According to 6 Music.
I’ve looked at this list and thought No, Who?, No, No, Who? etc. Still what do we know.
I wouldn’t say that there is anything I’ve heard that you ‘need’ to listen to but would just plug the new Calexico/Iron & Wine collaboration ‘Years To Burn’ – I should do a review but I’m a bit tired. Its just great songs beautifully played and sung and that’s all you really ‘need’ to know.
Here’s a track (from Years to Burn not the R6 list !)
Love the album but it’s far too short. Not much more than ep really.
Isn’t Iron & Wine massively underrated?
@Neela – Im not sure tbh – I loved the Ghost on Ghost album and this one but have not been hugely impressed by his other stuff. He has a fabulous voice though. Mind you Joey Burns and John Convertino must be one of the best rhythm sections in world – I think they might make me sound halfway decent !
Oh, but The Shepherd’s Dog and Kiss Each Other Clean are very good. And Beast Epic. Not so fond of the collaborations, to be honest.
I really love “our endless numbered days” . Fever Dream is wonderful.
My un-requested opinion:
Not impressed with Vampire Weekend or James Blake (purely based on Sotify and YouTube cherry picking) – although there was a very small echo of Elvis Costello-ism on Vampire Weekend.
Fontaine DC is good, but is taking a while to “get”.
Sharon Van Etten looks/sounds interesting, but I’m not committing cash just yet
Hey, my top four albums of the year (so far) are amongst that lot, so this surely means that, a few months before I turn 50, I am finally down wig ver kids! James Blake, Little Simz, Karen O & Danger Mouse and Lizzo are the four and they’re all very good.
I thought the ones by Vampire Weekend (who I find a terribly overrated band) and Fontaine’s D.C. were a bit rubbish and I am disappointed with the Flying Lotus one, as I have one of his earlier ones, Los Angeles, that I really like. I haven’t heard any of the others.
I think the average 6music listener would be highly flattered to be considered part of the kids, or indeed to be down with them….
My Dad listens to 6Music all day, nearly every day. He’s 76.
You’re Dead, Flying Lotus’s last album is astonishing. Best album of 2014 in my view.
In fact, this has prompted me to buy his latest. I’d overlooked it so far.
I may secretly listen to the music and even buy it if I like it, but I don’t want to be seen as ‘down with the kids’, and even if I was, they wouldn’t want a 58 year old around embarrassing them or making them self-conscious when they should feel free and unscrutinised. The whole point is that the kids down’t want adults around at certain points. moreover, they have to discover things for themselves and their mistakes, likewise. Marketeers want us to want to be though – sells records. Imagine being at a 1977 punk gig at the age of 58: even if you love the music, you are going to stick out more than Charlie Harper.
Am I taking this all too seriously?
Yes. Which means you’re in the right place.
Of course, there were a few 58 years olds (and older) at 1977 punk gigs. They stood out, but in some cases were recognised as “characters”. Nothing wrong with being an outlier, as long as it’s on your own terms.
Thing is, “kids” can’t have their own secret bands anymore. Due to this thing called the internet, everything is out there for everyone, and it’s in a band’s interest to have it publicised everywhere. If you are interested in music (and have retained your curiousity in new stuff, of course) and own an internet you will probably be vaguely aware of nearly everything that is out there.
The Vampire Weekend and Sharon Van Etten are OK from first listens. Slightly surprised they didn’t list Weyes Blood or Aldous Harding.
Yes. Those two albums, Blood’s and Harding’s, continue to grow on me.
Or The National? None more 6 Music?Rather good and much enhanced by female vocals.
But my money is on this one which won’t come out until August.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyoxpN8nempUXYiZkbPtfXA
You wait.
I like that. Despite ripping off Last Nite by The Strokes
Not wanting to take away anything from their musical abilities, having a singer who resembles Jody Comer can’t hurt either.
Ripping off The Strokes? The irony!
Another tip regarding an album that’ll be coming out soon – on 12 July, in fact.
There are quite a few Khruangbin fans on this board, aren’t there?
Well, Khruangbin have a dub album coming out called “Hasta El Cielo (Con Todo El Mundo in dub)”
https://khruangbin.bandcamp.com/album/hasta-el-cielo-con-todo-el-mundo-in-dub-excluding-n-s-america
I reckon it could be pretty useful …
Thank you, ordered!
I love the Vampire Weekend album, but I will say that it works best listened to all the way through rather than picking out specific tracks. Having said that; this is one of my favourite songs of 2019, from that album…so good it made me cry on a bus full of people:
The James Blake album is also absolutely brilliant. I’ve ordered the Calexico/Iron & Wine album, but not heard it yet. I love Iron & Wine, but he’s a bit too prolific for his own good sometimes! All of the EPs I keep finding in charity shops, it’s never ending!
I’ll add my support for Vampire Weekend. It’s a beauty
Hmm, the Ezra is good to see there. I have it but haven’t yet listened, having bought the vinyl by mistake, somehow. I have a deck but tend to listen to new mainly in the car. The Karen O I have, sold by the Modest Mouse tag. And that’s the rub. I kept on waiting for Michael Kiwanuka to sing, as it sounds like his one without him. OK, different tunes but all, I mean all, the stylisations are identical. I have sat this before, being directed to his earlier collaborations, finding that the style wasn’t quite there yet. Now that it is, it is too identifiable. File under why Bonnie Tyler and Jim Steinman sounded like Meat without the loaf.
The associated playlist adds some more artists, although still no place for Aldous Harding. I must check out Archive Clip, they get so many cuts in there they must be good…
1
Fontaines D.C.
Boys in the Better Land
2
Archive Clip
Ezra Koenig w/Lauren Laverne, 23.05.2019
3
Vampire Weekend
Sympathy
4
Self Esteem
The Best
5
Stealing Sheep
Why Haven’t I?
6
Archive Clip
Cate Le Bon w/Marc Riley, 21.05.19
7
Cate Le Bon
Mother’s Mother’s Magazines
8
Jordan Rakei
Mind’s Eye
9
Archive Clip
James Blake w/Mary Anne Hobbs, 17.04.19
10
James Blake
Tell Them (feat. Moses Sumney & Metro Boomin)
11
Karen O & Danger Mouse
Turn The Light
12
The National
Quiet Light
13
Archive Clip
Loyle Carner w/Mary Anne Hobbs, 23.05.19
14
Loyle Carner
Desoleil (Brilliant Corners) (feat. Sampha)
15
Ezra Collective
Quest For Coin
16
The Chemical Brothers
Eve of Destruction
Archive Clip
Lizzo w/Mary Anne Hobbs, 25.02.19
18
Lizzo
Juice
19
Anderson .Paak
King James
20
Kate Tempest
Holy Elixir
21
Archive Clip
Gilles Peterson Flying Lotus album playback clip, 25.05.19
22
Flying Lotus
Spontaneous (feat. Little Dragon)
23
Big Thief
UFOF
24
Archive Clip
Sharon Van Etten w/Mary Anne Hobbs, 25.03.19
25
Sharon Van Etten
Comeback Kid
26
Rosie Lowe
The Way (feat. Jay Electronica)
27
Archive Clip
Slowthai w/Gilles Peterson, 18.05.19
28
slowthai
Gorgeous
29
Little Simz
101 FM
Agree with @Anton about the new National album. Ive probably played that as much as any new album this year but I don’t think of them as a particular favourite of mine – not quite sure why that is.
@Feedback_File I think maybe it’s the combination of the slightly slurry (one bottle of chardonnay down?) rambling and enjoyable gibberish which for some reason lands with me
and this time cut with some incredibly contrasting female vocals
A very good year.
So just to show that you can teach an old dog etc. Have just been listening to the Vampire Weekend album Father of the Bride. Well knock me down with a feather duster but it’s really really good. I just imagined another clodhopping indie band but no – delicate and sophisticated songwriting with country stylings here and there. What a revelation and what a find ( for me anyway).
Their Glastonbury set had many highlights and they’re far more mobile on stage than I had imagined, very watchable.
I know I wasn’t alone among Afterworders in loving Nat Birchall and Al Breadwinner’s outstanding jazz/dub set “Sounds Almighty” last year.
Well, the good news is that on July 26, there’s a (sort of) follow-up being released. This time, Birchall and Breadwinner team up with top trombone maestro Vin Gordon for an album of heavy-heavy type tunes.
The album’s called “African Shores”.
It’s available from at least two different bandcamp sites:
https://natbirchallmusic.bandcamp.com/album/african-shores-vin-gordon
https://thebreadwinners.bandcamp.com/album/african-shores-vin-gordon
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
You can’t go wrong with any of the below.
Eton Alive – Sleaford Mods
The Crucible-Motorpsycho
Chalk Hill Blue-Will Burns & Hannah Peel
Life Metal-Sunn O)))
Henryk Górecki: Symphony No 3 (Symphony of Sorrow) -Beth Gibbons & The Polish National Symphony Orchestra
Fire In The Hole -Black Peaches
Tutti-Cosey Fanny Tutti
The Delta Sweete Revisited-Mercury Rev
International Teachers of Pop-International Teachers of Pop
Hollow Earth-Pye Corner Audio
Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery -The Comet Is Coming
Plastic Anniversary -Matmos
Serfs Up!-Fat White Family
New Routes Out of Innerland-Mark Peters
Sacred Dreams-Josefin Örhn + The Libration
Father Of The Bride-Vampire Weekend
Sule Skerry-Erland Cooper
Schlagenheim-Black Midi
Can You Really Find Me-Night Moves
Loops In The Secret Society-Jane Weaver
Chanctonbury Rings-Justin Hopper & Sharron Kraus with The Belbury Poly