This is a listing of albums that I came to way too late in the game, and that would have, given the proper timing, been most certainly counted among my favourite albums of this past decade. It’s a category, I expect, will continue to grow over the course of this new decade. Each is worthy, without question, of being listed in any best of the decade listing for 2000-2009.
Fire Show Saint The Fire Show (Perishable, 2002)
Saint The Fire Show is one of those completely off-the-charts-unique, slightly grating albums that spins in a universe all its own and, eventually, with repeated listens, turns into something astounding and permanently scarring (an experience reminiscent of Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock or Slint’s Spiderland). Post-rock experimentalism at its most crooked and awry.
Sean McCann Midnight Orchard (2009, Roll Over Rover)
The Skygreen Leopards One Thousand Bird Ceremony
(Soft Abuse, 2003)
The pastoral, patchwork folk of The Skygreen Leopards was never so disassembled and airy, pristine and sunlight twinkling, as gorgeous as it is on their debut for Soft Abuse. Why I waited so long to listen to the boys on their debut after so thoroughly enjoying their now more pop oriented psych folk, is beyond me. Don’t let it happen to you. No wait, you knew better. Loveliness.
Peter Kolovos New Bodies (Thin Wrist, 2009)
Did I mention that the vinyl packaging for New Bodies is absolutely deluxe? So is everything on Thin Wrist. Of course, I just reviewed this thing last week, but have been listening to it for a good enough amount of time to know that it will imprint on this past decade most solidly. Essential.
Zoos of Berlin Taxis (2009, Self Released)
RIYL = PAS/Cal, Colourmusic, The Pernice Brothers
Taxis, the debut album (correct me if I’m wrong) of Zoos of Berlin is an album that is destined to be glossed over by the critical establishment and, as unfortunate as the correlation may be, by the record buying/illegally-downloading public as a whole. The problem is that on the surface, Taxis is a fairly standard example of indie pop that makes no inordinate stretches for a unique selling point or “angle” which can be easily written up. And it is because of this apparent lack distinctiveness that folks most likely won’t find their way to Taxis. After all, it’s just pop music right? So wrong. And not only that, but Zoos of Berlin are distinctive. Distinctive, at least, in the fact that they make pristine pop songs better than 95% of the 4-star, 8.0+, “Best New Music” out there. Taxis is tight vessel of pop glory filled with all manner of extravagant brass flourishes, smooth vocal harmonies and baroque song structures that belie their immediately satisfying pop accessibility by cutting deeper and deeper with every listen. But, again, there is the problem…what more can I say? It is simply good; just really good pop that you can always rely on to get you through the day and much better than most of the major indie label marketing hoopla that generally scoops up all the attention. That's it. So take a listen or ten.
I wanted to write a little blurb about Eskimo Snow because I have noticed, after scanning a few reviews on the album that there was a split between the general consensus of its 'goodness'. It appears that about half of those reviewing the album consider it just ok while the other half of reviewers insist upon it being really really good. Personally, my initially reaction to the album was, “meh, this is alright, but I miss the hard hitting break beats from Alopecia.” So, I guess you could pit me squarely in the it’s-ok-but-I-liked-them-better-when-they-were-more-hip-hop group. However, after listening to the album one more time than I normally would when dealing out a similarly apathetic-but-positive assessment of an album, something caught me. I wasn’t sure what it was, so I kept listening to the album over and over again. And now, while I can still say that I absolutely love the more evenly split quasi-hip hop of the band’s past, this new, more straight forward indie rock version of Why? is absolutely genius. Sassigrass has finally convinced me that it is not really indie Americana, despite the couple instances of slide guitar; Eskimos Snow is simply one of the tightest bits of lush indie pop/rock of the year. Just weighing in.
The Skygreen Leopards Gorgeous Johnny (2009, Jagjaguwar)
RIYL = Flying Canyon, Giant Sunflower Band
It seems that I'm just pickin' bones with these three reviews, but so be it. (Again,) I’ve read a couple of reviews of The Skygreen Leopards most recent album and couldn’t help but notice the casual dissatisfaction that some of the people felt about the album. A dissatisfaction which, after I listened to the album, seemed a little unwarranted. Sure, Gorgeous Johnny strays even further from The Skygreen Leopards experimentally tinged roots into straight forward bummer psych pop, but that doesn’t mean these songs aren’t completely enjoyable. I suppose the casual nature in which Donavan Quinn and Glenn Donaldson seem to effortlessly pull off the tiny little corner of outsider pop they now own can be a little unsettling. I mean, you can certainly hear the fluidity and ease with which the two of them seemed to be able to just pick up a couple of guitars and churn this thing out in a couple of hours, but that effortlessness is by no means worthy of distain. Seems to me that some of the reviewers are a bit jealous. Heaven knows I am. Fact is, Gorgeous Johnny is not going to go down in the record books as The Skygreen Leopards magnum opus, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t be the record that you end up playing the most based on the easy going, instant satisfaction that it produces. Just saying…
Fire Show
Sean McCann
The Skygreen Leopards
Peter Kolovos
