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The Afterword Best Albums of 2016 Poll

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The moment you have all been waiting for has finally arrived, your chance to vote in The Afterword album of year poll 2016.

This is a poll for ‘new’ albums recorded for and released in 2016. Re-releases, remasters, remixes and historical recordings made years ago are for a different list.

There is a complicated scoring mechanism, so PLEASE PAY ATTENTION!
(Click to read on!)…
Each pollster is allowed a maximum of twenty-five votes. In order to focus the mind on which albums really are your favourites, points are allocated as follows:

1st : 25 points,
2nd : 18 points,
3rd : 15 points,
4th : 12 points,
5th : 10 points,
6th : 8 points,
7th : 6 points,
8th : 5 points,
9th : 4 points,
10th : 3 points,

1 point for 11-25.

The sequence is, therefore, extremely important. If you don’t number your selections, it will be assumed the first one you name is number one and so on down to twenty-five.

Discussions, comments are most welcome (and are the most important part).

@salwarpe has kindly offered to help keep score. Although, we may end up doing a simple count of ‘mentions’ if it all goes pear-shaped.

I hope as many Afterworders vote as possible, especially infrequent visitors (at least lately), such as the ladies @Contraryarticle, @Hannah, @Poppy-Succeeds, @RubyBlue and @Scarlet. It is each individual’s list that fascinates me far more than the final score.

The vote is now open. It will be closed midnight on 26th December 2016.

1

Comments

  1. Here’s my vote:

    1. David Bowie – Blackstar
    A thrilling soundtrack to life’s last adventure, still revealing secrets after hundreds of listens.

    2. Radiohead – Moon Shaped Pool
    A car crash of the soul splintered with hope. A sumptuous balm to soothe the deepest bruise.

    3. Beyoncé – Lemonade
    “Girl, I hear a thunder.” A storm of an album, in which a furious Beyoncé tears out her hair and grieves over her errant husband and the state of America as a whole.

    4. Daniil Trifonov – Transcendental: Daniil Trifonov Plays Franz Liszt
    The astonishing young Russian takes on all four of Liszt’s challenging Études over five days of recording and wins with ease. Unbelievable.

    5. Agnes Obel – Citizen Of Glass
    An enchanted forest of sound, both wondrous and unsettling at the same time.

    6. Lucia Cadotsch with Petter Eldh & Otis Sandsjö – Speak Low
    A trio of voice, sax and bass dismantle classic jazz songs and piece them back together in heart-stopping fashion.

    7. Vin Gordon & The Real Rock Group – Heavenless
    Strictly an EP but show me such lively, exuberant reggae this side of 1977.

    8. Chance The Rapper – Coloring Book
    Chance is so happy and so comfortable in his own skin, singing his sweet gospel-rap, I wish he was my friend. I wish he was everyone’s friend.

    9. Avishai Cohen – Into The Silence
    A rapturous elegy to his father; emotional, ruminative music performed by a wonderful group of musicians.

    10. Prince – HITNRUN Phase Two
    Full of guitar hero riffs, big choruses, rampant horns, funky rock beats and horny toad lyrics. Prince in excelsis.

    11. Anderson .Paak – Malibu
    12. The Branford Marsalis Quartet with Kurt Elling – Upward Spiral
    13. Itel Tek – Hollowed
    14. Solange – A Seat At The Table
    15. Paul Simon – Stranger To Stranger
    16. Sturgill Simpson – A Sailer’s Guide To Earth
    17. Maxwell – blackSUMMER’snight
    18. GoGo Penguin – Man Made Object
    19. Nao – For All We Know
    20. Michael Kiwanuka – Love And Hate
    21. John Ellis – Evolution: Seeds & Streams
    22. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree
    23. Quantic – 1000 Watts
    24. Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
    25. Pixies – Head Carrier

    • Hello everyone, long-time lurker here with my votes.

      My listening time is mostly streaming on headphones during the commute these days, so this list would probably be quite different if I spent more time with them at home.
      The top 10 are definitely the albums I’ve played most, in some sort of rather fluid order of preference, the rest are in no particular order as I haven’t really played them enough. But they’re all fab in their own special ways!

      Special mention for the first track on the Sleigh Bells album (It’s Just Us Now) – it starts off with some amazingly surprising guitar then after about a minute it’s suddenly like 2 songs smooshed together in a weirdly good way. Nice.

      1 The Avalanches – Wildflower
      2 Bob Mould – Patch The Sky
      3 Black Mountain – IV
      4 Bibio – A Mineral Love
      5 Goat – Requiem
      6 M83 – Junk
      7 Hiss Golden Messenger – Heart Like A Levee
      8 Underworld – Barbara, Barbara, We Face A Shining Future
      9 Unloved – Guilty Of Love
      10 Teenage Fanclub – Here
      11 The Jayhawks – Paging Mr Proust
      12 Gold Panda – Good Luck And Do Your Best
      13 Minor Victories – Minor Victories
      14 75 Dollar Bill – Wood/Metal/Plastic/Rock
      15 Moderat – III
      16 Mayer Hawthorne – Man About Town
      17 Snow Ghosts – Husk
      18 Car Seat Headrest – Teens Of Denial
      19 Daughter – Not To Disappear
      20 Damien Jurado – Visions Of Us On The Land
      21 Sleigh Bells – Jessica Rabbit
      22 Russian Circles – Guidance
      23 Beacon – Escapements
      24 Whitney – Light Upon The Lake
      25 Big Thief – Little Arrow

  2. Question…

    Kate Bush / Before the Dawn. – a brand new release in 2016 but of. 2014 concert – this poll or its classified as a “historical recording”

    Whilst I’m here – are live albums in general under this poll or is it just studio albums ?

                • Disagree. Before the Dawn is absolutely a 2016 release, OK it was (mainly) recorded in 2014, but packaged, mixed and produced for a 2016 issue and Kate has released nothing in the gap between the shows and now. Bowie recorded Blackstar in 2015 (2 songs released in alternate versions 2014) so should we disqualify that?

                    • If you are saying “(mainly) recorded in 2014” but has had a shedload of afterwork/redubs then maybe. Automatically thus unsuitable for any inclusion in live albums…..

                    • Well, exactly. If Before the Dawn was released in 2015 would that be different? I think not. It just took longer to get ready for release probably due to Kate’s perfection.

                      I don’t know if much was recorded after that, She says not, but parts of it were certainly lifted from original album releases.

                      The Dylan shows were just released more or less as is. They could have come out in 1966 or 67, so are definitely archive releases.

                    • My take is that if the poll covers live albums in general then they are counted in year of release.

                      The acid test would be does it appear in Mojo / Uncut / etc reviews under new albums or in re-releases ?

                      What about the Big Big Train album “From Stone & Steel” – its a live recording of the band in the studio preparing for their live concerts and was recorded I believe in 2015, but released in 2016. Is it a live album or a studio album ???

                      A minefield……

                    • That’s it – I’m voting for Van and Its Too Late to Stop Now. Down with the establishment, down with the experts….

  3. 1. Hayes Carll – Lovers and Leavers. Achingly beautiful
    2. Frightened Rabbit – Painting of a Panic Attack. Owl John being noisy with the boys.
    3. King Creosote – Astronaut meets Appleseed.

    And that’s it

  4. 1: Allen Toussaint – American Tunes
    2: Lambchop – Flotus
    3: Teenage Fanclub – Here
    4: William Bell – This Is Where I Live
    5: Dinosaur Jr- Give A Glimpse of What Ye’re Not
    6: Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin – Lost Time
    7: Drive-By Truckers – American Band
    8: Andre Williams – I Wanna Go Back To Detroit City
    9: Dexys – Let The Record Show
    10: St Paul & The Broken Bones – Sea of Noise

  5. Good luck with this!

    1. Daughter – Not To Disappear
    Basically the Cocteau Twins and Slowdive – but lyrically grimmer – strangely defiant and uplifting.

    2. Field Music – Commontime
    Sunderland’s finest finally get the breaks they deserve and also get a bit jazz funk/Level 42 – yess!

    3. Ultimate Painting – Dusk
    If the Velvet Underground had started up in austerity-hit Salford circa 2016

    4. Demdike Stare – Wonderland
    In an uncertain world you can always rely on Burnley’s finest to make some monstrous beats and fry your head with some weird sonic gubbins.

    5. Teleman – Brilliant Sanity
    Most under-rated band in the UK – fact.

    6. Wire – Nocturnal Koreans
    7. Cavern of Anti-Matter – Void Beats/Invocation Trex
    8. The Pattern Forms – Peel Away The Ivy
    9. The Orb – COW / Chill Out World!
    10. The Early Years – II
    11. Lowtide – Lowtide
    12. Factory Floor – 25 25
    13. Toy – Clear Shot
    14. Elseq 1-5 – Autechre
    15. Savages – Adore Life
    16. Wild Nothing – Life of Pause
    17. The Veldt – The Shocking Fuzz of Your Electric Fur: The Drake Equation
    18. Mitski – Puberty 2
    19. Kiran Leonard – Grapefruit
    20. Hooton Tennis Club- Big Box of Chocolates
    21. Grumbling Fur – Furfour
    22. Allah-Las – Calico Review
    23. Andy Stott – Too Many Voices
    24. Animal Collective – Painting With
    25. C Duncan – The Midnight Sun

  6. 1. Bowie – Blackstar
    2. Radiohead – Moon
    3. Cohen – Darker
    4. Wilco – Schmilco
    5. Stones – B and L

    Only 2016 albums I bought so far (plus Kate B)

  7. 1. David Bowie – Blackstar
    2. Rolling Stones – Blue & Lonesome
    3. Michael Kiwanuka – Love & Hate
    4. Van Morrison – Keep Me Singing
    5. Lambchop – Flotus
    6. Frank Ocean – Blonde
    7. Agnes Obel – Citizen Of Glass
    8. The Monkees – Good Times
    9. Nick Cave – Skeleton Tree
    10. Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker

    My list is very much in order of how much pleasure they’ve given me. My only doubt was between numbers 1 and 2. The Stones have been great fun to listen to, and had Bowie not died might have got my number 1 spot. But the Bowie album is such a profound, thought-provoking work of art that I’ve opted for that. The Monkees are only there because of two wonderful tracks (You Bring The Summer and She Makes Me Laugh) and the Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen albums are only there because I bought them. I didn’t really enjoy them much. I also bought Radiohead and Paul Simon’s albums this year, but doubt I’ll ever play them again.

  8. So, all these years later, the jury’s finally in and it turns out The Beatles are bigger than Jesus. Every Christian’s favourite Jew is all over Chance’s Coloring Book but the robot’s top album tacks a George Harrison song onto the end to nick first place.

    1. The Magnetic North – Prospect Of Skelmersdale
    It’s not on Q or Mojo or Uncut’s lists. Nor Rough Trade’s nor Fopp’s. Even that record shop in Brighton which big ups British independent acts couldn’t find a place for it in its top 200 albums of the year, so I’m delighted to be able to give it a bump.
    2. Chance The Rapper – Coloring Book
    3. A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here… Thank You For Your Service
    4. Anderson .Paak – Malibu
    5. Applewood Road
    6. De La Soul – And The Anonymous Nobody
    7. Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
    8. Jamila Woods – HEAVN
    9. Quantic Presenta Flowering Inferno – 1000 Watts
    10. Kano – Made In The Manor
    11. Snarky Puppy – Culcha Vucha
    12. Frank Ocean – Blonde
    13. Beyoncé – Lemonade
    14. The Olympians
    15. Was a tie between about 20 more albums including many AW favourites, but even among those the question remains “where is rockguitarband?” – the genre that would have dominated a similar list of mine 20 or 30 years ago is almost unrepresented now…

  9. 1. David Bowie – Blackstar
    2. Woods – City Sun Eater In The River of Light
    3. Whitney – Light Upon The Lake
    4. Goat – Requiem
    5. Cate Le Bon – Crab Day
    6. The Comet Is Coming – Channel The Spirit
    7. Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool
    8. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree
    9. Iggy Pop – Post-Pop Depression
    10. Ka – Honor Killed The Samurai

    11. Wire – Nocturnal Koreans
    12. The Rolling Stones – Blue And Lonesome
    13. Heron Oblivion – Heron Oblivion
    14. Skepta – Konnichiwa
    15. Aziza Brahim – Abbar El Hamada
    16. Savages – Adore Life
    17. Steve Gunn – Eyes On The Lines
    18. Mr Lif. – Don’t Look Down
    19. DIIV – Is The Is Are
    20. Car Seat Headrest – Teens Of Denial
    21. Apathy – Handshakes With Snakes
    22. Kemba – Negus
    23. Ryley Walker – Golden Sings That Have Been Sung
    24. Anderson Paak – Malibu
    25. Charlie Hilton – Palana

  10. 1. Paul Simon – Stranger to Stranger
    2. The Monkees – Good Times.
    3. Il complesso di Tada – Ile complesso di tada
    4. Teenage Fanclub – Here.
    5. Wilco – Schmilco.
    6. The Stones – Blue and Lonseome.

  11. Here goes…..

    1. Radiohead – Moon Shaped Pool
    2. Big Big Train – Folklore (struggled between this and “From Stone & Steel” but went new in the end)
    3. Kate Bush – Before The Dawn
    4. David Bowie – Blackstar
    5. Go Go Penguin – Man Made Object
    6. Rolling Stones – Blue & Lonesome (could have been higher, but still too new)
    7. Melanie De Blasio – Blackened Cities
    8. Agnes Obel – Citizen of Glass
    9. Explosions in The Sky – Wilderness
    10. Macy Gray – Stripped
    11. Michael Kiwanuka – Love & Hate
    12. Bears Den – Red Earth & Pouring Rain
    13. Steven Wilson – 4 1/2 (would have been higher if longer !)
    14. Joanne Shaw Taylor – Wild
    15. Old Fire – Songs From The Haunted South
    16. Mudcrutch – 2
    17. Madness – Can’t Touch Us Now
    18. Black Mountain – IV
    19. The Breath – Carry Your Kin
    20. Bonnie Raitt – Dig In Deep

  12. 1. Nick Cave – Skeleton Tree
    2. David Bowie – Blackstar
    3. The Caretaker – Everywhere at the end of time
    4. Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
    5. Jóhann Jóhannsson – Orphée
    6. Moby – Long Ambients
    7. The Gloaming – 2
    8. King Creosote – Astronaut Meets Appleman
    9. Mogwai – Atomic
    10. The Accidentals – Parking Lot

  13. 1) Songs Of Separation – Various Artists.
    2) American Tunes – Allen Toussaint.
    3) Arclight – Julian Lage.
    4) Nine Pin – Kaia Kater.
    5) Northern Folk – Jenny Lysander.
    6) Brigid Mae Power – Eponymous.
    7) Freddie Hendrix – Jersey Cat.
    8) Marissa Nadler – Strangers.
    9) Case/Lang/ Veirs – Eponymous.
    10) Cavern Of Anti Matter – Void Beats/ Invocation Hex.
    11) Junius Meyvant – Floating Harmonies.
    12) Nao – For All We Know.
    13) Cats Eyes – Treasure House.
    14) Howe Gelb – Future Standards.
    15) The Pattern Forms – Peel Away The Ivy.
    16) Ed Harcourt – Furnaces.
    17) Lisa Hannigan – At Swim.
    18) Robert Ellis – Eponymous.
    19) Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve – The Soft Bounce.
    20) Lydia Loveless – Real.
    21) 9 Bach – Anian.
    22) Andrew Cyrille Quartet – The Declaration Of Musical Independence.
    23) Esperanza Spalding – Emily’s D + Evolution.
    24) The Colorist And Emiliana Torrini – Eponymous.
    25) J.D. Allen – Americana.

