Twenny Legz pt. Deux!

Kay so I tried to make my list a tad different to Luke's just so they're not all the same tracks. Even tho it was a bit of a slack year music-wise, there's some good'uns in here, so enjoy!

Great job, 2011!

25. Oliver Tank – Last Night I Heard Everything in Slow Motion

24. Gotye – Eyes Wide Open

23. Azealia Banks - 212

22. Memory Tapes – Today is our Life

21. M83 – Midnight City

20. Clams Casino – I’m God

19. Beirut – Santa Fe

18. Deerhoof – The Merry Barracks

17. The Weeknd – Wicked Games

16. Lana Del Rey – Video Games

15. Stolen Thong – Burial vs Sisqo

14. Ghoul – Good Loops

13. Panda Bear – Surfer’s Hymn

12. The Throne – Niggas in Paris

11. Gang Gang Dance - Mindkilla

10. The Middle East – Land of the Bloody Unknown

While everyone was busy kissing Bon Iver’s (presumably) hairy buttocks all year, we had a perfectly amazing soft-rock/folk band here in Aus that occasionally shits all over that guy. Their album this year didn’t hit as hard as I thought it would, and the show I saw them do here in town was decidedly average (THEY DIDN’T PLAY BLOOD??!). But they’re still far and away the best thing this shit hole of a town has ever produced. Miss u Middle East :’(

9. Architecture in Helsinki – I Know Deep Down

If push came to shove, these dudes are my fave Australian band. My favourite chorus on an album full of amazingly satisfying hooks.

8. Wavves – Bug

Luv u ~~~wavvy bro~~~ I like this song a lot because I know a lot of people who fit the description of the titular ‘Bug’ in this song i.e. dickheads

7. Tyler, the Creator – Yonkers

Oh man, remember February/March ’11?? I was OBSESSED with Tyler, as was much of the hipster internet sphere. By the time Goblin came out I was decidedly tired of the whole schtick, especially the gay slurs/women hating etc. Anyway, I still adore this song. The beat is immense, the lyrics are pretty great and it still sounds so exciting to me.

6. Frank Ocean – Richest Man in the Room

Although my love affair with Odd Future may have waned to the point of being non-existent, I still have a major, MAJOR girl boner for Frank Ocean. R&B was pretty much my jam all year, and this dude has been my most constant source all throughout 2011. Luke stole the song that I liked the most of his, but this is a close runner up anyway.

5. Wild Flag – Future Crimes

Maybe it helps that I have a crush on pretty much everyone in Wild Flag, but this is one of my fave releases of this year. I miss Sleater-Kinney so much, especially because I didn’t listen to them at the height of their fame/success. I guess this is the closest I’ll ever get to a revival, at least for a few years :(

4. Battles – Ice Cream

This song is so insanely funky. It’s hard to dance to and I look like a bit of a spaz when I attempt to but i CAN’T. STOP. Battles fucking rule.

3. Drake – Dreams Money Can Buy

Why this wasn’t on Take Care is just so far beyond me… I don’t even. This is close to Drake’s best song and he didn’t think it was good enough to be on his new album?? What a stupid CUNT. Anyways, I know this entire song off by heart, and will gladly recite it to you upon request. So many good lines, from the first ‘don’t fuck with me’ onwards. So much luv.

2. The Rapture – How Deep is Your Love?

I remember when this song first came out I was saying TRACK OF THE YURR and creaming all over the place. I have calmed down since, but only slightly. The Rapture have always been a SORT OF OKAY band, but they just hit this song so far out of the park it’s crazy. They may have ripped off Sisqo in the process (let me see/hear that thoooooong/soooooooong) but if you’re gonna rip off someone it might as well be him.

1. Burial, Four Tet & Thom Yorke - Ego

Burial, Thom Yorke & Four Tet. About to fuck some shit up.

I almost forgot about this song, but it is so brilliant it HAS to be my top song of the year. Burial and Four Tet’s beat is dope as hell and Thom Yorke is excellent here at doing that thing that Thom Yorke does. The lyrics are also brilliant and the whole production/vocal delivery has an air of cynicism and sarcasm and paranoia and that’s mostly why it’s my fave song of the year. I can sooOoOooOO relate. That and I have never/will never dislike anything Burial does I am such a pathetic fangirl.

