It’s been a strange year, musicwise. It started brilliantly with the release of Blackstar but that euphoria didn’t last long. I spent a whole month listening to nothing but Bowie and the best part of the next. It took a while to summon up the enthusiasm to listen to anything else. As a consequence, I am well behind on ‘new’ 2016 releases. My expenditure is down by close to 75%. I have a playlist on my iPod where I put all my new purchases. Compared to last June, it is puny.
Now, more than ever, I am genuinely interested to explore Afterword recommendations.
Here are my top ten of the year so far:
1. Blackstar – David Bowie
2. Lemonade – Beyoncé
3. A Moon Shaped Pool – Radiohead (I regard it as a single suite with ebbs and flows, the key combination being between piano, voice and strings. Utterly beautiful)
4. Man Made Object – GoGo Penguin
5. HITNRUN Phase Two – Prince (The 2015 Tidal release doesn’t count)
6. Into The Silence – Avishai Cohen
7. Hollowed – iTAL tEK (It may just be me, but electronica is having a poor year. This is an exception. Hollowed has taken its time to reveal its pleasures but patience has been well rewarded)
8. Untitled – Kendrick Lamar (material recorded some time ago but only just released. Lamar’s cast offs are awesome!)
9. Culcha Vulcha – Snarky Puppy
10. We Are KING (The more I listen, the more I hear. There is a lot more to this album that first meets the ear)
Disclaimer: My copies of Melanie De Biaisio and The Monkees haven’t arrived yet.
What are your favourite albums of the year so far?
I’m not that involved in new music, but here’s some thoughts to help your thread off to a rip-roaring Top Gear-style start!
I haven’t listened to Blackstar since it arrived. I’m sure it’s as good as everyone says (and me – it is some kind of artistic masterpiece) but in terms of listenability, at least for the Casual Bowiest in me, it’s pretty daunting. There’s always something else I’d rather hear.
The Beyonse album is wonderful. Still look forward to hearing it.
Predictably, the Mokess album.
Santana IV: not as good as I’d hoped, but pretty good. So; not good enough, really.
All India Radio: The Slow Light. Soothing, a little trippy, entertaining.
Billy Gibbons: Perfectamundo. Wottaguy! Wottaguy!
And from the past:
Bob Weir: Kingfish. Don’t really understand how I missed this for so long. A Dead/New Riders offshoot. Great playing, a few great songs … great!
The Alpha Band: rediscovering their three albums after many years. T-Bone Burnett, righteous sneering, fantastic playing (David Mansfield), and weirdness. And tunes.
The Church: Further Deeper. Still sounds fantastic.
ELO: Eldorado. Strangely beautiful. Absence of DLT-friendly hits helps.
I find Blackstar strangely soothing and still turn to it often.
I’m grateful for your post, H.P., I really am. You don’t normally visit these year list threads. I’m always interested in what you have to say (and, generally speaking, you have a lot to say) but your taste is, how should I put it, increasingly conservative.
I can’t see my heart zinging for those you mention other than Bowie and Beyonce and, possibly, The Monkees.
My taste has always been the same, really, Tig. I like the same old stuff, always have. I wouldn’t know if my choices are consevative or not – to me, hip hop and rap are stultifyingly conservative, like thrash metal. I’m basically a West Coast dude, with a side order of roots reggae. Los Angeles and San Francisco. There’s enough there for my lifetime, a lot of variety. So discovering ELO this year has been quite a surprise for me – they may seem conservative to you, but in the context of what I regularly listen to they’re really “out there”.
In terms of Afterword taste, I can generally (with some exceptions) be sure if duco/kfd/dfb/daveamitri/bob/niall/unclewheaty/bingo likes it, I won’t.
I know what you mean. Over time, I’ve made judgements on how my taste overlaps with other Afterworders’, or not. For example, duco has made a recommendation below that I’ll be buying blind. Not everything he likes sits comfortably in my ears but there are times when his choices really brighten my life.
Here’s another album from a man in his seventies to make the list: the new Paul Simon. If you know his most recent albums and like them, it won’t disappoint. The melodies can be a little, er, fugitive – his songs are more speech-based rhythmically (like rap with tunes) – but there’s a lot of variety, a lot of fond Simon touches, a sour bite to the lyrics, and a dazzling production (a gourmet meal for the ears, if that isn’t too horrible a metaphor).
The Harry Partch-inspired Insomniac’s Lullaby is a real highlight. Gorgeous!
Yep, it’s blimmin’ excellent. Wristband in particular, has a nice sardonic Simon touch.
It is, indeed, very good.
Eldorado was one of the first LPs I ever bought. It has a lovely, end of days ennui about it, a ghostly, languid atmosphere that is utterly convincing.
Great album. I too got into ELO in recent months. A friend sent me some stuff, and yes, as HP said, they are indeed ‘out there’.
It also has, in “Mister Kingdom”, their closest, erm, homage, to the Beatles (Across The Universe in this instance).
Oddly, Mister Kingdom (1974) was chosen as the b-side of Turn to Stone (1977) from the mega selling Out of the Blue LP. ELO had a habit of putting quite old songs on b-sides at that time. Sweet Talkin’ Woman had Bluebird is Dead from On The Third Day, and Mr Blue Sky had the simple, but brilliant One Summer Dream as the b-side, from Face The Music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn4407UBuGA&list=RDyn4407UBuGA
I was (at the time) greatly put off ELO because DLT liked them, and I couldn’t separate his wretchedly slappable image from that of Jeff Lynne, or their music from washing the car on Saturday morning. So it’s been a genuine pleasure to approach the albums free of cultural taint. It was Lynne’s solo album Alone In The Universe (a lovely collection of songs) that opened everything up for me. I still don’t like the early Roy Wood material (never ever liked him in any form), nor the later when they ditched the strings entirely), but there’s some extraordinary music compressed into a handful of albums. Mr Hairnet nails Eldorado nicely when he says “it has a lovely, end of days ennui about it, a ghostly, languid atmosphere that is utterly convincing.” I don’t think there’s another album quite like it, not even an ELO album. It’s one of those swim-off-into-sleep albums, in the best of ways. Haunting, shimmering, endlessly deep … and no embarrassing rock n’ roll moments, nothing to wash the car to.
To be fair, Jeff Lynne and DLT were seperated at birth.
‘Eldorado’ is wonderful. It is also one of the few albums where the digital remaster (it came out a few years ago) sounds significantly betterer (a technical term) than the original.
In 1971 the general consensus was that ELO had picked up the baton from the recently disbanded Beatles and that’s never more evident than with their first single, 10538 Overture, which is basically just son of Walrus and SFF.
A year or so later 10cc came along and gave us their take on the melodic, clever-clever McCartney Fabs. So between them, the two bands kept the Beatle flag flying proudly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-RFwFjaVAk
I dug Eldorado out of a cranny in my collection and gave it another listen. It’s good, very good, but it is trivial fluff compared to Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool, which is also a suite of songs with lots of strings, a choir on three tracks and a mournful vocalist. Here, the strings don’t just add glamour or a supportive pillow. They subvert, antagonise and intimidate. Of course, they help make the sound on A Moon Shaped Pool luxuriant, enhanced by delicate piano lines and some gentle acoustic guitar, but there is whirling turmoil beneath the shimmering surface. I get that Thom’s voice can be an obstacle for some people, I really do (“Enunciate, man, enunciate!”). However, these songs are not simply whinging. There is humour and real menace. This is an album full of complexities, little surprises and special moments. It’s not an album that sits quietly in a corner minding its own business. It gets under the skin, worms into your brain. Plus, it is full of melody. It is, I believe, a modern day classic, very different to anything else I’ve heard. I’ve listened to it lots of times but nowhere near enough.
Radiohead are a fascinating modern day rock band. That’s what they are, a Rock Band. Their first three albums are full of riffs and exciting guitar. Jonny Greenwood plays exciting electric guitar as well as anyone. The Bends is classic guitar rock and, on OK Computer, Greenwood managed to make the electric guitar sound like the future, rather than the past. By the turn of the century, they embraced electronic sounds. They still return to the guitar now and then, but they remain interesting, challenging, creative and vital without it. A Moon Shaped Pool features a single guitar solo. It’s a good one. The guitarist, instead, arranged the strings. Magnificently.
Blackstar was for,me, made unlistenable by Bowie’s death.
As for the rest of new music nothing in the lists above remotely float my boat except for the magnificent Kingfish (call me picky but I have a strong feeling it wasn’t released in 2016).
I’m away from my music right now (in rainy and bloody freezing Albi if you must know) but imho it’s been a pretty grim year so far for new releases (cue gasps of surprise throughout the Western World).
My main listening enjoyment this year has been working my way through this list: some lovely stuff contained therein.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/best-country-music-albums-of-2016/
Weellll, I’m not keen on Country but I’m told the Sturgill Simpson one is really soulful. Any good?
I struggle a bit with his voice but I’m pretty certain it’s a grower, it’s a keeper.
I like country but didn’t get on with his last album and only listened to the new one once because of it’s overwhelming dullness. Perhaps it’s country for people that don’t actually like country.
I was trying to be nice to Tiggs – actually it’s pants.
Sturgill SimpsonI bought the Paperface album following a review of their Daylight Music set by @Mike_H and it is wonderful.
Mid-paced acoustic guitar pop with orchestral arrangements provided by the Prague orchestra. It reminds me of early Badly Drawn Boy if he really wanted to be ELO.
You just have to make it through the clunky rhyme during the first song.
That sounds interesting. Orchestral Pop is mentioned twice now, with ELO’s Eldorado.
I may take the plunge/
I liked the Field Music album, too, but not as much as Measure. It’s too long.
I am in the middle of a hip hop obsession kickstarted by Poppy’s thread, which is still riding high in the charts, pop-pickers, but I actually have three albums on your list! Can’t argue with any of them (Blackstar, Lemonade & HITnRUN Phase 2) but for me the Prince LP is just wonderful. Have you heard Phase 1?
Oh yes. And the two before. I think Phase 2 is better than Phase 1. The horns might be overheavy for some people but not for me. I much prefer Prince being soulful and personal, so, it’s phase two for me. June is one hell of a tune, comparable to Sometimes It Snows In April. It brings a tear to my eye.
Yeah, but June is on Phase 1 isn’t it? *scratches head*
Is it!? I’m confused now.
Anyway. Still think Phase Two is best.
Agreed.
Hey Tigger, agree Phase 2 is better and not just marginally. The opener Baltimore is Prince at his best and it is deeply sad that someone who can make a record that good is not around to make any more.
By the way I think you will like Sturgill Simpson – very soulful and quite funky in parts. To my ears it is not country.
I’ll add Sturgill to my to-do list. Thanks
Well, obviously, I can’t divulge my full lists at the moment, as those will be announced in two special threads at the end of June/start of July, namely:
The duco01 Top 20 Favourite New Albums of the first half of 2016
The duco01 10 Favourite Reissues and Archival Recordings of the first half of 2016
Hovever, as a special preview, I’ll mention one record that will definitely be on the New Albums list, namely “Otis Was A Polar Bear” by Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom.
If you like jazz, you must hear it. Ms Miller is a drummer/composer, and with this, her fourth studio album as a leader, she’s really taken a big step up. For a start, she’s assembled an absolutely shit-hot band, with top Chicago pianist Myra Melford, violinist Jenny Scheinman, cornet player Kirk Knuffke, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, and upright bassist Todd Sickafoose. And there certainly are some cracking melodies on the album, both on the tracks that swing and on the more meditative material.
Sadly, there’s not a great deal of video or Soundcloud material out there to showcase this fine record. All I could find was a 5-minute “making of the album” video and a live radio performance of one track. Perhaps it’s on Spotify? I don’t know, because I don’t use that.