    • never heard of most of these or even seen a review but as you include Marissa Nadler your other interests must be worth investigating….hence the reason for these charts?

    • Blimey! I had planned on taking a couple of hours to have a listen to some of the albums people were voting for that I hadn’t heard, but I am going to have to set aside a couple of days just for this list. I have the Ed Harcourt one and I’ve heard of a couple of the other artists, but all the other names are completely new to me. Good work!

        • Oh for goodness sake – like Duco he just makes these lists up. When he’s painting he always listens to Taylor Swift, particularly her first album which he still claims is “the best goddamn record ever made”

        • Well, I’ve struck gold at the first attempt with Lydia Loveless, although why I chose to start with number 20, rather than number 1 I don’t know! Actually, I do really, as I seem to recall seeing her name pop up elsewhere on here in the past couple of days. It’s everything I found the new Lucinda Williams album disappointingly not to be. I really like Car Wheels On A Gravel Road a lot, to the point that it’s one of the rare none hip hop albums that has had regular spins this year, as I have played it regularly over the past 15 or so years. For some reason though, the only other album of hers I have bought is the remastered 2 disc edition of Car Wheels… until her latest one. Had I listened to all the ones in between I would probably have appreciated the new one more, but to me it just sounds like a pale imitation and her drawl now sounds like she’s drunk. I know I should go back and listen to the other albums (I kept meaning to buy Essence, but never got round to it) and that I should give the new one another chance, but hearing Lydia Loveless takes me back to when I first heard Lucinda Williams, so I am quite happy with this one for now.

          In fact, Mrs Wad recently asked me to make her a country/Americana mix for her iPhone, but wasn’t particularly impressed with what I put on there. I think she was wanting it to sound more like the music on that rubbish Nashville show she watches. I just reckon Real might appease her. It’s close enough to the rubbish on Nashville, whilst still remaining firmly within the boundaries of ‘good’, or closer to most of the stuff I shoved on her mix, at the very least.

          So that’s a good start then!

  14. 1. A Tribe Called Quest — We Got It From Here…
    2. The Lucid Dream — Compulsion Songs
    4. Czarface — A Fistful Of Peril
    3. Minor Victories — Minor Victories
    4. David Bowie — Blackstar
    5. Radiohead — A Moon-Shaped Pool
    6. Swans — The Glowing Man
    7. The Early Years — II
    8. The Flying Dutchmen — Foul Weather
    9. Terminal Cheesecake — Dandelion Sauce Of The Ancients
    10. Audion — Alpha
    11. Monolake — Visi
    12. Council Estate Electronics — Arktika
    13. Aesop Rock — The Impossible Kid
    14. The Stargazer Lilies — Door To The Sun
    15. Banco De Gaia — The 9th Of Nine Hearts
    16. Apathy — Handshakes With Snakes
    17. Apollo Brown & Skyzoo — The Easy Truth
    18. Wrekmeister Harmonies — Light Falls
    19. The Dandy Warhols — Distortland
    20. Kenneth James Gibson — The Evening Falls
    21. Orphx — Pitch Black Mirror
    22. Beyoncé — Lemonade
    23. Vinnie Paz — The Cornerstone Of The Corner Store
    24. ScHoolboy Q — Blank Face
    25. Jeff Mills — Free Fall Galaxy

  15. Haven’t posted for a while but here’s my top ten for this year:
    1. Blackstar – Bowie
    2. Blackened Cities – Melanie de Biasio
    3. Lines – Waclaw Zimpel
    4. The Still – The Still
    5. Trance Frendz – Olafur Arnaulds & Nils Frahm
    6. Channel the Spirits – The Comet is Coming
    7. A Hermitage – Jambinai
    8. Wood/Metal/Plastic/Rhythm/Rock – 75 Dollar Bill
    9. Atomic – Mogwai
    10. A Moon Shaped Pool – Radiohead

    • Ooh. I excluded Melanie from my list on the grounds of it being a single track EP. I did, however, include an EP, that of Vin Gordon. (Aren’t I contrary?) Wish I’d put Melanie in now. Considering it is one short song, expected to last five minutes, but improvised out to 24 minutes, it does make me wonder why they didn’t do the same with a second song.

  16. So here goes.

    1 Invention of Knowledge – Anderson Stolt
    2 FEAR – Marillion
    3 Folklore – Big Big Train
    4 You want it darker – Leonard Cohen
    5 4 ½ – Steven Wilson
    6 The dreaming room – Laura Mvula
    7 Dodgy Bastards – Steeleye Span
    8 Bottled out of Eden – Knifeworld
    9 Sleep – Max Richter
    10 Blackstar – David Bowie

  17. 1. Anna Tivel Heroes Waking Up
    2. Dori Freeman Dori Freeman
    3. M.Craft Blood Moon
    4. Robbie Fulks Upland Stories
    5. Ben Watt Fever Dream
    6. Aoife O’Donovan In the Magic Hour
    7. Itasca Open To Chance
    8. Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker Overnight
    9. Lou Rhodes theeyesandeye
    10. Regina Spektor Remember Us To Life
    11. Hiss Golden Messenger Heart Like a Levee
    12. case/lang/veirs
    13. Michael Kiwanuka Love and Hate
    14. Sturgill Simpson Sailors Return To Earth
    15. Miranda Lee Richards Echoes of the Dreamtime
    16. Radiohead Moonshaped Pool
    17. Songs of Separation Songs of Separation
    18. Brandy Clark Big Day in a Small Town
    19. Handsome Family Unseen
    20. Lisa Hannigan We The Drowned
    21. Applewood Road Applewood Road
    22. Lucinda Williams Ghosts of Highway 20
    23. Loretta Lynn Full Circle
    24. Sarah Jarosz Undercurrent
    25. Keaton Henson Kindly Now
    26. Sara Watkins Young In All the Wrong Ways

    My point scoring is a bit random. I don’t categorize my CDs by alphabet, genre or anything so am not into ranking generally and I did put my some of my lesser known albums into the top 10 so as not to leave them right at the bottom of the pile. I also forgot Radiohead hence there being a top 26 not 25 as I couldn’t decide which of my 25 to remove to fit Radiohead in! 11 of them are directly at the benefice of other wonderful AWorders.

      • Glad you liked it! I reckoned Anna Tivel would be virtually unknown and it is a lovely album deserving of a wider audience. Heard of her through No Depression newsletter which also alerted me to my second choice Dori Freeman, the “Appalachian Peggy Lee.”

  18. I haven’t listened to a huge amount of new release stuff, but most of that which I did fell under the category of “hmm, quite nice” without actually moving me in any way, which is something I require, nay demand from music. The following three are therefore all I can offer in the way of albums that actually provoked an emotional response (and in the case of no. 2, some grinding).

    1. Blackstar
    2. Lemonade
    3. You Want It Darker

    (When will the poll start for reissues/historical recordings, please?)

  19. 1. Gabriel Bruce. Come All Sufferers.
    2. Bat For Lashes. The Bride.
    3. David Bowie. Blackstar.
    4. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Skeleton Tree.
    5. Pet Shop Boys. Super.
    6. The Divine Comedy. Foreverland.
    7. The Weeknd. Starboy.
    8. Ulrich Schnauss. No Further Ahead Than Today.
    9. Clarke:Hartnoll. 2Square.
    10. Minor Victories. Minor Victories.

      • Damn, was reading the reviews of Ulrich Schauss, in 2 minds, some saying it is more akin to his Tangerin Dream stuff, some saying less so……. That’s another tenner (or whatever) I won’t see again

        • Ah yes. This time last year when I posted my faves I had never even heard of Roger Robinson. The best thing about this thread is the new names coming thick and fast (although “Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve”? Eeeeew!) and revelations about records you didn’t even know were out. How do we live in a world where the fact that Paul Hartnoll and Vince Clarke have made a record together is not front page news?

        • The Ulrich Schluss album is very good – it’s the first album of his that actually sounds to me like the music he plays when he performs live. Saw him live for the first time a few years ago, and the then I went through his back catalogue and it sounded like a completely different artist!

  20. 1. David Bowie – Blackstar
    2. Pet Shop Boys – Super
    3. Ólafur Arnalds – Island Songs
    4. Radiohead – Moon Shaped Pool
    5. Ben Lukas Boysen – Spells
    6. Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
    7. Jóhann Jóhannsson – Orphée
    8. The Lemon Twigs – Do Hollywood
    9. Eluvium – False Readings On
    10.Frank Ocean – Blonde

  21. Here’s mine:

    1. Frank Ocean – Blonde
    2. Young Thug – JEFFERY
    3. Mount Blank – Counter Real
    4. Carrie & Lowell – Sufjan Stevens
    5. Lambchop – FLOTUS
    6. ANOHNI – HOPELESSNESS
    7. Minor Victories – Minor Victories
    8. Explosions In The Sky – The Wilderness
    9. Ital Tek – Hollowed
    10. Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard – Y Proffwyd Dwyll
    11. Clark – The Last Panthers
    12. 65daysofstatic – No Man’s Sky Soundtrack
    12. Anderson .Paak – Malibu
    14. Mogwai – Atomic
    15. Warpaint – Heads Up

  22. Here you go, as it stands today:

    1 David Bowie – Blackstar
    2 Black Mountain – IV
    3 Goat – Requiem
    4 Nick Cave – Skeleton Tree
    5 Allen Toussaint – American Tunes
    6 Wilco – Schmilco
    7 Lydia Loveless – Real
    8 Keith Urban – Ripcord
    9 Heron Oblivion – Heron Oblivion
    10 Jason Aldean – They Don’t Know

    11 Sturgill Simpson – A Sailor’s Guide To Earth
    12 Pascal Obispo – Billet De Femme
    13 Drive-By Truckers – American Band
    14 Opeth – Sorceress
    15 Miranda Lambert – The Weight of These Wings
    16 Explosions in The Sky – Wilderness
    17 Pet Shop Boys – Super
    18 Empire Of The Sun – Two Vines
    19 Nicholas Jaar – Sirens
    20 Pinegrove – Cardinal
    21 Kevin Morby – Singing Saw
    22 Esben & The Witch – Older Terrors
    23 Case/Lang/ Veirs – Eponymous
    24 Dungen – Haxan
    25 Metallica – Hardwired

  23. 1 case/lang/viers
    2 King Creosote – Astronaut Meets Appleman
    3 Drive-By Truckers – American Band
    4 The Pop Group – Honeymoon On Mars
    5 Tindersticks – The Waiting Room
    6 Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
    7 Wilco – Schmilco
    8 Teenage Fanclub – Here
    9 David Bowie – Blackstar
    10 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree

  24. 01. Lori Mckenna – The Bird and the Rifle
    Melancholy

    02. The I Don’t Cares – Wild Stab
    Exuberant

    03. Nice As Fuck – Nice as Fuck
    The Au Pairs

    04. Okkervil River – Away
    Melancholy

    05. Parquet Courts – Human Performance
    Tightly-wound melancholy

    06. A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here
    Exuberantly melancholy

    07. Chance The Rapper – Coloring Book
    Exuberant

    08. Miranda Lambert – The Weight of These Wings
    Melancholy but defiant

    09. Teenage Fanclub – Here
    Pretty

    10. Mitski – Puberty 2
    Defiantly Melancholy

    11. Angel Olsen – My Woman
    12. Sturgill Simpson – A Sailor’s Guide to Earth
    13. Richmond Fontaine – You Can’t Go Back
    14. Case Lang Veirs – Case Lang Veirs
    15. Wire – Nocturnal Koreans
    16. Sara Watkins – Young In All The Wrong Ways
    17. Lucinda Williams – Ghosts of Highway 20
    18. Marissa Nadler – Strangers
    19. Car Seat Headrest – Teens of Denial
    20. Lambchop – Flotus

  25. Haven’t bought much new in 2016, I tend to wait for the dust to settle, but here’s what I’ve enjoyed most:

    1. Michael Kiwanuka – Love and Hate

    and a lot further down

    8. The Monkees – Good Times
    9. Stones – Blue and Lonesome
    10. Radiohead – Moon Shaped Pool

  27. 1. THE DAME – Blackstar
    2. MICHELE STODART – Pieces
    3. NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS – Skellington Tree
    4. (Don’t call me) LEN (yer little bollix) COHEN – You Want It Darker
    5. PJ HARVEY – The Hope Six Demolition Project
    6. THE DIVINE COMEDY – Foreverland
    7. KATHRYN WILLIAMS & ANTHONY KERR – Resonator
    8. THE MONKEES – Good Times
    9. PAUL SIMON – Stranger To Stranger
    10. LUKE HAINES – Smash The System

  28. A goodly deal of my listening this year has, as usual, not been particularly current so I have been driving Mrs W bonkers these past few weeks trawling through numerous Best Of Lists currently littering the internet: a thankless and mostly depressing task but here goes

    Paul Simon – Stranger to Stranger: (Graceland Revisited but none the worst for that)

    Lori McKenna – The Bird and Rifle: (stop listening to that Margo Price woman and listen to this instead)

    Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree : (Nick’s always a bit hit & miss for me but as long as you are not looking for good time rock n roll this is a belter)

    Allen Touissant – American Tunes ( bit like sitting in an almost deserted New Orleans bar whilst a drunk but accomplished pianist tinkles the afternoon way – but none the worse for that)

    Stones – Blue and Lonesome I’d be amazed if I play this much next year but right now it’s pretty damn good

    Wilco – Schmilco: By no means a Wilco classic but gets better as the year progresses

    Lucinda Williams – Ghost of Highway 20: Been a while, Lucinda, since you scaled the heights but this is mighty impressive and that voice, that voice!

    Jamie T – Trick: By no means a Jamie classic but Mr T channelling Sandinista produces some stunning moments

    David Wax Museum – A La Rumba Rumba: Latin/Tex Mex – what’s not to like and it’s an EP!!

    Bowie – Blackstar: by no means a classic but given everything that surrounds it a fantastic sign-off to a brilliant career

    Sturgill Simpson – A Sailor’s Guide to Earth: it took months but I’m finally convinced by this record

    Sara Watkins – Young in all the Wrong Ways: found myself playing this rather a lot recently

    And those are all the votes from The Languedoc.

  29. In an effort to be more engaged with new music next year I’ve just joined the newly relaunched Rough Trade Club (the vinly option, natch) which sends you an album every month plus a mag and bonus bits and bobs. I used to be a member of the old CD version, and it was a good way of discovering new music, with more hits than misses.

    It starts mailing out in Feb; I’ll keep you posted with no doubt scintillating updates.

