, and I’ve since explored Bows and Arrows and I’ve been taking turns adoring them each for different reasons. Lisbon doesn’t depart from their style in any way. The arrangements are more sparse and the vocal performance is still incredible. It took me a while to appreciate them fully because their guitar tones and attitude suggest a garage band, while their songwriting and performance act in such broad strokes. There are very few “hooks” in this album. It alternates between sparse sections with what might otherwise be a rhythm guitar providing the flourishes to sections with a swelling horn section on tracks like Stranded. My favorite part of the album is the one-two punch of the almost upbeat catchy riffs on Woe Is Me followed by the belting vocals and halting stompability of Torch Song.
Top 5 Albums of 2010: #5
Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
You don’t always say that an album has “really well executed naivety” with a straight smile on your face. This is a garage album in the tradition of early Weezer. It shows teenage frustrations in someone a little too old to be having them, but makes it not sad with solid hooks that convince you to fist-pump along with it. The pace of the songs is a little more laid back than you would expect. That and the reverb on the vocals (and really everywhere) are the only things that link the album to their west-coasty band name (they’re from Florida). They accomplish one thing I have never seen in the song called Harmonix. It is clearly named after the use of guitar harmonics as the main theme which is something a 14 year old does when he’s learning to play guitar. Normally that would drive me nuts… but they actually make it work. There are other examples of this (Neighboring Riffs), but I find myself ignoring these issues because it’s all so damn catchy. Every year needs an album like this: straightforward and consistently fun.
Since I don’t want to deal with mp3 hosting, I’m just going to trust people have the smarts to google them if they wanna listen to them. Sorry for the late posting, but as most of you know, Tumblr was down yesterday. Expect number 4 later today.
