That's My Dad.

Kishi Bashi - 151a

Straight from the womb as a Paul McCartney & Sufjan Stevens lovechild comes the self-produced, multi-instrumentalist Kishi Bashi with his official, Kickstarter-funded, debut album, “151a”: an occasionally charming, frequently lush and abundantly derivative psychedelic pop storybook of a record. Aside from hearing his single “Bright Whites” on those Window 8 commercials, Kishi Bashi offers potential to capitalize on his quirky, talent-driven compositions to develop a unique brand name for himself. (7/10)

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Top 50 Songs of 2012: #15, The xx - Angels

If someone believed me, they would be as in love with you as I am. 

The first time I listened to The xx’s “Coexist”, I was in downtown walking alone in pouring rain, miserable and cold. It was one of those romantic existential moments. The opening track “Angels” features as a spot-on accompaniment for such a scene, with its modest instrumentation, thick dollops of bass and heart-stopping lyrics delivered by Romy Madley Croft’s alluring whisper. As far as love songs go this year, “Angels” hit home the closest. 

Top 50 Songs of 2012: #21, The Tallest Man on Earth - There’s No Leaving Now

To see through a fearless eye and know that danger finally goes away. 

Through every emotional facet, Kristian Matsson of The Tallest Man on Earth will always have a knack to break your heart through his song-writing. On past records, Matsson was keen to raise spirits, enlighten souls and stand neck-and-neck with Dylan in terms of rhetoric. This year, his 3rd LP “There’s No Leaving Now” sounds like he’s ready to hide away in some forgotten house to spend the rest of his days silently weeping to himself. With a gorgeous piano arrangement and haunting vocals, The Tallest Man on Earth hits a mournful note on the album’s title track that adds another stunning entry in Matsson’s unforgettable performance list.

(Source: Spotify)

Top 50 Songs of 2012: #32, Fiona Apple - Every Single Night

The rib is the shell and the heart is the yolk and I just made a meal for us both to choke on.

After seven pain-staking years, one of the most eccentric and idiosyncratic female singer-songwriters returns on their 4th LP: “The Idler Wheel is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do”. And on Fiona Apple’s latest work, we’re compelled to believe in Apple’s eternal abilities as a poet and as a remarkable emotional meltdown, ready to slip and crack upon a moment’s notice. On it’s own, “Every Single Night” accentuates nearly every trademark quality of Apple’s lyrical, vocal, pop and instrumental style and plays out like her crown jewel single. It’s like the first stepping stone into the rest of Apple’s erratic, debasing and, otherwise, fucked up repressed love stories she’s been collecting (or concocting) in the last few years on “The Idler Wheel…”. Expect to be equally enchanted and emotionally inflicted.  

Top 50 Songs of 2012: #37, The Flaming Lips - You, Man? Human??? (feat. Nick Cave)

You can touch me if you want! It’s obligatory, it’s allowed!

It’s not a surprise that the Flaming Lips/Nick Cave collaboration on the psychedelic assemblage “The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends” proved to be the weirdest moment out of the thirteen collaborations; playing out like a psychopathic clown killer trying to be friends with you while floating in space. It’s a match made in heaven for these eccentric sonic geniuses, one not to be missed by fans of experimental and space rock. 

(Source: Spotify)

Grizzly Bear - Shields

If there were a book of commonplace indie-rock phrases, “Any Grizzly Bear album is a good Grizzly Bear album” would probably take precedent. The highly talented and visionary Brooklyn quartet make a new mark with their 4th album, “Shields”: the band’s most emotionally absolute and detailed release to date. From the dreamy and thematic lead single “Sleeping Ute”, the heart-wrenching “A Simple Answer” or the complex “Half Gate”, we find Grizzly Bear not repeating past successes like the chilling psychedelic “Yellow House” or the infectiously catchy chamber pop “Vecktimest”, instead rushing past those to make an unadulterated masterpiece record detailing the intricacies of human relations. Certainly, the slow-burner album of the year. (8/10)

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Mumford and Sons - Babel 

Read the Full Review on ‘Listen Before You Buy’

[…] On their sophomore LP, Babel, the London quartet pull the same tricks they deeply cherished on their 2009 debut album Sigh No More, but with new pungency and a reduced agenda. Marcus Mumford and his fellow brethren are out on the town this time, performing as if  to accompany a dozen hardy men, pints in hand and spirits high, in an underground pub blasting their manly sorrows away. Instead of dressing up their lyrics to simulate bedroom-pop-esque intimacy, Mumford has lowered his poetic gaze to simpler, wholesome love songs and succeeded. But, does this close the gap on the frequent criticism and distaste the group has encountered? […] (6/10)

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Wild Nothing - Nocturne

A slice of humble shoe-gaze indie dream pop with a dollop of orchestral sounds, drizzled with reverb sonic textures and served with a tasteful, lite dose of romantic lyricism. Wild Nothing’s “Nocturne” makes for a sophisticated treat for those with an ethereal set of sonic taste buds. (7/10)

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The xx - Coexist

Heart-stealing duo Jamie xx and Romy Madley-Croft, turn trio, return on their sophomore LP, “Coexist”: an equally intimate, brooding, confessional listening experience as their 2009 Mercury Prize winning debut, “xx”. Albeit, “Coexist” stutters from mild consistency issues (tracks like “Chained”), the gorgeously minimalist effort offers itself as a lush extension of style and idea of “xx”; behaving as a shy love letter of a relationship profoundly built yet gradually falling apart. (8/10)

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Explosions in the Sky - Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

