Thursday, December 24, 2009

Love & Happiness.

The Albums: 2009.



11/The Flaming Lips/Embryonic

Homeboyz in Outer Space...

They don’t make em like this anymore. This album feels like it was beamed in from another planet, from another time, from a galaxy, far, far, far away. The Flaming Lips, Embryonic. An out of this world LP “Presented in Technicolor”, steeped in 60’s psychedelia, and a heavy sense of urgency present in every note, chord, melody, and blip of this 18 song collection’s ramshackle production; production that bursts at the seams with a hyperkinetic force and energy. Fuzz, Feedback, shimmering “wall of sound”. It’s a fine and exuberant display of a band lost in the sound, cruising on the elements of freedom, left to their own devices to say what they feel, create what the feel, and utilize whatever steps and/or methods of composition are necessary to achieve their end result. Heavy aggressive percussion crashing into sonic guitars; Contemplative ballads that seem to march to the beat of a metronome, buzzing lights, and a heart machine; Gorgeously sprawling melancholic laments; Audio excursions that nearly double as scientific musicology experiments; This is a band lost in the sound, operating in another realm, in another atmosphere, “watching the planets”, and producing urgent yet contemplative flights of fancy in a sonic wonderland. Cruising on the elements of freedom, left to their own devices to say what they feel, create what the feel, and utilize whatever steps and/or methods of composition are necessary to achieve their end result. It’s a lot to take in, but quite a sight to behold.
KEY TRACKS: Convinced of the Hex/See the Leaves/If

  • 12/Phoenix/Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix


  • 13/Artic Monkeys/Humbug


  • 14/Wale/Attention Deficit


  • 15/Devendra Banhart/What Will Be


  • 16/Grizzly Bear/Veckatimest


  • 17/Chester French/Love the Future


  • 18/Jay-Z/The Blueprint 3


  • 19/Discovery/LP


  • 20/Mariah Carey/Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel


  • 21/Franz Ferdinand/Tonight: Franz Ferdinand


  • 22/Peter Bjorn And John/Living Thing


  • 23/Peaches/I Feel Cream


  • 24/Karen O and The Kids/Where the Wild Things Are Motion Picture Soundtrack


  • 25/Tegan and Sara/Sainthood

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