New Music (4.29.2015)

Blur
Magic Whip

This week's entry will be longer than usual, taking on a bit more editorializing than simply review, but that will be later.

Blur's Magic Whip is a fantastic addition to an already stacked repertoire by one of "Britpop's" most successful bands. Their twelve-year absence was barely noticed, but is made that much more prominent by this offering of reemergence.

Started as a distraction while the group was stranded in Hong Kong, Magic Whip is the best possible combination of all the individual members' solo work: the poppy dance beats of Albarn's Gorillaz work and the prog-rock wooziness of Coxon's The Kiss of the Morning all find space here. The revitalized sound is given the same glossy treatment as Blur's 1997 self-titled album, and is just as exciting.

The work showcased here by an act that has long since proved its mastery of the craft is almost astonishing--to be this good after so long is a rare quality indeed--and the reflective nature of its themes is shockingly refreshing, since most bands of Blur's age drone on and on about the drudgery of fame.

Here, Albarn and company come across the same perils of the modern age as seen in EMA's The Future's Void, St. Vincent's St. Vincent, and even Arcade Fire's Reflektor: the anonymity of an always-online society, combined with easy access to personal technology, leaves us all alone together.

---

Sleep Well, Fair Baltimore

     This past Monday was unlike anything I had personally experienced. That said, I cannot comment on black youth relations with police, because I am not a black youth, and I am not a police officer. The tensions between these two groups in my city are deep-seated and have a long, discouraging history. What began Monday afternoon was an event that had been burning under the skin of Baltimore for well over the 47 years since the 1968 riots sparked by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and when it finally came to the forefront, it did so in a violent boiling over unlike anyone of my generation had seen in the area.

I don't need to recount the actual events of the day, they have been covered ad nauseam by every armchair journalist-that-thinks-themselves-a-philosopher and fear-monger (I'm looking at you, CNN) this side of the International Date Line. For almost 24 straight hours, the national media bombarded us with images like the one above: black teens hurling rocks at police, looting stores, burning anything remotely combustible. But yesterday, only the locals saw pictures like this:

or this:

images of people being kind to one another, images of people helping one another. That is the Baltimore I know.

A lot of what happened will be the onus for placing blame--on the police, on the city and state government, on the people that participated. But such a disturbing incident in my hometown brings me to ask a question: what do we mean by "no justice, no peace?" To me, the two are not as mutual exclusive as the protest chant and twitter hashtag suggest. To the people using the phrase: is what happened on Monday what we mean by "no peace?" I assure you it is not; I assure you "no peace" means civil disobedience, very much unlike that which happened two days ago.

What I can say, most assuredly, is that when violence like Monday's occurs, the justice system freezes. Do you think the police are diligently working on the case--the most important case--while that's going on? Whose "fault" the riots are has nothing to do with it, nor is it particularly helpful to find out. May I suggest instead, "no peace, no justice."

Everyone who loses somebody wants revenge, but revenge is a lazy form of grief. The only way to end grief is to save a life, not take one. If you enact vengeance, you may have justice, but you will spend the remainder of your days in grief. If you save someone, you will discover that life is not just, but it need not be filled with sorrow.

"The human voice is different from other sounds. It can be heard over noises that bury everything else. Even when it's not shouting. Even when it's just a whisper. Even the lowest whisper can be heard--over armies...when it's telling the truth."

New Music (4.23.2015)

Speedy Ortiz
Foil Deer

A little late this week, but it's worth the wait. Speedy Ortiz' third full-length album is a fun, rocking effort very reminiscent of early Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Their musical proficiency has greatly improved since 2013's Major Arcana, and Sadie Dupuis' lyrics are as biting and expertly delivered as ever.

Foil Deer is the indie-blues-rock album that acts like Black Keys and Alabama Shakes can't really deliver on anymore. This offering goes to show that a year I thought would be devoid of decent, loud, distortion music is anything but. Joining groups like A Place to Bury Strangers, Lightning Bolt, and Drenge, Speedy Ortiz has provided as fine an example of awe-inspiring rock as has been released this year.

New Music (4.14.2015)

Lower Dens

Escape from Evil

Trying to find an entry for this week was particularly hard. With nothing particularly worthy coming out since last week's double-whammy, overlooked earlier releases finally got their chance to shine; and of course, if the band is from Baltimore, they get twice the consideration.

Yes, Lower Dens is from the land of Serial and the Wire, but much like their dream-pop cousins, Beach House, their sound refuses to sink to succumb to the depression those works suggest. This seems to be the musical tone of the area--synthy 80's rhythms and gauzy vocals, inviting you to party, but maybe...party solemnly.

Escape from Evil is less experimental than Lower Dens' previous work, focusing almost entirely on pop-structured songs that slowly build into flowery explosions of keyboards and fuzz guitar. One could almost call them out for copying Beach House, but this band is a product of their musical scene and not many from Baltimore can escape the long shadow of Alex and Victoria. The sound here is much more minimal, less ethereal, like Kim Carnes singing over late-era Kraftwerk.

If you need something to hold you over until Chromatics oft-delayed new album comes out, seriously put on Escape from Evil. It's chill, it will focus you, like using ice to snap a daydream.

New Music (4.07.2015)

Young Fathers
White Men Are Black Men Too

In my quest to find music that actually challenges its listeners, I have only been mildly successful. That changes today.

Young Fathers is a hip hop group from Scotland--yes, Scotland--that are not only pushing the musical boundaries of the genre, but racking up the critical recognition as well, having won last year's Mercury Prize over heavy favorites Damon Albarn and FKA Twigs.

