Before I get to actually naming and detailing what my favourite songs of 2013 actually were, here are a whole bunch of songs that almost made it. I was addicted to or just loved all of these at various points over the course of the year (sadly there's no place for The Pipettes' "Pull Shapes" anywhere). At the bottom of the post you'll find a Spotify containing all the songs mentioned here. And now the list: Honourable Mentions:
Arcade Fire - "Afterlife"
James Blake - "Overgrown"
Boards of Canada - "Reach for the Dead"
Daft Punk - "Doin' It Right"
Daft Punk - "Touch"
Chvrches - "Gun"
Chvrches - "We Sink"
Glass Candy - "Warm in the Winter"
Jon Hopkins - "Open Eye Signal"
Icona Pop - "All Night"
Lorde - "Royals"
Janelle Monáe - "Q.U.E.E.N. (feat. Erykah Badu)"
The National - "Don't Swallow the Cap"
Sigur Ros - "Brennisteinn"
Vampire Weekend - "Unbelievers" 10. Charli XCX - "You (Ha Ha Ha)"
This was a song that I wasn't entirely sold on when I first hit, but it became the very definition of a grower. Much like the other song on this list with vocals from Charli XCX, this song is all about female empowerment. There's something heart warming in someone being so upbeat and positive even whilst singing about heartbreak. You can hear the pain in the lyrics, but that's isn't going to get in the way its 'party all night' attitude. This is the definition of what good pop music can do, it forces you to smile even as the tears are washing all the glitter. 09. Jon Hopkins - "Breathe This Air (feat. Purity Ring)"
On it's own on Jon Hopkins' Mercury nominated album "Immunity", "Breathe This Air" was great, but definitely not the albums highlight (that was "Open Eye Signal"). Then two months later Hopkins added Purity Ring to the track and it became a thing of transcendent beauty. Purity Rings' album "Shrines" was one of my highlights of 2012 and I can't wait to hear what happens on their follow, but I can't help but want Jon Hopkins involved in some form now. Something about the glitchy sounds of "Breathe This Air" only reinforce the beauty of Megan James's voice. This was a match made in heaven and I can't wait to see if there any future collaborations to come from these artists.
08. Kanye West - "Blood on the Leaves"
Along with "Bound 2", "Blood on the Leaves" is the most sample heavy song on all of "Yeezus", marrying together Nina Simone's "Strange Fruit" and TNGHT's "R U Ready". Whilst I feel that "Bound 2" works wonderfully as a conclusion to what Kanye achieved on "Yeezus", it's "Blood on the Leaves" that is able to stand apart far better as an actual song. There were few moments in music in all of 2013 that sounded as crushingly massive as when TNGHT's horns kick in during this song. Their use as a counterpoint to the almost idyllic sounding sample of Nina Simone is cognitive dissonance at it's strongest. Whilst the rest of the album is both thematically and sonically dark, "Blood on the Leaves" is light... until it isn't any more and you realise it was all so the songs message would stick that much more. 07. Frightened Rabbit - "Holy"
Despite the concept of "Holy" sounds deeply cynical, it's a song about a man rejecting religion because he knows he's already damned, that doesn't keep the song from being so deeply joyous. There's a propulsive nature to Grant Hutchinson's drums on this track that it make sound like it's being driven by an army of horses across the finish line. "Holy" has all the makings of an indie rock classic and there are comparisons that I could easily make to The Walkmen's "The Rat" or TV on the Radio's "Wolf Like Me", but Frightened Rabbit are still one of Scotland's best kept secrets and that seems to be more than enough, especially if they keep putting songs as strong as this one. 06. Daft Punk - "Giorgio by Moroder"
I remember returning home on the 13th of May to find that Daft Punk had put the entirety of "Random Access Memories" up on iTunes for people to listen to, so obviously I immediately loaded up my first lesson. Whilst the first two tracks felt like extensions of the aesthetic that had been started by "Get Lucky", it was when "Giorgio by Moroder" started up that I knew I was in for something special. I wasn't entirely sure who it was that I was listening to, but . Then the click kicks in at 1:33 and the whole song reaches another level. What follows is seven minutes of pure synth bliss. When I first heard this song I said that I couldn't remember the last time that a song hit me as hard, and I continue to stand by that. "Giorgio by Moroder" is a tour de force of a song and one that would have had irreparably damaged "Random Access Memories" had it not been included. 05. Chvrches - "The Mother We Share"
At the end of the day, Chvrches were unequivocally my band of 2013. This probably most evident in the fact that I bought this. Chvrches had such a fantastic year, every single that they released was brilliant ultimately culminating in their superb début album "The Bones of What You Believe". Now, technically, "The Mother We Share" was released in 2012, but was reissued in 2013 and is the epitome of everything that Chvrches do so well. From the melancholic feel of the song being juxtaposed with the twinkling synths and brightness of Lauren Mayberry's voice. Chvrches feel like a more world weary version of Purity Ring, and that is one of the highest pieces of praise I can give them.
04. Kanye West - "Black Skinhead"
"Black Skinhead", much like the rest of "Yeezus" sounds like nothing that Kanye West has done up until this point. Gone is the lush and expensive production that defined "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", replaced by something far more raw. As has been pointed out many times before, "Yeezus" feels like Kanye trying to make a punk-rap album and nowhere is this more evident on "Black Skinhead". The song is a mere 3 minutes long and it just doesn't let up, from the moment it starts there's a barely a chance to breathe. Whilst the studio version lacks the visceral nature of the SNL performance, it's still an absolute wonder to listen to Kanye at his moist vitriolic on this track.