Still, if you’re a jazzer in any way, and just buy the album unheard, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. It’s full of joy.
How can I resist, duco?
I’ve listened to both clips. Bloodless, academic, pseudo-jazz. Fine for a soundtrack. But, jeez … Zappa would compress all this and more into a middle eight.
It’s on Spotify, under just “Allison Miller”. Just listening now.
Me too. Sounds very promising. More chamber jazz than honkaphonic excess. Which suits me fine.
Now we’re all on tenterhooks to hear who else has made it onto your list, DuCool.
I’ve been introduced to three outstanding releases this year from bands operating just underneath the mainstream. I highly recommend all three (they are all available on Spotify).
What links all three very different records is a sense of movement and creativity, leaving me extremely optimistic about the future of the album as an art form.
French rockers Lazuli released Nos ames saoules back in February. Singing in their native language, this record is a breath of fresh air. It begins quite sedately with a reflection on the November Paris attacks but it is ultimately a rocky feel good record. I don’t speak a word of the lingo but I find this a very uplifting record.
Just last week Big Big Train released their Folklore album. If you’ve not heard them before this is a great entry point. The opening track “Folklore” leaves us in no doubt about the storytelling nature of what is to follow, making way for tales about land speed record breaking, pigeons who won war honours and a famous astronomer called Patrick Moore.
Everybody’s favourite Russian band Iamthemorning are a duo from St Petersburg whose third album “Lighthouse” was released this year. Features guest appearances from members of Porcupine Tree and Riverside (among others). A very reflective record that would appeal to anyone who enjoys the more challenging side of Kate Bush. For those who don’t speak any Russian, fear not. It’s all written and sung in English, which makes the whole story telling more remarkable given it is a second language.
I’m not ignoring your post, Martin, just chewing it over. I’ll get back to you in a bit.
Bless you sir!
Of the three, @Martin-S, Iamthemorning are going in the wishlist. If I t’s Kate Bush, it’s Kate Bush playing jazz! Here’s an example for those not familiar with them:
Wonderful aren’t they. There are some great clips from the previous album on YouTube too. There really is some great music being produced these days away from the mainstream.
I agree with some of the choices above, but Julia Holter`s “Have You In My Wilderness” has been a personal favourite this year, and her best album so far. Furthermore, Joanna Newsom is not universally loved in these parts, but “Divers” is, I think, a welcome return to more concise and affecting songwriting.
Both those albums have been praised by many Afterworders, Pessoa, but I think that Tigger, in this thread, probably wanted to focus on new albums released in 2016. And both ‘Have You In My Wilderness’ and ‘Divers’ were released last year.
That’s correct, Pessoa.
However, I haven’t given Ms Newsom her allocated six listens. Thank you for reminding me.
Once again I can’t take part in this “year’s best” thing, as I’ve only bought half a dozen new releases so far. On the other hand, I’ve bought around 120 second hand LPs since Jan 1st, as well as numerous used or new back catalogue CDs, 7″ and 12″ singles and 78s, so my ears are as busy as ever.
(There was also a parcel from Beany, but let’s not talk about that.)
But anyway, hurray for Bowie and Beyonce!
Ooh, I do like the Margot Price album (thanks Carolina!), but you won’t tigger, ‘cos it’s country.
*makes note*
Thanks, mini.
Is that a note to listen to it, or to avoid it?
“
Margot Price album“*thwack*
Not many young guns in my list, I’m afraid. The old campaigners have been doing it for me in 2016.
1. Transport — Juan Atkins & Moritz Von Oswald
2. In Safe Hiding — Flug
3. The Phoenix Suburb And Other Stories — Woodleigh Research Laboratory
4. Live In Montreal — John Digweed
5. Live In Montreal (Finale) — John Digweed
6. Under The Sun — Mark Pritchard
7. Shred — Skee Mask
8. Late Night Tales — Sasha
9. Balance Presents Patrice Baumel
10. Guilty Of Love — Unloved
11. The Impossible Kid — Aesop Rock
12. The Evening Falls — Kenneth James Gibson
Interesting list, Poppy.
Yes, I’ve just bought the Kenneth James Gibson album too, and it does indeed sound like a nice slice of US ambient loveliness.
Good choice! I love its expansive, windswept feel. It reminds me of Kranky bands like Dead Texan and Stars Of The Lid, but crossed with Brian Eno.
I’m also very fond of KJG’s work as [a]pendics.shuffle, which is his tech-house alias. He’s one of these people who seems to be able to turn his hand to any electronic genre and make it his own.
I love Poppy’s lists for two reasons: I’ve never heard of any of them, and I never will again. Flug!? Skee Mask!? You couldn’t make it up …
There was a time nobody had heard of Madonna, y’know.
Okay, I give you Flug. Destined to be a niche concern. But Skee Mask you’ll be hearing more from. This guy could well be the new Burial.
“… the new Burial.”
Oh stop!
I thought you’d like that.
He might not but I certainly do. Don’t ever stop, Poppy!
Seconded!!
Stick to your guns, Poppy, Deviant, Locust, DuCool and all the others here who are taking the roads less travelled
Shit! I forgot to mention you Contrary Article. The very patron saint of the Road Less Taken.
The Road Less Taken makes you all sound very heroic, doesn’t it? Except that the road is travelled by a good proportion of the Afterword, maybe more than half. And it’s a dull old road, too. Nicely paved, with bench seats for when you get tired, and well-tended flowerbeds, and the litterbins are emptied regularly. And it goes on forever.
I don’t want to come across as wilfully ignorant but I’ve never heard of any of your top ten so I asked my 15 year old son if he had heard of Skee Mask, Flug or Burial. He hadn’t, I’m afraid and he listens to a lot of stuff I’ve never heard of. Is this stuff obscure or is it just me (and him)?
1. Transport — Juan Atkins & Moritz Von Oswald
Both these guys have been around donkey’s years. Juan Atkins is one of the original Belleville three who practically invented techno; Moritz Von Oswald is the Berlin equivalent. These days Berlin is the hub of all things electronica. The reason is these two guys. Legedns. Not at all obscure.
2. In Safe Hiding — Flug
Granted, obscure.
3. The Phoenix Suburb And Other Stories — Woodleigh Research Laboratory
AAK Andrew Weatherall. Not obscure.
4. Live In Montreal — John Digweed
5. Live In Montreal (Finale) — John Digweed
John Digweed? Not obscure. Unfashionably unobscure, in fact.
6. Under The Sun — Mark Pritchard
Used to be in Global Communication and Jedi Knights. Has worked with Aphex Twin. Not obscure.
7. Shred — Skee Mask
Granted, obscure. But coming up. Everybody’s heard of Burial, come on.
8. Late Night Tales — Sasha
Sasha?!! See John Digweed above.
9. Balance Presents Patrice Baumel
Okay. Maybe a bit.
10. Guilty Of Love — Unloved
AKA David Holmes. Not fucking obscure.
11. The Impossible Kid — Aesop Rock
Frequently cited as the world’s best rapper. A bit obscure, but not really.
12. The Evening Falls — Kenneth James Gibson
Granted, a bit obscure.
Sorry about the typos.
I still have no idea who any of these are. As a consequence, I’m immediately submitting my application to be a High Court Judge. I do have the Latin, after all.
I’ve heard of the typos, though.
Blood on the Tracks ?
I believe they’re popular disc jockeys M’Lud.
OK, we’ll have to disagree but I Googled 3 or 4 of your list and the best I can do is that I’ve heard of some of the acts they’ve worked with/produced. I never liked the rave/dance stuff in the 80s/90s so I suppose it’s inevitable that I’m ignorant of a lot of the names. Sasha? Burial? Sorry, no. It’s a bit like my knowledge of sport, pretty much zero. BTW, I do sometimes listen to the clips you post, in case something catches my ear.
Burial is a very big deal in his own kingdom and he’s been around for quite some time. He’s no more obscure to the world in general than , say, Richard Thompson.
‘Course, Poppy has to “big him up” as he’s the sponsor of her Obit thread…
A few to check out there as usual. The only one I’ve heard is the Unloved album, which would probably make my list too.
Have you heard the 18+ album yet? Sounds pretty good on the one listen I’ve given it so far.
No, haven’t. I’ll have to check it out. Houndstooth is usually a sign of quality.
what’s the name of the album? I’m not going to google “18+”….
(*sniggers*)
Ha! Good point @kid-dynamite . It’s called “Collect”.
So , the new Dylan not mentioned yet ?
When the Old Dylan is the New Dylan, you know we’re in trouble.
One of my most favourite tracks recently has been Where are you Tonight from Street Legal if that helps.
That, Sir, is a solid gold Dylan classic and much under-rated – never understood why it doesn’t get the attention Señor and Changing of the Guards get. This is also true of No Time To Think.
I LOVE No Time To Think. I enjoy trying to sing along.
And brilliant rhymes. A few favourites
‘I’ve seen all these decoys through a set of deep turquoise…eyes’
‘You glance through the mirror and there’s eyes staring clear’
‘The bridge that you travel on goes to the Babylon…girl’ etc etc.
Enjoying several of the recommendations above, cheers all. I keep a continually-updated Spotify playlist of sample tracks from new albums I’ve liked*, and it has 37 albums on it so far from 2016. Most have been mentioned here at one time or another, and few are obscure (sorry!), but in case anyone wants to know, they are (deep breath): Aurora, Babyface, Ben Watt, Bibio, Chris Rand (no relation), Corinne Bailey Rae, Cross Record, David Bowie, Dream Theater, Emma Pollock, Emmy The Great, Explosions In The Sky, Field Music, Foxes, Jean-Michel Jarre, John Carpenter, King, King Charles, Lion Babe, Little Green Cars, Lucius, Lush, M83, Massive Attack, Mogwai, Panic! At The Disco, Qluster, Radiohead, Santana, Sing Street, Soulsavers, The 1975, The Coral, The Dandy Warhols, The Magnetic North, Tindersticks, Turin Brakes and Underworld. So there.
* https://open.spotify.com/user/chrisrand/playlist/5Bf3643QY7QDCUfNgm6PT0
Lots to like there. Bibio make a decent, must-explore-more appearance on the Mark Pritchard album, and the Dandy Warhols is something of a return to form. STYGGO is as good as anything in their back catalogue.
Can’t get with Underworld, though. For me that joins Pet Shop Boys in the big fat disappointments pile.
Underworld’s growing on me a bit, but I think it’s never going to become anything less than A Bit Average. Agree completely on Pet Shop Boys too, after previewing on Spotify I haven’t even bothered to spend any emusic credits on it, making it the first of their albums that I’ve not actually bought.
Less? I mean “more than A Bit Average” of course.
That’s what I get for trying to use a word other than re-using your “disappointment”…
I really enjoy the Ben Watt album but it makes me feel sensible and mature. In other words, what I am, well into middle age. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
I can only think of 3 new albums from this year that would definitely make a top 10 (or more likely) top 5 of the year. Here goes:
1. Anthrax – For All Kings. I am not a thrash metal fan, the last Anthrax album I owned was 25 years ago when I was 17 and that was mainly due to their cover of Joe Jackson’s Got The Time (which is superb.) But upon Lemmy’s sad passing I bought a copy of Metal Hammer as it had a big feature on the great man and in the same issue it had a review for the new Anthrax album which they raved about, 9 out of 10. Which got me checking out the singles – Evil Twin and Breathing Lightning (both ace!) Bought the album and have played it to death. Absolutely great, not one duff track and chock full of hooks, and no James Hetfield style growling vocals, Anthrax thankfully have a proper singer. Pleasantly surprised. Definitely my album of the year………………….even if it is only 1st June!
