So what's with the eyes in the back of the room?

I came across this live radio cut of Sharon Van Etten's Give Out just the other day.  Surprised it took so long to find as it's one of the first links on YouTube.  However, I can't help but share it as it is wonderful.

IT'S NEW SO IT MUST BE GOOD! (The Strokes, Justin Timberlake, Iceage, Widowspeak, Foxygen)

The Strokes - One Way Trigger. The Strokes are tired.  The Strokes want to go to bed.  Julian Casablancas want's you all to listen to his falsetto.  Listen.  Listen why dont you?!

Justin Timberlake - Suit & Tie.  Just feels a little phoned in after 6/7 years out.  But he's always been good at that above average quasi-sexual fronting.  Comes easy to him.  And thats why after a couple of listens its just not fun anymore.

Iceage - Ecstasy.  Disco-metal anyone? Heavier than previous Iceage, but still sharp sharp sharp.

Widowspeak - Thick As Thieves.  Folksy chamber pop, like waking up and wearing 'Scarborough Fair' inside out.

Foxygen - On Blue Mountain.  The chorus cosies up to Elvis' 'Suspicious Minds' but I still love the pop/bluesy change up.  It's drowsy and loose.

Best Albums of 2012! (1)

1. Chromatics. Kill For Love

My album of the year.
Dive in.
Luxuriate.
Heighten your emotions.
Run for the sun.
Listen again and again and again.
Rock and roll can never die.

Recycle this: Kill for Love, The River, These Streets Will Never Look The Same. But really, just listen to the whole damn thing.

Best Albums of 2012! (1?, plus a smorgasbord of leftovers)

1. It's all synth and piano glissando with honky-tonk guitar
2. Female vocalist, built to tear down layers of atrium and ventricle
3. Sets controls for the heart of the sun, especially when the moon shows its hand
4. Instrumental pieces that intertwine wonderfully without ever coming across as filler
5. M83's 'Hurry Up, We're Dreaming' looking into a multi angled mirror at its older, emotionally mature sister
6. My favourite album of 2012

Other scrapings:

7. A special mention to the artists who released terrific albums I just couldn't fit on this list. Sharon Von Etten, Dirty Projectors, Grimes, Jessie Ware, Bat for Lashes, Twin Shadow, Japandroids, Ty Segall, Deftones, Killer Mike, El-P, Julia Holter, Baroness, amongst others...
8. Album Cover of the Year: Laurel Halo' Quarentine (very good album to boot)






9. Most surprising announcement of 2012: New My Bloody Valentine Album. It has been 21 years after all.
10. Biggest Disappointment: Kanye West presents G.O.O.D. Music, Cruel Summer. Get on the solo material pronto!





11. Gig of the year. Jeff Mangum. In a church. Nothing compares
12. Celebrity romance of the year. Taylor Swift and Harry Styles. I hear they'll marry.
13. Number of times I was disappointed in Spotify Premium only to renew my subscription a month later: 8 1/2
14. "2013 won't be as strong as 2012" overheard/read: 1 (so far)

Best Albums of 2012! (2)

2. Kendrick Lamar. good kid m.A.A.d city

Lyrical virtuosity is a rare commodity in the modern era. Don't get me wrong, there are great wordsmiths out there. Some who can make a song that much more wittier, fragile...and ultimately interesting. But these attributes are not what I have in mind for 'lyrical virtuosity'

Let me explain.

Lyrical virtuosity to me is the ability to create and engineer words around music and tracks that form a spellbinding narrative as a whole. Joanna Newsom is one such talent, but even her magical album, 'Have One On Me' doesn't flow in its storytelling as much as does in its individual novellas.

What makes Lamar's album different from so many in 2012 is its ability to maintain its hooks, it's outside guest spots, and yet still drive its narrative to honest and heart emboldening heights.

The narration of inner city life struggles, everyday moral struggles and family dynamics positions Lamar as probably the best MC since Lil Wayne dropped 'Tha Carter III', at least I can't think of as strong a collection since. Even the vocal samples have a duel purpose of placing Lamar as both real and character.

It all comes to its natural emotional apex on 'Sing About Me, I'm Dying Of Thirst' the recorded moment of 2012 (if not the best song of the year individually). The intensity and brilliance of what comes before earns it that title.

We may have a contender on our hands.

My number 1 and 2 albums could almost be interchangeable but what keeps good kid m.A.A.d city at 2 is I probably don't relate to it as much as número uno.

It's the album of 2012 I'm most wowed by and technically by this lists is the best of 2012, if not quite my favourite, _________ moves me just a little more...

