Albums of the Year: #15-#11
Part two of my mammoth list of albums of the year now… Don’t worry, the top ten’s not too far away. Here are some more that didn’t quite fit that high.
#15: Sleepingdog - With Our Heads in the Clouds and Our Hearts in the Fields
Sleepingdog, also known as Chantal Acda, saw her April release predictably shunned commercially (and, incredibly, critically too) - people like hooks, they like sing-a-long choruses, something to jump to when half zoned out on cheap wine. Sleepingdog works in a different way, offering melancholic, seductive beauty by the bucketload - WOHITCAOHITF is more a work of art than an album.
Listen: “Kitten Plays the Harmony Rocket”
#14: You Love Her Coz She’s Dead - You Love Her Coz She’s Dead
Apologies if you’re following this list in order and were expecting a smoother transition; I can imagine ambient piano to a whopping great picture of a wifey with a safety pin in her lip is a bit of a shock. YLHCSD might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but their debut somehow manages to be a roller-coaster of emotion with just distorted vocals, synth and beats. Truly a collection of earworms, no matter how abrasive.
Video: “Leap of Desire (I)”
#13: tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l
The stronghold Merrill Garbus has on the Internet’s blogging population is truly nothing short of stunning. After recording her first album mostly on a dictaphone it might surprise some to discover most of that influence has been kept for w h o k i l l, a delightfully quirky foray into actual, real live pop music.
Video: “Bizness”
#12: YACHT - Shangri-La
I was turned onto Portland-based YACHT quite late on in their career (well, with a free download of “Dystopia”, so pretty much this year), so I’m probably not the most qualified to tell die-hard fans how this compares. All I know is that Shangri-La-la-la-la-la has been stuck deep inside my temporal lobe for the best part of the year. And it still brings me very fond memories.
Video: “Utopia / Dystopia”
#11: Wye Oak - Civilian
If this were a list of albums that came out at inconvenient times, Wye Oak would take some beating. It seems that the Internet only caught hold of how good this album was after the title track was featured as Single of the Week on iTunes. Obviously they’re taking a lot of influence from Florence and the Machine’s vocal talent, but who wouldn’t? This is easily individual enough to beat her hands-down.
Video: “Holy Holy”
