16. Lodger—Hi-Fi High Lights Down Low (2004)
Some days, impending annihilation of all life on Earth or no, you just feel like saying f
uck you to the world because it's hard and mean and generally makes no goddamn sense. Some days, when you're feeling particularly jaded, you want to do so in a sarcastic, sneering-yet-sing-songy tone of voice with catchy pop hooks. On those days this is the go-to album for me.
Lodger is a three piece (I think) rock band from Helsinki that sound a bit like an indie-ish version of The Cars with Beck on vocals, or at least that's how I look at them. Yes, as I mentioned, their lyrics are cynical as hell but holy sh
it do these guys know how to write a catchy pop song. One of their other notable attributes is the fact that their bass player makes these great, stylized animations for their songs which really add a whole extra dimension to the band.
Hi-Fi High Lights Down Low, their debut album, is fairly unique in this list I'm making here as it's more just a collection of terrific pop songs than an album that hangs together in any particular way. It's great to listen to all the way through—every song on it is quite good—but at the same time skipping from song to works well too. "I Love Death" and "24 Hour Candy Machine" are the real standout tracks for me but really every everything from the lonesome horns of "Two Smiles" to the folky "Short Man on TV" to the moorish-tinged "Ordinary Men Make Ordinary Music" to the shimmering, Church-esque tones of "Radio" is wonderful and would be a welcome addition to any good pop radio playlist.
I'm sure somewhere, in some imaginary universe, Lodger is the band that comes on the radio late at night as you're smoking a joint in your living room and shakes you out of your contented haze with a message, terrifying in content, but cheerfully delivered: the moon is back motherf
ucker.