So, here we are: a few days left of the fifth month of 2011. Generally one would do a half-year round up after the year was half-over, but there's something special planned for June and nothing on the release calendar we haven't already heard so we might as well get this over.The new music brought to us so far this year has been - to be polite - less than spectacular. With one notable exception - I bet you can guess what it is - every album I've bought this year has at best left me with a feeling of "is that all?", at worst the realization that it's time to check out of a long-followed career.
So where to begin?
Fuck you, Polly Jean Harvey. As discussed with a friend, we already have one Joanna Newsom and she's fucking awful, we didn't need another. That's over simplifying, obviously, but what the hell? I was willing to give you one album of dressing in a Victorian-style wedding dress singing like a child while playing an instrument you hardly knew what to do with, a second album of similar nonsense is just testing patience now. (That's what those unlistenable John Parish collaboration albums are for, right?) That 'Let England Shake' is earning the best reviews of a career full of (admittedly at times) blind admiration is just more infuriating, and I can't even talk about the crushing disappointment of the live show yet. (How, I ask, does one make "The Sky Lit Up" so. fucking. dull?) We're officially broken up.Elbow, you're also on my shit list, but we've talked about that before. Don't play it so safe next time and everything will be alright. (Unless, of course, it's not.) We're not over - not by a long shot, I hope - but we've certainly had our first big fight.
The Kills - THE KILLS! - what happened? Thanks for nothing, Jack White. 'Midnight Boom' was obviously was going to be a tough act to follow, but applying what you learned from your time in the Dead Weather was not the right way to go, Allison. A couple of great moments shine through: "Future Starts Slow" starts things off on a promising note and the one/two punch of "Heart Is A Beating Drum" and "Nail In My Coffin" pick things back up after the snorefest of "Satellite" - wrong lead single alert! - but after that it's a slow slide into mediocrity. Shame. (Apparently the live show is still shit hot so I'll have to see about that.)
The Gruff Rhys record has grown on me for what it is - a mid-tempo rehash of ideas explored throughout the SFA records - and it is still perfectly listenable in its own right. More a gentle reminder from Gruff that "yes, I can still do this" after the disaster of 'Dark Days/Light Years' than a classic in its own right, I'll take it for now. (That said, I really wish the - er - phantom of 'Phantom Power' would stop hanging over every single SFA/Gruff Rhys release.)
Hunx, Hunx...the novelty was cute at first but the schtick is starting to wear. (Remember what happened to Gravy Train!!!!? Change it up a bit before it happens again.) To be fair, I've only given 'Too Young To Be In Love' a curiosity once-over but I also haven't felt terribly compelled to return to it.
R.E.M. - really? Really. Oh well.
Dear Sound of Arrows: don't fall apart yet. You'd better have more tricks up your sleeve than a fucking Tiesto remix after making us wait this long.
Which leaves us with:
Duran Duran! Yes, we've talked about this before and, yes, 'All You Need Is Now' is technically a 2010 album, but it's still a blast. So thank you for that, but enough with the £350 special editions and making us go to a zillion different retailers to buy the album multiple times to get everything. (I give the early iTunes release a pass because they were upfront about it and, frankly, it's the best version of the album as far as a listening experience goes. However, you shouldn't need a chart to keep track of what physical format has what.) Also, "Leave A Light On" is a poor, poor choice for the third single.
Boxer Rebellion! A slight step back from the masterpiece of 'Union' but still a solid effort. You're another one that needs to watch your formatting, though - hopefully you learned something from the iTunes fuck up.
There's a 3-track Kenna EP that kind of came out of nowhere and it was a welcome surprise. I'll reserve judgment until I hear more but it's looking good.
And, the winner so far...
Duh. As far as I'm concerned, this is the only album that has landed this year without a whiff of disappointment, a fully-formed debut that delivers on the promise of early material and then some. Thank you also for the lovely 7" singles with complimentary artwork with album-quality b-sides and for generally getting it right.
