Best of 2010: 10-6

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Honorable Mentions : 25-21 : 20-16 : 15-11 : 5-1

#10  Lower Dens - Twin Hand Movement

Purchase Twin-Hand Movement here.

Read the original review here.

This album was truly the unexpected treasure of the year for me. When I first gave it a listen, I was struck by the reserved nature of the band and the power that was accrued from that ideal. Most recently as I started making my "Best Of" list, this album kept creeping up the ranks after each reshuffle. The entirety of Twin Hand Movement is like when someone speaks softly to you with conviction, so you have to lean in close to absorb every single word. The minor chords from the guitars chime like the echo of an alley as frontwoman Jana Hunter breathes life into her bereft lyrics. The stark nature of "Tea Lights", the sultry sway in "I Get Nervous" and the near pop shimmer on "Hospice Gates" are all glittering gems in this bountiful, newly discovered trove of riches.

Lower Dens - 2 tracks from Twin Hand Movement

#9  Twin Shadow - Forget

Purchase Forget here.

Read my original review here.

After all the talk of the comeback of 80's glam in 2010, with LCD Soundsystem's Bowie album to new LP's former Roxy Music members Bryan Ferry and Brian Eno, the era was best captured on a debut full length from a New Yorker born in the Dominican Republic. George Lewis Jr. took on the pseudonym Twin Shadow and provides in Forget a rollercoaster love story where he shoulders all of the blame for its inevitable finish. Couple that with being taken under the wing on the production end by Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor and you have a pulsing, swirling album of pure romance for the 21st century. From the bloodletting confessional of opener "Tyrant Destroyed" to the new wave steppers "I Can't Wait" and "At My Heels" to the darker feel of seducers of "Tether Beat" and "Castles In The Snow", this debut set the bar high not only for Twin Shadow but for the entire nouveau new wave genre. (Hi, chillwave!)

#8  The Besnard Lakes - Are The Roaring Night

Purchase Are the Roaring Night here.

Read my original review here.

The big prog rock clatter of The Besnard Lakes started with 2007's Are The Dark Horse. In 2010, the band decided to go bigger than they had previously before, constructing epic tracks that are laid out like stormy oceans and fiery landscapes with each power chord strum. On my shortlist for best song of 2010 is the first song (split into two tracks, because it is so damn BIG) "Like The Ocean, Like The Innocent" which slowly builds from broken transmissions to raging fury. Other massive numbers on Are The Roaring Night include the 70's anthem (and other two-parter) "Land Of Living Skies", the anti-pop single "Albatross" and the futuristic Western "And This Is What We Call Progress". If you like you rock music to move mountains, this may do the trick.

The Besnard Lakes - 2 tracks from Are The Roaring Night

#7  Beach House - Teen Dream

Purchase Teen Dream here

Read my original review here.

This album came out early in the year and because of that Teen Dream was my first "Best Album" of 2010. Beach House took their shimmering, hazy sound from earlier efforts and gave the whole production some muscle and clarity. The result is an intense and nuanced album where the shimmers become blinding flashes and the haze is now an engulfing cloud. The newly epic nature of Beach House was necessary because Victoria LeGrand's voice and lyrics never commanded so much attention and been delivered with so much power. At the front end of Teen Dream is an amazing trio of grabbers in the airy "Zebra", the haunting slide guitar of "Silver Soul" and the breathy beauty of "Norway". The album finishes with raw emotion in the plaintive "Real Love" and the moving "Take Care", completely unfurling the amazing band that Beach House has become.

Beach House - Norway

#6  !!! - Strange Weather, Isn't It?

Purchase Strange Weather, Isn't It here.

Read my original review here

I understand that this is not the prototypical best album for this year as many don't have it on their lists at all. On Strange Weather, !!! chose not to follow their previous dub formula, shortening their songs and opting for a disco blowout. However, I have three strong reasons for placing this album in the rarefied air of my Top 10. For starters, the live show this year was, as usual, a shoulder-shimmying freakout. I mean, you can't help but dance at a !!! show. Next, if this album came out five years ago during the dance rock peak or was released by some unknown band who burst on the scene with these fresh, funky grooves, you would have to beat off the love the album would get with a big stick. It is tough to compartmentalize an album and avoid comparing it to the entire catalog. Strange Weather, Isn't It? is simply a different album from the rest by !!! and stands up well on its own. The third reason is simple. Despite all the other new stuff that kept coming out throughout the year, I kept on listening to this album. A lot. You can't argue with that.

