My Favourite Albums Of 2010, Or The Post In Which I Profess Undying Adoration For A Strange Swedish Man

At around three in the morning yesterday, I realized that this year, my list of albums of the year would have a ranking system for the first time. This ranking system being :

Number One : Everything Kristian Matsson released in 2010.
After That : Everything released in 2010 by people not named Kristian Matsson which I actually bothered listening to and grew to like.

Let us then begin. This will be a long one.


BAP's Absolute Total Utterly Favouritest Album (And EP) Of 2010

























The Wild Hunt + Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird (EP) by The Tallest Man On Earth

The Wild Hunt was released way back in April, which means I had just about 9 months to evaluate and re-evaluate exactly how good it was and how much I still liked it after each listen. After all, the 10 tracks consisted of nothing more than a man, a guitar and some words. There was no reverb, no string section, no handclaps or harmonies, no strange electronic bloops, not even any percussion. How much would there be left to hold anyone's attention after a couple of spins? I had been a MASSIVE fan of Matsson's debut album, which operated on essentially the same formula of boy-and-his-guitar, but I had doubts about him pulling off the same old thing a second time around. And how wrong I was.



So I listened to The Wild Hunt, and I adored it from the get-go. Then I went off to chase after some newer, shinier albums, even dipped my toes in some dubstep (which I could never understand, and I still don't) but I always came back to The Wild Hunt, and every single time I listened to it all the way through, my mad love for it only grew stronger. Quite frankly I think I have every note, chord, word, background-foot-tapping-noise and each intake of breath seared into the memory of my soul. What Kristian Matsson does is ridiculously simple and elegant, and there are dozens of dudes out there doing pretty much the same thing. What sets him apart, to me, is the fact he practically bleeds emotion in every word he sings. Each track is more than a 3-minute folk ballad (or as some would call it, a Bob Dylan Impersonation), it's him spilling his guts out in front of you with no reservations. This album simply cannot be background music ; it's too raw, too jubilant and too heartbreaking. It demands too much of your attention. It's gorgeous and I can never seem to find the words to tell people exactly how beautiful I find his music to be and how much I love the man (and his mother).



And then the wonderful bastard released a digital 5 track EP out of nowhere, without so much as a word of warning, and my entire year was pretty much made. Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird is a sort of extension to the LP, but with electric guitar this time, and not so much unrestrained howling. Naturally, I understand that his music is not going to appeal to everyone. There is the matter of his aesthetically unpleasing vocals, for one thing. His voice is really terrifically ugly, and even I was initially put off by it. Also, just a voice and acoustic guitar for 97% of an entire album may just put some folks to sleep. All this, I get. But just admit that this guy is fabulous and truly amazing at what he does, and that he is the greatest songwriter to ever songwrite. Dispute any of this and I will be more than happy to take you out to the parking lot and we can have a real discussion about it.



Now on to the rest of it.


BAP's Other Favourite Albums Of 2010 Made By Lesser Mortals Who Are Not Kristian Matsson


Glasser - Ring
A wonderful 9-track collection of tribal drums, chanting, heavenly vocals, synths, and strange bloopy electronic sounds. I only heard of its existence a couple of weeks ago, and within that time, LA native Cameron Mesilow and her gorgeous sound-making completely took over my auditory space and cemented her spot in this here list. And also that spot in my soul.




Basia Bulat - Heart Of My Own
I've always been a sucker for that voice. Accentuate that voice with strings and banjo and autoharp and bells and harmonies to die for and I am sold. This album also makes for surprisingly good house-cleaning music.



.
Young The Giant - Young The Giant
Orange County hipsters who make the catchiest, freshest pop rock I've heard in a long long time. Also they're all kind of hot, but that is only a secondary observation. The entire album evokes the sensation of drinking the coldest, nicest, bestest, freshest glass of fruit juice ever, which probably means something like, hey you guys, this band is not only fun but also nutritious! All 12 tracks are available for streaming over here, so you know what to do.




A Bunch Of Awesome People (Who Are All Not Kristian Matsson) - Twilight : Eclipse Soundtrack
I won't lie ; I actually really look forward to the release of every new Twilight movie because the soundtrack albums are just so good. And this is quite possibly the best collection so far, featuring original tracks contributed by the likes of The Black Keys, Vampire Weekend, Beck (Beck. BECK. Beck) and my babies, Fanfarlo. Works best if you listen to it while pretending it's just a really fantabulous mixed CD a friend gave you.




Mountain Man - Meet The Harbor
Another late discovery, and another gorgeous one. Gentle folksy acoustic guitar and spectacular three-part female harmonies, and lyrics full of rustic nature imagery. Perfect for sleepless nights or periods of self-imposed solitude.




Jonsi - Go
The Sigur ros frontman's foray into solo careerdom is a fabulous mess of strings and glockenspiel and flutes and ukulele and harps and pure joyfulness. It is essentially the kind of thing Sigur ros would make, but this is less epic, more open, more childlike in its expression. And it just makes you happy everytime you listen to it. And sometimes just the happy is enough.




The National - High Violet



Amen.



Frightened Rabbit - The Winter Of Mixed Drinks
One of the prettiest things I have ever heard in my still-young life, and for once I am not just talking about that sexified Scottish brogue. It is full of handclaps and footstomps and anthemic choruses, and while the subject matter is not always sunshine and smiles (I mean, they're from Scotland, what the hell were you expecting?) this album somehow manages to leave you all warm and fuzzy and swelled up with emotion. The minute I heard the first few chords of the opening track I was already hankering for the release of a third album, which is very greedy of me, but that's just how good these guys are.




Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can
Laura Marling was one of those people I sort of vaguely knew I should be listening to but never really bothered putting in effort to seek out her music. Then one day I decided to try out one song, just one, and see how I liked it. I started off all "Yeah okay this is nice" and by the time the song ended I was all "Holy shit I need this in my life all the time". Her songwriting is elegant and wise beyond her years, considering that she is only about as old as I am. May this woman live long and folk forever.




Meursault - All Creatures Will Make Merry
One description I read of this band's sound was "electrofolk", or "folktronica" or something, "combining banjo with sampled beats" and my initial reaction was pretty much "What? Eww". But they were from Scotland, and that was enough to persuade me to try them out. I listened to Another, and then I listened to it about 17 more times and cried for an hour. It didn't help that I was feeling majorly homesick at the time. This is a gorgeous, haunting album, and so organic that the synths and beats and bleeps and things don't even sound the tiniest bit out of place among the banjo and ukulele and wonderful echoey vocals.

Episode #26.3: Meursault - "Another" from Off The Beaten Tracks on Vimeo.

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
This was my most anticipated release of 2010, and the first time I heard it, I sort of hated the whole thing. I was disappointed beyond words. I sat around all deflated, wondering how the Arcade Fire, the Arcade Fire, could have let me down so. It wasn't epic enough, it wasn't huge enough, it wasn't them enough. I was this close to losing faith in Canada, the faith that even Justin Bieber failed to shake. But slowly, and I mean very slowly, track by track, week by crawling week, The Suburbs started to grow on me. It may not be the huge apocalyptic proportions of sound possessed by Arcade Fire past, but it is one hell of a record. I love The Suburbs, I love Arcade Fire, I still love Canada, and everybody's happy.





Pepper Rabbit - Beauregard
Pepper Rabbit are a strange, adorable little duo. The vocals and use of synths and odd costumes evoke a very strong resemblance to MGMT for me, but Pepper Rabbit leans very much towards the folkier side of things ; ukulele and banjo and horns and the kind of harmonies that just tug at your heartstrings till they come off and then re-attach them. Older Brother may just be my favourite song of 2010, even.





Wild Nothing - Gemini
Fuzzy hazy songs about love and summer, with synths and gorgeous guitars and elusive lyrics. It's like someone took all the prettiest things about the 80s and put it in a blender of musical awesomeness. Some of the songs to tend to sound a bit the same and run into each other, but it is all lovely stuff nevertheless.





