The girl-group splendor of 1960’s pop has seen its share of revival attempts, but what Cults managed with their much-anticipated debut album is more than tribute. These are pop songs not of any particular era, but simply a load of melodic hooks that shimmer enough to soundtrack a snowfall, but too exciting not to be summer jams. Ultimately, Cults may be a one-trick pony, but once stuck, this trick is impossible to remove from your head.
Four 19-year-old Norwegian ladies who’ve known each other for over a decade record a full album on weekend breaks from school. Before you think the result will be akin to The Shaggs, you’ll hear a joyous, ska-influenced post-punk that plays up the band’s youth without sounding immature, snotty, or cloyingly saccharine. If 2011 was “The Year Of Boring”, this was the exception to prove the rule.
It takes guts to make a debut album this indecipherable. Garage production without the garage rock, this Kiwi-American trio have put together a quick half-hour of spare, danceable tunes penned by Flying Nun vet Ruban Nielson. 
For all intents and purposes, Radiohead made an album of dance music in 2011. The result is simply their best record since Kid A. Sonically dense and yet immediately listenable, and at times even fun, the Oxford quintet once again expand their palate with a new set of classics.
This Welsh trio survive mediocre production and an overly-compressed mix to put together one of the year’s more emotionally intense records. Hard rock with an ear for melody and a riff, the songwriting chops are there, while Ritzy Bryan’s double-wallop of arena-ready guitar crunch and soaring vocals make me believe they’re going to be around for the long haul.
I have to admit that I’d much rather listen to classic rock than chillwave, or rehashed 80’s soft-rock; and local guys Village do more than their part to sate the need. Part alt-country, and part barroom stomp, it’s a record that never tries too hard and never misses the mark. If you need a fix of the basics, this is where to go.
An instrumental rock record that emerges from the fog, destroys everything in sight, takes no prisoners, and walks away victoriously. Pulsing, loud, unapologetic, and brash, parts of this album reminded me of Steve Reich’s “Pulses” fed through a heavier sort of Krautrock. It’s a beast of a record, and you’ll feel better for having survived it.
Sure, it’s 2/3rds of Sleater-Kinney, and has parts of Helium and The Minders, but never mind that. These ladies made perhaps the most fun record of the year by becoming greater than the sum of their parts, or their history. They also made a six-and-a-half-minute jam on being a racehorse into perhaps the year’s best straight-up rock song.
British indie from the mid-80’s is probably due for a revival of its own. With a cadre of influences that don’t include The Smiths in the first breath, this London quartet crafts cutesy indie pop with lots of dark undertones, but enough melody and sass to keep you from forgetting that Belle & Sebastian didn’t make an album this year.
Ms. Calvi’s songs range from quiet, desperate, and cavernous, to urgent, plaintive, and encouraging. Her songwriting chops are exceeded by her guitar wizardry and killer pipes. Melodramatic without going over-the-top, the London wunderkind’s continually impresses with repeated listens.
This London quartet craft catchy, singable pop tunes with danceable rhythms, wonderful melodies, and sonic flourishes aplenty. The former release, a mini-album that stampedes through its 10 songs in 31 minutes, showcases tremendous breadth and range, from soaring choruses to hushed balladry. Relentlessly fun, thoughtful, and never hesitating to pull out the stops. The follow-up EP is more of the same, with more electronic elements and wistful chord progressions. Sadly, the bands second album, next years Losing Colour, will be their last. Perhaps they were just too good to last. 
When The Walkmen sound great, which is often, they seem to give their brand of poppy indie-rock more space to breathe then any other quintet out there. On their latest, strings and horns are even brought into the mix. But still its the songs, even when the refrains crescendo to their highest point, that allow the listener to roam around like a vacant snowy night. The result is the best non-Scandinavian winter album in years.
The Canadian collective employed John McEntire for production on their fourth proper album, and the Chicago brainchild did good here, by the band, and the listener. The band use all their weapons in ways familiar and unfamiliar, creating an indie-rock stew that goes from minimally electronic to brutally epic, post-punk to post-rock. Its an album for sorting through ones demons, and at the end they feel exorcised. 
When starting a new business venture, some folks stick to the adage, "Do one thing, but do it better than anybody else." This seems to be the mantra of Chicagos The Streets On Fire. Their debut album roars out of the gate with disgustingly filthy guitar, vocals culled from what could be a shortwave radio, and anthemic power to light the entire Midwest. Post-punk jams from your neighbors basement, bluesy, urgent, fun, and undeniable.
Maybe its because Kieran Hebdens live show at Metro earlier this year was one of my favorites. Maybe its because he samples, of all things, a handbell choir, and I happened to play handbells at church in my youth. Maybe its the fact that this album is a huge departure from the also-excellent (and more rock song-based) Rounds. Truth is, it's a combination of those things, as well as some of the best beats of the year coupled with bits of sound clipped from the places you'd least expect. At once moving and booty-shaking, and unafraid to do either. 
