Having Spotify in your life makes it difficult to sit down with one album long enough to really make friends with it—there’s so much available to you, you’re constantly aware that there might be something else out there you might like even more. But pondering the Spotify Effect deserves its own essay. The point is that these are the ten records that held my attention enough that I wasn’t distracted by the universe of musical possibility.
1. Real Estate—Atlas
This is one of those records that surprises you with its simplicity. I mean, these songs are so basic, lots of noodling around, inverted D chords and other tricks that have been done so many times, but I’ve been killing this record and hacking my way through its progressions on my on guitar for a year and it still feels fresh. Probably the best band I have no interest in seeing live.
2. Ariel Pink—Pom Pom
Ariel was discovered by Animal Collective several years ago now, but he has since far surpassed them in inventiveness and consistency. Songs just fall out of this guy’s pockets. But even though, by now, I know what to expect from an Ariel Pink record, he still makes me feel uncomfortable. I honestly feel wrong laughing at his lyrics sometimes, but that’s what driving around alone is for.
3. God Help the Girl OST
The “twee” is strong with me, so I’ve loved everything Stuart Murdoch and Belle & Sebastian and any other knitting Scotsman has done for a long time and now they’ve done this. I fell asleep a few times during the movie, but always woke up for the songs. It’s just so darn cute. One of the girls in this band plays the girlfriend of that one guy in Game of Thrones.
4. Angel Olsen
Will Oldham is one of my all time indie heroes, and I have a couple of funny stories about him you should ask me about some time. But the point here is that he knows how to pick collaborators and he once had Olsen sing with him on a record and that’s when I fell for her. I almost think the slower you play these songs, the better. If I knew how, I’d download some software and slow all of her songs down so that it would take a year to listen to this record and that’s all I would do for one year and then I’d write a book about it.
5. Courtney Barnett
People all confused Angel and Courtney this year and so I thought it would be funny to put them next to each other here.
6. War on Drugs
I first listened to his last record because I’d heard he was in the same circle with Kurt Vile and I still do kinda think Kurt Vile is better, but this new one is great to have on in the background. It feels like one long song that tries to recreate the feeling of 9:30 to 11:30 pm. That’s how I would describe it.
7. Ty Segall—Manipulator
This guy makes it so easy you think about moving to the left coast and starting your own psych-rock outfit. But then your dog stares at you until you take him for a walk and by the time you get back, you have forgotten all about it.
8. Mac Demarco—Salad Days
Mac Demarco is the worst dressed person in rock, a complete slob, but he doesn’t care so much that it becomes cool. It’s fascinating.
9. The Oh Sees—Drop
This really isn’t the best Oh Sees record at all, but it’s an Oh Sees record.
10. Wunder Wunder—Everything Infinite
I know zero, absolutely nothing, about this band, so that makes them an odd choice for me; I usually need to know if a band is full of losers or not. What’s more, they’re poppy in a way that embarrasses me more than a little. But there are just some fun tunes on here that still sound good to me months later which is like an eternity in pop so you have to give them credit.
Near Misses:
Panda Bear–Mr. Noah
Avey Tare–Slasher Flicks
In saying this, I may be risking my member’s access to the Secret Underground Lair on the Animal Collective forum, but the truth is that A.C. peaked in their live bootlegs from their tour just prior to releasing Merriweather Post Pavilion. So, sadly, we have to stop looking to Avey and Panda as emissaries from a strange future. And these records help establish this unfortunate truth.
To get her first couple of e.p.s, I had to send $10 in the mail to her house in Portland or some such rainy place and she sent them back in hand-decorated mailers. I still like her, but would like to hear these songs plugged-in rather than acoustic.
Mark Kozelek peaked during a blizzard in 1995 when I was in Detroit and outside walking to this sweet little Italian restaurant at Woodward and 9 Mile with my girlfriend-now-wife. Stepping over drifts in the car-less night, I started thinking of his song “24” from Down Colorful Hill. That was his peak, that moment, and it was in my head. Sorry if you missed it.