Keeping My Edge

Where I’m at right now…

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:51:20 -0700

Where I’m at right now…

#1 ∆ (alt-J) - An Awesome Wave “Breezeblocks” While...

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 21:44:00 -0800

#1 ∆ (alt-J) - An Awesome Wave

“Breezeblocks”

While there may have been albums I listened to more, or songs I liked (slightly) more than those on this album, there was never any doubt about my favorite album of the year: ∆’s (or alt-J’s) An Awesome Wave. The album’s mood is set about 1:30 into the intro (which is like its own song more than an Intro): deliriously dark, foreboding and heavily textured, and … wait, is that a soup pot in the percussion section? I even considered posting the album’s intro or one of the three interludes on the album (in fact, while listening to the intro, my wife just said, “Is this alt-J? I love them so much.”). The song “Fitzpleasure” inspired me to brush the cobwebs off my blog to post it back in September.

“Interlude 1” is another teaser, a vocal track that sounds like an old English nursery rhyme sung in rounds. Not until track 3, “Tesselate,” do we hear an actual song—and what a song it is. Possibly the best song about sex since, well, the xx? Portishead? (one nitpick: what is up with the line “triangles are my favorite shape / where 3 points and 2 lines meet.” Isn’t a triangle 3 lines?)

“Breezeblocks” is perhaps my favorite song of the year (it is currently my ring tone and sometimes I just let it play through). I can’t get enough of that moment when the piano comes in at 10 seconds, and then when the bass hits another 20 seconds later, it gets even better. And what, what’s this on the second verse? Xylophone? SIGN ME UP! And just when the song sounds like it’s about to end, you have another 1:30 of intensity (“Please don’t go / please don’t go / I love you so /please break my heart”).

“Interlude 2” sounds like something from a Decemberists album. I think that’s a complement for this guitar-only track that lasts just over a minute. The next song, “Something Good,” picks up on the second interlude, adding a beat that sounds a bit like a drum march. Then there’s a piano that sounds like rainfall, and the chorus—with the band harmonizing over misplaced notes—sounds a bit like Radiohead. “Dissolve Me” is obviously about drugs (“two tabs on my tongue…”) but the band’s lyrical influences are usually a bit more obscure (see below).

The gentle finger-picking of “Matilda” leads into “Ms,” two songs that I think serve to calm the listener down before “Fitzpleasure,” probably one of the most obscurely twisted songs I’ve heard. The opening lyrics “Tra la la” allude to a prostitute in the novel Last Exit to Brooklyn, who in the next few lines we learn may have had an unfortunate intimacy with a household cleaning object. The music is not that dark (it’s even bright in a few places) but this is an uncomfortable song to listen to, the way it stops and starts, or changes beat or meter just when you least expect.

The last three songs—“Bloodflood,” “Taro,” and “Hand-Made”—are progressively slower, serving as something like a denouement following the climax of “Fitzpleasure”; a fitting structure for a bunch of Art and Literature majors from Leeds University.

This is an interesting album, to say the least. Musically, the band uses unusual meters and timing, and lead singer Joe Newman’s voice ranges from grating to nasal to unusually soulful. The lyrics rarely rhyme or follow any distinguishable verse, yet the band’s choruses and bridges are so catchy (dare I say, poppy?) that they bounce around in the nooks and crannies of your brain for weeks. Alt-J won also won the Mercury Prize (which goes to the U.K.’s best album) last year—way to rip me off, Mercury Prize judges. To be Effin’ Sweet’s Best Album of The Year, it goes without saying you have to be good, but you also have to bring a little sumpin’ sumpin’ extra, knowwhatImean? You have to sound like something I haven’t heard before (see prior winners tUnE-yArDs, Sleigh Bells, and the Dirty Projectors). The biggest criticism against alt-J is that they sound like someone else—Radiohead, Yeasayer, Wild Beasts, even Simon & Garfunkel (cough, AV Club, cough). I think that critique is a bit off (the British press seems to label every band with a keyboard, “the next Radiohead.” See: James Blake), though alt-J definitely draw on wide influences. Even if this album sounded like something I’ve heard before, I’d still probably love it—but that’s just it: An Awesome Wave sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard.