  32. Greetings all:

    1. The Low Anthem – Eyeland (Five years in gestation, quite different to earlier records, more psychedelic, Ben&Jeff been listening to Capt. Beefheart a lot)
    2. Leonard Cohen – You want it darker (beautiful, sweet goodbye from a master lyricist. We lost an Artist, capital A)
    3. Yussef Kamaal – Black focus (South London keyboards/drums duo with kind of jazz/funk vibe, intense and groovy, I listen it for the bass)
    4. Les Yper-Sound – Explorations in drums & sax (Money Mark (remember Insects are all around us?) with afrobeat brass, field recordings and musique concrete)
    5. Eric Holm – Barotrauma (Underwater recordings of Nordic fjords made by industrial diver-cum-musician Holm, very atmospheric, deep and dark)
    6. Naim Amor & John Convertino – The Western suite and the Siesta songs (Calexico desert music, vivid scenes and vistas, unending horizon)
    7. David Bromberg Band – The Blues, the whole blues and nothing but the blues (Brilliant and witty, How come my dog don’t bark when you come ’round)
    8. Johann Johannsson – Orphee (breathtaking Satie-like impressionism with a-capella closer, music to get lost in)
    9. Vanishing twin – Choose your own adventure (Very recent London pop/arkestra with a delightful mix of 60’s pop, outsider jazz and library music)
    10. Evan Johns – Panoramic life (Plain old rock’n’roll from a forgotten master, says here: lives in Austin with a monthly social security check and his beloved cat Maybelline is a state-certified service animal for the companionship she provides him)

    Ten more:
    11. Wilco – Schmilco
    12. Kaitlyn Aurelia & Suzanne Cianni – Sunergy
    13. Papa M – Highway songs
    14. Case/Lang/Veirs – Case/Lang/Veirs
    15. David Bowie – Blackstar
    16. Raime – Tooth
    17. Kjartan Sveinsson – Der Klang der Offenbarung des Gottlichen
    18. Dinosaur jr. – Give a glimpse of what yer not
    19. Imarhan – Imarhan
    20. Cody Dickinson – Leeway for the freeway

  33. 1 Junk – M83
    2 Have you in my wilderness – Julia Holter
    3 Transmission – Death In Vegas
    4 Ruminations – Conor Oberst
    5 The Bride – Bat For Lashes
    6 Hope Six Demolition Project – P J Harvey
    7 Skeleton Tree – Nick Cave
    8 Night Thoughts – Suede
    9 The Mountain will fall – DJ Shadow
    10 Pop Deluxe – Mari Wilson
    11 A Sailors Guide To Earth – Sturgill Simpson
    12 Barbara Barbara We Face A Shining Future – Underworld
    13 Ash and Ice – The Kills
    14 Let It Be You – Joan As Police Woman
    15 My Woman – Angel Olsen
    16 Blossoms – Blossoms
    17 Don’t Let The Kids Win – Julia Jacklin
    18 Front Row Seat To Earth – Weyes Blood
    19 Folklore – Big Big Train
    20 Alas Salvation – Yak

  34. I can only come up with 16.

    1. Drive By Truckers – American Band
    2. Paul Simon – Stranger To Stranger
    3. Mudcrutch – 2
    4. Peter Bruntnell – Nos Da Comrade
    5. Lucinda Williams – Ghosts Of Highway 20
    6. Case / Lang / Veirs – Case / Lang / Veirs
    7. Ray Lamontagne – Ouroboros
    8. Hiss Golden Messenger – Heart Like A Levee
    9. Eleanor Friedberger – New View
    10. Dawes – We’re All Gonna Die
    11. David Crosby – Lighthouse
    12. Avett Brothers – True Sadness
    13. Graham Nash – This Path Tonight
    14. The Jayhawks – Paging Mr Proust
    15. Mary Chapin Carpenter – The Things That We Are Made Of
    16. The Felice Brothers – Life In The Dark

      • It’s probably laziness, and I should make more effort to explore some of the more esoteric stuff signposted on here. Crosby’s album is a slight and mellow affair, but then most of them are, and it’s still better than anything Neil Young has put out for years. The Graham Nash album was driven by bucketfulls of anger and bitterness, partially aimed at the aforementioned Mr Young. He’s an acquired taste admittedly, but if you can stomach his version of Lancastrian Laurel Canyon then this isn’t a bad effort. MCC has put out the same album several times over the last 10 years, so if you didn’t like any of the others you won’t like this one, but she still enough of a finely honed turn of phrase to keep me interested. The other three albums have flashes of past glories, but none match any of their best.

        I’m not selling this, am I? It’s been a lean year. *Puts on some Mozart*

  35. 1. Steve Mason – Meet The Humans
    2. White Denim – Stiff
    3. Madness – Can’t Touch Us Now
    4. P J Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project
    5. Whitney – Light Upon The Lake
    6. Field Music – Commontime
    7. Primal Scream – Chaosmosis
    8. Bruce Foxton – Smash The Clock
    9. Metallica – Hardwired To Self Destruct
    10. Brian Eno – The Ship
    11. Iggy Pop – Post Pop Depression
    12. David Bowie – Blackstar

  36. Lucky numbers for me …..

    1. Meilyr Jones – 2013
    2. Beverly – The Blue Swell
    3. Haley Bonar – Impossible Dream
    4. Teleman – Brilliant Sanity
    5. Wire – Nocturnal Koreans
    6. The Monochrome Set – Cosmonaut
    7. Suede – Night Thoughts
    8. Marissa Nadler – Strangers
    9. Wussy – Human Ceremony
    10. Sunflower Bean – Human Ceremony
    11. Hamilton Leithauser – I Had a Dream…
    12. Shovels & Rope – Little Seeds
    13. 75 Dollar Bill – Wood/Metal/Plastic…

    ….and the new Federale album doesn’t even arrive until Friday

  37. 1. Dawes – We’re All Gonna Die
    2. Weezer – White Album
    3. Lambchop- Flotus
    4. Divine Comedy – Foreverland
    5. Ward Thomas – Cartwheels
    6. James – Girl At The End Of The World
    7. Teenage Fanclub – Here
    8. David Bowie – Blackstar
    9. Mary Chaplin Carpenter – The Things We Are Made Of

  38. 1. The Lemon Twigs – Do Hollywood
    2. Josphin Öhm + The Liberation – Mirage
    3. David Bowie – Blackstar
    4. Rufus Wainwright – Take All My Loves (9 Shakespeare Sonnets)
    5. Three Trapped Tigers – Silent Earthlings
    6. The Magnetic North – Prospect of Skelmersdale
    7. Laura Cannell – Simultaneous Flight Movement
    8. Matt Berry – The Small Hours
    9. Cavern of Anti-Matter – Void Beats/Invocation Trex
    10. Neil Cowley Trio – Spacebound Apes
    11. Kiran Leonard – Grapefruit
    12. Anna Meredith – Varmints
    13. Ultimate Painting – Dusk
    14. The High Llamas – Here Comes The Rattling Trees
    15. The Comet is Coming – Channel the Spirits
    16. Night Moves – Pennied Days
    17. Beyond The Wizards Sleeve – The Soft Bounce
    18. The Future Of The Left – The Peace and Truth of
    19. Scott Walker – The Childhood Of The Leader
    20. Black Peaches – Get Down You Dirty Rascals
    21. Strobes – Brokespeak
    22. North Sea Radio Orchestra – Drone
    23. Hypnopazūzu – Create Christ, Sailor Boy
    24. Trembling Bells – Wide Majestic  Aire
    25. Brian Eno – The Ship

  39. Blimey good luck with scoring this lot. I’ll do my list at the weekend. I thought I was straight down the line Afterword friendly in my taste but of the ones I know I’m going to include there seems little enthusiasm here so far (apart from that Bowie feller).

  41. 1. Do not Disturb – Van der Graaf Generator
    Away from the controversy about whether this is their final LP, this collection demonstrates how they just keep improving…the finest album yet by the strangest power trio you’ll ever hear.

    2. M:FANS – John Cale
    A reimagining of Cale’s finest hour; internalised anguish reset as “scorched earth”; a sad butterfly reborn as a hellish war machine….

    3. Blackstar – David Bowie
    An album of the year, but not THE album of the year; a great Bowie album but not THE great Bowie album…

    4. Folklore- Big Big Train
    5. Nocturnal Koreans – Wire
    6. Commontime- Field Music
    7. Patch the Sky – Bob Mould
    8. The Ship – Brian Eno

    Apart from that, it’s all been various shades of old…

  42. What is WRONG with you people? Have you all forgotten the album of the millenium was released in July this year?

    It makes me laugh, it makes me cry, it makes me dance, it makes me rap… It’s an awe-inducing creation that’s made me feel ten, nay twenty years younger…

    I only have one vote, and I’m deadly serious in my unwavering, cult-like devotion…

    1. The Avalanches – Wildflower

  43. My faves for this year

    1. Sam Beam and Jessica Hoop : Love Letter for Fire
    2. Leonard
    3. ENO: The Ship
    4. The Pattern Forms : Peel Away the Ivy
    5. Paul Simon
    6. Lucinda
    7. Bowie
    8. Lambchop
    9. Radiohead
    10. Nick Cave
    11. The Stones
    12. Wilco
    13. Bon Iver

  44. Surprised to see the Divine Comedy album mentioned more than once. I found it pedestrian. Apart from the Duckworth Lewis project he’s been treading water for ten years plus. OOA clearly A.

    • I keep relenting and buying alleged ‘return to form’ Divine Comedy albums a few years after their release. Nothing, simply nothing, gets close to the consistency and melody that drew me to NH in the first place – in particular the perfectly balanced Fin de Siecle album. Yet he was able to bring it back with spades for the Duckworth Lewis albums. Very odd. And not in a good way.

      • Some of us thought he was on the slide by Fin de Siecle!

        I love everything he does but nothing will match for me the Promenade and Liberation days. I thought the last one, Bang Goes The Knighthood, was really good and the new one is still one of my favourites of the year, just not THE favourite. I’d like to see him push himself a bit, which in fairness he does on the second CD that came with the deluxe edition.

        • The title track of Bang… was like a Spitting Image song from the mid-80s… not in a good way.

          I didn’t like all of Regeneration but it was the refreshing sound of an artist giving himself a kick up the arse. Unfortunately rather than do something that brave again he’s decided to devote his time since to Giving People What They Want.

  45. I can’t think about this any longer, or I’ll lose the little sanity I have left…so I’ll just post a list now and regret my choices and their places tomorrow, when it’s too late. 🙂

    1. Iiris Viljanen – Mercedes (She left Vasas Flora och Fauna to go solo and produced a masterpiece. All sung in Swedish, so unfortunately hardly any of you will understand the wonderful lyrics; heartbreaking intimate short stories torn straight out of life, sung – and half spoken – in the beautiful Swedish-Finn dialect. An album you have to sit down and listen to every word of, every time)

    2. Wilco – Schmilco (One of their strongest albums in later years – and when you say that about Wilco, that means very strong indeed. But of course, I would say that; being a crazy fan!)

    3. David Bowie – Blackstar

    4. Frida Hyvönen – Kvinnor och Barn (“Women and children”) (Another one in Swedish, and another album where the words are as important as the music – or more. Most of them seems deeply personal and feels like letters from a long lost friend, and again; many of them will break your heart)

    5. Kevin Morby – Singing Saw (My summer soundtrack; sounding like a spaced-out Lou Reed on holiday in the countryside)

    6. Andreas Mattsson – Solnedgången (“The Sunset”) (Oh no – it’s another bloody Swede, I hear you all muttering – yup; and plenty more to come! 😉 One of my favourite artists suddenly decided that it was time for him to start writing lyrics in Swedish for the first time, and just like the two girls above him in my list every lyric is a glimpse into his life and heart, set to melancholy music…what more could you ask for? A Swedish language course, you say? Not too late to add one to your list for Santa!)

    7. Lawrence Arabia – Absolute Truth (James Milne, as his family calls him, writes irresistible pop tunes with quirky lyrics and I’ve got a really soft spot for him. This year’s album didn’t disappoint, and it never failed to put me in a good mood when I played it)

    8. Rufus Wainwright – Take All My Loves (Shakespeare sonnets, guest singers – some operatic, some singing in German, one Florence of Machine fame – actors reciting the poetry in between singing, plus Rufus W himself – some pople would run screaming for the hills rather than listen to this album. Let them run, then the rest of us can turn the volume up to eleven!)

    9. Nathan Bowles – Whole & Cloven (Long and repetitive swampy freak-outs and mountain ragas played on banjo and piano, anyone? No? Just me then…this is gorgeous stuff)

    10. Iggy Pop – Post Pop Depression (I suspect that the dealbreaker for enjoying this album or not is if you love the unmistakable sound of Josh Homme or not. I certainly do, so for me this is Iggy Pop’s best album in a very long time)

    11. Freakwater – Scheherazade
    12. Lou Rhodes – Theyesandeye
    13. El Perro Del Mar – KoKoro
    14. Noura Mint Seymali – Arbina
    15. Prince – HITnRUN: Phase Two
    16. The Dandy Warhols – Distortland
    17. Anna Tivel – Heroes Waking Up
    18. Lambchop – FLOTUS
    19. Miranda Lee Richards – Echoes of the Dreamtime
    20. Amanda Bergman – Docks
    21. A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here…Thank You 4 Your Service
    22. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Ears
    23. The Radio Dept. – Running Out of Love
    24. Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros – PersonA
    25. Ray LaMontagne – Ouroboros

    (Bubbling under but left out: Goat, Andrew Bird, Christian Kjellvander, Yorkston/Thorne/Khan, Regina Spektor, Imarhan, Bombino, Frightened Rabbit, De La Soul, Ed Harcourt, Dungen, Solange, Lisa Hannigan, Jenny Lysander, John Moreland, Aoife O’Donovan, Miike Snow, Animal Collective, Yoko Ono, Aziza Brahim, James Blake, case/lang/veirs, M Craft…OK, I’ll stop now!)

  46. 1. Mare Nostrum II – Jan Lundgren, Paolo Fresu & Richard Galliano
    2. IV – Black Mountain
    3. Requiem – Goat
    4. Stranger Things Vol I – Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein
    5 Desire’s Magic Theatre – Purson

  47. 1. You Want it Darker – Leonard Cohen
    2. Schmilco – Wilco
    3. Black star – Bowie
    4. Wyatt At The Coyote Palace – Kristin Hersh
    5. Life In A Paper Boat – Kate Rusty
    6. The Bride – Bat For Lashes
    7. Modern Country – William Tyler
    8. Unseen – The Handsome Family
    9. Stranger to `Stranger- Paul Simon
    10. Here – Teenage Fanclub

  48. My year in a rather large nutshell

    1. A Tribe called Quest – We got it from here
    2. Leonard Cohen – You want it darker
    3. Nick cave – Skeleton Tree
    4. De la Soul – And the anonymous nobody
    5. Max Romeo – Horror Zone
    6. Black Mountain – IV
    7. Brian Eno – The Ship
    8. Pet Shop Boys – Super
    9. Neil Cowley Trio – Spacebound Apes
    10. Cavern of Anti-Matter – Void Beats
    11. Moonface and Siinai – My best human face
    12. The Burning Hell – Public Library
    13. Melanie de biasio – Blackened cities
    14. Mogwai – Atomic
    15. Skepta – Konnichiwa
    16. Radiohead – Moon shaped pool
    17. Anderson Paak – Malibu
    18. Agnes Obel – Citizen of Glass
    19. Lucia Cadotsch – Speak Low
    20. Half Man Half Biscuit – and some fell on stony ground
    21. Frank Ocean – Blonde
    22. Branford Marsalis – songs of mirth and melancholy
    23. Michael Kiwanuka – Love and Hate (would have been top 3 after 3 tracks, tails off almost immediately after)
    24. Hieroglyphic Being – Discos of Imhotep
    25. Badbadnotgood – IV (Top album title of the year in my top 25)

    Not a vintage year for any number of reasons but still another year where searching and finding some new gems and not giving in to the comfort of deluxe edition reissues of familiar favourites has been its own reward, which i believe is why we do it…

  49. Okay here goes:-

    1) Paul Simon – Stranger to stranger
    2)Michael Kiwanuka – Love and Hate
    3)Felice Brothers – Life in the dark
    4) Hayes Carll – Lovers and Leavers
    5) Leonard Cohen – You want it darker.
    6) Allen Touissaint – American Tunes
    7) David Holmes – Late night tales (yes I know this is a compilation but it is a bloody good one)
    8) Lucinda Williams – The Ghost of highway 20 (also she was the best live act I saw this year)
    9) Thee oh Sees – A weird exits (this band just get better and better)
    10) Wilco – Schmilco (Normal American kids is just fantastic)

  50. [1] “Blackstar” – David Bowie
    [2] “Moon Shaped Pool” – Radiohead
    [3] “A.M.” – Richard Walters
    [4] “Post Pop Depression” – Iggy Pop
    [5] “My Woman” – Angel Olsen
    [6] “Stranger To Stranger” – Paul Simon
    [7] “Blonde” – Frank Ocean
    [8] “Skeleton Tree” – Nick Cave
    [9] “Chaleur Humaine” – Christine & The Queens
    [10] “You Want It Darker” – Leonard Cohen

  51. 1) Big Big Train – Folklore
    2) Big Big Train – A Stone’s Throw From The Line
    3) Dawes – We’re All Gonna Die
    4) Bonnie Raitt – Dig In Deep
    5) Steve Porcaro – Someday, Somehow
    6) Tedeschi Trucks Band – Let Me Get By
    7) Ian Hunter – Fingers Crossed
    8) Van Morrison – Keep Me Singing
    9) Frost* – Falling Satellites
    10) Foy Vance – The Wild Swan
    11) George Marinelli – So Far So Good
    12) Joe Bonamassa – Blues of Desperation
    13) Teenage Fanclub – Here
    14) Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool
    15) Anderson/Stolt – Invention of Knowledge
    16) Temperance Movement – The White Bear
    17) Frankie Miller’s Double Take

    • At last another vote for Van. I’m finding the lack of mentions for Keep Me Singing (here and in other polls) most odd. Ok, it’s not one of his best albums, but it’s pretty much his best in over two decades. It’s actually pretty darn flawless really, its only real drawback being that it’s very “safe”, with nothing new to say. It’s “nice” and “pleasant” – not exactly adjectives that set the heart alight, but also not qualities to be scoffed at neither. I’d much rather listen to it than many of the other mentioned albums – especially Paul Simon’s dullsville effort.

