Top 10 Albums
Crystal StiltsPerhaps tops among the recent bumper crop of bands to sprout from Brooklyn's cracked avenues, Crystal Stilts have divined a vesperal sound haunted by whisps of shoegazed past lives and Nuggets bands never heard from again. The band's full-length debut, Alight of Night, is a near perfect melding of new and old sounds, a cacaphonous trip into a black hole of sound where the rewards are derived more from getting lost in it than coming out the other side.
Sic AlpsThis duo's Siltbreeze debut was all over the map, but in the best of ways. It takes a unique talent to go from bluesy dirges to noise detours to sundropped pop without sounding incoherent, but Sic Alps have got it, and U.S. Ez was blessed with the best combination of leftfield ideas and centered songsmanship.
Frightened Rabbit
Spiritualized
WireOn leadoff cut, "One of Us," Colin Newman sings, "One of us will live to rue the day we met each other," and he may be addressing guitarist Bruce Gilbert's departure from the legendary band. (Check out our interview from earlier in the year to learn more.) Be that as it may, Gilbert's absence isn't particularly noticeable on Wire's latest, 47th, release. Encompassing all the varied tacks the band has taken through the years, Object 47 is an invigorated and whipsmart piece of work from the greying art-punks.
High PlacesThe music of Brooklyn's High Places occupies an ethereal realm made from a hubris equal parts organic and artificial. As such, their orchestrated pop confections seem to occupy their own space and time, and the duo's debut full-length is more than just the result of its unique hybrids, it's its own niche.
Gang Gang DanceBrooklyn's Gang Gang Dance warped a wide swath of influences to its own vision for their second album. Techno-pop mutates with African rhythms, free jazz reproduces with disco-punk, trip-hop mingles with shoegaze—all culminating into an album completely inventive and wholly enjoyable.
Love Is AllBorne out of Sweden, but bred on British and American '80s post-punk pop, the sound Love Is All makes is at once forward thinking and ensconced with the best of reference points. The band has created a record imbued with a sense of urgency, like the battle they wage against ennui and kicking out the jams was a matter of life and death.
Lykke LiLykke Li's debut is a record as smart as it is infectious. Here her sweetly sung lullabies to love and life are paired with sparkling pop imbued with a melodic sense of wonder and sumptuous beauty. Li romances the song as much as her unnamed paramours, and it's the listener who can't help but fall head over heels.
Japanese MotorsWhat this Californian outfit of surfers by day, rockers by night does may not seem like anything extraordinary at first listen—recombined Velvets riffs and well-salted lines on girls and the wild life—but it doesn't take too much to make a solid album if you do it right. And the Japanese Motors do, creating an album of sharp hooks and hootin' and hollerin' that's all that's really needed from a rock record.
Other Writers
Kevin J. Elliott • Dorian S. Ham • Tom Butler • Michael P. O'Shaughnessy • Josie Rubio • Ron Wadlinger • Jennifer Farmer • Phil Goldberg