A month ago I was trusted with an unmastered copy of one of the releases I've been looking most forward to in 2010, ArpLine's debut Travel Book. Told not to leak to anyone, I kept it to myself like it was a holy grail, no matter how much I wanted to share its awesomeness.

Now Travel Book has been mastered, and that which had already blown my mind became even greater. This is one of those debut records that introduces the band as not one with potential to build on, but as a fully developed superpower. Travel Book comes flying out of the gate with 2 of ArpLine's most accelerated tracks, "Fold Up Like A Piece of Paper" and "Make It Rain." Both have massive potential as hits. Then comes the brilliant, gothy "Parts Unknown"—possibly the finest song on the record— and at this point there is no doubt that the record will maintain brilliance over the entire 10 tracks.

What makes ArpLine so good is that they have created a new sound constructed from an unexpected mix of elements of New Order, Bauhaus, Nine Inch Nails, and possibly Rush. The craft is one full of intricacies that only the finest of musicians can handle.

Tonight ArpLine plays a sold out show at Mercury Lounge with a load of my favorite bands—Oh No Ono, Bear in Heaven, and Jaguar Club. Another show will follow on February 17th at Brooklyn Bowl.

This is just the beginning of what could be one of the finest years of new music I've ever experienced. New albums by Beach House, Spoon, Field Music, The Silent League, Besnard Lakes, Liars and Yeasayer have already rivaled the best releases of 2009 and it's only January. Radiohead, Gorillaz, Motel Motel, Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, Hooray For Earth, The Walkmen, New Pornographers, Magnetic Fields, and Joanna Newsom are just a few of the amazing artists that have albums scheduled for 2010.

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Jan 27, 2010 | Categories: Album Reviews, Features, Live Picks, MP3/Video, News | Tags: 2010, arcade fire, arpline, beach house, besnard lakes, hooray for earth, modest mouse, motel motel, new releases, radiohead, travel book | 1 Comment »

Jonny Leather’s 100 Favorite Records of the Decade: 2000-2009

It's all arbitrary. Ask me again in a month and this list will be in totally different order, and a a few different records will be on the list. Actually, give me 5 minutes and this list would be different. This is just a list of my favorite records. I can't even imagine the procedure in ranking them as "best records of 2000s". I don't know if Kid A is the best record of the decade or how anyone would be able to measure something so subjective, but I know that I like Kid A better than any other record of the decade. I would love for publications such as Pitchfork, NME, and Paste to really elaborate on their processes in measuring the rankings of their year-end and decade-end lists, because to say something is the greatest album of an entire decade is a pretty huge honor. In other fields it's a bit less subjective to measure greatness. For example, Michael Jordan is considered the greatest basketball player ever based on his superior stats and the awards and championships he won, but it's not that easy with music. Ranking music is like ranking food. We all have different tastes, and there are a lot of different categories that are tough to judge against each other. Sure, we all know Nickelback sucks and some burgers taste like hockey pucks, but how do we decide if one incredibly succulent steak is better than another? We can't really.