Best Albums From a Particular Sub-Genre...of the year

Collecting my favorite albums of the year is always a fun, yet stressful process for me. Not real-world stress, but rather, the stress of figuring out what I really thought about the music that streamed through my headphones this year. Throughout this process, a small handful of albums sort of naturally coalesced into this small group that I really liked as a whole, but couldn't figure out where to place in my top 20+. And it's really hard, even with this tiny sample of albums, to pick my favorites, but whatever, here it goes.

Sub-Genre of the Year: Guitar-rock


Umm...okay, sure, this is not exactly a new genre. From Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley to Stephen Malkmus and Frank Black, guitar-based music has been the staple of pretty much the ENTIRE popular music scene of the past 75 years. But what captured my attention this year was that some new artists' began to stray away from the recent trends of electronic- dance-rock (think Franz Ferdinand or Hot Chip), towards a more unrestrained sound. And no Chillwave. Some bands in my completely made-up sub-genre tended towards 50s and 60s California pop (Best Coast, She & Him, Girls) while others were more garage-y, New York in the 70s (Harlem, Titus Andronicus, Japandroids). But it's all characterized by a less-produced sound and, of course, prominent guitar. So here we go. None of the following bands appear on my top 20+ list forthcoming, but it's more because I'm featuring them here and freeing up space in the other list than because I don't like them.

Harlem "Hippies"
Maybe the most extreme example of the garage sound in new music today. It's the sound of a group of friends jamming, only recently discovering how to add elements of sound together to make magic. Just guitar, drums, and vocal, but it's just the right combination of these elements that makes for a fun 40 minutes.
Check out: "Gay Human Bones," "Friendly Ghost"

Astro Coast "Surfer Blood"
Maybe a click or two more "produced" than Harlem, this band's debut album is hard to describe. Kind of a Brian Wilson meets Rivers Cuomo vocals with a sugary wave of guitar throughout. Start at "Swim" and keep going in "Harmonix" which reminds me a lot of Television, for some reason.

Fang Island (Self-titled)
So far, we've been amping up the guitar sounds -- from jangly garage-band to pop waves. Now comes the most powerful onslaught this side of metal. There is some serious thrashing going on here. Fang Island's album art typifies this wave of nostalgic album art I happen to love (see, also Spoon, Wolf Parade's, Dum Dum Girls, Vampire Weekend, etc. etc... Oh, and the entire Gorilla vs. Bear blog). Thing is, the music on these albums don't usually follow the theme of the album art. This is definitely not the case with Fang Island. You wouldn't expect nostalgia (except maybe for early 90's thrasher?) to be the first thing to come to mind from an album featuring heavy, heavy guitar but it totally fits Fang Island's approach. I think it's because the nostalgia is very specific. It's not some "Oh, I remember sitting on granddad's knee as a kid, he told scary war stories while I played with the buttons on his shirt" nostalgia -- it's the "I'M A KID, I RUN EVERYWHERE, ESPECIALLY TO THE BATHROOM. WHEN MY FRIENDS AND I GET TOGETHER, WE DON'T TALK, WE JUST PLAY. AAAH!" nostalgia we all secretly feel so often during the day. I mean, come on, who doesn't want to run the wrong way on an escalator or jump off tables  or just dance crazy at the bus stop from time to time?? Well this album give you that excuse. Check out the video for "Daisy" for some tips on the proper way to have a nostalgic adult freak-out.



I'm not sure if I'm reading too much into this trend, maybe it's really that the music industry has gotten so fragmented that bands who don't quite fit into the current zeitgeist can still put their music out and I just happened to wander into some of this music this year. There's probably some truth to that, but who knows? There's so much music out there! This post is case-in-point. After making the top-20 cut for my year-end list, I realized that I had left a lot of bands off and I really wanted to highlight a few of them. And there are still albums out there that a. didn't make the top 20, b. didn't make my honorable mention list, and c. didn't make this list, that I still really loved listening to this year. So kudos to the following bands for making great music this year:
Mavis Staples "You Are Not Alone"
Gorillaz "Plastic Beach"
Caribou "Swim"
Lake Folk "Feel Like I'm Home"
Justin Townes Earle "Harlem River Blues"
Four Tet "There Is Love In You"
The National "High Violet"
Titus Andronicus "The Monitor"
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan "Hawk"

Albums 11-20 out this weekend!