I’m going to start with my favourite records of the year. This is by no means a Top 10 (especially since there’s 11 of them), nor is it a “Best of 2009” list. There’s no way I could have listened to every album that’s come out this year (and I know for a fact there are some I should listen to but just haven’t given them a chance yet), and I don’t want to rank any of these albums to say they are better than any others. They’re ALL awesome. :) No, this is just a list of albums and eps released this year that I have loved and played to death presented in whatever order I remembered them. I’ve spent the whole year ranting about these bands to anyone who would listen so here we go one last time.
Cursive – Mama, I’m SwollenI fell in love with Cursive back at their 2003 album The Ugly Organ. I know by now that every album has its own style but on first listen to Mama, I'm Swollen I found myself wondering whether they’d finally moved in a direction away from where I wanted to follow. But I felt the same when I first listened to Happy Hollow (2006), so I knew I needed to push on. The best albums only reveal themselves on repeated listens and there’s no doubt this is one of them. Within a week I loved it and if pushed, I would put this as my pick for album of the year. In fact it grabbed me so much that when I’d finally played it too much and needed a change, I could only move on to older Cursive albums and then a week later I came right back to this.
On the surface this album is less frantic than previous releases, with tinges of folk/country betraying the bands Omaha roots. But beyond that its still a pure Cursive album full of angular guitar, weird instrumentation (organs and horns) and contagious melodies built around the way the instruments intertwine with each other. For a perfect example of all this see the way Mama, I’m Satan builds itself from a simple drum beat and single guitar line into a driving beast never letting up the rhythm until its disjointed crescendo.
On top of all this are front man Tim Kasher’s brilliant lyrics. Personal and witty they often cross the line into post-modernist without it being clunky or laboured. Mama, I’m Swollen is written by a man in his mid 30’s struggling to survive as an artist while balancing this with the responsibilities and expectations of the world around. So, why not write about being that man? The aforementioned Mama, I’m Satan has the gem:
You wanna wipe that slate and start all over again? / You wanna hide your face in shame of what your grandpappy did? / Pretty soon here we’ll be grandfathers / Our offspring will sing the same shitAs well as this classic:
I’m writing out a confession: / Every record I’ve written has left me smitten / A career in masturbation / All in all we’re pawns / The ego of mankind stirs in us allBut his self-referential masterpiece is the closing track What Have I Done? A song about a man travelling the country trying to “write my ‘Moby Dick’ – more like scratching lyrics on a paper plate” and reflecting on what his life has achieved. A beautifully slow builder, the song reaches breaking point at the lines
You’re young and you’re “gonna be someone!” / And then you’re old and you’re ashamed of what you’ve become / But take a look around you Mama – We’re preaching to the choir! / HA, HA, HA!!! RIGHT?!?!Adding another level to this the lyrics for the album are written out hidden in a letter to Mama, providing context and stories for the songs beyond just what’s sung. The lyrics to What Have I Done? are even scratched out on both sides of a paper plate.
But it’s not just the lyrics, it’s the way Kasher marries them to the beautiful music underneath that makes them work so well. Watch these videos and you’ll see what I mean. Then go out and buy this album, along with all the others.
I Couldn't Love You from Cursive on Vimeo.
Cursive "From The Hips" from Lake Fever Sessions on Vimeo.
Cursive "Caveman" from Lake Fever Sessions on Vimeo.
Every Time I Die – New Junk AestheticOpening track Roman Holiday is a pretty big surprise on first listen to this album. Slow and doomey it’s like nothing Every Time I Die have ever done before. But as soon as we hit The Marvellous Slut (featuring a guest appearance from The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato) we’re back in familiar territory. ETID hit their stride with 2003’s Hot Damn! forging a perfect blend of hardcore vocals and aesthetic with huge southern rock riffs. They’ve never veered too far from this formula since but where most bands would become repetitive ETID have managed to make every album more exciting than the last. Hell just check out this video for Wanderlust. It sums everything up better than I ever could.
