Merry Christmas to all! A quick note on my thinking:
I agree with MuZack and HoboKeith that The Basement Tapes was the best overall release but I'm leaving that out. I chose to only stick with new albums for my list in the interest of highlighting newly written and recorded music. That Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack was awesome, too. I enjoyed the Cloud Nothings, Woods and The Men albums and had a hard time deciding between those three and Real Estate for tenth. Ultimately, I went Real Estate although if I wrote this list another day I may have picked a different one. They were all pretty good but I can't see myself listening to any of the four I just mentioned on any sort of a regular basis in the future. The other nine, however, were all pretty awesome and I fully enjoyed getting into each of them at various times of the year. Ok, enough of that and on to my list:
10. Real Estate - Atlas
Since I get to listen to music for around 75% of my work day, I get to listen to anything I'm even remotely interested in so that's basically the only reason I grabbed this and gave it a whirl. It grew on me after a few listens. I liked it enough at work to give it a shot at home on my own time and if you're in the right mood it works nicely. Pretty mellow, chill, jangly vibe throughout that eventually made a lot of the album blend together. "Had to Hear", "Past Lives" and "Primitive" were highlights for me.
9. Weezer - Everything Will Be Alright In The End
Go ahead and laugh but I honestly enjoyed this album. The lyrics are pretty atrocious for most of it but the music is great and the songs are well written. Most of it is pretty catchy, faux-vintage sounding Weezer. I like these guys quite a bit and it's nice to hear they can still put out a good album. After Raditude and Hurley I gave up hope and almost didn't bother downloading this but thankfully I did and it ended up being one of the better surprises this year for me (unlike the extreme disappointment that was the Julian Casablancas/Voids release).
8. Ryan Adams - Ryan Adams
It's good to see Ryan Adams is back with another good album. I tend to like most of what this guy puts out so if you like Ryan Adams generally, I'd say you'd probably like this album. This one has more of a late 70's/80's Tom Petty radio vibe in general, which I'm totally digging. "I Just Might" just might be one of the best songs he's written in quite a while. I love how he channels that dark, Bruce Springsteen feeling of helpless desperation in the (kinda) laughable lyrics. The lyrics are kinda laughable in the same way that they usually are, in the same way that the album cover is laughable. I mean, come on dude, do we need that extreme, brooding close up with your messy hair covering your face up?
7. Black Lips - Underneath The Rainbow
This one was good, not as good as I was hoping for but few albums usually are. More of what I like from these guys, sloppy 60's garage rock. As the Hobo mentioned, horrible lyrics here and there. One thing worth mentioning, if you're going to get this album, make sure to seek out the alternate version of "Funny". Not only is the alternate better than the album cut but it's better than any of the songs on the album...in my opinion, that is.
6. The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream
I only REALLY liked the first song when I first listened to the album and thought the rest was a bit dull. But then again, I was listening at work. When I got around to throwing this on in the car, or at home, I got a chance to absorb these songs and realized they're fucking awesome. "Burning" ended up being probably one of my favorite songs of the whole year. It sounds like it could have been on the radio right next to anything on "Born in the USA" back in the 80's in the best possible way. The production on the album, and overall sound, is a bit similar to the Ryan Adams album. The songs are typically pretty long (5+ minutes for most) but don't feel that long when you're in them. I'd recommend this one to most people. I am almost ashamed of myself for pretty much refusing to listen to it because of how much Pitchfork was blowing it. They just happen to have a habit of hyping up bad shit but sometimes they DO manage to give a good album due credit.
5. Brian Jonestown Massacre - Revelation
Good one by these guys. If you're into what they do, go for it. If not, don't worry about it. This is better than the last few they put out and sounds like Anton has found a way to blend what he was doing in the 90's to the last few albums he's been writing.
4. Foxygen - ...And Star Power
Meh...if I took away points for bad songs this album would be off the list but thankfully I like a full album's worth of material out of the 2 1/2 album length. I whittled this down to a 12 song play list that runs around 40 minutes and it comes out sounding like a good Foxygen album. I still like the first two better, with Take the Kids Off Broadway being my favorite but this one is still awesome at times. That Star Power medley is just great and "How Can You Really" was so awesome it got me into Todd Rundgren.
3. Ty Segall - Manipulator
Thanks IronFishballs! I saw a review of this album that intrigued me and then saw something about how he "killed" on a late night show. Watched the late night performance and was NOT impressed. Checked out his discography and saw 3 albums a year over the last 6 years...fuck this guy. Then El Fishlantern randomly recommended it to me a few months later so I figured I'd give it a whirl. It's hard to describe why I like this album so much so I'll just say the songs are well written (mostly), there are only like 4 songs I'm not a huge fan of, out of 17 and it's very guitar heavy. Not heavy guitars but guitar all over. Crazy fast strumming, solos and such added with a glam vibe that reminds me of Bowie at times and really works for me.
2. Spoon - They Want My Soul
Great album, one of my favorites by these guys. Right up there with Kill The Moonlight and Gagagagagagagagagagaga in my book. I could see a bunch of these songs ending up on the radio. Maybe they are on the radio but I don't know because I'm too busy trying to listen to the 10 new albums I download a day while I'm driving around. There's not a single song on here that I don't like. If I had to pick a song that is a bit weaker than the others, I'd go with "Inside Out"or "Rent I Pay", which just happen to be the first two songs on the album. The title track, "Do You" and "Rainy Taxi" are my favorites here. Did want to add that I'm a bit surprised TheLantern snubbed this one, considering you're a Spoon fan and all, dude. Not even an honorable mention, what the fuck? (Fishlantern/Editors note: This has been remedied in my updated list. You were absolutely right. I done messed up...)
1. Liars - Mess
I didn't mention this one to most of you guys because I highly doubted it would be your cup of tea. These guys seem to get better with each album they put out. Worth noting is that they change their style a bit on each album. I grabbed this one and when a song off it came up on shuffle I couldn't imagine what the fuck my phone was playing but it couldn't have been something I had put on there to listen to. After I got over the initial shock of what direction these guys had gone (from guitars on the last album I heard by them from 2010 to this electronic, industrial madness), I realized this was some of the best music they've written yet. I was only into the first half of the album until I caught them live earlier this year. After that it was all over for the other albums in contention for my top spot.
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