My Favorite Album of Last Year–Paper Kites: On the Corner Where You Live

The worst thing about Albums of the Year pieces is realizing how much music has been released without anyone having told you. Mind you, most music sites seem to be competing in who can choose the most obscure albums.

The second worst thing is writing them. It’s my own fault. No one asked for my opinion on a rather narrow selection of albums released each year. And yet another annoying thing is that albums such as the brilliant Haiku from Zero by Cut Copy was actually released in 2017.

I was going to write a long list, but really there’s only one album of this year. Albums that stop you dead in your tracks are few and far between, which is probably a good thing, as I was driving when I first listened to it. But they do exist, and as neither GENTS nor Real Lies have released their 2nd album yet (both are slated for 2019) there is only one contender.

It is (drum roll) – On The Corner Where You live by Australian band the Paper Kites. Actually, I’ve just realized this wasn’t the tensest of announcements because I already declared it in the blog post title. Anyway, the Paper Kites actually released TWO albums in 2018, presumably to shame us all into being more creative. They are companion pieces, but it’s the second which hits the mark. They began in 2011 as the kind of Mumford, et al, folk/rock, but like Bear’s Den, they decided to embrace synthesizers and the best part of early 80s Simple Minds to make themselves a million times more interesting.

On The Train Ride Home is the first album, and as an EP might have been mildly distracting, as it’s not bad, it just fails to really stick; it’s in need of some slick production beyond adjusting the mics nearer to the acoustic guitar. It sounds like the main songwriter Sam Bentley had time on his hands while the others were still having their breakfast. It’s fragile and intimate, but it’s On The Corner Where You live that is as perfect as sophisti-pop can get. It’s the heady mix of Talk Talk, Blue Nile, Prefab Sprout, Aztec Camera, and Avalon-era Roxy Music. I’ve not read a review yet that fails to mention it as the perfect soundtrack for sitting in near window staring at the rain falling like fishing lines beneath the fall of the amber street lights.

There’s a delicious yearn to Red Light and the hypnotic loop of Deep Burn Blue, which trembles so satisfactorily that it’s almost worth pursuing heartache to maximize the experience of listening to it. AND it name check the Downtown Lights of the Blue Nile. It’s the sort of song that lives in its own universe; while you scratch your head, baffled that it even exists. It evokes those teenage years when every glance, touch or love letter heightened your day with the glitter and ticker-tape finale of a Coldplay concert. Then there’s the sumptuous The Mess We made, which is about as messy as an OCD pencil case. Christina Lacy takes lead vocals, and as she melts into ‘All you’ve touched and felt of me was real’ it’s hard to check it’s not your own soul that’s singing. Actually, if my soul was singing then I’d know about it due to the neighbors hammering on the wall in concern and asking if they should call the RSPCA.

On The Corner Where You live is the sort of album you’d marry were it a person, although it would probably break your heart just to improve its context. It’s a delicate, yet muscular beauty of an album that builds perfectly upon the previous TwelveFour with an almost uncouth confidence. Bravo.

Honorary mentions:

Record by Tracey Thorn. I cannot believe I forgot this album. It’s ace and is produced by the most amazing producer out there – Ewan Pearson. He’s peerless. Despite being a collection of feminist bangers 😉 is a hard-hitting nine-staged-punch of electro-pop. It takes the cue from Everything But The Girl‘s latter output and bats it into NYC of the early 80s, of the Danceteria nightclub and body-popping in the street. Yet, there’s an inescapable sadness of those lost times. It’s a continuation of her 2007 solo album Out of the Woods. She may be as prolific as a Franciscan Monk but with tunes as crisp as this she is easily forgiven. Dancefloor could even be Pet Shop Boys and it begs them to collaborate with Ewan too, or indeed Tracey. It also features Shura who outdid Robyn with her 2016 album Nothing’s Real.

I’ve always known of Death Cab for Cutie via the music press and I’m so on the pulse that 2018 was the first time I’ve ever listened to them. They’ve only been around since 1997. I have a habit of coming to bands late. I start to like bands when others stop, not because I’m cool, but the opposite. I like it when bands ditch all their edgy experimentation bollocks and start writing good songs. I loved the Postal Service album all those years ago, which is actually a side project of singer Ben Gibbard. I don’t know enough about Death Cab, but I know that Thank You For Today fits together tighter than ice in a box. It explores catchy pop (Gold Rush) with yearning FM radio (Your Hurricane) without any sense of betrayal to the overall sound. When We Drive mines the shadows in the fields beyond the headlights of that mythical road trip, while Autumn Love succeeds in sounding exactly as you hope it does.

The surprise return of the year is Dubster. Their similarity with Saint Etienne was always too hard to ignore, but for once they’re better. The Saints’ last album Home Counties was one brush stroke too heavy on the pastiche. It was twee and slight without the threat of danger that has characterized their best work. Dubster, however, applied a deft set of songs for One, which soundtracks middle-age concerns like divorce, what to do with the kids on the weekend, and people parking across your drive. It’s sweeping electro-pop. It’s the past flirting with the future while keeping an eye on the present. Well, it’s not looking to closely at the present. The synths are lush and tastefully considered like a matching dining set as opposed to the shrill EDM of the charts. Not that I’ve looked recently. It’s hard to see why Dubstar felt a return was necessary, but I’m glad they did.

The most exciting thing happening next year, apart from the GENTS and Real Lies and Pet Shop Boys new albums is that the sequel to the Life Assistance Agency will be published with Urbane Books. Unfinished Business will be with us in 2019…

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Originally published on Idle blogs of an idle fellow

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