Every thing about Menomena seems so fun; their name, their album titles (I Am the Fun Blame Monster is an anagram of "The First Menomena Album") and their upbeat drum n' bass driven pop all exude a sunshiny experience, that's a gross over simplification of the band. Menomena's music has a strong trip-hop influence in it's construction of beats and bass, but non of the sampling or turntablisms of other trip-hop artists. Instead they fill their songs with various instruments, sometimes it's pianos, sometimes it's saxophone,guitars, keyboards, or various combinations of them. The album is strong the whole way through, but it's the nine-minute closer "The Monkey's Back" that brings it all together, mixing things you've heard throughout the album with funk and jazz, a sort of chilled out New Orleans trip-hop-pop track that sums up the whole albums eclectic fun.69. The Blood Brothers: Burn Piano Island, Burn
With their first two albums, This Adultery is Ripe and March On Electric Children!, The Blood Brothers produced some solid, well executed hardcore punk, but with Burn Piano Island, Burn the Bros push themselves so beyond any of their contemporaries and and predecessors it's not even funny. The album signals a major shift for the band, and from this point on they continue to push the envelope and be way ahead of the curve. Their are two things I absolutely love about this album, the lyrics and how much groove the whole thing has. The Bros are at their best when their being weird, sarcastic, and critical: "Happy birthday gelatins smearing bruises on your chin. There's cake but no mouth, conch but no sound, glossy skeletons boyfriends but no friends." Each song has it's own little touch the set it apart from the rest, whether it be a funk bassline, piano, or angular rhythms, each song is it's own piece, something neigh unbelievable for a punk album.68. mewithoutYou: Brother, Sister
It may seem unbelievable but I think Aaron Weiss became too perfect a songwriter on this album. There's just so much here, so much substance, so much detail and depth, so many references that one easily becomes overwhelmed by even the first song. This album is a couple years old and I still haven't gotten completely through all its meanings. The albums is really about changes; lyrically it changes to a much more overt deep spirituality, musically the band has shifted from the cold, dark sounds of Catch For Us the Foxes to a warmer, almost summer album, although the albums got it's share of thunderstorms like any summer does. Other notable changes are the addition of a better bassist, giving the band already exceptionally tight sound a boost and the use of guests, including Psalters, Anathallo's horn section, and emo founding father Jeremy Enigk, although mwY outshines all of them easily.67. Goldfrapp: Supernature
Pop is a tricky thing, no matter how catchy the beat or how awesome the hook is, nine times out of ten it's substancless, both musically and lyrically. Goldfrapp is that one in ten, and they've never sounded better than on Supernature. The album is like Black Cherry taken to the max, overloaded beats and polished up with a glistening sheen. Alison Goldfrapp's vocals are a pitch perfect and as silky as ever while Will Gregory's beats and synths are creative and strong without being inaccessible in any way. The best part of the album is how they mix in other styles all under the production and unified sound, glam and electroclash abound and can be found in almost every track while other styles as differing as new wave and cabaret pop up here and there. Supernature isn't everybody's favorite album, and I think it's because it challenges the listeners view of pop, but does it so subtly that it's easy to miss what exactly it is, if you're not on your game.66. of Montreal: Satanic Panic in the Attic
of Montreal have a pretty large discography [8 proper albums, 7 compilations albums, 5 EPs, 12 singles, ok this is just overkill, anyways...] so picking my favorite seems like it would be a difficult task; could it be the early lo-fi acoustic of the first albums? The dancey rock of Sunlandic Twins? The twisted disco-pop of Hissing Fauna? Nope, Satanic Panic in the Attic is easily my favorite of Montreal album, from first to last it exudes such a undeniable charm of perfect indie pop. Kevin Barnes, who essentially made the entire album himself, is really on for the whole album, his lyrics are as witty as ever and his arrangements are pure genius in some spots. Take "Will You Come and Fetch Me" for an example, Barnes keeps the rhythm section going, but goes hyperactive with the other parts, jumping from string section, to pop, to glockenspiel, to harpsichord, within seconds of each other. This shouldn't really surprising though, since Barnes has always been ADD, he just turned it up a notch this time, if that's possible.65. Destroyer: Destroyer's Rubies
Sometimes I wonder is Dan Bejar knows what the heck he's writing, or if he just writes at random. As a lyricist he owes a lot to the stream-of-consciousness, rapid delivery of Bob Dylan, but Dylan is relatively decipherable, whereas Bejar's lyrics seem like they have a really deep meaning, but I couldn't for the life of me tell you what they are. They sure are fun to listen to though. Musically, the band loses a lot of their Pavement-worshiping distortion and get a more laid back, David Bowie playing the blues sound, though the aforementioned Pavement-isms are still there, to be sure. Combined the lyrics and music are perfectly suited to Bejar's bizarre but enchanting voice. In fact everything on this album just plain works, there's nothing tried that does not succeed, and that's the best description of the album I can give.64. Yo La Tengo: I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
Yo La Tengo have always been a really diverse band, and each of their albums has had a variety of sounds to it, but on their eleventh(!) full length album, they take this facet to a ridicules extreme. The opening track "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind" is a nearly eleven minute noise jam that's mostly guitar solos while the very next track, "Beanbag Chair" is driving horn and piano pop song, which is in turn followed by a quiet chamber pop track, then a 60 motown sounding tune, then a dark love song, then male/female vocal duel over bluesy pop, then a psychedelic organ stomp, and that's just the first half of the album. The aforementioned opening track and the closing song "The Story of Yo La Tango" (not a typo) bookend the album perfectly, and the latter is one of the best songs the band has ever written, it's another epic length noisy jam, but it's much less abrasive and more tuneful than the former. The whole album is a sonic adventure spanning decades, styles, and moods.63. Daft Punk: Discovery
To me, it's a testament to the talent of Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter that a group as goofy as Daft Punk ever became popular, let alone the huge status they have now. I mean let's face it, the name, the logo, the robot helmets, and even in some cases the music doesn't exactly scream hipness. Perhaps that makes them endearing, I don't know, all I do know is that Discovery, and in fact most of Daft Punk's music, freakin' grooves. They know how to make dance music unlike any other current electronic group to the point that I don't think there's a single person in the world who could listen to one of their songs and not like it. I mean, how can you not fall in love with world's greatest vocoder solo, "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"? Or the band that actually put a vocoder solo in their songs? I rest my case.62. Sigur Rós: Takk...
I've always viewed Jónsi Birgisson's voice more as another instrument then as conventional lead vocals. When he's singing in a not made up language, I still have no idea what he's saying, but that's no different from the hundreds of other non-English language artists, except that Birgisson has a voice unlike any other. He uses his extremely high range as a magnificent solo instrument that can float above the band's arrangements, which they can make joyous, such as "Hoppípolla", dark and organic like "Sé lest". It's often said that the band's sound reflects the landscapes of their home country of Iceland, and never is it more so than on "Sæglópur", which builds with piano and drums until it finally explodes with Birgisson's bowed guitar that sounds exactly like what I think it would sound like inside a volcano. But that's the kind of trascendent quality all of the band's work has.61. Triosk: The Headlight Serenade
The words "experimental jazz" might bring dread into the hearts of some, but rest assured, this isn't anything remotely like Kenny G jamming with The Mars Volta, since I think that would bring about violent death for anyone who listened to it. No, Triosk isn't smooth meets pretension, it's instead and album that has it's roots, and owes much of it's sound to the great jazz trios but also throws a large amount of samples and beats into the mix. There is a strong representation of electronics in this album, but unless you were looking for it specifically, you wouldn't notice it wasn't natural to the song. Everything that's electronic on the album is completely organic sounding and is best described as the band itself says like "throwing broken glass into a piano".
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