2. Jack White - Blunderbuss “Freedom at 21” From the...

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:07:00 -0800

2. Jack White - Blunderbuss

“Freedom at 21”

From the moment I heard the first two singles—“Love Interruption” and “Sixteen Saltines”—I knew I would love this album. There’s a wide disparity between those two songs, from the gracefully melodic duet “Love Interruption” to the jolted rock of “Sixteen Saltines,” and the rest of the album spans the spectrum between those two songs.

I have a really hard time picking my favorite song off the album. Album opener “Missing Pieces” has a rollicking organ solo; “Love Interruption” might be the best slow song Mr. White has ever written; “I’m Shakin’” sounds like an old Ike Turner or Bo Diddley song on steroids (plus I love hand claps and the back up singers); “Take Me With You When You Go” has a nice piano line and some haunting cello work. But I keep coming back to “Freedom at 21.” I feel like this song is recorded in at least three different time signatures, with the drums playing one and the guitar and vocals in two different meters.

I have argued at length over this album with my brother-in-law, a huge White Stripes fan who doesn’t like anything Jack White has done since then (he’s a bit of a purist, that one). But I think I finally converted him last month, when we were trapped in a car for a lengthy drive and I made him listen to each track. I think that Jack White’s songs are tremendous in a full-band setting, as this album and his live shows attest. I finally checked his tour out in September with his all-female band The Peacocks in one of the best shows I have seen in a few years. His reworkings of songs by the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, or the Dead Weather sounded amazing with that full-band sound.

#3 The Lumineers - The Lumineers “Slow It Down” Ah,...

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 16:45:00 -0800

#3 The Lumineers - The Lumineers

“Slow It Down”

Ah, the Lumineers. My comfy sweater of 2012. Easily my most-played album of the year (it doesn’t hurt that the album is so short that I usually listened to it two times in a row). I heard “Ho Hey” early in the year but waited until the band’s debut album dropped in April to post it. I have not found a person who doesn’t like this song, which I think is an amazing achievement in song writing. And the video for “Ho Hey” gives me chills, even though it is basically the simplest video I’ve ever seen. It’s just that the band looks so pure and so happy to be singing this song that I can’t help but be affected.

The rest of the album varies between quick stompers (“Lovely Girl,” “Submarines,” “Big Parade”) and slower numbers (“Slow It Down,” obviously, as well as “Morning Song”). Some songs, like “Classy Girls”—a cute tale about hitting on an Australian girl in a bar (“I showed her my half dollar ring / she said, that’s pretty cool”)—start slow and build into rollicking sing alongs. “Flowers In Her Hair” is a great opening song about the process of maturing and love. With such simple songwriting, you have to look for hints of the band’s struggle within lyrics like “Smashed in my car window / didn’t touch the stereo.”

This may not be the most sonically complex, or technical, or even modern album of the year, but each song is solidly uplifting and on-point. This is a singing album. This is a clapping album. This is a stomping album. And even though I tend to listen to it in the mornings, this is definitely a drinking album, as in a “pull up a stool to the brass rail” type of drinking album. The album’s weakest link is “Charlie Boy,” a slow mandolin ballad about the Vietnam War.

My wife and I saw the Lumineers in September, just a week after seeing the Alabama Shakes at the same venue, and we couldn’t help but fall in love with the band’s live performance. Lead singer Wesley Schultz (a ringer for Westley in The Princess Bride, in my view) injects such enthusiasm into his songs. Multi-instrumentalist Jeremiah Fraites—in his white-shirt-and-suspenders uniform—brings frantic energy as hey jumps from drums to keyboard to tambourine to guitar. And Neyla Pekarek’s cello (in lieu of the bass) adds a softening quality. I love the way she closes her eyes when she plays, like she’s just alone in her bedroom at home.

Simply said: I love this album. I love this band. I’m equal parts nervous and excited for what they come out with next. On one hand, I feel like they captured lightening in a bottle with this debut. But I don’t want the next album to sound just like the debut, part two. It’s a tough place for a band to be, but I’m sure they’ll get through it. As lead singer Wesley Schulz says in “Ho Hey”: “I don’t know where I went wrong / but I can write a song.” Yes. Yes, you can, Mr. Schulz. You can write an album of them.

(side note: I’ve wondered how many women Wesley Schultz address by name on this album. I think it is four.)

(side note #2: my two-year old son has been asking for the ho hey song all week. I think it is the first actual song he recognizes.)

#4. Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan “Gun Has No...

