Opinions may vary as to the relevance of 'end-of-the year' lists. Personally I find them quite exciting. The end of the year may just be a day like any other, but it gives you a kind of deadline up to which you get the opportunity to reflect on your experiences, the state of your life and of course maintained or changed consume patterns as reflected in your.....
Music
Albums of the year
Ok, this is a bit tough, since I've hardly heard any albums of 2010 as yet. I'm still trying to catch up on 2009 and spent most of 2009 catching up on 2008 and so on and so forth. Plus I've mostly been discovering old or at least oldish music those past coupla years, from Johann Sebastian Bach to the Beatles and found it much more worthwhile in part than just breathlessly chasing after bands that imitate them. If I think about newish albums that I could put into such a list, they're mostly from 2009 and if I think about albums of 2010 that will probably be pretty brilliant, I haven't heard them yet (new God is an Astronaut and Mogwai- albums are just two examples). So what I could do is just make up a list of my favourite albums of 2009, but then that one is so long by now I'd probably have forgotten half the stuff I wanted to include. So I'll just give you some of the very very few albums of 2010 I've actually heard in 2010 itself and order them in a certain way. Prog/art rock seems to be prevailing again, which is kinda weird, because I've mostly been listening to punk rock and bluesy stuff (not 2010 punk rock and bluesy stuff though, I think).
1. Anathema - 'We're here because we're here'
Well, this one is and will have to stay number one, hands down. Finally a new Anathema album is out and it does add so much to their established pattern. What I like most about this album is the almost positive tone prevailing underneath all the melancholy. Anathema used to be one of the most depressing bands around. Their music always was beautiful, but in a very bleak and hopeless kind of way. 'We're here because we're here' is still very sad in parts, but from the very first note onwards it also made me smile and gave me a sort of we're-all-in-this-together feeling. I guess Anathema's music will never be uplifting, but I hope they'll manage to carry their new-found positivity on into their future work.
2. Grinderman - 'Grinderman 2'
Grinderman must be one of my top discoveries of the year. As a long-time Nick Cave fan, I don't really have an excuse for not having checked them out earlier, but there it is. Anyway, I DID get both their albums this year and was just blown away. I'd read reviews that condemned Grinderman 2 as being too raw and anarchic and as the product of Cave's midlife crisis, but I suppose these were also mostly the reactions of a coupla intellectuals demanding back the cosiness and 'poetry' of later Bad Seeds ballads. However, if you don't take Grinderman too seriously, you'll notice that they don't, either. And that's the refreshing thing really. If this is the product of a midlife-crisis, Nick Cave has definitely learned how to take the piss out of it.
3. Ginga - 'They Should Have Told Us'
Who would have thought I'd ever have the pleasure of putting an Austrian band into an album-of-the-year-list, but Ginga truly deserve the attention they're getting for their new album. I often have trouble telling all those new indie pop/rock bands apart, but Ginga really have something that sets them apart from the mass: passion and an interest in experimentation, among others. They're also a pretty good live band. Their album should definitely be available outside Austria, so check them out if you get the chance!
4. Porcupine Tree - 'Recordings' (re-issue)
Well, this is a re-release, but a re-release of an album that hasn't been available for years, so I suppose a lot of people (including myself) hadn't heard all of it yet. Some of the songs have been played live on a regular basis, but the original album was out of print and only available for horrendous prices on ebay (if you didn't want to download it, that is). 'Recordings' isn't even an album in the strict sense; it's a collection of B-sides, but what B-sides they are! Other bands would kill to count PT's B-sides among their singles. Taken together, the songs also tie in very nicely with one another and form an entity that could easily be called, well, an album. It also includes one of my favourite PT-songs of all time: 'Buying New Soul', which I can now finally play over and over again to my heart's desire.
5. Oceansize - 'Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up'
Oceansize have long had a special place in my heart. I'd loved everything they ever put out and I was absolutely convinced that they were one of the best live bands in the universe! If you have that sort of attitude towards a band, you can only be put in your place sooner or later, can't you? When I saw them live in January, I was absolutely disillusioned by the mediocrity of their performance. The EP they released ('Home & Minor') didn't help either. It marked a complete departure from everything they'd done before, but not necessarily in a good way. I found their experiments with really, really slow, whiny and unmelodious muzac just plain boring. Others have done it better; I don't think I've listened to the EP more than twice. Anyway, the new album was a bit of a reconciliation. Thankfully, Oceansize are making noise again! The first song even sounds like doom metal, but still there is enough space on the album for the tranquil, emotional moments of beauty that characterise Oceansize's music. This kind of beauty works best though, when it's juxtaposed with a lot of noise, in my opinion. The album also includes one of my favourite song titles of all time: 'It's My Tail and I'll Chase It If I Want To' - and a brilliant song it is, too!
Honorable mentions
Gogol Bordello - 'Trans-Continental Hustle'
I'm not sure if I've paid very close attention to this album, although I've listened to it about a million times. It's a Gogol Bordello album and all the ingredients of their gypsy punk are there: it's folky, happy, makes you dance and the lyrics range from sex to social criticism. Still, for me GB is essentially a fun kind of band and this is a fun kind of album. Also, they are a band that works best live. If you've ever seen them live, you'll keep coming back forever, at least if you belong to the sort of people who find the idea of a surreal, anarchic gypsy circus from all over the world even remotely intriguing . The IDEA behind the band and their music is a good example of being strong enough to sustain a multitude of albums without them having to do anything much different.
Volbeat - 'Beyond Hell/Above Heaven'
The same could be true for Volbeat, although they are now showing some signs of exhaustion, at least for me. When I first heard their 'Johnny Cash meets Elvis at a Metallica gig and asks him about his new mohawk'- kinda style I instantly loved it. This combination is just pure fun. However, the problem is that it doesn't show any ambition of becoming more than fun. Volbeat put out good album after good album without making any significant changes to their basic formula. This gives you more fun and well-made Volbeat songs to choose from, but not many ways of telling them apart. To be fair, they did introduce a few death metal grunts on this album, but this is not what I would call innovation (seeing that the band have a death metal background). That's why Volbeat for me are essentially a live band as well.
So, here it is, my opinion about a coupla disks. Please mark the emphasis on opinion, since I've absolutely no expertise in the music field. And already I start thinking about 2010 albums I still have to hear. I'll probably make another list in May 2011 then!
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen