Cougar Microbes

1 – Mogwai – Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

Mogwai yet again releases an amazingly ambient yet centrally driving album filled with anticpatory progressions and songs that blend sonically disparate sections as if they were just one melodic chorus.

2 – Yeasayer – End Blood

Yeasayer’s ’End Blood‘ EP made the list thanks to its incredibly different acoustical musings from previous efforts. Described by the band as “two ideas that didn’t fit on (2010 album) Odd Blood” its a radical shift for the relatively newly established band, and hopefully the sound of things to come.

3 – Tech N9ne- All 6′s and 7′s

4 – Ashtar Command – American Sunshine

Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here

5 – Das Racist – Relax

Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here

6 – Sbtrkt – SBTRKT

7 – Yelawolf- Radioactive

8 – Atlas Sound – Parallax

Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here

9 – Sean Douglas –  If We’re Dying

Sean Douglas fills a void in pop music with somewhat of a Billy Joel and Elton John have a threesome with The Fray sort of vibe.  The emotions behind the songs are clear, the musical backing to his excellent and punchy voice is melodic and radio-ready, and the album as a whole works as a thoroughly orchestrated composition.

10 – The Difference – We Are Not The Same

TRACKS:

Mogwai – Mexican Grand Prix

Yeasayer – Swallowing the Decibels

TECH N9NE feat CEZA, JL, USO, YELAWOLF, TWISTA, BUSTA, D.LOC, TWISTED INSANE – WORLDWIDE CHOPPERS

“Mark IV (ft. Joshua Radin)” – Ashtar Command

Das Racist – Rainbow in the dark

SBTRKT – Wildfire

Yelawolf – The Hardest Love Song In The World

Atlas Sound – The Shakes

“Unconditional” – Sean Douglas

Out Of Order by The Difference

1) Gotye – Making Mirrors

Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here

2. Adele – 21

Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here

3. The Decemberists – The King is Dead

Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here

4. Rufus Wainwright – House of Rufus

A massive 19-disc box set of all the magic of Rufus—live performances, albums, singles and b-sides. Even though I could never afford this, it makes the list for best releases. And my Christmas wish list.

5. Bon Iver – Bon Iver

Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here.

6. Paul Simon – So Beautiful or So What

I have always surrendered to anything written by Paul Simon, but this album has charm and wit in spades. He even managed to hold back on that penchant for African drumming.

7. Florence and the Machine – Ceremonials

Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here.

8. City & Colour – Little Hell

Although I’m the first to admit this album doesn’t top City & Colour’s previous efforts, it says a lot that it still crushes most other releases of the year.

9. Cake – Showroom of Compassion

Made the Cougar Microbes Top Albums of 2011 list here.

10. J Mascis – Several Shades of Why

I’m not usually brave enough to name a favourite album, but this year it was easy. Mascis brings the power of Dinosaur Jr, the simplicity of bare and honest lyrics, and then his godlike guitar virtuosity, to bear in this true 2011 masterpiece.

TRACKS:

Eyes Wide Open by Gotye

Adele – Rolling In The Deep

The Decemberists – This Is Why We Fight

Calgary by boniver

The Afterlife by Paul Simon

Florence & The Machine – What the Water Gave Me (DhARMA Edit)

City and Colour – We Found Each Other In The Dark

J Mascis – Not Enough

Tv On The Radio didn’t take too long to follow up 2009′s brilliant ‘Dear Science,‘ and as usual didn’t disappoint. This time the Brooklyn outfit set up camp on the West Coast and the sunnier climate appears to have seeped through to these tracks.

With another mild change of direction the tracks on ’Nine Types Of Light‘ have borrowed some of the horns from its predecessor but definitely comes across as a more laid back affair.

Lyrically frontman Tunde Adebimpe and singer-guitarist Kyp Malone seem less preoccupied with tales of apocalypse and the end of the world and more focussed on making sure you tell the ones you love exactly how you feel for them. That this would be the last album Gerard Smith would appear on before his untimely death makes this all the more poignant.

Meanwhile, special praise should go to guitarist and producer extraordinaire Dave Sitek for realizing that the band’s sound needed a tweak and for incorporating some of the ideas he has been involved with in his “other” projects recently. TVOTR haven’t lost the electricity that initially made us fall in love with them, they have just refined the way they administer it to us.

TRACKS:

TV On The Radio – “Will Do”

 Last year I sat through a blogger and A&R roundtable organized by one of the majors in London. In between talk of “organic artist growth” and “breakout singles” The name of the Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, and more specifically Tyler, The Creator‘s ‘Yonkers‘ video,  came up several times as the label people seemed genuinely baffled by the success the collective were enjoying and the way they had gone about it.

