2006 Part 2
Back to business. I'm going to cheat and do two number 5's. If you don't like it get your own blog asshole!
5A. Asobi Seksu - Citrus
"Asobi Seksu" is Japanese for playful sex. The lead singer is an oriental babe, the album art is gorgeous, and they play energetic shoe-gaze. Recipe for infatuation. From the time Citrus gets going to the time it winds down, it's pure bliss, noisy and fun, the sort of thing that would be the soundtrack to flying through the clouds over a city on a sunny day. You know, if you could fly. Lead singer Yuki Chikudate belts her echo slathered vocals over glorious choruses of noisy guitars, banging bass lines, and slamming drum lines. It seems like it should add up to be too much to be so poppy and fun, but it works extremely well. I'm so glad someone out there still believes in shoe-gaze, and the bonus is it's these guys, and they do it really fucking well. Put your tongue up to the battery and let the music be your power. Who knows, maybe you really can fly?
Asobi Seksu - Strawberries
5B. Mission of Burma - The Obliterati
When I saw these guys this summer at Pitchfork, I was only a casual fan, mostly because I was kind of intimidated by the lore surrounding the band. That and I figured no way a punk band that broke up in 1983 could really pull off a comeback worthy of paying attention to. But when those old mother fuckers got on stage everything changed, because they absolutely tore through their set, playing louder and harder than any of the bands of dudes half their age. I promptly revisted The Obliterati, and it kicked me in the teeth with it's pure badassity. That's a word. The first two songs absolutely destroy, and the album never lets up, combining balls to the walls punk-rock with just enough hooks to get you addicted, there is no doubt these guys are the torch bearers of punk-rock, and punk will stay alive as long as they do. If they don't stop rocking so fucking hard I can't imagine the genre has much time left, which is a pretty twisted conundrum.
Mission of Burma - 2wice
4. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - The Letting Go
Will Oldham, the "Prince", is one of the most elegant, mystifying, intriguing song-writers in the world. His music is all over the place, sometimes telling immensely personal tales, other times being extremely detached. The Letting Go stands up with anything else in his arsenal of albums, and is probably the most beautiful thing that came out this year. Fantastic songwriting, strong arrangements, incredible vocal harmonies from Dawn McCarthy, and some of the most tasteful use of strings I've heard in a long time make this album a real pleasure to listen to. The vocals sound better than ever, and Will's delivery is still disjointing and endearing. Songs like "Cursed Sleep" are simply so good I feel privileged to be allowed to listen to them. This album is also a lot more uplifting than his other material, one gets a sense that the man is reveling in love instead of wallowing in self-hatred, the album seems, somewhat ironically I guess, to be more about holding on than letting go. I'll never let you go Bonnie.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Cursed Sleep
3. The Hold Steady - Boys & Girls in America
The Hold Steady quickly became my favorite band leading up to this album, which has been a source of great annoyance for my roommates. I've never heard another band who embodies my infatuation with rock & roll so completely, the music is huge guitar riffs, sex, drugs, conflict, black outs, nitrous tanks, crosses, and liquor. On the surface they may seem like a big dumb rock band who never should have been let out of the bars, but Craig Finn is extremely literate, and one hell of a story teller. Boys & Girls is a step in a different direction for the band, but they still rock heavily and love getting fucked up. The difference here is there is no veiled irony behind these stories, Finn is taking an earnest, sincere look at being a teenager and dealing with all the confusion and hormones that come with it. The album takes it's title from Jack Kerouac's "On The Road", quoth the author and the singer both, "boys and girls in America have such a sad time together." Finn expounds on this theme throughout the album, saying "I feel Jesus in the tenderness of young and awkward lovers", and it's so good to hear someone acknowledge the beauty of those moments that felt so right yet so wrong growing up. Don't feel guilty about falling in love with something so juvenile, we were all there once, and although the Finn's characters are probably a bit out of control compared to what you were, we can all relate to doing stupid shit like drinking at homecoming or making a pipe out of a Pringles can and still being conflicted about defying discarded religion. God, I wish I had this album when I was in high school.
The Hold Steady - Stuck Between Stations
2. Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye
Okay so I've been dreading trying to write about this album for awhile now, because I honestly don't really understand why I love it so much. Sure, there are infectious melodies, silky vocals, and incredibly unobtrusive use of electronics throughout, but the second best album of the year? All I can say is that this album is fantastic for its versatility, cohesion, and soul. I find that most electronic albums are only suitable in certain situations and typically my interest in them fades fast, but this is an album that uses electronics as a medium to convey its songs, instead of changing the songs to fit the medium. The whole thing is so sexy I can hardly stand it. This is electro-pop for people who have grown out of The Postal Service, songs that sound nostalgic, longing, tired but full of life. And you can't mess with the synth line in the bridge of "In The Morning".
