in my mind this is my free time
Top 10 Albums Of The Decade
5. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights (2005) (Swisslet)
Joy Division have never been so influential as they are now, with scores of bands transparently inspired by those gloomy Mancunians. Interpol, it must be said, are foremost amongst those admirers: if you couldn’t hear it in their music, then you only have to watch bassist Carlos Dengler play with his legs wide apart and his guitar almost touching the ground, to see a very obvious Peter Hook tribute at work.
Unlike, say, Editors, Interpol move comfortably beyond their most obvious influences to offer something interesting of their own. Singer Paul Banks may have a voice that makes him sound like an undertaker reading from a legal textbook, but somehow that apparent lack of expression simply serves to layer on the emotional impact of the songs. It is a dark and poetic work, with Banks throwing in (and getting away with) some apparently leftfield lyrical ideas: “You go stabbing yourself in the neck”, “The subway is a porno”, “you’re so cute when you’re sedated”… Normally that would turn me right off, but the whole tone of the album encourages the listener to see this as art rather than as literalism. Take NYC, for example:
“The subway she is a porno
The pavements they are a mess
I know you've supported me for a long time
Somehow I'm not impressed”
This is the city post-9/11 and this is a love song from the band to their hometown. It’s backhanded, but the affection is real. I don’t know how a subway can be a porno, but in the context of this song, I don’t give a damn. It sounds glacial, but there’s an almost indefinable warmth around the edges of this song. Fragile, delicate warmth, but warmth none the less.
Most of the lyrics on this album are oblique and elliptical, with the meaning obscure but the beauty often openly apparent. Take this from Say Hello to the Angels:
“I want your silent parts
The parts the birds love
I know there's such a place”
I’ve no idea what that means, but I love it, and the power of it is somehow enhanced by Paul Banks’ monotone. Interpol’s other albums are well worth a look, but for me this remains their pinnacle to date. An album of depth, darkness and rich complexity.
Listen to: Obstacle 2
5. Tiny Dancers - Free School Milk (2007) (LB)
Lots of great bands in the 2000s made just one record. Of all of them, I'm more disappointed that we'll never hear more from the Tiny Dancers than anyone else....
Formed in Sheffield in 2005, the six piece reached the lower echelons of the charts in 2007 with the brilliant singles Hannah We Know and I Will Wait For You. They toured alongside Babyshambles, the Ghosts and Bob Dylan and played two stunning sets at Glastonbury in 2007.
They really did have some potential. Singer David Kay was an odd but clearly talented character and their interesting mixture of guitar, glockenspiel and keyboards was really refreshing. Free School Milk, their debut (and only) album was produced by the Stone Roses' John Leckie and contained the two top Forty singles as well as the superb Shame, Baby Love and Sun Goes Down.
If the Tiny Dancers slipped beneath your radar in 2007 it is well, well worth seeking our Free School Milk now. It's a superb record and you'll be as rueful as I am that they never went on to bigger and better things.
Listen to: I Will Wait For You
5. Arcade Fire - Funeral (2005) (bedshaped)
Arcade Fire are a difficult band to explain. To look at them, especially when they are playing live, they look like a mish mash of untidy mature students, who still believe that one day their day will come. Because they are in fact very good. Varied, musically talented, flavours of indie, rock, folk, roots, even house and glam get a foot in the door. And it's a crowded house.
Musically, the album is filled with all manner of weird and wonderful sounds. Percussion is obviously played on strange things, squeezeboxes pulse in and out, violins rip and roll and stand out, there's a couple of guitars, bass and other things at work here, and it doesn't sound overcrowded. Just....full.
Essentially there are two singers, the guy and the girl, who I think are married. Which is uber cool, by the way. Anyway, yeah, the two singers....well, they haven't got the most amazing voices, but actually, for the mood of the music and album, they fit here just perfectly.
I don't think their follow up album was anywhere near as good as this one. The sound here is....experimental and quite raw, and sounds like the producer sat there twiddling his thumbs instead of the knobs, 'cos the band had perfected the song in the first take. I'm sure that didn't really happen, but I think that's a nice way to sum up the sound production here.
Listening to the album, it's almost got an operatic feeling to it. Like each track is progressing the story. I don't even know if that was intentional or not. I really should do some more research I guess. My bad.
Big with the indie kids and the cool kats. It's not a snobby album. It's not pretentious. It's just good old fashioned rock n roll. With knobs on. And tracks like the gorgeous ballad In The Backseat, with the beautiful string arrangements , the harp, the scratching and scraping, and the fantastic outro, don't know if they are meant to stay somber and gentle or rock the fuck out. Either way it works wonders.
Anyone who's unfamiliar with the band should listen to Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels). It's a perfect opening track and a pretty accurate example of what the rest of the album is gonna feel like. Basically, if it's just not agreeable, then don't bother with the rest of the album.
Favourite track: Rebellion (Lies). Pounding kick drum....climbing bassline....piano....a bit of guitar....senses of....Bowie, The Jam, Squeeze, The Undertones, Talking Heads. You get the picture. But they've also mixed it around, melted it in with modern feel and sound. It builds and builds into a pounding, romping songs, complete with wailing backing vocals and piano riffs that would make Ray Charles and Jools Holland proud.
They should have go on to much better things. Sadly, they didn't. Not in my eyes, anyway. There's always next time!
