#20. Tobacco – Maniac Meat
I’m not sure what this means about me, but I think Tobacco’s Maniac Meat is one sexy album. The keyboards and grooves and vocals saying stuff like “I ate all your watermelon” are totally seductive! There’s soul in this trippy electronic album, that’s for sure. Now, I’m not a big electronica fan, a lot of it bores me. But what I like about Tobacco (and his main project Black Moth Super Rainbow) is this soul buried in among the psychedelia. The beats and drama make the music feel quite natural. And on top of it, Tobacco is an amazing producer, the entire sound of this record is superb.
Tobacco’s song and moments and lyrics can go from utterly silly to menacing like it’s the most normal thing in the world. For instance, the lyrics on “Heavy Makeup” include “you get sick from a lolli lolli lollipop / you feel free when you’re killing me.” All the vocal effects mask what are some minimal yet entertaining lyrics. He even gets Beck to play along, and he writes a fantastic couple of verses for “Fresh Hex” (and blends right into “Grape Aerosmith”). The music can match, as on the best tracks, Tobacco goes from huge chords to funny little melodies, sunny synthesizers to metal guitar, all back and forth. Maniac Meat rides the remarkably thin line between goofy and evil, and is massively entertaining. It’s also a tad insane, and one of the best albums of the year.