JR's Best Albums in the First Half of 2010

Well - it's been awhile since I last posted due to a number of things keeping me busy, but I wanted to share a list of my favorite albums that arrived in the first half of 2010. Last year, there was a single standout album that stuck for me immediately and was never superseded at any point after it came out. In fact, if it came out this year, it would also be the best album in the first half of 2010. And that album would be............Bitte Orca by Dirty Projectors. But I digress. This post is about new music, not year-old music that still blows my mind over a year later. Here is my top 10 in order from best to 10th best:

1. Teen Dream by Beach House

What an amazing album by Beach House. I can honestly say that I like every single track. Definitely my favorite so far this year, and very cool DVD that accompanies the vinyl copy of this album containing a different music video for each song. I also *saw* them in concert earlier this year and they sounded awesome live. I use the term "saw" loosely since the concert was at Diesel and the stage is only viewable for approximately 25 people after they renovated the place to make it awful for concert viewing. I was not one of the 25.

2. Brothers by The Black Keys

But for Teen Dream, this would be my favorite album by a long shot. There is a significant gap between my first and second choices and the remaining eight. I feel like this is potentially the Keys' masterpiece. Everything is really working for them on this album and I love the fact that they stuffed the album with 15 tracks, none of which are filler in my opinion even though some "professional" critics have said that the album is too long. Sometimes people feel like they need to say something negative for credibility purposes, but I have nothing negative to say here. The riffs are sweet and the use of falsetto on several of the tracks adds a new dimension to the Keys sound that works really well. A five star effort in every respect. Great music videos too, especially the one for "Tighten Up".

3. Expo '86 by Wolf Parade

A great effort by Wolf Parade after At Mount Zoomer, which was a bit of a letdown.

4. Forgiveness Rock Record by Broken Social Scene

I've been coming back to this album a lot lately. It's definitely an improvement over their last self-titled album and over Brendan Canning's lead effort. I would still rank it a notch below Kevin Drew's album and it's not nearly as good as You Forgot It in People, but not much is from the last 10 years!

5. Treats by Sleigh Bells

6. Astro Coast by Surfer Blood

7. Gorilla Manor by Local Natives

8. Fang Island by Fang Island

Just saw Fang Island with The Flaming Lips and they were a great opening act. Awesome energy and incredible guitar work. Anytime you have three dudes dueling on the guitar and it doesn't come across as cheesy, you're doing something right. Very nice debut album. "Life Coach" is one of my favorite tracks of the year, even if it sounds a little like "You Make My Dreams" by Hall & Oates (as my fellow blogger Roberto so astutely pointed out before the show - Fang Island, not Hall & Oates).

9. Heartland by Owen Pallett

10. King of the Beach by Wavves

I also have one honorable mention that is growing on me and might be a lot higher on my end of year list: Mines by Menomena. Also, it hurt me not to put This is Happening by LCD Soundsystem on the list, but it really lost some steam for me as of late. I like three tracks a lot, but the rest of the album just doesn't do it for me.

Rock on!

Album Review: Good Night, States' In the Impossible Tension

If it weren't for an omnipresent drum machine and that pesky comma in their name, this EP would be damn near perfect. With that in mind, it's still not far off.

Here's the tracklist:

1. Arsonist's Blues
2. Good Times, So Wearily Desired!
3. River In The Dry
4. Moonlight
5. All On Your Own
6. Neighborhood Roofs

Every song comes equipped with a great melody, and at least five of the six have found themselves stuck in my head over the few weeks I've been listening to it (sorry, "All On Your Own"). Oddly, the album was recorded by only two of the band's five members--Steve Gretz and Joe Tanner--but such is life when your band is split among three cities, as theirs is.

This record is a departure, to be sure. Don't expect to rock out. The album title seems fitting, as even after having listened to the record several times through I still expect tracks 1 and 6 to open up to a flood of distorted guitars. They don't. Yet they're no worse for not giving into my petty desires.

From the top, "Arsonist's Blues" is a great song to start it off and set the tone for the rest of record. Leaning on the vintage keyboards expected of GN,S, Gretz and Tanner manage to maintain their trademark sound without overdoing it on the synth tones. The second track has to be the catchiest, and already has me nostalgic for the summer that's still here. Then the synths fade to welcome some crisp acoustic guitar work that brings a woodsy air of reminiscence to my favorite of the bunch, "River In The Dry."

While the songs are stripped down, they don't feel spare. There's a warmth here that gives the sense of fullness, and a restraint that leaves room for these songs to grow live. Perhaps the fullest on the record is the closer, "Neighborhood Roofs," and it's also one of the strongest.

