Jag Kommer

Not to be one of those that get all up in arms over similarities in songs (who cares really?), but just as an observation the new Veronica Maggio single Jag Kommer sounds a lot like Reptilia (@ 1:14) by The Strokes. I'm a huge fan of the latter, so I can see why one would take inspiration from that song, and the Maggio single is quite decent - catchy and the sexual undertones are almost funny. But still, it's pretty darn close, right?

Veronica Maggio - Jag Kommer


The Strokes - Reptilia

Present Company, The Best That You Can Find

This is just great. Not just another Muppets video for LCD Soundsystem, but a Muppets video to one of my favorite songs from last year. What is not to love here?

LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean

He's Lost Control

As covers go this is pretty great. Strike that, as songs go this is pretty great. It's not exactly better than the original (really, what is?), but it does however bring something new to the table. It has that eerie and haunting tone, which is perfect for the lyrics, but in a new electronic almost dance-y setting. Couple that with the B/W video and you have something which is beautifully luring yet discomforting in the best way possible. Great stuff.

Spoek Mathambo - Control

Best Albums of 2010

Another year has passed and it is time for a look back at what was a great year in musical terms. I've tried to list it in the order of what I've enjoyed the most over the course of the year, and what I imagine I will return to the most in the future.

Unfortunately, I can't listen to everything (hard as I may try), and there are a number of albums I know I will love once I get them, but have yet to get my filthy hands on. Specifically I’m thinking of Caribou's Swim, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti's Before Today, These New Puritans' Hidden, Women’s Public Strain, and Tame Impala’s Innerspeaker. That said, it's been a great year and there will always be music that I'll miss out on, so enough on that and on to the important stuff…

Best Albums of 2010
1. Beach House - Teen Dream
On Teen Dream, Beach House perfected the hazy indie pop sound that they had shown on their first two albums, making my pick for number one easy. There had always been a dreamy quality to Beach House’s music, but on Teen Dream that quality is fleshed out and used to its full potential. Victoria Legrand’s vocals are as before soulful and intense like few others can, but here drawn to the front where it should be. Throughout the album she sounds at once fragile and strong among Alex Scala’s swirling guitars and her own reverb- drenched organ. The album was and is perfect for the quiet mornings, dreamy afternoons and late nights, where you can allow yourself to be transported to another place. 

2. Harlem – Hippies
Hippies is simply put, great garage rock. Better yet, it is great songwriting made to sound effortless. That said, there is an incredible tightness to the careless sound, so it never seems lack effort. Someday Soon is the song that perfectly sums up the album, with lyrics about not wanting to put out a friend on fire, a great hook, and a breakdown that brilliantly features an almost stumbling guitar. It’s ramshackle in the best way possible, and that feel continues throughout making it, to me, the feel- good album of the year.

3. Four Tet - There Is Love In You
There Is Love In You is not your ordinary electronic album. The music sounds and feels organic, with its live drumming and great use of vocal samples.  Love Cry is a brilliant example, as he builds the whole song around a pulsing drum break, onto which he adds a chopped vocal sample, synths, acoustic guitar and what appears to be the sound of an old 56k modem. The song has an almost zen- like quality, and in this way, TILIY has become my go-to album for taking breaks. The music is clean and perfect for moments where you need to clear your head.

4. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
Quieter than Microcastle/ Weird Era Continued, but equally great, Halcyon Digest has underlined Deerhunter’s status as one of the best bands around right now. Bradford Cox has always been the leader, but here the best song – the fantastic Desire Lines - was written and sung by guitarist Lockett Pundt, showing that the group is all talent. In the end it comes down to the songs, and here they’re all great without exception.

5. Janelle Monae - The Arch Android
The Arch Android is both a brilliant r’n’b/soul album and the story of Cindi Merryweather - an android sent to the future city of Metropolis to save us all. Sci- fi storyline aside this is an album littered with great pop songs and it is beyond me that songs like Cold War, Faster and Tightrope did not make more of a chart impact. In any case, on The Arch Android Janelle Monae has managed to perfect the sound of modern funk and R’n’B, by clearly drawing on the old school á la James Brown (right down to the cape- wearing), and combined it with the more modern hiphop sound á la Outkast. A superb album.

