John Walker's Electronic House

As space year 2010 winds down to a drizzly end, it seems only appropriate to tell anonymous people the things I liked during its reign. Sausages ranked highly. Other things were more specifically associated with the year. They include:

ALBUMS

It’s been a funny year for me with albums (which is exactly what I said last year). My go-to artists are all on off years, but for Cloud Cult. No Mountain Goats, no new Nick Cave (I’m pretending the Grinderman album didn’t happen), no new Rural Alberta Advantage nor Rock Plaza Central. But fortunately there was lots that was great. Here’s the ones I can remember because Spotify doesn’t have a stinking memory, and I accidentally switched off Last.fm scrobbling.

Please comment with whatever albums you think I should have included.

Links are to Spotify.

Sleigh Bells – Treats

There exists a special category of music that only appears during the correct alignment of the planets at the correct temperature at the correct barometric pressure. It’s an album that both Kieron Gillen and I like. He tends to like bleepy-bloopy music with shrieking girls, or boring over-produced pop. I tend to like nice music with nice singing. But then there comes a band like Sleigh Bells, who combine the two, without letting either side down. It’s bleepy and bloopy, shouty and poppy, and it’s brilliant. Its brilliance peaks with Infinity Guitars, whose hyperbole doesn’t end with the title. Then Rill Rill sounds like a Motown R&B cover combined with a girly indie single from 1993. It’s oddly hardcore, and yet incredibly delicate. It understands the importance of a heavy bass pound sat behind chirpy J-pop ditties. It can’t be forgiven for spelling a song “Straight A’s”, but that ignored it’s an utterly splendid album that unites the world in disharmonious harmony.

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