There were so many twee-pop, chamber-pop, and Spector-influenced female-fronted fuzz-pop records released in 2010 that wading through all of them to find a gem or two is daunting and frustrating venture. So let me do you a favor and tell you this: Get This Album. Trust me. Everything about the above genres is nailed by this Portland duo. One of the few indie-pop records this year that never sounds forced.
After stating that Rising Down would be their last, The Roots come back with a lean, mean, intellectual album thats the head-bopper you knew they still had in them. In addition to giving us the best Joanna Newsom track of the year ("Right On"), the Philadelphians give us piano-driven floor-thumpers that still prove that theyre the best hip-hop act in the biz, Jimmy Fallon or not. And auto-tuning the baby crying on the last track? Genius.
Heres the deal: Back in 1982, a Mumbai soundtrack composer and wedding performer went into the studio with a few Roland synths and merged East with West, playing traditional Indian ragas on keyboards, and backing the tracks with disco beats. The result is a stunning precursor to modern techno that still sounds groundbreaking today. A commercial flop in India in the 1980s, this 2010 re-release has folks trumpeting Singh as the pioneer of acid house, years before the term existed. Mindblowing.
The Scottish band added a member, beefed up their sound, got over a breakup, and the resultant record is their best. More confident, with still enough insecurity to create lyrics of self-doubt as well as self-assurance, Frightened Rabbit have mastered bringing in their folk influences into a full rock band setting. Empowering stuff for anyone getting past relationship troubles.
Aiming right for the intersection of krautrock and psychedelia, and hitting the darkest of bullseyes, this Chicago quartet paint haunting pictures with fuzz, delay, and squawks. All the while, eerie vocals and insistent drums ease their way into your cerebral cortex. It might not be metal, but its certainly one of the best heavy releases of the year in any genre.
Austin Harvey's Best of 2009
Throughout the month of December we’ll be posting lists of the best music of the year as determined by the volunteers that make CHIRP what it is. Today’s is from CHIRP DJ, Austin Harvey.
- Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Glassnote) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
A classic example of an album that seems to touch all the bases without trying too hard. Phoenix manage to marry catchy choruses with an inherent dancefloor sensibility, tying the whole thing together with an unmistakably French cool. - Fanfarlo – Reservoir (Atantic) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
Picture this: Arcade Fire fronted by a Swedish David Byrne, in London, without electric guitars. Sounds like a noble experiment if anything else, right? Kitchen sink instrumentation and irresistible melodies all come effortlessly on an album that can’t possibly be a debut. - The Antlers – Hospice (French Kiss) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
If 2009 was a complete bummer of a year for you (as it was for me), then maybe a heartbreaking album detailing the protagonist’s struggle – watching a lover die in a cancer ward – brought a little bit of release into our seemingly bleak existence. At once hauntingly intimate and stunningly epic. - Pisces – A Lovely Sight (Numero Group) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
A frequent member of my cohorts’ top 10 lsits, this rediscovered local nugget from the 1960’s serves as a fitting companion to the rest of the decade’s lost gems. Come for the psychedelic freakouts, but stay for “Are You Changing In Your Time”, and “A Flower For All Seasons”, two of the finest ballads from any decade. - Montee – Isle of Now (Strømland) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
Combining the danceable bliss of Duran Duran’s Rio with the polyrhythms and musical deftness of Talking Heads’ Remain In Light. This might be the best new wave album made in 25 years, and it’s from a bunch of harmonizing Norwegians who care little for anachronism. Self-assured, yet precocious. - Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca (Domino) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
“Cannibal Resource” was my summer jam, especially that part in the opening guitar riff where the Moogerfooger effect takes over. “BITTE ORCA / ORCA BITTE” was my scream-along lyric of 2009. it was a weird year. pop at its most disjointed and unhinged. lovely. - A Sunny Day In Glasgow – Ashes Grammar (Mis Ojos Discos) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
A shoegaze album worth getting excited about? From Philly? Yes. They do it with dream-pop interludes between the longer tracks, and heaps of sonic depth. An added bonus: this album also knows how to dance, check out “Close Chorus”. - Bibio – Ambivalence Avenue (Warp) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
Wikipedia’s genre classifications for this album are “Ambient music” and “Jangle Pop”. You could throw in “Alternative Hip-Hop” and “Folk” into the recipe for this incredibly singular and exciting album from Stephen Wilkinson. The VGM-inspired “Sugarette” jumps to the gorgeous folk of “Lovers’ Carvings” without a chance to catch your breath. - Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career (4ad) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
Tracyanne Campbell sounds more assured with each record, and with good reason. Her band is peaking on this collection of chamber pop tunes with plenty of blue-eyed soul influence, perhaps even a bit of country. The upbeat songs, though, steal the show with a time-honored mix of heartbroken lyrics and euphoric instrumentation. - The Big Pink – A Brief History of Love (4ad) Amazon / Insound / iTunes
Though I’m not the biggest fan of Robbie Furze’s vocal style, I can’t argue with the gigantic hooks on this album. They don’t sound much like The Band, but I hear Screamadelica-era Primal Scream fed through electroclash’s brattiness, or a more hard-rocking version of Cut Copy. Whatever the description, the results are lush and highly rewarding.
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