Comments

Saw the song title and the first thing my misfiring synapses led me to think was Stereolab cover, which I would've been blown away by, but this is fairly mind blowing in its own right
It wasn't there when I replied! :-)
I'm not exactly a Robert Plant completist, but I'll be damned if a list of his best songs that not only doesn't include "Big Log" in one of the top spots, but doesn't include it *at all*, feels insane to me. And "In the Mood" should be much higher, while I'm at it. Maybe I just overvalue The Principle of Moments?
This is fucking thrilling. I wouldn't have thought it would be possible to top "Archie...", but damn am I glad to be wrong.
Very Caveman-y (this is intended as a compliment)
Couldn't agree more -- have you also heard "Blue-Green Arrow," which can be found on Prisoners of Love? Like a more ramshackle "Green Arrow" with some additional hypnotic guitar lines on top. Not nearly as sublime or transportive, but definitely worthwhile. And there are a few brief variations of the song under different titles on their They Shoot, We Score soundtrack compilation (so yeah, soundtrack material for sure).
No arguments with GbV, YLT, BTS, Pavement, Afghan Whigs, or Superchunk, but it's a travesty to forget about Modest Mouse (although their post-M&A albums have made it pretty easy to do so, unfortunately). As someone who was the perfect age for the whole mid-to-late-'90s indie scene (which is to say, an undergrad), I cannot overestimate how awesome and important and invigorating This is a Long Drive... and The Lonesome Crowded West were. For me and my circle, Built to Spill, while still amazing, were second place to MM. I should add that Archers of Loaf need to be right in there, as well -- I would argue they were the best live act of the bunch, especially going by sheer raw energy, which isn't to disparage the extraordinary live capabilities of all of these other bands. And admittedly a different animal, but The Sea and Cake deserves mention, too.
Fuck me for not having Cymbals Eat Guitars ("Finally," yet another album opener) and Bon Iver (as tempting as it is to keep the streak going with "22 (OVER S∞∞N)," I'm going to say "666 ʇ") on here.
In no particular order except that "Best to You" is number one: 1. Blood Orange -- "Best to You" Rihanna -- "Kiss It Better" Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam -- "In a Black Out" Frank Ocean -- "Nikes" Alex Cameron -- "The Comeback" Tycho -- "Glider" William Tyler -- "Highway Anxiety" Cass McCombs -- "Bum Bum Bum" David Bowie -- "Lazarus" Underworld -- "I Exhale" I believe these are ALL album openers and/or singles -- bizarrely strong year for them or too much access to music to give full albums proper multiple listens? Hmmm. Maybe both.
So I'm going through it and feeling good about "Would?" rightly being number one, until I scroll down to that spot. How can it not be? How can it not be in the top ten?!?
That perfectly describes why Teenager of the Year is my favorite Pixies-related release, not that I don't love just about everything in that universe. I even think Indie Cindy is a lot of fun, if not magical.
Really great write up, but it's hard for me to understand neither it nor any of the comments (so far) have mentioned Binky the Doormat, which is definitely in my top-ten REM songs, and on any given day might be my favorite. The peak of their melodramatic arena grandeur mode. And if Disintegration doesn't make the ten-year cut, Wish is a pretty fucking great album and has actually aged really well (Boris Williams was the secret necessary ingredient in The Cure's most magical music, while we're on the subject of drummers who are essential to their bands. Which isn't to say that The Cure's pre-Boris stuff isn't amazing in its own right. Just not Head on the Door through Wish great, or at least great in a very different and less dynamic way. Post-Boris? Shrug (with the exception of Underneath the Stars, Before Three, and a few others).
Have enough of them and you'll end up with The Perfect Piss.
This is the greatest goddamn song I've heard in forever. There's something about earnest absurdity that can end up being more affecting than earnest sincerity.
Absofuckinglutely. Such an evocative, mysterious song, and it awesomely lifts the bassline from one of my all-time favorite New Order songs, "Procession." Can't be coincidental.
