Blue Turns To Pink (The Evening Sky)
Atlas Sound – Parallax
Atlas Sound “Mona Lisa”: The loveliest song yet posted on his blog? He ought to hold on to it for the next (inevitably folky) proper LP.
So I “tweeted” last December. I wouldn’t call Parallax a folk album, exactly, though it is the first Atlas Sound release in which Bradford Cox maintains, beginning to end, the sort of sturdy, consistent presence that might characterize him as a folk performer. He calls this his loneliest album, but he holds you close through the masterful “Doldrums,” from lullaby to ambient wash, and everywhere else on the album.
Dum Dum Girls – Only In Dreams
No one told me they were gonna make a country album! And I’m trying to convince myself I’m not only saying that because Dee Dee suddenly sounds so much like Neko.
Thurston Moore – Demolished Thoughts
My favorite album of 2011 when I was 15.
Julia Holter – songs from Tragedy
A rarity in this era of over-sharing, the title refers to the dramatic form, not the personal event. And yet the music is playful enough to be called personal.
Mazzy Star – “Common Burn”
Due to some change in the culture I still can’t account for, this won’t be getting the same amount of MTV airplay as “Fade Into You,” but it haunts in a lot of the same ways.
Kate Bush – Aerial, Director’s Cut, 50 Words For Snow
September of her years. Her music has always been an invitation, not a confrontation, but now you can’t even find her in her strange corner of the pop landscape: she has to be sought in the skies or in the snow.
Everything But The Girl – Walking Wounded
Vanished luxury.
Suede – Suede, Dog Man Star
The sound of humanity’s 24th year.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Welcome To The Pleasuredome
Recorded with members of Ian Dury’s band? Such are the weird permutations that can occur on an island so small, but that tidbit also suggests part of why this album remains so musically undeniable, for all its indulgences.
Etc.
Other sounds I love: Nina Simone’s “My Man’s Gone Now,” for those of us who want the deep space of Miles Davis’s “So What” further deepened by words; the instrumental bridges of The Beach Boys’ “Wendy,” Del Shannon’s “Runaway” and The Shirelles’ “Foolish Little Girl” – that sound is pure emotion; Hüsker Dü’s Flip Your Wig along the sidewalks of an unfamiliar town, when you need to revitalize your most ancient love.
