The album, though, does nothing to dispell those notions of Sade as a dinner party artist, which comes as a huge disappointment after the thrilling sounds of its title track. Opener 'The Moon & the Sky' is a melancholic prelude to the single with its reverberating plucked beats contrasting with a tripping r'n'b rhythm that exemplifies Sade at their best. 'Morning Bird' seems to pick up the morning after the battle of 'Soldier of Love', violins and a soft piano refrain allowing the vocals to slide in sadly, and here the despair works well. But after this strong opening trio, the album slides into the middle of the road smoothness. 'Long Hard Road' aims so clearly for more despair - just read the title! - that it comes off as trite and wallowing. 'Babyfather' is something a little different, but the tropical Caribbean feel is straight out of the 1990s and the story it tells is rote and uninteresting. Soldier of Love is Sade resting on their laurels - it'll sell on the back of their name alone - and I really wonder why the disconnect between putting out such a strong, exhilirating song as the lead single and the rest of the album being so pedestrian. It was a ten year wait for this, and personally, it wasn't worth it.Sunday, 7 February 2010
Stand Down, Soldier
Sade (who we'll be referring to in the plural) seem to have a reputation for being 'middle of the road', easy listening music - music to play in the background at a dinner party or while you fall asleep in the bath. Listen closely, though, and the sadness and despair inherent in the music can be highly affecting. In new single 'Soldier of Love', though, there came a promise of something else: exotic rhythms heightening the emotions, bringing it to new levels. It's a superb song, certainly one of the best singles 2010 has seen so far; the trumpet intro herelds a strongly atmospheric sound, the marching drum beats, looping horn calls and muscular guitar refrains resembling an army on the march. The vocals are sad but typically strong, with a more despairing mood briefly introduced by a higher-pitched vocal refrain over the top of the chorus. Six minutes long, the melody peters out with two minutes left and there is defeat, retreat, the dying throes of the instruments flairing up at random. Sade (singular this time) is "still waiting for love to come", but, as the album as a whole puts across, she might have to keep waiting.
The album, though, does nothing to dispell those notions of Sade as a dinner party artist, which comes as a huge disappointment after the thrilling sounds of its title track. Opener 'The Moon & the Sky' is a melancholic prelude to the single with its reverberating plucked beats contrasting with a tripping r'n'b rhythm that exemplifies Sade at their best. 'Morning Bird' seems to pick up the morning after the battle of 'Soldier of Love', violins and a soft piano refrain allowing the vocals to slide in sadly, and here the despair works well. But after this strong opening trio, the album slides into the middle of the road smoothness. 'Long Hard Road' aims so clearly for more despair - just read the title! - that it comes off as trite and wallowing. 'Babyfather' is something a little different, but the tropical Caribbean feel is straight out of the 1990s and the story it tells is rote and uninteresting. Soldier of Love is Sade resting on their laurels - it'll sell on the back of their name alone - and I really wonder why the disconnect between putting out such a strong, exhilirating song as the lead single and the rest of the album being so pedestrian. It was a ten year wait for this, and personally, it wasn't worth it.
The album, though, does nothing to dispell those notions of Sade as a dinner party artist, which comes as a huge disappointment after the thrilling sounds of its title track. Opener 'The Moon & the Sky' is a melancholic prelude to the single with its reverberating plucked beats contrasting with a tripping r'n'b rhythm that exemplifies Sade at their best. 'Morning Bird' seems to pick up the morning after the battle of 'Soldier of Love', violins and a soft piano refrain allowing the vocals to slide in sadly, and here the despair works well. But after this strong opening trio, the album slides into the middle of the road smoothness. 'Long Hard Road' aims so clearly for more despair - just read the title! - that it comes off as trite and wallowing. 'Babyfather' is something a little different, but the tropical Caribbean feel is straight out of the 1990s and the story it tells is rote and uninteresting. Soldier of Love is Sade resting on their laurels - it'll sell on the back of their name alone - and I really wonder why the disconnect between putting out such a strong, exhilirating song as the lead single and the rest of the album being so pedestrian. It was a ten year wait for this, and personally, it wasn't worth it.
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Christabelle of the Ball
There's a rather delicious album out this week. It may have the rather... well, the rather shit title Real Life Is No Cool (er, if you say so!), but sometimes this things can be fucked up and it's really not any connection to the quality of the material itself. Hans-Peter Lindstrøm's 2008 album Where You Go I Go Too was a mighty three-track, 55 minute affair that really engrossed you in its spacial soundscape of Jean-Michel Jarre-esque percussion that somehow maintains electrifying energy for the first 28 minute track and doesn't really let up on the following tracks, with 'The Long Way Home' entering some kind of reclining disco heaven. This new collaboration with Christabelle Sandoo is a more traditional affair - ten tracks, the longest nearly six and a half minutes, all with discernible structures and more populist feeling - but your head is perhaps the better for the more manageable sizes. Reportedly, Christabelle recorded her vocals independently over Lindstrøm's instrumentals, making them up on the spot and returning them to Lindstrøm to perfect. So it's an intriguing, unusual combination, and it makes for a often unpredictable listening experience, tempered by the presence of some rather astonishing hooks.
