Yes, it’s way too early, but here’s the Rough Trade Albums of the Year list.
Top three of Björk, Father John Misty and Courtney Barnett if you can’t summon the enthusiasm to click on the link.
Here we go then, first Best of 2015 list
by 41 Comments
I’ve only heard the PSB.
There’s me thinking I was down wiv da kids an that…
That abbreviation sent me scurrying to the list to see how I’d possibly missed the release of a new Pet Shop Boys album.
Some very good albums in there. In the wrong order, of course. 😀
It’s been a superb year.
Sufjan album still top of the pops, for me.
Yes, and they have it at 12, which is ridiculous.
Yep, I’d put Sufjan at number 1, PSB at number 2 and Kendrick Lamar at number 57. Haven’t heard anything else.
1. Sufjan
2. Deafheaven
3. Father John Misty
I’ve not heard everything on the Rough Trade list, but the idea that the Jamie xx album (which I like, a lot) is “better”than Carrie & Lowell is almost comical.
Adele’s at 56 – before it’s even been released!
Brilliantly, the thumbnail for that album is marked “Pre-Order Now!”.
I’ve heard precisely zero.
Thank you for cheering me up. Me neither.
Go and listen to Kendrick Lamar forthwith.
*thwack*
I listened to a couple of the vids on your review thread, tigs. They didn’t float my boat. When I said I’ve listened to zero, I meant albums. I’ve heard bits and bobs from several on the list, but have yet to investigate further.
But thanks for the thwack. It was most invigorating!
Oh well.
Tigger!
Saw this, thought of you:
http://imgur.com/Y7lA8T2
Shit! I paid good money for that to be deleted from the Internet. Where are my driving gloves?
Father John Misty and the Sufjan are two records that are so awful they actually made me angry. Apologies to the many on here that think either or both are great but I hope to hear neither ever, ever , ever again.
come on @henpetsgi don’t hold back
tell us what you really think.
I can barely bring myself to actually do this but… let’s start with the most stupid name in pop history. I give you FJM
Oh, honeybear, honeybear, honeybear
You mascara blood
Ash and cum
On the Rorschach sheets where we make love
Honeybear, honeybear, honeybear
You fuck the world damn straight my lady
It may be just us who feel this way
But don’t ever doubt this, my steadfast conviction
My love, you’re the one I want to watch the ship go down with
The future can’t be real, I barely know how long a moment is
Unless we’re naked getting high on the mattress
While the global market crashes
And death fills the streets with garden variety oblivious
You grab my hand and say
“And I told you so, boys
It’s just how we expected.”
Everything is doomed, and nothing will be spared
Oh, I love you, honeybear
Honeybear, honeybear, honeybear
You’re bent over the altar
And the neighbors are complaining
That the misanthropes next door
Are conceiving a daemon
Don’t they see the darkness rising?
Good luck fingering oblivion
We’re getting out now while we can
You’re welcome boys, have the last of the smokes and chicken
Just one Cadillac will do to get us out to where we’re going
I’ve brought my mother’s depression
You’ve got your father’s scorn and a wayward aunt’s schizophrenia
But everything is fine
Don’t give into despair
Cause I love you, honeybear
AND THEN THIS from Mr Weedy Miseryguts himself
Spirit of my silence I can hear you, but I’m afraid to be near you
And I don’t know where to begin
And I don’t know where to begin
Somewhere in the desert there’s a forest, and an acre before us
But I don’t know where to begin
But I don’t know where to begin
Again I lost my strength completely, oh, be near me, tired old mare
With the wind in your hair
Amethyst and flowers on the table, is it real or a fable?
Well, I suppose a friend is a friend
And we all know how this will end
Chimney swift that finds me be my keeper,
Silhouette of the cedar
What is that song you sing for the dead?
What is that song you sing for the dead?
I see the signal searchlight strike me in the window of my room
Well, I got nothing to prove
Well, I got nothing to prove
I forgive you, mother, I can hear you,
And I long to be near you
But every road leads to an end
Yes, every road leads to an end
Your apparition passes through me in the willows and five red hens
You’ll never see us again
You’ll never see us again
BASTARDS, BASTARDS AND BASTARDS!!!!
Sufjan is very pleasant and is better than some of his older stuff, which was a little twee. This is less so, but still hardly butch.
FJM has had such heavy press of late I am tempted to break the prejudice I have about his nom de tune.
Start here:
If you don’t enjoy it then you’ll probably not much care for the album, and you’re also dead to me.
As so many people have raved about them, I do keep meaning to listen to those two (despite actively disliking practically everything else I’ve heard by them) just so I can have an informed opinion.
Haven’t forced myself into it yet though…
The Drift records list is also available. Look at their website if interested.
Like quite a few on their list; agree with the Jamie XX and Sufjan Stevens. Was initially disappointed with the Public Service Broadcasting album, but I’ve given it another go and come round.
