My Favorite Albums of 2010

[Derek]

22



PS I Love You - Meet Me at the Muster Station

With Wolf Parade's recent notice of an "indefinite hiatus" and a new album that's yet another step down from Apologies to the Queen Mary, PS I Love You's existence just became all that more vital. Though while Paul Saulnier's wavering, idiosyncratic voice is eerily reminiscent of Krug's, the band's muscular guitars have a bit more of a garage punk attitude, less introspective with hard riffs that go right for the jugular and tracks that get in and get out so you can get on with your life. It's a simple formula, but done with such verve and passion that it's ultimately as endearing as it is addictive and Saulnier's personal yet playfully esoteric lyrics add a perfectly light-hearted touch to some pretty rockin' tunes.

Key Tracks:

[youtube]_BdIkVhIitw[/youtube]

[youtube]8_f-IMlwoa4&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]SqszPw1zceE&feature=related[/youtube]

[Duncan]

Was really fortunate to just stumble upon PS I Love You as the openers for another band a couple months ago. Really impressed me live.

[Derek]

Was really fortunate to just stumble upon PS I Love You as the openers for another band a couple months ago. Really impressed me live.

Good to hear! I'll be sure to check them out when they come to town now. Was it just the two of them on stage or did they have someone on bass?

[Derek]

Devastations are pretty good, haven't heard a full album. Snowman's two albums are cool too. They've got a new one out soon as well.

Have you heard Rowland S. Howard? A member of Bad Seeds/Birthday Party; he did a split with Devastations and has two solo albums which are both awesome and as good as anything Cave's done. Died of cancer last year; a very sad loss. From his first one, Teenage Snuff Film

The video doesn't load on this page (try just putting the "Nh8npSl1LUc" between the brackets), but checked it out on youtube and loved it. Will definitely check out that album.

Ditto to Sugar Plant, Davis. Good stuff.

[Idioteque Stalker]

Teebs =

Love that sound (i.e. FlyLo). Thanks.

[SirNewt]

I'm with you on the BSS record. It's honestly as good an album as any they've done. Or at least it has as many good songs on it as either 'Broken Social Scene ' or 'You forgot it in People'. But still it's not hitting high rotation for me. Also I love 'Texico Bitches', even in all it hammyness.

[Duncan]

Good to hear! I'll be sure to check them out when they come to town now. Was it just the two of them on stage or did they have someone on bass?

Just the two of them.

[Derek]

21



Beach Fossils - Beach Fossils

Beach Fossils combination of laid-back surf rock and downtrodden post-punk filtered through an echo chamber is reminiscent of a cloudy day a the beach where time is endless yet nothing seems all that appealing. Sounds great, huh? Honestly, it's not a depressing album at all, but it is fueled by anxiety, heightened by the dissonance between each instrument and the vocals. Yet, there's a somber sweetness underlying every verse it's packed with fantastic hooks that make it weirdly catchy even if it's nothing you'll be humming on the car ride home.

Key Tracks:

[youtube]xKURBmeWOO8[/youtube]

[youtube]yoyTJQk4Les&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]IVqoZ6U2iWw[/youtube]

[Derek]

20



Eluvium - Similes

Eluvium's first two album's, Lambent Material and Talk Amongst the Trees, are among last decades finest ambient albums, offering a wealth of complex, layered soundscapes and wavering radiance. The more straightforward approach he took on 2007's Copia still made for some great stretches of music, but the production beared much less of his personal stamp. With this years Similes, I had my doubts when I heard it would feature his vocals, figuring this would be another step away from textured, languorous ambience. Thankfully, Similes moved precisely back to where I didn't expect it to go, with the low key vocals providing the songs with more structure, but also a deepened sense of mood. Eluvium manages to achieve a sort of melancholy transcendence, never quite overwhelmingly emotional, but always engaging and incredibly atmospheric. It's good to have him back.

Key Tracks:

[youtube]lvAHrrtJgKc[/youtube]

[youtube]VpVzxGtyN6c&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]ytAxOw0zl_s[/youtube]

[Derek]

19



Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky

Metal as a genre is something I don't generally gravitate towards and I'm not even particularly fond of Swans' own 1987 classic, Children of God, so I approached My Father Will Guide Me UP a Rope to the Sky with next to no expectations. From the bells that start the opening track, No Words/No Thoughts, one of the year's best songs, I could tell Swans were onto something different, certainly engaging metal tropes yet doing so within larger scope that incorporates everything from mandolins and acoustic guitar to pianos, bells and, of course, Michael Gira's near-monotone belting, which carries much more weight than the screamy vocals of recent, more highly touted metal albums. Of course, one of the reasons I like the album so much is precisely because it's not a typical metal album, verging on hard rock as often as pure metal, but why Swans hard-rockin' tunes get my blood boiling so much is ultimately a mystery to me.

Key Tracks:

[youtube]ADeOg8qbNMc&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]QHtWvpkMaHo[/youtube]

[youtube]obi1EGDKXY4&feature=related[/youtube]

[D_Davis]

Yes. The new Swans album is awesome. Very, very awesome.

