My top ten for the year, with a brief explanation/comment.
Enjoy & Happy New Year!
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1. Grizzly Bear – Shields
The guys in Grizzly Bear killing it, once again. This record is almost perfect. The compositions are strange & beautiful, and they complement the haunting singing styles of Ed Droste and Daniel Rossen. If you didn’t get this album – you missed (but there’s still time!).
Check Out: Yet Again [mp3]
Check Out: Gun Shy
Check Out: Sun In Your Eyes
2. Tame Impala – Lonerism
Australian neo-psychedelic rockers blow out all the stops in channeling the most blissed-out, mind-melting, flashback-inducing dimensions of the Beatles, the Flaming Lips, and Black Sabbath. Put your headphones on & go for a ride.
Check Out: Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
Check Out: Elephant
3. Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan
The most complete album to date from Brooklyn’s avant-garde pop troupe, Dirty Projectors. The instrumentation is understated and intuitive, while the vocal arrangements are soulful and eccentric.
Check Out: Gun Has No Trigger
Watch: The Socialites
4. Dan Deacon – America
Baltimorean Dan Deacon is the man. America is a fascinating collection of electronic compositions that mix his love of nerdy, high-brow classicalism with ghetto-blaster, get-stupid party attitude.
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Check Out: Lots [mp3]
Check Out: True Thrush
5. Beach House – Bloom
More props to Baltimore – these dream pop originators continue to shine on their fourth album. Bloom is simultaneously simple and cinematic.
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Check Out: Myth [mp3]
Check Out: Wild
6. Foxygen – Take The Kids Off Broadway
These spastic soulsters distill the essence of all things that make up great rock ’n’ roll (e.g. the attitude of the Rolling Stones; the pretense of David Bowie; twisted and glib lyrics of Bob Dylan/Steve Malkmus/Lou Reed; and the anthems of The Who) and render it in an easy-to-swallow pill form; as irresistible as foxy oxygen.
Check Out: Make It Known [mp3]
Check Out: Take the Kids Off Broadway
7. Porcelain Raft – Strange Weekend
Lush electro-pop from Italian Mauro Remiddi – bursting with layers of snyth, drums, and Remiddi’s androgynous vocals, the songs suggest the visual dreamscape of Remiddi’s journeyman musical past.
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Check Out: Unless You Speak From Your Heart [mp3]
Check Out: Put Me To Sleep [mp3]
8. Lotus Plaza – Spooky Action at a Distance
Deerhunter’s Lockett Pundt makes a great record. Spooky Action is subtle and restrained, with tight, looping song structures, awash in tastefully resolute guitar effects. The vocals are unassuming and slowly strewn about the medium-paced and up-tempo songs. A real treat.
Check Out: Strangers
Check Out: White Galactic One
9. Ormonde – Machine
A chance encounter among singer Anna-Lynne Williams and guitarist Robert Gomez at a Midlake recording session in Denton, TX lead to the couple renting a house in the small desert town of Marfa, TX to hammer out what would become ‘Machine’. The result is a striking collection of superb indie pop songs that range from wistfully deranged ballads to exquisite chamber pop.
Check Out: I Can’t Imagine [mp3]
10. Mac Demarco – 2
Something I discovered on Pitchfork – didn’t think it would make my top 10, but the layered, reverb guitar work is sort of intoxicating – definitely refreshing in its combination of technical skill and laid back delivery.
Check Out: Freaking Out The Neighborhood [mp3]
Check Out: My Kind of Woman [mp3]
Honorable Mentions:
Alt-J – An Awesome Wave
Animal Collective – Centipede Hz
Baroness – Green & Yellow
Black Moth Super Rainbow – Cobra Juicy
Rebecca Brandt - Numbers &Shapes
Conveyor- Conveyor
Dntel – Aimlessness
Fanfarlo – Rooms Filled with Light
THE FLUTE FLIES – Yes Means Maybe
Jane Jane Pollock – Jane Jane Pollock
LIARS - WIXIW
Matthew Dear - Beams
Menomena - MOMS
Oulipo - Primitive Ways
Pinback – Information Retrieved
Yeasayer – Fragrant World
