2009 has been a good year (for me) for music. This year I have got
into, in a big way, Converge, Thrice, Mastodon and Lily Allen, the
latter 2 artists releasing arguably their greatest work to date. For
example, if Jane Doe and Vheissu/the Alchemy Index had been released in
2009, they would be my albums of the year. As it is, Axe to Fall makes
the cut (no pun intended), as does Beggars, but neither are the
forementioned masterpieces.
Disappointments of the year include
Dream Theater - Black Clouds and Silver Linings, which I forced myself
to listen to a few more times, but I still think I wasted the £60 the
darn special edition cost me. Porcupine Tree's The Incident, on the
other hand, was worth the cash for the beautiful packaging and artwork
alone, it's just a shame someone doesn't check Steven Wilson's quality
control. There are, as ever, some jawdropping moments, but there is an
awful lot of filler, and the chorus of Draw the Line is cringingly
horrible (much the same way as RHCP's Zephyr song's lovely verses were
destroyed by the hideous chorus).
The Empyrean by John Frusciante
should have been up there too, but again it suffers from only having
one or two (well, more than one or two) great moments (Central and
Unreachable in particular) but when the artist in question's hit rate is
as high and consistent as his, you expect more. The beauty of his solo
work is that it sounds nothing like RHCP, but, whether to do with Flea's
presence or not, a lot of this does.
AFI are to commended for
again releasing an album that sounds nothing like any of their others,
but these days this isn't such a good thing for them. Where Black Sails,
The Art of Drowning and Sing the Sorrow were all, albeit differing,
masterpieces, Decemberundergound and the latest, Crash Love, are more
like just "OK". That said check out Medicate and I Am Trying Very Hard
to Be Here.
Finally I want to mention The Cinematic Orchestra.
Their soundtrack to Disney's Flamingo documentry The Crimnson Wing was
absolutely beautiful, but, and this is a big but, in the pop classical
way they have long threatened to become. Gone is the jazz, the
saxophone, and the experimentation, and it's a real shame.
Anyway, enough of all that, onto to the year's greatest successes:
10 - Thrice - Beggars
The
wonderful thing about pushing the boundaries is that you can call
yourselves the band with the varied and awesome Artist in the Ambulance,
Vheissu and Alchemy Index in your catalogue. Thrice should also be very
proud of Beggars, just not all of it. It's still a tad experimental but
most of the time much more straightforward, especially on the first 2
songs, which are, ironically or not, the best on the album.
Unfortunately by a long way as the rest of the album descends into
filler, not least in the track Doublespeak, whose clever literary
reference cannot make up for the fact it sounds like Starsailor. Don't
get me wrong, there are some other gems in the other 9 tracks, but they
are few and far between. So why is Beggars in my top 10 then? Because
the first 2 tracks are so damn awesome!
Check out: All the World is Mad, The Weight
9 - The Mars Volta - Octahedron
Yes
ok maybe this was inevitable, considering I've got one of their symbols
tattooed on my bloody arm, but give me a break, I've put it at number
9. This is because although the album is often classic Mars Volta, it
struggles with consistency, and even though it pisses all over the
drivel that the arrogant and overrated Muse come out with these days,
TMV are one of those bands you have to compare to themselves. Quite
simply Octahedron is not as good as De-Loused or Frances. Nor is it as
epic as Bedlam, often feeling like an EP and not a proper LP. That said,
the songs are mostly fantastic, the acoustic guitar beautiful, Thomas
Pridgen's drumming suitably restrained and Cedric's vocals up there with
his De-Loused glory days (and none of the Robert Plant wannabe stuff,
well maybe just a bit). It isn't pop, but it is accessible, and none the
worse for it.
Check out: Since We've Been Wrong, Desparate Graves
8 - Mono - Hymn to the Immortal Wind
Still
haven't heard a post-rock album I didn't like and this one is not the
exception that proves the rule. It is a masterclass in dynamics,
build-up, orchestration and waves of beauty in sound. Granted you have
to be in mood and maybe it might be a bit "backgroundy" for some (god I
hate that expression - especially with reference to Jazz) but if you're
willing to put in the time and effort you will be rewarded.
Check out: Follow the Map (it's less than 4 minutes!), Everlasting Light
7 - Antony & The Johnsons - The Crying Light
I'm
going to be bold and say that this is as good as I Am A Bird Now. Well
OK maybe not quite, but it certainly comes close, with more than a
handful of great tracks and Antony's unique warble, albeit an acquired
taste, reaching heights of goosebump-inducing power most singers only
dream of acheiving. Therein lies the problem I guess, in that the music
is very much second fiddle, but I guess to labour this point would be to
miss the main one, which is that Antony and the Johnsons are one of the
most original and uniquely thrilling groups out there.
Check out: Epilepsy is Dancing, One Dove
6 - Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Xenophanes
Omar
has released a lot of albums this year, solo and otherwise. This is my
favourite, an album of it's own worth and merit, like Buffalo and
Calibration, not something which can at best be described as
"interesting", like some of the noisy ones. Where Omar works best is
when he does something entirely new yet equally good. Buffalo and
Calibration and Xenophanes couldn't be more different, yet they all have
wonderful things to offer. In Xenophanes' case it's a more overly Latin
flavour, not least because of Omar's girlfriend Ximena's lovely vocals,
and indeed Omar's own, for the first time at the forefront on record.
That Omar is still having exciting ideas (and more crucially, ones that
work) umpteen albums into his glittering career is nothing less than
encouraging, and nothing short of inspiring.
Check out: Desarraigo, Oremos
5 - Pearl Jam - Backspacer
Apparently
this was a return to the roots, out with the experimentation of recent
years and back to basic straightforward songwriting. Has anyone
forgotten that this is pretty much exactly what was said about 2006's
self-titled album? The difference being that whereas Pearl Jam had a
couple of good songs on it, Backspacer has a lot. It's not an epic
journey of an album, it's a unskippable collection of great songs.
Check out: Force of Nature, Just Breathe
4 - Converge - Axe to Fall
I've
already said this isn't as good as Jane Doe. Well so what, listen to it
on loud and prepare for a brutal but mesmerising pounding. Converge do
pulversingly heavy like no-one else, but nowhere do they sound like a
simple chugfest or that they're making loud noises for the sake of it.
They are one of the most visceral, thrilling and genuine bands around,
and this album only cements that reputation. Awesome stuff.
Check out: Dark Horse, Cutter
3 - Russian Circles - Geneva
I
bought this relatively late in the year, but it has hardly left my
turnta..., um, CD pla..., er, iPod since. A thrilling slice of
instrumental post-metal, and with it Russian Circles prove they deserve
their growing popularity. Whereas Isis' Wavering Radiant is not as good
as everyone says (at least compared to what we know Isis are capable
of), Geneva certainly is. Think instrumental music is only about the
quiet/crescendo/loud repeat formula? Think again. A fantastic effort
from the threepiece.
Check out: Melee, When the Mountain comes to Muhammad
2 - Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Leviathan
was fantastic, Blood Mountain was fantastic. So is this. Mastodon are
often exhausting to listen to (mostly in a good way) but here they've
reigned in the punishing virtuosic assaults and added elements of prog,
classic rock and, wait for it, melody in the vocals (to my mind
previously the weak link in Mastodon's armour) to create their third
masterpiece in a row. Crack the Skye is the sound of a great band
becoming perfect and a shining example of what happens when virtuosity
(let's face it, all 4 band members are superb musicians) meets good
songwriting, and without artistic compromise. Anything you could
possibly want from music - thoughtful lyrics, vocal hooks, impressive
muscianships, quiet passages and bone-crushingly heavy riffs, it's all
here.
Check out: Oblivion, The Czar
1 - Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You
I
want to make it clear from an artistic and integrity point of view that
I am not ashamed to put a pop album at my 2009 number 1. The key phrase
is "2009". Will I be listening to this in 5/10 years? Probably not.
What about the rest in my list (and moreover the ones I mentioned above
that didn't make my top 10)? Almost definitely. But if you want an album
that is the very essence of the here and now (I don't mean in a
fashionable way, more like open your eyes and look at the world around
you) then look no further.
I might also say that a niggle I often
have with pop music is that the backing music is little more than a
vehicle for the singer, but Greg Kurstin has done an excellent job (with
Lily) of creating music that is interesting on it's own - the synthy
solo on the first track, and the rodeo saloon bar influences elsewhere
to name just two examples. This is great - quirky and original without
being twee.
Ms Allen is, I admit, not the greatest singer out
there (but then soulless vocal gymnastics leave me cold) but whoever
says all she does is talk over her music needs to clear out the earwax
and give her the listen she deserves. Her voice is lovely, and her
mispronounciations only add to the effect (that professer from My Fair
Lady (Henry Higgins?) would be turning in his grave), even though she
might argue she speaks in the voice of someone from the other side of
the tracks, and isn't doing it "for effect". It's been a long time since
someone's lyrics made me sit up and take notice, and Lily's are the
furthest you're likely to get from perfunctory, not only in pop music,
but most music I reckon, in this day and age. I have nothing but respect
for someone who is clearly a very clever and talented wordsmith and um,
co-songwriter. Maybe I wish she was more passionate about it (this
"retiring from music" bullshit doesn't sit very well) but then this
could prove a very smart move; I wouldn't want her to burn out. I might
also mention that although not the greatest role model in a lot of ways,
at least she is showing young women you don't have to be a size zero to
be sexy, beautiful and succesful. Cheryl Cole - who dat?
I admit
to be being a naysayer following her rise from myspace fame, the
release of Smile, the prom dresses and trainers image etc, but after
giving her sophomore album a try and falling in love with it, I
revisited the debut Alright, Still and found a lot to love on there as
well (Everything's Just Wonderful and Littlest Things, for example).
There is simply no filler on It's Not Me, It's You. Granted a couple
come close, but nearly every track is, to coin a phrase, an absolute
tune. Someone wrote that Lily Allen has released an "album of the
times". I agree completely. Wonderful.
Check out: Everyone's At It, Him
Thank you
Thursday, 20 December 2012
Top 10 albums of 2010
Hello, and welcome to the second instalment of this potentially ill-advised annual tradition that is my top 10 of the year list. Not wishing to dive right in, let's pad it out a bit, first with some disappointments and then with some records that didn't quite make the cut.
Disappointments of the year
Stone Sour - Audio Secrecy. I gather this is a grower, but I couldn't find much to like and couldn't be bothered to wade through all the soppy ballads.
Coheed and Cambria - Year of the Black Rainbow. Nothing jumped out, no matter how many times I listened to it.
