20. Beirut
– The Rip Tide (Pompeii Records)
With this band, you feel that anything’s possible,
although more than likely it will involve brass bands and some kind of folk
influence from an unlikely source. iTunes laughably classifies this as
“indie-rock”. Think of any other combination of genres besides indie-rock,
throw them into a catalytic converter and let Beirut toy with the result using
seductive syncopation, blasted riffs, and a pale but fetching vocal. Track
you’d want your town band to play at the annual parade: The Rip Tide
Classically Deathcabbish |
19. Death
Cab For Cutie – Coats and Keys (Atlantic)
I sometimes buy albums by bands like Death Cab For
Cutie out of a sense of duty that they’re the kind of band I ought to be into, rather than actually
being into. So it’s always a pleasant surprise when their records turn out to
be far better than I’d expected. This is a solid, archetypally articulate
DeathCabbish collection, though it sometimes takes years for their best songs
to sink in – I only realized when I saw them live how much I love their earlier
work. Indie-pop track to the core:
Doors Unlocked And Open. Advice I won’t
take track: Stay Young, Go Dancing.
18. The
Feelies – Here Before (Bar/None)
Seeing as no one makes blissfully good old-style indie-pop
any more, call back the old hands that did it right the first time around, as
the album title hints. Okay, second time around, given that so many 1980s bands
like The Feelies and Galaxie 500/Luna unblushingly but very successfully rode
on the riffs of the Velvet Underground. They’ve still got what they always had
– cheerfully shambolic but somehow addictive scratchy guitars on top of
understated vocals in a world beyond Autotune. Track to dance badly to while
wearing your retired leather jacket, smoking a cigarette and drinking
get-pissed-quick, extra-strength lager: the whole album