1. Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver
The opening guitar melody of Bon Iver's second album is at once beautiful, refreshing and reassuring, and when the full band enters, it demonstrates that this is much more than solely Justin Vernon's album. The marching band style drumming of two percussionists provides the rhythm beneath layers of trumpets, violin and guitars which all combine in the final third of the track, with the returning opening melody gliding over them as one man's vision is understood and executed by eight other musicians.
With this record Justin Vernon steps out of the cabin of isolation in which he wrote For Emma, Forever Ago, and into nature. Tracks such as 'Michicant' explore a Wordsworthian connecton with nature with 'I was unafraid, I was a boy, I was a tender age / Melic in the naked, knew a lake and drew the lofts for page'. Moreover, the album's sound contains more breadth, and its songs are layered soundscapes reflecting the emotions of the lyrics.
Concerned with place through many of the track names, its lyrics are initially often decipherable, but there is still a definite emotion evoked by each song. This is true of 'Holocene' - an absolutely gorgeous, perfectly paced track. Its instrumentation provides the song's epiphany of 'at once I knew that I was not magnificent' with tremendous impact. 'Towers' starts brightly and with a sprightly tempo, but Vernon again shows his ability to change the tone of a song within three notes, just as he did with the previous record's ‘Creature Fear’, as the second half of the track contains a melancholic, yet also darker, tone.
'Calgary' is one of Bon Iver's finest achievements to date, and my song of the year. A track that is concerned with, as Vernon says, ‘that whole thing that happens in relationships-- you can love someone but, as soon as they stop loving you so unconditionally that they stop being themselves, it can be so dangerous', it is magnificently arranged. Starting with the soft, a capella warning of 'Don't you cherish me to sleep', its percussion builds a faster rhythm that is also at once restrained. These reins are gradually loosened with rougher layered falsetto vocals in ‘So it’s stormy on the lake / Little waves our bodies break’ on top of an over driven guitar, before softly landing with its closing verse, the speaker proclaiming 'sold, I'm ever', to their lover. A truly beautiful, mature song that would not have worked without the new textured arrangements found on this album. No musician or part is superfluous, but each adds to the atmosphere of the piece.
Where For Emma elicited loneliness, here the closing track 'Beth/Rest' has a newfound positivity. It surprises, sounding like it was written and recorded in the 80s with its warm, triumphant sound in its saxophone and extended guitar solo. It is because of tracks like this, that I have found myself returning to this album over and over again, sure that I haven't unlocked all it has to offer. Moreover, its three middle tracks, ‘Michicant’, ‘Hinnom, TX’ and ‘Wash.’ are the most difficult to connect with due to their more subtle arrangements and hooks, with Vernon’s voice taking the lead. A friend whose opinion I hold in high regard told me they thought his voice was weak, but with it Vernon holds the work together, particularly in these tracks where he often sings over basic accompaniment. 'Hinnom, TX' features both his lowest notes and his highest falsetto, with 'Wash.' providing a vulnerability often heard in For Emma. A gorgeous album in which you can lose yourself, it is a beautiful journey from the tender, fragile opening notes of 'Perth' to the assured warmth of 'Beth/Rest'.
Download: 'Perth', 'Holocene', 'Calgary', 'Beth/Rest'.
2. Thrice - Major/Minor
In 2008 Thrice completed The Alchemy Index - four EPs each based on the elements Fire, Water, Air and Earth. Previously more of harder edged pop punk band, this collection featured experiments with electronics, acoustic guitars, and songs where the lyrics to each closing track were even made up of sonnets with concluding rhyming couplets. With 2009's Beggars they stripped back their sound and started again, with Major/Minor building on these foundations with tremendous confidence and intent as the band found the sound with which they are most comfortable.
Beginning with a punch in the opening riff of 'Yellow Belly', Thrice are instantly sitting back and grooving. Dustin Kensrue's growl is full of tension with his lyrics concerning an abusive father. He is at his most affecting in the stripped down second verse, where he sings ‘she’s in her closet praying "Lord, please get me out of here" but you don’t care’, before his and Teppei Teranshi’s violent guitars provide a fitting background to the narrative.
The second track ‘Promises’ provides a lyrical continuation to the previous album's ‘The Weight’ - a lament to how love and vows are ‘broken by the slightest breeze or breath’. However this track is superior in every way. A terrific, yet simple riff that follows the first chorus is loose, heavy and groovy, before the swaying second verse rides off of its momentum. The track demonstrates how Thrice are simultaneously making music that sounds natural and uncontrived, whilst making more intelligent songwriting choices. Where ‘The Weight’ had one chorus repetition too many, ‘Promises’ similarly breaks down with Kensrue breathing the words of the chorus. Rather than re-enter into another full blown version of it, the band burst into a fresh and beautiful outro.