The Head And The Heart - The Head And The Heart
Warm, lush, introspective poppy Americana with terrific sing along choruses and it all feels rather like getting a really big tight hug from someone who smells nice and reminds you of everyone you love. This record just jumped right up and sat down in a nice comfortable chair in my heart and refused to leave, and I can't say that I mind.





There you have it, all the albums that made me happy in 2010. Hope you guys find something new to discover and fall madly in love with, and do let me know of any good music that I missed out on while I was too busy worshipping Kristian Matsson.

I Come Bearing A Festive Celebration Of Male Hotnesses.

It's Christmas Eve, and I am in a good mood, which is odd because I never really cared much for the season of giving (apart from the food, food is good). So I thought what better way to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour and Santa Claus than a lovingly made list of all the remarkably delicious men who made 2010 that much easier on the eye (and other parts). I make this sort of post fairly regularly, but I wasn't intending to do one this year until I was thoroughly inspired by Beckeye's fabulous post of very pretty men. So here they are then, the assorted males who all hotted up the year for the BAP.


(in no particular order, because when there are dudes this hot walking the Earth, we are all winners. Or some shit like that.)



1. Ian Somerhalder


Yeah so I watch The Vampire Diaries. Judge away. But keep sneering at my apparent poor taste and you will continue to miss out on the pure tingly joy of gazing into the Somerhalder's insanely blue eyes for 42 minutes every week. His portrayal of the antiheroic bloodsucker Damon Salvatore is a revelation - one of those cases of he-was-born-to-play-this-role. He plays his character with the just the right mix of snark, seductiveness and unpredictability, all laced with traces of drama queen, sociopath and tragic lover, to make the guy quite possibly one of the best fictional vampires ever (or at least one of my personal favourites) and without a doubt the single best thing about the show itself. Also, when Damon Salvatore broods, which happens at least once per episode, he tends to get drunk and then lose his shirt. I naturally approve.


2. Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Ignore that blonde thing clinging on to my man. He is clearly not impressed by her, anyway.
He of the triple-barrelled name. First it was as the lovesick greeting card writer in (500) Days Of Summer, and then as the snappily-dressed dream invader dude in Inception. Tom Hardy seems to get more fangirl attention (and I can see why, those lips of his are the sex) but precious little JGL, as I affectionately refer to him, as grown on me slowly and steadily all year. His interviews reveal him to be wonderfully dorky, spectacularly articulate, and a very accomplished speaker of the French. HOT. Also it helps very much that he looks killer in a three-piece suit. Mmmmm three-piece suits.


3. Chris Pine

Oh new Star Trek. How I do adore new Star Trek for bringing Chris Pine to me. He's quite possibly the most conventionally attractive of all the dudes on my list ; all blond and buff and American looking, which typically does not appeal to me. But the man just plain looks good and I am not one to turn Pretty away. Sure he's already balding somewhat and his choice of other roles hasn't exactly been genius, but when Star Trek II hits big screens in 2012 (which is too far way) I will be lining up for tickets like the good fangirl that I am. For Chris Pine will always be the Captain of my Lady Parts. Among other things.


You can come over and sit in my chair any time you like, Chris Pine. Any time.


4. Kristian Matsson


Musicians are a breed that is sort of sexy by default to me, but none more so than Swedish folkster Kristian Matsson, who goes under the professional moniker of The Tallest Man On Earth. His music consists of nothing more than finger picked guitar or banjo, his amazingly ugly voice, and lyrics that sound like they were written under the influence of some odd Scandinavian mountain herb. I wasn't particularly taken with his looks the first time I saw a picture of him, but the more I grew to worship his songs, the hotter he became in my eyes. The skinny bird legs, the coiffed hair, the rolled-up sleeves and even the pencil mosutache thing he has going on all became drool worthy material. I spent weeks scouring Youtube for every single video of him I could find, and marvelled at his amazing musicianmanship (is that even a word? oh god who cares) while wishing fervently that we could be married so he could sing me awake in the morning. We don't even need to have sex or anything. All he will have to do is sing at me on demand and I am a happy woman. I don't ask for much, Universe. Not much at all. Well maybe a little bit of sex won't hurt.


