The 2010 albums thread

[Sorrow By Nature]

So, we're a few months in, and it's already looking like a much better year for good album releases than 2009 was. Post your personal recommendations for this year's best releases!

First out:


Class Actress - Journal Of Ardency (EP)

Deliciously sparkly electro pop, best suited for dark nights and late night tram rides.


Gigi - Maintenant

A glorious return to early sixties pop music featuring vocals from, among others, personal favourites Owen Pallett, Zac Pennington and Bobby Birdman.


Lightspeed Champion - Life Is Sweet! Nice To Meet You

Dev's second Lightspeed Champion album is a "big" british pop album that, when at its best, makes my old brit-pop heart skip a beat.


Moto Boy - Lost In The Call

Vocals/guitar-based night time pop for anyone who's ever had a broken heart. Simply beautiful.


I also felt that I didn't need to tell you all about the glory of Owen Pallett's Heartland, which so far is my favourite album of the year and is likely to stay way up there on my year-best list when 2011 comes.

/t

[papilioulysses]

yep, heartland and finally...


the irrepressibles - mirror mirror



"A sublimely surreal sensation, an effervescent explosion of emotion, a fantastically florid fountain, a big bad Baroque shock"
JOIN THE CIRCUS! simply a glorious debut album. beautiful emotive and dramatic. jamie mcdermot's stunning voice, intoxicating chamber (pop) music. ... love at first listen.





i'll come back for more...
and thanks tommy, great recommendations.

[wanderer]

Irrepressables? Album? Might actually have to buy that one, although it must be a couple of years (Latitude 07/08?) since I listened to anything by them...

My must-buy so far: MGMT - Congratulations (I can't find a cover)
But I've heard 'Flash Delirium': www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFA-KIWcva0 and it's good! So; excited XD

[Sorrow By Nature]

Mar 26, 2010 15:25:07 GMT wanderer said:

My must-buy so far: MGMT - Congratulations (I can't find a cover)
But I've heard 'Flash Delirium': www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFA-KIWcva0 and it's good! So; excited XD

It's out there and I've heard it. If you like Flash Delirium, you're in for a treat. If you expect Oracular Spectacular over again, you'll be disappointed, I think. Haven't given it any real time yet, so no comment on if it's good or not. The cover's kind of funny, though.



/t

[wanderer]

^ I'm thinking it's more 'Animal Collective' than 'Oracular Spectacular', and, in my opinion, that's a good thing.

[newslang]

I think the only albums I've purchased that came out this year was Heartland, and the new Basia Bulat.

BUT

I am looking forward to the new CocoRosie (!!!!!!), Rufus Wainwright, and The Dead Weather.

[lastgoodbye]

Yes, new CocoRosie!!!!!

[wakefromthysleep]

heartland.



and I want a new Arcade Fire album!!

[lastgoodbye]

A new Arcade Fire album in the same year as new Owen and new CocoRosie would be like omg overload of my top favourite artists!1!!1!

Isn't there a new Arcade Fire one on the way/in the making? They're touring UK festivals this summer. I've got my fingers crossed they'll grace my turf.

[victorinox]

Heartland is likely my favourite album so far.
I'm really excited for everything that'll come out this year. Particularly the new New Pornographers (that's real, right? I might have made it up), the new The National, and even more particularly

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE!



wish I could preorder it : (

And on the subject of CocoRosie, lol@the art

[Sorrow By Nature]

Yup, there's a new Arcade Fire album in the making, and there have been hints at a 2010 release. Still nothing confirmed though.

And yes, there's a new New Pornographers album coming sometime soon. There's a single track out on the mp3 blogs, at least.

2010 is already good and will get even better... Ridiculous.

/t

[lastgoodbye]

Mar 26, 2010 23:08:15 GMT victorinox said:

And on the subject of CocoRosie, lol@the art

I know right! Love it.

[thornyking]

The Irrepressibles are magnificent! (Note my icon). The album is quite impressive. Depsite the fact that the new "Splish! Splash! Sploo!" is a bit dull compared to the original, they did a very nice job. I keep hearing that it sounds like Antony & the Johnsons crossed with Owen Pallett, and it is eerily accurate.