2 – David Bowie – Blackstar. Played the vinyl this morning, its still ace.
3 – Zakk Wylde – Book of Shadow’s 2. Think of Neil Young, Skynyrd and mellow acoustic Clapton and you wont go far wrong. Metal shredder guitarist makes mellow crooning melodic music. Very good.
I’m struggling to find a number 4 so i’ll give that to the new Dylan even though I haven’t bought it yet!
Hmm. Blackstar clearly rocks my boat. But, those other two…..
Give em a try….
Bracing.
There some good young rock bands around at the moment. How about Car Seat Headrest (apart from the terrible name)?
Or The Hotelier (another terrible name and the cover picture isn’t actually them)?
That picture is from the last Afterword mingle, right?
Second from left – “it’s a bit late to discover your modesty now love!”
The annual Afterword Chubby Checkers meeting was not an unqualified success
The best album I’ve heard all year is Ronnie Lane’s ‘Anymore For Anymore ‘. It’s playing now for the very first time. I’ve recently been checking Ronnie’s solo work out and it’s marvellous stuff !
They reissued his other 2 on vinyl last year, also rather marvellous.
An absolute masterpiece Rob-due a proper reissue
I’ve just looked out of the window again – are you sure it’s June?!
I think it’s been a pretty good year so far. I’d list
Lucinda Williams – The Ghosts of Highway 20
Eleanor Friedberger – New View
as excellent albums while not being career highs – Once they’re ‘old’ albums, I’m less likely to listen to them all the way through.
Helen Love’s new album Smash Hits has some stonkers on it and has been played loud recently
The new band The I Don’t Cares album is rather fine too – I know nothing about them though
Whilst not as good as Van Lear Rose, The Loretta Lynn certainly entertains on repeated listening.
There are some also rans that have been entertaining me as well
White Denim – Stiff (I’ve not been that keen on their previous efforts but I really liked the Bop English album last year so perhaps gave this more of a chance)
Carrie Rodriguez – Lola – Nice to listen to but I’m not convinced the songs are as strong as the previous albums.
M.Ward – Nice relaxing listening and more accessible than some of his other solo stuff.
There are other like the new Willie Nelson one that I think may become a favourite but I haven’t listened to it enough
Disappointments:
Richmond Fontaine – Perhaps I need to give it more of a chance – they were still great live though
The Duke Spirit – KIN – After the lead single I didn’t hold out that much hope and it’s a bit dull really
Bugger. Of course Ghost of Highway 20 is the album of the year so far.
The guitar playing is intriguing but the singing is terrible. Is that right?
Guess it depends on whether you like Williams’ world weary cracked voice or not. Personally I think it’s brilliant and suits the material perfectly.
If this was a poll, I think it would be second after Blackstar.
Not terrible. That’s certainly overly harsh. I’m not as keen on the sound of her voice nowadays but there’s a lot of emotion there and she’s hitting all the notes she should be.
Lovers and Leavers – Hayes Carll.
You can call it understated Country, or Americana, but it’s a wonderful album, which gave us my song of the year, Magic Kid. It tugs at your heartstrings, and sounds beautiful. I don’t think I’m going to hear anything this year to beat it.
A close second place to Frightened Rabbit, who keep evolving and turning out albums with at least one killer track, one so-so track and the rest very very good.
Are Frightened Rabbit country too?
Like the OP I have listened to less new stuff this year than I can remember being the case for years, and only two have categorically made the grade for me – the aforementioned Blackstar (might as well wrap the album of the year poll up now?) and Lucinda Williams’ bitter sweet The Ghosts of Higway 20 which some great songs and stunning playing from Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz.
Have been making a bit more of an effort in the last month, and a few which have sparked my interest if not yet been listened to enough to form a definitive conclusion are
I Long to See You – Charles Lloyd and the Marvels – lovely low key jazz, courtesy of a recommendation on this site (possibly from the esteemed @pencilsqueezer?)
Leave Me Alone – Hinds – racketty but entertaining Spanish pop
Chaleur Humaine – Christine and the Queens – sophisticated French pop
Everything Sacred -Yorkston Thorne Khan – one of those world music fusion records I normally run a mile from but this one sounds pretty good
Get Down You Dirty Rascal – Black Peaches – the bastard son of Hot Chip and The Allman Brothers, which spunds better than that might suggest.
Kidsticks – Beth Orton – the Queen of Comedown gets back to electronica
Disclaimer – I haven’t listened to any of these more than 3 times, and some less than that, so they may yet prove to be rubbish.
I’ve considered Christine and The Queens but does sophisticated = pretentious?
No, I think it’s pretty approachable so far – of the new records I’m still working my way into this one feels the most immediately enjoyable. Tilted is a case in point – the video is however definitely on the pretentious side…
Yep it was I that mentioned the Charles Lloyd. Delighted you’re enjoying it. Country and jazz blended and yet it works!
I think that The Guardian – perhaps focusing more on the new Adele/James Bay angle – had an article last week which just about agreed that one of the reasons (not the only one) that new British music was finding it hard to ‘connect’ was the deaths of Bowie and Prince.
Would post the link but can’t see it on the Guardian website. Anyway it was in last Friday’s G2.
Tiggs, I’m always impressed by your openness to new music – I haven’t even heard of half the stuff on your list, so my choices are going to sound uber-conservative. I find my willingness to explore is diminishing the older I get, and I’m more likely to be found with ears wrapped round Mozart and Haydn these days. Anyhow, here goes.
Peter Bruntnell – Nos Da Comrade
Mary Chapin Carpenter – The Things That We Are Made Of
Eleanor Friedberger – New View
The Jayhawks – Paging Mr Proust
Ray Lamontagne – Ouroboros
Mudcrutch – 2
Dylan LeBlanc – Cautionary Tale
Graham Nash – This Path Tonight
Treetop Flyers – Palomino
Lucinda Williams – The Ghosts Of Highway 20
And as HP has made The Monkees’ Good Times sound irresistible I have it on order. Along with forthcoming albums from Steve Earle & Shawn Colvin, Low Anthem, Paul Simon, and Case / Lang / Veirs there’s plenty of what I like in the offing. Must get a new pair of slippers to match my pipe though.
Nothing wrong with a bit of Mozart and Haydn. In fact, this month I’ve mainly been listening to Bach (thanks to an Afterword thread).
Dylan LeBlanc is only twenty-six.
Matt LeBlanc is only sixty-one.
Bungliemutt I am in full agreement with your 1 and 2. Love Peter Bruntnell (and hoping to see him on tour in July. The MCC album is IMHO fantastic. I find the lyrics to The Blue Distance and Hand on My Back to be extraordinarily moving
I haven’t got excited about a lot either so far this year, I’m afraid. I like the Suede record, and I’m surprised not to see it here yet. Probably because it came out in January and you’ve all either forgotten or just spent the whole month listening to Bowie. I second the votes for GoGo Penguin, which is lovely, accessible and transporting modern jazz. I’ve mentioned the lysergic folk / doom metal crossover of Crumbling Ghost a few times here to general tumbleweeds, but you’re all wrong because their Five Songs EP is totes amazeballs. Probably my favourite so far is Chris Forysth’s Rarity Of Experience, which is a must for anyone into Televisionesque electric guitar interplay. And I’ve been listening to the Dead at Red Rocks a lot this month, but I don’t suppose thirty-eight years old counts as “new”.
Folk/doom metal? Really?
I really like Television and guitar interplay. Should I splash the cash?
No! There are moments when the guitars work, but it’s because they’re evoking (nb didn’t say “chanelling”) Television. Initially an attractive offer (I was hooked) but the album’s easily forgettable. Unlike Television.
Crumbling Ghost: Yes, really. Like Sandy Denny fronting Electric Wizard. Kind of.
Chris Forsyth: I like it a lot, Mr Craft not so hooked it would appear. Just remember which one of us has been singing the praises of ELO of late, and that should help you make up your mind one way or the other.
You make an excellent point re the Sauce, but, I feel you’d prefer me to go for Crumbling Ghost.
“The broadness of my education is as the very vault of the heavens, whereas the span of your affinities is as narrow as the new moon.”
“The very broadest of puddles can be yet an inch deep, but the humble well may plunge uncounted fathoms”
“The lamest of dogs may yet harbour a myriad fleas”.
“It’s tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme, that’s right on time, it’s tricky”.
“Rock and roll music is a thing of the past, and all you long-haired faggits can kiss my ass”
“Push pineapple, shake the tree.”
“Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.”
No mention for Iggy Pop’s – Post pop depression. Mr Pop’s strongest record since … Well those he did with the singer from Tin Machine. I know that’s not saying much but it’s a very fine record.
The further down the thread you go, the more votes Iggy gets. I love those ‘Berlin’ albums (I saw him live in 1977 with Bowie on keys) and his Stooges work but regard almost everything else as a caricature of his great self (although I did enjoy him guesting on Dance albums in the eighties).
My point is, is this actually a return to form or is it just more cartoon Pop?
Nice to see Black Peaches and Magnetic North both mentioned and both are top albums.
Other discs that I’m loving are:
Pennied Days – Night Moves (Lovely heartfelt psych/country, this years Tame Impala?)
The Ship – Brian Eno (His best solo for years IMO)
Take All My Loves/9 Shakespeare Sonnets – Rufus Wainwright & Guests (Brilliantly bonkers and surprisingly rocking in places. Plus William Shatner!)
The Peace and Truce of – Future of the Left (Still shouting and putting the world to rights)
Silent Earthling – Three Trapped Tigers (Prog? Math Rock? Post-Rock? Free Jazz? All these things and so much more)
Channel the Sprits – The Comet is Coming (The best Electronica of the year, so far)
Grapefruit – Kiran Leonard (Probably my favourite of the year at the moment, epic, personal and so ambitious)
Void Beats/Invocation Trex – Cavern of Anti-Matter (The second best Electronica so far!)
oooh, I should have mentioned The Comet Is Coming.
Could I dance to it?
in an incredibly groovy fashion
In that case, it’s just become a must-buy.
I’ll second Kid’s recommendation Tigg.
Excellently groovesome.
… and here again we have an entirely mediocre recording making a best-of list in the absence of anything greater than mediocre.
Contemporary music of any genre is bankrupt, and of value only in as much as the references to past achievements are successfully recognisable. There is nothing truly new nor truly great. Each year throws up a list of must-haves evoking past heights but claiming no new territory. And each list of must-haves (together with the familiar cry of the desparate consumer – “it’s been a good year”) is supplanted by another. The stone was cast many years ago – you’re watching the ripples. The thing we know as contemporary music consists of echoes, and they’re getting fainter. Better to buy a stack of moderately good music in the delusion that it’s great than to admit the truth; music is history, and the greats no longer make it. We’re living in an age of footnotes mistaken for text.
Things have moved on, grandad. You stick to yer Rock and Pop. There are plenty of youngsters pushing the envelope in their own respected fields. Not many play electric guitar.
Nothing more embarrassing than a groovy grandad getting down with the kids.
Sauce writes beautifully. The use of the word ‘contemporary’ is interesting. as a child of the Sixties and a teenager of the Seventies myself, I think he means blues based rock and jangly guitar pop. That was the music that was contemporary forty to fifty years ago. Rock & Roll was Fifties and early Sixties. Soul and Reggae both petered out, more or less, by the end of Seventies. Disco came to the fore in the mid Seventies.
