Presented
in alphabetical order:
Ariel
Pink and The Haunted Graffiti – Before Today
What I
said then--
What a
weird album! Why do I like this so much? At some point during my first listen
through Pet Sounds, I remember thinking that I was experiencing timeless
music. A scroll written in a strange yet familiar language was unrolled,
explaining all the music that I had enjoyed and thereafter was to yet. The
language of pop, or, a history and future of Aaron's liking music by The
Beach Boys, it was called. Before Today isn't nearly as monumental,
but it was a similar experience. Before Today is ultimately a pop
album masked in its diverse draw of influences and styles. As some sort of
artifact containing the last four decades of pop music, the album sounds at
times like a corroded, thirty year-old battery which, having been exposed to
the elements, has become a jumbled timeline. Some moments surface from the
past; others point toward the future. The corrosion damage is ascertainable:
fuzzy production, singers unconcerned with intelligibly pronouncing all lyrics,
songs veering in unexpected directions, and the foolishness of the word
"genre" to define the wash of sounds. The pop instruction manual
checked out this morning. This oddball world that Ariel Pink has put to tape,
replete with unpolished gems, centers on "Round and Round," a song
that works as a kind of collage of all musical styles represented on the album.
It's indescribable for me in terms of sound, so i can only praise as wonderful
these partially decomposed songs whose pop souls show through the virtual
decades of dust. I hear Stevie Wonder, Bowie and Talking Heads to name a few.
Hear the past, hear the future. Hm!
What I
say now--
What I
weird album! I love it so much. No two songs are alike. No two songs are
normal. It's a funhouse around whose corners lurk the spooky ("Fright
Night"), kooky ("L'estat"), and unusual ("Menopause
Man"), but it's all in fun and if you go in expecting some serious art you've
got the wrong mindset to appreciate the sappy crooner "Can't Hear My
Eyes" not to mention the Bowie-esque "Butt-hole Blondies". There
is one song that demands we take it seriously, however, as "Round and
Round" is an all-decade single. It's a one-off encapsulation of the weird
world of this album, complete with found-sound tape whistles, decayed group
vocals offering call/response to each other, and that boot-kick chorus. Nothing
felt as wild, weird, and free as this album.
Caribou
– Swim
What I
said then--
I
recognize that I am predisposed to love Dan Snaith's (aka Caribou) music. Ever
since 2003's Up in Flames made me weak in the knees (read: ears), I've
anticipated and mostly cherished each release since as if it were nectar from
the gods. Swim threw me for a bit of a loop, though. I didn't
anticipate the mutation of Snaith's song sense toward a dance-ier, more angular
direction as in tunes like "Found out" and "Sun." What I've
enjoyed so much about past Caribou albums is the saturation of melody. Songs
like "Desiree" or the more psychedelic "Hendrix with KO"
pushed the melodic elements to their limits. Restraint, or, perhaps more
precisely, standoffishness, did not appear much in Snaith's repertoire before.
Upon hearing the first single, "Odessa," I was skeptical about an
entire album of this "watery dance music" (as Snaith has aptly called
it). Later, after several listens through, I found that the more economical
sound of the dance-ier tracks like "Sun," "Leave House,"
and "Odessa" left room for the more melodic-leaning tracks to stand
out. "Kaili" swirls colorfully, growing and retreating, dancing between
the ears, yet always spinning away. Listening to the "chorus" in
headphones is an out-of-body experience, and the entrance of the saxophone near
the end does inexplicable things to my body: I twitch, I shake my head, I
squirm, I breath deeper... exhaling now - anything to FEEL all of this song. It
may be my favorite song of the year. My hair stands on end; chills spring up
and down my spine. "Lalibela" meditates further on "Kaili"s
excellent melody. "Jamelia" reaches similar heights, climbing upward,
surging chaotically before suddenly receeding. I cannot explain my connection
to Snaith's music, but it almost always makes sense to my ears. It gets me, and
I it.
What I
say now--
Swim plays
to many of my soft spots: it's warm, melodic, and poppy. It also opens some new
doors for me: at times it's house dance music. Dan Snaith further tested my
comfort zone with dance/house on 2014's Our Love, but Swim was
the sweet spot of his drift between pure melody and beat-heavy house textures.
The standout remains "Kaili"--a laser show of darting melodic lines
that coalesce in an unrelenting spiral of vertiginous melody (that manages to
squeeze in a bass clarinet and saxophone for kicks).
Carly
Rae Jepsen – Emotion
What I
said then--
Yes, I
am going for absolute incongruity with this album following Viet Cong. But
it so happens that I also have a place in my heart for laser-guided radio pop.