  52. 1) Anna Meredith – Varmints.
    Surprised not see this one appear much (at all?) in the lists yet, given that it was this place that introduced me to it. It took a few listens to click, but once it did I was in love. No idea how I’d classify it, except to say that it’s the most inventive and playful record I’ve heard in ages.

    2) Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard – Y Proffwyd Dwyll
    from my previous review: If you ever went to bed after eating too much cheese and dreamed of Delia Derbyshire jamming with Black Sabbath then I’ve got good news for you. To sum up, it’s like watching the Headbanger’s Ball on Skaro, and then your big sister comes home and puts on her Cocteau Twins tape. Awesome, yes? Yes.

    3) Horseback – Dead Ringers
    Going to reprint my earlier, largely ignored, review:
    Horseback is a project of ambient and folk musician Jenks Miller. At various times, it has veered between drone, metal and Americana. This time round he’s gone for a kind of burnt out psychedelic trip hop, full of spectral keyboards, guitars that sound sampled from a lost spaghetti western, echoing rhythm loops and ghostly music-box tinkles. The Bandcamp page describes it as “the distorted swagger of Neil Young’s Crazy Horse sits at a table next to the haunted dronescapes of Sunn O)))”. On the face of it, that’s a ridiculous assertion, but after a listen you kind of see where they’re coming from, and I’d even throw in the slow motion post punk of the xx as well. It is somehow huge and intimate at the same time, a trick Miller pulls off by marrying the space and echo of heavily reverbed guitars to the hushed quiet room ambience of the aforementioned xx and the mannered vocal delivery of Coil circa Musick To Play In The Dark. Underneath all that synths drone, hum and throb, while loose krautrock rhythms keep the music progressing. It’s uneasily beautiful, weirdly entrancing and lest that makes it all sound a bit too challenging, it’s also very easy to listen to. It’s sparse and measured, never overloading you with sensory input, and the guitars, which evoke Ry Cooder as much as they do Neil Young, are an easy way in. If this intimate, melancholic, close whispered record sounds this good on a day as scorching as today, it’s going to be positively stunning by the time the shorter evenings and the autumn mists roll round.
    It is.

    4) De La Soul – and the Anonymous Nobody

    5) The Avalanches – Wildflower

    6) Suede – Night Thoughts

    7) Margo Price – Mid West Farmer’s Daughter

    8) Nick Cave – Skeleton Tree

    9) Crumbling Ghost – Five Songs
    The second female fronted doom metal record on my list. It’s the new thing. Or in this case, the old thing, as the traditional English songbook is given a good kicking round the back of the rock club.

    10)65daysofstatic – Music From No Man’s Sky

    11) Theo Croker – Escape Velocity

    12) She Makes War – Direction Of Travel

    13) DIIV – Is The Is Are

    14) Convextion – 2845

    15) The Comet Is Coming

    16) Oranssi Pazuzu – Värähtelijä

    17) Go Go Penguin – Man Made Object

    18) Goat – Requiem

    19) Warpaint – Heads Up

    20) Floating Points – Kuiper

  53. 1. Teenage Fanclub – Here
    2.The Jayhawks – Paging Mr Proust
    3. Trashcan Sinatras – Wild Pendulum
    4. The Perfect English Weather – Isobar Blues
    5. Blue Rose Code – …And Lo! The Bird Is On The Wing!
    6. The Hanging Stars – Over The Silvery Lake
    7. Red Sleeping Beauty – Kristina
    8. The Ocean Party – Restless
    9. Math and Physics Club – In This Together
    10.Peter Bruntnell – Nos Da Comrade

  54. Love this list. It will keep me busy for months trying to listen to some of the stuff I’ve never heard (or heard of!)

    Also serves to remind me how little “new” i sometimes venture into and how mainstream my own list is:

    1. Blackstar
    2. 4 1/2
    3. Moon Shaped Pool
    4. Avalanches – Wildflower
    5. M83 – Junk
    6. PSB’s – Super
    7. Moby – These Systems Are Failing
    8. Coldplay – Adventure Of A Lifetime (yes, I like Coldplay, get over it)
    9. Steve Mason – Meet The Humans
    10. Paul Simon – Stranger To Stranger
    11. Ryley Walker – Golden Sings…

  55. 1. Michael Kiwanuka – Love and Hate
    2. David Bowie – Blackstar
    3. Bruno Mars – 24k Magic
    4. Iggy Pop – Post pop depression
    5. Avalanches – Wildflower
    6. Radiohead – A moon shaped pool
    7. Kendrick Lamar – Untitled
    8. Steve Mason – Meet The Humans
    9. King – We are King
    10. Ft. – Hifi Sean

  56. TEENAGE FANCLUB – Here
    TRASHCAN SINATRAS – Wild Pendulum
    MEILYR JONES – 2013
    KARL BLAU – Introducing…
    THE DIVINE COMEDY – Foreverland
    MADNESS – Can’t Touch Us Now
    OKKERVIL RIVER – Away
    KING CREOSOTE – Astronaut Meets Appleman
    WILCO – Schmilco
    FIELD MUSIC – Commontime
    WHITNEY – Light Upon The Lake
    AHNONI – Hopelessness
    LEONARD COHEN – You Want It Darker
    LAMBCHOP – Flotus
    THE AVALANCHES – Wildflower
    SUEDE – Night Thoughts
    NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS – Skeleton Tree
    EMMA POLLOCK – In Search Of Harperfield
    HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER – Heart Like a Levee
    KEVIN MORBY – Singing Saw

  57. 9 newly released albums is about 7 or 8 more than I usually hear in a single year. The order of the top 5 is interchangeable.
    1. Fantastic Negrito – The Last Days Of Oakland
    Extremely charismatic performer. I saw him live twice this year and he was excellent each time. The album lived up to my high expectations.
    2. Quantic – 1000 Watts
    You can’t go too far wrong with a Quantic album. There is some excellent reggae on this.
    3. Bahama Soul Club – Havana ’58
    Funky Germans maintain their high standard of releases.
    4. The Ezra Collective – Chapter 7
    I have high hopes for this young British jazz band. Worth seeing live and like many young jazz artists they have listened to many different musical genres. On this album there are hip hop, reggae and afrobeat influences.
    5. Harold Lopez-Nussa – El Viage
    France based Cuban pianist returns to Havana to record this album.The addition of Senegalese bassist and singer Alune Wade gives an Africando feel to some tracks on this fiery Latin jazz album,
    6.Vin Gordon – Heavenless
    Former Skatallite, the nickname Don Drummond Jr tells you all you need to know.
    7. Calypso Rose – Far From Home
    76 year old Queen Of Calypso Production and writing credits include Manu Chao.
    8. Sidestepper – Supernatural Love
    This one got at least 2 5 star reviews.
    9. Baaba Maal – The Traveler

    • Cracking list, Alias. Looking forward to listening to all these.

      I so enjoy it when the contributors here just go their own sweet way. Locust and Carolina are two other examples. And they are not alone.

      Credit where credit is due, Tigger, you too have a couple of wonderfully obscure (to me) things on your list. That’s the way I like it!

    • 1st mention of Fantastic Negrito (I think). He’ll be on my list too, when I get around to it. Currently listening to all my 2016 CDs to try and get them into some kind of order. I missed him live at King Tut’s as I was away. Hope he comes back.

    • Any chance of a late addition? It can go at number 10 if that makes things easier. If so then:
      Eli Paperboy Reed – My Way Home.

      I’m generally not a big fan of retro soul, but this is a cracker all the way through.

  58. When’s the closing date? Having ordered Johannes Johanneson and Ulrich Schnauss, and, e music day today, having downloaded Horseback, Angel Olson, Meilyr Jones and Lawrence Arabia, all induced by scrolling down, I may be some time. And I still need the Magnetic North do Skem before I can whittle down the ones I already want to include anyway.

  59. 1 Teenage Fanclub – Here
    2 David Bowie – Blackstar
    3 Paul Simon – Stranger to Stranger
    4 Case/Lang/Viers- case/lang/viers
    5 Ben Watt- Fever Dream
    6 Teddy Thompson- Little Windows
    7 Radiohead- A Moon Shaped Pool
    8 Steve Mason – Meet the Humans
    9 Margo Price- Midwest Farmers’ Daughter
    10 Trashcan Sinatras – Wild Pendulum

      • Ha, this is my day job – so let’s see – well not easy as you’ve got to capture the artist, title and chart position everyone allocates it. This is also one of those jobs with lots of nuance in the data source and you’d perhaps discover issues along the way which mean you need to change tack

        I was going to say cut and paste the entries but I think actually I’d just do it quite manually and add each release in a row as it occurs, add a column for each Afterword member and then as each person mentions a release enter the number they put it at under their name – scrolling back up the list to enter their chart position against a release someone else already mentioned. I’d then do a VLOOKUP perhaps to convert each score to the sliding scale i.e 1 = 25 and then tot up each releases score at the end of each row.

        It’s a tricky one as all entered manually with no data entry validation and you’re looking for duplicates and where people place things. Do-able with hundreds of entries – would get very laborious if you got thousands.

        That’s how I’d do it.

    • I’ve got a sheet set up – to be shared by Dropbox, when wanted.
      48 charts added so far.

      If I had one request, it would be to use the format:
      1. Artist – Album

      That way it’s pretty easy to find and replace gaps with tabs, when turning the charts into Excel-ready tables,

      • According to my abacus Bowie is so far ahead you can stop the actual poll now.
        However, keep the lists coming in – fascinating stuff. But for those who have voted for Bon Iver we now have all your personal details. Expect a visit soon….

        • You may be right, but I have several scoring methods to test out:
          Lodestone/Tigg (1st: 25, 2nd: 18, 3rd: 15, 4th: 12, 5th: 10, 6th: 8, 7th: 6, 8th: 4, 9th: 3, 10th: 2, 11th-25th: 1)
          Tigg original (1st: 10, 2nd: 8, 3rd: 6, Top 10: 5, Top 25: 3, Other = 1 points)
          dai (everyone just nominate one album? Then all votes are equal)
          Bingo Little (10 points for 1st, 9 points for 2nd, etc)
          Blue Boy (tot up how many people select each record –a one vote=one point list)

  61. 1. Dexys – Let the record show
    2. Ben Watt- Fever Dream
    3. Dawes – We’re All Gonna Die
    4. James Hunter Six – Hold On!
    5. King Creosote – Astronaut Meets Appleman
    6. Songs of Separation – Songs of Separation
    7. Public Service Broadcasting – Race for Space Remixes
    8. Steve Mason – Meet the Humans
    9. Opeth – Sorceress
    10. Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith – A Cosmic Rhythm With Each Stroke

  62. 1 David Bowie. Blackstar
    2 Thee Oh Sees. A weird exits
    3 Radiohead. Moon Shaped Pool
    4 Leonard Cohen. You want it darker
    5 Joyce Didonato. In war and peace ( are we allowed classical? This is great )
    6 Nick Cave. Skeleton Tree
    7 Savages. Adore Life
    8 Chance the Rapper. Colouring Book
    9 Bon Iver. 22 A million
    10 Teenage Fanclub. Here

    Best gig , for what it’s worth, was Suede. Saw them for the first time, rather by accident, and they (he, really ) were great. Or is that all for another thread?

  63. 1. King Creosote – Astronaut meets Appleman
    2. David Bowie – Blackstar
    3. Teleman – Brilliant Sanity
    4. Damien Dempsey – No Force on Earth
    5. Radiohad – A Moon shaped Pool
    5 De La Soul – And the Anonymous Nobody
    6. Bon Iver – 22: A million
    7. Teenage Fanclub – Here
    8 HIss Golden Messenger – Heart Like a Levee
    9.Conor Oberst – Ruminations
    10. Car Seat Headrest – Teens of Denial

  64. 1. Laura Gibson – Empire Builder
    2. Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool
    3. The Avalanches – Wildflower
    4. Teleman – Brilliant Sanity
    5. Whyte Horses – Pop Or Not?
    6. Miranda Lee Richards– Echoes Of The Dreamtime
    7. Michael Kiwanuka – Love And Hate
    8. Goat – Requiem
    9. David Bowie – Blackstar
    10. Cavern Of Anti-Matter – Void Beats/Invocation Trex
    11. Kevin Morby – Singing Saw
    12. Pye Corner Audio – Stasis
    13. C Duncan – The Midnight Sun
    14. The Pattern Forms – Peel Away The Ivy
    15. Paul Simon – Stranger To Stranger
    16. Conor Oberst – Ruminations
    17. The Radio Dept – Running Out Of Love
    18. Case/Lang/Viers – Case/Lang/Viers
    19. Hiss Golden Messenger – Heart Like A Levee
    20. Tim Burgess and Peter Gordon – Same Language Different Worlds
    21. A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here….Thank You 4 Your Service
    22. King Creosote – Astronaut Meets Appleman
    23. The Magnetic North – Prospect Of Skelmersdale (please note this was only bought yesterday on the basis of comments made in this thread. Three listens already – I suspect it will zoom towards the top of my chart over time)
    24. Angel Olsen – My Woman
    25. Gruff Rhys – Set Fire To The Stars

    I am very tempted to include Mogwai – Atomic just for “Ether” – track of the year from an otherwise disappointing album.