Don't sit back and relax just yet, though. The album opens with a stuttering, incomprehensible refrain before seguing into a mix of squelching synth and reverbing keyboard on 'Looking For What'. 'Lovesick', the next single, is a highly palatable piece of disco funk, and these two tracks set the template for an album that shifts between soaring hooks and darker, swirling sounds. The high-point is 'Baby Can't Stop', a very instant confection that has some very '90s trumpets and some very '80s samba rhythms and has drawn comparisons in the back-and-forward rhythms to Michael Jackson's 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'' - a mighty thing to live up to indeed, but there's reason for it. Only penultimate track 'Never Say Never', which goes backwards, seems lacking - Siobhan Donaghy, whose ethereal Ghosts occasionally comes to mind (although the reference points were more likely Siobhan's own - Kate Bush, Cocteau Twins, etc. - than the ex-Sugababe herself), did this herself on the title track of that album, but unlike that 'Never Say Never' lacks any fragility, beauty or intrigue; it merely feels like an throwaway folly. Overall, though, Christabelle has brought the disco chic to Lindstrøm's ethereal electronica and they're having a funky party. (Not that kind of party.)
Oh, and you can download the Aeroplane remix of 'Baby Can't Stop, which is rather pretty, isn't it? Yes it is.
download: Baby Can't Stop (Aeroplane Remix)
Don't sit back and relax just yet, though. The album opens with a stuttering, incomprehensible refrain before seguing into a mix of squelching synth and reverbing keyboard on 'Looking For What'. 'Lovesick', the next single, is a highly palatable piece of disco funk, and these two tracks set the template for an album that shifts between soaring hooks and darker, swirling sounds. The high-point is 'Baby Can't Stop', a very instant confection that has some very '90s trumpets and some very '80s samba rhythms and has drawn comparisons in the back-and-forward rhythms to Michael Jackson's 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'' - a mighty thing to live up to indeed, but there's reason for it. Only penultimate track 'Never Say Never', which goes backwards, seems lacking - Siobhan Donaghy, whose ethereal Ghosts occasionally comes to mind (although the reference points were more likely Siobhan's own - Kate Bush, Cocteau Twins, etc. - than the ex-Sugababe herself), did this herself on the title track of that album, but unlike that 'Never Say Never' lacks any fragility, beauty or intrigue; it merely feels like an throwaway folly. Overall, though, Christabelle has brought the disco chic to Lindstrøm's ethereal electronica and they're having a funky party. (Not that kind of party.)Oh, and you can download the Aeroplane remix of 'Baby Can't Stop, which is rather pretty, isn't it? Yes it is.
download: Baby Can't Stop (Aeroplane Remix)
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Goulden
I'm sure you don't really need me to tell you about Ellie Goulding, what with her winning that BBC Sound of 2010 poll and whatnot, but, damn it, people need to know my opinions on everything and they'll bloody well listen if I have to shove a computer down their throats. Also, I kind of promised I'd tell you all about her a few months ago and that never panned out, but if I do it now I wasn't technically lying, now was I, and so you can't call me a liar.
So she won the BBC Sound of 2010 list; once Delphic had been announced as the #3 it was rather obvious that Ellie and Neon Gold mate Marina & the Diamonds were going to be the top two, but somehow Ellie - standing unassumingly with her guitar and occasionally banging on a drum - seems the less likely 'star' than the glittering Marina who makes monkey noises and is generally a bit bananas. But hey. The merits of the BBC 'Sound of' lists are debatable anyway and I could go off on a whole tangent here that's best avoided. Fact is, Ellie is promising and you can see why she's got industry insiders tipping her, but at the same time she doesn't seem like a global chart-topping popstar. She shouldn't have to be, but Little Boots proved last year that not achieving massive success after being tipped by everyone and their mother is a bit like a kiss of death.
Intriguingly enough, as I mentioned those months ago, Ellie was Little Boots' second support act on her tour - to these eyes and ears, Ellie's straightforward attitude and easy charisma bested Boots' schizophrenic mess of stage personas, and her material might be stronger too; it feels more stripped-back and emotional, or does when there haven't been too many synths laid on top of it. Case in point here: 'Wish I Stayed', which the Frankmusik-produced demo did no favours, such that the simpler version that came on the An Introduction to Ellie Goulding EP from iTunes was a bit like being slapped in the face - where was all that emotion before? The 'future folk' works when the synths support the vocals, but not when they overpower them.
