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- Albums of 2010, No 1: Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III)
Was it cerebral hip-hop? Freaked-out funk? Or an updated Innervisions? There is no point trying to pigeonhole the Guardian's favourite album of 2010 – just sit back and enjoy
Some years the most celebrated albums are perfect jewels whose brilliance derives from focus and consistency. Guardian critics' two favourite albums of 2010, however, are more like treasure chests, where the whole point is abundance and some stones may be more precious than others. Yet they point in opposite directions: Kanye West's towards the celebrity self and Janelle Monáe's towards the wider world — Me v Us, as Neil Tennant recently put it when talking about modern pop.
At just 25, Monáe is absurdly, vertiginously talented. Although 2007's Metropolis: The Chase Suite had a cult following, a lot of people's first exposure to her was a YouTubed appearance on Letterman in May, performing Tightrope. Tiny in her tuxedo, she had that rare and compelling combination of razzle-dazzle exhibitionism with a sense of something mysterious and withheld. It was, in the words of the James Brown routine she unapologetically homaged, Star Time.
Nina Simone used to complain that though she moved between styles people always labeled her jazz because she was black. The same goes for Monáe and R&B. It's part of the mix on The ArchAndroid but it's uselessly reductive as a general description. You could extrapolate whole albums from single tracks here: a tough, cerebral hip-hop record from Dance Or Die, an updated Innervisions from Locked Inside, a freaked-out funk opus from Mushrooms & Roses, and so on. She belongs to the tradition of OutKast, Prince, David Bowie and Funkadelic – artists who command so many genres that they become one themselves.
The ArchAndroid is proudly OTT, as any record that purports to tell the story of a time-travelling android freedom-fighter from the year 2719 is bound to be, but its excess comes off as generosity rather than bombast. On first exposure the collision of oddball aspiration with old-fashioned showbusiness determination to entertain is dynamite, but it reveals its richness over time. It's an album big and spacious enough for you to wander around in, noticing fresh marvels (like the hymnal folk of 57821 or the Bowiesque Of Montreal collaboration Make the Bus) with each circuit. And though the Broadway-trained Monáe might, with less control, be a mere showboater, shifting roles with look-what-can-I-do alacrity, her performances are oddly egoless. Each change of tone – cutesy to spooky, playful to histrionic, joyous to dazed – is calibrated to serve the song rather than the singer.
Instead of trumpeting solitary genius, The ArchAndroid celebrates history and community. In interviews Monáe is quick to position herself as a member of a collective, the Atlanta-based Wondaland Arts Society (along with her co-writers and producers, Chuck Lightning and Nate Wonder), the product of a good education (she thanks her old school teachers in the sleevenotes) and the beneficiary of a torrent of stimuli, from Fritz Lang to Rodgers and Hammerstein, the Harlem Renaissance to Afro-futurism, Salvador Dali to Philip K Dick. Yet the influences never overwhelm her because the current that crackles through them is fresh and unpredictable and true.
No other album this year seems so alive with possibility. Monáe is young and fearless enough to try anything, gifted enough to pull almost all of it off, and large-hearted enough to make it feel like a communal experience: Us rather than Me. She may yet surpass it – let's hope so – but for now, this is one hell of a show.guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Readers recommend: songs about change
Last time we focused on glimpses of majesty, this week we're waving off the old and looking forward to the new
Hello to every last one of you. Momentous times on the Readers Recommend desk this week – so we've pulled out an old topic to revisit. Next week will be the column's last appearance in the paper. However, fear not, because the blog – the living, breathing heart of this beast – will thrust ever onwards, a new guru at the helm, in the new year.
Anyway, more of that later. Firstly, there were well over a thousand posts, so choosing 20 songs was not easy, but it was hugely enjoyable. The idea of royalty is such a rich topic for songwriters with its twists and tricks and turns of phrase.
Anyway, the A-list grew into a thing of bejewelled splendour andlooks like this: I Was There (At the Coronation) – Young Tiger; Kill the King – Rainbow; I Love King Selassia – Black Uhuru; Blue Bood – Action Pact; Kings of the Wild Frontier – Adam and the Ants; King of Rock – Run-DMC; The King and Queen of England – Sandy Denny; Is She Conscious? – The Waterboys; Gudbye T'Jane – Slade; Rasputin – Boney M.
Here comes the B-list:
Royal Family – Lionel Hampton
There is nothing that can't be improved by a blast of Louisville, Kentucky's Lionel Hampton. Just the sound of his music makes you feel glad to be alive. This instrumental is from March 1942, but it might as well be yesterday.
I Used to Be a King – Graham Nash
Gorgeous LA folk-pop from 1971. Nash had just split up with Joni Mitchell, so lyrics such as, "In my bed late at night, I miss you, someone is going to take my heart, but no one is going to break my heart again, I used to be a king and everything around me, turned to rust …" may lead you to understand where his head was at.
