And continuing from where we left off, our great TL;DR adventure continues with five more albums.

5.

Wonderlick – Topless at the Arco Arena

The miracles of blogging – I would have never found out about this amazing thing if it hadn’t been featured on an article right here on this site.

Topless is one of the spotlight hogs of the lyrical side of 09, almost written like a concept album but never staying in one concept. Part of the album ponders upon the rock and roll mythology and the emotional highs of it, contemplating on how manufactured or superficial it is, or whether it really does show our true selves. Another part focuses on the executives, CEOs and other corporate headmen and the nature of being just one cog in the system run by a bunch of loonies. And finally you have the witty and humourous but painfully real depictions of ups and downs in life in general, our relationships and fears. And for some bizarre reason they all come together into one big collective, almost forming a full narrative altogether. When everything’s also written in such an intelligent, both loving and snarking kind of way that comes off as completely honest and definitely self-experienced way, you can’t help but fall in love with the constant lyrical layers that the album seems to offer.

The people-centric, personal and human-like way of storytelling is then further underlined by the music. Topless at the Arco Arena sounds like the work of bedroom musicians; not lo-fi, but decidedly away from a highly produced, expensive sound. The intimate style is pretty much the perfect match for the words, and naturally the voices that then govern over it all: featuring two lead singers, Topless is a joyous parade of vocal interplay.

All this is then finally decorated with an amazing bunch of pop songs, from the joyous power pop of “This Song is a Commercial” (featuring, of course, the most obvious hooks of the entire album) and “Everybody Loves Jenny” to the subdued, intimate slow moments like the heartwarming “You First” or heartbreaking “Your Majesty”.

While Topless at the Arco Arena also has the most obvious flaw of all the albums in this top 10 – its sixteen tracks feature a few annoyingly uninteresting songs that tend to break up the otherwise brilliant composition of the album, sadly lowering its ranking – in the end it’s impossible not to fall in love with it and endlessly play it on repeat. The personal, humane sound of it all turns the songs into something very special, and the lyrics give endless hours worth of layers to peel. You can sense that Topless at the Arco Arena is a product of love and experience.

MP3: Fear of Chicago

This Song is a Commercial

4.

Mew – No More Stories/Are Told Today/I’m Sorry/They Washed Away/No More Stories/The World Is Grey/I’m Tired/Let’s Wash Away

You know why No More Stories, Mew’s bizarre upbeat pop album that’s probably the most twisted and crooked thing any band would ever call as their most direct and straightforward album, is Just That Damn Great? It’s because the playfully mad genius represented all over the place on it is infectious. When the “here we go! here we go!” chorus of “Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy” hits the airwaves for the first time ever in your music player of choice, you’re already singing along and clapping to the beat. It’s impossible not to do a little jig and a little sway when “Beach” is on. You find yourself involved in the music countless times throughout the album, be it by pathetically imitating Bjerre’s falsettos without even realizing you’re doing it, swaying to the music or even slightly dancing on your seat, or just taking a seat back and surrendering to the big dramatic moments of the album’s ballads.

Mew’s always been a band who appeals to emotions, they’re the masters of tearjerkingly gorgeous epochs and ballads to embrace in during the end of the world; with No More Stories, they continue to do the same but their goal is to make the listener feel the joy and colourful splendour of life rather than the unearthily pretty bittersweet beauty of their past works. No More Stories is a joyous parade of sounds and that get-together feel-good vibe and communial enjoyment of dramatic climaxes coming off so many of the songs highlights all the band’s greatest assets and the reasons why they’re one of the seminal bands of the 00’s.

And, it gave us probably the best fan-made video ever with the Beach video embedded below.

MP3: Hawaii

Beach

3.

Moby – Wait for Me

Put on your headphones. Dimmen those pesky lights. Make sure there’s no possible sources of interruption around. Close your eyes, press play. Sink into the world of Wait for Me.

Moby’s latest is, according to his own words, the first album he’s done in years that was entirely written with only himself in mind rather than trying to pander to the expectations of the music media that have put him on spotlight ever since the bizarrely random super-success of 1998’s Play. Recorded in his own home, utilising only friends as his help, released by himself rather than through a big label. Everything involving the album states one simple thing: this is personal.

In the process of cutting loose from the mental chains that caged him for a good decade, Moby’s created his greatest work ever since the aforementioned Play. Wait for Me is all subdued moods, thick atmosphere and delicate melodies gently ringing in the vast, vast space that surrounds them. Faint, heartrending vocals pop up here and there. There is very little in the way of the dance roots or hook-filled insta-hits Moby’s become known for: if anything, Wait for Me is a gentle, melancholy lullaby that bids the world good night.

