Sunday, 16 June 2013

500 Favourite Films

1.       Red Shoes
2.       Seven Samurai
3.       Apocalypse Now
4.       The Apartment
5.       Once Upon a Time in America
6.       Lives of Others
7.       Come and See
8.       Chinatown
9.       Brief Encounter
10.   Taxi Driver
11.   Third Man
12.   Blade Runner
13.   Raging Bull
14.   Lord of the Rings
15.   Rear Window
16.   Big Lebowski
17.   Jaws
18.   La Regle du Jeu
19.   Alien
20.   Ikiru
21.   Mean Streets
22.   Andrei Rublev
23.   12 Angry Men
24.   Once Upon a Time in the West
25.   Y Tu Mama Tambien
26.   Princess Bride
27.   Se7en
28.   Naked
29.   Mulholland Drive
30.   Goodfellas
31.   There Will be Blood
32.   Duck Soup
33.   Aliens
34.   Miller’s Crossing
35.   City Lights
36.   Godfather Parts 1 and 2
37.   Local Hero
38.   Thin Red Line
39.   Manhattan
40.   Shining
41.   Rebecca
42.   Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
43.   A Clockwork Orange
44.   Psycho
45.   Double Indemnity
46.   Lost in Translation
47.   Ran
48.   Good, Bad and Ugly
49.   The Exorcist
50.   The Castle
51.   Some Like it Hot
52.   Rashomon
53.   Assassination of Jesse James
54.   In the Mood For Love
55.   To Kill a Mockingbird
56.   Long Good Friday
57.   Kind Hearts and Coronets
58.   Fargo
59.   Battle of Algiers
60.   Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
61.   Casablanca
62.   Lawrence of Arabia
63.   A Bittersweet Life
64.   Paths of Glory
65.   Hoop Dreams
66.   Lilya-4-Ever
67.   2001
68.   Festen
69.   Let the Right One In
70.   Network
71.   Rififi
72.   Talk to Her
73.   Bicycle Thieves
74.   M
75.   It’s a Wonderful Life
76.   Memento
77.   His Girl Friday
78.   Memories of Murder
79.   Hugo
80.   Dead Man’s Shoes
81.   Citizen Kane
82.   Raiders of the Lost Ark
83.   Sunset Boulevard
84.   Annie Hall
85.   Metropolis
86.   Far From Heaven
87.   Oldboy
88.   Raising Arizona
89.   Seventh Seal
90.   Brazil
91.   Schindler’s List
92.   On the Waterfront
93.   A Matter of Life and Death
94.   Dr. Strangelove
95.   Evil Dead 2
96.   Hidden
97.   Spirit of the Beehive
98.   Crash (1996)
99.   Shawshank Redemption
100.                        Lion King
101.                        Treasure of the Sierra Madre
102.                        Spartacus
103.                        If...
104.                        Chaser
105.                        Zodiac
106.                        Pulp Fiction
107.                        Throne of Blood
108.                        Heat
109.                        When Harry met Sally
110.                        Tree of Life
111.                        Social Network
112.                        Animal Crackers
113.                        Insider
114.                        Monsters Inc
115.                        No Country for Old Men
116.                        Distant Voices, Still Voices
117.                        La Haine
118.                        Black Swan
119.                        United 93
120.                        Boogie Nights
121.                        Chung King Express
122.                        Unforgiven
123.                        North by North West
124.                        Toy Story 3
125.                        The Host (2006)
126.                        Fight Club
127.                        Bad Education
128.                        Ghostbusters
129.                        Shadow of a Doubt
130.                        Reservoir Dogs
131.                        A Bout de Souffle
132.                        True Grit (2011)
133.                        Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
134.                        Stand by Me
135.                        Magnolia
136.                        American Werewolf in London
137.                        Before Sunset
138.                        Three Colours Blue
139.                        In the Loop
140.                        Diving Bell and the Butterfly
141.                        Control
142.                        Anchorman
143.                        Barton Fink
144.                        Streetcar Named Desire
145.                        The Raid
146.                        Topsy Turvy
147.                        Rope
148.                        Woodsman
149.                        Court Jester
150.                        McCabe and Mrs Miller
151.                        Solaris (1972)
152.                        Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
153.                        Vera Drake
154.                        One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
155.                        Fitzcarraldo
156.                        Das Experiment
157.                        O Brother Where Art Thou
158.                        City of God
159.                        Inland Empire
160.                        Infernal Affairs
161.                        Harvey
162.                        LA Confidential
163.                        Synecdoche New York
164.                        Caddyshack
165.                        Four Lions
166.                        Serenity
167.                        Get Carter
168.                        Wages of Fear
169.                        Fish Tank
170.                        Los Olvidados
171.                        King of Comedy
172.                        Clerks
173.                        Last of the Mohicans
174.                        American Psycho
175.                        Chasing Amy
176.                        Bridge Over the River Kwai
177.                        Tyrannosaur
178.                        Hurt Locker
179.                        Zulu
180.                        Incredibles
181.                        Brick
182.                        Winter’s Bone
183.                        Broadway Danny Rose
184.                        Yojimbo
185.                        This is England
186.                        Toy Story
187.                        The Guard
188.                        Waltz with Bashir
189.                        Zelig
190.                        Secret in their Eyes
191.                        Rosemary’s Baby
192.                        Heart of Darkness
193.                        Shaun of the Dead
194.                        Downfall
195.                        Batman Begins
196.                        A Tale of Two Sisters
197.                        Princess Mononoke
198.                        My Name is Joe
199.                        Horse Feathers
200.                        Aristocats
201.                        Leon