One could be forgiven for not believing the hip hop label that comes with White Men Are Black Men Too, but the beats don't lie. Constructed with intense care, and with a constant mindfulness for production quality and overall sound, each hook is meted out with equal measures of Prince and TV On The Radio.

The latter of those two comparisons cannot be ignored. This is the high-quality OK Calculator fans of the Brooklyn indie-rock group has always secretly hoped for, both quirky and catchy, novel and mesmerizing at the same time. From their layered vocals, to their often-strange choice of looped percussion instruments, Young Fathers owe a great debt to TVOTR and other experimental hip-hop acts such as Flying Lotus and Frank Ocean.

But don't take their heavy influences as trivializing the sound, WMABMT is a work of genius that should be celebrated as such; this is the next step forward in hip-hop, a genre that has been plagued with stagnation save for a few bright spots. Kanye, Kendrick, A$AP, make room on the top shelf for some brilliant company.

---

Drenge
Undertow

Two...two albums in one week? Yes, because these are both so good I couldn't wait one more day to talk about either of them. Drenge is the love-child of Duran Duran, The Cure, and Sleep that you never knew you wanted, but you totally need.

Undertow is a combination of sludge metal and Brit-pop, and if that sounds strange, just understand that it's the most brilliant melding of genres ever. Let yourself slip into a deeper consciousness and be one with the robotic rock rhythm.

Anytime a new(ish) band sounds this good, you can only hope your constantly repeat-playing their album won't crash a server. I'm sure that's not how servers work, but with a style like Franz Ferdinand covering Tool, things get confusing at an almost quantum level.

In all seriousness, Undertow is an expertly crafted album that creates an intimate space in which to pummel you with rock-and-roll. And with their sophomore effort, Drenge have made one of the most enjoyable albums of the year.

New Music (3.31.2015)

Sufjan Stevens
Carrie & Lowell

In a career spanning well-over a decade, Sufjan Stevens has proven himself to be a master of storytelling. He is able to create time and place using only song in a way unparalleled by any other current musician of any genre.

The American mythology he retells--or even generates--on the majestic orchestra pieces Michigan and Illinois is something akin to reading Whitman or Emerson. Even the folksy-Christian Seven Swans was able to transport you to biblical places, and The Age of Adz painted pictures with electronics so gracefully, the techno love story contained within seemed to unfold directly in front of you.

Carrie & Lowell is not a mythos, nor is it a story. Not in Steven's typical, fictional sense anyhow. This is the heartbreaking true-life drama that is Steven's relationship with his mother, a woman plagued by mental illness and substance abuse that followed her--and in effect, Stevens himself--to her death in 2012. But never before has such a gut-wrenching tale been told so beautifully.

Stevens has taken something so deeply personal, and made it into a tapestry of awe. It is, by a wide margin, his most minimal album, with most songs containing only a plucked guitar and Steven's barely-whispered vocals. It is also his most affecting, with each syllable sounding as if from a trauma ward, each note played like it is the last she would hear. You can hear with each phrase how Stevens is devastated by the loss of Carrie, despite having only spent only a few days with her over the course of his 40 years.

But do not take from this that Carrie & Lowell is nothing but a depressing affair. This album is more than a dirge, but the second-line spiritual as well. Yes, Stevens dwells on his mother's death, and often contemplates how he can raise her, but just as frequently he celebrates the little time they were together.

Carrie & Lowell is produced gorgeously, with each minimalist song given the feeling of a vast space, fathomless in it's overwhelming starkness. But more than anything, Stevens has now provided us with the code-key to unlocking all those cryptic and vague lyrics from past works, like Michigan's "Romulus" or Illinois' "The Seer's Tower." This is a work of extreme genius and infinite appeal, granting invaluable comfort and indispensable humanity to those who would hear it.

New Music (3.24.2015)

Lightning Bolt
Fantasy Empire

Every once in a great while, an album is released that challenges the industry's definition of "loud." Minstry's The Land of Rape and Honey, My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, Sleigh Bells' Treats, All have laid claim to "loudest record" but, inevitably, another will rise and take it's place. Lightning Bolt's Fantasy Empire is meant to be played on speakers, not headphones, with the knob all the way up and the needle firmly in the red. If your neighbors or fellow drivers can't hear the pounding drums or fuzzed-out guitars, it's not loud enough yet.

Certainly, it helps that the songwriting is both catchy and original, making no part of the album a retread; but the muffled, indiscernible vocals, and the driving, propellant rhythms turn what could be a tired, hazy rehashing of No Age into a forced death-march. Longer songs are made all the more compelling by the insane talent of both musicians: drums that never seem to slow down and a bass guitar played more ferociously than humanly possible.

If you want sonic diversity, if you need a wall of noise, if you feel as though you will not have lived your life to the fullest without blowing an eardrum, I have two words for you: Lightning Bolt. A million times, Lightning Bolt.

New Music (3.17.2015)

Kendrick Lamar
To Pimp a Butterfly

To say that Kendrick Lamar's second major-label, non-mixtape release was highly anticipated would be to say that Mary Magdalene was only passively waiting for the third day. And while To Pimp a Butterfly is well worth the wait, it is not what any of us expected. Heavily influenced by 60's and 70's funk and soul, Kendrick's sophomore effort is dense and often feels ungainly. But the more work you put in listening to it, the more amazing aural benefits you receive.

