Board 8 > It's Everything Time: The Music of 2011 in Review. By Giggs.

(+) Yeah! (+)

...it's happening again!

It's been a bit of a weird year for music. One album highly placed here I only initially looked up to laugh at how bad I was certain it would be. There's an album in my top ten that I think I've only listened to start to finish once. And most seemingly damning of all, there's a bona fide post-rock record in my top five. In 2011.

I know, right?

Rest assured, though. It's actually been a great year. Not so great that I'm going ahead with my utterly insane original plan to talk about every album I've heard all year, but still. The revised plan is for a top 25 (mainly just to pettily one-up Vince's disgustingly inferior list), perhaps with little mini-lists or thoughts interspersed throughout. And if at any point you want my thoughts on any album that's not on here then I'll happily oblige.

Oh, and I'm also planning to keep the write-ups brief this year.

...Yeah.

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And if you don't know, now you know.

it's everything time? gang gang dance for #1 confirmed

also not to steal your thunder, but i'm starting mine of the 1st of january so hurry up


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ICON:
Can I kick it?

last year the topic was named after an arcade fire song

it's safe to say album quality isn't the only factor considered

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And if you don't know, now you know.

Tagaroo.

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Surskit
.-#Elements of Water#-.

Top 25? Didn't you do 50 last year?

I discovered quite a few I hadn't heard and liked from your list last year. 25 will hardly suffice.

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Menji~
Congrats to SuperNiceDog: "Rivalry Rumble" Guru Champion!

I did do 50 last year, but I honestly don't have the time to do so many write-ups this time around.

I can post an out-takes list or give you specific recommendations if you'd like, though!

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And if you don't know, now you know.

good write-up though I have bad as me in my top ten

25. Tom Waits - Bad As Me

Genre: Tom Waits

1. Chicago (2:15)
2. Raised Right Men (3:24)
3. Talking at the Same Time (4:14)
4. Get Lost (2:42)
5. Face to the Highway (3:43)
6. Pay Me (3:14)
7. Back in the Crowd (2:49)
8. Bad As Me (3:10) )
9. Kiss Me (3:41)
10. Satisfied (4:05)
11. Last Leaf (2:56)
12. Hell Broke Luce (3:57)
13. New Year's Eve (4:32)


No good, you say? Well that's good enough for me!

The critical consensus on Bad As Me seemed to be that, in the most basic terms, it is good. And given that it's on this list, I think you can probably infer that I agree. They then largely went on to state (it's true, even pitchfork reviews sometimes have words underneath the score) that Waits is as powerful a creative force as ever, and that such a fact is truly astonishing given his steadily advancing years. Which is where I start to pull away.

Firstly, I'm fairly sure Tom Waits was born an old man. In the 70s, he was a sad old man. In the 80s, he transformed into a crazy old man. If anything, he's finally begun to grow into a body befitting his lifelong personality.

And secondly, it's just not accurate to say Waits is that original or as vital here. None of the songs here are bad, but a fair few seem do distinctly uninspired, especially given the seven-year gap since Real Gone. And the depraved, manic and brilliant Hell Broke Luce excepted, nothing here really covers new ground whatsoever. On the other hand, I don't think anyone either expected nor wanted Waits to drastically reinvent himself here, and I don't think the 17th album in an artist's discography essentially acting as a concise summation of his oeuvre is anything to complain about.

What is a little more worrying, and harder to pinpoint, is how Bad as Me seems to function almost entirely in extremes; of the thirteen songs here, seven are completely edgeless ballads, and five of the other six are bluesy excursions of a fairly consistent intensity. It's not that all the ballads or all the blues songs sound the same, by any means - but there's not a lot of blending of the sad old man and the crazy old man here, and that makes a lot of the transitions (like when the rollicking title track appears out of nowhere after three straight bawlers) really jarring. It's a sad irony that Bad As Me actually feels like a less cohesive album than any disc of his out-takes collection Orphans.

