A God-awful Small Affair

With the aim of trying to get 2014 underway (or rather, the last few albums of 2013 anyway), this'll only be split into two parts: the first thirty, and the top twenty! #50 - "Mosquito" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs OK, so, brace yourselves because this first list of ten has some positively appalling artworks on display. The first is the 4th YYYs LP, and although far from the best it made enough of a pleasant listen to creep onto this list right here. #49 - "Apocalypse" - Thundercat Not nearly as ugly is Stephen Bruner's face, which adorns the front of his Thundercat project's second effort. It's been a pretty big year for him - worming his way onto the GTA 5 soundtrack and continued great work with Flying Lotus - and whilst this wasn't quite as wonderful as his debut it's a pretty groovy album nonetheless. #48 - "Spreading Rumours" - Grouplove There is a sneaking suspicion that this band are secretly a bit terrible

Melbourne quartet Cut Copy have been gently wooing the world with their fine craft of heartening, warm dance music for nearly a decade now. 2011's Zonoscope was one of the most warmly-received albums of the year, and found chunks of it wriggling their way into TV adverts and our collective subconscious. This time around, though, the influence is a lot less electropop and a great deal more house. Almost everyone has picked up upon a Screamadelica feel to their fourth LP, but rather than cement itself as a firm gamechanger like Primal Scream did in the early 90s, Cut Copy are getting quite the lukewarm reception. A largely unnecessary intro paves the way for the album's first fist-pumping moment, the brassy, in-your-face title track that unleashes Italo-house piano keys, Whitford's token laidback drawl and a generally classic-90s feel (the synths in the second verse remind me of Gala's era-defining Freed From Desire ). They take a turn for the more generic thou

#20 - "A Different Kind of Fix", Bombay Bicycle Club This was the year they progressed past the point of a one-hit-wonder in my mind (Always Like This) and this record possesses a great number of hooks and tunes. #19 - "Dye It Blonde", Smith Westerns Richly influenced by David Bowie, T. Rex and, more recently, Suede, it's naturally packed to the brim with a heap of glamrock goodness. #18 - "Zonoscope", Cut Copy Amazing tune after amazing tune. Along with Metronomy they've seen multiple tracks end up on my going-out playlist, and kickstarted summer that little bit earlier. #17 - "Cults", Cults I instantly fell in love with the pair once I heard 'Abducted', and that was just one of a selection of infectious, retro pop songs. #16 - "Smother", Wild Beasts I missed their first two albums entirely and have still yet to investigate them, but this stood out this year for me because of its intimacy, great songwriting and some exc

Again, there seem to be few albums I've looked into in the past fortnight or so, so I'll review one I've had for a slightly longer period of time. It seems nowadays that Australia's main export is electropop - Empire of the Sun, Gypsy and the Cat, not to mention slightly different outlets as Pendulum and Kylie. Step forward Cut Copy, a band new to me but on their third effort - following two rather well-received albums (2008's In Ghost Colours was 4th on Pitchfork's end of year list). The prospect of a song called 'Need You Now' drew initial fears of Lady Antebellum snooze-fests but on the contrary it's 6 minutes of energetic electronics, full of interesting sounds - glass bottles being tapped, twilight synths - and aimed for a perfect euphoric club moment. 'Take Me Over' is full of all things that launched MGMT, an endearing blend of Jamiroquai-style disco funk and indie cool delivery - indeed Dan Whitford is so unemotively baritone that he