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View Full Version : The Best 21 Albums Of The Year So Far....



Ian Townsend
17-05-2012, 06:54 PM
.... according to the NME and to celebrate the fact that the year is nearly six months old. Hell, it's worth trying to keep up with the youngsters! (This thread's for you Drew!) I confess i've only heard of two. The Paul Weller lp and Actress - RIP because there was a whole Waxidermy thread about it.

I'll try and add a Youtube a day for each of them. Just to give over three minutes or so of the day to something that's 'now', despite the whole front end of Forumusic being about 'then.':)

Jack White - 'Blunderbuss'. NME said: "His most candid and personal record yet." 8/10.

Tribes - 'Baby'. NME said: "Not only an early contender for album of 2012 but a formidable salvo in the guitar rock fightback." 9/10.

Lana Del Rey - 'Born To Die'. NME said: "(It) marks the arrival of a fresh - and refreshingly self-aware- sensibility in pop." 8/10.

Enter Shikari - 'A Flash Flood Of Colour'. NME said: "They respond to the challenge in explosive style to deliver something like their defining statement." 8/10.

Grimes - 'Visions'. NME said: "'Visions' drips with instinct, an eerie sixth sense, a stream of consciousness mental state." 8/10.

Django Django - 'Django Django'. NME said: "An album characterised by its sharp stylistic swerves but never feels jumbled or incoherent." 8/10.

Pulled Apart By Horses - 'Tough Love'. NME said: "This is a record you'll be revisiting for years to come." 8/10.

Sleigh Bells - 'Reign Of Terror'. NME said: "The way they've leapfrogged their contemporaries in terms of ambition and scope is terrifying." 8/10.

Hodgy Beats - 'Untitled'. NME said: "Hodgy's making good use to his chance to shine." 8/10.

Flats - 'Better Living'. NME said: "Punk as it should be: courageously self destructive." 8/10.

Actress - 'RIP'. NME said: "Essentially alien - yet, very probably, that is the source of their strange, uncanny power." 8/10.

Perfume Genius - 'Put Your Back N 2 It'. NME said: "(The) troubled kid never went away. It's just that this time, he's more concerned with reaching towards the light." 8/10.

Breton - 'Other People's Problems'. NME said: "Breton have barely scratched the surface of what they want to do, and what they can achieve." 8/10.

Polica - 'Give You The Ghost'. NME said: "Beautifully poignant."

Oberhofer - 'Time Capsules II'. NME said: "It gleams like a skate-park erected in the clouds." 8/10.

Pond - 'Beard Wives Denim'. NME said: "Quite possibly the best album release so far this year." 9/10.

Mystery Jets - 'Radlands'. NME said: "About as authentically Yankee as Christian Bale's mid-Atlantic drawl, and just dandy for it." 8/10.

Paul Weller - 'Sonik Kicks'. NME said: "The sound of Paul Weller growing old the only way he could – not particularly gracefully, but with no small amount of style." 8/10.

Graham Coxon - 'A+E'. NME said: "one of the best albums of his career – a pop record with dangerously anti-social tendencies." 9/10.

Maccabees - 'Given To The Wild'. NME said: "A band we’ve loved from the start grasp their potential." 9/10.

The Cribs - 'In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull'. NME said: "No longer victims of their own ideals. They are masters of them." 8/10.

Ian Townsend
17-05-2012, 07:01 PM
Corker!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsl42OfkO3Y

And another...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L50cATpCNs0&feature=related

And another...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6cSvOfwxQs&feature=related

All sounds damned good to me. Know nothing about them. Off to see if they're on vinyl.... Cheerio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-h8tyWW7OI&feature=related

Ian Townsend
17-05-2012, 07:12 PM
Since Tame Impala guitarist Nick Albrook is also Pond's chief songwriter and there are a few lineup overlaps, comparisons between the two Australian neo-psych pop groups are inevitable.

Unlike Innerspeaker, super-producer Dave Fridmann doesn't man the boards on this one, but the farmhouse production is affected with virtually the same tape echo, leslie speaker wobble, and vintage guitar tones. This puts the two on the same sonic playing field, but because of Pond's willingness to take risks, Beard, Wives, Denim doesn't feel distinctive or as firmly indebted to classic psychedelic music. With influences that range from David Crosby to Spiritualized, Pond's songs are widely varied. "Fantastic Explosion of Time" is a grungy, garage rock fireball; "You Broke My Cool" injects '50s style into '70s glam; "Elegant Design" is a sly homage to funk, sung in a womanly falsetto, and "Moreno's Blend" is a raw, acoustic porch jam.

Every melody is blanketed in psychedelic sounds, giving a unified feel to the record, even if the music isn't always easily containable. However, Pond is at their best when they go full force into watercolor psych, like in the fantastically trippy "When it Explodes," and "Sorry I Was Under the Sky." These songs could be B-sides to Innerspeaker. The only difference is that Tame Impala seem completely sincere about returning to the late '60s/early '70s. Pond is like an incorrigible younger sibling that is determined to learn by making mistakes. Both groups' records are essential. ¯ Jason Lymangrover

(From HMV website)

sourcerer
18-05-2012, 01:46 PM
Maccabees - 'Given To The Wild'. NME said: "A band we’ve loved from the start grasp their potential." 9/10.

Cosign the Maccabees! I really like the sound of that Pond lp too. Maybe I'm not as old as I thought I was.:D

Highland Doom
18-05-2012, 07:54 PM
I'm going to sound like an old curmudgeon here but in the days of the internet is there realy any excuse for a band to pick a name that's already been used.

Pond (http://www.discogs.com/artist/Pond+%282%29)

Not as unforgiveable as The Charlatans and The Rascals (http://www.discogs.com/artist/Rascals%2C+The+%282%29) mind you.

:D

mr sayers
19-05-2012, 06:30 PM
I'm going to sound like an old curmudgeon here but in the days of the internet is there realy any excuse for a band to pick a name that's already been used.

Pond (http://www.discogs.com/artist/Pond+%282%29)

Not as unforgiveable as The Charlatans and The Rascals (http://www.discogs.com/artist/Rascals%2C+The+%282%29) mind you.

:D

Not to mention Nirvana!!!!

Ian Townsend
22-05-2012, 05:54 PM
Carefully sidestepping the old curmudgeons :) and taking a cue from saucy boy sourcerer.... let's have a bit a' Maccabees.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdNC9FVWdBk


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvMTyQgfWlA

eruditio
23-05-2012, 06:48 AM
(This thread's for you Drew!) I confess i've only heard of two. The Paul Weller lp and Actress - RIP because there was a whole Waxidermy thread about it.
Thanks.

I listened to the Actress RIP videos on YouTube and I just don't get it at all. Or should I say, I 'can't hang' with it.

Must be gittin' old. :D :D :D

Ian Townsend
23-05-2012, 11:02 AM
Thanks.

I listened to the Actress RIP videos on YouTube and I just don't get it at all. Or should I say, I 'can't hang' with it.

Must be gittin' old. :D :D :D
Not my bag either! I read the Waxi post about it, gave 100% attention to the YouTube clips and I was none the wiser.

Ian Townsend
25-05-2012, 06:40 AM
Polica - 'Give You The Ghost'. NME said: "Beautifully poignant.".
Shoegazers of the Noughties stand up ? (....and look down at shoes whilst nestling chin into an over-sized greatcoat).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvmb8oussWs


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl03afAqeFQ


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKG7uf4RV-Q&feature=related

Not really my bag at all but to late teen males who never heard any shoegaze 80s stuff it probably sounds pretty cool and a worthy soundtrack to the heartache of being dumped by the pretty Saturday girl from Asda.

Or something.

johnnycasual
25-05-2012, 07:48 AM
Love the Pond LP, as well as the Django Django and Grimes ones. All available on vinyl too!

auxillary_output
25-05-2012, 08:04 PM
Love the Pond LP, as well as the Django Django and Grimes ones. All available on vinyl too!
On the Essential Modern Soul forum the other day they were complaining about the new Audio featuring Vince Broomfield release being a vinyl 45 only! Righteously indignant they were. :D:D:D

stringer
05-06-2012, 08:25 PM
I vote Grimes.

What do I win?

Ian Townsend
06-06-2012, 06:45 AM
I vote Grimes.

What do I win?

You call our Claire 'Grimes'?

Sheesh. You win the 'You Don't Know Grimes Like I Do' trophy.

treeboy
08-07-2012, 06:56 PM
Tagging this one onto this thread as the album only came out last week. Picked up a copy, and have given it a few spins. Unashamedly psychedelic, but sounding fresh as a daisy. If you like your psych/pop in the Piper At The Gates Of Dawn/ Kaleidoscope vein, you should probably investigate further.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py-YbA1c7Ao