i'd rather be fat than be confused: Lacrosse

Lacrosse - Bandages For The Heart

The last Lacrosse album seemed to fit so perfectly into a situation I was encountering in my life around the time it was released, songs like Who Will Brings Us Together, Let's Get Old and You Can't Say No Forever perfectly encapsulated the confusion and thrill that I was going through, the excitement of a new friendship and the strange feeling you get when you can't quite figure out how and when it will go anywhere and in fact why it wasn't and hasn't, the complicated make up of human relationships. Lacrosse put those feelings and scenarios into such perfectly crafted pop songs that really even the most confusing of times could be cushioned with a helping of pop
perfection.

It's sad to say that there are few bands that follow up great debut albums with better or even a standard equivalent to its predecessor, in many cases they either replicate what preceded, at times this works but often the songs seem forced, take Los Camposinos for instance, i was still sweating from their near perfect set at ATP when a new album filtered into existence, rushed and, with the exception of the first few tracks, generally would've been better saved for B sides. The Aislers Set would be another similar reference point, although it was their second album that really shone, the follow up, although good, is a million miles removed, a lovely album of slow burning reverb drenched 60's spector-esque tracks. Good, but not a patch on The Last Match.

So it was with mixed feelings that i pressed play upon receiving Bandages For The Heart, hopelessly excited but equally fully expecting to be disappointed. Fortunately Lacrosse do not disappoint, where I’d be lying if I said that this was better than This New Year Will Be For You And Me it's certainly going to give it a run for its money.

Four songs instantly stand out, the opening brace of We Are Kids & You Are Blind, setting off at lightning pace with the pure pop that we've come to expect and are so happy that has not been lost. If you think that pair is special, then just wait until you get to the, I assume Bonnie Prince Billy referenced, I See a Brightness & maybe even better, It's Always Sunday Around Here, this is pop perfection as far as I’m concerned, like an old friend that no matter what your mood is, you are always happy to hear from or see them. The glockenspiel intro is so typically Lacrosse, very reminiscent of a track from their debut that i can't quite put my finger on, and the lyrics put any doubts that this may be anyone else completely to bed, "Tell me a story/ make the ending happy please/ put some unicorns in there/ and some animals that speak/ don't know where i go wrong/ but it always ends this way/ the world is full of saturdays/ but it's always sunday round here" the muted guitars building and building before exploding at the chorus.

All The Little Things That You Do, My Stop & Come Back Song#1 are growers but are likely to find a place in your heart after just a few listens.

I can't recommend Lacrosse highly enough, this is pop as good as it gets.

Lacrosse - I See a Brightness mp3
Lacrosse - My Plan mp3

And finally, as if from nowhere comes the Fat and Confused top albums of 2008, its been a ridiculously fine year for music and one where due to the world of filesharing i've found myself hearing artists i probably would never have heard. I guess filesharing is an ethical matter, personally i see that it helps the artist and only hits the corporates who rip us off left right and centre, its could turn into a lengthy debate, feel free to add your comments below.

Thanks again to everyone for your support and continued reading of the blog, as always i'll hopefully update more regularly next year. There will be some top fives etc from labels that have supported the blog from paper through to PC that will appear in the next couple of weeks and perhaps a track from each of the albums below to, i've run out of the will to do anymore today...happy reading, hope you discover something new...and feel free to add me as a friend on last fm

1. Lacrosse - This New Year Will Be For You And Me (Tapete)

We Said:Lovely and instantly loveable, this pales last month’s Tullycraft love affair into insignificance, I know I fall in love with a new band on a weekly basis, it was Lavender Diamond prior to Tullycraft, the Aislers Set and the Blow before that but here we have something truly special, this is the album Architecture in Helsinki have always threatened to make, this is how good In Case We Die could have been had each and every song been as good as It's 5! and Frenchy I'm Faking. Canadian summers, roller skates and good times abound, I’ve had this album on constant repeat since I got it and can't see that changing any time soon, a potential late entry for album of the year

Lacrosse - This New Year Will Be For You And Me
Who Will Bring Us Together

2. Electrelane - No Shouts No Calls (Too Pure)

We Said: There are some people that are so effortlessly easy to like, the kind of people who you meet for the first time yet feel like you’ve known each other all your life, the kind of person you could tell all your secrets to and never have worry about offending them by just being yourself. Electrelane are much the same.

