Digg this storyPART II (#50-#26)
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050 | Band of Horses Cease to Begin [Sub Pop/Oct 9] |
| Seattle band’s sophomore album is submerged in a gloomy Americana abyss of reverb and My Morning Jacket-styled wailing that do nothing to alleviate the dismal desolation depicted on its cover.
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049 | Panda Bear Person Pitch [Paw Tracks/Mar 20] |
| Animal Collective member’s third solo record is an avant garde cavalcade of strange kaleidoscopic collages composed with patience but bleeding with passion — evoking a sense of experimentation that shimmers and sparkles with a strange, translucent beauty.
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048 | The New Pornographers Challengers [Matador/Aug 21] |
| Much-adorned Canadians’ latest is more tame and less daring than previous releases, relying instead on subtle textures and unobtrusive hooks that don’t quite live up to potential but still outperform most bands’ best.
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047 | The Field From Here We Go Sublime [Kompakt/Mar 26] |
| Axel Willner’s debut is an intense minimalist opus of pounding beats and simplistic, repeating melodies which ironically add to the record’s complexity and ultimately rewrite it into something else entirely (a rave? death? drugs? hypnosis?).
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046 | Jatun Jatun [Other Electricities/Mar 6] |
| Jatun’s self-titled debut takes the synth-soaked melodies of M83 and mixes them with restive, Röyksoppian beats; blissfully scattering atmospheric trip-hop and waves of mesmerizing shoegaze in every direction.
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045 | Maria Taylor Lynn Teeter Flower [Saddle Creek/Mar 6] |
| Former Azure Ray frontwoman’s sophomore effort is delicate and mellifluous, championed by beautiful vocal harmonies and a gentle, soothing rainstorm of instrumentation.
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044 | The Go! Team Proof of Youth [Sub Pop/Sep 11] |
| Lauded six-piece’s sophomore LP sounds a bit too similar to its predecessor yet still exhibits enough funky hooks and schoolyard chants to warrant a roller-skate-derby dance-off.
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043 | Rilo Kiley Under the Blacklight [Warner Bros/Aug 21] |
| Cult band’s fourth release delves into synth-pop territory while still clinging tightly to its alt-country roots, resulting in a neo-Fleetwood Mac vibe that’s at once both retro and progressive.
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042 | The Good, The Bad & The Queen The Good, The Bad & The Queen [Parolphone/Jan 22] |
| Damon Albarn’s latest project is a logical evolution of Gorillaz’ lethargic melodies mixed with a skillful understanding of indie rock’s recent history. It’s poppy but loaded with a complex subtext that lends it further credibility and rewards patience.
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041 | Liars Liars [Mute/Aug 28] |
| A valorous return to form, these NYC avant-gardists’ fourth full-length is brash, defiant and mutinous while still maintaining a skillfully crafted sense of experimentalism and self-deconstruction.
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040 | Ken Andrews Secrets of the Lost Satellite [Dinosaur Fight/Mar 13] |
| Former Failure frontman’s first official solo album is filled with themes of loss and alienation atop spacey, heroin-induced melodies, grunged-up guitars and near-perfect production.
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039 | Glös Harmonium [Lovitt/Mar 27] |
| Former members of Denali and Engine Down collaborate to create this hauntingly brilliant record thick with dissonance and drenched in unnerving melody —- incessantly threatening to explode.
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038 | Piano Magic Part-Monster [Important/May 29] |
| The latest from this ambient-pop charged UK collective is fueled by moody post-punk malaise and a subtle canvas of musical radiation that silently electrifies and envelopes its surroundings, altogether relaxing and entrancing and barely convulsing.
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037 | John Vanderslice Emerald City [Barsuk/Jul 24] |
| Folksy singer-songwriter’s sixth full-length ambles and saunters through a slightly-sedated landscape of seemingly-sparse instrumentation and insistent vocal melodies.
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036 | Maserati Inventions for the New Season [Temporary Residence Limited/Mar 19] |
| Athens experimentalists get serious with a stunning batch of churning, instrumental post-rock that fuses post-punk dynamics with implicit esoterica.
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035 | The Shins Wincing the Night Away [Sub Pop/Jan 23] |
| Exalted Portland group’s third proper album is awash in nocturnally-clad desperation, tossing and turning in a bed of diligent admissions and emotional sincerity.
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034 | A Band of Bees Octopus [Astralwerks/Mar 26] |
| English psych-revivalists’ third LP spans a vast array of styles and influences — resulting in a buoyant, hallucinatory listening experience dripping in acid-soaked vitality and sun-drenched happiness.
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033 | PJ Harvey White Chalk [Island/Oct 2] |
| Semidivine heroine returns with an angelic offering of saintly vocals contrasted by stark lyricism and bleak piano overtures that barely manage to keep from drowning in the surrounding cesspool of gloom.
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032 | Shout Out Louds Our Ill Wills [Merge/Sep 11] |
| Swedish band’s second album is less sad than The Cure and more neue than new wave — resulting in an effortless cross-pollination of the two that’s happily sad.
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031 | Handsome Furs Plague Park [Sub Pop/May 22] |
| Wolf Parade frontman Dan Boeckner teams up with his wife to make an estrogenic neo-Wolf Parade record blanketed by a fog of realized delusions and adequate sadness sung peacefully over a backdrop of steady, electronic rhythms and nostalgic melodies.
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030 | Klaxons Myths of the Near Future [Polydor/Jan 29] |
| European new ravers’ debut LP is littered with literary and intellectual references and still doesn’t break a sweat while breakdancing circles around its surroundings.
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029 | The Rosebuds Night of the Furies [Merge/Apr 10] |
| North Carolinan trio’s third full-length is soaked in beautiful indie pop bliss and lachrymose wordplay backed by gorgeously danceable synths and heaving beats; hypnotizing like a midnight summer thunderstorm.
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028 | Tegan and Sara The Con [Sire/Jul 24] |
| Androgynous twins’ fifth LP resonates with adamant synth crescendos and sugar-coated vocal harmonies, exhibiting a controlled erotic nuance that’s both restrained and impassioned.
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027 | Belaire Exploding, Impacting [Indirect/Jul 12] |
| Voxtrot members’ debut plays host to a myriad of emotions all while appearing casually blithe on a surface of happy-go-lucky synths and dancey choruses that lead nowhere but the circle of life’s happy-cum-sadness.
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026 | The KBC On the Beat! [High Voltage Sounds/Mar 19] |
| English electro-dance trio’s debut is a monstercosm of raver synths and throbbing beats fueled by a voguish attitude and raw, disconnected coolness.
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Part I (#75-51)
Part III (#25-1)