Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
What could possibly be said of this record that hasn't been already? It's a masterpiece. Every lyric is deliberate and every sound intentional, and the sum is way more than its parts. This album often restores my interest in folk music.
Anathallo - Canopy Glow
I've been a fan of Anathallo for about four years now, and have heard everything they've recorded. While it doesn't have the same kinetic energy of some of the songs on Sparrows, it also doesn't have some of the chaos. This album is much more cohesive and really shows their maturing mastery of songwriting and instrumentation.
Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain
How many films have a soundtrack better than the film? And how many nine-track albums have FIVE singles that all break the top 25? And while I'm not much of one for charts, these singles deserved it. Prince is incredibly talented, and this represents him at the very top of his game. It's a pop album that borrows liberally from funk, disco, motown, and - yes - metal. Santana once said that Prince was the most underrated guitar player on earth, and the title track proves it: it has one of the most epic guitar solos of all time.
The Postal Service - Give Up
When I arrived at college, I was listening to things like Mae, Underoath, Norma Jean, etc; just about anything under the punk/emo/hardcore umbrella. Give Up was the album that introduced me to electronica (and further, to DNTEL, whose album 'Dumb Luck' is absolutely fantastic). This album pairs the innovative 16-bit noodlings of Jimmy Tamborello with the wit and detached-yet-intimate lyrics of Ben Gibbard, and the results are NOTHING like that fool Owl City. Shut up about Fireflies.
Fugazi - The Argument
Fugazi is a hard band to choose a favorite album, because their catalogue is so rich with incredible punk rock. But, the one thing I'll always mention about Fugazi is that their rhythm section is one of the best to grace punk, or any subgenre of rock. The Argument is really where this shines. It's a bit chiller and more jazz influenced than the rest, and so the drums and bass get a lot more room to play around. Mix in the free-ranging vocals and guitars of Ian McKaye and Guy Picciotto, and you have a true punk masterpiece.
As Cities Burn - Son, I Loved You At Your Darkest
This is the only screamo/hardcore/whatevercore album I still keep in a pretty regular rotation on my stereo, and that's saying an awful lot. And while my current tastes align much more with their newest (Hell or High Water, a just plain good indie rock record), this release has a very special place in my heart that nothing else can replace. When I first heard this record, I was in a stage of learning what sacrifice really is: I had thrown out all of my 'secular' CDs (I no longer believe in a distinction between secular and Christian music, only lyrics, and even that's iffy). And there was a line in one of the songs that said, 'At my word, would you bring your Isaac?' and the first time I heard that line, I was so convicted that I had made music an idol that I almost returned this to the store. And this album is filled with the questions we dread answering and the answers we dread giving (i.e., 'I once was blind, but now I just look away'), and each song affected me in a profound and personal way. But, sentimentality aside, this is just a great record. Rarely are releases from Christian labels (Tooth and Nail) so blisteringly honest without being overdramatic. And the musicianship is FANTASTIC. The twin guitar lines are reminiscent of early Further Seems Forever, weaving in and out of one another without any of the drop D JIGGYJIGGAJUG (pause) jugWEEWEE that so dominates the ___-core scene. The drumming is free of the Tourettic double bass pedal runs, and instead is free ranging and cohesive, bringing the basslines and the guitar lines together. And, where most screamo frontmen seem like their screaming is merely a convention of the genre, TJ Bonnette is actually desperate and crying out, supported by his brother, lead guitarist Cody's vocal melodies. Cody's vocals are strong enough that when he became the lead singer after TJ left, the band didn't seem like it lost too terribly much. And to top it all off, there's the closing track, 'Of Want and Misery: The Nothing that Kills,' a seven minute song of despair that ends with the only major key in the entire album, finally finding a light in the darkness that the band admittedly willingly hides in. There's so much more I can say about this record, but for now, I'll merely restate that this is, deservingly so, the only screamo record I still listen to.
Alright, and what have I been listening to lately?
The xx - xx
Like many people, I'm sure, I first got into The xx from the AT&T commercial featuring Apolo Ohno. Michelle (my bride to be, if you don't know me personally) looked it up and found out the band, and I recently got the album, and what a record it is. It mixes the best elements of indie, trip-hop, and dub, all without jamming the songs with too many instruments. Most of the songs are just bass, single-string guitar lines, background synths, drum machines, a male and female vocalist (the guy singer sounds like a male Lykke Li, who is one of my favorites). But even with this minimalism, the production on this album is incredible. The drum machine is thick, thick, thick, and the guitar line is soaked in reverb, making it sound about three times wider than it would. And it works.
MGMT - Congratulations
Like Radiohead before them, MGMT shot to superstardom with the support of a couple singles that they wrote years before that no longer represented who they were as artists. Personally, I can relate, having been asked by friends and family and fans to play two or three songs in particular that I had outgrown by leaps and bounds, so I know the kind of artistic frustration that can come from being identified by your artistic past. And that frustration can lead to a violent recoil that polarizes fans and critics alike. Radiohead responded with Kid A. Wilco, with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. And now, MGMT offer up the rebellious fist that is Congratulations, a nine track album intended to be listened to as a whole. Some fans may say the record sounds nothing like anything they've done before. My guess is that these fans have only heard "Time to Pretend," "Kids," and "Electric Feel." While excellent tracks in their own right, these singles had very little in common with the remainder of the tracks on the record they represented. Congratulations finds them diving further into the psychedelic reaches they explored with tracks like '4th Dimensional Transition,' 'The Handshake,' and 'Future Reflections.' Anyone who's missed the early sixties psychedelic brought forward by Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn might find some of what they're looking for here. The songs flow in and out of cohesion, often turning around in the middle of a track (especially in 'Siberian Breaks'). That's not to say it's entirely strange: some of the songs are downright gorgeous, like the instrumental 'Lady Dada's Nightmare' and the title track, which feels like a Neil Young song was dropped into a digital China town. Listen if you like experimental, nostalgic psychedelic pop. Don't even try it if you're looking for great dance hits like 'Kids' or 'Electric Feel.' You'll be sorely disappointed.
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