I’m going to assume that you have caught on to the theme of the day, so I won’t bore you with a third semi-witty introductory paragraph. Instead I am just going to launch into my personal favorites from the year so far…
Mazes – Mazes
If you have been reading our site at all over the last month or so, my first choice should come as no surprise. I have called it the best album of the years so far HERE and HERE, and I am doing so again right now. Its incredibly rare these days when an album comes out that is just so amazingly good that every single song is pure gold to the extent that each one can get stuck in your head, but Mazes is one of those albums. I’ve probably played this album in its entirety a hundred times since I got my hands on it. Given that it is still a fairly new release I will refrain from making comparisons to some of the all-time great indie records, but I can honestly say that at this point it is one of the better records of its kind that I have ever had the privilege of listening to. If we were to be assholes and assign random numbers to albums in order to judge the art that others create (which we don’t because we aren’t assholes), Mazes is the elusive perfect ten swimming in a sea of sevens.
Mazes – “I Have Laid in the Darkness of Doubt”
Iran – Dissolver
This Iran album is one that has really grown on me, particularly over the last month or so. I was initially super excited to give it a listen, primarily on the back of the TVOTR hype surrounding the band, but was left a bit cold on the whole thing the first time I really sat down with it. I think the problem was that I had expected (and perhaps hoped) that it would actually sound like TVOTR, which it doesn’t. Luckily I was convinced to give it another chance, and what I realized is that Dissolver is a formidable album filled with catchy hooks that is far more than just a side project featuring the guitarist from TVOTR. Iran is truly its own unique animal, and their music is more than capable of supporting itself on its own merits. I have had Dissolver in heavy rotation for some time now, and “Airport 79” in particular has become a track that I listen to at least once every single day. It’s an absolutely epic song with undeniable and almost eerie similarities to “Rocket Man”, though this interpretation adds a more modern twist on the theme.
The Soft Pack – The Muslims
The Soft Pack is another band that took a few listens before becoming ingrained into my regular playlist. Overall it reminds me a lot of my favorite album from last year, Harlem’s Freedrugs, which is likely part of the appeal for me. I always have and always will have a place in my heart for anything that has a gritty, bluesy garage sound with minimal production, and The Soft Pack fits that niche to a T. A record like The Muslims goes hand-in-hand with dirty dive bars, shots of whiskey, smoking cigarettes, and drinking cheap beer in cans. That may not sound like high praise for the album, but coming from me I can assure you that it is. I once told someone that I would describe most of the music I love as the kind of music that makes you a worse person, but in a good way. And that’s pretty much the way that I would describe the music on The Soft Pack’s The Muslims.
