Top Albums of 2014: Honorable Mentions

January 13, 2015

Honorable Mentions

Let’s get things started with my honorable mentions for 2014. These are not necessarily albums 26-30, but rather just some albums that I think deserve extra attention for one reason or another. Interestingly enough, these are all debut albums from these artists, although that wasn’t intentional on my part. Also featured is a dishonorable mention as well as a few other awards.

———-

Sylvan Esso – Sylvan Esso

Mountain Man’s Amelia Meath and Megafaun’s Nick Sanborn teamed up to create this electronic album full of pop gems that also retain the folk sensibility of the duo’s main projects. “Hey Mami” and “Coffee” are two of the year’s best songs.

———-

Pup – Pup

Toronto quartet’s debut album which was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize, and with good reason. It’s full of infectious and intelligent punk rock tunes, that while not breaking new ground, is a refreshing and reaffirming listen.

———-

Alvvays – Alvvays

Pronounced Always, this Toronto band specializes in indie pop tunes in the same vein as Camera Obscura, or a lo-fi version of Eisley. “Archie, Marry Me” is the best example of how great this group can be, and reaches the heights of their contemporary’s best work.

———-

Fear of Men – Loom

Another indie-pop group, this one from Brighton UK, features a bit more darkness and melancholy in their tunes as compared to their peers. The maudlin and almost vengeful subject matter keep this trio from falling into the twee-pop trap and allows the dreaminess of their songs to come to the forefront.

———-

St. Paul & The Broken Bones – Half The City

Seven-piece soul band with gospel roots from Birmingham wears their influences on their sleeve, but Paul Janeway’s vocals take the band to a level not to be expected upon first glance. They aren’t there yet, as Janeway’s vocals could use a little restraint here or there, but this is a very promising debut.

———-

Most Underrated Album: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Days of Abandon

Let’s call this my most underrated album that didn’t finish in my top 25, because my actual most underrated album of the year is quite high on my list. This is certainly the worst of TPOBPAH three albums, as the band continues to move away from the fuzz-pop that made their early work so charming, but these are still very good twee-pop songs that I believe deserve the benefit of the doubt considering the lineup turnover this band has gone through last few years.

———-

Biggest Surprise: Braid – No Coast

Likewise, my actual biggest surprise is probably up in my top 25 somewhere, so I’ll call this my biggest surprise that didn’t make my top 25. This is the first LP from the emo band in 16 years, after reuniting in 2011 to release an EP, which ended up being really bad. So, expectations were low, but I was pleasantly surprised at how strong this album was from start to finish. The songs feel like a natural progression of what we could’ve expected from this band had they not gone their separate ways a decade and a half ago.

———-

Dishonorable Mentions

Only one Dishonorable Mention this year, but also included is my most overrated album, and my biggest disappointment.

———-

Christopher Owens – A New Testament

How the mighty have fallen. Just three years ago Owens was responsible for my album of the year as frontman of the band Girls. This is his second solo album and follow up to the underwhelming Lysandre, but this album may be even worse. Owens’ new found alt-country leanings do not work for him no matter how sincere they may be. The heart and soul that made Girls so affecting has been completely lost by the cheesiness of these tunes, and while I’m thankful of his Girls catalog, he’s probably lost a fan in me.

———-

Most Overrated Album: Real Estate – Atlas

Another band who just three years ago found itself in my top 5 with the fantastic Days, Real Estate has returned to their boring forgetful tunes that made me think they were overrated when they debuted in 2009. Sure, there are a couple very good songs on this album and it’s beautifully produced and musically tight as ever, but as a whole, it’s completely devoid of memorable melodies, and makes me think Days is going to turn out as a fluke for these guys.

———-

Biggest Disappointment: The Gaslight Anthem – Get Hurt

These guys exploited their blue-collar punk image to create three straight fantastic albums in The ’59 Sound, American Slang, and Handwritten, however, with Get Hurt they’ve devolved into an arena rock band while trying to retain their blue-collar image and it now just screams of pandering.

