WWTB
Beach House? Best Coast? Finally.
WWTB
Looks like another great week on music release front:
Beach House - “Norway”
The way it starts - mechanical drum machine hits and organ blast - makes you think that it is just another track off of their self-titled debut. “Get out of 2006, Beach Hou…” But before you finish that thought, the track has exploded. Compared to their somnambulatory jams of years past, this track is Babe Ruth calling his shot in the bottom of the ninth. Phrases like “hazy and ambling,” which once seemed so appropriate for their past work have no place alongside Victoria Legrand’s pant-and-yell chorus routine. The woozy guitars are still firmly in place, and the organ is still the backbone of the track, but the drums have sprung to life and the contrast between the verses, which feel like stretched taffy, and the lush, powerful chorus provide a dynamic which Beach House has never achieved before. This is the sound of a band stepping up its game.
Beach House - “You Came to Me”
Everyone else is doing it, so why can’t we? It’s time for Tuneage to share our favorite albums of 2008, only we’d like to do it a bit differently. Tuneage discussed doing a single list of the group’s favorites, but ultimately decided that individual lists from each contributor would be more interesting. So, over the course of the next week or so, keep your eyes peeled for everyone’s lists, and feel free to tell us in the comments if you think we left something out or picked something you didn’t like. Anyway, enough with my yammering, on with the list!
Bill’s Top 5 Albums of 2008 (in no particular order)
- Beach House - Devotion
- Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (previously on Tuneage)
- Girl Talk - Feed the Animals (previously on Tuneage)
- She and Him - Volume One (previously on Tuneage)
- Department of Eagles - In Ear Park (previously on Tuneage)
Nothing particularly shocking in my top 5 if you’ve been following music this year, but I chose these albums because I was able to get something new out of each one every time I listened to them. And to me, that’s the mark of a great album.
