I feel compelled to write a list of the new albums that I really got into last year.
The Dodos – Visitor
I’ve just been thrashing this album for some reason and can’t wait to see them next Tuesday night at the Northcote Social Club.
Man Man -Rabbit Habits
I saw these guys a few weeks ago at the East Brunswick Hotel. Unfortunately, due to some poor organisation on my part I missed the first 30 minutes of their show but what I saw was awesome. They have an amazing amount of energy.
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
I missed out on tickets to see these guys perform but played this album incessantly since coming across it.
Titus Andronicus -The Airing Of Grievances
Yeah this band’s a bit adolescent and angsty perhaps but I love it and played the hell out of it.
Islands -Arm’s Way
These guys are just brilliant. Perhaps this album is a bit more catchy than ‘Return to the sea’ and not so coherent but a band’s gotta cater for these youngsters with their ipods buying a few songs while old timers like myself are compelled to hear entire albums.
Hot Chip -Made In the Dark
Really catchy stuff – should’ve gone to see them.
Ladytron – Velocifero
This is the way 80s music should have sounded in the 80s. Really brilliant album and another band i’m going to regret not seeing this year.
The Notwist – The Devil, You + Me
Yeah so this was no ‘Neon Golden’. I just think Markus Acher has a great voice and I like their subtle indie-electronica.
Portishead – Third
I never really liked Portishead in the 90s – I thought they were vastly overrated and their music was irritating. This album however is excellent and completely unlike the old stuff.
She & Him – Volume One
Zooey Deschanel is one of the few successful actors that has made the very difficult leap into recorded music. For reasons I don’t understand, people are very unforgiving when actors think they can also make music (regardless of whether music was something they were interested in prior to acting). It is totally unforgivable for an actor to create tedious or awful music (um … Scarlett Johanssen). Fortunately Zooey has a really great voice and M. Ward is a genius so this album is flawless.
Sigur Rós – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
I really wish I saw this band. Life is just so much more exciting with this music as a soundtrack.
TV on the radio – Dear Science
Each of their albums becomes just a little bit more mainstream I suppose but they’ve always been brilliant and too cool for school.
Emiliana Torrini – Me and Armini
I don’t love every song on this album but Gun is my favorite song for the year. She has a really interesting voice that can sing a wide range of completely different musical styles.
The Kills – Midnight Boom
This is my least favorite album from The Kills but still listened to it a lot. The songs were much more radio friendly and less dark than the other albums. It was somewhat of a guilty pleasure.
Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
It’s really interesting this indie-african phenomenon. It brought back some painful memories of Paul Simon’s Graceland album on occasion but I really loved it.
Flight of the Conchords – Flight of the Conchords
Yeah maybe this album is somewhat overwrought but these guys are fucking hilarious. It’s rare to laugh everytime you listen to the lyrics of a comedy song but Bret and Jermaine’s laconic style never seems to lose its appeal.