Category: Lists

Top Remixes of 2011

January 22nd, 2012 · · Lists No comments - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

For those of you who are new to the site, this is a list of my favourite dance music from the last year. It’s not exclusively remixes, and yes, you can argue you could dance to the songs in the Top Tracks list too.

  1. Out in the Streets - Africa HiTech
  2. The Look (Koreless remix) - Jacques Greene
  3. Surph - Rustie
  4. Sketch - Synkro
  5. Sicko Cell - Joy Orbison
  6. Rolling In The Deep (Jamie xx Shuffle) - Adele
  7. Battle for Middle You - Julio Bashmore
  8. U Don’t Survive - Machinedrum
  9. I’m New Here - Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx
  10. Getting Me Down - Blawan
  11. Ragysh - Todd Terje
  12. Buoyancy - A1 Bassline
  13. mas - Lucy
  14. Dark Details - Andy Stott
  15. Far Nearer - Jamie xx
  16. Start From the Beginning - Egyptrixx
  17. After Light - Rustie
  18. Monday - SCNTST
  19. Ordinary Things - XxXy
  20. Brunk - Randomer
  21. It’s a Crime (Caribou mix) - Virgo Four
  22. Youandme (On My Mind) – Youandewan
  23. Helter Skelter - Kahn
  24. Dance Til the Police Come - Peverelist
  25. Armed 3 - Tommy Four Seven

Top 50 Tracks of 2011

January 18th, 2012 · · Lists No comments - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Here are my favourite songs that came out in 2011.

  1. The Wilhelm Scream – James Blake
  2. Otis (feat. Otis Redding) - Jay-Z & Kanye West
  3. I’m On One (Shlohmo Remix) – DJ Khaled featuring Drake, Rick Ross & Lil Wayne
  4. Dat Ass – Earl Sweatshirt
  5. The Look – Metronomy
  6. Baby’s Arms -  Kurt Vile
  7. Hard In Tha Paint (Shlohmo’s sit down remix) – Wacka Flocka Flame
  8. Montezuma – Fleet Foxes
  9. Blush Mosaic – Patten
  10. Little Man – Little Dragon
  11. Bloom – Radiohead
  12. Why Is It So Hard? – Charles Bradley
  13. Niggas in Paris – Jay-Z & Kanye West
  14. Loavhorts - Knxwledge
  15. Archway (Teebs remix) - Flying Lotus
  16. Space Is Only Noise If You Can See - Nicolas Jaar
  17. Little Window - Ducktails
  18. Just Us - Shlohmo
  19. Sketch 7 - Tim Hecker
  20. Black Night - The Dodos
  21. Keep - Nils Frahm
  22. The Hold Up - Ikebe Shakedown
  23. Kammermusik – Bugge Wesseltoft & Henrik Schwarz
  24. Goldene Kugel - Siriusmo
  25. Park ( Tape Version ) - D33J
  26. Softgram (Appleyard Soft Remix) - DZA
  27. Michicant - Bon Iver
  28. Honey Bunny - Girls
  29. Los Angeles Is Beautiful - MatthewDavid
  30. Sequel - Mountains
  31. I’m Getting Ready - Michael Kiwanuka
  32. Not A Word - Dam Mantle
  33. Locked Up - Big Deal
  34. Ice Cream - Battles feat. Matias Aguayo
  35. Yellow More New - Teebs
  36. Witch Hunt - Zomby
  37. Wake Bake Skate - Fidlar
  38. Peso (Prod. By ASAP Ty Beats) - ASAP Rocky
  39. Capricornus - Austin Peralta
  40. Biddies (Truth Is Light edit) - Mo Kolours
  41. Pretty Boy Swag (Shlohmo Remix) - Soulja Boy
  42. Hey Kids - Ta-ku
  43. [I] Softly, We Go.. - Evenings
  44. Raconte-moi une Histoire - M83
  45. Harrier ATTK - Actress
  46. Saint Christopher - Bibio
  47. La Bamba (Mexicans with Guns remix) - Ritchie Valens
  48. a coney island (of the mind) - ages
  49. Little Cup - Thao & Mirah
  50. Wait and See – Holy Ghost!

Albums of 2011

January 17th, 2012 · · Lists No comments - Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

These are my favourite albums of 2011.

