One of my favorite bands is finally getting ready to hit the road again in support of an as-yet-untitled sophomore album. Electro-rock trio Miike Snow’s Twitter has already announced that the album is complete and tour dates are being set. They just released this tune along with a video teaser yesterday, and it’s less electronically-grounded but still retains that sweet edge for melody the group has made look easy. Loving the increased use of piano and the touch of brass.

Miike Snow – “Devil’s Work”

Britney Spears – Femme Fatale

Jive 2011

Rating: 7/10

 

Britney Spears occupies a weird, unique space in the pop spectrum. She’s been compared to past greats like Madonna and Kylie Minogue, but she lacks the latter’s self-aware creativity and mentioning her in the same breath as the former is, frankly, insulting. A common complaint with Spears is that she doesn’t write her own songs, which, the argument goes, somehow equates to a lack of talent, but the same can be said of Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra… the list goes on. She isn’t blessed with the preternaturally skilled vocals of a Mariah Carey or a Tina Turner, but her music has never been about her voice so much as her personality. And her personality is just what has carried her this far, when contemporaries like Mandy Moore and Christina Aguilera are becoming Starbucks whores and public laughingstocks, respectively. Spears is the ultimate pop chameleon, transforming from sly school girl with enough sexual innuendo to inspire thousands of illegal fantasies to a robotic dance-floor dominatrix, confident enough to overcome tabloid dramas that have ruined lesser stars. In many ways, Spears needed that separation from her past self to become the four-on-the-floor mistress she is on Femme Fatale. Calling Britney a pop singer is doing the term a disservice; she is much more of a pop bellwether, subject to the whims of the Top 40 crowd and more than happy to adapt to environments that have cruelly undone lesser icons. There’s a reason Aguilera’s last album sold barely north of 110,000 copies and Spears’ single “Hold It Against Me” has the most aggressive beat on mainstream radio today. Spears shows a willingness to reinvent herself that belies her fragile personal life and, most importantly, keeps her on the cutting edge of pop music.

Sure, “Hold It Against Me” has the kind of dubstep breakdown that only the most naïve listener would consider representative of the genre, but the fact remains that Spears is the first to introduce such a rapidly rising phenomenon to the mainstream. She’s become a pop juggernaut not by being the most talented, or the most charismatic, or even the one with the best songs, but by simply listening to the people who know the pop pulse best: her stable of producers. Blackout became such a great modern pop album because Spears finally submitted entirely to her songwriting team, choosing to become the entirely sexualized instrument through which their massive hooks would be transmitted to neon dance floors worldwide. And for Spears, that is just what she needs: a Max Martin and a Dr. Luke to write a track like “Till The World Ends,” one that throbs with trance-y synths, a thumping electro beat that is pure sex and a chorus that goes and goes as only the best club hits can do, sensible lyrics be damned. Synths as dirty as the ones on “Trouble For Me” or as unashamedly Eurotrash as “Trip To Your Heart” are just what pop music needs right now, in a year when electronica is becoming bigger than ever and a pop song is not just about the hook but about how much it can make you move.

Yet while one can be assured that Spears’ lyrics remain as one-dimensional and cheesy as ever, it’s the sonically varied production work that prevents Femme Fatale from being a one-hit factory with a bunch of electro clones. It helps that Spears’ sounds much more involved than she did on the rather dispirited Circus, with even a by-the-numbers Dr. Luke jam like “Gasoline” showing some Spears vocal pizzazz, as much as a Auto-Tuned sexual android as she tends to sound. The real treat of the record lies in the more off-kilter tracks, like Bloodshy & Avant’s (better known as indie band Miike Snow) skeletal, vaguely African-flavored “How I Roll” and their rave day-glo specimen “Trip To Your Heart,” a track that would make Tiesto blush. For all its obvious chart-topping intent and single-minded dance directive, Femme Fatale is an eclectic record, and that’s why for every ill-advised will.i.am guest spot (“Big Fat Bass” – how the fuck this isn’t a Black Eyed Peas song is beyond me) there’s an out-of-left field flute (!?!) solo that actually works (“Criminal”). It isn’t exactly the progressive stylings of a Janelle Monae, but damn if it’s not catchy and interesting.

