Well `tis now `16 so you have just over 5 days left to vote. Who will prevail? Sufjan or Julia? Which reminds me I need to get my 10 selected. You can vote under this post if you like but remember voting closes January 8th at midnight.
Thank you.
2015 Best Album Poll – 5 days and a bit left to vote.
by 35 Comments
Here’s mine:
1. Sufjan: Carrie and Lowell
2. David Rawlings Machine: Nashville Obsolete
3. Riley Walker: Primrose Green
4. The Decemberists: What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World
5. Jason Isbell: Something More Than Free
6. Calexico: Edge of the Sun
7. Julia Holter: Have you in my Wilderness
8. Nils Frahm: Solo
9. Richard Hawley: Hollow Meadows
10. Bork: Vulnicura
Just one from the UK. Shame
After much thought I have finally decided.
Calexico – Edge Of The Sun.
Decemberists – What A Terrible World What A Beautiful World
Melody Gardot – Currency Of Man
Steve Hackett – Wolflight
Richard Hawley – Hollow Meadows
Mercury Rev – The Light In You
The Unthanks – Mount The Air
Ryley Walker – Primrose Green
Waterboys – Modern Blues
Steven Wilson – Hand. Cannot. Erase.
Ryley Walker`s “Primrose Green” was my easiest selection, a great talent IMHO. Steven Wilson proves he is extraordinarily talented as a solo artist along with his talents in the studio handling the talents of others. Hmm a hat – trick of talents. A question, when is Richard Hawley going to get the recognition he desrves? Melody Gardot – brilliant.
Here is my 10, a couple of which, I suspect, will be garnering their sole votes here:
1 Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free
2 Shelby Lynne – I Can’t Imagine
3 Dean Owens – Into the Sea
4 Chris Stapleton – Traveller
5 Dawes – All Your Favourite Bands
6 Gretchen Peters – Blackbirds
7 Israel Nash – Israel Nash’s Silver Season
8 Shawn Colvin – Uncovered
9 Liz Longley – Liz Longley
10 Florence & the Machine – How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
Julia or Sufjan – such a close call. I’m off to top myself now…
If I don’t post this now, I’ll forget! Thanks for the reminder.
1. FFS – FFS (This is just so good on record and brilliant live)
2. Ezra Furman – Perpetual Motion People (I fear the days of small venues are gone)
3. Wreckless Eric AmERICa (patchy but he’s still got it)
4. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
5. Jody Porter – Month of Mondays (An excellent stop gap while we wait for the next FoW opus)
6. Craig Finn – Faith in the Future
7. The Weepies – Sirens (consistent as ever – good to see them back for all sorts of reasons)
8. Speedy Ortiz – Foil Deer
9. Lindi Ortega – Faded Gloryville (Another strong set – looking forward to the tour)
10. Sons Of Bill – Love and Logic (‘Paisley Underground’ for the 21st century)
Again, thanks for the reminder
1. Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free ( I might be a little biased following the concert last week)
2. Wilco – Star Wars (also a great gig to back it up earlier this year)
3. Waterboys – Modern Blues
4. EL VY – Return to the Moon
5. The Decemberists – What a Terrible World…
6. Dave Rawlings Machine- Nashville Obsolete
7. Chris Stapleton – Traveller
8. Kurt Vile – Believe I’m Going Down
9. Allison Moorer – Down To Believing
10. Calexico – Edge of the Sun
1. Public Service Broadcasting – The Race for Space
2. Dawes – All your favourite bands
3. Admiral Fallow – Tiny rewards
4. The Decemberists – What a terrible world…
5. Belle and Sebastian – Girls in Peacetime…
6. Sufjan Stevens – Carrie and Lowell
7. John Grant – Grey tickles, Black Pressure
8. Kamasi Washington – The Epic
9. The Rezillos – Zero
10. Matthew Halsall & the Gondwana Orchestra – Into Forever
The Rezillos! No way…..is it any good?
While i wouldn’t go so far as to say it was worth the wait, it’s good solid fun.