1

It wasn’t until I went back through my albums that I truly realized how much I adored this album. I could pick out nearly every song as my favorite, and as a whole it feels like a true story, even that weird free jazz bit that everyone complains about. Fleet Foxes create pure sonic bliss.

2

As someone who had invested a serious amount of google time in 2010 obsessing over this young UK talent, when I finally got to hear the record, James Blake had some seriously high expectations to deal with, on my part. And he managed to meet them. The album is a collection of great songs, to argue it was all about the genre he was heralded as bringing to the mainstream is wrong. He took snippets of all his past experiments; bass anthems, ambience made up of mp3 hiss, gospel’s groove and more, and made proper songs out of them, which very few people managed to achieve this year.

3

Shlohmo was the other artist on this list that consumed so much of my research time, waiting for his innumerable amount of remixes to drop, which gave me a new found appreciation for pop rap. Though hip-hop is ingrained in the groove of the album, just as it is with anything in the beat community, Shlohmo’s sound is far too unique to simply throw him away based on that conclusion. Reverb-drenched vocals, heavy bass and woozy synths create this introspective feel to the album. Rightly so, as Shlohmo recorded this by himself for 6 months, and the album feels almost like the music of someone slowly falling apart, both in its lazy rhythm and the slow descent into the noisy second half of the album.

4

Machinedrum probably went and created the best thing to come out of Juke’s explosion onto the bass scene. Not only that, but I could also play this to any non-electronic music fan and get them dancing and singing to every vocal hook.

5

All of the albums on this list have a unique sound, often taking you to another world in their journey. Patten takes it to an extreme; GLAQJO XAACSSO is a completely different universe. No other album on this list surprised me every time I delved back in. On the surface, the album feels chaotic, but if you go just a little further you realize how amazing this album truly is. A mixture of sampled field recordings, chopped vocals and guitars that don’t sound like guitars, it’s hard to pick out one instrument or sound that is driving the album, because there isn’t. For this reason GLAQJO XAACSSO is incredibly textural, but still has those great melodies buried somewhere in the haze of sound, playing to your subconscious ear.

6

Little Dragon‘s albums are getting better and better, as both the songwriting and production prowereess increase in quality. I’m astonished at how unique and interesting they can make pop music, without alienating non-music geeks.

7

Nicolas Jaar seemed to blow away everyone’s expectations this year. He showed everyone how to make a proper solo album, one which straddled many genre lines, but refused to cross any of them. An intrisic pulse and a consistent sound, despite drawing samples from Indian recordings to early R&B music, had this album on constant rotation for me this year.

8

Despite it’s quite minimal approach to songwriting, Jamie xx really has a sense of perfection which shines through, as pretty much every song is completely fantastic. Not only that, but despite all this, one really can feel that this is a collaboration, not just a collection of remixes. A proper album, with Jamie xx providing the instrumentals and Gil adding his unique voice.

9

Siriusmo‘s debut had a lot to live up to because he’s already been releasing music for over a decade. I’m not sure how those who have been following his career since the very beginning would feel, but I know I found this a fun and well crafted album. He managed to apply what he did before; well-humoured, unqiue sounding and catchy tracks and twist it into the album format, rataining all that Siriusmoness that we love him for. Despite being the only album on the list with tracks I really didn’t like, the good stuff (most of it), is enough to bring it out of those troubled lows.

10

As with many a great album, the cover reflects the music. Ducktails creates feel good indie vibes, but with all the devious experimentation of a rock musician who has finally been freed from the limitations of bandmates. When you’re finished with this album you will feel like you’ve just woken up, in a good way.

Best Remixes of 2010

January 27th, 2011 · · Lists No comments - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

All the way back in 2008, my feeble mind started the idea for the “Best Remixes” list. These were the days when I didn’t realise what electronic music was and, like the majority of the population, thought that a remix was putting a 4 to the floor beat to a non-electronic song. Oh, how times have changed! Then, last year, I decided to put everything in random “genre” categories (I use genre in the broadest sense possible).

