Currents: Japandroids, Hot Chip, Ghost Loft

Japandroids: Celebration Rock
[Polyvinyl, 2012] 

In an interview with Japandroids on the making of their second album Celebration Rock, they said they imagined what their fans would be screaming and singing along to at their concerts in order to deliver the goods on their new songs. What a refreshing perspective! With this new LP it's clear Japandroids are having no problem being both a crowd-pleasing Rock band with a capital R and one with a powerful life-affirming message about youth and hope. The lesson I'm getting: Average Joes and Janes, whether they be in big cities or one-horse towns, can be epic individuals passionate about living life to the absolute fullest. That's how they want you to feel, and they deliver. Seriously, how can you not fucking love Japandroids?!?




Hot Chip: In Our Heads
[Domino, 2012]

Before a few weeks ago, I only knew Hot Chip through a few quirky electropop singles that entered one ear and flew out the other without much fanfare. But damn am I glad I tried this out. In Our Heads is not only a really fun album to listen to, but there's a musical and lyrical depth throughout it that other dance music doesn't even attempt. It seems to make sense that this is the band's fifth album, as it all sounds like a band that's experienced at the helm and good keeping things fresh. Maybe I've mellowed out since I first heard Hot Chip, or maybe In Our Heads is in fact their most colorful, deep, and best album yet. Whatever it is, I'm dancing now.

"Don't Deny Your Heart"

Ghost Loft: Blow EP
[unsigned, 2012] 

I have a fairly eclectic taste in music, but back when I just couldn't get enough fuzzy lo-fi like Wavves and Guided by Voices (sorry if my putting those two bands in the same sentence offends you), I don't think I could have seen myself falling head over heals for an artist like Ghost Loft. I'm sure I have the Weeknd to thank for this new direction. And that's because Ghost Loft is silky smooth, immaculately produced RnB-Pop that's dripping with cool. It's more easygoing than the Weeknd and less melodically challenging than other soulful electropop like James Blake, so in that sense I don't mind lyrics like "Baby let me love you now" and "I want to love you til I feel no pain". Nothing sounds fake when the music is this convincing.

"Seconds":

"The House That Heaven Built" by Japandroids

Top 10 Albums of 2009

I guess a pretty good place to start here on this blog is to look backwards, just to last year, at the 10 best albums of 2009.

10. No Age: Losing Feeling EP

It's just a 14-minute EP, but it's everything about No Age that's to get excited about. A seamless blend of sleepy atmospherics and noise rock makes this a mesmerizing, highly replayable excursion. If this project had become a full sized LP, it would have been higher up this list.

9. Ramona Falls: Intuit

A low-key release, Ramona Falls accomplishes beautiful acoustic and lush orchestral songs in the vein of Sufjan Stevens, but refreshingly, he makes it sound much easier. His smoothly flowing melodies and layered-vocal harmonies combine to form a beautifully original style of music that stays with you long after its 44 minutes. This hidden gem is the most underrated album of the year.

8. Dirty Projectors: Bitte Orca

Any indie album that can be described as "unclassifiable" and "accessible" is almost guaranteed to be a hit, and Bitte Orca is exactly that. From the delicate acoustics on the catchy "Temecula Sunrise" to bass-driven beats on "Stillness is the Move" to David Longstreth's offbeat falsetto, Bitte Orca can't be pinned down. The constant, however, is its bountiful charm and unique brand of pop.

7. Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest

This album had a long winter for me. It's an extreme case of an album appearing plain and one-dimensional at first that then (very) gradually blooms with all its drama, intrigue and skillful design coming to light. Veckatimest is carefully composed and expertly crafted, with the group's chamber choir vocals carrying the album's mostly subdued melodies as well as operatic major pieces like "Two Weeks" and "While You Wait For the Others".

6. Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion

One of the year's most enchanting albums, Merriweather Post Pavilion absolutely engulfs you in its glow party dream world. On "In the Flowers", the pounding drums after "if I could just leave my body for the night" always send chills up my spine. Aside from some sleepers in the album's mid-section, MPP is abounding in warm psychedelic pleasures. This is Animal Collective for the masses.

5. fun.: Aim and Ignite

fun.'s debut is so dense with slick hooks and bursting melodies that you soon realize you're hearing an album's worth of quality power pop singles. "Power pop" only hastily describes it; there's some Queen in there, as well as Nate Ruess's former band the Format, among other influences. Above all, fun. is truth in advertising.

4. Neon Indian: Psychic Chasms

Psychic Chasms lives in a world of colorful hallucinations and kaleidoscopes of sight and sound. Neon Indian lifts '80s synths and chirpy electronics to make an album that's part dance, part chillout electronica, and all fun. The album-long groove is irresistible, especially on "Terminally Chill" which is the year's best song.

3. Japandroids: Post-Nothing

In an overflowing online universe of music reviews and opinion, it's fascinating to me that so many have come to the same translation of Post-Nothing's sound: young freedom. Japandroids are all-or-nothing rockers that drop frantic drumming and furious riffs to release their can't-sit-still zest for life. This album gets you out of your over-thinking head and into your life.

2. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

TPOBPAH revive so many old sounds ('90s Britpop, lo-fi shoegaze) that to deliver a debut as fresh-sounding as this is in 2009 is a major accomplishment. As their video for "Everything With You" suggests, this album of uplifting, fuzzy dream rock could soundtrack the best times of your young adult life. The moral: Live your best life.

1. Camera Obscura: My Maudlin Career

It couldn't be anything else. No other band in the last few years has captured my imagination like Camera Obscura. The irresistible hooks, the soaring instrumentals, the yearning melancholy, Tracyanne Campbell's tender croon; their music shines with charm and beauty. With 2009's My Maudlin Career, their most consistent work, Camera Obscura is now solidly one of my top five favorite bands.