1 Comment | All, Music, Top Albums of 2014 | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Hawkins

Top Albums of 2011: #11 thru #25

January 20, 2012

The Countdown can now begin with my 15 albums that make up #11 through #25. There’s really no logic governing which albums I chose to do a write up for here. I didn’t want to write something about all of them, but felt like a few deserved a little blurb.

#25) Cut Copy – Zonoscope

The first half of Zonoscope is as good as anything released in 2011. That’s not to say the second half is bad, it just can’t quite keep up with the lush synth-pop scattered throughout the first 5 or 6 tracks. Cut Copy’s previous album was a critical darling, and as a follow up some think Zonoscope falls short, but it’s still full of hooks and for me confirms the great songwriting ability from this Australian dance-rock band.   Opening track “Need You Now” is one of the best songs of the year and the kind of song most artists spend their whole career trying to create. For Cut Copy, it’s second nature.

[“Need You Now” – Zonoscope]

#24) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Belong

#23) Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde

#22) EMA – Past Lives Martyred Saints

#21) The Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck

#20) TV On The Radio – Nine Types of Light

#19) Los Campesinos! – Hello Sadness

#18) The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient

While Kurt Vile may have released a more critically acclaimed album in 2011, what his former band did with Slave Ambient should not be ignored. Slave Ambient is the 2nd album from these guys, and first without Vile (who wasn’t that integral in the band’s sound anyway). It’s an atmospheric album, but one that’s also subtly infectious with song after song of  memorable melodies channeling Americana heroes such as Petty, Dylan, and Springsteen.

[“Baby Missiles” – Slave Ambient]

#17) The Field – Looping State of Mind

#16) Destroyer – Kaputt

I’ve always been quite intrigued by Dan Bejar. As a member of indie-pop super group The New Pornographers, he’s always struck me as the odd man out. To me, that group has been more of an avenue for Carl Newman to flex his power-pop muscles, while Bejar merely sprinkles in his style of avant-garde indie-rock. He seems to save his creativity for his Destroyer project, and Kaputt does nothing to disprove that. You really never know what you’re going to get from a Destroyer album, and a 80’s style soft rock record certainly fits the bill. It’s still a Destroyer record through and through, and with talk that he may be retiring the moniker, it’s a hell of a way to go out.

[“Kaputt” – Kaputt]

#15) Akron/Family – S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT

This is an album I expected to get a lot more love when the end of the year lists came out, but for some reason it quietly went into the night and after it’s February release was seemingly forgotten. It’s for that reason that I consider the 5th album from these experimental psych-folk rockers the most underrated album of the year. Akron/Family has never been short on ambition and with this, their second “self-titled” album, they’re showing that they’re always ready to reinvent themselves, yet remain accessible.

[“Another Sky” – S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT]

#14) Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring For My Halo

#13) Yuck – Yuck

Oftentimes when wearing your influences on your sleeve you can get buried by them. Not so for these young Brits, as they’ve packed their debut album full of 90’s era grunge and indie rock, but managed to create something of their own as well. And as much as everyone loves to analyze everything about an album, sometimes it’s refreshing to find a record like this that’s  just so damn fun to listen to and conveys such exuberance from the artist that it’s impossible to not sit back and enjoy it for what it is. It can be nostalgic if you want it to be, but Yuck mixes enough modern indie-rock with the old that it’s not a prerequisite for enjoyment.

[“Georgia” – Yuck]

#12) Drake – Take Care

I think what fascinates me the most about hip-hop is that in most genres, self-indulgence is often criticized the most as to what holds an album back from greatness (see Ceremonials from Florence + The Machine), but in hip-hop it’s a characteristic that is to be lauded and what usually allows an album to excel. Take Kanye’s masterful album last year, which will go down as maybe the most over-indulgent album I’ve ever listened to, but it had enough self-deprecation that it was obvious Kanye knew what he was doing by pointing out his own narcissism. Drake’s album Take Care, is the finest hip-hop release of the year, and succeeds largely on it’s own indulgence, but whereas Kanye’s album had an almost satirical self-assuredness, Drake’s is just immensely personal. Self-absorbed, sure. But in the hip-hop world, that’s what drives success.

