TTIHPLTY part 3: Alien pop on Domino

So, I really do need to polish this off now, as 2009 is well under way now, and I would like to start writing about other things now really. In the third part of this, I'd like to write about various releases on Domino Records from 2008. Some would say that it wasn't a vintage year for them- their biggest selling album was Last Shadow Puppets- but it has never been the more commercial side of the label that has interested me. 2008 saw them releasing some very 'interesting' records- in a good way.

First among those, and quite possibly into my all time favourites with a bullet, is Limbo, Panto by the unique Wild Beasts. This album is a bloody treasure. A joyous, thoughtful, fabulous record, packed with intelligence and invention. It is both funny-haha and funny-peculiar. The perfectly judged production and arrangement infuse the music with a sense of great restraint, leaving the two gifted vocalists enough room to soar, without having to fight for space. Nothing I can write will truly express how much i love this outlandish, high-camp, otherworldly triumph. This brand of outré, theatrical baroque pop may not be for everyone, but maybe it should be. If only Woebegone Wanderers was inducted into the canon of prematch warm-up songs by DJs at football grounds nationwide, the beautiful game might return to the golden days when spirited gentleman would line up in a 2-3-5 formation and generally respect the laws of the game, and eachother. Below is the video for Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants, one of the standout tracks, that will hopefully be all the inspiration required to go and buy the bloody record. Do it. Do it.

The other album I would like to draw particular attention to is White Williams' Smoke. This is a less consistent album, but I include it nonetheless because, from the very first listen, i thought it summed up 2008's music as well as anything else. Or at least the state of my taste in 2008. This may be a pretty stupid description, but I'm going for it. I think it sounds like an indiekid cross between Space and Tiga. It's glitchy, off-kilter electronica brought out from the crowd by brilliantly conceived licks of unsettling guitar madness, and it makes me think of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory for some reason. Its a silly record, but I have a (potentially vastly misguided) suspicion that he might be a genius.

An other Domino faves were M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel's lovely wee band She & Him. I'm not one to crush on celebrities very much, but i did have a pang of sadness when I heard of her union with Ben Gibbard. I never did like Deathcab. I also dug Max Tundra's long awaited second album, Parallax Error Beheads You and James Yorkston's  When The Haar Rolls In.

TTIHPLTY part 2; Boys with guitars

I have now decided my mode for these. Two at a time, under a very loose theme. The next two are banded together by actually being of a very similar ilk. Both make what I often describe as 24-carat indiepop. The names of these two favourites are Pete & the Pirates and Almedal, and they keep the corner of my taste that will be forever Indie jumping around the bedroom.

The appeal of Pete & the Pirates' debut Little Death is simple to define. It is full of really good songs. The scratchy production is actually a virtue, imbuing the album with a raw, ingenue quality lacking from, say, The Holloways' output which sounds, ahem, somewhat hollow. This, of course, is a necessity on a cheaply made record, but it really works here.  Seven of the top ten most played songs on my ipod come from this album, which goes to show how much I have gotten out of it. I think it is an apt album for many a scenario. I was thinking of picking out a couple of songs to direct you towards here, but really, they are all of a remarkably high standard. They aren't over the top or highfalutin in any way, it is just pure, pretension-free goodness. I've been recommending this album to friends since February, and I'm yet to receive a complaint. I do have one nagging criticism however, that i can't bring myself to leave out. The album is just one track too long. Song For Today would have been a lovely ending, and we all would have been happy with 12 great songs, but instead the incongruous Bright Lights is tacked on. It's not a bad song, but terribly sequenced and thus actually impairs an otherwise almost faultless little record. A trifling concern though, I must admit.

Almedal's Från Och Med Nu Och 20 Dagar Framat is a different prospect altogether, despite the fact that I classify it in the same bracket as Little Death. This is a subtle, restrained album of love songs in Swedish. With a singer whose voice can take a bit of getting used to. Don't all rush at once... 

I know that I may not be selling this very well, but this is an album of my favourite sounds, perfectly blended. Chiming guitars, trumpets, great drums, synths, yes thanks! I fell for them initially at Emmabodafestivalen, where watching them felt like an all-time highlight. I rushed to buy the CD on my return to Norrköping. One listen revealed that there are some wonderful songs on this album,  some lifelong mixtape fodder, i'd wager, and I still listen to it constantly. I did have a respite following the heartbreak, but as soon as the Season Of Good Will To All Men kicked in, it came straight back into the reckoning, by virtue of its curiously Christmassy vibe. It has remained on heavy rotation ever since, so the vibe's not preclusively festive.

In fact, this is a mourning, doleful record at times, yet uplifting always. 

Just ignore the bollocks I've written and check it out. You might love it. 

The others I'd like to shine a light onto, more for next year in this case, are Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds, whose first two singles last year were both belters, and Blighters, who were Monroes, whose brilliant demo Boys in Motion actually stands up to the best that orange juice had to offer, in my humble opinion.