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.
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