Thrice have been one of the most unappreciated bands, even in their own genre, of the last decade. Not featured by Kerrang! magazine by neither being rock nor metal enough, they are also ignored by other publications for carrying the pop punk tag of their earlier work. Here, Thrice reveal themselves as the thinking man’s rock band. ‘Call It In The Air’ has a complicated yet perfectly executed drum beat provided by Riley Breckinridge as the track's intricate rhythms build a momentum which explodes in a chorus with the longest, strongest and highest notes Kensrue has ever sang. The guitars here allow Ed Breckrinridge’s bass to carry the song before a sinister, loose riff, again apparently naturally but actually so intelligently, drives the track on.
These are just three of the album’s stand out tracks. Songs like ‘Blinded’, the rhythmically interesting and tight ‘Cataracts’ and ‘Treading Paper’ still provide choruses and riffs that on multiple listens are easy to sing along to. ‘Words on the Water’ relieves the album from sounding too one note, purposefully leaving 10 seconds of silence before producing sounds similar to those of the Air or Water albums. At over six minutes it is the longest track on the album, but achieves a greater catchiness than the similarly slower and laid back songs on Beggars.
It is the tenth of the eleven songs, ‘Anthology’, that leaves the greatest impression. Admittedly based on quite a simple idea, it is an absolutely beautiful song. It’s easy to become swept up in the airy and warm verses with lyrics such as ‘while the north wind has taken its toll / you have helped me to find my way back / and to anchor my soul’. This is Thrice at their most comfortable, playing to their strengths, pleasing themselves first. Each member sits back and serves the song as Ed’s bass lifts the verses and Teppei’s leads provide the perfect melody to Dustin’s simple chorus structure. A song of love and trust, its refrain of ‘You know me and I know you’ sits atop music that needs no words to provide the same assured sentiment. The song reaches its climax as Kensrue sings ‘we can see this through’ over a muted band, before they enter with chords struck with ease, yet with definite feeling.
Thrice have crafted an album that sounds blissfully natural, and after a career experimenting with many different directions, here, on tracks like 'Anthology', it sounds like they have found their home. It is a shame then, that they have announced this will be their final album before an indefinite hiatus. Maybe then they will be find the acclaim they deserve, but for now they have left us with an album not struggling for ideas and filled with creative tension, but one where all members are comfortable in their respective position, and playing the kind of music that belies the intricacies and depth the album actually contains.
Download: 'Yellow Belly', 'Promises', 'Call it in the Air', 'Anthology'.
3. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
Annie Clark - performing under the name St. Vincent - released her third album, Strange Mercy, in September. It is a gloriously odd and weird indie pop album which always remains accessible and enjoyable. Her finest songs are those such as 'Chloe in the Afternoon', which features unexpected and left-field moments. In addition to its ballsy, punchy and grinding guitar and bass riff, its chorus where Clark repeatedly sings the title is magnificent. On first listen it appears as if there are too many syllables in the line to fit across the music, but Clark somehow makes it work as it melts together. 'Surgeon' meanwhile rises and falls beautifully, firstly beginning tentatively before the intensity increases in the final chorus of ‘Best, find a surgeon / Come cut me open’, with the final section containing a solo above a bouncing bass line. It eventually capitulates and the song's close even reminds of a riff from Machine Head’s ‘A Farewell to Arms’.
The album features one of my favourite songs of the year in ‘Cruel’. Beginning with a slow airy vocal line running over a synthesiser, suddenly a bass drum kicks in as Clark begins the verse. The bass line joyously and suddenly drops beneath the second repetition of the intro line, with added layers on the next verse before the chorus. Clark’s incredibly catchy guitar riff locks in with the drums as she sings the word ‘cruel’ beautifully, and each time she does so it is wonderful to hear. Her guitar solo in the middle section mirrors the descending bass riff beneath it before the third verse allows Clark’s voice to slow down, before rising gorgeously into the final chorus of ‘cruel’s.
'Cheerleader' is another marvellous song - its chorus featuring a brilliant bass line, and when it finally re-enters after a brief rest, it does so with a refreshing and energising punch. The album is full of tracks which also contain Clark’s inventive and odd instrumentation. ‘Northern Lights’ builds towards a fantastic climax in an intense, spasm like solo before blending seamlessly into a faster, focused final chorus. Title track ‘Strange Mercy’ also charms; Clark’s voice is more prominent, slowly crooning ‘oh little one your Hemingway jawline looks just like his’ before a simple, yet effective, keyboard riff leads towards the startling crescendo of ‘if I ever met the dirty policeman who roughed you up’.
Strange Mercy features 11 strong tracks which each have odd moments. However, they do not confuse, nor alienate, but instead are always interesting and inviting. The final track ‘Year of the Tiger’ adds depth through Clark's melancholy as she documents her depression of the previous year when she sings ‘living in fear in the year of the tiger’. It surprised me how much I enjoyed this record. Of the album, Clark says ‘I don't think it's the best record I'll ever make, but I think it's a good record.’ If this is the case, I can’t wait to hear what she does consider her best.