Then in May he followed this up with his first non-independently released album ‘Goblin‘ acting as a metaphorical punch to the stomach. In between persistent arguments with his inner voices, tongue-in-cheek suggestions that  we  ”kill people, burn shit, fuck school” and general disclaimers to his position as hip hops posterchild Tyler spits some of the best venom since Eminem’s debut album.

Cole found himself asking ”Is ‘Goblin’ a comedy album? I still don’t know. Tracks like “Yonkers” are dark, featuring samples that seem to be pulled from horror films. The rhymes constantly reference murder and explicit sex, and flow slowly as if they were first written to be high school poems. The album confuses me to no end, and I can’t stop listening to it“.

TRACKS:

Tyler The Creator – She (feat. Frank Ocean)

 It feels like it was only yesterday that we started hearing about The Decemberists. It amazes me to think that the band has released six official studio albums earning a spot amongst indie rocks biggest success stories. Cougar writer Emily added them to her list describing ‘The King Is Dead‘ as “A folky album with well-crafted song after well-crafted song; it is the quiet and beautiful dark horse in my collection this year“.

Jazmin mused that ” Something that makes The Decemberists one of my favourite bands is their ability to make each of their albums so very different but yet distinctively Decemberists-esque. The folk undertones of ‘The King is Dead’ are absolutely no exception.

Perhaps their best album since ‘Your Majesty’, ‘The King is Dead’ is the perfect mix of beautifully crafted acoustic melodies such as ‘June Hymn’ and singalong anthems such as ‘This Is Why We Fight’. If the best bands are those that keep evolving, The Decemberists’ 2011 outing is a case study in why they’re already a step ahead of the rest“.

TRACKS:

The Decemberists – This Is Why We Fight

 With “Swag” seemingly chosen as the buzz word for 2011 it was appropriate that Jay-Z and Kanye West‘s long rumored collaboration had tons of it. . Having set the bar very high with last year’s ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy‘ it seems anything Kanye touches turns to gold and Jay-Z also has the midas touch again reminding us how much better than everyone else he is. ‘Watch The Throne‘ gives the rap megastars an opportunity to make as many outlandish and likely true boasts as they possible can over a tight production.

Cougar scribe Olivia said: “Take Jay Z and Kanye West, you expect something epic, huge and over the top ( just like the massive promotion around the album ), a mix of Kanye‘s creativity and Jay‘s flow , so something perfect basically. Indeed it is a great album. Considering the amount of talent in this twosome have that’s not too surprising“.

TRACKS:

Jay-Z & Kanye West – Ni@#as In Paris ft. T.I. (Remix)

 Metronomy‘s 3rd release seems distant from the discopop the band first made their name for. Frontman Joseph Mount re-imagines his home town of Totnes in Devon as a sun kissed and hip destination where people come to relax and forget about their troubles.

It may be slightly removed from the truth, global warming permitting, but this thematic idea acts as the pillar upon which the band build their pop gems.

Cougar writer Olivia said of ‘The English Riviera‘ that “Metronomy‘s style keeps on changing or rather ‘evolving’ as band members come and go, so sometimes it’s quite difficult to follow. ‘The English Riviera‘ sounds nothing like their previous albums, but rather resembles something Hot Chip or Phoenix would cook up.

The music encompasses both dance and indie music building on a basic beat and catchy vocals. It’s a simple formula but it definitely works“.

TRACKS:

Metronomy – The Bay

Metronomy – The Look

Holy Grail Alert! ‘The most famous unfinished album in rock & roll history’ as Rolling Stone recently called it is finally… available.

Like many fans of The Beach Boys I am thrilled about the release of SMiLE Sessions. ‘Pet Sounds‘ might be considered one of the greatest albums of all time, but the SMiLE Sessions surely represent the Californians‘ true masterpiece. Al Jardine, Mike Love and Brian Wilson have worked hand in hand with Capitol/EMI to collect and pile up the 66/67 sessions in order to finally release the album, and the result is sublime.

For those who might not be aware these recordings have acquired legendary status over time taking on mythical propotions. Bringing it to life now is plainly surreal. Originally he album was supposed to be released subsequently to ‘Pet Sounds‘, but because of Wilson‘s (mental) health issues, the growing animosity within the band and their problems with the record company… it never saw the light of day.

Anyway, to add to our excitement/happiness, The Beach Boys have created all sorts of videos to go with the release, including an animated video of the long-awaited ‘Heroes and Villains‘ and interviews of the band members talking about the whole experience and the album’s creation.

I think this BBC quote precisely illustrates this magnificent album: ‘Memories are fuzzy, but the music now it’s here is pure and gorgeous, the familiar mesh of brotherly voices exquisite as ever.’

Go listen to this musical milestone, nothing more needs to be said.

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Post by Olivia
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TRACKS:

The Beach Boys – Good Vibrations (8-Bit) by 8 Bit Songs