All overanalysis aside, though, Bad As Me is still an absolute blast to listen to. The production is beautifully textured, Waits sounds great, and even the least inspired moments are at least fun. Hell, you could probably make the case that song-for-song it's the most consistent Waits studio album in almost twenty years. Which isn't bad for an old man.

Especially such an old one.



Recommended to: Anyone wanting to get into Tom Waits. Not many better starting points than this one.


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And if you don't know, now you know.

Since I forgot it last time...

NEXT UP: Jeezy takes a backseat.

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And if you don't know, now you know.

How many albums will be by bands I know this year?

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24. Snowman - Absence

Genre: Dream Pop, Art Rock

1. Snakes & Ladders (3:58)
2. Hyena (3:14) )
3. White Wall (4:11)
4. Séance (5:00)
5. Triangle (6:08)
6. Memory Lost (5:27)
7. A Vanishing Act (6:09)
8. Absence (6:31)


Down in the valley of the deep blue sea...

The world of Absence is a strange one. Part math rock, part dream pop, the whole album gives off an amazingly eerie beauty that is entirely unique to itself. Once you get past the two slightly hookier songs that open the album, the whole record is effectively an uneasy, ethereal blur. Some of the tracks, especially near the middle, drift by without you even noticing they're there. For all I know they might not be. I couldn't even tell you what Memory Lost sounds like, and that's probably a great song.

If I was a more innately talented and/or pretentious writer, Absence is the sort of album that would inspire me to write one of those anecdote-style reviews that tell you everything about the atmosphere of the album and nothing about the sound. Which is convenient, seeing as there aren't really any genre terms that accurately describe Absence whatsoever. I've seen terms like "ghost rock" and "nightmare pop" whimsically thrown around, and honestly they work as well as anything. Something I do find interesting, having never heard any of Snowman's previous material, is that not only is it decidedly gentler than their previous work, but they apparently wrote Absence knowing that they were gonna split up after its release. Definitely lends the album a certain Leaves Turn Inside You vibe. It wears it well. From a personal perspective, I can also say that it's by far the best album of the year to read Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World to.

All of that might mean something to you, or it might not.

You should probably listen to it. You'll see what I mean.



Recommended to: Seg, Rusty, icon, maybe Vince

NEXT UP: More of that white stuff.

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And if you don't know, now you know.

No more than six.

Tom Waits might be the only definite.

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And if you don't know, now you know.

I can't wait!

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i wonder where james blake will land after having a year to judge it

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Well, topping my list for most of the year didn't do High Violet much good in 2010!

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And if you don't know, now you know.

agreed completely about the Bad As Me write-up

that Absence album sounds intriguing and i will listen to it ASAP

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SuperNiceDog
all you need

TAG. Im expecting the one you only listened once in full to be Rome. I still havent listened to that, bad as me and the new tenhi. I fully expect that last one to be on here too. Ps my list rules your list drools

I'm surprised you're not shocked/excited about the post-rock album, actually.

You better not have ruined it by using RYM!

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And if you don't know, now you know.

Merry Christmas, guys! Seems like a fitting album to mark the occasion, too.

23. Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow

Genre: Art Pop

1. Snowflake (9:55) )
2. Lake Tahoe (11:26)
3. Misty (13:49)
4. Wildman (7:03)
5. Snowed in at Wheeler Street (8:11)
6. 50 Words for Snow (8:10)
7. Among Angels (6:55)


Come on man, you got forty-two to go...

If I really wanted to keep these write-ups brief, I'd just say that I checked out 50 Words for Snow because it was compared to Talk Talk, and now I will be checking out albums because they're compared to Kate Bush.

But that just doesn't seem fair.

