Albums of the Year 2013: #10 to #1

#10 | Sonny and the Sunsets – Antenna to the Afterworld

I was a big fan of Sonny and the Sunset’s last album, 2012’s Longtime Companion, which charmed me with its simple melodies and wistfully voiced lyrics. For Antenna to the Afterworld, Sonny and co. largely discard the predecessor’s alt-country stylings, opting this time for a more straightforward pop-rock sound with some very subtle touches of psychedelia. Oh, and there’s something about the use of bass guitar on this album – they really nail it. “Palmreader” and “Path of Orbit” are both lovely, while “Green Blood’s” tale of intergalactic travel and android love is delightfully quirky.

#9 | The Drones – I See Seaweed

It’s been five long years since Havilah but in 2013 The Drones finally dropped its long-awaited followup, I See Seaweed. This is probably the dirgiest the group have ever sounded – the songs here are often deliberately ugly, characterised by squally, atonal guitar and arrangements that switch back and forth between spare and chaotic. Perhaps the only exceptions are the upbeat rocker “A Moat You Can Stand In” (which sounds like the scrappy little brother of “I Don’t Ever Want to Change”) and closing track “Why Write a Letter that You’ll Never Send”, which dresses up relentlessly negative, state-of-the-world lyrics in sentimental balladry (also my favourite track on the album). In the grand scheme of things I rate this below most of their other albums, however they’re still showing a will to experiment and expand their sound, making it a very worthwhile addition to their body of work.

#8 | Thee Oh Sees – Floating Coffin

Apparently Thee Oh Sees are finally taking a much deserved break in 2014 (although not before releasing one more album in April – typical). Floating Coffin landed barely six months after their previous album but, as usual, shows no signs of being a rush-job. It’s another powerful, garage punk performance from John Dwyer and his band mates, with the steady, psych-rock leanings of recent albums remaining the order of the day. They really nail the balance between bug-eyed rockers, lock-down VU throwbacks and the occasional slower piece. Energetic opening duo “I Come from the Mountain” and “Toe Cutter / Thumb Buster” get the album off to a great start, while closer “Minotaur” is my big favourite.

#7 | Night Beats – Sonic Bloom

Night Beats self-titled debut from 2011 was very solid but I felt it leant a little too heavily on its strongest tracks. By comparison, their second album Sonic Bloom boasts higher highs in abundance. I love the title track – a thumping psych-rocker that might be the band’s best song yet. Other highlights include the shimmery guitar tones of “Catch a Ride…”, “As You Want” with its stellar guitar solo, the scuzzy “Rat King” and the killer freakout in “The New World”, which closes the album with some wicked chaos. This is just a huge step up into top-shelf garage-rock and I’m looking forward to where the guys go next.

#6 | Autechre – Exai

2001’s Confield turned me into an Autechre fan, after quite a few years of finding their brand of ambient electronic music not quite my liking. That album was a real eye-opener for me and I mention it because I think Exai might be even better – perhaps the best Autechre album yet. The veteran UK duo have taken the clinical precision and icy beats of recent works like Quaristice and Oversteps (both great), glitched the hell out of them and then blown them out into these grand, longform experiments which progress through multiple sections and themes. It’s almost like they took a stab at applying IDM to the blueprint of post-rock epics of the early 2000s and this is where they wound up. At two very full discs it’s huge and daunting but it absolutely works. Personal favourites are “FLeure”, “irlite (get 0)” and “bladelores”, but the album is definitely best heard as a whole.

#5 | My Bloody Valentine – MBV

A hotly anticipated release (23 years in the making!) that paid off in a big way. I really like the transition throughout the album from a gauzy, Loveless-referencing opening to the clean, dream-pop middle and surprisingly punchy, jungle-infused final third. “Only Tomorrow” is extraordinary – on par with just about anything from Loveless as far as I’m concerned and it’s syncopated, rising and falling guitar line was one of the year’s most memorable and affecting sounds. “Who Sees You”, “If I Am” and “In Another Way” are all significant highlights and “Wonder 2” closes the album with a heady dose of flanged chaos. Sure, it’s not Loveless, but it’s a great record that reveals a lot of nuance under close scrutiny, and was absolutely worth the wait.

#4 | Frog Eyes – Carey’s Cold Spring

Much has been said about how this album is cloaked in themes of mortality. It was released shortly after two significant events in the life of frontman Carey Mercer – the death of his father and a diagnosis of throat cancer (supposedly “the kind of cancer you can fight”, which hopefully bodes well for a recovery). The thing that really struck me is how restrained this album is. When you listen to Frog Eyes, you expect kaleidoscopic instrumentation, funhouse-on-acid experimentation and Mercer’s unmistakable yowl, but this is a slow and understated Frog Eyes album like none before it. The guitar tones are fuller and more textured, with less of the sporadic noodling of before, while Mercer’s shouty bits are buried in the mix, often behind his own, more relaxed lead vocal, sounding like some agitated ghost lingering in the background. “The Road is Long”, “Don’t Give Up on Your Dreams” and the upbeat “Seven Daughters” are highlights, but my favourite track by far is the closer “Claxxon’s Lament”. While the song was written years before the death of Mercer’s father it feels utterly connected – Mercer’s idealistic mantra of “and nobody shall die” during the chorus is heartbreaking.