So, Britney Spears: pop icon or pop puppet, someone with the genuine foresight to see where the winds are blowing or one lucky enough to have a team of handlers to decide which direction she should go in? It will always be hard to tell, even though I’m inclined to lean towards the former considering Blackout had her pushing the pop boundaries years before electronic music was truly a driving force in mainstream culture. Perhaps it’s easier to just say that Britney is Britney and nothing more – someone who is more a distinctive sound and a driving force of sex nowadays than a genuine musical talent. Femme Fatale, after all, is a flawed album, with lyrics that barely clear the level of a Ke$ha and a maturity level to match. But it’s a pop album that’s supposed to make you dance, and when it comes to that, there’s not a star out there that can match Ms. Spears.

 

Britney Spears – “Trip To Your Heart”

So I saw Miike Snow last night and Mark Ronson and his new band opened. Now I wasn’t the hugest fan of Version and this new release kind of flew under my radar, but hot damn this is good stuff. Plus they killed it live, Ronson’s crew has great energy, the rapping was legit etc. etc. Check out the album (Record Collection) if you like delicious pop.

Mark Ronson & the Business INTL – “Bang Bang Bang ft. Q-Tip and MNDR”

Crookers getting the weekend started right with this track off their last album, featuring Miike Snow’s vocals from their own “In Search Of.” Going to be an epic three days.

Crookers – “Remedy ft. Miike Snow (Magik Johnson Vocal Mix)”

Better late than never! The top twenty albums of 2009 as chosen by Klap4music after countless hours of careful statistical analysis and scientific formulas to determine the best music of the year.

20.

Kiss Kiss – The Meek Shall Inherit What’s Left

Eyeball Records

Released: July 7

Kiss Kiss don’t really have any idea what they’re going to be doing from one minute to the next, so it should come as no surprise that The Meek Shall Inherit What’s Left is a delightfully scrambled mess of an album, one that jumps from bouncy indie pop to quirky gypsy folk to outsized 16-minute concept tunes. But somehow everything holds together, making it a wonderfully effective blender of rock music.

19.

M. Ward – Hold Time

Merge Records

Released: February 17

It’s become typical to expect excellence from M. Ward at this stage in career, but even so, Hold Time was a startling consistent example of beautifully refined Americana. His best since Transistor Radio, it’s an album that flows smoothly from one song to the next, a river of songs photographing classic American music as it rolls along.

18.

Noah and the Whale – The First Days of Spring

Cherrytree Records

Released: October 6

Few bands could do such an abrupt about-face as Noah and the Whale do with their sophomore effort, but the London quintet pull it off in style. The First Days of Spring is the break-up record of the year, but it would be crushingly depressing if not for the vivid, pastoral soundscapes the band have masterfully crafted.

17.

Manic Street Preachers – Journal for Plague Lovers

Columbia

Released: May 18

It always seemed like the Preachers were searching for an identity to call their own after the disappearance of their heart and soul, frontman Richey Edwards. But Journal for Plague Lovers confidently stands tall among great Preacher records of the past, exorcizing Edwards’ ghost with his own lyrics and creating a modern rock record that blows away most of the newer competition, including many of their own previous works.

16.

The Fiery Furnaces – I’m Going Away

Thrill Jockey

Released: July 21

Ever since Blueberry Boat, the Fiery Furnaces seemed to lose their way on latter albums, unable to reconcile the experimental brilliance of that album with the pop charm of Gallowsbird’s Bark, resulting in albums that were wildly uneven and even more challenging. But with their latest, the brother-sister duo has regained that middle ground wonderfully. I’m Going Away is their most accessible album in years, without losing that distinctive oddball charm and slice-of-life lyrics that has defined them.

15.

Manchester Orchestra – Mean Everything To Nothing

Favorite Gentlemen

Released: April 21

Manchester Orchestra’s second album shows them maturing into something every fan of the band was desperately hoping for, the newest poet laureates of emotive indie rock. Singer and lyricist Andy Hull has sharpened his roiling tide of emotions into impassioned pleas and finely tuned angst, resulting in one of the year’s best songs (“I Can Feel A Hot One”) and a record that bodes so, so well for the future.

14.

