Grizzly Bear - Veckatmist: A superior mix of psychedelic folk rock and pop. The harmonies are fantastic and moving - check out "I live With You".
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix: My favorite french pop band's newest release is their breakthough, although I would of liked it to have been It's Never Been Like That. Tons of electronic and chugging guitar lines.
Girls - Album: A mix of Costello and Beach Boys on this album that laments not preparing for your twenties. Lots of foot tappers but lacks some substance. Lust For Life, the opening track, is probably it's strongest.
The Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca: A mix of ambient pop melodies and modern romps through syncopated drum fills and quick changes.
Mos Def - The Ecstatic: Mos steps back into the early ninties with lo-fi loops and slick lyrical work. Probably his strongest album thus far.
Florence + The Machine - Lungs: An English siren who takes over for Imogen Heap by taking her beautiful and angelic tones and adding copious amounts of indie pop. Dog Days Are Over is feverish, and Cosmic Love leaves you a little drunk with her.
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion: I'm not a huge AC fan but Merriweather makes something more out of their sound than previous albums. You can hear intense and almost religious melodies sitting bellow the oceans of white noise. And when you catch them, there isn't much better.
Miike Snow - Miike Snow: Catchy and cerebral indie pop; an upbeat Bon Iver. Danceable but a little too dissonant sounding for me.
Julien Casablancas - Phrazes For The Young: My favorite album of the year. Casablancas steps up his song writing with solid melodies and incredibly catchy hooks. The lyrics are still a little weak but he finds a way of mixing his natural new wave sensibilities with the muscle memory he's developed with The Strokes. Very bouncy and meticulous.
Rain Machine - Rain Machine: An export of a band who can't miss the mark, TV on the Radio, Rain Machine is just as intelligent but perhaps a little less political sounding. The songs are far more personal, and the music a little more guitar and percussion saturated. The vocals, however, and just as howl heavy.
Time To Die - The Dodos: I'm a huge fan of the Dodos after Vister's release and this only furthers my love of them. The music gets a little simpler but just as hypnotic and, somehow, equally frantic.
Brakes - Touchdown: Remind me a little of Nirvana and Beck. Certainly a lot less dark than Nirvana, but they've got the chugging distortion and tom laden drum fills. It's all very self-loathing but if you're a big fan of early ninties garage pop rock than this is your band. They aren't Detriot rock. More like a suburb in Washington.
Ben Folds - Way To Normal: A return to Kate and other BFF classics. A couple of tunes that feel like they should be on Songs For Silverman, but for the most part it's a return to his song writing roots. But what makes it better is Kate now has perfectly arranged string sections, better phrasing, and a lot of self-awareness.
Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms: Incredible. Listen to it. I can't explain it's power.
That's it for this year. A decent year in releases but not THAT strong.
__________________
EX: Whats new?
ME: I officially love coffee more then you now.
EX: uh...
ME: So, not much.
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