Presenting my annual (and annually tardy) Top 20 albums of
the year. 2013 had an absolute flood of
great new music, but I would also say there were fewer records that completely
knocked my socks off. It was hard to make
decisions on the final list as there were many competing offerings that easily
could have made the cut. But the upper
echelons of musical greatness were fewer.
So, a great year, but it’s likely only a couple would make the grade
against entries from previous years.
First, albums that didn’t make it, but nonetheless
deserve mention (i.e., 7.5/10 or greater on my personal rating scale):
- Yamantaka // Sonic Titan (electro space goth...great!)
- Cults (a more varied and mature release from indie rockpoppers)
- Ulrich Schnauss (languid, trippy electronica)
- Alexander Von Mehren (for lovers of complex bachelor pad jazz-pop, a la High Llamas, Stereolab and Hylozoists)
- Heaven (NY fuzz pop, discovered when they opened for the Swervedriver reunion tour)
- Frightened Rabbit (great effort from Scottish indie rockers, but surprised they weren’t up there on my list)
- The Dodos (best release since their debut)
- The Joy Formidable (big wall of noise pop but oddly polished)
- Edward Sharpe (great, but a slight let down given they occupied the number one slot last year)
- Sigur Ros (a little bit outside their formula which was always good, but becoming repetitive. A bit heavier, to great effect)
- Panda Riot (great fuzzy dream pop reminiscent of Pains of Being Pure At Heart)
- Young Galaxy (I adore this chilled out electro-pop band. A bit too dancy this time around, but wonderful nonetheless)
- Volcano Choir (essentially Bon Iver, with a wider palette of song types)
- Black Hearted Brother (This is Neil Halstead trying to reincarnate Slowdive. A good record, but did not live up to massively high hopes)
- Washed Out (more great chill wave)
- Way Yes (bubbly, worldbeat electro sounds recalling Animal Collective and Ruby Suns)
- Yuck (the rawness of the first record is scaled back to a more melodic shoegaze approach)
- Deerhunter (blown away at first, but didn’t stick with me with repeated listens. Love the way Bradford Cox tries new things each time, though)
- Jim Guthrie (after several inspired 8-bit video game soundtracks, Guthrie returns to original Now, More Than Ever form)
- Low (not the best Low record, but signature sounds. Feels like I have known this record since the 90s)
- Hayden (revitalized, catchy indie-folk tracks).
- Day Joy (reverbed orchestral pop)
- Crystal Stilts (catchy Nuggets-style garage pop)
- Songs By Thom (self-released cassette randomly bought at Amoeba Records in LA. Geeky, lo-fi confessionals)
- Wooden Shjips (motorik psych jams. Repetition done well)
- Frankie Rose (modernized 50’s fuzzy sock hops and indie gems)
- Cave Singers (reminds of War on Drugs or Citay in a more standard rock format)
- Brendan Canning (Broken Social Scene dude’s recent solo release).
- Steve Mason (Beta Band guy with an RnB angle)
- Joanna Gruesome (great girl power pop)
- Moonface (Spencer Krug and his piano. Requires attention, but when you are in it, he delivers powerfully).
- Bent Shapes (more punk pop)
- Akron/Family (difficult to categorize – experimental psych jams and sound mash ups)
- Riverrun (if this was an ambient instrumental list, this would be Top 3)
- Dawn McCarthy and Bonnie “Prince Billy” (honest rendering of the Everly Brothers).
And now my annual disappointments.
Contrary to pretty much everybody I know, I dislike Reflektor by Arcade Fire. I’ve tried my best. But the LCD
Soundsystem dance pop rework leaves me cold and longing for the Arcade Fire
I know and love. I don’t begrudge the
format change, really, but my high hopes were dashed.
I did not have huge expectations of Vampire Weekend, really, because I have
only ever merely liked them. But seeing
them at the top of most year end lists annoys me. The songs are all okay, but they are hardly
revelatory.
I have been a long-time fan of Eels,
but the 2013 record is bland and sucky.
Just awful.
The Terror by Flaming Lips was similarly crappy in my
estimation. No hooks – just difficult
sounds and sonic pretensions. Wavves was more of the same, and while
I quite liked their debut, I felt like I was listening to that album’s cast
offs. Atoms For Peace just drifts by me without much notice, which is the
complete opposite to how Radiohead
most often grabs my full attention. Iceage’s promising debut was followed
by a hard core mess that does not lift me, but grates on me. I support what they are doing though.
My biggest disappointment was Adam Franklin and Bolts of Melody, but only in relative terms. Franklin is my favorite performer, whether it
be with Swervedriver or his many
side projects. This album, Black Horses, feels thrown
together, with a recycling of some older songs and filler that wanders. It is an understatement to say
I am looking forward to the first Swervedriver album since 1998, which is
apparently dropping in 2015.
Okay, on to the list proper! Click on "choice tracks" to preview selected songs.
20. Stars and Sons –
Colour Me Red
I cannot for the life of me recall where I discovered this
gem, but suffice to say, they are fairly obscure. No entry in wiki or allmusic and from the
looks of it, no label either. Just a
couple digital long players on bandcamp and, presumably, a fuck load of energy
and ambition. This band sounds BIG. Almost (but not quite) over the top in their
execution of full on orchestral glam-pop that recalls a more frantic Polyphonic Spree, with the bounce of Ben Folds, and the bluster of Broken Social Scene (they derived their
name from a BSS song). I also hear Fang Island, Go! Team, Spacehog and…Queen?
At least in terms of that wide open palette of aural assault. It’s almost too much at times, but it is
mostly astounding and invigorating.
Choice track: “Family Tree”.
19. No Joy – Wait To Pleasure
Canada is rarely considered a hotbed of shoegaze – that has
a been a distinctly British tradition beginning with My Bloody Valentine and
Creation Records, and bleeding over to America in certain wonderful
pockets. Among the Canadian exceptions
are Montreal shoegaze revivalists No Joy (with deferential nods to Sianspheric
and Besnard Lakes). Championed by indie
darlings and label mates, Best Coast,
the band concocts reverb drenched tracks that swirl and coalesce in ways
similar to MBV, Slowdive, Ride, and Lush.
It is a messy and trippy affair of interweaving guitar squalls and
ethereal vocals that often reach the same sonic heights of the trailblazers
just mentioned. Beautiful noise. Choice Track: “Hare Tarot Lies”
18. Grim Tower – Anarchic Breezes
Grim Tower is the
psych-folk side project of Stephen McBean (Black
Mountain, Pink Mountaintops) and
Imaad Wasif (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), with
contributions from members of Brian
Jonestown Masscare and Darker My
Love. The result is predictably
great – dark, forboding, psychedelic dirges that channel aspects of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Moby Grape
and the Velvet Underground. Those touchstones may also be misleading,
however, as the album is primarily driven by acoustic guitars. McBean and Wasif reportedly spent several
months experimenting with strangely detuned guitars in McBean’s backyard, and
then sifted through the tapes to build and refine a full-length. It is
McBean’s rich vocals that give the songs their 1970s psych-rock character (as
they similarly do in his other bands).
The sludgy bass, resonating acoustic strums, and electric flourishes
pull it all together into an album that would undoubtedly blow the collective
consciousness of many a Haight-Ashbury acid casualty. This is a criminally overlooked album in my
opinion. Choice track: “Reign Down”
17. Light
Heat – S/T
I have been waiting impatiently for Quentin Stoltzfus of
defunct fave, Mazarin, to come out
from wherever he has been hiding with some new music. Mazarin’s last album, We’re Already There (2005), was a great one, and the first two are
positively legend in my music room (note the #1 song of the Top 500 – “What
Sees The Sky” from A Tall Tale Storyline). Last I heard, some dumb ass bar band was
quibbling with the name copyright and then…silence. Eight years later he has
returned with a new outfit and his backing musicians are none other than the Walkmen band. He’s picked up where he has left off. I am not necessarily as floored by the effort
as I had hoped. But it is a solid return
of fuzzy, melodic, droney indie rock.
Welcome back. Choice track: “Elevation”.
16. No Age – An Object
No Age are the ultimate post-punk band (since we are verrrry
post-punk now, I suppose it’s best to call them “retro post punk”). An
Object continues their messy, crunchy, claustrophobic noise-punk. What is so inspiring is the intentionality of
it all. They are brave in their
decisions – their chord progressions, riffs, beats, and vocal melodies are
always a bit strange and seemingly limiting in where they can go. But they know what they are doing, in the
same innovative way as Wire. They know how to bash through it all to make
a pathway other bands couldn’t think of pursuing. Choice (and fairly accessible) track: “An Impression”.
15. Cayucas - Bigfoot
These happy, spritely dudes dropped out of nowhere. I don’t recall how I discovered the debut
video for the insanely catchy “High School Lover”, but I sense Cayucas has made
in-roads into popular consciousness – their tunes are popping up in the
environment here and there and seem tailor-made for car and mobile phone
commercials (and not in a bad way).
Their songs are impossibly “summery”,
if you get my meaning. Bright and
airy, with bouncing tropicalia bass lines and sweet backing harmonies. It’s the sort music you would hope to have in
your ears as you ride a tandem bicycle through a street carnival where
literally everyone is happy. Their songs
kind of resemble an unironic Beck or
the world music-informed sounds of Paul
Simon – but contemporized somehow.
A treat! Choice track: “High School Lover”.
14. On An On – Give In
A tough band to Google effectively, On An On launched their
debut this year. I have seen little
press on this record, which is a shame.
The band concocts an engrossing mix of determined guitar riffs, ethereal
synths, insistent electro beats, and wonderfully reverbed vocals. They sound very familiar most of the time, in
a good way, fitting snugly in the contemporary indie pantheon. I hear early Radiohead, Embrace, Doves, Broken Social Scene, and even a bit of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-era Wilco. Fabulous debut. Choice track: “Ghosts”.
13. Nightlands – Oak Island
I was massively impressed with Nightlands’ first offering, Forget the Mantra. They have returned with Oak Island, another gigantic sounding synthetic/organic
landscape. The production is remarkable
– an extremely well-mixed and separated collection of interconnected sounds and
melodies that have undoubtedly been derived from exponential layering. There are persistent ambient textures that
are grounded by more traditional acoustic instruments. The vocals are gorgeous. This is one of those records that seems
entirely new in its approach yet harkens back to older (even ancient) musical
tropes. Sometimes it feels like I am
listening to the Moody Blues, Vangelis, or Godley and Creme. Or random
new age world music. Most of the time I
feel like I am listening to otherworldly spiritual anthems. Choice track:
“So Far So Long”.
12. Shugo Tokumaru – In Focus?
Ever since experiencing the brilliance of the Katamri Damacy video game soundtrack, I have been keeping my ears open for
more intelligent Japanese pop. It was
hard to know where to look, but I came across the fabulously entertaining Shugo
Tokumaru. I’m not sure if he does gaming
work, but take the sugar-spun theme songs from the bygone 8-bit era and give
them full digital/analog orchestration and you have In Focus? When I listen to
this record, I feel like I am in a side-scrolling, pastel coloured
platformer. In terms of vision,
ambitiousness, and technical prowess, this could be record of the year. The range of sounds is extraordinary – the
midi programming required seems intimidatingly complex. And yet it does not sound like a cheap
digital rendering in the least. It is
warm, organic, and impossibly happy. I
suppose that’s the only problem with it.
Just like you are not always in the mood to watch cartoons, you have to
be in a sort of fantastical frame of mind to appreciate this brilliant
work. Choice track (and brilliant video): “Katachi”.
11. Besnard Lakes - Until in Excess Imperceptible
UFO
Every new Besnard Lakes record (and 2011’s side project The Soft Province) ends up appearing in
my yearly Top 20. They have excelled once
again in 2013. UFO provides the Lakes’ signature sound – massive sprawling
guitars, rich organs and keyboards,
resonant bass lines, and the sweet dual voices of Jace Lacek and Olga
Goreas. It’s always gorgeously dense
rock music, but with a gauzy, laid back atmosphere that never fails to build,
swell, and explode. Think Pink Floyd, Slowdive, and School of
Seven Bells. But very often bigger.
Choice track: “46 Satires”.
10. Yo La Tengo – Fade
Now revered grandparents of the indie-rock scene, Yo La Tengo
has never been afraid to grow, evolve and experiment; but they never lose sight of their highly
successfully recipe of catchy hooks and honest melodies. Fade
is another triumph, which is remarkable given that this is their 13th
studio album, not including numerous b-side compilations, soundtracks, and side
tracks. The measured eclecticism is
retained and some experimental sound projects keep us on our toes. But the main attractions are once again the
simple guitar pop ditties, featuring Ira and Georgia’s understated but
wholesomely familiar vocals. Yo La Tengo
are old friends, lifetime companions that never ever let you down. Choice track: “I’ll Be Around”.
9. William Tyler – Impossible Truth
A subgenre of music that I continually enjoy is neo-classical
and experimental guitar. With John Fahey as the historical touch
point, I love the drone, the delicate, and the ambient sounds that can be
coaxed from the solo acoustic guitar.
It’s sometimes tough to find that sweet spot among the many players out
there in the world and the risk of falling into warmed over New Age is constant
(see much of the Windham Hill catalogue).
Then I discovered the boutique label Tompkins Square, which revives and
releases obscure outsider Americana (Frank Fairfield, for example, was a
revelation to me) as well as contemporary instrumental guitar. This is where I discovered Robbie Basho,
James Blackshaw, Jesse Spearhawk, and William Tyler. Tyler is among the most talented of acoustic
guitar composers in recent years and, curiously, he has crossed over to indie
rock leader Merge Records. His 2013
offering is an absolutely gorgeous, symphonic trip of harmonic drones, waves of
pedal steel, and shining melodies. It is
fingerpicking bliss and a perfect soundtrack for the natural world, inner
meditations, and everything in between. Choice track: "Cadillac Desert".
8. Ex-Cops – True Hallucinations
Another surprising and relatively obscure entry into the Top
20, Ex-Cops’ True Hallucinations hits
the core pleasure centre of my indie-rock/pop tastes. This unassuming little long player harnesses
the lovely guitar pop that unites so many of my favorite artists, such as Pains of Being Pure At Heart, The
Minders, Beulah, High Dials, The Bats, Dump, and American Analog Set. I imagine many listeners would find this
recording to be pleasant but perhaps unremarkable. But for me, aside from a misguided Genesis sample to open the set (the
prog drums from “Mama”), I find every song attractive – whispery reverbed
vocals, trebly Cure-like guitars,
and catchy verse-chorus-verse hooks. The
songs tend to be a bit lo-fi, but that adds to the affection. Snappy,
foot-tapping excursions, recalling the carefree early days of Matador and Merge
records. Choice track: “James”.
7. Youth Lagoon – Wondrous Bughouse
Bedroom avant-pop noise maker, Trevor Powers, turned heads
with his 2011 self-produced gem, The Year
of Hibernation. Lo-fi, but richly
textured, Youth Lagoon creates big and beautiful pop collages that feel like
cousins to Daniel Johnston’s naïve homespun songs, but augmented by the
considerable power of laptop audio tools.
The result is…weird…and lives in the same musical houses as early Mercury Rev, Pete Samples, Panda Bear,
Altas Sound, Maybe Smith, and Wild
Nothing. Much has been said about
the dystopia, isolation, and depression within Powers’ songs, but frankly I’ve
yet to get past the maddeningly gorgeous wall of modulating synths and gurgling
sound effects. I might never get there,
as his fragile voice feels like just another instrument. Choice track:
“Mute”.
6. Rogue Wave –
Nightingale Floors
Who listens to Rogue Wave?
Anyone? Anyone? I have yet to meet a fan and it’s downright
isolating. Along with Kingsbury Manx and
Mazarin, Rogue Wave is one of those bands that feels like a secret I
desperately want to share. Their
obscurity – or at least my perception of it – is tremendously weird. There is no reason whatsoever that Rogue Wave
should not have had a career arc any different from that of The Shins, The
Decemberists, Death Cab For Cutie, or The New Pornographers. Across five full-lengths I don’t think there
is single Rogue Wave song I dislike.
This is perfectly crafted, impeccably produced, catchy-as-hell indie
rock. While I am sure they have a
decent following (somewhere), their accomplished output just drifts by the
music press with barely a raised eyebrow.
