The Lockies
Welcome to The First Annual Lockies, where Immanuel Can't lists the top ten albums of the year. Will The Man remember his login password and create a list of his own? Will he call it The Loadies, maybe? Time will tell.So here goes:
1. The Decemberists -- Picaresque
I know, I know. Another damn love letter to The Decemberists. How predictable. How banal. We get it already, sir: you neo-gothics love the damn Decemberists. Now can we move this thing along?
2. Mars Volta -- Frances the Mute
What a terrific year in music that Frances the Mute sits in second place at all, to anything, for any reason. In many ways this prog-metal masterpiece is the antithesis to Picaresque: loud, chaotic, indecipherable, and largely inaccessible. Of course a review such as this is supposed to christen the thirty-minute epic "Cassandra Gemini" as the centerpiece of the album, but my favorite cut is "The Widow," the only single short enough for heavy rotation and the only track recorded this year that can give me the soulsickness. Go ahead. Call me a sap. I'd agree with you.
3. System of a Down -- Mezmerize
Easily the strangest multi-platinum act in the world, SoaD can follow up a thunderous rage-against-the-war-machine protest track with a Disneyland-on-LSD joint about jumping around on pogo sticks. Mix postmoderism with punk and metal and splash with I'm-going-native and you're half the way to describing this ensemble. Buy their entire collection on your way home tonight, and listen to it in the parking lot.
(With the exception of the #10 slot, I present the rest on a "no particular order" basis:)
LCD Soundsystem -- LCD Soundsystem
Funky, witty, imperfect, and, yes, American. Sorry, U.K.
Bloc Party -- Silent Alarm
Streetwise and hip, these blokes less resemble a musical act and more a Guy Ritchie film put to drums. Dare I say it? This is what music critics mean when they say "quintessentially English."
Tarentel -- Big Black Square and Tarentel
Bay Area boy scouts Tarentel managed a grand total of three tracks on these two LPs combined, earning themselves a Lockie for that level of restraint alone. Musical purists will dispute my use of the term, but this is lowercase at its finest: silent, minimal, dissonant, and beautiful.
Explosions in the Sky -- Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever
One part spaghetti western, one part tornado, one part lowercase music, I know nothing more about EitS than this: their 2005 release was groundbreaking and breathtaking.
Battles -- EP C
A sort of league of crafty guitarists for the new generation. As is the way with the other post-rock upstarts on the list, when these guys find a groove, they keep it. Tracks are exquisitely long, impersonally digital, and utterly compelling.
10. Doves -- Some Cities
These guys are on double secret probation, hence the last rank in the list. Wandering melodies and spectral vocals all but mask the fact that Doves positively refuse to take a risk. The sound never tells a joke and never loses control, not once in five LPs. Jeff Buckley's 1994 album Grace took as many chances in ten cuts as Doves have taken in their entire career, as is evidenced by the fact that Buckley fans have inhaled not one, not two, not three, four, five, six but seven (!) full-length outtake LPs after his early death. Seven. Effin' seven. Think about it.
posted by Immanuel Can't @ 1:45 PM
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