2010: The Year of the Giggs - Part 1.1

It seems I work through a year's releases significantly less rampantly than some of my colleagues here - while icon could probably make a top twenty already I'm taking it easy.

Still though, initial impressions and rankings for a few choice albums:

Dessa - A Badly Broken Code
Dixon's Girl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eQL3BrRqM8

Can't quite boast the same highs as her debut False Hopes EP, but this is still a thoroughly excellent slice of hip-hop melancholia. There's something about this woman's voice and lyricism that just melt me - I can't think of a single female rapper quite as comfortable showing her tender side in her songs, and it's precisely that which makes her stand out. She focuses more consistently on the topic of failed relationships than on her EP; and while no one in hip-hop has covered that area as well as she does here, it still comes across as slightly contrived at times. It's also probably telling that the very best songs here (Children's Work, Dixon's Girl) are largely the ones which deviate from that lyrical formula. But after listening to A Badly Broken Code I don't want to marry Dessa any less than I did before it, so I guess that's mission accomplished on her part. She definitely has the potential to make an album better than this in the future, but for now I'm very happy with this one, thank you very much. 8.6/10

Eluvium - Similes
Leaves Eclipse the Light: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpVzxGtyN6c

Matthew Cooper is a guy I'm glad the music industry has around. The best description of his music I've ever heard was "baby's first ambient," a quote which I've shamelessly stolen from a Copia review, but I don't see why that needs to be a disparaging comment. Sure, parts of Talk Amongst the Trees aside, he's never put out anything especially captivating or truly worth canonizing. But every single one of his albums have been cleverly put together, easy to listen to, and more importantly good. And despite what the internet might be telling you, Similes doesn't change that. Cooper's voice might not be the greatest, but it fits with his sound pretty seemlessly, and he has a pretty damn good ear for vocal melodies. I won't be praising this as anything mindblowing, but not everything needs to be. Similes is a consistently enjoyable and very pleasant album, and as far as reading music goes it's hard to do much better. 7.2/10

Jaga Jazzist - One-Armed Bandit
Bananfleur Overalt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3kOVxteDAQ

Hell yeah, this is the album I've always wanted Jaga Jazzist to make. All of their releases before now have appealed to me on some level, but this takes all of their electronic, post-rock, modern classical and jazz influences and tosses them into a big fusion melting pot. It's barely possible to describe the sound of the thing as it's just so diverse, but it comes out sounded roughly akin to Zappa's more jazzy material filtered through the music scene of the last decade. The nine-minute centrepiece Toccata is arguably the most impressive thing here, with its Steve Reich percussion and booming brass, but the whole album barely puts a foot wrong anywhere - of the record's eight songs, only Prognissekongen and Music! Dance! Drama! fall beneath utter excellence. I wouldn't necessarily go as far as to say that this is their best album, but it's certainly their most impressive, and more importantly it's definitely the one which appeals to me most. Anyone with an interest in jazz, fusion or progressive rock owes it to themself to check this out. 8.1/10

I'll do the other four albums I've heard so far later on, perhaps tomorrow.