Video: ’11th Dimension’ by Julian Casablancas
’11th Dimension’ by Julian Casablancas
’11th Dimension’ by Julian Casablancas
I originally wanted to post this list at the beginning of December, but it took quite a long time to finalize. With the vast amount of amazing records released this year, its always a job to narrow it down to just ten. Here’s the ones I liked the best with a couple words about each.
I hope I can turn you on to some new bands from this. Tweet or pass the link along if you like.
10) Hospice – The Antlers (FrenchKiss)
I always have a record squeeze its way into the top ten when I make these lists. Fact of the matter is that The Antlers have had a banner year and they have a great record here with Hospice. Vocalist Peter Silberman paints us an emotionally charged, dark album banking back and forth between moments of the quiet to huge swells of sound.
Standout Song: Kettering
Also try: Two, Wake
9) Moondagger – Deastro (Ghostly International)
Musical wonderkid Randolph Chabot invites us into his world of enormous synths, precision beats, catchy hooks and chaos. Give it more than one listen to sink in.
Standout Song: Vermillion Plaza
Also try: Parallelogram, Toxic Crusaders
Video: Video bio on Deastro
8 ) Fantasies – Metric (Independent/Last Gang)
The lone Canadian entry in my list. Since I don’t listen to the radio, their singles weren’t overplayed to me. I found sounds that stayed with me for hours and invited me back to being a bigger Metric fan again.
Standout Song: Gimme Sympathy
Also try: Sick Muse, Help I’m Alive
Video: Gimme Sympathy, Sick Muse
7) A Balloon Called Moaning – The Joy Formidable (Independent)
A strong debut from this Welsh trio who are still flying under the radar of where they should be. I’m guessing 2010 will be a big year for the band.
Standout Song: Whirring
Also try: Austere, Cradle, The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade
Video: Whirring, Austere (banned version), Cradle
6) Manners – Passion Pit (Columbia/FrenchKiss)
I knew there was something big about Passion Pit after hearing ‘Sleepyhead’ for the first time. Lucky for me, they were able to write many more greats than just one song, creating Manners, one of my go-to party albums.
Standout Song: Moth’s Wings
Also try: Sleepyhead, Little Secrets
Video: Sleepyhead, The Reeling
5) xx – The XX (Young Turks)
I didn’t expect this album to break my top 5 (let along the top 10) the first time I heard songs from xx. But it creeped on me as I watched the insane amount of justified buzz gather for this debut.
Standout Song: Crystalised
Also try: Infinity, Basic Space
Video: Crystalised, Basic Space
4) Dark Was The Night – Various Artists (4ad)
The only compilation record on my list, Dark Was The Night is a masterful mix of great artists and songs, all to raise money for the Red Hot Organization (an international charity dedicated to raising money and awareness for HIV and AIDS through popular culture). Produced by The National‘s Aaron and Bryce Dessner, the album features performances by The Arcade Fire, Feist, Grizzly Bear, and My Morning Jacket to name a few. A great listen all the way through.
Standout Song: Brackett, WI (Bon Iver)
Also try: Knotty Pine (Dirty Projectors and David Byrne), Tightrope (Yeasayer)
3) Baby Darling Doll Face Honey – Band Of Skulls (Shangri-La Music)
Amazing debut from this English three-piece. For fans of music in the vein of The White Stripes, Led Zeppelin or The Black Keys, this album spun amazing well here, either rocking or haunting me.
Standout Song: Dull Gold Heart
Also try: I Know What I Am, Impossible, Fires
Video: Fires (Cut From A Different Fur session)
2) Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – Phoenix (Glassnote)
I haven’t seen an online ‘best-of’ list that didn’t include these French popsters. Fundamentally its a album of winning songs, carefully written to catch. A band at the top of their game.
Standout Song: Lisztomania
Also try: 1901, Rome
Video: 1901, Lisztomania
1) Person To Person – Foreign Born (Secretly Canadian)
From the ‘best-of’ lists I’ve been reading online, this album seems to be absent from most. Only wanting to speak for these ears, there is something about benga-flavored beats, fuzzed-out synth bass, clucking tropical cowbells, soaring horn sections and emotive string arrangements that hit me just right. I think one of the most important things about music is its ability to take you somewhere. When I throw on Person To Person, I’m instantly happy smack dab in the summer of ’09.
Standout Song: Vacationing People
Also try: Early Warnings, Blood Oranges
Video: Winter Games, Early Warnings
Empire State Of Mind – Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys mash up with Michael Jackson, Dan Deacon, Rich Aucoin
From Rich Aucoin:
I noticed that a new song of mine has the same chord progression as Jay-Z’s brilliant Moments-sampled new track. So I upped the BPM of the original from 86.65BPM to 105BPM and added some more samples; taking Dan Deacon’s Slow With Horns and speeding it up considerably and pitching it a few cents and also, for the second verse, I noticed Empire State is in F#m which is the same key as Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean so I took the otherwise minor sounding bassline from Billie Jean and put it under the feel-good majors of Empire State. I added bass, organs, vocoder, and my voice and had some friends help with the gang vocals for the chorus and I re-sampled the drums from Empire to make a new beat out of its sampled drums. I would have liked to speed it up more like to 120BPM but the vocals sounded silly sped up that much and there aren’t any official acapellas released so Jay-z’s vocals over my chord progressions are the best I could clean them up to be from the really lo-fi DIY one I found on the internet. Hope you enjoy it.
(from Herohil)
Canadian Music Fest has announced its first round of confirmed bands for the 5 day festival/conference in March. One huge list of bands I’d never want to see and bands I can’t wait to see.
Free Energy are on Daytrotter.
Hear some new music from The Album Leaf called Falling From The Sun off the upcoming release of Chorus Of Storytellers (Subpop).
Who: Surfer Blood from Florida.
What: Riding high off the response from releasing their first single Swim (named #37 on Pitchforks 100 Best Tracks of 2009 and our best of 2009 list), Surfer Blood are giving us a second taste off the upcoming debut on Kanine (called Astro Coast) in the form of Floating Vibes. Fill your holidays with these songs from a fuzzy Floridian five-piece with a knack of writing really catchy tunes.
Song: Floating Vibes.
‘Silvia’ by Miike Snow