Ellie, at least, isn't leaving things as late as poor derided Little Boots - her debut album Lights, still without a cover or a tracklisting, is due out in March and single 'Starry Eyed' has been glitzed up and spread over the radio. It's not as instant as 'buzz single' 'Under the Sheets', which did well to peak not far outside the top 40 late last year, but in the months the demo version has been floating around my ears it's charms have proven considerable. The single version suffers from that overload of synths problem, but it'll do. How well, it remains to be seen, because who really knows what the public wants?
But as we stand now, things look good, qualitively speaking at least. The video - which you can watch below - is as sparkly and entertaining in a restricted space as the 'Under the Sheets' video was, and, gasp, she even tries to dance a little bit. Best of all, though, is the astonishing Russ Chimes remix. He'd already wowed me with his remix of Marina's 'Mowgli's Road' - which is something else in its last two minutes - but he's matched, if not out-done himself with his whizzing-up of 'Starry Eyed'. Living up to his name, there are a lot of chimes, as well as ditzy synths, a hefty piano line - just a whole bonanza of wonderful modern sounds formed into an always danceable but escalating remix of epic proportions, Ellie's soulful vocals mixed with repeated cries of "ohh" that probably form the bulk of the vocals here as they're swirled around with all the synths. Basically, it's an early contender for remix of the year, and you can grab it, for free, over at the ever-wonderful Neon Gold.
So she won the BBC Sound of 2010 list; once Delphic had been announced as the #3 it was rather obvious that Ellie and Neon Gold mate Marina & the Diamonds were going to be the top two, but somehow Ellie - standing unassumingly with her guitar and occasionally banging on a drum - seems the less likely 'star' than the glittering Marina who makes monkey noises and is generally a bit bananas. But hey. The merits of the BBC 'Sound of' lists are debatable anyway and I could go off on a whole tangent here that's best avoided. Fact is, Ellie is promising and you can see why she's got industry insiders tipping her, but at the same time she doesn't seem like a global chart-topping popstar. She shouldn't have to be, but Little Boots proved last year that not achieving massive success after being tipped by everyone and their mother is a bit like a kiss of death.
Intriguingly enough, as I mentioned those months ago, Ellie was Little Boots' second support act on her tour - to these eyes and ears, Ellie's straightforward attitude and easy charisma bested Boots' schizophrenic mess of stage personas, and her material might be stronger too; it feels more stripped-back and emotional, or does when there haven't been too many synths laid on top of it. Case in point here: 'Wish I Stayed', which the Frankmusik-produced demo did no favours, such that the simpler version that came on the An Introduction to Ellie Goulding EP from iTunes was a bit like being slapped in the face - where was all that emotion before? The 'future folk' works when the synths support the vocals, but not when they overpower them.Ellie, at least, isn't leaving things as late as poor derided Little Boots - her debut album Lights, still without a cover or a tracklisting, is due out in March and single 'Starry Eyed' has been glitzed up and spread over the radio. It's not as instant as 'buzz single' 'Under the Sheets', which did well to peak not far outside the top 40 late last year, but in the months the demo version has been floating around my ears it's charms have proven considerable. The single version suffers from that overload of synths problem, but it'll do. How well, it remains to be seen, because who really knows what the public wants?
But as we stand now, things look good, qualitively speaking at least. The video - which you can watch below - is as sparkly and entertaining in a restricted space as the 'Under the Sheets' video was, and, gasp, she even tries to dance a little bit. Best of all, though, is the astonishing Russ Chimes remix. He'd already wowed me with his remix of Marina's 'Mowgli's Road' - which is something else in its last two minutes - but he's matched, if not out-done himself with his whizzing-up of 'Starry Eyed'. Living up to his name, there are a lot of chimes, as well as ditzy synths, a hefty piano line - just a whole bonanza of wonderful modern sounds formed into an always danceable but escalating remix of epic proportions, Ellie's soulful vocals mixed with repeated cries of "ohh" that probably form the bulk of the vocals here as they're swirled around with all the synths. Basically, it's an early contender for remix of the year, and you can grab it, for free, over at the ever-wonderful Neon Gold.
Saturday, 23 January 2010
Better So
In the mood for a rave? Oh, I know it's the middle of the afternoon, but then the wonderful thing about the internet is that, someone in the world at least, someone will be raving their little socks off, and here I am to help you pretend that you are too. Hell, it's dark enough outside my window already; let's pull down the blinds, put the lights on dim and party like it's 2 o'clock in the morning. Your soundtrack? This guy.
