Snell's Window

It took an extra nine months, but I was finally able to see Beach House live. Their set was too brief and the MFA's seated venue is too conducive to unenthusiastic crowds, but it was still wonderful. (Reviews here and here.) Beach House has found a wonderful niche that few, if any, bands occupy right now and they execute perfectly within it. It's not incredibly original or transformational as rock records go, but, again, is executed so well. I love how the guitar often sounds like a second keyboard and the male vocalist provides the higher harmonies. The ambience has a surprising chameleon-like quality to it. It's wistful, sad and lonely, maybe even abandoned; it's ethereal, bleached and faded; it's a sunny, early October day on a New England beach; it's quite touching. Or, as my friend Allison observes, it's "like you hotboxed your car and took it for a drive under the ocean, and now you're lying on the sea floor watching the late afternoon sky turn gold through Snell's window and it's not alright, but right now it's all right." She's quite good at describing bands' sound.

(According to the Wikipedia entry, which I trust is reliable here, Snell's window "is a phenomenon by which an underwater viewer sees everything above the surface through a cone of light of width of about 96 degrees. This phenomenon is caused by of light entering water, and is governed by Snell's Law. The area outside Snell's window will either be completely dark or will show a reflection of under-water objects.")

How Pitchfork ranked this only number 46 in its "Top-5o Albums of 2008" puzzles me, but then, what's become of their criteria for "Best New Music" also puzzles me. They seem more interested in finding something that's esoteric and avant-garde than in finding something that sounds excellent, only so they can cement their place as the national indie scene's tastemakers. Then again, Beach House did receive "Best New Music" accolades as well. Either way, they should have been ranked higher.

Anyway, here are my other favorite records this year, in alphabetical order:

Cat Power - "Jukebox": Her backing band is just so crisp and good here. And now that she has conquered her severe alcoholism, her voice is so rich.

Fleet Foxes - "s/t": Pitchfork's number 1, so I'm not just hating on them. As everyone else has noted, Fleet Foxes' combination of Appalachia's backwoods and the West Coast's sun-filled beaches is so satisfying. Great production work on the vocals. They started the year opening for Blitzen Trapper and are now headlining much larger venues. Good for them. May Blitzen Trapper experience equal success.

The Sea and Cake - "Car Alarm": Curious to know what these guys' financial situation is. They've released and produced countless records for about 20 years -- as the Sea and Cake, as members of many other bands and on solo projects -- nearly all of them on Thrill Jockey. None of them, I imagine, have sold more than 50,000 copies, except for the ones where they're the producers and you don't receive money from record sales there. And yet, they continue to be full-time musicians who, eight records into this band, still create great songs. The musicianship here is so high. You can tell the bass and guitar lines come to them like syrup out of Vermont trees in March. Can they live comfortably from this? They deserve to.

TV on the Radio - "Dear Science": More out of admiration for the career they've built than this particular record, which I think is their weakest. (In fact, the first EP is their best release and they've slid ever slightly downhill since. However, for them, it's all relative. On an absolute scale, "Dear Science" is far above average.) Their music is almost indescribable. It can't be broken into quantifiable, discrete elements such as bass, guitar and drums. There is too much warping, reconstituting and unusual melding to tell exactly what's happening. What I loved about their early records was when David Andrew Sitek, their multi-instrumentalist, programmer and producer, would be credited with "music" in the liner notes. Brilliant! How they can do all this, sell a decent number of records, play large venues and stay on a major awes me.

And as further proof I don't hate Pitchfork, High Places' "From Stardust to Sentience" is my favorite song of the year. It was number 57 (out of 100) for them.

Funny how this post reads so much like last year's equivalent.