Don't Look Down

Nick’s Favourite Music of 2012
PERFUME GENIUS - ALL WATERS
[Youtube] [Spotify]

Some songs are ‘palette cleansers’. There’s never a bad time for them and, when inserted in the middle of a radio program (or a blog series of music tracks), they help to clear the way for a different style of music.

“All Waters” will completely wash away whatever sound is currently in your ears. That’s what makes it so good. And that’s why I’m posting it today.
Because tomorrow, we start on the R&B!

Nick’s Favourite Music of 2012
TWIN SHADOW - FIVE SECONDS
[Youtube] [Spotify]

I don’t think it’s misleading or derogatory to call George Lewis Jr./Twin Shadow’s first album ‘subtle’. It was perfectly pleasant, just a little on the light side, sonically speaking. It was one of those records where you could look at the album cover and immediately know what it sounded like. A bit shoegazey, a bit synthy. Quiet.

Confess is the same way. Compare it to the last record. The arty Photoshop filters are gone, the moustache is gone, the text is in bold and he’s wearing a leather jacket.
This album? This album is loud, baby! (by comparison)

And that pretty much sums up “Five Seconds”. It’s a Twin Shadow, except a bit louder than you might expect. George is projecting more, and he sounds great!

Nick’s Favourite Music of 2012
THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM - HANDWRITTEN
[Youtube][Spotify]

As their name suggests, The Gaslight Anthem are a dab hand at writing, er, anthems. They’re also at their best when they get a bit meta. Consider “The ‘59 Sound”, their last truly great song (from an album full of contenders), a song about songs.

“Handwritten” is a little more sentimental (if you can believe that), a ballad about ballads, but it still has the same drive, the same power, that fuelled the emotional resonance of “‘59”. It too is an unashamed rock song. It may appear a little corny to some, but you get the feeling it could care less.

We should all be this unembarrassed when we talk about the things we love.

Winner of this year’s ‘The Best Kind Of Rock’ award
[2010’s winner]

Nick’s Favourite Music of 2012
JAPANDROIDS - THE HOUSE THAT HEAVEN BUILT
[Youtube][Spotify]

When searching for the biggest compliment I can pay this band, I came up with this:
If I had my own band, it would sound a lot like Japandroids. These guys make the music that I want to hear, and that I want to make.
That sort of feeling like might frustrate more musically-talented people, but I see it as a relief. One less thing for me to do!

You know you really love a band when it feels like the new record comes immediately after the old one, even if there’s actually three years between the two. Post-Nothing is one of just two records that I bought without hearing any songs prior to purchase (the other was The Chemistry of Common Life, and both albums are firm favourites of mine). Listening back to it, it feels more like a prequel to Celebration Rock, which is the best kind of second album: one that reaffirms your initial love for a band, and finds them more focused on putting across their message.

Japandroids’ message is one of pure, adolescent joy. “The House That Heaven Built”, “Younger Us” (wooooaaahhhhh!) and the other tracks on this album do wonderful things to my brain and my body. I get wistful and nostalgic while dancing my ass off.
Celebration Rock, indeed.

Winner of this year’s ‘Best Album Ever’ award
[Last year’s winner]
and this year’s ‘Most Appropriately Awesome Video’ award
[2010’s winner]

Nick’s Favourite Music of 2012
CLOUD NOTHINGS - STAY USELESS
[Youtube][Spotify]

It’s been a…transitional year for me. I’ve been on and off benefits, and in and out of jobs, but I’m in a stable situation financially. I’ve started to get some more freelance film work, and I’m immensely proud of the work I’ve done as part of Sunshine Radio.
On the whole, life is good, but I can’t deny that this isn’t where I thought I’d be had you asked me a year ago.
I recently had something that felt like a mini-identity crisis, and I’ve been giving some serious thought to how much time I’m allocating to things that are only for entertainment purposes (which is something I touched upon in the “Sigourney Weaver” post back in April), but also just what my plan is for the future.
Right now, I haven’t got a clue. There’s a few paths I could pursue, and I have done in the past few months/years, but none of them have really worked out in the way I expected. Some of them have worked out quite well, but I still get this feeling of inadequacy.
Not from the experience themselves, but from me. Sometimes I feel that the reason that none of them have been wild success is because I’m simply not very good at them.
But if these are the only things I know how to do, what the hell am I supposed to do? Solider on, or find something else before it’s too late?

I know things aren’t as bad as that previous paragraph suggests. I get a lot of good feedback from people, and it means the world to me. But, every now-and then, I get that nagging feeling that sooner or later I’ll be revealed as a fake, and kicked out of the clubhouse.

“Stay Useless” isn’t the best song of the year (not quite, top five at least), but it’s the one that’s meant the most to me. And, really, isn’t that the most important thing when it comes to music? As much as I love to read various lists of the “Best Music Ever”, numerical rankings don’t mean jack if you don’t have the words and emotions to back them up. That’s why I started this annual series in the first place!

