Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Best Albums of 2009: No 6 - Discovery's LP


You know what I love about this album? There are no pretenses.

You are getting to relatively geeky white dudes (Rostam Batmanglij and Wes Miles) who in their own right make arguably very popular indie rock/pop (Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot respectively), making synth and autotuned soaked R&B.

Further, layer that effort with appaling lyrics, like "Every text I get from you is so so serious. And I'm sitting at home drinking my miso."

Yeah, no good right? No chance.

This album was my summer go to JAM. It was my nighttime driving music.

The lyric above, from the song "Orange Shirt" is just as good as anything you'd hear on your local urban top 40 station (which you don't listen to. Don't lie). It's heavy with a thumping bass line and sketchy images of Tokyo. The boys get all Sonic the Hedgehog with reinvented video game sounds in Osaka Loop Line, Carby, and It's not my Fault, blipping and blooping, skittering and scattering.

The covers of the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" and the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" cement this album's R&B creds.

As side projects go, you could not ask for anything more different or more satisfying.

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