Jan. 05, 2011 - Issue #794 : Year in Review 2010
The Year In Music
1. Beach House, Teen Dream Victoria Legrand's voice would bleed emotion even without the grandiose-in-scope-but-understated-in-execution space that she and Alex Scally create on Teen Dream. Combined, they're a force that's devastating, no matter which particular way they're trying to take you. Teen Dream is at times about loss, at times about love, at times about some haunting and gorgeous space in between, but it is first and foremost an album of epic and unrestrained feeling—not so unlike being a teenager, where the freshness of experience gives everything an overwhelming power.
2. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Before Today The reason Ariel Pink's brand of pop deconstruction works where so many others sound laborious is because he manages to fulfil all your expectations even as he's subverting them. Before Today is engrossing well before you realize what's going on, and it gets eight miles deep without ever losing sight of its shimmering surface.
3. LCD Soundsystem, This is Happening Whether it's a song about the benefits of different perspectives ("Pow Pow") or just James Murphy's uncanny ability to infuse a dance anthem with hard-won-but-ecstatic wisdom ("All I Want"), This is Happening proved that the DFA genius still hasn't lost his edge—or at least has done it in the most interesting, elated way possible.
4. Big Boi, Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty Conventional wisdom was that Antwan Patton—whatever he wants you to call him—was the propulsive, street-ready yin to André Benjamin's loopy and esoteric yang, but Big Boi delivered some of the finest work of his already sterling career by tromping all over the map in true Outkast style. The production is every bit as layered and expansive as the duo's best work, and is pushed into a whole other level by a full-on lyrical assault from Patton, who uses enough in-and-out wordplay and rhythmic bravado to put an entire poetry anthology to shame.
5. Caribou, Swim Dan Snaith managed to expand both his emotional and sonic palettes considerably on Swim, and he hardly limited his scope before. Swim can seem melancholy, celebratory, mopey and effusive in one phrase, and in its entirety is some mercurial, elusive thing that's capable of swallowing you whole even as it rushes away from what you've come to expect.
15 great songs from bands that didn't make the top five (and one from late 2009 that I didn't hear in time for last year):
Wild Nothing, "Summer Holiday"
Pop Winds, "Feel It"
Jom Comyn, "New Raincoat"
Gobble Gobble, "Wrinklecarver"
Woods, "Suffering Season"
Cee-Lo Green, "Fuck You!"
Dum Dum Girls, "Bhang Bhang, I'm a Burnout"
The Tallest Man on Earth, "The King of Spain"
Sans AIDS, "Got Ideas"
Aloe Blacc, "I Need a Dollar"
The National, "Bloodbuzz Ohio"
The Provincial Archive, "Art Museums and Tourist Traps"
Bronze Leaf, "Text Exit"
Kumon Plaza, "Hans Kruger"
Male Bonding, "Year's Not Long"
2009 Edition: Brazilian Money, "Ghetto Lungs, GET ALONG NOW" V vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus
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