Twenny Legz

Oh hi, blog. I did not hit her, etc. It's been a while. I guess 2011, to me, has been kind of average, music-wise. There's been lots of anticipation for big-name releases (Radiohead! Panda Bear! Death Cab! Drake!) all of which have been kind of.. I don't know. Nothing from this year has really had staying power, for me.
Having said that though, I found myself halfway through the list of tracks for voting in Triple J's Hottest 100 and saw that I had over 20 songs shortlisted (for a possible 10 to vote for). So, maybe there have been some killer tracks this year at least.
Here are my "top 25" I suppose! Relevant (p.s. read Natalie Dee, it is a great thing to read):



25. Limit To Your Love by James Blake.
24. Reach a Bit Further by Wild Beasts
23. The Words That Maketh Murder by PJ Harvey
22. Wake Me When It's Over by Terius Nash (The-Dream)
21. No Church in The Wild by The Throne ft. Frank Ocean
20. The Bay by Metronomy.
19. Nightcall by Kavinsky and Lovefoxxx
18. You Da One by Rihanna
17. City Grrl by C.S.S.
16. Countdown by Beyonce
15. Stolen Thong, a mashup of Stolen Dog by Burial and Thong Song by Sisqo
14. Far Nearer by Jamie xx
13. Time of My Life by Patrick Wolf
12. How Deep Is Your Love? by The Rapture
11. Take Care by Drake ft. Rihanna

10. Contact High by Architecture in Helsinki.
Pop song brilliance etc. Probably the greatest pop chorus I've heard in a long time.

09. The Morning by The Weeknd.
This is my favourite Weeknd song. (Someone pointed out to me that perhaps it is pronounced "ween'd" as in a silent k and now I can't get that out of my head.) Anyway. The Morning is smooth as hell and catchy and makes you feel cool. It makes you feel good about being hungover, if you ever are.

08. Rano Pano by Mogwai.
Big. The best tune on their pretty good album from this year.

07. Nasty by Spank Rock ft. Big Freedia.
Big Freedia is part of some underground gay dance/hip hop trend thing which I don't know about but is amazing. This is like everything a Spank Rock song needs to be. Perfect beats and dirty lyrics.

06. Alsatian Darn by Panda Bear.
FEELINGS. Also, I am an insatiable Panda Bear fanboiiii

05. Midnight City by M83.
Saxophone solo. Nothing to fault here. Would probably get the top spot if there weren't other songs I personally like more. Har har har.


04. 212 by Azealia Banks.
Insanely good. Did I mention that the white guy can get it? I heard a radio edit of this song and it was pretty atrocious. Like. Okay I get that there is swearing in it but censorship of this song is useless just play the C Word All Round The World.


03. Only Girl (In The World) by Xiu Xiu.
I don't have anything to say here. Have you heard it? I should mention that tracks with some sort of Rihanna association have shown up in my list no less than 3 times. Great job, Rihanna!


02. It's Real by Real Estate.
It's alllll in that otherworldly "Oh~~~."


01. Thinking About You by Frank Ocean.
This song is incredible. Frank Ocean & his album are incredible. This song pretty much sums up my taste in music for the year, and it's great, so it's #1 on my list. Congratulations Frank Ocean ya dingus.

Some of the songs that I have rated "5 Stars" in iTunes

It's worth pointing out that I have never used the star rating system in iTunes very seriously. I'd say 90% of my library is unrated. Regardless, here is a small selection of some of songs which have somehow inspired me to click on that 5th little star. A small selection, or else this would just be a huge list of Panda Bear, Sunset Rubdown, Owen Pallett and Sam Amidon songs.


- Walkabout ft. Noah Lennox by Atlas Sound
Bradford Cox AND Panda Bear, on one song. Sometimes collaborations are better in name than in sound, but this is one of the best things I have ever heard. What did you want to see, what did you want to be when you grew up? A: TO GO AWAY AND NOT LOOK BACK

- Lust for Life by Girls
The amount of times that the line "I wish I had a pizza and a bottle of wine" has popped in to my head is countless. Also, any song that opens with "I wish I had a boyfriend, I wish had a loving man in my life" has won my heart from the get-go. It's also worth noting that there is an x-rated version of this music video which features a man singing to a penis like it's a microphone.




- We Were Born The Mutants Again With Leafling by of Montreal
I don't really know why I love this song so much. It could be the way it makes me feel like Nothing Really Matters, or the driving beat, or the excellent summary it provides for the excellent album which came before it.

- Little Bit by Lykke Li
Basically the perfect pop song. Now she has lyrics that are all "I am a prostitute, you gon' get some." :(



- Back in the Game by Jamie T
Take your brother, down to the sea, ...

techre it up

Autechre recently released an anthology collection type thing of all of their EPs from 1991 through to 2002 and so I have been working through those and also visiting OL' FAVOURITES.

