oh i realized I forgot to do Owen Pallet, that could take some time.

Maybe pretend he's Patrick Wolf so you can come quicker.

i don't even get that joke

oh right because they are both gay musicians i get it

Owen Pallett - Heartland

Some albums can be executed to perfection as far as the artist and listening public are concerned, but they just might not work for everyone.

When Owen Pallett was going by his Final Fantasy moniker, I never really paid him much attention. No reason as to why, but the handful of songs that I had heard on mixes or other places just didn't really do a whole lot for me. When "Heartland" came out early in the year, I decided I would finally give the dude a chance. Early reviews promised music that was a little more serious, a little more realized and his strongest effort to date. At some point on RYM - people were pointing out that it was likely the best album of the year and true artistic triumph.

The thing with this record is that it very well could be all of those things...just not to me. Pallett's playing on this record and the sounds he creates with his violin, electronics and loops is interesting. But for me, "interesting" is the best word for this record and after listening this record about a dozen or so times, I've decided "interesting" in this case doesn't really appeal to me.

It's hard for me to explain to be honest. Maybe I hate his voice, maybe I just want some guitar or something can dance to, maybe I just feel that the music is too awkward on the whole. I honestly don't know what doesn't appeal to me about this record, but it is something. Never have I listened to this and though that I need to hear it again, never have I listened to it and thought that the time went by fast and never have I listened to it and remembered what any of the songs sound like. I'm not saying this record is difficult, but it's not really pop either. It's somewhere in between and for me, it just doesn't really work.

Regardless, I can see the work put into the record and I can recognize the ideas and song structures - I'm just not getting pleasure from listening to them.

In Summary: I'm sure this could appeal to a lot of people, could top some people's year end lists, but it's just not something that I enjoy.

Yeah, a part of me feels like I should give this guy a chance, too, since I like Joanna Newsom. (And I guess they're superficially similar on some level.) But I've never liked anything I've ever heard from him, all the way back to when I saw him open for Arcade Fire as Final Fantasy about six years ago. I can respect him as a musician, but like you, I don't really get the appeal of his music.

i tend to agree. i've sort of followed pallett since his les mouches project, which incidentally i still prefer to most of what i've heard since. i do think heartland is an achievement, i do remember a few passages, and a few songs quite distinctly, and i do return to this album expecting to like it more each time. but i really don't. perhaps there's no palpable character to it. and that could be why he reminds me more of a sufjan stevens, in certain ways, than joanna newsom. the former i'm forcing myself to listen to more intently lately, the latter i've always loved.

hey dudes I'm going to mexico today for a week. i'll have internet and only have 2010 albums with me, but don't know if i'll post any reviews obviously.

VIVA

I've kinda hit a wall with Sufjan lately. I wouldn't say that there's no palpable character, but his character is kind of stilted. Or something. What starts to be interesting about his recent stuff is that he seems to be sort of struggling against that, but he's not really making any headway. It's kind of exhausting to listen to, I think.

sure. i pretty much wrote him off after seven swans for some reason, to the extent that i'd listen to subsequent releases once or twice, enjoy it, but not feel compelled to return. my dad played me "the age of adz" a few weeks ago, and i really liked it – partly because it was him playing it for me. we went as a family to see the show last week, and it was a total headscratcher, but i enjoyed it, and i've been compelled to revisit the music i've not paid much attention to. i agree with you when you say that his most recent work reflexively struggles with itself/himself, but i actually quite like it. i think "age of adz" is a good and challenging record.

by the way, contradiction, i'm loving every piece of james blackshaw i listen to

the new one too? it's the first of his I haven't liked/loved. But I can see the appeal.

HI FROM GUADALAJARA

Four Tet - There Is Love In You

This just fucking does it for me.

I've gotten to the point now towards the end of 2010 where I've played this record maybe more than any other single record this year, to the point of playing it out. I've listened to complaints about it, how it's not creative, it's boring, whatever and I just can't seem to agree. With "There Is Love In You" Keiran Hebden is created another unbelievably great album that works as a whole from start to finish.

My relationship with electronic music tends to show favor more towards music that is for your head than music that is for the club. So when when the press releases for this album were popping up before I heard it, talking about how Four Tet was influenced by the UK dance scene and this album grew out of his month long gig at the famed "Plastic People" club, I was a bit hesitant. "Rounds" is one of my very favorite electronic albums, period. The slow movements in that record, the organic sounds, so many things going on, yet placed in just the perfect spot, I want my Four Tet records like that, I didn't want ANOTHER minimal techno/dubstep release.

And that is the direction this record veers into, but it IS NOT just ANOTHER minimal release. No, there is something special here.

Four Tet works because of his subtle changes in tracks. Most of these songs are based on fairly simplistic loops; it could be a bass drum, a vocal sample, synth, whatever. And from there, Hebden has a vision for each track, continuously adding layer upon layer so naturally that when he gets to the point that everything is going on, you fail to notice those subtle shifts. They were placed in a way that you expected them to be there, like you breathed them into life. For me, it's like I'm participating in the creation of this music. That every time I listen to this album, it's my own voice, my own thoughts being pumped into my ears.

This sounds hyperbolic, but I'm getting to this point where this record just won't fade on me and when it should be, my connection with it continues to grow stronger. It's one of those records that just feels like it was made especially for me. And I feel like there's quite a few more people out there that feel the same.

In Summary: One of my favorite releases of the year. Love the subtleness of the tracks, all the loops, just about everything here. Dance music that isn't for the dance floor. You definitely don't have to agree with me, but I think it's damn near brilliant

four tet: i agree that this is a very strong release. while it's faded on me a bit as the year's progressed, i found myself returning to it more often that i'd expect at first. it's subtle, and charged with not necessarily breaking new ground, but the overall warmth and simplicity of it is what won my favour. i'll have to check out "period".

blackshaw: i'll listen to this year's release last. now, i'm just making sure i cover all the ground leading up to it first, so i can have an informed opinion of it.

Beach House - Teen Dream

It's hard to believe that I've had this album for almost a year at this point. Or rather, it's hard to believe that I've had this album for ONLY a year at this point.

I say this because I feel like these songs have existed for much longer, like these are songs that I have known for years - part of my subconscious musical mind that can't really put a year or time period on well-known, classic music. I don't know for sure if it is because I have listened to this album dozens of times over the past year or if these songs are really good enough to cement "classic" status from me immediately, but I'm keen to lean on the latter.

You've probably read a dozen reviews of this album, almost all of them very favorable, but you may be in the camp that still thinks that Beach House is a talentless lot, with a funny looking female lead who can't actually sing. You'd be wrong. The first thing that stands out on this album, which is surely their best is in fact Victoria LeGrand's voice, which has the confidence and control that the previous two albums often lacked. It's still haunting and a bit masculine at times, but her voice sings with this dreamy power that sounds like every single word and syllable that comes out really means something. Whether or not the lyrics are good is about irrelevant, her voice adds to the atmosphere that the songs exude; I'll sing along without even knowing the words.

And atmosphere is what this album is about. All Beach House albums have a particularly dreamy haze over them and this one is no different, but everything has been kicked up a notch. The instrumentation is more varied, the song structures slightly more experimental, and while the songs are still primarily based around piano, droning organ, drum machine and some guitar - everything just fits...BETTER.

It's just an album that upon hearing, you know you like it. You know it's good. You know that it is one of the best albums you are going to hear throughout the course of the year and every single time you try to defy it, it smacks you right back in the face. This is a truly great record, and I feel sad for people who aren't on the Beach House bandwagon by now.

In Summary: One of the very best of the year. And probably the only one I can't understand someone not liking.

i don't think i liked that beach house album.

and that owen pallett album is top 5 for me.

