Best of 2010 – Part Two

Time to wake this blog, once again... Well, what can you do when you also have lots of other things to do all the time? Here is the second part for my very modest 2010 ”year end list”. I must remind you that I am a real slow listener. I have a tendency to start buying albums a long after they have been released (and listening to them may take years..). If I happen to be really active for some reason (it is an album by my favorite band, for example), I might even buy a CD on the day of its release but usually I wait for other people's year end lists and then buy the best music... It actually sounds like quite a good method of skipping disappointing albums.

So, here are a few other 2010 albums I like. I still didn't mention everything but I had to finish this to move on to other topics.

Ben's Diapers: Up in the Mountain, Deep in the Sea

The great band from Turku made probably the best album of their career. I loved listening to it during sunny summer days. Every song is catchy and the style varies from country rock to 70s hard rock feel – not forgetting the catchy power pop. I also like to look back to the two Ben's Diapers gigs I witnessed in 2010. This band is always cool to see.

Farrah: s/t

As usual, a new album by Farrah needed some time to grow. But when you let it grow, the results are amazing... The album practically becomes something quite different in the process. Farrah is still great in many different ways, not least because of Jez Ashurst's lovely voice. The music is still cheerful yet bittersweet – as we all probably know, it is a match made in heaven. In a way, this album is Farrah's most peaceful album by far. On the other hand, Farrah has never been much about wild rock & roll. Sweet and catchy songs always make my day!

Seth Swirsky: Watercolor Day

A real grower this one! Everyone who reads this blog knows that I am a sucker for loud, distorted, overly happy and bubblegummy music but I do enjoy quieter music too. Watercolor Day is an album that is quite easy to judge too quickly. Underneath the peaceful soft pop surface there are many songs that you will remember for a long time. There is definitely something very special about this release. Some material from the album has come back to my mind at some completely random moment like a warm summer wind. This album also made me listen to the Red Button album She's about to Cross My Mind again – and it was still lovely! I think I really should get myself Swirsky's previous solo album as well.

Taylor Locke & the Roughs: Grain & Grape

A side project album from a member of Rooney? Yeah, why not. Before I knew it, I actually ended up finding this more interesting than Rooney's two previous albums. There are really catchy songs on this album, the sounds are spectacular, and Locke's voice is just great – everything is great. The music feels like sincere and has a lot of emotion. There is always room for great albums like this!

The Coral: Butterfly House

Well, if the media thinks it is one of the highlights of 2010, I have to agree... Seriously, Butterfly House is an impressive album from the always lovely British Coral. It is partly very much like the previous album but there is something that makes it atmospheric in a whole different way. Great album, great band.

Britain's Psych-Folk-Pop Champions of 2010

The Coral's latest album Butterfly House (2010) is already being celebrated in the media as one of the best albums of the year. As usual, I have been too busy with other things to properly listen to this album... However, I listened to it today and was really, really delighted at it.

The Coral, founded in 1996, has already created quite a back catalog. Butterfly House is the band's sixth album. I got acquainted with The Coral's music when the band's 2007 album Roots and Echoes, had just come out. I spent quite a lot of time listening to that album... Well, it is certainly one lovely album. Just thinking about songs like Jacqueline and Cobwebs makes me feel warm and happy.

About Butterfly House then... The album definitely is impressive! The members of the Coral are masters of their own melancholic, soft-psychedelic folky, jangly pop style. Musically the band hasn't changed its ways all that much from the previous album but the Coral concept has been taken a couple of steps further. James Skelly's songwriting pen has been sharp, again, and writing most of the songs together with another band member seems like a good choice.

When it comes to the song order, Butterfly House is built in an interesting way. The first four songs are more like the stuff on the previous album. Then begins an almost uninterrupted row of songs with superb, very Byrds-like harmony vocals. Like diving into another wonderful mood.. The music is so atmospheric that you can practically feel the leaves falling down from a tree. Wow... Now that I think about it, I see all kinds of pictures in my head while listening to this album. Music that stimulates your imagination like that can't be bad.

There are jangly sounds and excellent harmonies, sounding a lot like the Byrds.. The general feel also reminds me of Surf's Up by the Beach Boys. Another band that comes to mind is America. Anyway, some of the songs here practically sound like immediate classics! Just listen to songs like 1000 Years, Two Faces, and Green Is the Color.

Humane, warm, atmospheric, wonderful organic (and jangly!) sounds, made by people who obviously love what they are doing.. That is what I call Music.

Here is a music video for 1000 Years.

The Coral at MySpace
The Coral website