Download: 'Chloe in the Afternoon', 'Cruel', 'Surgeon', 'Year of the Tiger'.
4. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
PJ Harvey’s tenth album has topped many critic's end of year lists and has been awarded the Guardian, Mojo, Uncut and NME album of the year, in addition to collecting the Mercury Prize. It is a record that I have at times found difficult, with its lyrical themes having to be understood in order to fully appreciate the album. Harvey's work comments on the condition of England and the destruction of war, but does so in a fresh and interesting manner. While much has been made of what Harvey is singing about, it also sounds bloody terrific.
Let England Shake begins with the upbeat title track, its instantly memorable melody bouncing lightly before Harvey’s voice enters. Where some listeners may have trouble with it, she sounds absolutely beguiling and is incredibly moving on songs which use fewer vocal effects. While the opener is catchy, the second track 'The Last Living Rose' slows the pace, beginning with the lyric ‘God damn Europeans / Take me back to beautiful England’. However, it then continues to instead paint a truthful, unromantic vision of England, a land that has the ‘grey damp filthiness of ages and battered books’.
For all of Harvey’s research into Soldiers' Testimonies from modern wars, it is interesting how songs such as ‘The Glorious Land’ are rustic in sound and theme. Here Harvey asks how ‘How is our glorious country sown?’, answering ‘Not with wheat and corn’, before calling ‘What is the glorious fruit of our land?’, responding that in fact ‘the fruit is orphaned children.’ The lyrics are chilling through Harvey’s juxtaposition of the futile death of war against the most basic, natural foundations of the country. It is easy to listen to the music without close attention to her lyrics and as a result miss Harvey's comment, but close attention makes all her music all the more effective and haunting when she reveals England's fruit to be of 'deformed children’.
Its rustic and folk sound contrasts with her lyrics again in ‘The Words That Maketh Murder’. The acoustic guitars and repetitive chanting of the title, with its archaic verb ‘maketh’, again imply a simpler age long before World War I. Therefore, when she sings ‘What if I take my problem to the United Nations?’, referring to such a modern organisation, again it jars. This effect reflects the speaker’s disorientated and disillusioned mindset, someone who has seen soldiers fall like lumps of meat / Blown and shot out beyond belief / Arms and legs were in the trees’.
Harvey’s voice is the star of the album, with tracks such as ‘All and Everyone’ demonstrating how she can apply eerie melodies to lyrics detailing soldiers’ first person accounts of war. Her voice is full of agitation and discontent, then suddenly it collapses into the welcome sweet release of a dreamlike section, before awaking back into an environment where ‘Death hung in the smoke / And clung to 400 acres of useless beach front’. Other tracks that stand out are the fantastic pairing of ‘In The Dark Places’ and ‘Bitter Branches’, which are two of the more purely musically interesting songs of the album. In the latter, the frustration of Harvey’s voice is matched by the rougher, faster and more rugged riff underneath as she repeats ‘wave goodbye’, with the former reaching an incredibly emotive climax as Harvey describes 'our young men hid / with guns, in the dirt / and in the dark places’. The album is one that is challenging, and one that I have admittedly neglected in favour of more accessible albums. However, with more time, Harvey's work gradually reveals itself and grows on you, demanding further listens. I merely admired it before, but now it is a record I am beginning to love.
Download: 'Let England Shake', 'The Glorious Land', 'Bitter Branches'.
5. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
Seattle’s Fleet Foxes return with their second album Helplessness Blues, building on the success of their self-titled debut with another collection of beautiful songs. The album is more advanced in its arrangements than its predecessor, and tracks such as ‘Battery Kinzie’ have rhythms previously unheard from the band. Fans will be familiar with the gorgeous, trademark vocal harmonies supporting Robin Pecknold’s voice and there are plenty to be found in ‘Sim Sala Bim’, and the final section of ‘The Plains / Bitter Dancer’. The title track is particularly brilliant; the soaring yet soft voices singing over relatively aggressive guitars. The track breaks down into a slower, swaying section as Pecknold again celebrates nature with ‘If I had an orchard / I’d work ‘till I’m sore’.
The following track, instrumental ‘The Cascades’, almost sections off the album into two parts. Poppier, more familiar sounds precede it, with the following tracks, particularly ‘The Shrine / An Argument’, demonstrating Fleet Foxes’ new progression and ambition. The song is eight minutes long, and divided into three sections. The first of which again showcases Pecknold’s voice, but here it has a new edge when he strains to sing ‘Sunlight over me no matter what I do'. The second part carries this tension into its foot-stomping folk rhythms before an experimental saxophone solo closes the piece.