CRJ (yup) was written off as a one-hit wonder by probably every person with
ears in 2012 after "Call Me Maybe," but she returned with an actually
phenomenal stack of glitter-glazed pop songs. I found that once I let myself
decide it was just fine and not wrong to love this, I loved this. That moment
happened between the first mouse click on "I Really Like You"
and the song's chorus. In those 30 seconds I realized again that the modern pop
music machine can make just as many diamonds (hi, Britney) as lumps of coal
(hi, Fergie), and so can Carly. Hear "Run Away With Me".
What I
say now--
This
year, I flew to LA for the most fun concert weekend I've had in 10-12 years
with three dude-friends who share an abiding love for the 80s-glazed pop found
here. We rode gleefully on mini scooters all over the place and blasted this
album the whole time. Decade-defining.
Fiona
Apple – The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping
Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
What I
said then--
Fiona
apple-y.
What I
say now--
I
haven't revisited this album much in the 7 years since I visited this album
weekly, but what I immediately remember is the outstanding power of Fiona's
poetic imagery. If she puts out an album a decade, she crams it full of more
brilliance than most folks manage in several takes over 10 years. Literally any
song I could mention is loaded with turns of phrase worthy of an anthology all
this album's own. Here she's got her little fist tugging on his forest chest.
There she's likening you to a werewolf the way you left her for dead...and in
the next phrase admitting to have provided your full moon. Over here she's
woven a tapestry of a surreal self-portrait of anxiety in "Every Single
Night". Finally, she's a hot knife to his butter. Take another decade if
you need to, Fiona.
Frank
Ocean - Blonde
What I
said then--
Nothing.
I didn't write for my 2016 list. : (
What I
say now--
The
growers get you in the end. Early on, I pegged Blonde as less overt
and therefore less interesting than 2010's Channel Orange, but the truth
was germinating slowly for me as each new listen revealed more depth of song
craft and vision. Frank was the visionary, after all, I was just the dummy
gifted enough chances to let genius win me over. The enduring image of this
album is, for me, "White Ferrari" and the portrait of fragile,
unspoken gay manhood it captures. In perhaps a prequel to 2010s "Bad
Religion", this time we see Frank choking up at the words he most wants to
deliver to a possible lover, and so smoking dope wiles away another afternoon
with speculation about alternate dimensions instead of interior confessions.
After all, vroom vroom is what real men do, right?
Hot
Chip – One Life Stand
What I
said then--
I just
said to myself: "I feel so warm when I hear this album." Wait, isn't
this dance music? I have no idea. In my musical ignorance or inexperience, I've
found this kind of music (dance? I'm not sure yet) to be alienating, often too
distant in its precision to affect. So 2010 has shown me through a couple
albums on this list that this music can have power over more than my spinal
cord and hips. Where One Life Stand succeeds for me is in the welcome
mat of hooks that unfold slowly, or spring from nowhere as if from a pop-up
book. "Hand Me Down Your Love" throws jerky jabs for 1.5 minutes, and
right as I'm reaching to skip tracks the tender, melodic heart of the song is
revealed. The strings reach in and stretch our chests open wide. The title track
is similarly standoffish until the two-minute mark when the song's bouncy lurch
is replaced with sweet sentiments and molasses-thick melody. Stretch it over
your toes when it gets cold. "Brothers" is also a standout and
personal favorite for its heartfelt tribute to brotherly love. The song's mild
verses are, once again, shot through as the song accelerates, but the sentiment
grows softer, more human. It's a shift that knocks me off my feet even though I
know it's coming. If there is an album this year that I would say reminded me
how carefully to treat songs, it's this one. One Life Stand knows
when to let them smolder, when to let them grow, and when to flip them on their
heads. The dynamic of cold giving way to warm and vice versa is what has kept
this album so fresh all year. It's season-less, or, maybe more appropriately,
season-full, and the seasons of life from my 2010 have only proved its breadth.
What I
say now--
It's
equally true of the breadth of this decade and how consistently I've enjoyed
One Life Stand.
Katie
von Schleicher – Shitty Hits
What I
said then--
I had
zero expectations when I put this album on one evening while cooking dinner.
The first few songs breezed by during my initial prep. Then, as I was cutting
some carrots, a flutter of saxophone at the end of the 4th track
("Soon") knifed through my wandering mind. Three seconds so
delicately treated and unexpected that I rushed over to the phone with a
shudder, asking "Did I just hear that??" to an empty room. It was the
first of many aha moments on Shitty Hits. The songs, guys! They're packed
with little pop delights--and not the kind that wear out quickly. The
Beatles spring to mind a dozen times. Yeah, I mean it. I've listened to it more
than any other this year.
