Saturday, January 23, 2010

Beach House - Teen Dream

Mellow, clean, gorgeous, and oddly happy, Teen Dream, the new album from Baltimore's Beach House, does an awesome job of making simple songs sound vast and clear. The simple layers of pretty background vocals, distinguished guitar melodies, easy drum beats, and hazy lead vocals come together perfectly. The sound itself isn't anything revolutionary or new, but that doesn't detract from how great I feel after listening to the album. The open and expansive sounds of the opening track, "Zebra" are incredibly relaxing and soothing. However, "Norway" and "Walk in the Park" are my favorite tracks on the album. I just recently moved to Oslo, Norway to study, and "Norway" does an unbelievable job of projecting a perfect musical image of what Norway feels like - festive, a little odd, beautiful, lonely, almost nondescript, yet special. Really cool.

Released on Subpop records, I'll definitely be listening to Teen Dream a lot in the next few months. It just has a great feel to it. It's incredibly comforting. Truly dreamy. Pleasant. Loveable. Easily forgotten. Yet easily remembered at the same time. Check out their myspace page here.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Tops of 09, Props to 0-10

Well, it's officially 2010. This past year has been pretty fantastic musically. I grew a lot personally in my own musicality while some really awesome were albums released. I also ate a lot of egg drop soup, discovered thai food, spent a summer in LA, found love, embraced twitter, and was up 33% on my investments. I saw some unbelievable live shows - White Rabbits, Monsters of Folk, The Avett Brothers, Dr. Dog, and The Antlers were especially fantastic. I fell in love with Jazz vinyl, especially with the late Art Tatum. And Dave Brubeck. I also ate a lot of bagels. And without further ado, a few lists of what I enjoyed from 2009.

Top 15 albums of 2009:

1. The Antlers - Hospice
2. Grizzly Bear - Vecktimest
3. The xx - The xx
4. Samantha Crain & The Midnight Shivers - Songs in the Night
5. Dark Was The Night Compilation
6. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Eating Us
7. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
8. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
9. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
10. White Rabbits - Its Frightening
11. Vetiver - Tight Knit
12. Pomegranates - Everybody Come Outside
13. Bon Iver - Blood Bank EP
14. The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You
15. Heartless Bastards - The Mountain



Top 4 movies of 2009:

1. The Fantastic Mr. Fox
2. Inglourious Basterds
3. Up
4. The Hangover


Favorite 6 Singles of 2009:

1. "Home" - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
2. "Two Weeks" - Grizzly Bear
3. "Percussion Gun" - White Rabbits
4. "The Train Song" - Feist and Ben Gibbard
5. "Kettering" - The Antlers
6. "The Blackest Purse" - Why?

Top TV Moment:

1. Dexter Season 4 Finale. OMG!