5. Kyle Chandler

Pictured here with his TV wife, because she too, is fabulous.
This wonderful specimen here was one of my earliest crushes ever, while on that show about the newspaper from the future, Early Edition. That show was a pile of cheesy sentimental mashed potato, but boy was I in love with Kyle Chandler. Then many years later I discovered that he was now on The Best Show Ever In The History Of TV That I Was Not Watching At The Time, Friday Night Lights. And so I was like, hey I should really watch this show. And I did. And then I was in love all over again. The role of Coach Taylor is pretty much what Kyle Chandler was put on this earth to play, and he does it perfectly. He is spectacular. He is gorgeous. He is, or at least his character is, one half of what is probably the bestest most realistic married couple on TV, and it's the kind of marriage I'd like to have one day, if things ever work out in that fashion. I am roughly halfway through season 1 of FNL, and I am glad to have four more seasons' worth of having Kyle Chandler make me cry about five times per episode and give me that funny funny feeling of wanting him to be my dad but also my husband. It's weird. Cut it out, Kyle Chandler. But stay beautiful.


6. Ben Barnes

Hair.

That's pretty much all to it, really.
To be fair, he's wonderfully British and refined and has a smile that would make the Sun unnecessary, probably. I can even forgive him for being in the Narnia movies, wearing all that leather armour shit and being regal and brandishing swords and buckling the swash, swashbucklingly. I'm looking forward to his next flick, which seems to be a nice warm Brit comedy about two brothers who almost became more famous than U2. But you know, didn't. And thankfully, he no one made him hack off his hair yet.

The hair. It's all I care about.


7. Andrew Garfield

Andrew has had a fabulous year in 2010, and I've taken a great deal of pleasure in going around telling people about how I knew he existed years ago, as if that made me more entitled to adore him, or something. But it is TRUE. Andrew Garfield stole my heart way back in late 2006, where he played Frank-who-gets-eaten-by-hybrid pigs-but-not-really-in-future-alternate universe-Manhattan in a very very bad episode of Doctor Who. I then sought out every other piece of work I could find which featured the Garfield in it, and settled down comfortably, waiting for him to get all famous. And he did. I have yet to see The Social Network or Never Let Me Go, but I have no doubt that he is fabulous and gorgeous in both. Also Andrew's hair totally pwns Robert Pattinson's. For one, it looks like Andrew actually knows what shampoo is. Just saying.



8. Matt Smith

Another Brit, and a decidedly odd-looking one at that. I had massive doubts about him taking over the helm of the new Doctor, but I was in love about 20 seconds into the first episode of the new season. I've mentioned somewhere before that his head resembles a badly baked potato, and that his nose is too big and his entire face is constructed of epic proportions of chin. He is lanky and awkward and appears to be mostly made up of elbows and ankles and wrists. All these weird parts somehow combine to create pleasing (though still slightly odd-looking) whole specimen. The rest of him matches his quirky physical appearance ; strange dorky mannerisms and a fondness for ridiculous articles of hipster-esque clothing, which is all very endearing. You try looking at him in a neon-striped sweater and perky little fez and not go "Awwww!". Also, like his fellow Brits before him in this list, Matt sports some truly shiny, traffic-stopping HAIR. It's spectacular.You could hide a fruit basket in there, or something. I don't know why you'd want to, but you could.



