Manic Pop

Rhode Island is one of my favorite bands that no one has ever heard of (especially in the United States), but I think they definitely deserve some more recognition. I've written about two EPs of theirs (that roughly go together in my mind) in the past because I was so moved by it. View that post here: Rhode Island - The Third Person/Internecine I first heard this band in the early months of 2006 when they were featured on a BBC Radio 1 podcast featuring best new unknown artists. It was one of those instantaneous loves for me, listening to their song called "Big Two-Hearted River" on the train to work one morning. Rhode Island takes their name from the early incarnation of Belle & Sebastian, who are rumored to have called the band as an early project "Rhode Island". Unfortunately, this is a nearly un-Google-able band name which maybe be why this particular Rhode Island has been obscured from more recognition. Perhaps they'd like to keep it that way....

I haven't done a "year-end" list in a long while - mostly because I haven't been moved to in a while - but I think the time has come to list albums and songs of 2010. It's a new decade with new sounds. A music buzz word I picked up on this year was "chillwave", likely coined by hipster satire blog HipsterRunoff.com and redistributed across various blogs and websites across the world. The music is characterized by "their heavy use of effects processing, synthesizers, looping, sampling, and heavily filtered vocals with simple melodic lines" according to Wikipedia including such bands as Toro Y Moi, Memory Tapes, and Neon Indian. Wikipedia also mentions that these bands derive musical styles from the 80s "often with a laptop at their very core", but re-interpret it with a less-aggressive, soft-focus and low-fi version of 80s synthpop, with a more "chilled out" sensibility, hence "chillwave". I had the chance to see To...

Probably the most conceptual of Rhode Island’s albums so far, it personally blows my mind about how well-orchestrated every piece of the music is and how the lyrics and storyline read effortlessly. This is an album that is better played all the way though rather than shuffled and listened to separately. The EPs, which are intended to complement one another do well one right after the other, reading much like a satisfying movie with a great soundtrack that guides you – something like The Virgin Suicides in a way, but Rhode Island’s own narrative, whether based on a real or imagined story. There includes lots of talk about Switzerland throughout the two EPs – “I’ll never go back to Switzerland” sings Turner in a stronger, more anguished voice in “Hugh Person” much like he just realized he really never will go back, but always thought that Switzerland would be there and had time to return. The band shares the fact that the album is loosely based on “assisted suicide in Switzerland”, yet ...