Album Review | the xx | Coexist

I'm sensing a theme here

Full disclosure: the xx can do no wrong in my eyes. I've been waiting for this album for years, and the day I finally picked it up was like Christmas in September. I'm probably the worst person to provide an unbiased review of their beautiful sonicscapes, so don't read this expecting to find me harping about how the band should grow instead of regressing and peeling back their sound. Is this album different than their debut xx (reviewed by me here!)? Sure is. Does it make it any worse? Hell no. I'm going to try and answer whether or not they made it as good, or possibly even better.

How am I going to do that you ask? Well, with words of course, but also my (newly patented - don't steal this shit) xx-rating system. Was it good? Cool, we'll give it one x. Was it stellar? We'll give it a full two x's. Could they probably have left it off the album and it wouldn't have mattered? No x's for you! A somewhat limited system, yes, but here's why it works: the xx don't make bad music. It's not grating, it's not particularly challenging, and it's not annoying. If anything, you might fault the group for taking a turn to the boring with this album, but it depends on your tastes. This trio doesn't half-ass anything though; you can hear the work they put into each song, and the meticulous care veritable bandleader Jamie xx takes with each track. Read on:

1 | "Angels" |  

When I unwrapped the CD and threw it on in my car, I swear this song ran chills through my body. I'd been compulsively listening to this track since it was released in the summer, but it was wholly different playing in my car than it was on my phone or laptop; the plucking guitar, the deep, deep bass drum, and Romy Madley-Croft's tender voice made this a can't-miss single either way. That guitar? Damn if it doesn't evoke some kind of happy melancholy (I know that's not really possible). It nimbly flips back and forth between notes, setting up Romy's sad, sad vocals. 

So where does that sense of happiness come in? It's that really weird, deep, spiritual feeling you get when you encounter the holy or divine in the most depressing of circumstances. The same way you believe a loved one is in a better place after they die. The same way you take the bad things in life with a grain of salt, because you know someone up there has better plans waiting. "And the end comes too soon/like dreaming of angels/and leaving without them/being as in love with you as I am" is as powerful as it gets on this album. It's about loving, but still being able to let go. In that spiritual sense, it's about letting the afterlife embrace that loved one ("they will be as in love with you as I am") the same way you did. 

I could go on for days breaking down the amazing lines from this opening song, and it's only just a shade under three minutes long. "Light reflects from your shadow" can be interpreted as the warm afterglow of someone's departure. "And the end isn't known/but I think I'm ready/as long as you're with me" can speak figuratively to a higher power, or literally to knowing that someone you love is going to be right there with you along the way. I'll never get tired of this song. I'll never stop feeling the deep emotions it evokes. I'll probably never stop getting the chills when those first few notes are strummed.

2 | "Chained" | 

Now it's Oliver Sim's turn on vocals, though Romy jumps in a few beats later to help out with one of the many duets on this album. That's one thing: this album makes stunning use of the interplay of the two distinct voices. It's not new territory - xx mined it well some years ago - but it's an area whose genius is oft overlooked in indie music. When it is broached, the results are usually memorable: Alphabeat's Scandanavian pop gems, Peter, Bjorn, and John on "Young Folks", Tegan & Sara's everything...there are so many examples of two voices being better than one; the xx are simply continuing that art.

"Angels" and "Chained" were the two singles this summer, released a few weeks apart, but serving as tantalizing bait for the new album. "Chained" is even shorter than the other track, with one of my favorite comments on the YouTube video for the song being "2:48...worst part" (that's the endtime of the song, folks). This made it mind-numbingly replayable [spellcheck tells me both of those aren't words], but for a reason I was eventually able to place my finger on: there's such consistency throughout the song, such un-noticed repetition, that you could play it five times over without realizing you've been listening to the same song over and over and over again. Aside from the initial cymbal-rattling, it's basically one beautiful drone of Burial-inspired, off-kilter machine drums, and Romy and Oliver's call-and-response.

The other very strange, very weird-for-music part of "Chained"? It goes somewhat with the point above about repetition, but try and follow here: 1.) if you think this is a good song, you will like it, 2.) if you like it, you will find it too short, 3.) if you find it too short, you will keep playing it over and over, 4.) if you keep playing it over and over, you realize its sameness makes it hard to realize where exactly in the song you are, unless it's the start, end, or seconds-long break right before the end, 5.) at a certain point, you hear the "bom-ba-dun" and expect the song to end as soon as it started. 

Did you follow that? Alright, let me take it one step further. That constant fear of the song ending? That's what being in a relationship is like. "Did I hold you too tight/did I not let enough light in"? That's you being left wondering what you did wrong when it suddenly ends. I'm getting so meta right now that you'll forgive me if I'm not making sense, but the xx accomplish something on this track that goes beyond lyrics and music. They burrow so deep into your brain that the sadness you feel for the song ending is the same sadness they're trying to convey through the lyrics themselves. I'll stop now before the sphere turns back into itself.

3 | "Fiction" |  --

There's propulsiveness behind this track, but nothing that's really doing it for me. The drums aren't too bad, but nothing exciting kicks in until a minute on, and then it's the same steel-drum-y guitar that's featured in "Angels". It's dark, and it fits the mood, and when the guitar gets going again around 1:30 in, it's not the worst song, but given its wind-down and overall blandness: coulda done without it.

4 | "Try" | 

This isn't the worst song, but it's not the best either. It's more sparse even than "Fiction", which actually works to its advantage. The whining synth in the background makes it slightly annoying to listen to, but the duet is back in force here, and carries the track when it needs it. Most of the xx's songs sound like you're trapped in a cave, but when there are two talented singers sharing that cave with you, it makes that darkness a bit more bearable. Romy delivers a particularly good vocal performance here, with the instrumentation dialed down around her, letting such great vocal chops shine through. It helps that the whining synth disappears around then too...only to reappear with 30 seconds left. But on the whole, not a bad tune.

