Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

"Just Don't Fall Recklessly Headlessly In Love With Me, Because It's Gonna Be All Heartbreak, Blissfully Painful and Insanity, If We Agree"; has declaring yourself damaged goods ever sounded so good? On "Hang With Me" Robyn warns her potential lover right at the outset that she's no good, they can have fun, they can sleep together, and everything will be fine as long as they go no further than friendship. Robyn naturally sets her stall out on her own terms, she may be chronically fucked up but at least she knows it, and her own emotional fragility in no way comprimises her strength of character on this sublime slice of electro pop. The electro-beat has a wonderful sense of rise and fall throughout the chorus while the verse is driven by a momentum filled beat that has the feel of determined footsteps. The whole package comes together perfectly; it's light in tone but not in thought.

"Dancing On My Own" on the other hand captures Robyn in equally resolute mood, but rather than dictating she finds herself in the corner of the dance floor bitterly dancing with tears in her eyes. In many ways "Dancing On My Own" is the classic break up song. Robyn has broken up with a guy and he's moved on to the next girl within seconds. Like a thousand foolhardy spurned lovers Robyn goes out to prove him wrong, to spy on her ex-lover and to win him back and to show his new floozy up. It goes as badly for Robyn as would for me, you or anyone else who has had these stupid and impulsive thoughts run through their head. The beat is very much secondary to a powerhouse performance by Robyn, her observations and her phrasing on this record are scarily perfect, from the tone to the intention, she nails every frayed emotion from "I'm Right Over Here, Why Can't You See Me?" to "I'm Just Gonna Dance All Night, I'm All Messed Up, So Outta Line, Stilettos And Broken Bottles, I'm Spinning Around In Circles". "Dancing On My Own" represents a feeling and ritual that so many of us have gone through but something that so few pop stars have managed to capture perfectly in verse.

It's amazing how something so simple and so minimal can have such a big impact. If I were listing the tracks that I'd listened to most this year "Dance Yrslf Cln" would have been the run away winner, and yet even after all those plays, and all that rotation that pitter patter beat and those big thudding slabs of synth still send shivers down my spine. As the album opener for This Is Happening "Dance Yrslf Cln" should have given the game of the way. Murphy feels tired, as if he and his friends are the last group left at the bar and its time for them to move on, not just to another bar, but with their lives as separate individuals. "Dance Yrslf Cln" therefore plays like a drunken and impassioned ramble, starting by cynically ranting about what is expected of him before lavishing praise upon his friends and cohorts, and cursing lost opportunity.

As Murphy notes "Everybody's Getting Younger", he's becoming dislocated in a young mans game and so much of his life and so many opportunities are passing him by. While the track may be framed as a heartfelt goodbye to friends, an apology to a lover and as a last hurrah, its not hard to see that "Dance Yrslf Cln" represents Murphy's own internal monologue as he prepares to call time on LCD Soundsystem. When he cries "Break Myself Into Bigger Pieces, So There's Part Of Me Home With You" it's clear that Murphy is weighing his options; wishing he could continue to have fun on the road but realizing he'll never have time to produce or run his label and as he points out, if you keep on waiting and putting things off "You Miss The Best Things To Do". Aside from all the self analysis and the obvious parallels "Dance Yrslf Cln" works beautifully a confused mid life crisis, a flippant rant, a sad goodbye, the decision to move on and most importantly that one final dance full of abandon. Wow, two whole paragraphs of analysis and I didn't mention that synth line, oh well, you undoubtedly know it by now, and if not, why not listen for yourselves...

Foals came on leaps and bounds in 2010. Yannis and co. wasted no time launching their follow up LP Total Life Forever with the divine lead single "Spanish Sahara". Gone were the jagged jerky rhythms and the odd time signatures. In their place was a mature piece of textured songwriting. "Spanish Sahara" wasn't the sound of a band being clever or pithy, this was the sound of a band painting in broad emotional brush strokes and being unafraid to be overcome by grief and bitterness. Surprisingly Foals committed so throughly to this new sonic template that you never doubted Yannis' delivery, not even for a second, as he laid out his feelings plainly and with unmistakable imagery ("Now I See You Lying There, Like A Lilo Loosing Air").