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Domino

Released: January 6

It’s no surprise that Merriweather Post Pavilion became so wildly popular in indie circles – without losing any of the weirdness or experimental angles that have defined the band over the past decade, they successfully broadened their pop horizons, resulting in an extremely accessible record that appealed as much to the diehard fan as it did to the wannabe hipster. Perhaps the strangest success story of the year – after all, would anyone listening to Animal Collective in 2000 have predicted this level of success ten years later?

13.

Portugal. The Man – The Satanic Satanist

Equal Vision

Released: July 21

An alt-rock record that never seems to struggle and definitely never wants for a tasty melody or grabbing hook, The Satanic Satanist is Portugal. The Man at their best, a melding of all their previous sounds into a record that could not sound more tossed-off or carefree if it tried. It’s a brilliant trick, one that results in an album that is as light and relaxing as it is refreshing and remarkably accomplished.

12.

Lily Allen – It’s Not Me, It’s You

Regal

Released: February 9

While not as unique and defining as her debut, It’s Not Me, It’s You is the perfect pop album, mixing Lily Allen’s sizable amounts of sass and razor-sharp wit with superbly diverse production by Mark Ronson and songs that absolutely kill. Track after track is a potential hit single, perhaps derailed from commercial success only by Allen’s often-blunt lyrics. Then again, that’s what makes Lily such a treat in the whitewashed world of mainstream pop.

11.

Mos Def – The Ecstatic

Downtown

Released: June 9

This could very well be the comeback record of the year, and would easily have been the rap record of the year if it were any other year. Alas, 2009 was a special year in music, and The Ecstatic is no exception. Mos Def sounds rejuvenated, more centered in than he has in years, and the record’s confident tone and relentlessly ingenious beats and rhymes follow in turn.

10.

The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love

Capitol Records

Released: March 24

There’s been better Decemberists records, and there’s certainly been better concept records over the course of history, but The Hazards of Love is perfect at what it sets out to do: embody the Decemberists’ literary and musical ambitions in one giant song cycle. It’s the ultimate progression of the band’s sound, taking their penchant for wordy songs and long-winded stories and expanding it over the course of an entire album. It’s what the Decemberists were destined for, and in that respect it’s a fine piece of work. And while the story is a little half-baked, the songs are as epic and well done as ever, driving the story and resulting in some of the best instrumental work the band has ever put down.

9.

Taken By Trees – East of Eden

Rough Trade

Released: September 8

Journeying to the East to find oneself has become as much of a cliché as any over the past few decades, as has recording one’s experiences there. Luckily for former Concretes’ frontwoman Victoria Bergsman, she seems to have sublimated all those Eastern influences into her own sound rather than just throwing in a few foreign instruments and styles onto her shiny brand of Swedish indie-pop. It’s a record that is almost impossible to place, the convergence of sounds and Bergsman’s own haunting vocals resulting in a mystical, almost timeless album, one just at home in the foothills of Pakistan as it is in the indie blogosphere.

8.

Neko Case – Middle Cyclone

ANTI-

Released: March 3

While Middle Cyclone doesn’t quite approach the classic status of Case’s last record, the transcendent Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, it takes only three-and-a-half minutes to foresee it possibly attaining that stature. While the musicianship is top-notch and runs the gamut from smoky folk to woodsy Americana and straight-ahead rock, the focus remains, as always, on Case’s inimitable vocals. Opener “This Tornado Loves You” is proof of this and more, Case’s distinctive pipes highlighting a stormy mess of a song, one that revels in the passion of destruction as much as it does in love and longing.

7.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!

Interscope

Released: March 9

It’s Blitz! is perhaps the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ most complete record yet, one that runs the gamut of emotions and moods from the exhilarating opener “Zero” to the frighteningly effective, lullaby-esque closer “Little Shadow.” No longer can the Yeah Yeah Yeahs be accused of being just another one-dimensional New York garage rock band – from synth-filled new wave to mellow alt-rock to haunting ballads, It’s Blitz! is a multifaceted album that reveals more and more upon each successive listen. It shows a startling amount of growth for a band long relegated to one-hit wonder status, and gives hope that, yes, there is life after “Maps.”

6.

