December is here and it is time for the only end of year poll that matters – The Afterword Album Of The Year. I suggest the same rules as usual. Name your Top 20, preferably using the format number, artist, album name (e.g. 1. Radiohead – OK Computer). Your number 1 choice will earn 20 points and the rest will be awarded 19, 18 etc.down to 1 point for your number 20. I know there will be those that think we should do it differently but over the years this seems to be the method that has ticked most boxes. Any questions of albums’ validity will be judged on a case by case basis, but I’m not looking to fall out with anyone over these judgements – it’s just a bit of fun innit?
The poll closes on 31st December at 11.59pm – results to be posted early in the new year.
Thanks everyone, and may the best album win….
Mods – any chance this could be pinned near the top of the blog?
I’ll be opening the Archive & Historical Poll in a week or so’s time.
😀
What’s that Mr T? A best of all time poll?
No. As in re/released in 2025.
😀
1 Tingsek – Lights Out Association
2 Young Gun Silver Fox – Pleasure
3 The Divine Comedy – Rainy Sunday Afternoon
4 Ron Sexsmith – Hangover Terrace
5 Boylife – Jones
6 Vulfpeck – Clarity of Cal
7 Jacob Jeffries – You Got The Right Idea
8 Tom McGuire and the Brassholes – A Name for Everything I’ll Ever Be
9 Monkey House – Crashbox
10 Iain Hornal – Return to the Magic Kingdom
11 Rikas – Soundtrack for a Movie That Hasn’t Been Written Yet
12 Goose – Everything Must Go
13 Snarky Puppy and the Metropol Orkest – Somni
14 Cory Wong – Live at L’Olympia
15 Cat Burns – How to Be Human
16 Kristina Train – County Line
17 David Byrne – Who is the Sky?
18 Elton John and Brandi Carlile – Who Believes in Angels?
19 Couch – Big Talk
20 Royal Arctic Institute – Royal Arctic Institute
Well down for getting in first. I have heard precisely one of those. As ever the Afterword list will be gloriously and educationally eclectic.
Apart from numbers 3, 4, 17 and 18 you may as well have invented those as far as I’m concerned! As always with the end of year list I will discover a lot…
I’d say you were the Quietus if it wasn’t for the Divine Comedy at number 3. 🙂
I’ve got those four as well and they will most likely make an appearance in my list, and in similar positions, about 28 days from now…
Echo, in that I have heard none of these, even if there are two I would like to, namely Ron Sexsmith and Snarky Puppy. I don’t think I have heard of most the others, outside Elt’n’Brandi, The Divine Comedy and Cat Burns, and she (they?) only via Traitors.
Is there a diversity of genres, @Matthew-Best or loosely similar?
It’s a bit diverse, as you would expect from us at the Afterword, but it’s all quite listenable, so not at all like the Quietus chart, which I have tried to sample all of in a previous year and found it to be utterly unmusical and almost painful. None of this is like that.
Some interesting things there, thanks. I’m a big Isbell fan but the limitations of bloke and acoustic guitar usually wear me down after 4 or 5 songs and he’s no exception.
@retropath2 the Ron Sexsmith is a great album – back to his old self.
1, 2, 5, are quite souly
6, 7, 8, 14 are funky
9 is basically Steely Dan
10, 11, 15, 19 are poppy
12 is a jam band
13 jazz
16 country
20 ambient country (if there is such a thing)
Hope that helps.
No snark meant by the quietus comment honestly. I’d just genuinely never heard of, let alone heard, most of them. But that’s why this thread is so good every year. So much stuff!
This year’s Quietus 100 is up. I can see how sampling it all might test your nut, but if you read the little snippets of reviews you can be guided to some real treats. So far I am extremely grateful to them for drawing my attention to Elijah Minnelli and Nadeem Din-Gabisi. Who else is going to do that for me?
Just three fromme I’m afraid…is this allowed?
1. Sparks – Mad!
2.James Yorkston – Songs for Nina and Johanna
3. CMAT – Euro-Country
James Yorkston could easily have been No 1, it’s a lovely album as recommended by some on here. (Apologies, I can’t remember who.) But Sparks are Sparks! The CMAT album is an unexpected pleasure.
Sparks are Sparks and I’m a completist but I don’t think Sparks even made the best “Sparks” album this year. That honour goes to David Byrne!
I’m three short, but I guess that doesn’t matter.
