#2 Staralfur by Sigur Ros
Few bands can offer up a purely subjective experience with their songs. To individuate modern music means to transcend genre and lyrics and in doing so elicit a reaction in the listener that is as abstractly unknowable as it is instinctively known, a comprehending on the far side of your gut. Sigur Ros produces just that. Each of their teeny-weeny symphonies presents a song that builds like every indescribable moment in your life plucked out of chronology and jammed into sequential order, with respect to dynamics. Whether their songs are woeful or jubilant, demolishing or inspiring is entirely up to the listener. Every song means everything and every song means nothing, but, regardless of what each song means, the overarching message of the band is nothing but celebratory, revelatory, brilliant. IT'S LIKE LIFE OR SOMETHING.#3 Brother Sport by Animal Collective
Nowadays, originality is rare. Nowadays, what people deem original is thievery billed under a different name and shown in the right lighting. Yet, Animal Collective is wholly, confoundingly original. Few songs are composed of intergalactic jungle beats backing a heartsick boy's choir with lyrics like monolith haiku, plus man-child howls. What arises is as phantasmagoric as it is simple, as accessible as it is obtuse. By the song's mantric outro, the listener is so awash with disorientation and physical/mental overload that the disparate emotions begin to bind and converge and by the time the song fades out you're at a point of complete cohesion because originality demands nothing less.
Everyone you know has no idea. Everyone you know sells themselves short. Everyone you know is floating in space. Everyone you know can cry from happiness. Everyone you know someday will die. Everyone you know will say goodbye. Everyone you know will let life pass them by. Everyone you know will let everything good go to waste. Everyone you know will see only darkness in night and you have to realize that night is just day without light.
Nowadays, originality is rare. Nowadays, what people deem original is thievery billed under a different name and shown in the right lighting. Yet, Animal Collective is wholly, confoundingly original. Few songs are composed of intergalactic jungle beats backing a heartsick boy's choir with lyrics like monolith haiku, plus man-child howls. What arises is as phantasmagoric as it is simple, as accessible as it is obtuse. By the song's mantric outro, the listener is so awash with disorientation and physical/mental overload that the disparate emotions begin to bind and converge and by the time the song fades out you're at a point of complete cohesion because originality demands nothing less.#4 Do You Realize? By The Flaming Lips
Everyone you know has no idea. Everyone you know sells themselves short. Everyone you know is floating in space. Everyone you know can cry from happiness. Everyone you know someday will die. Everyone you know will say goodbye. Everyone you know will let life pass them by. Everyone you know will let everything good go to waste. Everyone you know will see only darkness in night and you have to realize that night is just day without light.
