11-15

We're moving right along here. Please keep in mind, I compiled this list in two weeks after listening to every album from the year I could get my hands on. A massive undertaking, particularly when all of your audio devices stop fucking working. But it's done. And being written about. Right here.



15. Beirut - The Flying Cup Club

Beirut's sophomore release shows songwriter Zach Condon continue his love affair with European folk/gypsy stylings. This album has the benefit of being more consistent then Gulag Orkastar, and indeed, The Flying Cup Club is the only album this year that sounds like it was recorded in a French bordello circa 1905. Condon's thick vocals as he sings of innocence and prostitutes sounds like Stephen Merrit at his most laconic, and his blending of pop with the aforementioned European folk/gypsy musical influences makes for a solid, engaging listening at every turn.



14. Minus the Bear - Planet of Ice

I'm not going to lie; I was a little disappointed when I picked up this album in August. Menos el Oso was a masterpiece. They'd shed some (but not all) of their quirkiness and humor for maturity, and it showed. Apparently unhappy with only being partly mature, they complete their transformation with this album, turning in dark moods and textures throughout (the threatening swirl and pound of "Dr. L'Ling"), trading in the much of the bounce of their previous records. However, the lyrical obsessions with drinking and sex are still prevalent, though "Lotus" is a stab at organized religion, and once it's had a chance to digest, the textures move, glacier-like (Planet of Ice... get it?), through the album, carrying the songs into constantly rewarding sonic palettes.



13. The Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army

Oh, The Polyphonic Spree. There aren't many bands about whom you can use the phrase "choral pop-rock", but thankfully, The Polyphonic Spree are right there. On The Fragile Army, the Spree delve into material darker than anything they've done before, though that's not to say that the sun isn't lurking behind every dark cloud they produce. It's impeccably arranged and produced, and it's simply impossible to feel bad while you're listening to it.


12. Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris

Apparently Josh Homme has nothing to do in his spare time but write the sickest, dirtiest, grungiest riffs you've ever heard. Album opener "Turnin' On the Screw" stomps onto your speakers, kicks you in the face, and drags you along while Homme's lazy singing tricks you into thinking everything's okay. Which is a mistake, because the next song ("Sick, Sick, Sick") pounds you in the face with guitar and lyrics like "With a lick on the lips/And my hands on your hips". And this is just the first two songs. This album is an assault, and the abuse will have you listening over and over.



11. Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War

Stars reveal a full-blown obsession with theatricality on their fourth album that was only hinted at previously. The album's closer is the stellar title track, which unfolds and grows like the closing number in a musical, and singer Torquil Campbell's goofy falsetto in "Ghost of Genova Heights" betrays the ham in him. But the best moments on the album invariably come when Campbell is joined by singer Amy Millan. Their voices complement each other with a pure charisma so rarely found in pop music. The amount of craft present here, and the beauty pouring out of the songs is a real treat.