Infectious, moody, pop-laden hooks filled that little charmer, so it was a bit jarring when the band returned to their concisely instrumental roots with their follow-up effort, Axes. While originally debuting in 2001 with Rock It To The Moon, it’s safe to say Electrelane perked up the most floppy ears with 2004’s The Power Out. No Shouts, No Calls is a coupling of previous compulsions that the band modifies into a certified step-forward. I’m heaping a ton of singular praise, I know, but I don’t want to appear as if I’m fawning. But Mia, your guitar is making me do backflips. All cooked together and taste buds are wagging. In actuality your bandmates are something special too, each adding their own distinct (and spicy) flavors to the dish. I listen to you shred on songs like “Five” and “After The Call” and I just melt. You’re a hell of a guitarist in one heck of a band, and your newest album, No Shouts, No Calls, only further highlights your contributions to the quality. Static and feedback erupt through the cockles of my heart as you sprawl across your amp to wrangle out the crunchiest of tones. With grace and fury you manipulate those strings to your every whim. I’ve yet to take out a felt tip marker and encapsulate your face in a heart with the most sacred shade of red, but that will come. "Cult Cargo" collected unknown pleasures from African and Caribbean artists recording in the late 1960s and '70s, while "The Roots of Chicha" explored psychedelic cumbias from Peru around the same era.Mia Lily Clarke, you don’t know me but I’m in love with you. " Funkier than a mosquito's tweeter, these two compilations proved that down-and-dirty dance music blossoms in the most unexpected places. Various artists, "Cult Cargo: Grand Bahama Goombay" and "The Roots of Chicha. Somewhere Harry Nilsson is nodding in approval. Richard Swift, "Dressed Up for the Letdown" This curiously underrated tunesmith wins this year's award for sheer bliss with an addictive album that evoked the effervescence of pop geniuses before him. Swapping shredding guitars for plodding piano, Harvey plumbs the quieter side of her psyche to equally unsettling and eerie results.īettye LaVette, "The Scene of the Crime" Thirty-five years after Atlantic Records shelved her funk masterpiece, "Child of the Seventies," LaVette returns to the scene of the crime (Muscle Shoals, Ala.) and grinds out a resilient and resplendent soul nugget, with Southern rockers Drive-By Truckers giving her room to exorcise her demons and heal. PJ Harvey, "White Chalk" Perhaps only PJ Harvey could make a piano sound as sinister and possessed as it does on her latest U-turn. Consider it the reggae album Laurie Anderson never made. Papercuts certainly didn't on its sophomore album, which shimmers and broods with traces of '60s psych-pop a la the Velvet Underground.īrenda Ray, "Walatta" Behold a brash novelty that actually succeeded: British post-punk musician Ray gathered vintage reggae and ska melodies and overdubbed them with her ethereal vocals and original accompaniment. Papercuts, "Can't Go Back" Never underestimate the power of a good tambourine or cello in pop music. On his third album, he delivers on the promise of earlier efforts with some of the year's most incandescent and elusive songs ("Cocaine Lights"). Phosphorescent, "Pride" As Phosphorescent, Matthew Houck has grown into an indie-rock Kris Kristofferson, sketching narcotic tales cast in the neon glow of life after hours. Kanye West, "Graduation" In his would-be sales showdown with 50 Cent, West outsold his rival and appealed to a vast demographic with an album fearless (and peerless) in its freewheeling innovation, including surprising cameos (Coldplay's Chris Martin) and a heartfelt homage to Jay-Z ("Big Brother"). Bad news: Last month the art-rockers announced they were taking an "indefinite hiatus," which allows them to go out on top - and much to our genuine dismay.īon Iver, "For Emma, Forever Ago" Recorded in the heart of a Wisconsin winter yet imbued with deep warmth, this late-night treasure from singer-songwriter Justin Vernon was the little indie album that could this year - an underground sensation online ( /boniver) months before its official release next February on Secretly Canadian. It's easily the most cohesive and dynamic album yet from this lean British quartet. Electrelane, "No Shouts No Calls" Good news: "No Shouts" distilled Electrelane to its core with a set that hinged on the band's loud-soft dynamics and predilection for ominous build-ups and fevered repetition.
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