Posted by Mia | 0 Comments
Want More Opinions? Here are Some Tunes.
My very good friends Kathleen, Cam, Andrew, Bradley, and Matthew are all music snobs (and they’re legit. Like, I’m only just starting to feel like I can talk about stuff with them). We’ve set up a Tumblr to talk about our favourite albums and tracks from 2013, which you can find here: http://herearesometunes.tumblr.com
Since I posted my top 2013 albums on this site already, I’ll likely be publishing some more specific, song-based reviews, if I can remember that these things need to happen. I’m starting to think I need to actually schedule writing and publishing times for myself because otherwise I’ll never get anywhere.
Anyhow! Go forth to Tumblr. Read amazing analyses. Learn yo shit.
Read MorePosted by Mia | 0 Comments
Track List – January 4
First Particles and Waves of 2013! I found some really fantastic new songs and albums for this show, which was a pretty great way to kick off the new year. Plus, I got to play both the Magnetic Fields and White Rabbits. What’s not to love?
Dawn & Marra – Wicked Little Girl (Teaspoons and Tablespoons)
Magnetic Fields – California Girls (Distortion)
Good for Grapes – London Fog (Man on the Page)
We Are Scientists – Dumb Luck (Business Casual)
White Rabbits – Percussion Gun (It’s Frightening)
The Zolas – The Great Collapse (Tic Toc Tic)
Amy Irving – Why Don’t You Do Right? (Who Framed Roger Rabbit Soundtrack)
Two Bears North – Front Seat (Comeocean)
Matthew Barber & The Spade – People Got to Know (People Got to Know 7″)
Library Voices – Bodies of Fiction (Denim on Denim)
Hannah Georgas – Waiting Game (iTunes Session)
Mother Mother – O My Heart (O My Heart)
Noah & The Whale – Introduction and Heart of Nowhere (Heart of Nowhere)
For Esme – Grace is Such a Good Word (For Esme)
Gena Perala – Living Proof (Exactly Nowhere)
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour – Heart Attack (Out of Frequency)
The Devil Makes Three – Worse or Better (I’m a Stranger Here)
Architecture in Helsinki – Sleep Talkin’ (Moment Bends)
John Vanderslice – A Better Whirlpool (Vanderslice Plays Diamond Dogs)
The National – Graceless (Trouble Will Find Me)
Posted by Mia | 0 Comments
The Best Albums of 2013
Added note: Okay. I’ve had enough. I’ve held back on publishing my picks for the top albums of 2013 because I wanted to do a writeup on each one. But writing up ten albums was going to take forever, and it turns out that even writing up five of them just isn’t happening in a timely fashion. So I’m going simple. Here’s a list. I will do mini-reviews of several of these albums throughout January, because one of my resolutions is to actually populate this blog with more than just track lists.
When I state my picks for the best albums of the year, they’re entirely dependent on my own personal response, as well as what I’ve had a chance to listen to. Furthermore, this list ranks the albums that I’ve enjoyed as a whole unit; there are plenty more releases from this year which had a handful of brilliant songs, but otherwise didn’t grab me. So here’s my list for the top albums of 2013, #10-2:
10: MS MR – Secondhand Rapture
9. Neko Case – The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight; The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You
8. The Naked and Famous – In Rolling Waves
7. OneOhTrix Point Never – R Plus Seven
6. Jordan Klassen – Repentance
5. Boards of Canada – Tomorrow’s Harvest
4. Janelle Monaé – The Electric Lady
3. For Esmé – For Esmé
2. The National – Trouble Will Find Me
And my number one pick for best album of 2013: Bastille – Bad Blood.
In a year that saw a new release from Boards of Canada, Janelle Monae, OneOhTrix Point Never, Tim Hecker, and The Naked and Famous, among many many others, it is Bastille that I keep going back to, again and again. The songs of Bad Blood have racked up hundreds of listens on my phone, and I purchased them back in April. While other releases this year may be more artistic (Virgins), more momentous (Tomorrow’s Harvest), or more universally acclaimed, none of them have had the magnetism of Dan Smith’s synthpop premiere. Bad Blood is an album about the end of a relationship, but it’s far from sad; it’s angry, it’s confused, it’s nostalgic, it’s giddy. It captures not only the hurt at losing the one you love, but also the tenderness you continue to feel even after that person has broken your heart. While Smith hasn’t confirmed or denied that the album has a distinct narrative, it’s impossible to deny the themes and subjects which arise from listening to the album as a unit.