Anyway, the lyrics of the song deal with the sort of mental situation I find myself in from time to time. I’m fresh(ish) out of university, back in a hometown that somehow feels alien to me now. Some days, I really don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. Other days, I don’t know what it is I want to do, which is a scary feeling.
But somehow, I’ve deal with it. And the chorus reminds me how:

I need time to stop moving / I need time to stay useless

While I may get the feeling that my life could be better, it’s perfectly okay to take the time to stop and enjoy the position I’m currently in. There’s no sense in planning a route when you don’t know the way you want to go, after all.
I need to learn that there’s a difference between “not moving” and “not useful”.

Winner of this year’s ‘Best Song Ever’ award
[Last year’s winner]

Nick’s Favourite Music of 2012
ETERNAL SUMMERS - MILLIONS
[Youtube][Download]

Continuing our theme of apt names (and tracks that I haven’t seen anyone else talking about), Eternal Summers make the kind of light-hearted indie rock best-suited to long summer drives.
“Millions” instantly struck a chord with me, sounding like a perfect mix of The Primitive’s “Crash” and Blondie’s “Union City Blue”, two of my all-time favourite songs.
Whether I’ll give this song as many spins as those other two remain to be seen, but the outlook is good!

Nick’s Favourite Music of 2012
TAME IMPALA - LED ZEPPELIN
[Youtube]

First off, sorry about missing yesterday. I was busy in London doing filming cool people doing cool things (that’s all I can say right now. Stay tuned!), and didn’t get back home until four hours before I was due to wake up for work. Yeah…
Anyway, back to this year’s awesome music.

That title isn’t a misnomer, nor is it unearned. If you’re only familiar with one of those bands, you’ll enjoy this. If you’re familiar with both bands, then you will love this track.
The title says it all really. Kevin Parker clearly felt like writing a song in the style of Led Zeppelin, and performing it in the style of his own band. It’s here, and it’s as tight and as perfectly-structured a psychedelic rock song should be.

So why is nobody talking about it more? Because it’s a ‘bonus track’, only available on iTunes and a 7” vinyl. Which is a damn shame, in my view. Lonerism is a good album (one of the year’s best), but “Led Zeppelin” would’ve only made it better. The iTunes listing for the Bonus Track Version even incorporates it into the tracklist, rather than just tacking it onto the end. I can only guess that Kevin Parker didn’t feel like it fitted in with the other songs. I can understand that. It is a deliberate pastiche, after all.

It just also happens to be to best thing this band’s ever produced.

Winner of this year’s ‘Requires More Attention From Everyone’ award
[2010’s winner]

Nick’s Favourite Music of 2012
SANTIGOLD - DISPARATE YOUTH
[Youtube] [Spotify]

My hopes were high for the second album by Santigold (fomerly Santogold). I loved her first one, and the early single (“Go!”, featuring perennial badass Karen O, which came out way back in April 2011) was as dark/poppy as I was hoping.
The album I eventually got… I’ve no strong feelings about it, really. It’s notbad, but I kind of wish it was. At least then I could explain why it didn’t move me in the way I wanted. It’s likeThe Amazing Spider-Man of albums, in that respect.

(Side note: I’ve been sitting on a review of that film for ages. I might finally finish and post it once I’m done with this list.)

One thing that cannot be denied, however, is this song. As big and attention-grabbing and melancholy as “L.E.S. Artistes” was before it, “Disparate Youth” throws in just about every instrument it can get its hands on, and somehow pulls it all together. Like Santi’s best songs, it’s a dense recording, but bright at the same time.

Definitely check out the first music video, too. It features the single artwork, with individual sections animated to represent different parts of the mix (Michel Gondry style), and is the perfect accompaniment to hearing the song for the first time.

Nick’s Favourite Music of 2012
HOLY GHOST! - IT GETS DARK
[Youtube] [Spotify]

im trying to type something heartfelt here but im much too busy bobbing my head to this immortal bassline. holy ghost specialise in this kind of thing, makig the kind of music that FORCES you to move, in any way you can. i could try to guess what their secret is, but the answer is simple: great songwriting.

for those wondering, tomorrow sees us breaking away from dance music. see you then!

Winner of this year’s ‘Make People Dance or Die Trying’ award
[Last year’s winner (also by Holy Ghost!)]

Nick’s Favourite Music of 2012
MIIKE SNOW - PADDLING OUT
[Youtube] [Spotify]

Just to give you an idea of how down-to-the-wire the selection process for these lists can be: last week, this song was completely off my radar. A last-minute shuffle of the more dancey tracks in my music collection put it back there in a big way.
There isn’t a lot I can type here that will add to your enjoyment of this track. Chances are you’re still dancing to “I Love It”. Let this song enable you to continue dancing!