Do yourself a favor and pick up some Rogue Wave. One of the most consistent pleasures of the
last decade. Choice track: “Used To It”.
5. Phosphorescent – Muchacho
While the moniker may tend to evoke a chill-wave outfit,
Phosphorescent is quite the opposite. I
have never been fully comfortable with throwing the term “Southern Gothic” around,
because that literary tradition doesn’t clearly translate to music for me. Well, it kind of does, but I feel like I am
guessing. But what we are talking about
here is that sort honest, heartfelt mix of gospel rock, country, blues, and
folk that sets apart bands like Wilco,
Lambchop, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and Calexico. Matthew Houck is a bonafide poet, exhorting
about love, loss, sin, and power, and although the vocals crack and croak, he
has a brilliant presence that is no different from Jack White or Brittany
Howard. And, oddly, if Bono sang these
songs, it would be the album that should have replaced Rattle and Hum before U2
reinvented themselves with Achtung Baby. Choice track: “Terror In The Canyons (TheWounded Master)”.
4. My Bloody Valentine
3. Eluvium – Nightmare Ending
As Eluvium, Matthew Cooper has released a string of
piano-based ambient and neo-classical albums.
All are at least pleasant meditations and some soar to great
heights. The latest, Nightmare Ending, is a double album and
a veritable masterpiece. Eluvium moves
far beyond the mediocrity of tinkly new age piano solos into a complex,
minimalist dream world of symphonic waves, spacious drones, and delicate piano lines. It rivals and exceeds the best stuff that Brian Eno has ever put out and that is
certainly saying something. And to close
this hymnal magnum opus, a rare and gentle vocal is supplied by Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo. Eluvium, I sense, is well regarded in
both indie circles and the more the more rarefied world of contemporary neo-classical. A happy cross-over and it makes me wonder
what I might be missing that’s buried in the classical underground. Choice track:
“Don’t Get Any Closer”.
2. Mutual Benefit – Love’s Crushing Diamond
The annoyingly named subgenre “freak folk” was liberally
applied in the mid 2000s to any number of acoustically inclined but
experimental nouveux hippies and outsiders, like early Animal Collective and Akron/Family,
Joanna Newsom, Mum, Devendra Banhart,
and Mystic Chords of Memory. Unfortunate and limiting the moniker may have
been, but ultimately it attempted to capture a slice of modern indie that felt
distinct enough, and that I adored. It
has kind of died down, or perhaps just the label has. But in 2013 Mutual Benefit arrived to my ears,
admittedly more folk than freak. I was
immediately smitten with this wonderful album that reminded me of how
innovative acoustic music can be when there is careful instrumentation paired
with a sense of whimsy and light experimentalism. Warm and inviting, like a livingroom
sing-a-long with friends and lovers.
Choice track: “Let’s Play /Statue of a Man”.
1. Foxygen – We Are The 21st Century
Ambassadors of Peace and Magic
The last time I felt this particular way about an album is
when I happened upon Strung Out In Heaven
by Brian Jonestown Massacre way back
in 1998. I had never heard a
contemporary record that was so bloody perfect in its homage to roots of Rock and Roll. There can be a fine line between rip off and homage
but BJM might as well have time travelled onto my stereo. Every track felt like it could have come
straight out of 1968, and authored by the Stones, The Animals, The Byrds,
or any other psychedelicized band from Nuggets-era
rockdom. I have not heard an album since
that was so brilliant and reverent in execution until now. Others have tried and succeeded here and
there (e.g., Black Mountain channels
Zeppelin and Sabbath wonderfully). But
Foxygen absolutely nail it. And the two
main bandmates are just out their teens. They are mind blowing in their ability
to perfect the style and production of 60’s rock and pop. There are so many elements here – the Stones
(of course), Eric Burdon, The Mamas and Papas, Them, The Velvet Underground, Donovan,
Motown, and so on. This is my number one album
of 2014 and it would have been a definite chart-topper in 1969. Choice Track:
“San Francisco”.
And to end with my Top 3 favorite song of the year. Tough call, but I'm going with
1. "High School Lover" by Cayucas.
2. "Taking My Time" by Jim Guthrie
3. "Let's Play / Statue Of A Man" by Mutual Benefit
No comments:
Post a Comment