202.                        A Canterbury Tale
203.                        A Shot in the Dark
204.                        Great Escape
205.                        Where Eagles Dare
206.                        Wings of Desire
207.                        Lost Weekend
208.                        Night of the Hunter
209.                        The Prestige
210.                        Die Hard
211.                        Bourne Ultimatum
212.                        Love and Death
213.                        Badlands
214.                        Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
215.                        Jules et Jim
216.                        Incendies
217.                        Truman Show
218.                        Dark Knight
219.                        Drive
220.                        Grosse Pointe Blank
221.                        Terminator
222.                        Wild Bunch
223.                        Johnny Mad Dog
224.                        WALL E
225.                        Skin I Live In
226.                        The Hustler
227.                        Requiem for a Dream
228.                        Man From Nowhere
229.                        Jurassic Park
230.                        High and Low
231.                        All About my Mother
232.                        The Thing
233.                        A Scanner Darkly
234.                        Magnificent Seven
235.                        Blue Velvet
236.                        4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
237.                        Royal Tenenbaums
238.                        Bloody Sunday
239.                        Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
240.                        Young Frankenstein
241.                        Donnie Darko
242.                        Ladykillers (1955)
243.                        Monty Python: Life of Brian
244.                        In Bruges
245.                        Adventureland
246.                        King of Kong
247.                        Das Boot
248.                        Terminator 2: Judgement Day
249.                        Touch of Evil
250.                        Maltese Falcon
251.                        Mysterious Skin
252.                        Purple Rose of Cairo
253.                        Elite Squad
254.                        Mary and Max
255.                        Pan’s Labyrinth
256.                        Stalag 17
257.                        Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
258.                        Kingdom of Heaven (Director’s Cut)
259.                        Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back
260.                        400 Blows
261.                        A Dirty Carnival
262.                        Sword in the Stone
263.                        Adaptation
264.                        Before Sunrise
265.                        For a Few Dollars More
266.                        Up
267.                        Days of Heaven
268.                        Full Metal Jacket
269.                        Lady Vengeance
270.                        Atonement
271.                        Back to the Future
272.                        Trainspotting
273.                        The Long Goodbye
274.                        Sanjuro
275.                        Rushmore
276.                        Once Were Warriors
277.                        Sunshine
278.                        Porco Rosso
279.                        Hard Boiled
280.                        Toy Story 2
281.                        The Conversation
282.                        I Saw the Devil
283.                        Invisible Man
284.                        Hot Fuzz
285.                        A New World
286.                        Darling
287.                        Superbad
288.                        Day of the Dead
289.                        Submarine
290.                        Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
291.                        Red Road
292.                        Illusionist (2010)
293.                        Up in the Air
294.                        Goldfinger
295.                        Face Off
296.                        Another Year
297.                        Delicatessen
298.                        Ed Wood
299.                        Bugsy Malone
300.                        Constant Gardener
301.                        The Good, the Bad, the Weird
302.                        Cinema Paradiso
303.                        Avengers
304.                        Dead Ringers
305.                        Lavender Hill Mob
306.                        Hero
307.                        A Day at the Races
308.                        Notorious (1946)
309.                        The Descent
310.                        Persepolis
311.                        The Motorcycle Diaries
312.                        Fantastic Mr Fox
313.                        Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
314.                        Moon
315.                        Good Dick
316.                        Who Framed Roger Rabbit
317.                        Stalker (1979)
318.                        Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
319.                        Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
320.                        Rec.
321.                        Traffic
322.                        Belleville Rendezvous
323.                        The Orphanage
324.                        Hamlet (Royal Shakespeare Company)
325.                        Muppet’s Christmas Carol
326.                        Little Miss Sunshine
327.                        Whisky Galore
328.                        Fistful of Dollars
329.                        The Birds
330.                        Dogville
331.                        Finding Nemo
332.                        Kung Fu Hustle
333.                        Star Wars: A New Hope
334.                        Man on Wire
335.                        Chicken Run
336.                        Blazing Saddles
337.                        How to Train Your Dragon
338.                        Bourne Supremacy
339.                        Strangers on a Train (1951)
340.                        Radio Days
341.                        Sweet Sixteen
342.                        Henry 5th (Branagh)
343.                        Into the Wild
344.                        The Conformist
345.                        Goodbye Lenin
346.                        Animal Kingdom
347.                        Monkey Business
348.                        The Killer
349.                        Casino Royale (2006)
350.                        Kick Ass
351.                        Blues Brothers
352.                        Proposition
353.                        All Quiet on the Western Front (1933)
354.                        2 Days in Paris
355.                        Happy Go Lucky
356.                        Public Enemies
357.                        American History X
358.                        Gone Baby Gone
359.                        The Big Sleep
360.                        Confessions
361.                        Three Colours White
362.                        Volver
363.                        Hudsucker Proxy
364.                        Glengarry Glen Ross
365.                        Kill Bill (Parts 1 and 2)
366.                        Once
367.                        Moneyball
368.                        Collateral
369.                        Monty Python and The Holy Grail
370.                        Robocop
371.                        Batman (Burton)
372.                        Black Dynamite
373.                        Odd Man Out
374.                        Election (Hong Kong)
375.                        Starship Troopers
376.                        Dawn of the Dead (1978)
377.                        Last Samurai
378.                        Graduate
379.                        39 Steps (1933)
380.                        Almost Famous
381.                        A Town Called Panic
382.                        Lethal Weapon
383.                        Zombieland
384.                        Manhunter
385.                        A Serious Man
386.                        Heathers
387.                        Kes
388.                        Sympathy for Mr Vengeance
389.                        Bad Lieutenant (2009)
390.                        Snatch
391.                        American Friend
392.                        Inglorious Bastards (2009)
393.                        The Fall
394.                        Elephant Man
395.                        Groundhog Day
396.                        A Knight’s Tale
397.                        Sunny
398.                        House of Flying Daggers
399.                        Dumbo
400.                        Mother (2009)
401.                        Magnificent Ambersons
402.                        History of Violence
403.                        Night of the Living Dead
404.                        Ratatouille
405.                        Crying Game
406.                        Lebanon
407.                        Cyrano de Bergerac
408.                        Dazed and Confused
409.                        Brotherhood
410.                        Looking for Eric
411.                        Meantime
412.                        A Room for Romeo Brass
413.                        Dog Soldiers
414.                        A Few Good Men
415.                        24 Hour Party People
416.                        Cabin in the Woods
417.                        Outlaw Josey Wales
418.                        Crimes and Misdemeanours
419.                        Elf
420.                        Speed
421.                        Ivan’s Childhood
422.                        Pirates
423.                        Away we Go
424.                        Carrie
425.                        Spiderman 2
426.                        Office Space
427.                        Road to Perdition
428.                        Army of Darkness
429.                        Spider
430.                        Killing Fields
431.                        Where the Wild Things Are
432.                        L’Aventurra
433.                        Girl With Dragon Tattoo
434.                        Never Let me Go
435.                        Scream
436.                        Closely Observed Trains
437.                        Insomnia
438.                        High Heels
439.                        Elite Squad: Enemy Within
440.                        Somewhere
441.                        Master and Commander
442.                        You Only Live Twice
443.                        Scott Pilgrim
444.                        Rio Bravo
445.                        Kagemusha
446.                        Lars and the Real Girl
447.                        Munich
448.                        Shutter Island
449.                        Planes, Trains and Automobiles
450.                        Wrestler
451.                        Beauty and the Beast
452.                        500 Days of Summer
453.                        Believer
454.                        Series of Unfortunate Events
455.                        Three Colours Red
456.                        Sicko
457.                        Layer Cake
458.                        The Rock
459.                        Hunger
460.                        Ocean’s Eleven
461.                        Breakfast Club
462.                        Batman Returns
463.                        Naked Gun
464.                        Life is Sweet
465.                        Frankenstein
466.                        A Prophet
467.                        Amadeus
468.                        Sexy Beast
469.                        Easy A
470.                        Intolerable Cruelty
471.                        Thirst
472.                        Finding Neverland
473.                        Coraline
474.                        Chopper
475.                        School of Rock
476.                        Exiled
477.                        Midnight Run
478.                        Tangled
479.                        Ghost World
480.                        Wonder Boys
481.                        Swingers
482.                        In the Heat of the Night
483.                        Exit Through the Gift Shop
484.                        Spiderman
485.                        Slither
486.                        Changeling
487.                        Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
488.                        Bullitt
489.                        Ringu
490.                        Con Air
491.                        Duel
492.                        Together
493.                        A Bande Apart
494.                        Half Nelson
495.                        Belle de Jour
496.                        Predator
497.                        Napoleon Dynamite
498.                        High Fidelity
499.                        My Cousin Vinny

