Top Albums #5 - Dan Mangan – Nice, Nice, Very Nice

You don’t have to meet Dan Mangan to know he’s a gentleman; it’s exposed every time he sings. With a shy smile and a soft spoken demeanor like his, it’s hard to believe that he can belt out a song with this kind of maturity. But he does.

Vocally, Mangan has a gravelly quality to his voice that usually requires a lifetime of whiskey and smokes. While it’s rough, it still remains crisp enough to sing harmonies on some of the more melodic songs on the album.

Lyrically, the songwriting is about as descriptive as you can come without looking at visual representations of each song. If you’ve never encountered Vancouver, heartache, or even robot-love fetishes…you will understand them all after listening to this album.

It’s really no wonder that the Calgary Folk Festival invited Dan to give several song writing workshops this summer. The man just knows good storytelling. If you think that his skills as a wordsmith detract anything from the music; well then guess again. On Road Regrets the band builds around Mangan’s acoustic guitar until there is a full sound that you can’t forget. A banjo pluck here, a piano trill over there, each song is given the right attention in the places they’re needed. On other songs like Sold, the band is in there like the best hillbilly support group. You can tell that Mangan’s band mates are anything but a bunch of slouches.

Nice, Nice, Very Nice also has an element to it that I found in no other album this year: one of those funny feeling close to my heart. My friend Bianca once described a similar affliction known as “chest caving anxiety.” Nice, Nice, Very Nice doesn’t quite give the same amount of tension, but it still has a heavy feeling to it. Sounds sappy and in many way is it, but Dan Mangan really finds a way to bring those feelings out. I really can’t give this album justice with a few words, just be a gentleperson and go listen to it.  

Top Tracks: Robots, The Indie Queens are Waiting, Sold

Top Albums #6 – Land of Talk – Cloak and Cipher

The very first sound on Cloak and Cipher is singer Elizabeth Powell saying “oh my god, I like that.” That was all it to hook me. The only band with a female vocalist to make my list this year, Land of Talk refused to be excluded.

Lizzie’s singing effortlessly gets under your skin and into your head. Soft but forceful at the same time, it’s one of the most charming albums I heard all year. She wraps every lyric around you and I’ll admit that I had a crush on her by the end of my first listen.

This is the one album on here that I won’t try to dissect lyrics on. They are what they are and I don’t want to pretend I know what Powell was driving at. All I will say is that they’re extremely well written and highlight her skills both as a guitarist and singer. I will also say that she finds her strength in her choruses. Color Me Badd may have my favorite one on the album.

My friend Owen tipped me off to this album. I didn’t need any other encouragement than that. I promptly went to my record store and bought it. Gambling has never been my thing, but when you get an ace tip from your music bookie, you listen!

Top Tracks: Quarry Hymns, Color Me Badd

Top Albums #7 – The National – High Violet

An album worthy of following up Boxer with. While Alligator was a good record, it just lacked the ability that Boxer had to force through to the end on every listen. High Violet has that same quality and grows on you the more you play it.

I’ll give you an example; the first few bars of Terrible Love make the song sound like it will be unsustainable. Instead, it surprises you by building to a point just past the second chorus where you’re listening to a massive presence coming out of your speakers. As an album, the rest of High Violet follows along with that theme.

The subject matter is a little more grown up this time. The sad bastard themes are still sprinkled liberally across each song. I didn’t think it was possible for the National to get any darker, but this album sure has that tone to it.

You can tell the band members have matured over the last couple of years. There are a lot more references to family this time along with songs about relationships falling apart.  And there is plenty of that. Where Boxer gave the impression that the songs were about a yearning for a lover, High Violet seems to have more pain buried in it. Any song that has a lyric “sorrow found me when I was young/sorrow waited, sorrow won” isn’t exactly the brightest ray of sunshine.

Matt Berninger’s extremely deep baritone is still perfect on this album. While listening to Boxer this summer, my mom* pointed out that he sings like a modern Leonard Cohen. That characterization comes out even more on High Violet.

While this is a moody album, it somehow escapes from becoming a depressing one. Like all National albums, they push your emotions to the edge before relieving you with an up tempo song. What you’re left with is a record that reacts with certain atmospheric tones much like a wine highlights different foods. I recommend this “bottle” for the late afternoon; just before the sun begins to shift toward evening.

Top Tracks: Anyone’s Ghost, Afraid of Everyone

*I told you I came from a family of music appreciators. Patsy is clearly with it!

Top Albums #8 - Local Natives – Gorilla Manor

I was given the hint to listen to this album by a waitress at the notoriously bad Lone Star. She saw I had a Grizzly Bear LP on the table and told me to check out Local Natives. To date, it’s the best service I have ever had at that restaurant.

In a year that was absent of bands that rely heavily on harmonies to build their sound, Local Natives picked up the slack. They not only filled the void, but pushed the bar further up.

