[PHOTO: Theo Gorst for Clicky Clicky] Vancouver indie rock luminaries Destroyer arrived in London Wednesday for a sold out, one-off show that is likely to be one of their last in support of 2015's excellent album Poison Season. Since the set's release, the consistently evolving now-octet has developed a live set it hardly seems possible to better. This reviewer would be tempted to say this is what 20 years of touring does, but only a foolish man would try to finitely categorize a project that is constantly shifting in form and style. Indeed, the Destroyer that ruled the stage at London's Oval Space this week is markedly different from its initial lo-fi iteration, which was responsible for 1996's We'll Build Them A Golden Bridge. Mercurial mastermind Dan Bejar writes lyrics awash in irony, contradiction and potent symbolism, and at turns Wednesday evening he appeared to embody all of these.
Like the songs themselves, Mr. Bejar's performance is both louche and pained. On "Song For America," a standout tune from Destroyer's tremendous 2011 collection Kaputt, the band locked into a gently propulsive groove as the fronter sang to the assembled Londoners, "I wrote a song for America, they told me it was clever, who knew." As he ended the line, Bejar swept his arm across the stage with the flare of a classic rock 'n' roll showman, a gesture further emphasizing the brilliant irony of the line. The theatrical turn was immediately juxtaposed by his next move: kneeling and obscuring himself from most of the crowd.
SImilarly, throughout the evening Bejar conducted himself as a self-conscious performer given to bouts of showmanship. The occasional extroversion was occasionally physical, but predominantly vocal, as he chose to pack the bulk of his theatrical impulses into his words. During "Savage Night At The Opera," he was almost spitting them out, while still savoring their grandiosity: "Let's face it, old swords like us have been born to die, it's not a war till someone loses an eye." When he led the crowd to the song's climax, singing "drop the loop and then go wild," the band took over as a buccaneering guitar solo accelerated above tranquil keys. Better still was Bejar's muttered "aw shit here comes the sun," during a thumping rendition of "Dream Lover." As the trumpet rose to crescendo upon crescendo, Bejar muttered and then yelped the line. His appearance was as de rigueur indie rocker –- skinny jeans and a loose fitted shirt –- but he sounded like a matinee idol worn down by serial nights of excess. When the band glided through "Girl On A Sling," it felt as though Bejar should have worn a bow tie and double-breasted blazer. The song's extended intro permitted the flautist and trumpeter to display magnificent musicianship, and their notes were looped and distorted through various effects creating a soundscape that mutated from ambient to glitchy while remaining captivating and bold.
The performance of "Chinatown" established a hazy, midnight ambience, a feeling accentuated by lazily strummed acoustic guitar and lonely-sounding saxophone. Elsewhere, the confession "listen, I've been drinking" during "Bay of Pigs (Detail)" felt illuminating; it fit perfectly with the band's smokey-bar-at-midnight aesthetic but also spoke to Bejar's stage persona: a reluctant performer propelled by occasional spells of Dutch courage. While the band often luxuriated in glorious melancholy, it also elevated moments to the point of celebration, exploding into joyous peaks with dueling trumpet and saxophone. Such was the case on first song of the encore, "Painter In Your Pocket," as well as "European Oils." These older songs fit seamlessly within a set that otherwise drew predominantly from Poison Season and Kaputt. Given Bejar's bent for experimentation, it will be fascinating to see where the band's next album takes them. Wherever that may be, assuredly it will only add the mystique the songwriter has created for himself both on record and on stage. -- Theo Gorst
And here we are at the end of 2011. If you had told us a year ago that the things which transpired this year were coming, we would not have believed you. While for much of the year, and much to our frustration, music had to take a back seat to real life, that only increased its importance to this writer. Cross-country flights soundtracked by Broken Shoulder. Getting up to speed mornings listening to Rival Schools. Quiet weekends with J Mascis, summer vacation with Algernon Cadwallader and The War On Drugs, doing dishes with the The Henry Clay People. And when we could, we saw shows that kept us smiling long after they were over, not the least of which was the seismic bill we co-presented in late October featuring The Hush Now, Soccermom and Chandeliers. We even found time to draft major pieces on favorite acts Haywood (here) and Johnny Foreigner (here). But largely constraints on our time and tons of stress often meant quality over quantity when it came to the blogging life; fortunately in 2011 there was no shortage of exceptional music to keep us sane. Below are our favorite 10 records of the year. We are very excited for what 2012 will bring, even if it only brings a little more time to catch up on everything we didn't have time for in 2011. Thanks for reading. Stick with us, there's a lot more Clicky Clicky where this came from.
1. Johnny Foreigner -- Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything -- Alcopop!
Now that it's here, it's hard not to feel like everything was leading up to it, from the band's very first single in 2007 onward. Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything is a fully DIY proposition that is remarkable in its vivid realization -- especially considering the small amount of money involved in creating it. It's also a defiant statement from a band that has fought for everything it has got, including its continued existence. As fronter Alexei Berrow told us here in October, "It feels like there are a lot of people waiting to be like 'O Johnny Foreigner fucked up, inevitable, how predictable.' Vs. Everything is us making these possibly imaginary folks eat their stupid words." And, man, the record delivers the fire and hope, the desperate melodies and sublime sentiments. If you haven't already, make sure you hear the best record of 2011.
[review / buy / Spotify]
2. Benjamin Shaw -- There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet -- Audio Antihero
While this list of favorite records for the most part illustrates which albums we listened to most in the last 360 or so days, it also speaks loudly about what we value in the music we spend our time with. Benjamin Shaw's There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet is perhaps the best example of what we value most: an artist with a singular personality, a unique vision or world view that is ably and creatively captured in the stereo field. Mr. Shaw's chamber pop showcases a charming dourness and humor, cloaked within deftly arranged guitar, piano, strings and ambient curiosities. His vocal delivery is remarkably personal, and the resulting collection here is as cozy as it is ghostly. Each song presents soft and sharp elements, like a bag full of knitting, while making sure that there are as many melodic hooks as there are noisy cul-de-sacs. It's enchanting, and it is easily one of the best of the year.
[preview / buy / Spotify]
3. Age Rings -- Black Honey -- Midriff Records
The one that almost got away, Black Honey was shelved for more than a year during its difficult gestation. Somehow band fronter Ted Billings was able to gather up inspiration that had sifted through his fingers and complete the collection, some four years on from its inception. It's a marvelous, rootsy rock record with a vast arsenal of hooks supporting Mr. Billings' raw, heart-on-sleeve sentiments and wry sense of humor. Black Honey is a thrilling collection, from the bombastic openers "Rock and Roll Is Dead" and "Black Hole" to the haunting closer "Caught Up In The Sound." It was a real feather in local dynamo Midriff Records' cap to be able to put it out, and it feels like a gift every time we listen to it.
