The New Music

As the internet lights up with mid-year lists proclaiming this album is better than that one, I thought I’d join in on the fun and weigh in on the year’s best… so far.

Up till the end of July, 2009 has been one of the more memorable years in recent history. And while many believe the album is becoming an unnecessary and expensive tool in building an artist’s profile (the recent rise of Drake being a fine example of that), I feel the list below says a lot about how vital the longplayer still is in today’s whirlwind industry.

Here are the 30 albums that I can’t stop listening to, followed by five that don’t quite fit the criteria of contention, and 20 more to anticipate toward the year’s end.

Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion [Domino]: warm, bubbling psychedelia with melodies that sound as if they were found at the end of a rainbow, from the world’s most influential band.

Antony & The Johnsons The Crying Light [Secretly Canadian]: one of the most distinguishable voices in music follows up his Mercury Prize with an album as haunting, poetic and emotionally draining.

Bat For Lashes Two Suns [Parlophone]: like Kate Bush, Natasha Khan is an exotic creature with the ability to turn such a singular vision into something so accessible.

Bibio Ambivalence Avenue [Warp]: why sit around waiting for Boards of Canada to contemplate a future, when Stephen Wilkinson can also produce crystalline, organic ambientronica (?) with more layers than an onion.

Jarvis Cocker Further Complications [Rough Trade]: Pulp is dead and gone, but Jarvo turns up the rock and gives us his best album since Different Class.

Dan Deacon Bromst [Carpark]: ambitious, dizzying and leftfield, it’s as if he’s wielding his nerdy dayglo schtick and overzealous live show in your eardrum.

Dinosaur Jr Farm [Jagjaguwar]: just like it was in the ’80s, this is arguably the greatest album by a band giving the can another kick.

Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca [Domino]: toning down the eccentricities of before in favour of some melody and coherence, now anyone can enjoy the genius of Dave Longstreth’s labyrinthine guitar lines.

Future Of The Left Travels With Myself And Another [4AD]: curmudgeons of the world, here’s an album that’s as abrasive, unsatisfied, pissy and hilarious as you are.

Ganglians Monster Head Room [Woodsist]: imagine the Beach Boys trapped in a cave by the ocean trying to come up with those sunny harmonies while fighting off the desire to eat each other.

Grizzly Bear Veckatimest [Warp]: a sound collage encapsulating gorgeous orchestration, wispy melodies and elegant textures fit for a cathedral, by everyone’s favourite indie band after Animal Collective.

The Horrors Primary Colours [XL]: note to self - scrap the swampy garage and lighten up on the Victorian goth motif. Instead still look unapproachable, but go for more of a swelling conglomeration of vintage psych, glimmering shoegaze, and okay, a little bit of the swampy garage for good measure.

Japandroids Post-Nothing [Unfamiliar]: ever just wanted to cut loose, get wasted and party with girls for the sake of being away from home? Well here is that moment to put on the iPod… or turntable.

jj no 2 [Sincerely Yours]: I wish Saint Etienne spent more time at the beach… hey, what have we here? Wish granted.

La Roux La Roux [Polydor]: never mind the swoop of that fiery Flock of Seagulls ‘do, this is some seriously classic sounding synth pop from a pair of Brits that actually know the difference between homage and parody.

Matt and Kim Grand [Fader]: it’s near impossible to bring the sweat, fun and adorable charm of a Matt and Kim gig to a recording, but damn it, they’ve somehow done it.

Marissa Nadler Little Hells [Kemado]: like the good white witch, she puts you under a spell with breezy, droning folk that presents a dreamlike existence strong enough to convince you that you’re actually living in an alternate reality. Or something like that.

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart The Pains of Being Pure At Heart [Slumberland]: if John Hughes rewrote your teenage diary for a soundtrack featuring pre-Creation-era My Bloody Valentine, Black Tambourine, The Pastels and early Chapterhouse. But even better than that.

Pet Shop Boys Yes [Parlophone]: the sophisticated oldtimers prove they’ve still got it with their best album since 1993. Though it helped that they worked with Xenomania, the best producer in pop music.

Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix [Glassnote]: picture the most perfect pop album imaginable, make it the teensiest bit off, give the singer a slight French accent and voila! You have Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.

Pink Mountaintops Outside Love [Jagjaguwar]: sleepy Stephen McBean writes a Harlequin novel, but invites all of his friends to make his stoner pop all pretty and sh*t.