Jig-Saw Puzzle – The Rolling Stones
Asked where he'd be in five years' time, a 21-year-old Mick Jagger told Newsweek: "I hope to be sitting in a country house with four Rolls Royces and spitting at everyone." Such was the trajectory of his life that he became a sort of landed gentry long before that. This most jigsaw puzzle-like band – how on earth do they fit together? – tackle themselves and the chaos around them in a self-referential, Dylan-like manner. The world goes mad while the Queen stands on the sidelines and "bravely" shouts, "what the hell is going on?" The soul of 1968 is right here.
Little Queen of Spades – Robert Johnson
This Queen is a "gambling woman" – sex and money and chance and voodoo hoodoo all mixed up to represent the idea of kings and queens. This was recorded during Johnson's final session on 20 June 1937.
Satan's Jewel Crown – Emmylou Harris
Written by Edgar Eden and made famous by the Louvin Brothers – them again – here Harris attempts to nail the most famous of what the Satanic Bible considers the Four Crown Princes of Hell. What's more, she wears extremely nice boots on the cover of the 1975 record she sings it on. So there.
Guinnevere – Miles Davis
A cover of the Crosby, Stills and Nash tribute to the queen consort of King Arthur, though you'd be hard pressed to guess, to be honest. Not much happens for 18 minutes, but it doesn't happen with absolute grace and charm. A four-note bassline, Khalil Balakrishna's sitar and some relaxed horns. Utterly mesmerising.
Queen Bitch – David Bowie
Literally, not a real queen. But, without a doubt, one of the single greatest pop songs ever written.
King Ashabanapal (Dillinja Mix) – Funki Porcini
Ninja's chill king got an astonishingly good drum'n'bass remix in 1995. There is not a second of this record that is not brilliant.
Princess of the Posse – Queen Latifah
Before she was a movie star Dana Elaine Owens was fully paid-up member of the Native Tongues crew. This, from 1989, is really quite charming.
The Ballad of the Royal Scottish Pretender (Posselwaite Lament) – Kenneth Williams
You really need to hear Willliams deliver this in full-on Ramblin Syd Rumpo mode to really appreciate it. Suffice to say, you'll never think about hedgehog pâté (or paraffin rosé) in the same way again.
Things are changing next week. Having sat in this seat on and off for some time I know as well as anyone how important the blog is. I have grown to love hundreds of songs that I never would have been exposed to without it. Week in, week out the ideas and suggestions keep coming; it's a remarkably deep well of insight and information. Thank you all for that.
More than five years ago Dorian chose Change for a topic and this week we're revisiting it. Why change? Because this is not the end, not some finale, so let's have songs that look forward, songs that have an eye firmly on the horizon. Changes in life, in habits, in movements and ideas. The very idea of change changes too, doesn't it? Things that stay the same die. So what have you got for me?
As ever, extra points will be awarded to well-argued examples. Until next week …
The toolbox: Archive, the Marconium, the Spill and the Collabo.
The rulebook: DO post your nominations before midday on Monday if you wish them to be considered.
DO post justifications of your choices wherever possible.
DO NOT post more than one third of the lyrics of any song.
DO NOT dump lists of nominations – if you must post more than two or three at once, please attempt to justify your choices.
Here's to the new.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Audio advent calendar: Download Rustie's Hyperthrust
December 16: One of Warp's most exciting recent signings provides us with an audio advent giveaway
Today's Christmas treat comes from Glasgow's Rustie. Check out his mind-scattering track taken from this year's Sunburst EP.
Rustie plays a DJ set at XOYO in London tomorrow night (17 December)
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Albums of 2010, No 02: Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
It had the makings of an ego-driven mess. But Kanye tempered his ambition to paint a compelling portrait of a troubled artist
Kanye West has been called many things, but you could never accuse him of being a man of mystery. Ever since the phrase "I'mma let you finish ..." went viral, the rapper has been ubiquitous in many ludicrous ways: talking up collaborations with Justin Bieber, claiming to have overcome suicidal thoughts because he's a "soldier of culture", offering a a Coventry man Twitter fame. Even when West wasn't the one doing the talking, presidents old and new were offering their opinions on him.
The natural inclination would be to assume the rapper has spread himself too thin; the career evolution of most celebrities who spend this much time filling column inches tends to involve a sex tape, misuse of collagen or leaked photos involving a bong. Instead, West made one of the best albums of 2010.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is both impressively grand and intensely personal, thriving on the rapper's restless creative mania. Sampling the likes of Aphex Twin, King Crimson and Mike Oldfield, West also gathers rap veterans and newcomers – notably Rick Ross, Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj. It's the latter who introduces the album, her cod-English accent telling the children – in one of the album's many weird moments – to "zip it, listen!"Of course, we'd heard many of the album's finest songs already – the explosive Monster, the mournful Runaway, the sinister So Appalled – as part of West's G.O.O.D. Friday giveaways or on the lavish 30-minute Runaway film. But the album shines brightest when The Ego is left to one side and Kanye allows himself to be fraught and, at times, a bit pathetic.