500.                        Poltergeist

Saturday, 8 June 2013

Obsidian - Baths Review




I don’t think there’s a greater discrepancy than between Will Wiesenfeld’s personality on Twitter and his character as Baths. As the former he comes across as an overtly excited, sheltered Anime fanboy, his vocabulary consisting of ‘OOOOO’s, ‘AARRRGGGHHHHH’s and ‘OMFG!’s; as the latter he is a deeply expressive, divinely talented and wholly conflicting poet, capable of crafting the most stunningly beautiful discourse as well as the most horrifically vivid introspections on morbid paranoia and carnal obsession. Even within his work Wiesenfeld exhibits a stark contrast in his disposition, the transcendent, romanticist aesthete, ‘I still smell you, distance aside’ / ‘in Victorian doorways, in tempestuous foreplay,’ plunges into uninhibitedly sexual, brutalised rhetoric, ‘nurse this erection back to full health’/ ‘this isn’t a matter of “if you mean it”, it’s only a matter of “come and fuck me”’. A dissociative personality disorder within a dissociative personality disorder if you will; Ian Cohen acutely describes Obsidian as Cerulean’s (Wiesenfeld’s debut) ‘evil twin.’

Obsidian’s Baths understandably represents Wiesenfeld’s Mr Hyde given the context of what happened to him last year, when he suffered E. coli. That first brush with his mortality provides him with a sensitive cognizance of omnipresent decay; he sees death lurking in the quaintest of objects and delights in exposing man’s deluded fallacies, faith and hope, ‘where is God now that you hate him the most?’ Wiesenfeld is a satyriasis-suffering, nihilistic misanthrope, unable and unwilling to readjust to the banal structure of his life prior to his disease. Obsidian is a forlornly bleak window into the tormented soul of a man stuck in a form of eternal purgatory; an indefatigable, unrelenting apathy.

