...the best of which is Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill by Grouper. The album is a majestic piece of melancholy fuzzed-over folk guitar melodies, driven by Liz Harris' soft,
echoing voice. The music is very earthy and natural, both themes reflected in some of the lyrics, such as in "Fishing Bird", "Wind And Snow", and "Tidal Wave." The guitar work consists of free-form chord strumming that slowly hypnotizes with swirling notes that are washed in distorted noise yet somehow feel strikingly clear. The overall effect of the album is intricately beautiful, but it could also easily put a listener to sleep. It's as if Harris were a hypnotist, repeating the lyrics quietly over and over until they blend into the oblivion created by her music. Overall, it's a beautiful piece of shoegaze noise pop that resembles notables like Beach House and My Bloody Valentine. And, for some reason, I think the album art is really, really cool.
Sun Kil Moon's April was less satisfying, though it did have some incredible tracks, such as "Lost Verses", "Unlit Hallway", and "Harper Road." Most of the rest, however, were somewhat boring and the entire album, clocking in at over an hour and ten minutes, seemed very drawn out. To me it just didn't have the same magic as Mark Kozelek's earlier SKM album, Ghosts Of The Great Highway.
The third album, Youth Novels by Lykke Li, seemed less like an album and more like a collection of singles. This is not to say that the music wasn't good, however, it just didn't have a cohesive feeling to it. The tracks themselves were pretty good pop songs from an up-and-coming female Swedish artist, but unfortunately none were that incredible. My favorites were "Dance, Dance, Dance" and "Tonight." It's fun music to listen to, but it's less satisfying than some of the other stuff out there. Some tracks remind me a lot of Santogold.
My least favorite of the bunch was Naked Acid by Valet. Maybe I'm missing something, but most of the album just didn't sound good to me. The tracks were long and very free-form, lacking any traditional melody or musical structure, which would be fine if done well but to me seemed like sort of a mess. However, a reward for 35 minutes of boredom comes in the last two tracks: the Beach House-esque "Fire" and the surprisingly electronic album-closer "Streets", the latter of which was actually quite good and, thankfully, justified my listening through the entire album.The year is almost through, so check back for some exciting year-end lists! I hope to do one for best albums, another for good albums that didn't quite make the cut, and one for my favorite tracks. I'll also do some superlatives, like Worst Album, Best Live Act, Most Promising New Group, and Most Overrated/Underrated. I've been working hard on finishing my listening, so get excited! (Or innocuous!)
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