well, because the deadline has come and gone, i am sadly relegated to posting my little list here. enjoy it for the 20hours it is still relevant.
TOP FIVE O' OH FIVE
[1] [bloc party - silent alarm]
what do you say when people ask you “what kind of music do you listen to?”. don’t you hate being painted into a corner like that? if you say indie, you seem like a snob. if you say everything, you seem like you have no personality. and if you say rock….well…what does that even mean anymore? rock is nothing if not a fragmented beast right now, but along comes bloc party to answer the bell. they may not be metal, they’re not very heavy — but one listen and it’s all but assured you’ll nod and recognize real rock as ’silent alarm’ comes along and kicks you in the balls. with one of the best rhythm sections around today, clever writing and raw energy are rampant in every song as everyone tries to keep up with the maniacal machine gun drumming. sure, half the lyrics may be indescipherable, but who cares? did you hear that drum solo? did you shred air guitar with that riff? did you scream your lungs out during that bridge?
yea. that’s what i thought.
[2] [the triangles - magic johnson]
i don’t remember where, but i think somewhere in the guidebook to being an indie music snob it mentions the prerequisites for a great album…..
ah, here it is! “must be pretentious and challenging to listen to, and be ahead of the mainstream sound by at least year. defintions of music shall not necessarily be bogged down by things such as melodies and hooks”. ah, yes. you can tell a true indie-snob by how much they hate pitchfork. anyone who likes pitchfork is SUCH a poseur! anyways, who are the triangles you ask? that’s what i asked when i first heard this album. but boy, that question sure seemed irrelevant quickly. this album is easily the sweetest of the year, with classic male/female dueling vocals that drip of meloncholy yet sugary goodness. drawing from their australian surroundings and ragtag frankensteinian instrumentals (think fellow aussie octet architecture in helsinki), the triangles simply write songs that worm their way into your heart. amazing harmonies and some borrowed riffs from old christian hymns come together to create something not necessarily new — but definitely something gorgeous.
[3] [wolf parade - apologies to the queen mary]
“they sound like modest mouse”. that seems to be the general consensus of anyone i’ve played this album for. and of course, they mean that in the best possible way — after all, modest mouse blew up this year (by indie standards) and even made the cut by joining deathcab and the killers as staples on the OC soundtrack. how quickly our little bands grow up *sniff*. but despite some lilting vocals, perhaps the only other thing modest mouse and wolf parade share are the inate ability to write a perfect melody — and even more impressive, wolf parade boasts two guys who can do it, and take turns doing it over and over on this masterpiece. at first it may sound like another cliched canadian indie-pop/rock album, but further listening reveals an album that works together as a whole, with textures and song-writing that will blow you away. if this is a sign of things to come, wolf parade might just end up being bigger than christmukah. and catchier too.
[4] [why - elephant eyes]
it’s hard these days to find music that isn’t “like so-and-so, but with a mix of yadda-yadda”. music that can be considered original, creative, and yet not so challenging that you want to go put your head in a toilet just from trying to listen to it. Rapper Why has accomplished something that not too many other MC’s can lay claim to — he has crafted a brilliant indie-pop album. is it rap? yea, i guess. is it pop? yes. is it jangly folk-rock? you betcha. so what does it sound like? that much i can’t really describe. and all for the best, because with lyrical gems like “i’m fucking cold like a dq blizzard/you act like a slut but you’re really a freezer” half the beauty of this album is discovering every little detail on your own for the first time.
[5] [common - be]
common has always been like the cool friend that you want to hang around with. you know, the one that you would dress like a carebear for if he did it first. his last album being a bit hit-or-miss, common has come back with a vengence on a wave of cross-genre pop magic conjured up by his fellow chicago mc and collaborator/producer Kanye West. Cuts like “the corner” and “go” are literally instant classics, put together with a concious meticulousness to the art of hip-hop. recalling jazzanova rhythms and 70’s beats, “be” is an album even non-hip hop fans can get into — a classic Kanye trademark. Not to say that Kanye is what makes this album great. But when you add two guys as talented as this together, what you end up with is an album that’s greater than the sum of its parts. and that’s pretty darn tough to top.
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