03. Arcade Fire - "Reflektor" When I heard that James Murphy of the late, great LCD Soundsystem was going to be producing Arcade Fire's fourth album I knew that above all the album would be much more danceable, but I was pre
pared for "Reflektor". The drums alone are just about the funkiest thing I had heard since the guitar riff from "Get Lucky". But there's so much more to love about "Reflektor" than James Murphy's production; the glory that is Colin Stetson's saxophone (the songs stealth
MVP), the random David Bowie cameo, the fact that not one second of it's seven minute run time is wasted and, most importantly, the fact that it still sounds like an Arcade Fire track. Even ten years removed from their career defining début album, Arcade Fire cement themselves as one on the definitive musical voices of the 21st century. 02. Icona Pop - "I Love It (feat. Charli XCX)" Cheating a little bit on this one considering the song actually came out in 2012, however it didn't receive a UK release until the middle of 2013, which is why it gets on this list. I first heart "I Love It" when it was featured on the third episode of Girls' second season. It's such a joyous moment that you can't help but be sucked in and is one of the few times that I've known I had to own a song having heard it only once. Despite the fact the lyrics feature someone crashing their car into a bridge, there's a sense of complete euphoria to this song that's hard to shake. There's an energy and addictive quality to this song that is hard to define in any way other than I know that I love it (pardon the pun). If I were to write the dictionary definition of 'fun' I'd just include a link to this song, it's that infectiously happy. 01. Daft Punk - "Get Lucky (feat. Pharrell Williams) (Single Edit)" This one is probably a bit too obvious, but it's obvious for a reason. Whilst people are going to claim that "Blurred Lines" is also a claimant for Song of the Summer, the backlash to that song is only going to damage it in years to come. ''Get Lucky" on the other hand is still as good as it was the day the preview came out back in April. What makes "Get Lucky" so brilliant is that it manages to evoke that feeling of disco music of the past whilst still being able to evoke 2013 in such an intrinsic way. Other songs may have made claims to be the song that defined the year, in 20 years it will only be "Get Lucky" that soundtracks all of those retrospectives on 2013.
Well here we are, wrapping up my favourite albums of 2010 list, so what follows were the albums in 2010 which I truly loved, the ones that in the years to come I'll keep looking back on as having defined my 2010. My list may not to be everyone's taste but these albums were my favourites of the year that has been 2010.
10. Los Campesinos! – Romance is Boring
Romance is Boring was the first album that I heard in 2010 and still stands as one of the very best. Whilst Los Campesinos! sound has become less poppier after their 2008 début Hold On Now, Youngster but still retains the sarcastic, almost morose humour of that album. What Romance is Boring does retain from Los Campesinos! past albums is the sheer loudness and noise, maybe not as loud as other albums this year, but Los Campesinos! don't shy away from the noise when the time comes. The lyrics are a true stand-out on this album with the lead singer Gareth penning some of the wittiest lyrics you'll hear in any song this year: "I think we need more post-coital and less post-rock/Feels like the build-up takes forever but you never get me off". Whilst the songs rarely follow any kind of lyrical pattern, you become more engrossed in the stream of conciousness story that is being told. Los Campesinos! might not have put out the most critically acclaimed or most recognisable album of the year, but it's one that I wanted to put out there so that hopefully more people will get around to hearing it.
'The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future' - Los Campesinos!
09. Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles II The first Crystal Castles album is noisy and messy as fuck. Songs like 'Alice Practicce' and 'Crimewave' sound like they could collapse in on themselves at any point. The second Crystal Castles is still noisy as fuck but it lacks some of the messiness that was to be found on their first album and whilst that may be a turn off to some fans, Crystal Castles II is still just as stand-offish as the first album. Whilst it might be less-punk, it makes up for that for being a more cohesive album. There are still the absolute highs in the form of 'Baptism' and 'Celestica' but the other songs on the album don't pale in comparison as much. Even though Crystal Castles strayed more towards pop, this album still isn't clean enough for radio play. Sure it's less raw, but the experimentation is still there and is the sheer balls to walls noise and dance ability that make Crystal Castles one of the best electronic bands around.
'Baptism' - Crystal Castles
08. Janelle Monae – The ArchAndroid
The ArchAndroid is eclectic as all hell. Being a concept album telling the story about a messianic android in a future society, the album jumps into so many different genres over the course of it's 70 minute run time. Listening to this album for the first is almost overwhelming how many different genres it spans but it also becomes clear that the album is just a joy to listen to, especially if you let yourself be swept away by the ambition behind it. Of course The ArchAndroid is first and foremost an R&B album but then you can hear rap, rock and even an orchestral element. But most noticeably of all this album is just fun. It's lively and just creates a joyous atmosphere around its songs. Like so many other artists on this list, Janelle Monae gets what makes pop music fun and likeable, this album doesn't feel sterile and overproduced instead it bursts with so many ideas and so much ambition whilst still being inherently listen-able, making it one of the best full fledged débuts of any artist this year.