The Melvins - The Bride Screamed Murder. This band is amazing, have at least 10 great albums to their name, including the last one, but this one was too experimental at times, even for me, and a bit rubbish.
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - The Logic of Chance. I just can't excited about this duo like many people can. Angles was a decent record but at best only about half of the follow-up is any good. Some of the songs are just so awful not even Scroobius Pip's clever prose and tight, albeit simple, storytelling can save them. I think they work best when they keep things raw, for instance having gangster pop female choruses is totally unnecessary.
Korn - Korn III: Remember Who You Are. Not really a disappointment actually, as I didn't expect this to be any good. Perhaps I would have were it still the 90s. I will always buy Korn records though, out of a sense of loyalty and nostalgia.
Honourable mentions
Antony and The Johnsons - Swanlights. Kudos for not making us wait too long for this, and it is a lovely record, yet not quite as lovely (or as complete, perhaps) as The Crying Light (itself in turn not quite as lovely as I Am a Bird Now).
Zach Hill - Face Tat. One of my favourite drummers, and his solo stuff really is quite interesting and experimental, even exciting, and definitely worth a listen, but it's hard to stay interested when the drums drop out.
Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can. Laura is a wonderful songwriter and lyricist, and manages to stand out in the ten-a-penny singer/songwriter crowd. If she can work on her live banter she'll go supernova, and deservedly so.
Crippled Black Phoenix - I,Vigilante. Keeping intelligent prog alive in the 21st century.
Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier. Like all modern Maiden albums, not bad, but not great either.
Holy Fuck - Latin. Intelligent and artful mix of electronics and live instruments. Check out Red Lights or Stay Lit.
The Pineapple Thief - Someone Here Is Missing. The first 6 albums I thought were all fantastic, found the 7th a real letdown, but this is something of a return to form. If you like Porcupine Tree you should like The 'Thief.
Great EPs
The James Cleaver Quintet - ten stages of a make up. Close to flawless 6 track EP from the Kent fourpiece. Great playing, great songs, a great accomplishment. Can't wait for the full-length in 2011.
Throats - Throats. I just read they split up. That's a real shame because their 6 tracks were also pretty awesome.
Glassjaw - GJ88-GJ91. I like to think that were I in the US of A, I would be collecting the vinyl singles as they are released. As it is, they sell out in 5 seconds and I'm having to make do with the downloads. I am absolutely loving the new stuff, especially the more progressive elements. Stars is a particular standout, at least until they release You Think You're John Fucking Lennon.
So without further ado, the main event, my top 10 LPs of the year 2010:
10) Red Sparowes - The Fear is Excruiating, But Therein Lies the Answer.
Considering how much esteem I hold Isis, Cult of Luna etc in, this band should have been on my radar long before now. As it is, their latest release seems not a bad place to start. All the standard"post metal" elements are present and correct, but presented with their own elegance and some lovely quieter moments. I look forward to becoming familiar with the back catalogue.
Check out: A Hail of Bombs, A Mutiny.
9) Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - El Trio de Omar Rodriguez Lopez - Ciencia de los Inutiles.
Of the 7 (I think) records released by Omar this year, 1 is a live compilation, the other 6 comprising of brand new material. ZIM and VTA on Omar & John are probably the best 2 songs, but as an overall album, as a coherent and consistent whole, as the sound of Omar's bass, vocals and acoustic guitar (+ the inevitable but not distracting Omar noodling) album, this one is arguably the most accessible, and quite possibly the best. Is there anything Omar can't do?
Check out: Lunes, Miercoles.
8) Rolo Tomassi - Cosmology.
Some reviews said this was patchy and only the quieter passages stood out. I re-listened with this is mind, and failed to find the not-so-good parts. I really like this band and I hope their success continues to grow. Neither Eva's vocals nor the midi-keyboard are there just to be gimmicks, rather they help make Rolo Tomassi stand out in their genre as quirky, unique and special.
Check out: Kasia. Tounge In Chic.
7) Christian Scott - Yesterday You Said Tomorrow.
Very promising, polished and mature effort from this young Trumpeter, who I was fortunate enough to see support Courtney Pine at the London Jazz Festival in November. He and his fantastic band (particular praise to the drummer and guitarist) manage to channel both the glory days (how can Miles Davis not be an influence to a jazz trumpeter?) and incorporate more modern sounds and musical stylings. My only gripe would be that there isn't always a lot of trumpet on the tracks!
Check out: K.K.P.D, The Eraser (Thom Yorke cover).
6) Soweto Kinch - The New Emancipation.
Live this Saxophone playing, spoken word freestyling young man and his vast array of talented friends are quite something to experience, and as a result the recording doesn't quite live up to it (although to be fair Courtney Pine suffers from this - he's too good live for a recording to do him justice). Nevertheless the recorded version deserves to be heard and praised across the land. Beware though, it's pretty varied. One track will see him soloing away traditional jazz style, the next he'll be rapping about the curse of celebrity, the next will be heavily electronic and the next will see him play second fiddle to a guest vocalist or two. If I'm being honest, not everything works - Trying to be a Star rubs me up the wrong way, whereas Axis of Evil (both spoken word tracks) is a triumph. But for something different, and indeed differing, pushing the boundaries of modern jazz, I really do encourage you to listen to Mr Kinch.
Check out: Never Ending, Axis of Evil.
5) 65daysofstatic - We were exploding anyway.
Like Red Sparowes, someone else I should have been listening to years ago (The Fall of Math), but again someone who has produced a great offering in 2010. Expertly blending the electronic with the live instruments, they manage to be both dark and absorbing, but also danceable and even quirky. A very polished and high quality effort.
Check out: Mountainhead, Weak4.
4) Andreya Triana - Lost where I belong.
This amazing lady has been around for a fair while, having previously collaborated with several notable people, Mr Scruff unfortunately being the only one I can currently recall, but it was this year's guest spots on a few of Bonobo's tracks (on Black Sands, see below) that put her on the radar. A beautiful voice, an ear for songwriting, a tight backing band and many high profile supporters, I really really hope she gets the wider recognition she deserves. A deceptively simple but beautiful debut.
Check out: Draw the Stars, Darker than Blue.
3) The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis.
See what I said for 5 and 10. Dillinger are brutal, beautiful, tight, pulverising and fun in equal measure, and perhaps most impressive of all, the clean vocal parts somehow manage to not sound cheesy.
Check out: Farewell, Mona Lisa, Chinese Whispers.
2) Bonobo - Black Sands.
Simon Green, a.k.a Bonobo, is a very talented guy. Live he switches between bass, keys and decks, and his proficiency with these appears to only be excelled by his ability to craft great tune after great tune. Black Sands is electronic enough to appeal to the DJ Shadow fan in all of us, but there is a full band there too, to appease the elitist snob in yours truly who likes to argue how real music must be played rather than produced (or reproduced). This is one of those albums where every track is a corker, and with the odd Asian influence and Andreya Triana popping up from time to time, it keeps things interesting all the way to the every end. At which point you reach for the play button again.
Check out: Animals, Stay the Same. (Or any track really!)
1) Deftones - Diamond Eyes.
It turns out Kerrang! beat me to this, but truly since I picked this up on release in May, it has hardly left my consciousness. It's immediate (not in a bad, throwaway way), hooky, groovy, heavy in parts, soothing in others, and with a short running time and a mere 11 tracks, is a no-nonsense approach concentrating clearly on quality rather than quantity. All killer, no filler, as they say.
With hindsight, perhaps Deftones were never really nu-metal, but regardless of genre, they continue to put out great records, some 20 years into their career. OK, so self-titled was (Hexagram excepted) mostly sub-par, but whoever says Saturday Night Wrist was not quite up to it either is just plain, well, wrong. And if anyone can tell me why there isn't a single song from it in their current setlist, I'm all ears. Whether you liked SNW or not, chances are you love Diamond Eyes. If it were a pop album, it would be an album of singles, with perhaps only 976-evil not strong enough to hold it's own next to the other tracks.
Everything you love about Deftones is all here in pure distilled format - Chino's beautiful screams and soothing vocals (nearly everything this man touches seems to turn to gold - just ask Team Sleep or Dance Gavin Dance), Steph's crunching guitar with clever, sometimes off-kilter rhythms, Frank's subtle and tasteful electronics, and Abe's bloody-minded refusal to play the simple drum part. OK, so one element is missing - bassist Chi Cheng, who is still recovering from his car-crash induced coma last year. However, Sergio Vega has stepped up to the challenge big time. Granted his backing vocals are rubbish, but he has been able to replicate that groove that Deftones have, and have always had. If there's one thing this band has in spades, groove is the thing. It's almost sexy.
Check out: Diamond Eyes, Sextape, Risk.
That's it for another year. Thank you.
Top 10 albums of 2011
My iTunes says I
bought/acquired 72 2011 albums this year, although 5 of them are the
same Battles album (featuring Tom, Dick and Harry) and I'm not sure
Count Basie recorded One More Time in 2011. Had I not embarked on a
mission to purchase the "100 jazz albums that shook the world" list in
its entirety (alas not even halfway) I might have done better - who
knows, I might have even picked up the new Coldplay. Nah, probably not,
but still, out of that limited pool, here are the great, the good, and
the distinctly average.
Great EPs
I believe I only bothered with this last year because I wanted to give shout-outs to the James Cleaver Quintet and Glassjaw. As it happens Glassjaw gave away the Coloring Book EP at their show earlier in the year, and it's not bad at all. Still groovy but less heavy than the Our Colour Green series of Singles, it could be an interesting new direction, but is a brand new LP too much to ask for? Another to mention: the Crosses EP is neither Deftones nor Team Sleep, but it is at least 3/5 brilliant. Chino Moreno strikes again.
Disappointments of the year
This is what comes of comparing an artist to themselves. Granted new directions are not often appreciated until after the event, but none of these set the world alight:
Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn of Events: It would be wrong to say that every recent album has been worse than the last, but it wouldn't be a stretch to venture that complacency set in a while ago at the DT camp. If they don't shake things up soon (and no, picking the replacement drummer that sounded most like Mike Portnoy does not count) they are destined to spend the rest of their career in virtuosic but utterly uninspired irrelevance.
Russian Circles - Empros: Geneva was always going to be a supremely tough act to follow but there's hardly anything here in the same league.
This Will Destroy You - Tunnel Blanket: Most of this is just noise.
Florence & The Machine - Ceremonials: More consistent overall perhaps than Lungs, but it doesn't hit the heights of songs like Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up) or Drumming Song. It's cheesier and more mainstream too, so it feels like a step backwards. I'd much rather listen to Adele.
Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will: The first track White Noise is astounding, but the rest is very average bog standard Mogwai, although that's hardly a bad thing I suppose.
Almosts
Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know: Much more varied than the preceding two albums, and a consistent fairly high quality throughout, but no standouts that I've found as yet. Maybe a few more listens are needed.
Hella - Tripper: Off-kilter, frenetic and mental as fuck. This is a solid and reliable effort, but they are a bit of a one-trick pony. Zach Hill continues to FTW nevertheless.
Battles - Gloss Drop: Easy to release your first album of stuff that sounds like absolutely nobody else, much harder to do it again. Nonetheless some great moments, not least Futura.
Bill Ryder-Jones - If: The ex-The Coral whizz-kid manages to release a pop-classical album that doesn't sound like it came straight out of a "how to write pretty string arrangements that will fool people used to three guitar chords" manual. No, sorry, it's much better than that - varied, genuinely and deeply beautiful in parts, and BR-J uses the whole orchestra like a virtuoso composer. Try Enlace (although the guitar solo at the end really really should have been cut) or Some Absolute End (The End). No-one recommends you read the book this is a soundtrack to.
David Sanchez, Christian Scott et. al - Ninety Miles: Several guys went to Cuba and played some Jazz very very well indeed.
Courtney Pine - Europa: He's cheesier and less virtuosic on record than he is live, but there's a lot to love on this Bass Clarinet only (although the man plays it like a Tenor Sax) album inspired by a certain place (can you guess where?), and with his band without a weak link among them.
Red Hot Chili Peppers - I'm With You: This record was doomed to failure. It was a follow-up to Stadium Arcadium (only a single album's worth of good material but an epic double album nonetheless), guitar genius John Frusciante had buggered off, and it came sporting a throwaway title and shit artwork. It is from this position of underwhelming expectation that the record bursts out and lands much higher, if not to fanfare then at the very least to respectability. In particular, new guitarist Josh Klinghoeffer acquits himself incredibly well. Those of us familiar with JF's solo work already know JK's a great player, but he manages to pull it off in a setting far removed from the sparse, beautiful and minimal playing we've heard from him before. As for the album as a whole, most of the songs are artfully dark if not actually full-out sad, and, crucially in a band of their age and history, mature, and in Brendan's Death Song, Goodbye Hooray (this album's This Velvet Glove?) and Police Station we have some particular highlights.
Other good records include Explosions in the Sky - Take Care (x3) and the Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 (backing tracks so good the rapping is almost unnecessary).
Special mention
A thoroughly deserved #9 album of the year in Kerrang! magazine for the James Cleaver Quintet's That Was Then This is Now. The Venn diagram circles of music being made by people you know, not signed by a major label, and simply great music, need not be separate - as embodied whole-heartedly by this band. The most striking thing about TWTTIN is not so much the ambition (segues - check, short segment style tracks - check, thematic reprises - check, tracks you've already heard - check, literary reference to one of the greatest novels ever written (American Pyscho) - check, jaunty Jazz Sax - check, string arrangements - check, 8 minute plus closing track - check), but rather how that ambition is fulfilled time and time again. All of these things mentioned fit in well - all are great ideas not shoehorned in just for the sake of it. And on top of all that they manage to carve out their own niche in a busy genre full of clones (as just a couple of examples, the clean vocals/the screamy vocals, the stabby guitar/the melodic guitar are not always in the places you expect, and all the more refreshing for it). Best of luck guys, long may the current wave of creativity and success continue.
Top 10
10) Adele - 21
Granted she may well turn out to be only a flash in the pan (although I for one am rooting for her to return to full health and ability), but in 2011 her success has been utterly deserved. What good though, would the anti-pop-starlet image be if her voice and songs were rubbish? Neither is so, thankfully, and what's more there is a lot more to her than "Someone Like You". Not until you get to track 7 (Take It All) does 21 begin to flag, but with the double whammy of a stunning cover of The Cure's Lovesong and the previous sentence's huge hit (although I'm given to understand it is somewhat overplayed) to end the album, I'm not complaining. A much better effort than 19, this is the sound of Adele finding her voice, and what a voice it is.
Check out: Set Fire to the Rain, He Won't Go
9) Pianos become the Teeth - The Lack Long After
Hard to pin down what's so great about this. Do they sound like countless other post-hardcore bands out there? Yes and no. Are they talented players? Undoubtedly. Do the songs have quiet moving moments? Check. Is it ever cheesy or whiny? Certainly not. Does Kyle Durfey's voice sound like it's going to shatter at any moment? Yes, but doesn't he sound utterly fucking genuine every step of the way? Absolutely. This is music with heart and passion and I challenge you not to be convinced by it.
Check out: Shared Bodies, Spine
8) Opeth - Heritage
I have a feeling this is what the half-arsed Watershed would have sounded like had Akerfeldt had the balls. In hindsight that album wasn't as wet (pun intended) as we thought at the time (and I absolutely adore that guitar work at the end of Burden) but the latest "Observation" (as Opeth call them) is a fully realised and (mostly) successful attempt at something new. Just like Damnation was, actually, but even without death growls this is still a largely heavy album. Flogging the comparison, Heritage is definitely more Prog and Jazz than acoustic ballad too.
I'm not convinced by all of it, I must say, although even the avant-garde experimentalism of Famine appeals to the Bitches Brew fan in me, and for some more straight-up cheesy (if I had an editor they'd have removed that word a few uses ago) Opeth there's always Slither (Ronnie James Dio tribute, as it happens). When it comes down to it though I think it's the acoustic guitar acrobatics that I really love about this album, so the standout tracks are for me where that is present.
Check out: Haxprocess, I Feel the Dark
7) Machine Head - Unto the Locust
I think at this point in my musical listening maturity I might be the wrong target demographic - I'm neither a die-hard pre-The Burning Red fan nor a 13 year-old metal head discovering for the first time that a band named themselves after the Deep Purple album named after the twiddly things on the heads of guitars. That said, I haven't heard Through the Ashes of Empires or The Blackening and I did always think MH were pretty second tier. With the occasional whiny melodic bit, immature artwork (is that still important in this day and age?) and dodgy lyrics, I'm not completely overwhelmed by this record, but I'm certainly won over. Not many people would have thought they would up their games so much as players and song-writers (the first track is a three movement sonata for goodness' sake) or that they could pull it off so well. The band who debuted with Burn my Eyes then later bounced back from nu/rap metal with TtAoE/TB make their best album now? Astonishing. Well done gentlemen.
Check out: I am Hell (Sonata in C#), Be Still and Know
6) Thrice - Major / Minor
A fitting swansong. Given the deceleration following the Alchemy Index volumes I-IV I'm not overly upset by the "hiatus". Leaving behind a solid body of work they should be very proud of, Thrice are quitting while they're ahead (artistically at least, not sure they sell so well - which is, frankly, a crime). Whereas Beggars faltered in places (the cringing Starsailor-esque vocals for instance) upon the first few listens this sounded like a much better overall album, albeit without songs as good as The Weight. Then a couple of the tracks smack bang in the middle of the record struck me. On these in particular but also throughout the whole album we have near-perfect balances of beautiful clean guitar picking, heavy distorted bits, appropriate build-ups and the vocal singalong payoffs we've come to love ever since Vheissu. That is to say perhaps these are the sounds of a very good Thrice record, not an innovative one. Purists of the pre-Vheissu hardcore may even like Blur, while fans of the ballady stuff will go weak at the knees for Disarmed. And Dustin Kensrue maintains both his lyrical excellence and penchant for not ramming his quite extensive religiousness down his listeners' throats (it's there, but it's subtle, non-preachy and not dogmatic).
Check out: Call it in the Air, Treading Paper
5) DJ Shadow - The Less you Know, the Better
What a return to form this is. OK OK let's not get too excited. The dark and melancholy beauty, the enduring perfection of Entroducing and The Private Press this does not achieve, sure, but compared to the abysmal Outsider this is a masterpiece. I know he doesn't want to remake the same record over and over again, fine, but this is hopefully different enough to make Josh Davis realise he does not need sub-par Coldplay singer wannabes or narrow gangsta rappers to fit that criteria. Like the Outsider we still have original guitars, drums and singing at points here, and where there is rapping this time it's actually good, well on the excellent Stay the Course anyway. On the other hand, the vocals on Warning Call and Give me Back the Nights are interesting the first time but they soon become grating and track-skippable. The deceptively simple Sad and Lonely is intriguing - I'm not sure what I make of the bit where the strings join the piano in a different key - but also quite lovely.
A few duds aside, this is well crafted, at times catchy, at others quite heavy (I Gotta Rokk for instance) but always interesting. Mr Shadow emerges with his dignity and artistic integrity intact once more. And the title and accompanying artwork are a clever nod to the curse of celebrity, too.
Check out: Border Crossing, Stay the Course
4) Bjork - Biophilia
I didn't get Volta when it came out, nor did I make the effort to see her live at Hammersmith a few years ago. Big mistakes on my part. Bjork is one of the most consistently original artists out there, and one who manages to maintain the highest quality in their work no matter how weird or ambitious it gets.
Weird and ambitious Biophilia certainly is, musically alternating between sparse and minimal arrangements (no surprises there, but the fact that she can do so much with so little, time and time again, is astonishing), instruments Bjork invented herself and even some bits of drum and bass; lyrically telling the story of the origin of the world; and even distributing the album via individual-track iPad apps. I've only got it on CD, but as a straight-forward album, great artwork (again) aside, it's something quite unique. If you can't stand Bjork's warbling and at times very odd backing tracks, then this record wont convert you, but the rest of us will be rather enriched by the whole experience.
Check out: Crystalline, Sacrifice
3) Puscifer - Conditions of my Parole
This was a surprise. Even for the staggeringly huge Tool / APC fan I am, following the industrial and minimalist wank that marred most of V is for Vagina (your other bands are serious, you want to have some fun, we get it), there came the quite lovely Polar Bear (on the C is for **** EP) and now this.
It would seem Maynard has remembered how to sing like Maynard. Listening to the first solo album, it was heartbreaking every single time he chanted pointlessly. Now the voice we know and love is back. Puscifer still isn't about the soaring transcendental majesty of Tool or the atmospheric song-writing of A Perfect Circle, but the backing vocals are there, that thing he does where he sounds like he's harmonising with himself is there, the beautiful shimmer is there. And not just on a couple of tracks either - ComP is full of amazing stuff: the industrial stomp of Toma, the originality, funny cowbell and the mid-section payload of Man Overboard, the tremolo acoustic guitar of Tumbleweed, the choking, aching, tear-jerking gorgeousness of Green Valley and Horizons, the genuine fun of the title track, the drumming of the one and only Jon Theodore,... I could go on all night.