The backing tracks could be songs on their own; the samples used and the beats constructed are so mesmerizing they outshine everything else coming out of the West Coast scene. When you add Kendrick's innovative rhyming style and deeply personal lyrics, you come to a juxtaposition that, while jarring, is powerfully enticing.

Though you can hear the obvious influences of Outkast (many of the rhyming schemes borrow from Aquemini) and Kanye West (who else puts that many soul records and string instruments in their samples?), To Pimp a Butterfly is a sound entirely its own. Many will dismiss it on first listen as a self-indulgent, overly-complex, art record, but anyone willing to put in the time will be justly rewarded. Icarus may not have reached the Sun, but he did soar.

New Music (3.11.2015)

Yowler
The Offer

If Sufjan Stevens only wrote songs about the ocean and the one major threat it presents, he would be Yowler. However, Yowler is actually the moniker of one Maryn Jones, the brilliant mind behind this guitar-and-voice-only performance piece about the strange and terrifying dichotomy that is water's ability to both give life and take it away. How the rolling waves can bring both peace and brutal force. How ice is both pure and a hazard. If a frozen lake can be your grave while teaming with nautical life, is being trapped underneath a death sentence, or a rebirth? Earth's most precious gift--a compound with unexplained properties--is the main reason we exist, and The Offer is an essay on its symbolism, what it means to us as living things, as well as the beauty and crushing loss that is the human experience. Water is both birth and death, violence and calm, gift and burden, and The Offer is both lamentation and exultation.

New Music (3.04.2015)

Sannhet
Revisionist

Usually, I'm not one for instrumental acts that aren't purely electronica, but every once in a great while, a band will emerge that makes me revise my outlook. Explosions in the Sky was such a band, with compositions that were entirely compelling and never boring. Sannhet, I'm glad to say, is another. In a two-week period of musical doldrums, Sannhet's Revisionist is a bright spot against the never-ending cycle of snow and ice that is the Northeast this time of year. The thing that makes Revisionist great isn't just the brilliant drums, or the ethereal guitar work, it's that every song is structured so that it could have lyrics--like a paint-by-numbers for metal squall. But even with words completely absent, Sannhet's second album manages to be more lyrical than opera, and more expressive than an aria.

New Music (2.18.2015)

A Place to Bury Strangers
Transfixiation

Over the years, A Place to Bury Strangers--Oliver Ackermann's musical side-project to his full-time guitar pedal business, Death By Audio--have slowly and incrementally changed their sound from sludge-noise to Jesus & Mary Chain cover band. Yes, obviously the noise is still there, and Transfixiation shows how they are still the best at creating it. But while the first half of APTBS's fourth full-length serves more as a sampler of their previous career points ("Love High" resembles their brilliant self-titled debut; "Deeper" is a mopey cover from something on their second LP, Exploding Head; "Straight" is a clearly a B-side off their fantastic EP, Onwards to the Wall; and "Supermaster," the album opener, could easily be a bonus-track from Worship), the second half, starting with the bouncy single "We've Come So Far," is pure brilliance. The elevation of bassist Dion Lunadon to co-songwriting duty since Onwards to the Wall was a brilliant move that clearly is paying it's dividends. Songs highlighting his vocals, like "I'm So Clean" and "I Will Die," are standouts on an album full of the more experimental sounds that Ackermann is usually responsible for. Not to say the experimentation is unnecessary, or even unwanted, but without Lunadon's contributions, Transfixiation could easily have been less My Bloody Valentine, more Cromagnon. That said, Transfixiation is a validating (if not a little obvious) next step in APTBS's career, but with Death By Audio (the venue) being...well...dead, we can only hope they continue to sludge ever onward to that mythical apex where noise and harmony are one and the same.

New Music (2.11.2015)

Viet Cong
Viet Cong

It's rare that an album comes along where even Spinal Tap's mythical "11" setting isn't loud enough. No, it's not that Viet Cong (a reformation of Women, a sadly underrated band) produced their debut album at too soft a volume; it's that nothing in the headphone/iPhone department compares to what massive amps and 15,000-watt speakers can provide. Viet Cong were obviously created to capitalize on the brutality of live shows--a stimulating, physical exertion far beyond the everyday. As you make your way through this post-punk wasteland, painted in dark tones by intentionally heavy production, you will experience the visceral urge to make your ears hurt. They need it, the sweet release that is the pain of rock and roll.

New Music (2.05.2015)

Sleater-Kinney
No Cities to Love

After a ten-year hiatus, Carrie Brownstein and company return to rock your face off with No Cities to Love. Though the extra-long break was apparently much needed, the trio hasn't lost a step over the years. You can see where their influence over acts like St. Vincent (whose Annie Clark is close friends with Brownstein), Haim, and Ex Hex originates, and they expand on that sound to great effect, proving that indie-punk is not just a high school gig. Loud, brash, but never out of control, No Cities to Love is a hell of a way to crash back onto the scene.


--S^E

The Top 25 Albums of the Decade So Far (2010-2014)

We've hit the five-year mark in this decade, so now is the best time to look back at the best albums released so far.

Some albums are totally worthy of this list, but just couldn't fit, due to space. These include: Tame Impala Lonerism, Deerhunter Halcyon Digest, M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, Disclosure Settle, Death Grips The Money Store, A Place to Bury Strangers Onwards to the Wall EP, Crystal Castles (III), and EMA The Future's Void

With that settled, let us begin our look back at the best of the last five years in music...

