2014 Round Up: Favourite Albums

Lights

Little Machines

Favourites: Muscle Memory, How We Do It, Running With The Boys

Earning one of the top spots in my list is the beautiful synth-pop Little Machines. From start to finish it took me on a journey of the last year of my life in particular, sound tracking my trip around Europe for me to relive over and over when I got home. Lights' vocals are sweet and stunning as ever and the musical arrangements draw the very best from her previous albums whilst introducing new elements even on the equally as sublime bonus tracks. My original ramble described Little Machines as breathtaking and a masterpiece and honestly, I still stand by that. 

PVRIS

White Noise

Favourites: Holy, Ghosts, Let Them In

This album is what dreams are made of I swear to whatever higher entity there is up there. If I could write an album this would probably be it. If I could sing I would pick Lynn Gunn's voice. If I could pick someone to work on my album with it would be Blake Harnage. Honestly this has got to be the most impressive debut i've ever heard. PVRIS have found their sound and holy hell is it good. Everything about this album is so incredible I don't really have the right words for it, the only disappoint is that it ends. If you do just one more thing this year please, please, please make it listening to White Noise. 

We Are The In Crowd

Weird Kids

Favourites: Manners, Come Back Home, Reflections

After Best Intentions and seeing them live several times I was wondering whether the five piece would head into a more pop direction or if their second full length would be more punk and Weird Kids kind of does both. I don't think it's necessarily the music with We Are The In Crowd I think it is a lot to do with them. They've made an album which has honed in on their own unique sound that straddles both sides of the fence jumping back and forth for different songs and depending on the crowd. They sound better than ever and their future gets brighter looking every single day.

La Dispute

Rooms Of The House

Favourites: Woman (In Mirror), Stay Happy There, For Mayor In Splitsville
I can't think of any other band that sounds like La Dispute they're in their own league where they continue to make albums unaffected by what the rest of the music world is doing. Rooms Of The House continues to hit hard and beautifully and is verging into Deja Entendu worship worthy territory. 

The Pretty Reckless

Going To Hell

Favourites: Absolution, House On A Hill, Blame Me

Long awaited second offering from The Pretty Reckless exceeded my expectations. Light Me Up was brilliant but made a lot of people stick their noses in the air and I wasn't expecting Going To Hell to be able to change that but I think it did. Yes, in places there was crass immaturity but overall this album has something more to say than 'hey i'm high and underage but please have sex with me.' A couple of the songs are pretty hard hitting, musically they've changed it up a bit dabbling with different sounds and Taylor's vocals shine as ever. 

Moose Blood
I'll Keep You In Mind, From Time To Time
Favourites: Cherry, Bukowski, Boston
ENGLAND HAVE THEIR VERY OWN BRAND NEW CIRCA YFW. There isn't much more to say about this really other than the album artwork is one of my favourite people shot by another one of my favourite people so there's that.

Transit

Joyride

Favourites: The Only One, Follow Me, Ignition & Friction
Transit have done it again. Joyride is yet another exceptional album that I will spin all summer long. I feel bad for people that don't understand their sound and the direction they're going in and can't see past their own ideas for the band because their sound is such a uniquely charming one.

You Me At Six

Cavalier Youth

Favourites: Forgive And Forget, Cold Night, Wild Ones

It took a long time for this album to grow on me. When I first heard it I thought all the songs sounded the same and they lacked any real feeling. Generic music with a generic emotion. Eventually though after listening to it so many times something about the way my brain perceived it changed. It's not Sinners Never Sleep and they were never going to write Sinners Never Sleep Part II because somewhere during that album cycle and the potential break up they grew up. And that's what Cavalier Youth is - a nostalgic, half terrified half hopeful collection of songs for darker summer days.

Taking Back Sunday

Happiness Is
Favourites: Better Homes And Gardens, All The Way, Nothing At All
I have a lot of time for Taking Back Sunday. For me, despite their line-up being anything but, their music has always been consistently fantastic and whatever stage I am at in my life it is always relevant and there for me to go back to. They are a safe place. Happiness Is hits all the emotions with its' sound progressing forward but somehow being more reminiscent of earlier Taking Back Sunday albums.  

Taylor Swift

1989

Favourites: Out Of The Woods, Bad Blood, New Romantics
Ah, Taylor Swift who knew that 2014 would be the year the world watched you learn and grow and turn into a kick butt fairy princess feminist icon? And as for 1989, whilst a lot of the older die hard fans are gutted by the disappearance of the country sound, as a sucker for synths I am completely in love with the synth pop direction. There's straight up love songs, songs blasting the shitty media and songs for shitty friends that all come with excellent vocals and synth goodness. Scattered throughout is a fairy tale theme and on the bonus track 'Wonderland' tips over and, obviously, plays a lot on Alice In Wonderland which made me positively giddy with joy.

