And now, with 2008 knocking on our door, it's time for the annual lists of things of the year.
- Aleks & The Ramps - Pisces vs. Aquarius
The more eclectic edge of the recent crop of great new artists coming out of Melbourne; Aleks & The Ramps play epic, lavishly structured pop songs with banjos, glockenspiels, a few synths and Casio keyboards and the odd crunchy heavy-metal chord and dry-as-dust lyrics about car crashes, paranoid schizophrenia and the sensation of waking up (un)dead. Highlights: No Sé Si Es Amor, a pretty impressive Spanish-language cover of Roxette's "It Must Have Been Love".
- Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
A boundary-breaking, and very catchy, slab of left-of-leftfield psychedelic folk, sounding like a futuristic village celebration, combining a pastoral folk-rock feel with layers of instruments and electronics, along with world-music influences (one can hear elements of South African township songs in places) and quite good melodies. Highlights: Fireworks, For Reverend Green.
- Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
Zach Condon reprises his amazing début with a new album, with the Balkan sounds of his previous work largely replaced by those of old France, and it doesn't disappoint. Highlights: Cliquot, Cherbourg
- Julian Nation - We Are All Writers
Another brilliant young songwriter from Melbourne, Julian Nation is three parts Jens Lekman to two parts Lucksmiths and a bit of Stuart Murdoch, and crafts pop songs with clever lyrics and without choruses, over multi-tracked melodies with guitars, basslines, piano, glockenspiels and handclaps; his début recording is released through Book Club Records. Highlights: 1992, All The Capital Cities' Names.
- LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Before New Rave™ was even a twinkle in a NME hack's eye, when there were no fluoro T-shirts in high-street shops, there was DFA Recordings and LCD Soundsystem; now, James Murphy returns with a new album, furthering his vocation of updating New York's mutant-disco sound for the present day, and doing a bang-up job of it. This album is more of a mature effort than their first album, with more solid songs; a collection of party-rocking jams, finished off with the Lou Reed-esque piano ballad "New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down". Highlight: All Your Friends
- The Motifs - Away
An unparalleledly lovely collection of 24 pop songs (plus one remix), small and perfectly formed, written and recorded by an indie-pop genius and multi-instrumentalist named Alexis Hall in her North Fitzroy bedroom. The Motifs has since evolved into a band, have gotten support slots for well-known international bands touring Australia, and are getting much-deserved acclaim from all over the world; Away may be purchased from Japanese indie label Lost In Found, and there's now an EP out through UK label WeePOP! (which I haven't yet heard). Highlights: right now I'd say Dots and Set Of Wheels, though it's all good.
- Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer
This record dominated the first half of 2007; equal parts psychedelia, prog-rock and upbeat pop; funky basslines, falsetto harmonies, intricate chord progressions and layers of glitchy electronics, it's a record that can turn on a dime between being Prince and Pink Floyd (as it does, in Labyrinthian Pomp). It works as exquisitely assembled (and somewhat epic) pop music, whilst avoiding the realms of pop cliché, and the musical arrangements remains sufficiently interesting to hold one's attention. Highlights: "A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger", an jolly, upbeat pop number about the narrator's nervous breakdown, followed by the lengthy krautrock-tinged epic "The Past Is A Grotesque Animal". Oh, and see them live if you get the chance.
- Panda Bear - Person Pitch
If someone left a stack of Beach Boys, Caribou and My Bloody Valentine records out in the hot Portuguese sunshine and they all melted together, the result might sound somewhat like this. Highlights: hard to pick one, but "Bros" is a good track, as is the opener, "Comfy in Nautica".
- Pop Levi - The Return To Form Black Magic Party
The bass guitarist from Ladytron makes a solo début with a sound grounded in the early 1970s, with its haze of drugs and free love; a bit gimmicky, but well-made, with some good songs, and a fun record to listen to. Highlight: From The Day That You Were Born
- Radiohead - In Rainbows
Much more has been said about the way this album was released than about the actual album itself, so one could be forgiven for thinking that it is all hype. However, this is not the case; this is a rock-solid return to form for Radiohead, who come back with the sorts of rain-hued sketches they made a career of. If anything, the contrast between this and Thom Yorke's (somewhat less compelling) solo album demonstrates the indispensable influence of the rest of the band. Highlights: Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
And some other releases: Architecture In Helsinki — Places Like This (a pumping, funky muscle car of a record, which sounds like Cameron has been mainlining the Cookie Monster's steroid supply since In Case We Die) ¶ Soft Tigers — Gospel Ambitions and The Brunettes — Structure and Cosmetics (two records for those who find AIH's new direction too macho) ¶ Butcher Boy — Profit In Your Poetry (the great Glaswegian tradition of indie-pop has some worthy heirs keeping it alive) ¶ iLiKETRAiNS — Elegies To Lessons Learnt (everything you'd expect from the Leeds collective; post-rock dynamics and lyrics about subjects such as the Black Death, assassinated Prime Ministers of the early 19th century and Donald Crowhurst; were they around 20 years earlier, they'd probably be classified as "gothic rock") ¶ Jens Lekman — Night Falls Over Kortedala (which has its moments, though seems to have lost some of the poignancy and melancholy of his earlier works) ¶ Midnight Juggernauts — Dystopia (which stands apart from the electropunk/wolfdisco/nu-rave crowd, as while some others are all attitude, the MJs have good songs and a pop sensibility, as well as grooves to rock the trucker hats off the trendies)) ¶ Pikelet — s/t (another promising new talent from Melbourne, this time making pop songs with a loop pedal, accordion and percussion) ¶ School Of Two — s/t (slightly shoegazey lo-fi electropop from Jason Sweeney, of Prettyboycrossover and Simpàtico) ¶ Mist & Sea — Unless (another Jason Sweeney project, this time working with Vince Giarruso of Underground Lovers) ¶
As for the record of the year? That would have to be The Motifs' "Away".