25. Beach House
Bloom

It is rare for a wash of synths to sound so utterly beautiful, but Baltimore-based Beach House found a way to express their love of electronics without sounding like either Radio Dept. or Gesaffelstein. Bloom is the duo's masterpiece, showcasing Victoria Legrand's raspy vocals and Alex Scally's brilliant production skills. Imagine the happiest wake you could possibly attend.
"Myth"

  24. Grimes
Visions

Claire Boucher, the woman behind Grimes, is not a friend of traditionalists. She sings in a falsetto meant for bubblegum pop, but produces electronic music that's both brooding and enlightening. How she is able to combine the two so well is something akin to sorcery, but we are all the better for her efforts. Equally good for partying or staring into the abyss, Visions isn't so much revolutionary as it is purely ingenious.
"Genesis"

23. Feist
Metals

Leslie Feist is the only singer/composer I know of that makes music so heartfelt and warm that you want to hug a physical copy as you listen. The public goodwill Feist built up with 2008's The Reminder, was not ill-spent here. The production is even softer, giving Feist's voice--and her backing pianos and guitars--a fuzzy, almost plush sound, like sliding into your most comfortable pair of pajamas. Sometimes she will sing of loves lost and darker times, but it's as if she's just getting through the scary part of the hero's journey; every good bedtime story has one. This is folk for the faint of heart, but it's just as good for those brave enough to forge onward.
"Graveyard"

22. James Blake
Overgrown

Never before has an album's artwork so accurately depicted the musical contents held within. James Blake's second full-length release is one filled to the brim with dead, wintry sounds that make you long to sit by the fire...even if you already are. The vocals are, of course, gorgeous, with layer upon layer of looped lyrics creating a dizzying kaleidoscope of words too beautiful to imagine. Blake's performance is melodramatic and strangely affecting, the mix of soul singing and electronic music one he has perfected and made into a science.
"Retrograde"

21. Queens of the Stone Age
...Like Clockwork

After a six-year hiatus, Josh Homme and company returned in the most brilliant, ass-kicking fashion possible. QOTSA's sixth album is a tour de force, an homage to everything rock-and-roll means: drugs, sex, crappy hangers-on, being clinically dead...wait, what? Certainly, Queens of the Stone Age haven't gone all "the Cure" on us, have they? No, no one is here to make that claim. Their music is still loud, brash, and in your face. The melodies still rock harder than anyone else's in the business. But, instead of mindless jabbering, Homme sings/yells/croons lyrics that have weight, giving the entire album a much deeper meaning, and a much heavier feel. Hopefully, his real life isn't quite this Aronofsky-esque, but in the telling, ...Like Clockwork makes for QOTSA's best effort since Songs for the Deaf.
"I Sat By the Ocean"

20. Ty Segall Band
Slaughterhouse

Creating perhaps the noisiest surfer punk in history, Ty Segall created his eponymous Ty Segall Band specifically for this one album. It's not entirely different from his usual, "solo" work, but it's strange and loud enough it needs to stand on it's own. And does it ever. Slaughterhouse lives up to its name, assaulting your ear drums and carving them up with catchy tunes played at an incredibly high volume for such a  lo-fi sound. But the quality of the music itself cannot be forgotten here. Obviously the tone and volume are what get the hype, but each song is crafted to perfection, to play perfectly with that crunch and optimize the listening experience at every turn.
"I Bought My Eyes"

19. Danny Brown
Old

To start: there is not a better club/party song than "Dip." That is a fact, don't look it up. Danny Brown made perhaps the best hip-hop album that mashes electronica and rap in the history of that sub-genre. Old is nothing short of amazing party music for it's entire length. While it's lyrics often drop into the drug culture that so plagues lesser verses, Brown is able to make each line sound more original than the last, both with his creative wordplay and his ever-changing delivery. And after 18 straight songs of build up, with nary a "skit" in sight, Old culminates in one of the most inspiring-yet-heartbraking anthems ever, "Float On." Don't worry, Danny, you will see the future of music, and it will be influenced by you.
"Dip"

18. Cloud Nothings
Attack On Memory

Calling forth the hazy memories of both Nirvana and Slint, Cloud Nothings use their brief, seven-song Attack On Memory to posit that emo and grunge are not that disparate in their goals or means. Their theory is supported by a straining singer, harsh guitar distortions, and complex drum patterns mixed very far to the back. Some of their sounds become experimental, but never so much as to draw you away from the core rock. The lyrics can become Taking-Back-Sunday-sentimental, but never enough to make you queasy. Always the perfect mix of In Utero and Transatlanticism, Cloud Nothings work to make you enjoy every moment, even you you have to put in your share of work too.
"Wasted Days"

17. Bat for Lashes
The Haunted Man

When Natasha Khan, the utter genius behind Bat for Lashes, announced that her third full-length album would be "stripped down," quite a few were worried a slimmer production and a lack of big-orchestra pieces that made Two Suns so brilliant would harshly detract from her usual ornate presentation. Such was not the case. On The Haunted Man, Khan is so good at her minimalist approach that it heightens every appearance of a string instrument to a transcendental experience, every choral arrangement a message from God. Contrast these with truly bombastic drum-machine showcases like "Oh Yeah" and "Marilyn" and you get Khan's most moving work to date. After building a career on making you cry alone in your room, Bat for Lashes has the same effect here, but this time they are tears of joy.
"Marilyn"