"nu mental" is a perfect Freudian typo.
Until I figured it out, that is, not pointed it out. Blagh
I'm so glad you pointed that out -- it would've bothered the shit out of me until I did so myself.
My favorite part of the demo is the palm-muted guitar (I think?) melodies that ping around between the speakers -- I think they're completely absent from the album version. Baffling. If I'd never heard the demo, I think I'd love the album version, though. It's a bit like my reaction to "Terrible Love" the first time I heard High Violet, after having grown accustomed to the raging live version. On a side note, I think "Flesh without Blood" is the best song she's ever recorded, and one of the best pure pop songs I've ever heard. I seem to be in the minority on this one.
This is phenomenal. Has a classic '80s/'90s "college music" feel without being derivative; somehow sounds very fresh. It's much better, I think, than anything Warpaint has done. And I quite like Warpaint.
Potato/potahto -- I like this one the most of the three.
I feel validated in my firm belief that the title track is easily the best song on Paper Gods.
Please pretend there are possessive apostrophes in the parentheses :-)
I've only listened to the new Chvrches exactly once (aside from the singles), so this is ludicrously knee-jerk of me, but I have to say that there's something very off-puttingly saccharine-self-empowerment about the album's lyrics that bothers the hell out of me. The debut seems to have a darker edge, which apparently is key to my full giddily euphoric enjoyment of this band (I *love* The Bones...). Maybe it will grow on me, but I'm feeling let down. I'm fully on board with the singles from Every Open Eye, though, so there's definitely hope that it will grow on me. But man, on first listen, the lyrics were hard to stomach in a 40-minute (or whatever) block. In a nutshell, I'm as disappointed by my high expectations for this as I am thrilled by the new New Order's obliterating of my blah expectations. What a fucking amazing album that is (and yes, it's probably hypocritical of me to criticize Chvrches lyrics when New Orders can certainly be facile/ponderous, but again, it's the self-empowerment, specifically, that bugs me). On to Deerhunter as the album I'm most hopeful for stratospheric expectations to be met or even exceeded.
Couldn't agree more. Whatever anyone thinks of leaks, it's so refreshing in recent years to have a chance to form your own opinion about an album without the reviews coloring the first listening experience. This was especially true for me for this album, as it immediately struck me as excellent (and still does), but reviewers just slammed it. Hard to understand.
First lyric video ever? Subterranean Homesick Blues? Or if that's somehow not considered a video, for predating MTV, how about The Talking Heads' (Nothing but) Flowers? You trolling bro?
Had to be Shellac. Maybe their best album, and that is REALLY saying something.
Freaking incredible. "Chambers" sounds like modern-era Cure, but better!
Sound Check (Gravity). C'mon.
No, I totally agree -- *has* to be w/sax.
Ladytron + better songwriting - cartoonish icy gothiness + outsized M83 melodrama = awesome/Chvrches
Holy shit, thanks! I'd never heard of Baby Dayliner, but I instantly love them/him. I guess I'm a sucker for nearly self-parodic over-emotive singing. That's what you get for being a Morrissey / Scott Walker / Jarvis Cocker die hard, I guess. And yes: Majical Cloudz is *amazing* -- Impersonator is feeling like my album of the year, and I adore the new National and Daft Punk albums. And maybe it would've made more sense to say that the Diamond Rings sounds like Welsh, combined with the skinny guy from They Might Be Giants circa "Birdhouse in Your Soul." The singer from Merchandise fits into all of this, too.... But yeah: Baby Dayliner!
I can't be the only one who thinks he sounds like the guy from Diamond Rings, but I never see that.
"The Real Thing" is the best Dandy Warhols song ever.
It's bullshit without "Leave Me Alone" or "Procession," their two best songs (not necessarily in that order).
Best Album: A. C. Newman -- "Shut Down the Streets"
"Ugly new *houses.*" And I believe that the "Bigmouth" backing vocals are pitch-shifted Morrisseys. Smiths fanatics of the world: unite and be pedantic.