[“Headlines” – Take Care]

#11) Wye Oak – Civilian

This is one of my biggest surprises of the year. It’s not that I was down on Wye Oak or anything, I just didn’t expect to love this album as much as I did. I specifically remember driving around one day with this album playing on my ipod and thinking to myself “OK, this is really good album.” It was possibly my most listened to album of 2011, thanks in large part to songs that engage with their beautiful yet tension filled melodies. It’s amazing how rich of a sound this Baltimore duo can get out of their scaled-down tunes, while still keeping the intimacy that makes them so pleasing. There’s a depth and darkness to each song on Civilian that took Wye Oak to a new level that most likely surprised everybody but themselves.

[“Holy Holy” – Civilian]

3 Comments | All, Music, Top Albums of 2011 | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Hawkins

A Round of Sound: 2009 Mixtape

January 17, 2010

Now that the countdown is complete, all that is left is to present my 2009 Mixtape, an annual mix of the songs that helped shape the past year in music.  This is maybe becoming my favorite part of my yearly top albums tradition because it’s fun to see what tunes I can pack into an 80 minute disc.  I started doing this on my own just to make a mix cd of some of my favorite songs of the year to keep for listening in my car, but it has evolved into a way for me to kind of summarize the best music of the year in just a “mixtape” form, especially since I find it pretty impossible to do a ranking of the best songs of the year.  And people seem to enjoy it, so here we are again.  By the way if you want to see my complete top 25 Albums of 2009 on one nice, put together page, head on over to my Amazon.com list to give it a look.

So, here’s some stats about the mix.  This year I packed 19 songs on the disc (down one from last year’s 20), but as usual this does not necessarily mean these are my 19 favorite songs of the year.  There a plenty of songs that I had to leave off because they were too long, or maybe they just didn’t fit with the mix.  Also, as usual the order here is how they appear on my mix, but it is not a ranking.  The songs are placed based on how they appear on their respective albums.  For this year, 9 of the songs are off albums in my top 10 (Antony & the Johnsons is the only top 10 album not represented).  Five of the songs are from albums in my #11-#25 range and two songs come from albums outside my top 25.  The lowest ranking album with a song in the mix is Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free by Akron/Family (ranked #44) with “River”.  And finally, three songs (“Blood Bank”, “My Night With The Prostitute From Marseille”, and “It Gets Your Body Movin'”) are songs off of EPs, and thus came from albums not eligible to be in my rankings.  Most of these songs have been featured somewhere on this blog in the past, or in the top albums countdown, but now here they are all in one place!

The picture above is thanks to Amy Boyd, who for the second year in a row has provided me with the album art for the Mixtape.  Another fine job indeed. Today is her birthday (as well as Zooey Deschanel’s) so she also has that going for her.  Enjoy!

———-

[“French Navy” – Camera Obscura :: My Maudlin Career]

———-

[“Blood Bank” – Bon Iver :: Blood Bank]

———-

[“1901” – Phoenix :: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix]

———-

[“Two Weeks” – Grizzly Bear :: Veckatimest]

———-

[“River” – Akron/Family :: Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free]

———-

[“My Girls” – Animal Collective :: Merriweather Post Pavilion]

———-

[“Young Adult Friction” – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart :: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart]

———-

[“Crystalised” – The xx :: xx]

———-

[“Funeral Singers” – Califone :: All My Friends Are Funeral Singers]

———-

[“Now We Can See” – The Thermals :: Now We Can See]

———-

[“Stillness is the Move” – Dirty Projectors :: Bitte Orca]

———-

[“Don’t Haunt This Place” – Rural Alberta Advantage :: Hometowns]

———-

[“Never Seen” – Lightning Dust :: Infinite Light]

———-

[“Home” – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros :: Up From Below]

———-

[“Two” – The Antlers :: Hospice]

———-

[“My Night With The Prostitute From Marseille” – Beirut :: March of the Zapotec & Realpeople: Holland]

———-

[“Marrow” – St Vincent :: Actor]

———-

[“Sleepyhead” – Passion Pit :: Manners]

———-

[“It Gets Your Body Movin'” – Suckers :: Suckers EP]

2 Comments | All, Music, Rounds of Sound, Top Albums of 2009 | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Hawkins

Top Albums of 2009: #9 and #10

January 11, 2010

#10) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart [Slumberland; released 2/3/2009]

“Don’t you try to shoot up the sky, tonight we’ll stay alive.”