That said, you also really need to quit it with the formats - it seems every month since its February release there has been another version of the album with some new bonus track and/or disc - and, more importantly, STOP SHOVING THAT FUCKING LAURA CANTRELL VERSION OF "LOOK AT ME" DOWN OUR THROATS! It was terrible the first time we bought it, you can understand why we'd be bitter the third time. In fact, once you've put a track or mix out on something, please try your best to not make us buy it four more times. (How many copies of the Belbury Poly Remix of "Lights and Offerings" does one really need?) I still love you but it's starting to get a bit annoying. Please and thank you.
Also, US tour?
Advance alert: the Battles record is a grower but ultimately pretty great.
So, here we are - halfway through 2010. Time to look back and see what its given us in music so far.
Truthfully, I was expecting to be a bit underwhelmed looking back. In all the excitement over These New Puritans' 'Hidden', Active Child and School of Seven Bells' 'Disconnect From Desire' - which doesn't really count as it technically didn't come out in the first half of the year - I remembered the year giving us little else. Turns out I was wrong as there were about 10 other albums I quite enjoyed plus an ever growing queue of albums to dedicate more listening time to. Good thing I'm disappearing into the mountains of Vermont next week with lots of quality listening time to fill.
Anyways, here are my five favorites so far:
05: Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part Two [Return of the Ankh]
04: The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night
03: Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today
02: Active Child - Curtis Lane EP
01: These New Puritans - Hidden
With an honorable mention, as always, to:
Ash - The A-Z Series
It has, predictably, gotten a bit less exciting as the weeks have gone on, but it's still a fantastic project and I'm very excited to see that they're going to carry it through to the end. [It totally had "abandon half-way through" written all over it - hooray for being wrong.] The five-star songs have gotten fewer and further between, but every other week we still get a solid track with a few surprises thrown in for good measure. [Who expected single "Q" to be one of the best?]
It's also been a great year for reissues, with the long-awaited 'Disintegration' set finally making an appearance, the first and third Duran Duran albums getting the box treatment with 'Notorious' and 'Big Thing' imminent, and a nicer-than-it-needed-to-be Rhino Handmade edition of 'The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees' leading the back. Of course, we've also got the deluxe 'Fables of the Reconstruction' and first two a-ha albums to come in the very near future.
Oh, and did I mention Jagz Kooner is producing the new Whip album? Incredible.
Here's the thing: 2009 was not a great year for music. It wasn't terrible, to be sure, but it wasn't as fantastic as it should have been. People who should know better were putting out terrible albums - SFA and the Hidden Cameras, I am looking very much in your direction - and even the good albums somehow weren't as good as they could've been/should've been/I'd have liked them to be. Or, perhaps, there was one album that shone so brightly it made everything else seem a bit dull. I like to think it was a mix of the two.
Yes, I'm whining, but isn't that what this type of thing is for? Anyways, putting together a list of 20 albums proved impossible - I had a solid list of 10 I had bought that I wished I hadn't for one reason or another - and rounding it off to a square ten also proved tricky. So I cheated a little - ten plus an honorable mention, which was technically a 2008 album anyways so it wasn't really cheating. Anyways, I'm babbling so here you go:
honorable mention: Annie - Don't Stop
key tracks: "Songs Remind Me Of You", "My Love Is Better", "Don't Stop"
Completed and put out in promo form in 2008 before parting ways with Island, 2009 finally saw a commercial release for Annie's second LP in a slightly different form. A few new songs were recorded and added, a few tracks - including killer single "I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me" - got relegated to bonus disc-land and we're left holding an album that is very much less than the sum of its parts. Almost every track here is great - I'm not a huge fan of "Marie Cherie" - but it feels like the final configuration of the album is not the best one. In any case, it is very nice to see this finally get a proper release and for every track save one - the cover of "2 of Hearts" which is fun but certainly non-essential - recorded for it to have been included in one way or another.
10: Charlotte Hatherley - New Worlds
key tracks: "White", "Alexander", "New Worlds"
The third Charlotte Hatherley album came to us in 2009 after numerous delays and lots of silence from its creator, suddenly appearing almost out of nowhere on release lists and - surprisingly - US download stores. Hooray! Except...maybe it was the delays, maybe it's the new note-perfect albums that proceeded it, but it's hard to deny that it's a little bit of a disappointment. There's an almost forceful obsession with colors in the lyrics - nearly every song mentions a color by name or the spectrum as a whole - which gets oddly distracting. Whatever the reason, it's the perfect case of a favorite artist's weaker work being better than most's best - not really a glowing recommendation, but it's what I've got.
