If any album this year really was made to rock out, jam out or other wise go crazy to, it would have to be Gloss Drop. Now obviously my dubstep brothas out there would disagree vehemently with me, but I would just like to say that I am somewhat of an instrumental virgin and when I first heard “Ice Cream,” well. Lets just say my life changed a little bit (don’t think I’m overusing the “my life changed a little bit” part, because my life really did change a lot this year. It was a good year). Before ever hearing anything by Battles, I really did not enjoy listening to instrumental music. We’ll call it a weak time for me in my life, where I had to have lyrics to keep me interested in the music. I couldn’t appreciate the little intricacies of the music or even just the simple melodies. But for some reason, when I heard “Ice Cream,” all that misconception melted away and I felt like I was introduced to something completely new and foreign, which I was. Granted there are a few vocals on Gloss Drop, but for the majority, you can’t understand them and they are not that common. Just the way they play the guitar and the sounds that they create from it, sounding like harmonicas and such, really fascinated me to the point of listening to the album again. And again, until I came to the realization that instrumental music was going to have to be something that I looked into a lot more from here on out. And to be straightforward, that is why Gloss Drop is my number 4 album of the year.
