Saturday, January 2, 2010

Where is "Octahedron" and "There is No Enemy"

I know The Mars Volta's Octahedron and Built to Spill's latest masterwork, There is No Enemy, have only been out for a little while (but so has The Flaming Lips Embryonic, not that isn't as well a brilliant fucking record)but how did these albums make no one's top "whatever" list of 2009? Granted, I haven't read every list. But I've read Pitchfork's, Spin's, Rolling Stone's, and Paste's, and neither record is there.

OK, The Mars Volta are certainly a band for a certain sect of individuals. I'll give you that, but Octahedron is easily their most accessible set of tunes to date, and is a brilliant and shockingly beautiful record. And There is No Enemy is quite possibly the best Built to Spill record yet. The mere presence of "Tomorrow" should push the album into 2009's stratosphere, yet no one has mentioned it.

I'm a little angry. Two of the best albums in a reasonably lean year in my opinion have been slighted. If you haven't checked these gems out, please do so. They are worth every penny you will pay.

1 comment:

  1. i agree with the built to spill sentiment. there's a couple of songs on there that are classics. But the new mars volta i feel only further narrows their cult follows. first the emo kids were out, then the indie pop crowd left because it stopped being catchy, now the metal heads are out because there's too much acoustics on this one. all that's left are the stoners and you!

    ReplyDelete