Top 30-ish Albums of 2012

Here's where I admit that I didn't listen to a whole lot of new music this year. Maybe it was high school ending, maybe it was college starting, maybe it was me playing more of my own music, or maybe it was just a weird form of laziness, but my backlog is pretty fucking massive, and it only got bigger this year. So, this list isn't necessarily the most extensive and well researched, but then again what list is?

All that being said, the highs for this year were really fucking high. All of these albums are pretty incredible, and the numerical ranking pretty much becomes irrelevant in the upper 8 or so. 

Albums That Were Pretty Cool That I Would Need To Listen To More To Rank Numerically
(In Alphabetical Order)

Aidan Baker - The Spectrum of Distraction

TMBG's Fingertips, except with instrumental rock/drone music and lasting for two hours. 

Animal Collective - Centipede Hz

LELELELELELELELEL

The Antlers - Undersea

Nice EP, though I worry about The Antlers going in a direction that will make me cry less.

Balmorhea - Stranger
Recently getting into these guys. Good stuff.

BEAK> - BEAK>>
Rad Krauty kinda stuff.

Death Grips - The Money Store
#noided

Dweller On The Threshold - S/T
Good Enemies List-core, but really disappointingly short.

Fang Island - Major
It's fun. I hate fun.

Jack White - Blunderbuss
Thumbs up if you're one of the 9% of people who still listens to REAL music

James Blackshaw - Love Is The Plan, The Plan Is Death
Good minimal folk guitar stuff. Song with vocals is pretty iffy though.

Jonny Greenwood - The Master Soundtrack
Pig FUCK

Ponderosa - Pool Party
Good ol' indie pop.

Portico Quartet - S/T
I wore this out pretty quickly. Good stuff though.

Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras, The Congos - FRKWYS Vol. 9
Happy Song is fucking incredible. Rest of the album is alright.

Victor Villarreal - Invisible Cinema
Good emo twinklin'

Honorable Mention Kinda: Macintosh Plus - Floral Shoppe 

I guess this album came out in 2011, but it was the poster child for vaporwave, so whatever. Slowed down 80s music for nostalgics. Yum yum!

Here's Another One: Masturbation Goes Cloud - 20.12.2012

This just came out a few days ago, so I haven't had much time to give it a numerical ranking of any sort. That being said, this is a great album by a really cool band that put out another album last year. This has the band evolving a bit, using more electronics and the like. Great stuff!

15. Literature - Arab Spring

I think this album technically came out in 2011, like, in the last few days or something, so it might not actually belong on this list. But, release year notwithstanding, this is a fantastic song cycle of irresistible, fun, catchy as all hell jangle pop that breeze by like a summers day. Definitely not something to miss.

14. Mount Eerie - Ocean Roar

One of two albums by Phil Elverum's Mount Eerie put out this year, Ocean Roar is the darker, grander brother of Clear Moon. With some massive sounds in opener Pale Lights and probably the best 'instrumental' songs in Elverum's discography, Clear Moon is more obviously a continuance of his 'black metal album' Wind's Poem. Clear Moon is great in it's own right, but aside from some cheesy use of children's voices (see the title track), Ocean Roar comes out on top.

13. Maps and Atlases - Beware and Be Grateful

Maps and Atlases are masters of math-pop, and on their new album they show off more of their pop chops. A bit more darkly tinted than their other work, a lot of these songs are somber and nostalgic, and pretty beautiful in parts. Old Ash is a highlight, with probably the most passionately performed vocals in the band's discog. Good stuff!

12. Dads - American Radass (this is important)

With that album art and that album name, and song titles like Groin Twerk and Bakefast at Piffanys, it might be easy to dismiss Dads as some kind of joke. But don't be fooled - this album has a lot up it's sleeves. Fantastic instrumentation matched with some really personal (and in turn, incredibly relatable) lyrics about relationships or lackthereof, this has all the makings of a classic album of revival emo. Not to be missed.

11. Eaststrikewest - We're Important And We Keep The City Running. We're Important. We're Important. We're Important.

If I were to describe this album in one horribly overused word, it'd be 'epic'. Soaring instrumentation and inspired vocals are front and center in this band's kinda-sorta post rock final album. Foot stomping is required.

10. Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light

This album encompasses everything that's great about J. Spaceman - catchy pop structures with trippy, spacey instrumentation. Bookended by two incredible tracks, this thing's a groovy one. Hurt a bit by kinda shitty production (though I might be in the minority with that opinion).

9. Scott Walker - Bish Bosch

An album of songs in the loosest sense of the word. This thing is fucking weird, but somehow hilariously catchy. Jumping from genre to genre and spitting in the face of song structure, this thing takes you to the darkest realms of Walker's mind, while also using farts as an instrument and yo mama jokes as lyrics. 

8. Cloud Nothings - Attack On Memory

This is some pure fuckin' rock and roll right here. 33 minutes of non-stop yelling and shredding and pounding. Dig on it. 

7. Grizzly Bear - Shields

The newest album by these mellow rockers is more of the same stuff from 2009's Veckatimest, which is just fine for me. They're masters of hazed out acoustic plodding, and Shields is no different, though there are some shining moments of motorik beats (A Simple Answer) and epic crescendos (Sun In Your Eyes) that keep this album interesting. Good for late nights by the fireplace. 

6. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!

Probably one of the biggest 'moment' of this year happened one night around 2 am. Numerous threads were popping up with pictures of a brand new vinyl record by post rock legends Godspeed You! Black Emperor, who hadn't released anything in nearly a decade. Matching their grand mythos they've built up, a new album of two tracks and two drones was quietly released at one of their gigs, and instantly the internet held their breath for a vinyl rip. This album comprises of two recorded songs that they've been playing for years, so it's not necessarily the newest thing on the block, but nonetheless it's incredible music. The two 20 minute tracks are grandiose epics in the style of Yanqui UXO, and the drones show a bit of a new territory for the band. It's not their best album, not by a long shot - but Godspeed's worst is still a lot better than most of the other post rock being thrown out there. 

5. David Byrne & St. Vincent - Love This Giant

Truly a collaboration made in weirdo heaven, this album pairs David Byrne and Annie Clark together, gives them a brass band, and makes a strangely incredibly sexy album (that might mostly be Clark's doing...then again, that David Byrne...). It's definitely a unique pop album, equal parts organic and synthetic, beautiful and ugly, and all the way through catchy and danceable as fuck. I'd say the Clark-sung songs are probably the highlight, but tracks like Who and I Should Watch TV have Byrne doing what he does best, and his best is pretty fucking great. 

4. Moonface with Siinai - Heartbreaking Bravery

The next album by Spencer Krug's fantastic Moonface project pairs him with spacey krautish rockers Siinai, to create an album entirely different from last years Organ Music, yet has that Krug charm through and through. In this case, all the music is provided by Siinai, and the vocals and lyrics by Krug (certainly his most recognizable artistic trait), and the two come together to make a bombastic song cycle about nostalgia, love, and of course, heartbreak. In Krug's other projects, the music and lyrics are made by the same soul, which makes it all a bit more personal and concise - Heartbreaking Bravery isn't necessarily that deeply intertwined within itself, so Krug is almost left to catch up with the grand (in a different way!) nature of Siinai's music - and really, he does so to fantastic effect. 

3. Menomena - Moms

In 2011, Brent Knopf left Menomena, to pursue his other project Ramona Falls (who, in fact, put out an almost insultingly boring album this year). Moms is their first album as a duo, and before it came out, I was concerned. Menomena is the band that really got me to explore the music world, and after a decade of stellar music, I was worried if they could fare well as a duo. Turns out my concerns were ultimately ridiculous - Moms might be the best album Menomena has put out. The vast majority of this album was written about the relationships the two band members have with their parents (hence the album name), and is unabashedly personal and intimate because of it. These songs get dark, they get vulgar, and really incredibly beautiful and poignant. Without a doubt the most grandiose thing they've ever put out,  Moms proves that this band will go plenty far - maybe even farther than they would have. 

2. Skeletons Big Band - The Bus

This album was randomly released one day in September, after about a year or so of Matt Mehlan saying that there was a Big Band album in the works. I remember listening to it at least three times in a row that day.

