Favorite groups of 2009?
Jan. 7th, 2010 12:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usernamenumber(X-posting this from the Jason Webley forums, which, if I do say myself, are now approx 200% less sucky after I finally got around to spending an evening doing a major revamp and migrating from phpbb to forum software that isn't, you know, horrible)
(another, un-related note for emusic users: all the album links here are to amazon's mp3 store, but if you use emusic, like I do, these artists are all there as well)
...not necessarily groups that were formed in 2k9, but that you discovered that year. For me there were three: Sparks, Flipron and The Indelicates.
Sparks have been around since the late 70s, but released one of their best albums (IMO) in 2k8, which is cool all by its self, but they also have one of the most distinctive and unique sounds out there as far as I know. As a friend of mine once described them as, "like if Phillip Glass had written Bohemian Rhapsody". In other words, badass as far as I'm concerned. They do some amazing things with repetition of simple vocal lines and themes, with the singer layering and harmonizing with himself 10+ tracks at a time. I'm a big fan of their albums Hello Young Lovers and Exotic Creatures of the Deep, in particular.
The Indelicates do with cynicism what Webley does with the macabre. That is, they somehow manage to make it beautiful and compelling without watering anything down in the process. If I had to pick a favorite song of 2k9, it would probably be their "We Hate The Kids", which is basically an anthem about the death of idealism in the rock scene. I don't even fully agree with the sentiment, and yet I still find myself getting pulled into the song and wrapping myself up in their "fuck it all" attitude. They also have a beautiful love song that, once one gets partway through and hits lyrics like "we're like Romeo and Juliet... in a bunker, shot through the head", one realizes is written from the perspective of a woman in love with Hitler (it's called Unity Mitford, which wikipedia says was a real woman who is rumored to have borne his illegitimate child). So yeah, this group is not all puppies and flowers, and yet their first full-length album, American Demo, which is currently on sale for $6.99, is ultimately a thing of beauty to me, and never fails to grab me and have me singing along with most of the tracks.
Finally, Flipron. I am ashamed to admit that I am not normally a lyrics guy. It's an adhd thing or something, but I end up listening to the sound of a song as a whole, usually losing specific lyrics in the mix. As a result, what someone says in a song is often less important to me than whether or not they sound like they mean it. Strangely this is not the case when I listen to flipron. Their lyrics and presentation are basically beat poetry. Think somewhere between Bob Dylan and Mike Doughty. There's lots of imagery, which is evocative without being too abstract, and their vocalist sing/speaks in a way that makes him very easy to understand. Plus both the lyrics and the music are, you know, good. On a related note, am I crazy, or is Big Baboon (available for free from their site) the best allegory for the existential crisis of an atheist ever written? My favorite album of theirs overall is Biscuits for Cerberus, but my two favorite songs of theirs, Big Baboon and Vicious Car, are on Fancy Blues and Rustique Novelties
I should also include a shout-out to Amanda Palmer's solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer, since it came out in 2k9 and is definitely one of my favorite albums of that year. But then, any of you who are likely to care about that have no doubt already heard it. ;)
So... what were the groups whose discovery made your 2009 worthwhile?
(another, un-related note for emusic users: all the album links here are to amazon's mp3 store, but if you use emusic, like I do, these artists are all there as well)
...not necessarily groups that were formed in 2k9, but that you discovered that year. For me there were three: Sparks, Flipron and The Indelicates.
Sparks have been around since the late 70s, but released one of their best albums (IMO) in 2k8, which is cool all by its self, but they also have one of the most distinctive and unique sounds out there as far as I know. As a friend of mine once described them as, "like if Phillip Glass had written Bohemian Rhapsody". In other words, badass as far as I'm concerned. They do some amazing things with repetition of simple vocal lines and themes, with the singer layering and harmonizing with himself 10+ tracks at a time. I'm a big fan of their albums Hello Young Lovers and Exotic Creatures of the Deep, in particular.
The Indelicates do with cynicism what Webley does with the macabre. That is, they somehow manage to make it beautiful and compelling without watering anything down in the process. If I had to pick a favorite song of 2k9, it would probably be their "We Hate The Kids", which is basically an anthem about the death of idealism in the rock scene. I don't even fully agree with the sentiment, and yet I still find myself getting pulled into the song and wrapping myself up in their "fuck it all" attitude. They also have a beautiful love song that, once one gets partway through and hits lyrics like "we're like Romeo and Juliet... in a bunker, shot through the head", one realizes is written from the perspective of a woman in love with Hitler (it's called Unity Mitford, which wikipedia says was a real woman who is rumored to have borne his illegitimate child). So yeah, this group is not all puppies and flowers, and yet their first full-length album, American Demo, which is currently on sale for $6.99, is ultimately a thing of beauty to me, and never fails to grab me and have me singing along with most of the tracks.
Finally, Flipron. I am ashamed to admit that I am not normally a lyrics guy. It's an adhd thing or something, but I end up listening to the sound of a song as a whole, usually losing specific lyrics in the mix. As a result, what someone says in a song is often less important to me than whether or not they sound like they mean it. Strangely this is not the case when I listen to flipron. Their lyrics and presentation are basically beat poetry. Think somewhere between Bob Dylan and Mike Doughty. There's lots of imagery, which is evocative without being too abstract, and their vocalist sing/speaks in a way that makes him very easy to understand. Plus both the lyrics and the music are, you know, good. On a related note, am I crazy, or is Big Baboon (available for free from their site) the best allegory for the existential crisis of an atheist ever written? My favorite album of theirs overall is Biscuits for Cerberus, but my two favorite songs of theirs, Big Baboon and Vicious Car, are on Fancy Blues and Rustique Novelties
I should also include a shout-out to Amanda Palmer's solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer, since it came out in 2k9 and is definitely one of my favorite albums of that year. But then, any of you who are likely to care about that have no doubt already heard it. ;)
So... what were the groups whose discovery made your 2009 worthwhile?
