10. 'Primary Colours' - The Horrors
‘Primary Colours’ is by no means the records that anyone could have expected The Horrors to make, not one note on their debut ‘Strange House’, suggested this could happen. This is the sound of a band pouring molten lava over their record collections, and letting it fuse back together as a truly unique, glowing whole.
09. 'Love Comes Close' - Cold Cave
Some interesting things I’ve heard about Cold Cave this year:
1) Main dude Wesley Eisold not only used to be in Some Girls, and Give Up the Ghost, but more interestingly only has one hand.
2) He also has four houses and is a multi-millionaire as a result of suing Pete Wentz.
3) A friend of mine saw them live and described them as, “a bunch of goths in cagoules”.
I don’t care what percentage of these facts are true, because they all heightened my enjoyment of ‘Love Comes Close’ considerably this year.
08. 'Deeper Than Rap' - Rick Ross
As far as I can make out, this is a concept album about being rich and being very pleased about it.
07. 'Childish Prodigy' - Kurt Vile
Whilst focus seemed to fall on the high-volume of Kurt Vile’s output, more interesting was the quality and subtle radicalism of his music. ‘Childish Prodigy’, although bearing all the hallmarks of being tossed-off in a couple of days where he wasn’t drinking Buds and smoking packs of Lucky Strikes on his front-porch, is a total home-run, shaving the worthiness and conservatism from Classic American Rock and revealing the howling hurt beneath the demin.
06. 'Monoliths & Dimensions' - Sunn 0)))
Sunn 0))) could go on making the same record for the rest of eternity, and everyone would quite rightly shower them in adulation, whilst excitedly talking about their “intense” live shows. I’d never accuse them of coasting, but ‘Monoliths & Dimensions’, is an unexpected, mammoth step into new realms for Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson. This is a truly, (as the title suggests) monumental, record, adorned with choirs, strings, woodwind and organs, which perhaps for the first time in this band’s career, allow a crack of light to enter into their impenatrable black space.
05. 'Merriweather Post Pavillion' - Animal Collective
It’s likely that you have overplayed this record and are just as sick of hearing about it as I am, but nonetheless…
04. 'Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt.II' - Raekwon
Seeing as he’s no stranger to stealing from American-Italian culture, I don’t feel too bad lazily comparing Raekwon to Rocky. After being universally recognized as the heavyweight champion, with the release of his classic ‘Only Built 4 Cuban Linx’ in 1995, Raekwon took his eye off the prize, became fat(ter), complacent, and after a couple of very mediocre LPs, nearly coasted his way back into obscurity over the following decade and a half. Long mythologized for years, ‘Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt.II’ emerged in 2009 as a towering creative success; more than worthy of the ‘Cuban Linx’ tag and packed with the type of hard-boiled crime sagas and expansive, dusty, emotive soul beats that made every single one of those first wave of Wu solo albums so essential back in the early 90’s. I couldn’t really be bothered following that Rocky metaphor through there, but you probably know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever wasted 90 minutes of your life watching ‘Rocky Balboa’ hungover like I have.
03. 'xx' - The XX
Most people reading this, are going to be at least partially familiar with this record, so little more needs to be said about its aesthetics. What can’t be reiterated enough, however, is the quality, depth and emotional depth of this set of songs. Truly moving, stark and beautiful, whilst one of the best displays of straightforward songwriting in recent memory, ‘xx’ is truly a landmark debut.
02. 'The Floodlight Collective' - Lotus Plaza
Whilst Atlas Sound’s ‘Logos’ garnered all the attention, Deerhunter’s Locket Pundt, quietly released this stunning collection of sunny, reverb-drenched, songs under his Lotus Plaza moniker. Where it’s impossible to detach Cox’s music from his cerebral cortex, Pundt’s delicate set of songs, packed a emotive punch by virtue of their subtlety and lack of ego. It’s no easy feat outshining Bradford Cox, but on ‘The Floodlight Collective’, Locket Pundt manages exactly that.
01. 'Alphabet 1968' - Black to Comm
With ‘Alphabet 1968’, Marc Richter crafted the most sonically interesting record of the year, but also its best. Architecturally, this is a record that truly exists in three dimensions, with found-sound and ambience bristling through the stereo field, adding layers of poignancy to the aching folds of melodies beneath its surface. A record that subtly became my favourite of the year over the recent months, and one which I’m still looking forward to learning more about.
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