Album of the Week (4/17/2012)

Bear in Heaven
I Love You, It's Cool
Genre: Neo-Psychedelia

Continuing the journey down Synth-Loop trail through the forests of Heavy Drumming, John Philpot and the rest of Bear in Heaven make a dazzling return to the world of indie pop after three long years of waiting. This new album is less dark, more upbeat, and faster paced than Beast Rest Forth Mouth, but equally as engrossing and well written. The sound texture is more trance-inducing, and the beats are more danceable than ever. Considering I didn't find out about this album until two days ago, this may be the best surprise release of the year.

Movie of the Week (4/13/2012)

The Cabin in the Woods
Director: Drew Goddard

I'm not usually one to recommend a horror movie, but every once in a while, they're just too good to pass up. It helps that the script was co-written by Joss Whedon, creator of Firefly and Dollhouse, but really, it's because of the twist. It's not really a twist per se, because, like Dream House before it, the secret is given up in the trailer, but it is at least a newer, more interesting take on the "lost in a dark forest with hill people" horror movie premise we have all come to despise. It makes fun of itself and genre cliches like Scream did, but ten times better, and it gets the viewer asking all the right questions, like, "why is this so much fun to watch?"

Album of the Week (4/11/2012)

Chromatics
Kill for Love
Genre: Electronica/Italo Disco

There's a reason Chromatics main writer and producer Johnny Jewel was on the short-list of composers considered to score last year's best film, Drive. It's partly because his band's sound was exactly what director Nicolas Winding Refn was looking for, but really it's because the music is just so damn good. It's dark without being depressing, poppy without selling out, minimalist without being Peaches, noisy without being A Place to Bury Strangers. So what if Johnny Jewel didn't get to score Drive? His band and two others he produces still made it onto the soundtrack, and with good reason...this stuff is plain good.

The Best Albums of 2011

Now that we're well into April of 2012, I figured it was finally time to make this list. As always, it takes forever just deciding who to let in and who to leave out. This year was a little easier than others, but I always have those second thoughts when I hear music months after everyone else has and then think, "man, this could have made it on the list." Twin Shadow's Forget from 2010 comes to mind.  This year, I think I got it.

Runners Up


M83
Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

Washed Out

Within and Without

And now for the actual list.  I'm in the middle of writing a term paper, so forgive me if my explanations/descriptions are short and repetitive.

The Top Ten

10. Neon Indian

Era Extraña

The master of chill-wave, or glo-fi, or whatever Neon Indian is, Alan Palomo knows what he's doing. Two albums in a row now have taken lo-fi recording techniques, crazy beats, and heartbreaking songwriting and combined them into total coolness.

9. Panda Bear

Tomboy

If there's something Panda Bear, the solo name for the Baltimore-based Animal Collective frontman, can't do with samples, tape decks, and hundreds of overlaps of his own voice, I don't know what it would be, and I don't think I want to know. "Last Night at the Jetty" alone has the power to end world hunger, stop genocide, and spin the planet backwards like Superman in that one movie.

8. Amy LaVere

Stranger Me

There's just something about a smoky voice backing up some of the best Americana/western music out there. Amy LaVere has the talent to give Adele a run for her money, but she decided to go after Sea change-era Beck instead...and she just might beat him.

7. John Maus

We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves

All I know about John Maus is that he basically only uses a drum machine and a 70s Casio keyboard to write all his music. I'm not sure if his singing voice is real or modulated. I don't know if he meant half of what his lyrics implied on this album (although even meaning a quarter of it would get you put on some classified list somewhere, I'm sure).  But somehow, songs like "Believer," "...And the Rain," "Quantum Leap," and "Hey Moon" make up for all of it. How can anyone be this minimalist and sarcastic and still make great music? John Maus knows.

6. Atlas Sound

Parallax

I don't think I really have to explain this one. Many of you know of my unsubstantiated love of all musics by Deerhunter and frontman Atlas Sound (real name Bradford Cox), but there is a reason for it. Despite the lulling and ambient river noises, there is some damn catchy folk rock back there. On Parallax, Atlas Sound ups his indie-cred even more than he did on Logos. With "Te Amo" he gives his best Bono impersonation, and very nearly hits it, opens like never before with "The Shakes," and ends strong as always with the complexity of "Lightsworks."  It may take you a few listens, but I promise it's worth it.

5. Feist

Metals

Is Leslie Feist immortal? Are her methods...supernatural?  Just listen to "Graveyard" already.  It might be her best song ever if I could just get "A Commotion" out of my head.

4. Iceage

New Brigade

In this world where people are down-and-out and mad at everything, it's about goddamn time we got some decent punk rock again.  If this doesn't make you want to put down your "save the whales" sign and just go beat the crap out of a politician, I don't know what can save you...you are a hippie.  Hippies do not rock. Iceage rocks.

3. The Joy Formidable

Big Roar

I don't know if there has ever been a more appropriately named album. If you like noise, hard rock, and kicking butt, then this is album for you. Way better female-led rock band than that Grace Potter or whoever those weird Celebration people are.  The Joy Formidable is the best new band out there, and Big Roar is one of the most amazing debuts I've heard in a very, very long time.

2. TV on the Radio

Nine Types of Light

Far and away one of the best bands to ever exist, TVOTR does it again, making prog-rock and experimental blues sound like the most amazing thing you've ever heard.  It's no Dear Science, but it's still better than anything almost anyone else has released in years. And with songs like "Caffeinated Consciousness," and "Repetition," you just can't help but think...is this the best band...ever?

1. St. Vincent

Strange Mercy

St. Vincent is the only musician I know of who keeps making albums better and better. She also is slowly moving out of the indie-folk singer genre and just ripping it in the electro-clash-rock category.  We've finally found a woman that can give Peaches a run for her money without making us feel dirty.  It doesn't hurt that the slower songs are some of the most well-written, beautifully sung anthems out there. Last year, when this release was announced I thought, "wow, whatever it is, it's going to be hard to beat," and St. Vincent proved that ten-fold.  Strange Mercy is, by a wide margin, album of the year...of 2011.