You didn’t think I’d leave you hanging into the new year without sharing my favorite records of this year, did you? That’s not me to do such a thing so without further adieu the records I’ve played and loved to death.

10. Kisses – The Heart Of The Nightlife // Pod / Inertia Hands down this record wins the most infectious record award of this year. Even without the help from Hot Chip or The Whitest Boy Alive, I’m sure Kisses would be fine producing Don’t say I won’t catch you dancing to “Kisses” this silly season. [MP3] Kisses – Kisses

9. Beach Fossils – Beach Fossils // Popfrenzy Beach Fossils is perhaps the best precedent of lo-fi pop this year. Simple looped guitar riffs drenched in reverb coupled with naïve and playful lyrics results in dreamy, nostalgic mind trips. Some people may say this is too melodically repetitive but I like consistency. It makes the sunny atmosphere last that bit longer y’know? [MP3] Beach Fossils – Daydream

8. Teengirl Fantasy – 7AM // Merok/True Panther Teengirl Fantasy’s 7AM is an explosion of tropical, lo-fi sound coming at you left, right and centre with soothing vocals, upbeat tempos and looped samples mixed with cosmic undertones. It’s the perfect late-night record for assorted antics; best played every time other than 7 in the morning. [MP3] Teengirl Fantasy – Cheaters

7. Baths – Cerulean // Anticon The most underrated album of this year. Cerulean is honest and sweet electronic tunes perfect for lie downs, leisurely bike rides, visits to the beach and short road trips. This is a bright and refreshing sound from the self-thought musician from L.A. [MP3] Baths – Hall

6. Drake – Thank Me Later // Cash Money Records Oh no you di’n’t Ro. You did not just put Canadian rapper Drake in your top ten!? Featuring classic R&B samples and collaborations with the best of hip-hop, Thank Me Later is the album I never thought I’d enjoy post-adolescence. Believe it bitches but this shit is staying. [MP3] Drake – Find Your Love

5. Sia – We Are Born // Monkey Puzzle/Inertia Despite the accolades and outside of this release Sia really is the true package – honest, fun (and funny), honest and real. Oh I forgot to mention she’s a pretty talented singer-songwriter too and We Are Born has reached new heights and fans. You can’t help but adore this lady and this shiny, fun record. I’m getting a little soft aren’t I? [MP3] Sia – You’ve Changed

4. Happy Birthday – Happy Birthday // Sub Pop With sweet melodies and epic guitar hooks, this self-titled had me singing and jamming in no time. Influenced by a history of pop and rock, Happy Birthday’s album is without a doubt one of the classic releases of 2010. Ridiculous over-the-time swoon times to be had. [MP3] Happy Birthday – Girls FM

3. Seja – We Have Secrets But Nobody Cares // Rice Is Nice Analogue synths plus sweet pop melodies equlas one pretty great record so big ups to Seja and her crafty skills for this gem of an album that I loved all year. Seriously though, I cannot find another local release this year that has been more memorable than this because if I remembered it, chances are it’d be here. [MP3] Seja – I’ll Get to You

2. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today // 4AD/Remote Control Finally, a mastered LP from the quirky genius that is Ariel Pink and it has never sounded so so good. What more can I say? It’s faultless. Before Today is a true gem. [MP3] Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffitti – Round and Round

1. Glasser – Ring // True Panther/Remote Control I knew that Cameron Mesirow – the lady behind Glasser – was all sorts of magic but to this astonishing degree as present in Ring and I’m floored. Ring is intricate, organic, minimal and truly a stunning listen. I bet you would never expect this record here but the sounds in this record crept up on me with absolute beauty. [MP3] Glasser – Mirrorage

I hope everyone has had a great holiday season and cannot wait for the new year – this summer’s upcoming line of tours looks very promising and it’s about time too.

Julia Wilson is so many shades of awesome she is like the sister I wish I had. Not only does she manages one of the most exciting labels around, she also runs her own exciting record label called Rice is Nice. If the name also rings a bell, it may be because you have seen Julia’s name occasionally pop up as a photo credit on TWYE. So she is not only passionate about music, she also a rad photographer who has snapped the likes of Metallica, Flaming Lips, Youth Group, and the list goes on. Yeah! Jules’ is awesome and is also my special guest today.

• Future Of The Left – Travels With Myself And Another
  THIS BAND RULES…from the roots of Mclusky comes the second record from FOTL and it blew my mind yet again. I love this band. We all have to go see them live as we are lucky enough to have them tour Aus again.

