#1

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

This one's for Anne Frank.

     I'm left without words; I don't know how to describe this masterpiece. I don't believe it's possible.  No one can explain how this album is so good, nor can they explain how good it is.  It's completely surreal and poetic.  It uses obscured, riddled metaphors that are completely vague.  The grimy, busy sound rattles and thickens the air with a coarse texture.  Their sound is completely indescribable.

     NMH's unique, grimy sound is what makes them sound so surreal, and somehow natural.  The eccentric band was created by an eccentric that would later go on to create eccentric music, no, extraordinary, no, mind-blowing, amazing, unreal, beautiful, poetic, sexual music, and yes, eccentric.  It leaves me puzzled why people remember events such as the destruction of the Berlin Wall or the Napoleonic Era but not the release of this album; it's heresy, it's hypocrisy, it's insanity, it is pure ignorance.

     The beginning tracks, King of Carrot Flowers parts 1 - 3 rise and fall elegantly, flutter, slow down and speed up.  Other tracks such Two Headed Boy and Two Headed Boy part 2 are stripped down, beautiful, and deeply emotional, somber tracks which include the originality of folk music, though mangled by Jeff's nasally voice.  Tracks like Ghost and Holland, 1945 are upbeat and spastic, thumpy beats and fast acoustics engulf the salty atmosphere.  The entire album is a collage of strange and out-of-tune instruments.
     When the album finally comes to a close, wanting more sexual metaphors and love poems written to Anne Frank,  you are left in a puddle of tears, both yours and Jeff Mangum's.  You will realize that there are no other insane men to whisper vivid, sexual fantasies to you while playing a guitar, thinking of nothing but Anne Frank.  Nothing can fill this void, not even this album.  Listening to this album three times a day for eight months won't help, trust me, I would know...  ;_;

Imperial:   14/10
Metric:   10/10

#2

Nick Drake - Pink Moon

     Pink moon is the third and final album released by folk artist Nick Drake.  Nick Drake was scarcely known during his lifetime, often turning down interviews and never performing live, contributing to his lack of success until over a decade later when his name frequently appeared on lists of major influences to famous musicians.  Lonely and reclusive, Nick Drake was said to have given up on life by the time Pink Moon had been released.  The unsuccessful Drake will be soon discovered dead from a overdose of antidepressants in 1974, two years after the release of Pink Moon.  Whether intentional or not, signs leading up to his death strongly suggest suicide.

     Nick Drake's previous albums, Five Leaves Left and Bryter Layter, are entirely different both in composition and emotion.  Instruments such as saxophones, trumpets, and pianos gave life to the air, expressing a much more elaborate, jubilant nature, where as Pink Moon is heavily influenced by fatalism, holding the belief that we work hard only to be faced with an inevitable end.  Pink Moon is comprised of only the pensive vocals of Nick and his guitar, occasionally brightened by a piano.  The stripped-down, gloomy structure only further intensifies the passion and dreariness depicted.
     The album opens with a soft and fluid serenity.  The entire first half of the album is clean and mellow, undisturbed, peaceful, and tranquil.  Notes and chords endlessly spill, cascade out of the guitar and deep, surreal emotion escapes the voice.  This simple make of music seems so natural and beautiful.  The track titled Horn, a minute and a half slow and doleful instrumental piece, marks the album's halfway point.  All songs following this track dramatically change in tone.  The calming, serene setting is blackened by the dismay.This desolation and somberness continues until the album closes with From the Morning, a song that shares the same cleanliness and gentleness as the earlier tracks but shares the same betrayal as the later.
     This album is a masterpiece; the thick, numbing, warm, tumbling gentleness of every note, every word, every sound blankets over you.  Unimaginably comforting, nostalgic.  Pink Moon vividly paints of a delicate, early morning sunrise, ushered in after a breathtaking rain.  The beaming warmth of the sun raises the moisture from the soil, staining the air with the smell of fertility.

Imperial:   14/10
Metric:   10/10

#3
American Football - American Football

     American Football is the first and only studio album, self titled after the emo/ indie-rock band, American Football.  The band's lead singer and guitarist, Mike Kinsella, has played a role in many other bands after the departing of American Football.  Despite the incredible short life of the band, their debut album has gained critical acclaim from many people, being marked as a truly inspirational and motivating.    When I had first heard this album with a friend, we both experienced an odd, mutual feeling from it.  We described it as "feeling nostalgia for an event that has never occurred".  Each song is a poem, short and sweet, with only a stanza or two of romantic, passionate lyrics.  The titles of every song foreshadows a story, a story that is unknown and can be perceived in many different ways.  Every element, every instrument, every inhale and exhale in the album has a chilling power to it: the still image of a comforting, old home featured on the cover, the yearning young voice of Kinsella's, the poetic, depressing, obscure lyrics, everything folds in on each other to oddly portray a sense of relatability.  The quick flicks and whisks of snares, the silence between verses being caressed occasionally by the company of a mourning trumpet, and the rising and falling, accelerating breaths of the instruments.... all of the songs are expressive and overwhelmingly passionate; it's hard to pick out a specific song since they all share the same straining love and doleful memory.     American Football is an album you have to experience for yourself, as it is difficult to describe with words other than "tormentingly depressing".  After years of relistening to this album, there remains only one, true way I can explain this album, and it's represented, not with adjectives, but with an event.  An event I have never encountered, an event that, most likely, very few people have experienced, though many can imagine the heart-stopping coldness you receive from the thought of such an event.

