20Mirrorring –
Foreign Body
“Earth has grown so cold”
This is such a low key album; it is very easy for me to want to put less-subtle “ka-pow!” albums above it. But when I revisit, I remember all the reasons I love it. This is a very soothing, but ominous, airy and glacial release. Like the over art would suggest, the music within feels like the dawn sun thawing you after a cold night. Mirrorring is collaborative between singer-songwriter Tiny Vipers and Grouper whom specializes in ambient music. The product is both what you would expect and striking. Every song at its core is an acoustic song but performed in slow motion and allowed to bounce in the atmosphere created by Grouper to showcase Tiny Viper’s sweetly folksy voice. While this is a very slow and relaxed album, the details and the mere sounds engross me. This is can be an album you can put on as soothing background noise, but you will more likely drop whatever else you were doing to focus on Foreign Body.
19 The Tallest Man on Earth –
There’s No Leaving Now
“You treat me like a mountain, stranger”
Tallest Man on Earth, aka Kristian Mattson, crafts a rooty, antique sound that evokes a man on his acoustic guitar playing to passersby while shaded under an oak tree. To be more exact, it sounds like what this street player imagines in his head: his guitar and voice reverberating over a crowded wall, masking a second guitarist and percussion that may be there or not, he’s not too sure. The spotlight is definitely on him and he gives it all. He mistakes rustling leaves in the cool breeze for applause. Should I ever encounter such a street singer playing songs of this quality, I’d be sure to tip.
18 Sharon Van Etten –
Tramp
“I want to be over you. I want to show you”
Boy was my relationship to this album a rollercoaster. My body was ready, but after my first listens I was incredibly underwhelmed. Months later, I would revisit it and pick up one song, maybe two, but decree that the album was “boring.” Finally, in November I gave Sharon Van Etten one last chance, fortuitously on the first cold day of the fall. The chill on my skin suddenly related perfectly to the icy situations Van Etten finds herself in on Tramp. The way se howls on “Leonard” plays so honest as she moans “I am bad at loving you.” The raucous “In Line” sounds like she took a page from Feist’s Metals and perfected that metallic and cavernous folk sound. Sharon starts out the record with gusto and determination to turn around her life, and be the end of it sounds beaten and listless.
17 Chromatics –
Kill for Love
“You are the black sky always running from the sun”
Kill for Love can be summed up in one word: mood. The whole album has a constant smolder underneath that gives every song urgency. A smolder too that keeps otherwise inclusive, dancey songs like the title track and “Back from the Grave” distant and aloof. Throughout the record there are constant rumbles and vibrations, incessant that make me imagine that this is the soundtrack for a 20 year old jet setter in the city desperate for something to do one night. If that is the case, then “The River” is this person as they surrender to the morning. Chromatics become masters of atmosphere on this record and nowhere is that clearer than the longer, looser songs like “These Streets will Never Look the Same” or the epic “No Escape.” The synths and thick strums of muted guitars splash and paint an atmosphere you can relax to and be viscerally entertained at the same time.
16 Purity Ring –
Shrines
“Ears ring and teeth click and ears ring and teeth click”
At first glance, Purity Ring looks like every other dream pop act out there, female fronted boy-girl band, heavy influence by electronic music. Yawn. But when I cracked into the album, I heard something very special. While Megan James does bring sugary vocals to the fold, the songs feel sinister. Rumbles and drum cracks along with crackling synths are permanent fixtures in the album’s soundscape. The lyrics obsessively mention body parts like “I’ll stick red toothpicks in my dirt filled heart,” and “Drill little holes into my eyelids that I might see you when I sleep.” Throughout this year I felt like the popular indie scene shifted away from the cute and well-put-together pop acts that comb their hair, wear Polos, and sing quirky anthems (Passion Pit, Best Coast, etc.) That sound and aesthetic seems to be losing ground to dirty, grimy acts with heavy music. If that’s the case, Purity Ring both nearly missed the boat and is ahead of the game.
