Albums Of The Decade - 96. The Walkmen - Lisbon

96. THE WALKMEN - LISBON
In the year of 2016, I took a trip to Lisbon a few days before Christmas, during a three month long sabbatical stint, between moving continents - Asia to Europe - a mammoth step. I fell in love there, made a great accomplice also, drank cask-loads of wine, spent time looking at the water and witnessed a pigeon fucking up eating my pizza; as a seagull deservedly took away the crust.

The Walkmen, just on the turn of the decade, managed to craft a 1950's style homage to this most luscious of cities using horns and mariachis, amongst other dis-harmonic strings. Hamilton Leithauser plays on the binary oppositions of feeling fractured and repaired at once - and that's been the story of the last 10 years for me, especially the former.

At the time of writing, I'm currently listening to Heaven - the 2012 follow-up to Lisbon and it's more of a full-bodied work, than the stripped down nature of this aforementioned modern classic. The Walkmen, prior to this in decades past I'd seen as a support band, and occasional headliner on the live circuit. But with this installation into Spaghetti Blogonese's  hallowed Top 100, they're officially seen as outright champions.

Albums of the decade - 97. Deerhunter - Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?

97. DEERHUNTER - WHY HASN'T EVERYTHING ALREADY DISAPPEARED?

Deerhunter have had a special place in my heart after 2008's stunning Microcastle. For them to penetrate the top 100, especially in 2019, speaks wonders of the fact that this is a band that always comes through.

I saw them live last in 2008, in Brighton, and they blew the house down in terms of playing, performing and piling on the quality. I don't remember any specific song but I remember the angular quality of the riffs, the molten lead of Bradford Cox's vocals and crimson lights flooding the stage. 

They're my epitome of intelligent rock and roll. This latest album is not only gonna be one of the best records of 2019, but will also sit with me as one of the band's greatest tokens. "Futurism" especially captures the vitality of effortless groove. I ran up the hill today and had it in my head even before I hit the play button. I had it on on the bus yesterday - yes I used a double "on" - and it will keep playing and burning in my thoughts. Playing me in, in flames.

Albums of the decade - 98. Fennesz - Bécs

98. FENNESZ - BÉCS

Timing is everything and this nicely coincided with the release of the artists new LP Agora which came out last Friday. I write this in my kitchen now as noise and dissonance washes all over me. Black coffee is the fuel to pump in, after a brunch of shrimp and tomato sandwiches. The Dire Straits ran a lyric once that went "I run on heavy fuel" - that juxtaposed with Christian Fennesz's ambient washes - provide a sunny, non-jokey April 1st as Spring truly sets into life.

I first encountered Fennesz in 2004 at The Coronet in London, and he was on the same bill as Four Tet, Caribou, Animal Collective and Explosions In The Sky. Brilliantly - I've just clicked that event - and it transpires that it was on 30th April, so we must have been fresh as a whistle. The discordance of sound from Fennesz, in between post-rock, folktronica and electro-funk sets, brought the mood down to a suitable down. This man is the sound of poised.

His debut LP Endless Summer was a breath of fresh air and came in at #86 on my list of best albums of the 2000's. A few LP's in-between ,and this conceptual follow-up to that debut has never felt better timed. As the seasons blend into one, and a new page begins, the sound artist crafts another tapestry.
Static, submerged, complex, beautiful. Go get 'em kid.