9. Damian Kulash


The incredibly pretty leading man of OK Go. I was never a fan of the band's music on its own, but their videos and other bits and pieces of cool and quirky Internet projects floating around definitely earned my admiration. Then one day I was watching this extremely crack-filled video of theirs, and suddenly noticed that this Damian dude has the most insanely pretty eyes. And a crush was born. And then after checking out some of OK Go's earlier works, I discovered that Damian Kulash is also blessed with one hell of a head of hair (are we all sensing a theme here?) and thus the crush was amplified. I then spent many days drowning in Kulash's dreamy musician eyes and dreamy musician hair. Can't say I like his singing voice all that much though. But he's not afraid to wear an all-blue suit in public, so props for that.



10. Timothy Olyphant


Talk to the right people, and they will probably tell you that Timothy here was arguably my most massive crush of the year. Olyphant (ha ha Olyphant) is one of those actors who made a bunch of forgettable, meh movies and you never really notice him except to note that "Hey, that random dude was pretty hot" and then when you've developed a full-blown love affair with the man and Googled everything that it is possible to Google about him, you discover that he was in a lot of movies. A lot. Oh I don't know, like Every-Bad-Movie-You-Ever-Saw levels of ubiquitousness.

Which made me glad that this year, he finally found the one role he was birthed into the Universe to play ; that of US Marshal Raylan Givens on TV's Justified (good show, by the way, if a little bit too talky sometimes). Timothy Olyphant is full of the sex and the smoking and the smouldering and the shooting bad people and the intense stares and the drawly cowboy delivery and the suits and the guns and the utter pure hotness, I tell you. He is also doing a truly terrific job of ageing, so much so that I look forward to what he'll look like when he's 80.

Timothy is also the possessor of very singular, distinctive way of carrying himself, which is a nice way of saying that the dude walks funny. It's an odd, almost feline-like gait, as though he is doing some perverted version of a catwalk but about to topple over at any moment. It should look utterly ridiculous, but Timothy is such a spectacularly fabulous man that he just adds a bit of swagger to the weirdness, and that walk becomes so hot that it just makes you want to bone him even more. Or you know, I just speak for myself here. I'm sorry, but he just needs to let me have his babies. Like, yesterday.


I'll be back eventually with the obligatory best albums list and all that. In the meantime, Jake of the Gyllenhaals wishes you all very happy Christmassing!


Which reminds me, Jacob. You and I need to have a private word about all this Taylor Swift business. It's not funny.

I Need More Gigs In My Life

So The Album Leaf's Malaysian gig wasn't that great (Grace, if you're reading this, you didn't miss out on anything too epic) . It wasn't half bad, but it wasn't that great. As Sue Fyenn pointed out on the drive back home, that sense of post-gig euphoria was completely missing ; that urge to run to your computer and play the band's albums over and over again, trying to relive every note and nuance of the live experience.



The lights were terribly pretty, but there was very little crowd interaction save for some mumbled thank yous and a little bit of banter while waiting for a drum sample glitch to be sorted out. However, drummer Tim Reece was the single most epic creature of epicness I've ever witnessed. The guy was playing over ridiculously complicated drum samples most of the time and he never. Missed. A. Beat. I could barely take my eyes off him, and I don't mean that in a perverted way at all. You win at life, Tim Reece. You win at life. Violinist Matthew Resovich was a mad musical beast armed with loop pedals up to his knees, and sounded absolutely gorgeous. The bearded mastermind Jimmy LaValle chose to station himself at the far end of the stage, meaning I had to crane my neck a little to see him, and everytime I did my brain sort of went "Woah Jesus is playing keyboards in front of me".
Because, you know. The guy looks like a very hip Cherry Cola-swigging Jesus.



See? (Cherry Cola not pictured).

The band was even nice enough to set up an autograph session after the gig, but we were a little too exhausted and bummed out to stay. It was perhaps a case of overly high expectations but we certainly weren't as blown away as we had expected to be. In any case their (or should i say his?) new album A Chorus Of Storytellers is about 50-ish minutes of very pretty electronic noise which is polite enough not to distract you from doing important things like assignments, so do give it a try.