Forgive MJK his previous transgressions - this should satisfy even those who expect the next Tool record to be decent.
Check out: Any of the tracks I've mentioned, or Monsoons, or Tiny Monsters, or...
2) Mastodon - The Hunter
2009's Crack the Skye is objectively still a masterful album, but it can be difficult, exhausting and a tad meandering at times. As for The Hunter - well it's still exhausting, but only in a good way. It has much shorter songs, it's straightforward (well, for Mastodon), catchier than a good cricketer and contains precisely 0.02% filler - to put it scientifically they pretty much nail it track after track.
Lyrically still a bit tongue-in-cheek ("I killed a man coz he killed my goat") but vocally on track with Crack the Skye's bar-raising singing, musically as impressive as ever (drummer Brann Dailor is not the only member who sounds like he has four arms), this is the awesome and mighty Mastodon trimmed of all the fat (except maybe the THX noise at the start of Creature Lives). This is a polished, accomplished and extremely fun record.
Check out: Black Tongue, Stargasm
1) Hiromi (the Trio Project) - Voice
I was already slightly aware of the diminutive Japanese lady jazz/rock/even-classical-sometimes fusion pianist in May/June when this album dropped, but when it did it turned my world just that tiny bit crazier. Scratch that. A lot crazier - I bought this album somewhere around 14/15 times and gave it out to mates, I bought her entire back catalogue, including three live DVDs, a couple of records she did with Bassist Stanley Clarke and her duet with Jazz piano giant Chick Corea, and I dragged my Dad to Cologne and Salzburg to see her play live a couple of times.
While her early stuff is largely Jazz fusion, all of her stuff is virtuosic to the point of insanity, but I find Voice the cream of the crop so far. It is a distillation of everything that is great about Hiromi - mainly her ability to play at warp speed but also with passion, love and fun, and without sacrificing something so cliched as a good tune - and at times she is beginning to show signs of beginning to show signs (sic) of restraint (several months on even I can finally admit she could do with this from time to time). Not the biggest fan of Jazz guitar, glad I am to have only Anthony Jackson on (Contra)Bass (largely perfunctory but always solid and the perfect foil to the other two) and the mesmorising Simon Phillips on drums. So they're a trio playing a bit of Prog, a bit of Rock, a bit of Classical, a bit of this, a bit of that, but all tied together by the Jazz sensibility.
Hiromi counts Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal and Chick Corea as her friends and sometime mentors, but I would hope their endorsement is superfluous. From the unnervingly simple solo piano chords that begin the album on the title track before all hell breaks loose with that repeated single note, the solo showcase that is the stunningly lovely Haze, the always tasteful and always incredible double-kick drumming that appears sporadically but appropriately throughout, the slightly more traditional Jazz of Now or Never, and the mind-boggling main solo of Labyrinth (the whole track is brilliant but who would have thought that mashing piano chords at 1000mph would be quite so life-changingly phenomenal?), this record nigh-on flawlessly redefines what it means to be "good at what you do".
Perhaps most people will find a diet of Hiromi difficult to exist on, but if you want to experience the sound of someone who is so at one with her instrument it makes you imagine she could do anything, look no further. She's playing a residency at Ronnie Scott's sometime next year. Hopefully some of you will accompany me.
Check out: Voice, Labyrinth, Haze, Delusion
Thank you and Happy Christmas 2011
Great EPs
I believe I only bothered with this last year because I wanted to give shout-outs to the James Cleaver Quintet and Glassjaw. As it happens Glassjaw gave away the Coloring Book EP at their show earlier in the year, and it's not bad at all. Still groovy but less heavy than the Our Colour Green series of Singles, it could be an interesting new direction, but is a brand new LP too much to ask for? Another to mention: the Crosses EP is neither Deftones nor Team Sleep, but it is at least 3/5 brilliant. Chino Moreno strikes again.
Disappointments of the year
This is what comes of comparing an artist to themselves. Granted new directions are not often appreciated until after the event, but none of these set the world alight:
Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn of Events: It would be wrong to say that every recent album has been worse than the last, but it wouldn't be a stretch to venture that complacency set in a while ago at the DT camp. If they don't shake things up soon (and no, picking the replacement drummer that sounded most like Mike Portnoy does not count) they are destined to spend the rest of their career in virtuosic but utterly uninspired irrelevance.
Russian Circles - Empros: Geneva was always going to be a supremely tough act to follow but there's hardly anything here in the same league.
This Will Destroy You - Tunnel Blanket: Most of this is just noise.
Florence & The Machine - Ceremonials: More consistent overall perhaps than Lungs, but it doesn't hit the heights of songs like Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up) or Drumming Song. It's cheesier and more mainstream too, so it feels like a step backwards. I'd much rather listen to Adele.
Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will: The first track White Noise is astounding, but the rest is very average bog standard Mogwai, although that's hardly a bad thing I suppose.
Almosts
Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know: Much more varied than the preceding two albums, and a consistent fairly high quality throughout, but no standouts that I've found as yet. Maybe a few more listens are needed.
Hella - Tripper: Off-kilter, frenetic and mental as fuck. This is a solid and reliable effort, but they are a bit of a one-trick pony. Zach Hill continues to FTW nevertheless.
Battles - Gloss Drop: Easy to release your first album of stuff that sounds like absolutely nobody else, much harder to do it again. Nonetheless some great moments, not least Futura.
Bill Ryder-Jones - If: The ex-The Coral whizz-kid manages to release a pop-classical album that doesn't sound like it came straight out of a "how to write pretty string arrangements that will fool people used to three guitar chords" manual. No, sorry, it's much better than that - varied, genuinely and deeply beautiful in parts, and BR-J uses the whole orchestra like a virtuoso composer. Try Enlace (although the guitar solo at the end really really should have been cut) or Some Absolute End (The End). No-one recommends you read the book this is a soundtrack to.
David Sanchez, Christian Scott et. al - Ninety Miles: Several guys went to Cuba and played some Jazz very very well indeed.
Courtney Pine - Europa: He's cheesier and less virtuosic on record than he is live, but there's a lot to love on this Bass Clarinet only (although the man plays it like a Tenor Sax) album inspired by a certain place (can you guess where?), and with his band without a weak link among them.
Red Hot Chili Peppers - I'm With You: This record was doomed to failure. It was a follow-up to Stadium Arcadium (only a single album's worth of good material but an epic double album nonetheless), guitar genius John Frusciante had buggered off, and it came sporting a throwaway title and shit artwork. It is from this position of underwhelming expectation that the record bursts out and lands much higher, if not to fanfare then at the very least to respectability. In particular, new guitarist Josh Klinghoeffer acquits himself incredibly well. Those of us familiar with JF's solo work already know JK's a great player, but he manages to pull it off in a setting far removed from the sparse, beautiful and minimal playing we've heard from him before. As for the album as a whole, most of the songs are artfully dark if not actually full-out sad, and, crucially in a band of their age and history, mature, and in Brendan's Death Song, Goodbye Hooray (this album's This Velvet Glove?) and Police Station we have some particular highlights.
Other good records include Explosions in the Sky - Take Care (x3) and the Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 (backing tracks so good the rapping is almost unnecessary).
Special mention
A thoroughly deserved #9 album of the year in Kerrang! magazine for the James Cleaver Quintet's That Was Then This is Now. The Venn diagram circles of music being made by people you know, not signed by a major label, and simply great music, need not be separate - as embodied whole-heartedly by this band. The most striking thing about TWTTIN is not so much the ambition (segues - check, short segment style tracks - check, thematic reprises - check, tracks you've already heard - check, literary reference to one of the greatest novels ever written (American Pyscho) - check, jaunty Jazz Sax - check, string arrangements - check, 8 minute plus closing track - check), but rather how that ambition is fulfilled time and time again. All of these things mentioned fit in well - all are great ideas not shoehorned in just for the sake of it. And on top of all that they manage to carve out their own niche in a busy genre full of clones (as just a couple of examples, the clean vocals/the screamy vocals, the stabby guitar/the melodic guitar are not always in the places you expect, and all the more refreshing for it). Best of luck guys, long may the current wave of creativity and success continue.
Top 10
10) Adele - 21
Granted she may well turn out to be only a flash in the pan (although I for one am rooting for her to return to full health and ability), but in 2011 her success has been utterly deserved. What good though, would the anti-pop-starlet image be if her voice and songs were rubbish? Neither is so, thankfully, and what's more there is a lot more to her than "Someone Like You". Not until you get to track 7 (Take It All) does 21 begin to flag, but with the double whammy of a stunning cover of The Cure's Lovesong and the previous sentence's huge hit (although I'm given to understand it is somewhat overplayed) to end the album, I'm not complaining. A much better effort than 19, this is the sound of Adele finding her voice, and what a voice it is.
Check out: Set Fire to the Rain, He Won't Go
9) Pianos become the Teeth - The Lack Long After
Hard to pin down what's so great about this. Do they sound like countless other post-hardcore bands out there? Yes and no. Are they talented players? Undoubtedly. Do the songs have quiet moving moments? Check. Is it ever cheesy or whiny? Certainly not. Does Kyle Durfey's voice sound like it's going to shatter at any moment? Yes, but doesn't he sound utterly fucking genuine every step of the way? Absolutely. This is music with heart and passion and I challenge you not to be convinced by it.
Check out: Shared Bodies, Spine
8) Opeth - Heritage
I have a feeling this is what the half-arsed Watershed would have sounded like had Akerfeldt had the balls. In hindsight that album wasn't as wet (pun intended) as we thought at the time (and I absolutely adore that guitar work at the end of Burden) but the latest "Observation" (as Opeth call them) is a fully realised and (mostly) successful attempt at something new. Just like Damnation was, actually, but even without death growls this is still a largely heavy album. Flogging the comparison, Heritage is definitely more Prog and Jazz than acoustic ballad too.
I'm not convinced by all of it, I must say, although even the avant-garde experimentalism of Famine appeals to the Bitches Brew fan in me, and for some more straight-up cheesy (if I had an editor they'd have removed that word a few uses ago) Opeth there's always Slither (Ronnie James Dio tribute, as it happens). When it comes down to it though I think it's the acoustic guitar acrobatics that I really love about this album, so the standout tracks are for me where that is present.