Skeletons have always been hard to label, and The Bus really only makes it harder. Part afro beat, part post rock, part avant-pop, all of it undeniably Skeletons. Unlike their other stuff, the majority of this album is instrumental, and much like the Byrne/St. Vincent album, led by a massive sounding brass band. Equal parts absolute beauty and absolute chaos, this is something that is not to be missed.

1. Swans - The Seer

Duh.

Lets put aside the immense impact that Swans have had on my life, and look at some objectives. Despite the other worldly, almost deity-like pedestal that I place Soundtracks For The Blind on (and continue to do so... I really need to write something about that!), I can easily admit that it's not a very consistent album. Certainly not the most consistent in Swans' immense, ever evolving discography. So what is?

It's The Seer.
Gira wasn't kidding when he said this album is the culmination of everything he's ever done. Over two hours, Gira presents everything Swans ever was, all while continually advancing what it will continue to be. Lunacy crashes through with appropriately insane repetition - lunacy, lunacy, lunacy, lunacy...your childhood is over. Quickly we move into the two note plodding of Mother of the World, building into a tower where Gira can spout his mad babbling, before the whole thing comes crashing down in a soft acoustic ballad for mother nature. The Wolf lulls us into a false safe haven, before erupting into the 32 minute centerpiece, The Seer. A swirling mass of noise and rhythm, coming together to create the loudest fucking thing you've heard in a long time. Equal parts growth and decay, the blasts of sound become ever more scarce, until we're left with scarce vibrations of strings, quickly changed into a slow dance led by indecipherable spoutings by Gira, yet again. The Seer Returns continues on the groovy side of things, with probably the most easily dance able thing Swans has ever done. 93 Ave. Blues and Daughter Brings The Water show another extreme juxtaposition - pure chaos leading to a pretty acoustic ballad.
The second half is where The Seer proves to be something truly inspired and other worldly. After a nice acoustic track led by Karen O, we delve into Avatar, containing probably the greatest crescendo and payoff this side of Helpless Child. The album concludes with the musical equivalent of having the spirit of God burst through your body, giving you no choice but to shake and scream him out. But in between these two incredible, incredible pieces of music is A Piece of the Sky - a true, absolute masterpiece if there ever was one. A choir of angelic voices (provided by Jarboe [yes!!!]) shine through sounds of fire, leading to an army of hammered dulcimers and other ringing instruments. A complete tirade of pure beauty on your ears, jumping directly to what I can only assume is the climb up the rope to the sky that Gira prophesied in 2010. Subtly building with piano (piano in a Swans song!), guitar and drums, an absolutely incredible chord progression boils and simmers, before the clouds part and Gira sings to us. Harmonized vocals match the pure, unadulterated beauty that is the "song" part of this song. Lyrics questioning identity, purpose, and persona gently follow the music, before it culminates in what might be the ultimate question: "are you in there?" My tears can't be avoided.

Gira clearly has something figured out. For the past thirty years, he's been working toward this point: music that is, above all else, real. Listening to Swans and The Seer have let me get as close as I might ever get to feeling, and maybe even understanding God, or Truth, or whatever is really out there. This stuff lives, and exists through the artists. I can only hope that, whatever happens in the next life, music like this really did give some sort of preview. 

Halcyon Way

Hey look it's me KEWB in for what's practically becoming a terrible habit of making posts maybe on an annual basis. Hey what can I say it's not a job to write for this, and to be perfectly honest it's not even really much of a hobby either, but once in a while I do enjoy randomly searching for obscure bands to see if I find any hidden gems. I haven't really done that in a while, but sometimes a band you've never heard of basically just sort of pops up out of nowhere and you're just sort of like wow this is pretty good. In my case, as I'm sure a lot of you know, Rock Band does this a lot to me. This band is no exception. They're entire sophomore full-length album Building the Towers is available on the Rock Band Network and they're latest album, IndoctriNation is in the process of following the same path (minus the last three tracks from the album, one of which is a cover, one of which is a radio edit of The Age of Betrayal from BTT, and the last of which is a remix of The System, also from BTT).