His name's Barretso and he's from Chile; like several artists these days in the house and dance worlds of music he's both producer and an artist in his own right. And what he's produced as an 'artist in his own right' is rather stonkingly good. Thick, thudding synths that zig-zag across each other with a constant rolling beat beneath them, and his light, airy vocals on the top of them. 'Midnight Walk', a tuneful swirl of '80s computer game noises and blaring synths, has been around for about a month, but 'Bright City Lights' has surfaced and it's even better; a rave from beginning to end, his vocals somehow manage to form an infectious hook from the titular lyric while almost being submerged into the melee of disco synths. He could be someone pretty special to look out for. (And we'd say we told you first but that would just be a rather enormous lie, wouldn't it.)
download: Bright City Lights
His name's Barretso and he's from Chile; like several artists these days in the house and dance worlds of music he's both producer and an artist in his own right. And what he's produced as an 'artist in his own right' is rather stonkingly good. Thick, thudding synths that zig-zag across each other with a constant rolling beat beneath them, and his light, airy vocals on the top of them. 'Midnight Walk', a tuneful swirl of '80s computer game noises and blaring synths, has been around for about a month, but 'Bright City Lights' has surfaced and it's even better; a rave from beginning to end, his vocals somehow manage to form an infectious hook from the titular lyric while almost being submerged into the melee of disco synths. He could be someone pretty special to look out for. (And we'd say we told you first but that would just be a rather enormous lie, wouldn't it.)download: Bright City Lights
Monday, 11 January 2010
It's Not Over Yet
There's something in the water. Although no one seems to have changed it since last year. 2009 might have been 'the year of the female' in pop music but 2010 is seeing several females from the couple of years before suddenly rising out of the ashes they'd burst into with triumphant returns. I covered Gabriella Cilmi - who everyone's now going nuts over, with good reason - and now Amy MacDonald has come back, rocked up, and laid her cards on the table. She hasn't gone disco, but there's a much heavier sound to her than the folky melodic This Is The Life. 'Don't Tell Me That It's Over' is a bit Belinda Carlisle crossed with Editors, or something. There are probably so many comparison points that I could make your eyes pop if I had more time to brainstorm.
It starts with some distorted mess of vocals and eerie violins before exploding with a fierce guitar line and raucous drumming. Then Amy pipes up with her deep, rich voice and you remember who you're listening to; despite the railing guitar riffs behind her, this is still a soulful, passionate song like what she's done before. After the chorus the strings come back in to amp up just how over-the-top it all is. It's a bit loud, possibly a bit lacking in the melodies she was so good at before, but it's an interesting change-up and she sounds good as ever. It's out in March, as is the album, and I'll be looking out for it, don't you worry.
It starts with some distorted mess of vocals and eerie violins before exploding with a fierce guitar line and raucous drumming. Then Amy pipes up with her deep, rich voice and you remember who you're listening to; despite the railing guitar riffs behind her, this is still a soulful, passionate song like what she's done before. After the chorus the strings come back in to amp up just how over-the-top it all is. It's a bit loud, possibly a bit lacking in the melodies she was so good at before, but it's an interesting change-up and she sounds good as ever. It's out in March, as is the album, and I'll be looking out for it, don't you worry.Monday, 4 January 2010
Man On A Mission
UPDATE: I was indeed correct. The song is completely amazing and everyone and their dog has been wetting their pants over it - just look! Listen! The first amazing song of 2010.
Yes. I am on a mission. I've been on this mission since 2008, actually, and to be perfectly honest it never really got anywhere... probably because I didn't really try that hard. But no more! Call this a New Year's Resolution if you want. But basically, back in 2008 I fell for Gabriella Cilmi. Oh, wipe that frown away! I would throw 'Sweet About Me' down a well without turning my ears back to hear the splash it made at the bottom. No, what did it for me was second single 'Save the Lies' - which barely scraped into the top 40, although with some chart results for Xenomania-produced acts that seems like a miraculous result - and selected confections from her album Lessons To Be Learned. Particularly the anthemic 'Don't Wanna Go To Bed Now', an Australian single shamefully overlooked for a release elsewhere.
But that is the past! Let us not dwell. Gabriella is coming back back back with some new tunes this year, and from this taster things are looking VERY GOOD INDEED. Now, if you're anything like me - and I like to think I attract people who are similar, because if you're similar to me, you're amazing, end of - you'll debate over whether to actually listen to the following or not, because it is in fact a remix of Gabriella's upcoming single 'On a Mission', and it's probably a bad idea to do as I've already done and become hooked on a remix before having heard the original song. You might only be letting yourself in for disappointment. So use your own judgment. But the following is VERY VERY AMAZING and I'd advise you not to deprive your ears of such brilliance. (But if you still don't want to, try this live version of the song, which still shows off the lyrics and what will hopefully be the general storming sound of the finished product.) Apparently she'll play "an alien in the video", but "don't worry, I'm a sexy alien"... okay, Gabriella, as long as the middle-8 still sounds as thrilling as the remix makes it, you can dress up as a giraffe for all I care.
Yes. I am on a mission. I've been on this mission since 2008, actually, and to be perfectly honest it never really got anywhere... probably because I didn't really try that hard. But no more! Call this a New Year's Resolution if you want. But basically, back in 2008 I fell for Gabriella Cilmi. Oh, wipe that frown away! I would throw 'Sweet About Me' down a well without turning my ears back to hear the splash it made at the bottom. No, what did it for me was second single 'Save the Lies' - which barely scraped into the top 40, although with some chart results for Xenomania-produced acts that seems like a miraculous result - and selected confections from her album Lessons To Be Learned. Particularly the anthemic 'Don't Wanna Go To Bed Now', an Australian single shamefully overlooked for a release elsewhere.
