For clarification, being on this list doesn't necessarily mean the album was awful but it does indicate that I expected much more. Many of these artists are brilliant but somehow the artistry didn't click here or the songs simply just didn't catch fire. Here's hoping though that they'll shake off the bug and, as we say in Jamaica, wheel and come again.
1. Massive Attack 'Heligoland': the band that helped bring trip/hop to the masses returned with a type of chill music that no one could possibly chill out to.
2. Midlake 'The Courage of Others': ugh....
3. Martina Topley-Bird 'Some Place Simple': it must be a bitter irony that Topley-Bird has done an even bigger disappointing album this year than Tricky, the man whose career she helped shape two decades ago. Apart, neither has been able to do much so now, as uncomfortable as it may be, both better swallow pride and reunite.
4. Tricky 'Mixed Race': a defining voice of the the 90s, lost interminably within his own delusions.
5.Klaxons 'Surfing the Void': as if the idea of putting a cat into a spacesuit wasn't dumb enough, the band ditched its once smart, sharp ouvre for even dumber songs.
6. Les Savy Fav 'Root For Ruin': I'm still puzzled how the band that gave us 'The Equestrian' and 'Patty Lee' three years ago reduce themselves to this boring much.
7. Sia 'We are Born': Sia is not a mere pop singer but she doesn't do much here to prove that. She's not a genius but the heart-felt emotion of her previous album is undeniable and given her recent admissions, I expected some beautiful torture but, alas, it's just frustrated torture.
8. Laura Marling 'I Sing Because I Can': the feminist intent is there but it's cluttered with so much inexperience that Marling hasn't yet seen the total vision she needs to carve out and not allow the expectations of her backers to overwhelm her.
9. Lightspeed Champion 'Life is Sweet, Nice to Meet You': Devonte Hynes is a genuis but he reminds me so much of that scene in The Matrix where the Oracle tells Neo that he could be the One, just that he seems to be waiting on something. There are a few flashes on pop pleasure here once the guitars kick in but he hasn't mastered the total performance yet.
10. Xiu Xiu 'Dear God, I Hate Myself': Jaime Stewart's existential queer angst has been the dominant theme in Xiu Xiu's decade-old existence and, well, I wish he'd stop being such a pussy and wreak shit and get on with it already.
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