And when you believe most that a bit more, it feels rather weird. How does one city, on the other face of the planet, manage to rule this year`s album list? According to my flatmate it`s inconceivable to build a lot in London because the city`s too crowded: there are no affordable spaces where you can really practice - meaning without the neighbours calling the law because you`re making noise - resulting in `bands` having to get full time jobs in grade to pay for practice space and so not having the meter to do in the now affordable space. The vast open place of the USA seems to be taking on this (then again, L.A. doesn't move me as the broad open Western country plains, but I've just been there once as a kid so I've got no clue anyway - ed).I get used `A Fool Persists` as my ringtone for the best portion of the year, which wasn`t a big success as I didn`t really need to clean up my call on the rare occasion that it actually went off. On the album it works perfectly though. All the songs fall into each other, something which I know as it means you shouldn`t play this album on shuffle. Shorter interludes are alternated between the longer tracks, and patch the all tracks feature a poke of noise which strangle reminds me of No Age - or not so strangely as the album has been released on their record label - there is about real beauty in there too.Random Track: `Dive`Nr. 4 - IlseAlbum: High VioletArtist: The NationalSix months ago I wrote this album off as `another one of those the National albums`. This wasn`t a damaging remark, as I adore `High Violet` just as often as their early work. However, having had more time to let the album sink in; I believe this one is actually larger and more edifying than their older stuff, something I`d attribute to the lush orchestration and uplifting harmonies. The smell of trust that shimmers through the cracks of apiece of the songs is incredibly comforting. Another remarkable thing around the Subject is that they`re are capable to have somewhat odd lyrics sound very natural. I mean, how many bands can get by with "It`s a tremendous love and I`m walking with spiders"? I`m still puzzled by how they do it, but I think Matt Berninger`s distinctive baritone voice is unquestionably a suspect. He manages to have it with such sincerity, devotion and soothing warmth you`ll eagerly agree and yield to it, no matter how seemingly non-sensical the language may be.Though `High Violet` features numerous great songs, `England` must be one of my favourite tracks of the year 2010. Not merely on a musical level, but more on a personal story as well. Having left England this summer after almost a year of life there, the lyrics "You must be somewhere in London / You must be loving your living in the rain" are quite painful, not simply because of all the mass I left behind (and they definitely come to listen when I see this line), but likewise for the memories I take of my time there. It`s a sentence I won`t get support and won`t relive again anytime soon, if not never. At the same time `England` helps me deal with these feelings and reminds me that spirit goes on. All in all, the Subject may be kings of sad bastard melodrama rock about urban and social anxiety, it is emphatically not in a `nobody understands me`-way. Quite the opposite actually, their music is engaging, uplifting and has a relatable and general appeal.Random Track: `England`Nr. 4 - StefAlbum: HeartlandArtist: Owen PallettAs you might have accomplished by now - and certainly if you get read this blog before you must`ve known - I do love stuff that is thematically linked to each other. Whether that be on themes or in terms of story or in price of atmosphere; I enjoy it if there is an estimate behind it or if an idea has unconsciously been reinforced in. This time it is really often on purpose, because Owen Pallett has made an intricately structured concept album about farmer Lewis in a fictitious world where he, Owen Pallett, reigns supreme. However, Owen wants something of Lewis, but he is "never gonna make it to" him. In the close of the album Lewis violently dethrones Pallett from his authorization to find the world.Now, that is the history of the narrative, and there is a whole hoist of themes there that I find interesting. First of all, the meta-fictional element of putting yourself in a form of fiction so that, inherently, it IS fiction. So there is no world created trying to be real, but the writer`s hand and eye are firmly present and the author makes no effort in concealing it. Second of all, there is the subject of a fictitious character rebelling against the narrative. The writer says, hey, this is the way it is going down, and the character says, You recognize what, no!, and rebels against it. Which can be construed as rebelling against tradition or conformity, or something else oppressing. Very much ties in what the earth has been doing since 1950 with Gay Rights, Civil Rights, the Second Wave of Feminism, and the ongoing quest of, okay, so, I don`t think in God, but if there is no God, what exactly is passing on in this man and why? On the album there are lots of references to be ground to faith as well, or to other literature like, for example, Faust. Not to observe that the songs are simply plain good. Some are even rather catchy because of the amazing looping Owen does, some are carefully crafted and get some curveballs in them, like the opera singer on the closer of the album. Both musically and in price of narrative a large album high on themes and ideas.Random Track: `Tryst With Mephistopheles`
Sunday, December 26, 2010
IKRS Countdown: Onze favoriete albums uit !010 - Nr. 4
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