Yeah, I love that Beach House album. It's been way too long since I've put it on. Maybe I should finally watch that DVD that came with it...

Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM

*note* technically a 2009 release in France, but who gives a fuck.

I thought that Charlotte Gainsbourg last album, 5:55 (a collab with Air and Jarvis Cocker) was a huge disappointment given the parties involved. Given her history (personal and familial), the two (three) reigning kings of sleazy sounds should have been able to create a masterfully sexy album from this quirky French woman. But it just didn't work. The songs were too much of the same, the music was like Air at their worst and Charlotte Gainsbourg showed us that there might not actually be that much talent below those breathy french vocal chords.

So when reviews started popping up about "IRM" being much better, I wanted to make sure I gave it a shot. The album is basically a Beck project in all but name. Beck produces, chooses the instruments, writes most of the songs and Charlotte sings them. And I'll admit: it IS better than her previous album, but it's still not great.

The tracks are more varied, which is nice. There are some slinky, walking-in-the-park with your honey songs, some deranged sonic experiments, some sexy French spoken word pieces ala Charlotte's dad and some songs that pretty much just sound like everything Beck has been doing for the better half of the last decade. The music is serviceable, some of the songs are really excellent ("Heaven Can Wait", "Voyager"), but most of them just sort of fall flat. Nothing is outright bad, and overall it's a pleasant enough listen, but it honestly works best as background music. It shouldn't really offend anyone, it doesn't need a special setting, it's just there. Sort of pretty without being sappy, interesting enough to not cause pure boredom, and has a few moments of stomp-your-feet, nod-your-head goodness, but these are few and far between.

It can be enjoyed, but I don't really understand how anyone could have a super strong opinion about this record one way or the other.

In Summary: I'll keep this record around. It's decent, but that's about it.

Gil Scott-Heron - I'm New Here

I don't know who we can credit with the movement of reviving the aging once-star, whether Rick Rubin or not, but I gotta say this method has worked pretty great over the past decade.

Gil Scott-Heron's first album in almost 2 decades continues this trend, updating his sound to include many hot-at-the-minute electronic beats. There is some dubstep, some electro, some real sparse stuff ala 808s & Heartbreaks (not to mention sampling "Flashing Lights" at the bookends of the album), and there also happens to be some folkish sounding songs, which are typically my favorite GSH songs.

But the best song on this album might very well be "I'll Take Care Of You" which sounds like vintage Heron, classic late 70s soul. The song is just emotional and the way that his voice has weathered over the years just adds to the feeling. This is the Gil Scott-Heron I fell in love with when I randomly stumbled upon him my senior year of high school. This is the guy who I quoted in fucking college essays. Love that song to death.

The album is excellent quite often, despite focusing primarily on covers and interludes. The longer spoken word pieces are amazing as per usual and covers for the most part are well executed, but many of the tracks have a bit of an unfinished quality to them. It's as though this very short album was a reminder that this great poet is still alive and can still be a force in the music world, but he's not ready to put his talents back out there yet.

This seems to be one of the more introspective and personal albums in Gil's long line of work. He's opening up about himself, after his struggle over the last few decades, and he's made a pretty good album out of it.

I'm truly hoping for more, because this is good - but I just know it can get much much better.

In Summary: Welcome surprise. Nice, succinct album. Deep, worth owning, worth listening to, but hopefully a precursor to something bigger.

that's like the worst review I've ever written.

from the second song on this beach house album is one of the most boring things that ever happened to me in life.

The second song is my favorite on the whole Beach House album.

Those are more or less my exact feelings on that Charlotte Gainsbourg except that I never bothered with her first one.

Would like to hear the GSH, but I feel like I should hear more of his old stuff besides Pieces of a Man first.

Do you have a decent rip for that Lorn record handy, Andy?

I'm boarding from the airport in guadalajara right now, I'll upload a link later today or tomorrow for ya.

Did I see your blog is starting back up? Link me to that shitttt