Musically, "Spanish Sahara" was allowed room to breath with a slow heartbeat of bass drum slowly guiding the track through a shimmering seven minutes. There is a bold sense of assuredness to Foals experimentation as they use natural sounds to give the sense of rushing air, breaking wavers and silvery reflective water. They conjure this beautiful sonic landscape that's rich in the imagery of the natural world but dominated by this looming sense of emotional isolation. It is as if Yannis were walking slowly across mountains or sitting on an empty beach staring lifelessly out of sea and watching grains of sand fall through his fingers. "Spanish Sahara" swells to a wonderful climax, as Yannis exclaims "A Choir Of Furies In Your Head, I'm The Ghost In The Back Of Your Head" you almost feel the track's protagonist breaking through to the surface and gasping for air as he overcomes, and unleashes, his internal torment.

When those eccentricities that served to define a singer's voice begins to disappear that usually signals the end of a prominent career; as a vocalist's unique selling point fades she essentially loses her edge. In 2010 Joanna Newsom lost her voice, the quirky story teller of the middle ages was gone, and in her place stood a tender, smoky and surprisingly sexy toned woman. Yet being Newsom, this wasn't the birth of a soul diva, that'd be too simple; those weird wobbles and that haunting strained tone that emanated from the back of Newsom throat still break their way through her croon adding character and giving tracks like "Easy" an unsettling ambiance.

Rather than sounding wicked or feeble, Newsom now sounds strong, enticing and all too convincing as she coos; "I Am Easy, Easy To Keep, Honey You Please Me Even In Yourself". This new half way house voice has a wonderful deceptive feel, she sounds sexy and subservient like a classic Motown diva, but she also sounds psychopathic, overly intense and so saccharine that she verges on bitterness as she reassures her lover that he has nothing to fear. Of course he should be fearful and Newsom unconditional love soon transforms itself as she sings beautifully but pointedly: "Who Asked You? Who Asked You If You Wanted To Be Loved By Me?". "Easy" represents Newsom at her best; weaving complex narratives, changing tone and mood at will, and singing in undeniably beautiful voice. You'll find it almost impossible not to fall for Newsom as she sweetly sings "I'm Your Little Life Giver".

Sometimes it feels good to take each of your fingers, ball them up real tight, and just punch the air, or the wall, hell kick the table, scream out aloud, and while your at it why not dance like a complete fucking idiot. "The Battle Of Hampton Roads" captures this feeling perfectly. It's all about frustration boiling over. It's about hating yourself. Hating the world. Hating everything. Because no matter where you look you see hypocrisy layered on top of more hypocrisy and fear. Of course most of us never do anything about it, we just sigh, or maybe we punch the wall, but we never say what we really want to say, and we never do anything, because the entire weight of human idiocy is a lot for one man to tackle, and who are we to tackle it, and on our own?

Well Titus Andronicus take all that pent up rage and scream it out. Their voice markedly cracks and quivers but they say it anyway. Delivering these absolute lyric gems in process; phrasing frustrations perfectly whether they be external: "The Things I Used To Hate I've Now Learnt To Respect", "Is There A Girl At This College Who Hasn't Been Raped, Is There Boy In This Town Who's Not Exploding With Hate", "Is There A Human Alive, Ain't Looked Themself In The Face Without Winking...Without Saying "What If Someone Don't Approve"?", "And Half The Time I Open My Mouth To Speak It's To Repeat Something I Heard On TV" .

Or Internal: "I'm As Much Of An Arse Hole As I've Ever Been And There Is Nothing About Myself That I Respect", "A Hand And A Napkin When I'm Looking For Sex", "There's No One To Talk To When I'm Feeling Depressed, So Now When I Drink, I'm Going Drink To Excess" and "I Want To Spit The Face Of Your Idea Of Success". Sometimes it just helps to get it all out right? Even if your throats pretty soar afterwards.

