Hey whatzup? Here’s a list of my favourite releases of the year! I’ve been being super chill in Blenheim, but it kindof got unbearably hot so I returned to my house with it’s unlimited internet and occasional cloud cover. Just for you. Just for the list. IT’S VERY IMPORTANT.
#15: Bandicoot – Happy Talking EP
This EP kinda came outta nowhere for me, and proved to be a blast of fresh air. Sure, it’s a tad sloppy and more than a little BYOP-esque vocally, but the sound of people having so much fun fucking so much shit up over the course of ten minutes leaves you with the distinct sense that they’re probably going places. ‘Entertainers of the year’.
#14: Christmas Island – Blackout Summer (In The Red)
This album’s a pretty straightforward guitar-based pop album, but packed tight with melancholy hooks, spook keyboards, TV game show host deadpan vocals a la Graffiti Island (only, you know, slightly more lively – but only slightly), and an excellent sense of longing. I’m not sure exactly what for – one of the girls they keep singing about? Maybe the real Christmas Island? Is it warm there? I kinda hope Christmas Island is a myth / the band never get to see it actually, seeing as they’re owning wistful, sad pop tracks on Blackout Summer.
#13: Wavves – Wavvves (Fat Possum)
Tough year. Get your hype stirred up to no end, breakdown onstage, allegedly fight The Black Lips, have dudes like Psychedelic Horseshit rip on you constantly, and then end the year as poster boy for a style of recording that got binned as quickly as it was championed in 2009. Seriously – only dude that’s had a worse year is probably Jay Reatard – and his album was only okay. Wavvves, however, remains a pretty rad album for me. It’s coated in trailer-trash feedback, driven along by suburban depression, as well as showcasing some killer melodies (To The Dregs, anyone?). Cleaner, slower tracks like Weed Demon managed to show at least some variation in craft on Nathan Williams’ part, not that it was altogether necessary, given tracks like Cool Jumper that have followed Wavvves. Anyway. Bottom line – this albums stands, or at the very least, I stand by it.
#12: Nevernudes – Nevernudes’ First EP
This was pretty impressive, I gotta say. Plunging through 8ish minutes of solid power pop, this EP paid dividends – mega riffs, power choruses – everything comes through pretty strong. Even in the moments where the EP feels like it’s about to tumble over itself, it has a pretty sweet knack for correcting it’s course and dropping into catchy halfspeed choruses. Legitimate.
#11: HEALTH – Get Color (Lovepump United)
I’ve already expressed a lot of love for this album this year so I won’t go overboard here – suffice to say, it’s punishingly good – even if it doesn’t quite strike 9/9 in terms of stellar songs, between the epic intensity of We Are Water, the brutal climax of Death +, the slow glide out of In Violet, or the ultraviolent In Heat, (not to mention the previously adored Die Slow) there is so much to love going on here. SO MUCH.
Five albums a day keeps the climax at bay – I guess you’ll find out 10-6 tomorrow? Maybe. Probably eh.