“Stay Alive”

There were many fine debut releases in 2009 and one of the best comes from the Brooklyn quartet The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.  This self titled album is a nostalgic throwback to the twee days of C86 and while TPOBPAH’s brand of fuzz-pop certainly isn’t breaking any new ground, it does possess the melodies and clever lyrics to help it stand out on its own.  No song better exemplifies this than “Young Adult Friction”, one of the best songs of the year with its indie-pop brightness and lyrical wittiness of capturing some sort of love encounter in a library. (Young Adult Friction…get it now?)  The album as a whole is a fusion of those indie-pop stylings and shoegaze to create a supremely confident album as infectious as any this year.  The group released a follow up EP late in the 2009 which contained possibly their greatest song to date, and only shows that The Pains of Being Pure at Heart should have no problem meeting the increased expectations that inevitably comes from being one of the year’s breakout acts.

[“Young Adult Friction” – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart]

#9) Antony and the Johnsons – The Crying Light [Secretly Canadian;  released 1/20/2009]

“I need another place, will there be peace? I need another world, this one is nearly gone.”

“Another World”

Upon hearing Antony Hegarty’s Nina Simone-like vocals, you would be excused if you thought he was about to break into tears while recording his music. Hegarty’s voice contains a tremble that is one of the most unique in the business and creates and affecting listen that is sure to put a lump in your throat even if it’s missing from Hegarty’s. However, after watching numerous performances on Youtube of Hegarty’s performances with an accompanying symphony from this past summer, I think there’s little doubt that the emotion gets the best of him too.  The Crying Light is Hegerty’s third release as Antony and the Johnsons and the follow up to 2005’s very well received I Am a Bird Now and is another hauntingly beautiful group of songs from Hegerty’s catalog.  It’s a poetic and moving listen that hits you in the gut, attacks your heart, and sinks into your mind all at the same time.

[“Her Eyes Are Underneath the Ground” – The Crying Light]

1 Comment | All, Music, Top Albums of 2009 | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Hawkins

2009…so far

April 25, 2009

Well, with 1Q 2009 (that’s first quarter of 2009 for you non-business savy) in the books, its time to highlight some of the releases so far this year that deserve mentioning.  It’s been a semi-disappointing year to this point, but there have been a few excellent releases.  Here’s a few that were released in the first 3 months of ’09 that are sure to stand out when all is said and done for this year.

The Antlers

The Antlers

The Antlers – Hospice

For me, any talk of the best albums so far this year has to begin with this haunting album from the Brooklyn based 3 piece, The Antlers.  A concept album of sorts, Hospice tells the story of a relationship forged in a hospital, which inevitably ends in sadness, and the effect it has on the protagonist from there on out.  It is truly one of the most emotional albums I have heard in quite some time, and while it does tend to come off as slightly pretentious, after a few listens that mindset fades away and the gravity of the songs really set in.  Musically, Hospice is an immensely dense and atmospheric album with gorgeous production thanks to the inspired work from Peter Silberman, who is the heart and soul of The Antlers.  The backstory of this album is similar to Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago and the results are just as heartbreakingly beautiful.

[“Bear” – Hospice] – Download this track free from The Antlers website by clicking here.

[“Two” – Hospice] – Download this track free from The Antlers website by clicking here.

