This Year So Far...

With the year being a little more than halfway through, I wanted to take this as an opportunity to throw out the albums that I consider to be the best thus far. These albums, with each song flowing and meshing together with the next, strip you of all sense of time, and you can easily sit down and listen to the entire piece from start to finish. It's something that I have done time and again with these six albums whether running, on the bus home from work, or simply relaxing in my room or on the porch. So, as not to keep you waiting, and in no particular order:

Trampled by Turtles, Palomino – Banjo, fiddle, acoustic guitars, all the classic ingredients of country blended over heavy-hearted lyrics that would make Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson proud. Throughout the album, Trampled by Turtles prove incredibly adept at switching up the tempo throughout the album, vacillating between rapid fire strumming and picking, and plodding chord progressions, though in those shifts the power of the vocals does not suffer a bit. The breakneck pace and earnest tone of "Wait So Long," demonstrating incredibly musical prowess and some damn-fine banjo playing, easily make this track on of the year's best.

Key tracks – “Wait so Long,” “Help You”

Dr.Dog, Shame Shame – Filled with so many stories, an incredibly reflective album that brings out the wandering eye, and superb storytelling abilities of Dr. Dog’s co-vocalists Scott McMicken and Toby Leaman. Whether live or in the studio, there are so many elements blending, layered together on Dr. Dog's tracks which is why it was really a treat to see them live recently, it really brought things to life, to see how the music would translate from the album to the stage. One key element is almost always the bass, giving each track a sense of direction and flow. I’ve always thought one of the best measures of a band is to what degree the members can gel, and Dr. Dog is one of the tightest groups I have ever seen.

Key tracks - '”Jackie Wants a Black Eye,” “Station,” “Shadow People”

The Tallest Man on Earth, The Wild Hunt – On his second album, Kristian Matsson displays his prowess as a lyricist, and the emotional words drip with a thickness and urgency. With guitar-work that is more than capable, but never overly flamboyant, Matsson beautifully paints a sweeping, untamed landscape on "Burden of Tomorrow." The musical range of the album has greatly broadened as well, no longer relying solely on Matsson's guitar. As Stephen Deusner of Pitchfork aptly put it in his album review, “Matsson interprets Dylan, just as Dylan himself interpreted Guthrie."

Key tracks – “Burden of Tomorrow,” “King of Spain,” “The Wild Hunt”

Frightened Rabbit, The Winter of Mixed Drinks - The Scottish kings of sadness triumphantly return, well sort of. In what is a follow up to their gripping album Midnight Organ Fight in all but name, the songs display a resolve to move past the emotional distress and fracture of the break-up depicted previously. With the pounding drums and roughly strummed guitars back as well, Frightened Rabbit have lost little of the weary emotions. The scars of past relationships shine through and dictate the sentiments in many of the tracks, especially the callous gloat of “Nothing Like You.” The album is significantly more determined, with the narrator carrying a weight of resoluteness and new beginnings in the anthematic “Living in Colour.” The crushing misery of the break-up is transformed into a realization of the split’s permanence, and gathering the courage to pick yourself up.

Key tracks – “Living in Colour,” “Swim Until You Can’t See Land,” “The Lonliness”

The Black Keys, Brothers - Make no mistake, The Black Keys have lost none of their unkempt, rough-around-the-edges rock sound. On Brothers, the duo of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have expanded their range by the slightest of alternations and adding new musical permutations to the jagged guitar and thumping drums of their previous albums. The albums most solid tracks are vintage Black Keys, but amongst the album's fifteen tracks there is evidence of a departure from the duo's obvious comfort zone and a willingness to develop broader horizons: a Motown cover that pushes Auerbach's crooning to the forefront on "Never Gonna Give You Up," swapping slick guitar riffs for a sweetly shrill organ on "Too Afraid to Love You," and "These Days," a beautifully broken and bitter emotional exposure into the wounds of relationships.

Key tracks - "Next Girl," "Tighten Up," "She's Long Gone,"

Local Natives, Gorilla Manor - Absolutely fantastic debut album from this LA group. Gorilla Manor has a strikingly atmospheric sound throughout, driven by delicately constructed harmonies (see "Cards & Quarters), which reinforce the deft song-writing that is at times straightforward but at others is oblique. The expansive and tremendous use of percussion, that only seemed to add to the drifting qualities of the album, is what set album apart. "Warning Sign" proves a great example as a chugging drum line is complimented by cymbal crashes and an emphatic bass drum seems to launch the serene harmonies that bridge the verses.

Key tracks - "Airplanes," "Wide Eyes," "Warning Sign"

Second tier albums, nearly there: The National, High Violet; Vampire Weekend, Contra; The Morning Benders, Big Echo; Josh Ritter, So Runs the World Away; Blitzen Trapper, Destroyer of the Void

Albums I am embarrassed to say I haven't listened to nearly enough, so I will reserve my comments: LCD Soundsystem, This Is Happening; Delta Spirit, History from Below; Yeasayer, Odd Blood; Drive-By Truckers, The Big To-Do; Phosphorescent, Here's To Taking it Easy

Apologies for not including links to all the tracks, navigate your way over to youtube on the interweb if you please. As always, I would absolutely love to know what other people have been listening to that has been tops so far this year.