!!! - 3 tracks from Strange Weather Isn't It?

Album Review: !!! - Strange Weather, Isn't It?

To properly listen to the NYC band !!!, it may be helpful to perform a bit of research. Of course, there is the requisite knowledge needed to say the name: !!! is said as "chkchkchk", like the sound of a typewriter pounding out each punctuation with authority. To wholly listen to the !!!'s catalog, you need to trace the chronologic steps that made the band's singular sound. An obvious starting place is the era of early disco when the necessary components were a bouncing bass and R & B guitar riffs over a perfect 120 beats per minute. Also, one must concern themselves with post-punk influences of Wire and Gang Of Four that spills into the drawn out dub expressions of Public Image Limited. Of course, the Manchester scene impressions cannot be ignored from the angles on Joy Division to the house-tinged Brit-club of Happy Mondays. Today's nouveau live band dance crusade led by artists such as LCD Soundsystem and The Juan Maclean march arm in arm with !!!, giving us a history lesson in each recording tied up in a package of pulsing strobe lights.

And what a fun bundle of music Strange Weather, Isn't It? actually is. Released on Warp, !!!'s fourth LP is heavy with lighthearted indie dance anthems that draw readily from the band's disco prerogative. The employment of the soulful backup singer works as frontman Nic Offer runs along side with his husky, lounging croon. The old school feel is most apparent on the their ode to simpler times "AM/FM" flaunting Gap Band bassline, Blondie swirling keyboard, bongo fills and signature dub guitar bridges that weave together into a cheerful kickoff. The jubilant mood hits the loftiest of heights for the next track "The Most Certain Sure" where !!! possibly craft the best singalong chorus of the year. The constant genre exploring of !!! actually break into less utilized influence on "The Hammer" where Krautrock pushes its way into the dance party and, while being short on lyrical content, makes for a furious concoction ripe for a extended free-for-all jam session encore.

This leads into the glaring omission on Strange Weather, Isn't It?. Where their past albums sported incredible lengthy exercises in disco-dub extensions, there are no 7+ minute tracks that always made !!! albums such prodigious creations and worthy reminders of those great moments in history. Certain tracks such as "Even Judas Gave Jesus A Kiss" begin to head in that direction, then simply fade into the distance. Instead, there are intriguing beginnings like "Jump Back" that could do with some more time in the studio for exploration. Still, there is plenty here to get sweaty over as !!! make another well blended album of present day indie club constructed on the cherrypicked past.

!!! play in Chicago Wednesday, September 29 at the Bottom Lounge. 

Purchase !!! Strange Weather, Isn't It? here.

!!! - AMFM


!!! - The Most Certain Sure


!!! - Even Judas Gave Jesus A Kiss

New !!! Song Available For Download, Album Out August 24

Hipsters have been getting a rough time lately. Skin tight jeans and 70's porn 'staches aside, there is one criticism that is dead wrong. The indie rocker is funky. Where hip hop is dangerously careening closer to pop music, indie rock has been digging deep in its vinyl carrying milk crates, excavating the nuggets of the past and lighting torches to lead us away from the dull, stagnant and the flat footed.

Today's music excavators are the New York collective !!! (pronounced chk chk chk) who bring the live funk, punk, disco and dub like no one since these sounds congealed in the early 1980's. Releasing three albums and, like all dance outfits should, extended vinyl singles through the 2000's, !!! have honed a serious dance sound that rubs off gritty rather than slick or overproduced. Whereas most live performances of dance music can be limp and aloof, this band gets down on the audience's level and doesn't stop moving until the last encore.

!!!'s new album on Warp, Strange Weather, Isn't It?, is their first sign of a new recording in three years and the first single, AM/FM, is a welcome homecoming. The joy is evident and palpable, like the recording was a jailhouse release. All of the elements are back in play: disco congos, jittery post-punk guitar stabs and bouncing bass all hit you the hips while the comely voices of male lead and female backing vocals lure you in like sirens to the rocks. Download and get to stepping. The rest will be awaiting you August 24.

Preorder the album here.