A Round of Sound

Honorable Mentions:

Let’s get things started with my Honorable Mentions for 2012. These are not necessarily albums 26-30, but rather just some albums that I think deserve extra attention to for one reason or another.

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Purity Ring – Shrines

The highly anticipated debut from Purity Ring is a form of synth-pop that is hard to find equal comparisons to in the electronic world. It’s dark, yet remains undeniably sweet thanks to the vocals of Megan James. The beats of Corin Roddick tend toward hip-hop club jams yet create a dreamy ambiance leading to a rather mesmerizing listen. The Montreal duo could use a little more variation in their tunes as the songs are quite samey and run together when listened as an album, but as interesting as these songs are, it’s quite forgivable on such an arresting debut.

[“Fineshrine” – Shrines]

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The Menzingers – On The Impossible Past

The third album from the Pennsylvania punk band was not even close to being on my radar when I decided to give it a go based on its Metacritic score of 93 (!), and even though I had my reservations, I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the songs that this group features throughout On The Impossible Past. There’s no denying the catchiness of the songs, but lyrically this is some heavy, introspective stuff that truly sets The Menzingers apart from their pop-punk peers. The substance behind these songs is very refreshing to see in this genre. Normally hearing a line such as “I will fuck this up / I fucking know it” rings hollow, but with these guys, in this context, it meaningful and earnest.

[“The Obituaries” – On The Impossible Past]

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Jens Lekman – I Know What Love Isn’t

I Know What Love Isn’t is the long awaited follow up LP to the excellent Night Falls Over Kortedala (one of my favorite albums of 2007), and while it lacks the immediacy of it’s predecessor, this is still a testament to Lekman’s honest and literate songwriting. Known for the personal and humorous essence of his lyrics, Lekman doesn’t hold back on these tunes crafting a break-up album full of his precious charm that has always characterized his music to this point in his career.  The heart put into his tunes has never been more evident than on the title track, a song about a sham marriage that Lekman couldn’t go through because he knew he wouldn’t be able to help himself from writing about it. It that kind of the auto-biographical inspiration that makes his music such a rewarding listen.

[“I Know What Love Isn’t” – I Know What Love Isn’t]

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David Byrne & St. Vincent – Love This Giant

The collaboration between David Byrne and St Vincent is a partnership that just makes sense. The two share eccentric song writing techniques but do enough different to be able to compliment each other in a way that the songs will sound natural in their production while still feeling like something new. Love This Giant succeeds in doing just that. The poppy funkiness of Byrne meshes quite well with St Vincent’s patented anxiousness creating an album of weird but inviting songs that while predictable in their execution are no less inspired and enjoyable.

[“Who” – Love This Giant]

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Cat Power – Sun

Chan Marshall’s first album since 2006’s fantastic The Greatest sees the artist infuse electronic influences in some of the most confident music of her career. Self-recorded, Sun may be best remembered more for bankrupting Marshall, rather than the 11 pop gems strewn throughout. It’s a beautifully produced album showcasing just enough of Marshall’s quirks (the squawk of an eagle on “Cherokee” is one of the highlights) while remaining fully in control of her craft. It all comes together in the 10 minute track “Nothin’ But time”, an epic, uplifting, David Bowie tinged (and Iggy Pop featuring) masterpiece which will go down as one of the finest songs of her career.

[“Nothin’ But Time” – Sun]

Dishonorable Mentions:

The past few years, I’ve struggled calling the albums I place here dishonorable mentions, as calling them bad was kind of harsh. This year, however, I have no qualms calling these three albums Dishonorable mentions with a capital D.

Best Coast – The Only Place

In 2010, Best Coast released their debut album featuring lo-fi beach pop, filled with catchy melodies which helped it garner an honorable mention from me. The issue with Best Coast has always been Bethany Cosentino’s juvenile lyrics but the music had just enough charm that it was easy to give them a pass. However, on The Only Place, Cosentino has decided to polish her sound and change gears into a more alt-country vibe in the vein of Neko Case or Jenny Lewis. Problem is, she has no where near the songwriting chops of her peers (or the pipes) to make this type of music interesting at all. And with that, her horrid lyrics come to the forefront, no longer shielded by good tunes. The Only Place is a rather large miscalculation and one that I don’t really even care if she recovers from.

[“The Only Place” – The Only Place]

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Band of Horses – Mirage Rock

When Band of Horses first broke onto the scene in 2006 with their stunning debut Everything All The Time, Ben Bridwell and company were a Seattle based band with southern roots. This allowed for an intriguing sound which fused northwest indie-rock with southern rock all the while transcending both genres.  Prior to recording the band’s second album, the very good Cease to Begin, Bridwell relocated the group to South Carolina and the southern rock influences started to take over. The band’s lineup changed (Bridwell is the only remaining original member), and in 2010 the group released Infinite Arms which signaled a shift to easy listening southern rock. Its follow up, Mirage Rock, is the culmination of the post-Everything All The time efforts. It does not work. At. All. This music is so bland, inconsequential and unmemorable that it leaves absolutely no lasting mark on the listener, unless you count “Dumpster World” which is one of the worst songs I heard all year. The quality of music has diminished with every release of Band of Horses, and now that this is essentially Bridwell’s middling southern rock band, I don’t see it getting any better. For the record, of the 71 albums I got this year, this one ranked dead last on my list.

[“Knock Knock” – Mirage Rock]

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Mumford & Sons – Babel

When Mumford & Sons released their debut album Sigh No More in 2010, I voiced concerns over songs that I felt were formulaic and inauthentic. It wasn’t enough to completely turn me off to the group, but it was enough to raise some red flags. However, on their follow up album Babel, the band doubled down on everything that made Sigh No More worrisome, thus validating all of my concerns. The songs remain generic in their structure, and there is a faux-earnesty that I just can’t shake when listening to the tunes. Strumming harder and singing louder in the midst of a hoedown isn’t the only way to convey passion and when you do it on practically EVERY SINGLE SONG it loses all meaning and displays a forced emotion that comes across fake and insincere.

One of my least favorite parts of Sigh No More comes in “Little Lion Man” when Mumford self-righteously moans “I really fucked it up this time” as if admitting what an asshole he is deserves a pat on the back and admonishes him of all guilt.  So when we come to “Broken Crown” on Babel, and Mumford declares “I took the road and I fucked it all away”, I can’t help but let out an eye roll Liz Lemon would be proud of.  It’s disingenuous and just plain pandering to a fanbase he knows will eat this shit up. And pandering is possibly the best way to describe Babel. The band tested many of these songs in their shows, all coming on the heels of stating they were going a different direction with their music on this follow up album. But, of course, the success of Sigh No More wouldn’t allow such a thing, and so we’re left with an album full of the same indulgent drivel that not only fails on its own merits, but also retroactively makes their debut an increasingly grating listen.

[“I Will Wait” – Babel]

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