But that is the past! Let us not dwell. Gabriella is coming back back back with some new tunes this year, and from this taster things are looking VERY GOOD INDEED. Now, if you're anything like me - and I like to think I attract people who are similar, because if you're similar to me, you're amazing, end of - you'll debate over whether to actually listen to the following or not, because it is in fact a remix of Gabriella's upcoming single 'On a Mission', and it's probably a bad idea to do as I've already done and become hooked on a remix before having heard the original song. You might only be letting yourself in for disappointment. So use your own judgment. But the following is VERY VERY AMAZING and I'd advise you not to deprive your ears of such brilliance. (But if you still don't want to, try this live version of the song, which still shows off the lyrics and what will hopefully be the general storming sound of the finished product.) Apparently she'll play "an alien in the video", but "don't worry, I'm a sexy alien"... okay, Gabriella, as long as the middle-8 still sounds as thrilling as the remix makes it, you can dress up as a giraffe for all I care.Sunday, 3 January 2010
Oh Nine: Twenty Plus Five
After much agonising, it is finally here. I'm finally ready to put 2009 to rest. Here are my top 25 albums of the final year of a remarkable decade.
Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You
Lily Allen's sharp, tactile wit meets Greg Kurstin's smooth, textured production and they make beautiful music together. Some songs quickly revealed themselves as thin and underpowered - hilariously enough, mostly the single choices - but there's still a sad wisdom behind much of the record, a self-conscious world-weariness about fame that you can hardly deny Lily has earned. And she has enough humour to carry it off in marvellous fashion.
Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
Spirited Scottish folk, but don't run away just yet. It's delightful. The vocals have a constant slight echo to them, as if they're being sung in a nightclub, which gives proceedings a strong live edge. Add to that the flourishing violins and gentle drumbeats, and you've got a beautiful melody of slightly melancholic, but by no means downbeat, folkish pop that can't help but make the toe tap.
Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You
Lily Allen's sharp, tactile wit meets Greg Kurstin's smooth, textured production and they make beautiful music together. Some songs quickly revealed themselves as thin and underpowered - hilariously enough, mostly the single choices - but there's still a sad wisdom behind much of the record, a self-conscious world-weariness about fame that you can hardly deny Lily has earned. And she has enough humour to carry it off in marvellous fashion.
Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
Spirited Scottish folk, but don't run away just yet. It's delightful. The vocals have a constant slight echo to them, as if they're being sung in a nightclub, which gives proceedings a strong live edge. Add to that the flourishing violins and gentle drumbeats, and you've got a beautiful melody of slightly melancholic, but by no means downbeat, folkish pop that can't help but make the toe tap.
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
From the folksy guitar and clattering percussion of 'Southern Point', Veckatimest marks itself as an album of slightly creeping, melodic fascination. 'Two Weeks' then makes it clear, with its thumping piano, that they're not just going to let you sit back and doze while you spin this disc. Basically, it's hard to pin down, but the skittish rhythms somehow make sense within itself, seeping under your skin with their off-kilter beauty.
Dan Deacon - Bromst
Vocals frequently barely audible beneath the frenetic, twirling melee of electronic sounds and striking of percussion, this is more than any other album on this list something that needs to be heard in full. The immersive experience takes you between bewildered despair to some undefinable joy in the madness of the noises. It's confrontational, very odd, incomprehensible wall of sound sometimes, but in all the madness lies beauty and an irrevocable emotional thread. Just don't ask of what emotions.
Vocals frequently barely audible beneath the frenetic, twirling melee of electronic sounds and striking of percussion, this is more than any other album on this list something that needs to be heard in full. The immersive experience takes you between bewildered despair to some undefinable joy in the madness of the noises. It's confrontational, very odd, incomprehensible wall of sound sometimes, but in all the madness lies beauty and an irrevocable emotional thread. Just don't ask of what emotions.
Shakira - She Wolf
Short, sweet, and to some point both establishing Shakira as a force to be reckoned with and deconstructing her mighty worldwide image. In the she wolf, the panting adulteror, the woman lusting after fame (and Matt Damon), the woman scorned, the woman fed-up, the woman ready for love, this is all a bit schizophrenic. But she cleverly feeds off the variety of sounds she's embraced throughout her career and crafts a couple of truly unique high-points out of this kitchen-sink approach, not least the frenetic lunacy of the title track.
Paloma Faith - Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?
Possibly the musical equivalent of one of those jewellery boxes where a dancer pops up and spins to a twinkling tune. Paloma Faith's glittering world is full of them, all along the philosophical line that invented magic is preferable to harsh reality. Hard to disagree when you hear the sumptuous melodies and wrenching vocals on display here.