Junior Boys - The Equalizer
1. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
I remember with great fondness the night of February 24th. I returned to my dorm room after an evening of recreational drug use to discover the highly anticipated new album from TV on the Radio had leaked out of nowhere. I proceeded to play it as loud as possible, and half way through the very first track, which at the time was "Wolf Like Me", I had already kicked over my chair and already declared it album of the year. Ten months later I stand by that assessment.
It's hard to know where to start talking about an album like this, bursting with brilliance from every angle. It's an album of sound, and as familiarity with it grows, soul. I can't think of another album that does so much to make Brian Wilson and Kevin Shields proud at the same time. The album wastes no time, blowing minds from the masterful opening track, as layers and layers of otherworldly sounds slowly come together to create a crushing wall of blissful noise, while never losing it's huge rhythm and melody which holds it all together. But this album isn't all function and no heart, and that is maybe what really takes it from being a really good album to being a truly great album. History shows few examples of albums that do something truly innovative and still manage to be emotive and enjoyable, but Cookie Mountain does so extremely well. "Province" is a track that walks both lines, balancing a glittering piano lines and an endearing melody with sharply distorted guitars, brilliantly placed electronic frills, and oh yeah, guest vocals from David Bowie. And of course, the awesomeness of "Wolf Like Me" cannot be overstated, hands down the song of the year for anyone who enjoys rocking out, science fiction, and dirty sex.
Meanwhile, much of the brilliance of the second half of the album gets lost in the immediacy of the first half, but this really is a consistent album for people who want to hear a band willing to take risks. I was struck by the power of a lot of the songs in the latter portion of the album the other night when I nearly drove my moms car off the rode screaming, "NOTHING LEFT TO DO BUT STOMP MY FEET AND SHOUT ABOUT IT!" In fact, that very moment is probably the climax of the whole album, at the apex of the swaggering, throbbing, social critique of "Blues From Down Here". I've come to realize the beauty of this album is that while it may be rare for the whole thing to hit at once, there are always things that are going to grab you by the balls and show you what all that howl really is for. Return to Cookie Mountain truly is an epic album. Dark, dense, and demanding, it's the best album of the year, if not for its capability to provide unparalleled levels of bliss, then for its sheer scope and magnitude. Nothing touches it this year, so find the best set of speakers you can, and submit yourself to the hype.
TV on the Radio - Blues From Down Here
5A. Asobi Seksu - Citrus
"Asobi Seksu" is Japanese for playful sex. The lead singer is an oriental babe, the album art is gorgeous, and they play energetic shoe-gaze. Recipe for infatuation. From the time Citrus gets going to the time it winds down, it's pure bliss, noisy and fun, the sort of thing that would be the soundtrack to flying through the clouds over a city on a sunny day. You know, if you could fly. Lead singer Yuki Chikudate belts her echo slathered vocals over glorious choruses of noisy guitars, banging bass lines, and slamming drum lines. It seems like it should add up to be too much to be so poppy and fun, but it works extremely well. I'm so glad someone out there still believes in shoe-gaze, and the bonus is it's these guys, and they do it really fucking well. Put your tongue up to the battery and let the music be your power. Who knows, maybe you really can fly?
Asobi Seksu - Strawberries
5B. Mission of Burma - The Obliterati
When I saw these guys this summer at Pitchfork, I was only a casual fan, mostly because I was kind of intimidated by the lore surrounding the band. That and I figured no way a punk band that broke up in 1983 could really pull off a comeback worthy of paying attention to. But when those old mother fuckers got on stage everything changed, because they absolutely tore through their set, playing louder and harder than any of the bands of dudes half their age. I promptly revisted The Obliterati, and it kicked me in the teeth with it's pure badassity. That's a word. The first two songs absolutely destroy, and the album never lets up, combining balls to the walls punk-rock with just enough hooks to get you addicted, there is no doubt these guys are the torch bearers of punk-rock, and punk will stay alive as long as they do. If they don't stop rocking so fucking hard I can't imagine the genre has much time left, which is a pretty twisted conundrum.
