5. Ginnels – Crowns
We made an editorial decision way, way back that TD would avoid tokenism when critiquing Irish releases. There are no extra points for happening to live in the same postcode as the reviewer, no let-offs just because we know how much better a given collection of songs might sound live. Now, Ginnels’ Mark Chester isn’t actually Irish, but Crowns couldn’t be more of a Dublin 2012 album. Thanks to Popical Island our city’s lo-fi indie pop scene has been in overdrive for the past three years, creating a Sarah or K Records level of twee-pop output. As with those two indie label cornerstones, however, its self-sufficiency, its seeming insularity has rendered that output islanded from view.
Ginnels 2011 debut, a self-titled salvo of jangle and noise, featuring the transcendent Kirkby Lonsdale, set itself apart by taking the wistful songwriting of its sister bands but employing post-production techniques that put texture to the fore. It stood as reminder that just because music is made under a lo-fi aesthetic, does not mean it should eschew the studio altogether.
Crowns puts the onus back on songcraft, taking the usual C86 and Dunedin sound reference points. Nobody needs a pure jangle-pop double album in 2012 though – the hooks are outstanding (It’s Not A Summer Without Your Love touches the anthemic highs of Kirkby Lonsdale, and Childish Lane Story is a callback to Hard To Explain-era Strokes), but it’s touches like the discordant reverb of Festival Walls or the arpeggiated synth outro of Wake Up Normal that exemplify a producer at work. Seriously – you’d find a vocal loop like the one that backbones Estendarm on one of The Field’s minimal masterpieces. The notion of ‘the producer’ has mutated in the past couple of years to a point in both commercial and underground dance and pop music where we talk about the person behind the laptop the way we now do football managers: the architects, the strategists, the auteur. Ginnels’ Crowns brings that conversation into the indie sphere, and its that victory, and not geographical concerns that place it so highly in our end-of-year list.
4. Animal Collective – Centipede Hz
Centipede Hz was put in a difficult position by being the “official follow-up” to an album whose popularity Animal Collective could never hope to match, Merriweather Post Pavilion. Wisely, instead of trying to meet those unrealistic expectations, AC did what they do best and ploughed their own wild furrow. Centipede Hz took conceptual influence from abstracted, imaginary intergalactic radio stations and the Cantina Band from The Return of the Jedi (well, supposedly) and created an overstuffed, chaotic and complicated record that pretty much only Animal Collective could have made. In more concrete terms, it was fuelled by a love of European prog-rock, Silver Apples, MPB and the situation of four old friends writing music together in their hometown of Baltimore again. At times heavy going but at times sublime, Centipede Hz especially took life when presented live at Vicar Street last November.
3. Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d city
Kendrick was what they call a safe bet. Having reached a huge audience with a pre-album mixtape, clicked with both the post-Odd Future Tumblr rap crowd and the ‘hip hop is dead’ lifers and exploded into general consciousness with the age-old, fail-safe method of carrying Dr. Dre on one of the year’s best songs, never mind debut singles, The Recipe. good kid, m.A.A.d city, or Good Kid, Mad City if you prefer, is a phenomenally ambitious record that weaves its concept — an innately nice guy trying to navigate the scyllas and charybdises of alcohol, gangs, sex, theft and violence that Compton throws up — imperceptibly into songs that would, and do, stand on their own if you split them out for radio. It’s a landmark in rap music, showing ‘ignorant’ and ‘conscious’ as a false dichotomy and staying uncompromising while still hooking the casual fan.
2. Grizzly Bear – Shields
There are certain unspoken musical variables that, when the timing is right, bind together to form a record that is truly special. Grizzly Bear took a well-wanted 6-month hiatus following relentless touring of 2009’s Veckatimest – an album that had more than just a few touches of mastery. Shields sees Grizzly Bear reach these noteworthy heights with a rawness and passionate energy that was missing on previous offerings. The songs are direct and in your face, the production is crisp and the delivery is full and cohesive. This is a band who are not afraid to push their creative boundaries and as a result find themselves at the top of their game.
