Yes, it’s still list season. As State kicks off its Top 50 of the year, here are my own top 30 albums of the year in four-page epic form.
30. Channel One – Sound to Light
29. Clark – Totem’s Flare
28. The Phantom Band – Checkmate Savage
27. Micachu – Jewellery
26. DM Stith – Heavy Ghosts
25. The Holy Roman Army – How the Light Gets In
24. Florence and the Machine – Lungs
23. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
22. Dan Deacon – Bromst
21. The Horrors – Primary Colours
20. Moderat – Moderat
The marriage of Modeselektor and Apparat produced a beautiful Berlin child which was equal parts dub-techno and ambient electronica. Rumour had it they broke up immediately after their Electric Picnic performance but they left us a lush, brooding, beat album to cherish. The album also gave us the stellar Shackleton remix of ‘Rusty Nails’ which was equally as mindblowing.
MP3:Moderat – No. 22
MP3:Moderat – Rusty Nails (Shackleton remix)
[Myspace | Buy: Amazon / iTunes / eMusic ]19. The XX – The XX
“A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.” The XX agree with Leopold Stokowski and made a miminal brooding indie-pop debut wise beyond their young years. It’s the space between the notes..
MP3:The XX – Intro
[Myspace | Buy: Amazon / iTunes / eMusic ]18. St. Vincent – Actor
Before 2009, I had no time for St. Vincent. After hearing ‘The Strangers’, seeing her play live in a church at SXSW and support Grizzly Bear, I was a big fan boy. Actor cemented those experiences thanks to the Disney-inspired, orchestral and guitar maneuvers atop which Annie Clark sumptuous voice leads proceedings.
MP3:St. Vincent – The Strangers
[Myspace | Buy: Amazon / iTunes / eMusic ]17. Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport
With Andrew Weatherall on board as producer, Fuck Buttons extended the ambient palette of their debut Street Horrrsing into something closely resembling out-and-out techno but a new kind, made with analogue equipment and perfectly imperfect. Tarot Sport was less about small moments and chord changes, it looks to the bigger picture with euphoric rushes of digital noise, techno beats and epic synths. Let it wash over you.
MP3:Fuck Buttons – Flight of the Feathered Serpent
[Myspace | Buy: Amazon / iTunes / eMusic ]16. DOOM – Born Like This
“Born like this / Into this / As the chalk faces smile / As Mrs Death laughs / As the elevators break / As political landscapes dissolve.” – ‘Cellz’.
A new MF DOOM album is always welcome around these parts. This time, Dumile dispenses with the MF and goes all caps. Born Like This sees the rapping firebrand hungry to twist words in a raspier style than before. Raekwon, Ghostface both feature (as well as Paloma Faith bizarrely enough) while productions come from Jake One, J Dilla. Madlib and Mr Chop but it’s all about DOOM the enigmatic character.
[Myspace | Buy: Amazon / iTunes / eMusic ]