Especially since, unlike Bad As Me, it really does feel like a pretty stunning achievement for someone of Kate's age. As far as I'm aware, she's never made anything close to this sparse or fragile before, but the first three songs in particular work so wonderfully that you'd think they marked the pinnacle of a career spent fine-tuning a very specific art. And even when the album later expands into more dramatic territory less to my personal taste, all it does for 50 Words for Snow as a whole is lend it a huge sense of scale and ambition.

The funny thing about 50 Words for Snow is how much of its time it spends expertly executing disastrous sounding ideas. Opener Snowflake, for instance, is a ten minute, stubbornly minimalist duet where her pubescent son role-plays as falling snow. The title track is barely more than Stephen Fry being Stephen Fry over a vaguely post-punkish backdrop for eight minutes. Most ridiculously of all, perhaps, Misty is fourteen goddamn minutes long. And that's ignoring the fact that it's about having sex with a snowman.

...You read that right.

But every one of those songs is great. Sure, Misty would be just as good at half the length, but it lives within such an effortless, Laughing Stock-esque groove that the extra minutes just kind of float by harmlessly. And Snowflake is just stunning - Albert Bush's boyish falsetto would be overbearing used almost any other way, but the minimal context it's used in almost reminds of Arvo Part's choral works.

As easy as it is, I don't want to compare 50 Words for Snow to Bad As Me too extensively. One thing that definitely stands out to me, though, is the difference in the origin of their respective weaknesses. Waits' weaker recent tracks almost all arise from over-reliance on old music tropes, and an unwillingness to truly push himself. My least favourite song on Snow, meanwhile, is an eight-minute bombastic duet with Elton John, which is probably the most popular fan choice for the best song on the whole thing.

You can see from their relative placements that I see very little difference between the two albums quality-wise, but 50 Words for Snow seems like the far more impressive record to my ears. And I don't find it hard to reason why. It's rare to find a record where the flaws contribute as much to the listening experience as the highs.

Simply put, I'll be listening to this in five years time. There are albums in my top ten I can't say that for sure about.


Recommended to: Talk Talk fans

NEXT UP: Giggs tries in vain to describe ambient music (part one of many)

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And if you don't know, now you know.

tagging this

not sure what for, yet, but there will probably be something eventually

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"30"

I'm pretty sure you'd enjoy every album thus far, actually!

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And if you don't know, now you know.

The only one I have is Waits, naturally, but I haven't listened to it yet

(cue Icon hectoring)

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HAIL THOMAS

I've listened to 50 Words For Snow a few times and I'm still not loving it like I do her other albums (except maybe Red Shoes which isn't so great). It's just so different! But I'm glad others are listening to her stuff. The Aerial albums are probably most similar to 50 Words and Never For Ever is my favorite if you're going to try to get into more of her stuff.

Great list so far!

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tag

Absence was excellent!

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Let's get drunk and make bad decisions
"Life is a bunch of stuff" -- Whiskey Nick

I haven't checked your RYM actually but I'm almost 100% sure the post-rock record is Mogwai's, which wouldn't surprise me. And I'm not big on them!

22. Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972

Genre: Ambient, Drone

1. The Piano Drop (2:53)
2. In the Fog: I (4:53)
3. In the Fog: II (6:01)
4. In the Fog: III (5:00)
5. No Drums (3:25)
6. Hatred of Music: I (6:11) )
7. Hatred of Music: II (4:22)
8. Analog Paralysis, 1978 (3:52)
9. Studio Suicide, 1980 (3:25)
10. In the Air: I (4:11)
11. In the Air: II (4:08)
12. In the Air: III (4:02)


Tim Hecker is a pretty cool guy. I don't see him as the drone-wielding messiah some do, but then I haven't heard some of his most acclaimed material. In any case, respectable artist fo sho. What got me really interested about his most recent release, though, was that it was initially pitched as a collaboration with Ben Frost, who as it happens is pretty much a drone-wielding messiah.

As it turned out, Frost is credited with little more than production and engineering here. But his presence is definitely felt; Ravedeath 1972 is a decidedly more wintery album than anything else I've heard from Hecker, and the Silent Hill organ and lovely, meandering piano melodies that wander through the album periodically are vintage Frost.