Also Owen Pallett, but I think my love for Heartland has been apparent.

To be honest, I'm still catching up with some 2009 releases, but here are some nice 2010 albums:


Clogs - Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton

"Fusion experimenters Clogs take a modern approach to folk-flavored chamber music. Led by composer Padma Newsome (the National), they build their courtly Renaissance sound on intricately woven strands of ukulele, violin, bassoon, and percussion..." - Michael Patrick Brady, Boston Pheonix

Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) sings all over the thing, so I was compelled to check it out and found myself very pleased. I admit "On the Edge" grates me when I'm not in the mood due to the shrill operatic vocals, but every other song is breathtaking. It is so perfectly executed and the instrumentation is just plain gorgeous.




Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can
(Almost every review I read seems to extensively note her age and her relationships instead of describing the album, but:)

"Her stormy folk songs (which, on occasion, recall PJ Harvey's) are primal and dark, crammed with ancient mythology and portentous warnings: 'All of this can be broken / All of this can be broken / Hold your devil by his spoke and spin him to the ground,' she chants, offering up a vision of postadolescent womanhood that's more about survival than escape." - Amanda Petrusich, Spin

Although I very much enjoyed some songs off her first album, I never really gave much note of her until I stumbled across the video for the opening track of her new album, "Devil's Spoke", and the darkness and bluegrass flourishes immediately caught me. The album is a lot more intense than what I could gather from my listens of "Alas, I Cannot Swim" and wow, can this gal write lyrics. Her voice seems to be even stronger; she knows just the right moments to use subtlety or power. It's a very impressive album.




Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me

"You can feel roots going down and an edifice being built. Her voice has gained depth and she sings with more force and clarity, so that's part of it. And the arrangements are more judicious and draw less attention to themselves (some tracks are just harp, others add horns, strings, and percussion, but with a lighter touch). But the bigger difference seems to be the overall mood, which is expansive and welcoming." - Mark Richardson, Pitchfork

I very much need to get to know this two-hour album more, so I will leave it with that review. My first impressions were very good.




Marina & the Diamonds - The Family Jewels

"Her debut skips from glam-disco and bubblegum punk, to quavering piano laments and cabaret ditties. All the while, her imaginative reach is complemented by a winning pop savviness." - Q Magazine

This is such pop. It is great. She's ridiculously catchy with an interesting voice. Although her lyrics can sometimes tire me with the incessant rhymes, her subject matter can be nice. SUPER TUNES, though.


Edit: Holy fuck, I use the word "super" a lot. Corrected.

[papilioulysses]

^marinaaaa! =)



fyfe dangerfield - fly yellow moon



the solo debut of the guillemots' founding member... a good mix of bare ballads and some up-tempo/catchy songs, lovely lyrics.

"The 10-track record startles from start to finish, magnificently eclectic, warm and uplifting, haunting and melodic – it sounds like a classic upon its first listen. [...] Fyfe recorded the album in five days in what he describes as 'the best ever little studio', which ended up being the happiest days he has ever spent in studio land. The songs were written over a 12-month period in snatched moments after soundchecks, before nights out, and after moments of unmitigated lovestruck bliss."




angus & julia stone - down the way



"Australian brother/sister duo Angus and Julia Stone return with the follow up to their 2009 critically acclaimed debut A Book Like This. This sophomore album gracefully navigates through 13 tracks, exploring themes of desire, lost love, self-discovery and beauty in the most unlikely of places. Down The Way was self-produced and recorded between England, New York and Australia--from an old sawmill on the riverbanks of Fowey, Cornwall to a studio in Brooklyn, to a water tank in Coolangatta to the streets of London and back to Queens."




the knife - tomorrow, in a year



" [...] an experimental soundtrack to a 90-minute Danish opera based intriguingly on Charles Darwin's 'Origin Of The Species' created by Swedish avant-garde electronic duo The Knife, who team up with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock on this project. The glitchy electronics and the sonic exploration of sound astonishingly combine with the burblingof a mezzo-soprano, resulting in a fascinating and bubblinganalog accompaniment to Darwin's world-shattering words on the stage."

expect something new... something different... something unique!




aaand:

xiu xiu - dear god, i hate myself



destructive, morbid, staggering, terrifying, beautiful.
mirror, mirror... this is life.