[review / buy / Spotify]
4. Destroyer -- Kaputt -- Merge Records
Oh, how we loved this one from the very first time we put it on, perhaps the most obvious sign that even before we climbed all the way up the umbilical noose of '80s MTV, we were immersed irretrievably in early '80s commercial radio. It bothers us that Kaputt is viewed by many as tongue-in-cheek (the video for the album's title track didn't help matters), as we genuinely love the recycled soft-rock sounds and "Miami Vice"-cool found on the record just about as much as all the "critically compliant" Brotherhood vibes. Of course, embossing Destroyer auteur Dan Bejar's characteristic witover top of Kaputt's confections makes it that much more irresistable. Every song on the record is a hit, and it is at the top of mind every time we sit down to put on a record. Another Bejar coup.
[buy / Spotify]
5. The War On Drugs -- Slave Ambient -- Secretly Canadian
We listened to this for hours and hours in the middle of a hot summer, and it reminded us of the boiling South Philadelphia summers of our mid-20s. The city's unbroken mesh of hot brick rowhouses, each one its own oven, windows thrown open to the constant street noise, noise that buzzes like the constant aural din that underpins Slave Ambient. A din, we'd argue, that is like a dialect unique to Philadelphians. We long for our days in that city often, and in a way Drugs fronter Adam Granduciel has given us the gift of hearing a piece of our history again amid his hypnotic, mesmerizing creation. Slave Ambient's icy coctail of Philly FM radio and motorik reverie gets better every time we indulge it. Each time we put the collection on we nudge the volume knob northward to sit back and bathe in a Bartowski-esque Intersect of musical data points, freejacking decades of Petty, U2, the Dead and on and on and on and on...
[review / buy / Spotify]
6. Algernon Cadwallader -- Parrot Flies -- Hot Green/BSM
More Philly, people. This time it's fist-banging anthems, lightning in a bottle, youthful vigor. Few things make us wish we were young again, but Parrot Flies is one of them. Somewhere in all the caterwauling and rocking out, there is a well-spring of positive vibes so potent that it not only has the ability to brighten our days now, but also to inspire in us the strange belief that we could go back and enjoy by-gone days more if only we had had Parrot Flies on one side of a C-90 stuffed in the dashboard tape player. Emo the way it was meant to be written and performed by dudes who do it themselves, from recording to touring to releasing their record. To steal a line from Stars, "when there's nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire." Algernon Cadwallader live it, and Parrot Flies is so much delicious proof.
[review / buy / Spotify]
7. The Hush Now -- Memos -- Self-Released
They did it. The Hush Now's third record is a triumph of melody, of songwriting, of will. For years the band has been slugging it out in Boston, turning in increasingly dominating live sets, and finally, with Memos, the band released a recording that matched in execution the passion and energy characteristic of their visceralperformances. And beyond Memos just sounding good and feeling good, it touts the best set of songs the quintet has turned out yet, from the jaw-dropping ballad "Sitting On A Slow Clock" (which featured on our year-end songs list here) to the scorching guitar pop anthems that the band has made its stock-in-trade, Memos delivers, and we can't imagine the overground won't come calling for these guys soon enough.
[review / buy / Spotify]
8. Ringo Deathstarr -- Colour Trip -- Sonic Unyon
It took four years to get it, but we can't say it wasn't worth the wait. On the tail of an increasingly convoluted string of singles and EPs (different collections in the USA, UK and Japan with different configurations of songs, something of a collector's nightmare), Austin-based noise pop behemoths Ringo Deathstarr finally issued a debut full-length. It's an arresting amalgamation of shoegaze, punk and even dance-pop, and it's awesome. The trio is having better luck in other markets (it just toured supporting Smashing Pumpkins abroad and had a few dates in Japan with Johnny Foreigner), but Colour Trip gained some significant traction for The Deathstarr here. And we ask you, what's not to like? The record is a perfect calling card for the band's power, style and attitude, and listeners that write the band off as a My Bloody Valentine clone are both missing the point and just not listening.
[review / buy / Spotify]
9. Soccer Mom -- You Are Not Going To Heaven -- 100m
...the power and the glory, forever and ever, amen. You Are Not Going To Heaven is an exhilarating collection, from the Sonic Youth-styled buzzsaw of "(A) Natural History" to the blackout bludgeoning of the final 30 seconds of "Southern Bells." All six songs here are dynamite. Perhaps the only thing more exhilarating is experiencing the quartet's firestorm live. We honestly feel bad for any band that has to follow these guys on a bill, because after The 'Mom levels the crowd with its blissful and desperate noise (via Dan Parlin's mad-dog death-grip head shake, the steady cool of guitarist Bill Scales and bassist Danielle Deveau, and drummer Justin Kehoe's octopus arms), that show's over, man. It's just over ("...grab your stuff and go and nobody goes to jail..."). This EP is huge, and we can't wait for the next batch of recordings. Boston's next big thing keeping getting better, if not nextier.
[preview / buy / Spotify]
10. Los Campesinos! -- Hello Sadness -- Arts & Crafts
In some way it is difficult to believe that the band that issued the scruffy Sticking Fingers Into Sockets EP in 2007 is the same act that crafted Hello Sadness. But there are a lot easy retorts to that sentiment, too, namely, well, it's just not the same band. The amount of living Tom, Gareth and the rest of Los Campesinos! have crammed into the last five years -- even if measured only by the 75 songs in our ITunes, you know, "band living" -- is quite astonishing. Hello Sadness is so emotionally broad and deep it is like the world's oceans, once you're in the water, it's just water going on forever, amazing songs like "To Tundra" and "Hate For The Island" so breath-taking there's no swimming across. There is a theoretic line between pop and art and this record is perhaps most remarkable for making that theoretic line so wide as one can not be pulled apart from the other at all. Amazing songs, amazing lyrics, so purposefully rendered.
[preview / buy / Spotify]
[*We accidentally deleted this post from late December; here it is in all of its glory once more. -- Ed.]
Well, rock fans, it was a really strange year, one in which we personally and professionally -- and, yes, even to a certain extent here on the blog -- accomplished a great many big things. And all the ups and downs -- transcendent live sets on local stages, solitary post-midnight walks across frozen parking lots in the midwest -- had their soundtrack. Below are our picks for the 10 best songs of the year. These, as usual, are largely determined by our raw ITunes playcounts, although we also gave a little more weight to recent releases that would have been otherwise penalized by coming along later in the year. The list, most of all, is a chance to point to standout songs, regardless of whether the records they are sourced from garnered a slot on our year-end albums list, which we hope to publish before 2011 is gone.
