The actual music sounds almost nothing like Slowdive or Cocteau Twins. I can see the comparison between her voice and Elizabeth Frazer and sure, you can complain that her voice isn't as great as the latter's, but whose is? I obviously don't hear Bjork in her voice, but the danceable weirdness definitely reminds me a lot more of Bjork's 90s work than any of the bands you mentioned.Quoting Pop Trash (view post)
I think you'll really dig Mount Eerie given your love for ambient and noise-driven atmospheric music. If you do, check out his last album Wind's Poem. It has more of a black metal influence (very loose of course) and a fantastic song build around music from Twin Peaks. Not sure what you'll think of Lamps, but hope you enjoy them!
It's only grown on me as the year goes on, but I can see tiring of it eventually as it's not exactly the deepest music out there. And to be fair, #10-4 were essentially ordered based on my most recent listens a week or two ago. The top 3, and especially my #1, were a noticeable leap ahead in my esteem.
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I have you in part to thank for turning me onto Lamps, at least via RYM. It was a great find near the end of the year. I'll have to check out their last album.
Completely agree. Ocean Roar doesn't stack up to Clear Moon on its own, but it's a wonderful companion piece.
Also, thanks for reading/following guys. This is still basically a self-serving exercise I do for myself, but it makes it a lot either to stick with it when someone's paying attention.
Won't get to the last 2 'til tomorrow, but they're coming up soon.
While we're waiting for Derek's final picks, lets take a moment to feel the flow of Orinoco:
[youtube]LTrk4X9ACtw[/youtube]
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
Or what will most likely end up on the short list of best covers of 2013: "Orinoco Dick"
I have no hate for Enya. I listened to her more often than I'd care to admit while studying during my undergrad...and getting stoned in my early 20s.
Me neither. My post was 70% sincere and only 30% ironic.
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
2
Grizzly Bear - Shields
Much has been made of Grizzly Bear’s egalitarian approach to music-making, but before Shields, there was always at least a slightly different feel to an Ed Droste song than one written by Daniel Rossen. Even on Yellow House, still my favorite record of theirs, you can hear a single, unique voice behind “Plans“ and “Knife“ and while it never was at the detriment of the song or album as a whole, there’s something very pleasing in Shields that signifies Grizzly Bears full maturity and crystallization as a band. Every track not only plays to and highlights their strengths – vocal harmonizing, haunting melodies, surprising key changes, intricate, interlocking riffs – but seems to employ those strengths, and those of each member, consistently. There’s no “Two Weeks” to instantly reach out and grab you, but Shields is an album that rewards patience. Neither as densely atmospheric as Yellow House or as catchy as Veckatimest, it nonetheless boasts the bands most complicated and successful songwriting to date with every song taking unexpected turns to both darker and sunnier places, often shedding a particular tempo or tone for another midway through a song. Yet Grizzly Bear are still making pop music, albeit highbrow and complex pop music, so they are careful walk the line between creative/adventurous and sheer inaccessibility and the result is an album that cements their status as one of the best bands working today bar-none.
Favorite Tracks:
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1
Swans - The Seer
So the Mayans were wrong and the world didn’t end in 2012, but for all the fire-and-brimstone folk just pining for an apocalypse, Swans was kind enough to pack one neatly into a 2-hour double album that is effectively the sonic equivalent of the universe dying and coming into being again. The Seer is epic, but it is so much more than that – it is a great revolutionary yawp into the vast abyss of the universe, a primal, visceral, raw, almost tribal expression of intense fury, biblical in proportions, yet preached less in words than through the loudest, noisiest guitars Michael Gira could squander and bells and drums struck with such thunderous force that the earth shudders beneath us making people scatter in fear. Seeing Swans live for the first time last year was an eye-opening experience, not only for the pure pleasure of seeing them on stage together reimagining these fantastic songs, but for the sheer volume at which they perform. If you thought Dinosaur Jr. was loud live, and my god they are, Swans make them sound like a coffee shop folk act by comparison, but this volume is an important part of their act and their albums, particularly The Seer whose droning repetitions often have a trancelike effect that is intensified by paralyzing loudness. This music isn’t just overwhelming; it’s downright rattling and there’s nary a song on here that won’t rattle you to your core, but the 30-minute title track and two other 20-minute tracks, “The Apostate” and “A Piece of the Sky” each have more raw power and emotional heft than most other whole albums released this year. And while this is a countdown, thus signifying my increasing appreciation for each record as the list goes in, #1 was not even close this year. Swans owned it and this album owns me. It’ll be tough to top this for best of the decade let alone 2012, so have your own little apocalypse in your mind and check out The Seer if you haven’t already.