Mission of Burma - 2wice
4. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - The Letting Go
Will Oldham, the "Prince", is one of the most elegant, mystifying, intriguing song-writers in the world. His music is all over the place, sometimes telling immensely personal tales, other times being extremely detached. The Letting Go stands up with anything else in his arsenal of albums, and is probably the most beautiful thing that came out this year. Fantastic songwriting, strong arrangements, incredible vocal harmonies from Dawn McCarthy, and some of the most tasteful use of strings I've heard in a long time make this album a real pleasure to listen to. The vocals sound better than ever, and Will's delivery is still disjointing and endearing. Songs like "Cursed Sleep" are simply so good I feel privileged to be allowed to listen to them. This album is also a lot more uplifting than his other material, one gets a sense that the man is reveling in love instead of wallowing in self-hatred, the album seems, somewhat ironically I guess, to be more about holding on than letting go. I'll never let you go Bonnie.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Cursed Sleep
3. The Hold Steady - Boys & Girls in America
The Hold Steady quickly became my favorite band leading up to this album, which has been a source of great annoyance for my roommates. I've never heard another band who embodies my infatuation with rock & roll so completely, the music is huge guitar riffs, sex, drugs, conflict, black outs, nitrous tanks, crosses, and liquor. On the surface they may seem like a big dumb rock band who never should have been let out of the bars, but Craig Finn is extremely literate, and one hell of a story teller. Boys & Girls is a step in a different direction for the band, but they still rock heavily and love getting fucked up. The difference here is there is no veiled irony behind these stories, Finn is taking an earnest, sincere look at being a teenager and dealing with all the confusion and hormones that come with it. The album takes it's title from Jack Kerouac's "On The Road", quoth the author and the singer both, "boys and girls in America have such a sad time together." Finn expounds on this theme throughout the album, saying "I feel Jesus in the tenderness of young and awkward lovers", and it's so good to hear someone acknowledge the beauty of those moments that felt so right yet so wrong growing up. Don't feel guilty about falling in love with something so juvenile, we were all there once, and although the Finn's characters are probably a bit out of control compared to what you were, we can all relate to doing stupid shit like drinking at homecoming or making a pipe out of a Pringles can and still being conflicted about defying discarded religion. God, I wish I had this album when I was in high school.
The Hold Steady - Stuck Between Stations
2. Junior Boys - So This Is Goodbye
Okay so I've been dreading trying to write about this album for awhile now, because I honestly don't really understand why I love it so much. Sure, there are infectious melodies, silky vocals, and incredibly unobtrusive use of electronics throughout, but the second best album of the year? All I can say is that this album is fantastic for its versatility, cohesion, and soul. I find that most electronic albums are only suitable in certain situations and typically my interest in them fades fast, but this is an album that uses electronics as a medium to convey its songs, instead of changing the songs to fit the medium. The whole thing is so sexy I can hardly stand it. This is electro-pop for people who have grown out of The Postal Service, songs that sound nostalgic, longing, tired but full of life. And you can't mess with the synth line in the bridge of "In The Morning".
Junior Boys - The Equalizer
1. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
I remember with great fondness the night of February 24th. I returned to my dorm room after an evening of recreational drug use to discover the highly anticipated new album from TV on the Radio had leaked out of nowhere. I proceeded to play it as loud as possible, and half way through the very first track, which at the time was "Wolf Like Me", I had already kicked over my chair and already declared it album of the year. Ten months later I stand by that assessment.
It's hard to know where to start talking about an album like this, bursting with brilliance from every angle. It's an album of sound, and as familiarity with it grows, soul. I can't think of another album that does so much to make Brian Wilson and Kevin Shields proud at the same time. The album wastes no time, blowing minds from the masterful opening track, as layers and layers of otherworldly sounds slowly come together to create a crushing wall of blissful noise, while never losing it's huge rhythm and melody which holds it all together. But this album isn't all function and no heart, and that is maybe what really takes it from being a really good album to being a truly great album. History shows few examples of albums that do something truly innovative and still manage to be emotive and enjoyable, but Cookie Mountain does so extremely well. "Province" is a track that walks both lines, balancing a glittering piano lines and an endearing melody with sharply distorted guitars, brilliantly placed electronic frills, and oh yeah, guest vocals from David Bowie. And of course, the awesomeness of "Wolf Like Me" cannot be overstated, hands down the song of the year for anyone who enjoys rocking out, science fiction, and dirty sex.
Meanwhile, much of the brilliance of the second half of the album gets lost in the immediacy of the first half, but this really is a consistent album for people who want to hear a band willing to take risks. I was struck by the power of a lot of the songs in the latter portion of the album the other night when I nearly drove my moms car off the rode screaming, "NOTHING LEFT TO DO BUT STOMP MY FEET AND SHOUT ABOUT IT!" In fact, that very moment is probably the climax of the whole album, at the apex of the swaggering, throbbing, social critique of "Blues From Down Here". I've come to realize the beauty of this album is that while it may be rare for the whole thing to hit at once, there are always things that are going to grab you by the balls and show you what all that howl really is for. Return to Cookie Mountain truly is an epic album. Dark, dense, and demanding, it's the best album of the year, if not for its capability to provide unparalleled levels of bliss, then for its sheer scope and magnitude. Nothing touches it this year, so find the best set of speakers you can, and submit yourself to the hype.
TV on the Radio - Blues From Down Here
posted by Kyle Funk at 3:15 PM
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