my top 50 albums of 2010, pt. 3
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30
Les Savy Fav
Root For Ruin
Frenchkiss
On their fifth full-length, the gentlemen of Les Savy Fav are aiming for consistency above all else; sure, there’s still plenty of angular guitar freak-outs, shuddering claptrap drums, and Tim Harrington’s boisterous, rah-rah vocals, but whereas in the past the whole thing threatened to go off the rails at any moment, Ruin finds the foursome as a well-honed machine, churning out a filler-free album. “High and Unhinged” starts with counterpoint music-box melody lines; Harrington’s voice rambles in, sounding processed and Saran-Wrapped, but soon enough everyone’s firing on all cylinders, the six-string squeals echoing, the vocals and drums in thunderous lockstep. “Dear Crutches” creates sly pop with a walking bassline holding up the simmering tremolo guitar, Harrington drawling “I don’t want to be your crutches anymore” as the song undulates beneath him, while closer “Clear Spirits” ends the record with a bang, the drum clatter reverberating off the walls, the shouted vocals and strident, twisted guitar lines echoing like alarm sirens in the night.
29
Tortoise
Why Waste Time? EP
Thrill Jockey
One of the year’s best-kept secrets is this compilation EP of Tortoise tracks; officially released only in Japan, this meandering, lackadaisical collection finds the tightly wound group stretching its legs with pastiche pieces that ramble pleasantly from idea to idea. Key here is “Ice Ice Gravy”, a thirteen-minute medley of little musical conversations that range from serpentine jazz-club guitar noodling to a high-stepping post-rock jock jam to an ethereal soundscape of clarinet and bass to a burgeoning, drive-time groove; the band’s timing is impeccable, hanging on each piece just long enough to leave you wanting more. An alternate take on last year’s “Gigantes” opens with hammered autoharp strings and a cloud of muddy synth that put me in mind of a tune from the old N64 game Majora’s Mask, while “Passerine” is pure music concrete, an unsettling wilderness of collage pulled from live soundbank samples, snippets of tripped-out vocals rising from the haze, synths humming ominously.
28
Dosh
Tommy
Anticon
One-man loop station Martin Dosh was an ideal addition as the drummer to Andrew Bird’s band, but he has continued to release a string of solo records as well, full of heady, circuitous jams built piecemeal from the array of instruments he hauls to each show. “Call the Kettle” is a typically dense Dosh jam, starting with jaunty kitchen-sink percussion and a melodic figure on the keys; soon, a spirited saxophone enters the traffic, flitting about like a bumblebee; by song’s end, all the instruments have annealed together into a pleasant din, cacophonous guitar swimming just beneath the surface. “Loud” takes a more straightforward approach, piano and vibraphone joining for a spare, doleful harmony over light, sparse drums before giving away to a barrage of metallic echoes to close the song. But Dosh goes all out on the closing “Gare de Lyon”, an eight-minute slow-burner that meticulously constructs a Jenga tower of sound before smashing it down with a huge ending of calamitous, fuzzed-out guitar.
27
Pernice Brothers
Goodbye, Killer
Ashmont
It’s 2010, and Joe Pernice is still bummed out. But no one does elegant bumming better than the Boston troubadour, and his band’s first full-length in four years is a welcome return to guitar-pop gems as catchy as their lyrics are bittersweet. All you need to know is that the record’s best song is called “Fucking and Flowers”; over a supremely melodic midtempo rocker reminiscent of REM, Pernice sings “we found the thing that everybody wants/’til it goes wrong”, those four words repeated not as warning but simple expectation, the track ending with a full minute of raucous soloing as turbulent as the times the singer anticipates. Opener “Bechamel” is a gorgeous bit of longing, Pernice’s voice ranging high and low as warm organ and folk strumming support the ringing, divergent harmonies, while the title track is a swaying alt-country jam, the stately twelve-string guitars underscoring the observation “you were shooting for the gutter/and your aim was very good”. And of course, if you need a break from the dour hand-ringing, look no further than the short, fiery garage rock of stalker’s lament “Jacqueline Susann”.
26
Shipping News
One Less Heartless to Fear
Noise Pollution
This fifth full-length in the Louisville band’s catalog captures seven new songs and two from 2005’s Flies the Fields in a live setting, recorded in their hometown as well as on tour in Tokyo; as guitarist Jason Noble has spent much of the last year in treatment for cancer (you can read some of his journal entries here), the band opted to release their new material this way as opposed to costly studio sessions. But the immediacy of the live show seems perfect for these songs, which burn with a constant fury and intensity only seen sporadically in RMSN’s older albums. Noble in particular finds lyrical inspiration and black humor in dystopian scenes; the strident, seasick guitars and swaying drums of “This Is Not an Exit” percolate under his 1984-esque announcements: “we’ve got cornea scans/email scans/root beer Tuesday/hot fudge Thursday/thank God it’s Thursday.” Even more frenetic is the epileptic closer “Do You Remember the Avenues”, Noble and Jeff Mueller’s twin guitars attacking in frenzied math-rock spirals, hammer-ons and pull-offs piling up under the observation that “the fax machine is covered in a grayish-green lichen”. Even the sparser songs eventually build to cacophony, such as on the stuttering “7s”, which goes from distant, disquieting melodies at the outset to a full-on fusillade of crashing percussion and furious, start-stop strumming at its close. I wish Noble all the best and have been pleased to read his encouraging updates of late, and I look forward to more great music in the future from this long-running band.
