Albums of 2010: 5-1

It's the final countdown (de-de derrr der...de-de der der derrr...)

5. Caribou - Swim

The greatest trick Dan Snaith ever pulled was convincing the indie-blogging world it liked club anthems. Sun and Bowls were essentially just that - woozy, euphoric and beat-driven - albeit constantly evolving, submerging and re-emerging as something quite different. But the pulsating 4-person live shows coupled with Snaith's frail tenor ensured that underneath it all Swim, as with all of Caribou's otherwise very distinguished records, possessed a beating human heart. The clinching vocal performance however, fell into the hands of Born Ruffian Luke Lalonde for show-stopping closer Jamelia.

4. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

As The Suburbs claimed the #1 spot in both the U.S and U.K, it sent Arcade Fire into the pantheon of artists such as Radiohead and previously REM of commercially successful bands that truly matter. The Suburbs was absolutely the right album at the right time for the Montreal band, eschewing blockbusting singles for more unified songwriting (I've heard no less than 9 of its 16 songs played on radio or on TV appeatances) and big themes for smaller, more fully realised ones which, in their mundanity, were paradoxically much more interesting.

3. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

The  Atlanta, Georgia band's musical journey over the last three years, from dissonant krautrock and ambient soundscapes to the blissful dreampop one might associate with their label 4AD, has been an enthralling one; Halcyon Digest felt like the next and quite possibly definitive piece in the puzzle, the sound of a band reaching its final destination. Guitarist Lockett Pundt made key song-writing contributions - Desire Lines, like Nothing Ever Happened before it, showed how Deerhunter can be epic without being even remotely showy - but Bradford Cox leant extra emotional heft to his songs, peaking with the achingly pretty Helicopter and He Would've Laughed's touching tribute to the late Jay Reatard.

2. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

James Murphy's supposed bow-out of the LCD Soundsystem name was in essence Sound Of Silver Pt. 2, and what's wrong with that? Murphy, who's gotten better and better as a vocalist with each release was, as ever, equal-parts sardonic, earnest and hilarious, and always utterly self-aware. But while Drunk Girls may have served as the obligatory go-to single, the album's true agenda was there for all to hear on You Wanted A Hit ("that's not we do"), backed up by a sprawling 70 minute 9-song cycle which once more drew upon the usual Bowie/Iggie/Talking Heads touchstones, yet maintained Murphy as no mere revivalist, but a peerless visionary.

1. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor

It's some feat for an album bristling with such raw punk energy from the off to sustain such levels over 65 minutes, but The Monitor, the year's most exhilirating record, did just that. Vocalist Patrick Stickles spends pretty much its duration as man kicked into the gutter, lowest of the low, but no matter how wretched the situation, Titus Andronicus pulled thim up each and every time with one more venomous mantra, one more guitar solo, one more bagpipe solo(!). Theming the album around the American Civil War (cue readings of Abe Lincoln, Walt Whitman et al) may not have prevented lyrical references to Springsteen, Dylan and even Billy Bragg, but it was utterly appropriate; The Monitor was the sound of a band playing as though their very lives depending on it.

20-16

15-11

10-6

The Ones That Got Away

The Quarterly Review: Jul-Sept '10

The third quarter of this year provided further evidence that 2010 really has been one of the best in recent memory for music. There was the usual glut of September releases, including my Album of the Quarter, Deerhunter's Halcyon Digest. If truth be told though, picking a favourite album from the last three months was extremely difficult as the competition was fierce; Andrew Cedermark's fabulous solo debut was the big surprise, whilst the sheer consistency and vision of the new Arcade Fire record confirmed that they have well outgrown any doubts over their longevity. The new Working For A Nuclear Free City record showed that the Manchester band was as ambitious as ever. Then there was the first Swans record in 14 years, a glorious black smear across the bright blue sky which has been most of this year's output.

This quarter also saw a couple of bands take big diversions with their sound. Some (Abe Vigoda) were surprisingly successful, others (Blonde Redhead) rather less so.