5 | "Reunion" | 

 If you want to talk about one-two punches (and I have), Coexist has to be one of the few great albums I've heard with two such distinctly great pairings on the same LP. Now, this is all relative. A great album can be great on the whole, but there can still be pairs (or trios, or whatever) of better-than-the-rest songs on an album. "Angels" and "Chained" are one such pairing, "Reunion" and "Sunset" are the other. 

It's the first track that offers a glimpse of all the side-work Jamie xx did in his time off from the group between albums, incorporating his skillful use of Carribean-style steel drums with art-school indie (yes, the xx come from the same British music school Hot Chip did - they're not your average high school band formed in your parents' garage). The tune is interesting enough until about the 2:00 mark, when I initially thought the whole thing just kind of faded off and ended. It actually comes right back at you with a whole new vibe, Romy singing wistfully about "did I/see you/see me/in a new light?", Oliver joining her for a bar or two, then some downtempo, trance-y beats taking over the whole thing from there. Solid tune, great drumbeat transition...

6 | "Sunset" | 

...to this track, which is probably the most meaningful to me. I was still in the process of getting over a relationship when I heard this song. I still remember, I was driving across the bridge the morning after I got the album, and I paid close attention to the words that were hitting so close to home. Earlier in the summer, I had a talk with a good friend about how strange it is that people who are so close and intimate can simply stop talking like nothing had ever happened between them; like those times were with other people, or that it was in another life. "I always thought it was sad/that we act like strangers/after all that we had/we act like we had never met". That fucks you up.

Maybe music doesn't mean the same thing to you now as it did when you were younger. I hope that it doesn't. I've written on here before about how club and dance music is more appealing to you as you get older, because you know what it's like to go out and drink and dance. That applies to other arenas of life as well: break-up songs mean more at 23 than 13, and maybe even gangsta rap means more if you're dealing cocaine on the corner at 25 instead of hearing it glamorized in a Young Jeezy song at 15. I'm going to refract this back on indie music though. 

When I was first delving into the world of alternative, I read about how it was more emotional, literate music; stuff that was too tender or revealing for the mainstream, and was a turn-off to some. Taylor Swift? Yeah, she's popular, but how many people have truly felt the things she feels? Those kiss-offs she pumps out? I'm not a girl, so maybe they go through that and feel that way, but it's not relatable to me. Drake rapping about his money and all the women he's been with; I can't relate to that. Nickelback...they sing about relatable feelings, but not in any way I want to listen to. There's a certain art to conveying feeling without making it obvious that's what you're doing. The xx accomplish that beautifully on "Sunset".

The most surprising part? It's one of the more danceable songs on the album! The momentum comes from the guitar and drums, until an arching synth comes in, stopping the noise and draping the whole affair in deep, throbbing bass, before dropping the beat again. It's all got the feeling of dancing in a room that's adjacent to an actual club; you can hear the strains of dance music, but it's the faint warble of drum and bass, not outright aggression and sound. The nimbleness and understated rhythms of the xx are uniquely rewarding in that way.

7 | "Missing" | 

The common complaint I hear about Coexist is the sameness of the album. I'll give people that - it's almost hard to figure out what song you're listening to from track to track, which is why I almost have to give each song about a minute to realize if it's one I like or not. Some get there, some don't. "Missing" does a weird job of straddling that fine line. Oliver's voice is downright whiny and annoying at points in this track; when he stretches his voice out, it doesn't have nearly the same impact or beauty to it that Romy's voice does (total and complete digression here: you know who has a wicked voice when they really let go? Mo Kenney. That girl can sing. Just putting that out there. Saw her last week; my friend and I both agreed on that point.)

So the issue here is sticking with it. If the song was like everything after the first two minutes of "Missing", then it would get two x's. Unfortunately, the first part is only saved by Romy cooing "how did I/how did I/how did I" in the background. Actually, the lesson is, don't let Oliver try to sing that much. After two minutes though? Wow, that guy can get his soul-brother on. He takes over Romy's cooing part, they throw in some organ-sounding synth, and the whole thing sounds like the most gothic gospel church choir you could find on a Sunday. Call it a saving grace.

8 | "Tides" | 

Heck if I don't start bobbing my head unsafely around in the driver's seat when this one comes on. The drum hits are so expertly executed in "Tides" that it's hard to stay still. When the guitar comes in, it's the instrumental equivalent of Romy and Oliver trading lyrics. Again, the song starts a capella, so you're left wondering "what's going on here?" before anything kicks in (and that anything is appropriately an electronic kick-drum, if I'm not mistaken). Once it does though, there's the kind of momentum that is sorely lacking on a couple other tracks here. 

It's funny - the whole album is generally mid- to downtempo, but some songs feel the brunt of that more than others, barely inching along, while tunes like "Tides" and "Sunset" get the danceable treatment. I don't know if a more consistent vibe over the whole album (in terms of pacing, not sonics) would have made it better or just made each track even more indistinguishable from the others, but it would be neat to hear.

9 | "Unfold" | 

Another song that starts off slow and boring. 0:58. Mark that down. That's when Romy breaks in with an "ohh-ohhh" and it truly begins. It's also weird that they chose these two particular titles for these tracks; track 8 actually 'unfolds' much more than 9 does, and 9 has the undulating quality to its guitar you'd expect from waves lapping against the shore with the 'tides'. 

Whatever; this is still a really solid slow song, which is something lacking from this album. Where Coexist belabours with "Fiction" and "Try" near the beginning, "Unfold" kills it, in the best way. The solemnity is ever-present, but the band does a much better job of presenting it, keeping the song moving even when it feels like it might collapse under its own depressing weight. Never have "ohhs" sounded be-- wait, yeah, they have, but they work really well on, like, this album and stuff...