'Tightrope' - Janelle Monae feat. Big Boi
07. LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening If This Is Happening really is the last LCD Soundsystem album then James Murphy and company will have left behind one of the strongest discographies to grace the 21st Century. Hell the guy wrote 'All My Friends' which is one of my favourite songs ever. We can debate for hours whether this album is as good as 2007's Sound of Silver (it probably isn't) but that doesn't take away from the fact that This Is Happening is so very good. James Murphy knows how to write great songs, songs that make you want to move and not in that shitty way that clubs do. Songs that tip their hats to the great music makers of yore such as David Bowie and Brian Eno. Over the years LCD Soundsystem have become the epitome of cool within the music industry and This Is Happening is no different in that respect, the songs barrel along with so much urgency but never outstay their welcome even though there is only one song on the entire album that is less than 5 minutes long. Songs like 'Dance Yrself Clean' still have that un-paralleled electronic build that LCD Soundsystem have perfected over the years. This Is Happening could have so easily been a disappointment and fallen into the shadow of Sound of Silver but it didn't and LCD Soundsystem cemented themselves as one of the best bands in the world and This Is Happening one the best albums of 2010.
'Dance Yrself Clean' - LCD Soundsystem
06. Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
If I'm going to be perfectly honest, I didn't think that Gorillaz had this album in them. Sure songs like 'Feel Good Inc.' and 'Clint Eastwood' were good and enjoyable but they didn't even hint at how good Plastic Beach was going to be. If you've been paying attention, you'll realise that the cartoon figureheads of the Gorillaz have disappeared from everything but the music videos and now the band has just allowed Damon Albarn to collaborate with as many people as he wants. Snoop Dogg, Mos Def, Bobby Womack, Mark E. Smith (The Fall), Gruff Rhys (Super Fury Animals), Little Dragon and even members of The Clash. The diverse range of people offering their voices to Plastic Beach could make the album seem bloated but amazingly it doesn't, Damon Albarn gives the album room to breathe an accommodate all the different collaborators. Little Dragon contribute the spectacular electro-pop wonder of 'Empire Ants' whilst Gruff Rhys and De La Soul rap out a cereal commercial on 'Superfast Jellyfish'. And yet it doesn't feel out of place because of Damon Albarn's fantastic production across the entire album and his presence on the fantastic 'On Melancholy Hill'. Plastic Beach is an eclectic assortment of alternative hip-hop songs that don't really sound like hip-hop. Instead, on this latest Gorillaz album, it feels like Damon Albarn has created something wholly unique. Losing the cartoon front, Albarn was able to stretch his creative roots to whole new levels and I can't wait to hear what else comes from this new era of Gorillaz.
'On Melancholy Hill' - Gorillaz
05. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs My love for Arcade Fire should come as no surprise to those that know me or are frequent readers of this blog, especially with Funeral topping my favourite albums of the decade a year ago, and I stand by that choice. Funeral and The Suburbs are too entirely different beasts though and it would be unfair to compare them. The Suburbs to many might seem overly long at over an hour, but so were The ArchAndroid and This Is Happening so that argument becomes mute. The length of the album goes a long to aiding the concept, it forces the listener to actually listen, to pay attention to what happens. The Suburbs like so many other great albums before it works as a cohesive whole, one that begs to be listened to all the way through to see the message, to experience the full brunt force of it. The album yearns for the days of youth, days of the Surburbs and whilst in many ways the subject matter is intimate, the sound is epic. Arcade Fire have made some of the most joyous music of the last decade and that doesn't change here. Tracks like 'Ready to Start' and 'Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)' still sound so very much like Arcade Fire but at the same time they don't. I could wax lyrical about this album but this might be the toughest album on the list to get my point across without having someone listen to it. The Suburbs is an album that needs to be experienced, The rock, the synths, the orchestral elements and the lyrics to get the full extent of why this album is as good as it is.
'Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)' - Arcade Fire
04. Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma
Cosmogramma is unlike any album I've heard in my life up until this point. For lack of a better way to describe it, I can only say it sounds like electronic space jazz. But that threat of the unknown is what makes this album so irresistible to me. I wanted to hear more of it, more music like it, but of course that doesn't exist. Cosmogramma is unique in the world. Cosmogramma was born because technology has allowed everyone to make music using their laptops, but of course only the very best will every survive the competitive music world and that's exactly what Flying Lotus has done. Cosmogramma is dense, it doesn't take just one listen to get this album, you might like portions of it but as you delve deeper you notice more and more intricacies, more to get excited about, more that makes the album feel unique. Sure listeners will be able to pick up on traits of IDM and dubstep but trying to peg the album into either of those genres would just detract from the work that Flying Lotus has done. Flying Lotus is currently working as one of the biggest visionaries in the music world, he's working at a creative level unseen by anyone else working in the field of laptop electronica. Hell he even got the Radiohead front-man Thom Yorke to contribute vocals to '...And The World Laughs With You', and he made Kid A which is not only an incredible album but asure influence on this album. Flying Lotus' Cosmogramma, like so many other albums on my list, has succeeded in fusing so many different genres and creating something cohesive and unique. Flying Lotus seems poised to make something better than Cosmogramma for his next record and I cannot for the life of me figure out what it might sound like.