Check out: Haxprocess, I Feel the Dark
7) Machine Head - Unto the Locust
I think at this point in my musical listening maturity I might be the wrong target demographic - I'm neither a die-hard pre-The Burning Red fan nor a 13 year-old metal head discovering for the first time that a band named themselves after the Deep Purple album named after the twiddly things on the heads of guitars. That said, I haven't heard Through the Ashes of Empires or The Blackening and I did always think MH were pretty second tier. With the occasional whiny melodic bit, immature artwork (is that still important in this day and age?) and dodgy lyrics, I'm not completely overwhelmed by this record, but I'm certainly won over. Not many people would have thought they would up their games so much as players and song-writers (the first track is a three movement sonata for goodness' sake) or that they could pull it off so well. The band who debuted with Burn my Eyes then later bounced back from nu/rap metal with TtAoE/TB make their best album now? Astonishing. Well done gentlemen.
Check out: I am Hell (Sonata in C#), Be Still and Know
6) Thrice - Major / Minor
A fitting swansong. Given the deceleration following the Alchemy Index volumes I-IV I'm not overly upset by the "hiatus". Leaving behind a solid body of work they should be very proud of, Thrice are quitting while they're ahead (artistically at least, not sure they sell so well - which is, frankly, a crime). Whereas Beggars faltered in places (the cringing Starsailor-esque vocals for instance) upon the first few listens this sounded like a much better overall album, albeit without songs as good as The Weight. Then a couple of the tracks smack bang in the middle of the record struck me. On these in particular but also throughout the whole album we have near-perfect balances of beautiful clean guitar picking, heavy distorted bits, appropriate build-ups and the vocal singalong payoffs we've come to love ever since Vheissu. That is to say perhaps these are the sounds of a very good Thrice record, not an innovative one. Purists of the pre-Vheissu hardcore may even like Blur, while fans of the ballady stuff will go weak at the knees for Disarmed. And Dustin Kensrue maintains both his lyrical excellence and penchant for not ramming his quite extensive religiousness down his listeners' throats (it's there, but it's subtle, non-preachy and not dogmatic).
Check out: Call it in the Air, Treading Paper
5) DJ Shadow - The Less you Know, the Better
What a return to form this is. OK OK let's not get too excited. The dark and melancholy beauty, the enduring perfection of Entroducing and The Private Press this does not achieve, sure, but compared to the abysmal Outsider this is a masterpiece. I know he doesn't want to remake the same record over and over again, fine, but this is hopefully different enough to make Josh Davis realise he does not need sub-par Coldplay singer wannabes or narrow gangsta rappers to fit that criteria. Like the Outsider we still have original guitars, drums and singing at points here, and where there is rapping this time it's actually good, well on the excellent Stay the Course anyway. On the other hand, the vocals on Warning Call and Give me Back the Nights are interesting the first time but they soon become grating and track-skippable. The deceptively simple Sad and Lonely is intriguing - I'm not sure what I make of the bit where the strings join the piano in a different key - but also quite lovely.
A few duds aside, this is well crafted, at times catchy, at others quite heavy (I Gotta Rokk for instance) but always interesting. Mr Shadow emerges with his dignity and artistic integrity intact once more. And the title and accompanying artwork are a clever nod to the curse of celebrity, too.
Check out: Border Crossing, Stay the Course
4) Bjork - Biophilia
I didn't get Volta when it came out, nor did I make the effort to see her live at Hammersmith a few years ago. Big mistakes on my part. Bjork is one of the most consistently original artists out there, and one who manages to maintain the highest quality in their work no matter how weird or ambitious it gets.
Weird and ambitious Biophilia certainly is, musically alternating between sparse and minimal arrangements (no surprises there, but the fact that she can do so much with so little, time and time again, is astonishing), instruments Bjork invented herself and even some bits of drum and bass; lyrically telling the story of the origin of the world; and even distributing the album via individual-track iPad apps. I've only got it on CD, but as a straight-forward album, great artwork (again) aside, it's something quite unique. If you can't stand Bjork's warbling and at times very odd backing tracks, then this record wont convert you, but the rest of us will be rather enriched by the whole experience.
Check out: Crystalline, Sacrifice
3) Puscifer - Conditions of my Parole
This was a surprise. Even for the staggeringly huge Tool / APC fan I am, following the industrial and minimalist wank that marred most of V is for Vagina (your other bands are serious, you want to have some fun, we get it), there came the quite lovely Polar Bear (on the C is for **** EP) and now this.
It would seem Maynard has remembered how to sing like Maynard. Listening to the first solo album, it was heartbreaking every single time he chanted pointlessly. Now the voice we know and love is back. Puscifer still isn't about the soaring transcendental majesty of Tool or the atmospheric song-writing of A Perfect Circle, but the backing vocals are there, that thing he does where he sounds like he's harmonising with himself is there, the beautiful shimmer is there. And not just on a couple of tracks either - ComP is full of amazing stuff: the industrial stomp of Toma, the originality, funny cowbell and the mid-section payload of Man Overboard, the tremolo acoustic guitar of Tumbleweed, the choking, aching, tear-jerking gorgeousness of Green Valley and Horizons, the genuine fun of the title track, the drumming of the one and only Jon Theodore,... I could go on all night.
Forgive MJK his previous transgressions - this should satisfy even those who expect the next Tool record to be decent.
Check out: Any of the tracks I've mentioned, or Monsoons, or Tiny Monsters, or...
2) Mastodon - The Hunter
2009's Crack the Skye is objectively still a masterful album, but it can be difficult, exhausting and a tad meandering at times. As for The Hunter - well it's still exhausting, but only in a good way. It has much shorter songs, it's straightforward (well, for Mastodon), catchier than a good cricketer and contains precisely 0.02% filler - to put it scientifically they pretty much nail it track after track.
Lyrically still a bit tongue-in-cheek ("I killed a man coz he killed my goat") but vocally on track with Crack the Skye's bar-raising singing, musically as impressive as ever (drummer Brann Dailor is not the only member who sounds like he has four arms), this is the awesome and mighty Mastodon trimmed of all the fat (except maybe the THX noise at the start of Creature Lives). This is a polished, accomplished and extremely fun record.
Check out: Black Tongue, Stargasm
1) Hiromi (the Trio Project) - Voice
I was already slightly aware of the diminutive Japanese lady jazz/rock/even-classical-sometimes fusion pianist in May/June when this album dropped, but when it did it turned my world just that tiny bit crazier. Scratch that. A lot crazier - I bought this album somewhere around 14/15 times and gave it out to mates, I bought her entire back catalogue, including three live DVDs, a couple of records she did with Bassist Stanley Clarke and her duet with Jazz piano giant Chick Corea, and I dragged my Dad to Cologne and Salzburg to see her play live a couple of times.
While her early stuff is largely Jazz fusion, all of her stuff is virtuosic to the point of insanity, but I find Voice the cream of the crop so far. It is a distillation of everything that is great about Hiromi - mainly her ability to play at warp speed but also with passion, love and fun, and without sacrificing something so cliched as a good tune - and at times she is beginning to show signs of beginning to show signs (sic) of restraint (several months on even I can finally admit she could do with this from time to time). Not the biggest fan of Jazz guitar, glad I am to have only Anthony Jackson on (Contra)Bass (largely perfunctory but always solid and the perfect foil to the other two) and the mesmorising Simon Phillips on drums. So they're a trio playing a bit of Prog, a bit of Rock, a bit of Classical, a bit of this, a bit of that, but all tied together by the Jazz sensibility.
Hiromi counts Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal and Chick Corea as her friends and sometime mentors, but I would hope their endorsement is superfluous. From the unnervingly simple solo piano chords that begin the album on the title track before all hell breaks loose with that repeated single note, the solo showcase that is the stunningly lovely Haze, the always tasteful and always incredible double-kick drumming that appears sporadically but appropriately throughout, the slightly more traditional Jazz of Now or Never, and the mind-boggling main solo of Labyrinth (the whole track is brilliant but who would have thought that mashing piano chords at 1000mph would be quite so life-changingly phenomenal?), this record nigh-on flawlessly redefines what it means to be "good at what you do".
Perhaps most people will find a diet of Hiromi difficult to exist on, but if you want to experience the sound of someone who is so at one with her instrument it makes you imagine she could do anything, look no further. She's playing a residency at Ronnie Scott's sometime next year. Hopefully some of you will accompany me.
Check out: Voice, Labyrinth, Haze, Delusion
Thank you and Happy Christmas 2011
Top 10 albums of 2012
Hello and welcome to my year-end "best of" list for, would you believe it, the fourth year in a row. This time I've gone all up-market and created a blogger/blogspot thing in an attempt to widen my audience from the 500 or so facebook friends who couldn't care less about what I have to say about anything to the circa 7 billion people on the planet with internet access who couldn't care less about what I have to say about anything. Except the music editor of the Guardian who will read this and whisk me away to a life of musical journalism and all the free CDs I can shake my neglected saxophone at. Yeah, right.
From a seemingly successful attempt to perform some iTunes wizardry it looks like I have acquired some 60 albums released in 2012 (and made some good progress against Jazzwise's "100 jazz records that shook the world" list, of course). Although this is fewer than 2011, I nevertheless conclude there remains a point to doing this. You lucky lucky people.
So what's disappointed me this year; let's see.
Disappointments
As it happens, horribly topically, I thought Lostprophets' Weapons was terrible. There aren't many records that are truly awful (99 times out of 100 it comes down to taste) but this tired, uninspired and unambitious piece of crap is one of them.
In my 27-and-a-bit years on this planet, it has become apparent to me that the phrase "sometimes you just can't win" is nothing if not an understatement. Consider the lily otherwise known as Tool's 10,000 Days. This was somewhat underwhelming, and fans' expectations for something like Lateralus Part 2 was undoubtedly a big part of this. Of course, had we actually had Lateralus Part 2 we would have thought the mighty Tool to be unoriginal and riding on past glories, among other sentiments. Perhaps I am alone in this but I tend to forgive bands for things like this in respect of the catalogue already out there. However, once I have become a card-carrying fan, then I feel like I can actually have an opinion on a new release, and express such things as disappointment or surprise (pleasant or otherwise) or whatever. (This is also the reason I can vote, so that I can complain with impunity.) Anyway, to bring myself back from the brink of digression, my point is that IMO (do I have to point this out every time?) there were a few releases this year that were indeed a bit "(insert band name here)-by-numbers" and not in an especially good way.
