The Books
Lost and Safe
Tomlab
Somewhere in the cacophony of electro-acoustic layers, voice samples, and electronic manipulation is nice intimate band playing softly on acoustic guitars and singing the most haunting melodies of the year.
MP3: The Books, "Smells Like Content"
Silver Mt. Zion
Horses in the Sky
Constellation
It look me a little while to really get into this record. Sure, it’s the same quality that the Montreal collective has been known for since the first Godspeed album. But then I really started to dig the last track, which takes the now-tired slow-crescendo-build which initially got the band famous, and it just keeps going and going. Give it a chance and this album soars.
MP3: Silver Mt. Zion, "God Bless Our Dead Marines"
Cursed
Two
Goodfellow Records
The hardest hitting album of the year comes from local aggressors Cursed, whose savage vitriol will either unite or crush the masses. Either way, lessons will be learned and next of kin will be notified.
MP3: Cursed, "Head of the Baptist"
Sufjan Stevens
Illinoise
Asthmatic Kitty
This little Christian has been growing on me. His audacious instrumental arrangements and lyrical charm are unmatched in pop music. Some of his songs are so sentimental and saccharine that you want to punch little Sufjan right in the junk, but somehow you end up tearfully singing along. Let’s keep this musical train rolling across the other 48 states...
MP3: Sufjan Stevens, "Come On! Feel the Illinoise"
Alva Noto / Ryuichi Sakamoto
Insen
Raster Norton
With the strength of Sakamoto’s output in 2005, the Japanese composer should be a household name. On this album, he again teams with German producer Carsten Nicolai to fantastic effect. You might assume that software synthesis and an analog piano were not meant to duet in such a contemplative and intimate manner. Before Insen, you would have been right.
MP3: Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto, "Berlin"
Double Leopards
Savage Summer Sun
Hospital
Some of us don’t really like to breathe when we listen to music. We accept the small pieces of air that are given to us by musicians much like a diver who has run out of oxygen before surfacing. We like to get through a piece of music and feel that we’ve been physically and emotionally changed by the process. In this case, two live tracks from the very noisy output of this Brooklyn quartet will forever alter the way you listen to the world outside and your own heartbeat.
MP3: Double Leopards, "Live On KDVS, Davis"
Animal Collective
Feels
FatCat
It’s the second year in a row that the Collective have made my top ten, and for the same reasons as last year. AC create the most life-affirming, sing-song-inclusive, and dynamic music on the indie scene today. This is psychedelia for everyone who has lost hope in the world; see Sunn O))).
MP3: Animal Collective, "Did You See the Words?"
Sunn O)))
Black One
Southern Lord
All hail the end of rational civilization. I think it was the assault and daemonic drone of “Orthodox Caveman” that made me believe in absolving myself of the bullshit, tyranny, and outright barbarism that lies at the heart of our collective project called civilization. This album made me see the end of days and smile.
MP3: Sunn O))), "Orthodox Caveman"
Fennesz/Sakamoto
Sala Santa Cecilia
Touch
This 19-minute EP throws the listener into a bliss of high-frequency drone. There’s so much going on that it’s tough to find orientation other than the simple pulses and loops that click and pulse beneath the aural landscape. With patience however, you’ll discover whole continents of microsound to explore.
MP3: Fennesz/Sakamoto, "Sala Santa Cecilia"
Best Track:
“Smells Like Content”
The Books
Lost and Safe
Tomlab
Apparently all you have to do to make a great song is take a lullaby melody, spoken lyrics, a simple elaboration of instrumentation from rhythm textures to arpeggiated guitar chords, and then end it all with the sample “expectation leads to disappointment. If you don’t expect something big huge and exciting, you usually, um, I don’t know. You just, yeah.” Brilliant.
Best track pt 2:
“Cold Wind”
Arcade Fire
Cold Wind 7"
Merge
This vinyl only release was created for the end of Six Feet Under, and while you can get it on that soundtrack you should slap yourself in the head for not picking up the seven. Haunting pop music for the masses that seems cool again, somehow.
MP3: Arcade Fire, "Cold Wind"
Worst song:
That Eminem song, I don’t know what it’s called but it has Triumph the Insult Comic Dog in the video. It borders on fetishizing little girls – “you make my slinky go boing boing boing.” Holy fucking nightmare. Janet Jackson’s nipple can’t go on tv and this can? Hurry up and get arrested so we don't have to endure this shit anymore.
Worst CDs:
Ashlee Simpson, The whatever’s fucking out now CD Just cuz it's out, that's enough to make me want to wreck something or someone.
Liz Phair, Somebody’s Miracle. She went from feminism to this??? Pow! Zoom! Straight to the Moon!
Backstreet Boys, Never Gone. We wanted you gone. You came back.
Kalan Porter, 219 Days. That’s how long time felt when I had to listen to one 4 minute song.
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