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Finally, I've emerged from the prolonged lassitude that is the winter holiday season and arrived at a moment's peace. The mental fog has lifted and it's already 3 weeks into the year in which the world is supposed to end, and judging by the state of what passes for music, cinema, and art-in-general today, I'm almost inclined to believe it. LMFAO has taken over the world, and people everywhere are rioting in the streets. About 100 species are going extinct per day, and soon intelligent life itself will be threatened. The suburbs will transform into postapocalyptic badlands thanks to Borders, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Bed Bath & Beyond, Office Max, Office Depot, REI, DSW and every other big box retailer going out of business that held up the last, flimsy vestiges of the untenable promise of Futurama. The sun will set behind an abandoned Super Target - the grim but pleasant facade of cultural progress in the Atomic Age - will we transform it into lofts/communes/a raw performance space? Are there enough artists in all the world to inhabit all the soon-to-be deserted Super Targets/Big Kmarts/Walmart Supercenters? Make sure to buy an ultra large flat panel TV at the liquidation sale, because you're gonna wanna watch what happens next.
Even if I could write a Slate style comparative think-piece, I wouldn't want to. This year didn't deserve it. It's just that music, currently, is one of the least interesting aspects of our world. I mean, it's 2012, and I'm writing about my favorite records that I bought on vinyl (a format introduced before 1950) last year. Pathetic. Further evidence that we are now living in a timeless, futureless era is that PJ Harvey has ended up on every critics Year End List. PJ Harvey... are they gonna tell me Liz Phair is back too? Julianna Hatfield? KD Lang? Anyhow, even in a year of music listening that was on average less enjoyable than a rerun of Wings, I managed to hear a few things worth remembering/buying. Through all the excavation, the following albums represent, if not pure gold, then at least quality pyrite.
Here's a simple list of records that I guarantee you will like. These records I deemed worthy of a purchase on a physical format. I actually purchased quite a few new albums this year relative to recent years... must've either been bored or a higher proportion of good music was released, I can't really tell. The ones listed below are the only good ones, I promise. Most of them are super lim eds. and probably out of print already (the 'limited edition' bait-and-switch tactic is how they get suckers like me to buy the records before listening to them, hence why some did not make the cut).
No implied rating system here; let's leave that sort of dorkery for the pitchforks.
War on Drugs - Slave Ambient [Secretly Canadian]
Already posted about this one. I had what I thought was a really cool analogy for it, but I forgot what it was. Basically, you can understand everything about this record by imagining The Traveling Wilburys through a delay pedal.
Remember cool delay pedals? It's no surprise that Drew doesn't use these.
Or maybe Tom Petty's first record mixed with the Discreet Music tape loop system (weird those two were released the same year), as represented by the equation:
One skilled in the art of music depreciation will recognize this makes Slave Ambient one of the best driving/road trip albums released in recent memory. Still it didn't appear very high, if at all, on most critics' year end lists, which means traditional guitar based rock is most certainly not okay with tastemakers right now. Actually, it might not have appeared on my list either (unconscious trend pony that I am) if it wasn't on 45 RPM heavyweight, clear red vinyl, making it a joyous listen.
Here's a video where the lead singer does his Dave Pirner impression:
Sleep
∞
Over - Forever [Hippos in Tanks]
Also useful as wall art.
Heavy, moody vibes abound on this lovely record. I don't know much about Sleep ∞ Over except that I think it's now just one chick who pretends to like skateboarding. Her musical signature is becoming quite distinct, though, as if Hope Sandoval were abducted and forced to join a German synth group. Conjures the mood of a dark teenage sleep over. Perfect seance music. If this was out at the same time as The Craft it would've fit nicely on the soundtrack. Instead, some guy put it to 80s yearbook footage:
Yep, this record glows in the dark. Sorry.
Rangers - Pan Am Stories [Not Not Fun]
Despite the dumb '___s' format band moniker, Pan Am Stories is legit. More stretched out psych journeys than their last LP that everyone got their buzz on to (Suburban Tours). Their 'poppy' side doesn't really click with me, but they're certainly in their element with 7 minute jams, fuzz growing all over the place, burying the vocals, guitars, drums while A.M. gold hooks creep through the audio detritus. The gatefold double LP makes it feel like a classic from the 1970s. This is what The Grateful Dead should sound like. They should probably just ask the Jerry Garcia estate if they can have his old band name.
Apocalyptic visions:
Real Estate - Days [Domino]
Will be playing at your next kegger. Some bros will probably sing along to it.
Totally pleasant, not challenging at all, endlessly repeatable listening experience. Just the qualities needed to go indie mainstream and win contracts from Converse, Mountain Dew, and NPR. I liken this to be the Crooked Rain of 2011. Similar to Pavement's trajectory, they released some cryptic singles, a noisy, more challenging first record that 'everyone loved', and then cleaned up their act with their sophmore effort being a placid, well-written album that everyone really loved. The only difference is that where Pavement maligned suburbia, Real Estate seem resigned to it. What's strange is that there is absolutely nothing that suggests Days couldn't have been released in 1994. The sounds, the structures, the vocal style... everything was in place by the time Crooked Rain was released. These specific songs just hadn't been written yet. (They would've had some trouble securing the band name back then, though, with the other [Sunny Day] Real Estate being in their heyday).
An alternative thesis would be that Real Estate are the new Grandaddy, except wealthier looking and lacking a superficial obsession with robots.
Similar instruments.
Similar voice*.
Similar fat dude on bass.
*admittedly, a stretch.
James Ferraro - Far Side Virtual [Hippos in Tanks]
Did you see the face?
Probably the most innovative and genuinely fresh entry on the list. If I had to choose between Oneohtrix Point Never's new one and this, I would obviously choose Far Side as it's a riskier and more rewarding album. Ferraro's one of the earliest exponents of chillwave and its related offshoots that have completely rewritten the playbook of indie in the last 4 years. Now that all the bedroom goons have aped his lofi dreamworld aesthetic, he's flipped the script and gone digital and hyperreal; traded his cassettes in for SACDs, as it were. He's a true artist, and this is true New Age music. Hilarious satire, interesting Macbook production, disturbingly accurate impressionistic vision of the present, and oddly good to relax to and forget about. Avant and Ambient at the same time...
Post-Far Side 'mix tape', released under Ferraro's alias, BebeTunes:
The closest you'll come to genius in 2011.
~~~
And that does it. I kind of just mainlined hipster blog tracks last year, didn't I? The only justification for this state of affairs is that mainstream pop is now totally unconscionable and hip-hop was stuck in an arhythmic, crunky treadmill for the second or third year in a row. Moreover, the cultural currents seem to be in a rewind mode, where the past exerts a greater influence on thought than the future, sort of like a perpetual omni-nostalgia (omnistalgia?). This doesn't mean the near future won't be exciting - it will - but that's there nothing specifically to be excited about. Nothing to look forward to - a new iPhone? Apple TV? All media ever recorded accessible at your fingertips? What's a blogger to do? You pick the 5 or so marginally interesting records as a Best Of list and keep clicking, downloading your way into the future.