To whit, in particular I would like to mention Mono's For My Parents and Between the Buried and Me's The Parallax II: Future Sequence (Minus the Bear's Infinity Overhead is another example). Both are excellent albums but both follow the respective band's winning formulae to the letter. There can, obviously, still come inspiration within an established framework but if this isn't forthcoming then it's time to change things around. Take BTBAM: they have often been all about the payoff (listen to the last couple of minutes of the tracks on the Parallax I EP to see what I mean) but what they seem to have forgotten is that this payoff really needs to explode and satisfy rather than fizzle and falter. If this were early in the bands' careers than perhaps it wouldn't be such a big deal (I must say this to counteract the hypocrisy that will come later) but these box-ticking albums underwhelm me. Funnily enough, I'm tempted to say something similar about Converge, but they are saved by equal parts Coral Blue and the unfaltering bias and devotion of yours truly. Similarly, as awesome as Hiromi's Move is, it is pretty much Voice Part 2 and thus had nothing like the impact on me that Voice did last year. Hence I have left it out of my top 10.
Sigur Ros, on the other hand, tried something different (with Valtari). Alas, most of it is unlistenable.
Storm Corrosion, the collaboration between Opeth's Mikael Akerfeldt and Porcupine Tree (mainly)'s Steven Wilson, falls significantly short of the sum of its parts.
My relationship with the music of jazz piano prodigy Brad Mehldau has thawed significantly in recent weeks as I delve deeper into his back catalogue, but I found his 2012 record of originals, Ode, to be thoroughly dull, even after several listens. Based on that alone, I would point to several piano trios around at the moment who are infinitely more interesting: Hiromi (obviously), Michael Wollny, Phronesis, Robert Mitchell, The Bad Plus, and Marcus Roberts, for examples. The covers album Where Do You Start is a bit better I think - there may a lesson for Mr Mehldau in that.
Special mentions
Despite not being the greatest champion of soft rock, I actually rather liked The xx's new one, Coexist. They even managed to get steel pans in there without it sounding that odd!
A lot of more-than-decent B-list hardcore (apologies for lazily lumping all the following into this bracket) out there from 2012: Whitechapel's eponymous album, While She Sleep's This is the Six, The Ghost Inside's Get What You Give, Every Time I Die's Ex Lives, The Chariot's One Wing, Spineshank's Anger Denial Acceptance (where in the blue hell did that come from?) and Parkway Drive's Atlas, to name but a few.
Returns to form from The Cinematic Orchestra (even if two of their tracks on InMotion are previously released and a large chunk of the album isn't them), John Frusciante, The Melvins, Coheed & Cambria, Joss Stone, The Pineapple Thief, and Skunk Anansie (well, more of a comeback than a return to form I suppose, but hec, it's my party).
Beautiful work from Norah Jones, The Tallest Man on Earth, Smashing Pumpkins (nothing new par se, just a well put together collection of high quality songs), Rolo Tomassi (going from strength to strength), Godspeed You Black Emperor (there should be a ! in there somewhere but I'm never sure where these days), Baroness, and Michael Wollny's [Em] (a very interesting and mostly pretty original take on the art of the piano trio).
Business-as-usual (in a good way this time) from Errors, Bob Dylan, Submotion Orchestra, Stone Sour, Ill Nino, Courtney Pine, The Cribs, and Crippled Black Phoenix (not just one album released in 2012, but two!).
I disagree with a lot of things I've read in reviews about Converge's All We Love We Leave Behind. It is not a return to form (because such a thing would be oxymoronic, possibly without the prefix), it is not stadium rock (what the hec, NME?), Aimless Arrow is not the worst song on the album (OK, it is join-the-dot Converge and sounds like they wrote it in a couple of minutes but no less astonishing - I have to remember to scream the pleading line "to live the life you want" only in my head while in public) and most crucially, Jacob Bannon (to my mind one of the greatest frontmen and vocalists (not singers) of all time) has not refound his passion. Why? Because he never lost it. AWLWLB is a fantastic album, but given its source anything less was practically unthinkable. Kerrang! were right when they said Coral Blue is beautiful, but the implication that there isn't beauty in the brutality elsewhere is way wide of the mark.
Where 2010's Diamond Eyes was no-nonsense groove-metal akin to their earlier work, Deftones' Koi No Yokan brings back the dreamy side, more in common with the widely underrated Saturday Night Wrist (only self-titled is a bad Deftones album, Hexagram aside). There is gorgeousness and gorgeousity (sic) in abundance here, not least in the majestic and soaring Tempest.
OK so the title of this post includes the words "Top 10" and all I've done is banged on and on about albums that aren't. Enough of that then, and so without further ado:
Finally, the main event
10 - The Robert Glasper Experiment - Black Radio
I'm being objective here, because y'know what? I don't love this album. I want to but I just don't. If I was something better than a philistine when it comes to hip-hop/R&B then I would, but as it stands it is not a combination of my first loves (although combing jazz and metal/hardcore might sound like a tall order, there are precedents e.g. some Suns of the Tundra and the United Nations track Say Goodbye to General Figment of the USS Imagination), rather all I hear is hip-hop/R&B with some jazz piano. What I wanted was jazz first and foremost, so perhaps it was missold to me. Anyway, enough about my lack of taste, everyone else out there should adore this. It is an extraordinary and extraordinarily well put together record packed with guest stars, groove, genre-hopping, pointless random skits, great piano work from central genius glue Glasper, and infectious melody and ambience (sorry I was bored of g-words).
Mr Glasper should be very proud of what he has achieved here, and his album deserves for everyone to form their own opinion on it. In doing so:
Check out: Lift Off, Black Radio (with Yasiin Bey, no less), Smells Like Teen Spirit (great cover of this chronically over-covered song).
9 - Phronesis - Walking Dark
It was a toss-up between Michael Wollny's [Em] and this for the coveted (tongue very firmly wedged in cheek) number 9 spot here, but the former is just a bit too weird, sparse and simple in places. Don't get me wrong though, Phronesis are no less weird or inclined to push the boundaries of what a jazz piano trio can do, but this is tempered with great bursts of originality, virtuosity, groove and vitality, all three young musicians at the top of their game following the inspired and inspiring double-bass leader wherever he goes. With clicky drums, lightning fingered bass-work and proggy song-writing, there is enough here to set them apart from the pack and I look forward to listening to them for a wee while yet.
Check out: The Economist, American Jesus
8 - ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Lost Songs
With or without the type of bandname abbreviations and acronyms were invented for, Trail of Dead's Lost Songs is a simply incredible smack-round-the-face of something resembling post-hardcore. That's what they always did, right? Weren't they kind of indie back in the day? Am I just really late to the party? I am, aren't I? No matter, from the intro that blooms into a noisy opening riff, through impassioned playing and vocals establishing just the right blend of melody and vitriol, to some quirky musical surprises here and there, this essentially sounds like At the Drive-In's Relationship of Command played in 4/4. Ergo, I love it.
Check out: Open Doors, Pinhole Cameras
7 - Lacuna Coil - Dark Adrenaline
James Root is a lucky man. Not only does he get to work with one of the most gifted singers in metal (and arguably outside of it too) in Corey Taylor, in his day jobs with Slipknot and Stone Sour, but he dates another, namely Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil. You name it, she's got it. Decent range, lovely voice, power when it is needed, beauty and quietness when it is not, ability to pull it off live (not many in rock/metal do), and a canny ear for phrasing and what makes a decent main/backing vocal. I admit to not being quite as enchanted by her as when/following I first discovered the 'Coil at Download 2006, but I maintain she remains one of the foremost vocal talents of our generation.
After the largely failed experiment of Shallow Life (Spellbound and The Maze notwithstanding), this is a return to form; Lacuna Coil doing what Lacuna Coil do best. Which is what, you ask? Infectious goth metal pop I suppose I'd say, perhaps with the words "guilty" and "pleasure" in there somewhere. Let's face it, Lacuna Coil is simple music, albeit played extremely well, 90% as a vehicle to the sublime talents of Ms Scabbia, who in comparison (to her fellow vocalist in particular (I quote, "if Cristina Scabbia is the face of Lacuna Coil, Andrea Ferro is the arse")) sounds like she needs a better band. Perhaps "better" is a bit harsh and misses the point - the band is tight, extremely competent (check out the acoustic work for proof) and solid, they just won't be winning any originality or virtuosity awards anytime soon. Who gives a shit, the music is extremely and unashamedly catchy and re-listenable, and it gives me warm fuzzy happy feelings.
Note: some will hate their cover of REM's Losing My Religion, others will at least commend them for doing their own thing with it.
Check out: Trip the Darkness, Kill the Light, Intoxicated
6 - Gojira - L'enfant Sauvage
A wonderful slice of French metal. Scratch that, there's no such thing as French metal. They're French and they play metal. There we go. What's so wonderful about it? What sticks in my mind most is that just when you think they're going for the metal cliche (e.g. chugging, double bass drumming), after a couple of seconds they pull something else out of the bag to surprise and entice the listener (a noticeable illustration of what I'm talking about being 26 seconds into the title track). OK OK so everything we love about metal is present and correct, sure, but there's so much more here it gives hope that there is much to come from our beloved genre for many years yet.
Check out: Explosia, L'enfant Sauvage, Liquid Fire
5 - Garbage - Not Your Kind of People
We appear to live in an era of reunions. So many old bands have got back together in the last couple of years it has long lost its excitement. Some are just playing shows to top up the piggy banks (Rage Against the Machine I'm looking at you, despite how much I enjoyed your shows), whereas others are writing new material and releasing albums. And a yet smaller subset actually have something to say. (Interestingly enough, Take That's post-reunion material is perfectly decent!) Garbage's first album in seven years is their best since 1998's masterpiece Version 2.0. Inevitably it is over-produced (they are pop-rock after all) but Not Your Kind of People is a far more ambitious record than Bleed Like Me and far more satisfying than the misstep of Beautiful Garbage. From the three old men from Wisconsin we were never going to get anything hugely hard-hitting, but that's why we have Shirley (Manson). While the backing music is polished to a fine sheen, she brings back the rough edges, particularly lyrically (What Girls Are Made Of), and some genuine beauty (Beloved Freak).
Note: how much does What Girls Are Made Of sound like The xx?
Check out: Big Bright World, Sugar, Beloved Freak
4 - Hidden Orchestra - Archipelago
This is basically Night Walks part 2. But guess what, this time it works. Given that this is merely the sophomore LP I'm happy for Joe Acheson to stick with his formula for the time being. 2010's debut introduced us to the dreamy beauty, the dual drummers, the jazz overtones, the tasteful electronic and sampling work and the utter loveliness of the arrangements. 2012's follow-up is more of the same but I'm not complaining in the slightest.
