Pinback's "Summer in Abbadon". Seriously this is pop music at its finest. I only have a few albums that I would recommend to any old person - most people wouldn't really appreciate some of my favorite bands like Modest Mouse and Sigur Ros. This is one of those albums, as is "Emergency & I" by the Dismemberment Plan. Every song is a little rock opera or angsty diary entry of confessional (but not whiny) music. The pop is dreamy and has very dreamy atmosphere in both vocal style and accompanying music.
2004 sucked for music in my opinion, though. "Summer in Abbadon" is still awesome, but it probably wouldn't have been my best if it was realeased in 2005.
Oh, and Seven Swans was definitely in my top 10 of 2004.
Posts: 747 | Location: San Diego ==> Duke U. 2012 :D | Registered: 24 July 2006
Shout out to BContrat! Pinback's "Summer in Abbadon" is indeed glorious. I bought the album this weekend and haven't been able to take it out of my CD player yet. A lot of times when I hear the word "pop", I think gimmicky choruses, overdone production, and weak vocals. Not here. I'd definently recommend picking this album up. Every song from top to bottom has something special to offer.
A junkie's confessional that basically works the rush/nod motif of the Velvet's Heroin into a full album conceit. Then takes a step further by shading all the percussion so it sounds not like drums, but the industrial rattling one would here coming from radiators in rent-by-the-hour/week dive hotels. The ballads on this albums, all eight or nine of them, are just insanely good...and a couple ofthe uptempo numbers, especially Head and the PJ Harvey Grimey Voice on Grimey Voice Duet Hit the City, are fantastic as well.
A liked Arcade Fire, Love Songs For Patriots, College Dropout, A Grand Don't Come for Free, and American Idiot a ton in this year too, but nothing in my mind came close to this one either musically or conceptually.
)