But where The Album Leaf disappointed, the Scandinavians once again proved the true value of their Awesome. I went to bed on Tuesday night feeling rather meh and woke up on Wednesday to find that one of my most favouritest people on the planet had released a 5-track EP without so much as a word of warning.


I love surprise musics, and this itty bitty collection of 5 songs is just what I need to keep me content until Mr. Matsson releases his next album. Which should ideally happen tomorrow.
Do yourselves a favour, peasants, and let this wonderful wonderful man -scraggly beard and all- into your lives.



Oh Kristian, our babies are going to be so awesome and Swedish. We'll go to Ikea and pick out furniture names for them and then sit around drinking green tea and then you can sing the telephone directory at me.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go write a 1500 word essay on why Lenin was actually a pretty swell dude.

I'll Defend My Family With My Orange Umbrella

This is really something I should have done a couple of months ago, but all this university nonsense has ensured that important stuff like sleep, a social life and music have been required to take a backseat in my life, and unfortunately I haven't been able to dig into as many new albums as I would have liked to. Here, in any case, are the handful that have managed to make an impression on me within the first 5 months of the year or so.

Favourite Albums Of 2010 So Far

1. The Wild Hunt - The Tallest Man On Earth
Kristian Matsson, the most amazingest songwriter to ever songwrite continues to be utterly awesomesauce while relying on nothing but fingerpicked acoustic guitar and a shockingly ugly voice. This is all the usual folksy troubadour stuff about travelling and dusty roads and being swallowed up by rivers and hearing ghosts in trees and rolling away to hell ; stuff that you think you've heard a million times before. But in this dude's hands everything sounds new and magnetic and haunting and born-yesterday-fresh. I cannot say enough wonderful things about this guy and his music. Get this record, you guys. Just get this record.

Warning for shaky video but I had to choose this one because he breaks out into a random Sade cover towards the end and things like that must be shared.




And just for the record, Matsson is only about five foot nine. His moniker is perhaps a slight exaggeration. Also just for the record, he needs to let me have his babies.



2.Go - Jonsi



Sigur ros frontman Jonsi Birgissson (or at least I think that's how you spell it) breaks out on his own to create the happiest bounciest colourfullest album I've heard all year and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong because I can never have enough happy bouncy colourful albums. Most songs are in English this time but it hardly matters cause it still sounds gibberish anyway. Gorgeous gibberish, backed by flutes and tribal drums and strings upon strings upon strings. If this record doesn't make you smile at least once then you are pretty much dead in your soul. DEAD. In the SOUL.


3. The Winter Of Mixed Drinks - Frightened Rabbit



Nobody does the tortured emo thing quite as well as the Scots do, and you can count on Frightened Rabbit to howl and yell all about life's miseries and the fuckery that is love accompanied by pounding drums and lush guitars and handclaps. You heard me. Handclaps. Atmospheric and pretty and utterly delicious, despite the very depressing subject matter.



4. High Violet - The National



Hell. Yes.


5 Eclipse Soundtrack - Various Artists




I would be a lying liar who lies if I ever claimed that this wasn't a really really good collection of very sexy music, totally out of the movie's league. Where else would you find Beck and Bat For Lashes together, dammit? Plus Sia and Band Of Horses and Fanfarlo and The Dead Weather and I'm practically salivating just thinking about it.


6. The Golden Archipelago - Shearwater
Shearwater has always been one of those bands I always knew I should probably try and like but have never been able to muster up more than a passing "Meh" or maybe "That's not such a bad song heyyyyyyyy look over there at the Kristian Matsson!". This year however, they won me heart and soul with the track Castaways ; all dramatic and soaring and pounding and melodious and utterly unintelligible (but in the best way possible). The rest of the album is not nearly as accessible and I've lost count of the number of times I've given up on it simply because I couldn't tell when one song ended and the next began. This is a gorgeous record which demands a lot more patience and commitment than I'm usually willing to give but the rewards have been worth the frustration.

"If There's Anything More Important Than My Ego Around, I Want It Caught And Shot Right Now".