Recycle this: Sing About Me, I'm Dying Of Thirst, Money Trees, Swimming Pools (Drank)

Best Albums of 2012! (3)

3. Death Grips. The Money Store

2012 was in many ways the year of Death Grips. At the beginning they were still riding high of the left field success of Exmilitia, they then released No Love Deep Web. Both were given away as free mixtapes and of course by the release of No Love Deep Web, servers were crashing with the numbers trying to download it from the Death Grips website. The torrents lost their collective mind.

The Money Store, is the third in this progression of releases. It's definitely a more accessible release, with greater pop sensibilities than the previous two albums.

The raw anger which came across like a lion in a pack of hyenas, has been some what toned down and replaced with a pulse like energy that is irrepressible. That's not to say it isn't an 'angry' record, it's just that it seems to have been focused via the plethora of ideas, flips and u-turns on show here.

The flange synth (as I like to call it) is preeminent throughout, but as a base plate for what is layered on top of it. It's a signature calling cards in many ways. Like the best of Beastie Boys funnelled through Shabazz Palaces in-step out-step deliveries. MC Ride spits his mantras with an impassioned delivery which puts many hip hop vocalists in the shade.

This is 40 minutes of a speed rush sensation that wont let go. Like a pack of wolves chasing deer in the woods, it's unrelenting and magnificently scattershot.

Recycle this: Get Got, Hustle Bones, I've Seen Footage

Best Albums of 2012! (4)

4. Tame Impala. Lonerism

Perth, Australia is a remote place. At least musically speaking. So when Kevin Parker (Tame Impala) released his debut Innerspeaker it made the rest of the world stand up and listen in. I thought I'd had my fair share of 70s psychedelic rock pop but where Lonerism differs to its predecessor is in its abstract river like quality.

Parker, it must be noted, writes, plays and sings each note on the album. My focus primarily was on the lyrics. With a title like this you'd expect something of a downer but the strange thing is the words of isolation and disconnect fly in the face of the warmth of the repeating synths and twinkling pianos.

At first it's almost disconcerting but the strength of each song is in its indirectness and how at 3/4 minutes in length they never outstay their welcome. Only 'Elephant' flies in the face of what comes around it as the only true single of the bunch.

It's also easy to reference Lennon here. The vocals, the arrangements. But this is meant as a great compliment rather than how we say refer to the Gallagher's songwriting.

All in all, Tame Impala still sounds like Tame Impala. Lovingly nostalgic yet a gem of its time and place.

Recycle this: Endors Toi, Why Won't They Talk to Me?, Feels Like We Only Go Backwards

MY DESTINY, YOUR DESTINY WHO'S DESTINY'S CHILD (Nuclear Review)

It starts off well...Well considering how these comebacks singles go.

But I have one BURNING question...on to that later.

You don't have to like the songs but there's an infectiousness to some of those songs. 'Say My Name', 'Bills Bills Bills', 'Survivor', 'Independent Women' were coast to coast smashes that broadened the trio's (quartet/trio) appeal beyond any simple girl power gimmickry.

In all seriousness, I'm getting this Miami new wave vibe that can't be denied. The first 30 seconds start of intriguingly enough with the string synth playing seductively with a syncopated, almost new jack swing drum pattern.

The Massive Attack/Portishead mood can't go unnoticed. Triphop B? They even gave Michelle the bridge!

Kelly and Beyonce come in. Am I listening to Brandy and Monica revisited? The best of Destiny's Child to me always tended to be the ferocious attitude and spirit. It peaked with Beyonce's Glastonbury performance.

There's a mood here that some will enjoy, even though its antagonistic to all that the group did well previously. But here everything seems so laid back its as if they are ashamed of what they achieved at the turn of the millennium.

Maybe it comes down to the one burning question...

WHERE is the chorus ladies??

Best Albums of 2012! (5)

5. Swans. The Seer

Michael Gira and his Swans have been around for 30 years. In that time they have been described as the heaviest, most evil, most ear drum shattering band around. Often at the same time. Imagine Sonic Youth times 10 if you will.

Unlike the five albums prior to this one where context is everything almost, here we have lyrics that aren't set in any sort of emotional sphere. Their aim is to form themselves around the music itself like hermits to rocks.

You are not dipping into a 3-course transcendental meal at The Fat Duck. This a heavy gluttonous steak, tough and chewy but at the same time the best thing you've ever eaten. One can't eat it twice in the same day because that would mean girths expanding to the outer reaches of the Milky Way...