Every Time I Die have never taken themselves too seriously and this combined with their good time riffs make them the ultimate hardcore party band. In no small part this is also because of Keith Buckley’s lyrics. Intelligent, sarcastic and full of word play they are both funny and thoughtful at the same time (as opposed to your typical die/hate/heartbreak hardcore bullshit). I’m not going to harp on about the lyrics for every album in this list, but I think “Here we go again, I’ll come to your party if it goes until 4 question marks at least. Three or less and it’s not worth my time” could easily be the line of the year. Plus it’s from a song called Turtles All the Way Down, which also gets points. Then there’s The Sweet Life in which he actually quotes the chorus to Break My Stride. Like I said, the ultimate hardcore party band.
Sonic Youth – The EternalAnother band who continue to do what they do and do it well. Sonic Youth have been making music since 1981, but they’ve never run out of steam. The Eternal is instantly recognisable as Sonic Youth and yet it’s also incredibly modern and just as exciting and vital as anything else they’ve ever released. It’s their best album since… the last one. Particular favourite tracks include Sacred Trickster, Poison Arrow and What We Know. I don’t know what else to say about this one, it’s Sonic Youth being Sonic Youth and evolving at the same time. It just is. And it’s Awesome.
Thursday – Common ExistenceFrom the opening track Resuscitation of a Dead Man this album grabs you and pulls you along with it. Building on the promise from 2007’s stand alone track Ladies and Gentlemen: My Brother, The Failure, Thursday deliver one of the best albums of their career. Thursday have always combined elements of post-hardcore with new wave, drawing as much from At The Drive-In and Refused as they do from The Cure and Joy Division, but on Common Existence they’ve taken their song writing to a new level while bringing back the immediacy that was lacking in 2006’s A City By The Light Divided. Last Call and Friends In the Armed Forces soar with a truly epic beauty. Meanwhile Love Has Led Us Astray (an obvious homage to Love Has Torn Us Apart) gets its power from the restraint the rest of the band show around such a driving and ominous bass line. Unlike many albums these days which tend to peter out near the end the best tracks of Common Existence are the last three. As well as Love has Led Us Astray there’s the frantic and distressing Subway Funeral, while closing track You Were The Cancer is the highpoint of the album and only lets us go after dragging us through some beautiful, haunting and epic terrain first. (I know that sounds like hyperbole, but if I’m ever listening to this song on my own I have to stop what I’m doing and just sing along).
The Flaming Lips – EmbryonicOne of the highlights of this year's Flaming Lips concert (aside from everything else), was getting to hear some of the new tracks they played. Unlike other bands where new songs can be a bit disorienting, these were instantly enjoyable. These songs had the expected psychedelic elements (this is The Flaming Lips remember), but it was more of a 60’s garage rock psychedelia. And that’s pretty much what this album’s like. Lots of jammy spacey bits, but also lots of crunchy guitar and tasty bass lines. This is an album that will end up on every second “Best of 2009” list so I’m not gonna write too much more about it, but that’s the important thing to know. That and this video clip, which is awesome.
Bomb The Music Industry! – ScramblesScrambles is kind of like a return to form for Bomb The Music Industry! Not that Get Warmer (2007) was a bad album, but it was a transition that hadn’t quite worked yet. Before that BtMI! had been a solo project played/recorded almost entirely by main man Jeff Rosenstock. A collective of musicians sprung up as the project started playing live shows and Get Warmer was the first attempt to include them in the recording process. The end result was a bit flat and ironically sounded less like a band than the solo albums. With Scrambles however they’ve managed to pull it all together into a very cohesive and vibrant whole. Rosenstock’s lyrics have always paralleled my own life to some extent, injecting his tales of a 20-something trying to make it as a musician while moving in and out of jobs with a heavy dose of humour and irony. This plus his ability to write catchy hooks had me shouting out to the sing-along chorus of Fresh Attitude, Young Body:
If you don’t find a steady job now / If you don’t find someone to love now / oh no / You will die freezing cold and aloneAnother great line describes being stuck in the toilet line at the latest hot spot wanting to ask “the over privileged kids if they would fucking mind? I’ve gotta take a piss in the cocaine room!”
Like all Bomb the Music Industry! albums you can download Scrambles for free (or make a donation) from Rosenstock’s Quote Unquote Records. They’ve been operating on the donation model for years before Radiohead & NIN made it popular. Awesome!
Eleventh He Reaches London – Hollow Be My NameThis one is a little bit of a controversial inclusion. Not because of the album itself, but because I’ve only been listening to it for a week so unlike the others I haven’t had months to let it sink in and decide it deserves to be one of my favourite albums of the year. But in that week I’ve decided it’s damn good, so I have no doubt it’ll stay with me for a while and become one of those albums. Eleventh He Reaches London are kind of like an Australian version of Murder By Death. Not so much musically, but where MBD draw on American Pioneers and the old west for their subject matter, EHRL sing tales about the colonisation of Australia by the English. Song titles such as Girt by Piss by piss should bring a smile to the face and a sense of pride to most lovers of the local music scene. Musically the band move seamlessly from folky influenced post-rock into post hardcore reminiscent of the best this or any other country could offer, but in a way that could only be Australian. I haven’t seen this band live yet, a friend passed this album on to me and told me to listen to it, but I can’t wait until I do.
Them Crooked Vulture – Them Crooked VulturesI don’t need to say too much about this album, since everyone else will. It’s almost a cliché already that this will end up on every end of year list around. It was probably going to end up on on most of those lists before it even got released. But there’s a couple of things want to say about it.
- It’s not Songs For The Deaf part II
- We all knew it wasn’t going to be Songs For The Deaf part II
- Secretly we all hoped it would be anyway.
- It’s still a good album.
Bare Arms – Bare Arms 3" EPDriving home one night I somehow ended up listening to the radio and for once I was glad I did. In The End, We’re All Dead came on and even though I’d reached my destination before it ended I sat in the car and waited (through the next song which I’ve forgotten but remember was nowhere near as good) to find out who it was. Bare Arms, a band from Sydney. When I got home later that night I looked them up and was not surprised to find one of the band members is Trini from The Thaw, one of my favourite bands in the country. There’s similarities between both bands as they both do post-hardcore the way it should be done, frantic and harsh but full of experimentation and unexpected turns. But where The Thaw tend to veer out with feedback symphonies which can extend over 10 minutes punctuated by sporadic bursts, Bare Arms are short sharp and focused. Only one song on this EP goes for longer than 3 minutes. Still it’s easily one of the best things I bought all year with every one of those 15 minutes being perfect. It also came on a mini CD with a hand folded origami style case and a note from Trini saying not to put it in a car stereo or mac – “it will get stuck!” Unfortunately the ep is sold out now, but you can download it and some bootlegs for free from their myspace.
Ouch My Face - Ouch My FaceThe first time I saw Ouch My Face was the launch gig for this EP. I’d heard they were good but went along mainly because The Assassination Collective were also playing. After Ouch My Face played, there was no doubt I was leaving with this CD. In fact everyone in our group bought a copy of it. Unfortunately the production on this EP just doesn’t seem to suit them. The start of Knockouts reminds me of a 28 Days album (I’m sorry OMF kids, it just does). Of the three tracks on this EP only Obscena Misdemeanour and Don’t Take A Knife To The Graveyard come close to showing what the band can do. But I have seen them a few times since then, so I know that they really are as good live as I remember from that first night, and even the songs on this EP became as good as I remember them. They are good songs, it’s just the production isn’t suited to their style. So if I don’t love this EP why is it here, and why should you go and buy it?
- To support them. Ouch My Face are an awesome band and they deserve your money.
- When you know the songs, the live show becomes more memorable, especially when they show you how awesome these songs can be done.
Cuba Is Japan – Cuba Is Japan
This is another short one. Just a taster really for the band’s live shows and the upcoming album. Cuba is Japan aim through their music to tell the story of two English trade ships frozen in the Arctic Circle during a voyage in 1845, which have only just been discovered recently as global warming has started to melt the ice. As you can imagine from such subject matter the music is a mixture of sparse, desolate, beautiful, crushing and haunting. Cuba is Japan also features Cameron from Baseball, so as you’d the instruments extend beyond the typical rock band format to include violins, piano, xylophone and a marching bass drum. The full album will be out in 2010, look out for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment