In 2006 I ran smack into Loney, Dear's "I Am John." There wasn't a cohesive rationale behind my affection, other than an immediate and unwavering need to listen to it. It was the cascading arrangement. It was the over-the-top cloying bells and chimes. It was that I couldn't quite make out the lyrics. It was a lot of things.
I had a job interview that afternoon on the top floor of a building on the East River in DUMBO. It was for a job teaching creative writing over the summer, a position for which I was incredibly unqualified. I had taught 4th grade English poorly for five months, which in my mind made me more or less able to teach creative writing to high achieving students in four-hour sessions through July. Or put another way, someone let me take care of their fish for the weekend and instead, I killed the fish and tried to steal their television. As I poked my way through the snow and up the stairs into the loft space that passed for an office, I pumped "I Am John" and it made me forget everything I just described to you. I was suddenly more than qualified. If they didn't hire me, it was certainly their loss.
I didn't get the job and two summers later I missed 2008's Loney, Dear's contribution, "Ignorant Boy, Beautiful Girl." It's dreadfully small and I wouldn't blame you if you missed it too. Based on a languid keyboard progression and looping vocals that sound like a drunk bee hive, "Ignorant Boy, Beautiful Girl" is the most beautiful thing since the 8th floor of that DUMBO loft. It's so tiny and so squeezed in the cracks; so brittle and so important. It's destructive in the most silent way possible and I defy you not to be moved by the final minute. It makes the eyes water and the spirit go sentimental. Put another way, it's overestimating yourself while watching snow blow across the East River.
Listen :: Loney, Dear - "Ignorant Boy, Beautiful Girl"
Bonus :: Loney, Dear - "I Am John"
1.09.2009
The Antlers :: "Two"
The Antlers are a little grandiose as a band. You could say that. The first song I heard was 2007's "The Universe Is Gonna Catch You." A ripped-off Shins chord progression and a fuzzed-out explosion of a chorus made it a satisfying ride. But look again: "the universe is gonna catch you." It's so big you could drive a truck through it. Trying to get your mind around a song title and lyric like that is like trying to tackle Philadelphia. It's too big to wrap your arms around.
So, here and now The Antlers, big as ever, are poised to be one of the "it" bands of 2009. With an album, Hospice, waiting in March and lead-single, "Two" already hitting the airwaves (read: internet), we're maybe ready to catch the universe or have the universe catch us. We might have finally grown up enough to handle this.
"Two" is a brutally tough meditation on death, possibly via cancer or some other terminal illness. Or it could be a metaphor. We do know that "Two" is subtitled "or, I would saved her if I could." Failed relationship? Cancerous mole? Hard to say. But it's six minutes long and is building for all but the last half. You hear a tiny little guitar progression that ends with something almost propulsive. But as it builds the lyrics tell of failure; crushing disconnection and loss. To be forever bound to another, to be one of a possible two, is nothing but a six-minute ache in your chest.
Listen :: The Antlers - "Two"
So, here and now The Antlers, big as ever, are poised to be one of the "it" bands of 2009. With an album, Hospice, waiting in March and lead-single, "Two" already hitting the airwaves (read: internet), we're maybe ready to catch the universe or have the universe catch us. We might have finally grown up enough to handle this.
"Two" is a brutally tough meditation on death, possibly via cancer or some other terminal illness. Or it could be a metaphor. We do know that "Two" is subtitled "or, I would saved her if I could." Failed relationship? Cancerous mole? Hard to say. But it's six minutes long and is building for all but the last half. You hear a tiny little guitar progression that ends with something almost propulsive. But as it builds the lyrics tell of failure; crushing disconnection and loss. To be forever bound to another, to be one of a possible two, is nothing but a six-minute ache in your chest.
Listen :: The Antlers - "Two"
1.08.2009
Top 5 Remixes of 2008
Another installment of our (now late) Best of 2008 mini-series, tonight we bring you the best five remixes of 2008.
5) Juno [Ra Ra Riot/Andrew Maury Remix] - Toyko Police Club
4) Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa [Teenagers Remix] - Vampire Weekend
3)Viva La Vida [Thin White Duke Remix] - Coldplay
2) L.E.S. Artistes [xxxchange mix] - Santogold
1)Can You Hear My Kids Now? - ABX [MGMT vs. Lil' Kim]
Can You Hear My Kids Now (Lil Kim vs MGMT) - The Hood Internet
5) Juno [Ra Ra Riot/Andrew Maury Remix] - Toyko Police Club
4) Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa [Teenagers Remix] - Vampire Weekend
3)Viva La Vida [Thin White Duke Remix] - Coldplay
2) L.E.S. Artistes [xxxchange mix] - Santogold
1)Can You Hear My Kids Now? - ABX [MGMT vs. Lil' Kim]
Can You Hear My Kids Now (Lil Kim vs MGMT) - The Hood Internet
1.06.2009
Top 10 Albums of 2008 :: [Into this halfway home]
Thanks to everyone who tuned into to the Top 50 Songs feature. It almost killed me. But at the same time there was something therapeutic in the whole thing. I spent my commute home from work today listening to the list from 50 to 1 and I was struck by how much music I got to listen to this year and how much of it was good. And it wasn't just songs. There were great records that came out this year and here's the shotgun list.
10)Dead Confederate - Wrecking Ball
9)Friendly Fires - S/T
8)Frightened Rabbit - Midnight Organ Fight
7)The Killers - Day & Age
6)The Airborne Toxic Event - S/T
5)Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
4)We Are Scientists - Brain Thrust Mastery
3)Mates of State - Re-Arrange Us
2)Bloc Party - Intimacy
1)TV on the Radio - Dear Science,
This isn't a real Power Ranking. In fact, other than the top three, you'd be hard pressed to rate these records against each other. They were all good in their own ways and some of them were misunderstood. The Killers and We Are Scientists tapped the 80s in the most interesting ways in years. Who would have thought that Erasure, Duran Duran, and Peter Gabriel could be reincarnated and sound so relevent? People didn't get it. But that was because pop music really pushed itself this year. Mates of State released the best album of their career so far. Same goes for TV on the Radio. Bloc Party challenged the hell out of us. People didn't get it. Some of these albums were unsettling or made artistic choices that made people angry. Well, not everyone can shit on a record and sell it. Some people have to try. Some people want to blow the roof off the joint. Some people self-actualize no matter what you say.
Honorable mention: Deerhunter - Microcastle, Vampire Weekend - S/T, Fujiya and Miyagi - Lightbulbs, Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line, Passion Pit - Chunk of Change, School of Seven Bells - Alpinisms
10)Dead Confederate - Wrecking Ball
9)Friendly Fires - S/T
8)Frightened Rabbit - Midnight Organ Fight
7)The Killers - Day & Age
6)The Airborne Toxic Event - S/T
5)Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
4)We Are Scientists - Brain Thrust Mastery
3)Mates of State - Re-Arrange Us
2)Bloc Party - Intimacy
1)TV on the Radio - Dear Science,
This isn't a real Power Ranking. In fact, other than the top three, you'd be hard pressed to rate these records against each other. They were all good in their own ways and some of them were misunderstood. The Killers and We Are Scientists tapped the 80s in the most interesting ways in years. Who would have thought that Erasure, Duran Duran, and Peter Gabriel could be reincarnated and sound so relevent? People didn't get it. But that was because pop music really pushed itself this year. Mates of State released the best album of their career so far. Same goes for TV on the Radio. Bloc Party challenged the hell out of us. People didn't get it. Some of these albums were unsettling or made artistic choices that made people angry. Well, not everyone can shit on a record and sell it. Some people have to try. Some people want to blow the roof off the joint. Some people self-actualize no matter what you say.
Honorable mention: Deerhunter - Microcastle, Vampire Weekend - S/T, Fujiya and Miyagi - Lightbulbs, Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line, Passion Pit - Chunk of Change, School of Seven Bells - Alpinisms
1.04.2009
Top 50 Songs of 2008 :: Number One : Bloc Party - "Ion Square" [All the bright lights do is bore me]
Some songs are undeniably tied to a location. Now, this relationship is usually personal and for me, the journey with "Ion Square" begins on my couch. It was the summer and it was hot and I didn't have to work. The new Bloc Party album had snuck up on everyone like a surprise birthday party. I resolved to listen to the entire leak from beginning to end. It's worth noting, I was moved by a couple different moments on the 10-song digital leak. But song 10. Song 10 was something else entirely. Song 10 was "Ion Square" and song 10 ended up being number one.
I'm sitting, sweating, shirtless and alone in my apartment (it's more romantic than it sounds) and listening to the Bloc Party leak loud enough that I'm sure my Spanish-speaking, completely elderly neighbors must be about to call the police. It's 10am on a weekday and it's more romantic than it sounds.
This is how it starts: the woosh of a digital engine starting and an urgent but not in-your-face piano riff. And then the beat drops and Kele's vocals are mixed so close to your ears that you couldn't get them out of your head if you tried. Throw in some synth-stabs on the low end and an arrangement that you can literally hear getting larger. It's like an season of the Biggest Loser but shot in reverse with everything getting a little bigger at every possible moment.
And then it breaks. Really breaks. Kele makes the pedantic, dying, and incredible promise to "carry your heart here with me." He promises to carry your heart in his heart - like a concentric and perfectly matched shape. And the drums drop on you like a ton of vibrating, insistent bricks. You didn't see it coming or maybe you did. But just like that, the whole thing tips. I am sitting on my couch turning the volume up to a million and pumping my fist in mid-air. If I'm being honest, I'm close to tears and I can't explain why. This thing is moving at the speed of sound and everyone is just trying to stay ahead of the sonic boom.
And then it breaks again. Kele drops the f-bomb and we're flying even faster. You could argue it was unnecessary but go back and listen again. It was just what we all needed. And he returns to the chorus as so many elements of the arrangement are building and crashing around him. I carry it in my heart. The guitar is angular and unapologetic. It's climbing to a frenetic pace, just waiting to explode. The vocal loops, a literally insane amount of density is just waiting to blow the roof of my apartment, this city, the whole mess.
And then it happens: after Kele promises one last time to carry our hearts with him, the whole thing blows up. I've been pumping my fist for two full minutes now, which, it's worth noting, is a lot when you're alone in your apartment on a weekday. Kele's vocals soar over the top of everything in a series of angelic "ooohs." The whole thing lifts off the ground for just a second. The natural vibrations of the universe exist more in this one moment than anywhere else. Everyone has velocity. Every moment has power. Everything is moving.
And just like that, it's over. The arrangement is allowed to unravel like an over-wound ball of twine. The CD, the digital leak, is done. It's the last song. Silence. But you can go back. And you can listen again. And you can pump your fist in mid-air because this is moving. This is the most moving thing you've heard all year. And it all started on the couch. You started alone and you feel together. You started tired and now you're exhausted. And you never really moved. Let the sofa be your car. All the bright lights do is bore me. They bore me.
[Live in-studio]
12.31.2008
Top 50 of 2008 :: 5-2 [Is your heart still beating?]
5) Airborne Toxic Event - "Sometime Around Midnight"
Airborne Toxic Event wrote one of the most secretly destructive albums of the year. The songs were catchy; the melodies bouncy. There was no sense that the entire album was actually about break-ups, mortgaging your future, and being absolutely destroyed by a woman. It helped that their lead-singer and lyricist Mikel Jollet used to be a novelist. One can assume, a really morose novelist. Which brings us to "Sometime Around Midnight," a song about going out, trying to get over the girl you love, and having her go home with someone else - right in your face, seemingly to prove a point. I mean, he puts it more eloquently than that but you get the gist. From there it's about walking out of a bar so drunk that you don't realize, "everyone's staring at you." The closer is the pathos and breakdown. Jollet screams, "you just have to see her/you just have to see her/you know that she'll break you in two." It's fragile. It's demanding and it's prophetic. The best part: the guitars and arena-style arrangement that explode around Jollet as he finds the place where he can handle his miniature disaster. It's tragic as hell. It might break you in two.
4) Mates of State - "The Re-Arranger"
It starts plodding and meditative before moving into something more urgent, and eventually finding a pedantic but resonating final call. What makes "The Re-Arranger" so perfect is not that it is one good song; it's that it is two, and maybe three separate good songs - all dealing with the same issue. Ostensibly, the song is about trying to recover a relationship. Essentially, "if you really wanna shake it off/you gotta re-arrange us." This can happen. Things can go wrong and they can be fixed; but how that happens is always a larger and more complicated problem. Mates of State have never presented nuanced solutions but they have always managed to put a pretty face on an ugly situation. So, they pull out a bridge which, we can assume, is about the value and productive quality of vicious, shouting arguments. "Love loud/don't lose loud" is a different way of saying you'd rather fight than not talk at all. "Love loud/ don't lose loud" is a little like stuffing a rainbow up the asshole of a disaster. But sometimes you need to do that. Sometimes you need to believe that you can do the re-arranger. Sometimes you need to re-arrange us.
3) We Are Scientists - "After Hours"
We Are Scientists took a great leap forward this year and no one noticed. Their album, Brain Thrust Mastery was a combination of dangerous power-pop and Duran Duran synth-slick ambitiousness. It wasn't With Love and Squalor. But it didn't try to be. And "After Hours" was the third best song of the year. It was huge. More than that, it was ready and willing to be huge. The lyrics were about going out drinking in New York, trying to stay out as late as possible, and challenging the nerve of bartenders to close their bars. It doesn't necessarily have a lot to say but that's less of an issue. It charges forward with no regard for personal safety as the band ends up demanding, "say/that you'll stay." It bleeds togetherness. It bleeds those early hours and late nights and times that are always running out. It bleeds the here and it bleeds the now. "This door is always open." And no one has the guts to shut us out.
Airborne Toxic Event wrote one of the most secretly destructive albums of the year. The songs were catchy; the melodies bouncy. There was no sense that the entire album was actually about break-ups, mortgaging your future, and being absolutely destroyed by a woman. It helped that their lead-singer and lyricist Mikel Jollet used to be a novelist. One can assume, a really morose novelist. Which brings us to "Sometime Around Midnight," a song about going out, trying to get over the girl you love, and having her go home with someone else - right in your face, seemingly to prove a point. I mean, he puts it more eloquently than that but you get the gist. From there it's about walking out of a bar so drunk that you don't realize, "everyone's staring at you." The closer is the pathos and breakdown. Jollet screams, "you just have to see her/you just have to see her/you know that she'll break you in two." It's fragile. It's demanding and it's prophetic. The best part: the guitars and arena-style arrangement that explode around Jollet as he finds the place where he can handle his miniature disaster. It's tragic as hell. It might break you in two.
4) Mates of State - "The Re-Arranger"
It starts plodding and meditative before moving into something more urgent, and eventually finding a pedantic but resonating final call. What makes "The Re-Arranger" so perfect is not that it is one good song; it's that it is two, and maybe three separate good songs - all dealing with the same issue. Ostensibly, the song is about trying to recover a relationship. Essentially, "if you really wanna shake it off/you gotta re-arrange us." This can happen. Things can go wrong and they can be fixed; but how that happens is always a larger and more complicated problem. Mates of State have never presented nuanced solutions but they have always managed to put a pretty face on an ugly situation. So, they pull out a bridge which, we can assume, is about the value and productive quality of vicious, shouting arguments. "Love loud/don't lose loud" is a different way of saying you'd rather fight than not talk at all. "Love loud/ don't lose loud" is a little like stuffing a rainbow up the asshole of a disaster. But sometimes you need to do that. Sometimes you need to believe that you can do the re-arranger. Sometimes you need to re-arrange us.
3) We Are Scientists - "After Hours"
We Are Scientists took a great leap forward this year and no one noticed. Their album, Brain Thrust Mastery was a combination of dangerous power-pop and Duran Duran synth-slick ambitiousness. It wasn't With Love and Squalor. But it didn't try to be. And "After Hours" was the third best song of the year. It was huge. More than that, it was ready and willing to be huge. The lyrics were about going out drinking in New York, trying to stay out as late as possible, and challenging the nerve of bartenders to close their bars. It doesn't necessarily have a lot to say but that's less of an issue. It charges forward with no regard for personal safety as the band ends up demanding, "say/that you'll stay." It bleeds togetherness. It bleeds those early hours and late nights and times that are always running out. It bleeds the here and it bleeds the now. "This door is always open." And no one has the guts to shut us out.
2) The Killers - "Human"
In a year that embraced electro, disco and synthesizers like never before, we needed someone to bring us back down. Someone to bring it back down, bring it back down tonight. And ironically, it was one of the most digestible (read: "vapid" if you're a hater) synth-rock bands of the last 10 years who had a mind to do it. Brandon Flowers and The Killers, chipping off a Hunter S. Thompson lyric questioning our humanity, managed to pose a grammatically incorrect, if dreadfully important question: are we human or are we dancer? You gotta let me know. And the case was, we are dancer. We've gathered up our innately human qualities and taken them down to the electro-house pawn shop and all we got in trade was "D.A.N.C.E." Flowers is almost demanding to know why we've let ourselves become a breed of kids who plugged so deeply into the main-frame, so intimately into the scene, and so mindlessly into the disco that we can't define our humanity. Are we human or are we dancer? I probably can't do this better justice than what I wrote the day the song leaked. So, go back and read that. It's just new tab and Google in your browser and search for "Human" and "32ft" and then click search and select from your search options the link that best describes the your desired location. Plug in. Shut off. And God help us all if that MGMT record is the best thing the kids can get down to. Give my regards to soul and romance. They did the best they could.
In a year that embraced electro, disco and synthesizers like never before, we needed someone to bring us back down. Someone to bring it back down, bring it back down tonight. And ironically, it was one of the most digestible (read: "vapid" if you're a hater) synth-rock bands of the last 10 years who had a mind to do it. Brandon Flowers and The Killers, chipping off a Hunter S. Thompson lyric questioning our humanity, managed to pose a grammatically incorrect, if dreadfully important question: are we human or are we dancer? You gotta let me know. And the case was, we are dancer. We've gathered up our innately human qualities and taken them down to the electro-house pawn shop and all we got in trade was "D.A.N.C.E." Flowers is almost demanding to know why we've let ourselves become a breed of kids who plugged so deeply into the main-frame, so intimately into the scene, and so mindlessly into the disco that we can't define our humanity. Are we human or are we dancer? I probably can't do this better justice than what I wrote the day the song leaked. So, go back and read that. It's just new tab and Google in your browser and search for "Human" and "32ft" and then click search and select from your search options the link that best describes the your desired location. Plug in. Shut off. And God help us all if that MGMT record is the best thing the kids can get down to. Give my regards to soul and romance. They did the best they could.
12.30.2008
Top 50 of 2008 :: 10-6 [Today I stood and walked away]
10) Hercules and Love Affair - "Blind"
It was a confusing year for music and Hercules and Love Affair made it a confusing year for sexuality. Even though "Blind" officially has Antony and the Johnsons' frontman on recorded vocals, in concert they've featured an unnamed, yet extremely attractive transexual. Which led roughly to the following exchange between me and a close friend:
Me: So ... she's a dude, right?
Tom: Yeah, but she's still hot, right?
Me: Oh, absolutely.
Tom: Ok, good.
Where does that leave us? Confused. Lost. Alone? Never. We had the dance-floor burner of the year to dance to.