For those of y'all unfamiliar with Autechre (apparently pronounced however you like, I go for "or-tekker") they are a couple of dudes who make music that basically sounds like a spaceship. Foreals. This is one of the highlights of the bajillion tracks on the anthology so far, listen to it and you will understand what I mean with my spaceship comment:

THAT'S FROM 1997. This piece of high-tech song was made when Hanson' Mmm-bop was in the charts. Basically since then Autechre have abandoned melody/earth/rhythm at all and started making stuff that sounds like this:

I kind of imagine that "Fol3" is what a semi-underwater transformer battle would sound like. Bad. Ass. The warpy noise introduced at about 33 seconds is incredible. SWOON.

However, I understand that random electronic/robot noises aren't really everyone's anyone's cup of tea so for you who have the Noise Fear, stick to the earlier albums. Incunabula, Amber and especially Tri Repetae have amazing sounds without losing the concept of beat. In my opinion the least friendly albums are Confield and Draft 7.30... It's good to note that with their last couple of albums they are 'bringing it back' to some straightforward roots. Check out latest album Oversteps compared to recent Untilted for example.

ALSO WORTH NOTING are Autechre's album covers. THEY ARE AMAZING.:





SO ANYWAY. If you have patience and a know when to pay attention when something is Important I recommend checking out Autechre's EP anthology. If you're completely new however, start with the album Tri Repetae. Eventually you, like me, will enjoy Autechre, and potentially become a robot. Or at least a person who is appreciative of random noises.

Autechre's EP Anthology 1991-2002 gets 7 Lukes out of 10!

Cloud Somethins

Jay Reatard may have passed away, but if you're longing for the kind of upbeat pop-punk he crafted, look no further than probably-huge-but-I-don't-realise-it band Cloud Nothings.
I only just managed to get around to listening to their album and I'm already addicted to this shit. Me to the Cloud Nothings album is like a guinea pig to it's hiding place- frequently there, if not, eating or something.Poor analogy.
Whatevs.

~~~I dun have a hartbeat~~~ - Cloud Nothings "glasses" dude

If you were a fish, this album would be perfect for those times that you expertly maneuvre through a small hole in a log, or the 30 second frenzy after you get fed 7-8 pellets of fish food. It's that good! ANIMALS.

If you don't have pet fish, I totally recommend it. One is called John West a la popular tuna brand, the other is called Charles. because Freddy Ruppert suggested it, and if Freddy Ruppert suggests something to you, just do it. Unless he encourages you to murder someone, or something else illegal. This seems unlikely, he is a pretty good guy.

Uhhh. So yeah, Cloud Nothings. Turn it on and turn your brain off and listen to it on repeat a lot.

Cloud Nothing's self titled album gets 7 Lukes out of 10

ALSO GOOD THINGS THAT YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO THAT I MAY/MAY NOT/Probably won't REVIEW AT A LATER DATE:
PJ Harvey's "Let England Shake"
Tapes 'n Tapes' "Outside"
Young Galaxy's "Shapeshifting"

NIGHTSWIMMANG

~~COMIC FOXHOLE #3~~

zzz-onoscope

Imagine the sound of that epic waterfall! You'd imagine it to be all like
fshhhhhhhhhhhh~~~~
INSTEAD IT IS ACTUALLY
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZ (sleeping sound)

Album cover: 7 Lukes out of 10
Music: 3 Lukes out of 10

Snooooozer. Although, now that I think about it, I might not even like Cut Copy that much. I know I recently wrote something like "who doesn't like Cut Copy?" but I probably should have said "who didn't sort of dig their first album/that song Hearts on Fire?"

In other news, Mogwai's new album is called "Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will." Which is so excellent. Like the music almost definitely will be. (Although the reviews I read of their last also-excellently-titled album "The Hawk is Howling" weren't that great, I LOVED IT and much preferred it over the prior "Mr. Beast.") And have you SEEN the fucking album cover for The Hawk is Howling? Holy shit. In terms of superficial qualities an album can have, Mogwai really nailed it with The Hawk is Howling. THERE IS EVEN A TRACK TITLED "YOU ARE JIM MORRISON, YOU ARE DEAD."

~~I'M A FUCKING HOWLING HAWK AND I AM GOING TO FUCKING PECK YR EYES OUT FUUUUUUUUCK *piercing gaze*~~ - mogwai/the hawk whom howls

THERE ARE A LOT OF COMPONENTS TO A GREAT ALBUM YOU GUYS, and I do like to ponder on the superficial elements (i.e. titles/album art.) I'm pretty sure that is the greatest hawk portrait ever used as an album cover, and I know a lot of them. What can I say? I am weak to intense animal portraits!
I once saw Mogwai, it was a sensory overload and totally fantastic. I really liked it at the end of the show how I kind of felt nauseous! I recommend going to a concert venue to see them if you ever get the chance.