6. Hot Chip - One Life Stand
7. Earl Sweatshirt - EARL
8. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
9. The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack
10. Warpaint - The Fool
11. Spoon - Transference
12. Les Savy Fav - Root For Ruin
13. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Nightmare
14. The Walkmen - Lisbon
15. Sufjan Stevens - Age of Adz
16. Vampire Weekend - Contra
17. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
18. Gorillaz - Plastic Island
19. Foals - Total Life Forever
20. Tyler, the Creator - Bastard

Best Danish Album Of 2010

The Malpractice - Tectonics
Heavily biased on this one, but it really is excellent and, in my humble opinion, by far the best Danish album of 2010. If I were to put it in my overall list then it would definitely make the Top 10 - I just don't know who I would take out, so I'll chicken out and do this special mention instead.

Honourable Mentions (Alphabetic Order)
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today, Big Boi - Sir Luscious Left Foot, Beach Fossils - Beach Fossils, Caribou – Swim, CFCF - The River, Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (II), Girl Talk - All Day,  Glasser – Ring, Good Shoes - No Hope No Future, Gonjasufi - A Sufi & A Killer, MGMT – Congratulations, Mystery Jets – Serotonin, The National - High Violet, No Age - Everything In Between, Tame Impala – Innerspeaker, Twin Shadow – Forget, Women - Public Strain, Yeasayer - Odd Blood

We Tried Each Other, Let's Try Another

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have developed their sound and I love it. Gone is the C86 sound, and instead we get noisy rock that sounds like everything that was great about 90's grunge and post- grunge. I love how underneith the heavily distorted and really quite heavy riff there's a beautiful melody and a chorus just made for singing (/shouting) along to.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Belong
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Belong by Slumberland Records

This is just perfect in every single way.

January Lag Is Almost Over

A bit of a hectic January is soon over and I will (finally) post my Best of 2010 lists in the coming week. In the meantime I bid you a bit of Vacuum Boogie. It is music that fits somewhere in the spectrum between deep house, chilled out dubstep and pure awesomeness.

Floating Points - Vacuum Boogie

I Used To Think That The Day Would Never Come

One of the best decisions I've made recently was to buy Human League's Dare and New Order's Substance. Jam- packed with some of the best pop ever, these records really are must- haves. Buy them - your life will be better for it. Fact.

Human League - Love Action (I Believe In Love)


New Order - True Faith

And Then They Drop

I know I've already talked way too much about Odd Future and Earl Sweatshirt, but seriously they are pretty awesome:

"Tell your bitch to stop complaining about her achy tits/ Her body is a temple - well, I don't give a fuck I'm atheist"

Swag.

Earl Sweatshirt - Drop

Sound of 2011

It is the end of the year and as always I scramble towards the goal line with my predictions for the next big thing(s). I've completely missed my deadline (read: damn you BBC!), but then again that seems to happen every year – an unfortunate side- effect from being slow. Therefore, this time around I present more of rundown of what I think could do well next year critically, chart- wise or even both. So without further ado…

THE CPHNOISE SOUND OF 2011

Jessie J
Clare Maguire
James Blake

The Vaccines

Sky Ferreira

Starsmith
MNDR
Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All
Jai Paul
Yadi

The order is arbritrary, but by all accounts it seems as if Jessie J and Clare Maguire are the ones whom the most believe in, thus they top mine as well – like a lemming one has to follow the masses. 

James Blake, Jessie J, Clare Maguire, The Vaccines and Jai Paul all figure on the BBC list, for obvious reasons: They're either pretty damn good (Jai Paul, James Blake), have lots of hype (The Vaccines) or they have the hits in the wings (Jessie J, Clare Maguire).

