"Everybody's singing the same song 10 years." That's what Julian Casablancas sings in pivotal lead single 'Under Cover of Darkness' from The Strokes' long-in-the-making fourth studio album. Released almost a full decade after the iconic debut Is This It, few expected The Strokes to rebound from their slight misfire on #3, and a following five-year hiatus. But they have. In places, such as the aforementioned lead single, 'Taken For A Fool' and 'Gratisfaction', Angles delightfully flashes its kinship with the early Strokes-material, but the palette has been widened considerably, with forays into the eighties aplenty. What really ties this album together though is the general euphony. All the way from funky opener 'Machu Picchu' to pensive closer 'Life Is Simple In The Moonlight', this stuff just works. It sounds like a band rejuvenated, and that's a true pleasure!
Danish indie has a considerable presence on this list, but it has taken time for When Saints Go Machine's second full-length, Konkylie, to win me over, as it did for debut album Ten Makes A Face as well. Konkylie almost constantly plays hard to get, and at times it does become a bit more far galaxies-like for my taste. But aside from the obvious highlights 'Church and Law', 'Kelly' and the brilliant closer 'Add Ends', a few of the other tunes are starting to make inroads, as is the album as a whole. This is indeed the kind of album you should listen to from one end to another. It still careens slightly in the middle, with tracks three to six being more or less forgettable, but Konkylie is more than anything an impressively confident record by a band unafraid to go their own way - even if there are pretty obvious Silent Shout-influences here and there...
Caribou exists somewhere in the curious crossroads between indie - which is usually considered as music with instruments and stuff - and house, but you only have to listen to a track like opener 'Odessa' once to realize, that Swim has got all it takes to have both indie schmindies and club kids bobbing their heads in sync. Dan Snaith's velvet-like vocals, his catchy, persistent beats and his influx of acoustic percussion makes it almost band music - just listen to the multitude of timbres in 'Bowls', for example. Throughout the album, Snaith is tight as neoprene suit - perhaps not danceable, but definitely with his eyes and ears fixed on the club scene. It's the kind of album you lounge and enjoy a drink to, and enjoy the delicious and highly detailed production. At times balearically uplifting ('Sun'), at times fragile and emotional ('Found Out' and 'Leave House') Caribou has managed to carve out his very own niche and sound in the otherwise pretty crowded indie-electro crossover area, and with Swim, he is absolutely masterful!
Back when I first reviewed Young Galaxy's marvelous, Dan Lissvik-produced third full-length, Shapeshifting, I made a point of how powerful northern countries like Canada and Sweden are in today's indie music world. To carry out that point, these two countries combined account for a full 6 of this year's top 20, with Shapeshifting as one of the absolute gems. The group employs the now so popular boy/girl vocals approach on this summery, at times almost Caribbean-tinged album, which revolves mainly around three completely astonishing tunes: The enchanting 'We Have Everything', the downbeat and lazily funky 'Peripheral Visionaries' and the crepuscular and mystic 'Cover Your Tracks'. The other tunes on the album, bar the weird closer 'Shapeshifting', are good too though, and make for a truly enjoyable listen through and through - an album of taut indie-electropop with equal amounts of pathos and chill.
These, the first and latest albums in Iron & Wine's discography, are very differently mannered, but are each a major part in my discovery of this artist this past half year - an interest ignited by a spellbinding show in Århus in February. New kid on the block Kiss Each Other Clean is more ornate and lengths more daring, with amazing grooviness, swagger and musical wit oozing throughout, and with highlights abound, such as 'Tree By The River', 'Monkeys Uptown', 'Rabbit Will Run' and the powerful closer 'Your Fake Name is Good Enough for Me'. Next to the charisma and width of Kiss Each Other Clean, The Creek Drank The Cradle is much more bare. But as is so often the case, the lack of big, boisterous ambience makes room for really delicate forays into Sam Beam's lyrical and melodic prowess, on gorgeous tunes such as 'Bird Stealing Bread' and 'Upward Over The Mountain'.