Sunn O))) Monoliths & Dimensions [Southern Lord]: you usually know what you’re gonna get from Sunn O))) - an album of colossal droning so heavy your chest caves in without warning, but here they brought in all sorts of tricks to fool everybody. Some parts are listenable for even the most timid ears out there. But still keep the lights on if you’re jumpy…

Super Furry Animals Dark Days/Light Years [Rough Trade]: 13 years after their debut, SFA turn in an album that proves these psychedelic Welsh nutters still have ambition to burn and brilliant ideas to keep us entertained.

Think About Life Family [Alien8]: recognizing that there ain’t no party like an S Club party, Montreal’s most underappreciated band dropped the distorted noise act to become a bona fide pop act destined for their own scripted, tween-oriented TV show.

Timber Timbre Timber Timbre [Out of This Spark/Arts & Crafts]: creaky, poignant, Southern gothic blues that was so good it needed to be released twice in the first half of this year.

Kurt Vile God Is Saying This To You [Mexican Summer]: I can’t say I have many guitar heroes, but this long-haired post-hippy (?) reeled me in with last year’s Constant Hitmaker and had me gasping for air with this too brief of a follow-up. New album on Matador in October should have me praying at the altar of Vile.

Wavves Wavvves [Fat Possum]: while he’s faced quite the backlash following this album’s release, Wavvves‘ ear-rattling distortion and “sunkissed melodies” is the perfect remedy if you’re nostalgic for the skateboarding glory of your youth.

Wolves In The Throne Room Black Cascade [Southern Lord]: black metal takes a trip into the woods and meets a similar fate to all the hell Ash went through in the Evil Dead trilogy.

Woods Songs of Shame [Woodsist]: reclusives go to their shack in the forest and come out drunk on moonshine with songs both deceivingly melodic and intricately arranged. But it turns out they’re just a bunch of weirdo geniuses from Brooklyn.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs It’s Blitz! [Interscope]: in order to save themselves from killing each other, the art punks drop the guitar sound that made them a mainstream success and rock the synths instead. Perfect timing or perfect execution? How about both!

They couldn’t have been contenders, but deserve mention:

Because it was originally released in 2008…
Amadou & Mariam Welcome to Mali [Nonesuch]: a global soundclash that sidesteps around the trappings of “world music” to become simply “pop music” that the whole world wants to adopt as their own. Plus, the cutest couple in music, ever.

Because live albums are never brand new albums…
Leonard Cohen Live in London [Legacy/Sony]: Canada’s greatest poet has his comeback captured for everyone to remember that he puts on a show unlike any other.

Because it may be new, but the songs are 35 years old…
Death …For the Whole World To See [Drag City]: where exactly did punk start? With these three brothers in Detroit a good year or so before Joey, Johnny, Tommy and Dee Dee became siblings.

Because “greatest hits” just never qualify…
Saint Etienne London Conversations [Heavenly]: England’s unsung pop heroes are treated to a deluxe career retrospection that reminds us that glossy, accessible dance pop doesn’t have to be daft and soulless.

Because it contains everything the band ever recorded - in the ’80s…
The Vaselines Enter the Vaselines [Sub Pop]: where do you think Kurt Cobain learned to fuse pop hooks, twisted nursery rhyme lyrics and driving distortion? Try his favourite band.

What to watch out for in August and beyond:

A Sunny Day in Glasgow Ashes Grammar [Mis Ojos Discos] - out September 15
Atlas Sound Logos [Kranky] - out October 20
The Big Pink A Brief History of Love [4AD] - out September 15
Clipse Till the Casket Drops [Columbia] - out in October
The Drums Summertime [Twenty Seven] - out September 15
The Flaming Lips Embryonic [Warner Bros.] - out September 29
F**k Buttons Tarot Sport [ATP Recordings] - out October 20
Girls Album [True Panther/Matador] - out September 22
HEALTH Get Color [Lovepump United] - out September 8
The Hidden Cameras Organ: Orphan [Arts & Crafts] - out October 6
Jay Reatard Watch Me Fall [Matador] - out August 18
Kid Cudi Man On the Moon: The End of Day [G.O.O.D.] - out September 15
Lullabye Arkestra Threats Worship [Vice] - out September 1
Taken By Trees East of Eden [Rough Trade] - out September 8
Times New Viking Born Again Revisited [Matador] - out September 22
The Very Best Warm Heart of Africa [Green Owl] - out September 22
Kurt Vile Childish Prodigy [Matador] - out October 6
Vivian Girls Everything Goes Wrong [In The Red] - out September 8
Wale Attention: Deficit [Interscope] - out September 22
The xx xx [Young Turks] - out October 20

-Cam Lindsay

Posted on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 3:51 pm by Cam and is filed under The New Music.

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