1. Mars Volta – Octahedron
Man, these assholes would start an album with 2 minutes of silence. God bless their beautiful, LSD-drenched hearts.
2. St. Vincent – Actor
My brother said this album was like if Trent Reznor were hit by a giant, pink truck. Well-played.
3. Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse – Dark Night of the Soul
Didn’t this album carry you through the summer with its smooth, catchy jams, kind of? No? That was just me? Cool, you guys. That track with David Lynch on it is pretty sickhouse.
4. Bat For Lashes – Two Suns
I like it when British chicks sing about magical castles and moonlight and wolves and karate and stuff. But I pretty much like it when anyone sings about that, at any time, for any reason.
5. Johann Johannson – Fordlandia
The biponymous Johannson wrote this album about some abandoned industrialized town in Africa built by Ford. TOPICAL ISSUES. If you listen to this album loudly while doing literally anything it will seem as if you are saving or destroying the world.
6. Dan Auerbach – Keep It Hid
Actually I ran out of albums I really loved this year, but this one has some sweet songs on it. I’m still not particularly sure why this isn’t just a Black Keys album, though.
7. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
Let’s face it: Neko Case did not top “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood” with this one. We’re just going to have to come to terms with that together. But we can find solace in the fact that this is still one of her best albums, and is basically totally great. Neko Case manages the kind of poetic, melancholic romanticism that modern country stars insultingly satirize with their saccharine facsimiles. Also, Toby Keith can suck a d, am I right?
8. Mouse on the Keys – Anxious Object
It’s okay that you haven’t heard of this modern Japanese jazz trio. It’s because they are a modern Japanese jazz trio. But I think you should listen to them, if you like cool things. They really excited me with their EP “Sezession” last year, and listening to their full length was like watching a movie after seeing its really well-put together teaser and finding out that the movie in fact is just as good. Which is the opposite of what happened with “Watchmen.”
9. Mastodon – Crack the Skye
If you don’t like this album, you are an asshole. I really mean that; like from my heart, where it matters. We are not friends if you don’t completely love it. It is possibly the best metal album to come out this decade, let alone this year. It is a dense prog epic about a paraplegic lost in the ether of time/space after a failed astral projection, whereupon he must be rescued by Rasputin. If you are not excited after reading that sentence: fuck you.
10. ??????????????
I CAN’T HEAR YOU, DECEMBER.
COOL
THANKS