Album of the Quarter

Deerhunter: Halcyon Digest

On Heavy Rotation

Andrew Cedermark: Moon Deluxe
Arcade Fire: The Suburbs
Sufjan Stevens: All Delighted People EP
Swans:  My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky
Women: Public Strain
Working For A Nuclear Free City: Jojo Burger Tempest

Doing The Rounds

Abe Vigoda: Crush
Black Mountain: Wilderness Heart
The Electronic Anthology Project: The Electronic Anthology Project
Les Savy Fav: Root For Ruin
Grinderman: Grinderman 2
Matthew Dear: Black City 
Menomena: Mines
M.I.A: /\/\ /\ Y /\
Lower Dens: Twin Hand Movement
Mogwai: Special Moves/Burning
Of Montreal: False Priest
School of Seven Bells: Disconnect From Desire

On The Shopping List
No Age: Everything In Between
Arab Strap: Philophobia (Reissue)

On The Discard Pile

Blonde Redhead: Penny Sparkle
The Thermals: Personal Life

Review: Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest

Since their breakthrough with 2007's Cryptograms, Deerhunter's subsequent musical trajectory has been one of natural and seamless progression. 2008's Microcastle, and the EPs that fell either side, each seemed to pick up where the last release left off, slowly evolving the band's sound from dissonant krautrock  and ambient soundscapes to lusher, more melodic pastures. Halcyon Digest, not surprisingly, continues their evolution, with the band's most textured effort yet.

There's much about Halcyon Digest that recalls Deerhunter's recent work - the strutting rhythms, Bradford Cox's drowsy vocals - but it's like the band have submerged their sound underwater. Opening track Earthquake and Helicopter are layered in dreamy textures, autoharp and sloshing sound loops. The slow and gentle drift of Sailing effectively mimics its tale of being lost alone at sea, and the album as a whole seems to ebb and flow, with the hazier likes of Sailing and Basement Scene placed alongside the much more vibrant Revival and Memory Boy.

As the band continue to shy away from the noise of their earlier work, the line between Deerhunter and Atlas Sound, Cox's solo project, gets increasingly blurred, but the contributions of guitarist Lockett Pundt are a timely reminder that Deerhunter remain very much a band entity, and he puts forward two of the best (and perhaps most conventionally "rocking") tracks here. Desire Lines rides in on the stomp of Arcade Fire's Rebellion (Lies) and a descending note riff, and rides out on a simple yet deeply satisfying extended guitar coda. Fountain Stairs is a more straightforward, though no less enjoyable, surge of chiming guitars, replete with a blasting bridge.

Cox meanwhile does his usual thing, swimming about his own headspace, spouting out contradictions ("I lived on a farm yeah / I never lived on a farm", "I wanna wake up/I don't wanna wake up"), but he also delivers a couple of career-best performances here. On Helicopter, perhaps the highpoint of the album, Cox swoons "No one cares for me/I keep no company" over a pillowy and luxuriant chorus, whilst his strained delivery on the closing He Would Have Laughed adds a fitting tenderness to a track dedicated to the recently departed Jay Reatard ( the track cuts off abruptly, perhaps a reference to Reatard's untimely death). Above all, there's an abundance of wonderful touches throughout Halcyon Digest that make the record truly shine; the saxophone which wraps itself around Coronado is as unexpected as it is brilliant, and the ripples of autoharp that break in He Would Have Laughed are plain gorgeous.

Halcyon Digest is then, yet another great entry in an increasingly great catalogue, one which, like any of its predecessors, could legitimately be held as a favourite. Whilst some may wonder where the noise and bluster has gone, it would be foolish to think that these elements of Deerhunter have gone forever; remember how Weird Era Cont. brilliantly deconstructed the band's sound? In the meantime, I'm more than happy to ride the wave Deerhunter are currently on.

91/100

Stream new Deerhunter album Halycon Digest in its entirety

Yes, Deerhunter's hotly anticipated new album Halycon Digest is just around the corner (out on 4AD next Monday), but for the impatient among you, it's available to stream in full here.

Look out for a review of Halycon Digest on these pages next week.