That's not to diminish Hecker's own contribution, of course. Hatred of Music is probably his best song ever, and sound-wise it's just a perfected version of what he's been doing for years. His knack for putting together solid, unusually accessible albums is on show here too; the structuring of the seven songs here into twelve tracks, none longer than six minutes, might seem arbitrary, but it gives the album a highly accessible, almost indie rock feel - far removed from the world of fifteen minute soundscapes.

Anyway, I'm gonna stop talking about this now, lest I use up all my ambient adjectives and descriptors before I get to better albums I have equally few ways to describe.

Listen to this, yo.



Recommended to: Pretty much anyone who likes or would like to like ambient.


NEXT UP: Everything.

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And if you don't know, now you know.

I just don't "get" ambient / drone music. Probably the closest I get is Stars of the Lid.

I dunno man, Stars of the Lid are just about as close to pure drone as it gets. Great band too; our tastes in ambient might be more aligned than you'd suspect!

I'd give a listen to at least the youtube links from the 4-5 ambient albums on here; you might find something that changes your mind.

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And if you don't know, now you know.

I should probably listen to that. I should listen to all of these so far I guess!

I'm expecting Owl Splinters to be on here too!

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21. Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact

Genre: Psychedelic Pop

1. Glass Jar (11:21) )
2. oo (1:03)
3. Adult Goth (6:15)
4. Chinese High (5:12)
5. MindKilla (5:16)
6. oo oo (1:34)
7. Romance Layers (4:25)
8. Sacer (5:39)
9. oo oo oo (1:25)
10. Thru and Thru (5:40)


I can see everything. It's everything time.

Even on first listen, I was amazed at how simultaneously fun and musically rewarding Eye Contact was. Every song here is practically overflowing with ideas. I mean, Glass Jar might be one of the most intricately built up songs I've ever heard, but that doesn't preclude it from taking eight bars out in the middle of it all for a silly steel drum melody that has minimal relevance either before or after its entry. And the whole thing is funkier than George Clinton's nether regions. Elsewhere, Adult Goth sounds exactly like everyone was hoping Biophilia would; the ludicrously named MindKilla sounds like The-Dream finally lost his mind in the best way possible and interpolates the lyrics of the lullaby "Mockingbird" for no apparent reason; Romance Layers almost single-handedly salvages the New Romantic movement...

I could go on. Very few albums manage to be either as fun or as good as Eye Contact is, and when they accomplish one it's usually at the expense of the other. Not so here.

With all those qualities in mind, I decided one day a few months ago that it would be a great album to stick on at a small party I was hosting. And my musically illiterate friends got bored and turned it off before Glass Jar had even really started.

Which, thinking about it, might be the best endorsement I can possibly give it.


Recommended to: Everyone from Mer to Seg. Everyone who isn't a complete misanthrope should find something to enjoy here.

NEXT UP: Third coast representin'.

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And if you don't know, now you know.

From: Giggsalot | #030
With all those qualities in mind, I decided one day a few months ago that it would be a great album to stick on at a small party I was hosting. And my musically illiterate friends got bored and turned it off before Glass Jar had even really started.

You expected them to sit through the 5 minute intro? Should've started at Adult Goth!

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Surskit
.-#Elements of Water#-.

I am going to listen to all of these at least once and comment on them. I expect you to do the same with my list, Giggs. (which you obviously will not because you are LAZY)


I just listened to Snowman's Absence and I have to say I quite liked it. I'd call it Nightmare pop if anything though! (that's a genre from now on.)

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That's awesome, Vince. Looking forward to your thoughts on pretty much all of them! You're right that I won't do it for yours, I'm afraid (honestly don't have the time), but I'm always open to try anything that sounds interesting or you sell well enough!

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And if you don't know, now you know.