  66. Please don’t argue with 03 – a 2016 release. Anyway:

    01 David Bowie – Blackstar
    02 Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
    03 New Order – Complete Music
    04 Nessi Gomes – Diamonds & Demons
    05 Nick Cave &The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree
    06 Radiohead – Moon-Shaped Pool
    07 Ryley Walker – Golden Sings That Have Been Sung (Sullen Mind live on cd2)
    08 Lucinda Williams – The Ghosts Of Highway 20
    09 Jonathan Roberts – Decades
    10 Imarhan – Imarhan

    11-20 in no particular order:

    Brian Eno – The Ship
    Angel Olsen – My Woman
    Christine & The Queens – Chaleur Humane
    Swans – Glowing Man
    Julianna Barwick – Will
    The Handsome Family – Unseen
    William Tyler – Modern Country
    Agnes Obel – Citizen Of Glass
    The Orb – COW/Chill Out, World!
    Quantic et al – 1,000 Watts
    Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band – The Rarity Of Experience
    Kevin Morby – Singing Saw
    PJ Harvey – Hope 6 Demolition Project
    Graham Nash – This Path Tonight
    Astrid Williamson – We Go To Dream

    As ever, some arrived to me late in the year, and so aren’t as high as they will be soon I’m sure (e.g. Agnes Obel). Still the best thing about these polls is the consequential ability to be able to investigate stuff not previously familiar with…

  67. Given that I don’t buy many new releases at all, the following comprises the entirety of what I did get this year:

    1. Blackstar
    2. Big Big Train – Folklore
    3. Sunset Cavaliers – Colin Harper, that’s COLIN HARPER (@colin-h)
    4. Melanie De Biasio – Blackened Cities
    5. Snarky Puppy – Culcha Vulcha
    6. Ryley Walker – Golden Sings…
    7. Public Service Broadcasting – The Race For Space Remixes
    8. Steven Wilson – 4 1/2
    9. ABC – Lexicon Of Love II
    10. Er…that’s it

  68. These are the new records I’ve enjoyed the most this year.

    1. Lucinda Williams Ghosts of Highway 20

    Her best set of songs in years, melancholic, imbued, like so much this year, by intimations of mortality. Featuring the best guitar work by anyone I’ve heard all year, from Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz

    2. David Bowie Blackstar

    Of course it’s stature is fundamentally affected by the circumstances of its release. But so what? It’s a great sounding record at the end of the year just as much as it was at the beginning and it’s hard to think of a better statement from an artist looking death in the face (though Leonard Cohen had a good go too).

    3. Christine and the Queens Chaleur Humaine

    After all that bloody death this is the most joyous, intelligent, full of life pop record I’ve heard in an age. Seems to be just one or two of us here, and I’m amazed.

    4. Van Morrison Keep Me Singing

    I’d pretty much given up expecting any more good records from Van but this is gorgeous – mellow, warm, even funny on Going Down to Bangor. There are two or three songs here which are amongst his best in a quarter century

    5. Black Peaches Get Down You Dirty Rascals

    The Allman Brothers meet Hot Chip but honestly it’s better than that sounds. A great summer radio album

    6. Angel Olsen MY WOMAN

    Just got to this recently but I’m really enjoying it. A bit reminiscent of Sharon van Etten but a stronger overall sound. The second half with slower more extended songs is especially good.

    7. Kandace Springs Soul Eyes

    A voice to just melt in, impeccable arrangements. Beautiful late night soul/jazz and increasingly that’s just fine by me

    8. Leyla McCalla A Day for the Hunter A Day for the Prey

    Great folky record featuring cello and fiddle and McCallas terrific voice – French, Creole and other influences all come to bear on it

    9. Charles Lloyd and the Marvels I Long to See You

    Another late night jazz record and another appearance from the impeccable Bill Frisell. Brilliant easy musicianship all round

    10. Yorkston Thorne Khan Everything Sacred

    This collaboration could have been a disaster but somehow the combination of Scottish and Irish folksiness, English jazz and Indian classical works.

    11. Agnes Obel Citizen of Glass
    12. Alison Miller Boom Tic Boom
    13. Beth Orton Kidsticks
    14. Paul Simon Stranger to Stranger
    15. Anna Meredith Varmints
    16. Rokia Traore Ne So
    17. Eric Clapton I Still Do
    18. Leonard Cohen You Want it Darker
    19. Julia Jacklin Don’t Let the Kids Win
    20. Mariza Mundo

  69. Some new artists, some older artists. It’s been a pretty good year for music releases. Out in the world, not so good.

    My number one took me by surprise. Six months ago I’d never heard of her. Now I have to listen once a day. It’s a record I love like I loved records forty years ago. Just so damn good. Lydia Loveless belies her name.

    Sam Outlaw is another artist completely new to me. He was responsible for my gig of the year.

    1. Lydia Loveless – Real
    2. Band Of Horses – Why Are You OK
    3. Ben Watt – Fever Dream
    4. Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
    5. Sturgill Simpson – A Sailor’s Guide To Earth
    6. Amanda Shires – My Piece of Land
    7. Sam Outlaw – Angeleno*
    8. Blue Rodeo – 1,000 Arms
    9. case/lang/veirs
    10. Drive By Truckers – American Band

    * Sam Outlaw’s album came out in 2015 in the USA, but was only officially released in Europe this year.

    Bubbling under:
    Eric Clapton – I Still Do
    Lucinda Williams – Ghosts Of Highway 20
    Lilly Hiatt – Royal Blue
    Sara Watkins – Young in All the Wrong Ways
    The Jayhawks – Paging Mr. Proust
    Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle – Colvin & Earle
    Angel Olsen – My Woman

    • Revision time. I had a brainstorm. That’s the only explanation for a major omission from my list which is now:

      1. Lydia Loveless – Real
      2. Mary-Chapin Carpenter – The Things That We are Made Of
      3. Band Of Horses – Why Are You OK
      4. Ben Watt – Fever Dream
      5. Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
      6. Sturgill Simpson – A Sailor’s Guide To Earth
      7. Amanda Shires – My Piece of Land
      8. Sam Outlaw – Angeleno*
      9. Blue Rodeo – 1,000 Arms
      10. case/lang/veirs

      The bubbling under list remains the same as above.

  71. In no particular order – but in general the first 10 were the most regular recent plays:

    1. Brad Mehldau Trio – Blues and ballads
    2. William Bell – This is where I live
    3. Bill Charlap – Notes from New York
    4. Johann Johannsen – Orphee
    5. Tigran Hamasayan – Atmospheres
    6. Allen Toussaint – American Tunes
    7. Kurt Elling – This Beautiful Day
    8. Gavin Bryars – The fifth century
    9. Carolyn Malachi – Rise: story 1
    10. Ed Motta – Perpetual gateways
    11. Perri – Back to you
    12. Myles Sanko – Just being me
    13. Karl Blau – Introducing
    14. Cleveland Watkiss – Song diasporas (if only because of his wonderful ballad reading of the Real Thing’s “You to me are everything”)
    15. Charles Lloyd – I long to see you
    16. Tord Gustavsen – What was said
    17. Lady Wray – Queen Alone
    18. Kenny Barron Trio – Intuition
    19. Avishai Cohen – Into the silence
    20. Kandace Springs – Soul Eyes
    21. Olafur Arlands – Island Songs
    22. Kindred – Legacy of love
    23. Branford Marsalis w/Kurt Elling – Upward spiral

  72. Here’s my list:

    1. Golden Sings That Have Been Sung – Ryley Walker
    Saw him twice this year – once with Danny Thompson and once with his trio,

    2. A Moon Shaped Pool – Radiohead
    Great album, with great, dynamic arrangements. A real grower.

    3. Blackened Cities – Melanie De Biasio
    A one track album (or EP?) containing my favourite track of the year – doesn’t go to No.1 as an album, because it is just one track.

    4. Citizen of Glass – Agnes Obel
    Just brilliant. A step change and her strongest album to date. She was superb live in Birmingham last month.

    5. Case/Lang/Veirs – Case/Lang/Veirs
    Three strong singers and songwriters get together and what’s not to like?

    6. Imarhan – Imarhan
    A young band from Mali. Similar vibes to Tinariwen, but more agile and melodic. Saw them at End of the Road.

    7. Joint Control – John Renbourn and Wizz Jones
    A delightful album derived from studio and live performances. A duo I never saw perform, although I had seen Renbourn live on numerous occasions. It’s sad that he’s gone.

    8. The Ghosts of Highway 20 – Lucinda Williams
    Great atmospheres on this album. Saw her play a stonking gig at The Plug in Sheffield in the summer.

    9. EST Symphony – Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra With Hans Ek, Dan Berglund & Magnus Öström Feat. Iiro Rantala, Marius Neset, Verneri Pohjola & Johan Lindström
    Had my doubts about this, given EST was a trio, what could orchestration add to it? Well. it is done brilliantly and jazz is to the fore with wonderful trumpet, sax solos.

    10. Heart Like a Levee – Hiss Golden Messenger
    I like this album – a lot. Nicely frayed around the edges and not too polished.

    11. Memories of the Future – She Drew The Gun
    A friend recommended we see this young band at Glasto and we were not disappointed.

    12. Fever Dream – Ben Watt

    13. More Rain – M. Ward

    14. Palamino – Treetop Flyers

    15. Meet the Humans – Steve Mason

    16. Land of Gold – Anoushka Shankar
    This year’s ‘Glastonbury moment’ – if you can find the BBC recording of her performance – do so – it is even better than the album IMO.

    17. Love and Hate – Michael Kiwanuka

    18. Throws – Throws

    19. Full Circle – Loretta Lynn

    20. Peel Away the Ivy – The Pattern Forms

    21. Johann Johannsson – Orphee

    22. FLOTUS – Lambchop

    23. Skeleton Tree – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

    24. TROUBLE – Woodpigeon

    25. Solo Acoustic Vol 11: Homages – Michael Chapman

    I did want to include Bluebird by Dawn Landes, but belatedly discovered it was released in 2014! Never mind, but it would have been in my Top 10.

  73. I’ve only brought 2 new albums this year. So in order…..

    1: The Monkees “Good Times”
    2: Various artists “Pasted Beyond Recognition” (Charity Del Amitri covers album)

  74. The top six or seven are pretty well set. The order for the rest is fairly fluid, but for today it is as follows:

    1. case/lang/veirs: case/lang/veirs
    2. Beyond The Wizards Sleeve: The Soft Bounce
    3. Ed Harcourt: Furnaces
    4. 9 Bach: Anian
    5. Cavern of Anti-Matter: void beats/invocation trex
    6. Sturgill Simpson: A Sailor’s Guide to Earth
    7. The Coral: Distance Inbetween
    8. Radiohead: A Moon Shaped Pool
    9. Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker: Overnight
    10. Moulettes: Preternatural
    11. David Bowie: David Bowie
    12. The Pattern Forms: Peel Away the Ivy
    13. Ryley Walker: Golden Sings That Have Been Sung
    14. Sam Beam and Jesca Hoop: Love Letter for Fire
    15. Cat’s Eyes: Treasure House
    16. Baaba Maal: The Traveller
    17. Steve Mason: Meet the Humans
    18. Various: Songs Of Separation
    19. Quantic: 1000 Watts
    20. Old Fire: Songs From The Haunted South
    21. The Gloaming: 2
    22. Marissa Nadler: Strangers
    23. Lucy Dacus: No Burden
    24. GoGo Penguin: Man Made Object
    25. Jonathan Roberts: Decades

    I’ve only caught snippets of others thers like Agnes Obel and The Magnetic North which would in all likelyhood make it into the list at another time.

  75. Quick update: up to this point, there have been sixty-four voters for a total of 440 different albums. The scoring system is a pain, I hate @Lodestone-Of-Wrongness and I’m relieved when people simply vote for a top ten.

    On the plus side, I have discovered some fabulous albums that I’d never previously heard of and have only gathered one point. That far outweighs any fiddling with an enormous spreadsheet.

    Keep it up, everyone. It’s fascinating

    • 440 different albums so far is indeed an impressive spread, and a testament to the range of musical intersts and tastes on this board.

      And it’s not over yet. I can reveal exclusively that 8 out of the top 10 duco01 Favourite albums of 2016 have not been voted for by ANYONE so far (the other two have been voted for once each).

      So hey! There’ll be a few more unheralded little gems coming soon, in the List with the Mostest, the duco01 Top 60 Favourite albums of 2016. Hurrah! Starting sometime very soon, on this very board! The most essential assortment of all! Sort of. Probably.

        • Have you got False Readings On by Eluvium on your list, Duco? Just discovered it tonight and am thus relieved I hadn’t yet posted my list. I think you should listen, as if you haven’t.
          Astonishing.

          • No, I haven’t heard “False Readings”, retro.

            But coincidentally, I recently read some chart reviewing the “50 Greatest Ambient Albums Ever made”, or something, and this included “Talk amongst the Trees” (2008) by Eluvium, which did indeed sound very good.

  76. No one going for Dylan’s Fallen Angels then? Must admit I had completely forgotten all about it until I noticed that Mojo, bless their little cotton socks, deemed it the twentieth best album of the year…..

  77. I find it inordinately difficult to remember which albums came out when and to pigeon-hole them by year. Plus I’ve bought far more old stuff than new. Anyway, here goes :

    1. Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
    2. Michael Kiwanuka – Love and Hate
    3. Paul Simon – Stranger to Stranger
    4. Orphee – Johann Johannson
    5. Melanie De Biasio – Blackened Cities
    6. Quantic – 1000 Watts
    7. Rolling Stones – Blue and Lonesome
    8. Sidestepper – Supernatural Love
    9. Esbjorn Svennson – EST Symphony
    10. Charles Lloyd & The Marvels – I Long To See You

  78. 1. Phish | Big Boat
    Wonderful music – adventurous, exciting. There are moments where they sound like The Beatles covering “Supper’s Ready” for side two of “Abbey Road”.
    2. Phillip Boa & The Voodooclub | Blank Expression
    3. David Bowie | Blackstar
    4. Get Well Soon | Love
    5. Matthias Arfmann | Ballet Jeunesse
    6. Acid Arab | Musique de France
    7. Die Liga der gewöhnlichen Gentlemen | Rütteln mal am Käfig, die Affen sollen was machen
    8. Sainkho Namtchylak | Like A Bird Or Spirit, Not A Face
    9. Anoushka Shankar | Land Of Gold
    10. Dungen | Häxan
    11. Syd Arthur | Apricity
    12. Steven Wilson 4 1/2
    13. Unterbiberger Hofmusik | Bavaturka II
    14. Tortoise | The Catastrophist
    15. Kula Shaker | K2.0
    16. Calypso Rose | Far From Home
    17. The Mute Gods | Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me
    18. Autechre | Else 1-5
    19. Purson | Desire’s Magic Theatre
    20. Black Mountain | IV
    21. Nora Mint Seymali | Arbina
    22. Donny McCaslin | Beyond Now
    23. Brian Eno | The Ship
    24. Värttinä | Viena
    25. John Scofield • Country For Old Men

  79. 1 Nick Cave – Skeleton Tree
    2 Haley Bonar – Impossible Dream
    3 Let’s Eat Grandma – Gemini
    4 Wussy – Forever Sounds
    5 Beyonce – Lemonade
    6 Solange – A Seat at the Table
    7 Pixies – Head Carrier
    8 Go Go Penguin – Man Made Object
    9 A Tribe Called Kwest – We Got It From Here …Thank You 4 Your Service
    10 P J Harvey – Hope 6 Demolition Project
    11 Avalanches – Wildflower
    12 Daughter – Not to Disappear
    13 Christine & The Queens – Chaleur Humane
    14 Savages – Adore Life
    15 Vile Electrodes – In the Shadows of Monuments

  80. Here`s my selections @tiggerlion, no shocks but my usual eclectic mix. I reckon it reflects my gemini nature. Looking at it I realise that the music from the USA dominates my list, at least the colonies are good at something! I reckon I`m going to be listening to the music of Ryley Walker for many years to come, I`ve not come across a singer as talented in 40 years, although our own Michael Kiwanuka isn`t too bad is he? Iggy`s album is a man rejuvenated, I missed seeing him at SXSW through illness. Steve T reported that he was a man on fire with a great band led by Josh Homme. I cab reccomend his live CD/DVD combo which was my consolation having missed him. Now`s the time to browse the other AW`s selections, I reckon doing so is going to cost me.