I really like Ryan Adams, Foals and FFS albums as well, would have had them higher.
Love New Order’s record – the production is just amazing!
The Lana Del Rey album is a huge disappointment though.
Richard Hawley’s album is still on my list to listen to, as is John Grant – not enough hours in the day!
As is usual with these things, the albums are correct (mainly), just the order is wrong.
FFS
Courtney Barnett
Public Service Broadcasting
and the following don’t even get a mention:
Iron Maiden
Cathal Smyth
Steven Wilson
(or would that be a case of “oops, sorry – wrong demographic”)
I’m surprised that duBlonde’s Welcome Back to Milk isn’t there. If this great album was to appear on any end of year lists, I would’ve thought it would be the Rough Trade list.
(Nice to see Nadine Shah up there though)
(also amused to see an act called Joanna Gruesome) (ahead of Joanna Newsome too).
PSB
Unthanks
Decemberists
I’m also coming to the opinion the Father John Misty album is a load of twaddle.
A bit like getting carol singers round at this time of year – “Too Early !” (Actually I shout that through the door all the way up to Xmas Eve – grump, grump).
I will declare my hand no earlier than 1st week December – who know what delights may still appear
That’s just two weeks away.
I am feeling very old and disconnected. There’s a lot of names I don’t even recognize. One of my favorites at 86 – Jason Isbell. My other faves this year a Waterboys, Wilco
and the new album from El VY – not even mentioned.
I also like Kurt Vile and Sufjan but – that still leaves a lot that I “need” to listen
feel hip. Haha
Nobody should feel out of touch not knowing some of those releases. There is so much music, an awful of it is ‘pretty good’. As in recent years there will only be a handful of records that the Record Shops, the music inkies and the blogs agree on…and hundreds more that only 5 people have heard of.
can’t help thinking some of the record shop lists reflect things they’ve got far too much of and need to shift (there must be mountains of that last Tame Impala album).
This is just one list that reflects the music taste of a handful of people who work in a very small chain of record shops. I daresay if you showed that list to a random selection of teenagers in the street they wouldn’t have heard of the vast majority either..most of them don’t buy records or CDs .and they’re probably listening to Phil Collins and obscure 90s Drum & Bass on YouTube
Wait ’til the Pitchfork list comes out.
Of artists featured: heard of 21, heard 6.
Of albums featured: heard three.
Of albums heard: kept none.
It’s no use suggesting I “start with this”, whatever it is. It won’t give me as much pleasure as any of the hundreds of albums in my core collection, the overwhelming proportion of which comes from ’65-’75, with diminishing returns thereafter.
The Riley Walker and Tame Impala albums “got a lot of love”, but if they’re amongst the very best releases it’s been a pretty thin year. Still, I suppose if you don’t have the impeccable musical legacy of “65-’75 as a foundation for your life, it might seem pretty good.
Young people. I pity them.
(And no, the New Rod wouldn’t make my list, either!)
I read this whole thread before I realised that PSB stood for Public Service Broadcasting and not Pet Shop Boys. That’s how hip I am.
No mention of Olivia Chaney, so pah.
Nice to see the Max Richter album in at no.5. I’ve been enjoying that.
Normally, the two “Albums of the Year” list thats provide me with the most inspiration and signposts to brilliant records I have missed over the preceding 12 months are these two:
1. The list on the Aquarium Drunkard site
2. The Top 100 list on Ted Gioia’s site
I find I often go back to these lists over the course of a year, to investigate music that I didn’t check out when first reading them. They tend avoid the standard albums that tend to clutter up most end-of-year lists.
But not even these lists are the finest two on the internet. That honour naturally belongs to:
the DUCO01 FAVOURITE 40 NEW ALBUMS OF 2015 LIST,
and
the DUCO01 FAVOURITE REISSUES AND HISTORICAL RECORDINGS LIST
which will be coming your way sometime in December. They’ll be immense.
http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/t642/burtkocain/2IjZRb9u-1_zpsfcv4r8om.jpg
I see that Ted Gioia has now published his 100 albums of the year for 2015, in order (and if those aren’t enough, he also lists nos 101 to 200, but in alphabetical order).
I’ve not had time to study and dig into this year’s Top 100 yet, but I always find plenty of interesting albums in his end-of-year lists. He certainly has eclectic tastes…
http://tedgioia.com/bestalbumsof2015.html
Nice to see Norfolk experimental violinist Laura Cannell right up there at No.4, with her “Beneath Swooping Talons” album. I thought I was the only person in the world who liked – or even knew of – that record!
Although I havent heard the Bjork album (or indeed most on this list), Max Richter seems to be the only really interesting and innovative release of the year and for that gets my vote.
The Piccadilly Records lists are out
http://www.piccadillyrecords.com/counter/feature.php?feature=751