What I mean to say is this. We have a two hour plus rampaging monster on our hands. 3 tracks ranging from 19-32 minutes and many others around the 10 minute mark. This is an album that DEMANDS your attention, to its fullest.

I can gush about how this is a culmination of what post rock has postured. A distillation of bands such as Mogwai, Sigur Ros, Godspeed You, Black Emperor! to name but a few well known contemporaries.

But where Swans, and The Seer itself, differentiate themselves is the sheer terror and venomous pomp they instil even over such daunting track lengths.

To be played on the best, most booming amp and speaker set you can find.

Recycle this: Whole Album

Best Albums of 2012! (6)

6. Fiona Apple. The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do

I have a tenuous relationship with Miss Apple. Previous efforts have ground me down to pencil shavings for me to only move on to 'inkier' works. Not to say albums such as Tidal and Extraordinary Machines are wooden or stoic to these perked ears, but it took a while for their relative pleasures to hit home.

We all have those same experiences when we have music in our collection that doesn't click or make sense to us until somewhere down the line, often by chance or by piercing memory shaking us to relate, to soar.

The Idler Wheel worked in the opposite way. It felt like I was listening to a modern Joni Mitchell record, in the vein of a 'Blue' or 'For the Roses' with maybe a hint of Bjork's 'Homogenic' thrown in for good measure.

Whatever my connections to this album, the off kilter melodies, vocal lines like those displayed on Jonathan and Werewolf seemed like they were written to isolate our listening experience, maybe to make it a personal nirvana for those willing to undertake such a meandering journey.

It's not for everyone certainly. As much as any album on this list it's melodies aren't built for lovers of template chord progressions or string-section emoting. But by the same token those who do take a punt on it will find harmonies which will haunt and delight months after that breakthrough listen.

Recycle this: Left Alone, Werewolf, Every Single Night

Best Albums of 2012! (7)

7. Frank Ocean. Channel Orange
"A tornado flew around my room before you came
Excuse the mess it made, it usually doesn't rain
In Southern California, much like Arizona
My eyes don't shed tears, but, boy, they bawl"
Pretty much the undisputed critical champion of 2012. Sometimes listening to Channel Orange it's easy to drift into the mindset of how clinical it all sounds. The hooks are there, the samples, lyrics, Frank's voice. It makes you almost wonder why others don't look at their output, dissecting it to the individual elements.
But that's when you realise, they do (to their capacities). For Ocean it comes across as effortless as it is. This is a multi-talented songwriter capable of feats hinted at in his previous effort, Nostalgic Ultra. What sets him apart is an innate ability to convey a state of mind, set of emotions without ever coming across as preachy but endearing.
Exhibit A: "Mango, peaches, and lime... Why see the world when you got the beach?"
This is due to him (seemingly) being a down to earth wild card. Nothing given to him with an instant success that can send one stratospheric in the matter of brief moments.
The album is full of these 'exhibits', see Bad Religion and Pyramids as just 2 of these examples.
I hope the attention that the inevitable Grammy landslide doesn't set him too far off track. Although how do you capture lightening in a bottle twice?
He's talented enough for us grateful listeners to hang around to wait and see in giddy anticipation.

Recycle this: Bad Religion, Pyramids, Thinkin Bout You

Oscars Quick Slants & Reax!

The Good:

- #teamhaneke
- Always lovely to see an indie like Little Miss Sun...Beasts of The Southern Wild do so well
- Bradley Cooper for Silver Linings Playbook is a pleasant surprise
- Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman have several Oscar nominations between them. STICK THAT ON YOUR DVD The Dark Knight Rises. *Bats is sad*
- Moonrise Kingdom in Original Screenplay
- A Royal Affair. Expected, but great
- Harvey Weinstein


The Bad:

- Very little for Skyfall, Avengers. The year's blockbusters in general
- Life of Pi didn't need that many nominations. Is it an over-pouring of love
after Brokeback Mountain's snub?
- A generally weak field for 'animated feature film'. I recall previous years where only 3 films were nominated with 1 or 2 maybe unlucky to miss out. Not this year.
- Harvey Weinstein
- I'm not sure how The Master misses on Original Screenplay...which leads me on to...


The Ugly:

- BIGELOW!
- AFFLECK!!
- THE MASTER!
- ANNOUNCING BEST ORIGINAL SONG OVER DOCUMENTARY FEATURE. HMM!
- HARVEY WEINSTEIN!

IT'S NEW SO IT MUST BE GOOD! (Anamanaguchi, David Bowie, Haim)

8-bit hyperactivity. Massive fun. MEOW.

66 year old Bowie better than 20 something you.