'...And The World Laughs With You' - Flying Lotus feat. Thom Yorke
03. Sleigh Bells – Treats
Sleigh Bells are noisy as fuck. They are a sensory overload. They are pop music on steroids. They were the best new band of 2010. Sleigh Bells were so many things but mostly they got pop music right. They knew that it was about the pure jubilation and joy. Yes you could quite easily think of them as a gimmick, with so much feedback that makes you think that songs like 'Crown on the Ground' have actually broken your speakers. Treats is 30 minutes of a non-stop sonic attack, the noise doesn't let up for that entire time. I've seen Sleigh Bells live twice this year and am going to see them again early in the new year and it still astounds that the level of noise that is coming from only two people, one of whom is only providing vocals. Other bands I've seen live with twice as many members cannot stretch the speakers to the level that Sleigh Bells do. Sleigh Bells might not be the deepest album on this list, the lyrics might be comparatively simple and the technical side comparatively basic but it's the lack of depth, the fact that it doesn't require multiple listens to understand what this album is about that makes this album so joyous. It's pop, plain and simple. Sleigh Bells achieved what they set out to do, create some of the most visceral and fun music they could. The opening bars of 'Tell 'Em' lay out exactly what you should expect from the entire album with Derek E. Miller's riffing and Alexis Krauss' wonderful vocals. There's so much to love about Treats, the moment where all shit breaks lose on 'Infinity Guitars', the entirety of the Funkadelic sampling 'Rill Rill' and of course the flat out 'Crown on the Ground'. Sleigh Bells had the best début album of anyone this year as well as easily the most fun and exuberant one.
'Rill Rill' - Sleigh Bells
!!!!!JOINT FIRST PLACE!!!!!
01. The National – High Violet
This was album that was sat as my number 1 choice for months and months, and as you can see it still sits here at number 1. But I think it's safe to say that the album that The National's fifth studio album has tied with is so all encompassing that it just became an inevitability it would be first. High Violet is the sound a band who work together as well as any band could ever possibly want to work together. The National have become an entirely cohesive unit and over the course of their last three albums and have became a force to be reckoned with in the indie world, and have now created three pretty much perfect albums with Alligator, Boxer and now High Violet. Yes you can call them dour but you cannot call them boring. Everything that is done throughout this album has a calculated precision, every hit on the drum, every orchestral swell, every moment Matt Berringer is singing on the album. More than any other artist on this list, The National make albums rather than songs, everything is made to play better when strung together, to paint a bigger picture. Sure it makes it more difficult to pick out which song is the best but that's just because every single is so uniformly strong. There's the almost too fuzzed out 'Terrible Love' which opens the album with it's slow build and rumbling guitars. Or 'Bloodbuzz Ohio' which still stands as the most single worthy song on the album and has some of the best lyrics The National have ever committed with "I still owe money/To the money/To the money I owe". But that's not even the best sample lyrics on the album with Berringer proclaiming on 'Conversation 16' that "I was afraid… I’d eat your brains/Cause I’m eeeeevil". And whilst High Violet lacks a crescendo like 'Mr. November' on Alligator, second to last track 'England' is the closest the album gets to an emotional release with the rise and swell of the piano throughout, before bleeding into the hauntingly wonderful 'Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks'. The National's albums have always done better in hindsight (at least in the case of Alligator and Boxer) and if High Violet has hit me this hard within it's first few listens then it's hard to imagine it not becoming one of my favourite albums ever. Hell it's one of only two albums I'd give a 10/10 this year, but if you haven't figured what this album has tied with then you clearly haven't been paying attention to music this year.
'Bloodbuzz Ohio' - The National
01. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy A year ago if you had told me I'd be saying that Kanye West had put out one of the best albums of 2010, I'd have laughed in your face. How much I enjoyed this album was a complete surprise. I had been following all the news stories about Kanye for a while, the MTV breakdown, the ludicrous quotes he kept coming out with, THE ALL CAPS BLOG POSTS, the Twitter account, saying that George Bush hated black people, the hilarious smack down that South Park laid down on him last year, but I'd never heard his music really before. Of course I knew 'Gold Digger', I knew 'Stronger' but I'd never gone out of my way to listen to Kanye. In fact I found him so much of an insufferable douche that I decided I probably would never like him even if I did listen. But then 'Power' dropped back in May and somehow I found myself listening it, and then even more unlikely, actively enjoying it. This was quickly followed up by the surprising reveal that one of my favourite artists, Bon Iver, was not only doing some production work on Kanye's new album but was also contributing vocals to several tracks. Following this I started following the buzz leading up to the album's launch. There was the fantastic performance of the 'Power' on Saturday Night Live, the 30 minute short film for 'Runaway' and even the untimely leak of 'Lost in the World' which not only caused Kanye to stop his G.O.O.D. Fridays but was heavily based around on the song 'Woods' by Bon Iver. All of this was amazingly good and Kanye started to improve dramatically to me, but I've rambled on so long about what lead me to listen to the album and haven't actually talked much about why this album is so good. You could talk about how perfectly the album opener 'Dark Fantasy' sets up the album or how 'Power' features Kanye at his most big headed, but then is also just a damn likeable and huge sounding song. Or on 'Monster' where Nicki Minaj's delivers not just the best lyrics on any song in 2010 but the best vocal delivery on any song this year. What about 'Runaway' where the tinkling piano turns into a 9 minute epic that not only has Kanye deliver the self-deprecating line: "Let's have a toast for the douchebags/Let's have a toast for the assholes/Let's have a toast for the scumbags", which then morphs into the single best use of auto-tune on any song in 2010. Then there's 'All of the Lights' where the guests range from Elton John to Rihanna, and that's without mentioning the Chris Rock skit on Blame Game or the aforementioned Bon Iver morphing 'Lost in the World'. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy has so many stand-out tracks and moments that it's impossible to list them all. This is the album that finally proved that maybe Kanye had a right to be as cocky as he has been. The guy has finally gotten around to creating his masterpiece. Of all the albums that were released in 2010, this is the one that will be remembered for years to come, the defining album of 2010. Hell it was Kanye's year all round.