I'm surprised, though, that the BBC- list didn't feature MNDR, Sky Ferreira and Starsmith as they're all artists showing tons of promise and have great pop sensibilities. MNDR has already had chart success featuring on Mark Ronson's latest album (the stand- out Bang Bang Bang) and has solid songs in her catalogue already like I Go Away. Then there’s Sky Ferreira, who is backed by such super producers as Bloodshy & Avant (Britney Spears' Toxic and of Miike Snow- fame) and her single Obsession could be a hit (at least that's what me thinks) - the video sure has enough weirdness to grab people's attention. Finally, Starsmith produced most of Ellie Goulding’s debut album (including her hit Starry Eyed) and has been the subject of much hype since. Really, they all seemed like shoo-ins.

Finally there's OFWGKTA and Yadi. Odd Future released some the best hip hop music, if not best music, last year, and Tyler, the Creator - head producer and leader of the gang - is expected to drop his first real album (not counting Bastard) next year. With their track- record from this year, I have high expectations from this bunch of mostly 18-19 year-olds. Yadi, on the other hand, produces great massive pop songs and is backed by Neon Gold, who have a knack and proven track- record of uncovering the stars of tomorrow (from Passion Pit to Ellie Goulding). Thus these are my picks for the sound of 2011.

And for just for the hell of it, here are the rest...

THE TOO LONG LIST
Bright Light Bright Light
Esben and the Witch
Fiction
Egyptian Hip Hop
The Naked and the Famous
Cults
DOM
MEN
Starslinger
Hooray for Earth
Sunday Girl
Alex Winston
Kimbra
Jamie Woon

Sidebar: I’ve left out Warpaint on purpose, because – really – they have already released their debut album (featured on many Best of 2010 lists) and been on the cover of NME. For me they are a 2010 band – a great one too -, and I just don't see 2011 being much bigger for them.

So Much To Give, So Much We'll Never Hear

I've been criticesed for having the tenacity to dare to write about music that people have already heard off. I have let my core audience down and I'm terribly sorry for this neglect. Worry not though, I present you with a choice selection of three wilfully obscure songs and one with a whiff of being on the cusp of indie- stardom (I dapple in oxymorons too). Basically, I'm saying that Twin Shadow are on the doorstep of the garden path to the house of near-obscurity to the greater public, but near to the hearts of the select indie-navel-gazing-pitchfork-reading few - I heart you Twin Shadow!

The New Division - Starfield


Starfield is an instant winner, with its sharp trickling synth and melodramatic yet distant vocals. More than anything though, it is carried by the heavy and meaty bass - a bass that will echo in your head for days. There really isn't that much else to say. Enjoy.

Chad Valley - Ensoniq Funk


Looping wood- block sounds opens Ensoniq Funk and from then on it explodes into full chill- wave goodness. It somehow manages to sound like the perfect song for a summer barbecue, but also like a warm hug of a pop song during these wintery cold months. Listening to it is like hearing a fantastic 80's pop song (full of synth horn- and string stabs) played through a broken car speaker far away. It's that magic quality of chill wave, where you instantly invoke a nostalgic sound and feeling even though you have no real previous ties to the music.

Fiction - Phyllis


Trustworthy sources tell me that Fiction have consistently been one of the best live band in London over the past year, so no faint praise there. Their music nods heavily in the direction of Talking Heads, but with a bit of the synth-y weirdness that made Late of the Pier interesting. Phyllis is a playful little tune with an afro- beat guitar, a bouncing bass- line, lots of rim taps and some of that previously mentioned synth-y weirdness. FUN!

Twin Shadow & Hooray For Earth - A Place We Like


By all means this should be a pop smash. First of all there is the bass and kick drum combo, which screams dance (dance!), on top of that there are flute-y synths, hand claps and Spanish guitar (!). Everything that should be cheesy and wrong is put together and just works. However, what really gets me is the blissfully happy chorus. If you don't smile when you hear this, then you're dead inside. Literally (figuratively).