Electrelane - No Shouts No Calls
In Berlin
3. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer (Polyvinyl)

Boomkat wrote: Intermingling all kinds of sub-genres, Of Montreal seem to be able to elicit grade-A indie pop out of all manner of bizarre instrument match-ups and scattershot song structuring.

Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer Bunny Aint No Kind Of Rider

4. Múm - Go go smear the poison ivy (FatCat)

We Said: naïve and playful like some strange childhood dream sequence, lullaby’s for an Icelandic kindergarten.

Múm - Go go smear the poison ivy Dancing Behind My Eyelids

5. Seabear - The Ghost That Carried Us Away (Morr Music)

We Said: Seabear are not completely dissimilar to their Icelandic counterparts Múm. Though they share the found sounds, the collection of shiny objects collected as if by Magpies and then shined musically into our ears, they add folk and Americana to these gentle tunes, taking in the best parts of early Belle and Sebastian (Arms), Sufjan Stevens and possibly taking the laid back formula of Sodastream and whisking it into something delicious.

Seabear - The Ghost That Carried Us Away Libraries

6. The Go! Team - Proof of Youth (Memphis Industries)

We said: Proof of Youth is one of the best albums you will hear this year, full to the brim and overflowing with feel good tunes, songs to pick you up, to make you dance, to let you forget about all the crap you have to deal with, I love this album, only a week ago I could never imagine saying such a thing. Its sends a shiver down my spine how good this album is. Taking the best of hip hop and mixing it in with a serious helping of motown, tracks like Doing it Right have no need to beg you to dance for by the time the first bar has kicked in you’re already there on the dance floor, and a series of chants likely to be echoed on a million dance floors “do it do it alright” “extra extra read all about it”.

The Go! Team - Proof of Youth Fake ID
7. Kettel - Whisper Me Wishes (Clone)

We said: An album that is as wonderful as the title would suggest, flitting between rubbery electronica last done so well by the much missed Fortdax, and modern classical pieces of heartbreaking beauty

Kettel - Whisper Me Wishes Zutphen

8. Au Revoir Simone - The Bird Of Music (Moshi Moshi)

We Said: In come the synthesised handclaps, the cheap drum machines and melodies to die for, melodies to make you get up, open the curtains, welcome the new day open armed and make the most of the short summer.

Au Revoir Simone - The Bird Of Music Stars

9. Kashiwa Daisuke - Program Music I (Noble)

"Two tracks, the first Stella is stella by name and stella by nature, clocking in at almost 36 minutes its an awe inspiring trip through a fragile and beautiful outlook of the world. This again shares an affiliation with World's End Girlfriend, snow blowing in your eyes, cold and harsh yet ultimately turning the tired landscape you see day in day out into a winter wonderland of enchantment. Kashiwa has the ability much like Godspeed to write a song that clocks in well above the average length and yet never outstays its welcome. Within a loosely knit genre that often relies on repitition and indelibly written formulas never once does Stella sound like its treading familiar ground or running short of ideas."

10. Eluvium - Copia (Temporary Residence)

We said: I awaken to a blanket of white snow, its cold and I really don’t want to be up at this time in the morning. As I cycle through the crispy white snow making the first tracks the world seems a lonely place, pitilessly cold and unforgiving, new snow blowing into my hair and face but as Eluvium’s Prelude For Time Feelers kicks in and new tracks appear I realise that I’m not alone and if anything I’m better off than I could ever imagine, the snow continues to fall, but now its pretty and almost romantic, falling slowly and deliberately, clinging onto every branch and spider web available creating a whole new outlook on familiar surroundings. And there in the distance you can just make out a figure, your not sure if its her but you have a good feeling about today…
Prelude For Time Feelers may well be one of the most wonderful and uplifting songs you hear all year, elsewhere Copia takes a less piano driven path, Requiem on Frankfurt Ave setting the pattern, all slow violins and keyboard swells not a million miles from Johann Johannsson, Max Richter and Deaf Center. Eluvium - Copia Radio Ballet

