Posts tagged alt.

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest (2004)

This album was a solo project originally intended for friends, but rereleased and circulated to the public along with the help of another. I’ve been completely addicted to Grizzly Bear lately, listening to them over and over, and yet I’ve barely gotten through their discog yet. I’ve listened to everything once, and I find myself drawn to this album already. It’s so lifeless, if that makes sense, that it’s wonderful. It is the prisoner that sits in the corner of the cell, staring at everyone with dead eyes and thinking dead thoughts, but it is so in such a way that it is beautiful. The tracks fade weirdly, often switching completely from where you’d think they’d go, dancing in and out of each other.

If you’re looking for catchy songs, don’t listen to this album. It’s not catchy, it won’t ever be, it’s not meant to be. It’s the slowest development of music you could hope for, and that’s why it’s so great. You can listen and see what unfurls and where it does so. It’ll take a while for these to get into your head, but you might find yourself humming little bits after a single listen, because there are some gems in there.

This record isn’t easy to love, but since when has easy been worth it? No one ever got anywhere by doing the easy thing.

Get it on iTunes.
Get it on Amazon.

Sonic Youth - Sister (1994)

So, I guess you could say that Sonic Youth has been very, very influential on everything. I quite like them, I’ve found, and their trilogy of Evol, Sister and Daydream Nation has just made alt quite what it is today. Even then, Sister has always been a favourite record of mine. The lyrics of this album are great, probably SY’s best efforts at them, and they’re queer, peculiar, twisty little things that wind their way into your head and take months to encircle the maze before even thinking about coming out. It’s all rather poetic and lovely, without even touching on the realms of the stereotypical ‘poetic and lovely’ stuff.

Full of eerie guitars and spacey tracks, I’d recommend this album, it’s a wonderful one.

Get it on iTunes.
Get it on Amazon.