10 | "Swept Away" | 

Whoaaa now, a song that's five minutes long and with two words in the title? This is craziness by the xx's standards (nothing else actually goes longer than 3:57...or has more than seven letters.........I'm OCD). But that's not the only place this track diverges: if "Tides" offered a faint echo of what it would be like to hit the floor to an xx tune, they make it a reality with the beat-tastic drums in this tune. It's still not in your face, and it's not hitting anyone over the head with sheer I-can't-stay-off-the-dancefloor-ness, but it sure does a great job at trying for it. 

It's like everyone decided "meh, the album's almost done, you guys wanna muck around and try and do something vaguely upbeat?" Jamie xx must have obliged, because there are few words in "Swept Away", most of the song focusing on the multiple (which in this case is like, four, maybe) layers of sound, all working in conjunction to keep things interesting before the album closes out.

11 | "Our Song" | 

...then just as soon as that veritable dancing fever/fervor comes, it's gone, as the trio slows it down for the final track. There's still beauty in the slowly-marching warbles of drum and synth, but "Our Song" almost serves as fodder for those who attack Coexist as a let-down of a companion to debut xx, where the group has done this kind of tempo, but with better execution. That much is true of tracks like this, with there being more flourish and impact on the group's previous effort. 

However, it doesn't take away from the fact that Oliver Sim, Romy Madley-Croft, and Jamie xx have put together another stellar album that makes astounding use of space and sound, pulling together disparate influences like breakbeat and Carribean rhythms in unconscionable ways. There's a depth to it, a relatable meaning, that's absent in a lot of other music right now. The xx have always been so great at bringing something to the table by taking something off of it, and they've done it again on Coexist.

Halifax Pop Explosion 2012...in Haikus

Purity Ring on Thursday @ The Marquee (pic courtesy of @usualsuspectguy)

HALIFAX POP EXPLOSION! I can’t say enough about this awesome event every year, so I’ll try to keep it short here, and do what I did last year with haikus for each act I saw. One thing I feel compelled to do however is add a little snippet underneath where I have to say more about the show. Discipline is the hardest discipline, right?

Tuesday @ The Seahorse

Camp Radio

Were a cool Ontario bunch

Only knew one song of theirs

Kinda meh, whatevs

The Dudes

Wow that beard, really

Really fun songs and vibe there

Had to leave early

Tuesday @ Gus’ Pub

HUMANS

Oh man, what a show

Eminently danceable

We loved them so much

Okay, I could go on forever about these guys, so I’m stealing some of the words I left out for the above shows. Gus’ is nice and small, so the acoustics are great, and the stage is only a foot or two higher than the floor. HUMANS are just two dudes from Vancouver with a table of electronics, two microphones, and possibly a guitar. I don’t even remember. All I know is that they killed it, in the kind of quietly powerful way that ends up sticking with you for years.

I could compare the show to SBTRKT, who I saw at Osheaga this summer. Same deal there, just two guys and their electronics. Both guys have a mid-tempo sound, but where SBTRKT left you kind of head-bobbing, HUMANS were more body-moving. Each song built up perfectly, from the sparse backbeat, to the added layers, to the chanting vocals that would kick in like halfway through. Heck, everyone was so into it we even started adding our own vocals, which I have to say I’ve never experienced before.

That was the other thing. I haven’t seen a crowd embrace an artist so whole-heartedly as we did that night. Their first song was basically a 15-minute dance affair, at a volume so bearably pleasant that you could have a chat (and I did) with the people right beside you. Once that introductory tune was over, we applauded them. Maaan, did we give them a hand. This was the first song! You could see the sheepish smiles on their face for such a reception, and it was a genuinely great thing to see at a concert. HUMANS wasn’t just a show, it was an experience.

They kicked into their next tune and had us dancing anew. I only knew two of their songs that night, but hell if that mattered. I just remember dancing for what felt like two hours (it was only one), and the guys didn’t let up. Once they played what they said was their last song, we cheered hard and long for an encore, to which they obliged, with this warning: “Okay guys, we can play one more song. But that’s it – we literally don’t have any more after this!” Earlier, after the second or third song break, the feedback from the crowd was so amazing that the duo spontaneously yelled “Halifax is the the greatest fucking city ever!” That’s obviously not true, but the sentiment was nice, and maybe to them, that night, we were.

Wednesday @ The Seahorse

Kuato

Imagine your life

Set to an epic soundtrack

That was these guys’ sound

I’ve basically been explaining this group (one drummer, four guitarists, instrumental rock) that if you set every great and uplifting moment of your life to music, it would be these guys’.

Wednesday @ Reflections

The Elwins

Not that into it

Kinda old-fashioned group

Left to go get food

The Dudes (again!)

Secret guest that night!

Brought up free-styling MC’s

Was such a fun show

This was awesome if only for the fact that we got to see a full Dudes show after we missed about half of it the night before. They were announced as the secret guest at Reflections that night, and I was pretty excited to see them without the pressure of having to leave early to catch another show.

They rocked the hell out, and then – in something they apparently do at every show – invited up any local freestylers to have a go at it during their final song. No less than three people – in varying states of sobriety – took the stage, ranging from somewhat painful (but eventually redeeming) to refreshingly laid-back, to professionally-prepared (there’s no way the last guy didn’t write what he said before the show; it was that good).

Born Ruffians

Quite interesting

His voice is unlike others

Steadily improved

Thursday @ Olympic Hall

Elliott Brood

We barely got in

Quite dapperly-dressed fellows

Sound was very bad

Wintersleep

Sound still was not good

Slightly disappointing show

Left it early too

The only thing about both shows: not sure if it was just the venue (a high-ceilinged hall with a second level that might have been sucking the sound up to the underage kids banished there), but the sound was consistently bad. As soon as any guitar was strummed, the whole thing turned into a shoegaze-fest: just one layer of sound blending into another, which didn’t suit either of these bands. Both bands’ lead singers have very distinct voices, but they were largely lost in the shuffle of bad sound.

