Originally Posted by Maajo I liked Flower Boy quite a bit, but it's more R&B flavored than I was expecting. I thought he showed some maturity both musically and lyrically, but it lacked a certain edge that I come to expect from hip-hop and because of that it did feel a little bit flat. I actually bought this album and the Beck album, although to be fair the Beck album was kind of an impulse buy that I didn't listen to much beforehand. I liked that one too, it reminded me of some late 80s post-punk, but it was a really safe album.

Originally Posted by OccultHawk You should wait until the year ends.

#50



Angles 9
Disappeared Behind the Sun

I start my list off with an album that caught me by surprise. This really should be higher on this list only because I really feel bad that this album is #50 but everything has it's place. The band comes from Sweden and features a metric f*ck ton of horns, bells, whistles, keys, and drums. When you have two saxaphones and two trumpets as staples to your line up you're going to end up with something that sounds like Frownland cloning himself and then taking college courses on how to play music for four years as a group. Five tracks make up the standard 45 minute run time and each track has kind of the same main objective which is to blow wind hard as sh*t. I'd love to see these guys live. They're rhythmic and can actually get pretty groovy at times. There is also plenty of sporadic wailing but they keep it tame and prevent it from unraveling the tone set throughout the album.

Highlights of the album are the driving Peacemaker and the title track Disappeared Behind the Sun which has this perfect blend of everything the album does well. You got piano, synchronized horn sections, free jazz spurts, and drum fills that don't try to overdo anything.

Check this out if you want to hear what Frownlands dreams probably sound like when he's not being miserable.

#49



Chaz Bundick Meets the Mattson 2
Star Stuff

At #49 we have an album that was on heavy rotation while I was out in California growing doobage. The genre term "neo-psychedelic" never, and I mean never, elicits a huge amount of excitement from me. It reminds me of a number of bands that are so average it makes my head hurt yet somehow they are regarded as the pinnacle of music over the last decade. I'm talking about bands like Tame Impala, Animal Collective, Flaming Lips, and Deerhunter. I'm not saying those bands are terrible, save for maybe Tame Impala, but they're just so goddamn derivative. I swear they all get together a couple times a year and they have a huge "OMG WE ARE SO WEIRD GUYS" orgy and all of a sudden a bunch of similar sounding albums come out.

Not into it.

This album however is something that grabbed my attention and while it took a few listens to really sink in, it made me realize how different it was. First off you have Chaz Bundick AKA Toro y Moi in here with the Mattson bros. Not a huge Toro y Moi fan but what he brings to this music is a bit of melody and the bare minimum electronic tones that separate this from all the other neo-psych albums.

It's also a very good summer album. We would take drives to the beach on days off and I'd play this a lot. The lush guitar work really makes sunny day drives that much more enjoyable. The album stays very close to being an instrumental album but the times Bundick lays some vocals down fit very well.

Highlights include the early Pink Floyd sounding opening track Son Moi, Disco Kid which has some pretty awesome guitar work going on, and Don't Dream Yourself which has a drum section in it that's probably one of my favorite moments in a song this year.

Originally Posted by Frownland Angles 9 is cool, but until they make their arrangements more interesting then they'll just be a poor man's Fire! Orchestra in my eyes. Mattson 2 is great. Try to see one of their energetic performances if you can.

Originally Posted by Exo Exactly why they're at 50.