#3 | Chance the Rapper – Acid Rap

Acid Rap, the second mixtape by Chicago rapper Chance, just kept on growing on me throughout 2013. At first listen I wasn’t too sure about his goofy voice and wobbly pacing but over time those elements changed from uncertainties to some of my favourite things about the album. Once the lyrics started to sink in I was hooked. Chance was only 20 years old when he recorded Acid Rap, yet the album is rooted in the kind of longing nostalgia and reflections on lost innocence that suggest an artist of considerably greater years. The way he splices together these concepts – trading off lyrics about visits to Chucky Cheese and watching Rugrats against tales of too-young drug use and friends lost to street violence – is stunning. It’s obvious early on that this album is hilarious and Chance has charisma to spare, but beneath that prankster exterior I was surprised and impressed to find such a mature, intelligent lyricist. Personal highlight tracks are “Pusha Man/Paranoia”, “Cocoa Butter Kisses”, “Juice”, “Everybody’s Something” and the opening track “Good Ass Intro”, which might just be my favourite song of the year. Note that those are five of the album’s first six tracks – the album is perfectly sequenced and there’s nothing wrong with its second half, but good lord does it start off strong.

#2 | Jenny Hval – Innocence is Kinky

Jenny Hval’s first album under her own name, 2011’s Viscera, was a big surprise favourite that year, so I was excited to check out her followup Innocence is Kinky. The Oslo based songwriter and academic sets the tone for the album immediately with the opening title-track, quietly confessing “Last night I watched people fucking on my computer”, the first of many brazenly confrontational lyrics, before the music even really gets underway. Innocence is Kinky is undeniably ambitious and self-indulgent, exploring concepts of sex, sensuality, body, identity, gender and mythology through fractured art-pop and an unwavering focus on Hval’s dynamic, expressive vocal, but it’s also irreverent and, well, fun. The comparatively straightforward “rock” tracks like “I Called” and “I Got No Strings” give the album some momentum and familiar musical tropes for the listener to cling to, but to me the most thrilling moments are those when Hval’s vocal is at its most unrestrained. The afore-mentioned title-track is my favourite, particularly it’s chilling, vocal-only closing moments, but I’m also a huge fan of “Mephisto in the Water” and “Renée Falconetti of Orléans”. This is a huge step forward for Hval – it’s vastly better than it’s (great) predecessor and sounds like little else being released today.

#1 | Josephine Foster – I’m a Dreamer

The first Josephine Foster album I ever heard was 2005’s Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You, a beautiful collection of timeless folk songs that left me absolutely enamoured (the album ranked #5 in my albums of the decade list). Since then, I have thoroughly enjoyed her subsequent releases but nothing has quite reached those heights. Enter: I’m a Dreamer, in which Foster takes a slight deviation from her usual earthy, guitar-led style into songs which are largely piano based. Her music still evokes thoughts of quaint history only this time, rather than playing a renaissance fair she’s embracing Tin Pan Alley, with a bit of a Nashville twang for good measure. Foster has shown this kind of mischievous charm and good humour before – it absolutely defines “Good News”, my favourite of Hazel Eyes’ tracks – and it’s such a perfect stylistic fit. I’m a Dreamer is a marvelous album, one which sees its creator venturing into new territory and in doing so challenging the lofty peaks set by her finest work. It’s sweet, elegant and effortlessly enjoyable.

Upcoming Gig: The Drones

The Drones will be playing a show next month in support of their upcoming live DVD A Thousand Mistakes. They’ll be supported by Adalita from Magic Dirt, which gives me a great excuse to put up this amazing clip of Adalita and Gareth Liddiard covering The Saints’ “Messin’ With the Kid” live on Spicks and Specks:

I happened across that one recently and I reckon it’s one of the best live clips I’ve seen in a while. It doesn’t hurt that they’re covering one of the best Australian rock songs of all time.

I got to see Liddiard play a solo gig in support of Strange Tourist last year, and it turned out to be an incredible show, intimate and totally absorbing. The opportunity to watch The Drones in full, with all their gritty, muscular rock instrumentation, is too good an opportunity to pass up. Supposedly these guys really go full tilt on their live performances, exhausting and uncompromising and just generally rocking the hell out. Given that they’re supporting a career-spanning DVD, you can probably expect to hear a retrospective style show with plenty of favourites from all their albums, which should be a treat. Here’s all the important details:

Friday Oct 21st
The Bakery, Northbridge
$38 adv or $40 at the door

I don’t think I’d risk waiting for door sales, though – these guys are way too popular.