1 – Kathleen Edwards – Billionaire
2 – Robert Plant – Saving Grace
3 – Suzanne Vega – Flying With Angels
4 – Lord Huron – The Cosmic Selector Vol 1
5 – Jason Isbell – Foxes in the Snow
6 – Midlake – A Bridge to Far
7 – Chris Eckman – The Land We Knew the Best
8 – James McMurtry – The Black Dog & The Wandering Boy
9 – Rodney Crowell – Airline Highway
10 – Autumn Defense – Here and Nowhere
11 – Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter – Forever I’ve Been Being Born
12 – AVTT/PTTN – AVTT/PTTN
13 – Jerry Joseph – Panther Tracks Vol 1
14 – Jeffrey Foucault – The Universal Fire
15 – Mavis Staples – Sad and Beautiful World
16 – Kassi Valazza – From Newman Street
17 – Thea Gilmore – These Quiet Friends
Nice to see a vote for AVTT/PTTN! I have it but have yet to listen.
Nothing better than AVVT/PTTN! It’s been out there for two whole weeks and it’s boscar! (I seem to have wandered into an alternate universe where apparently I know what I’m talking about. Wish me luck)
15 from me:
1. Suede – Antidepressants
2. Len Price 3 – Misty Medway Magick
3. Jim Bob – Automatic / Stick
4. Manic Street Preachers – Critical Thinking
5. Sam Fender – People Watching
6. Pulp – More
7. Sparks – Mad
8. Paul Weller – Find El Dorado
9. Block 33 – The Promised Land
10. Wreckless Eric – Englands Screaming
11. Humdrum Express – Rastrophiliopustrocity Pomposity
12. Wet Leg – moisturizer
13. Alice Cooper – The Revenge of Alice Cooper
14. James McMurty – The Black Dog And The Wandering Boy
15. Matt Berry – Heard Noises
Aha! Wreckless Eric proof, if any were needed that best of the year lists should not be compiled on 1st November!
1. Robert Plant – Saving Grace
2. Jason Isbell – Foxes in the Snow
3. Paul Weller – Find Eldorado
4. Mavis Staples – Sad and Beautiful World
5. Thea Gilmore – These Quiet Friends
6. Rodney Crowell – Airline Highway
7. CMAT – Euro Country
8. Luke Haines & Peter Buck – Going Down to the River to Blow my Mind
9. Patty Griffin – Crown of Roses
10. Eve Adams – American Dust
11. Benmont Tench – The Melancholy Season
12. Ringo Starr – Look Up
13. Carson McHone – Pentimento
14. Amanda Shires – Nobody’s Girl
15. Snocaps – Snocaps
16. David Byrne – Who is the Sky
17. Neko Case – Neon Grey Midnight Green
18. Emma Pollock – Begging the Night to take Hold
19. Wreckless Eric – England’s Screaming
20. The Black Keys – No Rain, No Flowers
I will be posting mine on rerun from my holidays – could do t new but I know I will forget some that have to be there.
Thanks for the Eve Adam’s reminder: an excellent record!
Good to see Benmont Tench in there. I was initially unimpressed but it has grown on me as the year progressed.
Here’s a prediction – Robert Plant will be No 1
Oh lordy – please don’t tell me yet another aged rocker approximately 25 (?) years past his prime is going to take the Coveted AW Trophy. Don’t let it happen, we’re all better than that..
I’ll be voting for people much older than Percy. And some younger.
Here we go and wishing everyone a great december:
1. Caroline – Caroline 2
2. Yttling Jazz – Illegal hit
3. Emergence Collective – Swimming in the early hours
4. Coastal County – Coastal County II
5. Poor Creature – All Smiles Tonight
6. Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke – Tall tales
7. Snocaps – Snocaps
8. Cerys Hafana – Angel
9. Kathryn Mohr – Waiting room
10. Greg Freeman – Burnover
11. Geckos – Geckos
12. Sunking – I don’t like my telephone
13. Ebi Soda – Frank dean and andrew
14. SML – How you been
15. Cornwall Youth Noise Orchestra – Ensembles of industrial Cornwall
16. Anna Tivel – Animal poem
17. Orna – Slacker
18. Tian Qiyi – Songs for workers
19. Alexandre Tharaud – Satie: Discoveries
20. Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble – Groove in the face of adversity
That’s an interesting list. I have never heard of any of them, except for two – Alexandre Tharaud and SML, both of which will be on my list!
(And of course I’ve heard of Don Was but not that album)