There is an almost complete Spotify playlist of all the tracks that you can access right here; we say almost complete because for whatever reason Spotify doesn't have or won't recognize The Hush Now's wonderful 2011 set Memos. In the few instances possible, we've augmented our copy with embeddable streams, as well, which among other things affords you the opportunity to listen to a nice live recording of Ringo Deathstarr's superlative dream-pop ode "Kaleidoscope." We're already looking forward to big things in 2012. Thanks for reading,and keep an eye out for our aforementioned year-end albums list -- as well as a list or two from Mr. Piantigini -- in the coming days.
1. Johnny Foreigner -- "You vs. Everything" -- Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything
[listen at Spotify]
We struggled over the decision to make this song our song of the year, as opposed to "Alternate Timelines Piling Up." And what it came down to is that while "Alternate Timelines..." is stunningly beautiful and sad, "You vs. Everything" is a self-empowerment song. It's up-tempo. And we need all the adrenaline we can muster these days. Johnny Foreigner is no stranger to anthems, but here the band has finally gone ahead and pointedly created a break-neck paced, fist-banging anthem for you and me. It's one highlight from their year-topping third full-length Johnny Foreigner vs. Everything, which we reviewed last month right here.
2. Rival Schools -- "The Ghost Is Out There" -- Pedals
[listen at Spotify]
Our love for the chorus of this song is boundless. The melody, the ease with which fronter Walter Schreifels looses the syllables from his lips with his immeasurably emotive (tired/sad/happy/wistful/learned/heartbroken) and scratchy voice, the lyrics: it all kills us every time. Remarkably evocative, and yet we haven't any real idea as to what this song is about. But that is a sure sign of excellent songcraft -- the emotion and melody are extremely potent even if the intent is equally as fuzzy. Sing with us, now: "floating in spaaaaaace, the ghost is out there, so you're not alone." We didn't review Rival Schools' 2011 record Pedals, but it kept us company on a lot of cold winter mornings in a far-off place early this year.
3. Benjamin Shaw -- "Home" -- There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet
[listen at Spotify]
There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet will be lucky if it garners footnotes in the year-end lists of the wider, music-writing masses. But the fact is that as soon as we heard the record we sort of felt like someone had handed us a suitcase stuffed with a massive amount of unmarked bills. Or kittens. Well, ghost kittens. With bloody fur around their mouths. Dressed up as tiny little brides and grooms, top hats and veils, little holes for the tails, the whole bit. But anyway, Benjamin Shaw's record is a massive achievement, one that offers a singular but remarkably whole and detailed world view. That is no more apparent than during this epic song. We've seen other writers discussing Mr. Shaw's record that seem to suggest that the rich sonic appointments get in the way of the presentation, of, presumably, Shaw's voice and acoustic guitar. We vehemently disagree. The production on Cabernet is magically vivid and balanced and perfect, as "Home" perhaps best exemplifies.
4. Los Campesinos! -- "Hate For The Island" -- Hello Sadness
[listen at Spotify]
Gareth Campesinos! continues to decry when necessary the application by misinformed writers of the label "twee" to his band's music. Perhaps if he could get everyone to listen to "Hate For The Island" as many times as we have, he can save his breath and go back to tweeting about football and dames. The song is perhaps the most convincing argument that can be made to support the idea that while Los Campesinos! clearly began it's career as scrappy indie poppers, the band's present and future is more cerebral. This song is almost art rock, and the artfulness with which it is made speaks volumes about the massive talent that is propelling the
collective into a band middle-age that seems more promising with each new record.
The show-stopper from the band's best-of-2011 album isn't a big guitar anthem -- well, there are those, too -- but this bar room ballad, the definitive live version of which the band delivered to open its triumphant tour homecoming show in October. We've written for years about The Hush Now, and have seen them at least a dozen times live, but the band was still able to surprise us with this heart-string tugger. When the horn solo gently nudges itself in the door, it reveals a heretofore unrevealed facet of the band. Fronter Noel Kelly, who provides the horn solo here, probably can't rival Chet Baker on brass, but certainly the vocal performance on "Sitting On A Slow Clock" is worthy of the classic Chet Baker Sings. We reviewed Memoshere in September.
Another of noise-pop phenoms Ringo Deathstarr's perfect pop songs, in the mould of its early gems "Sweet Girl" and "Your Town." As the band broadens its pallet to incorporate more dynamic, electronic rhythms and bassist Alex Gehring's vocal contributions become more prominent, it is nice to hear that fronter Elliot Frazer is still willing and able to return to this creative well, apparently at will. Slowly spiraling guitar chords, yearning vocals, simple but unbeatable melodies. "Have you seen her, she's a kaleidoscope...?" Perfection. Check out this awesome live version from last summer. We reviewed Colour Triphere in May.
7. Age Rings -- "Caught Up In The Sound" -- Black Honey
[listen at Spotify]
Sadness and beauty and inevitability, this song's packed with all three and sheds chunks of all of them as its spring-loaded trudging drives the tune from behind a curtain at stage left, across the spotlit center stage, only to disappear behind the curtain at stage right, like a four-minute Beckett play. From its recursive opening lyric to the gently twirling backing vocal that carries it out, "Caught Up In The Sound" is a breathtakingly vivid, down-in-the-mouth love song. As we observed in our review, the song is the perfect closing track to the Midriff re-release of Age Rings' Black Honey, which we reviewed here in October.
We were really afraid this record was going to get hated on by the wider critical populace of the Internerds, as we'd seen (and heard, on the Sound Opinions podcast) some express distaste for the latest collection from Dan Bejar's Destroyer. Not because we need to have our love for this validated -- the relative anonymity of certain of our selections are certainly a testament to that. But as we were saying to the Koomdogg during a forthcoming episode of the CompCon podcast, we just found it hard to believe that a songwriter known to be a shapeshifter (in the same vein as our hero Kurt Heasley of Lilys) was going to be penalized for making a record that many would prefer to pigeonhole derisively as "soft rock." Our pal Bill from Soccer Mom actually has a great genre identifier for the smooth sounds of Kaputt -- "errand rock" -- which references the music his mom played in the car during his suburban upbringing. We totally get that. But we also think that there is a sufficient amount of New Order present in Kaputt along with the other smooth sounds to satisfy even the snootiest indie rocker. Either way, the collection is wonderful, and its dreamy chorus immediately wormed its way into our head and has never left. "Sounds, Smash Hits, Melody Maker, NME, all sound like a dream to me..."
All of this song is wonderful, and, indeed, all of Parrot Flies is wonderful. But this song has a moment, a huge, huge moment, that makes it the defining song Algernon Cadwallader's sophomore set. It's when the singer is shouting -- and he's always desperately shouting -- something like "and there's nothing bittersweet about that, and now something, something something something THE CHINATOWN BUS something something something" etc. Having never taken the Chinatown bus, we don't know why we find the reference so evocative, but we do. Something about the freedom to make mistakes, the freedom of being young and unencumbered by Life's Big Things. Something about joy, which is something that pervades not only this song, but the whole of Parrot Flies. We reviewed the record here in August.
