Category: Music Page 4 of 10

2010 in Music: #5 Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

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This was easily one of my most-anticipated albums of the year, if only to see where Arcade Fire would go next after the angsty anthemic rock of Neon Bible I was not disappointed, with the Canadian group bringing a much softer but still meaningful album – almost a concept album – centered on the theme of suburbia and all the facets of modern life that term encompasses. I’ve listened to this album a bunch, but I always feel like there’s more to get, like I understand it better every time, but there’s still more to unearth in it.

All the songs are great, but I have to say I’m particularly partial to Regine’s two main ones – “Empty Room” and “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” – they have a wild, uninhibited quality to them that makes them that much more memorable than Win’s more restrained numbers. The album took a while to grow on me (with 16 tracks, it’s a lot to take in), but when it did, oh how it did.

2010 in Music: #6 The New Pornographers – Together

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Most of the time when I get a new album it takes me a few listens to settle into it, get a feel for the sound, and hear all the songs enough to feel fully acquainted with it enough to decide how much I like it. This is true even of bands I know well and love – it’s a process with each new album. With Together, the first playthrough felt like I coming home to something familiar and wonderful, in a good way. There was no getting acquainted time, it was just immediate love.

I got into The New Pornographers with their previous album Challengers, most of which I love, but there are some songs I don’t care for that much, which makes the album as a whole kind of a mixed experience. This time, everything is really well-balanced, and so far, there isn’t a song I don’t like. It feels more cohesive as an album; even though there are a similar assortment of Neko Case songs, Dan Bejar songs, and A.C. Newman songs as usual, somehow they don’t seem as disconnected as in Challengers – they all sound like New Pornographers songs, and that cohesion steps the album up a notch.

2010 in Music: #7 Seaspin – Reverser EP

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Normally I wouldn’t include include EPs along with albums on my yearly top ten, but Seaspin is currently hovering very near the top of my last.fm charts for the year based on just this EP – which means I’ve listened to these five songs at least twice as much as most other songs this year.

Seaspin is a local LA band that I randomly caught one night at a free residency show and totally fell in love with – their shoegaze noise pop is exactly my thing right now, and I’ve since seen just about every show they’ve done. Really hoping they put out a full-length, or at least another EP soon.

There aren’t any videos of them on YouTube, even live (I’ll have to see what I can do about that next time they play!), but I’m linking a phone interview with Ronnie Washburn done by a radio station; it bills him as the singer/guitarist, but really Jen Goodridge handles most of the lead vocals, and very well, too. The EP is available through iTunes and Amazon, but I believe it’s better for the band to get it through Bandcamp, so that’s the embed I’ve used below – also, the Bandcamp embed streams the entire song rather than just a preview.

Phone interview with Ronnie – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROWqi_OvwMM

2010 in Music: #8 Best Coast – Crazy for You

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[#8-12 on this countdown are basically tied. I’ve put them in order of release date.]

I have moved this album up and down on my list so many times it was starting to get a little ridiculous. That’s because on the one hand, these songs are fairly simplistic, don’t stray far melodically, and have pretty superficial lyrics. On the other hand, I CANNOT STOP LISTENING TO THEM. Despite the songs’ simplicity (or maybe because of it), Bethany Cosentino has somehow managed to nail the earworm factor squarely on the head. And it’s so wonderfully attuned to the California coast that it was a big part of my summer’s soundtrack.

Best Coast is kind of the darling of the LA indie music scene right now (especially in concert with her boyfriend, Nathan Williams of Wavves). So much so that I’ve seen numerous comparisons between Bethany and Jenny Lewis, who along with her band Rilo Kiley was the toast of LA five years ago. She’s not nearly as nuanced lyrically as Jenny, but I can’t deny that her almost manically upbeat songs about unrequited love and happy relationships strike a chord somehow.

This album comes after a year or more of singles and brief EPs that were nonetheless touted constantly by the music blogs, and already in that time, the band’s sound has gotten cleaner and stronger while still retaining its ’60s pop vibe and noise pop aesthetic. I’m really curious to see where she goes from here. Honestly, the only thing I could really wish for is a bit more thought put into the lyrics, but it’s possible that their directness is an intentional part of the style. It certainly seems to be working for her – the album has hit most of the Best Of lists I’ve seen this year.

2010 in Music: #9 Mates of State – Crushes

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[#8-12 on this countdown are basically tied. I’ve put them in order of release date.]

Yes, there’s a covers album on my Best Of list. No, I wouldn’t have expected that either. In fact, I was fairly disappointed when I heard that Mates of State was going to be doing a covers album – I love their original stuff so much that the idea of losing out on an opportunity to get more of that while they put effort into a covers CD made me a little sad.

But. BUT. This album is awesome. It’s like a master course in how to do covers. They take some great songs, from a wide variety of artists (established indie bands like Death Cab for Cutie, lesser-known up-and-comers like Girls, classics like Tom Waits, etc.) and truly make them their own. They maintain the integrity of the original while making them sound as if Mates of State had originated them. It’s quite a feat, and they do it perfectly on every song on here.

In fact, they even do some BETTER than the originals, I’d say – the first single to be released was “Laura,” originally by Girls. I was very not excited by this, because I saw Girls open for Los Campesinos! last year and was the opposite of impressed: I didn’t like them at all. But Mates of State’s version of the song turned out to be one of my favorites on the whole album. Others, like Belle and Sebastian’s “Sleep the Clock Around,” they play pretty close to the original, but it still fits their sound well.

Basically, I dare anyone to listen to this album without a giant smile on their face. It proves that you don’t necessarily have to write the songs originally to have a fresh and original version of it to call your own.

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