Giggsalot posted...
I dunno man, Stars of the Lid are just about as close to pure drone as it gets. Great band too; our tastes in ambient might be more aligned than you'd suspect!

I'd give a listen to at least the youtube links from the 4-5 ambient albums on here; you might find something that changes your mind.

I guess I'm more specifically talking about the Hecker stuff that came out this year. It just bores me to death. Stars of the Lid at least has some semblance of melody. I liked the A Winged Victory for the Sullen record from this year, hope it makes an appearance later!

Loved the Gang Gang Dance record, but I hardly ever listen to it. I guess I just have to be in the right mood. I love Glass Jar - reminds me of fighting Jenova.

I just listened to Tim Hecker and I'm inclined to agree more with Giggs opinion of Ravedeath, 1972 than colliding's

so far so good

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20. Big K.R.I.T. - Return of 4eva

Genre: Southern Hip-Hop

1. R4 Intro (1:46)
2. Rise and Shine (2:44)
3. R4 Theme Song (2:50)
4. Dreamin' (4:06)
5. Rotation (3:02)
6. My Sub (3:05)
7. Sookie Now (feat. David Banner) (4:13)
8. American Rapstar (3:07) )
9. Highs & Lows (3:58)
10. Shake It (feat. Joi) (3:02)
11. Made Alot (feat. Big Sant) (3:43)
12. Lions & Lambs (4:11)
13. King's Blues (3:01)
14. Time Machine (feat. Chamillionaire) (4:41)
15. Get Right (3:55)
16. Amtrak (3:20)
17. Players Ballad (feat. Raheem DeVaughn) (4:13)
18. Another Naive Individual Glorifying Greed and Encouraging Racism (3:37)
19. Free My Soul (4:19)
20. The Vent (5:20)


"If it don't touch my soul, then I can't listen to it."

K.R.I.T. is a boring person to write about. Critics and fans alike love the guy, and even the rare dissenting opinion always still seems very respectful. He's also now big enough that I imagine pretty much everyone reading this topic with even the slightest interest in listening to Return of 4eva already has. And referring back to the first point, you all probably think it's really good too.

That said, there was a large portion of the year where I kinda wrote off this album. And there is definitely reason to - it's definitely not quite as good as its predecessor K.R.I.T. Wuz Here, and it follows that album's template so faithfully that such a comparison is remarkably easy to make. There also seems to be a slightly higher proportion of songs like Shake It and Sookie Now than before, and as fun as they are, they're not the direction in which I'd prefer K.R.I.T. to go, personally speaking.

At the same time, any and all doubts can be assuaged by just listening to the damn thing. There are so many great songs on Return of 4eva that it's almost ridiculous. The production is great throughout. The lyrics are great throughout. And K.R.I.T. himself is, if not quite the best rapper in the world right now, almost certainly the most endearing.

Oh, and The Vent is utterly heartbreaking, and probably my song of the year. As simply phrased as it is, "Yes I understand, what you're going through" is a remarkable refrain for a rap song to have. And that it genuinely comes across as believable is a testament to both K.R.I.T.'s nearly peerless compassion and soulfulness.

If his "proper" debut album builds on that, it could be astronomically good. Dude has a Black on Both Sides in him for sure.



Recommended to: ...You've all heard this, surely?

NEXT UP: The biggest musical surprise of my 2011.

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And if you don't know, now you know.

Neat list so far. Getting that Snowman album. I'll probably look through this for recommendations, but to be honest I haven't heard much at all from this year. Ravedeath is awesome though, and I expect A I A to make an appearance.

Also wagering on Tunnel Blanket for the post-rock album.

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Listening to Absence for the second time. This is freaking awesome. Thanks for ruining my list, Giggs. If I'd heard this sooner this might've broken the top 10!

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From: Giggsalot | #010
I couldn't even tell you what Memory Lost sounds like, and that's probably a great song.

Easily the most memorable song for me!

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Also wagering on Tunnel Blanket for the post-rock album.

