Monday, April 19, 2010

Amanda's Best of the Decade: #90-81



#90
Album: God's Son
Year: 2002
I'll be the first to admit, I don't really know hip hop. I rarely seek it out, have trouble listening to it analytically and find 98% of it doesn't hold my attention. A lot of this has to do with the fact that I am just not a lyrics girl. I mean, I hear them and occasionally something really evocative will get me all choked up but I am not particularly impressed by the cadence or rhyming of words. (I'm not fond of poetry either, if you're wondering.) Usually, I listen to hip hop and just wonder, "Why is that man talking over those cool sounds? He is totally killing this for me." It's endlessly frustrating as I think the origins and trajectory of hip hop as a genre are conceptually more fascinating than any other. All this is just to say, I have no idea what I'm talking about or how this song fits into an intelligent discussion of the Decade in Hip Hop. But damn, I think it sounds really cool.



#89
Album: Coastal Affairs EP
Year: 2006
I have a totally crush on Sweden. It's got infectious indie pop, shockingly gory literature, and unnaturally good-looking citizens. So it's not surprise that I love Sambassadeur's "Kate," which manages to be both lush and fluffy, has great guitars, and two (undoubtedly gorgeous, probably well-dressed) Swedes breathily layering a sweet melody over the top of it all.






#88
Album: Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light
Year: 2005
A thickly layered, slowly building instrumental from a side project of several members of The Arcade Fire. It sounds pretty much exactly like you'd imagine a song by intellectual rockers making a conceptual instrumental song sounds. Killer drums, shivery strings and cinematic penchant for storytelling.






#87
Album: Justified
Year: 2002
Justin Timberlake is about as arty as Top 40 got in the Aughts, which is cool with me. He (or rather, his producers, songwriters and choreographers) have a real knack for highlighting the more ragged spectrum of human emotion. This song exhibits some fairly ugly sentiments and a chilling lack of pity and it does so with huge beats and rich textures. Plus that video was a Cultural Event and a thing of beauty.





#86
Album: Spelled in Bones
Year: 2005
The first time I heard this song, I could not believe (and sort of still can't) that Jon Brion was not involved in the making of it. Lead singer Eric D. Johnson sounds exactly like him and the song is rich in summery hand claps, piano pop, and a smart, retro punch that all scream, "This is off the I ♥ Huckabees soundtrack!" And yet it is not. It's just a great tune from Chicago's consistently impressive Fruit Bats.




#85
Album: Putting the Days to Bed
Year: 2006
John Roderick, the lead singer of the Long Winters, is - from what I can tell - a pretty awesome dude. For example, the local personality spent the better part of 2008-09 wandering around Seattle and playing gigs with a missing front tooth. He also once referred to my friends and I as "a bevy of supercute girls," which I don't think we have collectively ever quite gotten over. Their sun-steeped brand of infectious, insightful indie pop has had me hooked ever since I first saw them (with DS co-blogger Aaron!) at a rare underage show at the old Croc way back in 2003. "Ultimatum" has been kicking around in their repertoire for years, starring in both the Ultimatum EP and also featured on 2006's Putting the Days to Bed, which is to me its most perfect incarnation. With punched up drums, tight guitar licks and fantastic keyboards, it's pure pop joy. File under: Happy-Sounding Songs That Are Actually About Really Sad Stuff and play often.



#84
Album: Overpowered
Year: 2007
Irish dance diva Róisín Murphy steps briefly away from the jangling nervous energy that got her noticed to deliver this drowned, artfully layered slow burner. Murphy's soulful, almost hoarse voice makes a great contrast with the chilly synths and lyrics littered with scientific and clinical terminology. In fact, this Overpowered cleverly showcases this kind of juxtaposition across the board. The album and its accompanying singles all feature cover art of Murphy clad in avant-garde costumes engaged in commonplace public activity--breakfast at the caf, strolling in a manicured park, waiting at a crosswalk. This performance, as well as the production on "Overpowered" show some serious Alison Goldfrapp channeling and the slower, synth-drenched turn make me all kinds of pysched. (Check out this article on Sleevage for more on the album design and singles artwork for Overpowered)


#83
Album: Voodoo
Year: 2000
Confession: this one made it on the countdown mostly because I had to include one sex jam, and Ginuwine's "So Anxious" was not eligible, being released just shy of the last decade in 1999. But also, D'Angelo's offering is gorgeous--pulling just the right amount of influence from old-school soul and fusing it with a decidedly contemporary sensibility. Starting off subtly sultry and building to a complex concoction of crooning harmonies and skillful instrumentation, this one's been sexy for ten years now. "So Anxious" - featuring more than one glaringly awkward reference to early mobile technology - can make no claims to such timelessness.