16. Twin Shadow
Forget

On his debut as Twin Shadow, producer/singer-songwriter George Lewis, Jr. creates a space that feels totally original, even if his influences are supremely evident. A dance album that calls back more Brian Eno than Eurythmics, Forget is filled with melodramatic pieces meant to evoke emotion over rhythm. That's not to say there aren't dance-floor movers, with songs like "At My Heels" and the fantastic "Slow," which is anything but. The emotive tone of these songs is accentuated by Lewis' powerful voice and the overall flow of a masterfully produced album. Forget is a work of art at its core, and every spin will showcase its gorgeous palette of sound.
"Slow"

15. Parquet Courts
Light Up Gold

Parquet Courts more recent work may be straying into full-on punk, but on their wide-release debut, they really bring the Iggy Pop references, with doses of Adam Ant and Gang of Four thrown in for balance. The never-ending upbeat guitar rock is exactly what we needed to kick off 2013 in the most rocking way possible, and frontman Adam Savage's monotonous glee (if there is such a thing) can be heard throughout, making sure you get up and move. I'm not quite sure what the ultimate goal of Light Up Gold was, but if it was to make you happy while spouting nonsense and playing a sludge-drip guitar with less zeal than a "Cinnamon Girl" solo...mission accomplished.
"Stoned and Starving"

14. Caribou
Swim

So you say you want inventiveness in your dance music. Well, look no further than Dan Snaith, or more specifically, his recording project Caribou (he has many). His third album under that moniker, Swim, is a fantastic example of what can happen if you try to make an electronic album with acoustic instruments, or, at least live drums and percussion. This is the dance album Beck would make, or failing that, one that could be made with only the equipment available to a high school marching band. But don't mistake that as a slight, quite the opposite in fact. On Swim, Caribou is able to make engaging beats even more so through the use of intricately placed bells, chimes, live snares, and an almost insane mastery of Rhodes and Wurlitzer pianos. Swim is so mesmerizing you won't just listen to it all in one sitting, you'll listen to it five times in one sitting.
"Odessa"

13. Sleigh Bells
Treats

Before Sleigh Bells rode the hard, steep rail to oblivion (their new music is terrible, is what I'm going for here), they had the most brilliant debut album in the history of the "Loudness War" since the Jesus & Mary Chain's Psychocandy. Treats is an all-out assault on your hearing, and you will be thoroughly destroyed by the ridiculous beats, crazy-yet-simplistic guitar clashes, and Alexis Krauss' cheer squad chanting. Certainly, the mix volume has a lot to do with its near-constant distortion, but the production of such a ridiculously loud album cannot be ignored, not that you would be able to. Sleigh Bells are on a mission to beat you up with music, and though they may have strayed from that in recent years, Treats is the perfect example of song as a weapon.
"Infinity Guitars"

12. Chromatics
Kill for Love

Since we're still in the throws of winter's death grip, it is perfectly normal to talk about Chromatics as the composers of the score for our lives. Perhaps it's the use of their music in film soundtracks, but if you listen to Kill for Love while driving, you will think you are in a movie--probably a thriller or noir. This album is the sound of icicles hanging off street lights, the playlist to snowfall. With their woozy synths, staccato guitar picking, and absinthe-soaked vocals, Chromatics make dance into something more than a mind-numbing pop song with a fantastic beat; they create entire worlds out of glass and candy.
"Lady"

11. Robyn
Body Talk

Robyn has been producing quality Swedish dance-pop for as long as I've been interested in contemporary music, which is to say, she's been making it since before I knew she existed. But to make dance-pop is not the same as transcending it. If nothing else, single "Dancing On My Own" is good enough make it on this list by itself. But that's just the album opener, which is then followed by hit after hit, each song catchier and poppier than the last. Never repetitive, never boring, always fun, Body Talk is the album you put on repeat at a party...and just let it go. Even its slower, more melodramatic moments are spectacular examples of everything the combination of a beautiful singing voice and electronic beats can accomplish.
"Dancing On My Own"

10. Kanye West
Yeezus

If you want to talk about trend-setting, convention-bucking musicianship, look no further than Kanye West. Right after wowing literally every music critic with his dense, thought-provoking My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, he turned around and hired Daft Punk and Gesaffelstein to produce an album so utterly drenched in industrial electronics people thought it was a joke. No, it's no joke, it's just mind-blowingly revolutionary. Okay, so maybe he was later to the party than say Death Grips, or that Saul Williams album produced by Trent Reznor, but how many #1 hits did those have? West, through sheer force of will, sold 1.5 million tangible copies of an album many thought was "ugly" and "unfinished" in an age where physical media is less than passé. And there's not even any album art on the damn thing. Now, that's not to say sales make the album, it just goes to prove Kanye is the hip-hop David Bowie.
"Black Skinhead"
"Send It Up"

9. Perfume Genius
Too Bright

By expanding his sonic palette, Mike Hadreas, a.k.a. Perfume Genius, has actually allowed us into a more intimate space. While his earlier albums were sparse, piano experiments, they came off as pretentious, or worse, a cheap knock-off of predecessors Antony & The Johnsons. But by adding a drum machine and a few synthesizers, Perfume Genius created a personal closeness, one that lets his voice soar high above the clouds and murk of earthly machinery. Of course, those piano ballads are still there, but when they're mixed in with more electronic pieces, their emotional weight is increased ten-fold. Honest, compassionate, and dynamic, Hadreas turns Too Bright into a direct confrontation of all the ugly stereotypes, and reclaims them as a personal triumph. "No family is safe, when I sashay" indeed.
"Queen"
"My Body"