On occasion an artist pulls off something so magnificent that you just take a step back and admire its eccentricities and its grandeur. The scope of "Impossible Soul" is mammoth, the three part epic serves as the 25 minute closer to Sufjan's latest offering Age Of Adz. With this single mini-opus Stevens manages to capture the adventurous spirit and the essence of invention that exudes from Age Of Adz's every pour. There is a wonderful sprawling and theatrical thread to "Impossible Soul" as Sufjan is drawn across the entire sonic spectrum of his work; with blaring horns, pulsating laser blasts, hovering sirens, spiraling strings, booming synths, tender plucked guitar, thunderous bass, multi-part harmonies, evil auto-tune, and seemingly everything else in his and his orchestras repertoire.

Yet as Stevens himself cries: "Don't Get Distracted"; and as a reviewer it's easy to get lost evaluating one section, or one movement of this sprawling piece. There is so much going on, and the auto-tune quasi-R'n'B breakdown and the mid track electro-squelch backed big chant along chorus are so distinct and so far removed from the track's ethereal opening that it becomes easy to forget that this is just one piece. It feels like a world unto itself, and entire EP's worth of ideas, sounds, hooks and themes, and yet its not. "Impossible Soul" is just one very long and very brilliant track. Full of crescendos and standout moments; whether it's lamenting the impossible soul or crying out "Boy We Can Do Much More Together" Sufjan has created an incredibly engaging work that never bores, and never strains the listener. There is so much to enjoy that you end up wishing certain sections would last that little bit longer or be entire tracks in their own right.

If "Impossible Soul" were to be condensed down into one motto it would be oft echoed refrain of "It's Not So Impossible". "Impossible Soul" is a track that for all its bewildering scope and its insurmountable sense of artistic accomplishment still manages to inspire. Encouraging the listener to lose him or herself in the music, and to revel in the recognition of how much can be achieved if you just try.

Now that is a tough act to follow, but then again, Kanye West has never struggled to overcome expectation. In fact, he spent the vast majority of 2010 whipping up buzz and playing the role of the crazed hype man. His promises were so ridiculous, his ambition so huge and his publicity stunts so ludicrous (and so groan inducing) that he simply had to deliver. "Power" set the stage perfectly, it was a tub thumping lead single that showed remarkable promise with its sublime production and its nods to prog rocks rich history of innovation, but it was merely a stage setter for what was to come. "Runaway" dropped, if that's even the right word, with a 45 minute art house music video/movie that was at times staggeringly beautifully (see the "Runaway" dance scene) and at times cringe inducingly bad (see all of Kanye's acting). Yet behind all this silliness and behind all the pomp laid one of the most awe inspiring works of the past decade.

The solemn strikes of a solitary piano key set the stage for an exploration of emotional fragility from one of the music world's biggest and most bloated egos. The production was haunting, "Runaway" was the kind the of track that sent shivers down your spine before you could even wrap your head around its lyrical content. At the track's heart was a cocky superstar who despite his fame and superstardom was and is a complete screw up at love and romance. Who when coming to terms with his own deepest emotions is just as confused and scared as the rest of us; whether than manifests itself in sending his bitch a picture of his dick or pleading for his lover to just run away before she gets tangled up in his web of emotionally infancy.

"I Was Never Much Of A Romantic, I Couldn't Handle The Intimacy", that one line sums up the entire track; "Runaway" is a toast to idiotic lovers, who screw everything up, who make the wrong decisions and can't stop themselves from thinking the wrong thoughts. It's the essence of self centred romantic self destruction. Ultimately, it's one of the year's most human tracks from one of world's most inhuman and unlikable egos.

"Runaway's" best, however, is saved till last; as biting strings accompany that solitary piano line Kanye's voice is ripped and distorted by auto-tune. Everything comes crumbling down, into one painful, drawn out mess. It's frustrating, heartbreaking, and completely unavoidable; "Runaway" trudges on with this sense of decaying beauty, a last soaring ode to what has been lost and what has been wasted because of our own, and his own, stunted emotional inadequacy. C'est Magnifique.