10. The Henry Clay People -- "The Honey Love He Sells" -- This Is A Desert EP
[listen at Spotify]
This is a pretty damn excellent song, life-affirming in its outrageous pacing and punchy delivery. But what perhaps makes this so invigorating, such a breath of fresh air, is that we swear mere months before this EP came out, The Henry Clay People announced something like a hiatus from music. And as we quipped elsewhere, we're glad the hiatus didn't "take," because this song is a barnburner.
[The New Pornographers at House of Blues, Boston, MA; Friday, June 18, 2010. Photo by Ric Dube]
When a band piles on as many tracks on a record as the New Pornographers and wants to recreate the records on stage they'll have to pile the musicians on stage proportionally, so it should surprise nobody that up to nine Pornographers took the stage at a time at this show. What are they, E.L.-fucking-O.? I don't want to sound like one of those people who shits all over a band just because they're very popular because they were actually great, but there's something a little creepy about an act that puts this much effort into limiting their live sound to what happened on their records.
The statement that kind of a performance makes is that their recordings are as much a part of the composition as any other part. And that is just as well because this was clearly what the audience who showed up for this show came to hear anyway, who I would put into three weirdly diverse groups: guys in blazers who learned of the band from 30-second clips of songs heard in a profile on NPR; rock geeks who collect both all of their b-sides as well as comic books; and the most interesting fan segment, hoards of teenagers who leaped and danced as the band began each carefully reproduced LP cut. This was arena rock and the audience loved it.
The set represented the act's complete catalog, drawn heavily from the first half of each album, as if frontman Carl Newman is well aware that these are the tracks that fans gravitate toward before a New Pornographers records begins to sound all samey: Sing Me Spanish Techno, Up in the Dark, Myriad Harbour, Use It, Crash Years, Adventures in Solitude, Jackie Dressed in Cobras, All the Old Showstoppers, Sweet Talk Sweet Talk, Go Places, Jackie, Moves, Your Hands, Twin Cinema, My Shepherd, The Laws Have Changed, Silver Jenny Dollar, Mass Romantic, Bleeding Heart Show, Challengers, Slow Descent Into Alcoholism, Testament to Youth in Verse.
Vocalist Neko Case threatened to beat the shit out of an audience member who threw a CD on stage; sideman Daniel Bejar fulfilled his expected role by wandering around like a charmingly eccentric vagrant, pausing occasionally to thumb a guitar with his back to the audience; and a Dixie riddle cup of Jack Daniels costs 8-fucking-50 at the goddamn House of Blues, where Karen commented it's like seeing a show at TGIFridays.
Seattle-based the Dutchess and the Duke opened the show with extremely pleasant melodic folk rock, followed by San Francisco's the Dodos, who were also great and sounded like they probably come across even better on record. -Ric Dube
The span of years roughly book-ended by the launches of Napster and Spotify -- a decade during which many perpetually proclaimed the album format dead -- was crammed with crates and crates and crates and crates of compelling music. And why wouldn't it be? Ones and zeroes do not obviate humanity's innate need to rock. But that is a subject for another day. Today, as part of Deckfight's ongoing Albums Of The Decade Blog Tour, we force ourselves to choose the 10 best of the last 10 years. For weeks we've debated how to weigh the best versus the most representative versus the most influential and so on. It's difficult stuff to parse, but we think ultimately what it came down to was giving respect where respect was due for songcraft, innovation and gusto. While we offer our picks for 10 best records below, we are not ranking them, as simply making the cut is the honor here. What is below is listed alphabetically.
No matter whether you are gauging by songcraft or innovation, The Books deserve recognition for writing some of the most amusing, compelling and beautiful compositions of the decade. In particular we find Lost And Safe's closer "Twelve Fold Chain" incredibly moving. Here's a digested version of what we said in our review May 10, 2005:
Even on this, their third album, The Books sound like they've got secrets to tell. But the most solid clues they offer on Lost And Safe are fragments of dreams, stream-of-consciousness queries and allusions to spiritual questing. An intricate mix of serene vocals, spoken word samples, understated clattering percussion, guitar and cello, the duo's music is enchanting and hypnotic. "A Little Longing Goes Away" opens the record with soft vocals swathed in reverse reverb, making lines like "our minds are empty / like we're too young to know to smile" sound like prayer.
All musical elements are expertly but gently balanced like a series of birds on a wire. Although not overtly apparent, the band's lyrics, in addition to being spiritually inquisitive, can be quite funny. This is most apparent during the act's current live show, during which video accompaniment emphasizes the graduate school-level word play that characterizes songs like "Smells Like Content" and "An Animated Description of Mr. Maps." No matter the context or what you call it, The Books are in relatively uncharted territory with bountiful potential in every direction. Although Lost And Safe would be a crowning achievement for any band, The Books show no sign of running out of beautiful musical ideas to convey.
We didn't review this record upon its release (or ever). As with songwriter Dan Bejar's finest efforts, the record is self-referential, inscrutable, beautiful and biting. Destroyer's Rubies in particular seems like a record ripe for academic examination. But no matter how layered or diffracted the narratives, the songs themselves are hook-filled, generously melodic and wholly rewarding. Bejar's smarter-than-you lyrics, singular vocal delivery, and attention to production detail make all of his records great -- Destroyer's Rubies is exceptional. What else is there to say? We recently saw Bejar perform solo in Boston, and for much of the performance we were thinking how we wished he was performing with a full band. But even performing solo with a weather red acoustic under spare spotlights the songs were completely arresting.
This list is not really about success stories, but The Hold Steady's sophomore set certainly qualifies as one, and -- of course -- one of the biggest of the decade. The burgeoning blogosphere was alight with praise when this was issued, and although our first inclination was to ignore the band because of the bountiful praise from seemingly every corner (we're contrarian like that), we were an embarrasingly ready convert when we finally stopped to listen to Separation Sunday. And what's not to like? As Mr. Kumar states, The Hold Steady is like Jim Carroll fronting Thin Lizzy playing Bruce Springsteen songs. Like the aforementioned Mr. Bejar, Hold Steady fronter Craig Finn is an amazing lyricist and he crafts on this record an amazing, conceptual collection that follows the rise and fall and rise again of certain gutter-frequenting, drug-gobbling drifters. Mr. Finn and his cohort take these losers and wring from them incredible tales of spine-tingling desperation and redemption. Also, there's a whole hell of a lot of rock music on this record, including the highlights "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" and "Stevie Nix." Ground-breaking? No. Awesome? Yes.