Thursday @ The Marquee

Purity Ring

Just kidding, I’m sad

Couldn’t get into this one

Still upset today

FUCK. Got there an hour early for the show and still didn’t get in. They had to tell us three times that “there’s absolutely no way you guys are getting in without a ticket” (we had wristbands) before we ended up leaving. That’s how badly I wanted to see this duo. Fuck everyone who went to this and said it was great. I’ve seen the pictures. I’ve heard the stories. I hate you all, forever. Fuck.

Friday @ Gus’ Pub

Lantern

Was a 1am show

Napped and almost slept through it

Really riffy rock

Saturday @ The Palace

Tasseomancy

Got there too early

Had to see their creepy show

Felt a little bad

Zola Jesus

“Wow” is my sole word

Such a stunning vocalist

Performed with bare feet?

Zola Jesus is from the Midwest. Zola Jesus has a Russian-sounding real name. Zola Jesus is 4’11”, 90 lbs. Zola Jesus has the voice of a seven-foot opera singer. Zola Jesus would probably be a hundred times more popular if she had a different name. Zola Jesus was the second-best show I saw after HUMANS. Zola Jesus, please come back to Halifax soon.

Saturday @ The Company House

Mo Kenney

Went to school with her

Blown away by her great voice

Great rapport twixt songs

Polaris Prize 2012...ODDS!

It's that time of the year again: the 2012 Polaris Prize shortlist was announced last week, and for me, it didn't really contain many surprises. So, instead of arguing about who deserved to make the shortlist (a group of 10 whittled down from the earlier 40 albums), I'm going to do one fun, cool thing, and one literary, pensive thing:

Inspired by a poster on CBC Radio3 asking today what Grimes' odds were for winning the grand prize, I figured I'd go through the Top 10 and give payout odds for the albums, based on their likelihood to win the prize.

(Forgive my self-important douchebaggery and pretentiousness for a minute here, and I'll back up my odds-making with the fact that I predicted 6 of the 10 finalists in a Radio3 contest, and it would have been 8 of 10 had I went with my gut instead of who I thought the critics who choose the Polaris would have picked [ie. putting Coeur De Pirate on my list for French content, instead of the more-interesting Handsome Furs album, which did end up making it]. For comparison's sake, the winners of the contest were tied with 7 of 10 albums chosen correctly. Which is all to say: trust me.)

Secondly, for the albums I've actually listened to, I'm gonna try and give a defense for my odds, as well as a brief snapshot of the record. I've heard songs from all of the artists, so where it applies, I'll at least rate that content -- but don't take it as me rating the actual album itself.

And we're off, in ascending order of their odds to win the 2012 Polaris Music Prize:

10 | Handsome Furs | Sound Kapital | Odds: 50-1

I actually love this album, and think it's the perfect synthesis of the sound Handsome Furs have strived for over their last two albums: the more acoustic Plague Park and the drum-machine-propelled Face Control (reviewed – by me! - here). What I didn't think the Furs would make it for (the ‘done-before’ synth-rock vibe of the album) was probably offset for the jury panel by the post-apocalyptic concept of the album. 

Handsome Furs have always seemed to deal with dark subject matter, and while it was more evident on the downbeat Plague Park, and less-so on the almost-jubilant, club-referencing Face Control, that dark nature makes itself clear on Sound Kapital, pushing the lyrics and vocals to the front, and the wailing guitars and drum beats to the background; the story seems more of the focal point, and not the music itself. A strange thing for sure on, you know, a music album, but I think high-concept albums get rewarded in the Polaris proceedings (as you'll see below). The musical chops are there, but I can't help feeling like this album just snuck into the Top 10, and I can't see it taking home the entire thing, let alone the awkward reception that would greet this recently broken-up duo if they did win (they’re also husband and wife, though no word if they divorced as well).

9 | Kathleen Edwards | Voyageur | Odds: 40-1

From what I've heard of it, this is a stunningly beautiful and mature record, aided greatly in ambiance by Kathleen's boyfriend, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver -- you can hear many of his backing vocals in the singles she's released. Those singles are all I really have to go off of though having not listened to this album, but I can understand it's Top 10 standing given those tracks. I just can't pass judgment on this one other than to say it doesn't have a great chance to win based on the Polaris' past history of rewarding higher-concept albums.

8 | Cadence Weapon | Hope In Dirt City | Odds: 30-1

Again I'm admitting ignorance and saying I've heard two songs off this album: the fantastic "Conditioning" and the underwhelming, menacing, lazy-rap, Buck 65-aided "(You Can't Stop) The Machine". On that last one, I'm pretty sure Buck is trying lampoon other rappers, because I've certainly never heard him with that kind of flow before ("solid gold Camaro and platinum sombrero"? Not exactly classic Buck 65). Anyways, I'm getting off-track, but I think a lot of critics really like Cadence Weapon and what he's been doing for the progressive Canadian rap scene. Again, I can't really see him walking away with the grand prize though. Plus, he was already Poet Laureate of Edmonton, so like, he's already won enough distinctions, right?

7 | Japandroids | Celebration Rock | Odds: 20-1

Once more, an album I really love (but not as much as their bigger-sounding Post-Nothing), but one that I don't think has the chops to take the Polaris. It's a great, straightforward rock album with standouts like "The House That Heaven Built"...but not much else that they haven't done already, and done better on Post-Nothing. I'm leaving it at that - surprised they snuck in really.

6 | Feist | Metals | Odds: 18-1

Man, I feel embarrassed that there's this many records I haven't heard in full on this list. I wasn't a big fan of her first two releases from this album, but recent single "Cicadas & Gulls" is downtempo Feist at its finest for me, and I've heard tell that this is Feist at her most mature and adult-contemporary. She's got the cred and the history to take home the Polaris, but those odds are still pretty high.

5 | Drake | Take Care | Odds: 16-1

Good luck Aubrey Graham. I won't be rooting for you.

4 | Yamantaka // Sonic Titan | YT//ST | 15-1

Rock opera? Singing in Japanese? Live shows where they dress up and play instruments that also double as reclaimed garbage? These girls are so all over the place that I can’t offer an opinion other than “hey, maybe the jurors like that kind of thing”. I can see them winning. I can see them not even coming close.

3 | Cold Specks | I Predict A Graceful Expulsion | Odds: 11-1

I just finished writing about this spectacular songstress, and I think her brand of sincere songwriting and soulful vocals will take her a long way in the jurors’ final-decision room. (Yes, a select panel of them get together at the end and argue about which of the Top 10 albums deserves to win and they don’t come out until they’ve decided on one. I’m pretty sure I love the idea, if only because it works the same way as an actual trial jury. And also because I’m pretty sure “reasonable doubt” doesn’t figure in at all, since we all know how that went…)

2 | Grimes | Visions | Odds: 8-1

My prohibitive favourite if not for the next album on here. Grimes was hyped up quite a bit before her release of Visions, and I’ve been turned on to her and her future-pop sounds since last summer’s enthralling “Vanessa”. The way she’s been going this year she doesn’t even need the Polaris, but I think it would be a great reward for the obvious hard work and creativity she put into this record. I keep coming back to the selection criteria for the Polaris and don’t see how Visions doesn’t tick all of the boxes; creativity and artistic integrity being the paramount ones.

Claire Boucher is doing something with music that hasn’t been done before, if only for reinventing the multi-octave stylings of Mariah Carey for the 21^st century. She’s melodious, she’s avant-garde, she’s passionate, and she does a bang-up impression of 90’s R&B crooning in a musical era when almost all of that is being done by falsetto’ed dudes.

In a year when Austra’s stunning and similar (and Polaris shortlisting) 2011 release Feel It Break would have fit snugly beside Visions on this shortlist – probably giving it a run for its money for the top prize as well –  it’s great to see arrangements, beats, and music like that worthy of the critical praise that’s being heaped on Grimes. I’d be thrilled to see her walk away with the $30,000 award, but I don’t know if she will…

1 | Fucked Up | David Comes To Life | Odds: 5-1

…because this album knocked it out of the fucking park. Fucked Up already won a Polaris for their album The Chemistry Of Common Life, and I’ve made it clear here that I think they’re in line to become the first group to take home the award twice. Two words here: Rock. Opera. It sounds ludicrous, but the whole thing works astonishingly well. I probably haven’t listened to something this year as often or with so much enjoyment in so many different moods as DCTL. It’s happy, it’s sad, it rocks, it mellows out, it’s searing, it’s cool, it’s crazy, it’s rational – it accomplishes every damn thing an hour-long play wishes it could, and does it all with the simple sound of music.

Well, simple doesn’t do credit to the fantastic musicianship on this album. The guitar tracks are multi-layered and each one of them would fill a stadium on their own. Together, they form music that you can listen to over and over again and find something new in every time. The drums are an underrated aural assault, while Damian Abraham’s vocals are the exact opposite – unfortunately, if anyone’s going to hate Fucked Up, it’s because of his grating and throaty hardcore vocals, belting out anthems with all the subtlety of an angry toddler. He’s talented though, and the lyrics are unreal, spanning from the love-lost story of “The Other Shoe” to the sword:sheath, dagger:cloak, prisoner:jail comparisons on “Ship Of Fools” to the ruminations of grammar and syntax (?!) on “Life In Paper”.

And there’s the other part of the winning formula for me. Many good albums try to tell a story; very rarely does one succeed so brilliantly. It may take a few listens, but this is an album about love, loss, meta-storytelling, and insanity. The thing is even split up into four acts! Fucked Up spared no creative genius in putting together David Comes To Life, and it shows. For me, they should be rewarded for not only such a bold statement, but for the impeccable manner in which they pulled it off. David Comes To Life is the album your favourite band wishes they could make, and I think it’s going to win the Polaris Prize come this Fall. I’d even bet on it.

When the city lights dim...I usually like to have a nap

Oh hey. Long-time no see guys. It’s been tough to find the time and the inspiration to post on here (as it seems to go every year really), but there’s nothing like the random, instant inspiration that hits you at those strangest of moments. In this case, it was while I napped on Saturday afternoon, half-asleep, with CBC Radio3 soothing my unexpected weariness. Even though I was barely lucid, my ears perked up when I heard Cold Specks’ “When The City Lights Dim”.

The song’s been on Radio3’s playlist for more than a month now and has even reached number one on their weekly countdown, but I can’t help but feel like in that moment, I came to appreciate it in an entirely new way. You know how it is when you’re drifting in and out of sleep and suddenly the most benign thoughts can turn into profound realizations about life, love, and everything in-between? At that particular moment Saturday afternoon, I can vividly recall rolling over and thinking “wow…this is a great song”. And the italics don’t even do that sentiment justice. I had a deep, meaningful feeling that “When The City Lights Dim” was some kind of spectacular marvel of musical genius. And Al Spx (totally a fake name, because I’ve read that her family isn’t exactly welcoming of her newly-found spotlight) of Cold Specks does everything in her power to bring that sensational statement to fruition.

When jotting down notes for this song, I wrote one thing: the three separate parts. I’m a fan of ‘compartmentalized’ music, but not in the traditional “verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus” sense. I like songs that mix things up; that throw you for a loop - one of my all-time favorites is Broken Social Scene's "It's All Gonna Break": nine minutes of horns, guitar, and what seems like five wholly different songs. In this case, Cold Specks starts the ballad off with a plaintive wind-chiming sound backing her soulful vocals and non-sensical lyrics (“the CN tower will blow (glow?) into me/guide my brother home/I was as calm as a child”), transitioning into the subtly-powerful chorus.

After that? A respite of silence, then cue the drums, the faintest of choirs in the background, and more impassioned singing from Al. This all leads to the second chorus, a gospel-like rendition with the dark sway of funeral procession, and the horn section of the most depressing morning Reverie the military could concoct. Finally, the tune slows down again; the percussion retreating for a bit, the horns turning tuba-like (if only for a few beats), and the entire thing just grinding to a halt.