It might not come packed with all the shimmering, goose-bump inducing instrumental crescendos, but Austin’s treasured post-rock band, Explosions in the Sky, capture a sentimental sweetness and exercise a relaxed finesse on their 2011 LP: “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care”. (7/10)

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The Tallest Man on Earth - There’s No Leaving Now

With an added level of instrumentation and a more restrained personality, Dylan-esque singer/songwriter project The Tallest Man on Earth returns with his third LP, “There’s No Leaving Now”. While departing from his vivid transcendental qualities found on previous releases, Kristian Matsson accrues more finesse over his song-writing abilities and emotive control. Yet, new directions on “There’s No Leaving Now” lacked those vivid sonic textures held beloved from past records; taking away from Matsson’s overall artistic momentum. (7/10)

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The Flaming Lips - The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends

I spent $70 for a copy of “The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends”. This exclusive, diabolically demanded Record Store Day release on vinyl. I was enamored. This was the most expensive piece of music I’d ever bought. And at that point, I hadn’t even listened to it. 

The Flaming Lips are a group of psychedelic/noise/indie rock veterans who’ve done everything from cover Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” to — well you can’t really top that if you’re a psychedelic group. Through three decades of wildly ground-breaking and charming experimental rock music, it could be argued The Flaming Lips are this generation’s biggest and finest psychedelia voice. “The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends” is the group’s 14th album and, unabashedly, the collaborative album to invade every indie rocker’s wet dream. Musical guests include Ke$ha, Biz Markie, Bon Iver, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Yoko Ono, Neon Indian, Chris Martin of Coldplay and I’m only halfway through. 

There’s only one feasible way to define all thirteen sprawling tracks of the album. This is what it’d sound like if a dozen or so artists dropped acid and got trapped in a fun-house crawling with manic serial killers. With this in mind, “The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends” is conceptually hilarious. The Flaming Lips navigate each featured artist through the sheer sonic madness they’ve invented, then observing how they respond the high-voltage psychedelia. On the ear-splitting opener “2012 (You Must Be Upgraded)”, featuring Ke$ha and Biz Markie, it’s like The Flaming Lips created a room in their fun-house where daggers are being shot out of the walls and anything you touch will electrocute you to a morbid death; then we see Ke$ha, her drunken swagger and all, completely kick its ass and leaving the room without a scratch on her.

Each track here is really nervous. It’s part of what makes “Heady Fwends” such an enjoyable and exciting experience; these collaborations are built to satisfy and impress, not just a piece of novelty fodder that seemed great on paper but lack ambition in the studio. The Flaming Lips having a reputation of enforcing that too; working with such a group isn’t simple. They understand what their featured artists have to offer and then instruct them to keep up on the tightrope they tread on together. Tracks like “Ashes in the Air” with Bon Iver or “That Ain’t My Trip” featuring My Morning Jacket’s Jim James are something The Flaming Lips would put out anyways, but with the Midas touch of outside artists that make for something a new flavor of psychedelic noise rock. 

“The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends” is a loaded album, even for a steep $70, there isn’t a void left to be filled: my funds did not go to waste. The riveting level of color and detail seems like it spans galaxies within 70 minutes of run-time. It saddens me to think a mere 10,000 set of hands will be able to enjoy this gem on it’s original and intended format, but regardless of vinyl, “The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends” is a knock-your-socks-off LP ready to be loved by those ready for a fun-house on acid experience. 

This album was my dad. (10/10) 

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Deerhunter - Halycon Digest

There is a feeling all too familiar with the sincerest of audiophiles. A brief silence followed by a tune that instantly impresses you fills the air in the local record store. “Who is this?” you ask the jaded yet mildly satisfied record store owner. You’ve fallen in love with a new band and chances are you won’t forget his answer to your question.  

Deerhunter’s “Halycon Digest” is an astounding feat for its ability to bottle that moment up and serve you a set of eleven tracks following that golden thread; each with a character of its own. Deerhunter’s craftsmanship and uncanny level of peerless originality oozes out from every sequence, making for an airtight record without a moment or idea to spare. From the dazzling heart-breaker “Sailing”, the swelling punk/shoe-gaze “Desire Lines” to the masterful neo-psychedelic track “Helicopter”, “Halycon Digest” is an exemplary gem that’ll serve as a mark for the unprecedented level of detail artists could put in their music because they were allowed to. In that respect, “Halycon Digest” goes beyond just being a quality record, but an important one for our generation’s independent music culture. (9/10)

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Jack White - Blunderbuss

After building three bands from scratch to fame and single-handedly reviving blues rock in a modern age, Jack White is faced with taking the biggest risk of his career: going solo. This shift in creative control has been taken full advantage of, as White averts from his end-to-end standard ass-kicking, nail-biting hard rock balladry. Sure, the track “Sixteen Saltines” follows suit but unlike much of The White Stripes’ lyricism, “Sixteen Saltines” is one of the funniest piece White has written in contrast to his compositions. The rest of “Blunderbuss” ranges heavily, featuring elements of folk and jazz and a variety of instruments you’d never associate with a Jack White label. White’s efforts to branch out and experiment with a larger palette deserves much credit, yet, “Blunderbuss” won’t achieve heavy rotation status like “Elephant” or a “Sea of Cowards” would. He still throws his lyrical hooks, writes undeniably catchy tunes and rocks the hell out of your headphones when he wants to; but for those so used to White’s killer one-two punch routine, you might get thrown off when he starts dancing around the ring. (7/10)

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The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

If it were ever possible to cultivate one the most detailed, cutest sci-fi psychedelic rock record of all-time, The Flaming Lips would have to be behind it. (9/10)

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