So now, this part of the triad of lists has morphed into electronic dance music and not exclusively remixes. Originally, there was about 80 songs, in two playlists. The criteria for these tracks was that they had to be electronic dance music, from 2010 and not already have featured on my top tracks of 2010. We have to give others a chance. These tracks then came down to 40. Fortunately, I learned about the Bleep competition. To enter, one must create a mix with only songs from 2010, which you consider to be the best of that year. This was what I was doing, so I decided to narrow everything down to 22 tracks into one playlist. This means some stuff that I would have loved to be included just didn’t make the cut. However, if I get enough listens on mixcloud, I have the chance of getting some awesome prizes.

Now, what you get is half a techno and dubstep mix and half a house and disco mix; a heavy side and a light side. Everybody wins! Download mix here. You can stream or download each track too.

  1. Swansong / Luke Abbott
  2. Field / Mount Kimbie
  3. Reflex / Dark Sky
  4. Work Them / Ramadanman
  5. Doors to Manual / Fiedel
  6. Three Sided Shape / Scuba
  7. HDRTM / Shed
  8. Nous Sommes MMM / MMM
  9. 30003B / Wax
  10. Paradise Circus feat. Hope Sandoval (Gui Boratto Remix) / Massive Attack
  11. Mosambique Travelplan / Ost & Kjex
  12. Sun (Bowski Remix) / Caribou
  13. All Night / Sound Stream
  14. Beam Me Up (Jacques Renault Remix) / Midnight Magic
  15. The beach / Nicolas Jaar
  16. Crystalised (Rory Phillips remix) / The xx
  17. Congratulations (Erol Alkan Rework) / MGMT
  18. I Am Europe (Claude Von Stroke take a Trip mix) / Chilly Gonzales
  19. Concertmate (Bobermann Remix) / Alan 1
  20. Love Rhythm / Sentinels
  21. Yeah / Boys Noize
  22. Best in the Class (Soulwax remix) / Late of the Pier

Thanks for the awesome photo Madison.

Top 25 Tracks of 2010

January 1st, 2011 · · Lists No comments - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This list has become rather redundant. I write about my favourite songs in pretty much every post and many of these songs have already been featured here. The numbers have little meaning, I did put some time into putting the list in an order, but I’m pretty sure most of the songs could be put anywhere. What this list has become is the chance for me to respark interests long forgotten and to highlight songs I didn’t get the chance to talk about this year. Click on the links to give each a listen. Enjoy!

  1. Lost in the World (feat. Bon Iver) - Kanye West
  2. CMYK – James Blake
  3. Carbonated - Mount Kimbie
  4. Home - LCD Soundsystem
  5. I Only Know (What I Know Now) - James Blake
  6. Doe Deer - Crystal Castles
  7. King of Spain - The Tallest Man on Earth
  8. Year’s Not Long - Male Bonding
  9. Favourite Colour - Tokyo Police Club
  10. Floating Vibes - Surfer Blood
  11. Swansong - Luke Abbott
  12. A Milli (Harmonimix Remix)
  13. Cousins - Vampire Weekend
  14. Fool Me - Fantastic Mr. Fox
  15. Coast - Dry The River
  16. Crystal Veins - Hanoi Janes
  17. You – Gold Panda
  18. Tigerfox - The Cast of Cheers
  19. Hang Four – Walls
  20. Total Life Forever - Foals
  21. Do the Astral Plane - Flying Lotus
  22. Sun – Caribou
  23. We’ve Got Your Back (Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #2) - Los Campesinos!
  24. Colours Fade – Blood Red Shoes
  25. Nothing But Our Love - Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.

Albums of 2010

December 24th, 2010 · · Lists 5 comments - Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

1. Crooks & Lovers - Mount Kimbie

This is an insane cocktail of dubstep, jazz, folk, ambience and more. When put all together, the results are surprisingly soothing and toxically addictive.

2. This Is Happening – LCD Soundsystem

LCD Soundsystem’s latest album didn’t manage to live up to Sound of Silver. Now that is completely relative, since Sound of Silver is my favourite record of all time. This makes this one exceptionally good, whether it’s the obnoxious, yet brilliant, intro of Dance Yrself Clean (with the longest held note I have yet to hear from anyone) or the solemn album closer Home.

3. Cosmogramma – Flying Lotus

Whereas Flying Lotus’ Los Angeles is the smooth piano jazz of hip hop, Cosmogramma is the crazy experimental free jazz. Instead of simply bending the rules, this time Flying Lotus threw out the rulebook and I’m really happy with the outcome. It takes a little while to warm into it and you really have to listen keenly to keep up, but if you do you can still hear the familiar sound tucked away.

