As this is a music blog, and list-making is something music blogs are wont to do, the following should be considered the top 25 releases of the past year. Over the next two weeks this site will chronicle albums and EPs that just about absolutely killed it.
So, time to dispense with the hyperbole:
25) The Rapture - In the Grace of Your Love
It might be hard for some to remember but there was a time when The Rapture was the band, just like any number of indie upstarts before and after them. "House of Jealous Lovers" was almost inescapable circa the mid '00s. If you were going to dance, it was probably going to be to a Rapture song.
So it came as something of a strange turns of events when The Rapture didn't find the mainstream success they were clearly interested in (and supposedly destined for). They had the dance beats to move the club kids and the indie cred to keep the hipsters nodding. Sadly, it just never clicked. They released their follow-up on a major label, but it failed to capture any major success for the band. So they retreated back to their roots, signing with old friends DFA, and released their fourth album, In the Grace of Your Love.
Much like its predecessors, it has an intent to make you move, but not always in ways you're expecting. Almost entirely abandoning the fidgety dance-punk of previous albums, In the Grace of Your Love finds the band venturing outward in to house, psychedelia, and even blue-eyed soul. "How Deep Is Your Love?" is the clear stand-out, with lead singer Luke Jenner eschewing his typical Robert Smith-isms instead opting to reposition his wails as something more akin to a house diva. He even dials back the bombastic vocal theatrics for a surprisingly tender closer, "It Takes Time to Be a Man".
While The Rapture may never become the stars that some of their early-to-mid '00s peers ended becoming, they've done something many of those same acts have found impossible: maintain relevancy as their career progresses.
24) Liturgy - Aesthethica
Metal is a funny thing. It's one of the few genres of music that can alternately inspire its fans to unite to help people...and then go burn down a few churches. Black metal especially is a polarized microcosm where grown men in corpse paint argue over what is and isn't kvlt. At the heart of this sub-genre is the idea of authenticity. What is real, and what's fake? It isn't too far removed from the world of indie rock where kids in day-glo face paints scoff over whether MGMT should still be considered indie.
One thing is for sure, Liturgy sure ain't kvlt. Taking an entirely antagonistic approach to the genre of black metal, it seems that is Liturgy's intent. The guys don't wear the costumes, they try to subvert the bleak outlook of the genre, and lead singer/band leader Hunter Hunt-Hendrix even wrote an entire manifesto on how black metal could actually be a transcendental form of music.
In that vein, Aesthethica isn't a pure black metal album. It borrows from genres that also have a tendency to reach for transcendental moments. While it maintains the piercing shrieks and over-the-top theatrics of black metal, it also liberally borrows ideas and sounds from dance music and noise rock. "Generation" utilizes a repeating riff that feels like it should be building to an overwhelming crescendo in the way many dance songs utilize build-and-release, but then the songs locks into that riff and drives it into a blissful oblivion just as a Lightning Bolt or Sonic Youth might do.
23) JEFF the Brotherhood - We Are the Champions
It takes a smart person to properly do dumb. Often intellectuals will put on minstrel shows mocking those below them without every really understanding the people they attack. JEFF the Brotherhood is a band that realizes there's an almost zen-like nirvana to stupidity, and they gleefully embrace that inner moron.
Jumping casually between stoner rock, new wave, and indie pop, the band finds a center in all three that unites the idiot savant. One minute JEFF will toss off a lost Weezer gem like "Hey Friend" which matches slack stoner longing with an even looser riff and the next they will proudly grind through a loser anthem like "Wastoid Girl". Somehow they manage to parlay this into genuine pop songwriting, as shown on album stand-outs "Diamond Way" and "Endless Fire".
These guys are way more clever than you'd ever expect, but don't let them know that. Judging by their songs, it might hurt their feelings.
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