11. Darren Hayman - Darren Hayman And The Secondary Modern (Track & Field)

We said: And so here we find Darren firing on all cylinders churning out the kind of tracks that seem plucked from our everyday lives, our broken hearts and our deepest sentiments.

12. French Teen Idol - Enlightened False Consciousness (Lost Children Net Label)

We said: a lovely album that is as much electronica as it is post rock, full of samples, doomy and apocalyptic yet hope crammed keys and some lovely skittering beats. Disaster samples conversations from flight United 93, respectfully so, and where some people may feel that the very idea of this is wrong I’d have to strongly disagree. Music is a form of art, and an expression of peoples feelings and emotions and I can’t possibly think of a more emotionally charged situation, the result is spectacular...For the majority of the time the album possesses the same unblemished and natural beauty that Johann Johannsson’s IBM Users Manual album displayed so well, the oneness with nature, the slow motion look at a world that holds so much splendour beneath the things that are so often forced to our attention, the bad things that fill the pages of the newspaper, the natural wonder of a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, tracks such as Memento convey such wonder, much how Johann does but perhaps with more of a proclivity for drums and beats.

French Teen Idol - Enlightened False Consciousness Full Album

13. Plastic Operator - Different Places (Fine Day)

We said: And so here Plastic Operator delivers a full length album of electronic genius replete with gems (Parasols, Special Case, Peppermint & Couch especially) similar to the aforementioned folder, each one a shimmering synth pop treat, like Figurine if only they were more consistent, like Freezepop if they weren’t so cartoonish and Fog & Ocean had they been more focused & a more grown up Lo Fi Fnk.
Good things come to those who wait, and so if you’re after a summer of synth pop perfection then look no further than Plastic Operator, songs that you’ll sing along to, dance to and no doubt relate to.

Plastic Operator - Different Places Folder

14. The Finches - Human Like A House (Dulcitone)

We said: “New front door/ same address/ same front step/ same back porch/ geraniums to the terrace/sold my shoe to pay the rent/ I won’t be needing them/ I won’t be leaving too soon” The opening lines of the title track from the Finches excellent Human Like a House sum up in my mind exactly how I view the excellently named Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs. A country type, but not the redneck violin playing country type you may instantly think of, instead the type that lives in a little cottage in the woods with gingham table cloths, a stream running buy and neatly arranged flower beds outside the front door. One that is contented, happy in their own environment and instantly enviable.

The Finches - Human Like A House House Under The Hill

15. amiina - Kurr (Ever)

Boomkat wrote: There's something wonderfully morose about it that seems to condense all the most successful elements of Amiina's boundlessly elegant music into a brief three minutes. Totally essential stuff and a massive recommendation.

amiina - Kurr Rugla

16. World's End Girlfriend - Hurtbreak Wonderland (Human Highway)

We said: Where this time last year I was being seriously blown away by Johann Johansson’s delightful Ibm 1401 - a User’s Manual this year there is a new album in my life that touches on every beautiful note given to man, a musical vision steeped both in classical and electronic music yet never sounding (despite its brilliance) as harsh as Venetian Snares Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett, instead in bathes itself with lush sweeps of field noises, birds singing and ever so occasionally blasts of jazz like discordance.

World's End Girlfriend - Hurtbreak Wonderland Ghost of a Horse Under the Chandelier

17. Best Fwends - Alphabetically Arranged (Moshi Moshi)

We Said: I imagine Best Fwends to be a pair of snotty nosed punk kids who had the good fortune of stumbling over a DAT Politics album one day and as such decided to break into the Tigerbeat 6 headquarters stealing Kid 606s laptop and still finding time to sift through ten years of Smash Hits taking in depth notes as to what to makes a feel good radio friendly tune whilst remaining undeniably cooler than anything ever printed on those pages.

