The Rest — “Modern Time Travel (Necessities)”
I’m seriously liking The Rest at the moment. They’ve got a 4 track EP The Cried Wolf available for free which includes an awesome cover of Robyn’s With Every Heartbeat.
Matt Jordan has compiled an archive of 51 covers performed by The Decemberists and frontman Colin Meloy. The artists covered include Morrissey, The Smiths, Sam Cooke, Björk, Pink Floyd, Robyn Hitchcock, The Velvet Underground and more.
My favourite albums of 2009
(Oh look, it’s February. Please file under embarrassingly late.)
The Antlers’ Peter Silberman teamed with new bandmates to craft his first non-solo record, the tender and affecting tale of a terminally ill lover’s painful decline. Epic and desolate in equal measure, the Brooklyn trio’s Hospice tops a list that looks like this:
- Hospice — The Antlers
- xx — The xx
- Veckatimest — Grizzly Bear
- Chant Darling — Lawrence Arabia
- The Hazards Of Love — The Decemberists
- Noble Beast — Andrew Bird
- Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix — Phoenix
- Followed By A Trail Of Sparks — Good Laika
- Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle — Bill Callahan
- Lungs — Florence + The Machine
Biggest surprise of the year was four (now three) 20-year-olds from South London whose sleek, sexed-up debut (xx) demonstrated experience and a command of the craft far beyond their years. The kids these days.
My favourite local albums were Silver Scroll winner James Milne’s alter ego, Lawrence Arabia, with an infectious collection of finely-tuned pop classics, and Wellington collective Good Laika, who delivered a darker, more restrained sophomore album that wasn’t without its upbeat moments.
The Grizzly Bear album is the band’s most accessible to date but didn’t charm everyone; I don’t mind admitting it took me a few listens through. The passing similarity to local indie darlings past Bressa Creeting Cake on the odd track didn’t hurt either.
Possibly against better judgement, Florence and her machine sneak in there at the end on the back of repeated listens in the lead up to a superb headline performance at the first Auckland Laneway Festival this past weekend. The album is overly-dramatic, stylistically muddled and one or two tracks too long, but the girl sings so heartily about boys and coffins that most of this is easily forgiven.
Also rans: Fever Ray’s self-titled solo release, M. Ward’s timeless Hold Time, Annie “St Vincent” Clark’s Woody-Allen-inspired Actor, Bombay Bicycle Club’s I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose (thanks Jarred for the introduction) and Noah And The Whale’s The First Days Of Spring.
What a beautiful, heavenly place you live in, with a very fine maritime museum.
— Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy complimenting Auckland’s facilites at today’s Big Day Out music festival. But really, where else would he hang out? Crappy video of the gig here.
Eric Peltier’s DADADA-2010. Made me laugh.
“Hazelton” by Bon Iver vocalist Justin Vernon, from his 2006 solo record Hazeltons. (via Jarred Bishop)
“Blinded By The Lights (Nero Remix)” from The Streets’ album A Grand Don’t Come For Free. The first time I heard the original track played on 95bFM I was on a short helicopter ride over Auckland and now can only picture that vantage point when I hear it. Turn it up loud. (via Dupstep Friday)
“The Beautiful Young Crew”, a dissection of social set behaviour from Lawrence Arabia’s Chant Darling, one of my favourite albums of the year. (via The Burning Ear)
“Intro” by The XX, who play Auckland’s Laneway Festival on 1 February 2010. (via Jarred Bishop)
