5. Ha Ha Tonka – Lessons
Ha Ha Tonka have long been on my radar, surfacing on compilations and blogs and providing the “who are we listening to?” pastime at local pubs. They’ve been around for a decade, but I gave my first serious listen to Lessons and found an album brimming with immediacy but also one that would reveal more iteratively. A band shaped by vintage folk and Celtic pop but having a knack for elastic rock dynamics. A band displaying skilled musicianship but tight songwriting. There is a joyous, tribal sound to the opening three track punch of “Dead To The World”, “Colorful Kids”, and “Staring At The End Of Our Lives”. The lyrics of self-doubt, anxiety, and missed opportunities are directly at odds with the bright, spirited music. Title track and album centerpiece “Lessons” is a guitar-driven jam-rock machine of pulsing beats and a swirling hypnotic mantra about learning (or not learning) from past mistakes. Later, the light and dark parallel tracks are entangled on the excellent and soaring “Rewrite Our Lives” and the haunting “Terrible Tomorrow”. There’s almost two distinct albums throughout this awesome collection: the underlying mountain-rock songs and the enduring, eccentric Wilco-like far-reaching vibes. There is an extensive sonic palette but it never gets lost in it’s own sound, instead using the instrumentation as a companion to the strength of the songs. It grew into an absolute favorite but resonates on first listen.
Ha Ha Tonka – Lessons
4. Queens Of The Stone Age – …Like Clockwork
I’m usually not expecting a Queens release, then it punches me hard in the gut and hurts satisfyingly well. Their particular brand of brooding hard rock strikes me with formative progressive guitar licks and song structures that are instantly gripping but far from trite. This album delivers some of the best rock of the year from the gloomy convulsion-creating bass lines of opener “Keep Your Eyes Peeled” to several triumphant chunky head bangers including “I Sat By The Ocean” and the phenomenal “My God Is The Sun”. The album displays an edgy complexity but with cool brilliant cohesion. There’s also Josh Homme’s powerful warbling falsetto, put forth with such arrogant swagger that most could not get away with from my perspective. When the album is not pulsing with aggression, it’s using dynamics to create beautifully dark and eerie soundscapes. It’s my opinion that most modern rock falls into one of two troubling categories: relying on musical skill and bombast while not able to present an expressive statement, or worse, writing good songs but lacking truly creative structures and artistic venture. As “Smooth Sailing” puts it: “I blow my load over the status quo!”, …Like Clockwork defies these notions, and rock music is better because of it.
Queens Of The Stone Age – My God Is The Sun
3. Local Natives – Hummingbird
If you have ever had a mood-changing experience when listening to an album and afterward felt you were just different, then you already know what Local Natives are about. It’s an ethereal feeling akin to spring mornings around loved ones that seem to bring fondness of life to new levels. It’s tough to approach this album comparing it to 2010′s phenomenal Gorilla Manor, because it expressly comes from a different place. The tribal rhythmic beats still drive several songs, but play second to the subtly textured, vast song structures. “Breakers” is instantly catchy, but its real art lies in building sonic layers, deconstructing them, then launching all the parts back at the listener. “Heavy Feet” describes vivid memories of a past relationship while “Colombia” couldn’t be more true this moment. “Ceilings” and “Black Spot” are absolutely beautiful soaring tunes with divine voices hovering above the lush music churning underneath. “Black Balloons” works easily in part due to a propulsive beat that nearly falls apart, and “Wooly Mammoth” features massive percussion and a stomping rhythm that kills. The theme of this tremendous release is relationships and some key phrases appear multiple times, centering the wide soundscapes. I feel emotionally exhausted but inspired after experiencing it. Hummingbird is a collage of nature’s shimmer both in message and feeling. It is an enjoyable first listen but the brilliance and beauty is soon fully realized.
Local Natives – Breakers
2. Okkervil River – The Silver Gymnasium
Okkervil River fleshes out story-telling alt-folk and 80’s new wave hooks through The River of Springsteen-ish Americana styles. It’s an adventurous album in not only the broad sound, but in the nostalgia of misguided childhood musings in a hometown that seems so distant now. Distant, unfortunate, but necessary and appreciated. I identify with those themes but more substantially with the exceptional personal songwriting and artistry of the entire album. There’s a yearning for understanding and some biting humor saturated in the mostly bouncy roots rock. I dig Will Sheff’s gruff and soulful voice delivered with slight punk attitude and the band’s construction of walls of sound even as the revelatory paint is peeled. “It Was My Season” leads things off with delectable piano and spirited rhythm and is soon a lofty rock song that can only be described as addictive. This quality soaks the entire affair, from the head-bopping and sweeping “Down Down the Deep River” to the Elvis Costello-ish “Walking Without Frankie”. “All The Time Every Day” examines how we fall short even when we try so hard. The incredible verbosity ensures there is some evoked emotion here for everyone, and together with music that makes you want to dance all night, The Silver Gymnasium stands as one of the best albums of the year.
Okkervil River – Down Down The Deep River
1. Kingsley Flood – Battles
Hard rocking Americana has never been more buoyant while crafting tales of everyman’s very real struggles . Battles is a diverse and dynamic celebration of rock and roll with Naseem Khuri’s rustic vocals and punkish sneer tying it together. Easing the listener in with the creepy folky “Don’t Change My Mind” is a perfect foreboding step to the earthy trail ahead. The ending transitional chords segue to the charging and triumphant “Sun Gonna Lemme Shine”. You’d have a hard time finding a more lively song, although “Pick Your Battles” might be it, with its jaunty rhythm, tasty guitar and organ licks, and boisterous vocals. The slower tempo tunes, like “Sigh a While”, unite lush orchestration and lovely acoustic balladry with multi-instrument flourishes. I love the propulsive distorted bass and guitar in the Blues rocker “Down”, and “The Fire Inside” builds from a lyrically wonderful sentiment into a jam of frenzied rock. Although the individual songs are strong, the central achievement of Battles is its ability to blend abundant rock styles into a cohesive timeless statement while never residing or resting on any one particular expression.
Kingsley Flood – The Fire Inside