First things first; Happy Towel Day, peasants! Or rather, Happy Day After Towel Day Day. I am regrettably late, but even as I type right now I have draped my fluffiest towel across the chair in honour of Paranoid Androids, pajamas and Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters, among other wonderful things.



I've spent the last couple of weeks doing all sorts of rather unproductive things, like painting my fingernails green and reading books I've already read and pondering my future. The future, which encapsulates such terrifying things, like whether or not my roommate-to-be at university is going to be the kind of person who leaves her underwear on the floor or blows cigarette smoke in my face or listens to Korean pop all day or something. And exactly what I'll be majoring in (degrees seem so overrated at the moment) and having to leave home and inevitably get lost in the city and essentially have to grow the hell up. This is pretty much the last time I'll be calling this house my home for the next three years, at the very least.


The only thing I know for sure at the moment is that this guy's music has been eating my soul (in a good way) all week.



Screw tertiary education! I don't need a respectable job. I'm moving to Sweden and making friends with Kristian Matsson and we're going to sit around drinking tea and fiddling around in record stores all day and then at sunset we'll go up to some random ridiculously gorgeous lakeside hill and serenade the valley with finger-picking folk-troubadour ballads, dammit. Oh Scandinavia. Why so awesome?

[In all seriousness, be kind to yourself and go listen to his debut album. Right this minute would be ideal. ]

In other news, mine own Jake of the Gyllenhaals continues on his epic promotional stint for Prince of Persia, which I am not going to see for reasons already mentioned. However, I simply cannot get over this little gem from a recent interview:

What was the most difficult thing about shooting Prince of Persia?
JG: You know, I've gotta say the most difficult part of this film was buckling the swash. Swashbuckling isn't so easy. In order to buckle the swash it takes a pretty proficient swashbuckler. So buckling the swash every day was pretty difficult. That was probably the most difficult. I mean you really gotta buckle, like if you're gonna buckle it, you swashily buck the swash. You gotta own it in order to swash buckle.

Oh Jakey G. You win at life, you know that?

Everybody's A Critic.

BAP's Favourite Albums Of 2009 So Far
Note that I said favourite albums, and not the best albums. I am hardly qualified to pass judgement on the year's best. Also because most of the albums on the following list weren't even released in 2009. Keeping up with new music is an extremely high-pressure activity, and I prefer doing it when all the hype has died down, the Best-Of-The-Year lists have been wrapped up, and the hip kids on the music blog circuits have stopped making you feel lame for lagging behind and for thinking thoughts like "Hey, Animal Collective is pretty cool!" about 342 years after the rest of the world already ascertained it as Universal Musical Truth.

1. The Bachelor - Patrick Wolf


Epic shit of epic proportions, with more string sections than you can chuck glitter at. And yes, I know it's bad to end a sentence with a preposition. Or begin one with a conjunction. Like that. Anyway, The Bachelor is utterly massive in its size and scope and ambition and melodramacity that it can truly be nothing less than jaw-droppingly awesome, and what I humbly believe to be the man's best creation to date. And when my mother stopped to tell me how much she loved his voice, I almost exploded in pride, as if it were my own son she were complimenting or something. Yes, it teeters dangerously on the edge of being overblown, with all those strings and synths and guitars and church organs and vocal choruses and Tilda Swintons and its utter refusal to stick with a single genre for more than a song at a time. Some may find it to be more than a tad over the top, but it is Patrick Wolf we're discussing here, and he's certainly fond of giving the impression that The Concept Of Subtlety is not recognized in his perpetually marvellous glittery shiny technicoloured universe.



What did I tell you?

2. Reservoir - Fanfarlo

Having been massively in love with them for over a year on the strength of merely three demo tracks, I knew I was going to droolishly adore their full-length album regardless of whether or not it sucked. And it doesn't suck one bit. How it could it possibly suck when the album cover features Jonssi Birgisson's own little sister? That's practically a stamp of approval of awesomeness on its own. The album itself is lush and warm and homely and comfy and quite simply gorgeous, and Simon's voice can only be described as being ostensibly Scandinavian, because that's the only adjective for it.
Here they are on Bandstand Busking, performing my favourite track off Reservoir. Watch. Listen. Adore. Droolishly, where possible.