Did you think a guy who co-operates the Johnny Foreigner fan site Keeping Some Dark Secrets wasn't going to pick a Johnny Foreigner record for his list? There are so many reasons why this record is awesome, front to back, but here is just one: on the rare mornings where we walk to the subway, ride the subway, and then walk to our office, it takes exactly one run through the entire record to get us from door to desk. Wonderful. Here's a digested version of our review from Sept. 28, 2009:
Grace And The Bigger Picture is pointedly heartfelt, jubilantly aggressive, road-weary and resigned all at once. The record is populated with wistful ideals of home ("we'll throw parties in the yard") and amazing letdowns ("all we have is miles and wires and all I am is calls tomorrow"), but there are also wonderfully carefree moments, as in the almost blindingly brief "Kingston Called, They Want Their Lost Youth Back." [The record] is painstakingly crafted, deeply layered, and hangs together as a collection more firmly than even its ambitious predecessor. The narratives sparkle like dizzying mosaics comprised of thousands of digital snapshots. Themes appear and re-appear, e.g. the clarion call "some summers!" in "Feels Like Summer" resurfaces in "The Coast Was Always Clear;" "More Heart, Less Tongue" is transmogrified into "More Tongue, Less Heart;" the breakdown to "Custom Scenes And The Parties That Make Them" even repurposes the breakdown from the band's break-out single "Eyes Wide Terrified;" and keen ears seem to hear the familiar cry of "Amateur! Historian! shouted in the closing moments of the squalling anthem "Dark Harbourzz." But even more impressive than the whole are the parts, as there is a remarkable compositional cleverness in certain of the songs that points to an ever sharpening songcraft among Berrow and company. This is no more apparent than within the almost linear, structure-flouting gem "Custom Scenes And The Parties That Make Them." Best Before Records releases the record 26 Oct. in the U.K.
After it had exhausted a Superchunk fixation, a record label and Athens, Georgia, and before its late embrace of a rootsier sound enamored a major rock critic or two, this always-at-the-brink-of-destruction collective created this wondrous, sweet full-length. A slapdash concoction of literate, lo-fi balladry and everyman indie rock channeled through three songwriters is remarkable perhaps mostly because, like the band itself, We're All In This Alone somehow manages to hang together. All at the same time the proceedings sound like the end of the '90s, point toward the ascendency of the band's adopted hometown of Brooklyn and presage a decade that once more embraced folk rock. It's a weird record, but it's a fantastic record, held aloft by great songs including the devastating "I Hope That You Remember To Forget." Of course, The Mendoza Line did not survive this decade, but part of the magic of We're All In This Alone is that the record sounds like a band with a world of possibilities in front of it, which was fairly accurate in the year 2000.
With the ascendancy of the related, more psych-leaning project Woods, and with silence from the band going on uninterrupted, we are starting to believe we may have seen the last of our beloved Meneguar. Which is a shame because the Brooklyn-based quartet's brand of desperate, shouty, smart and guitar-driven indie rock pushes all the right buttons for us, and we see no American successor really taking up the banner for the style. I Was Born At Night, so good it was issued twice, is seven anthems brimming with brawling attitude, splendid guitar interplay and heavy dynamics pounding home hooks galore. And it all comes down to the "The Temp," a fist-banging shouter about dead-end employment (or something -- who knows?) with a killer chorus that out-Slack Motherfuckers Superchunk's renowned "Slack Motherfucker." We recall that at one point Troubleman Unlimited had posted the MP3 for "The Temp" as a promo track, so here it is in all of its glory. Actually, this is the mix from the original Magic Bullet release -- retro!
Meneguar -- "The Temp" - I Was Born At Night
[right click and save as]
When we mentioned innovation supra, The Books weren't even the first band to come to mind. Instead we thought of The Notwist, and how in the wake of this landmark release that melded laptop electropop and indie guitar music suddenly, for at least a year, every one tried to replicate the Weilheim, Germany-based quartet's sound. Only by watching the amazing "On | Off The Record" DVD does one develop an appreciation for just how difficult an undertaking such replication would be (the opening seconds of the album were incredibly difficult, actually impossible, to perform), which is why -- despite seemingly providing the formula for an aesthetic perpetuated by labels like Morr Music for years afterwards -- so few acts came close to The Notwist. Even more amazing? The band's astonishing, dub-injected, Wii-dazzled live show, which we caught for the second time a year ago, makes Neon Golden and it's excellent successor The Devil, You & Me seem pale in comparison. But at the warm, digitally-pulsing heart of Neon Golden are 10 incredible, catchy songs delivered in Markus Acher's emotive deadpan murmur.
Flawless, every song, from a songwriting and a production standpoint. Endlessly listenable. As we said here in our Best Records of 2007 wrap-up:
We listened to this record over and over and over: in the car; in the office; in the kitchen. It's exceptional. Taut, glistening pop-rock, touches of spacey, warts-and-all production, and hooks galore. The songs all flow with an ease, an internal logic that is so finite that each tune seems representative of what indie rock is, at its core. If (when?) space aliens come to the United States asking about indie rock, perhaps the most obvious example to hand them is Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.
Digested from our review posted Feb. 10, 2008 right here:
Portland, Ore.-based A Weather's beautiful full-length debut has a persistent but slippery allure. Populated almost entirely with murmured bedroom ballads driven by brushed drums, guitar and electric piano, the set somehow succeeds in not repeating the same tricks over and over again.
Is there a voyeuristic attraction inherent in pretty songs delivered in hushed tones simultaneously by male and female singers? Or is there something universal -- an inverse of voyeurism, in a way -- conveyed by these intimate, poignant tracks that make them so arresting. What we are certain of is that sping-tingling moments are frequent on Cove: when the ride cymbal pulses louder and louder during "Shirley Road Shirley" as fronter Aaron Gerber and drummer Sarah Winchester desperately assure "I swear, you won't even know I'm there;" when the duo stingingly confesses during "Oh My Stars" that "sometimes it's hard thinking about how the plans we make won't happen;" when the pair utters during "Spiders, Snakes" the unfathomably sweet sentiment (for those of us of a certain age, anyway) "I want to have you again, listening to Bedhead."
10. Yo La Tengo -- And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out -- Matador (2000) Yo La Tengo: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr | Buy
When your band puts out what is arguably the best record of 1997, what is the likelihood that only three years later it will release one of the best, if not THE best, records of 2000? This doubt is why we were quite ready for Yo La Tengo's And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out to be a disappointment. But it was nothing of the sort. Opening with the Mogwai-toned spook droner "Everyday" and closing with the 17-minute spectral masterpiece "Night Falls On Hoboken," the record provides easy exuses for lapsing into over-the-top praise. This is simply a perfect record, and we'd argue it is downright better than the admittedly fine records that the trio has released since. In addition to the droners we already named, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out also carried the sugary, caffeinated rocker "Cherry Chapstick," the marvelously affecting ballad "Tears Are In Your Eyes" and some bossa-tinted toe-tappers "Let's Save Tony Orlando's House" and "You Can Have It All." For the rest of the decade Yo La Tengo delved into murky sounds, garage rock and shiny pop, but when we think of the band, we think of And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out.
