Albums of the year
20 Dinosaur Jr. I B e t O n S k y
1 9 T y S e g a l l B a n d S l a u g h t e r h o u s e
18 Sharon Van Etten T r a m p
( P IAS )
(Jagjaguar)
R e l e a s e d : S e p t e m b e r 1 7
R e l e a s e d : J u n e 2 5
R e l e a s e d : F e b r u a r y 6
||||||||||
||||||||||
||||||||||
When Dinosaur Jr. got back together in 2009, they simply picked up where they left off. No messing around. Three years and three albums down the line and they are still going as strong as ever, with ‘I Bet On Sky’ being a continuation of everything that has ever made the band great over the years – a perpetual duel between noise and melody, rip-roaring guitar solos and J Mascis’ everbrilliant, slow croaky drawl, as Lou Barlow’s bass charges and rumbles over Murph’s wonderful thrashing. Even though Mascis appears to have the energy and enthusiasm of a sloth on elephant tranquilisers, his band still manage to expel a spunk, snarl and charge that is wonderfully teenage, just like their ongoing hate/hate relationship that suggests Dinosaur Jr. is an addiction for all three them. It’s like they never left the garage, while ‘Watch the Corners’ – the band’s first single from the record – is up there with anything they have ever written. ‘I Bet On Sky’ was and is an infectious and perfectly spliced piece of pop sludge. DDW
2012 has been an eventful year for Ty Segall. Despite still being the tender age of 26, this cherished underground garage rock sensation is a veteran of the San Francisco music scene, and this year he’s outdone his own prolific self, appearing on both US chat shows Conan and Letterman, and releasing three albums since April. But while others hold up either his solo effort ‘Twins’, or ‘Hair’, his collaborative effort with White Fence, for recognition, it was ‘Slaughterhouse’ where this multi-instrumentalist broke from his traditional one-man working methods and he reached his peak. By enlisting the help of his touring band, Segall the garage rock auteur crafted an album that fizzled and popped with slabs of fuzz-drenched riffs and cacophonous drumming. Chock full of spirited home-punk tunes that will continue to jab away at the ears with a keen sense of playfulness, it puts to bed the idea that garage rock is a dead genre. ‘Slaughterhouse’ is an album that will take some beating next year. NW
Let’s be honest, there are very few records indeed during which you’re not tempted, at least once, to skip forward to the next track. Sharon Van Etten’s third album is one of these records, and its deserved success has brought her much wider recognition this year, borne out by the fact that she’ll round out the year playing venues as big as Shepherd’s Bush Empire. ‘Tramps’ veered between oblique, discordant guitar vignettes and beautifully simple acoustic laments; an array of guest appearances from members of The National, Beirut, and The Walkmen added a nice pedigree to a record which, even without such embellishments, could stand alone as a beautifully crafted piece of sonic art. Van Etten is often, and rightfully, mentioned in the same breath as Cat Power, but she possess a distinct artistic identity. At the outset of 2012, ‘Tramps’ reminded us that a massively talented singersongwriter, with fire in her belly and a willingness to bare her soul through her music, is a rare but very precious thing. CW
Sp a c e G h o s t P u r r p Mysterious Phonk: The C h r o n i c l e s Of Sp a c e g h o s t p u r r p
16 Japandroids C e l e b r a t i o n R o c k (Polyvinyl) R e l e a s e d : J u n e 4
(4AD) R e l e a s e d : J u n e 4
||||||||||
||||||||||
‘Mysterious’ and ‘Phonk’ – if those words don’t say it all, they at least come pretty close. This year, Florida’s SpaceGhostPurrp compiled and re-polished material from his various viral mixtapes for this, his debut album proper, released, almost bafflingly, by 4AD. Notably, he hasn’t lost his head since, staying put for the remainder of 2012 in hiphop’s underworld, refusing interviews (we’ve tried) and writing in what the Klan call Raider hieroglyphics (the frivolous use of Xs and Vs that make track titles on ‘Mysterious Phonk’ impossibly to decode – ‘GXXT YVH HXXVD BVZT’ is in actual fact ‘Get Yah Head Bust’). Which brings us to ‘Phonk’ – work of a spelling bee loser on first look, slang for ‘Fuck’ on closer inspection. SpaceGhostPurrp likes to rap about sex (‘SVCK V DICK 2012’), with a little bit of crime thrown in and, on ‘Osiris of Tha East’, a love for music that had this 21-year-old rapping from the age of 7. Lyrically, then, there was nothing on ‘Mysterious Phonk’ we hadn’t already heard, but in terms of production, shopping mall ambience, spliced porno orgasms and samples from Mortal Kombat made for subliminal menace on an album that was purposefully slow enough for us to hear every muggy word the Purrp rolled. An album of boredom, it was murky and homemade, transparently so, and increasingly addictive. SS
AL B UMS
(In The Red)
17
of the year continued on page 20
Inaction almost killed Japandroids. Inhibited by geography, frustrated by logistics and stifled by a lack of progress, debut album ‘Post Nothing’ was an apathetic statement to that effect – an album created with purpose and intent but released out of stubborn love and flat-lining dedication. Born out of a raw, one-take necessity and driven by a relentless energy and vitality, it was an honest, unfiltered soundtrack to freedom, ambition and kicking against the world. Characterised by anthems, if not the same lyrical ambiguity, ‘Celebration Rock’ followed in equally short, affirming footsteps. Japandroids didn’t just crank up the volume and leave us to colour in the blanks, they were determined to say more, even if it wasn’t vastly different. The result was a relentless, pulsating, punk-rock shellacking where every track was an anthem; every second was precious, every breath as breathless as the last. It made ‘Celebration Rock’ less a follow up and more an affirmation of Japandroids’ ferocious spirit. RY
www.loudandquiet.com
19