Now, what stands out most for me about Cold Specks is the commendable way in which she mixes the darkest subject matter (see: her first single “Holland”, basically about how we’re all just dust [no, not in the wind, but good try]) with the right amount of excitement and vibrant instrumentation to balance any perceived doom and gloom. This is an area – as a friend and I discussed last week – where Emily Haines of Metric failed greatly on “Youth Without Youth” a dark ballad told just like that: so deadpan, monotone, and dark that I shudder when I hear it and have to change the station.

So, do you want to watch a film noir literally in black-and-white, with dark lighting and horrible characters? Or do you want to watch a black comedy rife with interesting characters and odd colour palates and mind-bending scenery (yes, I’m drawing on what I know of “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind”)? That’s the fundamental choice between “When The City Lights Dim” and a song like “Youth Without Youth” -- and I’d personally prefer the jolting, weird dream than the staid nightmare the next time I’m having my afternoon weekend nap.

Top 50 Songs of 2011 | Songs 20-1

there's totally a lack of good NYE shots, so I'm recycling this one

Picking up where I left off the other day, here's my the rest of the entries on my year-end Top 50. If you missed numbers 50 to 21, click here, and if you missed the Honourable Mentions, click here.

20 | Memphis | "I Want The Lights On After Dark"

Memphis' Torquil Campbell will always have a soft spot in my musical heart, if only because he provides the male vocals for one of my favorite bands, Stars. Memphis is one of his side-projects, along with Dead Child Star, and if he can put out more songs like this one, he can keep doing as much side work as he pleases. There's an underlying sense of sexiness here - probably just from the come-hither delivery Torquil's always used for his romantic-pop stylings - oddly coupled with some palpable sense of fear or insecurity, denoted by the song's title. The "I was never really..."s he spouts only add to that sentiment, and the song is propelled by steady drum hits, tuneful guitar, and an uplifting chorus. Ending with repeated chants, the tune offers a lot, and stands as a testament to Campbell's formidable musical prowess.

19 | The Black Keys | "Lonely Boy"

"Machine-gun guitar". I'm pretty sure that's how Pitchfork described the opening stanzas of "Lonely Boy", and I really can't improve upon that description. The song starts off with that bang, and never lets up. Following the garage-rock ethos of the rest of The Black Keys' work, "Lonely Boy" is another feather in the group's cap - they make rock'n'roll seem easy.

18 | Fucked Up | "The Other Shoe"

A lot of these songs have little vocal quirks that really catch on with you and don't let go. Here, it's the relatively deadpanned initial delivery of "we're dying on the inside" over and over, a morbid proclamation that almost seems to build into confounding elation at some point. The lyrics are a real strong point on this track, as its one of Damian Abraham's better turns vocally, his yells and the guitars performing the perfect balancing act. "You can't be comfortable/with all the things about to fall" is another line that sticks with you, and they make sure of it, Abraham going overboard by yelping each word in the phrase in a neat see-saw fashion. The easy dismissal of Fucked Up is to call it screamo, but that ignores the amazing guitars, the great percussion, the skilled backing vocals, and the thoughtful concepts behind all of their work. "The Other Shoe" fits that just fine.

17 | Yuck | "Operation"

For the life of me, I can't figure out where these guys stole that catchy riff from. "Dun-dun-dunnn...dun-dun-dunnn...dun, dun dunnenenene....dun, dun dunnenenene". I tried Big Wreck, Sonic Youth, all the 90's bands I could think of that supposedly form the inspiration (source material?) for this bunch, but nothing was resembling what I was hearing in "Operation". Now, this isn't actually a story of discovery, since I still don't know why it sounds so familiar. It is however a testament that if you're new and you do something really well, a lot of people will think you probably stole it from somewhere else. Full credit to Yuck in that case for shredding so well on this song that I thought they were lifting riffs from other groups. When your shtick is that you're a 90's-mining rock band in the 2000's, being original is quite the accomplishment.

16 | Austra | "Lose It"

Ah, the keyboard is to die for here, at least until Katie Stelmanis' voice comes in and she puts her opera-trained pipes to work. As mentioned in the previous section of this list, what Austra is doing is unprecedented, layering otherworldly-amazing vocals over dance-y electro beats and bloops. "Lose It" is one of my favourite examples of that, with the various affectations of Stelmanis and the group's other singers coming to life spellbindingly over the propulsive electronic instrumentation underneath them. I swear I could listen to this song all day.

15 | Mother Mother | "The Stand"

Easy number one material here, and it probably is for a lot of people. The most interesting part of "The Stand" is that it's basically a naughty/philosophical/foreboding conversation set to song - and it manages to work astoundingly. It's unfathomably catchy, has some of the most memorable lines of the year (what's space like? "it's like paradise/spread out with a butterknife"...what?!), and that's even while there's all sorts of instrumental craziness going on around it; like, I swear I heard banjo and trumpet. There probably wasn't a more fun, funny, interesting, and awesome song this year. Maybe it didn't capture the top spot for best song, but it was certainly some of the greatest entertainment.

14 | James Blake | "The Wilhelm Scream"

I don't know if any of these songs gave me the shivers this year, but James Blake's performance of this song on Jools Holland's late-night show in the spring may have been the greatest live thing I haven't seen with my own eyes. To be able to reproduce electronic music so proficiently live isn't an easy task, especially given Blake's use of negative space in his recordings, valuing silence just as much as sound. The build is brilliant in an unnerving way, and Blake's lamentations on dreaming almost make you feel afraid of doing it yourself. For such a seemingly dreary song lyrics-wise, there's undeniable magic anchoring this song sonically, and it makes for the greatest kind of performance when married to James' top-notch singing. He may say he doesn't know about a lot of things in the song, but it's hard not to know this song was one of the highlights of 2011.

13 | Gauntlet Hair | "I Was Thinking..."