     "It's the summer after we all graduate high-school.  You and all of your friends that have stuck with you for those  years decide to meet by a small fire on a chilly summer's night.  You all reminisce, laughing, crying, enjoying the night.  As time passes, the silence spacing the conversations slowly increases.  The silence grows cold and dark, the only light coming from the faint embers of the originally roaring flames as the darkness slowly, very slowly returns to day. You and your friends decide not to disturb one another, as you have all realized that these are the very last moments that you will all be together, that no matter how hard you'll all try, in the remaining, many years of your life, that you all will never be as happy as when you were struggling through high-school together; the only long term friends you will ever have will be in your childhood,  and one simple event completely washes them out of your life, but not your memory of them."

Imperial:  13/10
Metric: 9/10

#4

Tycho - Dive

     Dive is the second studio album by electronic artist Scott Hansen, aka Tycho.  This album has remained on of my all time favorites since its release in 2011, five years after Tycho's first studio album Past is Prologue.  Scott Hansen is a visual artist who is also known professionally as ISO50; it is unmistakably clear that he expresses his artistic talent through his music as well, both featuring serene and colorful imagery. Although making music is a pastime of Scott Hansen's (art being his primary focus), he has recently announced his change in heart, making his present focus on his music career prior to his up and coming album Awake, releasing in March 2014.
     Tycho perfects the balance between sparkling highs and bellowing lows throughout Dive.  The thick and cloudy bass creates the backbone of the endlessly extending treble.  Throughout Dive, the treble flickers fast and violently from a darkened background.  The momentary illumination that follows after each and every transition from one pop and sizzle to the next explodes into a new vast and mysterious portrait of the world. The bass is simple yet invigorating, giving a rounded and smoothed texture that flows and bleeds into the album.
     The album's featured track, Dive, can not go unmentioned.  An angelic, breathtaking voice ruptures the fabric of the atmosphere, lulling to the encompassing ecosystem of sound.  The quick beats dip and weave in and out of one another, entangling the environment with ribbons of shimmering, golden velvet.  Coastal Brake warps the world into a rhythmic and passionate marine world. Enclosing echoed, distorted bass and treble that ripples and dances, plunging into a deep pool of silver water, splashing the face of the close-eyed listener.
     Dive is a completely hypnotic, enthralling album with vibrant, personified beats that suspend in a forged, divine realm.  Within this surrealistic realm, the foreign life is sustained by the overbearing vividness that courses through its veins.

Imperial:   13/10
Metric:   9/10

#5

Bibio - Silver Wilkinson

     Silver Wilkinson is the most recent album released by the experimental, UK based artist Bibio, being released only less than a year ago.  Despite its short life, it has violently thrust itself into my handful of favorite albums.  Silver Wilkinson is vastly unique, versatile album, incorporating many other genres such as synthpop, folk, and chillwave.  Bibio manages to make this stew of genres successful, making the elements commingle into a light, delicate, and milky texture in a warming atmosphere.  One of the most distinguishable elements is the haunting, desolate vocals that engulf the ethereal atmosphere created by the soft, twinkling synthesizers.
     Many of the songs on this album have this breathtaking, unworldly, and somehow chilling warmth to them. Though most of the songs on the album share this common atmosphere, there are a few misfits such as the songs You, Look at Orion!, and Business Park.  Although these songs don't fit the pattern and elegance of the others, they manage to support the claim that this album is one of a kind.

     The album opens with a twinkling and random collaboration of airy noises, sounding imaginative, much like a fantasy.  These delicate, dripping sounds quickly fade out, replaced by the rising crescendo of the deep, impenetrable rolling of an acoustic guitar.  The liquid tumbling flutters vividly, painting a gleaming landscape that is soon washed away, flooded by the melancholy, echoing vocals that intimately trickle into your ears.  The following song, Wulf, trembles with weakness, holding the faint embers of the world painted with the first two tracks.  The album suddenly breaks away from this poetic dreamscape to unveil a new, exuberant tune; À tout à l'heure is one of those rambunctious but lovable misfits I had
mentioned earlier.

     This strange evolution from rippling delicacy into chilling desolation remains the pattern throughout the album; weaving between uplifting ecstasy and yearning isolation.  Silver Wilkinson remains a gleaming torrent of warm, elegant energy, passionately giving life to an otherwise vast landscape.  Managing to wrap the listener in a blanket of comfort, lifting his/her consciousness into a gently swaying meadow on a clear and breezy summer day.

Imperial:   13/10
Metric:   9/10

     The procrastination is now over and the weeks of slaving on how to go about writing a detailed, unbiased, and entertaining blog on various albums has come to an end.  Originally, I was stuck repeating myself over and over and over, vaguely describing even some of my favorite albums.  Without further delay, I present to you my completely amateur attempt on reviewing albums.
     I have to warn you about the unavoidable confusion you will face if you continue to read my reviews.  The way I rate albums is completely unique and is a signature of a few friends of mine as well as myself in order to accurately the differences in music, both good and bad.  Instead of the classic on a scale from one to ten (metric as we call it), we use a one to fourteen (imperial) scale.  Why such an odd number?  Stories aside, we've decided that it keeps irrational ratings out of the picture: 4.5/10,  8.5/10,  9.5/10, etc.  It also gives a wider range of choices in which to classify an album.
     The Imperial Scale can easily be translated into metric, although it still has its specific rules.  For instance, an Imperial 5/10 is the same as a Metric 5/10; a borderline average, mediocre album.  Although a 7/10 on a Metric Scale is quite above average and a 10/10 implies that the album is flawless, on the Imperial Scale a 7/10 is an average good album (above normal average) and a 14/10 is absolutely flawless.
     Now that you are utterly confused, I'd like to begin by reviewing my top five favorite albums of all time; beginning with #5 and working my way up.