Everytime
I make myself a list of my most favourite albums of the year, I have
to change it after a while, mess around, turn the other way round.
Therefore I won't do that this time. There is a tendency, quite
general one, that the sounds you are overwhelmed at once, you explore
like mad, as if the world comes to an end tomorrow, become so
obvious, that the next session seems to be a background for other
things you find more important to do. What becomes a love from the
first sight, very quickly turns into burnt, distant memories. Like
the debut album by Alt-J. Great tunes, interesting lyrics, and after
few months I don't come back to An Awesome Wave anymore. Was it then
like a tsunami...?
It
is not easy to hide little treasures in-between so that you find them
after 100th listening, is it? Like mini-album Kindred by
Burial, where 3 long pieces of the best of Burial are like Secret
Garden where weeds suddenly become amazing flowers. The same with
Anastasis by Dead Can Dance. Familiar melodies are mixed with some
new elements, sending us to the ancient Greece. And still you feel
that this is not an ordinary folk music from there. You know that it
is this great band.
I
Love Bear In Heaven It's Cool and after three albums I must say the
musicians make incredible thing which is bringing out all the best
from indie, post-punk, psychedelic and shoegaze. Three different and
at the same time so connected between one another.
Miike
Snow just takes me with his electro-pop-piano and his Peter
Gabriel-like singing. We are all like animals. (photo: Miike Snow on Bestival 2012, by megisz)
Tame
Impala and there second album, Lonerism, and I don't expect any
changes from them. Any!!! I want them still to make those shameless
melodies covered with dust of Australian psychedelic desert, full of
happy-sadness. I still want them to be my lost Cream albums which
where never recorded.
(video of Tame Impala's single 'Elephant')
I
must be bewitched by witch house where everything is simple, slow and
deep. Emotional. All those musicians, like Holy Other, shamelessly
use my need of floating in the ocean of my own emotions. And I
forgive them. Their music must be bewitched as I still don't know if
in the song Strangers by White Lies, covered by Holy Other, the voice
sings about my hometown. It's crazy, but I really hear it.
In
a matter of emotions, Canadian musicians from Elsiane still know how
to make me melt. Their neoclassical music sounds maybe a little less
mysterious than on their debut, I would say: more classical than neo.
But still, it keeps me trembling and yet warm. The same result after
listening to Spadochron by Mela Koteluk. Very suggestive.
And
very subjective this review it is as I am not going to divide music
into form and substance. If I don't talk about the form it means it's
so good that I don't notice it. And thanks to that I can enjoy the
substance (music philosophy? whatever...)
In
this top 10 of the year 2012 there are not the best albums. There are
albums which I still get into. I should mention the latest Archive
and Piano Magic which music stayed with me for a while but I know I
will come back to that. Come back happily to discover something what
was hidden before. Musicians from Chairlift make such a light and
unpretentious music which I cannot resist whenever I feel like a
pinch of pop. 'Coexist' by The XX sadly didn't impress me. I say
sadly because I really wanted to get more of the same intimate,
quiet, yet so powerful confession, undressed into single, genius
notes. However the fall is coming and with it another chance to get
into xx-mood once again. More danceable Yeasayer? Oh great but...I
love their more severe debut the most. It was ritual, experimental,
kind of cheerfully chaotic but yet everything in there had sense and
interconnection. I know I know, logical development and so, but
unfortunately, less surprising.
What
could I say about the trends in 2012 music? I cannot say anything as
I haven't followed 'the top of the pops' and hip-hops and r'n'bs.
However you can notice a few common ways of approaching to music.
Everyone these days likes to mix together different genres into new
combinations, which is notable. Not mentioning comebacks of 60s, 80s
and any other retro. The tendency nowadays is lack of a particular,
main tendency at all. Is it like before the storm? Are we all tired
so much that someone has to blow our minds away and back with
something not from this planet? Music inspired by true, native-alien
music? Or maybe it's just me, a little bit bored with the amount of
new music, which I cannot follow, where I can only drown in. Ok then,
let's drown in what I already know or have to rediscover and let's
cover ourselves with 2013 autumn leaves. Waiting for a new sounds
anyway.