#82
Album: Teardrop Sweetheart
Year: 2007
Love at first listen. A tale of long distance love rides swooning chord progressions and - holy fuck - that beautiful, insistent bassline into instant favorite status. The slight friction between the lines "Come on baby tell me what you miss about me"/"Come on baby tell me what you'd do about me" highlights the heartbreakingly subtle differences between poetics and the sad reality of two people not together.





#81
Album: Hey Venus!
Year: 2007
I find myself wondering constantly why more artists do not employ key changes any more. Sure, they are kind of a cheap shot, but the emotional response they drag out is so satisfying . Especially in this in-your-face slab of pop deliciousness with Gruff Rhys' melancholy, Welsh-accented croon - "I still recall your banking details" - over a wall of guitars, chimes and sixties percussion.
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Aaron's Best of the Decade: #90-81


#90
Regina Spektor - On The Radio
Album: Begin To Hope
Year: 2006

"On The Radio" is the first song I heard by Regina Spektor, and still the best. I found her idiosyncratic style completely infectious and only slightly obnoxious (like an inverted version of Natalie Portman's character from Garden State). The song came back to me again and again for two reasons: her subtle wording change in the chorus from "it's a pretty song" to "it's a good refrain" and the fun of vocally imitating the "bum ba-dum ba-dum bum" sounds she and her instruments make throughout.


#89
Thom Yorke - And It Rained All Night
Album: The Eraser
Year: 2006

I used to play a computer game called Diablo II. To this day, I have never encountered a video game half as addictive or enjoyable (note: I have specifically avoided World of Warcraft, another game created by gaming juggernaut Blizzard with an even deadlier reputation). The Eraser, Thom Yorke's solo album, came out during a brief stretch when I was gaming heavily and it soundtracked many an epic Mephisto run. Something about the dark, grinding pitter-patter of "And It Rained All Night" still conjures up memories of fighting my way through Blunderbores and Ghoul Lords. I have confirmed reports of people who don't play Diablo II also liking this song, so if you weren't hip to the slang and jive-talk in this post, don't worry about it.


#88
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Biomusicology
Album: The Tyranny of Distance
Year: 2001

One of my all-time top ten sunny day songs. Ted Leo pulls out a simple, sparkling riff and uplifting vocals, layering in percussion as he continues to smile sing. Whatever, listen to him, he is clearly smiling at least as loud as he is singing. An interlude with peaceful strings in the middle feeds back into a Ted Leo vocal stretch with amped-up intensity, ending with elegant swirls of feedback and brief guitar fireworks.


#87
Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes
Album: Santogold
Year: 2008

Santogold (now Santigold) burst on to the scene with "L.E.S. Artistes" and the M.I.A. meets Yeah Yeah Yeahs comparisons began. The song is just plain catchy, packed with attitude and seeming remarkably straightforward until you notice the little touches - the handclaps at the end of each measure of the verse, the high-pitched sighs offering counterpoint to her chorus vocals, and the ballsy, instantaneous fade to nothing at the end.


#86
TV on the Radio - Family Tree
Album: Dear Science
Year: 2008

TV on the Radio may top my personal list of the most talented artists alive and recording (I certainly view them as having the highest potential to record the Next Great Album). Combining Tunde Ademipe's versatile baritone with Dave Sitek's brilliant arrangements for guitar and keyboard, they possess limitless permutations in terms of song form. The Brooklyn band's newest album, Dear Science, takes advantage of this, hopping all over the musical map. On "Family Tree" they marry a bed of strings reminiscent of Stars' orchestration with some of Tunde's most evocative lyrics and tender vocals.


#85
Exploding Hearts - Modern Kicks
Album: Guitar Romantic
Year: 2003

The Exploding Hearts are a sad story. The young Portland punk band was on tour for their first album, the incendiary Guitar Romantic, when their van crashed, prematurely ending the lives of all three primary members. Their legacy leaves us just one album of blissfully perfect punk (think Ramones and Buzzcocks, not Greenday and Offspring) and opening track "Modern Kicks" has earned a spot in the punk pantheon next to "I Wanna Be Sedated" and "Ever Fallen In Love."


#84
M83 - Kim and Jessie
Album: Saturdays=Youth
Year: 2008

The golden era of the shoegaze genre appears to be past us, with defining albums like My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, Ride's Nowhere, Slowdive's Souvlaki Space Station and virtually anything by the Jesus and Mary Chain emerging in the late 80's and early 90's. My interest in the gauzy sound was resuscitated by the wonderful Lost In Translation soundtrack, centered by Kevin Shields of MBV pedigree. The next great hope? Probably versatile electro-shoegaze peddlers M83, whose recent anthem "Kim and Jessie" should by all rights act as a gorgeous sign-post pointing the new generation back to these sleepy, overlooked gems.


