It won’t be long now before someone posts an Album Of The Year thread which will quickly be filled with lists littered with names of bands that simply have to be made up… to be followed shortly after by hilarious lists of made up bands.
But in this giddy excitement over the new, a sober voice will state – in the manner of the modern-day Chinese premier warning against haste in assessing the impact of the French Revolution – that the only safe way to pick a 2017 Album Of The Year is to wait a few years, just to be sure.
This otherwise appealing idea is rendered somewhat fanciful on a site where the demographic means that “crazy new beat” you’re grooving to is less likely to be coming from your Rega than from the grim reaper knocking at your door.
So, in the spirit of calm reflection but at the same time acknowledging the irrefutable reality that your sense is, at every moment, ebbing away like the air from a punctured tyre, I thought I might ask these questions about your favourites of last year..
(1) Which album’s greatness did you fail to grasp?
Here I am referring to something you knew and liked* but whose brilliance you only grew to fully appreciate over the last year
My own answer to this question is Kano’s Made In The Manor. Oh, it scraped into my top 10 alright, but it’s just got better and better ever since, it’s continuing presence on my stereo not at all hindered by a Glastonbury appearance both joyful and triumphant.
(2) Which album you declared great have you hardly listened to at all in the succeeding year?
My answer to this is Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker, one of those records that arrives heavy with importance, pushing it up “best of year” lists, but which sits on the shelf and is seldom revisited. (You might think the black cloud of the great man’s death is the greater inhibiting factor here, but – unlike the Laughing Gnome Hitmaker – I have and had no real attachment to Mr C).
Well, I’ve shown you mine – how about you show me yours?
*Some may prefer to mention something they missed entirely and it would be Canutish of me to try to stop you.
Here’s a flavour of Mr K from the summer:
Great idea for a thread.
For me, 2016 was the year of Frank Ocean and Young Thug, and I’ve continued to spin both those records with enormous regularity in 2017.
1) I finally got round to properly listening to Michael Kiwanuka’s “Love & Hate” in late December 2016. It was just as horrendously tasteful as I’d feared it might be, but I still enjoyed it, and I’ve listened to it a fair bit in 2017. Dunno about “greatness”, but it’s the one that first jumps to mind, especially given how hard it was hyped on here.
2) This would be either the No Man’s Sky soundtrack, which suddenly didn’t sound so good once we stopped playing the game, or the ANOHNI record, which I had a few reservations about, even at the time, but which proved to only sound worse as the months passed. Lovely music and voice, just a shame about all the words.
This is the tune I wish I’d had on my best of 2016 list. Found it in Jan 2017, and have listened to it loads since…
Both easy answers.
1) Frank Ocean – Blonde
I knew some of it was good but was put off by some of the crap on it (especially the spoken word tracks. And ‘Futura Free’. And ‘Pretty Sweet’). Skipping the crap via the magic of iPod has revealed a truly brilliant series of tracks that I still play most days.
2) Lambchop – FLOTUS
It had a nice sound to it, I thought I’d be listening to it all year. But it soon got boring.
Since discovered: Post Malone’s Stoney. Just yesterday in fact. Woulda made my Top Ten, easy.
FLOTUS is a good shout. That one really came and went.
Good news re: Blonde. I only ever listen to an edited version, because I hate skits. That said, I do really like Futura Free; the bit where the beat kicks in is great.
Here’s my edit:
Nikes
Ivy
Pink + White
Solo
Skyline To
Self Control
Nights
Solo (Reprise)
White Ferrari
Seigfried
Godspeed
Futura Free
Album of the decade, for me. Nothing else sounds like it.
Yep, I am agree (I cut ‘Solo (Reprise)’ and ‘Futura Free’ though). I really like his ‘solo’ version of Biking at the mo.
It’s absolutely brilliant.
Great idea for a thread. I shall ponder
That’s a corking thread idea. More of this sort of thing!
I only discovered the Solange album “A Seat At The Table” in 2017 after hearing Cranes In The Sky on release and not thinking much about it either way. Then SongExploder exploded the song – I listened to that episode this year and it unlocked it for me. The album has rarely left my headphones for more than a week since.
I loved the Arcade Fire record “Everything Now” when I heard it. I listened to it for a week and haven’t really touched it since. Listened to it recently and it is literally OK.
Oh. Everything Now came out this year. As you were.
however though it is a few years ago now Reflektor I now think is a great album, at the time appeared too long and lacking in tunes. Now, it still needs to be treated as a proper double album, but it’s hugely grown on me.
I’ll come back to you for the answer to number 1, but my answer to the 2nd question is ‘Black Star’ by Bowie.
On recent evidence, I will be able to contribute to this thread in the late spring of 2024.
I mean… what’s the hurry?
Not for you Moose – ain’t no air in those tyres… 🚳
Most of the declared Top 12 (yes, I’m awkward) have had a fair few listens this year.
Although, looking back at my list Whitney – Light Upon The Lake has been absent from my ears for some time.
1) Turned out greater than originally placed:
Iggy Pop – Post Pop Depression
I knew it was good – and I was proved right
(“best since Lust For Life” sounds like a cliche, but it definitely is)
2) Not listened to and fallen off radar
David Bowie – Blackstar
Loved it at the time, but no urge to revisit. My brain is firmly in the 1970 to 1980 period, with bits and pieces of the nearer past. Despite the writing of many a journo, Blackstar (for me) doesn’t rank as highly.
3) Missed it first time around, but caught up eventually (only 2 years behind the curve):
Dawes – All Your Favourite Bands
The Wilderness by Explosions in the Sky is one that made my top ten last year, but I haven’t listened to much since. Just not as good as their others unfortunately. One I missed was Not to Disappear by Daughter – highly rated by at least one person here (@dr-volume maybe?) it’s probably the album I’ve listened to most in the last few months.
I immediately recognised that Blackstar is brilliant. Today, it sounds even better.
I’m nominating Maxwell’s blackSUMMERS’night and Quantic’s 1000 Watts for category one. There are hidden depths to Maxwell’s smooth soul. His pure falsetto may have gone but the feelings expressed just seem more powerful. I think it’s his best album. Meanwhile, Quantic’s reggae rolls around giggling with joy. Whenever I feel slightly down it effortlessly lifts the mood.
Don’t revisit any more and can’t see myself going back: Nick Cave and Paul Simon. I haven’t played Leonard Cohen much but I will definitely revisit some time.
Out of nowhere is Anderson .Paak’s Malibu. It’s an old-fashioned singer-songwriter album through the medium of Hip Hop. Bloody marvellous!
The biggest surprise, for me, is the tenacity of The Rolling Stones. I expected it to have fallen off a cliff into my CD landfill but, no, it’s still there getting the odd listen.
Yeah, the Paul Simon one. Never gained any traction chez Breakfast, despite perseverance.
Paul Simon’s remains magnificent. If one can forget the circumstances surrounding Blackstar (admittedly nigh on impossible) on reflection it does not get into the Top 5 Bowie records.
One I missed entirely was Huerco S. Apart from Eno I am not normally an avid listener of ambient but at the right time and in the right place For Those of You Who Never is the Album of 2016.
Au contraire Tiggs Paul Simon was one of my favourites of last year and it still gets played this year.
Concur with others re Lambchop – not sure have played this year but thought it was fab on release.
Ok. I’ll give Paul another spin.
Lambchop was boring then and remains so. In fact, being pinot noired I will say they were never that much cop anyway. Critic’s band.
The questions here sound too complicated for (I keep forgetting what question 1 is by the time I get yo question 3… sorry…. I gotta short little span of attention) but if the overriding question is albums you overlooked at the time in 2016, then my answer is the Childish Gambino album.
I don’t remember seeing Childish Gambino cropping up on anyone’s best of 2016 here, but it’s a wonderful album. Kind of like a retro-sounding (but not backward looking) space funk masterpiece, with tongue ever so slightly in cheek. Early Funkadelic mating with Marvin Gaye’s Here My Dear album.
And a lovely deep blue cover.
1) Ezra Collective’s Chapter 7, which I only became aware of a few weeks ago. All the qualities I loved in this year’s release were here too.
2) hmmm, there’s a few. I would have said Horseback, but I actually dug that one out again a fortnight or so ago and rinsed it. It’s still brilliant, and I expect you’re all still ignoring it. The answer is probably the Avalanches, I’m sorry to say. I just haven’t felt the need to listen to it for months now.
Funny you should mention You Want It Darker. I gave this a spin a couple of weeks ago for the first time in months, and it seemed stronger than ever.
1) A historical reissue from 2016 that I underappreciated last year (mainly because I bought it on about 29th December) is “Hearing Music” by the late US ambient composer Joanna Brouk (1949-2017). It’s a 2CD compilation from Brouk’s old cassette-only recordings from the 1970s and 80s. Mainly piano and flute-based instrumentals. Absolutely beautiful. Great to work to. I go back to it again and again. Recommended unreservedly.
2) I’ve played David Bowie’s music a fair bit this year, but it’s always been my old favourites: Low, “Heroes”, Station to Station and Santa Monica ’72. Not Blackstar, for some reason. I never quite feel like putting it on.
Sharks – Killers of the Deep, plus Blue & Lonesome natch.
Same for me with Bowie’s Blackstar. Always feel like it’s a bit of an emotional commitment putting it on, so I never do.
Album I keep coming back to is RR7349 by S U R V I V E, the same guys who do the Stranger Things soundtrack. I’ve been listening to more synthwave lately, and although a lot of it is pretty cookie-cutter stuff, this really stands out.
Not sure there is a record I underestimated but of those I picked last year Blackstar has probably been the most played this year and hasn’t palled at all. I think its fantastic, never mind the context.
I had Leyla McCalla’s record in my top ten, but can’t remember when I last played it. Not that there was anything wrong with it, but perhaps just not enough there to make me want to come back too often.