Beach House: Teen Dream

The disappointment of Midlake was directly countered by the euphoria of hazy dream pop duo Beach House.  I liked their two previous albums, but I wasn't planning on buying Teen Dream (only $6!).  However, when the overwhelmingly positive reviews started to pour in, I decided to take a listen (R.I.P. Lala)... and I was floored!

My biggest problem with Devotion, their 2008 effort, is that Beach House failed to duplicate the sonic success of stand-out track "Gila" on the rest of the album.  Devotion and Beach House's self-titled debut were both released by little-known label Carpark; Teen Dream, however, was released by indie powerhouse Sup Pop (whose stable of artists is a who's who of indie rock).  As was the case with labelmates Blitzen Trapper, the move to SupPop proved monumental, and the band released their best record to date.

I don't want to go overboard here, but as soon as I listened to this album, I knew I'd found one of 2010's best albums less than two months into the year.  There are no throwaway tracks.  Half the album is straight up brilliant.  This album is so good that it makes me worry that they'll never top it -- this may be their masterpiece, and how in the world could they produce another record that's just as solid?  My only complaint is that the album is only 10 tracks, which leaves me wanting more, but for my money, it's nearly a flawless album.  I have a hard time choosing a favorite since I love the entire thing, but here's "Norway":


Grade: A
Blurb: If you need to relax or if you need chill music to listen to while you're reading at a coffeeshop, this may be your best bet.  Seriously, go spend $6 you won't regret (I'm looking at you Midlake!)

Midlake: The Courage of Others

Aaaannnnd 2010's biggest musical disappointment goes to... drumroll ... Midlake!  2006's Trials of Van Occupanther was one of the coolest and out-of-nowhere albums, so when news surfaced in late 2009 of a new record from the boys from Denton, TX, I was stoked.  However, Midlake must have found out how much I love disappointment, so they scrapped whatever they had recorded and put out The Courage of Others on the first Tuesday in February.

I don't really know what's wrong with this album.  It lacks soul ... or something.   There's definitely some sort of intangible, some sort of X-factor that was all over Occupanther but that is almost entirely absent from Courage.  And part of it may be my fault -- perhaps I set my expectations too high -- but they had 3.5 years to work on Courage, so I'm not sure what they were doing for that entire time (you can only play too much Wii before it becomes stale and boring, so I'm sure that wasn't it).

Surprisingly, a fair amount of music critics liked the album (hint: I'm not one of them).  Not surprisingly, my favorite track on Courage sounds like it could have earned its way onto Occupanther:


Grade: D+
Blurb: Ok, so this album isn't the end of the world, but it certainly was enough to make me wonder what in the world the guys who made The Courage of Others had done with Midlake.  (Go pick up The Trials of Van Occupanther if you don't already own it.)

Spoon: Transference

Spoon's Transference dropped a week after Vampire Weekend's Contra, beginning the non-stop release of good albums from indie bands, which seemingly continued every Tuesday from January through June.  Merge Records labelmates Arcade Fire have clearly hit the big time, but if I had been betting which band would have flooded the mainstream first, I would've put my money on Spoon (especially after they were prominently featured on the soundtrack for Will Ferrell's movie Stranger than Fiction).

The dudes from Austin, TX, have been, according to Metacritic, the most consistent band in America in terms of putting out albums that have won critical acclaim (ahead of Sigur Ros and music critic darlings Animal Collective, among others).  They don't overwhelm you; their albums rarely produce that "Dear-God-where's-the-'repeat'-button" track that you might hear on a Sigur Ros album ("Saeglopur") or an Animal Collective record ("Reverend Green"). But Spoon has produced solid indie rock, album after album after album after album.

Transference, however, seems just a little -- just a smidgen-- lesser of an effort than previous releases.  Perhaps this can be explained by their stripped down sound on some tracks, or the fact that this is an album that seems somewhat devoid of singles.  Don't get me wrong, it's a good album, but I have a hard time choosing a favorite track.  I'm not sure what's going on in this video (he looks like an older Charlie Kelly), but this might be my favorite track:


Grade: B-
Blurb: This might be my least favorite record of their entire discography, but it's still a solid effort.

Vampire Weekend: Contra

Hitting the shelves on January 11, Contra didn't have the hype that their self-titled debut had, but it was the first major indie release of 2010. The VW boys created their own buzz with that bizarre album cover (pictured; she's now suing the band), and releasing a music video that starred Jake Gyllenhaal and a Jonas brother for the [mediocre] track "Giving Up the Gun."

VW tried to go in a slightly different direction on Contra by infusing more electronica (mostly through beats and synth) and it worked at some points ("Run," "Diplomat's Son") and failed at others, most notably on "California English" (when will autotune die?!!).  The more prolific use of synthetic sounds didn't necessarily surprise me since VW's lead singer collaborated with Ra Ra Riot's lead singer to put out an entirely electronic album under the moniker Discovery (this track still blows my mind, and The Hood Internet felt the same way).

For my money, the album's best track is the one that sounds most similar to VW's debut: "Cousins":




Grade: C+/B-
Blurb: Contra isn't necessarily a "sophomore slump" album, but I don't think it's better than their self-titled debut.

Plants & Animals: Parc Avenue

(Author's note: I didn't technically buy this in 2010, but I bought it right before a New Year's Eve road trip, so I'm going to count it.)

I stumbled across Plants & Animals in the summer of '09, as I was falling deeply in love with the music of Patrick Watson.  I wanted to find out more about Mr. Watson, and the interwebs told me about his label, Secret City, which led me to his labelmates P&A.  Best accidental discovery ever!

Their debut album, Parc Avenue, is 11 tracks of goodness (well, 10 tracks; I don't like the finale).  A few tracks on Parc have jam-band tendencies, but that's not a bad thing in this case.  The track "Faerie Dance" stands out in that regard, clocking in at just over seven minutes long (more than eight minutes live, apparently), and has three distinct movements in the same song. Absolutely gorgeous.

The jam-band tendencies don't overrun the album, not by a long shot (and the most jam-bandy song is the last track on the album, so I can easily avoid it).  In fact, the lyrics are just as much of a selling point as the beautiful music itself.  The track "Good Friend" comes to mind.  The first time I heard the line, "I want to wake up and see your shoes in the stairwell," I was sold.  He doesn't tell you the how they got there, or why they are there, but it's fabulously mysterious. You can stream there entire album here.  Do it do it.

P&A also have a bit of Edward Sharpe in 'em; that is, they've got a bit of a '70s gypsy band vibe at times.  And that's also not a bad thing.  Listen for yourself:



Grade: A- 
Blurb: A fun band with an expansive sound and good lyrical storytelling.  Probably the most under-the-radar album from 2008.