4. Crazy for You – Best Coast

Girly indie rock about cats, weed and, most importantly, love. It sounds cliché and it is, but somehow it just works.

5. Lucky Shiner – Gold Panda

Gold Panda has created an emotionally charged electronica sample fest, under the influence of both minimal techno and hip hop. A strange hybrid, which is just a reflection on how the samples are really, really strange too. This all adds to the chaos which, in the end, manages to fit all together seamlessly.

6. Ardour – Teebs

This one is a beautifully arranged album from one of the Brainfeeder crew. This of course means the listener is in for some excellent instrumental hip hop, but here Teebs manages to distinguish himself with an organic flavour to the album. The textures draw me in and keep me hooked every time I just hear a snippet.

7. Last Day of Summer – White Denim

This one is an extraordinary album, which shifts through so many styles that I cannot place into any true category. There’s always guitars, but otherwise it’s eclectic; jazz drums, wrenching guitar solos, vocal harmonies, soft acoustic numbers and agitated indie pop. And you can download this one for free here.

8. Contra – Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend had to tread a careful line to keep up with the universal acclaim of their first record. They managed to keep the glorious indie pop, but added enough experimentation to keep everything sounding new and fresh, and not just falling into tried and tested waters. That’s the general sound, but the songs really speak for themselves, my favourites being their faster tempo tracks; California English and Cousins.

9. There Is Love In You – Four Tet

Four Tet has kept his unique style of music, it’s always Four Tet, but benefits greatly from a steady 4/4 house groove. It’s still glitchy, weird and has the experimental sounds that I have come to love, but the drums are solid enough to push Four Tet to a whole new level. Four Tet’s mastery of drums intense and really standout in this format. The groove keeps the album unified, which I haven’t managed to feel from any other previous record from his catoglogue.

10. Triangulation – Scuba

Dubstep leader Scuba creates an electronic album that sprawls through ambient, house, techno, dubstep and anything else that falls between these genres. Despite all the tracks all feeling very unique, there is still a sound I can’t quite place pulling everything firmly together.

Albums of the Decade

May 19th, 2010 · · Lists No comments - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

To put this into perspective, my first two records were purchased in 2003. They were the Gorillaz’ debut and Stereophonic’s third album. I only started to listen to electronic music over two years ago, with Soulwax’s incredible documentary Part of the Weekend Never Dies. Rap and hip-hop, for me, has only been around for about a year. So to say my musical journey is still at its start, is an overstatement. The list will be indie rock dominated and slanted towards the end of this decade, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

I was originally going to put this out as a series of posts with long winded paragphs about how amazing these albums are. Six months of work resulted in half of this being completed. So I decided to just post it with lots of pretty pictures and no substance. Enjoy!

1

Sound of Silver – LCD Soundsystem

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Best Remixes of 2009

January 12th, 2010 · · Lists 3 comments - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Electronic music has become a much larger part of my musical listening now, and so this post has evolved into a “let’s put as much random electronic stuff in here as possible” list. We now have the main dance-y list and a bunch of little snippets of random genres within electronica. And this year I’ve put the dance mix into a large mp3 file for your pleasure. Do you like that? Should I make one mp3 mixes more often? Should I actually mix it myself or just let my program do it? Any advice on this post would be much appreciated. Thanks for the picture Tanakawho.

Relaxed/Chilled/Spacey Non-Dance Electronica

This section has seen some of my favourite discoveries, with the likes of Four Tet, The Field and other such types really blowing my mind with their fantastic sound manipulation. Great for studying, sitting back and zoning out.

Mash-ups

Mash-ups are generally fun, but never amazing. My favourite this year was definately Party and Bullshit because it managed to make me dance to Miley Cirus with a smile on my face. This year DJ Earworm’s billboard project was really good, probably because there was a much faster beat to his previous work.

The Rest Which Don’t Get A Proper Heading And Because They Wouldn’t Go Well In The Dance Mix
The Actual Dance Stuff

This mix is a good hour and a half and makes up my favourite dance tracks of the year, starting with some slow funky stuff (The Twelves being my favourite new DJs this year), and then moving to some electro, which gets pretty hard with Boys Noize, another discovery from this year.