Obviously the backstory of the writing and recording of this album begs curiosities about how these tunes will translate to the stage, but Hugh assures us they'll do just fine. Here's where you can hear them:

Tonight: Thunderbird Cafe

Tomorrow: Carnegie Arts and Heritage Festival

Next Tuesday: Brillobox

Monday, Sept. 21: William Pitt Student Union

Courtesy of the Trib, here's a video of the full band doing "Arsonist's Blues" which bodes very well for the upcoming shows and the growth of this great band. The vocals are sweet, and that small touch of natural percussion is enough to make me forget about the drum machine in the background.

SITKOT rating: 46 out of 57

Album Review: It's Not Me, It's You

If half of all pop sounded half as good as Lily Allen, my dial wouldn’t move from B-94 (if B-94 is even still around). Lily’s new album, It’s Not Me, It’s You, is set to drop in exactly one week, but as per the recent norm she’s streaming it today on her MySpace, so that’s where I’m dialed in right now, and loving it.

Though the sound is no huge departure from Alright, Still (that’s a good thing), Not Me packs in some great, unexpected touches. My favorite might be the banjo interlude on “Not Fair,” an open break-up note born out of sexual frustration. Lyrically, Lily’s as pithy and funny as ever, and just slightly more introspective—charming to the max.

Only one disappointment on first listen: my favorite tracks (“The Fear,” “I Could Say,” and “Who’d Have Known”) are the same three that Lily put out months ago as demos. I love all three though, so that’s not really a complaint or critique.

Unfortunately, as with so many successful mid-size acts, the closest Lily will get to Pittsburgh on her brief U.S. spring tour will be D.C., a drive I’ve historically reserved for the likes of Wilco and M. Ward. Sorry, Lily. I could say I’ll be there for you but, to borrow a phrase, "that would be a lie, and quite a pointless thing to do."

SITKOT rating: 47 out of 57

Download:
Lily Allen – “The Fear” (demo, released as “I Don’t Know”) (Mediafire link)

Album Review: Blood Bank

If Bon Iver's remarkable 2008 debut, For Emma, Forever Ago, had a defining fault, it was likely its brevity. His new EP, Blood Bank, is guilty of the same charge, coming in at only four songs. Unfortunately, its faults--though few--are not limited to playback time.

For the record, Blood Bank is a great listen, and better on the whole than a lot of the EPs pumped out every year by indie acts looking to fill time. Yet the strength of its first half juxtaposed against the mediocre second half leaves a listener disappointed at the end of the EP's seventeen minutes.

The opening title track would be in its right place anywhere on For Emma and it's a great track to kick off this release and bring us back into Bon Iver's minimalist past. It is lyrically intriguing but just familiar enough musically that when Vernon sings "I know it well" ad nauseum at the song's conclusion, you want to agree.

Track two, "Beach Baby," is the EP's most satisfying song to my ear. Though beginning in the same manner as many of Bon Iver's tunes, the song develops quickly into something more, and is sort of a thumbnail of the EP itself: short and sweet, with a slight departure at the end. The song's reverberating slide guitar outro does not seem at all out of place, and leads nicely into what is to come.

While For Emma was lauded largely for its understated production and the intimacy if its sound, I can't fault Vernon for exploring new (though not altogether distant) territory on the second half of Blood Bank. For the most part, it's not a bad departure: the repetitive "Babys" blends familiar vocals with a whimsical dissonance of piano notes that recalls Sufjan Stevens' earlier work, and the album closer, "Woods," might have more promise if Vernon had stuck to the guy-with-a-guitar blueprint instead of going all Kanye on the Auto-Tune. Unfortunately, he went with the vocoder and, while interesting, capped off the EP on a low note with a somewhat directionless experiment.

All tolled, Blood Bank is a fine record, and perhaps does exactly what an EP should do in providing fans with a reminder of what they've come to love while offering a glimpse of what the artist is into right now, or even what's to come. If the latter is meant to be signaled by this EP's chronology, I'll have to hope that Vernon changes directions again before his next release. But even if he doesn't, I'll still check out whatever's next.

SITKOT rating: 45 out of 57

Download:

Bon Iver – “Beach Baby” (Mediafire link)

UPDATE: Vernon is interviewed in the latest issue of Spin. Of note: "All these bloggers are going, 'Auto-tune is evil and people in the folk realm shouldn't use it.' This has nothing to do with anything. It was inspired by an Imogen Heap song, it's not a comment on [these other artists]. And even though blogs are tastemarkers and have exalted a lot of bands that went on to become successful, there's this clique mentality that just... Look, if you like Bruce Springsteen, like him. Don't wait for somebody to tell you it's cool again to like him." Touché.