All of Friday night clicked together very neatly for us when Iran fronter Aaron Aites mentioned that he had written the song "I Already Know You're Wrong," a highlight of the Brooklyn-based quartet's supporting set, with Peter Hoffman. This name might not mean that much to you unless, like us, you are a very big fan of the late, lamented The Mendoza Line, which in its heyday was fronted by Mr. Hoffman, Timothy Bracy and Shannon McArdle. According to Wikipedia, which we all know to be completely infallible, apparently Hoffman was once a full-fledged member of Iran, as was TV On The Radio's Kyp Malone. This latter fact, Mr. Malone's membership, was the only thing we knew about Iran before we took in the set Friday night; he was not with the band Friday night.
After Mr. Aites mentioned Hoffman, he tossed off a casual comment about Hoffman having played with Mendoza Line, and that Mendoza Line's Tim Bracy had been playing with opening act Wooden Wand. This was complete news to us, and we certainly would have detached ourselves from the bar at the front of the building to see Wooden Wand had we known there was a possibility Bracy was performing. So we're almost lacing this together -- the final salient fact is that Mr. Bracy was/is a partner in Misra Records, which released some earlier Destroyer records. See how it all ties together? It would seem that the bill last night was all strung together through that Misra connection, even though Iran's records are released on Narnack, Destroyer is now on Merge and Wooden Wand is, we think, on Young God.
So the show... our only familiarity with Iran was a promo track that circulated the Internerds sometime last year, and frankly we weren't that crazy about it. So when we wandered in to catch the Iran set it was mostly to see whether Mr. Malone was still with the combo and whether any of Iran's other material grabbed us. The answer to the former question, as we already stated, was no. But Iran's other material definitely did grab us, even more so than the recorded stuff, which we've since purchased from EMusic. The musicianship was admirable as well: the rhythm section was dynamic and punchy, and Mr. Aites presentation and delivery made us think of Steve Earle a little bit. He just stands there and sings, a bit like Joe Cocker, sans animation, but Aites' voice is heavy like lead. Good stuff. We found Iran's guitarist's handlebar mustache amusing, but were on the wrong side of the hall to really see what he was up to.
As we noted supra, Destroyer's Dan Bejar -- worshiped a little too much by the self-consciously loquacious younger fans standing around us, we thought -- came out under the spots sporting only a red Guild acoustic, his voice, a couple Stella Artois bottles and what might have been a heavily poured dram of liquor in a plastic cup. Or it could have been tea with honey. That wouldn't surprise us. Anyway, despite the completely minimal set-up, Bejar was arresting to watch and listen to. We've read one or two interviews where Bejar talks about how it is not just the turns of phrase, but how he turns those phrases with his mouth, that interests him. The combination of the two is what he's built his career on, and we certainly admire both. There are honestly few lyrical geniuses, and Bejar is one of them, and the fact that he's matched them to gripping songs is all the more amazing. We were very pleased with the solemn iteration of "Foam Hands," and Destroyer offered numerous other hits for the cardigan set, including "European Oils," "Painter In Your Pocket," "Watercolours Into The Ocean," "Farrar, Strauss & Giroux" and "This Night."
Destroyer -- "Foam Hands" -- Trouble In Dreams [right click and save as] buy Destroyer records from Newbury Comics right here
The Mendoza Line -- "What Ever Happened To You?" -- Sent Down To AA [right click and save as] buy Mendoza Line records from Newbury Comics right here
It was a lot more work than we anticipated getting this list together, but fortunately we've been hammering away at it for about a month. Even so we didn't finalize our picks until Friday, which led to some extra writing, but so it goes. Along the way we deepened our relationship with and appreciation for these 10 records, which in our humble opinion represent the best that 2008 had to offer. We hope you'll find some things here that had escaped your attention heretofore, and that you derive as much enjoyment from listening to them as we do. For those who are curious, here are links to some of our prior annual lists [2007, 2006, 2005, 2002]. Thanks for reading Clicky Clicky in 2008.
1. Johnny Foreigner -- Waited Up Til It Was Light -- Best Before/Nettwerk
If you thought we were going to rave about Waited Up Til It Was Light all year and then not name it our favorite album, well, you were wrong. But if it makes you feel better, we were wrong, too. A year ago we declared that Johnny Foreigner's Arcs Across The City EP was the new gold standard in indie rock, and that choice now smacks of being obviously premature, as the band's monstrous full-length debut eclipses it on every level. It shudders with adolescent confusion and crackles with stumbling euphoria, one bottle of gin too many and guitars potted way, way up. There's feedback and in-jokes and sweat and disappointment. As we quipped in June, Waited Up Til It Was Light "is thronged with careening guitar anthems, its 13 tracks shot through with typewriter ribbon-lengths of lyrics that collectively present a contemporary mythology of the band's beloved city." The set will have spawned four singles by the time the double a-sided "DJs Get Doubts" b/w "Lea Room" streets Jan. 12 in the UK. Johnny Foreigner reportedly begin recording a follow-up, and we hope that at this time next year Alexei, Kelly and Junior Foreigner have us once again amending our assessment of what the gold standard is in indie rock. [review][listen]
2. A Weather -- Cove -- Team Love
In a perfect world, A Weather's understated yet confident debut would launch a thousand indie rock vessels, each one charting a course to illuminate new, obscure and quiet frontiers of a slowcore revival. But as this record seems to have been the most slept-on of all our 2008 picks, this is quite unlikely. One of the revelations of Cove -- which we named the first big surprise of 2008 back in February -- is that the set is filled with love songs, but not necessarily heartache. Yet there is still remarkable tension and mystery that courses through the nine tracks. Quoting again from our review, "[t]he band's beautiful full-length debut has a persistent but slippery allure. Populated almost entirely with murmured bedroom ballads driven by brushed drums, guitar and electric piano, the set somehow succeeds in not repeating the same tricks over and over again." [review][listen]
3. Frightened Rabbit -- The Midnight Organ Fight -- Fat Cat
Last spring we spoke briefly -- albeit loudly, above the rock club din -- with Frightened Rabbit fronter Scott Hutchison about the growing distance between the songs on this collection and the events they reflect. Certain of the songs on The Midnight Organ Fight were about five years old at the time and reflected events growing increasingly smaller in Frightened Rabbit's rearview. Which makes the tunes' emotional impact -- particularly when performed during one of the quartet's usually incendiary live sets -- all the more impressive. But the live spectacle aside, The Midnight Organ Fight is still a remarkable collection of songs, as lush and atmospheric as Sing The Greys was stark and in-your-face. We pegged the band's "Extrasupervery" as indicative of the potential for Disintegration-esque genius, so we are eager to hear what comes next from the lads. [review][listen]
4. The Notwist -- The Devil, You + Me -- Domino