#83
Gang Gang Dance - House Jam
Album: Saint Dymphna
Year: 2008

Gang Gang Dance are pretty weird. They are into some serious tribal shit, with crazy rhythms and wailing vocals. Extrapolating from their trippy live show, I am guessing they spend time reading Tarot cards on the tour bus and pretending that they are fundamentally different from all of the other hipsters in Brooklyn (I mean, those losers think clothing from the 80's is retro - try the Ottoman Empire). "House Jam" sticks out from their catalog despite fitting in perfectly, representing a perfect melding of dance-punk (via The Rapture) with psych-folk (by way of Yeasayer).


#82
The Dismemberment Plan - Time Bomb
Album: Change
Year: 2001

I've never liked Interpol. Lots of people do - I don't. This may seem like a random topic to discuss here, but I think I recently realized why, and it's because of The Dismemberment Plan. Songs like "Time Bomb" and "Gyroscope" utilize the same ultra-repetitive riff and disaffected lyrical style, but add in painfully sharp lyrics and a real sense of purpose (a lesson learned from Ian Curtis of Joy Division - if you're going to sing robotically, do it about matters of the heart).


#81
Delorean - Seasun
Album: Ayrton Senna EP
Year: 2009

I've written about this song before (here and here) so I'll be brief. This song embodies the Delorean Barcelona sound, and there is nothing quite like it for a relaxing time when the sun is shining. New album Subiza is fantastic, but I'm afraid these Spanish lads are destined to equal "Seasun" for the rest of their career, as besting the very template for their sound is out of the question.
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Friday, April 16, 2010

From The Vault: The Delgados


Let's turn the clock back to 2003. I've just gotten to Oberlin, a nice, moderately hipster liberal arts college, and everything about my persona and taste is acclimatizing. My clothes are still a little bit on the baggy, clueless side, and my hair is just trying to grow out at all costs. This music thing, however, I think I am starting to get the hang of. I read Pitchfork Media sometimes to try to find more cool bands to like, and occasionally I just start browsing through their archived reviews (sorted only by first letter), trying to happen across something obscure but worthwhile. One day, browsing through the letter D, I come across their review for an album called Hate by The Delgados. This happens to be my (one and only, at the time) ex-girlfriend's last name, so I arbitrarily click on it. As I read through the review, my intrigue only grows. An 8.1 is one of the highest ratings I'd seen on this particularly snobby website, and the writer pitches over and over again how epic and yet bleak the album was. I play a hunch and order Hate from Amazon, and a few days later it shows up.


At this point, I'm going to skip ahead. Over the remainder of my freshman year, Hate spent more time in my combo CD-player and tape deck stereo system than any other album, excepting OK Computer (only my favorite album of all time). I played it falling asleep, doing homework, on other people's laptops in dorm lounges and in the background of heart-to-heart talks about love, life and other deathly serious matters. When they came on tour through Cleveland, I went to a girl who had stolen my heart and slid the CD under her dorm room door  with a sticky note telling her to listen to tracks 5, 8, 9 and 10. Two weeks later we rode into the city together and saw a kick-ass show at the Grog Shop. Disclaimer: Despite this excellent opportunity, I failed to capitalize and never got anywhere with said girl. In related news, I was still a pretty big dork with no moves to speak of. The Delgados, on the other hand, have a couple of really good moves. Notably, these include male-female vocals much like the modern-day phenoms The XX, swooning orchestration lifted from Brit-poppers such as The Verve, and a rhythm section that gallops along like a steel-shod war charger. For your listening pleasure, here are the aforementioned tracks 5, 8, 9 and 10...


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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Amanda's Best of the Decade: #100-91

Wrangling my music collection and seven years of "Best of" playlists into a limited hierarchy has been an even greater challenge than I imagined. First off, it's important to distinguish between a "Best Songs of the Decade" list and one that represents my favorite songs from the same period. Ideally, there is at least 75% overlap between these two sets of selections. Also, I was fifteen when the decade began, so a lot of formative, taste-making shit went down in my Aughts. Most notably, I learned to love electronica and female vocalists. In the end, my toils produced these one hundred, unscientifically chosen tunes: a combination of perceived rate of iTunes skippage, autobiographical significance , cultural importance, and musical quality (oh yeah, that). So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen:



#100
Album: It's Not Me It's You
Year: 2009
I've never found Lily Allen to particularly subversive but she does have a gift for cultural commentary that's charmingly reminiscent of slightly mean jokes between friends. 'The Fear' is no exception, being both bitingly insightful about and symptomatic of contemporary values. The softcore pop intro prepares us for a throwaway love song on any chart-topper's album but becomes quickly plaintive, insistent and rife with existential angst. Allen's girlish, deadpan delivery pulls it off beautifully.




