01/2010 - 06/2010
TOP 10 NON-BENELUX
01 Lindstrom & Christabel - Lovesick
Hands down the most sensual/sexy track of the last half-year. Some people apparently mishear the first line as the Dutch sentence "Jeuk aan mijn billen", I am not one of them, however. I'm not really sure whether this is the official video or not, it's LSFW and seems to fit the song though.
02 The Drums - Let's go surfing
As far as revenue from use in tv show trailers and advertisements goes, this one might have come out as a winner. Supercatchy track with a propelling bassline, some surf guitars and the most infectious whistling riff since "Young folks". New single "Forever and ever amen" is also really good. Here's a quote from the band for no reason whatsoever:
"We only write about two feelings: one is the first day of summer when you and all of your friends are standing on the edge of a cliff watching the sun set and being overcome with all of your hopes and dreams at once. The other is when you're walking alone in the rain and realize you will be alone forever."
In the video, the singer goes for the 'bles'-hairstyle, popularized in Belgium by the singer from Das Pop.
03 Vampire Weekend - Cousins
I'm pretty sure Vampire Weekend is going to wreck the competition and bring home the "Most fun set of Rock Werchter 2010"-award back to NY. "Giving up the gun" and "Holiday" were A+ singles too, but this up-tempo, jubilant track is my personal favourite among those 3 singles. The video is pretty fun too.
04 The XX - VCR
The XX was all over the place until March, then everything went a little quiet. At Rock Werchter, they'll have to prove if they can survive the hype. This song features some glockenspiel and a slo-mo surf guitar riff, and their typical quiet vocal style.
05 The National - Blood buzz Ohio
The new Interpol record is coming out sometime in September, until then, their niche in the rock spectrum is open to a frontal attack from the "High Violet" album by The National, which gets excellent reviews everywhere and is bound to propel them to a similar popularity. All well deserved when you hear this single. "I still owe money to the money I owe/the floors are falling out from everybody I know". The singer suits up for this video and even dances around a little.
06 The Swiss - Bubble bath
Silly but not too silly, this is a nice, danceable track that keeps all hopes for a disco revival in 2010 intact. The video is spacy and not really worth checking out.
07 Beach House - Norway
The whole chillwave hype came along a couple of months too early, tracks like this seem ideally suited to get through one of those way too hot, sweaty summer days like we've been experiencing the last couple of days (I hate those, apart from the outdoor swimming). Check it out, and tell me, do you really believe the singer from this band is actually female?
08 Erykah Badu - Window seat
Always refreshing to hear this track among all the pop, rock, and old tracks that make up the playlist on my default radio station. Usually a controversial video has the purpose of masking the lack of quality in the songwriting (yup, that one was aimed at you, OK GO!), but this is not the case here. Ms. Badu is nearing her forties, however, I'm not complaining about the stripping going on in this video. Common and Andre 3000 know/knew what's up, that's for sure.
09 Gorillaz - Superfast jellyfish
Whereas "Stylo" was probably the best single (but kind of hard to get into), this track is just the most fun. The guys from De La Soul do an excellent job here. The official video is now removed from youtube, it was a 3D cartoon with jellyfish and microwaves. You're not missing a whole lot.
10 Eels - Little Bird
The most fragile track in this top 10, Mr. E sings about his broken heart. It doesn't happen that much that one gets sincerely moved while hearing a new single on the radio for the first time, so it deserves the number ten spot.
JUST DIDN'T MAKE THE TOP 10 (ALPHABETICAL ORDER):
- Chemical Brothers - Swoon : Repititive, slightly hypnotic track, not their regular dance chart hit material.
- Crystal Castles - Celestica : Superpoppy track from the überhip electronica duo from Toronto.
- Delphic - Doubt : The new hope for New Order enthousiasts in the UK.
- Empire of the Sun - Halfmast (slight return) : The debut album from this Aussie duo spawned 5 singles, this is the last one and my personal favourite. There's a lot of different stuff going on, and the peculiar voice from the singer usually brings a smile to my face. You can skip the first minute of the video (looong intro), the video features the singer in one of his outrageous (native american meets middle ages or something) costumes.
- Florence & The Machine - Dog days are over : Florence tends to annoy me when she reaches the high decibel area, but she keeps it pretty sober here. The (new) video looks truly amazing too, with redheaded and long-legged Florence incarnating national vestimentary stereotypes, from Africa to Asia.
- Goldfrapp - Rocket : After the folk escapades from her previous album, Goldfrapp is right back where she started, so catchy synthpop with generous doses of camp and kitsch this is.
- Gossip - Pop goes the world : Adrenaline-packed third single from this bands breakthrough record.
- Hot Chip - I feel better : A vocoder/auto-tune overdose in the verse balanced out by a killer chorus in the second single from the last album from these UK dance nerds. The official video involved some fictional boy band and has disappeared from youtube. It was pretty silly actually, you're not missing much.
- Hurts - Better than love : New, promising UK duo going for the eighties synthpop sound. The video is retro-styled, and features some slo-mo playbacking, and eighties earrings and waxed haircuts, not unlike Human League videos were prone to be.
