onfire's albums of the decade

And what a decade it's been. I've omitted countless wonderful records that I've played to death these past 10 years, but these are the 30 records that pretty much immediately sprang to mind when I was thinking about all of this. Happy New Year.
30 Stephen Malkmus - Stephen Malkmus
29 Our Endless Numbered Days - Iron and Wine
28 Leaving Songs - Stuart Staples
27 The Drift - Scott Walker
26 The Golden Age - American Music Club
25 The Campfire Headphase - Boards of Canada
24 Fever Ray - Fever Ray
23 Happy Songs for Happy People - Mogwai
22 The Stage Names - Okkervil River
21 For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver
20 XTRMNTR - Primal Scream
19 Silent Shout - The Knife
18 Boxer - The National
17 The Life Pursuit - Belle and Sebastian
16 The Invisible Man - Mark Eitzel
15 The Hungry Saw - Tindersticks
14 Seven Swans - Sufjan Stevens
13 It's A Wonderful Life - Sparklehorse
12 Nixon - Lambchop
11 Amnesiac - Radiohead
10 Things We Lost In The Fire - Low

9 The Sky's Awful Blue - Cathal Coughlan

8 And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out - Yo La Tengo

7 Kid A - Radiohead

6 Aerial - Kate Bush

5 Turn On The Bright Lights - Interpol

4 Funeral - Arcade Fire

3 In Rainbows - Radiohead

2 Since I Left You - The Avalanches

1 Illinoise - Sufjan Stevens

New Thee Silver Mount Zion

'I Dreamed I Was A Footstep In The Trail Of A Murderer' - Hunter-Gatherer

Irish. Electronica. Dark. Great.
Myspace

Hunter-Gatherer : preview for album from Hunter-Gatherer on Vimeo.

'The Courage of Others' - Midlake

I imagine that Midlake have the wherewithal to make a compelling record but this just isn't it. Their last record 'The Trials of Van Occupanther' offered glimpses of the direction the band could take but despite the fact that the band were clearly and deliberately creating their own niche, the album meandered whimsically, its classic rock revisionism becoming tediously overwhelming. On this, their third album, Midlake have stayed true to the same formula on 'Van Occupanther' but by now, it's becoming a tired sound. Worse still there's no 'Bandits' or 'Roscoe' to rescue the record from its self-consuming and self-indulgent banality. Judge for yourself below. The band will play Vicar Street on Valentine's Day.

4AD 2009 Sampler

This is quite brilliant. 4AD Records have been responsible for releasing some of 2009's finest music and now they've created a sampler for you to download all of the tracks below for free. All it takes is your email address and the music is yours.

Cymbals Eat Guitars

A 6 minute opener featuring multiple crescendos. A 20 year old lead singer who goes by the name of Joseph Ferocious. An album featuring 'Indiana' - one of 2009's most perfect pop moments. What's there not to love?

Vic Chesnutt

Vic Chesnutt hasn't had it easy. Involved in a car crash at 18, he's been wheelchair-bound ever since. His career briefly took an upsurge just when REM were at their Out of Time/Automatic popularity peak and Michael Stipe chose the moment to vouch for fellow Georgian Chesnutt's genius. My personal memories of Chesnutt - I've never been a fan per se - were of several grainy, obviously home produced videos on No Disco. Various sites have reported his death today from an overdose (many of which have subsequently been withdrawn) and whilst this still hasn't been confirmed, what's clear is that he is in a coma and just about hanging in there. What I've always liked about Chesnutt was his sincerity as an artist, how real he's always seemed and how much of himself he's invested into his music, and all of this when we have to deal with odious, self-serving cunts like Pete Doherty. Anyway, I hope it turns out whatever way would make Vic Chesnutt happiest.
EDIT: Vic Chesnutt RIP

'Paradise Circus' - Massive Attack

One should have better things to do on Christmas Day than post the latest hardcore Massive Attack video, right? Bah......if I type then I can't eat so it's all good. Taken from 'Heligoland' and featuring Hope Sandoval on vocals, the video vividly tells the tale of an, er, mature adult entertainment actress describing her former life in front of the camera.

Massive Attack Paradise Circus from sabakan on Vimeo.

The Antlers @ La Blogotheque

Hot off the presses, it's The Antlers' inevitable rencontre with the always great La Blogotheque people featuring 'Shiva', 'Epilogue' and 'Two' from 2009's 'Hospice'.

The Antlers - Shiva - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

The Antlers - Two / Epilogue - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

New Magnetic Fields

With 'Realism' set for release on January 26th, 2010 here's an appropriately festive taster......
mp3: Everything Is One Big Christmas Tree (via NME)

On second thoughts......

As ever with end of year lists there's always one or two albums you'd meant to get around to giving your full attention to but never quite did. In my case, Port O'Brien's 'Threadbare' and Atlas Sounds' 'Logos' fall into that category. 'Threadbare' seems like a more consistently good record but 'Logos' has its moments of greatness. Anyway, some music from both below.........

Port O'Brien: In The Meantime (for Shoot The Player) from shoottheplayer.com on Vimeo.

Atlas Sound - "Attic Lights" - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

The Antlers to return

Having recently played their debut Irish gig at the laughably inappropriate Academy 2, The Antlers return on 24th May 2010 to play the more expansive main room at The Academy. The band also played in Dingle recently as part of the Other Voices series which will be aired early in 2010. Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning (their recent Academy 2 show was a sell out).

'Falling Down A Mountain' (trailer) - Tindersticks

Not long to wait now........

Albums of 2009 Part III

5.‘Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle’ – Bill Callahan
Containing 2009’s most beautiful song – opener ‘Jim Cain’ – Bill Callahan produced this, his first wonderful post-Smog record, early in 2009. It’s both intimate and lush and it’s bookended by two of Callahan’s finest songs – the aforementioned ‘Jim Cain’ and the overly long yet strangely compelling ‘Faith/Void’. ‘Eagle’ juxtaposes Callahan’s gravelly croon with the most judicious choice of strings throughout, not least on ‘Too Many Birds’ when it seems all Callahan can do is to sing – in spite of himself - the words ‘If you could only stop your heartbeat for one heartbeat’. ‘Eagle’ is a beautifully crafted record and hopefully a signpost for records to come.


4. ‘Hospice’ – The Antlers
'Hospice’ was both a victim of and benefited from the same blog-inspired mythologizing as Bon Iver’s ‘For Emma’ in 2008. Whilst Justin Vernon retreated to a Wisconsinite cabin to compose his lovelorn paean to the fictional Emma, The Antlers’ Pete Silberman similarly withdrew from the outside world (or so the legend has it) to compose the relentlessly desolate narrative that runs through this record. It resulted in the most emotionally raw and frequently harrowing record of 2009. Yet somehow, in the midst of the unrelenting gloom there lies a quite beautiful, if uneven, collection of songs.


3. ‘Season of the Sparks’ – Adrian Crowley
It has been another disappointingly one-dimensional year in terms of Irish albums in 2009. And yet, to little fanfare, back in March Adrian Crowley released both the best Irish record of 2009 and the finest album of his career. From the lilting, almost lullaby-like ‘Summer Haze Parade’ to quiet grace of ‘Pay No Mind (To The Dawn Cryer)’, it’s a wonderfully complete record. Its trick lies in the effortless way Crowley poetically invokes a pastoral idyll - ‘gathering kindling’, ‘dewy thistles’, ‘woodpiles and smoke plumes’ – and marries this to some utterly beautiful instrumentation. At first glance there’s little to separate Crowley and his oeuvre from the slew of similar singer-songwriters but ‘Season’ is a record which has stayed with me all year long, its quiet charms resonating to the end.


2. 'Riceboy Sleeps' – Jonssi & Alex
There have been many times in the recent past when you got the feeling that Sigur Ros had bought into their own myth as pioneering musical savants, to the detriment of their frequently sublime canon of work. Witness the overblown folly of ‘Ara Batur’ on last year’s ‘Med Sud’ – a song so frighteningly overcooked it would have made Andrew Lloyd Webber blush. And yet there is clearly a magic at work here as evidenced by this side-project. It could so easily have gone the way of 'Ara Batur' – the pair choosing to eschew all traditional instrumentation in favour of lushly dense arrangements backed with deeply embedded choral accompaniment - but somehow the duo manage to create a series of breathtaking ambient doodles which sound like nothing else released this year. There are no choruses here, few hooks, no discernible melody – just one of the most affecting records of 2009.


1. ‘Fever Ray’ – Fever Ray
By taking up the template laid down by The Knife, slowing it down and investing it – if this is possible – with still more menace, Karin Dreijer Andersson released this blog’s most played, and by default, finest record of 2009. Managing to bury melody deep beneath its dystopian surface, Andersson perfectly distilled the best parts of The Knife to make a record which wore its unease on its sleeve throughout. If ‘Seven’, ‘When I Grow Up’ and ‘If I Had a Heart’ were some of the more unusual sounding singles of the year, each of them, particularly ‘Seven’ gave a hint of where Andersson’s musical vision is headed, either under the Fever Ray banner or the next record by The Knife.

Seven from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

Albums of 2009 Part II

10. It’s Blitz! – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

‘Zero’. How fucking good is ‘Zero’? My favourite Yeah Yeah Yeahs memory of 2009 was watching them perform as opening act to Sting – Sting - from the city walls of Quebec. I never really bought into the ‘Fever To Tell’ era – ‘Maps’ apart – but ‘Show Your Bones’ showed that the band had lost the art rock pretensions and embraced a more coherent sound. ‘It’s Blitz!’ was the perfectly logical next step for the band and finally saw them put together a thrillingly complete record.

9. ‘Klamath’ - Mark Eitzel

Legend has it Eitzel made a Bon Iver style retreat to the banks of the Klamath river when composing the songs which made up this record. His last great record was 2001’s ‘The Invisible Man’, so clearly even Eitzel felt that he had to reinvent - or at least reconnect - with himself somewhat and whilst ‘Klamath’ doesn’t scale the heights of past glories, there’s enough substance here to suggest that Eitzel as a solo entity (his band American Music Club are producing some of the finest records of their career) has still much to give. ‘I Miss You’ and ‘What Do You Got For Me’ both showcase Eitzel’s innate ability to create perfectly crafted songs. ‘The Blood on My Hands’ calls to mind the bitterness of ‘Patriot’s Heart’ and ‘Like A River That Reaches The Sea’ with its synthesised backing would not be out of place on ‘The Invisible Man’.

8. ‘Popular Songs’ – Yo La Tengo

Yo La Tengo haven’t truly released a consistently wonderful record since 2001’s ‘And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out’. Recent releases have had some quite beautiful songs but stretching that mish-mash of styles which has become the Yo La Tengo signature into a coherent album has been beyond them of late. The problem frequently lies in Yo La Tengo’s modus operandi – each record contains an array of styles including straight down the middle indie pop/rock, Motown, garage and funk amongst others. That they pay homage to each of these genres on every record is testament to their encyclopaedic musical knowledge but doesn’t always make for the best records. Think of them as a musical Quentin Tarantino – geeky enough to reference an obscure Motown B-side and equally determined to incorporate it in their oeuvre. ‘Popular Songs’ largely manages to channel this eclecticism, however, resulting in one of the better Yo La Tengo albums in recent times and one of this year’s better records.

7. 'Tarot Sport' – Fuck Buttons

Sporting one of the worst album covers of the year perhaps, but with their sophomore effort this Bristolian duo served up a perfectly pitched record of giddy psychedelia married to blissfully euphoric electronica. Ten minute opener ‘Surf Solar’ sets the tone for this frequently beautiful record right through to the anthemic ‘Flight of the Feathered Serpent’, by which time the band have combined their beat driven noise with an innate sense of ........... oh bollocks, it’s just a great fucking record.

6. ‘Dark Was The Night’ – Various Artists

It says much of this record that in a year when Yo La Tengo released their very own ‘Popular Songs’, ‘Dark Was The Night’ contains their most beautiful song of 2009 – ‘Gentle Hour’. Lovingly put together by The National’s Dessner brothers, and unlike the promising yet ultimately incoherent ‘Dark Night of the Soul’, ‘Dark Was the Night’ proved to be one of the finest records of the year simply by featuring some wonderful performances from a vast array of artists across two discs and 31 songs. Sure there’s an almost incestuous indie rock love-in feel to it but when it’s this tastefully done it would be churlish to quibble. There’s the pop rush of ‘Hey Snow White’ by The New Pornographers, a remarkably coherent Dirty Projectors abetting David Byrne on ‘Knotty Pine’ and two contrasting yet compelling reasons to celebrate Feist. Highlight of the entire project however is Antony’s version of Bob Dylan’s ‘I Was Young When I Left Home’, proving that when he’s not flagellating himself in the midst of another existential crisis, he is capable of conjuring compellingly beautiful music.