Music that is contemporary today is quite different. Hip Hop & Rap are predominent saleswise. Urban is the new R&B. Pop uses synthesizers rather than guitars and the singers are mostly female. Electronica barely existed in the Seventies. There is a lovely kind of Chamber Pop, exemplified by Agnes Obel. Singer-songwriters have evolved into something completely different. There are instruments being used now that have only recently been invented and some being used that were shunned back then (eg harp). There are whole new genres full of interesting, different music, including Grime and Dubstep.
Of course, there are high quality music artists around these days, who are just as creative and imaginative as anyone in 1971, a year of sepia-toned derivative Rock music and miserable singer songwriters. There wasn’t much new or especially different in that year when Rock was at its zenith.
I used to think ten great albums in a year was exceptional. Nowadays, I struggle to reduce the list to twenty. And this isn’t about being down with the kids. My kids hate the stuff I like. The Hip Hop I enjoy is largely ignored by the youth I know. They have never heard of Agnes Obel or Melanie De Biaisio.
Music has changed through the ages, the centuries. there is so much to enjoy in the 21st Century. Human creativity is one of life’s marvels and isn’t restricted to people born in the Fifties. If you want to stick to a tiny sliver of time for your listening delectation, go ahead and enjoy. Just don’t sneer at others willing to sample outside those limitations.
@tiggerlion That’s a great post. Actually the Deram contingent only consists of Sauce, JC, Ian and Deram himself. I wouldn’t worry about it.
@tiggerlion Afterword T shirt. All of it.
Why do you think I’m talking about blues-based rock? I have maybe five blues-based rock albums out of around three thousand. It’s a tired old cliché to categorise rock music as blues-based, when so little of it is. Guitar-based, yes. Because rock and pop (my favourite jenreys) have been built around the guitar, because it’s a fantastically expressive and adaptable and cheap and relatively easy to learn instrument. Even Bob uses one, the auld recidivist! (Although, to be fair, he does manage to wring any trace of excitement out of it). Nothing has arrived to take the place of the guitar in terms of democratic enablement. You might (and indeed will) scoff at the idea of excitement (so passé!) but that was the common denominator of great pop in the sixties and (broad brush) rock in the seventies, and that excitement was due to the guitar. Everything that the Beige Generation denies – swagger, sexuality, noise, RAWK!! happed largely due to the guitar. Prince may have picked one up himself. Apparently a lot of love here for Prince, in spite of him being an axe god.
So yes – all the excitement and fun has been rigorously bled out of rock and pop and replaced with a kind of anodyne sensitivity exemplified by duco’s taste, or the miserablist confessional music DFB is so fond of. I can’t and won’t say the music is crap, because it’s generally well played by reasonably skilled musicians. But when someone says “it’s like Sandy Denny fronting Television” (f’rinstance) we can be absolutely certain it’s nowhere near as good as either. The Beige Generation have had their chance to produce another Dylan, another Mitchell, another Beatles, another … (continues in this vein for several hundred names) and have absolutely failed to throw up so much as another Gilbert O’Sullivan. When the last of the old guard dies – not far off now – there’s absolutely no equivalent talent to take their place. You only have to read through these dispiriting best-ofs to see the truth of that. I understand why you all like to get “excited” about the new Ethan Crumhorn and the Caged Animal Masturbators side-project – because it’s actually happening now. But that’s all contemporary music (don’t pick me up on the term – it’s not loaded) has going for it.
Remember Alison Miller? She was hot stuff in this thread a few comments ago. How soon we forget.
(And tig – if you and those other blog adolescents Bingo n’ Bob come back again with how vital and exciting rap and hip hop are, really groundbreaking and new, bear in mind it’s sounded more or less exactly the same for decades.)
(Too long – didn’t write)
Another formidable post HP
(JC, ENS, and Saucecraft attempt embarrassing high five, put backs out)
As I’ve been nominated by Bob as one of the august, old farts’ knitting circle, it may be worthwhile to list briefly the ‘sliver of time’ I listen to. It spans from 1929 (Carter Family) to 2015 (PSB) and the music includes, inter alia, country, blues, rock ‘n roll, crooners, pop, rock, soul, old style r ‘n b, jazz, kraut rock, punk, new wave, disco, dance, grunge, African, Arabic, folk, avant-garde.
I have hardly any metal or hip-hop. Too boring and formulaic.
I have close to 60,000 tracks on my iPod, mainly, but far from exclusively, from the ’50s to the ’80s.
On past recommendations from the AW, I’ve bought Beck (Sea Changes), Decemberists and John Grant. Vapid, uninvolving dreary.
Reading this thread and others like it is an ever reliable source of amusement. The ‘it’s been a great year for music’ cheerleaders, despite all evidence to the contrary; the ‘I’m down with the kids, me’ self-delusion; the snobbish attempts to seek out ever more obscure nonentities who will forever remain unknown, and with good reason.
This may be a thought too far, but I’ve often wondered about the possible links between the monomaniacal, ever-desperate search for more and more music and the, to me, rather high numbers of self-confessed depressives and introverts on the blog. Just a thought. Nothing pejorative.
Just to clarify, ianess: PSB – Public Service Broadcasting or Pet Shop Boys?
Mini, I’d have thought you of all people were familiar with the works of The Prehensile Stoat Band.
The Race for Space hitmakers. Quite entertaining – liked the drummer, gave it a couple of listens
That fading ripple you describe so poetically, Saucey, is your lost youth.
I’d say The Stones, The Who, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, etc all played Blues-based Rock. I’d agree that guitars aren’t as exciting as they used to be (I was excited by them, too). It is a genre that is dying, if not dead already. Some kids still play guitar and do so very well (Spoon and Alabama Shakes are rather good) but it’s a minority activity.
As for names that resonate around the world, I’m afraid there is little option but to look to Rap, Urban or guitarless Pop. A voice of a generation? The truth is Dylan was exceptional, a real one-off. In the Sixties, he was exceptional even for him. I don’t expect to see his like again.
I thought you were looking for something inventive and different. There are plenty of suggestions on this thread. The music here isn’t actually down-with-the-kids. Rap is barely mentioned. There is a lot of creativity that appeals to people who are no longer teenagers. There is such a lot of choice, too. There must be many times the number of new releases that there were in 1971.
(You can tell you don’t listen to Rap any more. To Pimp A Butterfly sounds completely different to It Takes A Nation Of Millions.)
We’re living in an age of HP Saucecraft mistaken for Deramdaze.
Tis a fine moon shaped pool, but sure tis no Beano, English.
I don’t get it. What is the point, if it’s something yer just not interested in, in coming on a thread just to piss on it. Are other people not entitled to their opinions just as much as you are entitled to yours? So yer not interested in modern day music. Fair enough, but it IS fairly blinkered to dismiss it all as crap. It really isn’t. I listen to new AND old & as someone else said on here there is a fair amount o’ crap in any age, just as there are gems, but you’ll never know, if you don’t bother to listen to anything past 1974 ( & I know you actually do, as I remember having a brief convo on here about Beachwood Sparks & All Night Radio, both from this century, albeit pastiches of things past). I couldn’t really care less if you do or not, but I don’t see why you need to try & argue about it on this thread. What is to be gained? This is, on the whole, a music blog, new & old. can we not appreciate that others have differing tastes to us, that may, if we allow them to, open our ears to something new? I don’t, on the whole, share a lot of the same favourites as Tiggs, but there’ll always be some overlap if ye drew it on a venn diagram. I’m more likely, in fact, to have more overlap with you, HP, as I’m a huge Beach Boys fan & love a good pop record. Just getting very sick & tired of the squabbling on here & the attempt to quash other people’s enthusiasms on here if they don’t conform to the norm (whatever the norm is). Sheesh! Live & let live that’s what I say.
“Just getting very sick & tired of the squabbling on here & the attempt to quash other people’s enthusiasms on here if they don’t conform to the norm (whatever the norm is). ”
First time on the internet, Mr Article?
Back at you with everything. If you don’t like what I say, don’t read it.
‘Live and let live’ – if that’s the case, why are you butting in to moan about others expressing their opinion that there may be very little to celebrate music-wise this year?
@ianess, you know I love you (I do: I think you’re a great bloke, fiery dyspepsia and all). But despite your catholic taste, you have been happy at times to deliver yourself of the Saucecrafty opinion that it’s all been done and contemporary music is a pale shadow of the heights scaled – purely coincidentally – at the same time as you were young, haven’t you? Or am I misremembering? Sorry if so – I hereby rescind your knitting club membership.
I don’t mind Saucey doing his whole shtick about how great the old days were and how the youngsters don’t know how to dance, have sex or have fun these days. But I don’t see why a thread about “what records have you enjoyed this year?” has to become about him letting us all know that it’s all shite and that the music of his youth isn’t.
HPS – you’ll probably find a way to say that’s not what you’re doing and that your posts are much deeper and more thought-provoking than that. Probably a bit of irony, a bit of teasing, so nobody’s really sure what you actually think. But this thread has largely been marked by a lot of people saying “I like this” and you saying “no, it’s bland shite” and then banging on about how it was all much better when you were young. Hasn’t it?
I suppose my thing about your backinthedayism is that it’s harder to accept as objective truth something which is so clearly a function of personal circumstances – in this case age and place of birth. It reminds me of the “one true god” thing: a vocal WASP Christian will claim their religion is the answer, without often seeming to give houseroom to the incontrovertible fact that if they’d been born in Indonesia, they’d think Islam was the one true answer. And if Mumbai, Hinduism. And yet they all think they’re right about their faith: they’ve got the truth. Everyone else is wrong.
Every single generation – every one – contains a vocal bunch of members who will tell you how the stuff they were into as a youth is objectively ace and everything before or since is comparatively poor. So given that, why are you so sure that your one true faith is the one? Your equivalents in every generation before you and since you thinks theirs is. Why are you right and they’re wrong?
Yes, Bob, I’m rather uncomfortably aware of your deep man-love for me.
I’ve said it before, but I’m no fan of hip-hop or modern r ‘n b, so the last 20 or so years have rather passed me by in that regard. There’s also any amount of vapid, uninvolving shite that I find utterly dreary.
Like HP, I too often hear the echoes in contemporary bands of groups that I already possess the originals of. I’ve told the story of watching a Laura Marling gig and, when meeting her later, being able to reel off the main artists in her parents record collection.
It’s all, to a great extent, subjective, but from my point of view, there have been a few ‘golden ages’ so far. For rock ‘n roll, I’d suggest ’55-’59 when Elvis, Chuck, Jerry Lee, Little Richard and Buddy roamed the Earth.
For pop, I’d suggest ’65-’69 which, entirely coincidentally, was my early teens when Beatles, Stones, Dylan and many others were at their peak.
Possibly, early ’70s for rock, but, after that, I have no opinion.
I have no idea what’s considered a golden age for hip-hop and it’s entirely possible that many would take issue with the concept itself.
One counter I would give against the opinion that its inextricably linked with age is that the beginning of the ’60s was utter dreck. Personally, I also loathed a great deal of the prog output of the early to mid-70s and was one of the very earliest adopters of The Ramones to the extent that I became very friendly with Linda Stein and Dee Dee. (Gratuitous name dropping alert)
@ianess I suppose where you, HPS and I will be likely to agree is that guitar-based pop and rock in the last 20 years has largely been ignorable. I’m not into it either, and I would never be found extolling my deep love of Savages or Titus Andronicus. They *do* in my view just retread old glories.
I suppose my thing is that there’s nothing special about the guitar. I happen to play it, and so use it, but I use synths far, far more. I don’t find there to be anything intrinsically special about it as an instrument, although I was in love with the rock star myth as a teen, because rock was huge when I was that age.
The music I’m most interested in now tends to have electronic roots. Maybe I’m misreading him, but Saucey seems to feel that the abandonment of the electric guitar as the primary channel of musical expression for young people means that vital, exciting music by and for young people is dead.
