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#5 – Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, formally known as A Silver Mt. Zion – 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons

While Menuk’s voice (and the band’s newest name) never ceases to piss me off, this album deserves some credit. It got a pretty bad rating from Pitchfork, and yeah, while it may come off as pretentious, I won’t deny it’s pretty damn good. This album defies a lot of post-rock themes; rarely having a quiet-loud build-up, but rather being consistently minimalistic and raw with defining influences from jazz, punk, and classical. And the vocal arrangements would’ve been good if I didn’t hate Menuk’s voice so much. But yeah. Something you don’t hear in post-rock every day.

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band – Black Waters Blowed/Engine Broken Blues
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band – Blindblindblind

#4 – Sigur Ros – Med sud i eyrum vid spilum endalaust

This may be a little biased as I absolutely love Sigur Ros, and I owe it to them for introducing me to post-rock in the first place, but hey–you really can’t go wrong with “Gobbledigook.” Granted it was the only song on the album that actually had an upbeat acoustic sound to it…but whatever. I’m so in love with Sigur Ros that I just don’t care. This album incorporates every Sigur Ros album I’ve ever loved (Agaetus Byrjun and () to name two), and yeah, even if it is a rather safe move on the band’s part, it’s still damn good and I’m proud to put it on this list. Check out the full review here.

Sigur Ros – Illgresi
Sigur Ros – Gobbledigook
Sigur Ros – Vid spilum endalaust

#3 – Have a Nice Life – Deathconsciousness

I am sure I’m not alone when I say that this album is probably one of the best rock albums of the year. A concept album revolving around ideas of sorrow, death, and religion (and those three intertwined), it is a very personal take on life through the expression of music. Personally, I enjoyed the second disc a lot better than the first as it’s a little more engaging. Leaning more towards a drone, shoegaze lo-fi sound, this album might not be considered “post-rock” in the typical term (avant-garde is likelier), but I’m still going to include it in this list. Read the full review here.

Have A Nice Life – Waiting for Black Metal to Come in the Mail
Have A Nice Life – Who Would Leave Their Son Out in the Sun?
Have A Nice Life – A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut

#2 – Tomcat Combat – I’m Okay, You’re Okay

You might remember my over-enthusiastic post on Tomcat Combat’s summer album, I’m Okay, You’re Okay. It’s full of energy, good tunes, and it keeps you on your toes. You can read the full review if you want, but basically I love this album because of it’s awesome dynamic rhythm shifts, something I’ve grown to appreciate in other music since listening to this album. Tomcat Combat are probably one of the lesser known and therefore unappreciated post-rock bands out there, so for the glory of all post-rock, please check them out!

Tomcat Combat – Pacer’s Club
Tomcat Combat – Ponies on Ice

#1 – The American Dollar – A Memory Stream

If you’re looking for a mellowed out, dreamy album that doesn’t actually scream post-rock, your best bet is with A Memory Stream. The piano and guitar melodies will hook you in and envelope you in their mellow but very saturated instrumentation. It is a fusion of great electronic music with post-rock concepts–one of the best ambient albums out there, and therefore, #1 on my list. Check out the full review.

The American Dollar – The Slow Wait (2)
The American Dollar – Lights Dim

Thanks to The Rock Blogger, I was introduced to Have A Nice Life, a shoegaze/industrial/metal duo from Connecticut. They self-released their debut album, Deathconsciousness this past January. It features a two-side disc set with a 70-page essay-type book that revolves around the history of religious symbolism and ideology, focusing on Antiocheanism, a religious cult that centred around the teachings of a sketchy character named Antiocus (can’t find any other info on this, so whether or not the entire book is based on some fictitious character, I don’t know, but regardless the general idea is compelling, to say the least). For awhile, you could have ordered the real thing, but it sold out and now the album is only available for digital download, and the booklet available in a .pdf format.

Deathconsciousness is a very interesting album, and like all concept albums, it requires full attention to really enjoy it. I’ll talk about it in a little more detail later, but for now I just want to focus on the music. Musically, Have A Nice Life blends shoegaze, industrial, and metal…very reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine (as has been mentioned in almost all reviews) and its shoegaze goodness, featuring lots of lo fi drone, reverb and distortion in their music. They also denote some post-rock qualities (kind of reminds me of Red Sparowes and Godspeed—probably the metal features), as in “A Quick One Before the Eternal Worm Devours Connecticut.” A lot of reviewers call it inconsistent, but I think I can understand why, as this album was in the works for about five years before its release. The second disc is a bit more consistent than the first, goes with the concept itself, too; the first disc seems a little lighter and sillier, not to mention some of the titles are pretty quirky.

The concept behind Deathconsciousness is just exactly what the title is—to be conscious of the tedious truth of inevitable death; really, it’s a stab at existentialism, and to quote the booklet, “And It begs the question – “What is the point?”” I don’t want to mistakenly say something about the concept of what the band was trying to present, and really, they don’t try to really argue its point…but I find the idea of it interesting: to question religious and spiritual convictions, ideas of life and death, morals and values, etc.

An awesome concept album, I highly recommend it. It really does require a lot of your attention (hence my late post), but is absolutely worth it.

Check out this link for instructions on buying the album.

Have a Nice Life – Waiting for Black Metal Records to Come in the Mail

Have A Nice Life – Bloodhail