Fifteen to Hum - June '09 Collection Part Two

And so some more info on the Fifteen to Hum choices...

Will The Horrors' Primary Colours be picking up album of the year awards come December? We've still got half the year to go but it's definitely got a chance - "Do You Remember" is one of many outstanding tracks and perfectly showcases the drone and shoegaze influences that pervade it.

Faris and friends will face some serious competition from White Denim who have taken MC5's imprint and twisted it into something that is wholly their own, with some brilliantly experimental on new album Fits.

Forget best (though it's up there) Titus Andronicus' 2008 album The Airing of Grievances .is without doubt my favourite of the past year. Having seen them twice, their live show matches the quality and intensity of the literary punk-shoegaze on record. I urge everyone to pick up the record and catch a show next time they're in town.

The second time I saw Titus Andronicus (at the 100 Club) was also the second time this year I'd seen The Soft Pack. In that time the Californians have evolved from an over-hyped, kinda sloppy Strokes-alike to an incredibly tight, top quality garage rock band. Their latest single "Nightlife" proves it.

"We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed" is the title track of one of my favourite albums of last year. Los Campesinos! released two very good long players in '08, but this latter one saw the band hone their skills into a really special album.

Black Lips were the first signing to Vice magazine's record label and as such, should by rights be making some sort of post-ironic, hugely pretentious, self-congratulating music. However, it isn't. It's great. "Bad Kids" is a doo wop rock classic that you won't get out of your head for days.

Richmond Fontaine are pretty much the best band in the world. With new single "You Can Move Back Here" out on Trash Aesthetics soon and live dates in September, it's as good a time as any to revisit "Barely Losing" from the alt-country classic Post to Wire.

The '59 Sound is another album I have absolutely worn out over the past year. There is simply not a duff track on there, and it is great that The Gaslight Anthem seem to be getting at least some of their dues with a string of successful singles and a sold out show at the Forum. It's an album where you have a different favourite song each week. For me it's "Miles Davis and the Cool" right now.

I couldn't resist throwing some Blur in there on the eve of Glastonbury, as their reunion is the highlight of the musical summer. It could have been anything but I've gone for "Badhead" off Parklife.

More to follow...

Contributions to Rockfeedback's Records of the Year '08

Los Campesinos! – Hold On Now Youngster (#75)

As good an indie pop album as any released for many a year, the shouty, witty, sing-along, boy-girl brilliance of the much-anticipated debut from Los Campesinos! was also among the finest albums of 2008 full stop. The blend of Darren Hayman-esque self-deprecating bitterness, Eddie Argos-equalling wit and Stuart Murdoch’s ear for a tune (and eye for a song title) comes together perfectly in songs like ‘Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats’ and ‘This Is How You Spell...’ – but there really isn’t a dud on the whole album.


The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound (#64)

While the Hold Steady took most of the blue collar rock plaudits in ’08 with the solid Stay Positive, this debut from New Jersey’s The Gaslight Anthem snuck up on the inside to out-Springsteen all comers, adding a harder punk edge to melodies inspired by the Boss. With timeless rock’n’rollers like ‘Old White Lincoln’, ‘Great Expectations’ and none better than the title track, The ’59 Sound was one of the few releases in 2008 that made you want to dust off the leather jacket and get a Joe Strummer haircut. Which can only be a good thing, can’t it?


The Acorn – Glory Hope Mountain (#60)

It was only early in 2008 that I got hold of The Pink Ghosts, The Acorn’s excellent 2004 debut. An intriguing blend of acoustic electro-folk, the thought of an ‘evolution’ from this (and the two subsequent EPs) into a concept album based on the life and local music of Acorn main-man Rolf Klausener’s Honduran mother, merely served to multiply that intrigue exponentially. And the Ontarians didn’t disappoint, with sprawling latin ballads based on interviews conducted with Mom and set to music influenced by that of her home. As well-executed a project as it was genuinely touching, Glory Hope Mountain provided a welcome reminder of the redemptive power that music can have.


The War On Drugs – Wagonwheel Blues (#51)

Yet another band of young Americans summoning up the spirit of Springsteen on their debut, The War on Drugs did so in a more interesting, successful and, frankly, bloody brilliant way than most in 2008. The glorious Boss-meets-Dylan harmonica-drenched ramblings of ‘Arms Like Boulders’ is surely one of the finest album openings of the year. But the exhilaration of this introduction hides more than just a collection of backward-looking pop-rock songs. Sonically-speaking Wagonwheel Blues ranges from the lo-fi ballad ‘Barrel of Batteries’ to the waves of guitar of ten minute album centre-piece ‘Show Me The Coast’, with much more in between. There are ideas, textures and timeless tunes a plenty on what is a remarkably impressive debut.


Calexico – Carried To Dust (#43)

Joey Burns and John Convertino’s sixth studio album was a welcome return to top form after the more mainstream stylings of Garden Ruin. Back came the brass, the mesmerising instrumentals, the mariachi storytelling, and, above all, songs to rate among the bands best. As the title implies and as all the best Calexico records do, Carried to Dust instantly transports the listener to the dusty American South with a sound like no other, and is easily as good as anything the Arizonans have produced to date.


Los Campesinos! – We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed (#39)

Los Campesinos! not only get props for releasing two full-lengthers in 2008, there should also be the sound of 14 hands patting seven backs reverberating around Cardiff for the combined brilliance of both Hold On Now Youngster and We Are Beautiful.... 10 more tongue in cheek quotidien tales of the disaffected and heartbroken more than complement their debut, on this limited-run-no-single-once-it’s-gone-it’s-gone album, with more great songs a plenty and a title track to absolutely die for.


Born Ruffians – Red, Yellow & Blue (#7)

One of the more interesting guitar albums of 2008, Red, Yellow and Blue was also one of the best (you’d expect nothing less of Canadians signed to Warp) and quite how it never exploded, I have no idea. Led by Luke LaLonde’s strained vocals, the trio mixed scruffy, infectious guitar hooks with Animal Collective-like production (courtesy of Rusty Santos) and a whole range of quirkiness, from a capella breaks to song titles like ‘Badonkadonkey’ and ‘Foxes Mate For Life’. Bursting with childish exuberance and a couple of the songs of the year (‘Hummingbird’ and ‘I Need A Life’) it is a quite brilliant record.


Rockfeedback’s (very fine) Top 10:

10. Neon Neon - Stainless Style
9. High Places - High Places
8. The Magnetic Fields - Distortion
7. Born Ruffians - Red, Yellow & Blue
6. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
5. Mystery Jets - Twenty One
4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
3. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
2. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
1. Portishead - Third

See the entire top 80 here and here.