8. Swans
The Seer

"Along the shore the cloud waves break, the twin suns sink behind the lake, the shadows lengthen in Carcosa. Strange is the night where black stars rise, and strange moons circle through the skies, but stranger still is lost Carcosa. Songs that the Hyades shall sing, where flap the tatters of the King, must die unheard in dim Carcosa. Song of my soul, my voice is dead, die thou, unsung, as tears unshed shall dry and die in lost Carcosa." Swans' The Seer is one of the most dense, most complex albums ever created. The songs are long, experimental journeys through the depths of the human psyche. They are delivered with perfect instrumentation and musicianship, with even the 32-minute title track nailing every note like an expertly directed cliff-hanger. The Seer is a work of genius...supernatural genius. Signing off: ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.
"Mother of the World"
"A Piece of the Sky"

7. Arcade Fire
The Suburbs

After two previous tries at making the greatest indie-rock album of the new millennium, Arcade Fire finally got it with their junior effort, The Suburbs. Not too brash, not too sedated, not too experimental, and not too mainstream, but just right. The Suburbs plays off so many musical emotions--nostalgia, political commentary, memory, hope, and loss of innocence--it's impossible not to be completely engrossed by it. But there's more to Arcade Fire's magnum opus than just a tall-tale about urban sprawl and the lost days of youth, there's also tremendous songwriting. There is not a single miss here, with every line adding to the overall narrative until the musical Ulysses is complete. You won't just listen to The Suburbs again and again, you will reminisce.
"Rococo"
"Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"

6. Run the Jewels
Run the Jewels 2

Hardcore rap was, at one time, considered dead, as were rap duos/groups. All we could find, for years, were light hip-hop partiers who were more interested in sales than sound, men and women who boiled their roots, sound, and lyrics down to inoffensive, easily consumable pieces. That is much of the reason why Run the Jewels--the rap duo of Killer Mike and El-P--are such an amazing breath of fresh air. Their beats land with more crunch and force than anything in the industry, and their rhymes are weapons-grade destructive. But here's the real kicker...it could still easily be in the club. Much how Kanye proved industrial can make great hip-hop, Run the Jewels has shown hardcore can make you move. Songs like "Blockbuster Night Pt. 1" and "Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)" could just as easily be heard at a head-banging metal concert as it could be on a dance floor. The spectacular production allows Run the Jewels 2 to live in multiple sonic worlds at the same time, appealing to all, selling out to none.
"Blockbuster Night Pt. 1"
"Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)"

5. St. Vincent
St. Vincent

It would seem, at this point, that St. Vincent has completely dropped all pretense of the "manic pixie dream girl" facade she once used to make music. In her place is a woman who rocks. As her sound has evolved, the albums have as well, losing all the fluff and leaving only the barest bones of what is necessary to make an amazing record. You won't find harp-like guitar plucking or dense string arrangements here, but you will discover an entirely different sound, one with heavy kicks and unnerving effects. The lack of pleasant-sounding breaks between the heavier songs are gone, which makes for a tightly coiled package of sound that has an even better emotional payout than all those ballads. Annie Clark has boiled the music of St. Vincent down to a science, and like the album art may suggest, she truly has become the god-queen of rock and roll.
"Digital Witness"
"Regret"

4. Janelle Monáe
The ArchAndroid

Not often is someone brilliant enough to take a subject as esoteric as Metropolis and turn it into an R&B opera. But Janelle Monáe is brilliant, and she did just that. Certainly, the message may be obscured by science-fiction dystopia, and sure, maybe all the references to Fritz Lang's 1927 silent masterpiece can be lost among the soul beats and gorgeous ballads, but none of those things cloud our ability to hear Monáe's smart lyrics and bouncing rhythms that move throughout these two "suites" in her long-running musical epic. Where singles "Cold War" and "Tightrope" showcase this singer-songwriter's ability to hit a groove and make you dance, slower love songs like "Neon Valley Street" will have you longing to be a part of this superbly painted universe. Monáe is an expert at being able to create art that is as immersive as it is dynamic, and The ArchAndroid is nothing short of her greatest work.
"Tightrope"
"Neon Valley Street"

3. Kendrick Lamar
good kid, m.A.A.d. city

When the term "gangsta rap" gets pinned to an album, I'll admit, I have a hard time bringing myself to listen. But if ever there was a record worth the effort, it is, by a wide margin, good kid, m.A.A.d. city, Kendrick Lamar's first non-mixtape release. Firstly, the beats that back Lamar's lyrics are not like anything else in rap. Others in the industry famously complained that you couldn't remix or dance to anything from the semi-biographical work, but more came out saying it was true brilliance. Secondly, and more importantly, are Lamar's lyrics--a long, perfectly-delivered string of rhymes that tell a heartbreaking story of teenage love, lost innocence, gangland killings, poverty, and the need to rise above your surroundings while still holding on to your roots. Is it possible to leave the past behind but not lose your self? Many points of good kid, m.A.A.d. city are tearjerking reminders that sometimes, when you try to escape, you forget the people that mattered. This is an admonition.
"Backseat Freestyle"
"Swimming Pools (Drank)"