  Now I’m going to be slightly biased here, but speak the truth –

• Talons – Talons
  TALONS s/t debut was one of the reasons (SPOD was the other, but that’s ‘08) I started my own label. This record is made by the three biggest gems I had met in a loonnnnng time. It was created completely independently in friends’ corridors, lounges and the rest. It’s an excitingly raw record with incredibly strong songs, which made me happy, sad…and kinda pretty mad. These guys are doing this for all the right reasons.
• Shady Lane – Here We Go Down the Black Hole
  SHADY LANE’s Here We Go Down the Black Hole is the debut from Sydney’s Jordy Lane. This record is full of beautiful pop gems with Jordy’s amazing voice carrying them all through perfectly. I love this record and whenever I hear it, I‘m amazed that it all came from just this one fellow. I’m looking forward to the next Shady Lane project.
• Seekae – Sound Of Trees Falling On People
  SEEKAE are incredible and really are like nothing else around at the moment. Their album Sound Of Trees Falling On People is as good as they are live. Its spell binding and beautiful as well as exciting. You also get the notion that it’s something that comes very easily and naturally to these three, so, again, I can’t wait to hear what’s next for this impressive band.
• Songs – Songs
  I’m lucky enough to have worked with this nz / syd band. Max, who writes all the music, obviously has an incredible ability to do so. It’s so much Flying Nun-esque, but also stands alone so strongly. I really do love this record its one of the few australian titles that stand so far out and impress in comparison to other artists, without banging on about it and having it rammed down your throat.
• Throw Me The Statue – Creaturesque
  I worked on this album and I really fell in love with it. It’s unfairly underrated and I think you all have to go and listen to it.

A big thank you to Will, Amelia, Mark and Jules who have contributed to our Guestlist series over the past month. I’m looking forward to sharing another series with you all next December when best-of fever strikes again.

For a long time I’ve admired the videos over at Shoot The Player. Run by two creative minds: Amelia Tovey and Jonathan Wald, Shoot The Player brings you unplugged music in new spaces. It is an intimate memory encapsulated in one take and in one unique space with plenty of room for spontaneity. It is just simply brilliant.

I’m over the moon to have Amelia is our guest here today and in no particular order here are her top 10 albums of this year. I cannot wait to see what they have in store for us in 2010 starting with their installation at CarraigeWorks opening January 7. More details are here.

• Here We Go Magic – Here We Go Magic
  I cannot even publicly admit how many car trips, morning runs, lunch breaks and evening wines have been set to the score of “Fangela” and “Tunnelvision”. These two little songs are perfect, perfect tunes. This is the only album I have consistently listened and re-listened to since getting it in my hot little hands. Dreamy, nostalgic and cinematic, Here We Go Magic fuckin’ nailed it with this album.
• Bachelorette – My Electric Family
  The first time I heard this album, I sat upright in the kitchen, grinning and perplexed, staring at my cd player as though Bachelorette herself might leap out of the machine and join me for corn flakes. I love this sound. And I don’t really know what to say about this album other than if you don’t like it – you’re the only one. I saw her perform at an afternoon gig in New York this year and the preppy after work crowd passing by also stopped in their tracks and stared. They were surprised. They smiled and clapped in the middle of songs. They bought a shit load of CDs after the gig.
• Fever Ray – Fever Ray
  Great album, great videos, can we please have more intelligent ambient weird music like this? It holds. It works. Where did “If I Had A Heart” come from? It’s like something out of space and back in time and never seems to get old.
• Sarah Blasko – As Day Follows Night
  I know this album is on everyone else’s best of 2009 lists but fuck it, it deserves to be here. I first heard songs from this album played acoustically on a piano at the Illustrated Man Tattoo Parlour in Sydney. We filmed Sarah a week before she went off to Sweden to make the album. The tracks were fresh, unpolished, and un-practiced. The production on this album is so far from what I imagined the end result to be but it’s absolutely perfect; textured, percussive, dark and impressionistic of all the seasons, emotions & scenarios Blasko paints so lovingly in her lyrics.
• Dappled Cities – Zounds
  I hope these guys never stop making music. Grander and Grandance and bigger than A Smile, this their third album is a joy ride of choral vocals and anthemic sounds. It is energetic, boistrous, ambitions and a lot of fun. The guys continue to give great live shows and their loyalty to the Hopetoun Hotel through the sad state of it’s demise was nothing short of heroic & commendable! Here, here!
• Decoder Ring – They Blind The Stars, And The Wild Team
  I only just discovered this album, like, three weeks ago. I’ve always been hot and cold on this band, like I enjoyed them but i always wanted them to do better – and then this came along and Decoder Ring have arrived. Beautifully paced, atmospheric and tender, this is a wonderful, wonderful album.
• Grand Salvo – Soil Creatures
  Grand Salvo makes every other folk singer who released an album this year look completely under-prepared for the task of simple, gentle, poetic storytelling. He’s is an impenetrable forces of beautifully stitched images, of tenderly damaged characters, of heartbreaking narratives and of the gently plucked guitar. He wears his heart on his sleave and combines the pathos of an old man with the spirit of an adventurous child. He asked us if we could shoot a music video up a tree once. Stay tuned for that one.
• Bon Iver – Blood Bank EP
  Effortlessly lovely. ‘Blood Bank’ is a beautifully layered song that begins with two people staring at the pile of blood bags at a blood bank. I mean, WTF. Sincerely put together and beautifully textured, this EP is just as wonderful as the more fully fleshed out album we were all in love with, forever ago.
• Pheonix – Wolfgang Amadeus Pheonix
  Fun! Like the first two albums on this list, Pheonix first got my attention with their dreamy nostalgic sounds, i mean, this guys voice is just so listen-able. Their synthy upbeat pop tune 1901 reminds me of roller skating, road trips across America and dancing on the balls of your feet. They also kinda remind me of local Sydney band, Tennis (probably just a rip off of Tennis, hey).
• Lovers – I am The West
  Here’s the wildcard. Lovers are a band I filmed in Portland. I didn’t really “get it” until we met the band and started wandering through the streets; me with my camera, they with their instruments. Pared back and simply, their songs were really, really good. I listened to the album again all the way back to Seattle and loved it. Smart, well written, straight forward and delicate, this band doesnt really sound like anything else and I can’t wait to see what else they’re working on.