25
James Blackshaw
All is Falling
Young God
British twelve-string virtuoso James Blackshaw has the unique distinction of being the only musician to land an album inside the top 25 of this list every year for four years running; the sublime All is Falling continues his tradition of long, elliptical pieces drawing equally on chamber music and post-rock, this time as a single album-length piece broken into eight parts. “Part 2” is regal and stately, gentle guitar figures dancing a fugue across plaintive, mellifluous strings, leading to the complex, technical playing of “Part 3”, which showcases Blackshaw’s rapid fingerpicking, alternating syncopation and fluidity as violins cascade in for a ballroom waltz. “Part 4” is more austere, tinny glockenspiel laid like lace over the substrate of electric picking, whereas the excellent “Part 6” plays like a Sesame Street skit directed by Steve Reich, male and female voices speaking in layered series of numbers while drums punctuate the branching, labyrinthine guitar. A leading light of the independent contemporary classical movement, Blackshaw shines yet again on this, his ninth album.
24
Boston Spaceships
Our Cubehouse Still Rocks
Guided by Voices, Inc.
Even by his absurdly prolific standards, 2010 was an impressive year for the 53-year-old Robert Pollard; his legendary band Guided by Voices reunited (the classic mid-90s lineup, no less) for a hugely successful tour, spinning out dozens of hits from their lo-fi heyday every night. But whereas many aging rockers would simply soak up the accolades and adulation, Pollard continued to churn out new music; we’ve already seen two solo records and one EP from this band on this chart, and he appears once more with Boston Spaceships for their fourth album in two years, their strongest collection to date. Who else but this man could close out a record with a rollicking, fist-pumping guitar-and-horns rocker - the best song here, by the way - titled “In the Bathroom (Up 1/2 the Night)”? Who else could hop adroitly from the majestic, slow-burning call-and-response of “I See You Coming” to the stompbox blues and unrepentant shredding of “Freedom Rings” to the delicate torch-rock psychedelica of “Unshaven Bird”? The sixteen tracks here find the far-flung trio (Dayton-by-way-of-Portland) gelling on record like never before, and I’m sure it will only be topped by the double LP they have coming-five months from now, of course.
23
Smashing Pumpkins
Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, Vol. 2: The Solstice Bare EP
Martha's Music
In some ways I’ve been a Billy Corgan apologist, hyping the merits of unloved records like Zwan’s Mary, Star of the Sea; other times, I’ve admitted that he seemed utterly out of ideas, such as on the hollow metalocalypse of SP ‘reunion’ record Zeitgeist. So I can say, unapologetically, that I am thrilled with Corgan’s approach to the Teargarden songs thus far; taking a month or more to craft each individual track, posting them for free online, and collecting them biennially into these EPs. After all these years, he seems to have remembered what made Smashing Pumpkins so compelling in the 90s; look to “Tom Tom”, where warm, combo-amped guitars are doubled and trebled for that welcome mellow psych-rock sound we came to love, Corgan’s unmistakable voice strong on the multitracked harmonies. “The Fellowship” relishes in geek-rock, synth arpeggios oscillating under ringing, insistent strumming and the beacon call “are you with us/or against us tonight?”, while “Spangled” renders tender melodies on the harpsichord and organ, Corgan doing 70s balladry with some unexpected chord changes and bombastic Fleetwood Mac-esque flourishes. If Billy can keep up this level of quality for the announced eleven-EP run of the series - and keep giving the songs away for free - well, maybe the world isn’t such a vampire after all.
22
Spoon
Transference
Merge
I was one of the few who was left a little cold by Spoon’s breakthrough 2007 record Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga; the band had always been known for lean, less-is-more rock songwriting, but on that album the songs seemed almost too spare, too skeletal, unfinished even, and tellingly the best song (“Don’t You Evah”) was a cover. Thankfully, they’re back in true form on this album, a collection of ballsy, insouciant tunes with plenty of swagger and punch. Opener “Before Destruction” takes shimmering organ, scattershot drums, and Britt Daniel’s signature snarl and knits a welcome-mat, inviting the listener into the enclosure of the record’s warm sounds. “Mystery Zone” sounds like a lost Police song, a constant throb present under the reverb-soaked guitar and skulking piano, whereas the incendiary “Got Nuffin” builds propulsion with little more than fuzzed-out bass and Daniel’s crackling vocal. But the best track comes in “Trouble Comes Running”, a juke-joint singalong that bristles with infectious energy, falsetto harmonies rippling through the bright chorus. Seven albums in, Transference finds the band on top of their game again, effortlessly writing some of the best songs of their career.
21
Maps and Atlases
Perch Patchwork
Barsuk
After six years and three EPs, Chicago’s Maps and Atlases have finally released a full-length album, and their sound has come full-circle from the hyperactive melodic finger-tapping that characterized 2006’s Tree, Swallows, Houses to the kitchen-sink baroque pop and lush, layered soundscapes that mark Patchwork. “The Charm” is a minimalist heartbreak song, with the only melody coming from Dave Davison’s airy voice as it floats above a calamitous clatter of marching-band drums and a buzzy, two-note bassline; his anguished baritone rises out of the din to belt out “I don’t think there is a sound that I hate more/than the sound of your voice/saying you don’t love me anymore”, a sentiment that works best in the hollow, unadorned setting. He sleeps outside his lover’s house on “Solid Ground”, a moody construction that builds structures of percussive guitar and synthesized woodwinds, the punctuated harmonies perched atop like a white flag. Some of the old prog influences are evident on the album’s second half; “Carrying the Wet Wood” is all anfractuous, bouncing rhythms, left-turn hooks, and ebullient noodling, while the epic closing title track is a majestic work of poignant acoustic and warm strings, the song ending with a gorgeous, cascading vocal descant that never fails to give me chills.
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