Well, someone's out to ruin all the fun. Great call though, this one flew right under everyone's radar.

19. This Will Destroy You - Tunnel Blanket

Genre: Drone, Post-Rock

1. Little Smoke (12:05)
2. Glass Realms (6:52)
3. Communal Blood (8:13)
4. Reprise (8:18)
5. Killed the Lord, Left for the New World (6:33)
6. Osario (2:40)
7. Black Dunes (8:16) (
8. Powdered Hand (7:45)


For a genre that has contributed two albums to my top five of all time, I really don't like post-rock very much at all. Maybe it's the fact that a genre coined to describe Talk Talk can only really go downhill from there, maybe it's the terrible choices new bands seem make when choosing their genre idols to musically emulate. In any case, pretty much any time I see an album tagged post-rock these days it almost immediately kills my interest.

But considering all that, the genre had a comparatively great year. Even ignoring the as-yet-unidentified masterpiece way up in my top five, Nils Petter Molvaer released one of the best jazzy post-rock albums since the heights of Tortoise and Gastr Del Sol, and I saw Godspeed You! Black Emperor live for the second time in March. If you'd told me that eighteen months ago, I'd probably have fainted. Hell, even the genericists had a new Explosions in the Sky album to cheer about!

Which leaves Tunnel Blanket. The wildcard. The album I only looked into to laugh at.

The fact it's even this high is a minor miracle. And that's because, last I checked, This Will Destroy You were absolutely rubbish. Sure, the last time I checked was about five years ago, during my phase of afterthepostrock.com lurking when I hadn't quite discovered my disdain for the genre yet, but still. They fell into that same horrid, inspiration-devoid group of critically acclaimed bands as Yndi Halda and Mono, and that's a damn hard hole to wrench yourself out of.

So, spiteful bastard as I am, when I saw that their new album had a really low rating on RYM, I clicked on it purely to laugh at their expense. And laugh I did, for a time. The generic bastards were finally getting what they deserved! But then I saw that the album was also tagged drone, and that most of the negative reviews were whinging that it was nothing like their old material. Which got me both apprehensive and slightly intrigued.

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And if you don't know, now you know.

Having since listened to Tunnel Blanket numerous times, I can see why the old fans were disappointed. This is not a post-rock album. Sure, it has loud bits here and there, but they're largely unmelodious and feedback-drenched. It would be much more accurate to describe it as a drone album that occasionally goes bats***, than bring the term "post-rock" into it at all. If you'd like a comparison, think Sigur Ros' ( ) stripped of vocals and almost all structure, and you're more or less there.

What none of that guarantees, however, is quality. But Tunnel Blanket has that in spades. The purely drone tracks could almost pass for Stars of the Lid; the heavy, almost funeral doom-esque sections feel both necessary and deserved... it's honestly hard to say how the album could have come out any better. Even the so-quiet-it's-barely-there closer, Powdered Hand, which seems to channel a blissed-out Bohren & der Club of Gore of all things, works so well it might actually be the best thing on the whole album.

It's almost as though Tunnel Blanket exists solely to confound my expectations in every way possible. It's not even that it's good; it's not even the fact that it's damn near essential listening. It's the fact that it's utterly unique, and casts This Will Destroy You as pioneers in a sound that's barely been touched upon before now. It's the fact that if they build on this, they could make something truly spectacular. It's the fact, most of all, that I don't really care if they don't.

It's the fact that Tunnel Blanket is good enough to represent any band's peak.



Recommended to: Rusty, Vince

NEXT UP: More fun with drones.

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And if you don't know, now you know.

I've listened to a This Will Destroy You album once and also shrugged them off as just another post-rock band

let's hope this will change that view!

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drawing of me ©Lisel

Also I may have asked you this a thousand times already but what do you think of Spiderland? I never see you talk about it and it's pretty much essential to the post-rock experience! (as far as that can go)

Really up there with Talk Talk's later stuff, Godspeed and EitS (shut up giggs) for me!

