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1. Basement Jaxx “Scars f. Kelis” (XL)
2. Phoenix “1901″ (Loyauté/V2)
3. Yeasayer “Ambling Alp” (Secretly Canadian)
4. Memory Tapes “Bicycle” (Sincerely Yours/Acéphale)
5. Julian Casablancas “11th Dimension” (Cult Records/RCA)
6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Zero” (Interscope)
7. Bear in Heaven “You Do You” (Hometapes)
8. Handsome Furs “I’m Confused” (Sub Pop)
9. St. Vincent “Marrow” (Beggars)
10. Big Pink “Velvet” (4AD)
11. HEALTH “Die Slow” (Lovepump United)
12. Wilco “Bull Black Nova” (Nonesuch)
13. Akron/Family “Everyone Is Guilty” (Dead Oceans)
14. Animal Collective “Summertime Clothes” (Domino)
15. Royksopp “Vision One” (Astralwerks)
16. A Sunny Day in Glasgow “Close Chorus” (Mis Ojos)
17. Fuck Buttons “Surf Solar” (ATP)
18. Kelis “Acapella” (Interscope)

1. Akron/Family Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free (Dead Oceans) Music doesn’t belong in boxes. Tributaries intersect regularly to create new styles and reinvent the old. But in the ’90s, the concept of genre-bending/splicing/smashing seemed to become more intentional, calculated. Odelay and Paul’s Boutique successfully executed this at a mainstream level, and the copycats followed, reducing the concept to lazy self-conscious pastiche. Then we cycled through garage and electro revivals, refocusing that calculation on simpler formulas. And now we’re back to a place where there are a lot of bands/records that are really difficult to pin-down. Yes, I love that A/F pack so many ideas, so many sounds, so many vibes into this record. However, what truly grabs me is that it all sounds so effortless – like it just happened. Maybe this is the place where I should go on about how much media we consume these days, and how perhaps that rapid, constant consumption would have to guide honest artistic expression this direction eventually. But that’s boring. It’s a lot more fun to think these the guys got really stoned and imagined themselves as members of Funkadelic, Black Sabbath, and CSNY, then decided to jam on a new score for Disney’s Pocahontas. 

2. Bear In Heaven Beast Rest Forth Mouth (Hometapes) On previous releases, this band had a great sound, but the songwriting did not always stand on par. Here, they have finally put it all together. The captain of SS MarathonPacks has reviewed this record in a few places, summing it up quite well: “What Bear in Heaven do so well is combine the expansiveness of southern rock, with the dark textures and sinuous rhythms of synth-pop.” I can’t top that. So, let’s just say, “I’ve been jamming this record a lot over the last month”and stop there.

3. Girls Album (True Panther Sounds) I get why some people don’t like this record. Hype. Hype. Hype. But, I implore anyone who turned away from this one early to seriously reconsider. Yes, the singer sounds a bit like Elvis Costello (but since when was that a bad thing?). Ok, the lyrics can be a touch saccharine at times. I understand not everyone can get wrapped up in suntans, pizzas, bottles of wine, and beautiful girls. But this sweet simplicity is usually coupled with genuine hurt, as in the song “Laura”: “Oh I wish I had a boyfriend. I wish I had a loving man in my life”, then “I wish I had a father. Then maybe I woulda turned out right.” I have been listening to some of these songs all year, through all seasons. The epic “Hellhole Ratrace” serves as the centerpiece for one of the most honest records I’ve heard in years. The song-writing is so strong, the hooks so catchy and groovy, that I keep going back – even if it doesn’t all feel good.

4. Lee Fields & The Expressions My World (Truth & Soul) The long-needed soul/funk revival has been in full swing for a few years now. I nominate Lee Fields as the latest heavyweight contender. Fields has been at it for 40 years, having worked with dozens of labels and who-knows-how-many musicians. The Expressions and backing vocalists The Del-larks provide a canvas that incorporates Meters groove and Temptations swell. There are modern flavors to the production, but the results are decidedly classic. Fields is able to range from James Brown burn to gentler ballads. My life gets a little bit better each time I listen.

5. Harlem Free Drugs (Female Fantasy) Some bands sound like they are about to fall apart at any moment. Often that thought indicates that you are listening to / watching a bad (or at least unpracticed) band. But sometimes that mess you see clattering towards you is pure bliss. Harlem is bliss – drunken, exuberant, ramshackle bliss. The points of reference are easy: Nuggets-style garage rock, vocals that channel The Pixies, blah blah. I saw this band at SXSW. I’m not sure if I had heard them before or not. When they played, I was drunk, and I loved it. Maybe I was sold on the line “Ridin’ in the south of France, and I’m blasting ABBA.” I bought the record at the show. Once I got home and listened, I was happy to confirm that it wasn’t just the margaritas.

6. HEALTH Get Color (Lovepump United) The music HEALTH makes is brutiful. I looked up that word on UrbanDictionary to see if I had successfully invented a term, and I was crushed to see it associated with something called “Masked Penguin Slaughters.” Since that doesn’t sound like something that should actually exist, I am reclaiming the word and distilling the definition to the root “brutally beautiful.” The album starts with machine-gun blasts of percussion and dizzying synth swirls. Less than 30 seconds in, this gives way to groaning, squealing feedback and a wash of dreamy androgynous vocals. Am I listening to the slaughter of robot animals? Is this ritual or chaos? The video for their single “Die Slow” answers: a little of both. This clearly stands as my favorite video of the year–if nothing else, it seems to perfectly reflect what this band is about.

7. Memory Tapes Seek Magic (Sincerely Yours/Acéphale) Many reviews of this record invoke micro-genres du jour – chill-wave and glo-fi. Gag. (I know that reaction is ironic considering my attempt to coin “brutiful,” ugh). Let’s not try too hard, as there are some clear antecedents here. Smoother than Junior Boys, the funk is not as sparsely robotic. There’s a taste of Aphex Twin’s ambient work, but more fun. Not as melodramatic as M83, and more bounce than Galaxie 500 usually delivered. A keener sense of melody than most of Four Tet’s output. Maybe this is what RJD2 was going for when he ditched hip-hop on his pop reach The Third Hand. All that name-dropping just speaks to how we got here. There was no scene or movement that emerged this year, despite the arbitrary critical labeling. The man behind this project (as well as Memory Cassette and Weird Tapes), Dayve Hawk, has described himself as “just some dude in southern New Jersey.” It just so happens, this dude made a sublimely infectious record. It also happens to include my favorite song moment of the year. The first half of the stellar track “Bicycle” gives way to an ethereal chorus of layered ohs and ahs, only to be lifted seconds later by a rubbery, then chiming guitar solo which carries the song to the summit, before yielding again to the chorus for a close.

8. Ofege Try and Love (Academy LPs) There are hundreds of great reissues every year; I only hear a fraction, and for that I am sorry. I’m not a crate-digger. I don’t have the patience for it. I am content to find reliable curators that can point me the right direction – whether they be friends, labels, newsletters, or blogs that I trust. This year, all paths quietly lead to Ofege. The band popped up on a couple of great comps–Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic Afro-rock & Fuzz Funk In 1970’s Nigeria released by Soundway Records; and Forge Your Own Chains: Heavy Psychedelic Ballads and Dirges released by Now-Again. Thankfully the new Academy LPs imprint has given a full Ofege album proper reissue treatment. Try and Love is certainly a product of its time: Santana guitar runs, searing Da Capo-era Love solos, Beatlesy tambourine-chorus ballads with unmistakable Harrison/Clapton noodling, wah-wah funk, a hint of reggae-soul. But the finished product is SO GOOD. “Gbe mi Lo” and “It’s Not Easy” are instant mix-tape fodder. Go get this record.

9. Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt. 2 (EMI) Part of me is a bit disappointed that this is the only hip-hop record I’m listing here. I have listened to a lot less hip-hop this year. I don’t know why. (Ed note: You didn’t miss much) Maybe I was just waiting for the next great coke-rap epic, since the new Clipse record fell a bit short of the mark. The production is killer (particularly tracks from Pete Rock, J Dilla, and RZA). The rhymes cut sharp. The guest verses are integral – not just phoned-in name-drops and boasting. Ghostface is all over this record, and it rings classic Wu-Tang. Oh, and there’s this very NSFW video.

Other records I really liked this year, in no particular order:
Atlas Sound Logos (Kranky)
Mulatu Astatke New York – Addis – London: The Story of Ethio Jazz 1965-1975 (Strut)
Mountains Choral (Thrill Jockey)
jj jj nº2 (Sincerely Yours)
Lindstrom & Prins Thomas II (Eskimo)
Mount Eerie Wind’s Poem (P.W. Elverum & Sun)
We Were Promised Jetpacks These Four Walls (FatCat Records)
Grizzly Bear Veckatimest (Warp)
Russian Circles Geneva (Suicide Squeeze)
tUnE-yArDs BiRd-BrAiNs (Marriage/4AD)
Cass McCombs Catacombs (Domino)
Surfer Blood Astro Coast (Kanine)

A few more things that I enjoyed this year:

Explosions in the Sky live at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland as part of MusicFest NW. I’ve seen EITS a few times, and each show feels life changing. They are absolutely one of the best live bands I have ever seen. Regardless of whether you think you like them on record, you need to experience the power and emotion that EITS conjure out of 2 guitars, a bass, and a drum kit.

Salem x Gucci Mane remixes. I am totally entranced with everything I hear from Salem, There is a dark part of my soul that finds it to be quite beautiful. But, damn, does it terrify me. I can’t quite bring myself to link to their videos here, because I don’t want to be the gateway for anyone that I do not know personally. I need to be able to judge whether or not you can handle it. The Gucci Mane mixes are slightly less terrifying, but they still make him sound like some sort of tar-monster MC.

David Simon speaking at DePauw University. Not music related, but this was a definite high point of my year. He delivered the keynote address for DePauw’s Undergraduate Communications Honors Conference. The room was full of very nice looking journalism students and professors. I attended with a couple friends; none of us were students, and I think it was better that way. The talk was titled “The Audacity of Despair: The Decline of American Empire and What’s In It For You.” USA! USA! USA?! Oh, no? Um, nevermind.

Full Disclosure: Nick Blandford “works in music.” He manages two companies that are operated alongside Secretly Canadian/Jagjaguwar/Dead Oceans. Bellwether Manufacturing make CDs, LPs, and other forms of media, and SC Distribution sells some of that stuff. He swears there are only a few records on this list that he has a hand in selling (Ed note: those are Akron/Family, HEALTH, WWPJ, Russian Circles, EitS). But that seems fair. If he didn’t like the records that he works with, then Nick should probably get a new job.

Bear In Heaven Beast Rest Forth Mouth (Hometapes) Post-wave-psych-pop-rock-tronica?  This album is great.  And I’m quite pleased the @marathonpacks review pointed it out to me.

Beirut March of the Zapotec/Holland EP (Ba Da Bing) Zach Condon’s voice is really, really cool.  His ever-changing multi-cultural backdrop of musical instrumentation, though, continues to be his secret weapon.

*Bibio Ambivalence Avenue (Warp) It’s pretty impressive that he can make an album like FI, and also make an album like this.  Simultaneously hits at a handful of popular modern musical styles, yet retains unique character.  Not being on the Mercury Prize short list = complete bullocks. 

Black Moth Super Rainbow Eating Us (Graveface) A mellower version of Tobacco’s theorem:  vocoder + old analog synths + large beats + catchy melodies (+ a steady mushroom hook-up?).  The special “furry” packaging should totally get a Grammy.

BLK JKS Mystery EP (Secretly Canadian) South Africa, FTW!  This EP is one of the most impressive releases by Secretly Canadian in YEARS.  And while the follow up LP After Robots was pretty good, this initial EP has the magic juice.

Burial & Four Tet Moth/Wolf Cub 12” (Text) I basically had to ban myself from over playing this record on my radio show.  Except I have broken my own ban several times.  This 12” demonstrates the hot shit mix of dub step and minimal tech house that currently finds itself in clubs all over the world.

Delorean Ayrton Senna EP (Fool House) Some tight, clean electro-pop happiness.  Good use of EP format w/ the extra mixes.

Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca (Domino) A lot of what you’d come to expect from Dave Longstreth: complete awesomeness.  His current band, of mostly multi-instrument-playing female vocalists (?!), is probably one of the tightest performing music ensembles anywhere.

*Do Make Say Think Other Truths (Constellation) Nobody told these Torontonians that instrumental post-rock wasn’t *in* anymore.  So they just went ahead and made one of their best albums to date — which is saying a great deal considering their back catalog.  And personally, it scored a very emotional week that started with my 97yr old grandfather’s death, and ended with the birth of my first child in late October.

*Fever Ray Fever Ray (Mute) In her first “solo” effort, Karin Dreijer Andersson manages to retain a lot of the Knife’s sonic buttons and levers whilst wading off into a down(er) tempo mainstream brand of Swedish electro-darkness.  Album.  Of.  The.  Year.

The Field Yesterday & Today (Kompakt) The sophomore full-length from the Field finds him incorporating live rhythm sections to play along with his long form Scandinavian microhouse jams.  Great for bike riding.

Flying Lotus / Joker Tectonic Plate 2.3 (Tectonic) Probably one of the most sought after 12”s of the year.  Two a-list heads fill this thing with so much wobbly bass, it feels like a whale is about to attack you (or dance w/you).

Franz Ferdinand Blood (Domino) A Record Day exclusive, this is a dance/remixed version of the Franz album Tonight. It’s kind of a no brainer that this stuff would translate well w/ remixes considering it’s already basically dance music.

*Gui Boratto Take My Breath Away (Kompakt) Minimal techno has been, and currently still is, in its heyday.  As is Brazilian producer Gui Boratto.  Great for bike riding, also.

Jónsi & Alex Riceboy Sleeps (XL) Very ambient electro-acoustic bliss which moves slowly but speaks loudly.  This is the musical wing of the art project that the Sigur Rós frontman and his boyfriend started years ago.

*Kate Simko Music From the Atom Smashers (Ghostly International) I saw this awesome Independent Lens documentary on PBS about the Large Hadron Collider.  This album is the music, by one of minimal techno’s rising chicas, that scored the documentary.  And as far as OSTs go, it plays pretty well as a cohesive album.

The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble Summer Suite (Stones Throw) Madlib produces.  And it sounds exactly like the nomenclature suggests.

Them Crooked Vultures Them Crooked Vultures (RCA) Members of Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, and Kyuss can make a very good rock album – even at a time when such albums may no longer be quite as popular.  And it reminds us that John Paul Jones is still one of the most musically sensitive bass players to date.

*Major Lazer Guns Don’t Kill People Lazers Do (Mad Decent/Downtown) Diplo and Switch (both of whom make beats for M.I.A.) may have concocted one of the best dancehall albums *ever*.  And the video treatment for the singles are just as dome-blowing.

Memory Tapes Seek Magic (Sincerely Yours) This is a diverse, quirky, and yet somehow self-referential glob of hopeful electro-fun.

*Mew No More Stories Are Told Today I’m Sorry They Washed Away… (Sony BMG) These Danes are back with another album that is so good that you completely forget how ultra-prog it all is.  (*see also: the full album title)

Monolake Silence (ml/imbalance computer music) Much like his fellow countryman Pole, Monolake continues to exploit the more organic and minimal sides of dub and electronic music while maintaining a sound art aesthetic.

Mos Def The Ecstatic (Downtown)  At the height of his cross-over popularity, Mos has managed to make a great record of trademark social flows.

Neon Indian Psychic Chasms (Lefse)  The charm of this Texican’s (relatively-speaking) HUGE success with this album probably has a lot to do with the lo-fi charm that is cleverly masked inside of such a substantial headphone experience.

Omar Soleyman Drabke 2020: Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria (Sublime Frequencies) You know – just your everyday ordinary Syrian techno-pop.  Which happens to be THE JAM.

St. Vincent Actor (4AD) A former Sufjan Stevens and Polyphonic Spree appendage, St. Vincent makes another album full of top notch arrangements and modern song-writing.

Supersilent 9 (Rune Grammofon) Supersilent parted ways with their drummer before this album was recorded.  I was bummed.  But this release continues to keep them near the epicenter of the Scandinavian jazz and European electro-acoustic scenes.

*Telefon Tel Aviv Immolate Yourself (Bpitch Control) TTA caught a lot of heat for what a lot of people thought was a(n incredibly) weak follow-up to their REDONKULOUS debut album.  5 years later, they released a 3rd album containing radically different subject matter and recording techniques which showcased their analog interests.  Just a few days after its release, band (duo) member Charles Cooper was found dead in a park in Chicago, Illinois.

Tortoise Beacons of Ancestorship (Thrill Jockey) This is perhaps their coziest and most balanced release since Standards.

*Various Arists Dark Was the Night (Red Hot Compilation) (4AD) I have never heard a compilation that is this compelling in my entire life.  Not to mention it was put together and sold for a good cause.

Various Artists Five Years of Hyperdub (Hyperdub) I have read several articles that call Hyperdub the #1 music label of the year.  And I guess I can’t disagree.  Kode9 probably has one of the best music-releasing batting averages today, all the while heavily favoring and promoting the vinyl format.

*Zomby Zomby EP (Hyperdub) It kind of sounds like this dude is making his grimy beats from inside of a ColecoVision console.  So. Awesome.

( * = top 10 picks )

Josh Olivo performs, records, and remixes music under the name goodhands team. He also hosts a weekly radio show on WFHB, and otherwise occasionally djs as goodhands or DJOSH.

Even better!  A few of my favorite Pitchfork writers wrote about some of my favorite LPs:

Amy Granzin on Beast Rest Forth Mouth: “If Bear in Heaven’s reps weren’t working New Moon ticket queues with sound vans and promo swag, they missed a brilliant opportunity. No one’s nailed adolescent melodrama this well since, I dunno, My Chemical Romance?” By the way, there’s this, if you’re into that sort of thing.  More importantly (and relatedly), there’s this awesome extract from the before thing.

Douglas Wolk on Bird-Brains: “The album was very clearly made with nothing more than the tools at hand– a ukulele, a couple of pieces of percussion, a yard-sale keyboard, a loop pedal, a crappy cheap mic, some free audio software, and Garbus’ larynx, which gets to express everything her machines can’t take care of. The whole thing is held together with duct tape, but that’s what makes it shiny.”

Mark Richardson nails The Visitor: “The Visitor sometimes feels more like a perplexing sonic game than a proper album. It keeps pulling you back in, partly because you want to take another crack at it.”

Rob Mitchum on jj n° 2 (the album is not a huge favorite, but this passage nails it, and “Ecstasy,” so well): “Never mind that the centerpiece of the record is “Ecstasy”, which over the most enjoyable piece of copyright infringement this year manages to simultaneously recreate the experience of being on MDMA and hanging out with someone who’s rolling and can’t stop telling you about it. But it’s the other songs, with woozy stray passages of Toto and Taylor Dayne, blurts of movie dialogue, and moments of fashionable Afropop and acoustic folk slipping in and out of focus, that make this album fail its urine test.”

We’ll end there.