Monsters of Folk – Monsters of Folk

Shangri-La Music

Released: September 22

It didn’t come as a surprise that a collaboration between Conor Oberst, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, M. Ward, and uber-producer Mike Mogis would be entertaining; what was a surprise, however, was just how good and refined Monsters of Folk ended up being, more the product of a long-time band than a supergroup thrown together for shits and gigs. It’s a minor miracle that the foursome are able to integrate all their own influences and ideas so seamlessly into the final product, a time capsule of classic Americana that manages to stand on its own, rather than the hodgepodge of styles one would expect. Best of all, that final product is the best example of pure, unadulterated American rock ‘n roll to come out all year.

5.

Japandroids – Post-Nothing

Polyvinyl

Released: August 4

Post-Nothing is best taken straight, no chaser, with zero preconceptions or any hint of in-depth critical analysis upon first listen. All fuzzed-out guitars, straight-out-of-the-garage drums and vocals that, frankly, don’t give a damn, it’s the sound of youth and youth’s emotions at their most free, uncaged from any hint of adult restraint. It’s a record full of anthems and undeniably vital, practically bursting with life, energy, lust, you name it: and not ashamed of any of it.

4.

Miike Snow – Miike Snow

Downtown

Released: June 9

It’s a far cry from “Toxic,” but Bloodshy & Avant’s new side project (with singer Andrew Wyatt) is deliciously unfettered pop in its own way. Perhaps the best-produced album of the year, it flits from Vampire Weekend-esque indie (“Animal”) to gorgeous atmospherics (“Silvia”) to fantastically filthy electro-pop (“Black & Blue”) to haunting ballads (“Faker”), with the ease of a musical chameleon with a liking for keyboards. It’s an instant party starter, but at its heart it’s something more, an album built on a pop foundation but with multiple layers, a heart that values superior songwriting and grade-A production to shallow sentiments and mindless hooks.

3.

Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II

EMI

Released: September 8

Raekwon’s latest is a shining reaffirmation of Wu-Tang dominance over the rap game; RZA’s production is his best work in years, the various guest spots all seem placed to perfection, speaking more to their lyrical abilities and personalities than any “oh, hey, look who we got to guest on this track” bullshit. Every spot here means something, and, more than that, every spot here frames and support the leader, the rapper whose flow and style defines this album and makes it a new rap classic. Raekwon is clearly at the top of his game here, delivering a conceptual story that wallows in the dirt and grime of New York and comes out reinvigorated in the end. The Wu are far from dead – indeed, this might be the strongest they’ve been all decade.

2.

Florence and the Machine – Lungs

Island

Released: July 6

The Voice is a major reason for this album’s success, but it’s not the only one. Just as importantly, the talented backing band does an excellent job transcribing Florence Welch’s uniquely powerful voice and haunting tone into the music. Lungs is an album as versatile as its namesake, from the thumping bombast of “Drumming Song” to the bluesy “Kiss With A Fist” to the ethereal buildup to “Between Two Lungs.” But that Voice! – from fierce to grieving to lusty, Welch is the driving force behind Lungs, one that at times seems to be like a force of nature, whirling from high to low with equal passion and equal ease. The debut of the year, and a very exciting one for the future.

1.

Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

V2 Records

Released: May 26

When I first heard this record it certainly didn’t stand out to me as a potential Album of the Year candidate. And it still didn’t stand out after the second, third, or a dozen listens, but over the course of the summer the little things began to strike me as special, revealing a record full of layers I had previously dismissed in the guise of “just another dance-rock record.” It is a dance-rock record, and an exceptional one at that, but it’s the painstaking attention to detail, the relentlessly innovative beats and polished drumming, the appealingly earnest way these Frenchmen take English rock ‘n roll and make it their own, all these things and more that catapult Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix into a realm of its own. It’s the way the band breaks it down and then the multi-tracked harmonic guitar flies in over the end of “Lisztomania;” it’s the way “1901’s” chorus zooms in and out on the bass like a pneumatic hammer of pop as the synths take skyward; it’s the way the “Love Like A Sunset” suite resolves itself so beautifully in a haze of major-key watercolors; it’s the way singer Thomas Mars’ bares all in the heartbreaking shimmer of “Rome.” More than anything else, it’s a dance record that isn’t afraid to celebrate its own flaws, rejoicing in its ability to take a shallow genre and make something lasting, one that speaks as much to a person’s emotions as it does their feet. Here’s to my record of the year.

