15: Fleet Foxes
"He Doesn't Know Why"
[Sub Pop]
Fleet Foxes invest their music with such emotion and grandeur that merely a whisper or a pluck is enough to make me shiver. Their debut is an epic canvas so awash with feeling it sometimes threatens to overwhelm, and nowhere is this more apparent than in this beautiful track. Like most of the album, it paints an abstract narrative without piling on unnecessary detail, the backbone provided by Pecknold's moving refrain, "I didn't understand". From the first verse, it builds and builds, until finally you feel cleansed and happy. Cathartic.
"He Doesn't Know Why"
[Sub Pop]
Fleet Foxes invest their music with such emotion and grandeur that merely a whisper or a pluck is enough to make me shiver. Their debut is an epic canvas so awash with feeling it sometimes threatens to overwhelm, and nowhere is this more apparent than in this beautiful track. Like most of the album, it paints an abstract narrative without piling on unnecessary detail, the backbone provided by Pecknold's moving refrain, "I didn't understand". From the first verse, it builds and builds, until finally you feel cleansed and happy. Cathartic.
14: Bloc Party
"Ion Square"
[self-released]
It's ironic that, in an album where Bloc Party pushed both their musical and lyrical boundaries more than ever before, it is the track that sounds most like "old" Bloc Party that is also the best. Like most of their best songs, "Ion Square" is about love. This time though, it's the happy side. For over 6 minutes, Kele sings with palpable love and affection of a relationship that, oddly, appears to be going just fine. That may sound boring to you, but chances are if it does you wrote off Bloc Party a long time ago. Lyrically, this is as beautiful a song as Okereke has ever written, even if the most affecting line is cribbed from an E.E. Cummings poem.
13: Foals
"Big Big Love (Fig. 2)"
[Transgressive Records]
After being the British band to watch for at least a couple of years, everyone seemingly stopped caring about Foals the moment they released an album. A great shame, as they all missed out on gems such as this. Odd title aside, "Big Big Love" is a spare, hypnotic track. Yannis spins an abstract yarn of love and towers, of electric shocks and cracked hearts. His voice is distant, as if singing from another time. The instrumentation remains sparse throughout, only as clear as it needs to be. The result is a mesmerising song that will hold you in its thrall for far longer than its running time.
12: Kings of Leon
"Closer"
[RCA]
I shouldn't have been surprised by Only By The Night. In hindsight, the line from lo-fi southern kicks to stadium anthems is straight and clear as an arrow. All the same, Nathan Followill's opening drums - crisp and clean as a full moon - initially took me aback. Luckily, it also enthralled me, and combined with understated guitar and frankly epic lyrics made it into both a fine first track and a decent statement of intent. While I'm still not entirely sure about the Kings' new direction (for my money, their best work was on albums 2 and 3), if they continue to write songs like this then I'm behind them all the way.
Plus, it's about friggin' vampires. Need I say more?
11: MGMT
"Electric Feel"
[Columbia]
I don't believe MGMT are pioneers, saviours, geniuses, or any of those other hyperbolic terms the NME wheel out every five minutes. However, on occasion they can bust out a bloody fine song. While their epic, anthemic side is well-demonstrated on singles "Kids" and especially "Time to Pretend", second single "Electric Feel" was unfairly left on the wayside. A great shame, as it combines the widescreen quality of the rest of the album with a thoroughly danceable tune. Much like the video, it is beautifully hazy - the kind of song you would dance to in a dream - with enough kick to the percussion to be energetic. Finally, like all the best music, it sounds incredible when played as loud as possible.
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