Something Old, Something New, Something To Look Forward To (January)

Okay, so here are my first trio of recommendations for 2009:

Something Old: Minutemen – Double Nickels On The Dime

This section of my recommendations seems to have become synonymous with albums stuffed to the seams with songs (see previous entries Alien Lanes and Pink Flag), but this 1984 milestone from the San Pedro, CA punksters eclipses them all. Wanting to answer the magnum opus of SST labelmates Hüsker Du’s Zen Arcade, the Minutemen crammed DNOTD with an incredible 43 songs so that it spanned 70+ minutes. There’s a remarkable array of styles, including the boom-chicka-boom of Corona (later used on some TV show called Jackass), strange, Pop Group-style tribal noise (You Need The Glory), leanings towards their jazzier tendencies (Don’t Look Now), surf-rock (Political Song For Michael Jackson For Sing), even intricate acoustic pickings (Cohesion). Despite the economical nature of their succinct songs, the trio were all accomplished musicians, not least the late singer/guitarist D Boon, a true guitar hero with the ability to switch between abrasive Gang Of Four-style clang to inventive speed-of-sound solos at the drop of a hat.

If you like this, try: Gang Of Four – Entertainment (1977), Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)

Something New: Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Is there anything left to say about this album that hasn’t already been said? Amidst delirious levels of hype and acclaim, Animal Collective have delivered an astounding album which culminates the best bits of their entire career: the shimmery, ethereal feeling of first album Spirit They’re Gone Spirit, They’re Vanished combined with the energy of recent releases, all dressed up in lavish electronics, extraordinary levels of bass and layers of sound effects which ooze detail. What makes it feel like the work of humans rather than machines is the enthusiastic vocal interplay between Panda Bear and Avey Tare, coupled with their best and warmest lyrics to date. Along the way, they re-invent glam rock, minus the guitars (Summertime Clothes), rave music (Brother Sport), and much more besides. For sure it’s their most accessible and cohesive album thus far, but to call it their “pop” album does an enormous injustice to the levels of creativity, and AC’s typical neglect for conventional songwriting. Merriweather Post Pavilion sets a ludicrously high benchmark for the rest of the class of ’09 to follow and with the decade drawing to a close, this is right up there with the best the last 10 years have had to offer.

If you like this, try: Panda Bear – Person Pitch (2007), The Ruby Suns – Sea Lion (2008)

Something To Look Forward To: Beirut – March Of The Zapotec/Holland

February sees Beirut – aka 22-year old Zach Condon – release a duo of EPs. The first, March Of The Zapotec, sees Zach move his cultural leanpost from East Europe to Mexico, as he recruits a 19-strong funereal marching band to capture the sounds of Mexican small-town folklore. On the second offering, Holland, Zach resumes his old guise Realpeople, which he used before Beirut for his bedroom projects. Holland promises to eschew the world-music aesthetics of his other work in favour of synth-pop reminiscent of his heroes The Magnetic Fields before they got too concept-heavy with their albums: Zach claims that when he runs into writers block under the Beirut moniker, this is his default setting. Both should add to what is becoming an astonishingly prolific and diverse body of work for one so young.

If you like his earlier work, try: A Hawk And A Hacksaw: The Way The Wind Blows (2006), The Magnetic Fields – Get Lost (1995)