So I listened to some music this year...

In no particular order, and I have yet to listen to a lot of stuff. There's no way anyone could effectively take into account every single thing released this year, so therefore this isn't a top ten list, but a collection of reactions to some of the music released this year that I came into contact with.


Explosions in the Sky – All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
I love the band name. And all the album artwork. And every single crescendo, slow paced, fast paced, melodic piece of music. I mean, the third song is thirteen and a half minutes long. If they can hold your attention through that, you know you’ve got something good. And they do it all with instruments. There are no words, which is helpful, as they’d only distract from the musical notes.

Stars – In Our Bedroom After the War
Alright, this took some listens, especially since I heard from various sources that it wasn’t a very good album. But I’ve come to like some of it. It’s not the best of Stars, not even close to the quality of “Set Yourself on Fire” in my opinion, yet still a solid effort.

The Shins – Wincing the Night Away
Releasing an album in January will land you on two end of the year music lists. Well, the more exposure the better I suppose. The Shins deserve it though. There are some amazing songs on this album, like “Spilt Needles” and album closer “A Comet Appears.” They’ve climbed into mainstream success over the past few years, cemented by the release of this cd.

Sunset Rubdown – Random Spirit Lover
This is the best album of the year, by far. In August it leaked and I jumped all over it. I sung its praises to everyone, just to make sure the genius wasn’t all in my head. If you listen to the lyrics, you pick up clues that point towards the album describing a play. The whole album is filled with delightful intricate plots, sometimes completely implausible by real world standards, but it’s a twisted alternate reality. With recurring characters. How cool is that? Only one song stands out as a little too weird, “Colt Stands Up and Grows Horns.” It just doesn’t sound good, but the rest is pure sound goodness.

The Most Serene Republic – Population
The Most Serene Republic is one of three bands on this list signed to Canadian record label Arts and Crafts, home also to Broken Social Scene. This band opened up for Los Campesinos! They kind of sound like Anathallo because of all the different instruments. They dressed all in black and delivered their music with an insane amount of energy. Trumpets, whistling, and violin in full swing. At times the music can sound similar, but this album holds some great songs like “President of Future End,” “The Men That Live Upstairs,” and aptly titled “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

Los Campesinos! – Sticking Fingers Into Sockets
Quickly becoming my favorite little indie band ever. Short, dancey songs, with music-conscious titles like “We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives,” and lyrics like “it’s sad that you think that we’re all just scenesters, and even if we were it’s not the scene you’re thinking of.” I love their English accents too.

The Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
I was kind of disappointed in this album. Funeral was so full of raw emotional power. And then the Arcade Fire decided to get all preachy and channeled that energy into a neat little “message” about how everything is so commercialized and materialistic and run by religion. Yes. I get it. America sucks. Now, let’s get back to the philosophical raw energy that Funeral had.

The Go! Team – Proof of Youth
Not much to say about this cd. It’s the second release from The Go! Team, no immense change of direction for them, they’re still going with the cheerleading chants and pop-esque sound with hard to hear lyrics.

Flight of the Conchords – The Distant Future“The humans are dead. Binary solo! Zerozeroonezeroonezerooneeee.” I saw an ad for this on the Stephen Colbert website and thought hey, I’ll watch a free episode. And then they broke into song. It was hysterical. The TV show aside, FOTC released six of their songs on an EP. If they ever come to SF, I will go. The “fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo of New Zealand” is too funny to miss. I’m looking forward to the full album release in April next year.

Dan Deacon – Spiderman of the Rings
It’s so random! There’s a lot to do with animals from what I can gather. My favorite song is “Wham City”, all eleven minutes and forty five seconds of it, although there’s a small break in the middle, so it’s almost two songs. I’m not really sure how the music is made, but it definitely involves a laptop and lots of those little sound board knobs.

Battles – Mirrored
Battles makes me dizzy like my sister’s ADHD listening therapy CDs do. Which probably means it’s a little too math-rock-y for me. Nevertheless, they get points for being so different from the rest of the music I listen to, and everyone seems to love them right now, so go, take a listen, and hopefully you won’t get as queasy as I did.

Architecture in Helsinki – Places Like This
AiH have gotten progressively louder with each album. The songs on this one don’t really have a direction. Most are a hit-or-miss kind of deal. Hold Music is a tragedy of a song, and not worthy of the semi-mosh pit that erupted at their show. Same goes for “Same Old Innocence.” But the middle songs are okay.

Still Flyin’ – Za Cloud EJ EP
They’re from San Francisco, actually. I love the reggae feel of their songs. They have nearly twenty members, even one whose only job is to dance around on stage. He occasionally bangs on a few instruments. This EP contains five songs which all seem to be about Yosemite or magical golden birds. Either way, the upbeat sound doesn’t get old.

Why? – The Hollows EP
Why? can be pretty haunting, with their mix of lo-fi indie, folk hip hop, and rich lyrics. It’s some strange combinations, but they make it work beautifully. The EPs are ladden with musical material not found on the LP releases. The Hollows precedes a full length album out in March of next year. I’ve only heard the songs a few times because they released it as a twelve inch and my house lacks a working record player, but they took a turn on this EP, which includes renditions of “Yo Yo Bye Bye” by Xiu Xiu and Yo La Tengo as well as remixes of past and future songs.

Juno Soundtrack
This was a late minute addition. I just saw the movie last week, and left thinking it would be one of the best movie soundtracks ever made. The music fit so perfectly with the tone of the movie, kind of lighthearted but laced with biting, dry humor. Singer Kimya Dawson of The Moldy Peaches provides most of the songs. Thank you so much to some kind person who collected all the songs (even the version of “Anyone Else But You” sung by Michael Cera and Ellen Page) and put them in a torrent that you can find at mininova.org.
But forget the music for a moment, the movie was amazing in itself. It had the best opening credits sequence I have ever seen. I actually wanted to sit and watch the progression of Ellen Page walking down the street in drawn form, gallon of Sunny D in hand, over the song “All I Want Is You” by Barry Louis Polisar. Plus, Michael Cera runs around in little yellow shorts. It’s cute.