    1. RYLEY WALKER: GOLDEN SINGS THAT HAVE BEEN SUNG
    2. MICHAEL KIWANUKA: LOVE AND HATE
    3. DAVID CROSBY: LIGHTHOUSE
    4. EXPLORERS CLUB: TOGETHER
    5. IGGY POP: POST POP DEPRESSION
    6. BIG BIG TRAIN: FOLKLORE
    7. CHRIS DREVER: IF WISHES WERE HORSES
    8. ALLAH-LAS: CALICO REVIEW
    9. LEONARD COHEN: YOU WANT IT DARKER
    10. ANDERSON/STOLT: INVENTION OF KNOWLEDGE
    11. MONKEES: GOOD TIMES
    12. HARP AND A MONKEY: HARP AND A MONKEY
    13. SHEARWATER: JET PLANE AND OXBOW
    14. CHRIS ROBINSON BROTHERHOOD: ANYWAY YOU LOVE,
    WE KNOW HOW YOU FEEL
    15. DAMIEN JURADO: VISIONS OF US ON THE LAND
    16. KANSAS: THE PRELUDE IMPLICIT
    17. LIMINANAS: MALAMORE
    18. TEENAGE FANCLUB: HERE
    19. MOGWAI: ATOMIC
    20. WOODS: CITY SUN EATER IN THE RIVER OF LIGHT
    21. STURGILL SIMPSON: A SAILOR`S GUIDE TO EARTH
    22. CORAL: DISTANCE BETWEEN
    23. BOB DYLAN: FALLEN ANGELS
    24. DRIVE BY TRUCHERS: AMERICAN BAND
    IN JOINT 25th PLACE:
    25. NICK CAVE: SKELETON TREE
    25. FELICE BROTHERS: LIFE IN THE DARK
    25. JOHN DOE: THE WESTERNER
    25. GOAT: REQUIEM
    25. NEIL YOUNG: PEACE TRAIL

  81. There’s some interesting stuff being posted here which I’ll check out but I’ve only bought 8 albums released this year which are are all great.

    1 Chris Robinson Brotherhood – If You Lived Here, You Would Be Home By Now
    Just what you need from 2016 of all years… a glorious feel good album. Just 5 tracks lasting a total of 30 minutes but I guarantee I’ll still be playing and loving it this time next year.

    2 Lucinda Williams – The Ghosts Of Highway 20
    I’ve spent years pondering what was the best LW album (Essence or World Without Tears) but now we’ve got Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone and this. She just keeps getting better.

    3 North Sea Radio Orchestra – Dronne
    I enjoyed I a Moon but this is a great leap forward adding more of their psychedelic heritage to the classical/folk mix.

    4 The Besnard Lakes – A Coliseum Complex Museum
    Long time admirer of this band who I firmly believe capable of creating a masterpiece. This isn’t it but they still make a better noise than most others.

    5 The Monkees – Good Times
    Just a lovely album… but I knew it would be.

    6 Chris Robinson Brotherhood – Anyway You Love, We Know How You Feel
    It’s them again. Two great albums in one year. How very 1969. Leave My Guitar Alone is a real butt-kicking stonker.

    7 PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project
    She was mesmerising at Glasto this year. About the only thing that was.

    8 Paul Simon – Stranger To Stranger
    Don’t play it safe does he?

  82. 1. Band of Skulls – By Default
    2. Edward II -Manchester’s Improving Daily
    3. El Vy – Return to the Moon
    4. Minor Victories – Minor Victories
    5. Catfish & the Bottlemen – The Ride
    6. Agnes Obel – Citizen of Glass
    7. The Pretenders – Alone
    8. The 1975 – I like it when you sleep…………..
    9. Band of Horses – Why are you ok?
    10. KOL – Walls

  83. A few more names for the mix. I got a short (ha ha) list of 35 relatively easily, it was harder getting down to 25, then a nightmare getting them in order!

    Excuse the dodgy fifteen-words-or-less descriptions, thought I’d better give some idea what they were as few of them have shown up in the above lists yet.

    01. “Talk to Me So I Can Fall Asleep” – Crater (Glacial electropop with jagged edges)
    02. “The Peace and Truth of…” – Future of the Left (The Welsh Big Black )
    03. “Hit Reset” – The Julie Ruin (What Kathleen Hanna did next)
    04. “Asphalt for Eden” – Dälek (Glitchy industrial hip-hop )
    05. “A Cathedral of Hands” – Oskar’s Drum (Patrick from Kitchens of Distinction builds new wing to 90’s styled Sonic Cathedral)
    06. “White Hot Moon” – Pity Sex (Deadpan boy/girl vocals over a surging shoegazy guitarstorm)
    07. “Shred” – Skee Mask (Claustrophobic, paranoia-inducing breakbeat-heavy atmospherics)
    08. “Up To Anything” – The Goon Sax (Son of the Go-Betweens delivers tales of bedsit angst NZ style)
    09. “Public Library” – The Burning Hell (Clever funny songs that tell stories without being Comedy Songs)
    10. “From Farthest Known Objects” – Surgeon (Rhythmically experimental inter-galactic techno, tracks named after celestial objects)
    11. “Untied Kingdom” – The Wolfhounds (Angular opinionated middle-aged freaks)
    12. “Talk of Violence” – Petrol Girls (Assertive aggressive feminist post-punk protagonists, AW catnip obviously…)
    13. “Cosmetic” – Nots (Adrenalised metronomic post-Riot Grrl riffing)
    14. “Structure” – Electrorites (Hypnotic/repetitive (delete according to taste) pounding techno without titles)
    15. “Head Carrier” – Pixies (Yes, I’m equally surprised that this is on the list after “Indie Cindy”)
    16. “The Hanging Valley” – Cold Pumas (Snarling swaggering post-punk bass-riffing)
    17. “Disaster Piece” – Flowdan (Grimy hip-hop from The Bug collaborator with the subterranean bass-rumble of a voice)
    18. “Negative Space” – Homemade Weapons (Skittering drum ‘n’ bass, sparse vocals and breakneck breakbeats)
    19. “Void Beats” – Cavern of Anti-Matter (Electronic motorik groove machine)
    20. “Age of Indignation” – September Girls (Big anthemic guitar-pop)
    21. “Paradise” – White Lung (Dayglo grunge-pop)
    22. “Adore Life” – Savages (Heavy-duty post-punk with splintered guitars & menacing vocals)
    23. “Blisters in the Pit of My Heart” – Martha (Spiky indiepop with a Northern accent)
    24. “Jessica Rabbit” – Sleigh Bells (Just their usual mix of headcrusher beats, fireball guitars and rabble-(a)rousing vocals)
    25. “The Woodleigh Research Facility ” – The Woodleigh Research Facility (Andrew Weatherall & Nina Walsh experiment with the Sounds of Spooky Sixties Science)

    The ordering is about right, but a bit arbitrary over the last half-dozen or so.

  84. Annual post as follows (though I do read the board, I promise)

    Ben Watt – Fever Dream
    Suede – Night Thoughts
    Michael Kiwanuka – Love and Hate
    Shura – Nothing’s Real
    Douglas Dare – Aforger
    Brian Eno – The Ship
    Johan Johannsson – Orphee
    Jherek Bischoff – Cistern
    Weyes Blood – Front Row Seat to Earth
    Radiohead – Moon Shaped Pool

    • Shura has been of interest to me. Singer, songwriter, footballer from Manchester. The only thing that puts me off is the fact that Mumford & Sons have covered one of her songs. You must like the album a lot to place it above Radiohead!

      • I’ve returned to it more than I have Radiohead I think, much as I love the latter. Shura’s very ‘pop’, but it’s also beautifully textured, has lots of well judged production moments and does lyrically actually bother to say something. I love proper ‘pop’ records, am therefore frequently disappointed, and thought this one really delivered…

  85. This was really hard to rank

    1. Drive-By Truckers – American Band
    2. Various Artists – Day of the Dead
    3. Colour Haze – Live Vol 1 – Europa Tourney 2015
    4. Underworld – Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future
    5. Wolf People – Ruins
    6. Greenleaf – Rise Above The Meadow
    7. Tim Hecker – Love Streams
    8. Kano – Made In The Manor
    9. Jaimeo Brown Transcendence – Work Songs
    10. Cavern of Anti-Matter – Void Beats / Invocation Trex

    Nearly made it:
    VDGG, Autumn of Communion, Anders Osborne, Causa Sui, Imarhan, David Bowie and Savages.

    Best bootleg:
    All Them Witches 2016–01-18 – Larimer Lounge – Denver

  87. Ten from me, the quality starts falling off a bit after that:

    1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Skeleton Tree
    2. Parquet Courts: Human Performance
    3. Iggy Pop: Post Pop Depression
    4. Eskies: After The Sherry Went Round (really cracking bunch of waistcoated vaudevillian Dubliners, who make you miss The Decemberists before they went earnest)
    5. Bowie: Blackstar
    6. Agnes Obel: Citizen Of Glass
    7. Wussy: Forever Sounds
    8. Charles Bradley: Changes
    9. PJ Harvey: The Hope Six Demolition Project
    10. The Goon Sax: Up To Anything

  88. 1. Harp and a Monkey War Stories
    As always, doing things differently, this collection tells the tales of the survivors, their families and how society (mis) treated them, tales of those who did their bit at home, of sexual health and how death can be viewed as dating opportunity. Insightful, informative, poignant, humorous (light and dark) lyrics backed by sublimely inventive mu sic make this a must for any collection

    2. Van Der Graff Generator Do Not Disturb

    Like a fine wine………

    3. Kate Tempest Let Them Eat Chaos

    4. Bon Ivor 22, A Million

    5. Richard J Birkin Vigils
    Picked up for pound in Vinyl Exchange, thought ” a £1, no idea what it is but for a pound, I’ll give it a go”…… it would have been a bargain at full price

    6. David Bowie Blackstar
    Never a Bowie fan, I only got around to buying my first Bowie albums Diamond Dogs & Low in 2010, despite being a teenager when they were released, but hearing the title track on the radio many times in the run up to the album release wetted my appitie. And the full meal didn’t dissapoint.

    7. Gonjusfi Callus

    Sometimes it’s good to have music that you have to work at to enjoy

    8. Gad Whip Rhetorician Vacuum

    bandcamp tags … *experimental spoken word art noise post punk experimental rural rock soundcollage”……. enough said

    9. A Dyjecinski The Valley of Yessiree

    A spoonful of Nick Cave with a soupcon of Sparklehorse, a sprinkling of Willard Grant kind of gives you a taste

    10. Edward 2 Manchester Improving Daily

  89. Well, I’m not ready to post yet as I have only listened to some of my 2016 purchases one or even less times. I am going to cram in some listening while wrapping and baking etc in the next couple of days. I have a long list of at least 19 titles at present. I will post a more considered list on Chrissie Eve.

    Anyway, song of the year is a lot easier. It’s the title track of Blackstar, by a long way. A more mesmerising piece than I have heard for many decades. Side two of the album is weaker IMO, but it’s probably best album for me overall. Cohen’s album is great too, and I’m not just being sentimental here either. Leonard was in the middle of a great run of form when he was taken from us. It is also an album that grows greater with every listen. I have bought both Blackstar and You Want It Darker thrice now – CD, HD and vinly. The latter is superior in both cases. 2016 has been the year of vinly for me. I kept reading about “the magic of tubes” on t’interweb and remembered that my father-in-law gave me a 1966 tube amp in 1978 or so. I didn’t have separates then so never used it. I retrieved it from the top of a cupboard and plugged it in. Good heavens! I have had it refurbed by a Rogers expert (at some expense!) and my world is now changed. Anyway, that’s the main reason I have given short shrift to this year’s CDs…

    Second best song of the year is by Chain Tannenbaum. Who? I hear you say. Well, let me explain. I first saw Loudon Wainwright at Kingston Poly in 1971, where he was assisted on banjo by his friend Chaim. I saw Loudon this October in Brum, and this time Chaim got a support slot. I was impressed and bought his only CD, released this year at the age of 69. It is a lovely acoustic record, with much to commend it, but one song stands out. It is called London, Longing For Home and is simply wonderful. It references Dickens, Jimmy Greaves, Shenandoah and Players No. 6 among many other cultural landmarks. Chaim Tannenbaum has been a teacher of Logic all these years and only now got round to making a record! Roll on, boys and girls, roll on.

    • O you, fucker, Artery, I had dallied with getting the Chaim earlier, having been similarly impressed by his work with the Wainwright/McGarrigle diaspora over the years. I just haven’t time to cram it in!! I still have to get thru’ 3 or 4 highly commended elsewheres that tickle my etc and time is running out.
      It’s the bloody same every year, all of you bastards. I am no slouch in spending too much on records as it is, but this end of year always provokes last minute forays I can ill afford, financially or timewise.

  90. only want to post the 2 that i love that aren’t here so they get most points so I give you 1) Nine Pin – Kaia Kater & 2) Lovers Leaves – Carll Hayes.. oh go on 3) American Tunes – Allen Toussaint

  91. Here is the unannotated version of my Top 25, which has appeared on another thread.

    1. Chaim Tannenbaum – Chaim Tannenbaum
    2. Yorkston/Khan/Thorne – Everything Sacred
    3. Andy Shauf – The Party
    4. Lloyd Swanton – Ambon
    5. Ryan Teague – Site Specific
    6. Various Artists – Day of the Dead
    7. Leyla McCalla – A Day for the Hunter, a Day for the Prey
    8. Conscious Sounds & Partial Records – Hackney Dub
    9. Jean-Michel Blais – Il
    10. Suzanne Vega – Lover, Beloved: Songs from an evening with Carson McCullers
    11. Johánn Johánnsson – Orphée
    12. Markus Stockhausen & Florian Weber – Alba
    13. Littlebow – Three
    14. Mammal Hands – Floa
    15. Brigid Mae Power – Brigid Mae Power
    16. David Bowie – Blackstar
    17. Ryley Walker – Golden Sings that have been Sung
    18. Sokratis Sinopoulos Quartet – Eight Winds
    19. Djelimady Tounkara – Djely Blues
    20. Dele Sosimi Meets Prince Fatty/Nostalgia 77 – You No Fit Touch Am in Dub
    21. Steve Gunn – Eyes on the Lines
    22. Marisa Anderson – Into the Light
    23. Ilya Beshevli – Wanderer
    24. Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano & Jan Lundgren – Mare Nostrum II
    25. The Hardy Tree – Through Passages of Time

  92. Just a couple from me. It’s been a pretty sparse year music-purchase-wise.
    In terms of music consumption, gigs have been fairly plentiful but the actual buying process has proved lacklustre at best on my part.

    1. You Want it Darker – Leonard Cohen
    I had a glimmer of hope that there might be one last tour left in the old chap but I was swiftly and brutally disabused of that notion. In a year of horrendous music losses, his was the one that caused me to shed tears.
    Particularly in light of how fabulous this album is.

    2. Goodnight City – Martha Wainwright
    For me, she’s usually a byword for excellence. Very much looking forward to seeing her in January. It’ll be about the seventh or eighth time.

  93. Tricky to work out the top 10. The new scoring system makes the placing seem more important this year.

    1. MIchael Kiwanuka – Love & Hate
    2. Leonard Cohen- You want it Darker
    3. NIck Cave and the Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree
    4. Lucinda Williams – Ghosts of Highway 20
    5. Sturgill Simpson – A Sailor’s Guide to Earth
    6. Paul Simon – Stranger to Stranger
    7. Explosions in the Sky – The Wilderness
    8. Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool
    9. Mogwai- Atomic
    10. Case/Lang/Viers

    And in no particular order, except alphabetical.

    Big Big Train – Folklore
    James Blake – The Colour in Anything
    David Bowie – Blackstar
    The Coral – Distance Inbetween
    The Gloaming- The Gloaming 2
    Lisa Hannigan – At Swim
    Jean-Michel Jarre – Electronica 2
    Mavis Staples – Livin’ On a High Note
    Colin Stetson – Sorrow

  94. 2016 has actually been a really good year for album releases. I’ve bought loads of great albums and there are loads of other ones I’ve heard really good things about but not got round to buying yet (notably the latest Dinosaur Jr and Nick Cave records). Here’s my picks –

    (A bit more metal than I was expecting!)

    13) Conan – Revengeance

    Heavy as fuck.

    https://youtu.be/QkC5IJ-39UI

    12) Metallica – Hardwired To Self Destruct

    A hell of a lot better than their last few albums. There’s bits that sound like Ride The Lightning!

    https://youtu.be/JFAcOnhcpGA

    11) Nine Inch Nails – Not The Actual Events

    Only released this morning but very very good indeed. Nice and noisy, a bit like the Broken EP, with bits that even sound a bit like Ministry.

    https://youtu.be/cvyywDE67tY

    10) Mogwai – Atomic.

    You know it’s a bloody good year for music when a new Mogwai record only just scrapes into my top 10. It’s a fantastic record, a little more chilled and electronic than some of their other albums. Kind of like Mogwai jamming with Kraftwerk. I saw them at Coventry Cathedral in the summer playing this album live and it was sublime.

    https://youtu.be/2FlHCmEwRkw

    9) Deftones – Gore.

    Deftones were always more interesting than most of their Nu-Metal contemporaries taking just as much influence from The Cure as they did from Rage Against The Machine. Gore is a dense and claustrophobic record but still incredibly melodic. They’ve always been good but this might be my favourite Deftones record since White Pony

    https://youtu.be/JAmt6zN9vOk

    8) PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project.

    The critics loved PJ Harvey’s last album “Let England Shake”, but It was the first of her records that I ever absolutely hated so I was a bit apprehensive about listening to her new record. There was no need though as it’s really really good. Loads of baritone sax, almost gospel like melodies and political lyrics. Again, this is her best record since Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea. The current live shows are the best I’ve ever seen her play too.

    https://youtu.be/qsLqsqbObyg

    7) Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool.

    Another return to form after the relatively disappointing (for their standards) The King Of Limbs. Where that album was cold and digital, A Moon Shaped Pool is a more organic, analogue sounding record. It finally features a studio version of True Love Waits, a song that’s been played live in various forms since 1995 and of the newer songs on there “Daydreaming” is utterly beautiful.

    https://youtu.be/TTAU7lLDZYU

    6) Americanfootball – American Football

    16 years after their debut self titled record, Illinois cult math rock legends finally followed it up with a beautiful album of shimmering emo (the good kind, not the Fall Out Boy kind) songs full of intricate interweaving guitar lines. It took a few listens to fully take hold but it’s almost as good as their first record.

    https://youtu.be/Ec8bbDNhq54

    5) Bossk – Audio Noir

    Another long awaited follow up. After a couple of EPs a decade ago, Audio Noir is actually Bossk’s debut album. 45 minutes of psychedelic post metal with some of the heaviest doom metal riffs imaginable (The only heavier album I’ve heard this year is Conan’s Revengeance).

    https://youtu.be/xTBGly43-EQ

    4) Bon Iver – 22, A Million

    Justin Vernon is an actual genius. Bon Iver’s third record is as much of a departure from the second record as that was from the first. 22, A Million is very clearly influenced by Kanye West’s production style with glitchy electronics, vintage synthesisers and sped up vocal samples. It’s a bit of a Kid A kind of a record, probably likely to put off a lot of fans of Bon Ivers folkier records but I love it.

    https://youtu.be/6C5sB6AqJkM

    3) Iggy Pop – Post Pop Depression

    Iggy Pop joined up with Josh Home and Dean Fertita of Queens Of The Stone Age and Matt Helders from Arctic Monkeys to make a record that harks back to Iggy’s Bowie produced Berlin period where he wrote Lust For Life and The Idiot. It’s an incredible record, possibly Iggy’s most consistently good record since Raw Power.

    https://youtu.be/1m8TmlS20ZA

    2) Tacocat – Lost Time

    The only band in this list that are a new discovery for me (although this is their third record). A Seattle based feminist indie pop punk band writing songs about The X Files and hating weekends with Dave Mustaine’s daughter on bass. Definitely the most fun album Ive bought this year and a band I hope I can catch live at some point soon.

    https://youtu.be/7FShqXAqGv4

    1) David Bowie – Black Star

    Obviously this record was overshadowed by Bowie’s tragic death a few days after its release, and I’ve seen a lot of people saying it’s only getting so much acclaim as a kind of sympathy vote, but this really is a phenomenal record. I loved Bowie’s previous record, The Next Day, and this is a continuation and a distillation of that album’s sound. Drenched in jazz influenced brass and the kind of drum and bass rhythms Bowie previously messed around with in the much maligned 90s (unpopular opinion time – Earthling is a fucking astoundingly good record). It’s a seriously dark record, Bowie knew it would be his last, but at the same time there’s a lot of hope in the songs. It’s definitely up there with his best work and considering that it’s David Motherfucking
    Bowie we’re talking about, that’s not something to be sniffed at.

    https://youtu.be/y-JqH1M4Ya8

  95. I went back to Tigger’s half way mark post to see what was thought then:

    Best Albums Of 2016 So Far


    (Wasn’t the site a different place then? Reams of output from the MIAs, HP, Rob, DisBob, Nessy’n’Niscum………)
    Anyhoo, a frantic week or 2, hoovering up other folks recommendations with varying subsequent enthusiasm. Still a few I won’t manage so I apologise to those I haven’t heard. And, now we are all so wretchedly eclectic, how the heck can anyone compare apples, bananas and oranges in deciding the best fruit, let alone tomatoes? Too many different styles/genres appeal in so many different ways.

    1. Michael Kiwanuka: Love and Hate – An astonishing record, that gets played more often than any. And, contrary to a couple of comments, the later songs just get better and better and better, even if the opener, Cold Little Heart, is a shoo-in for track of the year.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp32Fl_f0mw

    2. Jim Moray: Upcetera – Clearly upped his game with last years False Lights band project, this near leapt to the top only a day or so ago. Wonderful aching vocals and striking strings, along with the best olde world folke rocke track I have heard for decades in Edward of the Lowlands.
    3. Jarlath Henderson: Hearts Broken/Heads Turned – My mid year fave, the wonder boy of uillean piping turns his hand to songs and quirky folktronic effects that bring out hives of delight.
    4. Ryley Walker: Golden Sings That Have Been Sung – I think a step up and on from last years output, one that grows and grows.
    5. Eluvium: False Readings On – Probably insufficient hearings, but a totally wow moment on first exposure, the opening salvo of quiet distortion just sublime.
    6. Johannes Johansson: Orphee – In contrast, the simplicity and stillness of this delights.
    7. Teenage Fan Club: Here – Consistently pure perfected jangle
    8. Wolf People: Ruins – Genre hopping wonder, OK, mainly folkish, with echoes of indie guitars
    9. Rachel Newton: Here’s My Heart – Muted glaswegiana folk with trumpet
    10.Michele Stodart: Pieces: Terrific solo debut, knocking spots off her old band, with echoes of L. Cohen peeping through the honesty of the confessional songs.

    And then, in no particular order:
    Starless: Starless
    Snarky Puppy: Culcha Vulcha
    School of Seven Bells: School of Seven Bells
    Symbiosis: Ross and Ali
    Radiohead: Moon Shaped Pool
    Nick Cave: Skeleton Tree
    King Creosote: Astronaut Meets Appleman
    John Schofield: No Country For Old Men
    Garbage: Strange Little Birds
    Rolling Stones: Blue and Lonesome
    Bob Weir: Blue Mountain
    Billy Bragg/Joe Henry: Shine a Light

    • Oh dear, what a depressing thread that was! The “Children of Men Is Not A Horror Story”
      gang were out in force there, weren’t they?

      I don’t have anything to say about modern music either, but I’m not going to start telling people who like it that they’re stupid or mentally ill. (I’ll find other reasons to do that)

      • Amen. There seemed to be a depressing period in early Summer this year where nearly every thread containing new music had to become a snooty symposium on whether pop culture is dead. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but it’s certainly a bummer to have to hear about it ad nauseum. If you can’t find anything nice to say….

    • That thread is fascinating for two reasons

      1. There’s a lot of stuff recommended which doesn’t seem to have made it though the second half of the year on anyone’s lists

      2. There are a couple of utterly outstanding posts, one about half way down and one around three quarters, from @tiggerlion counteracting the ‘it’s all crap now’ tendency.

      I realise some might say that the first point merely supports the notion that it’s all crap, but actually I think it is more that there’s an awful lot of interesting stuff around, but as in every era, including the benighted 60s and 70s, the vast majority of what comes out doesn’t last long. Some stuff, however, now as then, is forever.

      • Don’t know if anyone else found this, but my sense is that the latter half of the year was a lot stronger than the former.

        I generally keep a little playlist going Year round to help with the end of year list. If I’m listening to something new a lot, it goes in. It was slim pickings in that playlist until about August, and then suddenly I couldn’t stop finding new stuff I loved.

        I could be alone in this, but it might also explain why a lot of music in the thread above didn’t make the year end lists. It also helped that the thread in question put me off listening to old music for a couple of months.

  97. Ben Watt – Fever Dream
    Neil Young – Earth
    Agnes Obel – Citizen Of Glass
    Elizabeth Cook – Exodus Of Venus
    Steve Gunn – Eyes On The Lines
    Steve Mason – Meet The Humans
    John Prine – For Better Or Worse
    case/lang/veirs – case/lang/veirs
    Ryley Walker – Golden Songs That Have Been Sung
    Hiss Golden Messenger – Heart Like A Levee
    Van Morrison – Keep Me Singing
    Michael Kiwanuka – Love & Hate
    Big Big Train – Folklore
    Lucinda Williams – The Ghosts Of Highway 20
    Lambchop – FLOTUS
    Brandy Clark – Big Day In A Small Town
    Miranda Lambert – The Weight Of These Wings
    The Explorers Club – Together
    Mudcrutch – Mudcrutch 2
    Hard Working Americans – Rest In Chaos
    Teenage Fanclub – Here
    Neil Young – Peace Trail
    Look Park – Look Park
    Emitt Rhodes – Rainbow Ends
    Kacey Musgraves – A Very Kacey Christmas

  98. Kris Drever – If Wishes Were Horses
    Teddy Thompson & Kelly Jones – Little Windows
    Lady Maisery – Cycles
    Dori Freeman – Dori Freeman
    David Francey – Empty Train
    Emily Loizeau – Mona

  99. 1. Paperface – Out Of Time. As if Badly Drawn Boy joined Squeeze to make an ELO tribute.
    2. Michael Kiwanuka – Love & Hate
    3. Field Music – Commontime
    4. Protoje – Ancient Future. Modern roots reggae. Later with Jools discovery.
    5. The Slow Show – Dream Darling. Not as good as their debut but still ace.
    6. Applewood Road – Applewood Road. Emily Barker goes old-school Country round one mic to 2″ tape..
    7. Alessia Cara – Know-It-All. Think teenage Amy Winehouse fronting Portishead.
    8. Anthony Joseph – Carribean Roots. Reggae-jazz-poet.
    9. David Bowie – Blackstar
    10. Haley Bonar – Impossible Dream. Rather like later Rilo Kiley. Later with Jools discovery.
    11. Trashcan Sinatras – Wild Pendulum
    12. Starless – Starless
    13. Graeme Park, Mike Pickering, Peter Hook & Manchester Camerata – Hacienda Classical. Big-budget orchestral take on Acid House classics. Voodoo Ray into Pacific State might be my fave 8 mins of music this year.
    14. David Youngs – In Between Silence. Guitar whizz in Michael Hedges/Preston Reed mould.
    15. Boo Hewerdine – Born EP
    16. Vienna Ditto – Ticks EP & Busted Flush EPs. My fave Prolific electro-gospel-blues duo.
    N/A. Helen & the Neighbourhood Dogs – On Angel Hill. Not released, so doesn’t count towards scores. My fave session of the year.

      • I don’t know anything of the other two, but I have all of Emily Barker’s output. My fave is the Dear River album, recorded in Glasgow with Calum Malcolm, which is ace but not very country – there are even electric guitars. The other two Red Clay Halo albums, Despite The Snow and Almanac, are both great.

        Solo debut, Photos.Fire.Fables, is harder work. Last year’s The Toerag Sessions is good – a sort of solo best of.

        Both of the-low-country albums are ace and quite country thanks to Rob W. Jackson’s steel guitar. I don’t know if you can still buy them but, if not, I can (ahem!) help.

  100. 1. David Bowie – Blackstar
    2. Dawes – We’re All Gonna Die
    3. Wilco – Schmilco
    4. Radiohead- A Moon Shaped Pool
    5. Margo Price- Midwest Farmers’ Daughter
    6. Sturgill Simpson – A Sailor’s Guide To Earth
    7. William Tyler – Modern Country
    8. PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project
    9. Avett Brothers – True Sadness
    10. Iggy Pop – Post Pop Depression
    11. Case/Lang/Viers – Case/Lang/Viers
    12. White Denim – Stiff
    13. FLOTUS – Lambchop
    14. NIck Cave and the Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree
    15. Car Seat Headrest – Teens of Denial
    16. The Avalanches – Wildflower

  101. 1. Amanda Shires – My Piece of Land
    2. Hayes Carll – Lovers and Leavers
    3. Drive By Truckers – American Band
    4. Wilco – Schmilco
    5. The Record Company – Give It Back To You
    6. Lucinda Williams – Ghost of Highway 20
    7. Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
    8. Michael Kiwanuka – Love and Hate
    9. David Bowie – Blackstar
    10. Radiohead – Moon Shaped Pool.
    11. Lydia Loveless – Real
    12. Van Morrison – Keep on Singing

  102. I generally get to listen to music only in the car, so finally getting Spotify in my new car has really helped listening and compiling a list. Prior to this, we had a few new CDs, which scored highest.

    1. Field Music- Common Time
    2. Morgan Delt- Phase Zero
    3. Michael Kiwanuka- Love and Hate
    4. Wilco- Schmilco
    5. Aidan Moffat- Where you’re meant to be
    6. PJ Harvey
    7. William Tyler
    8. Iggy Pop
    9. Radiohead
    10. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
    11. Angel Olsen
    12. Cass McCombs
    13. Ultimate Painting
    14. Ryley Walker
    15. David Bowie
    16. Mogwai
    17. Gruff Rhys- Set fire to the stars
    18. Cat’s Eyes- Treasure House
    19. Anna Meredith
    20. Teenage Fanclub

    Would like to have listened to more, including the Steve Mason album. Most disappointed by the Bon Iver album. Not really a fan of the autotuned vocal, or at least not when it’s done on everything (see also Lambchop).
    I’m pretty sure that about covers my festive list. Happy listening one and all.

    Merry Christmas 🙂

  103. Ok, after much thought:

    1. Blackstar – David Bowie
    2. You Want It Darker – Leonard Cohen
    3. Case. Lang, Veirs
    4. Chaim Tannenbaum
    5. Earth – Neil Young
    6. Hope 6 Demolition Project – PJ Harvey
    7. Folklore – Big Big Train
    8. Charles Lloyd & The Marvels – I Long To See You
    9. Steeleye Span – Dodgy Bastards (ferocious escape from middle of the road doldrums album!)
    10. Kate Bush – Before The Dawn
    No order:
    Paul Simon – Stranger To Stranger
    Monkees – Good Times
    Van Morrison – Keep Me Singing
    Bob Weir – Blue Mountain
    Madness – Can’t Touch Us Now
    Angel Olsen – My Woman
    Eno – The Ship
    Drive By Truckers
    Radiohead

    Merry Christmas!

  104. good luck counting all this stuff up

    1. Skeleton Tree – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
    No comments needed.

    2. Good Luck and Do Your Best – Gold Panda
    Electronica album of the year.

    3. The Wknd – Starboy
    Feel like this has not got its due on the site, so may feel moved to write a review in due course. Some monstrous tunes.

    4.Light Upon The Lake – Whitney
    We saw this lot in the summer – great tunes, singing drummer, channelling the Eagles via Vampire Weekend.

    5. Flotus – Lambchop
    All about the first and last tracks. I’m not a Lambchop acolyte, this may be my favourite Lambchop album. Soaky in the Pooper still the best track though.

    6. Teenage Fanclub – Here
    Felt this is the album they could have made after Songs from Northern Britain, it’s that good.

    7. My Wild West – Lissie
    Slightly cheesy in a sync’d to Grays Anatomy way, but strong songs.

    8 III – Moderat
    Some modern tech house minimal stuff from the continent. I may be on my own here.

    9 Good Advice – Basia Bulat
    Good songs.

    10 Puberty 2 – Mitski

    11 I Wasn’t Born To Lose You – Swevedriver

    12 Look Park – Look Park

    13 Give A Glimpse of What Yer Not – Dinosaur Jr

    14 Rolling Stones – Lonesome and Blue

    15 Case/Lang/Viers – Case/Lang/Viers

    16 Drive-By Truckers – American Band

    • Everyone says the first and last tracks for FLOTUS. Cept me. The first track yes, but I’m not so keen on the last track, The Hustle, at all. Howe and Harbor Country are my faves.

      Btw, Blue & Lonesome (not Lonesome & Blue). I only mention this cos I keep making the same mistake myself.

  105. Well, it’s taken some time, but I’ve listened to more new music this year than any other year of my life. At least this proves there is one positive to being on long-term sickness absence! Much of it has been hip hop, and latterly grime and experimental R&B, and as this has all been new to me I haven’t really known when most of the music was made, as I have just been following paths suggested by books and websites, along with recommendations by others, so the music could have been 30 years or 30 days old by the time I got round to it. Yes, some stuff was unmistakably 80’s and some was obviously 20 years old, as I knew the performer has been dead for that long, but some of the music that I thought was 10-15 years old was, in fact, from this year, whereas other albums that I thought were new were 10-15 years old! Much of the new music (to me) was so good that I am envious of the anticipation and excitement that long-term fans of the artists must have had when the records originally came out. Particularly annoying when I think back to some of the rubbish I was listening to myself at the time.

    So it took a bit of working out which albums were from 2016, but I think I got them all and as there were 99 (at that point) I downloaded the Paul Simon album people had been banging on about to make it a nice round 100 and set about listening to them all again and doing my own top 100 (which has subsequently risen to 120 with new additions and finding other albums I owned that I didn’t realise were from this year). So I have been re-listening to these albums whenever I found the time and finished yesterday (or thought I had) with the Stones album. I’ve since downloaded and had a couple of listens to Run The Jewels’ RTJ3, the second listen having just finished. So I finally have my top 120 (of which 60 or 70 in the middle will, I’m sure, be pretty interchangeable!), the top 26 of which are:

    1 Skepta – Konnichiwa
    2 Anderson .Paak – Malibu
    3 David Bowie – Blackstar
    4 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree
    5 NxWorries – Yes Lawd!
    6 Kano – Made In The Manor
    7 Apollo Brown & Skyzoo – The Easy Truth
    8 Frank Ocean – Blonde
    9 Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Familia
    10 Michael Kiwanuka – Love And Hate
    11 Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker
    12 New Order – Complete Music [shift all the albums below up 1 place if this is disallowed for being a remix album of an album from 2015]
    13 Czarface – A Fistful Of Peril
    14 Run The Jewels – RTJ3
    15 Kendrick Lamar – Untitled Unmastered.
    16 Bill Pritchard – Mother Town Hall
    17 Aesop Rock – The Impossible Kid
    18 Turin Brakes – Lost Property
    19 Masta Ace – The Falling Season
    20 Chance The Rapper – Colouring Book
    21 Prince – HitnRun Phase Two
    22 Smoke DZA & Pete Rock – Don’t Smoke Rock
    23 Danny Brown – Atrocity Exhibition
    24 Fliptrix – Patterns Of Escapism
    25 Suede – Night Thoughts
    26 J. Cole – For Your Eyez Only

    Bubbling under in a great year of new music – DJ Khaled, ScHoolboy Q, Gucci Mane (Everybody Looking), A Tribe Called Quest, J Dilla, Wild Beasts, Oddisee, Domo Genesis, 21 Savage, The Weeknd and Elton John (his run of albums since Songs From The West Coast in 2001 has been way better than you would expect of someone 30 years into his career, even if his choice of album covers may have slipped somewhat!).

    There is a great deal of music I’ve never heard in other lists above that I will be working my way through in the coming weeks, so I may actually find that I haven’t yet listened to my favourite album of 2016…

    Finally, and this is in no way meant to be confrontational, but I’m afraid I personally have found several albums by established artists of whom I enjoy listening to their earlier works to be sadly quite lacking. I have no doubt that spending most of the year listening to other kinds of music (I have pretty much gone off guitar based music) has contributed to me feeling this way, but I haven’t really enjoyed the albums by Paul Simon, The Monkees, Madness, Lucinda Williams (I absolutely love Car Wheels… but I think her ‘drawl’ now sounds like drunkenness!), Graham Nash, The Handsome Family and Teenage Fanclub, and, whilst I enjoyed the following a little more, I was also disappointed with Radiohead, Pet Shop Boys, Wilco, ABC and The Jayhawks. Maybe they’ll grow on me, as I have no doubt my top 25 of 2016 won’t look exactly as above after another 6 months of listening, but thus far they haven’t really done it for me. Rihanna came bottom of my 120 though, just below The Avalanches, Norah Jones, Yello and The Monkees.

    • Interesting, eclectic list, Paul, and extra marks for showing your workings out. I especially like the way Turin Brakes nestles between Aesop Rock and Master Ace.

      I think you need to listen to Radiohead a bit more. It’s beautiful.

      • I’m afraid that, whilst I own all Radiohead’s albums, I’m one of those who still favours The Bends. I’ve only listened to the new one a few times, but I just get the impression that they could knock albums out like that in their sleep. It feels like an album that would be made if you told a bunch of musicians to make an album that sounds like Radiohead.

        It’s long been a problem for artists that, as they release more and more albums, they eventually run out of tunes. The Charlatans are a good case in point. A lot of their later albums ended up a bit bland or dirgey. They still came out with the odd great song like Blackened Blue Eyes and one of their later albums (may be You Cross My Path, I’d have to check) was quite good, but by and large they ran out of tunes. But musicians are loathed to admit it. I always look at Radiohead’s move to ‘more challenging’ albums as their way around running out of tunes. I may be wrong though!

        It’s also a problem of artists that eventually they start churning albums out that all sound a bit samey. This is what has really put me off the new Teenage Fanclub album, and again I say that as someone who has all their albums. There aren’t many artists who come out with new things a decade or more into their career, so your appreciation of an artist’s latest album can often reflect how much you are able to enjoy the same sort of sound. Of course, you can often put up with the same old sound from some artists, but not others, which can be a little unfair!

          • It was for a while and may well be again, when the dust settles. It’s quite difficult ranking music from different styles, in fact much more difficult than we’d think. Like comparing cheese and onion crisps with an apple pie!

            It was actually Blackstar that made me dust off my hi-fi and actually play the CD, as I have spent the past 7 or 8 years listening almost solely on my iPod or through my PC. It was a great album to play first, as it really hit home that music sounds better through a proper set of speakers. It also led to me banging on to the missus about how great Bowie was and that he is one of the few longstanding artists who do try new things and still make great records. She then had the unpleasant task of waking me up with the sad news a couple of days later. It’s only recently that I have been able to start playing the record again.

            But from Bowie I moved to Kendrick Lamar and my hip hop journey. And for the next week or so I am starting at the top of this thread and listening to everything on everybody else’s list to see what I have missed! I’m really looking forward to it, as I have already added the Michael Kiwanuka album to my list of favourites after it cropped up on a few early lists.

            • “And for the next week or so I am starting at the top of this thread and listening to everything on everybody else’s list”

              Everything?!! You might need more than a week or so, but I suppose after the 600-odd you’ve bought yourself this year it won’t seem quite so daunting. Happy listening!

              • Ah, what I didn’t say was that I’d already gone through quite a bit of it and that the listens may only last a few seconds if those few seconds were horrible! And the fact that I’ve got this far down so quickly shows I skipped quite a lot!

                However, I have picked up 8 that had passed me by, a few of which would probably have been in my top 25 had I known about them sooner. Actually, one did make it into my top 25 (Michael Kiwanuka), as I listened to it quite early. And for someone who has a dozen or so Van Morrison albums and considered him a favourite artist at one point I hadn’t really listened to anything he’s done for the past 20 years or so, so listening to his new album this evening has made me feel a bit ashamed for this and I will correct it, albeit with caution, by looking at the ones that I ignored to see what else I missed.

                  • Michael Kiwanuka – bought his previous album too
                    Lydia Loveless – ditto
                    The Lucid Dream
                    Field Music
                    Johann Johannsson
                    Apathy – although would have got this, had I known it was out
                    Car Seat Headrest
                    Van Morrison

                    And going to relisten to William Bell ths morning, but very likely to add this too.

                    Actually, upon listening to Johann Johannsson, although Orphee doesn’t really sound like it, it gave me the same feel that Vangelis’ Blade Runner soundtrack gave me. So it was a pleasant surprise to see that Johannsson is composing the soundtrack to the new Blade Runner film when I was exploring his back catalogue. I do wish they had not chosen to do a sequel to an almost perfect film though, just in case it ruins the legacy. It sounds like it’s going to ruin the ambiguous ending of the first film anyway, by having Deckard as an old man.

                    • In my youth sequels were nearly always rubbish. These days, they are often really good. Blade Runner is in my top three films of all time (along with The Godfather II and Groundhog Day). I’m hopeful.

  106. Here’s my list.

    1. Ward Thomas – Cartwheels
    2. Margo Price – Mid West Farmer’s Daughter
    3. Goat – Requiem
    4. Wovenhand – Star Treatment
    5. Meilyr Jones – 2013
    6. Jeffrey Lewis – Manhattan
    7. Tim Lee 3 – Tin, Man
    8. Syd Arthur – Apricity
    9. Money – Suicide Songs
    10. Chris Robinson Brotherhood – Anyway You Love (have only just got the second one of the year so can’t really comment).

    Unfortunately can’t include my favourite album of the year as it hasn’t been released yet although I bought it from her at a gig in October – Sarah Darling – Dream Country – a perfect slice of pop-country.

  107. I’ve spent far too much time thinking about this & I keep changing my mind, but here I go.

    1. Kandace Springs – Soul Eyes
    2. William Bell – This Is Where I Live
    3. Michael Kiwanuka – Love & Hate
    4. Emmit Rhodes – Rainbow Ends
    5. Aaron Neville – Apache
    6. Fantastic Negrito – The Last Days of Oakland
    7. Anderson East – Delilah
    8. Miranda Lambert – The Weight of These Wings
    9. Various Artists – Southern Family (Jason Isbell, Miranda Lambert, Brandy Clark etc)
    10. Brandy Clark – Big Day in a Small Town

    & in no particular order –
    ABC – Lexicon of Love II (underrated, great pop album)
    Bonnie Raitt – Dig in Deep (would normally be in top 10, just not in a Bonnie mood)
    Prince – Hit N Run Phase Two
    Pretenders – Alone (Chrissie is consistently great)
    Mavis Staples – Livin’ on a High Note (again, on another day, top 10)
    The Jayhawks – Paging Mr Proust (Not impressed when I bought it but I was wrong having listened again today)
    Van Morrison – Keep Me Singing (again, on another day, top 10)
    Rolling Stones – Blue & Lonesome
    Sturgill Simpson – A Sailor’s Guide to Earth (again, on another day, top 10)
    The 1975 – I Like It When You Sleep
    Kings of Leon – Walls

    Note: 7-10 is country as that is where my head is. Ask me next week & it’ll all change.

  108. Bugger. I’m dead late with this but here goes;

    1 Steve Gunn – Eyes On The Lines
    2 Teenage Fanclub – Here
    3 Wild Nothing – Life Of Pause
    4 Sea Pinks – Soft Days
    5 The Coral – Distance Inbetween
    6 Goat – Requiem
    7 The Wave Pictues – Bamboo Diner In The Rain
    8 The Divine Comedy – Foreverland
    9 Sunflower Bean – Human Ceremony
    10 White Denim – Stiff
    11 Toy – Clear Shot
    12 C Duncan – Midnight Sun
    13 Metronomy – Summer 08
    14 Wussy – Forever Sounds
    15 Papernut Cambridge – Love The Things Your Lover Loves

    Sorry it’s late. Ta.

  109. 1. Shearwater – Jet Plane and Oxbow
    2. Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool
    3. Agnes Obel – Citizen of Glass
    4. Bon Iver – 22 a Million
    5. Gogo Penguin – Man Made Object
    6. Go March – Go March
    7. Teleman – Brilliant Sanity
    8. Ben Lukas Boysen – Spells
    9. Explosions in the Sky- The Wilderness
    10. Nils Frahm & Olafur Arnalds – Trance Frendz
    11. Christine and the Queens – Chaleur Humaine
    12. The Comet is Coming – Channel the Spirits

    And as usual there’s a whole load I haven’t got round to yet – Bowie, Mogwai, Daughter, Wilco, Nick Cave…

  111. I’ll just stick this through the letter box and then run away.

    I don’t claim that all of them have been throughly Tigger Tested but each of the albums by the fine artists on this rather paltry list have spread pleasure in KFD Towers at some point in the past year. Made me realise I really am not a Poleman, more of a Vaulter I’m afraid.

    King Creosote – Astronaut meets Appleman
    Mare Nostrum 2 – Lundgren, Fresu & Galliano
    Frida Hyvonen – Kvinnor och barn
    Jan Lundgren – The Ystad Concert: A Tribute to Jan Johansson
    Agnes Obel /Citizen of Glass
    Goat – Requiem
    P J Harvey – The Hope 6 Demolition Project
    Leonard Cohen – You want it darker
    M83 – Junk
    Regina Spektor – Remember us to life

  113. I don’t make lists. I find it too difficult. But I’m glad that you all do. Some great stuff to catch up with. And @locust keep the Swedish recommendations coming, as Lloyd Cole said, I love a bit of “Music in a foreign language, words that we can’t understand…” 🙂

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