2. Deafheaven
Sunbather

Sometimes, an album is released that defies categorization. And, sometimes, people become utterly obsessed with making sure every note of the music held within fits the definition of whatever label was so recklessly slapped on by the record company. Is Sunbather black metal? Sure, there's the typical screamed vocals and wash of speed guitars. But the real question is: when the music is this great, who cares? As in, who cares what you call it? Deafheaven have achieved nothing short of perfection with their second album, using that wall of aggressive guitar sound to prop up more upbeat chords and tempos. The screaming, while still grating to anything less than a veteran ear, is filled with lyrics far more meaningful and heartfelt than the usual odes to Norse gods. No, Sunbather is not black metal, because by the time you reach the end of its 59 minutes, you aren't angry, and you aren't depressed. By the end of Sunbather, you are exculpated...you are free.
"Dream House"
"Sunbather"

1. LCD Soundsystem
This Is Happening

It makes me sad to be writing this, knowing that we will never hear new LCD music again, but if you want to make an album your band's swan song, goddamn is this the blueprint you follow. Every song is expertly crafted by veteran producer/singer/songwriter James Murphy. Five years on, the messages in "All I Want" and "I Can Change" are just as pressing and important as they were at the start of the decade. Whether or not LCD went into the music business to change the landscape is unknown; that they did is a certainty beyond a reasonable doubt. There is not a single down moment, nor even the tiniest spot where Murphy and company are not on their game, bringing you the very best in dance-punk, or just the very best in general. This Is Happening is a perfect album, the likes of which has not been heard before or since. So put this one on your phone, or your iPod, or your CD player, or your record player, or your tape deck, or your laser disk, and go dance yourself clean.
"Dance Yrself Clean"
"All I Want"
"I Can Change"



Edit: 1/26 11:15 - Links in article body were revised to open in a new window.
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See this year's other lists... Top 20 Songs of 2014   Top 10 Albums of 2014   Top 10 Movies of the Decade (So Far)

The Top 10 Movies of the Decade So Far (2010-2014)

This blog normally does not cover film, as many of each year's best are too hard to actually view before they are released to home media. But this five year period is perfect for combining a great many movies into one, concise list.

Presenting, the top 10 movies of the decade so far...

10. Under the Skin
Jonathan Glazer

Scarlett Johansson, at least in recent years, has not been known for her turns as subtle characters in indie movies. But as an alien in human skin, her lack of emotive understanding is actually the best performance Johansson has ever given. Director Jonathan Glazer has never been one to make straight-forward films--even his debut Sexy Beast is twisting and almost impossible to follow--but the message in Under the Skin is nothing less than elusive. The haunting feeling you experience watching it is partly Johansson's brilliant acting, but mostly it is the absorbing imagery, a visual experience unlike anything since the last 20 minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 
9. The Master
Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Anderson is known for making engrossing, thought-provoking films, and The Master is no exception. A thinly veiled allegory for the founding of Scientology, Anderson fills this movie with an outstanding cast, all giving award-worthy performances as, just, the worst people you can imagine. Joaquin Phoenix plays a despicable waste of a man who finds some direction when he is accepted into Phillip Seymour Hoffman's growing "educational movement" (read: "cult"). Add Amy Adams as Hoffman's faithful wife, but often reluctant partner in the movement, and you have a winning combination for one of the most challenging films of the decade.

  









8. Zero Dark Thirty
Kathryn Bigelow

The story of how the United States finally caught Bin Laden was one that we all fantasized about for 10 agonizing years. But then it came true, and we all wondered how. The story Kathryn Bigelow presents, as her follow-up to the brilliant Hurt Locker, is not the raid on Bin Laden's compound, although that is the dramatic conclusion, filmed with just as much heart-stopping suspense as her previous work. No, most of Zero Dark Thirty focuses on the actual hunt, the years of thankless toil and peril that members of the CIA put in to finally find the most wanted man in history. Sure, it doesn't sound exciting, but if you lived through the terrifying years that were the "War on Terror," you'll recognize and remember, with horrifying clarity, each ghastly milestone our heroes experience: the London bus/tube bombings, the attack on the Saudi hotel, the Pakistani hotel bombing, the attack on CIA operatives in an Afghan forward operating base. The sorrow, the terror, the sheer will to find a man hiding in plain sight from the world's greatest detective agency, is all included in Bigelow's magnum opus. A truly brilliant film with an entirely accurate look at the dangerous world of intelligence.

7. Drive
Nicolas Winding Refn

Drive is probably most famous for two things: it was sued for having "misleading" trailers, and Ryan Gosling is in it, but essentially never talks. If you've seen any of Refn's previous work, you would definitely expect both of those. The man is insanely good at making catchy trailers, and his characters only ever use the bare minimum of words (if any, see Valhalla Rising). That said, Gosling's character doesn't really have to talk, his ability to display intense-but-well-caged fury does all the talking for him. That and the action. Sure, the car chases are few and far between for a movie called Drive, but goddamn are they amazing. Captured with gorgeous style and exceptional camerawork, the chase scenes in Drive are some of the best ever to be filmed. Refn also has an excellent knack for pacing; just as you think the movie is slowing down, up comes another issue our mysterious Driver has to deal with. Arthouse it may be, but the stylized violence, striking visuals, and fantastic soundtrack make for one amazing ride.

6. The Social Network
David Fincher

Normally, when you think of big-budget, award-grabbing, end-of-year movies, you don't think about college kids starting their own website. But if there's one thing David Fincher has proven over the years, it's that he can make just about anything exciting, the tumultuous early years of Facebook being no exception. What made The Social Network truly brilliant was Aaron Sorkin's patented quick-paced, back-and-forth dialogue. Each character, but especially Jesse Eisenberg's expertly portrayed Mark Zuckerberg, tries to outsmart the other in conversation. To say the least, the script is impeccable, the direction from Fincher is, as always, beautiful, and the performances of every player--from Eisenberg's Zuckerberg, to Justin Timberlake's Sean Parker, to Armie Hammer's portrayal of both Winklevoss twins--are riveting. David Fincher's The Social Network is ambitious filmmaking at its very best.

