maybe up until animal collective and grizzly bear come out with their albums. also would put kill for love up there.

kill for love is so much more interesting than bloom

I actually agree. Bloom to me is better seen as the record to help acquire new fans outside of the run of the mill hipster demographic than it is at satisfying long time fans (most ppl here including me). I kinda take back what I said about them being better as they got safer a few pages back.

I'm always excited every year to discover new music and see what established bands will think of next. For the former, it's almost always a joy and the best part about being a fan of contemporary music. For the latter it's hard because the element of surprise is lost, so the artist has to keep pushing themselves to recapture that initial magic as if they were a new band to laud all over again. I notice that with a lot of legend-in-the-making bands that we keep getting excited for, where the new bands' mystique and novelty trumps the veteran bands' strive for consistency. A good example for me was when Deerhunter's Halcyon Digest came out, where because I was so familiar with the band at that point, the album kinda disappointed me (this usually happens after 2 great albums). It was lush, but it kinda just felt like what it factually was "another Deerhunter record". That same year, my discovery of Future Islands, a new band (to me) who I instantly fell in love with, I found more interesting and poignant than the album from a band whom I thought was better. So I think what veteran bands need to do is to just go all out and try to present themselves as a new band with nothing to lose, which I think Animal Collective and most of Radiohead has done (which has increased their longevity).

Kill for Love is quite an amazing achievement tho for a band who is still kinda fresh in my mind, despite knowing them from the IDIB comp and IV. But even long time fans of them will agree that the album carries the same new-band-mystification weight that say records like House of Balloons and Visions has had. People argue it's too long, but its massiveness gives it its real power, since I would rarely call stuff from that genre epic. It's a commitment to that whole world and aesthetic, going through different shades and colors, fluctuating between concise pop and drawn out gaseous atomspherics, making it a supremely rewarding listen if you submit yourself to it.

Deerhunter redefined their sound with Halcyon Digest, saying otherwise is pretty silly. Sure, it became slightly cleaner and bigger, but didn't Merriweather do that as well?

Wasn't too into Kill for Love until "No Escape", immersion really is the key to that album. Still don't think it's as bold as people/Johnny Jewel claim it to be though.

I'm really excited for the upcoming Dirty Projectors album. Been rediscovering Bitte Orca, definitely my favorite of 09.

bloom isn't even a top 10 album of the year dudes

my favourites so far

chromatics
bobby womack
tindersticks
john talabot
clams casino
julia holter
mount eerie
st etienne
mirroring
liars
actress

Do you have a link for Saint Etienne Rashed?

the link i got it from seems to be down atm, ill upload it for you soon enough

Thx, appreciate it.

MPP was much bolder I thought actually, it took the production into an extreme that separated it from anything they had done at the time

I still like Halcyon Digest and I think Revival and He Would Have Laughed are some of the best songs on da planet earf. But it sounds like territory they already explored on Weird Era Cont'd and especially the Atlas Sound project (in fact it sounds more like a big budget AS record).

agreed, if anything cryptograms was the real boundary hopping deerhunter record

Point taken on Atlas Sound, it was the first comparison I thought of when I heard the whole record through.

Mount Eerie, Clams and Talabot are definitely on my list as well, nice one Rashed.

Bloom is fantastic. Just really good tunes and there wasn't a second on there that I got bored or really lost myself in the music, which can be looked at as good or bad, but I felt like Bloom really demanded my attention, and I really love it for that.

Loving the new Why? track :)

new purity ring and dirty projectors albums are so good