It's winter and to avoid being infected with the SAD disease (Seasonal Affective Disorder Disease!!!!), I attempt to put down the Simon & Garfunkel and listen to happier music. I mean, I love Paul & Art, but if I was considering suicide, I'd consider listening to "The Boxer" while doing it.
Anyway, I recently discovered the band Baths and I do believe they'll keep me depression-free for the duration of the winter months. Like winter itself, Baths is both melancholy and beautiful. The band described themselves as "slow and dreary" (like winter itself, too, I guess) which I would agree with to a point, though their music is like a gorgeous slow and dreary, like mid-March when the air is foggy and the snow is melting into slush.
My favorite track off their album Cerulean is "Animals" because I am first, a sucker for lil kids with British accents and second, because it is sweet and I'm able to Get Happy while listening.
I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year. I love Christmas desserts and I hate cold weather. I love feeling sensitive and reflective about the year past- the natural and man-made distasters that have occurred, and the celebrities that have died. But I hate, hate, HATE "best of" year end lists. I have been reading too many "best of" music lists lately and this as only fueled my fire. If you happen to read any of them, you will find errrrryy music critic blowing their load while simultaneously crying over Kanye's new album. Disgusted, I've decided to make my own best of 2k10 music list. I know roughly as much as someone who works at Spin and I am definitely a lot less mopey. So, friends, here it is:
Best Albums of 2k10: I danced. I cried. I got off.
5. Odd Blood- Yeasayer Yeasayer's sophomore album Odd Blood is the best dance party you'll ever attend. Odd Blood picked up where their debut album All Hour Cymbals left off but Odd Blood is decidedly different. More produced (and in this case that's a good thing) and more polished, Odd Blood is full of highs and lows from a band that knows their audience. "Ambling Alp" is an anthem, while "O.N.E." is a party starter and "I Remember" will make you cry (I mean, um, maybe). Odd Blood kinda makes me think Yeasayer will be on the jukebox at your favorite dive bar for a long time.
4. Body Talk, Pt. 1- Robyn My love affair with Robyn began when I was in middle school. I used to sit at my desk drawing, listening to her Show Me Love album. Apparently I wanted some pretween boy to Show Me Love (did not happen). Ten years later, Robyn still has my number. On the first track "Fembot" when Robyn says, In fact I'm a very scientifically advanced hot mama/Artificially discreet no drama, I fell in love with her all over again. This woman gets it and Body Talk, Pt. 1 is evident of that. Also, seeing her live is a religious experience.
3. This is Happen- LCD Soundsystem It seemed like LCD Soundsystem's album This is Happening was as hyped up as the second coming of Jesus Christ. Well, if James Murphy is Jesus, well, then I'm a religious woman. LCD Soundsystem makes me very happy and this album did too. Murphy is the voice of a generation (I miss the way the night comes/With friends who always make it feel good/This basement has a cold glow/Though it's better than a bunch of others/So go and dance yourself clean) and everything about this album is pretty perfect. If "Dance Yrself Clean" "I Can Change" or "Home" do not make you feel, you have no soul.
2. Teen Dream- Beach House Before Teen Dream came out, I was both SO FREAKIN EXCITED and so very nervous. Their previous album, Devotion, broke my heart and put it all back together again so their third album Teen Dream had big, sensitive shoes to fill for me. And of course, those guys, did not disappoint. It is my humble lil' opinion that Victoria Legrand has one of the coolest voices in music today and goddammit, she makes my Silver Soul soar. Teen Dream (+ whiskey) got me through a Vermont winter which I can assure you is very, very long. It might be juvenile, but I think a truly great album is one that you can listen to straight through and every song is its own beautiful gift. Teen Dream is just that- idyllic, longing, and all-encompassing.
1. Treats- Sleigh Bells This album is a fucking treat. As an album, it's nearly perfect. The first track, "Tell 'Em" let's you know what Sleigh Bells is getting you into- insane riffs, heavy bass, panting, screaming, and singing. In short, a great Saturday night. You'll be head-banging and foot-stomping for the length of the album. And you'll play it again.
The perpetrating purse in this story is a hell of a lot cuter than the one pictured above
On Saturday night, somewhere between the gin drinks and sloppy speech, the unthinkable happened: my purse deleted all of my text messages. How my grandmother's vintage Coach purse could do this to me is unimaginable. And the proceeding emptiness I felt for my bygone text messages is unexplainable.
Before I am accused of being dramatic, text messages are our modern day love letters. Texts are how we tell our loved ones how we feel in 10 words or less or ask the curious, "where u @?" They are our professions of love, propositions for sex, our zany anecdotes.
Before this tragic event, I had over 100 text messages saved. I'd probably have more saved if Verizon would allow it. I had lol-able statements from friends and photos of my sister's new haircut and greyhound dogs my friend spotted in Brooklyn. I had soundbites from a Nicki Minaj song and Lady Gaga quotes. Simple statements of love, lust, and longing; memories preserved in my little LG "Glance".
I don't know how it happened, but I was too drunk at the time of the tragedy to realize the severity of the situation. But when I woke "the morning after", I knew something terrible had happened. I woke up to a plate of crusty ketchup, egg yoke and half eaten bread and looking at my phone, where it had once said "Inbox (136)" it was now nothing but an empty inbox. My heart sank. I kind of felt like Jo March in Little Women when Amy burns her novel, except I was betrayed by the fickle nature of modern technology, not my bratty little sister.
Maybe I should get a flip phone (but seriously, who has a flip phone anymore?) or maybe I should get a sophisticated handbag from TJ MAXX with a "cell phone pocket". Maybe I shouldn't get so drunk. Or maybe I shouldn't harbor memories in a piece of plastic with the "samba" as its ringtone. I guess it could be worse- I didn't drunkenly text someone inappropriate. Instead, I deleted a whole bunch of inappropriate drunk texts. TTYL.
