My 5 favorite tracks of 2012

Tame Impala - Endoirs Toi

The first thirty seconds there's a synth going from your right to you left ear and you think: "This is interesting, but is this it?". Then at 0:30 the drums kick in and the song launches itself in the sky. Amazing! 

The Walkmen - Heaven

One beat. A couple of chords with alternate picking. One guitar on vibrato.
Beautiful in it's simplicity with excellent lyrics to wail along to with all your heart.

Neon Bunny - Oh my prince

Excellent deep bass, smooth vocals. She's singing in Korean, you shouldn`t understand it, but somehow you do: Oh-oh-oh-oh....ooohooo, ooohooo. It just suits the song.  Certainly the most catchy tune to oh-oh along to this year. 

Beach House - Myth

A warm bath of sound. It´s heavy, it is slow, it is dramatic, it is mystical (no typ-o),  but also very, very comforting.

Chairlift - I Belong in your arms

A huge battle between this song and Amanaemonesia. That song has the best bassline I´ve heard all year, but it was released last year. This song, `I belong in your arms` however, is just as great. Again an excellent bassline, but the chorus is what makes this song a really high high for me. Lucy (or Paul) in the sky with diamonds. Just like the bass-player in this clip of the Japanese karaoke version of the song.

Are we here to stay?

Greece, Italy and Spain are bringing us down. Their uncompetitive economies, irresponsible government spending and idiotic electorate (who are unwilling to pay the price for their mistake), are not only bringing them close to bankruptcy, but also putting a heavy load on our economy. The only way we can save ourselves, and them, is to kick these countries out of the European Union and start with a clean slate.

Europeans, lets not kid ourselves. This crisis is not caused by the financial sector or overspending governments, but by a decease which has been developing itself in our collective underbelly for the past 30 years: Ignorance combined with an unhealthy dose of arrogance.

I learned in high school that the Western world provided the knowledge and the Eastern world the labour. That China consisted out of copy cats and that India was the service desk of the world. That idea has become more and more outdated from the day that India and China started investing in their youth.

They have a high pressure from home to perform, face gruelling competition, have the desire for a better life, a top notch educational system and live in a relatively collective society. These factors did not only create a generation which matches us in knowledge, but also surpasses us in drive. This is what made the real GDP in India and China grow with an average rate of 8% per year during the last 10 years while Europe is stuck at a growth rate of 1%.  

A Dutch president once argued for the “VOC” mentality to return to the nation, supposedly pointing to the Golden Age of the Netherlands and the “Yes, we can” mentality that was raging during that time. It was shot down as a glorification of our colonial past by critics from all corners of the national political landscape. These critics however failed to see the true point that Daniel Radcliffe was making: We need to go overseas again to find our future.

Not to decimate and enslave the local population, or strip the land of its resources, but to ride on the wave of opportunity that a rapidly growing welfare provides. Why does the Spanish youth stay in Spain while the unemployment rate of their age group is close to 50%? Why are they not emigrating to a country which is currently undergoing their Golden Age?

Your purchasing power will be a bit lower, living conditions will be poorer and there is no social safety net. You will however see all these three things improve over the next decades in India and China, while Europe will only be deteriorating. Language and immigration laws remains as the two most sturdy barriers, but these can be broken down by a shrewd Indian or Chinese businessman with a keen sense for business opportunities….

It's complicated...

There are trends in music!

While progressive rock has been shot and burried, I am hearing it back in more and more new music I buy these days. Take the latest Sufjan Stevens record for instance; It's as complex as an early Genesis and King Krimson album, but no hipsters will ever dare to listen to these two old bands!

The new Sufjan is getting some negative comments from the press though. When I`m listening to it, it sounds very crowded and self indulgent at times. Some people might call these negative espacts, I call them plus points. An artist shouldn`t care about his audience; He should do what he wants to do, and take nobody's ears into account. Experimenting should not always be pleasent to the ears.

When an artist starts listening to what the audience wants, you get bands like U2 and the Kings of Leon. one trick ponys, who learned how tho draw a crowd with their albums, and decided to continue doing this trick till infinity. Bland music. No excitement. Just 3.40 minutes of nothing.

The most intesting thing about Sufjan's Age of ADZ is how he manages to mix the absolute with the relative, the analog with the digital and the ugly with the beautiful. Its an album full of contrasts, and these contrasts make it sound alive.
If you want a demonstration of this, just listen "Too Much". As the second song on the album it is basically a summary of everything to come. Its a mix of electronical beats and classical instruments. Unlikely bedfollows, but he somehow manages to make it work for my ears. It also helps that throughout the album I`m hearing the excellent voices of Annie Clark and Sarah Worden in the background. Or maybe that's just my imagination.

Imagine the Kings of Leon making exciting music. I`ve seen them performing live yesterday on Later with Jools. I`m trying to look into their faces. Trying to spot something in their eyes. Are they consolidating on their current fame? Are they playing save? Are they making the music they actually want to make? Or is their record company pushing them to give birth to 10 other sex on fires?

Questions that might never be answered, but who would even be able to hear these answers through the sounds that make the Age of Adz?