Fuzzed-out rock had an off year after so much success these prior few, and I have to say I missed it. I didn't discover these guys until the fall, but I'm sure glad I did. I've heard some Japandroids comparisons, but Gauntlet Hair is a different kind of beast - for one, there's a much sunnier vibe to their tunes, rife with bright guitar and the far-away-sounding vocals that are so synonymous with solar-tinged songs nowadays. "I Was Thinking..." is a weird tune in that I don't really listen to the music, and I barely know any of the words, even though I've played it dozens of times. I just kind of listen to the thing as a whole, almost as if the song is something that just "happens", and I'm there while it does so. I don't interpret it the same way I do other songs, or try to find or assign meaning, or pretend I'm playing guitars or drums or sing along to it. It just is. It's a strange thing for a song to be, and it's even stranger for something like that to be appealing musically, but its existence as a kind of "pleasant noise" doesn't really need to be explained. It's just pretty cool that it's like that.

12 | James Blake & Bon Iver | "Fall Creek Boys Choir"

Ah, I was wrong: it seems James Blake is making his fourth appearance on this list, not the three I thought earlier. The fact he does so with Bon Iver on this tune is just icing on the cake. Now even though many of the lyrics in this song are just as unintelligible as Gauntlet Hair's above, it's actually kind of fun to sing your own words along to it as best as you can guess: "I've been fucking up your road"? "I'll get foreclosed"? "Oh red phone"? I'm joking because it's hard for me to take this song seriously when it's Autotuned to the extreme, and when you can barely tell which one is James Blake and which is Justin Vernon. The saving grace is that the duo's choice of music to accompany their hilarious vocal romp is magnificent, and bordering on beautiful. If the Fall Creek Boys Choir was a real thing, I'm pretty sure they would dress really goofy, have laughably strange voices...and you'd somehow still love every minute of it.

11 | Grimes | "Vanessa"

Wait til 0:18 in, and once this song actually drops, it's five solid minutes of the neatest pop you'll hear all year. I don't know if I believe Claire Boucher's claims that she barely knows anything about reading or making music, but if she can make such amazing, sprawling tracks at such a young age with next to no experience whatsoever, then it's scary the kind of musicians (if that's even the right word) might come out of this digital age. Her voice isn't perfect, but that doesn't stop "Vanessa" from being a joyfully dark trip through electro-pop, keeping you wanting more from the up-and-coming artist. On a completely unrelated note to this song, I love that she called her EP "Geddy Primes". I'll leave you with that one for a minute...

10 | BRAIDS | "Lammicken"

BRAIDS ARE AWESOME. I don't know why they capitalize their name like that, but that's pretty cool too. Another group I saw perform live at Halifax Pop Explosion, their avant-garde musical stylings keep you guessing at which direction their songs are going to explore next, and their vocals keep you focused while the chaos builds around you, like on this particular tune. Basically four solid minutes of build, the payoff is astounding, and you'd be hard-pressed finding anything else this year or any other that sounds a thing like "Lammicken", or most of BRAIDS' other music for that matter. I love the direction they've chosen to take with their work, and this song is obviously no different, cramming a ton of emotion into one line repeated over and over again. Can't wait to hear what else this group has up their sleeves.

9 | The Rural Alberta Advantage | "Stamp"

It was hard to escape "Stamp" this year, and that was a great sign of success for The RAA. It was on the radio, the video was a cheeky hit, and the instrumental soundtracked a Molson Canadian ad of all things. 2011 treated these guys well, and even if their album had a few irrational songwriting quirks to it, it was great to see them make it on a bigger stage after putting out a debut album as stellar as Hometowns a few years ago.

8 | Hey Rosetta! | "Yer Spring"

Okay, now I remember getting the shivers to at least one song, because it was this one, on a drive home one night - and I'm pretty sure during their entire set when I saw them this summer, as they outperformed Broken Social Scene in my opinion at M Fest. "Yer Spring" is the perfect synthesis of Hey Rosetta!'s ballads and rockers, providing acute bursts of emotion alongside heartfelt lyrical swathes. "Oh man, I hate this part/when the car sails off the bridge/my knuckles white/my water rushing in...am I rising up?" just cuts through you, especially as Tim Baker's distinct voice repeats that last bit again and again, raising his own voice each time to mesh perfectly with the sentiment of the line. The various sections of "Yer Spring" are all shout-along-able, and the ebb and flow of the music makes it the perfect representation of the watery East Coast of Canada this bunch is from. Probably Hey Rosetta!'s crowning achievement right here.

7 | HEALTH | "Goth Star" (Pictureplane Cover)

So, this is kinda like a cover of a cover of a cover, as one of my friends pointed out that Pictureplane's original used Stevie Nicks' voice from a Fleetwood Mac tune for the distinctly-detached human voice sound-effect that pretty much makes up the chorus of both versions of "Goth Star". The greatest part about this song is that HEALTH is usually an industrial-electro-rock band, making squelching masses of guitar and drums somehow coalesce into something you can call music (and that description might belie the fact that I actually like their music). The surprise here of course is that the floaty vocals and tinkling sounds throughout completely throw off that notion of the band, and the fact that it's apparently one of their favorites to play live makes me feel oddly justified for liking these guys - it's like having a particularly talented friend you didn't know was also really good at something else.

6 | M83 | "Midnight City"

Somehow, this tune admirably follows up "Intro" on M83's album, which I gushed about in the Top 50-21 earlier. Anthony Gonzalez unleashed a masterpiece with "Midnight City", the snyths blowing the roof off of the song time after time, his vocals providing the in-between verses, and even throwing in a sick sax solo for good measure. The drum fills are another highlight on this track, coming in just before the instrumental chorus - which is something that deserves its own little write-up. It's always nice to see a song that draws on something like a non-vocal chorus as its proverbial earworm; that takes a lot of work by a master musician, or at least one with a keen knack for what's likely to get stuck in people's heads. Many people in the "indie" world may have probably become disillusioned by pop music's insistence on formulaic hits, progressing from verse to chorus to verse to chorus to break to chorus, one song just like the other. When that chorus instead transforms into something played and not sung, it throws that little bit of variance into the equation that elicits just the right amount of differentiation to pique your interest. "Midnight City" does exactly that exceptionally well - on Top 40 radio, "Midnight City" would have its titled repeated ad nauseum in whatever chorus its producers had chosen for it. Here, M83 lets the music do the talking, and benefits for it.