Forward Music’s Dance Mix of 2009 mp3!!!.

Top 25 Tracks of 2009

January 10th, 2010 · · Lists No comments - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This year I thought I should at least describe some of the tracks of the year, but without falling into just using amazing, awesome, outstanding etc.

  1. Brother Sport by Animal Collective is the greatest song ever. I say this with all sincerity. I’m wrestling with myself to make a songs of the decade list, and this would very likely be number one. After their album collected virtual dust on my hard drive, it came up on shuffle and made me immediately listen to the rest of Animal Collective’s eighth album. The initial part of the track isn’t legendary, it’s the siren noises which come in afterwards that push it high up on my list. The synth backbeat gets stronger and stronger until it starts to hurt and then the relief comes of the intro once again as the Animal Collective sing their harmonies again. It builds you up again and knocks you down. And finally it finishes with everything mixed together. Perhaps the most impressive part is that the siren part is sung by one vocalist in live performances. Yes, really. Also it was my first vinyl single and cost me $15. Worth it? Yes.
  2. Dananananaykroyd’s best is Infinity Milk. Listening again, the build up to the main riff is excruciating. As the band let’s go, the guitar solo riffs on a sound which is quite possibly thee best guitar sound ever. Dananananaykroyd continue their frantic pace with a mixture of cheerful and screaming vocals, which just force you to shout along.
  3. Unlike Animal Collective’s number one placing, My Girls, is blissful in its vocal harmonies and synth layering. I’ve caught myself singing this under my breath wistfully, after this song has finished playing.
  4. You’ve Got the Love (The xx Remix) is the best thing The XX have done to date. Sure they released an awesome album, but if all of it was made up of stuff like this, then The XX would have stolen album of the year away from Fuck Buttons. The remix far out passes Florence and the Machine’s original, because its backbeat is just so damn strong. Sit back and relax to this masterpiece.
  5. Whereas Discovery’s debut was pretty rubbish, this gem shines out. So Insane is a fantastic example of synthpop, with stop and start rhythms and some beautiful sounds.
  6. Temecula Sunrise - Dirty Projectors
  7. Apples and Pairs - Slow Club
  8. Young Hearts Spark Fire - Japandroids
  9. Crystalised – The XX
  10. Little Girl (feat. Julian Casablancas) - Dangermouse & Sparklehorse
  11. Lisztomania - Phoenix
  12. It’s Thunder And It’s Lightning – We Were Promised Jetpacks
  13. Bite Hard - Franz Ferdinand
  14. Make Her Say Feat. Kanye West & Common - Kid Cudi
  15. Let’s Go Surfing - The Drums
  16. Lust For Life - Girls
  17. So Near - Jack Peñate
  18. Hope You’re Happy - Blakroc
  19. Bored Of Each Other - Friendly Fires
  20. Tonight’s Today- Jack Peñate
  21. Arrows Of Eros - Golden Silvers with Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
  22. Love of an Orchestra - Noah and the Whale
  23. Death – White Lies
  24. Sea Within A Sea - The Horrors
  25. Daylight - Matt & Kim

Albums of 2009

December 21st, 2009 · · Lists 13 comments - Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Is it me or are albums getting shorter? This list has an average of 10.2 tracks for each album, if you are a statistic obsessive like myself. It sure makes it easier to review albums. Another observation: it seems like the first half of the list is fantastic music, while the second half is all really emotional. Anyway, here are my favourite albums of 2009:

1. Tarot Sport – Fuck Buttons

Though I enjoyed their first album, Fuck Buttons‘ second blew me away. There are no words that can describe how epic this album this is. I could just throw random metaphors out there, but none would give it justice. Well, maybe this album is like Usain Bolt beating the triathlon record, in space. Or Zeus racing in the grand prix in the year 20,000. Perhaps I should just stick with describing what music they are creating? If you don’t know them, it’s pretty simple; just four-on-the-flour steady bass pounding with layers of noise, melodies and other cyclical movements. And if you know their first album, listen to the track Bright Tomorrow and imagine it ten times more powerful, spread seven times over an album. This record is perfect.