What I
say now--
Katie
played the best show I saw this year. The songs did live what they do on
tape--buzz, jitter, and croon with pop songwriting excellence. This is my most
listened-to album of the last 3 years.
Fang
Island - Fang Island
What I
said then--
"Fun"
is not a word I have ever associated with shredding prog-metal bands, but
there's no mistaking the significance of the distant snapcrackling of fireworks
as the album begins: Fang Island are here to celebrate. Fang Island have
described their music as "everyone high-fiving everyone." Pick any
song here, and you'll listen to a moment or two that made me jump off my couch,
whip my air guitar around my back, catch that air guitar and go down on my
knees in total RAWK OUT MODE. It's an instinctual reaction. This album was made
for guitar hero; it makes you feel like a rock star. I tried to control this
response, but no: traveling with the fam in the car during the holidays did not
stop Fang Island from sending my entire body into rock out mode alone in the
back seat. Yes, I am 28. Yes, my parents asked what was going on, but I don't
think the metal fists I showed them really said much. You try listening to this
circus of high-flying guitar shredding, death-defying drumming and lion-taming
jams. It's not hard to imagine the band smiling their way through all ten
tracks. The only speed they know is EPIC-speed. Tenacious D must love these
guys. Let there be rock.
What I
say now--
I am a
guitar god when I hear Fang Island. I am also an individual having more fun
than I have ever had in my life.
Women – Public
Strain
What I
said then--
OOPS!
I put a song from this album in my not-top-10 list! I know. That was before
Women completely took over my iPod, car stereo, computer and the musical part
of my brain. You must blame them for this! The first time I listened, I
thought, "I loved one song (see previous post) and was bored by the
rest." I heard a voice saying, "Give it some time, Aaron!!"
"...OK VOICE!" I said. And, then, two weeks later: "Good GOSH,
thank you, voice!!!" The thing is, I dont' think my first impressions were
all that off; there isn't a lot to grab your attention here, honestly. But slowly,
surely and unintentionally, I started to hear things I liked - no, wait... -
loved. First of all, I hear so many other artists I love throughout this album:
Sonic Youth ("Drag Open"), Embryonic-era Flaming Lips
("China Steps"), Strokes ("Locust Valley"), Velvet
Underground ("Narrow with the Hall"), and Television (all over). But
Women hold it together and are able to forge their own sound from these parts.
The guitar interplay is one of my favorite parts, as the crunchy hooks seem to
surface form nowhere. In much the same way, melody bubbles up somehow from the
seeming a-melodic, and the atonal reveals its tonality. Much like the album
cover, it's a blurry, dizzying blitz of noise, but there's still living
breathing people behind it all if you care to pick them out.
What I
say now--
Public
Strain is what the kind of record that when given time to grow will sink itself
frighteningly deep into your psyche. I still marvel at how GOOD this record is
for how little often feels like is going on. In a way, it's in my decade list
out of respect--no one album on this list is as pop-less as this, and yet it
won me over completely. In spite of its cold exterior, I genuinely identify
this album with personal warmth.
Viet
Cong – Viet Cong
What I
said then--
I had
guarded hopes that this album would be the overwhelmingly destructive force of
post-rock that I expected. This is what Viet Cong gave us. I've long saved
a place in my heart for politically charged agro/math rock catharses (what the
hell does that mean? idk, it's the best I could do). Bands like Frodus,
Sleater-Kinney, and Women have filled me with happiness for their embodiment of
anger and alienation. Maybe it's the junior high boy in me that just wants to
thrash around and have it feel like a personal purification by fire. Viet Cong
is composed of ex-Women members and amazingly released an album that challenges
their former band's towering 2010 album Public Strain. I listen to Public
Strain all the time. I listened to Viet Cong all the time. It
came out in January, 2015, and I'm sure I listened to it several times each
month. It is probably my favorite album I heard this year and also probably the
album that will least likely be enjoyed by anyone I know. It's grey, brooding,
and ends on a pummeling, 11-minute exclamation point called "Death".
What's not to love? Listen to "Continental Shelf"
for the most accessible introduction.
What I
say now--
I've
seen these guys live every chance I've gotten in the last 4 years (3 times,
including after their renaming as Preoccupations). I remember the first time I
walked up to Matt Flegel, leader singer/bassist, and looked at him severely,
saying "This is so. good." while clutching the album. He laughed
endearingly, "Wow. Thanks, man!". This album has seen me through many
highs and lows in my time in Seattle. Every chance I take to hear it is an
exfoliation of the mind, leaving me sharper, purer, and more ragged. I recall
Agent Cooper's famous description of his sinister nemesis Windom Earle:
"His mind is like a diamond--it's cold, and hard, and brilliant."