5. Black Swan
Darren Aronofsky

By the end of Black Swan, the entire audience in the theater was awe-struck, overcome with a tidal wave of both admiration and melancholy. Darren Aronofsky has been making overly dark films for years (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, and the most depressing movie of all time The Fountain), but his tale of psychological breaks caused from an obsessive perfectionism was so extreme, you might as well be watching a ticking time bomb. Natalie Portman gives a (justly) award-winning performance as Nina, a premier ballerina whose severe determination to beat out her competition (Mila Kunis) and perfect every movement slowly drives her insane. The movie is essentially symbolic of Aronofsky's own drive and motivation, determined to make each shot perfect and give every scene the weight of a neutron star. The brilliance of Black Swan, however, is not just its bold direction and melodramatic acting, but its ability to take a setting most people would never agree to watch--ballet--and turn it into the most intense workplace this side of Mogadishu.

4. Gravity
Alfonso Cuarón

The best review of Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón's trapped-in-space thriller, was actually the Onion's fake review where their in-house movie critic slowly goes insane after watching it, painting his face in tribal make-up and trying to kill the cameraman. The experience of viewing this masterpiece in an IMAX theater in 3-D was not vastly different from that farcical take. Apart from being an edge-of-your-seat adventure, the total immersion provided by Cuarón's direction and Emmanuel Lubezki's breathtaking cinematography has you gasping for air and clinging to any solid object in reach right along with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney's astronauts. Every missed hand-hold is a tragedy, every wasted breath a disaster beyond reckoning. The very essence of space is maddening; there is nothing...just, nothing, for millions and billions of miles. If you "fall" you will never land, and no one can stop your descent into an abyss of infinite emptiness. The weight of that feeling, and one of immeasurable smallness pervades the entire film. There is a slim chance you can make it, but it is so...far...away...

 
3. Boyhood
Richard Linklater

Filmmaking as an art is something that often gets lost in the constant barrage of CG explosions, kaiju robots, and super heroes. But what is even more rare to see is filmmaking as a scientific experiment. No, I don't mean experimental film (see entry #10 for that), I mean taking 12 years to slowly film a couple scenes where a boy, his sister, mother, and a long line of alcoholic step-fathers actually experience a "normal" American life. Obviously nothing staged over the course of such a long time is normal, but it's as close as any movie has been yet. The boy doesn't become an astronaut, rock star, or professional athlete; we're not with him long enough to find out what happens in adulthood (it is called Boyhood after all). He doesn't battle cancer or face targeted persecution by secret police; those events are far too rare to be average. He is a boy, that is all, and to be able to make a compelling, nostalgic, touching movie about something we all wish hadn't gone by so quickly is a truly beautiful thing.

2. 12 Years a Slave
Steve McQueen

It is a rare thing indeed to see a movie so affecting and filled with characters played to perfection. Steve McQueen is not one to shy away from overly-intimate looks into the darkest, most depraved corners of humanity, and certainly does not do so here. Each scene is filled with the kind of tension reserved for the most despicable of horror films, but opposite of what you might think, that is exactly what you'll find in 12 Years a Slave, the kind of horror no person ever wants to admit to seeing. There has not been a film that exposes human tragedy and suffering on this level since Schindler's List, and 12 Years a Slave is just as heartbreaking, terrifying, melodramatic, and brilliantly directed as it's 1993 predecessor. One does not just squirm with discomfort at the lynching scene, you writhe with the same pain as Chiwetel Ejiofor's Soloman Northrup. One is not just disgusted during the whipping scene, you are brought to the height of unberable nausea at the sight of such a sickening act. One does not just hate Michael Fassbender's Edwin Epps, you yearn for his utter destruction every moment he is on screen with the passion of a thousand suns. But in the end, this movie is not about guilt, or shaming the past, as much as it is about the indelible human spirit, and a man with a will to be free so strong even the fires of Mount Doom could not destroy it.

1. Inception
Christopher Nolan

To even touch the brilliance of Nolan's masterpiece is to intercept a transmission from the Court of the Yellow King. What should be a run-of-the-mill heist movie is anything but, instead becoming a mind-bending thriller that plays with the concepts of time, reality, and the very fabric of consciousness. The ending--that insufferable, unbearable ending--is one that has been debated since its first screening, and will continue to be debated to generations to come. Is it all real? Is it all a dream? The non-answer is the most brilliant choice in visual storytelling since the same frustrating smash-cut ended The Sopranos three years earlier. Apart from the "one last job gone wrong" story being retold brilliantly, Nolan's newly found infinite budget also allowed him to create the most brain-melting visuals anyone has seen. The use of practical, in-camera effects work is so seamless you would think they really bent that Parisian street up onto itself. And of course, Nolan's acting choices are impeccable. Always more willing to work with character players over big stars (not that Leo isn't a big star, but he's definitely better at acting than most), Inception is filled with performances that let you fully slide into the story and suspend disbelief completely. The combination of expertly photographed action, superb art direction, fantastic storytelling, and brilliantly directed tension makes Inception one of the best movies of all-time, and the best of the decade (so far).


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See this year's other lists... Top 20 Songs of 2014   Top 10 Albums of 2014   Top 25 Albums of the Decade (So Far)