#16
So, I mentioned there were 15 albums. What's #16 for then? Well, the truth is, that there are a lot of albums that could have occupied the sixteenth spot, but all of them fall slightly short. Thus, I've decided to quickly mention them here. First of all, it's the three albums by Kings of Convenience, all of which are good, but none of which stick out in any sort of way that would justify a spot on the list. Then there are the newest albums by mastodons such as Muse (The Resistance) and Kashmir (Trespassers). Although I've listened a lot to especially the latter, I must admit that after a year and a half of year of these albums' existence respectively, both of them do disappoint me. Next, there are albums that I have just not listened to nearly enough to justify their being on the list. That goes for Yeasayer's Odd Blood, Delorean's Subiza and The National's High Violet. Then there's Ten Makes A Face by When Saints Go Machine, which just doesn't have the general quality to warrant sufficient consideration, and finally there's The Knife and their oddball Tomorrow, In A Year, which is difficult to place in any kind of list or definition.
Let's move on to the real deal now!
BROKEN BELLS
Broken Bells
It's quite a feat, to be honest, that James Mercer and Danger Mouse, together known as Broken Bells, have ended up on this list. I haven't heard the album all that much, but there's just a certain air of fineness, a superior oeuvre to this. The first time I sat down and listened to the album end to another, it just seemed to slide right in, and it sounded like something I had heard a million times before. Not the bad way, the way an album wanes after the first 50-60 listens (and that's not a bad album if it takes that many!), but the comfortable way - the way it sounds neatly recognizable. Highlights are of course 'The High Road' and 'The Ghost Inside', but Broken Bells is more about the album as a whole, than the tracks on their own.
BALSTYRKO
Jagten Paa Noget
Okay, so, this might be a bit of a surprise for some. But this album has through the last year, half year even, become one of my favorites to chug on late at night, when I grow tired of listening to beats or guitars. The combination of Ane Trolle's dusty voice, which sounds like something from the fifties, and Blæs Bukki's bright and neat basso and inspiring lyrical wit, works very well with the curious mix of vintage jazz, reggae, psychedelia and noise. Some of the tracks, like 'Kaffe Mdma', sound like walking through very empty streets on a weekday night, while 'Karusellen' sounds like a sarcastic take on a loathsome society, and 'De Forkerte Sten' draws comparisons to contemporary Danish folk. Jagten Paa Noget is a masterful album, which unites listeners across a wide variety of genres.
THE KOOKS
Inside In/Inside Out
The Kooks play good old, buttons-down garage-revival, riding the wave that The Strokes picked up earlier in the past decade. These Brighton kids do it in a less pretentious way though (Christ, whenever did The Strokes become pretentious!?), and their debut album Inside In/Inside Out from 2006 rocks merrily along a theme of delightful girls, joyful love, frustrating girls and ill-fated love. It's very apparent that the band was only in their very early 20s when Inside In/Inside Out came out, and that's the exact kind of sound the album encompasses, in the same way Arctic Monkeys came blurting to fame at the same time. The Kooks are a bit more happy-go-lucky though, as songs like 'She Moves In Her Own Way' and 'See The World' indicate, but they also become intimater, as with 'Naïve' and the beautiful, acoustic 'Seaside', the albums definite highlight.