GLT: The first song on the new album is called “Grey Death”. What is Grey Death and who is Jimmy, a name you keep referring to in the song?
JS: When I’m being self-deprecating, I then refer to myself as Jimmy. The song, for me anyway – and I don’t mean that this is the way it should mean for anybody else – is about going through a period of really intense confusion about the point of my existence, not in an existential way but more of a pragmatic way, like what the fuck am I doing? Like for a long time I felt really clear about it and like now not knowing what-so-ever, like the stress of being self-destructive. And it’s not really an intense feeling. It’s more of a gnawing, really kind of low frequency, negative pressure. You know, its not a rainbow death [laughs], if that makes sense.
GLT: Another song on the album is “Falkland Rd”. A lot of violence is described in the song. What is it about?
JS: I read a couple of books about the sexual trafficking of young girls from Nepal into India and my band mate actually went to Nepal and did some research on it. So there’s a street in New Deli called Falkland Road where sexual trafficking of underage girls take place. Some of the lines from the song are actual quotes from the books I read where young women talk about it having happened to them.

[jay]

oh, i loved 'and the boys' by angus & julia stone! i'll have to check that album out. there are some great recommendations on this page as well, eep!

[husbandwifeheroin]

I've read about Xiu Xiu, but never listened to them. What are they like?

[naaaat]

Bought 'I Speak Because I Can' and Two Door Cinema Club's 'Tourist History' yesterday, they're my first buys of this year Saw the latter live the other week and seeing Laura Marling in just under three weeks' time! Contrasting albums but I'm loving both at the moment!

Later in the year, I'm looking forward to Foals' 'Total Live Forever', Tokyo Police Club's 'Champ', the We Are Scientists album, Bombay Bicycle Club's acoustic album, Laura Marling's third in the autumn, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly (if he EVER gets round to finishing it!), hopefully 'The Conqueror'... Yeah, I'm gonna be pretty skint by the end of the year

[papilioulysses]

Mar 31, 2010 13:59:12 GMT @husbandwifeheroin said:

I've read about Xiu Xiu, but never listened to them. What are they like?

um...!? i'm a newish listener, it's pretty much impossible to describe/explain their music and nothing comparable comes to my mind.
help? :]
wiki sayz: "Xiu Xiu's music draws heavily from several disparate genres including post-punk, '80s synthpop, noise, ambient, techno, asian percussive music, modern classical, and folk. Musically, the band often blends cacophonous percussion and experimental structures with lush hooks and diverging lyrical styles."

album stream >>> soundcloud.com/killrockstars/sets/xiu-xiu-dear-god-i-hate-myself

[wanderer]

I’m surprised no-one’s mentioned this:



Which I am massively excited about at the moment, after hearing ‘Go Do’ and ‘Boy Lilikoi’ which are f*cking fabulous! XD

‘Go Do’ video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCE_aqeX9ek

Apart from that might tiny budget has to stretch to Rufus Wainwright’s new album when that’s out and some other things I’ve conveniently forgotten…

[sueme]

Mar 31, 2010 20:45:52 GMT naaaat said:

Two Door Cinema Club's 'Tourist History'

I'm so into it, maybe 'cause it's one of the few albums I can listen through from track 1 to 10.

And another one of my favourites for this year:
Get Well Soon - Vexations

Okay, I'm bad at this but I'll try to discribe what I like about this album.
The songs often have orchestral elements which sometimes lets them sound a bit 'bombastic' or 'dramatic', but I think it fits them. I love the melodies and harmonies and not to forget the deep voice of Konstantin.
O dear, know you know why I will never become a music critic or something.
I'm going to look for a good review or something.
But here is the official video for the first singel Angry Young Man so you can get a first impression.