#99
Album: Lonely People of the World, Unite!
Year: 2005
Some seriously rollicking power pop from the midsection of the US. Davis fuses brashes guitar sounds, clever, exuberant production, punchy drum work and imaginative lyrics in this metamorphic piece of brilliance. I never get over how he casts the insignificant backgrounds of grander dreamscapes with extras, edits and fill-ins.






#98
Minogue
Album: Fever
Year: 2001
Our first page from the Amanda Dance Primer. I first heard this song at a college party and went into a sort of trance while dancing to it--a novel experience for a girl who cut her dance floor teeth on Top 40 rap and R&B. I prefer this song to its album counterpart, 'Can't Get You Out of My Head' for its sense of dreamy, hypnotic motion. By turns choppy and swooning, it's a masterful example of mainstream dance pop from the queen of the genre.




#97
Album: Autumn Fallin'
Year: 2008
The simple, sweet essence of frustrated affection set to island-style strumming, childlike xylophone and Jaymay's (New York's Jamie Seerman) empathetic vocals. Unrequited love songs by singer-songwriters are at their best when either completely steeped in, or completely divorced from the dramatic banality that creates them and this is of the latter variety.






#96
Album: Ballroom Stories
Year: 2007
I love me some jazz clarinet, alright? Most people do not become copyright lawyers and then go on to make incredibly sexy, jazzy trip-hop albums but then, most people are not Austria's Klaus Waldeck. Tickled ivories, swooning clarinet, retro vocals, a 'Summertime' sample and a beat existing somewhere between funk, reggae and swingtime: this song is luscious.






#95
Album:
Oracular Spectacular
Year: 2007
Discussing this song shortly after its release, I used the phrase "it's a bit too...self-consciously anthemic, don't you think?" to express my skepticism. I know, I'm an asshole. And though I still think it's too self-conscious but its throbbing, distorted bravado is thoroughly under my skin. Every time I hear it, I want to be tongue-in-cheek about my jaded, glamorous, rock star life.





#94
Album: Joyride: Remixes
Year: 2006
One of the hallmarks of good dance music has always been the way it toys with expectation and delivery. In order to get people dancing, you have to essentially pander to baser instincts and in order to keep people dancing, you have to find a way to suspend that energy, eventually not dropping the beat they've come to expect. While not strictly speaking a dance tune, this remix by Anna Oxygen includes the most fantastic bit of denied expectation I've ever come across. At exactly 00:34, just after the intro has turned edgy, we hear an inhale and the smallest catch of a throat, the sound of the thought of the first line being born. And then nothing. And then the beat drops.


#93
Album: The Avalanche: Outtakes & Extras from the Illinois Album
Year: 2006
I have long had mixed feelings about the Sujan Stevens aesthetic. It's just always seemed gimmicky and superficial to me--too many carefully researched historical facts and anecdotes, too much orchestration and not enough soul. This little beauty of a throwaway track is the opposite of all that. It would have no place in a proper album but situated amongst the numerous outtakes from Illinois (can't imagine that Mr. Stevens is ever going to get through all 50 if he has this much to say about just one Midwestern state) it is a an oasis of simple, evocative perfection.



#92
Album: Horsepower (US Release)
Year: 2004
Kiwi six-piece the Phoenix Foundation haven't gotten much attention this far above the equator aside from their contributions to the soundtrack for 2007 film Eagle vs. Shark, but this tremulous, sixties-steeped gem deserves more than a few listens. Trembling like any good Zombies track, 'The Drinker' evokes a garbled sense of longing and cowboy loneliness--think a deserted Western landscape miles under the ocean. The line "was the sort of night you feel like breakin out/or going out to vandalize the streets/but I stayed at this masquerade and had another drink" is the song's undeniable climax; it's surprising vehemence and tragic resignation get me every time.



#91
Album: Fur & Gold
Year: 2006
Natasha Khan makes a wicked Nancy Sinatra for our time, with a short layover at Stevie Nix. Digging those tribal "Be My Baby" drums. Love the spoken verses à la...every kitschy girl group of the 60's. Desperate, crying male romantic figure? Check. With its wailed chorus and theatrical portrayal of love gone off, 'What's a Girl to Do?" makes for a dark, mystical take on a set of already successful pop tropes.