While the three-part harmonies build a full sound around this album, it’s the use of breaths and pauses that really enunciate the vocals. Songs like Airplanes really take advantage of an extremely brief moment of silence to work like an extension of the percussion section. They use the complete opposite on tracks like Sun Hands shouting the lyrics as the song builds to a climax. I never really thought you could shout in harmony, but here we are.

In the traditional measure of percussion, I think you would be hard pressed to find a better use of it this year. Drummer Matt Frazier obviously has a hell of a metronome in his head. He can build extremely complex beats that sound tribal one moment before switching to a rock standard. That often resorts to the impression that there is more than one kit in play. If that’s the case, I’m not even mad…it’s well used and gives the album a huge kick in the ass for the better.  

Gorilla Manor is an album you really can’t get bored of. I listened to it from that initial tip-off at its release through the summer. Now well into winter, I haven’t come close to tiring of it. It’s definitely an upbeat record but it has some slower songs that build into something much deeper.

Top tracks: Sun Hands, Shape Shifter, Camera Talk

Top Live # 9 – Think About Life, The Acorn, Plants and Animals, The Russian Futurists – Lee’s Palace – March 12

The thing with Canadian Music Week is that it can often come off as one long New Years Eve debacle. You go with the best of intentions to get as much out of it as possible, only to end up with your hopes shattered at the end of it. Well this show was my kiss at midnight.

Instead of going the CMW wristband route, I opted to go out in one blaze of glory. A gamble, but it had been half a year since I last danced the night away with Think About Life. That combined with consistently missing The Acorn and Plants and Animals made this an ideal gig. It was actually so jam packed that I’m actually surprised that my head didn’t explode during it.

There were a couple of other bands on the bill as well, but the fact that I forget who they even were says it all about them. I only remember the Russian Futurists because I thought their lead singer looked like Philip Seymour-Hoffman. Needless to say, I still don’t get them. Who knows, maybe they’ll grow on me…

The Acorn were a killer band to see live. Two drum kits going at the same time always makes me happy. Plus the guitars were TIGHT. I really can’t ask for more in a set. If you want to see a lot of gimmicky stuff on stage, go see Still Life Still. If not, see the Acorn. Singer Rolf Klausener also announced that night that guitarist Howie Tsui would be leaving to pursue a career in art. So it looks like I caught them just in time.

Then came Montreal’s Plants and Animals who turned it up a notch. If you have the yearning to see a great rock and roll act, check them out. They’re loud, they have skills, and they bring a lot of energy to the stage. Just how much? Well let’s just say Nicolas Basque was wearing white jeans and was dancing across the stage with his guitar. You couldn’t help but smile while you watched. I was sitting next to Leif Vollebeck and you could clearly see the enjoyment on his face. 

By the time Think About Life took the stage, you could see that the night had taken its toll on the audience. I would like to think that it was an exhaustive lineup that saw the crowd thin out. It’s far more likely however that many audience members just didn’t know who TAL were. The lucky ones that stuck around – and there were a lot – are now fans for life. The amount of energy that they bring with them is phenomenal. Playing songs like Johanna and Sweet Sixteen brought out the showman in Martin Cesar. All the while quiet genius Graham Van Pelt corralled the efforts around the stage. My only complaint is that they got screwed out of their set time. I think they were only given about five or six songs which is a travesty if you’ve been waiting patiently all night to hear a band!

It was worth the late night that saw me sleeping on a couch at work while waiting for my morning shift to start. Epic concerts such as this one really make that kind of headache worthwhile. 

Top Albums #9 - Beach House - Teen Dream

This album really couldn’t have a more descriptive name for the material on it. The airy vocals and lullaby-like lyrics submerse you in the feeling of gazing out a window and letting go.

Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand are the pair behind Beach House. Like a far more relaxed White Stripes, they clearly pulled the best out of Baltimore. Both of their voices accent each other well, Legrand’s often drifting across each song like a breath.

This album literally eased me into the world this winter. I would put it on at the beginning of my shifts while working early mornings at the CBC. While it didn’t put me back to sleep, it had a gentle way of keeping me calm while returning me to the world of the living.

Top Tracks – Silver Soul, Norway

Top Albums #10 - The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt

I don’t know what it is that Scandinavians have to draw on for inspiration, but somehow they just get folk music. In this case, Sweden’s Kristian Matsson shows that he shares the pedigree of the many who have come before him.  

I first heard the Wild Hunt in my record shop and demanded to know what it was right away. It's impossible to listen to this album and not be instantly touched by the vocals. At first it reminded me of some long lost Dylan album, but the longer I listened I realized it was something very new.

Matsson reaches out and grabs you right away. From record’s start to finish, he plucks and plays his way across a picture of longing, love lost, and some triumph. During of this, the Wild Hunt still manages to be the perfect album to slow down with.

That’s kind of all I have to say about it. It’s simply a beautiful album that doesn't require multiple listens, yet I can't help but go back to it. 

Top Tracks – You're Going Back, King of Spain, Love is All…come to think of it ALL of the B side. 

 

N.B. It will require some sleuthing online, but if you can find the Matsson’s previous work with the band The Montezumas, you will be treated yet again.