Damn this was tough. I decided against putting any albums from my 2009 list on this because I'm sure a couple were good enough to make it. Then I needed to make some really tough decisions, how could it be a best of list without one White Stripes album? But sadly I had to cut the wondrous 'Elephant' from my list. No Gaslight Anthem with their spectacular albums '59 Sound' (honestly go and download that right now). No Wilco (despite the incredibleness of 'Yankee Foxtrot Hotel'). No OutKast. No LCD Soundsystem, no Knife, no Arctic Monkeys, no Libertines, no Animal Collective, no Thrice, no New Pornographers, no Portishead. All of these bands released superb albums decade and I more or less narrowed it down to 10 (give or take 5). So without further ado.... the honourable mentions.
Honourable Mentions
Boxer - The National The National are just an awesome band and whilst some people think Alligator is the better album. At first this album sounds good. But the more you listen, the more you realise the genius behind it. People say it's the perfect 20something album. So I don't know what that says about me (although some albums higher up are definitely more teen orientated), all I know is that Boxer is a superb album and one I would definitely recommend to many people. You might shrug it off as boring at first, but give it time and you'll realise the depth behind one of the best indie-rock albums of the decade. Plus the fact that it sounds like a mini-orchestra with lots of piano definitely helps it on this list
Chutes Too Narrow - The Shins A few months ago I placed The Shins debut album on this list and whilst that's still a great album, Chutes Too Narrow is just a bit better and perhaps a bit more cohesive. The sound is a lot better and whilst no song can top the l0-fi brilliance of New Slang, one song doesn't help make an album the best by a band. The fact that sound quality and maturity just seems to have come on in leaps and bounds make this a great album. Whilst I'd still say to people that they should listen to New Slang to see whether they like The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow is the album I'd tell people to listen to if they liked New Slang. Whilst a lot a of the lo-fi nature is gone, the infectious melodies and James Mercer's voice still shine through. Natalie Portman said in Garden State that they'd change your life, and whilst they haven't given me an epiphany, this album is certainly one of the best of the decade.
Is This It? - The Strokes Know people in the UK? Know when they say "Indie music all sounds the same"? They're referring to the sound that this band brought. Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand both are influenced heavily by this bands form of guitar based rock for the 21st century. The Strokes were hailed early on in the decade as the saviours of modern rock. Whilst The White Stripes have proven to be one of the most consistent bands of the decade and The Strokes have steadily released less and less polished albums, The Strokes still win because of this album. Simply a masterful album full of infectious guitars and hooks that will be stuck with you for days after hearing it. You might not like this kind of music, and it certainly isn't the best indie rock album of the decade but the modern music scene owes this album so much and if it can still be this fantastic nearly 9 years on, well then it definitely deserves it way onto this list.
And now for the real list. Of course I'm starting at 11, because honestly I just couldn't narrow this list down enough.
11. Illinois - Sufjan Stevens The king of multi-instrumental indie music. Sufjan has already appeared on this list due to the fact that he played piano on some tracks on Boxer. But here on his own record we have an album of just staggering ambition. So many different styles and tracks on this album (22 different tracks) contain just one of the best albums of the decade. Part of Sufjan's now discarded 50 states project, he showed us what he might be capable of in Michigan, but it was Illinois that really made you sit and take notice. Songs about love and with UFO in the title make you think twice about what sort of album you might be hearing, but in all honesty I'm going to tell you to just listen to the tracks Chicago and Casmir Pulaski Day. If you enjoy both of those (they're his two best tracks) then you OWE it to yourself to go and download this masterwork of the 21st century (at least what little part of it we've experienced so far.
10. ....is a Real Boy - Say Anything So far all of my albums have been of the indie ilk and whilst this album is too, it falls far more into the realm of scene music. Music that depressed and angry teenagers find themselves listening to. Since I'm still in my teen years I don't feel too bad for putting this album on a list with those great bands I'm going to be putting up higher. Yes this is a pop punk album and yes I'll probably outgrow it. But for where I am in life and just how damn funny and yet awesome the lyrics are. Max Bemis may not have the best voice in the world but his lyrics tell a story. From the holocaust tinged 'Alive With The Glory of Love' or the final rant in the form of 'Admit It!' make it worth it just to hear this album. Plus it's damn catchy and has some pretty damn awesome riffs as well. However it's also probably the sweariest album on my list, but it goes with that emo-teenage angst I must be feeling to put this album on my list.