09: Lady Sovereign - Jigsaw
key tracks: "I've Got You Dancing", "Let's Be Mates", "Pennies"
The video for "I've Got You Dancing" appeared somewhat out of nowhere in January and by April a totally unexpected second Sov LP was in our hands. I hate to use the word "mature" to describe an album, but she does show us a bit of her heart on the title track and her, ummm, bedroom/kitchen preferences in the completely bizarre "Food Play". Not as immediate as the first LP and there's no "Hoodie", but the biggest midget in the game still delivers when she could have very easily faded away into obscurity.
08: Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications
key tracks: "Slush", "Further Complications", "I Never Said I Was Deep"
Why did no one think to pair Jarvis and Steve Albini earlier? That's all we need to say. [OK, one more thing - THAT SLEEVE! Amazing.]
07: Little Boots - Hands
key tracks: "New In Town", "Earthquake", "Stuck On Repeat"
Is Victoria Hesketh the next chart pop star or the next Björk? I'm not even entirely sure she knows. What I do know, however, is that she's got what it takes to pull off whatever she decides her master plan is with the rock solid pop of her debut and an amazing stage presence. The charts / blogs / world are hers for the taking when she decides she wants them.
06: The Big Pink - A Brief History of Love
key tracks: "Dominos", "Velvet", "Tonight"
The sleeve really says it all, as 4AD sleeves tend to: a slightly fuzzy take on the new shoegaze/pop hybrid done right, a trip through 90's indie with 2009 glasses on. They could've easily fallen into the one amazing single/not so hot album trap - sadly, we say hello to the Temper Trap at this point - but it's all good and very nicely varied here. One thing, though: where the hell is "Stop The World"?
05: Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
key tracks: "Fire", "Where Did All The Love Go?", "Vlad the Impaler"
Yes, it is an absolute mess with the weird instrumentals in the middle of the album and Rosario Dawson spoken word tracks, but what a mess it is. Something akin to the soundtrack to a film that doesn't exist - or so its been described - the third Kasabian LP is as infuriating as it is enjoyable...and is all the better for it. [If you can, track down the promo instrumental album - well worth a listen and it actually enhances the album proper.]
04: Dragonette - Fixin to Thrill
key tracks: "Liar", "Big Sunglasses", "Pick Up The Phone"
This could very easily not exist, what with 'Galore' barely coming out in the end and all the chart and label bullshit the band went through a few years back. They pushed through it all, though, and the pop world is a better place for it as no one does dirty - in terms of synths and sex - pop better as far as I'm concerned.
03: Pet Shop Boys - Yes
key tracks: "All over the world", "The way it used to be", "Pandemonium"
Similar to the Jarvis Cocker/Steve Albini pairing, what took Pet Shop Boys so long to pair up with Xenomania? An absolutely lush sounding pop masterpiece, "Yes" flows wonderfully and has the perfect balance of BIG POP moments and understated down moments that the Boys do so well. Unfortunately the campaign was plagued with bad choices - "Love etc" is fantastic, obviously, but does not scream "comeback after a few years away" single which started the whole thing off on the slightly wrong foot - and the rumors were flying that the Boys spent a good chunk of time fighting with the label about things like single choices instead of, you know, promoting the album which led to their most commercial sounding album in ages turning into a relative flop. Which is, of course, very Pet Shop Boys.
02: The Boxer Rebellion - Union
key tracks: "Flashing Red Light Means Go", "Move On", "Misplaced"
Surprise of the year, here. Their debut album was passable if a bit unexciting, and then out of nowhere comes this. Totally self-funded and originally only digitally available, 'Union' is a widescreen, heart on your sleeve indie guitar record, the likes of which I thought weren't made anymore. Simply gorgeous.
01: La Roux - La Roux
key tracks: the whole damn thing
Duh. From the first hear of "In For The Kill" back in February-ish to the very quiet and somewhat pointless re-release of "Quicksand" a few weeks ago, La Roux totally owned my 2009. Say what you will about the album - Derivative? Absolutely. Shrieky? I guess. Dull? Never! - but from front to back the album is perfection.