Cutting it up into individual songs does not make it justice because Wait for Me’s core is in its long-player format. Through its length it creates an unpenetrable atmosphere, a placid ocean of mood where the gentle sonic waves soothe down and mend the wounds after a violent war. Everywhere you see is overwhelming sadness but in the horizon you can see the light of day and the road to freedom.

Wait for Me is personal release wrapped in the most beautiful sounds.

MP3: Slow Light

Pale Horses

2.

Noah and the Whale – The First Days of Spring

Well if we have a few surprises on this list, this is the biggest one. I honestly never expected that the band that pulled out the annoyingly coy twee (and in retrospect, so optimistically loveydovey it’s not even funny) of “5 Years Time” last year would end up creating one of my favourite albums of the following year. Or that the said album would be a melancholy, unnervingly emotionally touching concept album about one man’s world crumbling apart and slowly picking up the pieces. An album that’s enough to turn anyone into a sad sack of weepy emotion. The title track, “Stranger” and “Blue Skies” are some of the finest songs ever recorded from the subject. You could cut the feeling of emotional bareness and the vulnerable fragility of the album with a knife.

These warm, gentle songs heavily based on the tender rambles of an acoustic guitar and subtly orchestrated with small orchestras, strings and choirs have been my accompaniment many-a-night. It’s an album to get lost into, sink and let the music take over. The lyrics arch a personal tale of human nature that continues throughout the album and evolves and grows in an immacutely rendered way. From utter despair to seeing the light of day again and to the final redemption. The First Days of Spring’s greatest asset is how the music and the words follow eachother and work together so perfectly: the same concept told in both ways: the downbeat murk of the early album switching into more orchestrated, slightly more uplifting songs as the album progresses.

Startlingly beautiful, and a must check even for all those who couldn’t stand the first album.

MP3: The First Days of Spring

Blue Skies

1.

Rubik – Dada Bandits

Why is Dada Bandits not only #1 of ‘09, but also one of my favourite releases of the decade in general?

Because it’s been over half a year since its release and despite having listened to it and its songs a ridiculous amount of times between the release day and now, hearing it still makes me hopelessly excited like I was hearing it for the very first time ever. Nay, like it was the first music I had heard in general for the very first time ever.

It’s a second album where the band decides to give a big middle finger to the whole “sophomore slump” effect and turns things up to eleven instead. These are gigantic pop songs with sky-shatteringly anthemic choruses, flavoured with endless amounts of vocal layers and all sorts of different instruments psychedelically toying around – especially horn sections that the band seems to have fallen in love with. At the same time there’s oddball screws twisting the unashamedly direct melodies and hooks by turning each song into a mini-epic with stylistic twirls, rollercoaster ride swings and nigh-stream of consciousness lyrics about wars, paranoia and impending apocalypses delivered with a gorgeously ringing falsetto and backed by beautiful and delicate melodies full of uplifting power. Most importantly, Dada Bandits sounds bold and relentless. It shoots its ammunition from unwavering hands, proudly and bravely driving forward with no desire to look back or stop even for a moment, basking in self-confidence.

The bold nature, quirkiness of the songwriting and the tremendously gigantic hooks pretty much make Dada Bandits a constant stream of great songs. The centre-piece math-rock epic “Indiana” with its madman-like section changes and dark atmosphere breaks from the otherwise solid mold, being the album’s grower moment that still manages to be menacingly addictive. “Radiants”, “No Escape” and “Wasteland” are massive hit singles in the making in a world with any justice, “Fire Age” is ready to conquer any “song of the year” chart with its neurotic groove that becomes more and more entrenched in sparkling melodies and massive vocal singalongs as it progresses. “Karhu junassa” accelerates with tremendous force as its pent-up force continues growing throughout the song before finally breaking into liberating jubilation, while its sibling “Richard Branson’s Crash Landing” is the most ridiculously upbeat and summery song the band has done, hand-clap galore action and all. The closing “Altitudes” wonderfully frolics with its chiming keyboards and pounding drums.

Dada Bandits is a masterpiece, a tremendous step up from Rubik and one hell of a note that this is a band worth following. Despite 2009 being a rather good music year, no album this year has managed to make me as ridiculously excited as Dada Bandits does whenever I listen to it. It’s a terrible shame that this is a band that’s not getting proper exposure outside Finland because if they did, you’d have every rock-oriented site crowning this as one of 2009’s greatest musical offerings.

Look, I hate sounding so goddamn cornily giddy and embarrasedly gushing in my reviews but fuck, woah.

MP3: Karhu junassa

MP3: Radiants

Wasteland

Tags: Mew, Moby, noah and the whale, Rubik, top 10 of 09, Wonderlick

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 20th, 2009 at 2:17 pm and is filed under Retrospective. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.