More than once, West returns to the role of beleaguered lover; the one floored by the coldness of an ex-girlfriend in Heartless, the one who leant a sympathetic ear to the self-conscious beauty in All Falls Down. Sharing vocals with John Legend on the exceptional Blame Game, West bitches about an unhealthy relationship, at turns histrionic and cavalier, and equally convincing in both guises.
When he does tackle that most loathsome of topics – fame – in Lost in the World, West does so in his own individual style. Absent is the talk of unnamed haters that has proved the staple of hip-hop for far too long; instead, Bon Iver (the album's unlikely wingman) provides isolated vocals – "I'm lost in the world, I'm down on my life" – that warp into cacophonous, tribal drumming, while reworked refrains from the album's previous tracks ebb and flow. When the track segues into Gil Scott-Heron talking of a "rapist known as freedom" in final song, Who Will Survive in America, it sounds completely natural, despite the contrast in West's depiction of psychological isolation and the fate of the American continent.
And that is one of his greatest attributes as an artist. Kanye West remains a gifted producer, evident in his subtle production touches, but he also understands that truly brilliant pop music must make the personal universal. For all the time he spends acting like a spoilt child in real life, he remains, on record, one of the most compelling artists of our time.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Albums of 2010, No 3: Hot Chip – One Life Stand
Hot Chip's fourth LP was both ecstatic and eclectic. Crucially, it saw them drop the self-mockery and bare their souls
In a pop world obsessed with the new, "Band makes amazing music on fourth LP" isn't a headline to excite tastemakers. Hot Chip were far more celebrated when sampling Todd Rundgren and singing self-mockingly about cruising around Putney. Yet One Life Stand is the London five-piece's best album by a mile, containing 10 tracks on which Hot Chip stopped smirking and opened their hearts.
Love suffused every song: romantic on I Feel Better, sexual on Thieves in the Night, fraternal on Brothers, a touching anthem to male friendship ("I will drink my fill with my brothers/ And if one of us is ill then my brothers/ Will watch over me"). Then there was the title track: a five-minute, steel-drum-embellished marriage proposal in which singer Alexis Taylor ecstatically dedicated himself to being a one-woman guy.
Musically, One Life Stand fell into two halves, old-school vinyl style. The first side was an onslaught of pounding, chorus-heavy pop; acoustic pianos, squiggly synths and hands-in-the-air breakdowns decorated Hot Chips's strongest and most direct songs yet. The second half was more subtle, marked by a couple of showstopping ballads; Slush, whose "homana homana homana homana" backing vocals brought together the folk club and the rave-up, and Keep Quiet, a perfect evocation of wide-eyed, wee-small-hours pondering.
Taylor's vocals were more English, fragile and fey than ever, but the contrast between them and co-singer Joe Goddard's deeper tones was never played for laughs, as in the past. Instead they produced harmonies that were both yearning and euphoric, particularly when cooing "My heart has flown to you just like a dove" in the impeccable final song, Take It In, which started off with squelchy, dissonant synths and ended in elegant piano.
On One Life Stand Hot Chip alchemised influences ranging from UK garage and Arthur Russell to The Blue Nile and Behaviour-era Pet Shop Boys. Tracks such as I Feel Better – half Inner City, half Robert Wyatt – demonstrate that they can take their place in the pantheon of great British songwriters. Its emotional intelligence and melodic sophistication meant One Life Stand was a mature record, but never a boring one. After all, its ultimate message was to make the most of the one life that you've got.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Albums of 2010, No 4: Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Their reputation for being fixated with death and religion might have preceded them, but Arcade Fire's third album proved they are a band with a big heart
Is it possible that a feeling of reticence developed towards Arcade Fire in their absence between albums? After the grief-stricken Funeral and the doom-laden Neon Bible, I approached their third LP thinking I'd heard all they had to say. But after a few plays it was clear that Arcade Fire possess a rare magic; for all their fixations with death and religion, this is a band with heart.
Nothing sums up their appeal quite like the single We Used to Wait, which the band turned into a Google Chrome video project called The Wilderness Downtown, in a format (HTML5) allowing people to modify the contents to include images of their childhood homes. Tech heads were wetting themselves, but this was more than just flash gadgetry. Here was a band, whose aesthetic is the picture of austerity, managing to imbue advanced HTML with emotional resonance. Although an unlikely project, The Wilderness Downtown was a reminder of the sincerity at the heart of Arcade Fire's monumental angst-rock.
The Suburbs begins with the title track in which languid bar-room jangle is underpinned by the urgency of the lyrics: "I learned to drive, and you told me I'd never survive, grab your mother's keys, we're leaving." Their version of the suburbs holds you hostage, but also provides wonder among the grid-pattern roads and vacant sidewalks.Driving – a necessity when you live in, say, Sidcup, and you want some fun – repeatedly crops up in The Suburbs: "Took a drive into the sprawl, to find the places we used to play. It was the loneliest day of my life." It is a means of escape, but it's an equally subtle way of winding the album's landscape around you. And that's what this album does, until any feelings of doubt have been conquered and you are once again fully immersed in the band's world.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать
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