I think if you place – in my view misplace – the source of pop’s excitement and vitality in six strings and a plank of wood, you’re missing a lot.
I really don’t think there’s anything wrong with staying rooted in the music of one’s teens and twenties, but just because someone can’t identify a Dylan since Dylan doesn’t mean that one didn’t exist. It’s just they’re likely to have been a producer, DJ or rapper, and if you don’t like that kind of music, you’re unlikely to accept that they’re artists of the kind of stature you associate with your sainted canon.
(The “you” there being “one”, rather than you personally.)
“I suppose my thing is that there’s nothing special about the guitar”
Can we arrange to have that carved on your gravestone, Bob?
He should paint it on his guitar, like, a protest statement. And then he could just stand up at the end of a gig and savagely drop it onto the floor. He’s mad enough.
With the footnote “…especially the way I play it”
@johnny-concheroo
You first, old chap. Actuarially speaking.
Brilliant thread. HPS on form with some excellent views well articulated.
@Bob “HPS – you’ll probably find a way to say that’s not what you’re doing and that your posts are much deeper and more thought-provoking than that. Probably a bit of irony, a bit of teasing, so nobody’s really sure what you actually think.”
I think that’s a cheap dig, Bob, and exactly the sort or comment you’ve made about me in the past.
I happen to like your input on this site but am always wary of engaging with you precisely because of this sort of thing.
You make it sound like irony and teasing (if that’s what they are) are inherently underhand hand whereas implicit insults are honest.
I think you’re reading a bit more into that than is there, @niscum. HPS teased me, I’m teasing him back, is all. My little dig at him is certainly no “cheaper” than his at me, and I actually think of the old rogue very fondly, as he knows.
I like to think that my dig at Bob was arrived at through considerable mental exertion and only “cheap” in terms of financial investment. Similarly, he gives as good as he gets, even if it is with the help of a team of interns drafted from his Wednesday afternoons DebSoc.
That’s some great writing right there, Mr Saucecraft sir.
It’s helpful when the boy pointing out the Emperor’s lack of garb is so articulate and insightful.
I’m seriously convinced that 50 years from now they’ll be showing acclaimed BBC4 documentaries about most of the bands mentioned here.
Nah, cause they fucking won’t.
And wrong?
BBC4 in 40 years time?
In 10 years time?
In 5?
Uh-oh, I think someone needs a nap.
Like every year there will be some good, some bad and a slew of mediocre.
Time for this again I think.
“…and the thing that really kills me, they believe some of this new shit is actually any good!”
http://i.imgur.com/zvCvCLm.png
Ooh, a 90s movie. Get you, you big hipster.
This from an adult recently rhapsodising over a quarter-century old, kids’ computer game?
Very true.
I thought it would make a nice change from adults rhapsodising over half-century old kids’ music.
And so it did. My very small point, expressed also on your thread, was that nostalgia is nostalgia, whether it be for a time 50 years ago or, in your case, 23 years ago.
Oh, 100%. Nothing wrong with a bit of nostalgia, and particularly when it’s my own.
Your nostalgia used to be great.
Nowadays, it’s but a pale echo of what once it was. Behold, the ruins of a once great beauty…
My nostalgia must be better – it’s been around longer and still going strong.
Crikey I stay away from political threads and still manage to upset somebody.
So if I’m right everybody should just stop making music because it’s all been done before?
What a bloody awful world that would be. I’ve enjoyed and still enjoy every record on my list not because they are ground breaking (whatever that means) but because I think they bloody good albums.
This evening Resident records will publish their Thursday newsletter with all tomorrows new releases on and I will scour it to see if any tickle my fancy. New or old, it won’t matter it just has to be interesting and good.
Poor Burt, still living the hardcore dream. You’ve got to wake up and realise that the days of Billy Butter and DJ Slipmatt playing twelve hour sets while you neck a dozen mitsubushis at the Royal Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet, are over!
You. Cruel. Bastard.
*sob*!
Billy Bunter, the owl of the Remove?
I say you rotters, leggo! Yaroooh!
http://i.imgur.com/bQoOG8E.jpg
Gerald Campion… the representative of terrifyingly rebellious Rock’n’Roll youth in the first Carry On film.
PS. Inky… them were the days, eh?
Yes, quite. Although in the Wiki entry for Billy Bunter there’s a section on racism in which the stories come out surprisingly well.
Elton John would make a convincing Bunter these days I reckon.
Goodbye the yaroooo brick road.
Back to the howling old fat owl of the remove in the woods
The author, a Frank Richards, wrote a fantastic response to an Orwell essay about public schools.
Not entirely sure where the ‘a’ came from.
Hoi! Don’t spoil it. I’m on Vol. 1 of GO’s Essays/Letters etc and just about to get to that bit. Currently halfway through his Dickens essay, which may well be the best piece of literary criticism ever written.
Actually I’ve read all of it before but one of the advantages of having a shitey memory is that that makes no odds whatsoever.
Oh, it’s brilliant and one of the few times that someone successfully took on Orwell.
Ace. Will seek it out.
Before I forget (again): that first volume of Orwell includes an account of some argy-bargy at an Oswald Moseley rally. One of the hapless victims got hit on the head with a trumpet.
I just thought that was funny. Is that wrong?
I miss the old days, when comments this far into a thread would get as narrow as one word! You tell kids today that …
Steve Mason – Meet The Humans
Far and away the best thing I’ve procured and forced into my lugholes this year
Field Music – Commontime
Benefiting from Tiggerlions “Listen 6 times” rule (although this rule was expanded to 8. After initially thinking “OK”, I’m now loving this one
White Denim – Stiff
Big riffs, cool vibe, 1970s rock, bit of soul, bit of boogie, and no filler
PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project
At the risk of sounding like journo-hack, is this the most accessible PJ Harvey album to date? For me, it is certainly the most listenable (and repeatedly listenable).
Primal Scream – Chaosmosis
Bobby Gillespie continues to go in a different direction with each new previous album. This one is close to being Screamadelica Part 2 in places, and also has chunks of previous work in other areas. Can’t pin it down, but that keeps it interesting. I find it quite introspective, but just keeps finding it’s way back to the CD player.
Bruce Foxton – Smash The Clock
Including because it is “flavour of the month” in chez Digit. Will it still be in the end of year list? Probably?
Brian Eno – The Ship
Only listened to it (briefly) twice so far, and I was doing stuff at the time so didn’t really take it in. Great piece of work as far as I can recall, planning a lazy Friday in the company of this CD.
I was really looking forward to the Suede album, but it din’t bowl me over as expected. Likewise Iggy Pop’s offering – it was good, but not great (yet).
I like your decisiveness, Rigid. Iggy seems to be stirring conflicting emotions.
I haven’t been tempted to investigate the PJ Harvey because the Community Of Hope single is one of the worst things I’ve ever heard.
I’ve bought very little newly released stuff – some decent reissues, compilations and 50p car boot bargains around to keep me busy – but here’s a slack handful:
Avishai Cohen: Into the silence – as you’ve said @Tiggerlion – pays repeated listening, it’s a very good album
Rene Marie: Sound of Red – for me, the best female jazz vocalist currently – sassy, swingy and a great voice – writes all her own stuff (some of which won’t trouble the Great American Songbook) and continues to swim in the mainstream but has a great individual style and voice
Kenny Barron: Book of Intuition – one of my favourite jazz pianists on very confident form
Tord Gustavsen/Simin Tander: What was said – I just like the way he doesn’t settle on limpid ECM – piano noodling and each album takes a step in new directions. Saw it performed live and it was excellent
All jazz, I’m afraid.
I always look to you for Soul recommendations. Apart from Prince, there’s Gregory Porter, who, of course, has a foot in the Jazz camp too. No-one has mentioned him. What do you think?
Quite a few I’d mention have already been mentioned so I won’t bother mentioning them again and as virtually anything else I could mention you would almost certainly dislike Tigg I won’t mention those either.
Carry on.
I know. There are quite a number of albums that dislike me. However, this thread isn’t just about me. There are legions of Afterworders gagging for a morsel of inspiration from you, Squeeze. Your recommendations are legendary. Pull yer finger out and give us a lst.
Ok but don’t blame me if you have nightmares.
I’ll start with one I know you’ll like.
Blackened Cities – Melanie De Biasio.
A smidgen less than twenty five minutes in length it’s as good a piece of improvised modern jazz I’ve heard for a while.
Strangers – Marissa Nadler.
Lush, melancholic late night modern torch songs. Very Mazzy Star.
Songs Of Separation – Various Artists.
An absolutely stunning folk album. Outstanding and for me the one truly essential album I’ve heard so far this year.
Love Letter For Fire – Sam Beam & Jessica Hoop.
Excellent Americana. Lovely harmony singing on a strong set of songs.
A few others but I’ll save those for the end of year list perhaps.
In passing I’d chuck in a couple of John Surman reissues from the seventies. Westering Home and Morning Glory. Both well worth checking out by the jazz heads and finally the Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra double disc set All My Yesterday’s. The 1966 debut recordings from The Village Vanguard.
If you are partial to the propulsive swing of the Kansas City jazz scene this should put a big grin on your face. It’s aces.
Ah. The Thad Jones is fantastic and I’m really looking forward to Melanie De Biaisio.
Now.The folk thing. I loved The Unheard Songs Of Karen Dalton last year. Is Songs Of Separation comparable?
It’s a different kinda beast. More of a traditional British folk vibe and much as I enjoy the Karen Dalton penned stuff this kicks sand in it’s face.
Maybe. But, if it’s more folkie than the Dalton one, I’m going to struggle.
Did you say Americana? *Draws up a chair*.
I did. Tigg wouldn’t. He only uses three letter words to describe music. Hip. Hop. Rap. New.
Americana is new, isn’t it? Wasn’t it invented in the Nineties? Folk is as old as the hills. Country somewhere in between. From what you people tell me, all three genres are going strong, even getting better. I wouldn’t know.
I don’t think Americana is new. it’s a new term mebbe, that lots of different things get lumped into, as people love to categorise things & stick ’em in boxes. It seems to cover stuff that sometimes has a countryish tinge, but also seems to cover bluesy stuff, a lot of singer songwritery stuff. I’m not keen on it as a category at all, even though some of the stuff I listen to would be headed as so. If Gram Parsons were still around would he be grandaddy of all things Americana? Would bands like Sparklehorse or Grandaddy be labeled as Americana? I have no idea, but I guess technically yes?
I’m sure if you ignored Americana as a description you’d probably find a lot that you liked in there once you took yer blinkers off Tiggs.
Of all the posters here, Tigger is the least blinkered and most open to anything. Not necessarily in a good way. I don’t for a moment (@tiggerlion) think you pretend to have “young” tastes, or enjoy music aimed at a young demographic, to impress anyone or be down with the kids or whatever. I believe you are genuinely, authentically deluded that most of it is any good. You said somewhere up (or maybe down) there that my point of view is all to do with my lost youth, which is nonsense. For one thing, I don’t really at base feel much different from when I was young, and I still enjoy the same stuff (in lesser quantities and frequency perhaps) and I’m happier now than I’ve ever been. I certainly wouldn’t want to relive my “youth”. And I still find huge enjoyment in listening to the music of the 60s/70s that I bought at the time. It’s not history to me – this is music that in cosmic terms was made a blink of an eye ago. I’m not going to dismiss it because it wasn’t made more recently. Everything you listen to was recorded in the past – only in live gigs do you get away from that. And I do see the attraction of following contemporary music if you go to gigs. But buying the CDs is something else entirely. Most of the acts listed on this thread won’t sell big, so I imagine there’s a feeling of supporting good music, being in the know, hipping your friends to new stuff, and that’s all good. But the delusions sets in when you dismiss the vast stock of truly great music made by great talents because it isn’t happening now. This is a consumerist spell cast by the music business. The product must shift somehow, so reputations and reviews are exagerrated to give the product a status it just doesn’t possess. The truth is that there are no great talents in “contemporary music” to match those that have died. You can say that the mode of the music has changed, and guitar-based bands are (*shudder*) so yesterday, but there’s nothing to replace them, and those that follow the formula do so at some distance. Where’s the New Dylan? Elvis? Springsteen? Kinks? Beach Boys? Fairport Convention? The Beige Generation has come up with countless acts with musical ability, sometimes virtuosity, but fairly dim talents. There are no giants any more. There just aren’t, Tig. What we have today are echoes of what’s gone before, not the source of the sound. It’s the same in jazz – lots of ability, no real giant talents. And classical music, where the “back catalogue” isn’t sneered at or replaced by indie landfill symphonies. It’s the same with movies, too – there are no artistically significant directors working today. Just commercial successes. Superhero franchises have brought creative cinema, as an art form, to its knees.