It is this second half which features the meat and depth of the album, preventing it from being merely an extension of their debut record. Where other albums this year have fallen away after the first few tracks, this grows stronger with the lyrics of 'Lorelai' - ‘So, guess I got old / I was like trash on the sidewalk’ and ‘I was old news to you then’ - providing a new personal and emotive dimension to their music. ‘Blue Spotted Tail’ consists of one guitar and Pecknold’s soothing, breathy vocal before he soars in ‘Grown Ocean’. This closing track is an odd choice to conclude with as it is the fastest song they have ever released. Its consistent strong beat has no let up and, married with the acoustic guitar chords, provides the solid base which Pecknold’s pure voice compliments wonderfully. You'll be singing 'wooo ohhhhhh' for weeks. Yet, it is almost a shame that his voice is just too perfect. When performing the track live, he strains to reach a note in the line ‘I’ve struggled to attain it’, which almost becomes a scream. This adds to the intensity of the song, and it is disappointing that they chose not to include it on the record. But it is only a rare flaw in an otherwise wonderful album.
Download: 'Lorelai', 'The Shrine / An Argument', 'Grown Ocean'.
6. James Blake - James Blake
It admittedly took me a long time to realise exactly what dubstep was, and now it seems to have past me by completely as we are already on to the genre into which James Blake is included - 'post-dubstep'. What I do know, however, is that one description of the album being labelled as ‘dullstep’, is certainly not true. There is nothing at all boring about Blake’s self-produced, self-titled debut, where its confidence initially belies a definite vulnerability. As Alexis Petridis writes, it is as ‘weird as anything that’s been in the top 10 this year.’
One of the album’s stand out tracks is Blake's ‘The Wilhelm Scream’. A song based on a simple rising melody, the closing lines each verse often repeat ‘falling, falling, falling’, with the music mirroring that descent. The song consists of ten verses but and no chorus, with its structure a tenet of Blake’s minimalism. There are slight, gradual differences in the production behind each of the verses, as Blake adds on layer on layer, with subtle and just about audible clean guitar patterns complimenting electronic bass lines and beats. The song has many ‘blop’ and ‘click’ samples scattered around, and Blake expertly layers and distorts his voice before resetting it in the final verse over a simple solitary synth track.
Many of the other tracks follow the one vocal melody pattern of ‘The Wilhelm Scream’, and it would be a cynical reviewer with tin ears that notes the album’s eleven tracks only contain eleven melodies. ‘I Never Learnt to Share’ loops the lines ‘my brother and my sister don’t talk to me / But I don’t blame them’, but greater interest lies again in the sliding and shifting production beneath. It sounds like it could be from another song, its engorged bass lines contrasting against Blake’s softer tone, before exploding into a brilliant crescendo with a cathartic, wailing synth solo.
Blake is extremely talented as a producer, and recorded his album in his bedroom. It sounds mature and flawless, with Blake knowing exactly when to leave spaces, and when to deploy contracting bass lines and conflicting cross-rhythms. But he is also a magnificent songwriter. ‘Lindesfarne II’ builds on its previous track ‘Lindesfarne’ with a lightly bouncing guitar melody, while opener ‘Unluck’ contains tender vocal lines, that along with its piano chords, are cut up and spliced effectively.
Blake also includes a cover with Feist's ‘Limit to your Love’, demonstrating the versatility of his voice with powerfully performed lines such as ‘like a map with no ocean’, in comparison to the vulnerability of 'Unluck'. He also sounds like Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, with whom he has now worked, on the beginning of ‘Why Don’t You Call Me’. Overall, Blake has crafted an intricate, minimalist album which shows that he not only knows how to build a song, but also how to write and perform one too.
Download: 'Unluck', 'The Wilhelm Scream', 'Limit to your Love'.
7. Wild Beasts - Smother
Wild Beasts are cool. They have a cool name. They have a cool sound. Even their album artwork is bloody cool. With Smother, their third album, they have created a piece of work that is laid back and effortless, whilst remaining considered and intricate. It is a record that is not instantly accessible but instead slowly reveals itself.
Wild Beasts are inevitably termed an indie band but fortunately Smother’s first track could not be further away from an upbeat, spank the hi-hat, jumping opener number. ‘Lion’s Share’ is measured in its approach and unravels with its simple piano melody. Singer Hayden Thorpe, in his counter tenor falsetto voice, tells of ‘a veiled creature of the deep / Waifish as a widow, without sufficient sleep’. However the track is more beautiful in the introduction of its second vocalist, Tom Fleming, who has a rougher edge to his voice. It builds patiently before an eventual climax, still showing restraint, as Thorpe sings ‘boy what you running from?’
The best song of the record, lead single ‘Albatross’, is similar in sound and again the band use Thorpe’s voice to their advantage with all other members sitting back in support. Where he sings ‘drown in me’, the track invites the listener to be lost in its cooling, stirring sound with the hooks of Thorpe’s simple, hypnotic vocal melodies in ‘I blame you, I blame you / For all of those things I’ve been through’, pulling you in. Other lower tempo tracks such as ‘Deeper’ are sadly less successful, and Thorpe’s absence as a lead vocalist here is detrimental to the band’s unique sound. Its repetitive, uninspiring drum beat and frequent utterances of ‘deeper, deeper’ for some reason alienate and frustrate, rather than invite me in.