[Derek]

18



Black Milk - Album of the Year

Black Milk's provocative album title certainly pissed some people off, though its coy, dual reference to the events that he went through in 2009, particularly the death of a close friend. The album tackles dark times and themes yet is also playful and arrogant in its darkness - death and sex, sorrow and cockiness are often tightly wound together. With the careful touches of a producer, Milk's shining moments are less lyrical than in the hard beats, particularly a fondness for full drum kits that give a more fully fleshed out sound than most recent hip-hop albums. The occasional kitchen-sink approach to production (guitar, violins, etc. often thrown in the mix) could be criticized if it didn't work far more often than it did. As is, Black Milk's rough-edged follow-up to the more celebrated Tronic has me returning to it more than any other straight hip-hop release this year.

Key Tracks:

[youtube]GHK5iR7OjgA[/youtube]

[youtube]DQzhrlHuJek&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]ZIcHJhdzO3o&feature=related[/youtube]

[Duncan]

Beach Fossils - Beach Fossils

Loving this album. Thanks for the rec.

[Acapelli]

yeah that beach fossils album rules

[Derek]

Loving this album. Thanks for the rec.

yeah that beach fossils album rules

Sweet, glad you guys like it!

[Derek]

17



Yellow Swans - Going Places

Yellow Swans create the kind of cerebral music that latches onto every neuron in your brain, firing synapses that rattle around your head, shaking the core of your being. Going Places is not mood music, as much as a rush of blood to the head that spreads like a prairie fire, enrapturing and all-encompassing. There's no question at the end of the title and once the album starts, you're locked in waiting for the roller coaster to start but unable to escape the growing, pulsating, magical beast that comes alive about halfway through "Opt Out" - a beast that frightens and awes, a tidal wave of noise and ambiance that approaches, promising oblivion yet delivering in slow-motion while you stand on the edge of the beach gazing at the harbinger, thankful that you are able to see something so mesmerizing, waiting for it to wash you clean and remind you of the raw, visceral power music can have.

Key Tracks:

[youtube]dmwyj4DvOO4[/youtube]

[Derek]

16



The Pop Winds - The Turquoise

In parts, The Turquoise is Merriweather Post Pavilion with a sax, but I don't mean that as a complaint. There are sounds and brief stretches that are a whole lot like MPP, but more importantly they sound really good and somehow different and new. The Pop Winds didn't crib from the album or even build off it, but rather take a parallel trajectory that, while it never matches its predecessor, also never tries to simply copy the sound. The Turquoise is more chillwave that outright psychedelic pop, more languorous and smooth, especially with the saxophone, which is so perfectly integrated into their sound that you wonder why we've waited a good two decades to bring it back to pop music after the 80s abuse of it made us never want to hear one outside of jazz ever again. There is nothing particularly groundbreaking in their sound, yet it feels fresh, awash in soothing sounds and beats, yet hooks and great melodies are found in nearly every track. If every day were a lazy Sunday, this might just be the album of the year.

Key Tracks:

"Fools", "The Turquoise", "Met Some New Colors"

The whole album streams here.

[MacGuffin]

The Turquoise sounds great. I'll have to give it a listen.

[MacGuffin]

I only got to hear the first track and parts of the second, but it sounds great so far. You're right: the saxophone is very well-intergrated, much like on Ariel Pink's song "Hot Body Rub". I wish more music had saxophones. I wish more pop music sounded like it was from the late-70s, early-80s.

[D_Davis]

The sax is probably my least favorite instrument. It's just so hard to do it right, and not look and sound douche-bag-cool. I like it in ska, when it's limited to the upbeat, and when it is a baritone sax. I have no time for any sax smaller than a baritone.

Morphine got it right. I'll have to see if I dig it in this Turquoise album.

[MacGuffin]

Do you enjoy jazz music?

[D_Davis]

Do you enjoy jazz music?

Some.

[D_Davis]

But I should add....very, very little. Mainly the more experimental stuff like David Torn and Sextants era Herbie Hancock.

[endingcredits]

The sax is probably my least favorite instrument. It's just so hard to do it right, and not look and sound douche-bag-cool. I like it in ska, when it's limited to the upbeat, and when it is a baritone sax. I have no time for any sax smaller than a baritone.

Morphine got it right. I'll have to see if I dig it in this Turquoise album.

Morphine is one of my all time favs. Have you ever heard Mark Sandman's Sandbox?
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Show Spoiler

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[Derek]

15



Weekend - Sports

I'm as tired as anyone of the recent overflow of lo-fi albums using fuzz, filters and noise to mask shitty to mediocre songwriting, as if shoegaze and noise rock consist simply of two simple layers - one unimaginative and bland melody beneath feedback or drowned in echoes. It's gotten a pass for too long now, but fortunately there are bands like Weekend who come out of nowhere to remind us how to do it right. Something of a problem child birthed by No Age and A Place To Bury Strangers, Weekend come forth with a fully formed aesthetic - noise emanating from great, *gasp* catchy melodies and stretched out vocals that smear into the mess of sound, all backed by wonderfully pulsating bass lines that give Sports the momentum to just keep on going.

Key Tracks:

[youtube]HNNdOPOTndI[/youtube]

[youtube]VJk41jsE_YQ&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]m5Tslp9Gj4Y&feature=related[/youtube]