I hope everyone enjoyed the write-ups on the three "4 star" records from last year (at least, in this blogger's opinion). Now, on to the full list. Click each link to hear a sample song from the album.
1. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
2. Jonsi - Go
3. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
4. Sleigh Bells - Treats
*This is maybe my favorite new artist of the year--click this, and stick around for the kick-in
5. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
6. Beach House - Teen Dream
7. Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz
8. The National - High Violet
9. Girl Talk - All Day
10. Menomena - Mines
11. Owen Pallett - Heartland
12. Nest - re told
13. Wavves - King of the Beach
14. Sam Amidon - I See the Sign
15. The Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt
16. Thee Silver Mt. Zion - Kollaps Tradixionales
17. The Black Keys - Brothers
18. Buke and Gass - Riposte
19. The Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
20. Vampire Weekend - Contra
21. Local Natives - Gorilla Manor
22. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
23. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
24. The Walkmen - Lisbon
25. Damien Jurado - Saint Bartlett
OTHER ALBUMS I LOVED:
--. The Books - The Way Out
*best music video of the year? best music video of the year.
--. Roky Erickson (w/ Okkervil River) - True Love Casts Out All Evil
--. Best Coast - Crazy for You
--. The Morning Benders - Big Echo
--. Surfer Blood - Astrocoast
...I hope you guys enjoy the links and please, let me know what you think. Take care, all.
3 comments:
I write this as a Deerhunter fan... can you explain what got them into your top 5? I've seen a fair amount of praise from year-end lists, but it never amounted to more than a handful of song I skip to and then eject the cd for me. What am I missing out on?
I fear that instead of being a Deerhunter fan, I'm just a fan of the "Deerhunter does skewed take on pop" songs.
Good question and point, Brian. I've been on-the-fence about Deerhunter for several years now, but for one reason or another, "Halcyon Digest" was the first record to click with me. I think the reason is that it seems less like a handful of decent songs mixed in between some wandering tracks and more like an album. The skews are less evident than they were on "Microcastle" or "Weird Era," and, I think, the instrumentation builds rather than stutters. They're still a bit rambling at times, but even the extra 30-40 seconds on a song like "Helicopter" feel like they're designed to give the record space rather than length. As a whole, "Halcyon" reminds me of M. Ward's "Transistor Radio" in a weird way: it's less a bunch of twists on pop songs and more a big twist on pop music (and, more specifically, on the ways we consume(d) pop music). I still don't think it's as great as some people say (the Beatles comparisons, in particular, seem off to me), but it's melancholy, even when it's "poppy," and I like that.
Also, "Coronado" is awesome.
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