is it dead at the end of the road?
Top 10 Albums of 2009
9. Them Crooked Vultures - The Crooked Vultures (Swisslet)
“Super Groups” aren’t supposed to be like this: they’re supposed to be exercises in vanity and self-absorption where nobody dares to tell the star performers that their songs are overlong and under-interesting; that the album might have been fun to make, but it’s certainly no fun to listen to.
Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones appear to have broken the mould here with an album that’s a riot from start to finish. Yeah, so it’s not art, some of the songs are a little long, and perhaps there are times when someone might have had a word with the drummer about his solos…. But if you want a proper, honest-to-goodness, pedal-to-the-metal rock album, then there hasn’t been a better one than this all year.
Listen To: Dead End Friends
9. Athlete - Black Swan (LB)
2005’s Tourist remains one of my favourite albums of recent years and despite the commercial failure of 2007’s Beyond the Neighbourhood (not their best, but by no means as bad as it was made out to be) I had high hopes that Athlete would return with another great record.
I’m delighted to report that Black Swan is just that record.
Eschewing the electronica apparent on Beyond The Neighbourhood and returning to the simple, gentle guitar pop that served them so well on Vehicles and Animals and Tourist, Athlete’s comeback album is simply brilliant. From the great uptempo Superhuman Touch to the really beautiful title track it is another superb Athlete record from start to finish. If you ever liked any of their previous work I can pretty much guarantee that you will like Black Swan as well.
Listen to: Black Swan Song
9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz (bedshaped)
Karen O and the gang returned with an album that, in their words, "changes the sound around a little." Personally, I think they've under-sold themselves with that statement. Gone are the crashing, sometimes untidy drums. The guitars have been either replaced by keyboards or mixed right down in the tracks and Karen O's vocals are sounding cooler than ever.
It's a tight mix of very tidy tracks, with production, mixing and delivery giving more than it's fair share of nods towards electronica, programming beats and fashionable eighties beats. For those familiar with older Yeah Yeah Yeah songs, it's winning formula is that they've retained their indie status....their almost underground sound, as it were....and yet produced a great set of songs that sound like they've been written and played after spending the previous six months listening to Japan, Talking Heads, Blondie, Depeche Mode and anything produced by Brian Eno, Giorgio Moroder or Fluke.
Classy!
It's filled with hooks, ranging from the pulsing keys bassline in Zero ....to the almost anthemic bagpipes sound towards the end of Skeletons...to the haunting tinkly keys in "Runaway"....to the dirty, dirty guitar chords in Shame and Fortune.
Standing out for me, is Runaway. A simple story about love, loss, choices and reflection. The haunting piano melody is just lush, Karen's voice adding depth to the first half, until strings signal the song is really gonna fill out. And fill out, it does. Wonderful orchestrations drive the last half of the song, washing in and out, before strings take the basics of the song and wring its neck.
I think they've probably already peaked with their musical status. Which is a great shame. Like many other bands, they seem to have hit a point in their careers where they might still be around in six or seven years, but they'll never be any bigger. Whilst this latest album is certainly head and shoulders above much of the tripe that's been thrown at listeners this year, I don't think they will ever get much more recognition than they already have. Much like The Gossip, to a certain degree. And shameful as that may be, it's sadly far too common to see bands unable to climb the last part of that 'We can fill stadiums without even trying' wall. But I'd like to think, and hope that if they can continue to raise the bar with future releases, who knows....? They may even break the mould.
It's a brilliant album. Very easy to listen to all the way through and think "Yeah, that's a really good album." Thoroughly recommended.
Listen To: Runaway
9. Them Crooked Vultures - The Crooked Vultures (Swisslet)
“Super Groups” aren’t supposed to be like this: they’re supposed to be exercises in vanity and self-absorption where nobody dares to tell the star performers that their songs are overlong and under-interesting; that the album might have been fun to make, but it’s certainly no fun to listen to.Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones appear to have broken the mould here with an album that’s a riot from start to finish. Yeah, so it’s not art, some of the songs are a little long, and perhaps there are times when someone might have had a word with the drummer about his solos…. But if you want a proper, honest-to-goodness, pedal-to-the-metal rock album, then there hasn’t been a better one than this all year.
Listen To: Dead End Friends
9. Athlete - Black Swan (LB)
2005’s Tourist remains one of my favourite albums of recent years and despite the commercial failure of 2007’s Beyond the Neighbourhood (not their best, but by no means as bad as it was made out to be) I had high hopes that Athlete would return with another great record.I’m delighted to report that Black Swan is just that record.
Eschewing the electronica apparent on Beyond The Neighbourhood and returning to the simple, gentle guitar pop that served them so well on Vehicles and Animals and Tourist, Athlete’s comeback album is simply brilliant. From the great uptempo Superhuman Touch to the really beautiful title track it is another superb Athlete record from start to finish. If you ever liked any of their previous work I can pretty much guarantee that you will like Black Swan as well.
Listen to: Black Swan Song
9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz (bedshaped)
Karen O and the gang returned with an album that, in their words, "changes the sound around a little." Personally, I think they've under-sold themselves with that statement. Gone are the crashing, sometimes untidy drums. The guitars have been either replaced by keyboards or mixed right down in the tracks and Karen O's vocals are sounding cooler than ever.It's a tight mix of very tidy tracks, with production, mixing and delivery giving more than it's fair share of nods towards electronica, programming beats and fashionable eighties beats. For those familiar with older Yeah Yeah Yeah songs, it's winning formula is that they've retained their indie status....their almost underground sound, as it were....and yet produced a great set of songs that sound like they've been written and played after spending the previous six months listening to Japan, Talking Heads, Blondie, Depeche Mode and anything produced by Brian Eno, Giorgio Moroder or Fluke.
Classy!
It's filled with hooks, ranging from the pulsing keys bassline in Zero ....to the almost anthemic bagpipes sound towards the end of Skeletons...to the haunting tinkly keys in "Runaway"....to the dirty, dirty guitar chords in Shame and Fortune.
Standing out for me, is Runaway. A simple story about love, loss, choices and reflection. The haunting piano melody is just lush, Karen's voice adding depth to the first half, until strings signal the song is really gonna fill out. And fill out, it does. Wonderful orchestrations drive the last half of the song, washing in and out, before strings take the basics of the song and wring its neck.
I think they've probably already peaked with their musical status. Which is a great shame. Like many other bands, they seem to have hit a point in their careers where they might still be around in six or seven years, but they'll never be any bigger. Whilst this latest album is certainly head and shoulders above much of the tripe that's been thrown at listeners this year, I don't think they will ever get much more recognition than they already have. Much like The Gossip, to a certain degree. And shameful as that may be, it's sadly far too common to see bands unable to climb the last part of that 'We can fill stadiums without even trying' wall. But I'd like to think, and hope that if they can continue to raise the bar with future releases, who knows....? They may even break the mould.
It's a brilliant album. Very easy to listen to all the way through and think "Yeah, that's a really good album." Thoroughly recommended.
Listen To: Runaway
delivered by LB at 6:27 AM
4 Discussions:
Dammit, I don't have either of those albums!
I wanted to check out Them Crooked Vultures, and swisslet, your review has made me want to even more now. Just finding the time, huh?
And Athlete. I do like Athlete, but felt that somewhere, they lost their way. I thought they were destined for great things. Perhaps Snow Patrol stole most of their thunder?!
Anyway....gonna add these two to the list.
for balance, I like Athlete but have found Black Swan to be very disappointing. My favourite album of theirs is the much quirkier Vehicles & Animals, and for me it's been all downhill since.
Them Crooked Vultures? They pretty much do exactly what it says on the tin, and that's all I ever required of them....
In Athlete's defence, I think Black Swan is approaching Tourist in brilliance.
I wouldn't say thir output has been all downhill - it dipped, but I really think they have recovered here.
just an opinion. That 1st album is my favourite, and although tourist is good, I just preferred it when they were quirkier and less, well, less Coldplay.
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