Just the right side of live instrumentation to please the grumpy old purist in my computer chair, Hidden Orchestra bring together groovy beats, exquisite sounds, stunning tunes and some really high highs to create something altogether captivating and bewitching.
Check out: Spoken, Vorka
3 - Meshuggah - Koloss
Another party I'm way too late to, it has taken until their seventh album for me to pick up something by the much vaunted Meshuggah. Listens in the double-figures later, I have had rhetorical reconstructive surgery on my face and ear-drums and am ready to face the civilised world again. In a league completely of their own, Meshuggah are brutal, visceral, accomplished beyond belief and in two words, totally amazing. The final track is a not altogether successful attempt at something quiet and pretty, but the 50 minutes that come before it of things which are certainly not quiet and defiantly not pretty fly by in a daze of mind-bending musicianship, a rhythmic masterclass which somehow the vocalist manages to not only deal with and hold together but transcend. Metal somewhere near its most extreme and indubitably at its finest.
Check out: The Hurt That Finds You First, Marrow, I Am Colossus
2 - Christian Scott - Christian aTunde Adjuah
Two years on, perhaps Yesterday You Said Tomorrow wasn't that marvelous an album, rather it had a couple of good tracks on it. Anthem, its predecessor, similarly. Christian Scott's new effort, on the other hand, is the sound of a certain young jazz trumpeter taking flight and then some. I cannot applaud this album enough really, although on paper it shouldn't work. For example, it is 2 hours long, but there is hardly a dud among the 23 tracks, each of which combing to form an ambitious but fully realised whole.
Upon first listen I wondered if the tracks were mainly just a one-trick backing from Piano, Guitar, Drums and Bass (the first three all superlative) to trumpet-solo over the top of. Not so, there are certainly a lot more than 23 ideas to this album, and each of Scott's many many (it's almost as if he read my review of YYST which complained of a heavy absence of trumpet) solos sound fresh, and excite and inspire. Just when you think there's yet another track of rock-influenced rhythm section with jazz trumpet, you get a storming drum solo or a non-trumpet interlude track, breaking proceedings up sufficiently to ensure nothing outstays its welcome over the extensive running time.
I don't know where "it" all came from, but on this record "it" is all pouring out. The obvious worry is that there is no way Christian Scott can better this, but this is all I need. It is a journey through groove, beauty, the power of music entwined with the human spirit, audio perfection. A magnum opus to be proud of, Christian aTunde Adjuah is a class above. And then some.
Check out: New New Orleans (King Adjuah Stomp), Pyrrhic Victory of aTunde Adjuah, Danziger, Jihad Joe
1 - The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet
This is both surprising and not. Yes I'm biased towards these gentlemen, but I am the first to readily admit the obvious flaws in the three albums between this and 2005's masterpiece Frances the Mute. So then, this must be a return to form? Yes, that's exactly what it is, far more hit than miss next to Amputechture, far more consistent than Octahedron, and far more beautiful and musical and less noisy than The Bedlam in Goliath. There is a story behind all/most Mars Volta records, this one being how genius-musical-scientist-brain Omar Rodriguez-Lopez relinquished some musical control to his bandmates. This might explain why the vocal melodies are the strongest since Frances - good work Cedric Bixler-Zavala, I can restart claiming you're my second favourite vocalist ever.
Following in the footsteps of Jon Theodore and Thomas Pridgen can't have been easy (Spinal Tap springs to mind), but Deantoni Parks has acquitted himself with aplomb, making the drum seat very much his own. Not hitting as hard as Theodore or as often as Pridgen, he instead brings an off-centre, unique and idiosyncratic approach that utterly works.
Omar doesn't always succeed in unifying his albums (De-loused flowed and Frances certainly was just one 70+ minute suite but the less said about the others the better) and admittedly Noctourniquet still feels more like a collection of songs than a cohesive album, but as the large majority of said songs are of such high quality, packed with ideas and musical payoffs, this really is harking back to the glory days. A much more focused affair, this is the quality over quantity that has been lacking in The Mars Volta for some time. And some of the highs are as fabulous as anything they've done e.g. Aegis, the title track, the second half of In Absentia.
Omar's responsible for over 30 albums available to the general public (countless more languishing in his closet) and (yes I know it was written a couple of years ago) yet he and his talented bandmates can still produce something a league above when they put their mind to it. Transcendental, magical and worthy of just about any other superlative one cares to throw at it, this album is proof that the human species is not necessarily doomed.
Check out: Aegis, In Absentia, Noctourniquet
Thank you, and Happy Christmas one and all.
From a seemingly successful attempt to perform some iTunes wizardry it looks like I have acquired some 60 albums released in 2012 (and made some good progress against Jazzwise's "100 jazz records that shook the world" list, of course). Although this is fewer than 2011, I nevertheless conclude there remains a point to doing this. You lucky lucky people.
So what's disappointed me this year; let's see.
Disappointments
As it happens, horribly topically, I thought Lostprophets' Weapons was terrible. There aren't many records that are truly awful (99 times out of 100 it comes down to taste) but this tired, uninspired and unambitious piece of crap is one of them.
In my 27-and-a-bit years on this planet, it has become apparent to me that the phrase "sometimes you just can't win" is nothing if not an understatement. Consider the lily otherwise known as Tool's 10,000 Days. This was somewhat underwhelming, and fans' expectations for something like Lateralus Part 2 was undoubtedly a big part of this. Of course, had we actually had Lateralus Part 2 we would have thought the mighty Tool to be unoriginal and riding on past glories, among other sentiments. Perhaps I am alone in this but I tend to forgive bands for things like this in respect of the catalogue already out there. However, once I have become a card-carrying fan, then I feel like I can actually have an opinion on a new release, and express such things as disappointment or surprise (pleasant or otherwise) or whatever. (This is also the reason I can vote, so that I can complain with impunity.) Anyway, to bring myself back from the brink of digression, my point is that IMO (do I have to point this out every time?) there were a few releases this year that were indeed a bit "(insert band name here)-by-numbers" and not in an especially good way.
To whit, in particular I would like to mention Mono's For My Parents and Between the Buried and Me's The Parallax II: Future Sequence (Minus the Bear's Infinity Overhead is another example). Both are excellent albums but both follow the respective band's winning formulae to the letter. There can, obviously, still come inspiration within an established framework but if this isn't forthcoming then it's time to change things around. Take BTBAM: they have often been all about the payoff (listen to the last couple of minutes of the tracks on the Parallax I EP to see what I mean) but what they seem to have forgotten is that this payoff really needs to explode and satisfy rather than fizzle and falter. If this were early in the bands' careers than perhaps it wouldn't be such a big deal (I must say this to counteract the hypocrisy that will come later) but these box-ticking albums underwhelm me. Funnily enough, I'm tempted to say something similar about Converge, but they are saved by equal parts Coral Blue and the unfaltering bias and devotion of yours truly. Similarly, as awesome as Hiromi's Move is, it is pretty much Voice Part 2 and thus had nothing like the impact on me that Voice did last year. Hence I have left it out of my top 10.
Sigur Ros, on the other hand, tried something different (with Valtari). Alas, most of it is unlistenable.
Storm Corrosion, the collaboration between Opeth's Mikael Akerfeldt and Porcupine Tree (mainly)'s Steven Wilson, falls significantly short of the sum of its parts.
My relationship with the music of jazz piano prodigy Brad Mehldau has thawed significantly in recent weeks as I delve deeper into his back catalogue, but I found his 2012 record of originals, Ode, to be thoroughly dull, even after several listens. Based on that alone, I would point to several piano trios around at the moment who are infinitely more interesting: Hiromi (obviously), Michael Wollny, Phronesis, Robert Mitchell, The Bad Plus, and Marcus Roberts, for examples. The covers album Where Do You Start is a bit better I think - there may a lesson for Mr Mehldau in that.
Special mentions
Despite not being the greatest champion of soft rock, I actually rather liked The xx's new one, Coexist. They even managed to get steel pans in there without it sounding that odd!
A lot of more-than-decent B-list hardcore (apologies for lazily lumping all the following into this bracket) out there from 2012: Whitechapel's eponymous album, While She Sleep's This is the Six, The Ghost Inside's Get What You Give, Every Time I Die's Ex Lives, The Chariot's One Wing, Spineshank's Anger Denial Acceptance (where in the blue hell did that come from?) and Parkway Drive's Atlas, to name but a few.
Returns to form from The Cinematic Orchestra (even if two of their tracks on InMotion are previously released and a large chunk of the album isn't them), John Frusciante, The Melvins, Coheed & Cambria, Joss Stone, The Pineapple Thief, and Skunk Anansie (well, more of a comeback than a return to form I suppose, but hec, it's my party).
Beautiful work from Norah Jones, The Tallest Man on Earth, Smashing Pumpkins (nothing new par se, just a well put together collection of high quality songs), Rolo Tomassi (going from strength to strength), Godspeed You Black Emperor (there should be a ! in there somewhere but I'm never sure where these days), Baroness, and Michael Wollny's [Em] (a very interesting and mostly pretty original take on the art of the piano trio).
Business-as-usual (in a good way this time) from Errors, Bob Dylan, Submotion Orchestra, Stone Sour, Ill Nino, Courtney Pine, The Cribs, and Crippled Black Phoenix (not just one album released in 2012, but two!).
I disagree with a lot of things I've read in reviews about Converge's All We Love We Leave Behind. It is not a return to form (because such a thing would be oxymoronic, possibly without the prefix), it is not stadium rock (what the hec, NME?), Aimless Arrow is not the worst song on the album (OK, it is join-the-dot Converge and sounds like they wrote it in a couple of minutes but no less astonishing - I have to remember to scream the pleading line "to live the life you want" only in my head while in public) and most crucially, Jacob Bannon (to my mind one of the greatest frontmen and vocalists (not singers) of all time) has not refound his passion. Why? Because he never lost it. AWLWLB is a fantastic album, but given its source anything less was practically unthinkable. Kerrang! were right when they said Coral Blue is beautiful, but the implication that there isn't beauty in the brutality elsewhere is way wide of the mark.
Where 2010's Diamond Eyes was no-nonsense groove-metal akin to their earlier work, Deftones' Koi No Yokan brings back the dreamy side, more in common with the widely underrated Saturday Night Wrist (only self-titled is a bad Deftones album, Hexagram aside). There is gorgeousness and gorgeousity (sic) in abundance here, not least in the majestic and soaring Tempest.