Best Fwends - Alphabetically Arranged House Ghost

18. Last Days - These Places Are Now Ruins (N5md)

Textura wrote: These Places Are Now Ruins includes numerous lovely moments, such as the blurry string-drenched overture “Station,” which finds Richardson gravitating towards Eluvium territory, and “Saved by a Helicopter,” a pretty interlude of untreated piano. A stormy mass of clatter, haze, and sirens blows the background of “Reasons to Go” but not so loudly that it overwhelms its lilting piano and glockenspiel melodies and acoustic guitar arpeggios

Last Days - These Places Are Now Ruins Devils Wood

19. Scout Niblett - This Fool Can Die Now (Too Pure)

We Said: The duets tend to show a newer more mature and produced sound to Scout Nibletts already high standards, the kind of touch needed to put her up in the big league (she has always been there, if not above in my mind) the push that will see her recognised clearly amongst the Cat Powers (of whom she is unarguably far superior, if not to the eyes of the mass media) the Will Oldhams, the Bill Callahans and the Joanna Newsoms. However her stripped down sound I was first attracted to (some songs on here feature violins and full band) is still present on a number of tracks that stand out to me, the ferocious Nevada and Let Thine Heart Be Warned.

Scout Niblett - This Fool Can Die Now River of no Return

20. Shady Bard - From the Ground Up (Static Caravan)

We said: There's something undeniably beautiful about the work of Lawrence Becko's baritone vocals, bound to put some people off, others will just find it that bit more loveable, that bit more human, especially when you hear the wonderful lyrics set to such lovely piano based post rock, never going full on Explosions in the Sky but certainly heading that way towards the finale of the wonderous Penguins. Tracks such as Summer Came When We Were Falling Out and Fires are organic and frail almost amateur in appearance with milk bottle melodies and whistled refrains, acoustic post rock, and much lovelier for it.

Shady Bard - From the Ground Up Penguins

21 Euros Childs - The Miracle Inn (Wichita)

We Said: Euros Childs is a madcap genius who deserves your attention, let him put a little sunshine and romance in your life.

Euros Childs - The Miracle Inn Horse Riding

22 Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse (Jagjaguwar)

We said: Remember how much you love the new Low album, the slow drawn out vocals against waves of melancholy, then add to that the magic of Mercury Rev and you won’t be far off Disaster the opening track on the excellent Is A Dark Horse. The songs build and spiral often past the six minute mark, whipping up an exhilarating fervour of noise and feeling much like the majority of Wilco’s live album.

Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse Disaster

23. Karl-Johan Nilsson - The Seams (One Net Label)

One Net Label wrote: A work featuring wide, sweeping strokes from minimal brushes that add up to a thick canvas of sound - electrical static scratches and crawls, rolling waves of rhythm, bass, guitar, synths and ambiance come from all sides. Sounds seemingly trying to escape while a song progresses or takes form. Karl-Johan Nilsson - The Seams Full Album

24. Statedlife - Future Dream (Archaic Horizon)

Archaic Horizon wrote: Bay area artist Matt Guilbeau, withholds a vision of peaceful tranquility led by his passionate love of all existence. He strives to speak out against all things that stem from hatred by creating powerfully optimistic music. "Future Dream" embodies these goals and at no time falls short of achievement. Statedlife builds compositions based upon hope, usually beginning with soft spoken melodies that build into a crescendo of harmonies. Spacious synths that drift and glide with no limit to their evolution define his sound.

Statedlife - Future Dream Full Album

25. Tullycraft - Every Scene Needs a Center (Magic Marker)

We Said: From the opening seconds it’s clear that this band are even more likeable than Vince Noir, the kind of music it would be seemingly impossible not to like.

Tullycraft - Every Scene Needs a Center Clique At Night Vandals