Germany's The Notwist had been absent so long prior to the release of The Devil, You + Me -- as we remarked here in our review of the wonderful DVD "The Notwist On|Off The Record" two years ago -- that we were afraid the indie rock world might not take them back, and even more afraid that the band might not want to come back. Finally The Notwist broke its (near) silence with the promo track "Good Lies." The song raised hopes for a stellar album and the band delivered with a set as subtle and beautifully orchestrated as Neon Golden. And while the material is exceptional, it is hard to ignore that The Notwist also gave a wholly stunning performance when it appeared at The Roxy in Boston in October. "The band was alternately mesmerizing and astonishing, depending on whether it was locking into a heavy, digitally augmented groove or blasting through a crescendo of guitars," to quote our review. Compared to Neon Golden, The Devil, You + Me is a more reserved affair, reflecting perhaps the changes of life (fatherhood and the like) that the members of The Notwist have experienced in recent years. Even so, their songwriting chops and imaginations have not subsided in the least, and we're hopeful that it won't be another five years before its next record. [live review][listen]
5. Destroyer -- Trouble In Dreams -- Merge
We recall reading comments from Destroyer mastermind Dan Bejar sometime during the year in which he states that Trouble In Dreams was a difficult, meaning we think inscrutable, record for fans, particularly compared to the prior set, Destroyer's Rubies. For the record, we think both collections are stellar, and we question just how "difficult" the music is. Musically, things are fairly straightforward on every Destroyer record we've heard (which is damn near all of them -- Damon Che Mr. Bejar is not), so we have to presume Bejar is referring to his lyrics. These are often impressionistic, deeply layered, and, of course, when coming out of Bejar's mouth are often the true highlight of Destroyer's recordings. Trouble In Dreams is no exception, and with some of the year's most winning melodies, the record easily made our list. [listen]
6. Julie Ocean -- Long Gone And Nearly There -- Transit Of Venus
Long Gone And Nearly There now seems a prescient album title for this upbeat collection of irresistable indie pop confections from an already broken-up quartet fronted by the cable newser best known for having himself tasered on television. How could it not be among our favorite records of the year? The collection captures 10 tunes touting broad, bright melodies delivered with an irresistible guitar-jangle and fizz. From a historical standpoint, Long Gone And Nearly There is a distillation of several strands of the D.C. underground, the apparent mean value of Velocity Girl, Glo-Worm and Swiz. And while the band's demise seems to neatly underscore the ephemeral nature of perfect pop, the band's borrowing from '60s AM sounds limns Long Gone And Nearly There with a classic pop sense that makes it stand out among contemporary indie releases. [review][listen]
Julie Ocean -- "Here Comes Danny" -- Long Gone And Nearly There [right click and save as] [buy Long Gone And Nearly There from Transit Of Venus here]
7. The War On Drugs -- Wagonwheel Blues -- Secretly Canadian
A beguiling set that offers jaunty singles candidates ("Arms Like Boulders," "Taking The Farm"), lo-fi balladry ("Barrel Of Batteries") and kaleidoscopic drone ("Show Me The Coast") is a special record indeed. The more we listen to it, the more we are convinced that band fronter Adam Granduciel is at the cusp of the sort of acclaim that follows Destroyer's Dan Bejar. There is a frank poeticism in his nasal proclamations buried within stoned repetitions that accumulate like sediment into enticing songs that succeed wonderfully at going nowhere. Wagonwheel Blues will make converts of us all; this video of a live set drives home the greatness of the band. [listen]
8. Love Is All -- A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night -- What's Your Rupture?
This was a late-year surprise. Our old housemate Tony B championed the Gothenburg, Sweden-based quintet and its boxy recordings early on, which got us turned on to the single for "Make Out Fall Out Make Up." And while we've listened to the band's 2005 set 9 Times That Same Song maybe a dozen times, we were taken by surprise by how much more A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night resonated with us. The set -- shrouded like its precursor in almost obfuscating amounts of slap-back reverb -- contains a perfect, grooving blend of dancey rock that sounds like a bizarre marriage of The Cramps and Haircut 100 fronted by a roughly rendered facsimile of Cyndi Lauper. "Give It Back" is a relentless torrent of hooks and energy, and the rest of the set follows suit. [listen]
9. Superman Revenge Squad -- This Is My Own Personal Way Of Dealing With It All -- My Best Unbeaten Brother
Ben Parker, sole proprietor of the acoustic enterprise Superman Revenge Squad, was the subject of the only feature interview we did in 2008, a reflection of the esteem in which we hold this very gifted songwriter based in Croydon, England. From a lyrical standpoint no one can touch him, not only in terms of sheer volume (the man is loquacious in song) but also in his ability to express discontent in colorful ways (we love the line "the sun's too hot and there's nothing on the telly" from the digital single "Idiot Food"). His music -- whether it is harrowingly urgent, morose and emotional or tongue-in-cheek and geeky -- transmits as deeply personal, despite the fact that often when Parker sounds like he is baring his soul he is actually making an obscure pop culture reference. This Is My Own Way Of Dealing With It All is filled with escape fantasies, dark resignation and still darker humor. And it is brilliant. We're posting the lead track below. [interview][listen]
Superman Revenge Squad -- "Idiot Food" -- This Is My Own Personal Way Of Dealing With It All [right click and save as] [buy the record from Superman Revenge Squad right here]
10. The Swimmers -- Fighting Trees -- Mad Dragon
We suppose it is a toss-up as to whether this was more slept-on than the A Weather record, although the label Team Love has more brand recognition than the Drexel University-backed Mad Dragon imprint. Philadelphia's Swimmers had been treading water for quite a while as we waited for its debut to finally see release, but it finally delivered in a big way. Echoing first-wave Wilco and scene precursors The Bigger Lovers, Fighting Trees' rootsy, upbeat attack and hooks aplenty made this a constant go-to record for us this year. While "Pocket Full Of Gold" made our list of top songs of the year last week, the entire record is filled with eager winners, not the least of which is the piano-driven homage to Lancaster, PA "Heaven." Daytrotter recently posted a session featuring a few tracks from Fighting Trees from which we are posting a fantastic take on "St. Cecilia" below. [review][listen]
The Swimmers -- "St. Cecilia" -- Daytrotter Session [right click and save as] [download the whole session right here] [buy Fighting Trees from Amazon here]
We humbly submit our list of 10 favorite tracks of the year. The typical caveats apply, mainly that an individual band could only chart once, no matter how awesome it may be. Meaning, for example, that despite three Johnny Foreigner songs being among our 10 most-listened-to tracks of 2008, only one is able to make the cut below. Of course, the tracks in question had to be released this year. And there's really not much else to it. We think these songs are the bee's knees, and we look forward to hearing much more from the bands who recorded them in the future. Our list of top albums of the year largely echoes this list of songs, but there are some notable differences, so be certain check in next Monday to read that one. Thanks for the rock.