Blind (Album Version) - Hercules And Love Affair
9) Does It Offend You, Yeah? - "Dawn of the Dead"
Maybe not the best of the "bands who have full English sentences as names" but certainly in the discussion, Does It Offend You, Yeah? still had one of the best singles of the year. In ways it was misleading, sounding little like the rest of the songs on their electro-clash debut, aptly named You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into. But that didn't change what "Dawn of the Dead" was: a Simple Minds sound-alike with warm Cure-synths and a xylophone-infused chorus that was just sing-songy enough to be cute and bombastic enough to stick in your head for 36-straight hours. The lyrics were as contradictory as their album title: "Today I stood and walked away/I'm never coming back this way/I've got my things, I'm here to stay." It wasn't rocket science. More like a dirty secret, whispered to a friend on the same major label: "shhhh ... this song is better than that 'not gonna boyfriend dance with whatever' tune." Don't tell anyone. Sony Would Hate If You Found Out. Which, come to think of it, makes a killer band name.
8) Tokyo Police Club - "Tessellate"
Fair being fair and spades being spades: this was probably an emo song off an emo album. And it wasn't for the worst. "Tessellate" was a great leap forward for a band that had previously mastered just 2-minute twitch-outs to perfection. It was a fully functional song with a dominant guitar-riff and hand-claps that were as contagious as they were necessary. But ultimately, it was the lyrics that would stick in our heads. "Dire times call for dire faces." The lyrical couplets were simple but they held power. "We showed them what the backs of our hands were for/the divide is clear/in the coming year/the rich will take the poor." It wasn't specifically about switching to Saddlecreek and getting a nearly blank-check record. It wasn't about ending up on MTV and Desperate Housewives (yeah, true story). It was about self-actualizing; and that was something this band did better than most in 2008. We're holding out for posterity and self-defense...
7) Matt and Kim - "Daylight" (click through for download)
Indie rock has always courted other styles, owing mostly to the fact that "indie rock" isn't really a style in and of itself. Songs get filed under "indie rock" and then another sub-category: glam, indie-pop, synth-rock, freak folk, etc. It gets confusing. Well, 19-seconds into Matt and Kim's face-melting "Daylight" you can start using hip-hop as the newest "indie rock" sub-heading. The song has an almost-driven-to-insanity piano loop and then, bam, seemingly out of nowhere comes a go-go hip-hop beat with what sounds like all manner of other synthesized instruments (horns, strings) thrown in the mix. By the end you're nodding your head and singing along. This is not usually in the "indie rock" playbook of acceptable behavior. Nodding? Singing? Ugh, gross. Maybe it was the courting of hip-hop style that made this so fascinating but I think it was something else: It was the most fun anyone had making or listening to music all year.
6) Coldplay - "Viva La Vida"
Ok, raise your hand if your irritated that Coldplay is this high on a year-end list? I'm going to stop you right there. We need big bands whether we admit it or not. And after X and Y, that legacy seemed questionable. We were waiting for their take-over to become something even more comprehensive. If "Clocks" was good, well, then what was the ceiling? How awesome could their next big single be? And out of nowhere came "Viva La Vida." Initially, it seemed that "Violet Hill" would be the lead single off Viva La Vida and then like the churning, orchestral pop sucker-punch that it was, "Viva La Vida"- the song, dropped into your lap like a ton of bricks. It was epic. It was risky. It was transformative. And forget the iPod commercial and the rumors (from two bands now) that "Viva La Vida" lifted its chorus from someone else. No moment defined what it was to write an epic, arena pop song like Coldplay's crushing performance on MTV's Movie Awards back in June. Halfway through, Martin looks at the crowd and says, "Everybody ok?" Then he smiles the biggest, dumbest smile of the year. Confetti is stuck to his face. It's entirely absurd and the song is exploding around him. It was the great reveal. The band was back with a cry out to pop music heaven. Everybody ok? Hands down? Good.
It was a confusing year for music and Hercules and Love Affair made it a confusing year for sexuality. Even though "Blind" officially has Antony and the Johnsons' frontman on recorded vocals, in concert they've featured an unnamed, yet extremely attractive transexual. Which led roughly to the following exchange between me and a close friend:
Me: So ... she's a dude, right?
Tom: Yeah, but she's still hot, right?
Me: Oh, absolutely.
Tom: Ok, good.