Been out for ages but I'm not cool.

Best Albums of 2012! (8)

8. DIIV. Oshin

3 albums in and already my second dream pop entry (probably something to be said about that).

Oshin is an album that almost passed by me over the summer. Not because of the quality clearly but because this isn't music of statements but an album as coherent as any on this list.

Subtlety is a strange thing. At what point does art have such a nonchalant ease in its creation that paradoxically it can almost become overwhelmingly self-aware? Luckily these 13 tracks (none lasting over 4 1/2 minutes) don't outstay their welcome but fuse into one another with ideal pacing that means the music can fly by.

That's a great quality to have, the great pop albums of the 60s often topped out at 30-35 minute running times. This is not a direct comparison to those works and certainly if it revels in its gorgeousness, it's a gorgeousness that heads in one direction.

These are Philip Glass-like interludes which project differing emotions and feelings. From 'Druun' to 'How Long Have You Known' the band play around with simple note structures that build and climax within a tight song structure before the idea gets stretched beyond reason.

You will move on to much more grander and important records, like I did. Ones with grander more inventive production, bolder ideas and involving lyrics (unfair on Oshin). But when you want a record that never out stays its welcome and can be returned to over and over again you may find that Oshin is a man's best friend.

Best Albums of 2012! (9)

9. Grizzly Bear. Shields.

Indie music in 2013 is in a purgatorial no man's land, at least from a British perspective it would be fair to say. Chart pop gets the brunt of the wrath from the social media trolls and vinyl dwellers (often fairly) but in our great isles it seems as though the print media is ready to announce the coronation of the 'next big thing' as soon as their toes become twitchy.

'_______ will bring back the passion'
'_____ ready to take the world by storm!'

See Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, The Libertines, The Strokes, Killers etc.

The merit of these bands is not the question here, moreover what the expectations are for our latest greatest hope. It's like dating a 200 shot firework box. Big, loud, eccentric and a lot of fun but will you remember it in the morning? Some may.

Which brings us squarely onto the shoulders of this most un-grizzly of bears, indie music in USA. Here The National, Spoon, Dirty Projectors, Modest Mouse (...the list is endless) seems to operate in almost the opposite way. If its too brazen to compare that scene to the ageing of fine wine then it's staggering to see the progression of what is an intelligent brand of songwriting starting 'underground' and moving into arenas. Geeks winning big.

This is fascinatingly, almost unbelievably, what Grizzly Bear have conspired to manage. Now this may be by design or simply word-of-mouth, but the songs have to lend themselves to that possibility in the first place.

Shields is not Veckatimest, it's comparitively shy, alluringly nervous sibling. What songs like 'Yet Again' pull off is arena-sized rock complex enough to fill arenas yet dense enough to reveal its complexities over dozens of listens in the comfort of homes.

Comparisons to Coldplay were made over the interwebs at the time of this single's release much to the ire of the band's loyal following but there's some truth in that ribbing. However, the difference here, it's music for the almost-masses yet without resorting to the lowest common denominator.

Songs like Sun In Your Eyes and Half Gate are wide eyed and bulging but always relatable in their delivery. Inventive yet with emotional honesty and all too lacking in pop these days and bereft of 'heart, never be apart' clunkiness. In that sense it reminds me of Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion.

Inadvertently I've paid this thoughtful, melodically rich album the greatest compliment I can.

Recycle this: Sun In Your Eyes, A Simple Answer, Half Gate

Best Albums of 2012! (10)

10. Beach House. Bloom

A constant struggle when analysing the merit of songs, albums, live shows, the whole 9 yards in which we bundle artists both new and experienced is creativity vs songwriting and so it feels right to place Bloom at 10. It's the quintessential album of 2012 that accentuates this dichotomy of dilemmas so to speak.

Let me untangle myself.

Beach House' follow up to the critically acclaimed Devotion and Teen Dream treads that fine line (that artists can coast on and hardcore fans dread) with a gentle sun-kissed ease and a magnificent yet not altogether unusual progression that not so much hits out of the park but more woos all those at the picnic.

These are 10 hymnal platters each with the nous to satisfy for hours more than mere hor d'oeuvres. It's to Legrand and Scully's credit that they continue to expand the space between each tonal progression and build on a percussive element which it would be fair to say is the band's Achilles heel. Although not completely inventive, the pair now goes beyond the simple 4 track recorder sound of previous drum arrangements.

Whether this heady run can continue is always a worry for the dream popster's fans but for now it's the lengthy moment in which to luxuriate in the breathlessness.

Recycle this: Myth, Wishes, Lazuli