I’m not going to deny that 2009 has been a great year of record releases. It just makes ranking my top 10 records that bit more difficult. Anyway, here we go.

1. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
   Bitte Orca is the most ornate album this year. With intricate arrangements, exuberant melodies and a vocal dialogue that’s sweeter than honey, it’s so difficult for me to see another album surpass Bitte Orca. A fine execution of technical and conceptual skill results in stylistic clarity – their approach is intellectual, complex and informed. The Dirty Projectors will continue to push their art pop to the masses without compromise.
2. Girls – Album
   The boys from Girls with their fucked-up past made me write perhaps the lengthiest album review thus far for Those Walls, Your Ears and with reason. Their formula is simple: four chord songs about girls, life and getting wasted accompanied with a melody that’s absurdly infectious. And it works because it’s real, as if we’ve experienced it already. Maybe we have but I can tell you, it makes me want to do it all over again.
3. Marnie Stern – This Is It And I Am It And You Are It And So Is That And He Is It And She Is It And It Is It And That Is That
   I was blown away by this lady, her skills and this amazing record. Top her guitar arrangements with killer melodies and Stern’s This Is It is simply enthralling. The pace of this record is fast, very fast, and every note is played (and sung) with such strong conviction that it’s really empowering. She’s kind of my hero to be honest.
4. Discovery – LP
   LP sounds nothing like the bands the duo originates from and is in fact utterly refreshing. Ten consistent tracks of obsessive 90’s pop, R&B, soul and even euro-dance beats – this shouts awesome, right?! Hey, LP is also ridiculously infectious.
5. HEALTH – Get Color
   I knew this was coming and I couldn’t be more prepared. Ten songs of shear force from the L.A. quartet who got the shitty end of the deal (no thanks to you, Crystal Castles). HEALTH are like a slap in the face or a kick in the gut: it’s loud, ferocious and slightly hostile. They are true pioneers of the noise-rock genre and their time is NOW.
6. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career
   Once I met Tracey-Anne Campbell – the front woman for Camera Obscura – it was at a festival and I was probably drunk but on seeing them the following night at their sideshow, I couldn’t help but develop a huge crush for her and the fine Scots that is Camera Obscura. This doesn’t recede when they release the most adorable album (and possibly their finest) to date. My Maudlin Career is eleven songs of pure twee pop bliss that is bound to melt your heart too.
7. Memory Tapes – Seek Magic
   The finest lo-fi-nu-gaze-whatever-you-want-to-call-it album this year. Seek Magic is sparse, euphoric, eerie and filled with nostalgia. It’s hazy and dreamy as it glimmers in space and proves that cosmic sounds can be sustained longer than the length of an EP.
8. Nite Jewel – Good Evening
   Ramona Gonzalez and her dreamy synthetic hip-pop had me cornered at the very start of this year. Surprisingly Gonzalez’s Good Evening remains with me at the close of 2009. At best, Good Evening feels at home in the dark, d.i.y. slow-disco scene intended for bedroom prances. It is however slightly self-indulgent as if this was just another art project for the multimedia-based artist, Gonzalez. Although I blame the effortless cool she exudes and her ethereal props to the disco and 90’s R&B gods that makes Good Evening such an enjoyable listen.
9. Wavves – Wavvves
   Wavvves was riding high on my record list at the beginning of ’09 but throw in a few punch-ups and burnouts and it’s just not the same anymore, Nathan Williams. That said, this record still makes me want to go back San Diego and rip it up on the boardwalk…not that I can skateboard well or anything.
10. Toro y Moi – Causers of This
    A slightly premature addition seeing as it is yet to be released but I really just love it; I had to sneak it in here – look out for it in 2010.

