It’s not innovative (even within the context of his own work), but it’s still by far my favourite record of this year. James Murphy still has it. What this says about the state of music in 2010, I’m not sure.
Possibly my most surprising musical discovery of this year (with the likely exception of Wavves), Free Energy play pretty standard ’70s-style power pop of the Big Star variety. Nothing at all original, but so much fun. ‘Bang Pop’ gets stuck in my head like little else.
I guess I’m a little surprised that James Murphy (of LCD Soundsystem, of course) produced this - it doesn’t really seem like his kind of thing. But his super crisp, detailed production suits the band perfectly. The first track even features a very prominent cowbell, like it’s 2003 all over again.
