DAVE'S TOP 15

I've been approaching this post with a fair amount of trepidation. For the past month or so, the prospect of choosing the fifteen albums of the year that I liked the most seemed almost impossible. I've always been at the consuming end of this whole list-making bacchanal, and entering the fray really freaked me out.

The Music-Related Internets in December

So many questions to consider: How could I ensure I was being truly objective, and not just trying to shape a list that would make me look cool? How could I account for albums I played a lot, but don't like as much as albums I played much less? What kind of hip-hop fan was I when there were only two hip-hop albums I liked so far? How was I going to account for bands I was just getting into? These things plagued me so much that I put making the list off for weeks-until I finally just sat down, on Christmas Eve no less, and made it in about five minutes. Once I started doing it, I remembered a few things. The most important of these was that no one gives a fuck about what I think. That was pretty important to keep in mind. Also, if I'm being honest with myself, all the albums up for consideration were on my itunes, which made the whole thing possible from the comfort of my bed.

15.) Wale - The Mixtape About Nothing

Shamefully, the one hip-hop album that made the list. But in a year where I'm more dissatisfied with the genre than ever, the fact that Wale's mixtape slipped in at all is a strong assertion of its quality. A mixtape that's almost an album, The Mixtape About Nothing has my favorite new rapper taking on the issue of race with as much dillagence, intelligence, and fervor as he takes on his competition.

Wale - "The Kramer"

14.) Portishead - Third
Who the fuck saw this coming? I like Dummy as much as the next paranoiac, but damn. With some of the iciest production this side of El-P wrapping Beth Gibbons' ethereal pipes in enough wire and gauze to convince me I'm about to die, this is the record I put on when I want to be scared. Take your time with the next one dudes-we'll wait.

Portishead - "The Rip"

13.) Air France - No Way Down
This past September I drove to Ohio for my second year of college, and by the time I reached the western edge of Pennsylvania, I was having an minor panic attack. Way more scared than I had been for my first year. Frantically scrambling for something that would calm my nerves, I remembered I had just gotten an album described as "sunny" and decided that would have to do.
By the time I got to "Collapsing at your Doorstep", I was grinning from ear-to-ear, flying my hand out the window and watching the evening sun putter down over farms and strip malls. I would return to this little gem more than a few times in the following months, when I needed something to bob my head to as the days got shorter.

Air France - "Collapsing at your Doorstep"

12.) Little Joy - Little Joy
I'll be honest. It was the cover art that got me at first. When I saw the album on whatever blog I first saw it on, it would have just been one of the many I see and instantly forget, except for the exceptionally beautiful cover art, conveying perfectly the emotion the band has named itself after. The music is great too, by the way, if you like the Strokes, but are SO over 2k1. The drummer from the Strokes + Some Brazilian guy + some girl named binki= straightforward and woozily charming tunes.

Little Joy - "Brand New Start"

11.) Deerhunter - Microcastle
I have way, way too many problems with this album to properly enumerate here, but to sum up: I don't like this album as much as the amount of times I've listened to it would indicate. Every time I put it on, I found myself enjoying it, but would space out and do something else while it played in the background. I tried to find myself loving it, given all the hype it has received, and the number of times I was chastised for thinking their previous album was really boring ("C'mon dude, you just gotta get into it, man, just give it a chance."), but it never really clicked with me. Having said all that, I've probably listened to it more than half the albums on this list, and it does have a few very good songs, when they put a few guitar pedals away and bring it.

Deerhunter - "Nothing Ever Happened"

10.) Beach House - Devotion
I don't know if there's any "scene" that's going on right now that I'm less interested in than the Dan-Deacon-and-hiz-budz thing that's going on in Baltimore, and even though Beach House is only tangentially involved in that whole thing, I resisted being charmed by their sophmore disc. Eventually, I let my guard down, and this hazy dream of an album crept up into my consciousness, until I couldn't resist throwing on "Gila" or "Wedding Bell" every night for a month.

Beach House - "Gila"

9.) The Tallest Man on Earth - Shallow Grave
I spent a good portion of this year really getting into the concept of "Americana", leading me to all sorts of random corners of the musical landscape--The Anthology of American Folk Music, the music of Washington Phillips, and a true appreciation for old-school country (Ernest Tubb, Jim Reeves, Slim Whitman, Hank Williams, etc.). So it's only fitting that one of my favorite albums of the year is a Americana singer-songwriter record, featuring banjo, guitar, and some distinctively (some might say suspiciously) nasal and pleading vocals. The catch, of course, is that this dude's Swedish. First it's Volvos, now it's stunning updates of roots music, what's next, pseudo-socialist democracy? Let's do better next year, America.