Merriweather Post PavilionAnimal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

In what is sure to garner numerous album of the year awards by the time 2009 is over, Merriweather Post Pavilion is possibly the best of Animal Collective’s 9 full-length releases.  I’m probably not the best source for saying something like as the only other album of theirs I have is 2007’s Strawberry Jam, but the consensus on MPP is that it is indeed their best.  However, there’s no arguing that this album definitely was their most anticipated.  The hype surrounding this album pretty much won it album of the year before it was even released (Pitchfork’s 9.6 didn’t hurt either).  I wouldn’t call myself an avid Animal Collective fan, but I do enjoy them to a degree and there is no denying that this is a fantastic album; much more accessible than what I’ve heard in the past.  Who knows where it will rank in my list, but it is certainly deserving of the hype. (Old People don’t agree)

[“My Girls” – Merriweather Post Pavilion]

picture-11Antony and the Johnsons – The Crying Light

To say Antony Hagerty’s voice is an acquired taste is an understatement.  And considering I didn’t quite get the hype behind 2005’s breakout I Am a Bird Now, but now find myself coming back to it over and over again, I guess I have acquired that taste.  Now here we are four years later and Hagerty has finally released the follow up with his much anticipated The Crying Light. Hagerty gets help from Nico Muhly with the musical arrangements which is an added bonus, but the star here is still Hagerty’s haunting voice.  Hagerty has created another beautiful and engaging album with The Crying Light, one that is sure to go down as one of the best of ’09.

[“Her Eyes are Underneath the Ground” – The Crying Light]

picture-2The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Last year M83 filled the void for 80’s indie pop retro bands, but this year The Pains of Being Pure at Heart has decided to step in.  However, whereas Saturday=Youth was more electronic and synth based, Pains is straight up guitar pop with some synths sprinkled in.  The New York City four piece is set to be this year’s indie darlings with their self titled debut full-length.  It’s rare for a debut album to show this much confidence and the group shows a very good knack for songwriting while still having room to grow.  It’s more shoegaze than what most indie-poppers might be looking for, but for those looking for a mix of shoegaze and twee-pop, Pains has pretty much nailed it.

[“Young Adult Friction” – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart]

Laura Gibson – Beasts of Seasons

With her second album, Gibson has created another intimate masterpiece full of her gentle folksinging that helped launch the All Songs Considered’s Tiny Desk Concert series.  Gibson is to be appreciated in an intimate setting and as a way to showcase that intimacy, All Songs invited her to perform at the desk of Bob Boilen.  That is how I was introduced to Gibson and Beasts of Seasons hasn’t disappointed one bit.  Her voice reminds me of a less crackly and quirky Joanna Newsom, while also not being nearly as freak-folk as Newsom.  It’s not easy to stand out as a folk singer-songwriter, especially based out of Portland, but with her subtle musical nuances and lyrics, Gibson is able to pull it off.

[“Spirited” – Beasts of Seasons]

Other Notables:

The Decemberists – Hazards of Love

It’s pretty ballsy for a band on a major label to create a “rock-opera” concept album with only one real radio song on it, however Colin Meloy had been dabbling in prog rock for a while now so it was about time.  But The Decemberists pull it off and while it is their worst album, that’s more of a compliment to the Portland band’s previous 4 releases.  This is still an epic release.

[“The Rake’s Song” – The Hazards of Love]

Neko Case – Middle Cyclone

Middle Cyclone doesn’t do it for me as much as Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, but it is still classic Neko Case.  And that voice…oh, that voice.

[“People Got a Lotta Nerve” – Middle Cyclone]

Andrew Bird – Noble Beast

Bird is easily one of the most talented musicians going today and Noble Beast does plenty to showcase that.  However, for me the length of this album holds it back.  It’s just a little too long…a few unnecessary tracks.

[“Oh No” – Noble Beast]

M. Ward – Hold Time

Another fine release from the Portland folk singer (yes, again Portland…are we seeing a theme here?).  It’s a shame that She & Him is how he was introduced to the masses, because his solo stuff has and always will blow that project out of the water.

[“Never Had Nobody Like You” – Hold Time]

6 Comments | All, Music | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Hawkins