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Aaron's Best of the Decade: #100-91

The aughts (2000-2009) were a decade of amazing musical development. I could wax poetic for pages about the convergences and divergences of genres, the rise of the internet as a tool for spreading music and the adoption of indie music by the mainstream, but I'd rather get straight to the good stuff. Amanda and I have distilled a decade with significant life importance for us (ages 15-25) into the 100 tracks each of us consider essential listening. We'll post ten tracks (each) at a time until we reach #50, at which point we'll slow down to five at a time to discuss each at further length, concluding with an individual track-by-track countdown of our five chart-toppers. Here goes:

Aaron

#100
Vampire Weekend - The Kids Don't Stand A Chance
Album: Vampire Weekend
Year: 2008


Vampire Weekend's self-titled debut album copped the Paul Simon Afro-pop sound something fierce and maintained a pleasant upbeat vibe throughout. After hearing it all hundreds of times, the standout track is the one that takes the road less traveled - "The Kids Don't Stand A Chance" is minimalist on an album that otherwise ignores the concept, tracing the spare elements of a gorgeous melody and topped by a surprisingly restrained Ezra Koenig.

#99
Rilo Kiley - Portions for Foxes
Album: More Adventurous
Year: 2004

Rilo Kiley's songwriting is always a good time, but their individual tracks only go as far as frontwoman Jenny Lewis takes them. On "Portions for Foxes" she spins a tale of sexual frustration, fraught with tension and regret. She makes it eminently clear that she is bad news, while the track is anything but...


#98
Simian Mobile Disco - I Believe
Album: Attack Decay Sustain Release
Year: 2007

Simian Mobile Disco aren't exactly the picture of consistency or class, but they attain their moment of perfection on "I Believe", melding the haunting synths of The Knife with the icy R&B of Junior Boys to devastating effect.

#97
Passion Pit - Moth's Wings
Album: Manners
Year: 2009

Passion Pit will always be divisive and intriguing because of his falsetto, and I was first drawn to the high-pitched histrionics of "Sleepyhead." After prodding and repeated plays by my roommate and my girlfriend, I've acquiesced - the melodramatic sparkle of "Moth's Wings" is the bee's knees.

#96
Radiohead - A Wolf At The Door
Album: Hail To The Thief
Year: 2003

Expectations were crushingly high for Radiohead in 2003 after the trio of OK Computer, Kid A and cast-offs album Amnesiac positioned them as simultaneously the most critically acclaimed rock band and electronic act on the planet. "A Wolf At The Door" called to mind their old-school cyclical guitar riffs paired with the eerie tone and pacing of their electronic masterpieces.


#95
The Long Winters - Cinnamon
Album: When I Pretend To Fall
Year: 2003

Seattle's own Long Winters write punchy, off-kilter pop with equal parts joy and regret. On "Cinammon", John Roderick distilled both into a tune that is so damn catchy they should have just sold out and mass-marketed themselves as pre-teen mixtape fodder.

#94
Kanye West - Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix f/Jay-Z)
Album: Late Registration
Year: 2005

Kanye and Jay-Z act out the essential conflict of hip-hop, with Kanye attempting a socially conscious narrative of his people in Africa and the exploitative diamond mines while Jay-Z pops up for a classic guest verse,  rapping his way cleverly around the theme of diamonds without addressing any sort of meaning or responsibility. All that and a James Bond hook...


#93
Guided By Voices - Everywhere With Helicopter
Album: Universal Truths and Cycles
Year: 2002

Dayton, Ohio's own Guided by Voices rocked right through the 90's on Robert Pollard's lo-fi, short fuzz-pop gems, and entered the new decade eager to produce more of the same. "Everywhere with Helicopter" provides two and a half minutes of guitar aerobics with urgent vocals and a wonderful tension-ripping yelp at the 1:06 mark.

#92
Junior Boys - Teach Me How To Fight
Album: Last Exit
Year: 2004

Critically acclaimed from the get-go, Junior Boys' appeal slowly became apparent to me. "Teach Me How To Fight" hits none of the usual peppy benchmarks for an electronic piece and takes forever to get going, but the build from soft verses to emotional (but still soft) chorus somehow feels anthemic when given proper attention.

#91
Jim White - Static On The Radio
Album: Drill A Hole In That Substrate And Tell Me What You See
Year: 2004

"Static On The Radio" is an overlooked gem of the singer-songwriter genre. A wiggly little melody and wistful atmospherics provide the perfect envelope for Jim White's vividly poetic verses and Aimee Mann's sublime bridge and chorus.
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