Lyrically, he’s magnificent. His ferocious, obscure, at times impenetrable, notes on the fragility of human nature is reminiscent of Thom Yorke, his satirical analyses of the absurd rigidity of contemporary social protocols, James Murphy, his elegiac, subtle observations of emotional behaviour, Mike Hadreas or Joanna Newsom. He is concurrently a sociopathically malicious messianic saviour of mankind, unravelling the reality of our moral debauchery for our own good, and also a bitterly self-conscious philosopher, utterly horrified with the role entrusted to him. In ‘Worsening’ he delivers one of my all-time favourite couplets; ‘when the mouths in the earth come to bite at my robes/at the cold, the lifeless, the worsening souls.’  He comments that ‘I was never poetic.’ You lie, Will. You are poetic, and your poetry is perversely gorgeous.

Interestingly, Wiesenfeld’s vocals haven’t changed in the slightest since Cerulean, but they’re utilised astonishingly effectively given the disparities in subject matter. His voice’s trembling, crackling instability perfectly accentuates his self-portrait of perpetual inner turmoil. The ‘OOOOO’s and ‘AARRRGGGHHHHH’s translate from his Twitter persona, but they’re terrifying, haunting, eroding, broken.

Musically, Obsidian is a warped collaboration between Burial, Zomby, Grimes and Hot Chip; tap-tap, minimalist pop with heavy dubstep influences. It’s intensely atmospheric, soothing violins playing over samples of what sounds like snapping fireplaces. ‘Ossuary’ is probably the most mainstream track, constructed with synths and a more traditional song structure, while ‘Earth Death’ is bombastically house, the exhaustively loud percussion almost, but not quite, drowning out Wiesenfeld’s furious rantings.

Having listened to Obsidian at least ten times now, I’ve concluded that it’s probably my all-time favourite album lyrically. Its poetry is simultaneously soul-enrichingly beautiful, opulent with heavenly imagery, and candidly, unreservedly malevolent. Obsidian is really the long-lost love child of Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath, a delectably enticing prospect for myself, if no one else.


It’s my favourite album of the year so far; an unmitigated, headfucking, dazzling masterpiece. Embrace it. 

Wednesday, 29 May 2013

Best Albums/Songs of 2013 So Far


Top 20 Albums of the Year (so far)

20. The 20/20 Experience – Justin Timberlake

19. FIDLAR – FIDLAR

18. Amok – Atoms for Peace

17. Silence Yourself – Savages

16. The Man Who Died in his Boat – Grouper

15. True Romance – Charli XCX

14. Pedestrian Verse – Frightened Rabbit

13. MCII – Mikal Cronin

12. Muchacho – Phosphorescent

11. Wolf – Tyler, the Creator


10. MBV – My Bloody Valentine

While the debate behind whether My Bloody Valentine’s second studio album was worth the twenty two year wait continues to drag inanely on, reasonable people are too busy celebrating its existence to trivialise its excellence. While it isn’t as immediately mind blowing, ear-shattering or heart melting as Loveless, it’s arguably just as accomplished. It’s MBV’s distinctive sound, the inexplicable utilisation of distorted white noise to create something profoundly beautiful, but refined, polished, yet still majestically raw and explosive. ‘Only Tomorrow’ and ‘In Another Way’ are welcomed by ‘Only Shallow’, ‘When You Sleep’ and ‘Soon’ into their best-of echelons.


9. Wakin on a Pretty Daze – Kurt Vile

Adored by the likes of Kim Gordon and Matt Berninger, Kurt Vile has become the revered face of underground folk. Vile evokes Pavement’s despairing, helpless lethargy and Neil Young’s love of complex conceits in his latest, and best, album.  Wakin on a Pretty Daze opens with the ten minute, lo-fi folk-rock masterpiece title track. Although it never matches this astonishing opening, the LP is remarkably consistent. It’s lyrically minimalist, rarely articulating itself further than in fleeting images and metaphors, preferring to rely on the dreamy, psychedelic chords of Vile’s guitar to instigate the listener to open the doors to Vile’s contented state, and to accept his tranquil philosophy.


8. We are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic – Foxygen

An audacious, bizarre album title from an equally audacious and bizarre band. A wonderfully, nostalgically trippy tribute to the Rolling Stones, Lou Reed, the Beach Boys… the list is interminable; it’s simultaneously the most innocently fun and audibly pleasant album of the year. It’s much more than just a homage. ‘No Destruction’ is a relaxed, Dylan-esque introspective grumbling, while ‘On Blue Mountain’ represents arguably the record’s ‘rockiest’ track, with bombastic percussion, clinkety piano and the enthusiastic intrusion of female backing vocals. ‘San Francisco’, a gloriously fun, pretty love song, is the highlight of the album, with its gorgeous chorus.


7. You’re Nothing – Iceage

You’re Nothing doesn’t so much explode as implode, in the same way that it isn’t so much anti-establishment punk, as anti-societal. It doesn’t attack political or economic systems, but rather us, themselves. As the title implies, these Danish teenagers condescend and vilify the concept of distinct importance, the individual’s perception of significance bolstered by ego-stroking consumerist advertising and a materialist societal structure. They scream of ‘pressure’ in one song, ‘excess’ in the next, before bitterly questioning ‘where’s your morals?’ An obviously self-aware sentiment, directed just as much at themselves as to their listeners. Quite possibly the best post-punk album since McLusky Do Dallas.


6. Acid Rap – Chance the Rapper

The best hip-hop mixtape of the year, Acid Rap highlights the genius of Chance’s flow. His rhyming is nonchalant, appearing improvised in its weary irreverence. He laughs, moans, spits and questions without apparent transition, his voice always perfectly in sync with his excellent production; a relaxed drum machine underscores an orchestra of synths and traditional hip-hop samples; (Chance’s love of rap music seeps through the tape’s cracks, corroborated by his endless referencing and namedropping) it’s minimalist, but tremendously effective. Thematically it’s identical to most major label hip-hop debuts: the explicit joys and implicit stresses of fame and fortune, but it’s too lyrically overwhelming (in a good way) to be considered anything anywhere near banal or unoriginal.


5. Random Access Memories – Daft Punk

Yes, it’s overproduced, and yes, it’s not Daft Punk’s most consistent LP, but there are a plethora of individual songs destined to be considered some of the French duo’s finest; the docu-epic ‘Giorgio by Moroder’, the space-age ‘Touch,’ the instant classic ‘Get Lucky,’ and the indefatigably cool ‘Lose Yourself to Dance’. Standing above them all is DP’s flawless mission statement, ‘Doin it Right.’ In RAM Daft Punk have seamlessly integrated the old and new, their universally adored dance anthems are complemented by bold meditations on the history of dance music, and on its future. Indeed, ‘Touch’ can be viewed as ‘Giorgio by Moroder’s’ polar opposite, the latter explaining the positive influence of electronics in music, the former begging for the application of human touch in creating something musically personal.


4. Impersonator – Majical Cloudz

Majical Cloudz are perhaps best summed up as ‘Leonard Cohen behind a computer.’ Like Cohen, their music is just a harmonising backdrop to their deeply intimate and bluntly expressive lyrics. They employ white noise, peaceful synths and distant thuds to accentuate their imagery in the same way that sound effects are used to improve immersion, the proposition of fantasy becoming reality, in children’s audio-books. Impersonator is a hugely immersive experience, a collection of short stories. Devon Welsh’s expansive narratives cover family, death, desire, disillusionment and lost love, fluttering transcendentally from one theme to another painlessly. It’s a soothing record, but also intensely powerful, Walsh’s gripping vocals pointing out the strength required to actively live, including all the connotations such a statement suggests, but not necessarily claiming that he possesses such a strength.


3. Anxiety – Autre ne Veut

Autre ne Veut’s incredible second LP is powered by discord, the barrage of conflicting, often out-of-tune instruments (the saxophone blasts on ‘Counting’ being the most obvious, the percussion in ‘Promises’ being another) and disharmonious pitch changes shouldn’t work, but it really does. Each song has a personal, innate melody. They’re refreshingly inventive, but still retain the fundamental catchiness inherent, and necessary, in R&B melodies. It’s a masterpiece of songwriting structure and production. Where Anxiety really shines is in its ballads, ‘A Lie’ and ‘Gonna Die’; when Arthur Ashin’s cries of dissatisfaction can’t quite reach the notes he desperately aspires to reach, it’s more touching, more affecting. Anxiety is this year’s Channel Orange; a progressive, moving R&B record that both challenges the boundaries of the genre while exemplifying why the fusion of Blues with a stable, Pop rhythm makes so fascinating a sound.