It’s unrealistic to expect popular culture to keep on climbing unscaled heights, to improve artistically. It’s had its day. Pointing to hip hop and computer games isn’t a rebuttal, it’s a confirmation.
I listen to a lot of new stuff. A lot. Have a look at exystence. Most of that gets a hearing. The amount of new recordings that I keep is so small as to be negligible. I wouldn’t miss them if they dropped off my itunes. It’s not my youth that’s “disappeared” (although the body holding it has changed for the worse), it’s the talent. There may be as much raw talent around today as there ever was, but the system – the music business – has changed completely, and the days of an Elvis springing up from the sand are long gone. If you disagree, name one contemporary talent to rate with, say, Dylan. Or Neil Young. Van Morrison. Joni Mitchell. Just one. There were many back then, a blink of an eye ago.
A Joni quote from recent times – ‘there’s not much talent in this generation’.
Bob Dylan on modern music:
“I don’t know anybody who’s made a record that sounds decent in the past twenty years, really,”
Noting the music industry’s complaints that illegal downloading means people are getting their music for free, he said, “Well, why not? It ain’t worth nothing anyway.”
“You listen to these modern records, they’re atrocious, they have sound all over them,” he added. “There’s no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like … static.”
Hardly surprising, coming from a couple of (talented) old codgers 😉
Come on, Mini! Take the Saucecraft Challenge! Name one contemporary (ie young) talent as great as any of the Old Codgers were when they were young!
Trouble is, anyone suggested will be met with the response “no they’re not”. It’s a rigged game.
Anyway, I think you’re conflating two things: talent and impact. Of course the early pioneers made a big impact because pop music was just bigger then. You might think that’s effect rather than cause, but I think that’s hard to prove.
Haven’t a clue, Saucer. As you well know I listen to far more of the Old Codgers (or the Codgies!) than I do the new ones.
Perhaps you could ask tigger?*
*oh god please don’t, we could be here all day.
Just to be clear, I love old stuff, including exciting rock guitar, as much as anyone else on the blog. Musical titans of the last twenty years would include Radiohead, Massive Attack, Björk, Jack White, Nick Cave and Kanye West. They have all had long careers, producing consistently excellent music. Kanye West and Beyoncé are almost as much of a global phenomena as Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley were and no less innovative. Remember, Elvis died in the army and was a commodity thereafter. I much prefer Nick Cave to Bruce and I rate Bruce highly. Cave’s lyrics are as good as Dylan’s if you exclude Dylan’s purple patch in 65-66. Radiohead are on their ninth album and I’ve enjoyed them all, whereas there is only one album by The Kinks I can actually listen to. As far as I’m concerned Jack White is far more creative and interesting than Neil Young. Massive Attack effectively invented a new musical genre and Björk’s magical fairy dust could brighten anyone’s life. I don’t know much about Folk and The Beach Boys defeat me, although I mourn the lack of a Temptations or Four Tops or Miracles more. Jazz stopped having revolutions in the 1960s and has evolved gently since.
These days, there is so much more music, readily available, we flit from track to track, listening to only seconds at a time before dismissing it. If I did that in 1971, Neil Young wouldn’t have stood a chance. My six listen rule is to give new material ghost of a chance, just as we gave a new purchase back in the day, when giants, such as Dylan roamed the Earth, releasing gems like Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait and New Morning. My recollection is that all three of those albums to a long time to reveal their positive qualities.
I love the fact we all have our idiosyncrasies. I thoroughly enjoy reading about people’s enthusiasms, including The Beano Album. This thread has been fascinating and your contributions, H.P., have been charming and erudite, as always. I just wish there wasn’t a reflex sneer from certain quarters when anything released since 1980 is suggested to have any merit.
tl;dr
🙂
It’s a damn sight shorter than Saucey’s question!
*gulp*
Is that to tape him to it in order to whip him with a knotted rope?
*Puts cushion on chair. Prepares for lengthy chat with Pencil on the joys of Americana*
*Tiggs slips out of room*
*returns with a pair of ball gags and nipple clamps*
I like to think of the genre known as Americana as a pretty loose fit. It comes in a variety of flavours all blended together yet separate upon a shared stick.
A Zoom lolly of intrigue and joy. *slurp*
You’re scaring me now.
“Blackened Cities”, “Songs Of Separation” and “All My Yesterdays” all on their way from LosDodgeros. Excellent “Must Have” choices, Peter.
The middle section of “Blackened Cities”, when it’s thundering along, strongly reminded me of that “too slow” groove section in Nina Simone’s Mississippi Goddamn, except here the groove just stretches and stretches. And then it bubbles back up again towards the end. Sensational stuff!
I wasn’t struck by “Strangers” particularly but I may get the two Surman reissues and the Sam Beam/Jesca Hoop one later. The others all seem worth more listening.
These fresh in and immediately worth a mention.
Cat’s Eyes – Treasure House.
Ala.ni – You & I.
I’ll second the Cat’s Eyes album – superb, and their third great record in a row.
4Square: Fuel. If Salsa Celtica were english folk oriented and quieter, more acoustic. Excellent stuff.
Jarlath Henderson: Hearts Broken/Heads Turned. Uillean Pipes wunderkind shows he has Bradyesque vocal pipes too. Shows what a bit of studio know how can do too.
Rachel Newton: Here’s My Heart: Latest scottish siren, harp and trumpets over occasional muted beats with songs of the gaelic and in english
John McCusker: Hello/Goodbye: As if it were side 2 of his last, what 16 years ago, showing you don’t need any studio know how. Or vocals, if we discount his missus on the opener.
If you haven’t caught my drift, it has been a belter of a year in Folk thus far…..
Elsewhere I would class Mr Pops Post Pop Depression up there as the finest of the year, even with the couple of clunkers that show the others all the better. If Bowie had replaced Jim Morrison in the Doors, which Iggy anyway nearly did.
Anohni’s Hopelessness is still working it’s way on me. It’s a question of whether I can get my head around the tuneless couple in the middle and the godawful diatribe against the current POTUS.
Hmm.
I came up with a list of 11 and can’t be bothered to spend any time trimming one out, so here we go, in no particular order…
“Adore Life” – Savages (angry post-punk from back in January)
“Age of Indignation” – September Girls (Irish girly Indiepop)
“Fun’s Cool” – The Prettiots (Lo-fi NYC Indiepop with deceptively barbed lyrics sweetly delivered)
“White Hot Moon” – Pity Sex (Male/Female vocals, buzzing fuzzy guitars)
“The Peace and Truce of…” – Future of the Left (the spirit of Big Black lives on. In Wales)
“Covenanza” – Andrew Weatherall (Genius polymath drawls over hypnotic soundscape)
“Void Beats” – Cavern of Anti-Matter (Motorik Groove Machine assault)
“SVIIB” – School of Seven Bells (Majestic percussive Electropop)
“How What Time” – Commodo (Hip-Hop/Grime/Dubstep hybrid, everything the AW holds dear)
“You Exist” – DMX Krew (Acid-tinged electronic bass music)
“From Farthest Known Objects” – Surgeon (Big Electro tracks named after distant galaxies)
Since we all like a playlist, here’s a sampler
OK, *here* is a sampler
Excellent! You keep abreast of the ‘current’, don’t you, 808. I have to say I was expecting more votes for Savages.
One tries one’s best 🙂
Suspect Savages (along with Suede) suffered a bit from being both released waaay back in January, and overshadowed by the Bowie news.
Lovely list, 808. Lots to explore. Surgeon should have been on mine.
Interesting to see a vote for the Weatherall. That would be one of my disappointments, especially after the Woodleigh album, which is ACE. Convenanza: awesome beginning (Frankfurt Advice is one of his best-ever tracks), decent ending, and it’s great to hear Nina’s voice. But his vocals spoil it for me. Twelve years ago Weatherall singing was an interesting novelty — the terrible voice, the lack of a vocal melody — now it’s the sound of someone ruining an otherwise decent track.
I must hear that Cavern Of Anti-Matter album.
Cheers. Take your point on Weatherall’s voice (hence the “drawl” comment) but I’ve got used to it over the years. Having said that, I often don’t make it through “Kicking the River” without reaching for the skip button.
“Frankfurt Advice” is great, but I wanted to include something with his vocals so that anyone checking out the album on the back of this playlist was going in knowing roughly what to expect!
Listened to “Shred” last night by the way (thanks for the pointer) which was excellent, so that’s another vote for Skee Mask 🙂
Great stuff. Keep an eye out for the new Audion album, Alpha. It’s right up your street.
Good shout. Just listened to the track (“Destroyer”) that’s been let out as a teaser and that’s definitely to my tastes.
Trouble by Woodpigeon. Also Winterpills, Teleman, Cian Nugent, Daniel Romano, Fruit Bats, Palehound, Quilt, Treetop Flyers, Woods, Good year so far.
Reading that list, I wonder if you live in a forest. I liked the clip, nice gentle song and I don’t think much was spent on the film, but very effective.
Good year so far IMO!
I won’t rank my choices however, don’t have time to think that hard about it…
Well, Bowie’s Blackstar is a given. Wonderful in every way.
To my surprise, the same is true about Prince’s HITnRUN Phase Two (I really really didn’t enjoy Phase One…hence the surprise). Almost all of these songs could defend a place on a number of classic Prince albums.
Aziza Brahim’s second effort Abbar El Hamada is gorgeous.
After a few weak albums my old favourite Andrew Bird is back on form with Are You Serious, hurrah!
Iggy Pop’s Post Pop Depression is indeed exactly as good as everyone says; very.
Amason singer Amanda Bergman’s solo album Docks disappointed at first, thanks to unrealistically high expectations, but yet I’ve kept listening to it over and over…it’s not a Wow! kind of album, but a gentle grower.
Yoko Ono’s album Yes, I’m a Witch Too is a very tasty box of chocolates, full of fun collaborations.
Miike Snow’s iii is seriously poptastic and will get you dancing (along with the 2015 Galantis album Pharmacy which I didn’t buy until this spring).
Konono no. 1 – Konono no. 1 meets Batida is fantastic, and bonkers, in their special way.
My old favourites Freakwater got back together (finally) for the album Scherehazade and it was just as great as I wanted it to be (this is country, but the kind of raw “alt” kind that could just as easily be filed under rock, albeit rock with the occasional banjo in it).
Yorkston/Thorne/Khan’s album Everything Sacred is a thing of beauty, a marriage between western folk music and Indian.
If you liked Julia Holter before she turned “pop” ( 😉 ) and enjoys a bit of arty electronic musical soundscapes I’d recomment Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s Ears.