Keep yourself peeled for a few more best-of lists in the next few days as we have some special guests.

I’m not going to deny that 2009 has been a great year of record releases. It just makes ranking my top 10 records that bit more difficult. Anyway, here we go.

1. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
   Bitte Orca is the most ornate album this year. With intricate arrangements, exuberant melodies and a vocal dialogue that’s sweeter than honey, it’s so difficult for me to see another album surpass Bitte Orca. A fine execution of technical and conceptual skill results in stylistic clarity – their approach is intellectual, complex and informed. The Dirty Projectors will continue to push their art pop to the masses without compromise.
2. Girls – Album
   The boys from Girls with their fucked-up past made me write perhaps the lengthiest album review thus far for Those Walls, Your Ears and with reason. Their formula is simple: four chord songs about girls, life and getting wasted accompanied with a melody that’s absurdly infectious. And it works because it’s real, as if we’ve experienced it already. Maybe we have but I can tell you, it makes me want to do it all over again.
3. Marnie Stern – This Is It And I Am It And You Are It And So Is That And He Is It And She Is It And It Is It And That Is That
   I was blown away by this lady, her skills and this amazing record. Top her guitar arrangements with killer melodies and Stern’s This Is It is simply enthralling. The pace of this record is fast, very fast, and every note is played (and sung) with such strong conviction that it’s really empowering. She’s kind of my hero to be honest.
4. Discovery – LP
   LP sounds nothing like the bands the duo originates from and is in fact utterly refreshing. Ten consistent tracks of obsessive 90’s pop, R&B, soul and even euro-dance beats – this shouts awesome, right?! Hey, LP is also ridiculously infectious.
5. HEALTH – Get Color
   I knew this was coming and I couldn’t be more prepared. Ten songs of shear force from the L.A. quartet who got the shitty end of the deal (no thanks to you, Crystal Castles). HEALTH are like a slap in the face or a kick in the gut: it’s loud, ferocious and slightly hostile. They are true pioneers of the noise-rock genre and their time is NOW.
6. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career
   Once I met Tracey-Anne Campbell – the front woman for Camera Obscura – it was at a festival and I was probably drunk but on seeing them the following night at their sideshow, I couldn’t help but develop a huge crush for her and the fine Scots that is Camera Obscura. This doesn’t recede when they release the most adorable album (and possibly their finest) to date. My Maudlin Career is eleven songs of pure twee pop bliss that is bound to melt your heart too.
7. Memory Tapes – Seek Magic
   The finest lo-fi-nu-gaze-whatever-you-want-to-call-it album this year. Seek Magic is sparse, euphoric, eerie and filled with nostalgia. It’s hazy and dreamy as it glimmers in space and proves that cosmic sounds can be sustained longer than the length of an EP.
8. Nite Jewel – Good Evening
   Ramona Gonzalez and her dreamy synthetic hip-pop had me cornered at the very start of this year. Surprisingly Gonzalez’s Good Evening remains with me at the close of 2009. At best, Good Evening feels at home in the dark, d.i.y. slow-disco scene intended for bedroom prances. It is however slightly self-indulgent as if this was just another art project for the multimedia-based artist, Gonzalez. Although I blame the effortless cool she exudes and her ethereal props to the disco and 90’s R&B gods that makes Good Evening such an enjoyable listen.
9. Wavves – Wavvves
   Wavvves was riding high on my record list at the beginning of ’09 but throw in a few punch-ups and burnouts and it’s just not the same anymore, Nathan Williams. That said, this record still makes me want to go back San Diego and rip it up on the boardwalk…not that I can skateboard well or anything.
10. Toro y Moi – Causers of This
    A slightly premature addition seeing as it is yet to be released but I really just love it; I had to sneak it in here – look out for it in 2010.