Possibly the musical equivalent of one of those jewellery boxes where a dancer pops up and spins to a twinkling tune. Paloma Faith's glittering world is full of them, all along the philosophical line that invented magic is preferable to harsh reality. Hard to disagree when you hear the sumptuous melodies and wrenching vocals on display here.
The Veronicas - Hook Me Up
Two years late, The Veronicas finally hit the UK and ended up not making much of an impression. (It was probably having the second single as one of the even older tracks from their debut album that they tagged onto the end...) But this still sounds quite fresh; packed full of slightly punkish pop riffs and slicing synths, the vocals easily reaching fever pitch at several points, making for an album it's very easy to become wrapped up in, and blast like you're fourteen again.
Two years late, The Veronicas finally hit the UK and ended up not making much of an impression. (It was probably having the second single as one of the even older tracks from their debut album that they tagged onto the end...) But this still sounds quite fresh; packed full of slightly punkish pop riffs and slicing synths, the vocals easily reaching fever pitch at several points, making for an album it's very easy to become wrapped up in, and blast like you're fourteen again.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
The opening one-two punch of the manic, frenetic singles 'Zero' and 'Heads Will Roll' give the impression that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have jumped on the electropop wagon with their guitars and zoomed off into the distance. But listen on and Karen O and team fashion some disarmingly tender moments out of the electric guitars and tambourines and synths and her unmistakable vocals, which flit between breathy unease and bellowing majesty. It's those big moments, the lyrical hooks, that catch you, but the depth and variety that draw you back again.
The opening one-two punch of the manic, frenetic singles 'Zero' and 'Heads Will Roll' give the impression that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have jumped on the electropop wagon with their guitars and zoomed off into the distance. But listen on and Karen O and team fashion some disarmingly tender moments out of the electric guitars and tambourines and synths and her unmistakable vocals, which flit between breathy unease and bellowing majesty. It's those big moments, the lyrical hooks, that catch you, but the depth and variety that draw you back again.
Datarock - Red
An album intensely connected to the 1980s ("Molllllly! Molly Ringwaaaald!") - even opener 'The Blog', which deals with the internet and all that jazz, is '80s-style in the soundbites and dark synthy sound. Deliciously pop guitar riffs and Fredrik Saroea's rich vocals lead the album, accompanied by some deliciously offbeat lyrics that sit somewhere between genius and absurdity. Red is at its best, though, when it bursts into joyful exuberance, achieved through Saroea's vocal flexibility and a highly potent mixture of guitar and synth.
An album intensely connected to the 1980s ("Molllllly! Molly Ringwaaaald!") - even opener 'The Blog', which deals with the internet and all that jazz, is '80s-style in the soundbites and dark synthy sound. Deliciously pop guitar riffs and Fredrik Saroea's rich vocals lead the album, accompanied by some deliciously offbeat lyrics that sit somewhere between genius and absurdity. Red is at its best, though, when it bursts into joyful exuberance, achieved through Saroea's vocal flexibility and a highly potent mixture of guitar and synth.
Fever Ray - Fever Ray
Even more creeping and unnerving than The Knife's body of work, half of said cutlery duo, Karin Dreijer Andersson, creates some cacophony of gothicness in Fever Ray. The percussion loads on top of itself as her vocals wheezily slide over the top, frequently building into some kind of enchanting nightmare of a noise, images full of inverted, impossible things. I don't know what it is, I often don't know if I enjoy it, but it's compulsive, irretractably overwhelming. It is magnificent.
Even more creeping and unnerving than The Knife's body of work, half of said cutlery duo, Karin Dreijer Andersson, creates some cacophony of gothicness in Fever Ray. The percussion loads on top of itself as her vocals wheezily slide over the top, frequently building into some kind of enchanting nightmare of a noise, images full of inverted, impossible things. I don't know what it is, I often don't know if I enjoy it, but it's compulsive, irretractably overwhelming. It is magnificent.
Memory Tapes - Seek Magic
Shuffling beats and thin flying vocals merge around a core of melancholic electronica and percussion; it's one of those albums that always sound good, but for reasons unapparent until several listens have immersed you repeatedly in the distinctive feel, this world where the vocals suddenly flourish and new sounds emerge to blow your mind. If you want to seek musical magic, this may indeed be the place to do it.
Jack Peñate - Everything Is New
Previously boring indie musician gets in touch with a new producer and it sparks into this, a twirling, layered little treat. Peñate's straining, reedy vocals sound majestic over the layers of vocals, the clanging instruments, the melancholic guitar riffs, the clapping - Paul Epworth has a kitchen-sink feel to his productions, but he knows where everything is in that cluttered pile. There's a passion beneath the sadness and a sadness beneath the joy here, as the songs skip by in a trumpeting flourish.