Let's face it, metal bands are a dime a dozen these days. I love metal, but I admit it's sort of getting out of control. This wouldn't be such a big deal if it weren't for the fact that so many of them seem to lack much creativity. Halcyon Way, on the other hand, is one of those bands that has a very distinct sound. It's moderately aggressive modern metal (though it certainly doesn't shy away from melody) with a little bit of a progressive feel to it, but the vocals are mostly clean, with plenty of harmony at times. There's still some growling vocals that we all sort of have come to expect from modern metal, but it's far from the focus of the vocals with this band. In fact, it's fairly rare. But when they ARE there, it never feels out of place to me. It's pretty tastefully done and goes well with the music. Overall they're a pretty underrated band that's well worth giving a shot if you like metal.

A Bunch of Tiny Reviews of Recent Stuff

The American Analog Set - The Fun of Watching Fireworks

I don't know why I waited this long to listen to this. Sort of a spaced-out emoish style of music, kinda like if Spacemen 3 and American Football had a baby. Very good!

Ben Frost - By The Throat

This thing is dark. Almost harsh electronics mixed with a smart sense of ambiance. A lot of this album, I felt through my chest. Haven't heard stuff like that in a while. Cool stuff.

Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer

I'm slowly falling in love with Spencer Krug's music outside of Moonface. He's in full form on this album, backed by a very cool band making some jammin' as fuck jams, especially the monster last track, Dragon's Lair. Liking it more and more on each listen. 

Adolf Plays The Jazz - Form Follows Function 

Cool jazz-rock type stuff. Kinda reminds me a bit of Portico Quartet's newest album.

Eaststrikewest - We're Important And We Keep The City Running. We're Important, We're Important, We're Important...

With only a little bit of hyperbole, I'm positive this will be high up on my year end list. This reminds me of a mix of *shels huge, epic sound mixed with Seryn's unavoidable foot-stomping enjoyment. This thing is damn near transcendental in it's enjoyment levels. Endlessly recommended. 

Trioscapes - Separate Realities 

Zappa esque music played by metal musicians. There's a LOT going on in this album, and it's worth multiple listens to try to hear it all. Fun, energetic, heavy jazz stuff. Check it. 

Expo '70 - Death Voyage

Cool psychedelic drone stuff. Play it loud. 

 

BOaT - RORO

This thing has been touted as a pretty much perfect album, the definition of a summer album, etc etc etc. After finally listening to it, I guess I can see where the hype is coming from, though I'm not really joining it. These guys play a cool kind of mathy post rock that I'm always game for, and they do it very well. Occasional vocals work in the background of these long songs, adding extra texture without forcing the instrumentation back. However, on the two shorter songs, Roots of Summer and Circle Sound, the band takes more of a generic J-rock kinda style that really turns me off. All in all, it's a pretty good album. Maybe it was just those two poppier songs that turned me off, but while the other tracks are nice, they aren't necessarily blowing me away.

Kid Dakota - So Pretty

I've seen this album being touted as one of the great underrated albums of the last decade for a while now, but for whatever reason I never sat down and listened to it (despite having at least three copies on my hard drive...). But, I finally kicked myself hard enough in the pants and took a listen - and I'm really glad that I did. A pretty fantastic combination of rough instrumentation and calmer, almost folk-ey vocals. I can tell this is an album whose lyrics are one of it's strong points, and one that needs multiple listens to really figure out what's going on. I dunno, I don't have too much to say about it right now. But, it's a goodun!

The Beach Boys - That's Why God Made The Radio

Ever since The Smile Sessions was released last year, I've had more of an interest in The Beach Boys. They seemed to be making a comeback of sorts, with Brian Wilson coming back, a new tour in the works, and a new album in the form of That's Why God Made The Radio, their first of original music since 1992. The album starts off very promising, with a short piano/harmony piece that is pretty beautiful. And, unfortunately but unsurprisingly, the rest of the album falls pretty flat. Lame, cheesy pop songs by aging guys who still want to go surfing. The songs are all pretty much forgettable, until the last track, Summer's Gone. I've read that Brian Wilson expected this song to be the last track on the last Beach Boys album (which might end up being the case), and it sounds like a song that would fit that expectation. A beautiful, somber track about summer ending, and all the fun times going away. It sort-of makes sense, ending this particular album. 
This album is weird. It's a poor collection of lame songs book ended by some nice pieces, released by a band that's aging quickly. But, the one thing that this album proves to me is the fact that, while they might not be able to write anymore, these guys can still play. They sound pretty much like they did back in the 60s and 70s, despite everyone getting old and Brian Wilson going nutso. I'm seeing these guys in concert in a few weeks, and from what I hear, they barely play anything from this new release. I'm completely fine with that. 