2. Trouble Will Find Me – The National

The National are my fourth favourite band, behind Radiohead, Sonic Youth and Joy Division. Their heartfelt, melancholic depictions of middle class disillusionment, brutal romantic regret and chilling existential alienation (they capture the ephemeral quality of human actuality better than any other band) are hypnotically endearing. I’d go as far as saying that, across their six LPs and numerous EPs, they are the most consistently excellent Alternative band, probably, of all-time. Trouble Will Find Me is their best album yet. Matt Berninger’s baritone previously had the capacity to excite even the most heterosexual male, like that of an alcoholic angel, but he’s bettered himself here, exploiting a higher register than heard before. Like many of The National’s best songs, most tracks are quietly, subtly anthemic; ‘Fireproof,’ ‘Graceless,’ ‘Don’t Swallow the Cap.’ ‘Sea of Love’ is welcomingly ‘rocky’, while ‘Heavenfaced’ will probably be the most beautiful and heartbreaking love song you’ll hear this year. A consistently brilliant band becoming consistently better.


1.       Modern Vampires of the City – Vampire Weekend

While numbers two and three would easily have fought out over the number one spot in any other year, they’re just not as utterly ingenius, as blisteringly magnificent, as iconically huge as Modern Vampires of the City; the best Indie album since Funeral. It’s, yes, about existence, but also faith, love, embracing life to the fullest. It’s just as fun and cheery as it is broodingly, philosophically questioning. ‘Diane Young’ and ‘Hudson’ should contradict one another, but they substantiate the other’s importance, Koenig identifying that happiness and sorrow are inextricably linked. Koenig’s trademark lyrical genius and wit is no longer raw and unmediated, it’s matured to Thom-Yorke-but-amusing levels. If you hear a cleverer chorus than ‘Step’s’, your ears are deceiving you: ‘the gloves are off/the wisdom teeth are out,’ referring to his own musical pretentiousness. Vampire Weekend cover an assembly of varying themes and sounds intelligently and passionately, their unfaltering love of music and its artistic potential prevalent throughout. Let there be no mistake, this is a work of unmitigated brilliance. That Ezra Koenig studied English Literature remains  justification for my degree.


Top 40 Songs of the Year (so far)

40. Suit and Tie – Justin Timberlake

39. She Will – Savages

38. Worship You – Vampire Weekend

37. The Seer – Jenny Hval

36. Smoke Again – Chance the Rapper

35. In Another Way – My Bloody Valentine

34. Demon to Lean on – Wavves

33. Retrograde – James Blake

32. Get it – Run the Jewels

31. Mirrors – Justin Timberlake

30. Dropla – Youth Lagoon

29. Morals - Iceage

28. Childhood’s End – Majical Cloudz

27. Lunar Phobia – No Joy

26. Attracting Flies – AlunaGeorge

25. Lose Yourself to Dance – Daft Punk

24. No Waves – FIDLAR

23. Don’t Swallow the Cap – The National

22. Mephisto in the Water – Jenny Hval

21. San Francisco – Foxygen

20. Bo Peep – Jeremih

19. God Made the World – Cold Cave

18. State Hospital – Frightened Rabbit

17. You (Ha Ha Ha)  - Charli XCX

16. Chain Smoker – Chance the Rapper

15. Play by Play – Autre ne Veut

14. Piano Mantra – Mikal Cronin

13. Burning Hand – Iceage

12. Try to Be – Blue Hawaii

11. Hannah Hunt – Vampire Weekend

10. Get Lucky – Daft Punk





9. Wakin on a Pretty Daze – Kurt Vile



8. Bugs Don’t Buzz – Majical Cloudz



7. Warm in the Winter – Glass Candy



6. Domo 23 – Tyler, the Creator



5. Doin’ it Right – Daft Punk



4. Heavenfaced – The National



3. Gonna Die – Autre ne Veut



2. Song for Zula – Phosphorescent




1. Ya Hey – Vampire Weekend