Favorite Tracks:
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The Seer is great.
I'll never listen to Shields.
Last 10 Movies Seen
(90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)
Run (2020) 64
The Whistlers (2019) 55
Pawn (2020) 62
Matilda (1996) 37
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) 61
Moby Dick (2011) 50
Soul (2020) 64
Heroic Duo (2003) 55
A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
As Tears Go By (1988) 65
Stuff at Letterboxd
Listening Habits at LastFM
Both of these statements make me happy.
Lots of good stuff in the top 6. Swans - great. I love the doom. Mount Eerie - entrancing. Grimes - I love the track "Oblivion". It would fit right in on the Drive soundtrack. The Lamps - awesome post-punk-y garage rock. I love the fuzz. The Grizzly Bear and Godspeed are good too.
I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?
lists and reviews
The Seer's great, but I still think Soundtracks for the Blind (or even Swans are Dead) remains their ultimate apocalyptic master statement.
Good list, although like trans, I don't think I'll be giving Shields a listen based on being underwhelmed by all things GB thus far (except for a few stray songs).
This is the first list in a while that left Japandroids in absentia. Also, no Fiona. Not a fan of either, or just not as interested in those as these 30...
I'm kicking myself for ignoring the Swans album whenever Amazon was having sales on it. It does sound beautiful, and reminds me how excellent The Great Annihilator was.
The Boat People - 9
The Power of the Dog - 7.5
The King of Pigs - 7
Well, you're still wrong.I actually find The Great Annihilator to be more apocalyptic than Soundtracks, but no need to split hairs. The point is that Swans rule.
Fuck off.
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I really like both Japandroids albums. I think this one was more consistent than Post-Nothing, but didn't have the highs like "Young Hearts Spark Fire" or "The Boys Are Leaving Town". Solid album (probably would land in the top 50 somewhere), but not quite strong enough to make the list.
I like Fiona, but Idler Wheel felt weirdly like she was trying to emulate Joanna Newsom yet not quite succeeding. I'm certainly in the minority, but I gave it a ridiculous amount of spins for an album I didn't really care for (~10) and it just never work for me. Not a bad album...it's my Bon Iver of 2012 I suppose. "Regret" is one of my favorite tracks of the year, so at least there's that.
"the house that heaven built" is a pretty big fucking high
album is so backloaded though
I'm not a big Cocteau Twins fan but I love that Grimes album.
Almost my favorite of the year.
Edit: Also, I need to keep trying with Swans.
So The Lamps album does indeed make for great work-out music. Love "Pigeon Guided Missile" and "Hawaiian Voters." The musical structures are rather simple, but there's a real heft and vitality to the bass lines, and the cymbal work is great as well. Quality straight-ahead rock.
The Swans album is something that I find needs the right mentality to wade into... "Avatar" is an incredible track, and there's little that can compete with that song's understanding of apocalyptic juxtaposition. I just need more time with it; seems like the very personification of a "grower" album.
What's your thoughts on the Men already having another album ready? Are they leading to diminishing returns, or is each so different from one another that the rate of release is immaterial?
The Boat People - 9
The Power of the Dog - 7.5
The King of Pigs - 7
Glad you dig Lamps and Swans. The latter is certainly one that could be a grower given its epic scope and length. I loved it right off the bat, but I could see it being an album that really strikes you when you're in the right mood for it.
No worries about The Men. They're quick-working band. They put on Open Your Heart only 10 months after Leave Home and that was with the bassist/co-singer leaving the band. It'll be a full 12 months between OYH and the new album. I trust them, even if I'm not all that crazy about the lead single.
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