- John Mayer - Heartbreak Warfare : Is it me, or does his voice resemble John Hiatt a little at times? "Noone ever really wins in heartbreak warfare".
- LCD Soundsystem - I can change : I like the silly bleeps in this one.
- Local Natives - Airplanes : Vocals and percussion stand out here, and give some rhythm and variation to the post-rock-ish guitar melodies.
- Maria Timm - Did you get it? : The Scandinavian Lily Allen? Cute little track.
- Marina and the Diamonds - Hollywood : Marina usually gets accused of being a Florence copycat jumping the bandwagon, whereas this song sounds nothing like Florence at all. Supercatchy chorus and a video displaying every USA cliche imaginable with Marina going for the cheerleader-look. I'm definitely seeing the Catherine Zeta-Jones resemblance she jokingly sings about.
- Passion Pit - Little secrets : This single by the American dance collective with the infamously high-pitched singer sounds a lot like the Rex The Dog remix of Heartbeats by The Knife.
- Phoenix - Lasso : Phoenix doing what they do best: making catchy pop singles ideally suited for radiostation airplay.
- Roisin Murphy - Momma's place : This jumpy track with the good, jumpy bassline disappeared from the radiowaves way too quickly. The Irish singer still going for the danceable, updated Moloko-sound. Good stuff.
- Shy Child - Disconnected : Another bouncy, danceable three-minute track with the 2010 obligatory eighties synthpop influences. Nothing too memorable here however.
- Two Door Cinema Club - Undercover Martyn : This new Irish band pops up with this uptempo, danceable rock track. The video is inventive, but not really spectacular.
- Wolfmother - White feather : These retro-rock Aussies are on standstill at the verge of breakthrough due to too much festival cancellations caused by everlasting lineup issues and and the singer's health.
TOP 10 BENELUX
01 Balthazar - Hunger at the door
Awards for 'best hook' and 'best group vocals' go to these youngsters, that seem to be doing well across the border among our Dutch-speaking neighbours. Good for them. Groovy rocking tune with their typical lazy-sounding vocal delivery in the verses. The video emphasizes on the 2 main composers in the band (you feel sorry for the 'secondary' band members), the most interesting part of the video is around the 1:20 mark, however.
02 Isbells - Reunite
Another excellent track by our local Bon Iver sound-alike that features at least 2 killer riffs.
03 Customs - The Matador
Another excellent, dynamic track by our local Interpol sound-alikes (and dress-alikes).
04 Amatorski - Come home
Nice, quiet, minimal track about the letter exchange between the singer's grandparents during the war.
05 Marble Sounds - The time to sleep
One half of Plastic Operator is now the driving force behind this band, going for the electronic Duyster sound, and succeeding wonderfully in this track. Sorry ladies, but looks like the thick-glass-spectacled, snowfall-enduring dude is already spoken for.
06 School Is Cool - New kid in town
Supercatchy debut single by the winners of this year's edition of Humo's Rock Rally. The video doesn't make any sense though.
07 Roadburg - Sequences of small-time kings
Bass-driven, mysterious track by the Limburg-band that shares members with (but not the overall silliness of) The Galacticos. The singer's voice is somewhere in the 'acquired taste' spectrum.
08 Admiral Freebie - The last song (about you)
Some really good hooks in this sober track by the artist that likes to (jokingly? I can't really tell) refer to himself as 'The Talent'. Less can be more, as is proven right here.
09 Stijn - Back in Detroit
A+ intro. Sounds less elektrofunk and more house than we're used from Stijn, hence the title, I guess. Duh!
10 The Intergalactic Lovers - Fade away
Song that is highly useful for comforting your English speaking toddler that can't catch sleep due to monsters underneath his/her bed. The video has a nice twist to it. Worth a watch.
JUST DIDN'T MAKE THE TOP 10 (ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
- Broken Glass Heroes - Let's not fall apart : this new project with members Tim Vanhamel and Pascal Deweze sounds very Beatles-esque. The video features some toddlers waking up to discover their Santa Claus gifts, from a seventies or eighties home video. Pretty cool and nostalgic stuff.
- Das Pop - Wings : Another near-perfect poptrack from Bent and his boys.
- Fixkes - N**kvriendje : "Ik zen ier wèr nie goed in" is the Dutch oneliner of the first semester of this year.
- Harvey Quinnt - Infinite street : The least you can say about this new band is that it doesn't really sound like any other Belgian band.
- Howie & Lynn - Natural high : Nice complementarity of the jazzy voice and the electronic beats on this up-tempo track.
- Landfill - Antidote : Nice debut single, nothing too special however.
- Nona Mez - Counting : Good track by Milow's lesser known partner in crime and soundalike, also operating from Leuven city. Features some banjo, definitely an music instrument with a rekindled hipness in the first half of the year.
- The Black Box Revelation - Do I know you? : T-Rex meets Mick Jagger? The video looks a little like the boys watched "De helaasheid der dingen" a few too times too many. Missed opportunity, if you ask me (but you're not, I know, I know...)
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