3. Dust Jacket - Joel P. West


I owe my music guru, Grace, for the heads-up about this one. The music itself isn't particularly groundbreaking or anything really; jangly guitars and mournful harmonica make up a lovely collection of melodious melancholy folk. What makes it that much more truly special is the price you pay for it. Because Mr. West wants any uploadable creative or artistic creation of your own ( a poem, a painting, a piece of prose, a photograph, a word) in exchange for a free digital copy of the album, with cover art and a booklet you print out yourself (take that, Radiohead). The only conditions are that whatever you upload for submission must be original and candid. It's all explained here, and you can even sample the first track before you decide whether or not you want to bother participating. It's not exactly an economically sustainable sales method, bearing in mind the current world climate and all, but it's such a wonderfully awesome idea that it's hard to not want to be part of something that's guaranteed to provide you with warm fuzzies every time you give Dust Jacket a (metaphorical) spin.

4. Dan In Real Life Soundtrack - Sondre Lerche


It is perhaps not that often that the soundtrack of a film has played such a huge part in my enjoyment of said film, because honestly -and with much love to Steve Carrell- Dan In Real Life would have been a very meh movie if not for the musical accompaniment of Sondre and his guitar. He manages to be quirky and yet not annoying, melancholy without ever delving into Grey's Anatomy territory, and the instrumental pieces are the kind that get pleasantly stuck in your head for weeks afterward. There is even a lovely duet with Regina Spektor (another seal of Awesomeness) and a couple of covers thrown in (including an Elvis Costello one) with a smattering of Mr. Lerche's back catalogue slipped in here and there. And the weirdness of having Sondre's rather youthful voice juxtaposed against Dan's, well, oldness, actually works sublimely well.
Here is Sondre Lerche performing my personal favourite track off the album. In black and white. Because he kicks ass like that.



5. Shallow Graves -The Tallest Man On Earth


Kristian Mattson, who goes by the moniker The Tallest Man On Earth, is what I suppose is meant by an acquired taste. His warbly, extremely UnScandinavian voice did not appeal to me at all initially, and the comparisons to Bob Dylan did not exactly help, because I really don't get Dylan (travesty, I know, but it wasn't for lack of trying). But the weird warbly voice and the lone fingerpicked guitar and the utterly illogical lyrics ("I know the runner's gonna tell you/ There ain't no cowboy in my hair/ So now he's buried by the daisies/ So I can stay the tallest man in your eyes, babe") all began to grow on me. And despite the fact that Kristian is pretty much a Swedish dude singing as though he were from the American South, there's a sense of honesty and genuineness that surrounds him, as if he were always meant to make music like this and was simply born in the wrong country through a sudden burst of Universal Divine Comedy.



6. Only By The Night - Kings Of Leon


KoL have always been one of those bands that constantly flew under my radar (quite surprising, considering how very loud they were) but Only By The Night sort of forced me to sit up and pay undivided attention. Their sound on this one just appealed to me a great deal more (regardless of what the hipsters say about the band having "sold out" and how I'm not exactly a Real Fan because I didn't listen to Aha Shake Heartbreak first, dammit) , and their haircuts now ensured that I could see their faces and thus forge some level of human connection beyond the music (read: to discover that a couple of them are really Pretty). Kings Of Leon are another bunch who aren't full advocates of The Concept Of Subtlety; as Grace so elequently put it, Caleb Followill's voice is very much of the I-Am-Smexy-Hear-Me-Rawr! variety, but it's actually nice to get that down and dirty with a band, something I've been lacking recently. Although for such a very sexed-up band, their knowledge of human anatomy is just bordering on this side of pathetic.




What forms of auditory awesomeness have been invading your earwaves over the last 5 months or so?