The Tallest Man on Earth - "Shallow Grave"

8.) TV on the Radio - Dear Science,
The most acclaimed record of the year, hands down, Dear Science racked up Album-of-the-Years like some sort of perfect storm of critical acclaim. A paranoid, harsh record you can dance to, a funk record with a serious agenda, an art record you can actually listen to (ZING!), this album seemingly has everything. What can I even really say that hasn't been said by a million fans or detractors? One thing that I haven't heard yet is a bitter speculation that occurred to me as I was writing this blurb-- if this album is the pinnacle of their career, its all downhill from here.

TV on the Radio - "DLZ"

7.) Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair
Fuckin' DFA. Just when I think I can write you off for a while (no new LCD Soundsystem? See you next year.) you make a goddamn disco record with a vocalist I despise, and I still can't get enough of it! Seriously, if you can make me like Antony, you have magic powers. See you next year, when you sign Barbara Streisand and she makes a hardcore record. Actually, that sounds really awesome already.

Hercules and Love Affair - "Blind"

6.) Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
It's telling of my status as a total Spencer Krug fanboy that this was my biggest disappointment of the year, and it's still sitting pretty at 6th place. After delving very seriously into Sunset Rubdown and Apologies for the Queen Mary I was expecting At Mount Zoomer to be the best album of all time. Surprisingly, this was not the case, and I spent about a month listening to it in frustration. Then I took some time away to heal my wounds, bought tickets to see them live, and in the month before the show, returned to it. To my embarrasment, it was much better than I remembered, and a serious step forward for the band. In the month leading up to the show (which, by the way, was amazing), the record steadily grew in stature in my head, eventually equalling Apologies in my love for it. Still, I'll never forget that first month, when I was convinced I had made a huge mistake.

Wolf Parade - "California Dreamer"

5.) Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
Yes, really.

To be honest, I really want to hate this album, but it's hard when it's so goddamn good. There are more throwaway tracks on this album than any other disc on this list, and it will probably be stale in less than six months, but Jesus Lord, when they hit it, they hit it. Nothing better to match schlepping across some frozen and barren Ohio. Does this mean I like electro now?

Crystal Castles - "Vanished"

4.) The War on Drugs - Wagonwheel Blues
Where did this even come from? I have no idea where I found this album, one day I just had it on my computer. Lucky me. In a year where I delved into Americana, this was a valuable find. A vaguely trippy road record that rips hungrily into the past thirty years of rock music, emerging dripping with bits of CCR, Dylan, and shoegaze while still a beast entirely its own. Undefinable and epic, this is the most slept-on record of the year. Of any band on this list, The War on Drugs is the one that I'm the most excited to see develop.

The War on Drugs - "Taking the Farm"

3.) Women - Women
See here for my more fleshed out thoughts on Women's extraordinary debut. All I'd really add to that is that the album has only grown in stature for me -- the more I listen to it, the more I'm convinced of it's worth. Women use distortion, drone, and effects pedals in ways that accentuate their best moments, instead of using them to hide their flaws (I see you, Vivian Girls).

Women - "Black Rice"

2.) Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes/ Sun Giant EP
Oh Man. Fleet Foxes. If you're reading this, you know the deal by now: Huge harmonies, lyrics about the woods, beards. And you've probably already decided that it's actually great like everyone says or that it's all a bunch of hippies with their drugs and their hair. But on the off chance that you've never heard this album or any songs from it, you owe it to yourself to check it out. I'm more sure of you at least not hating this album than anything on this list. Never has something so aggresively accessible topped so many internet best-of's. This album/EP combo alone justifies the sense of superiority everyone I've met from Seattle has about their hometown. If you can produce music like this, shit, maybe you're right that everything is better in the Emerald City.

Fleet Foxes - "English House"
Fleet Foxes - "Blue Ridge Mountains"

1.) Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
Truly, I'll never know how this happened. How did an album so unassuming become my favorite album of the year? Is it because I'm convinced Grizzly Bear is the best band in music right now, and that their next album is going to be the greatest thing since bread? Possibly. But maybe it's the fact that no other collection of songs unfolded quite so fully, and so unendingly, as these have. With every trip through this album of lushly arranged and slightly askew pop-songs, something felt new, unopened. Whether it's the head bobbing sunshine of "No One Does It Like You", or the unpredictable and askew "Classical Records", these songs have more to them than they reveal initially, demanding and rewarding repeated listening. The simple fact is that I've listened to this album more than anything else this year, and it doesn't look like I'm going to stop anytime soon.

Department of Eagles - "No One Does It Like You"

So that's it. I'll be back next week to ramble about other things that happened this year.
--Dave