Miike Snow – Miike Snow

Downtown Records 2009

Rating: 8/10

Maybe they’ve been putting something in the water these past few decades, but it seems like ever since ABBA took over the world in the ‘70s Sweden has been a hotbed of wildly addictive pop music, no more so than in this new millennium. From the Cardigans, Robyn, and the Concretes, to Peter Bjorn & John, the Hives, the Shout Out Louds and now production “supergroup” Miike Snow, Sweden’s been assaulting the rest of the world’s charts in their own charming way for years. A little late to the coming-out party but still retaining all the trademarks of Swedish indie pop, Miike Snow combines the songwriting and production talents of Bloodshy & Avant (Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg) with American producer and lead singer Andrew Wyatt. With such an impressive hit-making resumé behind them, it should come as little surprise that Miike Snow is the kind of brain-imprinting electro that gets in your head and refuses to go away.

Given Bloodshy & Avant’s history, working with acts like Britney Spears, Madonna, and Kylie Minogue, the slick beats and sparkling production are par for the course – rather, it’s when the duo turn their talents in the direction of elegantly simple indie ditties that Miike Snow reveals itself as more of a legitimate musical experiment rather than a producers’ vanity project. Single “Animal” sounds like a mix between Vampire Weekend’s staccato synths and MGMT’s layered electronica, bouncing along a deceptively catchy progression to a jangly chorus that hits immediate pop pay dirt. Wyatt’s chameleonic vocals are a highlight from the beginning, imbuing lyrics like “but I’m still trying to make my mind up, am I free or am I tied up?” with unassuming cheeriness. Even on a track like the morbid “Burial,” Wyatt’s expressive vocals never seem to betray a song’s emotion, transforming a piece of immediately accessible pop into a double-sided coin once you take a look at the lyric sheet.

It’s a trick the group pulls of masterfully throughout the record. Songs like the falsetto four-on-the-floor thump of “A Horse Is Not A Home” and the gorgeously grimy techno whirl of “Black & Blue” nail the juxtaposition between Wyatt’s moody lyrics and the irrepressible production. Indeed, much of Miike Snow strikes at the core of what makes pop music great: the ability to tell stories of melancholy and grief while making it sound as joyous and palatable as the most common love song.

For all of Miike Snow’s clear mission to make light, agreeable electro pop, there are more than enough songs that demand closer attention. The most obvious is the six-and-a-half-minute-long haunting ballad “Silvia,” where swirling pools of atmospheric synths, bubbling bass, galloping drums, and Wyatt’s echoing vocals paint a picture of palpable longing. It’s the kind of climactic tune that makes everything after it seem lesser (something not helped by its odd placement as the 3^rd song on the album), the undeniable centerpiece of a smart, effective pop record. It’s a testament to the group’s consistency that they follow it up with the exuberant “Song for No One,” with its trebly guitar motif and anthemic chorus, and the aforementioned piano/electronica combo “Black & Blue.”

The second half of the album confines itself more to standard electronica-pop than the fusion of styles in the beginning of the record, and as such suffers from an occasional feeling of “sameness” and songs that never really achieve the kind of affirming lift-off their earlier songs hit with ease. “Cult Logic” and “In Search Of” do have some hard-nosed beats in them, but Wyatt’s falsetto and the song’s contrived faux-disco chorus undo “Cult”, while “In Search Of” comes off as no different from the product of dozens of synth-blaring DJs at any given rave. “Sans Soleil,” on the other hand, takes the slower route to little effect, meandering about a gurgling electro rhythm and indistinct piano chords and leaving no lasting impression.

But Miike Snow finishes strong, particularly the threatening Spoon-esque “Plastic Jungle,” which drenches itself in reverb and shotgun drum blasts, and the tender piano closer “Faker.” Wyatt does his best Beatles croon while the harmonies gently pile up, and the driving piano melody and shimmery synths weave a beautiful lullaby. The song stops on a dime and Miike Snow close the album while in top form, fitting for a trio of men who know the pulse of a pop song as if it was their own and, better yet, know how to resolve all that came before without a hitch. Miike Snow accomplishes everything it sets out to do, creating an intelligent pop record that’s immediately fetching and stacked with hooks, yet ultimately reveals itself as the best kind of pop: the kind with layers.