Ah ok…..30 odd years or so the gap between albums?
Thanks for the prompt, here goes.
This is the Kit – Bashed Out
British Sea Power – Sea of Brass
Duke Special – Look Out Machines
Eagles of Death Metal – Zipper Down
Faith No More – Sol Invictus
John Grant – Grey Tickles, Black Pressure
Lonelady – Hinterland
Laura Marling – Short Movie
New Order – Music Complete
Joanna Newsome – Divers
The Unthanks – Mount the Air
That’s it.
Oh no! How could I have forgotten Shelby for my list? I am an idiot.
Further evidence of my idiocy is my coming late to Jason Isbell. I’ve seen him praised by many on here but didn’t investigate for shallow reasons. i.e. Album cover looks dull, his name didn’t draw me in. I imagined it to be whiney singer songwriter guff. How wrong I was. CDs bought, concert booked.
Today I’m going for…
1:Jim O’Rouke – Simple Songs
2:Ezra Furman – Perpetual motion People
3:Bop English – Constant Bop
4: New Order – Music Complete
5:East India Youth – Culture of Volume
6: Dead Weather – Dodge and Burn
7: DeerHunter – Fading Frontier
8: Idlewild – Everything ever written
9: Franz Fernand and Sparks – FFS
10:Grimes – Art Angle
Bubbling under: Blur, Matthew E White, Everything everything, Julia Holter, Public service broadcast, Wolf Alice, Sleater-Kinney, Menace beach, El Vy, Du Blonde, Young Fathers and !!!
Pretty decent year.
Not so many purchases for me this year, but I’ll be picking up a copy of ‘Carrie and Lowell’ in the HMV sale:-
1 – Roisin MURPHY Hairless Toys
2 – Gaz COOMBES Matador
3 – John GRANT Grey Tickles, Black Pressure
4 – Kacey MUSGRAVES Pageant Material
Delighted to see more recognition for the Ezra Furman album. A brilliant talent that seems to have bypassed the Massive completely.
Infectious scuzz du-wop rock n’roll with a barnstorming garage e street band backing it all up,
Well I can’t be Arze’d to go back and count, but I thought Ezra was picking up points regularly on the other thread. More surprising is the dramatic late surge for AW golden boy John Grant who, for some time (he posits again without taking the time to check) seemed to be getting the Norvege: Nil Points from one of his keenest audiences…
Oops! That reads back as a bit disrespectful. What I meant was I voted for Ezra myself, so I’ve been keeping an eye on his votes.
Also: big props to the poor blighter who does have to count these…
4 votes on the other thread for Ezra, including you SR.
Here’s my top ten for 2015. If Neil Young’s Bluenote Cafe (1ive in 1988 but never released before) isn’t eligible, bump Sufjan up to 10.
1 Modern Blues – The Waterboys
2 What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World – The Decemberists
3 Hollywood Vampires – Hollywood Vampires
4 The Colours Of The Night – Pete Atkin
5 The Monsanto Years – Neil Young & Promise Of The Real
6 Bluenote Cafe – Neil Young and The Bluenotes (if eligible)
7 Hand. Cannot. Erase. – Steven Wilson
8 Can’t Forget – Leonard Cohen
9 No Cities To Love – Sleater Kinney
10 Nashville Obsolete – David Rawlings Machine
Honourable mentions:
Carrie and Lowell – Sufjan Stevens (good but no Illinoise or Michigan)
Shadows In The Night – Bob Dylan
Mount The Air – The Unthanks
Born To Play Guitar – Buddy Guy
It’s Not Your Gold Shall Me Entice – Elle Osborne
The Race For Space – Public Service Broadcasting
Grey Tickles, Black Pressure – John Grant
It’s Great To Be Alive – Drive By Truckers
Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance – Belle And Sebastian
Caffeine – Sharon Robinson
F.F.S. – F.F.S.
Duets – Van Morrison
Crosseyed Heart – Keith Richards
The Waterboys’ Modern Blues is easily my album of the year, a real return to form, not a duff track and Long Strange Golden Road is a truly, truly great song: an Idiot Wind for this century. Album and song should have been called “All That Ever Mattered” though IMNSHO.
Hollywood Vampires is much better than I had any right to expect from Alice Cooper et al. It’s gone under the radar somehow; never seen it reviewed, but it is a strong, fun, very noisy record. Kudos for playing “7 & 7 Is” live too.
The Pete Atkin is easily Pete and Clive James best album since the early 70s – great songs and production values too with the mighty Chris Spedding firing on all cylinders on lead guitar.
I saw Elle Osborne as support act to James Yorkston in Brum last month and she was delightfully quirky. The song “And Everything…” on the CD is tremendously witty.
The Race For Space is a brave attempt, concept and sampling is lovely but seriously lacks lead guitar; they should have invited Dave Gilmour in…
2015 was the year I finally got Sleater Kinney and Steven Wilson, but not Julia Holter I’m afraid.
Oh, and The Monsanto Years is Neil Young’s best new album for about 10 years.
Here’s Mine
Ryley Walker – Primrose Green
Public Service Broadcasting – The Race For Space
David Gilmour – Rattle That Lock
Paul Weller – Saturns Pattern
Kasami Washington – The Epic
Bob Dylan – Shadows In The Night
Sleaford Mods – Key Markets
D’Angelo – Black Messiah
New Order – Music Complete
Paul Heaton And Jackie Abbott – Wisdom,Laughter And Lines
I’m with you Artery on Julia Holter
For me, one album has far outshone anything else I listened to this year, on 50+ listens so far. Don’t think I’ve been drawn to any album so much in a very long time & have no idea if it’s cos it’s such a good album, or just where my head’s at the moment & this just makes sense. Mebbe both.
It was also an album I was determined NOT to like from when it first came into my orbit as I took a strong dislike to the cover as it so reminded me of Mark Lanegan (he also sounds a lot like Mr Lanegan, gruff & gravelly) Last Fm shoved him at me for weeks. Amazon kept recommending him as my no.1 pick, ditto E-music & I was determined to ignore ‘em all, & then getting ready for work & having a quick browse on ol’ fb to see a post from Sparkle On, a Sparklehorse fan site, highly recommending the same album again & a link to a video of the title track, so I finally relented & gave it a listen, & fell head over heels in love. Downloaded a copy immediately from his bandcamp site. Have bought 3 more physical copies since, but keep giving ‘em away to people. Just ordered another so I’ve got one again. Just heard he’s in the studio recording his second album. Can’t wait. So.
1 David Corley – Available Light
2 Titus Andronicus – The Most Lamentable Tragedy (another one I was determined to avoid that hit me upside the head)
3 Built To Spill – Untethered Moon (Great guitarry album, reminds me o’ ridin’ my bike to work in the sunshine in the springtime – cos we finally got a decent manager & it felt like things were turning around, but then the company got rid of her after a month so now it’s back to the same ol’ slog. Sigh!)
4 Jeff Rosenstock – We Cool? (Great pop punk album about gettin’ older but probably no wiser, but just keepin’ on goin’ cos what else are ya gonna do- makes me wanna jump around like a hyperactive 4 yr. old – my 14 yr. old likes it too)
5 Lael Neale – I’ll Be Your Man (This made me cry, some songs too close to the bone, ouch)
6 The Mountain Goats – Beat The Champ (went completely off The Mountain Goats 9 years ago when I saw ‘em live, their fans were so ott, whoda thunk it’d be an album full o’ passionate paeans to his childhood wrestling heroes’d draw me back in)
7 Jeff Bridges – Sleeping Tapes (it’s the Dude!! Sending ya to sleep. What’s not to like?!!)
8 Joan Shelley – Over & Even (just lovely)
9 Nadia Reid – Listen To Formation, Look For The Signs (read about this a while back in Uncut while flickin’ through it in WH Smith- didn’t buy it cos someone had nicked the cd off the cover & knew I’d love it, but then I forgot the title & the singer, all I knew was she was from New Zealand & this was her 1st album. Only found it last week by fluke. Recognised the cover immediately. It’s gorgeous. Love her voice.)
10 Michael Rault – Living Daylight (Proper power pop at it’s best with a great t-rex vibe)
11 Protomartyr – The Agent Intellect (Ohh, doomy Joy Division sound, interesting lyrics, dealing with the death of his ma & pa)
12 Hop Along – Painted Shut
13 The Rabbit – The Carrot
14 Lizzo – Big GRRRL Small World
15 B.C. Camplight – How To Die In the North
16 Faith No More – Sol Invictus
17 Phil Cook – Southland Mission
18 Dave Rawlings Machine – Nashville Obsolete
19 Thee Oh Sees – Mutilator Defeated At Last
20 Tame Impala – Currents
21 Various Artists – Remembering Mountains: Unheard Songs By Karen Dalton (ta Tiggs)
22 Wand – Golem
23 Mike Krol – Turkey
24 Pops Staples – Don’t Lose This
25 Bop English – Constant Bop
26 Julien Baker – Sprained Ankle
27 Fuzz – II
28 Daniel Romano – If I’ve Only One Time Askin’
29 Olivia Chaney – The Longest River
30 Deer Hunter – Fading Frontier
Ones I only liked some of, or I just haven’t given ‘em enough listens to know quite how I feel about ‘em yet :-
Israel Nash Gripka – Silver Season
Many Things – Burn Together
The Barreracudas – Can Do Easy
Giant Sand – Heartbreak Pass
Andy Human & The Reptoids – Andy Human & The Reptoids
Dirty Fences – Full Tramp
Mac McCaughan – Non-Believers
My Morning Jacket – Waterfall
Jacco Gardner – Hypnophobia
Jessica Pratt – On Your Own Love Again
Ezra Furman – Perpetual Motion People
Mac DeMarco – Another One
Jim O’Rourke – Simple Songs
American Wrestlers – American Wrestlers
Wilco – Star Wars,
Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell
Drinks – Hermits On Holiday
Beach Slang – The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us
Karl Kling – Karl Kling
Destroyer – Poison Season
Borns – Dopamine
Drew Gibson – 1532
Nice post, Contrary.
Plenty of interesting things to investigate there.
Seconded. We can always rely on you, Contrary, to pull some unexpected rabbits out of the hat.
This time there’s even The Carrot, an album by The Rabbit!
Fuk! That’s 51 records she liked! Respect!! How many listened to/acquired altogether? Hell, my hit rate here is lower, percentage, than Duco’s list…. I’ve got 3.
Haha. Tiggs’ll probably have a go at me cos there’s only one rap rekkid in there, & no reggae! There’s a lot o’ garage rock, which probably ain’t yer kind o’ thing anyway @retropath2 Obviously I can’t count. Was meant to be 50.Duh. Actually there’s 52.
Your list is as inspiring as always, Contrary. Your love of music pours from every post. Marvellous.
Thanks for your work in compiling this. I’m sure that there’s a lot of other great stuff out there but albums released this year that I’ve bought and enjoyed are as follows:
No Cities To Love – Sleater Kinney;
What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World – The Decemberists;
John Grant – Grey Tickles, Black Pressure;
Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit;
Delines – Scenic Sessions;
Bob Dylan – Shadows in the Night;
Dull,dull,dull and a triple snooze. Snore. Average beats per minute? Old people.
I see you’ve gone for the Aussie haiku (7-5-7) rather than the Japanese 5-7-5 which is more familiar to us strawheads..
I didn’t really absorb enough new music during 2014 to justify a list of ten, so here are five which I’m still enjoying:
FFS – FFS
Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I sit and think…
Ghost Poet – Shedding Skin
David Rawlings Machine – Nashville Obsolete
Roisin Murphy – Hairless Toys
Am I still in time for this?
Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell
Julia Holter – Have You in My Wilderness
Tame Impala – Currents
Bjork – Vulnicura
Patrick Watson – Love Songs for Robots
Gaz Coombes – Matador
Joanna Newsom – Divers
Wilco – Star Wars
Nils Frahm – Solo
The Phoenix Foundation – Give Up Your Dreams
Lack of time/money means I haven’t heard much more new – I’m sure the likes of Godspeed, Calexico, EL VY, Ghost Poet and Grimes would be jostling for position, if I’d actually got round to listening to them in time.
In my extremely humble opinion of course…
9 of the worst records of 2015 and out of nowhere you pick the excellent Star Wars?
I think it best we never meet. Actually I take that back – anyone with such weird musical tastes is bound to be good to know.
I love you Wilson Squared
1. Daniel Norgren – Alabursy. Thank you @locust for this, it’s an absolutely beautiful, sparse record. Nice and short too. Hands down my favourite of the year and it’s nice that it’s someone new to me. I didn’t get a chance to listen to the Green Stone but I will at some point.
The rest are all pretty interchangeable, I like them all a lot.
2. Ryan Adams – 1989. Apart from background music, I haven’t really heard Taylor Swift’s versions but I can’t stop playing Ryan’s covers album.
3. Joanna Gruesome – Peanut Butter. Scuzzy, noisy but with plenty of sweetness.
4. Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell. I love it, I just wish it was shorter.
5. The Chills – Silver Bullets. I’d never heard them before but they write great songs with strong melodies and hooks.
6. Ryley Walker – Primrose Green. A great album and he’s got so much potential. I saw him live earlier in the year but he was playing solo and crying out for a double bass. I hear he’s now touring with Danny Thompson, what a perfect pairing that must be.
7. Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free. A great songwriter. I saw him in the summer and he was fantastic live.
8. James McMurtry – Complicated Game. Another fantastic songwriter.
9. Unthanks – Mount the Air. Their voices and charm just make me melt.
10. Public Service Broadcasting – Race for Space. A great listen.
These one’s I either haven’t listened to and am excited to check out or haven’t listened to enough to judge yet: Bill Fay, Ane Brun, Outfit, Gwenno, Decemberists, Rhiannon Giddens, Natalie Prass, Julia Holter, Dawes, British Sea Power, Matthew Halsall, Israel Nash, Waterboys.
Nothing too edgy in my list but that’s the way I like it, so there.
Too much music not enough time, the sign of a good year.
@mo – that makes me very happy, not only did you listen to it (and I always doubt that anyone actually pays any attention at all to my Swedish recommendations) but you loved it so much you put it in first place! Hooray!
Thank you, that made my day! 🙂
Right to the wire then…
1) “Desperate Journalist” – Desperate Journalist
The post-punk lineage of scorched Earth guitars, big drums and intense vocals runs from The Chameleons and the Bunnymen all the way through to Savages and this lot in the present day
2) “No Cities to Love” – Sleater Kinney
Comeback of the year!
3) “Chorusgirl” – Chorusgirl
Chiming guitars and catchy choruses, lovely stuff.
4) “Hat Bark Beach” – Knife Pleats
They sound like pre-Brit Pop Lush, that’ll do for me.
5) “Every Open Eye” – Chvrches
One of those albums where all the songs sound fresh-yet-familiar on first listen. Lauren really ought to do all the vocals though.
6) “New Sense” – Ethical Debating Society
Like Riot-Grrrl never went away. I know that’s not a selling point for a lot of you.
7) “Discrete Desires” – Helena Hauff
Big doomy beats and synth patterns, spooky stuff
8) “Magic Whip” – Blur
Sounds far better than it has any right to, being mechanical reclaimed from the leftovers of unfinished sessions as it was
9) “New Bermuda” – Deafheaven
Massive
10) “Closing Ice” – Senking
Icy glacial electronics
Honourable mentions for Manhattan Love Suicides, Joanna Gruesome, Viet Cong, PINS, Christian Fitness, Chemical Brothers, Karin Park, Autobahn, Teeth of the Sea, Cannibal Ox and The Luxembourg Signal. He says, covering a load of bases there.