Rufus Wainwright’s album of Shakespeare sonnets Take All My Loves is so much better than I feared, quite wonderful actually.
And then there are a whole bunch of albums bubbling under…
Brilliant post. Thank you, Locust.
Yes, Locust, Aziza Brahim’s “Abbar El Hamada’ certainly is wonderful.
I’d go as far as to say that it’s one of my favourite North African records of all time (although, having said that, it’s not like I’ve got a huge collection of North African records against which to judge it).
They’re not out yet but I’m very interested in the new Jenny Hval, “Blood Bitch”, and the Wild Beasts single “Get My Bang” is really ace.
I haven’t heard lots of new stuff lately but I like the Birdy album.
Re. Blackstar. It’s ok. But if it weren’t Bowie and he hadn’t died…?
I agree Bob. The Diana factor made it a hit, but it’s not up there with a 70s Bowie classic. Not even remotely.
If it weren’t Bowie, it wouldn’t be Blackstar.
You could always look back to the Nights In (https://theafterword.co.uk/david-bowie-blackstar/) where we discussed it in detail. Even before his death, some of us rated it amongst his best. Three days after its release our perspective changed but I still rank it in his top five.
Listen again. It is unbelievably good.
Whatever it is, it doesn’t get played as much as Let’s Dance in my house.
That’s OK. I play Let’s Dance every morning to get me in the mood. Let’s Dance serves a purpose and serves it well. That doesn’t make it his best song.
Does so.
Everything I’d want to nominate has already been covered.
The Wilderness – Explosions in the Sky.
Atomic – Mogwai (I think Ether is one of the best things they’ve ever done)
Hollowed – Ital Tek (Cobra has to be one of the tunes of the year)
Shred – Skee Mask
There are a couple of things on the Miike Snow album that I quite like. I’m also listening to the remix of All The Way Up a lot (see best thing I’ve heard all month thread).
As others have said, it’s not exactly been a bumper year so far, but there’s still plenty of time to go. Ital Tek probably album of the year so far.
See that, Saucecraft? At this rate Skee Mask will be giving Bowie a run for his money.
I listened to that clip, all the way through. I’m not averse to a bit of whatever you call this is, in fact I have more than I can listen to already. But it’s genre stuff, a little like library music, absolutely lacking in identity or personality. “Ah but!” you cry in that nasal little voice of yours, “that’s entirely the point! Personality and point of view and an individual voice are merely baggage in today’s vibrant soundscape!” You may be right, in which case this “album of the year” (God help us all) could have been any one of hundreds of others.
Obviously, I can’t close the books on album of the year until I hear the new Monkees platter. I hear it’s bodacious.
My favourite pin-up is Davy. He’s so cute. Who’s yours?
I enjoyed Peter Tork’s rap period.
Monkeez With Attitude
Oh, I could hide ‘neath tha wingz of tha bluebird as her big-ass booty sings
Da six o’clock alarm would never ring
But it rings n’ I rise wipe tha chill outta mah eyes
Da shavin’ razorz cold, n’ it stings
Cheer up, chilly Jean, oh what tha fuck can it mean
To a thugged-out daydream believer n’ a homecomin biatch?
I know I’m on The Road Less Travelled with my Monkeemania. I’m very aware that my liking for the new album troubles some of you, because it’s outside your comfort zone! A little bit dangerous perhaps?! Not quite what your dinner-party guests would expect to hear chez vous? To those lurking in the shadows I say – come out! Embrace your inner Monkee!
I attach here the text which I hold sacred. I carry it about me on my person in an intimate place. The wisdom therein has given me sustenance and hope and protection through the years, and if you only had ears to hear, it could work for you!
There is no better song. Anywhere.
(Theme from) The Monkees
Here we come
Walkin down the street
We get the funniest looks from
Every one we meet
Hey, hey, were the Monkees
And people say we monkey around
But were too busy singing
To put anybody down
We go wherever we want to
Do what we like to do
We dont have time to get restless
Theres always something new
Hey, hey, were the Monkees
And people say we monkey around
But were too busy singing
To put anybody down.
We’re just tryin’ to be friendly
Come and watch us sing and play
We’re the young generation
And we’ve got something to say
Any time
Or anywhere
Just look over your shoulder
Guess who’ll be standing there
Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees
And people say we monkey around
But we’re too busy singing
To put anybody down
[Incomprehensible] (<!!!!!!)
Hey, hey, we're the Monkees
And people say we monkey around
But we're too busy singing
To put anybody down
We're just tryin' to be friendly
Come and watch us sing and play
We're the young generation
And we've got something to say
Hey, hey, we're the Monkees
Hey, hey, we're the Monkees
On BBC 5 Live Radio yesterday there was a big news segment on the new Monkees album, so it seems to be making waves at the highest level.
I gave Cobra a listen. Tune of the year? Tune? Song of the year if that floats your boat, but Tune, as in Melody, nope. Tune, as in what dimwits shout at DJ’s, then perhaps. I’m on HPS’s side of the divide on this one.
TUUUUUUUUUUUUUNE!
“Second class ticket to Notting-ham, please”
….before your time, I suspect. Bloody youngsters
Dottignab?
as utterred by the bloke from Please Sir, and latterly the lead singer and pianist for Kipper *
Peter Clealls CV was not exactly stellar
* Confessions Of A Pop Performer – the best of the quadology?
I was a desert rat, you know. Oh yes
THE ONLY RRRRHYME THAT BITESSS-AH!
Sorry I’m so late to this Tigger – I’ve been away.
This year I have been playing/acquiring lots of old, but in terms of (some of) the new, and in no particular order:
– Bowie – Blackstar (special mention to a cover of the title track by Bischoff, Palmer and Calvi)
– Eno – The Ship
– P-J Harvey – The Hope Demolition Project
– Klaus Schultze & Pete Namlook – Dark Side of the Moog box sets (not really “new”, I know)
– Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool (live shows sound terrific)
– Ben Watt – Fever Dream (with proper double bass and Bernard Butler!)
– Colin Harper – Sunset Cavaliers (getting a huge amount of airplay here)
– Marissa Nadler – Strangers
Also very much looking forward to forthcoming Too Late To Stop Now sets and the new Swans album…
Fantastic! A vote for Colin. Didn’t Twang release an album this year too? Or was that 2015?
The Mighty Twang did indeed unleash a mighty Twang opus upon an unsuspecting world this year.
I have avoided nominating Colin’s or Twang’s discs for much the same reason that I didn’t mention a rather resplendent Quintessence double album.
I think they are all a bit too close to home and it would seem a little insular. That’s probably just me that feels that way though.
I have nothing particularly relevant to add to this thread as every single 2016 album that’s been within my attention so far has been mentioned and discussed already.
That last one from @biggles has reminded me that “Dark Side Of The Moog Vol. 9-11” is available at Los Dodgeros at a jolly reasonable price. Time to complete the set.
In no particular order:
Folded Trouser – Pressing Times
Cum – Frantic Masturbation Show
The Draught Excluders – New Perspectives in a Windy City
Kwakermass – The Centrifugal Force of Piety
The Cave Crickets – Quinine Dreams
Swad – The Endless Search for Meaningless Things
Rhys Moog – Oscillator V
Brown Envelope – Orchard Gaze
The Shifting Balance – Adaptive Landscape
Marc Müller – Ektoformic
I’ve got the Cum 12″.
On splatter vinyl.
That’s just boasting.
*Paging Mr Moose*
Folded Trouser? It’s pants.
And I found Frantic Masturbation Show deeply unsatisfying.
I agree that Pressing Times isn’t as good as their masterpiece – Corby Ben Kenobi, but I’m hoping I grow into it.
The new Cum album is an acquired taste.
I find most of their output hard to swallow
I for one don’t come on to this site for Martin Hairnet to thrust his “Cum” down my throat, thank you very much.
Now, where’s my ELO box set …
I’m interested in this new “release”, having greedily devoured their two-cd career retrospective A Load Of Old Wank.
Are you sure you’re not confusing them with Cologne’s nude-core rockers Kum, all of whose members are currently residing in jail?
Cum are LA based born-again Christian pornographers, who believe that explicit acts of ostentatious sex set to music will hasten the Second Coming. It’s a niche market, admittedly.
If you will, bornographers.
you’ve been reading The Quietus again?
Forgot to add the new James album – The Girl at the End of the World, which might just be the James album for people who don’t like James. I’m no James fan, having been content for the previous 30 odd years with a greatest hits. They seemed a bit too precious for my tastes. I think Poppy mentioned the new album on a thread a few months back, and while noodling on Spotify, I decided to give it a listen. I was drawn in from the first track. Tim Booth (56) still sings like he means it, and the whole album is full of great tunes and anthems that sometimes remind me of the best of Midnight Oil.
My list, which many of you will find pitifully lamestream.
1. I Have Given You Herpes – Gun of the Numb
2. Crocks’n’Tubs – Shady Crisis
3. Introducing…-Fred Storm And The Route Airhead
4. Out Damned Boil – Forest Mastiff
5. Everybody Pyanyong Tonight – The Flammable Bollock
I’ve gone for these, in no particular order;
Fairey Overdrive – Sun. Wheel. Shim.
Beute Panzer – Popliteal Space
Inchoate Synaesthesia
Rostyle – Oystercatcher Paradox
Dublo – Senseless Waste Of Bongos
Meme Generator – Diacritical marks
Philtrum – Aestivation
Ketamine Nachos – Jihadi Hen Night
Mumford & Sons – Jocastas with Hampers
Foxy Boho – The Defining Funk (Of the Cowbell Accent)
Bien Pensant – Foucault’s Giro
Mumford & Sons are made up, right?
Ketamine Nachos – Jihadi Hen Night; did you get the download from their website? It’s got a fifty-minute version of Rubber Necklace that made me cry.
Empathy or laughter?
I’ve heard good things about Out Damned Boil. Those in the know are saying they could burst onto the scene at any time. Without ointment.
I prefer the Flammable Bollock’s demos, myself…
Ah! the Singed Scrotum Sessions.
In the order that I bought them & partly determine day this who had the decency to play somewhere I could see the play live (one or 2 obvious exceptions);
David Bowie – Blackstar
Suede – Night Thoughts
Eleanor Friedberger – New Views
Wussy – Forever Sounds
Sunflower Bean – Human Ceremony
The Monochrome Set – Volume, Contrast, Brilliance Vol 2
Parquet Courts – Human Performance
Teleman- Brilliant Sanity
Meilyr Jones – 2013
Wire – Nocturnal Koreans
Beverly – The Blue Swell (most plays so far)
Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool
Virgin Suicide – Virgin Suicide
Marissa Nadler – Strangers (saw her play live last night – lovely)
…determined by those who had the …
Nice to have a voice of reason present. Radiohead aren’t getting many nods. Pity. I think it’s one of their very best.
(blushes)….first time I’ve been called that. I quite like their first 3 then lost touch with them…just happened to be around when the new one was launched. I though it was compulsive, scary, funny…and some catchy tunes! Qualities which also endear my other choices to me at least. Even the chilly ones (e.g. Marissa) have a twinkle when you are 10 feet away…
I enjoyed that. I’ve been a bit wary of Marissa. I thought she might depress the hell out of me. However, with your and Pencil’s support, I’m wavering towards her.
a bit like Torres last year – moody and intense but quite lively up close
Drop by for a cuppa old bean I’ll give a few of her albums a spin for you.
It’s a deal.
ahem…in a crowded, intimate venue of course…
PS she also had Wrekmesiter Harmonies (sp?) as her support and backing band. Good use of resources.
You should do a Nights Out. It would make @biggles very happy.
said most of it already…great venue, great performance, great value for a tenner.