15 Menomena –
Moms
“I wish I could remember if my last words were sincere”
I slept on this album far too long. So long that I’m not even sure what inspired me to give it a spin. Menomena put together a pop record with some tasty beats, beautiful hooks, and pathos that cut to the core. Before Moms, there hadn’t been a pop record in a while that I enjoy singing along to as much as it makes me emotional. While the songs can be depressive at times, there is an overall feeling of joy to the music, like the bright horns on “Pique.” To me, this is the kind of record that is timeless. It plays today, it could play 20 years ago, it could play 40 years ago. It may be pop, but there is nothing light on this record; pop music with feels. Go call your moms, kids.
14 Motion Sickness of Time Travel –
Motion Sickness of Time Travel
Space is only orchestra
The first of two records this year from Rachel Evans is stellar. If there is such a thing as drone-pop, this could be classified as that. The four mammoth twenty minute tracks on this record take their time to bear fruit but also move non-stop as they jump from one idea to the next. Each song has two, maybe three, melodies but each melody mutates into three or four distinct moments. Sometimes the songs develop abruptly, sometimes so subtly you’re not even sure how you got from A to B. Evans varies between poppier melodies and graceful drones and most importantly takes her time.
13 Of Montreal –
Paralytic Stalks
“A vulpine act of hostility”
The first great album I heard in 2012 stuck with me for all 12 months. I think this is an amazing record, and sometimes I feel alone on this one. I love big, experimental, explosive pop music. Kevin Barnes brings funk and soul to the table that permeates each track. I also kind of love how distinct the two halves of this record are. “Dour Percentage” sounds like it could have come from last year’s Destroyer album, sounding like an 80’s song by someone who didn’t once lay off the coke throughout the recording process. “Spiteful Intervention” and “We Will Commit Wolf Murder” are some of my favorite songs to sing along to with their crazy vocals, words, and asides. The latter I love how it shifts into its different segments and into the following song, “Malefic Dowery,” the most sentimental song on the album. “Ye Renew the Plantiff” is the most rocking and funky track on the album and is also what hinges together the albums two halves. It too has a straightforward, bombastic half and looser more experimental half. My favorite aspect of the second half is how unexpected it is with little songs peppered throughout, like the end of “Wintered Debts” and “Authentic Pyrrhic Remission.” A great listen, don’t let a bad Pitchfork score blind you. Who are you going to trust?
12 Woods –
Bend Beyond
“It’s so fucking hard to see”
Another record I criminally slept on this year. Woods ups the production values and puts out a crystalline record that you could take out to the desert with you as you take drugs and appreciate nature. I say this as a guy who is too sober and always looking for pavement. This sounds like a more subtle version of Tame Impala’s Lonerism. There is a focus on harmonies that is appreciated, and a strong set of acoustic guitars to lead most of the songs. This isn’t anything radical and mind blowing, this isn’t a challenging. This is just an impeccable set of damned catchy, psychedelic acoustic rock songs.
11 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
“Nothing wrong when a song ends in a minor key”
Fiona Apple also staged a triumphant return this year complete with drama, public defamation, a breakdown, and amazing music – normal Fiona Apple shenanigans. Fiona understands her voice so well, she sings sweetly like on “Anything we Want,” big sweeping choruses like in “Daredevil,” even singing through her teeth on the album opener “Every Single Night.” The song “Werewolf” is one of the finest songs Fiona has written. The way the melody dances and sways before relenting into the memorable closing line of the song is something that will stick with you. Fiona still has plenty of venom in her spit. On the song “Regret” she sings about using white dove feathers “to soak up the hot piss” that comes from her lover’s mouth -- that about says it all. One aspect of this record that didn’t strike me immediately was something my fiancé pointed out. Her being used to bigger sounding songs like “Criminal” or “Paper Bag,” she was quick to point out how simple the production is. This record sounds like it was recorded live from her living room with maybe one or two other musicians. Even when there are extra flourishes like on the song “Anything We Want,” it sounds very organic and live.