Christmas Gifts!

I forgot to do my usual roundup of the music-related gifts that I received for Xmas 2010.

From by lovely wife, three great CDs:

Guided by Voices - Alien Lanes

The Like - Release Me

The Drones - Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By

Release Me was one of my favourite releases from 2010, so that’s been on heavy rotation in the home stereo and probably will be for some time. The other two are great older albums that I’ve been meaning to pick up for a while now. It’s nice to have some more Drones material in my physical collection, as I’ve been keen to own more of their stuff since seeing Gareth Liddiard live a couple of months ago. The classic Alien Lanes has been getting plenty of listens – “Motor Away” is such a damn good song.

From my best friend Adam, a vinyl record:

Avey Tare and Panda Bear - Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished

Haven’t had a chance to spin this yet, but I’m definitely looking forward to hearing “April and the Phantom” on the full stereo setup.

And from my very good friend Helelelelen, a nifty book of concert poster art:

The Small Stakes by Jason Munn. I really like the minimalist, stylised look of the posters – Munn’s approach employs beautiful typography, simple colour contrasts, lots of sillouettes and basic shapes. Very modern and pleasing to the eye.

Thanks guys!

Latest Purchases

After his brilliant live performance, I just had to run out and grab this one:

Gareth Liddiard - Strange Tourist

It’s a pretty amazing release. The thing I love about Gareth Liddiard is his tendency towards literal storytelling, often from a character-based perspective. Too much lyrically-focused music these days features artists who are heavily pre-disposed towards cryptic metaphors that require extensive deciphering, and it’s great to be able to listen to a direct tale that’s instantly understandable and compelling. I love The Drones, and Liddiard’s lyrics and distinctly husky, Australian accent have always been pretty major drawcards of their sound. This album feels like a spin-off of the Drones’ sound where every other factor has been stripped back until nothing remains but a voice and a single guitar, and the result is a no-frills collection of memorable and intimate songs. Personal favourite tracks are “Blondin Makes an Omelette”, “Strange Tourist”, the extremely long “The Radicalisation of D” and “Did She Scare All Your Friends Away”, which I think I’d have to pick as the album’s very best piece.

Bought during the same shopping trip:

Sleigh Bells - Treats

It’s like Deerhoof teamed up with a group of high school cheerleaders and the result was produced by Girl Talk. Or something. It’s noisy and chaotic but really very poppy, and almost every song has very strong high school connotations. It’s really good fun. The single, appropriately titled “Infinity Guitars”, is awesome, and I’m also really digging “Crown on the Ground” and “Rill Rill”, the latter of which rides on an awesome Funkadelic sample.

Upcoming Gigs

There’s a few interesting shows coming up, and I’ve been trying to decide on which of them, if any, to spend my hard-earned dollars.

On November 12th, Damo Suzuki, the frontman of legendary psychedelic-rock group Can, will be playing a solo show at The Bakery. I’m not sure what Suzuki is up to these days, so I don’t really have much of an idea what to expect. Still, it’s a show by one of the central members of one of my favourite groups ever (anyone who hasn’t heard Tago Mago is missing out on a near-religious experience), which, even on its own, is enough to grab my attention. Plus it’s less than $30, which strikes me as quite a steal.

Moving on to the 13th, another solo show, this time by Drones frontman Gareth Liddiard. Liddiard recently released his solo debut Strange Tourist and is playing a set in support of the release at Mojos in Fremantle. I haven’t heard the album yet, but I’ve heard good things, and Liddiard’s red-raw vocals and evocative songwriting have always been a major appeal in The Drones music. Could be worth a look, and not much of a risk at only $22.

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings are returning to WA. I was very disappointed to miss the show they did as part of PIAF a couple of years ago, so I’m really stoked to hear that they’re coming back, this time for an outdoor show at The Fremantle Arts Centre on December 12th. Jones and her Dap-Kings are one of, if not the best group making funk/soul music today, leading the charge in a genre-revival that’s been gathering a whole lot of steam since the mid-2000s, and they supposedly put on a killer live show to boot. Hardly surprising, given that Jones is such a seasoned veteran of a performer. The only downside – $60 tickets. It was only $40 a couple of years ago at PIAF! I guess they must be gaining a lot of cred and popularity. Last time they sold out, so I’d better make up my mind soon.

Finally, there’s an El Guincho gig at The Bakery on December 17th. The Spanish artist (real name Pablo Díaz-Reixa) plays a style of sample-driven pop music that sees him regularly compared to Animal Collective and Panda Bear, and indeed his music is filled with the same feel-good vibes. The key difference is the international flavour infused into Díaz-Reixa’s music. His debut album Alegranza is upbeat and unrelentingly high-spirited, never descending into insular trippiness and remaining in-the-moment throughout, making the album sound like a huge street party. As he’s augmenting his deck-work with a full live band, I can definitely see this being a lively and highly enjoyable show. Tickets are $40.