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Good Morning, Captain aside, I don't actually like Spiderland much. Not sure why, especially considering one of my favourite Botch songs (Afghamistam) sounds like it could come straight from it.

Totally respect its originality and influence, though. It's one of those albums that I'm fairly sure I just don't get, and I listen to it every few years to see if that's changed at all. Thus far it hasn't!

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And if you don't know, now you know.

Fair eno-LISTEN TO IT AGAIN IT'S YOUR DESTINY

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I actually made a point of listening to their earlier stuff after this, and yeah it's boring as hell.

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I'm not a huge music buff, but I'll tag this anyways. Want some new stuff to listen to. Heh, the only album I remember buying this year was Ceremonials. >_>

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18. Deaf Center - Owl Splinters

Genre: Ambient

1. Divided (4:23)
2. Time Spent (2:09)
3. New Beginning (Tidal Darkness) (6:18)
4. The Day I Would Never Have (10:42)
5. Animal Sacrifice (4:33)
6. Fiction Dawn (2:32)
7. Close Forever Watching (7:54)
8. Hunted Twice (4:46) )


Deaf Center's 2005 debut Pale Ravine is probably still my favourite ambient album of all time. It merges organic elements with gentle field recordings utterly flawlessly, and is one of the few records I've ever heard that lives up to the overused "cinematic" descriptor. It doesn't exactly sound like the soundtrack to a black and white noir film that doesn't exist, as such - does anything? - but it does gives the impression you could overdub it on nearly anything moody and it would fit the atmosphere perfectly.

And I've heard nothing quite like it since. Deaf Center themselves haven't helped in that regard, only releasing a live EP in the five years preceding Owl Splinters, but that's also possibly a testament to how perfectly they nailed their target first time around.

It kinda goes without saying that Owl Splinters was one of my most anticipated albums of the year. And no, it's not as good as Pale Ravine. But what's immediately stands out is the fact it barely tries to emulate its predecessor at all. Sure, all the familiar Deaf Center elements are there, but they're arranged strikingly differently. In fact, going by Brian Eno's original definition of ambient music as music which is equally suited to close and background listening, Owl Splinters isn't even an ambient album at all.

What it is is an album of swells. The opener Divided perhaps sums this up best, a cornucopia of layered cello strokes that offers no distinct melody but instead a maelstrom of entrancing atmosphere almost impossible not to get lost in. And it builds, and builds, and builds. The camouflaged bass hit that signals the end four minutes in is one of the most awakening tones in any piece of music I've ever heard. Assuming you're actively listening, of course. If you're not, it's simply a blur of indistinct noise.

And most of the album follows the same formula. The only real deviations come in the form of the minimalist piano pieces Time Spent and Fiction Dawn, and the small sections of the longer-form pieces into which their influence bleeds. And while they're not as subtle as the more droning efforts, it's for that precise reason that they're so vital to the essence of Owl Splinters. Despite being ten minutes shorter, it's a much more demanding listen than Pale Ravine, and the way the piano vignettes diversify and contextualize the album as a whole without sacrificing any of the built-up atmosphere is expertly done.

Owl Splinters certainly isn't an album to listen to every day, nor does it deserve to be any higher on this list than it is. As a sequel to Pale Ravine, however, it works about as well as anything realistically could; it avoids the route of making an inferior copy of their existing work, and pushes ground in other areas without losing any of their signature appeal.

I just hope it doesn't take them six years to follow this one.

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And if you don't know, now you know.

Recommended to: ...I actually think my plugging of this got through to most of you already. Nice job, me!


NEXT UP: An exceptionally convenient release that allowed bandwagoners to mindlessly hate James Blake without actually having to give up all the excellent things about his music.

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And if you don't know, now you know.

Nothing tonight, I'm afraid.

Happy new year though!

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And if you don't know, now you know.