Previously boring indie musician gets in touch with a new producer and it sparks into this, a twirling, layered little treat. Peñate's straining, reedy vocals sound majestic over the layers of vocals, the clanging instruments, the melancholic guitar riffs, the clapping - Paul Epworth has a kitchen-sink feel to his productions, but he knows where everything is in that cluttered pile. There's a passion beneath the sadness and a sadness beneath the joy here, as the songs skip by in a trumpeting flourish.
The xx - xx
Stripped, simple but intensely atmospheric, this British quartet's debut unnerves with ghostly noises sliding beneath the monotone vocals and plodding beats to create a bewitching record. Best listened to with the lights turned off, where you can imagine those eerie howls are swooping around behind your back, and those voices are whispering invisibly in your ear.
Annie - Don't Stop (and All Night EP)
After a long struggle and a dumping by her label, 2009 finally saw Annie Strand finally release her follow-up to 2004's dynamite pop record Anniemal. Don't Stop is less playfully titled, sure, but the music within might be more-so: the first five tracks, a mixture of joyful Xenomania and off-beat, rhythmic Paul Epworth tracks, is one of the finest openings of the year. It then leads into a stunningly melancholic central core, and, if the last section lets the side down, Annie makes up for it with the snappy All Night EP, providing one of the year's strongest bodies of work.
Vienna Teng - Inland Territory
Vienna's fourth album might not strike one as a particular departure from her usual rhapsodic mixture of beautiful piano and floating vocals. But there's a rawer feel to this album, most obvious on the live feel of 'The Last Snowfall' and 'Grandmother Song'. An adept, fascinating take on American history - particularly, as you might have guessed, those inland territories (the deep South is the subject of the sublime 'No Gringo') - it grows in stature with each listen and Teng remains a hidden gem of modern music.
Vienna's fourth album might not strike one as a particular departure from her usual rhapsodic mixture of beautiful piano and floating vocals. But there's a rawer feel to this album, most obvious on the live feel of 'The Last Snowfall' and 'Grandmother Song'. An adept, fascinating take on American history - particularly, as you might have guessed, those inland territories (the deep South is the subject of the sublime 'No Gringo') - it grows in stature with each listen and Teng remains a hidden gem of modern music.
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
These French indiepop personages have been around for a fair few years, but 2009 seemed to be when they finally broke-through and hit the hype lists big time. And with good reason. The title makes sense when you get to the majestic 'Love Like A Sunset', the epically-constructed two-track centrepiece which uses computer bleeps and growling guitars to build into a delicate, powerful percussion piece, with a vocal and guitar finale which is hard to come down from. But the album flits between flourishing exuberance (those crowing vocals!) and heavier beats with robust ease, and it's really just a pleasure to have in your ears.
These French indiepop personages have been around for a fair few years, but 2009 seemed to be when they finally broke-through and hit the hype lists big time. And with good reason. The title makes sense when you get to the majestic 'Love Like A Sunset', the epically-constructed two-track centrepiece which uses computer bleeps and growling guitars to build into a delicate, powerful percussion piece, with a vocal and guitar finale which is hard to come down from. But the album flits between flourishing exuberance (those crowing vocals!) and heavier beats with robust ease, and it's really just a pleasure to have in your ears.
Dragonette - Fixin to Thrill
From the violent, strident opening Dragonette make it clear that they've still got their attitude, and they've jazzed it up a bit with some headbanging, some banjo, some enormous eyewear. Martina's unmistakable vowels lord over the jagged electropop, swirling into some unexpectedly tender moments, especially in the album's final stretches, which take a while to match up to the stylistic bursts of the rest but eventually reveal themselves to be up to the pace. Thrilling stuff.
Sally Shapiro - My Guilty Pleasure
Like, as the opening tracks says, swimming through a blue lagoon. Shapiro's thin vocals lilt over the gossamer italo-disco production as synths zoom around her head. At least that's the image produced here. It's music to listen to just before the dawn breaks, as ghostly tinges of light streak across a black sky. Oh, I'm being all romantic. It's what this does to me, makes me want to kiss on a heath below the twinkling stars.
Like, as the opening tracks says, swimming through a blue lagoon. Shapiro's thin vocals lilt over the gossamer italo-disco production as synths zoom around her head. At least that's the image produced here. It's music to listen to just before the dawn breaks, as ghostly tinges of light streak across a black sky. Oh, I'm being all romantic. It's what this does to me, makes me want to kiss on a heath below the twinkling stars.
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (and Fall Be Kind EP)
The internet lost its shit over Animal Collective this year and their unpredictable, delightful merging of rock with synths, particularly potent on the singles 'My Girls' and 'Summertime Clothes' with their several enormously catchy hooks spread across some field of psychadelica. Add the Fall Be Kind EP to the mix and you see them step it up even further - perhaps a tad more impenetrable, but equally layered and textured in the smooth, enrapturing sounds.