Kyle's Top 10 Albums of 2011 (Part 2)

Less description this time.


5. O'Brother - Garden Window



4. Farewell Poetry - Hoping For The Invisible To Ignite


3. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues


2. Boris - Heavy Rocks



1. The Dear Hunter - The Color Spectrum

Fritz's Top 30 Albums of 2011 (#15-1)

15. A Winged Victory For The Sullen - S/T

This album is, quite simply, breathtaking. A side project of Stars Of The Lid, A Winged Victory make ambient drone sounds with a string quartet, guitar effects, and a piano. It's sort of easy to describe this kind of music - pretty, melancholy, hopeful, etc. But I'd say an accurate depiction of this stuff can be found by simply looking at the album art. This album transports you to the most serene, peaceful place possible, and makes you float there, in endless, self realizing bliss. This is an album for late night listening, where you can leave this world behind with all of it's troubles, and just be.


14. *shels - Plains Of The Purple Buffalo

Speaking of albums that sound like their cover art, *shels is a post rock/post metalish mostly instrumental group who make music that can only be described as epic. These guys use lots of different instruments - horns, strings, along with the tried and true guitar/drum/bass setup - to make really fantastic soundscapes. Especially evident on the title track, when you listen to this stuff, you can see purple buffalo striding across some massive field. The vocals, popping up only every now and again, add an extra layer of power with their shout-a-long lyrics. This album absolutely soars. Fantastic stuff.


13. Bruce Peninsula - Open Flames

Bruce Peninsula came out of nowhere in 2009, and quickly became a favorite of mine. With Open Flames, the group has made a very solid follow up, teeming with emotion and tinged with darkness. Still making fantastic soul/folk music, this album is filled with gorgeous choral vocals that juxtapose the gruff lead perfectly. There's more of a focus on female vocals this time around, and it matches the darker tone of the songs. There's sort of this ominous ambiance that follows these tunes, and for good reason - while this album was being created, the lead singer was diagnosed with Leukemia. That news, that feeling of impending end, made a major impact on these songs. There's always a somber tone in the vocals, in the instrumentation, especially on the second half of the album. But all the while, there's a hint of hope, a hint of happiness. Very beautiful stuff. From what I've read, he's recovered quite nicely, and I'm very excited to see where these guys go next.


12. Radiohead - The King Of Limbs

Okay, lemme just get this out of the way first. If I made a disappointments of 2011 list, this would be on there, no question. I mean, four years in the studio, and we get under 40 minutes of stuff? What the fuck Radiohead! But while this may be one of the lesser Radiohead albums, it's still one of the best of the year. There's some obvious krautrock influence on these songs, especially on Morning Mr. Magpie, probably my favorite track on the album. Jagged, stuttering drums make you wanna get up and dance. The second half is much calmer, prettier stuff that bring the record to a peaceful end. Now, while this is a disappointingly short album, Radiohead was kind enough to release four more songs, two of which, Supercolider and Staircase, are phenomenal tracks. Honestly if they were on the album itself, it would probably be one of the top for the year. But, until the next time Radiohead decides to grace us with their music, this will have to do.


11. John Knox Sex Club - Raise Ravens

The sophomore album by these Scottish Twilight-Sad-ish rockers is everything a sophomore album should be; bigger, fuller and grander, all while keeping the good stuff from the debut present. Raise Ravens starts off with a massive, 13 minute epic full of building, bombastic percussion, guitars and vocals. The other tracks on the album are decidedly calmer, introducing violin and female vocals that add gentleness to the music. The album closes with The Thaw, bringing the album to a huge, hopeful ending; "The grass grows beneath the ice and snow", they sing. These guys seem like they've been getting bigger over on their side of the world, and I hope that trend continues.