9. Give Up/Transatlanticism - The Postal Service/Death Cab for Cutie How could I include two albums in one place? Well for simple reasons. They are both by Benjamin Gibbard, both released in the same year and I honestly couldn't decide between the two of them. Give Up is The Postal Service's only album and is electro-pop at is very best. Whilst I know people who aren't into electronic music at all, The Postal Service however are one of the best. The whole album might not be perfect but it is just a great album, all topped by the song Such Great Heights, which is the greatest song that Benjamin Gibbard has ever written. It's also the most positive song he has written about love, as well all know that Death Cab for Cutie and Transatlanticism is known as one of the breakthrough emo albums ever. However it's also just a superb indie rock album. It's got all the right highs and lows and are just bolstered by Gibbard's voice and lyrics. Like Max Bemis of Say Anything, Ben Gibbard is one artists who I just love to listen to the lyrics of.
8. Kill the Moonlight - Spoon Spoon are the perpetual underdog. Every single album they've released this decade has been superb and it's honestly difficult just selecting one. But I went for their first which is kind of the crystallization of their sound. You're bound to have heard at least one Spoon song in your life, as their sound is just so unique. That beating drum pattern or particular riff of a guitar and you know what you're in for. Spoon play around with space and strip songs down and still manage to maintain what the song is. Just go and listen to The Way We Get By. Again I seem to be recommending the best song by these guys but if you like the songs then you really owe it yourself to listen. Spoon never failed to be great this decade and whilst every year they released an album they were outshone, I'm here to give them a little bit of their dues. Whilst others might say that White Stripes or Radiohead were the most consistent band of the decade (and they were very consistent) I'm going to have to give that award to Spoon who released 4 superb albums and I can't but wait for their new album Transference which will be out in all of two weeks (I haven't even heard it and I know it's going to be great).
7. Kid A - Radiohead You can't do a best of list for the last two decades without including Radiohead. In the 90s they released The Bends and OK Computer and this decade whilst all four albums were great, it was really Kid A and In Rainbows that stood out. But Kid A just represented this decade. When it came out people were confused. Why had Radiohead completely left their anthemic rock roots behind and gone electronic. Coldplay came along to fill that anthem space that Radiohead had perfected in the 90s whilst Radiohead went on one of the most creative streaks in history. Kid A is the soundtrack of the 21st century. It turns so many people off when you first listen to but give it time and you realise the genius hidden inside this album, it's eccentric, imaginative and incredible. Whilst people thought that Kid A would be the album that would save rock music (a mantel quickly shifted to The White Strips and The Strokes) what Radiohead did was far more important, they almost changed the way that people should look at music, especially if you look at their recent experiments with releasing songs to the public for free.
6. Origin of Symmetry - Muse Nope Muse have not made my top 5, but they did beat Radiohead to whom many art snobs say that Muse are inferior copy. Overall I'd say that Kid A and Origin of Symmetry but I put Origin of Symmetry in front mostly because Kid A is getting far more press that Origin of Symmetry. Muse are one of the biggest bands in the world and some of the most experimental. Not experimental in that completely extreme way that Radiohead are but in ways that their sound benefits. But Origin remains their biggest triumph. It's not their breakthrough like Absolution is and sadly far too many fans name that album as their best when really it's a bit uneven. But Origin of Symmetry is the sound of a confident band who know the sound they want to achieve. Look at songs like New Born and Plug in Baby, those are two of the best songs of the decade and they come from the same album. Muse are undeniably one of the best rock bands of the decade. Rock is a fundamentally changed genre from what it meant in the 70s and 80s, but as long as bands like Muse stay in the driving seat, I'll be excited to see where they take us.
5. The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me - Brand New Brand New used to be an average pop-punk band. There are still fans who clamour for those days. I have trouble understanding that. 70x7 is one of their most requested songs and it just sounds like all those Blink182 and Jimmy Eat World wannabes. Then Deja Entendu happened and Brand New matured. It was still pop-punk but it sounded different. Edgier, rockier. Whilst it wasn't quite the masterpiece that this album it was a move in the right direction. Then TDAGARIM happened and it was one of the best post rock albums ever. They perfected the quiet loud dynamic used by so many different bands with cryptic lyrics (so cryptic that there was an actual outcry from fans that the lyrics weren't included with the CD). Two instrumentals and some absolutely incredible songs. They might be classified as emo, but even if you have distaste for the entire emo movement, there's no denying the expert musicianship found in this album.
4. For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver The story for this album will probably go down in history. There was a break up, so James Vernon decided to go away to get over this relationship. Whilst there he may have gone a little insane and starting to write lyrics all over the wall. However the lyrics and music that he wrote are some of the best to come out of this past decade. If you like acoustic folky music with almost an ethereal sound then you need to hear this album. Yes the album is achingly romantic and the back story has been so oft repeated that it loses a lot of its impact, but it's just amazing music. Bon Iver (Justin Vernon) is now one of the biggest forces in indie music, going so far as to feature on the Twilight soundtrack (along with other list makers, Radiohead, Muse and Death Cab for Cutie). It came out of nowhere with it's immense loneliness and near mythic story. But behind all of that lies one of the best albums to ever be recorded. Just listen to Skinny Love and hear for yourself.