Keep yourself peeled for a few more best-of lists in the next few days as we have some special guests.

Today’s edition features online promoter king, Mark Dodds from Inertia Music. Mark is like god to all the music blogs (well, at least to us here) – he gives us a rundown of the newest releases before anyone else and he is the main reason why YOU get previews to some amazing records on Those Walls, Your Ears. So we welcome Mark to our little space of the internet as he introduces his favourite ten records of 2009.

1. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
   I pretty much knew this was my album of the year within 2 minutes and 30 seconds of it beginning. That moment when the opening track, “In The Flowers”, leaps from psychedelic wilderness into some Technicolor daydream ranks among the decade’s most revelatory music moments. And that’s only one twist on a pop album that dares to surprise.
2. Girls – Album
   Some of this album makes me want to rollerblade along the beach boardwalk. Some makes me want to take psychedelic drugs and chill out in a beanbag. Either way, this album is your whole summer: from the sand and sunshine to the heartbreak, comedowns and exhaustion. A slacker opus for the ages.
3. Memory Tapes – Seek Magic
   Like Merriweather Post Pavilion, the magic of Memory Tapes came to me in a short, sharp musical epiphany. It was that final third of “Bicycle” – that choir, those keys, and the meanest guitar riffage in a pop track since “Say It Ain’t So” – that just made my life that little bit more complete. And the rest of Seek Magic follows suit. From the dreamy loops to the washed out (no “chillwave” pun intended) reverb, this album just feels instantly familiar and welcoming.
4. Japandroids – Post-Nothing
   I won’t intellectualise it: this album reminds me of high school. “Young Hearts Spark Fire” is “San Dimas High School Football Rules” all grown up – well, sorta grown up. Anyway, I haven’t had so much fun listening to an album since my pal Cameron smuggled a discman into Year 10 Japanese class, and we bumped ‘The Mark, Tom & Travis Show’, one earphone a piece. Just some dudes sharing a moment. Japandroids would understand.
5. Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II
   I usually hate sequels – especially sequels that come 15 years after the original. There’s nothing worse than seeing your favourite characters stripped of their immortality, and wheeled out as older, more pathetic versions of their younger selves (yes I’m talking to you, Kevin Smith). But Only Built For Cuban Linx II breaks the mould, which is astounding for an album which follows up perhaps my favourite rap record of the 90s. It’s all here: vintage gangster loops, flawless lyricism, idiosyncratic wordplays and unmistakable charisma. It’s good to know after all these years, Raekwon is still running the game. Dollar dollar bill, y’all.
6. Wavves – Wavvves
   Wavves may have blown up and then burnt out quicker than you can say “Muscles”, but still, Wavvves remains the rawest, grungiest nugget of lo-fi shit to be hurled at the blogosphere in ’09 (although Eat Skull and Graffiti Island came pretty darn close). I still listen to “So Bored” and “No Hope Kids” daily, and it’s that – not drug-addled onstage freak-outs – which is the real sign of endurance.
7. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
   This was just lovely: enormous pop arrangements, gorgeous harmonies, and songs that just wander about in your head for hours and hours. I don’t think I could pinpoint a single indie act on Earth who had a bigger year in 2009 than Grizzly Bear, and despite cute jabs at their ongoing “memeification”, there’s no disguising that this album is, quite simply, magnificent.
8. Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport
   Fuck Buttons are just intoxicating. If you fall into the thrust of those triumphant noise loops, you’re just awash with joy and adrenaline. “Olympians” makes my walk home from work feel like the ascent of Mt. Olympus; Kevin Sorbo in tow. “Flight Of The Feathered Serpent” gets me raving in my lounge room. I once got so wound up in “Surf Solar” that I almost did a push-up. Almost.
9. Wolves In The Throne Room – Black Cascade
   Kinda feels pointless writing a description when the album title says it all. This record is a cavalcade of bleak, eerie, tortured sound, from one of America’s finest black metal bands. But there’s a strange beauty amongst all the violence. It’s State Of Nature stuff: solitary, nasty, and brutish, but perversely fascinating. Like watching a lion tackle and devour a gazelle on the Discovery Channel.
10. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
    Dirty Projectors’ recipe for pop music is curious and counter intuitive, but it works. In fact, along with Animal Collective, this record revived my faith in pop as an exciting and dynamic art form. Songs like “Stillness Is The Move” and “Cannibal Resource” are infectious but adventurous, and while the album is packed with hooks and refrains, these structures only accentuate the wonderful intricacies of the departures. From start to finish, this album is special and unique, and makes music seem – and feel – new again.