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 13:00:40 -0800

#4. Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan

“Gun Has No Trigger”

Bitte Orca was my best album of 2009, but I was disappointed by the strange Mount Wittenberg Orca, a short EP with Björk that is apparently about whales. But Swing Lo Magellan has strongly renewed my faith in the band. What I loved about Bitte Orca was its complexity (in my view the best albums of the year are typically musically diverse and different, like Bitte Orca or last year’s TuNe-YaRdS pick); what I love about Swing Lo Magellan is its simplicity, at least for a Dirty Projectors album (for a taste of this simplicity, skip to the album’s fourth track “Swing Lo Magellan,” which is about as straightforward as a song as you will get from this band.

In some parts of the album, the typical Dirty Projectors sound emerges. “Dance For You” is one of these songs: about halfway in, the song veers in about four directions before coming back just in time for the guitar solo. ”About To Die” features some serious bongos amid its scatterbrained (and typical Dirty Projectors) sound, with lead singer David Longstreth’s singing superbly complemented by the band’s three women, Amber Coffman, Haley Dekle, and Olga Bell. Longstreth’s voice can be smooth, but sometimes he can come across as nasally or a bit flat—and I mean that in a good way, because it widens the dissonance between him and the band’s perfectly pitched female vocalists.

But the band also expands on its previous work. The guitar that comes in at 1:20 on the album’s first track, “Offspring Are Blank,” is probably the heaviest thing I have heard on a Dirty Projectors album. ”Gun Has No Trigger” could be the band’s take on a James Bond theme. “Impregnable Question” is a piano-driven ballad rounded out by the band’s unique harmonies. Much of this album sounds 40 years old—the aforementioned “Impregnable Question” or “Unto Ceasar” come to mind (the band even gets a little playful on “Unto Ceasar,” with the girls mocking Longstreth’s sometimes dense lyrics).

Dirty Projectors are definitely an acquired taste—I wouldn’t play this album for my parents, and it usually takes my wife a few spins to get into the album. But beneath the unusual arrangements lie great, poppy songs by an amazingly talented group of performers.

#5 Django Django - Django Django “Default” I posted...

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 17:00:19 -0800

#5 Django Django - Django Django

“Default”

I posted “Storm” in March; it’s on the short list of songs of the year for me (if you know me, that list isn’t really that short). To me, this Scottish band is cut from the same cloth as England’s Hot Chip or Brooklyn’s Yeasayer, only Django Django took some uppers and recorded this while Yeasayer took some downers and gave us Ambling Alp and Fragrant World. Whether channeling Afro-pop (“Storm”), 1950s surf music (“Life’s A Beach”), 1960s pop (“Firewater”), Middle Eastern riffs (“Skies Over Cairo”), or, well, I’m not really sure how to classify the song “Default.” Maybe retro-new-wave techno?

Each song on Django Django locks into a beat early, and the song drives forward like a musical Rube Goldberg machine, until it just ends. The effect on the entire album is strangely hypnotic. I think Pitchfork said in its review that the album cover looks like a space ship landing in the desert, and that’s probably a perfect way to describe this album: a weird futuristic interpretation of any music involving sand (the Sahara, the beach, etc).

#6 Of Monsters and Men - My Head Is An Animal “Dirty...

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 13:00:37 -0800

#6 Of Monsters and Men - My Head Is An Animal

“Dirty Paws”

Of Monsters and Men follows the formula that Canadian band Stars has nearly perfected, only the final product is completely different and somehow … better? (at least this year). I really dig the harmonies by the male and female lead singers, especially when they are going against each other, like in the huge hit “Little Talks.”

Just listening to the first track, “Dirty Paws,” with its harmonized vocals, rapid guitar picking and those catchy “Hey!” and “La la LA” lyrics, makes me want to embark on a great journey. And I think that’s a feeling that pervades the rest of the album: it’s like the soundtrack to some sort of Icelandic epic. The second track, “King and Lionheart,” expands on this epic feeling, invoking English monarchs from the middle ages.

“Six Weeks” is another epic song—with its stomping intro, I picture a group of hunters singing this song around a fire. “Little Talks” is a horn-driven conversation between two people (I’ve never figured out if they are boyfriend/girlfriend. At least “Your Ex-Lover is Dead” by Stars spells it out for you), driven by a chorus of “Hey!”

It was hard to decide between “Dirty Paws” and “Little Talks,” but I went with “Dirty Paws.” If you only know this band as the “Little Talks” band, you owe it to yourself to listen to the rest of the album, starting from the beginning.

(spoiler alert: apparently I like songs that yell “Hey!” Let’s see where the Lumineers fall on this list).

#7 Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls “Hold On” For...

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 21:50:00 -0800

#7 Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls

“Hold On”

For me, 2012 begun with the Alabama Shakes. I managed to score a ticket to the band’s L.A. showcase at the Troubadour, knowing only the song “Hold On” and a bit of the band’s backstory (thanks to a late-2011 Lefsetz post). But that was all I needed. More than any other band, the Alabama Shakes were my band of the year—so much so that I saw them again with my wife in September when they came back through town and played a much bigger venue (though truth be told that second show was a bit underwhelming).

Just like the band’s 2011 EP, its debut LP Boys & Girls starts with “Hold On,” a slow southern rocker that always reminds me of Creedence (well, until Brittany Howard starts belting out that voice that far exceeds her years and guitarist Heath Fogg adds a little extra twang). One nitpick—the fuzziness of the organ that comes in at 3:00 on “Hold On” still bugs me—I always think a speaker is out.

For a rock album, Boys & Girls features a number of slower songs, like the second track “I Found You” or the childhood tome “Boys & Girls.” Other tracks, like “Heartbreaker” and “You Ain’t Alone,” start simply enough, before adding enough musical layers (guitar, organ, and Zac Cockrell’s steady bass) to match the power in Brittany’s voice. “Hang Loose” might be the only track that starts like a rocker and keeps rocking all the way through.

I tried really hard to post a song besides “Hold On” (I strongly considered “I Found You” and “You Ain’t Alone”), but 1) I realized I never actually posted the studio version of “Hold On” (only a live cut), and 2) “Hold On” is a really, really catchy song (well, except for that organ).

8. Alexander Spit - These Long Strange Nights “Strange x...

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 13:26:46 -0800

8. Alexander Spit - These Long Strange Nights

“Strange x Unusual” (feat. BAGO)

“Live people ignore the strange and unusual. I myself am strange and unusual.”

And so begins Alexander Spit’s These Long Strange Nights mixtape, with a Beetlejuice quote and a slow, chill beat on the song “Strange x Unusual.” Alexander doesn’t wait long to drop his secret weapon, the Orange County-based vocalist BAGO, who provides the intoxicating hook for “Strange x Unusual” and pops up throughout the album (side note: BAGO’s 2012 EP Sunday’s Best—produced by Mr. Spit—is also worth checking out). These Long Strange Nights is a textured, layered hip hop album—it’s sort of like drifting in and out of a dream.

On “Posse Up”, the album transitions more towards a traditional hip hop album (aided by guest vocalist Jams F. Kennedy), full of braggadocio and basketball references, although the horns make this track out stand out from anything else I heard this year. Another example: the song “You Fucking Bitch, Move!” Alexander Spit uses one word from the intro quote as the base for his beats, adding in some drums and what sounds like a futuristic ray beam of some sorts. Coming in near the middle of the album, his remix of DJ Shadow’s “Six Days” is another standout on the album—though you can’t give him full credit for this track, it’s amazing how well DJ Shadow’s ambient track is reborn as a rap song. “El Camino” is a sample-heavy jam that wouldn’t feel out of place on Kanye’s GOOD Music compilations.

I highly recommend Alexander Spit’s other mixtapes, especially the nearly instrumental, 28-song Mansions. But on These Long Strange Nights Alexander Spit delivers a highly nuanced album, and his artistry extends to the graphics he designed for each track. Like he recommends at the beginning of the album, don’t ignore the strange and unusual.

9. Passion Pit - Gossamer “Take A Walk” Five months...

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 11:59:00 -0800

9. Passion Pit - Gossamer

“Take A Walk”

Five months ago, I posted the second track of of Passion Pit’s second album Gossamer, “I’ll Be Alright”, but I still think album opener “Take A Walk” is my favorite track from this record. Like I said then, this album brings more of Passion Pit’s electro-fueled jams and chirpy synths, but the songs as a whole carry a bit more melancholy—although this can still be your jam for summer BBQs and days at the beach.

At the risk of being lazy (it is the last day of the year and I still have 8 albums to post), I’ll just quote what I said back then:

While the album starts off like debut Manners, the bridge that starts at 2:59 on the second track “I’ll Be Alright” hints at what’s to come on this album: lots of offbeat R&B, chirpy synths, and a bit of melancholy, but still wrapped up in the band’s shimmering sound.

Passion Pit hits the rewind button for “Constant Conversations,” with its early-90s R&B vibe. But unlike The Weeknd or Frank Ocean, I think I can actually get my wife to listen to this song. “Cry Like A Ghost” is a bit chilling for Passion Pit (this song wouldn’t be entirely out of place on a Crystal Castles album) but it still includes a great sing-along chorus.

In short, this album got played a lot in the Effin Sweet household this year. It was a winner on both sides of the aisle—sort of the opposite of this fiscal cliff deal.

10. Frank Ocean - Channel ORANGE “Bad Religion” Man,...

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 11:49:32 -0800

10. Frank Ocean - Channel ORANGE

“Bad Religion”

Man, I still can’t get Frank Ocean’s 2011 mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra out of my head. And with verses on Jay and ‘Ye’s Watch The Throne (that hook on “No Church in the Wild” is killer), he could have been Artist of the Year in 2011. But then halfway through 2012, he drops hints at a new album, creates a stir on Tumblr, and then silences critics with Channel ORANGE, possibly the most futuristic R&B/rap/John Mayer album ever recorded.

The second track on the album, “Thinking Bout You,” is solidly rooted in 90s R&B—until Frank drops his falsetto in. BOOM. The album stays pretty mellow until halfway through, when “Crack Rock” drops in with a DJ Shadow-esque beat and that catchy “crack rock, crack rock” chorus. From this point on, the album gets Weird with a capital W. Exhibit A: the next track, “Pyramids,” a ten-minute guitar-based jam featuring John Mayer and “Monks” features some of the best hip-hop funk this side of the Roots (side note: speaking of the Roots, you should check out Frank Ocean performing “Bad Religion” on his TV debut backed by the Roots).

On the next track, Mr. Ocean gives us this album’s opus: “Bad Religion.” An organ-backed church confessional in the back of a taxi, Frank Ocean reveals his ultimate confession (which he eloquently leaked on Tumblr the day before):

I can never make him love me

It’s a bad religion

To be in love with someone

Who can never love you

“Bad Religion” flows seamlessly into “Pink Matter” featuring André 3000, as the album begins its denouement, slowing down until the “End,” when a car door shuts and we come full circle withNostalgia, Ultra. This is one album that merits a listen in one sitting.

11. Justin Townes Earle - Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way...

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 17:00:32 -0800

11. Justin Townes Earle - Nothing’s Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me

“Down on the Lower East Side”

In a year of continued Americana revival (Mumford & Sons, The Lumineers, The Avett Brothers), Justin Townes Earle put out on of the most authentic Americana albums of the year. Beautiful guitar melodies, slow methodic baselines, and a voice just beginning to show the gravel it will grow into over the next few decades. Album opener “Am I That Lonely Tonight?” starts with a shout-out to Earle’s famous roots with the line “Hear my father on the radio…”

The album builds up from its slow opener through “Look the Other Way” to the rollicking horn-driven “Baby’s Got A Bad Idea.” “Moving On” is another quick number that really stands out, but my favorite two tracks on the album are “Down on the Lower East Side” and album closer “Darling, Darling, Darling.” I’m listening to this album on a rainy L.A. morning, and its tones are slowly brightening, just like the weather outside.

12. The Weeknd - Echoes of Silence /...

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 13:00:40 -0800

12. The Weeknd - Echoes of Silence / Trilogy

“Next”

What can I say about The Weeknd that I didn’t already say last year? But because Abel Tesfaye re-released his three brilliant EPs from 2011 as a Trilogy in 2012, it means I can put him on the list again. 2012 was also the year that The Weeknd went from “polarizing” to “acceptable” to “awesome” in the Effin Sweet household—my wife finally came around to his genius.

The first EP House of Balloons is still probably my favorite—check out “Loft Music”, “High For This”, and “The Morning”. Initially I was disappointed in the second EP Thursday, but only because I had such high expectations. But the third album—Echoes of Silence—makes my best of 2012 list on its own merits. Opening with a Michael Jackson cover “D.D.” (“Dirty Diana”), this album continues the downward spiral of late nights, drugs, and endless womanizing. Yet The Weeknd’s womanizing is more a sign of insecurity than anything else. Culminating in the piano-driven “Next,” Echoes of Silence drops the ultimate hammer: the women he’s with are using him more than he’s using them.

I’ve seen your kind before / And I know exactly what you want / You just want me cause I’m next

13. Miike Snow - Happy To You “Black Tin Box” I love...

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 09:27:00 -0800

13. Miike Snow - Happy To You

“Black Tin Box”

I love Miike Snow’s second album. It sounds a bit like a Nordic rave where the sun is out all the time—a potentially depressing album wrapped up in great beats and bright sounds. But from the beginning of the album (“Enter the Joker’s Liar”), you realize this album isn’t just a retread of the band’s successful self-titled debut from 2009.

“The Wave” sounds like it could be off fun.’s album. “Paddling Out” is one of the happiest songs of the year, even though I have no clue what it’s about (probably surfing). But on Black Tin Box, Miike Snow outdoes itself, channeling Massive Attack and Portishead for one of the darkest songs the band has ever recorded. I love it.

(side note: a few years ago, I read an article that said that one of the few celebrity indulgences that the band members engaged in was buying vacation islands in Sweden. I just picture these guys hanging out on their own islands, yelling back and forth across the sea.)

14. Allah-Las - Allah-Las “Sacred Sands” InApril,...

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 13:00:55 -0800

14. Allah-Las - Allah-Las

“Sacred Sands”

InApril, the Allah-Las released the Tell Me (What’s On Your Mind) EP, which became an immediate favorite. The full debut LP followed in September and gave me a few more tracks to devour. I even saw the Allah-Las open for Nick Waterhouse and the Tarots in October—one of my favorite concerts of the year. I really can’t get enough of these guys (and if you dig the retro beach rock sound, I highly recommend the Allah-Las’ Tumblr site, with hand-picked music and great reblogs of Reverbnation playlists).

The Allah-Las are on the label Innovative Leisure (along with Nick Waterhouse and Hanni El Khatib), which might be my favorite label of the year. The tone of the album is set right from the first song “Catamaran”, thick with treble and reverb. I’m also a big fan of “Sacred Sands” which might be my favorite instrumental track of the year. “Tell Me (What’s On Your Mind)” sounds like the soundtrack to a 1960s surf movie (but maybe a driving or fighting scene).

Like Nick Waterhouse, the Allah-Las do retro right: it’s new music that wouldn’t sound out of place in any decade. Not to say I don’t love the retro-influenced bands like The Drums, Hospitality, or the Dum Dum Girls, but the Allah-Las sound like they had been frozen in time for 40 years only to thaw out in 2012, the perfect year for their sound.

15. Grimes - Visions “Oblivion” I don’t know...

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 12:38:12 -0800

15. Grimes - Visions

“Oblivion”

I don’t know what to make of Grimes. I actually didn’t know much about her until 5 minutes ago (thanks to this). I downloaded this album last March, threw a few songs into playlists, and mostly forgot about it until a song would come up on shuffle.

I must have looked up the artist for “Oblivion” 10 times before I remembered it was Grimes. The same thing happened for “Vowels = Space and Time.” After that, I started listening to this album straight through. I couldn’t stop. It’s entrancing. It’s ethereal. It sounds like how I think Bauhaus modernism would sound. It sounds like the future, when we all live on space ships and spend years traveling to distant planets.

Side note: This might get my vote for weirdest cover of the year. Or at least, cover that looks nothing like the music sounds. Of course, you couldn’t really put a picture of a black hole on an album cover.

16. Japandroids - Celebration Rock When I first heard “The...

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 11:57:55 -0800

16. Japandroids - Celebration Rock

When I first heard “The House That Heaven Built,” I skipped right past it—like I did for most of this album. As Vivian Ward said, “Big mistake. Huge.” So on the strength of a recommendation from my friend Jen R, I went back to this album and became a convert (although I still can’t get my wife to appreciate the nuances of guitar-driven noise rock). For a fuzzy album, the sound is remarkably clear.

“The House That Heaven Built” is a fist-pumping anthem straight out of the Springsteen playbook (the “Oh oh oh OH OH oh” sing along doesn’t hurt, either). The album starts with an amped-up riff on “The Nights of Wine and Roses” and lyrics that tell of a long night of drinking. “Younger Us”, first released as a single in 2010, might have one of the most rocking drum lines I’ve heard.

