Kaiser Chiefs is one of those bands that started their career really strong, but each new album is worse than the preceding one. So it is only fitting, that their debut album is the only album portrayed in this blog. Kaiser Chiefs gets their biggest influences from 80's post-punk. The sound is more modern, but very similar. Strong English accent makes the atmosphere just as it should be. I saw the band live a bit more than a year ago and all the old songs worked perfectly. There are only couple of weaker songs to the end of this album, but at least the first half is pure dynamite. Listening to this album while I'm writing this text gets me excited, because I'm really thrilled that I have nine even better albums ahead. Listen to the album on Spotify.
The beginning of this list is phenomenally British. Open Season is the undeniable high point of British Sea Power. They have some good songs on other albums as well, but this album is filled with massive hits. Be Gone, Please Stand Up and The Land Beyond are the greatest moments on this album which has no bad moments. The album cover is a bit weird. In the later albums British Sea Power has moved towards boring stadion rock but on this album the big and clear sound is not overdone. Still this must be to the liking of the fans of large stadion bands. Just listen to the weeping guitars on Please Stand Up and picture in your mind a warm summernight at a festival with an enormous crowd bouncing up and down. Listen to the album on Spotify.
This is Swedish Kent's last good album. It is also one of the best albums of their whole career. This is the last album with lots of guitars. The atmosphere is dark and melancholic. The sound is produced amazingly. This might not be to the liking of lo-fi fans or for those who appreciate only organic sounds, but I have to appreciate the masterful skill in the production. This is one of the albums that would not have sounded this good without a massive back production and music industry. It doesn't even matter that my Swedish skills are not good enough to understand most of the lyrics. I can just enjoy the beautiful melodies and pronounciation of Joakim Berg. Listen to the album on Spotify.
You might notice as I continue with this blog that Eels is very dear to me. Blinking Lights is a very ambitious double album full of songs that make Eels so great. Glockenspiel, clean guitars and E's personal voice is all I need. The cover art is one of the most horrible album arts of all times. The music on the other hand is perfect. Humor, sentiment, sadness and joy. E knows how to make music in a way that it seems as if he's singing only to you. I get constant shivers to my spine in the beautiful ballads. Eels is not about masterful playing of instruments or great composing. It's about great little songs that tell stories of real life in a beautiful way. Anyone who bleeds his heart out like this needs to be listened. Listen to the album on Spotify.
This is the first album I heard from this amazing band. It's also one of the two absolut highlights of the band. Plans portrays an ambitious band with beautiful melodies and sadness. At the time of this album it was predicted that Death Cab for Cutie will be the next indie artist to become one of the biggest bands in the world. Why didn't this happen? Because the same thing happened that happens to a lot of artists. Their next album was dull and predictable. This is unfortunate, but let's not let it bring us down, because fortunately we have this album to listen to over and over again. There is no dull moment on this album. Every single song is beautiful and fits perfectly to the album as a whole. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Theme albums are sometimes really good. This is one of them. It tells a story of a boy who has to live with a drunken step father who beats his mother and the boy doesn't feel safe himself. Despite of the depressing theme this album is full of hope and light. The difficult subject is approached beautifully by mixing despair and hope. It is quite astonishing that this album is only on the fifth place, since almost any other year it would be no. 1. John Darnielle's voice is highly original and possibly not to the liking of large audiences, but for those seeking something different it works perfectly as a messenger of feeling. I don't usually think of the lyrics that much, but with this album I strongly encourage you to really listen to them. Listen to the album on Spotify.
This is one of the most beautiful albums ever made. The vibrato in Antony's voice is unique and that with the beautifully played piano get the shivers all over my back. I Am a Bird Now is a story of love, not belonging, despair and changing. The lyrics leave much for the listener to decipher. The visit from Rufus Wainwright brings an excellent flavour to the album. The absolut highlight of the album is the last song Bird Guhl. It's doesn't get more beautiful than that. I remember arriving to Vienna on a boat from Bratislava and listening to this song with tears in my eyes from the sheer beauty of the music in my ears. This music needs to be really listened to, not just on the background. Listen to the album on Spotify.
Whatever happened to Bloc Party? This debut album of theirs is one of the best albums of all times and already their third album was absolut rubbish. It's a great shame. But this album really is amazing. Larger than life sounds drawing influences from post punk and 80's indie. Choruses, clean guitars and amazing drumming! Silent alarm is everything that an album should be. This Modern Love is one of the best songs ever with it's rising sound. This album offers songs to party and dance to and also something to really think about and get hypnotized by. The black and white cover photo seems to be like a salute to Joy Division's memorable photo of the band on the bridge. Listen to the album on Spotify.
The Decemberists has become one of my all time favorite bands. And most of it is because of this album. Picaresque is filled with amazing songs. The instrumentation is versatile and interesting. Stories and melodies make this album an interesting whole that keeps your interest strong even after hundreds of play times. It's hard to point out any highlights, since the album is full of them, but I have to mention The Mariner's Revenge Song, which is accompanied by accordion and portrays many different parts with varying intensity. The album covers portray pictures with theater versions of the songs. I still haven't seen this wonderful band live and I'm hoping to correct this wrong as soon as they come to London. Listen to the album on Spotify.
This is one of the best albums ever released by anyone! Multi-instrumentalist Sufjan Stevens was planning (I don't know if he was just kidding) to release an album of all the states in US. For now he's only released albums about Michigan and Illinois. Illinois portrays a wide array of songs with a theme-like sound. All the songs have really long titles. The most beautiful moment is John Wayne Gacy Jr. A beautiful ballad of a serial killer. Lyrics bring about the creepy feeling of the thought that there's good and bad in anyone of us and we'll never know where the life might take us. This album has amazing instrumentation of which Stevens plays quite a few himself. I have such a huge respect for this guy. Listen to the album on Spotify.
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