Listen to: Rebellion (Lies)
5. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights (2005) (Swisslet)
Joy Division have never been so influential as they are now, with scores of bands transparently inspired by those gloomy Mancunians. Interpol, it must be said, are foremost amongst those admirers: if you couldn’t hear it in their music, then you only have to watch bassist Carlos Dengler play with his legs wide apart and his guitar almost touching the ground, to see a very obvious Peter Hook tribute at work.Unlike, say, Editors, Interpol move comfortably beyond their most obvious influences to offer something interesting of their own. Singer Paul Banks may have a voice that makes him sound like an undertaker reading from a legal textbook, but somehow that apparent lack of expression simply serves to layer on the emotional impact of the songs. It is a dark and poetic work, with Banks throwing in (and getting away with) some apparently leftfield lyrical ideas: “You go stabbing yourself in the neck”, “The subway is a porno”, “you’re so cute when you’re sedated”… Normally that would turn me right off, but the whole tone of the album encourages the listener to see this as art rather than as literalism. Take NYC, for example:
“The subway she is a porno
The pavements they are a mess
I know you've supported me for a long time
Somehow I'm not impressed”
This is the city post-9/11 and this is a love song from the band to their hometown. It’s backhanded, but the affection is real. I don’t know how a subway can be a porno, but in the context of this song, I don’t give a damn. It sounds glacial, but there’s an almost indefinable warmth around the edges of this song. Fragile, delicate warmth, but warmth none the less.
Most of the lyrics on this album are oblique and elliptical, with the meaning obscure but the beauty often openly apparent. Take this from Say Hello to the Angels:
“I want your silent parts
The parts the birds love
I know there's such a place”
I’ve no idea what that means, but I love it, and the power of it is somehow enhanced by Paul Banks’ monotone. Interpol’s other albums are well worth a look, but for me this remains their pinnacle to date. An album of depth, darkness and rich complexity.
Listen to: Obstacle 2
5. Tiny Dancers - Free School Milk (2007) (LB)
Lots of great bands in the 2000s made just one record. Of all of them, I'm more disappointed that we'll never hear more from the Tiny Dancers than anyone else....Formed in Sheffield in 2005, the six piece reached the lower echelons of the charts in 2007 with the brilliant singles Hannah We Know and I Will Wait For You. They toured alongside Babyshambles, the Ghosts and Bob Dylan and played two stunning sets at Glastonbury in 2007.
They really did have some potential. Singer David Kay was an odd but clearly talented character and their interesting mixture of guitar, glockenspiel and keyboards was really refreshing. Free School Milk, their debut (and only) album was produced by the Stone Roses' John Leckie and contained the two top Forty singles as well as the superb Shame, Baby Love and Sun Goes Down.
If the Tiny Dancers slipped beneath your radar in 2007 it is well, well worth seeking our Free School Milk now. It's a superb record and you'll be as rueful as I am that they never went on to bigger and better things.
Listen to: I Will Wait For You
5. Arcade Fire - Funeral (2005) (bedshaped)
Arcade Fire are a difficult band to explain. To look at them, especially when they are playing live, they look like a mish mash of untidy mature students, who still believe that one day their day will come. Because they are in fact very good. Varied, musically talented, flavours of indie, rock, folk, roots, even house and glam get a foot in the door. And it's a crowded house.Musically, the album is filled with all manner of weird and wonderful sounds. Percussion is obviously played on strange things, squeezeboxes pulse in and out, violins rip and roll and stand out, there's a couple of guitars, bass and other things at work here, and it doesn't sound overcrowded. Just....full.
Essentially there are two singers, the guy and the girl, who I think are married. Which is uber cool, by the way. Anyway, yeah, the two singers....well, they haven't got the most amazing voices, but actually, for the mood of the music and album, they fit here just perfectly.
I don't think their follow up album was anywhere near as good as this one. The sound here is....experimental and quite raw, and sounds like the producer sat there twiddling his thumbs instead of the knobs, 'cos the band had perfected the song in the first take. I'm sure that didn't really happen, but I think that's a nice way to sum up the sound production here.
Listening to the album, it's almost got an operatic feeling to it. Like each track is progressing the story. I don't even know if that was intentional or not. I really should do some more research I guess. My bad.
Big with the indie kids and the cool kats. It's not a snobby album. It's not pretentious. It's just good old fashioned rock n roll. With knobs on. And tracks like the gorgeous ballad In The Backseat, with the beautiful string arrangements , the harp, the scratching and scraping, and the fantastic outro, don't know if they are meant to stay somber and gentle or rock the fuck out. Either way it works wonders.
Anyone who's unfamiliar with the band should listen to Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels). It's a perfect opening track and a pretty accurate example of what the rest of the album is gonna feel like. Basically, if it's just not agreeable, then don't bother with the rest of the album.
Favourite track: Rebellion (Lies). Pounding kick drum....climbing bassline....piano....a bit of guitar....senses of....Bowie, The Jam, Squeeze, The Undertones, Talking Heads. You get the picture. But they've also mixed it around, melted it in with modern feel and sound. It builds and builds into a pounding, romping songs, complete with wailing backing vocals and piano riffs that would make Ray Charles and Jools Holland proud.
They should have go on to much better things. Sadly, they didn't. Not in my eyes, anyway. There's always next time!
Listen to: Rebellion (Lies)
delivered by LB at 8:49 AM
1 Discussions:
Yes, Interpol's album is indeed an excellent one. And one, I hasten to admit, I kinda forgot about. I need to dig this out once again.
The Tiny Dancers album was something I picked up on from one of our previous lists, so I am truly thankful for that, because it is indeed a fine album. Loved the variety on this album.
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