10. Braids - Native Speaker

This album came out pretty early in the year, and quickly became a favorite of mine. Braids makes that kind of music that transports you to summertime in some decade you didn't grow up in. There's a hazy, nostalgic mood to these tracks that's instantly recognizable, yet somehow unique. I've seen comparisons to Animal Collective, which I can kinda sorta see. They're more organic though, I think. Poppy tracks all about love, making love, doing love, etc etc etc. Every now and again it breaks away from it's lifetime summer attitude, especially in tracks like Lammicken, a slow dance song for the apocalypse. This album has stuck with me all year, and I can't wait to see what they do next.


9 The Dear Hunter - The Color Spectrum

I am absolutely convinced that there's something for everybody in this collection. These nine EPs, each one corresponding to one of the colors in the color spectrum, plus black and white, all tackle different genres, styles, and sounds with surprising finesse, with each set of songs surprisingly illustrating the color it represents. Red is full of high energy rock n' roll tunes, Blue is drenched in echos and reverb, Green has folky songs about love and nature, Orange is...a weird, watered down, alt-country version of Red? I dunno, Orange is such a weird color, and probably the worst in the collection. The best would probably have to be Indigo, taking you on a mind-bending trip through cyberspace, or White, probably one of the most hopeful, realized set of songs this group has put out. Maybe it's just me, but these EPs flow together tremendously, just like the colors of a rainbow. Wonderful as a whole, wonderful as parts, simply wonderful.


8. O'Brother - Garden Window

O'Brother takes the soaring rock styles of Radiohead and mixes them with metal and drone sounds to make something massive. These guys know how to mix harsh, yelling vocals and crunching guitar tones with beautiful ambiance perfectly. On tracks like Poison!, possibly my favorite song of the year, the group builds everything up into a towering wall of sound. The last song on this album is notable as well. There's a small bit that they play a few times, after the line "Keep your last breath, make it worthwhile", that, whenever I listen to it, has an interesting effect. Whenever I head that part, I feel absolutely alone, and overwhelming sense of solitude fills the room almost instantly. That loneliness, though, is accented by a shred of hope, of power, that says "you'll be fine." That theme is present over the album too, I think. Life is hard, life is tough, life is empty. And yet, life is beautiful. This is a fantastic album that I'm sure will stick with me for years to come.


7. Farewell Poetry - Hoping For The Invisible To Ignite

Calling on the post-rock gods of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Farewell Poetry burst onto the music scene this year with their four track debut album, which may be just what the stagnant genre needed. Starting with a nearly 20 minute track, Farewell Poetry quickly illustrate what makes them a band to watch. Seasoned with a dark, sensual spoken word piece about Troilus and Cressida, the band makes beautiful, brooding music that builds and builds until igniting in noise. The next piece, split into two tracks, doesn't get as immense and powerful as the previous song did, but still works as a powerful piece. I will admit, it is disappointing that the album didn't finish off as incredibly as it started, but these four tracks still make one of the better, more unique post rock albums I've heard in a long time. These guys can only go up from here.


6. Years Of Rice And Salt - Nothing Of Cities

Like I said in the last blurb, post rock is a pretty dead genre right now, over-saturated with boring, generic, twinkle-core movie soundtrack stuff. However, this group is a beautiful diamond in the rough of this genre. These guys don't try to do anything different to the formula - they just make damned good post rock. One of the things YoRaS have going for is their heavy use of strings in their music, which adds a certain beauty that no guitar effects can provide. Another thing is the general mood of the music; most post rock thrives on sadness and darkness, but this group makes some of the most hopeful music I've ever heard. Certainly helped by the massive support that this album's Kickstarter page had for it, the music suggests a sense of community, of togetherness, that I almost never hear in instrumental music nowadays. Hopefully other bands will take notice of this album, and realize post rock doesn't always have to be dark and depressing - maybe then, we can breathe life into this once wonderful genre.


5. The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

(It counts, it counts!)
It's interesting to think about what would have happened if this album came out when it was supposed to. Finally presented in it's most complete form, Smile is a schizophrenic masterpiece, skipping between ideas multiple times in each "song". For the most part, the sounds on this album are what you'd expect from The Beach Boys - harmonies, summery guitars, harmonies, more harmonies, etc. However, being the experimental masterpiece it was intended to be, there's definitely a noticeable, conscious effort to move away from their surfing music days. This is especially noticeable on the track Surf's Up, which was released after Smile had been abandoned. The chorus of "surfs up, before the tidal wave" carries such heavy emotions. It's a song where Wilson realized the struggles he'd have to face in order to get away from their happy-go-lucky past. On Mrs. O'Leary's Cow, that struggle is put front and center, with a chaotic, frightening track that echos (dare I say it?) Radiohead and their contemporaries. If this album was released in the 60s, who knows what would have happened? Well, who knows. The album is fantastic anyway.