There’s loads that I’m still in the middle of listening to so have no idea how I feel about ’em yet. I’m still finding things I missed last year & I do buy a fair proportion of old too. I like a mix of all of ’em.
Albums I’ve liked which don’t seem to have a mention yet
Eric Bachman – Eric Bachman
Such a dull title belies an album chocful o’ joyful chamberpop wonderfulnesses that Brian Wilson would be proud of calling his own.
Kevin Morby – Singing Saw
Seems to be a concept album maybe? With saw on most of the tracks. I like Morby’s voice, like a less self-important Dylan. Slightly psychedelic in feel. I like a lot.
Cate Le Bon – Crab Day
Named for her niece’s idea as an alternative for April Fool’s, which she didn’t like, so she spends it drawing beshelled scuttlers instead. An album of slightly surreal & eccentric lyrics, both intimate & comforting, like a slightly dotty big sister taking you under her wing. I love Cate, & this is her best yet (I say that about all of her albums, but they do keep getting better.)
Dan Stuart with Twin Tones – Marlowe’s Revenge
Would never have thought this would end up in my favourites, but it seems to be the one I have played most out of all the albums I have bought this year. Who’d have thought cranky ol’ Dan’d worm his way in there with his tales of woe & heartache & loss for a woman he should have long ago gotten over,(even tried suicide) but he can’t seem to. Still one o’ the best lyricists around, some o’ the songs on here rival anything he’s done with Green on Red. Soy Un hombre is one o’ my songs o’ the year. Both heartbreaking & defiant. More power to ya Dan.
Fruit Bats – Absolute Loser
Very happy about Fruit Bats return. Apparently Eric D. Johnson has had a bit of a tough time of it, having previously decided he was no longer going to work under The FB logo after their last album Tripper, in 2011. His wife had a miscarriage. He struggled to find a place in the world without his band. The title track refers to himself. It’s a gorgeous album, full of sumptuous melodies, sad & sweet. Beautiful.
Kyle Craft – Dolls Of Highland
Ridiculously overblown pomp pop definately channelling some 70’s Bowie vibes. There’s at least 4 songs on here I already know will become longlasting faves for years & years when I need a bit of of gusto to blow out the cobwebs. Be interesting to see where this guy goes.
Also loving some of the Sturgill Simpson one, & Richmond Fontaine’s ‘un (ugh, I Got Off The Bus broke my heart- too close to home) & Lucinda Williams Louisiana story is achingly beautiful, but I find the whole album overly long in one go, so I dip in & out. Some o’ Margo Price’s album made me laugh out loud at her sass. A fine debut, following in the footsteps of Patsy Cline.
Also fond of the Emmit Rhodes album, though slightly too polished for my liking. I still need to listen to Shearwater’s Jet Plane & Oxbow a bit more. It kinda got lost in the deluge, but it is a fine album. Ditto the Meilyr Jones one. I also have not listened to the Woods one, or the Sam Beam & Jesca Hoop one, or the Open Mike Eagle, or the Money one to have a strong enough opinion on how I feel about ’em. I should also possibly give the Heron Oblivion one more of a listen, but am finding it slightly irritating (possibly because it seems to take itself so seriously.) Have only just gotten one of the 2 new Daniel Romano albums so nowt to say yet, other than the production seems slightly lacking, which may put me off, which is a shame, as I usually like him a lot. Oh, & the Night Beats album, which I’ve not had a chance to listen to yet, but I think I may like a lot.
I also need to give much more of a chance to the new Ty Segall one, but unfortunately I’ve spoiled it for myself by becoming obsessed with their live appearance on KEXP, especially Baby Big Man (I Want A Mommy) which had me laughing like a loon. Poor Cheryl looks terrified. The album version just can’t compete.
Here’s the whole session
Lastly got a couple of EPs which have been having a lot of plays. David Corley- Lights Out, but of course! Actually make more sense having seen him live & he explained the stories behind most of the songs, was finding it hard to love initially, as felt slightly different to the album, which I adored & a new John Murry one, which I had to order from Rollercoaster Records in Kilkenny, where John now resides, & has just become an Irish citizen. Only issued in a very small batch of 150. Missed his voice. Blimey, he’s been having some troubles, but he seems to have been adopted by the people of Kilkenny, so hopefully will be making more music sometime soon.
This is an odd dance remix at the end of the EP.
https://soundcloud.com/foreignaffair/john-murry-oscar-wilde-foreign-affair-remix
What a stupendous post! The blog has missed you, Contrary. I’m so glad you are back.
I’m sorry to hear about John Murry. I liked A Graceless Age so much I did a Nights In without realising that someone else had beaten me to it. I think it’s the only album to have been reviewed twice on the Afterword.
I’ve already bought David Corley. I’ll let that bed in before being tempted by your other suggestions.
Well I don’t think I’ve ever not been here, though I probabably do post a bit less, due to time restrictions, just too busy, but I am an irregular poster. Have a few days off this week, supposed to be paintin’ the bathroom, well I got the paint. i might spend some time up a ladder this afternoon, with headphones in my ears.
Strange see, pretty sure John Murry’d be classed as pure Americana, when basically it’s just bloody good song writin’. Well if ya liked that you should definately like DC. Of very similar ilk.
The Graceless Age was a tough listen for me. Had an ex who was a heroin addict (amongst other addictions). That was a tough 14 years, but we got through it. He’s now probably one of my closest friends. Still a pain in the ass, but we’ve got 2 kids together so ya keep on keepin’ on. Thank god I have music to keep me sane (relatively).
See. I’m not entirely a lost cause.
Am I the only one who feels like this thread is insufficiently about H.P Saucecraft?
There are threads about other things? Where??
We call them “YouTube threads”. It’s a Resistance code-name.
Ahhhh, that explains the “List of New Bavarian Hip-Hop Songs about Cats and Children”.
You are a cruel man @mousethmooche. I really believed that thread existed and am bitterly disappointed that it doesn’t.
In my futile search for it, I stumbled across this. It’s got kittens in lederhosen drinking beer and being playful with enormous sausages. It’s written by someone called Mooch.
My Naffometer has just exploded.
http://www.moochtrain.com/Oktoberfest.html
Well, slappa my thighs!
While you are here, Kai, what are favourites of the year so far?
Kai is most certainly not here @tiggerlion!
If my son was here, and thought that some geezer on his dad’s extremely boring website for jazz fogeys was interested in what he was listening to, he would tell you in extraordinary detail about the rap scene in Atlanta and Chicago and mention names like Future, 2Chainz, Desiigner, Lil Wayne, Jeezy, Young Thug etc.
I, by complete contrast, will mention the new album, Mare Nostrum 2, by a trio I saw on Wednesday evening: Lundgren, Galliano & Fresu. I haven’t listened to it so many times yet, but I have no doubt it will be one of my favourites of the year.
Sorry, fatdad. Intriguing choice. I’ll give it a spin later.
Re: “List of New Bavarian Hip-Hop Songs about Cats and Children”
Does Clem Snide’s “The Sound of German Hip-Hop” qualify for that list?
Maybe it half-does…
“Am I the only one who feels like this thread is insufficiently about H.P Saucecraft?” I get this a lot, and it’s baffling. If it was in any way about me (as opposed to the tripe I type) there’d be great sobbing descriptions of whatever illness I’m suffering at the moment. I mean, I could PM you with this if you were that interested in me, Bing.
Nah, you’re alright.
Xxx
*simper*
You’re kind of cute yourself.
HP?! I thought this was a Craig Brown parody thread.
Well I am pretty late to this party, and from what I can make out there has been lots of fun and games!
My top albums this year (Tigger Alert Warning, some of these may be Americana) are:
Dori Freeman – self titled debut, sounds like an Appalachian Peggy Lee in the cool precision of her singing
Aoife O’Donovan – In the Magic Hour
Ben Watt – Fever Dream
Robbie Fulks – Upland Stories
Louise Le May – A Tale Untold
Louise is a particular favourite of mine at the moment. Hers is a lush album with all kinds of influences I can’t quite pinpoint and fantastic arrangements by French musician Louis Philippe. This is Radium Smile, about the discovery of Radium for luminous clocks and its ruinous effects on the girls who made them.
Hello Carolina. You have exquisite taste that is different to mine. We both like Ben Watt, though.
Thanks 🙂 I am enjoying some of Radiohead’s new album immensely (which is a sentence I never thought I’d write). Heard the track Tinker Sailor Soldier last night which was superb.
I should have mentioned the DIIV album ‘Is The Is Are’. I’d tricked myself into thinking it came out late last year BUT THAT WAS A LIE. Lovely chiming guitars, vaguely motorik drums, a bit shoe-y, a bit Cure-y…it’s really good. It’s guitar, bass and drums so obviously it’s not as good as something recorded four decades ago, but then again half a dozen Athenians wrote the greatest plays ever two and half thousand years ago, and no one seems to mind too much that Shakespeare, Ibsen and Brian Rix had a go themselves a bit later.
You are right, that is rather good, if reminiscent of something from the Eighties.
“…rather good, if reminiscent of something from the Eighties.”
Oxymoronic.
I’ve been doing my homework and, despite all the “Get out of your rocking chair Grandma”/”They all have daft names and I can’t make out the words” entrenchment, there is a pleasing variety to the noises admired by the AW massive.
I’ve got five new loves and five “could be”s, of which the pick comes from Tigg himself – the horny frogs on a trampoline bounce of Snarky Puppy. EXACTLY the type of music I would never listen to, but for the guiding hand of my AW chums.
New v Old may never be decided, but five (possibly ten) fab new albums – that’s a result!
Same here. My 2016 playlist has expanded exponentially. There are now at least twenty albums vying for my top five.
Minor Victories – Minor Victories
Pet Shop Boys – Super
David Bowie – Blackstar
Suede – Night Thoughts
School of Seven Bells – Sviib
Bloc Party – Hymns
Just a quick shout-out to all Afterword fans of the brilliant (and, indeed, ‘wyrd’) Glaswegian folk singer/songwriter Alasdair Roberts.
This Friday, 10 June, sees the release of Alasdair’s new album “Plaint of Lapwing”, with James Green.
It’ll only be available from the Clay Pipe Music site, and the physical product is limited to 800 vinyl LPs.
If you fancy buying one of the LPs, it’s best to be hanging around the Clay Pipe Music site around 8 a.m. on Friday, because they’re likely to sell fast. All Clay Pipe releases tend to sell out within a few hours, and Roberts is far better known than most artists on the label.
http://www.claypipemusic.co.uk/
Ah, thank you @duco01, & am off to see the man himself this eve in Bristol, though slightly kicking myself that I somehow missed him playing here in Bath with Andy Cutting only a week ago. Doh! Looks like it was in the old masonic hall, which would have been an interesting building to get a look inside. Dammit.
At the risk of setting anyone off again….
It’s taken a few weeks, but the Anohni album has just clicked for me in a big way. Ignore the politics, skip hurriedly over “Obama” and it’s an ace record with a lovely sound.
Here’s a highlight that would have been so much better if it had only been released in one of the proper decades…
Ooh I know that voice..
Whaddaya know – on the day we have a thread about playing with our Johnsons, it turns out Antony’s given up playing with his.
Will investigate.
For me, so far, it has to be Folklore, by Big Big Train. An absolute beast of an album.
Where have you been, Duncan? And are you named after that beast of a striker, Duncan Ferguson?
I’m disorderly on a purely personal basis, Tigs. The name comes from early Connolly material, long before Duncan Ferguson was assigned it.
That’s a relief. I thought you might give me a Glasgow kiss.
I’m more of a hugger. At least I think that’s what people keep shouting at me.