1. Johnny Foreigner -- "Absolute Balance" -- Waited Up Til It Was Light Stream it at Last.FM right here.
Bifurcated from the demo "Balance Comma Girl," expanded, stuffed with skyrocketing dynamics and draped with vapor trails of guitar feedback and delay, "Absolute Balance" puts the final (well, almost) exclamation point on Johnny Foreigner's stunning debut Waited Up 'Til It Was Light. The tail end reintroduces a familiar canned beat (it also drives the single "Salt, Peppa and Spinderella") and makes a miraculous ascent into a crescendo in which fronter Alexei Berrow unhinges his soul and lets fly a spine-tingling, entirely inscrutable 20-second rant. Watch the band perform "Absolute Balance" at the tail end of "Yr All Just Jealous Of My Von Dutch Hat" from T In The Park this past July right here at the YouTubes. The band will begin recording its second full length later this month, and intends to tour North America in 2009. We reviewed Waited Up Til It Was Lighthere in June.
2. A Weather -- "Shirley Road Shirley" -- Cove Download "Shirley Road Shirley" [right click and save as] [buy]
The most intimate record of the year was released by the somewhat shadowy -- or at least reserved, perhaps press-shy -- group A Weather out of Portland, who somehow took the narcotic and stoney vibe of slowcore and imbued it with hopeful romance and mystery. Spurred by careful, boxy (and apparently no-footed) drumming and spare guitar, "Shirley Road Shirley" soars into its almost-chorus, the questionable vow "I won't try anything, I swear you won't even know I'm there." We reviewed A Weather's Coveright here in February. Thanks to the band for the permission to post this track.
3. Los Campesinos! -- "Death To Los Campesinos!" -- Hold On Now, Youngster... Stream it at Last.FM right here.
Pepped up and ragged, shouted and layered, the lead track from the Cardiff, Wales septet's first release of 2008 is rife with sly lyrics and enthusiasm to spare. We actually think this song's mix flattens the dynamics a little too much, perhaps in order to make all the instruments audible. The following track, "Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats," is much more explosive -- although it hurts our head to figure out why. But it is the dueling vocals and gang cheers that make "Death To Los Campesinos!" the gang's best track of the year. The fact that its video features a homicidal unicorn is just so much delicious icing on the technicolor cake.
4. The Notwist -- "Gloomy Planets" -- The Devil, You + Me Watch the amazing video with Andromeda Express Orchestra at YouTube right here.
Fuzzier vocals and acoustic guitar would seem to herald a new, ever more reserved direction for the laconic German quartet The Notwist, best known for its 2002 electropop milestone Neon Golden. But halfway through "Gloomy Planets," as the song scales its sole chorus, looping tones overtake the mix, overlay the piano and guitars and build a crescendo that waxes on for almost two full, thrilling minutes. And suddenly, it is like the band's recent history has caught up with it. The Notwist's Oct. show at Boston's Roxy nightclub was among our favorites of the year. Hopefully it will not be another six years before The Notwist releases a new record.
5. Frightened Rabbit -- "Floating In The Forth" -- The Midnight Organ Fight Stream it at Last.FM right here.
We had already considered Frightened Rabbit's Scott Hutchison a master of crafting the devastating lyric prior to the release of The Midnight Organ Fight, but when we reached the tail-end of the record and heard this track buzz up into its bottomlessly sorrowful first line our estimation was affirmed all over again. "So you just stepped out of the front of my house and I'll never see you again." A lot of bloggers have expended a lot of keystrokes talking about the emotional rawness of Frightened Rabbit's overdriven folk-rock, but this track is the only one for us that is almost unlistenable. While The Midnight Organ Fight's relatively glossy production is somewhat at odds with Frightened Rabbit's music -- particularly its high-octane live sets -- every song on the set is dynamite. "Floating In The Forth," with its lush sonic palette, harmonies and dreadful sense of finality, was the biggest surprise of the collection. The band returns to Boston's Great Scott next month. We reviewed The Midnight Organ Fighthere in March.
6. The Raveonettes -- "Dead Sound" -- Lust, Lust, Lust Stream it at Last.FM right here.
A wonderfully realized track that amalgamates spectral (and obviously Spector-al) harmonies, simple urgent programmed rhythm tracks, aggressive white-out guitar fuzz and reverby leads into an aural candy treat.
7. Destroyer -- "Foam Hands" -- Trouble In Dreams Download "Foam Hands" [right click and save as] [buy]
When you stop to think about it, the chorus to this track is ridiculous. But elsewhere band leader Dan Bejar's relatively simple yet typically impressionist lyrics are as evocative as ever. Mr. Bejar's singing is perhaps the most singular of this decade, as it is as convincing when coyly elongating and wearily over-enunciating syllables as it is when the narrator turns against his narrative, and occasionally the listener. Miraculously, "Foam Hands" does a whole lot with fairly little, including boring itself hopelessly deep into your brain, all the while providing Bejar ample opportunity to bend expectations just slightly into a gothic tale of estrangement.
8. The War On Drugs -- "Show Me The Coast" -- Wagonwheel Blues This track isn't available to hear on the Internet for free. Stream a short sample at EMusic here.
Ten minutes of kaleidoscopic, blissful drone could have easily felt like five minutes too many, but something about the arpeggiated swells and Petty-esque declamations spiraling out over an F# seemingly into forever is entrancing. It also inspires the cartoonish feeling that somehow, somewhere this song is always being performed, like the black-and-white footage of an oncoming steam train hidden behind the door in a Bugs Bunny short. The War On Drugs were the best of the many great things that broke out of Philadelphia this year.
9. The Hold Steady -- "Constructive Summer" -- Stay Positive Stream it at Last.FM right here.
The most rocking track from the Brooklyn quintet's 2008 release, which was the only CD we kept in the car in late July. Big guitars. Harmonics. So much possibility. Nothing can go wrong. We have to believe that the lyric concerning water towers references the same found in the alternate versions of The Replacements' "Can't Hardly Wait" packaged with the reissues of Tim and Pleased To Meet Me this year.
10. The Swimmers -- "Pocket Full Of Gold" -- Fighting Trees Download "Pocket Full Of Gold" Recorded live at Chicago's Hideout, March 22, 2008 [right click and save as]
While "Heaven" continues to be the "hit" of the long-awaited debut from this Philadelphia act, at least in terms of the attention bestowed by the Internets (the band recently released this video for the track, as well), "Pocket Full Of Gold" is the most irresistable of the ten tunes on the band's Fighting Trees. Tweedy-esque vocal, the track would have been a good fit on the first Wilco record, before the Chicago act entered its baroque period. We reviewed Fighting Treeshere in March.
