We were so magical, why end this way?
I've done The Guardian's list of the top 50 albums of the year for the last two years and (mostly) enjoyed it, so he we go again with this year's list. And, since I've also been doing the charts this year, I'm expecting to have heard slight more than the two I've managed last year - we might even hit the dizzy heights of four that I'd met in 2020. So, here goes...
#50 : Alpha Zulu - Phoenix
People are fond of criticising Phoenix frontman Thomas Mars for writing cryptic or nonsensical lyrics. I say: listen a little deeper, won’t you? Alpha Zulu, Phoenix’s seventh album, interrogates middle-aged ennui with razor-sharp wit, imbuing intoxicatingly sensory synthpop songs with deeply sad lyrics about the tensions between work and love. It ends with Identical, a tribute to the band’s late longtime producer Philippe Zdar, which also happens to be one of the band’s all-timer anthems – a eulogy to close out the biggest festival stage in the world.
I've seen Phoenix live in a random tent at Glastonbury - I liked them, but when I listened to one of their albums for #AOTD I couldn't quite work out what it was I'd liked about them because I'd have to say the "intoxicatingly sensory synthpop songs" totally passed me by. I'm hoping for something better this time around though.
And overall, I'd definitely say it's better - I liked it a lot. It's very Hot Chippy - with a good use of synths and beats. And the cryptic or nonsensical lyrics didn't bother me at all because I just didn't bother listening to them. I particularly liked "Artefact" and "Identical", but they're all pretty good - a nice boppy listen.
It totally failed to bother the charts which feels a bit unfair because it's way better than a load of stuff I had to endure which topped the charts this year. It's fair to say they've not exactly camped out in the UK charts over their career though with 3 albums having spent a total of 4 weeks with a high of #14. Wikipedia tells me it actually got to #23 in the digital chart and #27 in the indie chart, but obviously that wasn't enough to dent the real chart. #44 in France though - I was expecting better there too. Some cultural facts for you - the album was recorded in the Louvre and the album cover is (as I'm sure you know) based on "the 1478 painting Madonna col Bambino mediante otto angeli by Sandro Botticelli".
"Customers also listened to" Windser, Metronomy and Death Cab For Cutie - all bands I should know more about than I do. As is also true for Phoenix - and I'm going to go and listen to their break-out album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix now to rectify that situation (and it's good, but I prefer Alpha Zulu)
#49 : Dirt Femme - Tove Lo
The Swedish pop star’s fifth – and first independent – album works as a decent primer for anyone who hasn’t been paying attention to the past few years in pop. It’s got Dua-style disco (thanks in part to sharing a collaborator in SG Lewis), Charli XCX’s death drive and one of those now-ubiquitous, infuriatingly catchy Y2K pop interpolations in 2 Die 4, which, quite bafflingly, samples Crazy Frog’s 2005 cover of Gershon Kingsley’s 1969 song Popcorn. Consequently Tove Lo is less of an eye-popping presence here than on her previous records, though her apparent recalcitrance makes her unusual anxiety and conflict around relationships and intensity all the more striking.
Firstly, I'd like to thank The Guardian for introducing me to the phrase "death drive" - I'd never heard that before. I thought I'd reviewed a Tove Lo album, but that turns out not to be the case - I've definitely listened to a couple of them though and I generally like her stuff and her general "no fucks given" vibe, so was looking forward to this.
And yeah, this is right up my street - The Guardian's description above is pretty accurate (even if I didn't necessarily spot her "apparent recalcitrance") - Dua's Future Nostalgia is definitely a strong reference point. I liked "No One Dies For Love" (where she really sounds like someone and I can't remember who), "2 Die 4" (the Crazy Frog thing is odd but works pretty well) and "Call On Me". But it's all my kinda thang - that's quite some album cover though.
This must have charted, surely? Nope - although I suspect the fact that it was released independently on her own label probably didn't help. Wikipedia tells me it did get to #9 on the digital chart and almost broke the US, getting to the dizzy heights of #153. It did do well in Norway and Sweden though - no surprise there. The rest of the entry is actually reasonably interesting, but it's all overshadowed by the fact that she got married in 2021 - to the most excellently named Charlie Twaddle.
"Customers also listened to" SOFI TUKKER, Ellie Goulding and Muna (and if we don't see the Muna album on this list there's going to be trouble). I liked this a lot though - and I suspect we'll see many worse pairs of albums in the rest of the list than our starting point.
Comments
Post a Comment