Celebration Rock drives forward, and its eight songs end too quickly. But that’s what I love about it: it’s nearly a perfect album, but perfection can’t last forever.

#17 Michael Kiwanuka - Home Again “Tell Me A...

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:57:00 -0800

#17 Michael Kiwanuka - Home Again

“Tell Me A Tale”

Eventually I’ll talk about an album that sounds new. But Michael Kiwanuka’s Home Again is another excellent album from 2012 that sounds like it’s from another era. In this case, Kiwanuka—a 24-year old former session musician from London—channels Bill Withers and Otis Reading with his soulful, guitar-driven ballads.

Album opener “I’m Getting Ready” is a lovely finger-picked tune that sounds so intimate it’s like Kiwanuka is in your living room. He expands his sound (or at least the instruments used) with my favorite track “Tell Me A Tale”, which features some solid flute work—which also harkens back to the 1970s. I’m also a big fan of “They Say I’m Doing Fine”, one of the slower tracks on the album. I went to see Michael Kiwanuka open for the Alabama Shakes, and Michael rocked much harder than I expected (of course, I only caught his last two songs because my wife and I were enjoying a lovely dinner and lingering over a cocktail. Ooh, date nights. But I digress.).

#18 Lana Del Rey - Born to Die (The Paradise...

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:07:20 -0800

#18 Lana Del Rey - Born to Die (The Paradise Edition)

“Ride”

Lana Del Rey cracked last year’s list of best EPs with her Video Games / Blue Jeans single, which she then released on this year’s Born to Die, which she then re-released as a deluxe album with the Paradise EP attached. One could argue that this should be two releases, but I think the fact that she released 23 creepy-sad pop songs in one year alone should put her on this list. I don’t care that she changed her name. I don’t care about the slams that she’s inauthentic. I don’t care that she only has one pouty facial expression. I don’t care that she has cast some questionable leads in her videos. I could listen to these 25 songs over and over and over again. I posted the track “Video Games” (still my favorite with its brazen “stand by your man” message) last year, and likewise I have raved over “Born to Die”, “National Anthem”, “Diet Mountain Dew”, and “Lolita” to anyone who would listen (but not to many people were interested).

WIth the Paradise EP, Lana drops another sad group of songs, starting with “Ride” and “American”. She also expresses a unique take on the flavors of Pepsi Cola and cherry pie on the track “Cola”. Whatever you have against Lana Del Rey, her albums are mesmerizing and her lyrics paint unique pictures of an outdated definition of Americana. I don’t know if I want to live in that America but I wouldn’t mind visiting for a few weeks.

#19 Nick Waterhouse - Time’s All Gone “Say I Wanna...

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:34:00 -0800

#19 Nick Waterhouse - Time’s All Gone

“Say I Wanna Know”

Technically this is a late-2011 release but I didn’t start jamming to Mr. Nick Waterhouse until early 2012, but once I started rocking out to his retro R&B and soul-inspired sound I couldn’t stop. From my favorite “I Can Only Give You Everything” (the soundtrack to our Mother’s Day jaunt to Palm Springs) and to quick rocker “Some Place”, this album sounds like a flashback to the band Marty McFly would have had if he had been stuck in 1955.

But it wasn’t until I checked out Nick Waterhouse (and his excellent band The Tarots) at the El Rey Theater that the genius of “Say I Wanna Know” really sunk in on me. I almost expect to hear the record cracking and popping when I’m listening to this song. I close my eyes and travel back 60 years. For that, and for his style, I’m giving Nick a pass into 2012 and naming Time’s All Gone as my #19 best album of 2012.

Two random notes. First, at the Nick Waterhouse show, during the opening set by The Allah-Lahs (a band you will hear more about later in this list), my brother in law Mark complained about the tall guy in front of us who was unusually into the music. Turns out he was the drummer for the Tarots (oops!). And second, I know musical styles come and go, but it’s amazing how many bands sound like stuff I used to listen to with my dad, when he was introducing me to the music of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Like I joked at The Growlers show last night, I feel like my dad was at this same concert 40 years ago. I emailed him the video for “Empty Bones” and he thinks he saw these guys in ‘71 or ‘72.