The gloriously catchy tunes of songs like “These Streets” and the lead single “Pompeii” sweep you up, and it’s a few listens before you realize the pain behind the lyrics. Music is, of course, always up for interpretation; but my impression of Bad Blood describes the aftermath of an incredibly powerful but ultimately doomed love story, the kind of tragedy that hits you right in the gut. There’s betrayal (“Daniel in the Den”, lamenting “Felled in the night/By the ones you think you love/They will come for you”); there’s remorse (“Things We Lost in the Fire”); there’s sheer nastiness (the title track); and there’s that horrible feeling of seeing your ex’s face in every passerby (“These Streets”). In the softer moments of the album there’s a song in which the narrator questions if his partner is truly meant to be with him in the long run, and another which acknowledges that both parties are flawed but asks if each can fix the other. These are all things that happen in real life; they’re part of what happens when two people with mental illnesses are in love, and when partners know deep down that they will not be together forever but can’t quite bear to let go just yet.
The extra material released around Bad Blood–which includes some of Bastille’s best songs–flesh out the details. “Laughter Lines” depicts a classically youthful promise to stay with a loved one forever (“I’ll see you in the future when we’re older/and we are full of stories to be told./Cross my heart and hope to die,/I’ll see you with your laughter lines.”) and “Poet” is an update of Shakespeare’s 18th Sonnet (“I have written you down/Now you will live forever”).
Like another quasi-breakup album I love–The Zolas’ Ancient Mars—Bad Blood ends with the acknowledgement that despite all the pain, the anger, the compassion, and every other emotional swerve in the journey, we’ll still end up doing this dance again with another partner. The finale of the album, “The Weight of Living Pt I” (Pt II is the midpoint track) references an albatross and encourages the song’s subject to “Let it go”; the penultimate song asks “how am I going to get myself back home?” Reversing the play order of the Weight of Living songs is a reminder that the journey of love and heartbreak is cyclical, and it will be until you find the One.
This analysis might be totally nuts, but Bad Blood resonated with me in a way that no other album did in 2013. It is bombastic, unashamed, emotional, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Read MorePosted by Mia | 0 Comments
Track List – December 28
The final show of the year included my picks for the top albums of 2013, and I played a song from each. Those will have an asterisk on the end of the listing. And I promise to get to my more elaborate reviews of each album soon. Pinkie swear.
CHVRCHES – The Mother We Share (The Bones of What You Believe)
Good for Grapes – Among the Trees (Man on the Page)
John Vanderslice – A Better Whirlpool (Vanderslice Plays Diamond Dogs)
Jordan Klassen – The Horses Are Stuck (Repentance) *
The Royal Oui – Actual Size (Forecast EP)
Boards of Canada – Reach for the Dead (Tomorrow’s Harvest)*
Dawn & Marra – Give Me Away (Teaspoons and Tablespoons)
The Zolas – Invisible (Invisible Single)
The National – I Need My Girl (Trouble Will Find Me)*
Janelle Monae – Dance Apocalyptic (The Electric Lady)
The Strumbellas – End of an Era (We Still Move on the Dance Floor)
Noah and the Whale – Heart of Nowhere (Heart of Nowhere)
For Emse – Cinque Terre (For Esme)*
Of Us Giants – Nova Scotia (Nova Scotia)
The Uncluded – Delicate Cycle (Hokey Fright)
Bastille – Pompeii (Bad Blood)*
The New Pornographers – We End Up Together (Together)
Posted by Mia | 0 Comments
Track List – December 21st
AKA the show where your humble hostess talked way too much about broken hearts and played that one song from all the Supernatural season finales without once mentioning the words “Sam” or “Dean”, and regrets NOTHING.
Read MorePosted by Mia | 0 Comments
Track List – December 14th
In which your heroine returns triumphantly from Seattle with some awesome vinyl records and proceeded to play them.
Library Voices – Drinking Games (Denim on Denim)
Janelle Monae – We Were Rock ‘n Roll (The Electric Lady)
Guster – Barrel of a Gun (Lost and Gone Forever)
The Wynona Ryders – Catfish Discipline (Some Enchanted Evening)
Hannah Georgas – Enemies (iTunes Session)
The National – Don’t Swallow the Cap (Trouble Will Find Me)
Jordan Klassen – Balcony (Repentance)
Good for Grapes – London Fog (Man on the Page)
Emili Sande – Tiger (Our Version of Events)
For Esme – I Found a Place (For Esme)
CHVRCHES – The Mother We Share (Bones of What You Believe)
Mia – What I See (After the Fact)
The Black Keys – Just Couldn’t Tie Me Down (Rubber Factory)
Bastille – Sleepsong (Overjoyed EP)
Blitzen Trapper – Black River Killer (Furr)
Arcade Fire – You Already Know (Reflektor)
Imaginary Cities – All the Time (Fall of Romance)
Posted by Mia | 0 Comments
December 2013: Excuses, Excuses
I started to do an Arbitrary Album of the Month review, but realized that it would run smack up into my “Best of 2013” list, so in lieu of repeating myself I am going to wait on doing an AAotM and instead release a whole bunch of posts later in the month talking about the albums I think won the year. I promise that Arcade Fire isn’t anywhere on the list.
So watch this space, dudes and dudettes.
Read More