Our Mid-Season Favorite Album Countdown - Nr. 04

Number four in our top ten favourite albums of 2010 so far! Linda, Ilse, and yours truly give you our ten favourite albums at the halfway stage of the musical year in the hope you might discover, rediscover, or agree with our picks. If, in turn, you have some stuff you think we might enjoy, please holler.

Favorite albums of first half 2010: 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5

04. LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening (DFA)
So this album already made an appearance in both other lists, so it must be good! And I absolutely agree. I’m a sucker for songs that exceed the five minute barrier, so this album is a real treat for me. I love the balance between the more dance punk based tracks and the electropop downbeat ones. All killer no filler you could say. So there’s no ‘Someone Great’ or ‘Tribulations’ on this album, but I think that overall it is an equal to the two earlier releases by James Murphy and friends. That point is best signified in a live setting, when all three albums just blend into a perfect mix of all that DFA goodness. As others have mentioned, this album relates more to the work of the Juan Maclean, and that’s probably got do to with Nancy Whang taking up a bigger role in some of the songs, such as ‘One Touch’. ‘You Wanted a Hit’ (which almost touches upon the glorious ten minute mark) and ‘I Can Change’ are the two tracks that bring this album to its high for me. ‘Pow Pow’ is what keeps it out of the top three.
Random track to listen to: ‘I Can Change’

04. Titus Andronicus – The Monitor (XL)
A band taking its name from a Shakespeare play making a concept album on the American Civil War of 1861-1865: the album’s title refers to a battleship utilized during the Civil War, the album cover features the ship’s crew, the title-typography is from a letter written by Abe Lincoln and the album was released on the 9th of March, celebrating the 148th birthday of the Monitor vs The Virgina battle off the coast of Hampton Roads.... I think the ambition and attention for the detail alone makes this album deserve a spot on my list. In context however, the Civil War merely functions as a metaphor to the story: the protagonist leaves his birthplace in New Jersey for Boston while battling his personal concern over regional identity, friendship, and emotional anesthetization; you could say he is more or less having an inner civil war. All of this is obviously about Patrick Stickles himself, as the songs are drenched in references to Glen Rock and the Garden State, and the album is more a personal memoir than a history lesson. Musically it has, like their debut, a lot of shredding guitars, keyboards and reverb vocals, resulting into their familiar noisy sound. Stickles doesn’t claim to be part of a ‘lo-fi movement’ though, he rather thinks of the band as making ‘hi-fi punk’. The songs on ‘The Monitor’ are incredibly anthem-like, as the band vocalize in synchrony which gives you the idea it’s sung by a group of drunk friends, but then there’s all these literature and pop culture references, which makes it too high-brow to be low-brow. I’m quite a pop culture junkie and love triviality, so trying to understand the somewhat complexity of this album was a great pleasure. And with this in mind, and as 'Titus Andronicus crave your approval but will settle for your utter disdain’, they get what they’re craving for.
Random track to listen to: ‘Richard II’

04. We Have Band – We Have Band (Naive)
I’ve been on this band for what it seems like forever! So there is always the danger that you’re going to take them for granted, because in a relatively short time I’ve seen them play loads, I’ve seen them release singles, and then of course they came with their debut. Which is ace, by the way. A delicious mix of new wave, pop, and catchy songs while a theme of modern angst is weaved through everything (see my review on that). There is this sense of the urban city and the anxieties of it which is one of the subjects I’m just massively interested in (as can be dervied from the inclusion of for example This is Happening which also has that I think). The “old” singles are all on there, and they can be recognized by their catchy, dancey nature. This is put into balance by lots of the new songs, which are slower paced. And I love that, that they didn’t just go “oh, this brought us on the Kitsuné sampler, we’re gonna make a whole album of it”. The music sounds delightfully clear, and I hadn’t expected the vocals to be as good as they are. It is very easy on the ear, very easy to listen to, but it is not an empty shell. A combination I always love, something which is easy on the ear but which also has its own aesthetic and is a collective instead of a loose gathering of songs (which I guess when we look back at the full top ten list is pretty obvious, but I don’t wanna spoil the ending for you). Loveable, brilliant music by ace people: it can’t get much better than that, now can it?
Random track to listen to: ‘Hero Knows’