Top 5: End of the Year? Time for the lists…
1. Merriweather Post Pavilion (Animal Collective)
I don’t have much to add to all the critical rapture over MPP. I just don’t understand the haters – hating MPP is like hating sunshine. (Liz Wojnar)
2. Bitte Orca (Dirty Projectors)
David Longstreth, a Yale-trained composer, tore pop music apart and re-built it using West African guitar, bizarre time signatures, booming breakbeats, and beautiful, melismatic vocals. The most shocking part was that it was accessible enough for my dad to love (Rob Wohl).
3. xx (The XX)
The XX made drum machines seductive. (Liz Wojnar)
4. In Prism (Polvo)
These accomplished, oft-overlooked 90s mathletes returned to this year to prove that, yes, there is hope for guitar rock. Polvo got us wondering if you can mosh in 7/8 time. (Rob Wohl)
5. Veckatimest (Grizzly Bear)
Listening to Grizzly Bear lying in a park in Williamsburg with about a thousand other fans confirmed it – “Veckatimest” is a meticulously constructed masterpiece that gets better with every listen. (Liz Wojnar)
Let us not forget “Oral Fixation” by Shakira––you don’t have to be an esteemed Freud partisan to enjoy that record!
*THUG POMPER*
Although I understand that as a college newspaper, one must stick to cutting edge, barely recognized indie artists. Not saying these albums aren’t good, it just sucks to be limited to such a narrow range of genres.