3. The Midnight Organ Fight - Frightened Rabbit Recently voted as one of the best Scottish albums of the decade, Frightened Rabbit provided not just that, but one of the best British albums of the decade. Considering that includes bands like Radiohead and Muse, that's praise indeed. Whilst I'm probably speaking in hyperbole, I don't think I can convey how much I love this album. Again it's another break up album (much like my favourite album of all time is Pinkerton) but that probably speaks more about my mental state through most of the decade (hence the emo albums on this list). But that doesn't degrade how great this album is. Modern Leper kicks of the album in absolute style and we get taken through 14 tracks of these drunk potty mouthed Scotsmen and their awesome music. One of my anticipated albums of 2010 is Frightened Rabbit's third album and if it's anywhere near as good as this triumph then you should be excited as well. It's hard to convey what makes this album work. They're not the most innovative band in the world but their music is just filled with a vigorous amount of heart that just begs to be listened to. So many different styles that just come to together to make that oh so rare cohesive whole, Frightened Rabbit succeded at make a perfect indie rock record which sadly hasn't received as much attention as countless other Scottish bands this decade who in my mind have just made inferior albums. Sadly two other albums from across the pond managed to beat the best British album of the decade, but let it be known us Brits put some incredible music this decade as well.
2. The Red Tree - Moneen People who know me might be a little surprised by this albums placement and honestly for months it was going to be number 1. Easily my most played album of the decade and despite not being a concept album or progressive rock, it's just one of the most seamless albums of the decade. There are practically no breaks in sound but you know when each new song begins. They just float into each other and create this seamless whole. Brand New may be one of the best quiet/load bands in the business but Moneen have a seemingly God-like ability to make songs sound as brilliant in either an acoustic or full band form. Some bands are better in one or the other but Moneen are one band I could listen to in either form. Just listen to The Red Tree and then Saying Something You Have Already Said Before and you'll understand. They even managed to perfect the perfect song which I was shocked by. They might be emo, they might be loud but they wrote one of the hardest hitting emotional albums of the decade which just sounds incredible. Moneen might not be the best known band in the world but these Canadian rockers are just so well liked within bands in Canada. Even indie purists know these guys have incredible talent. Whilst Canada has put out some incredible albums this decade, two stand head and shoulders above the rest and rank in at numbers 1 and 2 on my list.
1. Funeral - Arcade Fire It couldn't not be. It's the most critically acclaimed album of the decade and it came out in 2004. It's the best debut of the decade by far and it's influence is just so far stretching. Hell even Coldplay tried to emulate what this album does on their latest and failed at capturing the heart and soul that this album has. Funeral is lightning in a bottle that even Arcade Fire were unable to catch again on Neon Bible. It's a great album, but Funeral is the try success story of the decade. Win Butler may not have the best voice of all time but you can feel his passion behind every word that he sings. It just makes this album sizzle. It might not be in English all of the time as there are occasionally parts where it lapses into French, but when an album can overcome having French on it you know you have a winner. Dual vocals, a menagerie of instruments and some epic songs. There are danceable tunes and whilst it's not all guitars and drums like many music purists would prefer to see, Arcade Fire have created an orchestra of sounds. This album is my most consistently listened to. I'll bring it at least once a week without hesitation and I can actually remember where I was the first time I heard it, which is more than I can say for a lot of these albums no matter how much I love them. Hearing this album for the first time, you might think it sounds good because it sounds different. Even if you only listen to about 15 minutes of it. After that you just know it's special. You'll come back just to listen again and make sure, but it's still got a spark. That spark will keep you coming back for more and more. If the 2000s are remembered for anything let's hope it isn't terrorism, recessions, natural disasters, the reality TV show boom or corrupt politicians. I hope we're remembered for bringing the world the perfection that is Funeral, an album bound to go down as one of the best albums in history.*
*I was going to say the decade should also be remembered for The Wire, but then I realised that corrupt politicians are a big part of that. So instead it gets listed down here in an addendum.
Okay this is wholly random post that I've felt like doing for a very long time. Essentially it's my top 10 songs of all time. Surprisingly almost every song has come from the past decade of music. I'm not saying "all music from pre-2000 is shit". It's just, well, I haven't gotten round to listening to the vast majority of it. There could be some stuff that is flat out fantastic but these are the songs which I get consistently stuck in my head or just that random urge to sit down and listen to them. They're also songs which remind me of significant portions of my life. Now I've missed out a lot of songs which I really, really like ("Where is my Mind" and "M79" are probably my two biggest regrets) however I'm happy with the list. Knowing my tastes it's probably going to be different in a month but hell that's music for you, consistently changing.
So for the list I limited myself to one song per band so as to not make it completely full of Weezer and Death Cab for Cutie (I'm really that obsessive) so here we go my favourite songs ever....at this moment in time.
10. "New Slang" The Shins New Slang is one of those songs which I've always really liked but it's always that after thought song. I can list long streams of songs for people to listen to and then I'll usually say "Oh and New Slang". Its a fantastic song and always puts me in a really good mood (probably because it makes me think of Garden State) but compared to so many of the other songs on this list it doesn't get nearly as much playtime.
