A top N, in alphabetical order
Settled in the ground of melancholic euphoria, Funeral mixes its influences liberally and fluently, drawing from indie rock, Canadian and Haitian folk music, post rock and all points in between. The album draws you in and propels you along, an experience that doesn't diminish with repeated listens.
The first solo Frank Black album in a long time, this was recorded in Nashville with an assortment of legendary local musicians (including the fabulous Buddy Miller). The first listen was disappointing, frankly. The second listen was better, and the third revealed that the album is fabulous.
So, alright, you could level the whole 'it's just post-punk' bandwagon thing at Bloc Party, but it's not important. What's important is the quality of the songs, their ferocious energy and the wonderfully tight feel the band has. This one was a compulsive listen and re-listen scream-a-long for me.
Caveat emptor: I know some of the band members. That out of the way, please believe me when I say that this album is a real gem. Some of the material is drawn from the cream of the last few years of the Dive Dive (and late Dustball) canon, and the difference between recordings of the material then and now is marked, and a pleasure to hear. As always, the music is their tight mix of noise and melody, taking Frank Black's slow-fast-slow Pixies mantra and extending it along other axes, melody and harmony phasing in and out of the foreground (never absent). The songwriting is great, the lyrics sly, witty, with deceptive depth and not a little well-crafted bile, woven into a musical structure that, um, rocks.
I bought this on the back of a couple of live performances and it took a couple of listens to really get it, but I got it. I've long had a soft spot for pop music of the infectious, crafted variety, and The Magic Numbers have those qualities in quantity, with hooks in spades, multi-part harmonies, arrangements with a clarity that belies their own ability (live, they sound like they do on record, but from the record you'd be forgiven for thinking that they were making liberal use of overdubs and extra tracks).
At first glance, Sufjan Stevens' stated ambition to record an album about every state in the US smacks of someone over-reaching themselves, but two records in to that and it starts to sound like Stevens is onto something. The palette is as broad as ever, but the synthesis of all those textures, emotions, and stories into songs is more sophisticated, and reaches higher, than Stevens ever has before.
Recorded in Chicago with John McEntire from Tortoise, this is Teenage Fanclub distilled to something of their essence, and is all the better for it. Right up there with Songs From Northern Britain.
Front Parlour Ballads was, as you might expect, recorded at home. (Though I'm not sure it was the parlour...) In some ways it's much more restrained than his recent stuff -- it is more stripped down, with fewer personnel, and often just him -- but it's certainly not restrained lyrically. Dark stories of English suburbia are here, as are light-hearted philanderers, old-fashioned urban gangs, kidnap, and love (unrequited, abandoned, and hopeful). His playing is perfectly judged, his writing is superb, and the songs are a delight.
Would've been on the top list if it hadn't been for that rapping at the end there.
Double album collection of B-sides and live tracks with some absolute corkers tucked in there.
I like this more and more. I may regret not including it in the top N.
Double-plus good for making a Christmas album that isn't a plate of warmed up turd.
Very nice indeed.
I love The Cardigans. A lot. (I'm serious.)
I've got the Stay In The Shade EP which has his superlative cover of Kylie's Hand On Your Heart on. Veneer contains the cover of The Knife's Heartbeats, which has been used in a TV ad (for TVs, oh how meta) and will hopefully make him oodles of cash.
It's Over The Rhine, need I say more. (Apart from saying how bad I am not to have bought it already)
I saw them at Truck this summer, I have an earlier album and this evidence would suggest that the new album would be mighty indeed.
I saw him last year on the same bill as the London Sinfonietta and Squarepusher and he was astonishing. An amazing soul voice, plus a twisted experimental streak, plus technical chops.