Round up the usual suspects

Since everyone else is doing it (OK, almost everyone), here are my fave albums of the year, and I’ll even throw in a few mp3s. These are alphabetical by artist. Later I’ll try to do a singles/songs list too.

Black Moth Super Rainbow, Dandelion Gum
Some genius stuff here, really energetic & creative. Although it’s recorded fairly cleanly, with each sound element discrete & identifiable, to me it still sounds almost oppressively fecund, like some teeming dusky jungle. But once you’re in you don’t want to come out.

Coltrane Motion, Songs About Music
Wrote about it here.

Holy Fuck, LP
Plus their self-titled EP from early this year, which was mostly rendered obsolete by this new full-length.

LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver
Not to mention the various alternate-version B-sides and the rereleased also-very-cool 45:33.

M.I.A., Kala

Plants and Animals, with/avec
Can an EP be on my album list? Sure. Wrote about it here. Looking forward to the full-length.

Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
While it’s obviously highly enjoyable, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga at first seemed a tad disposable. But it really came into focus a few months in; the little strangenesses reward close listening, while the pop and funk affectations make Spoon more purely pleasurable than most of their contemporaries. If this were, er, a ranked list, this one would be at or near the top.

Times New Viking Present the Paisley Reich
Here and here.

Vampire Weekend, “blue CDR” demos
Here. Saw them live a few months ago and again last week and was struck by the difference in crowd size. The buzz is building, I guess. Accordingly, the second time they seemed more confident, and they duly withheld “Oxford Comma” (the “hit”) until the end of the set proper. But dudes, if you’re going to be touring a lot, you gotta have some more songs. Learn some covers or something! (I never fully trust a band that never does any covers. But that’s my baggage.)

White Rainbow, Prism of Eternal Now
The latter ambient-roomtone tracks are perhaps a bit too minimal for my taste, but the stoner jams more than make up for them.

Among those bubbling under are records by Shocking Pinks, Deerhunter, Burial, Oh No, Tinariwen, and lots of others. Also it was great to see new reissues of Pylon’s Gyrate and Sly Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On. And a new Savage Republic that I only found out about recently and have not even gotten to yet. And I’m looking forward to checking out Miles Davis’s Complete On the Corner Sessions in the hopefully not-too-distant future.

• Black Moth Super Rainbow, “When the Sun Grows on Your Tongue” (buy here)
• Holy Fuck, “Frenchy’s” (buy here)
• White Rainbow, “Mystic Prism” (buy here)