5 | Shooting Guns | "Public Taser"

Now, here's an example of song that let's the music do all of the talking. "Public Taser", and indeed Shooting Guns, came out of nowhere this year, and from the minute I heard the song, I knew I had a new favourite. I've already used adjectives like "bad-ass" and "awesome" all over the place here, and those just begin to describe this track. It makes me want to learn guitar. It makes me want to discover Black Sabbath for myself. It makes me want to grow really long hair and become a headbanger. It makes me want to do some kind of drug that would complement this song the best, so I could be on it and play this as the soundtrack to my trip. It makes me want to put it on in my car and take a drive around the city at night, or at least through some kind of montage like the start of a Sopranos episode. They say a picture is worth 1000 words? This song doesn't even have any - it just makes you want to do 1000 different cool things.

4 | Sloan | "Unkind"

Oh Sloan. They're so classic that when I first heard "Unkind", I thought it was some old song of theirs that had fallen through the cracks and resurfaced in time for me to catch it on Radio3 one random day. It's everything these guys have been doing so well for two decades. The guitar is fresh, the drumming provides that kick present in most of the band's work, and the lyrics are the usual fare - it's just the way that everything comes together that makes this song pure rock'n'roll bliss. I hope Sloan goes another 20 years, and keeps putting out amazing work like this that long from now too.

3 | Junior Boys | "Banana Ripple"

Wowowow. When I bought this CD and threw this track on, I just started involuntarily moving along to it, and I haven't stopped every time since. I swear the CD hasn't even left my car, and when I need a pick-me-up or something fantastic to listen to driving around on errands or when no one can agree what to listen to, this is what gets thrown on. It's so damn catchy, it's so perfectly executed, it's such a treat that you don't even realize that it's nine minutes long. I'm serious, there are maybe four or five other songs this long and this astoundingly listenable - and I mean that I've heard in my whole life. "Do" by Do Make Say Think, "Remind Me In Dark Times" by Shout Out Out Out Out, "It's All Gonna Break" by Broken Social Scene, and "Yeah (Crass Version)" by LCD Soundsystem are the only others I can think of, and nothing else is really close. That's really saying something for a song that only has two, maybe three distinct parts. Junior Boys don't capture you through endlessly looping dance beats, or mind-numbing vocal repetitions - they somehow combine their voices and the music into a compelling whole that you never truly tire of. I don't know if "Banana Ripple" is the biggest surprise this high on the list, but it's one of the most pleasant ones; a song I'll keep enjoying forever I hope.

2 | BRAIDS | "Peach Wedding"

After I saw BRAIDS play their show, I had to make sure I saw the band at their merch table, mainly to speak to their cute-as-a-button lead singer and tell her how much I enjoyed the show. Waiting for them to get there, I figured I'd buy the split 7" single they had for sale, mostly to help support the band. What I didn't realize was that along with that vinyl, there was a free download of the track "Peach Wedding" that was their side of the 7" (Purity Ring's "Belispeak" was the other). One neat and really geeky thing about the download was that while most high-quality songs are 320 kbps, and 8-12 MB large depending on their length, "Peach Wedding" was 831 kbps and 35 MB - I didn't even know such high quality existed in mp3's. Figuring I had a real gem on my hands without even listening to it, I grabbed my headphones and immersed myself.

Whoa. The waxing and waning of the snyth in the background, coupled with the water droplet sound effects splattering away in the background, added to the airy and beautiful singing, all rendered a completely spellbinding track. Why this hasn't even had on play on Radio3 is beyond me - it's BRAIDS' best work, which is truly saying something for a band that made the Top 10 for Canada's prestigious Polaris Prize for best album of the year. There is so much fearless emotion in "Peach Wedding", even though you have no idea what she's actually singing about, or even saying most of the time. That mercurial nature lends itself to a feeling of awe that overcomes you, being moved by something so unknown. I might be the only one who liked "Peach Wedding" this much in 2011, but anyone who hasn't heard it doesn't know what they're missing.

1 | Diamond Rings & PS I Love You | "Leftovers"

When I first put together this list, I put this at number one and never looked again. I kind of just left the list on my desktop for the holidays, and I was taken aback when I typed it out again for this blog - "I put 'Leftovers' at number one? Really?" Then I started to remember just why I loved this song: it's two of my favourite artists of the last couple years coming together for a rousing performance. Diamond Rings provides the vocal gusto, while PS I Love You bang their drums and strum their guitar in aid of the musical mission. Maybe it's the divergent styles - both musically and aesthetically - of the two different components as well. Diamond Rings is John O'Regan, a synth-utilizing, 80's-ish male diva who embraces gay culture and performs in Hammer Pants, full make-up, and gets pretty bejeweled on stage. PS I Love You is basically a drum and guitar duo banging out ferociously fuzzed-out tunes - and their most recognizable member is so because he tips the scales at probably over 350 pounds.

Anyways, I haven't spoken much about the music here because I think it speaks for itself: O'Regan deftly tells the story (genderless, as he always does) of a love interest who's traveling, or otherwise just away. "I've got your number and I've know that you've got mine/ten digits scrawled across upon your screen/and if you call I will be waiting on the line/ready to come over, I'll be leftover" may be quite simple, but the way Diamond Rings weaves the whole tale together and makes you feel part of it is the true accomplishment. Relatability is always essential to songs sticking with you and making a lasting impression, and if you've ever chased anyone (like I did for most of 2011), this song will speak volumes to you. So yes, "Leftovers" really was my favourite song of the year.