9. "Letter from an Occupant" The New Pornographers I have a Canadian music addiction at the moment. New Pornographers, Moneen and Arcade Fire are some of my favourite bands and they're all from that funny country north of the USA that is oh so much fun to take the piss of (Clerks: Animated Series and How I Met Your Mother do it the best). However there is no denying that these people are fucking talented. Letter from an Occupant is a down right addicting listen. It's so upbeat that you can't help but crack a smile when you listen to it. Yes it might not be for everyone but hell if don't love how different this song sounds to most music nowadays
8. "Alive with the Glory of Love" Say Anything The song I only started listening to recently. Its featured on Scrubs but I didn't notice it then. However when I downloaded "...is a Real Boy" I became addicted to this song. It might be the lead single from the disc but its the song I always skip to when I listen to that fantastic album. There are so many great songs on that album but this is one that jumps out at me. It's addicting like "Letter from an Occupant" except it sounds a bit more commercial. Except for the fact that it's about the holocaust....
7. "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" Arcade Fire What? More Canadian music? Yes indeed. Arcade Fire are probably the best band in Canada at the moment (although I do prefer Moneen). Arcade Fire are known for some extremely grandiose music. In fact both Arcade Fire and New Pornographer have a lot more members than most bands and play a massive array of instruments. Arcade Fire almost have a classical element to them with instruments like violins along with guitars and keyboards. Neighborhood #1 is the first song on their first album and sets up exactly what they're going to do. Whilst the rest of the album has some great songs but this is the one I love to listen to the most.
6. "The Day No One Needed to Know" Moneen I deliberated for ages on what Moneen song to put on here. "The Passing of America" and "The Song I Swore to Never Sing" are two of my other favourites but I feel that this song just sums them up best to me. At six minutes its a reasonably long song but it goes through so emotional high and lows and only two other songs can pull of a climax like this one. From some elements of screaming (I don't listen to that music often, promise) and then to a spoken word element before kicking off the last part of the song, I love this song consistently even if others pass it off a bit too quickly.
5. "The Modern Leper" Frightened Rabbit My favourite band of 2008 and my favourite song of 2008. I love this song more than I love a lot of things. The song that kicks off "Midnight Organ Fight" shows just how far the band came from "Sing the Greys". There's a lot more emotion in this song than anything on their debut and sets up the tremendous song that they go on to perfect on the rest of the album. Okay yes it's a song about a guy likening himself to a leper but hell if it isn't catchy. Also? Some of the best drums ever.
4. "Death is the Road to Awe/Together We Will Live Forever" Clint Mansell I know I said one song per band. However this is a one, two punch I can't ignore. Clint Mansell's score to the Fountain is the best score ever for any film and these songs that perfect the score. If I'd reviewed The Fountain already I would have gushed already but I'm going to do so here. Death is the Road Awe simply put has the best climax of any song ever. The music dips out for a few seconds and then we get a massive sensic rush as all the sound rushes back in a just overpowers you. It's a fantastic moment and then it's followed up by the most haunting piece of piano music ever. Simply beautiful.
3. "Such Great Heights" The Postal Service/Iron & Wine Okay I broke the rules again. Technically this is two songs but they go together perfectly. They're both the same song but in completely different styles. When is electronic and upbeat in tempo, the other is a literally a gorgeous lullaby. Both versions work with the lyrics. One is more a less a guy so happy to be in love that he can't help but proclaim it. The other is a quiet love note full to the brim with beauty and romance. Both work perfectly and I honestly couldn't decide which version is better because they're bother perfect.
2. "I Will Follow you into the Dark" Death Cab for Cutie Speaking of beautiful songs, here is a gorgeous one. Benjamin Gibbard is one of the best song writers at the moment (he wrote number 3 as well). This song is a beautiful little acoustic song that has become the highlight to Death Cab's album "Plans". Originally supposed to be a full band piece I'm glad it became just Gibbard and a guitar. It pulls out the beauty so much and is just haunting. It's been used recently in Scrubs and I will say embarrassingly that the first time I heard it over the scene I got a tear in my eye.
1. "Only in Dreams" Weezer If you read this blog often you'll know my gushing love of this song. If you don't know simply put its 8 minutes of song perfection. The first 3 minutes are sung in an almost dream like state before being followed by the most perfect 5 minutes in all music. The best climax of any song ever (even better than "Death is the Road to Awe")
When I heard that James Murphy of the late, great LCD Soundsystem was going to be producing Arcade Fire's fourth album I knew that above all the album would be much more danceable, but I was pre
Cheating a little bit on this one considering the song actually came out in 2012, however it didn't receive a UK release until the middle of 2013, which is why it gets on this list. I first heart "I Love It" when it was featured on the third episode of Girls' second season. It's such a joyous moment that you can't help but be sucked in and is one of the few times that I've known I had to own a song having heard it only once. Despite the fact the lyrics feature someone crashing their car into a bridge, there's a sense of complete euphoria to this song that's hard to shake. There's an energy and addictive quality to this song that is hard to define in any way other than I know that I love it (pardon the pun). If I were to write the dictionary definition of 'fun' I'd just include a link to this song, it's that infectiously happy.
This one is probably a bit too obvious, but it's obvious for a reason. Whilst people are going to claim that "Blurred Lines" is also a claimant for Song of the Summer, the backlash to that song is only going to damage it in years to come. ''Get Lucky" on the other hand is still as good as it was the day the preview came out back in April. What makes "Get Lucky" so brilliant is that it manages to evoke that feeling of disco music of the past whilst still being able to evoke 2013 in such an intrinsic way. Other songs may have made claims to be the song that defined the year, in 20 years it will only be "Get Lucky" that soundtracks all of those retrospectives on 2013.