Honourable Mentions:

Neck Deep / Wishful Thinking

Real Friends / Maybe This Place Is The Same And We're Just Changing

Aaron West and The Roaring Twenties / We Don't Have Each Other

Charli XCX / Sucker

Tigers Jaw / Charmer

Modern Baseball / You're Gonna Miss It All

Yellowcard / Lift A Sail

New Found Glory / Resurrection

Natives / Indoor War

Bayside / Cult

Top Tunes: October/November

PVRIS - Let Them In

"I wanna feel something that's not the weight of your world in my head"

Taylor Swift - Out Of The Woods

"Remember when we couldn't take the heat, I walked out said i'm setting you free but the monsters turned out to be just trees"

Tonight Alive - Bathwater

"I watch the sun coming up over the trees and rooftops, it's like its piercing the sky I wish it all could just stop"

The Story So Far - Things I Can't Change

"This twitch in my fingers love/hate it lingers. Sent it direct but the point must have missed her"

New Found Glory - Hold My Hand

"I'm telling you for the very last time you better know"

Kids In Glass Houses - Matters At All

"As you passed out as a heart throb when you woke up in a day job"

Lorde - Ladder Song

"If I gotta go first I'll do it on my terms. I'm tired of traitors, always changing sides. They were friends of mine"

Paramore - Tell Me It's Okay

"Thought it was my right to be as sorry as I wanted to be, I wasted all my teenage years being a misery factory"

Echosmith - Terminal

"Mum and Dad i'm coming home, she cries out give me a place I know, familiar faces as she runs into their arms. They just want her home"

Transit - The Only One

"Here's where the horror hits home. I figured it all out on my own Heaven is what you make it, Hell is what you're putting me through"

YOUTUBE PLAYLIST

Album Review: PVRIS - White Noise

Seemingly from nowhere Rise Records' PVRIS have come crashing onto just about everyone's radar with their synth rock perfection. The trio teeming up with Blake Harnage was a damn good move on their part as he's king of the otherworldly synth sound that they've honed in on for their impressive debut and I for one cannot stop listening/talking/tweeting/blogging about it.

From the get go 'Smoke' shows off layer upon layer of instruments and well placed electronics with Lynn Gunn's unbelievably stunning vocals smoothly working their way around the music with her ethereal lyrics adding to the eerie atmosphere. The heavenly combination works throughout the ten track album where no two songs sound the same but where they all have an impact and part to play in maintaining the magic created. 'St. Patrick' is one of the most upbeat tracks which is so infectious it'll take a lot of Taylor Swift to erase it from your brain. Lynn sings "you're a glimpse of bliss, a little taste of heaven" and honestly that is how I feel about PVRIS right now... and most likely for a long time. The bridge crashes, exposing fragility, "I need a miracle to bring me back to you, I know you're gone now but I still wait for you," but when the synth line kicks back in with added vigour jumping around the room is vital.

This is a band who have not held back in giving their all, clearly determined to leave you pining for White Noise in the rare moments you'll listen to something else. The determination is particularly present on 'My House' where every drum beat, strum of the guitars and every word packs an almighty punch. One of my initial favourites was 'Holy' with its laid back vibes and cutting lyrics with an addicting vocal pattern. It's much more subtle musically than most of the other tracks and you have to listen carefully to hear the different elements, but should you take one away it just wouldn't sound half as brilliant. Four tracks in and if you haven't learnt never to mess with Lynn yet then you're a fool - she holds no bars.

Title track 'White Noise' sounds like what the lyrics describes, "all that comes out is white noise and incomprehensible sounds." The synths are fuzzy and distorted, all so loud its hard to pick out particular lines, the vocals sound as though they're coming from behind a wall quite the opposite to 'Fire' where the picture PVRIS paints is quite clear. Opening with a quiet shake and pulse Lynn speaks her nastiest lyrics with precision before bandmates Alex Babinski and Brian MacDonald join her in the assault with heavy guitaring. Jesse Lacey will likely forever be god of lyrics but Lynn is almost as genius with a hard, unforgiving edge:

"You were a walking talking corpse at best,

and I swear I couldn't wait to get you off my chest.

And when you asked us why we couldn't look you in your eyes

It's hard to find life in something that's already died."

Ouch. Without her delivery they hurt but when you factor in her snarl its downright terrifying. Heart wrenching 'Eyelids' depicts the loneliness and distance with faraway synths and runaway guitars. The piano twinkles, dreamlike, adding to the ironic lullaby sound. Another instant favourite, 'Mirrors' has an absolutely addictive pulsing synth leading the song - another example of where Blake's hands have made a brilliant song incredible by truly understanding the vision here and layering the sounds expertly. Second to last track, 'Ghosts', is equal amounts enchanting and tragic. Intricate guitars and drums open the song with a light brush of keyboards. It sounds hopeful and hopeless all at once. Lynn's vocals and lyrics confirm the heart breaking nature of this beautiful sounding song which explodes on the chorus with Lynn wailing "Why can't you stay?" It's also on this song that Sierra's (Would totally be down for a Versa/PVRIS formation to create one killer band) backing vocals are most present adding to the melancholic beauty. Closing out the album is killer 'Let Them In'. Straight from space synths and a kick drum building, raring to go you know this song is going places. And it sure does. 'Let Them In' ends the emotional journey of White Noise with a sonic blast. The chorus ignites, no one here is holding back. Lynn sings "You can't be tamed for me" and so PVRIS do not tame themselves in the slightest with Lynn roaring the last lines "I let you win, I let you in."

Gathering my thoughts about this album is difficult. It's everything I want in an album and so much more than I think anyone could ever have expected from a debut. There is so much talent evident its overwhelming, thinking about the fact these guys are the same age as me and they've only been together for two years makes me feel remarkably insignificant and infinitely proud. The chemistry between not just the three of them but between them and Blake made this one hell of an album that is not only one of my favourite debuts of all time but currently one of my favourite albums ever. Cliche as it might be to describe an album as haunting but White Noise really is. The synths don't leave your mind, you half expect the guitar riffs to jump out from a closet and yell boo and as for Lynn her vocals and lyrics are mesmerising. A world without PVRIS would be a world missing out.