I promise I'm not sliding into a haze of oldster griping about nothing being good anymore (I'm sure that's coming some time). It's just that little of the new music this year held up to last year's best. Nothing, certainly, approached The National's High Violet, far and away the record of the year for 2010.
For me, the year's best records sound like music's future. Not its past. A lot of indie rock this year has felt far too mired in trying to sound like it was recorded in the '50s. That's fine. Some of those records are enjoyable, but I have a hard time getting past the gimmick of that sound being much more than just that: a nostalgia trip. It sounds neither fresh nor particularly like art. What do those bands sound like outside of the studio?
My list this year of must have's is very brief. But here it is:
"The best almost-a-whole-record goes to Radiohead's King of Limbs. Even though it's not an LP, Radiohead continue to be the one popular rock band that can push music forward. No band is making music like Radiohead. At a time when nostalgic throwback sounds dominate rock and indie, Radiohead is in its own league."
What I said when I wrote about the record in March:
King of Limbs is indeed small. That doesn't mean it is less. It is not a huge, sweeping collection like OK Computer, Hail to the Thief or In Rainbows. It is not a record intended for the arena. It's a sound that made In Rainbows sound so much different. Sure, that album had its guitar numbers, but the songs had less reverberating atmosphere than Radiohead of the past. It sounded as if the instruments were plugged directly into the studio board. King of Limbs is even more quiet. It's an album of earphone gems: eight intimate, largely electronic tracks in which the guitars -- and Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien are as skilled a set of six-string players as you'll find anywhere -- are relegated mostly to supporting roles in a mix that is much more about rhythm, melody and atmosphere.
Right on Radiohead's heals for me, this year, is TV on the Radio's Nine Points of Light. While it's more conventional than King of Limbs, Nine Points of Light doesn't sound like much of anything else you've ever heard. When I wrote about the band in April, I thought they sounded a lot like the kind of music George Clinton and Funkadelic might make if they were contemporaries.
Yet even my comparison doesn't really give TV on the Radio the credit the band deserves. I spent more hours listening to Nine Points of Light than any other record released this year.
Here's what I wrote about the record back in April:
"The band's new record Nine Types of Light, it's fifth full length, is not just funk, or just experimental or just indie rock. It's a solid album of 10 songs that manage to serve up provocative lyrics and song structures over a musical mix of electronics, guitars and beats that are just as captivating. What TVOTR manages to do is create a music that is strange, but not strange for the sake of being different. The band's songs are about everything from lust and love to consciousness and spirit. Musically, it's shooting for a sound that is universal -- one that can be daring and experimental but without sacrificing the essential bedrock of a killer groove."
The one album I liked a lot that I did not get a proper chance to write about was St. Vicnent's Strange Mercy. Annie Clark (St. Vincent is a stage name, or something like that) continues to be a pretty amazing artist. She's a neat guitar player, an unconventional songwriter and has developed a sound that is really her own.
And that's really, I think the hallmark of a great artist. St. Vincent is distinct and interesting. You can listen and feel like you're hearing something you've definitely never heard before. Much like Radiohead and TV on the Radio, St. Vincent sounds a lot more like the future of music than its past, which right now is saying something.
The runner up
Finally, to round out this short list, Antlers' Burst Apart. I really enjoyed this record more than I ever thought I would. Here's what I had to say about the record in May:
"It's a sound that is ahead and of what is the cutting edge in indie rock, a new intersection of shoegaze moodiness with a worldly instrumental approach that has put the guitars behind in the mix (usually, anyway). The new goal is to reach listeners in a different way that doesn't require beating on their eardrums quite so hard. Bands are not just trying new ways to saw the air with sonic attack (though, I do love that sort of thing). You can hear the exploration of new territory. Not all those experiments have worked, but I think The Antlers have found some interesting new places for rock today."
Thats it. I hope next year is little better. I could use some good music, something that surprises and shocks us again.
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