Olympians

2. Hey Everyone! – Dananananaykroyd

Dananananaykroyd captured my heart this year, because of their mix of really happy music, orgasm inducing riffs, screaming vocals, their overall hardcore sound and because they have two drummers. They have two drummers! Though I can’t say it’s the most polished album on the list, it was their unique sound that had me stuck to them. I rarely listen to hardcore or metal, it’s far too aggressive for me, I normally don’t want to be angry when I listen to music. But with these guys, I can shout along with a huge smile on my face, and easily resist the temptation to punch the nearest passer-by.

Infinity Milk

3. Merriweather Post Pavilion – Animal Collective

Yes, I am one of the people who had never heard of Animal Collective before this record (yes it’s their eighth and yes I am a bit late), but I don’t care. They make some damn good music. It didn’t quite seem to grab me as much as the rest of the world, by forcing me to herald it as the best record of the decade, however, their layered synthesized beats, basic melodies and captivating vocal arrangements made this album an intense one, rotating throughout the year and being my most listened to album. It only really lost out to the two above, because I love air punching and it wasn’t quite overall perfect like number one.

Brother Sport

4. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – Phoenix

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, is an album of masterfully create pop music. It’s catchy and every song has in its grasp, a single. Even as they veer off into a completely different direction with Love Like A Sunset, Phoenix take it in their stride, creating a barrage of sound dynamics which is, with everything on this album, perfectly produced. Phoenix are not a typical pop rock band, they combined enough interesting types of sound to place it at number four.

Fences

5. Everything Is New – Jack Peñate

I did like Jack Peñate‘s first album. Yeah, it wasn’t amazing, but he quickly became a whipping boy of the music world for the crime of making simple, happy indie pop. Tonight’s Today was the first track I got my hands on, after having kept Jack Peñate’s debut lying dormant in my record collection, and (if you remember rightly) it entranced me. Jack Peñate had me under his spell, like most music fans. His complete turn around was welcome, and the rest of the album managed to keep up the pop vibes, wrapped in strange Latin, African and many other, seemingly random, influences, much like Friendly Fires did with dance music last year.

Pull My Heart Away

6. Yeah So – Slow Club

It’s not really a case of justifying why Slow Club managed to get onto the top 10 albums of 2009 list. If you like emotional folk duos, you’ll like Slow Club. If this is an instant turn off because of the whole Juno phenomenon, wait a moment. The heartbreaks, the falling in love and just the good old-looking at somebody else wistfully, seems so genuine. And when your wrap it in the vocalists voices’, well it’s something quite special. Plus they can make some great fast tempo songs (Giving Up On Love and It Doesn’t Have To Be Beautiful are just two examples). The only reason this didn’t grab the number one spot, was simply because Slow Club couldn’t keep up the incredibly high quality of their initial EPs.

Apples and Pairs

7. XX – The XX

The XX created an awesome collection of stripped down, mysterious songs, with minimalist guitar riffs, intertwining the girl/boy vocals. I really don’t care where their sound came from, it’s fantastic to listen to.

Crystalized

8. Bitte Orca – Dirty Projectors

Most people throw around the term experimental with these guys, but don’t assume you’re getting into some weird, fuzzy noise rock, or complex, pretentious melodies. Dirty Projectors use fascinating start and stop rhythms, something which makes them pretty unique. This combined with sweet melodies, wavering girl backup vocals and finally pulled along by awesome guitar solos makes for a brilliant record.

Temecula Sunrise

9. The First Days Of Spring - Noah and the Whale

Instead of indie pop tunes this year, Noah and the Whale made some really stunning music, with incredible emotional depth, which isn’t full of its self. Describing his recent breakup, this piece of art steals the award for the most beautiful music award this year. And unlike The XX, you can actually understand what the vocal’s raw, and powerful emotions are.

Blue Skies

10. These Four Walls - We Were Promised Jetpacks

We Were Promised Jetpacks‘ debut is as bleak as the cover. The lyrics are incredibly depressing, not helped by the mumbled Scottish vocals. Oh, and of course the steady, minor dominated indie rock guitars, violently fighting alongside, just add to the cause. Halfway through, the album slows to acoustic tracks, but with the same vocal style kept throughout. It’s a really neat package, with my favourite track being It’s Thunder And It’s Lightning. With its gradual build, the constant guitar riff and the crashing explosion halfway, this track rivals Fuck Buttons in its epic qualities, and therfore making it one of my favourite tracks this year.

It’s Thunder And It’s Lightning