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Another One

The Top 30 Records of 2015

Music ListTransverso MediaComment
2015 year end photo.png

3. Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars

Thank Your Lucky Stars acts as both an extension of and pivot point for Beach House’s career as a whole. Many may want the band to actively change in a progressive way, but the band chooses to continually broaden their sound in the most familiar and microscopic ways possible instead. Perhaps one of the best integration of all five preceding albums, you hear the metronome, drums are crisper, individual instruments are audible, and Victoria Legrand’s lyrics are unexpectedly discernible at certain points. It's what works for them, and its afforded Beach House the ability to carve out a dream-pop legacy (and avoid becoming a caricature) on their own terms.

 

2. Majical Cloudz - Are You Alone?

Are You Alone? takes off where the Montreal duo’s preceding Impersonator left off; a paradox of bare-bones, minimalist soundscapes ebbing with lush depth that are somehow simultaneously tranquilizing and uplifting. Welsh’s immaculately vulnerable monologues and unflinching vocals are gently bold, and they drive their synth lullabies forward with severe care. It's Welsh at his most overbearing, and yet his tight grip is irresistible. Calculatedly organic, passionately controlled, it’s a journal reading in a dream.

 

 

1. Tame Impala - Currents

Currents is the most adventurous, interesting, and well-produced collection of songs Kevin Parker has created thus far, sitting atop Tame Impala's discography as the most mature and painstakingly crafted iteration in their twisted psych-pop world. From the lush synth tracks that bubble through the mix to his effortless, washed out vocals, every sound is rendered with the utmost care. Currents proves Parker is unable to stick with a certain sound, forever looking for new ways to evolve his ideas and push his project beyond what was expected when Innerspeaker first hit the shelves.

 

Mac DeMarco Does It Again on 'Another One'

Music ReviewWeston PaganoComment

Whether you call it an EP or a “mini-LP” as his label Captured Tracks would have you, Mac DeMarco’s Another One is eight glittering tracks of simple love songs in the endearingly easygoing and Viceroy-scented way only he can provide.

Leading up to today’s release with a self-directed music video in which he dressed as Michael Jackson and a cover challenge for which the prize was 69¢, DeMarco’s increasingly goofy antics never reach sensationalism as the fanfare is always earned by the end result.

DeMarco doesn’t stray far from his signature sound that made his 2014 release Salad Days so popular, and with good reason. Often labeled as “slacker rock” and self-described as “jizz jazz,” it’s carved out a niche in the saturated world of indie odes that doesn’t look like it’ll be getting old any time soon. Sitting somewhere between the time you turned your cheap childhood record player to a lower speed for a laugh and what whisking an egg in slow motion probably feels like, Another One is an alternately soothing and groovy jaunt through the Canadian’s affable heart. In the title track he manages to make even anxious jealousy (“Who could that be knocking at her door?”) sound smooth.

While the lackadaisical title may imply an overly casual throwaway effort, Another One is as expertly crafted as anything else in the gap-toothed crooner’s discography, exuding just enough substance to satiate the deservedly growing DeMarco cult at least until the next proper record. "I'll put that sparkle right back in your eyes," he promises. And he delivers.

The mini-LP concludes with the instrumental “My House By The Water,” which appropriately includes the sound of the gentle waves his Far Rockaway abode looks out upon (and that feature in the cover art). Signing off with yet another intimate spoken message for his listeners, DeMarco offers "6802 Bayfield Ave, Arverne, New York. Stop on by, I’ll make you a cup of coffee. See you later,” before a warm tape recorder click ends Another One for good.

As if he wasn’t personable enough already, his habit of addressing you – yes you – after the serenades are through further strips away the barrier recordings can build between the artist and the listener, making you wonder how an album could ever end any other way.