4. Skeletons - PEOPLE

Skeletons are probably one of the most unique groups I've ever encountered, and this album might be their most realized yet. Among all the jagged, math-y instrumentation and odd falsetto vocals is an underlying accessibility and relatability. Lyrics that describe the drawing of our house that all of us drew in kindergarten with eerie accuracy, about the general sense of confusion that we Americans are facing nowadays, and a closing statement of hope fill this album with ideas that support it's title - PEOPLE. This is a human album. Real, jagged, beautiful, odd, and generally mysterious. Wonderful.


3. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

To be honest, I'm not really sure what it is about this album that makes it so good. Fleet Foxes' 2nd album is simply really, really good. All the songs are beautiful, filled with soaring harmonies and perfect instrumentation that paint a picture of the country side. When this first came out, I called it perfect. I actually do stick by that label, frankly. I can't find a single thing to dislike about this album. It's weird though, I can't really describe what exactly makes it so good either. Maybe it's a cop out, or maybe I'm just dreading writing the next album's blurb. Either way, do yourself a favor, and listen to this record - you won't regret it.


2. Giles Corey - S/T

"Sometime in the spring of 2009 I tried to kill myself"

That's how the accompanying book for this album starts. Dan Barret, half of the seminal Have A Nice Life is Giles Corey, and his music is his story. There's no question of what the theme of this album is. Darkness. Depression. Solitude. Sadness. Suicide. There's a fucking song where the lyrics are literally "I'm going to kill myself." The music itself is very much what an acoustic Have A Nice Life would be - stark, beautiful, and drenched in reverb. If you look past the lyrics, and look past the story behind these songs, you could easily write off this album as another trite collection of songs about how tough life is after loosing your girlfriend or something. But if you really listen, and feel this music, you'll see that it's so much more. This music is real. It's an album of absolute, pure emotion that simply can't be accurately described with words. When you listen to this album, you realize Barret's struggle, and share it with him.
And then there's the personal side of this album for me. This album came out during a pretty dark time in my life. For one reason or another, I was simply unhappy for a long period of time, up to a point where suicide almost seemed...reasonable? I'm not sure. I cried to this album, many times, simply because of how disgustingly relatable it was. I hated it. I hated the album for making me realize that those awful feelings weren't uniquely my own. And yet, I visited it, almost daily, for a long time. Through the help of time and friends, I let go of those depressed feelings, and Giles Corey almost seemed like a used prescription. I didn't need to be exposed to those feelings anymore. However, I found myself listening again and again, with a new mind frame. Now, these songs about suicide and depression, gave me a sense of hope. It's like, when I listen to it now, I realize that life is truly beautiful, and worth living.
This album has become an artifact for me. A piece of indescribable art that conjures up feelings and thoughts that simply can't be described. You have no idea how much I've dreaded writing any sort of thing for this album, because I knew I wouldn't do it justice. I still don't think I have.


1. Moonface - Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like I'd Hoped

I'm not gonna lie to myself this year. I usually top my year end lists with the album that absolutely destroyed my emotions, like Hospice, or absolutely crushed my senses, like Swans. This year, however, Spencer Krug released his first full length album as Moonface, and I can't lie to myself and say that it wasn't the most enjoyable, rocking, kick ass group of songs I've heard all year. This thing fucking jams. With five songs clocking in at just under 40 minutes, Krug builds some really awesome soundscapes with his organ sounds. His lyrics, weird and quirky as always, have a somewhat relatable tone to them that simply adds to the enjoyability of the record. I saw him play the album live in August, a few months or so after it came out. There were only, like, 20 or 30 of us there, which wasn't very surprising. But the cool thing about it was how into it everybody in that hall was, musicians and fans alike. Everybody realized how hard these tunes jammed, and took advantage of it. Just like Fleet Foxes, this album is simply good, and absolutely worth a listen or thirty.