OK so the title of this post includes the words "Top 10" and all I've done is banged on and on about albums that aren't. Enough of that then, and so without further ado:
Finally, the main event
10 - The Robert Glasper Experiment - Black Radio
I'm being objective here, because y'know what? I don't love this album. I want to but I just don't. If I was something better than a philistine when it comes to hip-hop/R&B then I would, but as it stands it is not a combination of my first loves (although combing jazz and metal/hardcore might sound like a tall order, there are precedents e.g. some Suns of the Tundra and the United Nations track Say Goodbye to General Figment of the USS Imagination), rather all I hear is hip-hop/R&B with some jazz piano. What I wanted was jazz first and foremost, so perhaps it was missold to me. Anyway, enough about my lack of taste, everyone else out there should adore this. It is an extraordinary and extraordinarily well put together record packed with guest stars, groove, genre-hopping, pointless random skits, great piano work from central genius glue Glasper, and infectious melody and ambience (sorry I was bored of g-words).
Mr Glasper should be very proud of what he has achieved here, and his album deserves for everyone to form their own opinion on it. In doing so:
Check out: Lift Off, Black Radio (with Yasiin Bey, no less), Smells Like Teen Spirit (great cover of this chronically over-covered song).
9 - Phronesis - Walking Dark
It was a toss-up between Michael Wollny's [Em] and this for the coveted (tongue very firmly wedged in cheek) number 9 spot here, but the former is just a bit too weird, sparse and simple in places. Don't get me wrong though, Phronesis are no less weird or inclined to push the boundaries of what a jazz piano trio can do, but this is tempered with great bursts of originality, virtuosity, groove and vitality, all three young musicians at the top of their game following the inspired and inspiring double-bass leader wherever he goes. With clicky drums, lightning fingered bass-work and proggy song-writing, there is enough here to set them apart from the pack and I look forward to listening to them for a wee while yet.
Check out: The Economist, American Jesus
8 - ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Lost Songs
With or without the type of bandname abbreviations and acronyms were invented for, Trail of Dead's Lost Songs is a simply incredible smack-round-the-face of something resembling post-hardcore. That's what they always did, right? Weren't they kind of indie back in the day? Am I just really late to the party? I am, aren't I? No matter, from the intro that blooms into a noisy opening riff, through impassioned playing and vocals establishing just the right blend of melody and vitriol, to some quirky musical surprises here and there, this essentially sounds like At the Drive-In's Relationship of Command played in 4/4. Ergo, I love it.
Check out: Open Doors, Pinhole Cameras
7 - Lacuna Coil - Dark Adrenaline
James Root is a lucky man. Not only does he get to work with one of the most gifted singers in metal (and arguably outside of it too) in Corey Taylor, in his day jobs with Slipknot and Stone Sour, but he dates another, namely Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil. You name it, she's got it. Decent range, lovely voice, power when it is needed, beauty and quietness when it is not, ability to pull it off live (not many in rock/metal do), and a canny ear for phrasing and what makes a decent main/backing vocal. I admit to not being quite as enchanted by her as when/following I first discovered the 'Coil at Download 2006, but I maintain she remains one of the foremost vocal talents of our generation.
After the largely failed experiment of Shallow Life (Spellbound and The Maze notwithstanding), this is a return to form; Lacuna Coil doing what Lacuna Coil do best. Which is what, you ask? Infectious goth metal pop I suppose I'd say, perhaps with the words "guilty" and "pleasure" in there somewhere. Let's face it, Lacuna Coil is simple music, albeit played extremely well, 90% as a vehicle to the sublime talents of Ms Scabbia, who in comparison (to her fellow vocalist in particular (I quote, "if Cristina Scabbia is the face of Lacuna Coil, Andrea Ferro is the arse")) sounds like she needs a better band. Perhaps "better" is a bit harsh and misses the point - the band is tight, extremely competent (check out the acoustic work for proof) and solid, they just won't be winning any originality or virtuosity awards anytime soon. Who gives a shit, the music is extremely and unashamedly catchy and re-listenable, and it gives me warm fuzzy happy feelings.
Note: some will hate their cover of REM's Losing My Religion, others will at least commend them for doing their own thing with it.
Check out: Trip the Darkness, Kill the Light, Intoxicated
6 - Gojira - L'enfant Sauvage
A wonderful slice of French metal. Scratch that, there's no such thing as French metal. They're French and they play metal. There we go. What's so wonderful about it? What sticks in my mind most is that just when you think they're going for the metal cliche (e.g. chugging, double bass drumming), after a couple of seconds they pull something else out of the bag to surprise and entice the listener (a noticeable illustration of what I'm talking about being 26 seconds into the title track). OK OK so everything we love about metal is present and correct, sure, but there's so much more here it gives hope that there is much to come from our beloved genre for many years yet.
Check out: Explosia, L'enfant Sauvage, Liquid Fire
5 - Garbage - Not Your Kind of People
We appear to live in an era of reunions. So many old bands have got back together in the last couple of years it has long lost its excitement. Some are just playing shows to top up the piggy banks (Rage Against the Machine I'm looking at you, despite how much I enjoyed your shows), whereas others are writing new material and releasing albums. And a yet smaller subset actually have something to say. (Interestingly enough, Take That's post-reunion material is perfectly decent!) Garbage's first album in seven years is their best since 1998's masterpiece Version 2.0. Inevitably it is over-produced (they are pop-rock after all) but Not Your Kind of People is a far more ambitious record than Bleed Like Me and far more satisfying than the misstep of Beautiful Garbage. From the three old men from Wisconsin we were never going to get anything hugely hard-hitting, but that's why we have Shirley (Manson). While the backing music is polished to a fine sheen, she brings back the rough edges, particularly lyrically (What Girls Are Made Of), and some genuine beauty (Beloved Freak).
Note: how much does What Girls Are Made Of sound like The xx?
Check out: Big Bright World, Sugar, Beloved Freak
4 - Hidden Orchestra - Archipelago
This is basically Night Walks part 2. But guess what, this time it works. Given that this is merely the sophomore LP I'm happy for Joe Acheson to stick with his formula for the time being. 2010's debut introduced us to the dreamy beauty, the dual drummers, the jazz overtones, the tasteful electronic and sampling work and the utter loveliness of the arrangements. 2012's follow-up is more of the same but I'm not complaining in the slightest.
Just the right side of live instrumentation to please the grumpy old purist in my computer chair, Hidden Orchestra bring together groovy beats, exquisite sounds, stunning tunes and some really high highs to create something altogether captivating and bewitching.
Check out: Spoken, Vorka
3 - Meshuggah - Koloss
Another party I'm way too late to, it has taken until their seventh album for me to pick up something by the much vaunted Meshuggah. Listens in the double-figures later, I have had rhetorical reconstructive surgery on my face and ear-drums and am ready to face the civilised world again. In a league completely of their own, Meshuggah are brutal, visceral, accomplished beyond belief and in two words, totally amazing. The final track is a not altogether successful attempt at something quiet and pretty, but the 50 minutes that come before it of things which are certainly not quiet and defiantly not pretty fly by in a daze of mind-bending musicianship, a rhythmic masterclass which somehow the vocalist manages to not only deal with and hold together but transcend. Metal somewhere near its most extreme and indubitably at its finest.
Check out: The Hurt That Finds You First, Marrow, I Am Colossus
2 - Christian Scott - Christian aTunde Adjuah
Two years on, perhaps Yesterday You Said Tomorrow wasn't that marvelous an album, rather it had a couple of good tracks on it. Anthem, its predecessor, similarly. Christian Scott's new effort, on the other hand, is the sound of a certain young jazz trumpeter taking flight and then some. I cannot applaud this album enough really, although on paper it shouldn't work. For example, it is 2 hours long, but there is hardly a dud among the 23 tracks, each of which combing to form an ambitious but fully realised whole.
Upon first listen I wondered if the tracks were mainly just a one-trick backing from Piano, Guitar, Drums and Bass (the first three all superlative) to trumpet-solo over the top of. Not so, there are certainly a lot more than 23 ideas to this album, and each of Scott's many many (it's almost as if he read my review of YYST which complained of a heavy absence of trumpet) solos sound fresh, and excite and inspire. Just when you think there's yet another track of rock-influenced rhythm section with jazz trumpet, you get a storming drum solo or a non-trumpet interlude track, breaking proceedings up sufficiently to ensure nothing outstays its welcome over the extensive running time.
I don't know where "it" all came from, but on this record "it" is all pouring out. The obvious worry is that there is no way Christian Scott can better this, but this is all I need. It is a journey through groove, beauty, the power of music entwined with the human spirit, audio perfection. A magnum opus to be proud of, Christian aTunde Adjuah is a class above. And then some.
Check out: New New Orleans (King Adjuah Stomp), Pyrrhic Victory of aTunde Adjuah, Danziger, Jihad Joe
1 - The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet
This is both surprising and not. Yes I'm biased towards these gentlemen, but I am the first to readily admit the obvious flaws in the three albums between this and 2005's masterpiece Frances the Mute. So then, this must be a return to form? Yes, that's exactly what it is, far more hit than miss next to Amputechture, far more consistent than Octahedron, and far more beautiful and musical and less noisy than The Bedlam in Goliath. There is a story behind all/most Mars Volta records, this one being how genius-musical-scientist-brain Omar Rodriguez-Lopez relinquished some musical control to his bandmates. This might explain why the vocal melodies are the strongest since Frances - good work Cedric Bixler-Zavala, I can restart claiming you're my second favourite vocalist ever.
Following in the footsteps of Jon Theodore and Thomas Pridgen can't have been easy (Spinal Tap springs to mind), but Deantoni Parks has acquitted himself with aplomb, making the drum seat very much his own. Not hitting as hard as Theodore or as often as Pridgen, he instead brings an off-centre, unique and idiosyncratic approach that utterly works.
Omar doesn't always succeed in unifying his albums (De-loused flowed and Frances certainly was just one 70+ minute suite but the less said about the others the better) and admittedly Noctourniquet still feels more like a collection of songs than a cohesive album, but as the large majority of said songs are of such high quality, packed with ideas and musical payoffs, this really is harking back to the glory days. A much more focused affair, this is the quality over quantity that has been lacking in The Mars Volta for some time. And some of the highs are as fabulous as anything they've done e.g. Aegis, the title track, the second half of In Absentia.
Omar's responsible for over 30 albums available to the general public (countless more languishing in his closet) and (yes I know it was written a couple of years ago) yet he and his talented bandmates can still produce something a league above when they put their mind to it. Transcendental, magical and worthy of just about any other superlative one cares to throw at it, this album is proof that the human species is not necessarily doomed.
Check out: Aegis, In Absentia, Noctourniquet
Thank you, and Happy Christmas one and all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)