The album also features two tracks which have a bit more bounce to them. ‘Bed of Nails’ features the irresistible hook of ‘O, Ophelia, I feel you fall’, while Thorpe joyfully loses his restraint for the first time in singing the magnificent line ‘Surround me like a warm bath / Sum me up like an epitaph’. Fourth track ‘Loop the Loop’ then has a great spiralling guitar line and a well judged re-entrance of the band that in contrast is like a refreshingly cool shower in the return of its laid back drum beat.
‘Reach A Bit Further’ is one of the more accessible and catchy tracks on the record with its faster paced vocals in the twice repeated line ‘Tearjerker, shadow lurker, wonder worker, reach a bit further’. The song has a tremendous momentum that propels the band forward, proving they can harbour great intensity in both slower and higher tempo tracks. This is unfortunately the last real highlight of the album, with the following two songs - the atmospheric ‘Burning’ and closer ‘End Come Too Soon’ - seldom offering moments that rival those earlier in the record. The latter is ironically too long, and is at its most engaging at just over two minutes in, and cannot reach that level again even as it tries to return to build on that earlier melody. Overall, Wild Beasts present numerous moments of beauty in Smother, even if they fail in conjuring a blissful, dream like atmosphere in every track. It is certainly a cool record, but one which occasionally left me cold, rather than surrounding me in the ‘warm bath’ of which Thorpe sings.
Download: 'Bed of Nails', 'Albatross', 'Reach A Bit Further'.
8. Machine Head - Unto The Locust
Machine Head returned to critical and fan acclaim with the release of 2007’s The Blackening - considered their Master of Puppets. And where it may be this generation’s answer to Metallica’s seminal album, Machine Head apparently knew so too and toured it to death over a span of three years, where most bands spend just one. They appeared reluctant to re-enter the studio, embarking on new leg after leg, milking their record's success for all it was worth, scared that what they came up with next wouldn’t be good enough. Unto The Locust proves that they needn’t have worried.
Where The Blackening opens with the manic and ferociously paced ‘Clenching the Fists of Dissent’, Machine Head instead elect to start slowly. 'I Am Hell (Sonata in C#)' begins with vocal harmonies which repeat ‘Sangre Sani’ before it truly begins, as frontman Robb Flynn spits ‘I am death / arms held outstretched / I am hell / burn this mortal shell’ over a slow, powerful and grinding rhythm. The album effectively has three introductions, with the third section of the song ‘Ashes to the Sky’ marking the point where they really take off with their trademark speed riffing. Subtitling a song ‘Sonata in C#’ and splitting it into three labelled parts may appear pretentious, but all is forgiven through the sheer quality of the riffs and the brilliance of its chorus. The album features all of the long solos and dual guitar harmonies you would expect, but there are even more progressive elements, with Dave McClain’s extended drum fills in ‘Locust’ and ‘This Is The End’ an example of the band confidently showcasing its musical ability.
A metal album is great when all I want to do is drum along to it, and I was doing this within my first two listens. ‘Locust’ features a simple yet intense verse riff that instantly pricks up the ears, and is instantly familiar. 'Darkness Within' then sees them broaching further new territory, as Flynn sings passionately over an acoustic guitar cleanly for two minutes. I suspect it could be a big pop song if covered by the right artist.
However, I did begin to tire of it quite quickly as I felt that all of its rhythms and melodies had been unlocked almost too easily. But unlike Mastodon and Dream Theater’s new releases, they keep the album concise with seven songs with absolutely no filler. Flynn sounds more confident than ever in ‘Be Still and Know’, his voice stretching out, carrying the song as the band rests, knowing his clean singing in choruses will be sang back to him by adoring arena crowds following their new found success. I have not listened to many others, but this is undoubtedly my metal album of the year and this hugely enjoyable listening makes me want to revisit The Blackening all over again.
Download: 'Be Still and Know', 'Darkness Within', 'Who We Are'.
9. Radiohead - The King of Limbs
An email in early February informed me with the news every Radiohead fan wanted to hear - their new studio album, The King of Limbs, was soon to be released. On first listen, I was excited by the first five seconds of ‘Bloom’ with its spiralling piano. Then, in came the beats, and I was disappointed. I instead craved more of the hooks and guitars of In Rainbows. The new album is best where Yorke’s voice is permitted to stretch and reach out as it did previously in tracks such as 'Nude' and 'Jigsaw Falling Into Place'.
At 37 minutes this also feels like a short record, even if it only lasts five minutes fewer than its predecessor. It feels less like a complete album, which is perhaps because they have yet to tour in support of it, that it only contains 8 songs, as well as the continuous electronic beats meaning all tracks initially sound similar. It is only in the seventh track that an acoustic guitar is introduced, but 'Give Up The Ghost''s repeated utterances of ‘don’t hurt me' begin to bore. 'Little By Little' is interesting in its imperfect rise and falls, before it slows and fleetingly reminds of 'Reckoner' with Yorke’s high vocal lines.
Colin Greenwood is undoubtedly the beating heart of Radiohead, and The King of Limb's best songs are those in which he is most prominent. His bass lines provide the focal point beneath the scattering of electronic beats and samples in 'Bloom' and 'Feral', and they are the most interesting parts to each song. ‘Lotus Flower' is comfortably its best song, with Greenwood’s bass opening the song, and providing the melodic foundation for Yorke’s vocals. The song’s chorus is absolutely brilliant - beautiful with its tenderness in lyrics ‘There’s an empty space inside my heart’, before it develops into its graceful second part where no other instruments are needed other than a beat and Yorke’s majestic, unique voice.
Ultimately, this album lacks the vitality and tunes of the electronically based Kid A. It also appears Yorke is over indulging in his new phase of djing and remixing. It is a nice experiment, but that is almost all it is. It seems unfair to compare it with the more complete and balanced OK Computer and Hail to the Thief. I suffered some difficulty listening to it, and enjoying it. Overall, this will be tussling with Amnesiac in the bottom end of Radiohead’s rather fine canon.
Download: 'Bloom', 'Lotus Flower', 'Seperator'.
10. The Black Keys - El Camino
El Camino is the seventh album by Ohio rock duo The Black Keys (as much of a duo as Green Day are nowadays a three-piece), consisting of singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach, and drummer Patrick Carney. This is the first album of theirs that I have heard and they appear to have grown gradually, creeping up to the status that now sees them playing arenas around the UK. It takes only thirty seconds of opener ‘Lonely Boy’ to realise why this is the case, with an incredibly catchy chorus launching the album off with its high pitched layered backing vocals.
Following tracks ‘Dead and Gone’ and the terrific ‘Gold on the Ceiling’ are inviting and accessible, with the latter featuring the album's best riff in its heavy and groovy pre chorus. ‘Little Black Submarines’ is next, beginning with Auerbach singing over an acoustic guitar. This variation in sound prevents the album from becoming too one-note, but it could have done with one more track like this later in the album. It eventually builds with the entrance of a distorted guitar into one of the album’s best passages with Auerbach soloing as Carney pounds away.
‘Run Right Back’ is a strong mid-album song, with Auerbach channelling The Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme as he sings ‘She doesn't read too much oh / There is no doubt / She's written about’ and ‘She’s the worst thing / I’ve been addicted to’. However, while the album fleetingly reminds of Homme's side project Them Crooked Vultures’ debut, it lacks its punch, immediacy and heaviness. Songs such as 'Hell of a Season' have nice riffs, but are merely album filler. The final two tracks ‘Nova Baby’ and ‘Mind Eraser’ don’t really offer much more either. Overall, a fun and enjoyable album, if not at all an important one.
Download: 'Lonely Boy', 'Gold on the Ceiling', 'Run Right Back'.
11. Mastodon - The Hunter
In 2009 Mastodon released their masterpiece, Crack the Skye. The album's seven tracks were focused, yet contained new breadth, texture and scope as Mastodon explored Tsarist Russia and the ethereal. They return here with The Hunter, more concerned with the bestial in tracks such as ‘Curl of the Burl’ and ‘Creature Lives’, with a grittier, stripped down sound.
Fans will also note the added involvement in drummer Brann Dailor in vocal duties, with his purer, clean voice lending itself well to ‘Creature Lives’, which he sings in full, and ‘Dry Bone Valley’. The latter has more of a pop sound, and a delightfully simplistic chorus with its catchy hook. As the eight of thirteenth tracks, it kickstarts the second section of the album following the more spaced out ‘The Hunter’ (which features one of the album’s best solos). Mastodon head towards a more accessible sound and the longest song is merely five and a half minutes long. But this new direction does not work as well on tracks like ‘Octopus Has No Friends’, for which some reason I have difficulty enjoying; I just can’t handle the amount of times Brent Hinds repeats ‘always’ and ‘I’m on my way back home', in addition to a fairly unremarkable riff.
This is unfortunate as the album starts so strongly, beginning with the powerful riff of 'Black Tongue' - a song that would not be out of place on Crack the Skye. Dailor’s fills are frequent and extraordinary, his double bass drumming providing the unsettled background for Troy Sander’s voice as he strains to sing ‘You can run to the sea / You can run to the forest’. The track then erupts into a fantastic riff (in a time signature that I am still struggling to work out), before Hinds and fellow guitarist Bill Kelliher perform a dual harmony. The following track ‘Curl of the Burl’ is down-tuned and dirty, yet it is unusual to hear Hinds sing a chorus that is made up entirely of ‘wo ohhh’s.
‘Blasteroid’ is the sound of Mastodon having fun. The verse is performed at such a quick pace that it feels as if Dailor’s drumming is almost losing control and racing ahead of the riff, whilst simultaneously remaining completely in control. Hinds also lets loose, screaming ‘I wanna drink some fucking blood / I wanna break some fucking glass’, which makes joyous listening over a down and dirty, discordant riff. The album however features too many slower tracks following on from here and, after a blistering start, it starts to lose its way over its thirteen tracks. Despite only lasting three minutes more than Crack the Skye, it feels as if it in fact much longer. While there may be great moments in tracks such as ‘Black Tongue’, ‘Blasteroid’ and ‘Dry Bone Valley’, overall I found it disappointing, stodgy and lacking the depth of its predecessor.
Download: 'Black Tongue', 'Dry Bone Valley'.
12. City and Colour - Little Hell
Every scene kid’s favourite acoustic solo artist Dallas Green (Dallas=City, Green=Colour, geddit?) returns with his third album Little Hell, which features a full band as opposed to his one man, guitar and occasional harmonica shtick. The first track will take fans by surprise, as it opens with drums and bass supporting Green’s guitar and luxurious voice, in addition to a piano and another lead guitar layered on top. It sounds lovely as he allows his voice to warm up slowly without exerting himself too much as the song plods along nicely.
But at times, that is all this album is. Nice. Green began City and Colour as a side project to his former band Alexisonfire, before he soon outgrew them. He has even now sold out the Royal Albert Hall on his own. Now City and Colour has his full focus, it is evident that he is trying to progress and build musically, but these new songs lack the charm of his earlier two albums. He's also a bit of a grump live, and not the 'troubled artistic genius' kind. 'Natural Disaster' leaves no impression, and Green sounds just too laid back in a track that has no peaks, just one fairly boring 3 minute plateau. 'Fragile Bird', despite a relatively funky rhythm, is again another uninspiring song that will not encourage you to give the record repeat listens. 'Weightless' is initially interesting with its offbeat rhythm and it is the first track to really work with the full band, even if it runs out of steam towards the end of its three and a half minutes.
Despite the extra instrumentation, the best songs are those where it is just Green and his guitar. Third track ‘The Grand Optimist’ captures the quality of older City and Colour songs, and in later track ‘Northern Wind’ his guitar sits back to permit his gorgeous voice to come to the fore. But do even these songs compare to ‘As Much As I Ever Could’, ‘Comin’ Home’ and ‘The Girl’? Unfortunately not, and it is only ‘O, Sister’ that does. There is more intensity in the rhythm to Green’s finger picking guitar riff, while his beautiful voice, pure and rich, has more vigour whilst still sounding seemingly effortless. It may be that in comparison to Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes, Green does not match up, even if his gorgeous, golden singing does. It's just a shame the songs of Little Hell do not do his voice justice.
Download: 'Northern Wind', 'O, Sister'.
13. Architects - The Here and Now
I was in a rock club soon after this album was released, wearing my Architects’ t-shirt, when a young man pointed to it and exclaimed that their new album, The Here and Now, had the best songs he had heard since Bullet For My Valentine’s The Poison. That should explain everything wrong with this album. Architects here have run away from their ‘technical metal’ origins, but only rarely hit their stride in their new sound. Opener ‘Day In Day Out’ begins with a mid tempo groove as one guitar plays a riff as simple as any songwriter Tom Searle has ever come up with. This isn’t a bad thing, with this track being one of the best of the album. I don't mind them being less technical if the songs are up to snuff. After thirty five seconds it launches into a fantastic chorus that made me listen to the song constantly for many weeks. Despite their new direction, it still sounds like Architects. Unfortunately, this is not true of the whole album.
‘Delete, Rewind’ and ‘BTN’ feature strong riffs, but the production leaves them without the heaviness associated with this band (Shows what recording in Los Angeles, as opposed to Reading, can do to your sound). 'The Blues' then demonstrates musical maturity, with Sam Carter, previously a mere intense screamer, now showing off his new vocal versatility. Sadly his lyrics often let him down, with 'BTN''s ‘You’ve got a hold on me, like a constant need inside for nicotine’ distracting from its catchy chorus. Furthermore, Carter does his best Lost Prophets impression when he encourages the listener to ‘sing it loud’ on 'Day In Day Out' - a cringe inducing moment in an otherwise brilliant opening track.
Where the album succeeds is when it builds on, rather than rejects, its predecessor Hollow Crown. ‘An Open Letter To Myself’ is a ballad that retains the heaviness of the last record, while the final track ‘Year In Year Out’ abandons a regular verse/chorus/verse/chorus/breakdown/chorus structure that leaves ‘Learn to Live’ all too predictable. In contrast, other tracks’ progression is marked in their more simplistic, yet increasingly effective moments. Searle briefly cuts a Kirk Hammett-like bending guitar solo in ‘Delete, Rewind’ before he remembers what band he is in, while bonus track ‘Up and Away’ relieves Architects of the restrictions of being a metal or hardcore band with a stripped back jam.
The album fails when they try and please based on what is indeed expected of a metal band of their level, with ‘Heartburn’ a career low. This ballad blows its astonishingly weak load after only 40 seconds into a 3 and a half minute long track. Naturally, it became a single with a black and white video. Where fans loved the song ‘Hollow Crown’ with its newly clean singing Carter, they rebelled against this. It lacks balls, yet is complete bollocks.
Hope lies in the newly released song ‘Devil’s Island’, which features their much missed trademark ‘dirty chord’ riff. Architects are the one metal band I have continued to follow, and where others such as Enter Shikari, Gallows and Bring Me The Horizon enjoyed immediate success, they have stuck to their sound and gradually built a fanbase over their four albums. However, The Here and Now sounds like they are trying too hard to break through. Tracks such as ‘Day In Day Out’ and ‘Year in Year Out’ led to them opening the main stage at Reading and Leeds, not ‘Heartburn’. This album provides just enough to keep me sticking with them, and hopefully they will soon again, sound like Architects.
Download: 'Day In Day Out', 'Year In Year Out'.
14. Lou Reed and Metallica - Lulu
Lulu is the album produced by the unlikely collaboration of Lou Reed and Metallica. It has received an extremely poor critical reception, with Metacritic even listing the album as the 32nd worst album of all time. What is surprising however, is actually, it's not that bad.
The album begins with Reed’s acoustic guitar as his opening line raises a smile: ‘I would cut my arms and tits off / When I think of Boris Karloff and Kinski’. Reed continues and asks the question ‘wouldn’t it be lovely?’ before Metallica respond with their loud entrance. The song is based on one basic riff, the song taking the form of a loose jam with James Hetfield's repetitions of ‘small town girl’. One of the album’s main flaws is that Reed’s and Hetfield's voices often jar horribly against each other, but here they elect to sing separately. The tension that is often produced through this may be a reflection of the subject matter of the songs. Or rather, it is a signifier that the album often just doesn't work. ‘Iced Honey’ is another of the album’s strongest songs with Metallica’s slack riff reminding of their version of ‘Whiskey in the Jar’ from 1998 covers album Garage Inc., with Reed’s voice working well over it. ‘Mistress Dead’ is less successful, with Metallica’s riffing just too fast for Reed’s spoken word lyrics to be enjoyed. It contains just one fast riff that even Metallica fans will eventually become bored with, but ‘Frustration’ and ‘Pumping Blood’ have promising, interesting riffs that could make it on to a Metallica album.
This is not true of ‘The View’, with its sludgy riff moving achingly slowly over an Ulrich drum beat that has no pulse. The song recalls the outtakes of Metallica’s worst album, 2003’s St. Anger. In the difficult recording of the album, Hetfield left for rehab after an argument with Ulrich in which he had told the drummer that he expects 'the drummer to do the beat’ and it has ‘to be more solid’. This is entirely the problem with ‘The View’. Even when it does picks up pace, rhythm and intensity towards the end, Hetfield singing Reed’s lyrics of ‘I am the Table’ is almost laughable; not the reaction Reed wished to evoke with his adaptation of two plays by the German Frank Wedekind. Closing track ‘Junior Dad’ clocks in at an unnecessary, mind numbing 19 minutes. The album in total lasts 87. At least with St. Anger, Metallica had the sense to kept it to one disc. ‘Cheat on Me’ is just too long and repetitive at 11 minutes and the album’s best moments are outweighed by its far more frequent overwrought and dull sections. Of the negative reception the album has received, Reed says ‘who cares? I'm essentially in this for the fun of it’. I only wish that Lulu was more fun to listen to.
Download: 'Brandenburg Gate', 'Iced Honey'.
15. Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn of Events
For too long now Dream Theater have been metal pretenders, rather than comfortable in their own musical identity. They wear studded black t-shirts and singer James LaBrie even often wears his sunglasses indoors. His long leather coats do not make Dream Theater cool - it just highlights the band's age even more (their youngest member is now 44). If anything, their affectations only alienate a core fanbase of musicians and geeks who couldn’t care less about image. Seriously, just go to one of their gigs. A Dramatic Turn of Events demonstrates them again trying to fit in. ‘Bridges in the Sky’ is another that does not inspire. Progressive metal should mean more than just a mere extra bar in a riff that lies between a conventional verse and chorus. Bands such as Mastodon manage to fuse both metal and progressive elements cohesively and with excitement so that it doesn’t sound forced. Maybe Portnoy was right about that break after all. I feel I too may have to end my own relationship with the band. And I’m afraid, Dream Theater, it’s you, and not me.
Download: 'On The Backs of Angels'.
