1. SBTRKT - SBTRKT
Given that I have talked about
nothing more than SBTRKT in the last year, it really shouldn’t be a surprise to
see him at the top of this list. His album is a breath of fresh air into
dubstep (yes, the real dubstep), a genre frequently criticised, usually by me,
for being so mind-numbingly boring it could lull sharks to sleep. I’m grateful
that this man’s work takes some influence from mainstream musicians, in that it
remains accessible while still being different enough to keep (most) hipsters
content.
2. Tom Vek - Leisure Seizure
Annoyingly I appear to be the
only one in reality to have even heard of Tom Vek, but once again the web is
mad for him and his decidedly lo-fi garage-tinged pop music. The result of six
years work (well, presumably this is what he was working on in that time…)
thankfully continues the theme of bedroom-recorded sound, even though I think
it was made in a studio this time. Doesn’t matter to me if he made it on the
moon, to be honest. Great music from an insane talent.
3. Wild Beasts - Smother
Wild Beasts have been a
consistently great band across everything they’ve made, so it was no surprise
to find Smother (and its promotional teaser Albatross) was an utterly toothsome array of art-pop
at its very best. The slightly-zany lyrics are back, too, with “oh,
Ophelia I feel your fall” among my favourites in that category.
4. Jon Hopkins & King
Creosote - Diamond Mine
An album cover is often useful to
prejudge what the musical content of a record will sound like. Looking at this
cover, you can tell that King Creosote and Jon Hopkins have crafted an
heirloom; a period piece filled with love and dedication. As far as the
Scottish folk scene is concerned, King Creosote’s forty-seventh (!!!) album is
honestly as good as it gets.
5. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Yet another band promoted incessantly
by those on teh intertubes, Justin Vernon’s folk collective’s second record is
as hauntingly beautiful as their first. Vernon’s puce vocals take over
everything, but even then the melodies soar through the album as a whole, a
collection of love letters to various places in North America. And it was
recorded in a vet’s, so bonus points for that.
6. Young Galaxy - Shapeshifting
7. Bombay Bicycle Club - A
Different Kind of Fix
8. Slow Club - Paradise
9. Polinski - Labyrinths
10. British Sea Power - Valhalla
Dancehall
JS
No comments:
Post a Comment