18.

Animal Collective
Feels
(Fat Cat, 2005)

Feels is the first album from Animal Collective that started to receive the tag of accessibility, which is funny, because now each successive release has been their ‘accessible’ record. Who cares if it’s accessible when it's this incredible? Absolutely and totally amazing and imaginative and surprising. Sassigrass and I and a couple other friends roadtripped out to San Francisco in order to see Animal Collective shortly after this came out and it was definitely one of the best shows I have ever seen. Talking to their road manager at a show a couple years later in SLC, he remarked that that San Francisco show was the best show (the “quintessential”) Animal Collective had ever played. I think they were just feeding off the good vibes established with Feels. So many great moments, it’s almost too good.

-Thistle

3.

Animal Collective
Sung Tongs
(Fat Cat, 2004)

I don’t know of any album on this list that was as immediately, shockingly revelatory as Sung Tongs was to me. I mean, how could anyone get past “Leaf House” and not see the world in a completely new light? Along with all the creativity and beautiful musicality that is embodied in this record, one of the most incredible parts of it to me is the childlike wonderment that it invokes. There is just this haphazard, bare foot, running-around-the-neighborhood-causing-beautiful-mischief vibe that no album captures as purely as Sung Tongs does. This is what childhood is. This is the kind of childishness that informs, to one degree or another, all great art.

-Thistle

Max Richter - The Blue Notebooks

Retrospective Review

Max Richter
The Blue Notebooks
(05.2004, Fat Cat)
10.0/10

Max Richter classifies his solo work as "post-classical," a word at which many people cringe, including myself in most instances. With so much cheesy forced emotion and boring drawn out contorted Bach out there it's difficult to sort through and really find the artists that are creating a new breed of classical that is actually listenable. The Blue Notebooks is more than just listenable, it's heartbreakingly incredible. It puts most striving modern day composers to shame. It's even puts quite a few old masters to shame. This album is a masterpiece. Inspired by Philip Glass and Kafka's Blue Octavo Notebooks, Richter built his own analog instruments, paired them with classical string instruments and made one of the most stunning and affecting albums ever recorded. The delicate melancholy songs were used to soundtrack one of my favorites movies of 2006, Stranger Than Fiction. The soundtrack made the movie. The Blue Notebooks is absolutely gorgeous and I would recommend it to anyone regardless of whether than enjoyed classical compositions or not.

-Sassigrass

Max Richter - "The Trees"

Mum - Go Go Smear The Posion Ivy

Mum
Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy
(09.2007, Fat Cat)
9.0/10

For Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy Mum found themselves paired down to only two of the original founding members. Kristin Anna Valtysdottir (aka Kria Brekken) finally followed her twin sister Gyoa's (who left the band in 2004) footsteps. Mum fixed the problem by recruiting five new members. I'm not sure such a large number was necessary for an album that still feels slightly minimalist at times, but I'm not complaining since Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy is an absolute charmer and a great addition to 2007's amazingly large list of great releases by already established bands. Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy is a warmer, more playful side of Mum. Male vocals have been added to the mix as well as a new female vocalist. Most songs have multiple vocals happening simultaneously, a stark contrast from earlier Mum work which was haunted by Kristin's ghostly whisper. Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy sounds like the soundtrack to a miniature French cirque. It's childish and innocent, gentle and mellow, reminiscent of the bands first introduction of meeting while working on a children's play. The tracks are so delicate its feels like you would break them if you could hold them in your hand. This is Mum's funnest album to date. It's delightful right down to the creative packaging. This is an album that you will definitely want to physically purchase.

-Sassigrass

Mum - "Dancing Behind My Eyelids"

No Age - Weirdo Rippers

No Age
Weirdo Rippers
(08.2007, Fat Cat)
8.5/10.0

There is something sublimely refreshing about the beach in the morning. The blissful rotation of the waves on the beach along with a pleasant morning chill is just invigorating. It provides the perfect start for one of those days where your optimism and sheer joy for life can't be tainted. That's why I wouldn't mind living on the Oregon coast. The first track on No Age's debut full length, Weirdo Rippers, captures this sentimentality with an extended intro of sampled waves doused with white noise; the careening water foreshadowing an album you just can't help but completely and joyfully embrace. A ramshackle duo of major-chord noise punk swimming in salty, ambient waves of fuzz, No Age is the perfect summer band for rejects. Despite their forays into extended avant-noise intros, No Age bustle through the 11 tracks on Weirdo Rippers in just over a half hour, leaving you salivating for more. Weirdo Rippers actually bears a lot of comparative elements to Deerhunter's Cryptograms, just with an increased playfulness and reckless abandon along with a much shorter attention span. The real secret to No Age's noisy onslaught is an unnerving penchant for spectacular hooks. Weirdo Rippers dishes them out continuously for its short duration, making them just off kilter enough to be endlessly playable. Pure sugary deliciousness that is wonderfully infectious.

-Mr. Thistle

No Age on Myspace

The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters

The Twilight Sad
Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters
(2007, Fat Cat)
6.0/10

It is unfortunate to have to dislike this album for something as silly as an accent. What can I say though? All I can think of when I listen to this album is William Wallace and Groundskeeper Willie. Even while covering some significant, interesting sonic territory there is nothing that can distract me from the heavily drenched Scottish accent of The Twilight Sad’s vocals. That may sound petty but there is no use pretending. Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters carry some swelling post rock instrumentation, are signed to the incredible Fat Cat Records (Sigur Ros, Animal Collective, Black Dice) and have received moderate critical nods elsewhere. It just doesn’t connect. I don’t know quite why either. I don’t mind Belle and Sebastian’s vocals and their most certainly Scottish. I hope I am not falling into some subconscious social elitism here but that’s that. His accent is too thick so I don’t like it. That’s all I can say. (some critic!)

-Mr. Thistle

The Twilight Sad - And She Would Darken The Memory

Vetiver - To Find Me Gone

Vetiver
To Find Me Gone
(2006, Fat Cat)
8.5/10

Vetiver’s To Find Me Gone has to be one of the most underrated albums of 2006. Getting middling reviews
from the impatient, the second full length from Andy Cabic’s solo project is an example of delicate, focused folk music that rewards the stamina. To Find Me Gone finds Vetiver reaching a perfect, unique stride after a promising debut. Here Cabic has found a healthy distance from former contributors and friends, Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom, making folk that is forward thinking but not “freakish.” To Find Me Gone avoids awkward vocal strains for a relaxed beauty that you can’t help but soak up like a rag. It is the antidote to stress and the soundtrack for hammocks. It is road trip music or music for floating lasily down a river. One Vetiver commenter got it spot on when they labeled this as a “go to album.” It is one of those necessary albums for the times when nothing else on your Ipod will seem to do. An essential album to fall back on again and again. Vetiver has created a record instantly satisfying whenever it is played.

-Mr. Thistle

Vetiver - stream To Find Me Gone