My text to DB: "Bro this Eleanor friedberger album is heavy heavy heavy. Perfect parallel universe pop. Remind me to send."

That parallel universe, as DB well knows, is not necessarily one where pop is dance-y and frivolous but where the hooks, buried in skronky bass lines and hiding around unexpected left turns, are even more satisfying. Pop that resonates in your heart and provokes your mind while still preying on your impulses and demanding repeated listens.

Eleanor Friedberger - My Mistakes from Merge Records on Vimeo.

By the way, for those of you following at home, if we the answer wasn't already clear, I think now we know which is the more satisfying, less obtuse half of her brother-sister outfit The Fiery Furnaces.

For a year that's been a little short on big time albums, the hits keep on coming! Here's what I've been gettin down with recently...

2011, Vol. 7, aka Boom Sh-Clack Clack

Gotye - Smoke and Mirrors
Blood Orange - Sutphin Boulevard
Phantogram - Don't Move
Little Dragon - Constant Surprises
Atlas Sound - Te Amo
The Rapture - In The Grace Of Your Love
ASAP Rocky - Trilla (Feat. ASAP Twelvy & ASAP Nast)
Kanye West & JAY Z - Ni**as in Paris
Kavinsky & Lovefoxxx – Nightcall
Youth Lagoon – Posters
Zee Avi - Concrete Wall
Mayer Hawthorne - The Walk
Sade - When Am I Going To Make A Living (Poolside's Tons of Drums Edit)
Kisses - Bermuda
Metronomy - Everything Goes My Way
Jonti - Firework Spraying Moon
Teebs - Long Distance ft. Gaby Hernandez
Björk – Crystalline

2011, Vol. 8, aka Gabba Gabba Hey!

The Horrors - Endless Blue
MGMT - All We Ever Wanted Was Everything
King Krule - The Noose of Jah City
DJ Shadow - Scale It Back
St. Vincent - Dilettante
The War on Drugs - Come to the City
White Denim - River to Consider
Cut Off Your Hands - You Should Do Better
Future Islands - Balance
The Head And The Heart - Lost In My Mind
Arctic Monkeys - That's Where You're Wrong
Anna Calvi - Desire
Zola Jesus - Vessel
Pure X - Surface
Mazzy Star - Common Burn
Other Lives - Dust Bowl III

"Girll.... don't you worry bout a 'fing"

Not my favorite track from this dude (that would be 'The Noose of Jah City'), but you'll see what you're gettin into. And I'm all about it. Am I being Rick-Rolled? I don't care, I think this kid slays...

You're officially on notice about Other Lives. Carefully crafted but expansive late-Beatles-meets-Grizzly-Bear chamber pop from... wait, WHAT?... apparently Stillwater, OK. Which I can tell you first hand ain't so bad but still would've been my second to last guess after Yemen. Anyway, they're lush and seductive and just right.

This one's got a Western vibe that's a little misleading, but you gotta here the chops on display here. You expect this kind of business from the vets, but not the first time you ever hear an artist. Just a mesmerizing five minutes.

I must have heard this song 'Desire' 20 times on KCRW. I thought it was... interesting... more theatre than song. I inherited a copy of her self-titled debut and stashed it away for a couple weeks. I noticed that she was nominated for the Mercury Prize, and I kinda shrugged. Finally I heard Anne Litt say it was her album of the year, and I figured, alright, I should give this Anna Calvi chick a shot. And all I needed was the intro, a noir-ish, echoing, suspense-filled guitar track to take me in its grip. Suddenly 'Desire' made perfect sense. And this album is all I've listened to for 2 days.

The sound, for one, is indulgent. I'm obsessed with the quality of the snare; the toms are big bullies; and her foreboding and fierce guitar play is excellent. But it's the unbridled force of her voice, awesome in the true sense of the word, that makes this album so compelling for me. To top it off, there's a feeling of sexual power, captured and controlled, that would make Madonna blush.

I'm not sure what it is, but I feel something of Patti Smith in her. Maybe it's the voice, although Calvi belts where Patti snarls. Maybe it's the touch of androgyny, although Calvi is more of the Annie Lennox variety. Probably it's just the commanding, I am woman, hear me roar spirit that has my utmost respect.

I got dealt a good hand this time 'round. Def my fave mix of the year...

Amy Winehouse - Valerie
Fruit Bats - So Long
Wilco - I Might
Eleanor Friedberger - My Mistakes
Okkervil River - Your Past Life as a Blast
WU LYF - Heavy Pop
Ikebe Shakedown - No Answer
Fool's Gold - The Dive
Blu - Since
Kanye West & JAY Z - Otis (feat. Otis Redding)
Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - Two Against One
Little Dragon - Please Turn
Cults - Oh My God
Mr. Little Jeans - The Suburbs (Arcade Fire Cover)
James Drake - Wilhelm's Fucking Best
Washed Out - Before
Austra - Lose It
Shabazz Palaces - Swerve... The Reeping of All That Is Worthwhile (Noir Not Withstanding)
The Cool Kids - Summer Jam (feat. Maxine Ashley)

As a little birthday treat to myself, my favorite song of the moment, maybe even the year. This new Horrors album is a straight-up statement. Darkly beautiful and refined. This one song hints at just about every stage of the Cure's career.

When those horns kick in, ooo-we! I am adrift... and then I reemerge to a timeless post-punk riff that whips me around a solitary, moonlit, ocean cliffside highway. Endless blue.



Download the track here.