Lady GaGa - The Fame Monster
The undispitable popstar of the year, Lady GaGa's reissue of her debut album was so good they ended up releasing it as it's own album. It's impossible not to see why. She retains the pop hooks of The Fame but embues them with a darker, denser feel - how many layers of sounds are there on these tracks? - that seems to have led from 'Paparazzi' and its famous VMAs performance. It isn't flawless - sticking the ballad 'Speechless' midway through rather disrupts the intensity - but as a collection of songs and a hint of what may be to come, it's immense.
The undispitable popstar of the year, Lady GaGa's reissue of her debut album was so good they ended up releasing it as it's own album. It's impossible not to see why. She retains the pop hooks of The Fame but embues them with a darker, denser feel - how many layers of sounds are there on these tracks? - that seems to have led from 'Paparazzi' and its famous VMAs performance. It isn't flawless - sticking the ballad 'Speechless' midway through rather disrupts the intensity - but as a collection of songs and a hint of what may be to come, it's immense.
Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
Rising like a ghostly apparition, Bat for Lashes' second album keeps the haunting, echoing feel of her debut but deepens it, becomes even more immersed in the dark recesses of the night. It's utterly compulsive, an album full of rich imagery and bewitching lyricism, all tied together with Natasha Khan's magnificently straining vocals that feel as much of an instrument as all the drums and bells and strings around her. Utterly gorgeous in its unnerving majesty.
Antigone - AntigoneLand
Rising like a ghostly apparition, Bat for Lashes' second album keeps the haunting, echoing feel of her debut but deepens it, becomes even more immersed in the dark recesses of the night. It's utterly compulsive, an album full of rich imagery and bewitching lyricism, all tied together with Natasha Khan's magnificently straining vocals that feel as much of an instrument as all the drums and bells and strings around her. Utterly gorgeous in its unnerving majesty.
Antigone - AntigoneLand
Like some kind of magnificent peacock, Antigone's feathers come to intoxicating, beguiling flourish from the very start of her ridiculously underheard debut album. Her voice is a rich well of different sounds, from the plaintive, playful self-reflection on 'Promiscuity' to the deathly screaming middle-8 of 'Into Your Head'. And the music... a dense variety of delicious pop hooks and electronic swizzling that twists in and out of the equally bizarre vocals. It sounds weird, and it is, but it's still hugely accessible, because it's very, very good.
Röyksopp - Junior
A majesty of electronica. From the joyful, bouncing opening it seagues into a dark, swirling world of heavy beats and light bleeps backed by flourishing orchestration, employing a variety of rich female vocalists to make the music really soar. On 'Vision One' the lyrical depth makes itself apparent, but where the album's power lies truly seems to lie is in the fragility of Anneli Drecker's haunting vocals on three tracks, and in Röyksopp's innate sense of the beauty possible within a synth.
Rihanna - Rated R
Who expected this? Rihanna bounced back from that infamous incident neither obsessing over or ignoring it - it's there, in the background, infusing the tracklisting with an extra power, but it isn't strictly necessary. Rated R has Rihanna proving why she has become a global superstar. The feel shifts between fierce attitude and delicate fragility, but it all coheres somehow, feeling as if it all comes from this one woman, Robyn Rihanna Fenty, a woman we feel we know better but we really don't know at all. What's truth and what's pretence? Is this all a fiction, rated R? And does it even matter, really, when the songs on display are as ingenious in their melodies and lyrics as so many of these are? No, it isn't flawless. But neither is Rihanna, and that's why she has become the woman we see before us, no matter how true that image is.
Who expected this? Rihanna bounced back from that infamous incident neither obsessing over or ignoring it - it's there, in the background, infusing the tracklisting with an extra power, but it isn't strictly necessary. Rated R has Rihanna proving why she has become a global superstar. The feel shifts between fierce attitude and delicate fragility, but it all coheres somehow, feeling as if it all comes from this one woman, Robyn Rihanna Fenty, a woman we feel we know better but we really don't know at all. What's truth and what's pretence? Is this all a fiction, rated R? And does it even matter, really, when the songs on display are as ingenious in their melodies and lyrics as so many of these are? No, it isn't flawless. But neither is Rihanna, and that's why she has become the woman we see before us, no matter how true that image is.
Florence + the Machine - LungsThis year, Florence Welch swept me off my feet. How could she not, with that billowing yell of a voice? She could knock anyone over with a mere breath if it pleased her. It's most certainly the centrepiece of her stunning debut. It wails powerfully over the cacophony of harps and drums that create the bewitching world of Lungs. It's something that you can either buy into, her flourishing vocal tics, the flushing harp strings, the dancing tambourines, or push away, but Florence is one of those artists who seem to have been made especially for me. I immediately lost myself in the spacial beauty of 'Cosmic Love', the angry vitriol of 'Girl With One Eye', the frenetic angst of 'Rabbit Heart'. It feels intensely personal; both to Florence, and to me. I've lived this album this year, and so it could hardly fail to be my favourite album of the year.
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