It could have gone the opposite way. As fantastic as "In For The Kill" is - and it is really, really fucking fantastic - it screamed: "Possible One Trick Pony! Approach With Caution!" Follow up "Bulletproof" was the right second proper single in every way - similar enough to retain the fans you got the first time around but also different enough to show some versatility and an absolutely killer pop song to top it all off.
The album knows exactly where to go and when. The first side is single after single after should be single, hitting you constantly with synthpop perfection. The second side reveals a heart beating under all that machinery - "Cover My Eyes" is heart-wrenching, "Fascination" is the stalker side of you that you don't want to admit is there but you know is, "As If By Magic" is pure denial and "Armour Love" is the painful realization that maybe you were wrong. The only misstep - and it is a small one - is bonus track "Growing Pains" which is merely not as good as the 11 songs that come before it. [Why is it a bonus track anyways - I've yet to find an edition of the album that doesn't have it.]
Add to that the stunning artwork throughout the campaign and the ridiculous extra formats - shaped picture discs! one-sided etched 7"s! - to keep the collectors happy and you've got the whole package. Well played.
I think it's safe to say now that it's not going to get better with further listens.
I will go on record saying I hate 'Dark Days / Light Years' by Super Furry Animals. It makes me impossibly sad to say - well, type - that, but it's true. What a steaming pile of a record.
It is a sad day indeed.
On the other hand, I do not hate the new studio recordings of Jane's Addiction's "Whores" and "Chip Away". Ho-ly shit are things things fucking a-mazing. Get yourself over to the Jane's Addiction website to get yourself a free copy, because good lord they're fucking ridiculous. They're part of a sampler that also contains two Nine Inch Nails and two Street Sweeper tracks, but really who the fuck cares? Jane's Addiction rockin' 2009 like they never went anywhere - who saw that coming?
I love nice surprises...and after a pretty crappy winter, I could use a few.
This one tops the list though. You'll probably remember me gushing about how amazing Lorraine - and specifically their single "When I Return To The World" - are/were/will always be/whatever. [Joe, I will always be in your debt for this one.] So then they up and disappeared, right? Or so you thought...
Apparently they reappeared last fall as Black Room with the never released Lorraine album 'Pop Noir' ready to go. It is out in Japan - because, you know, all the best pop is HUGE in Japan even when no one else loves them, see also Gloss - and on iTunes in other parts of the world. Including the US.
It's basically the "Heaven", "I Feel It", "Saved" and "When I Return To The World" singles with five or six new songs - "I Feel It" appears to have been re-recorded - but whatever. It's fucking ace and you should go buy it right now. There's also a Japanese only 7" - how elite - with "Confetti" as the b-side [that marks the third time it has been used as a b-side for those keeping track]. And "Italian Girlfriend" is apparently a Japan-only b-side, but you've already got it on the "I Feel It" single, right? It's on iTunes as well, so no worries.
Anyways. Go to their myspace for previews since there's pretty much nothing on Youtube. Potential album of the year material here.
As a general rule, very little gets me as excited as a new SFA album. So yesterday being the digital release date of album 9 'Dark Days/Light Years' was overall a pretty good day. I had troubles connecting to the site in the afternoon when it first became available, however by the evening things had calmed down and I was able to log in and grab it.
First thought: the artwork is less of a collaboration between Pete Fowler and Keiichi Tanaami and more the shoving together of the artwork for 'Phantom Power' and 'Hey Venus!'. Very lazy and disappointing.
Second thought: the album is not very good. At all. Teaser single "Inaugural Trams" was decent - not their strongest, but a step up lead single wise from "Show Your Hand" I'd say - but it is sadly the best thing on here. The rest is either SFA-ish but really underwhelming ["White Socks/Flip Flops", "Inconvenience"], a good idea executed poorly ["Cardiff In The Sun", "Mt.", "The Very Best of Neil Diamond"], or really just shit ["Crazy Naked Girls" is so fucking awful I'm shocked].
I suppose a bad SFA album was bound to happen eventually.