Where does that leave us? Confused. Lost. Alone? Never. We had the dance-floor burner of the year to dance to.
Blind (Album Version) - Hercules And Love Affair
9) Does It Offend You, Yeah? - "Dawn of the Dead"
Maybe not the best of the "bands who have full English sentences as names" but certainly in the discussion, Does It Offend You, Yeah? still had one of the best singles of the year. In ways it was misleading, sounding little like the rest of the songs on their electro-clash debut, aptly named You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into. But that didn't change what "Dawn of the Dead" was: a Simple Minds sound-alike with warm Cure-synths and a xylophone-infused chorus that was just sing-songy enough to be cute and bombastic enough to stick in your head for 36-straight hours. The lyrics were as contradictory as their album title: "Today I stood and walked away/I'm never coming back this way/I've got my things, I'm here to stay." It wasn't rocket science. More like a dirty secret, whispered to a friend on the same major label: "shhhh ... this song is better than that 'not gonna boyfriend dance with whatever' tune." Don't tell anyone. Sony Would Hate If You Found Out. Which, come to think of it, makes a killer band name.
8) Tokyo Police Club - "Tessellate"
Fair being fair and spades being spades: this was probably an emo song off an emo album. And it wasn't for the worst. "Tessellate" was a great leap forward for a band that had previously mastered just 2-minute twitch-outs to perfection. It was a fully functional song with a dominant guitar-riff and hand-claps that were as contagious as they were necessary. But ultimately, it was the lyrics that would stick in our heads. "Dire times call for dire faces." The lyrical couplets were simple but they held power. "We showed them what the backs of our hands were for/the divide is clear/in the coming year/the rich will take the poor." It wasn't specifically about switching to Saddlecreek and getting a nearly blank-check record. It wasn't about ending up on MTV and Desperate Housewives (yeah, true story). It was about self-actualizing; and that was something this band did better than most in 2008. We're holding out for posterity and self-defense...
7) Matt and Kim - "Daylight" (click through for download)
Indie rock has always courted other styles, owing mostly to the fact that "indie rock" isn't really a style in and of itself. Songs get filed under "indie rock" and then another sub-category: glam, indie-pop, synth-rock, freak folk, etc. It gets confusing. Well, 19-seconds into Matt and Kim's face-melting "Daylight" you can start using hip-hop as the newest "indie rock" sub-heading. The song has an almost-driven-to-insanity piano loop and then, bam, seemingly out of nowhere comes a go-go hip-hop beat with what sounds like all manner of other synthesized instruments (horns, strings) thrown in the mix. By the end you're nodding your head and singing along. This is not usually in the "indie rock" playbook of acceptable behavior. Nodding? Singing? Ugh, gross. Maybe it was the courting of hip-hop style that made this so fascinating but I think it was something else: It was the most fun anyone had making or listening to music all year.
6) Coldplay - "Viva La Vida"
Ok, raise your hand if your irritated that Coldplay is this high on a year-end list? I'm going to stop you right there. We need big bands whether we admit it or not. And after X and Y, that legacy seemed questionable. We were waiting for their take-over to become something even more comprehensive. If "Clocks" was good, well, then what was the ceiling? How awesome could their next big single be? And out of nowhere came "Viva La Vida." Initially, it seemed that "Violet Hill" would be the lead single off Viva La Vida and then like the churning, orchestral pop sucker-punch that it was, "Viva La Vida"- the song, dropped into your lap like a ton of bricks. It was epic. It was risky. It was transformative. And forget the iPod commercial and the rumors (from two bands now) that "Viva La Vida" lifted its chorus from someone else. No moment defined what it was to write an epic, arena pop song like Coldplay's crushing performance on MTV's Movie Awards back in June. Halfway through, Martin looks at the crowd and says, "Everybody ok?" Then he smiles the biggest, dumbest smile of the year. Confetti is stuck to his face. It's entirely absurd and the song is exploding around him. It was the great reveal. The band was back with a cry out to pop music heaven. Everybody ok? Hands down? Good.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)