My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
This album is the shit. The arrangements and the sounds and the noise that Kevin Shields pulled on this album have been extremely influential on my music – I think you can hear it in the droney layers and loops that we recorded in ‘Panic’. I can put this album on repeat for hours at a time and not get tired of it. Even though I have no idea what any of the lyrics are, I find the vocals so captivating, the way they float over the top of everything like a breathy hazey. Soon is the song I put on when I need a little buzz. This album is also a masterclass in intros/outros/interludes that tie the songs together – there are no silent gaps to break the spell.
Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire For No Witness
This album was my #1 most-listened-to album of the last ten years (I know this for a fact thanks to the end-of-the-decade listener stats that Spotify released in December)… I guess it’s probably because of the sheer number of hours I’ve spent listening to ‘White Fire’ on repeat in the last decade. Listening to it makes me feel like I’m living inside Angel’s head and hearing her innermost thoughts.
Beach House – Bloom
Honestly this list could’ve been made up of five Beach House albums. I had a hard time choosing which one to include but landed on Bloom, which is my go-to album for when I can’t decide what I feel like listening to. So, thank you to Beach House for consistently creating such beautiful warm sprawling happy-sad sonic landscapes. I saw them play at the Opera House a few years ago and the whole experience felt like being in a big deep fuzzy cloud dream. Thinking back to it makes me excited for a time when live music can return and I can re-enter the fuzzy cloud.
Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires Of The City
This is my feel-good iso pick-up for those days when I’m feeling Sad About The World. Also one of my most-listened-to-albums-of-all-time, I think the first beat of ‘Obvious Bicycle’ sends a little electrical impulse to my brain to say “Hey! Everything’s great! Everything is not terrible! Vampire Weekend!”, and sure enough, everything is great as long as this album is playing.
Mazzy Star – So Tonight That I Might See
A swirling whirlpool of effortlessly velvet floating vocals, lo-fi fuzzy guitars and a perfectly placed tambourine. This album taught me that heartbreakingly beautiful melodies can exist amidst the distortion and noise and actually are all the better for it. This is an album for night walks and dusk drives and lighting fires.
Listen Annie Hamilton’s new self-titled EP via Inertia Music.