Mark’s shortlist also includes Vivian Girls’ Everything Goes Wrong, Justin Townes Earle’s Midnight At The Movies and Nite Jewel’s Good Evening.

As this year rounds to a close, expect to see end-of-year lists popping up on every single blog around and we’re no exception. In fact I’ve rounded up some amazing friends who want to share their list with you too. The first is photographer and blogger, Will Reichelt. You may have seen Will around, if not at the front of almost every gig.

Photo: Will Reichelt

I’m continuously amazed with his photography – have a look for yourself over at his blog or at his flickr. Time and time again Will and I would snap the same shows and I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon. So without further delay here are Will’s top ten records of this year.

1. Jonathan Boulet – Jonathan Boulet LP
   The lush, complex & mature debut album from this precociously-talented 20-year old musician. The standout track “A Community Service Announcement” also has one of the most hauntingly beautiful music videos I’ve seen this year. It’s so damn fresh and accomplished-sounding, it makes me sick.
2. Sherlock’s Daughter – Sherlock’s Daughter EP
   My favourite Sydney band of 2009, Sherlock’s Daughter have a shivery, destined-for-great-things sound that gets me all excited. They’ve got epic, layered tunes and a live show that pulses with Tanya Horo’s mesmerising stage presence.
3. City Of Satellites – Machine Is My Animal
   An electronic, ethereal cloud of an album. Dreamy, with a crisp digital under layer, like the soundtrack to a 70′s science fiction film. I still can’t believe that’s a man singing all the songs.
4. Dragging Pianos – The Food Chain EP
   From the same creative gene-pool as Townsville’s The Middle East, Sam Rowe’s songs are disarmingly simple, but emotionally manipulative in the best way.
5. Red Riders – Drown In Colour
   With the catchiest hooks, the jangliest guitars, and probably the wittiest & most endearing live-show banter I’ve heard all year, the Red Riders are disarmingly loveable. This album also contains one of my absolute favourite songs of this year, “The Siren Sings”.
6. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart LP
   An album that throws up the kind of wrenching emotional responses I had to music back when I was in high school. Wistful, romantic fuzz with a glimmer of razor-sharp recklessness underpinning it all.
7. HEALTH – Get Color
   The assault on my senses I needed to snap myself out of all the romantic, wist-rock I’ve been immersing myself in all year. A violent, anarchistic sonic burnout that feels like the soundtrack to the apocalypse.
8. The XX – XX
   The minimalist sound of this London band, dominated by the lyrical back-and-forth of vocalists Oliver Sim & Romy Madley Croft has a laid-back, effortless aura of cool around it that I find hard to resist. Coming from the same school as Four Tet & Hot Chip, it makes you wonder what they’re putting in the water.
9. Passion Pit – Manners
   I don’t know why, but it took me a little while to actually like their debut EP Chunk Of Change, but as soon as I bought into the passionate falsetto of Michael Angelakos, I was hooked. This was played extremely loudly in my car on high rotation for a very long time.
10. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
    Last but not least – I’m pretty sure this is going to be on a lot of people’s Top Ten lists. The lush instrumentation combined with Ed Droste and Daniel Rossen’s vocals is like a long-soaking hot bath for your ears. Their imminent appearance at the up-coming Sydney Festival will be a must-see.

In the spirit of today, I asked my dad to share his favourite tracks with you all. He is one of the few people that I really look up to and without him I don’t think I would’ve discovered my passion for architecture, music or photography. I’m sure you all think highly of your dad too. So from mine to yours, here is my dad’s short mixtape.

[MP3] John Lennon – Imagine
[MP3] The Eagles – Hotel California
[MP3] Simon & Garfunkel – The Boxer
[MP3] Scorpians – Always Somewhere
[MP3] Eric Clapton – Wonderful Tonight
[MP3] Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven