No need for a poll this year – given previous OAP winners, a seventy-five and an eighty year-old are a shoo-in. No spreadsheets for me this year ..
Album of 2022?
by 66 Comments
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Musings on the byways of popular culture
Love the way the boy Joachim keeps an eagle eye on proceedings, to keep his rhythm allied to his Dad and Taj, rather than expecting them to keep up with him.
That’s because it’s blues they’re playing, not rock. He’s been well-schooled by his dad.
Got this this am and am loving it to bits.
Amazing to think it was recorded in something like three days.
The flaws and ad libbed yells merely add to its all round wonderfulness
I love Ry and Taj, two superb musicians BUT ….
Aren’t you forgetting Rhian and Hester? All the kids n the AW are definitely going to vote for Wet Lag!
A Wet Lag is someone who’s escaped from nick via a sewage pipe. I fail to see why anyone will vote for that.
Wasn’t that the entire plot of The Shawshank Redemption?
Of course it is, Dumas!
Boris Becker might.
Shouldn’t that be Boris Stanley Becker?
I’m probably not the first to say this, but it’s not as if he isn’t used to confined spaces.
All Boris’s are…..
I’ve heard good things about the Jessie Buckley/Bernard Butler collab. Nodoubt someone on here has already had it for weeks (even though it’s not released until June) and is preparing a review as I write…eh, Tigger?
That Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder album really is superb and Ry`s son Joachim manages to bring it all together. Album of the year? It`ll be up there but there`s been some lovely stuff released so far in `22 and more to come.
Just listened to the Wet Leg album.
Very nice and a perfect amalgam of the Voice of a Beehive and the Fountains of Wayne!
On first listen the Ry and Taj album is a little underwhelming – a big fan of both but together they seem to be going through the motions a little.
Of course my mind could be changed with repeat listens.
Album of the year so far might be Calexico El Mirador or the new Spiritualised one but as Baron said there has been a lot of good stuuf already with more to come.
Hadn’t seen your post when I posted mine @SteveT but we are as one. My contenders for record of the year so far would include Delines, Big Thief, and the Whitmore Sisters. But it’s early doors, and all to play for.
Spiritualised @SteveT? You’ll be raving about that Wet Leg album next which is the biggest pile of raccoon 🦝 💩 dung I have heard and the same goes for the band/duo name which is the worst since Sweaty Jelly.
@Baron-Harkonnen you cloth eared buffoon!!! That Wetleg is great pop music – I might not be listening to it in a year but that doesnt mean it is crap.it is of its moment and the first time I heard chaise longue I thought it was shite – about the third time I thought it was genius – open mind my dear boy.
@SteveT wanna stop trying to get down with the kids you daft old cretin. The only wet leg you know about is what you’re left with after you’ve had a piss.
Spiritualized definitely up there. By gum it’s good
This new Spiritualized album…is it like a good Spiritualized album?
It’s like a very good Spiritualized album
As good as a good Spacemen 3 album?
Mmm … better
got to say I listened to the Spiritualized and my immediate reaction was that J Spaceman hasn’t had a new idea for the last twenty years. As a self contained record it’s nice enough, but in the context of his wider discography it is utterly pointless.
Think the Calexico album is great @SteveT. I’d passed over the last couple of records because they were becoming one of those acts where I already had half a dozen albums, and did I need another? but this one captures them really well.
I love Ry Cooder, enjoy what I have heard of Taj Mahal, and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee in the mid 70s was one of the most memorable gigs I have ever been lucky enough to see – so I had high hopes for this record. But on first listening over the weekend I was considerably underwhelmed. Only first listen, mind – will certainly give it the regulation six goes, by which time it may well be one of my albums of the year…
What was that most memorable gig @Blue-Boy? Your post doesn’t say.
@Baron-Harkonnen it was at Cambridge Corn Exchange around 1976 or 77 I think. They were the first black American blues musicians I saw and I really had seen nothing like it – I recognise what Ry says in the article about the sheer drama of their appearance before they even started playing. Terrific stuff.
I saw Taj Mahal in 2000. He was great, not least becuase he had the biggest trousers I’ve ever seen.
We need more trouser info, how big were they? Would they flap and crack like whips in a strong wind? Did they extend beyond the feet causing an interesting stage shuffle?
Do you have photographic proof?
They were clown’s trousers, Hubes. Huge waist with a hoop for a belt, supported by stretchy red braces. Cut from orange and green and purple check cloth. Taj said they were referencing the vaudeville roots of black music. When standing, only the guitar neck was visible, giving a priapic effect.
All together now.
Chorus: In these old lavender trousers I’ve skipped and jumped and skated,
Laughed and wept, worked and slept, and twice been vaccinated.
I’ve drunk four ale, I’ve drunk champagne, been up the pole and down a drain.
I won the heart of Mary Jane in these old lavender trousers!
Thanks HP for the explanation, my mind is at rest.
I suspect I may be the only other person on here who knows what the hell you are going on about.
What furies have I unleashed? Cease this trouser madness! Think of the children!!
Think of Leggy Mountbatten.
Think of Legs and Co.
Not that much. Ewwww
Think of Boris!
mmmmm
You can suggest whatever you want but the answer is already Tears For Fears- Tipping Point. Don’t @ me if you haven’t listened to it yet..
I’ve heard it several times @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@Dave-Amitri.
Dave is right it is and I’m very surprised by that tbh.
Baffling that people already know the album of the year when it is not even 1/3 over. @dave-amitri
But I guess if Putin presses that button …
You mean if he reaches “The Tipping Point”? See what I did there @dai
Is he on the ITV Quiz Show?
Hoping to win a set of luggage or a Spa Break if the mystery counter falls
Will he be aiming for a Bullseye?
“Here’s what you could have won” (minions wheel out caravan)..
Let’s hope he just listens to the album @dave-amitri
My choice so far is Father John Misty ‘Chloe And The Next 20th Century’…an absolute masterpiece.
Father John Misty really gets on my tits. I want to like him but he is too far up his own arse for his own good.
‘Kin ‘ell I agree with @SteveT!
I have to agree – I find he’s a bit like Joanna Newson ( let me finish!) in that on paper it sounds right up my street but I find both of them unlistenable.
So far, early days, I’m underwhelmed by the Ry & Taj record. Much like I remain underwhelmed by our 2021 Winner.
But c’mon, if you were a betting man, an album made by two guys with a combined age of 155 years must surely be odds on to take this year’s trophy?
Unless the rumours of “Dylan and Springsteen – The Leonard Cohen Songbook” are true …
My money is on Wilco, allegedly a double album is coming …
I think Kurt Vile is ahead on points so far.
^
If we are talking the AW preference for ancient, don’t forget Willie Nelson has a new release on Friday, that being his birthday, as he enters his 10th decade. (89 years young on that day!)
I’ve now listened to it and it is great. His best since 1993’s Across The Borderline. It could well turn out to be my best of year, but, as said above, it is turning out a pretty good year, especially in folk.
You’ve made the thread go full circle there doc, since ‘Across the Borderline’ was writen by John Hiatt and Ry Cooder.
Willie has covered songs by everyone ever in the Afterword. 76 albums, not including live and collaborative. And, if he hasn’t yet, he’s got years to get round to it. I await his Chaise Longue with relish.
But who has covered Willie?
James Hat esq.
Chaise Longue with relish?
Special extended sandwich from Subway, perhaps?
I’m surprised Elvis Costello’s name hasn’t popped up yet. It’s a terrific album and very AW poll friendly.
I think my favourite so far is Global Scope by Pete Flux and Parental. I really liked their first album too, Infinite Growth, from a few years ago. American rapper, French producer, jazzy grooves, lovely.
Elvis is currently topping the list for me, Paul with Telefís not far behind. Early days yet, mind. I’ll pick up this album by RY and Taj in the next couple of weeks – tracks here sound nice.
Hard to say if they’ll still be there at the end of the year, but the new I’ve enjoyed most so far this year include The Devon Lamarr Organ Trio’s Cold As Weiss, which is supremely funky organ-led jazz
Pneumatic Tubes – A Letter From Treetops – lovely pastoral electronica on Ghost Box. The people here who enjoyed the Andrew Wasylyk album will like this as well, I’m sure
Dhidalah – Sensoria. Full tilt psych / stoner rock from Tokyo, with all the fuzzed out guitar goodness you could wish for
Interstellar Funk – Into The Echo. Brooding and intricate electronica with some powerfully beautiful moments