Our Mid-Season Favorite Album Countdown - Nr. 03

Number three 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- 4

Linda
03. Zola Jesus – Stridulum EP (Sacred Bones)
Yes, I’m slightly cheating again. But is it really cheating if there are no clear rules for making this little feature in the first place? There’s just that name – album countdown – that might imply that EPs are not welcome here, that they are what vuvuzelas are to festivals to this blog. But as with vuvuzelas, this Zola Jesus’s EP is pretty hard to ignore. It’s just six tracks long, but oh, they’re all so incredibly good. I already loved last year’s album The Spoils, though that was a bit flawed in that it was just too lo-fi. Home recordings can be absolutely great, but that album just took it too far. Luckily, it did ensure the right amount of publicity for Nika Roza to be able to record this EP in a proper way. There’s this sense of impending doom and anxiety that keeps hunting you throughout the sextet of songs that makes one almost scared to put this record down, while there’s also that spark of hope in lyrics as “But at the end of the night, we’ll be together again” in opener ‘Night’. I’m completely enchanted by this EP – it even beats most full length albums of this year. And she’s also coming over to pay the Netherlands a visit, together with Xiu Xiu and with/as Former Ghosts, together making this already my most anticipated gig of the year. And they’re making me wait till 20 November. The waiting’s unbearable already.
Random track to listen to: ‘I Can’t Stand’

Ilse
03. Beach House - Teen Dream (Sub Pop)
A lot of debuts and thirds on my list, I’ve noticed. The latter is also the case with Baltimore duo Beach House, who managed to create a dreamy, atmospheric and incredibly charming pop record allowing them to ‘break through’ in the alternative mainstream (I’ve heard this record being played in Urban Outfitters, as well as Starbucks). Many of the songs on Teen Dream make me feel I’m on a boat, floating away in the seemingly infinite ocean, bobbing on the calm waves (again, pardon me for my pretentious imagery) and Victoria Legrand has an absolutely stunning voice, almost singing you into a state of hypnosis. I’m not someone who likes to use the words ‘pure’ and ‘beauty’ to describe an album, but I’m afraid I have no choice in this case, as it is as pure as a the snow on a mountaintop, as innocent as a newborn, and as fresh as the smell of a newly bought book. However, innocence doesn’t necessarily mean weak; in this case it’s incredibly powerful. I also think Teen Dream covers the nostalgia of young love here: pure innocent love. Perhaps a bit like the moment you’ve just met someone: whether it’s pre- or post- first kiss, you have this naïve feeling of hope, where everything still seems possible and something great might come out of this. Pity it always ends in ‘Remember the nights when it all felt right’…
Random track to listen to: ‘Lover of Mine’

Stef
03. Owen Pallett – Heartland (Domino)
In my review on this I somehow tried to unravel the narrative of this album a bit, and point to some different perspectives of how you can look at it. I think that in post-modern arts the idea of the persona of the narrative rebelling against its creator has come to the fore, and I find that idea wildly interesting. Especially since it challenges the traditional from-A-to-B narrative, just like we are challenging that in real life in the modern era. The question is, how much leeway do we have/get in this? And it is also interesting from a queer perspective, a way you can surely read the output of Owen Pallett (not the only way, but you can definitely piece together one possible interpretation of th album through queer studies). Also because this is a par of society which traditionally is being hold back and which since the Seventies (check the trailer for the Stonewall Uprising documentary now on ITunes, even though that was in 1969) is trying to take control and free themselves of the restraining traditional forces. Because restrictive traditions are challenged, and what is more restrictive to a fictional persona than its creator? So Lewis, an ultra-violent farmer, rebels against Pallett, who has made a “narrative mess” of it all, according to Lewis. What precisely Pallett the fictional creator wants is a bit up in the air (for me), but Pallett the artist surely does a mighty fine job of weaving an interesting, post-modern narrative through an impressive musical landscape. Seeing him live in Amsterdam really increased my admiration for him, putting layer upon layer upon layer with his violin. Musically it is ace, and especially in the middle of the album there are songs with a very nice build-up and consequent climax. Also that operatic thingy at the end of the album I found mucho impressive.
Random track to listen to: ‘Oh Heartland, Up Yours!’