Artist Picks #18: Jogging's albums of 2010
Having noted elsewhere that their album Minutes was "a ferociously impressive debut", we should also say that Dubliners' Jogging were also one of the best live bands we saw this year, and that's not just because they played one of our nights and we'd like them to return in 2011... The band were also kind enough to send us their albums of 2010, as penned by bassist Ronan Jackson.
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This album is just incredible. It's crushing but also cartoony at other points, and Charlie Looker's exceptionally odd vocals and worldview sell the whole thing. I'm mesmerized by it. A perfect mix of the modern and the archaic. A truly progressive band.
I loved their first album but this one seems to flow so much better. They take that Sister-era Sonic Youth guitar sound and just nail it on to these crazily well written and perfectly structured songs. The murky production suits it so well. Some of the songwriting reminds me of The Velvet Underground or The Zombies, just really timeless songs.
I became really obsessed with the song ‘Grey Matter’ from this album, it's just so perfectly put together, it slays me. Then on a slower song like ‘Wreathed in Smoke’ the horn sounds are beautiful and haunting. The vocals are quite vicious and impenetrable but the whole album is fascinating. Like a hardcore band playing black metal.
Their sounds remind me of some of my favourite bands like Faraquet, Polvo or The Mae Shi but they totally make it their own. Even the long crazy 7 minute tracks are just total pop songs at their core. So many memorable hooks on this album, and delivered with balls too.
Probably the most consistent Xiu Xiu album (for me) since 2004's Fabulous Muscles. The sounds used are so harsh and alien but the songs are so memorable and beautiful. The cover of the traditional standard ‘Cumberland Gap’ midway through fits in more than it has any right to.
I never really got in to the first Mi Ami album, I found it that bit too dub-by for my tastes, but this one has more elements of their former band Black Eyes that I really loved. Daniel Martin-McCormick's screech is unparalleled, it gets inside my blood, I can't describe it. This album electrifies me.
This album really caught me blind, I never expected it could be so good. It's the perfect logical summation of the earlier crushing Swans stuff and the later countrified Angels of Light stuff that Gira did.
Great album that I've listened to constantly over the year, the quality never dips even though it's a double-album. The songwriting reminds me of Insignificance-era Jim O'Rourke or the really early Yes albums before they went totally prog.
Much like the Xiu Xiu record, this is the most consistently flawless Ted Leo record since 2004's Hearts of Oak, each song is killer and straight to the point. It grabs you from the opening line of ‘The Mighty Sparrow’ and holds you throughout, he delivers with such passion and conviction.
Lo-fi done right! I love Jeremy Earl's voice, it's very endearing. This album (along with 2009's Songs of Shame) have been much more chipper affairs than their earlier creepier backwoods stuff. ‘Suffering Season’ is such a brilliant simple song.
Other artist's top tens
All these lists were compiled into one Artist's top ten albums of the decade poll. But here are all the individual lists that went into it...
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