We’ve all read so many “Albums of the year” lists now, that we’ve hardly got any room for another 50 titles painstakingly selected from the flood of releases that overwhelms us every year. But I hope you can spare some time for at least one more helping. Because here comes the duco01 50 Favourite New Albums of 2017 list, and I like to think that it’s worth at least a quick glance.
Looking at the list, my taste as regards new releases seems to be drifting ever further towards instrumental music, rather than songs. An alarming number of my favourites are rather discreet, low-key affairs, with influences from the chamber jazz and ambient genres. If this sort of stuff isn’t really your cup of tea, then fair enough. I invite you return between Christmas and New Year, when I’ll be presenting my Top 25 Reissues and Archival Recordings of 2017. That list will be crammed with indubitable funkiness, in the form of vintage reggae and African music. Oh, and … erm … old Grateful Dead shows, as well.
So here we are. I’ll start the New Albums list with the also-rans, numbers 31 to 50. But 2017 has been a pretty decent musical year, and so even these stragglers are worthy of your attention…
50. Randy Newman – Dark Matter
This isn’t a great Randy Newman album. It’s not even an above-average Randy Newman album. But it’s still a Randy Newman album.
49. High Plains – Cinderland
High Plains are a duo: the American Mark Bridges on cello and the Canadian Scott Morgan on electronics. They make a nice noise.
48. Vijay Iyer – Far From Over
Very sophisticated New York jazz from Iyer and his crack sextet. The band were great in concert – I just wish that I’d been able to warm to the recorded versions of the tunes a little more.
47. Sophie Hutchings – Yonder
Australian ambient pianist who’s played with Ólafur Arnalds and works in what might be deemed a similar area.
46. Rob Noyes – The Feudal Spirit
Ten fingerpicking solo pieces for 12-string guitar by Massachusetts musician. Not laid-back in the slightest, but … driven. Very much in the spirit of Robbie Basho.
https://poonvillage.bandcamp.com/album/the-feudal-spirit
45. Olivier Alary – Fiction/Non-Fiction
A series of pieces written for various film soundtracks over a 10-year period by the French/Québécois composer.
https://fatcatrecords.bandcamp.com/album/fiction-non-fiction
44. Ellen Arkbro – For Organ and Brass
Three glacial minimalist pieces for horn, tuba, trombone and meantone church organ by the young sound artist from Stockholm.
https://ellenarkbro.bandcamp.com/
43. The Unthanks – Diversions Vol. 4: the Songs and Poems of Molly Drake
The Unthanks treat Molly Drake’s songs with great understanding and respect.
42. Khaled Kurbeh & Raman Khalaf Ensemble – Aphorisms
Two Syrian guys living in Berlin, and their oud-led ensemble. Sounds like a slightly more rough-and-ready Anouar Brahem.
41. Yazz Ahmed – La Saboteuse
Most ambitious recordings yet by UK/Bahraini trumpet and flugelhorn player and her nine-piece band.
40. Soft Error – Mechanism
Soft Error (a duo simply referred to as “Tim and Rupert”) travel to Reykjavik to record a very satisfying electronic set.
39. Luca d’Alberto – Endless
Nine sonorous instrumental pieces by composer d’Alberto, who plays violin, viola, violectra (eh?), cello and piano. Well worth investigating.
https://lucadalberto.bandcamp.com/album/endless
38. Mark Mulcahy – The Possum in the Driveway
Mark Mulcahy has been making fine, fine records since the first Miracle Legion EP back in 1984. The world has largely ignored him. The world has been wrong.
37. Mary Lattimore & Elysse Thebner Miller – And the Birds Flew Overhead
Ambient album recorded live at a festival in North Carolina by harp/keyboard duo. The festival audience seem very well-behaved and quiet, which is just as well, really.
36. Kacy & Clayton – The Siren’s Song
“Strange Country” from 2016 was the breakthrough album for these two folk-singing cousins from the Canadian prairies, and this new offering consolidates it well.
35. James Elkington – Wintres Woma
English musician who’s lived in the states for years. His wonderful guitar playing has graced records by Steve Gunn, Nathan Salsburg, Jeff Tweedy, etc. and this, his debut solo outing, is a very solid collection of folk tunes.
34. Martin Hederos – Piano Solos (Sally Wiola Sessions, Vol. 1)
Eleven exquisite solo vignettes by Swedish pianist.
33. Steve Gibbs – Adrift
British composer of film & TV music. Beautiful, ambient/classical effort built on piano, guitar and synthesizer.
https://stevegibbs.bandcamp.com/album/adrift
32. John Potter – Secret History: Sacred Music by Josquin and Victoria
Potter is a tenor who’s best known for his work with the Hilliard Ensemble and the Dowland Project. Here, 15th and 16th century polyphonic works that are normally sung by choirs are performed by a solo voice backed with period instruments (mainly vihuelas).
31. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – The Nashville Sound
Better than “Something More Than Free” but not as good as “Southeastern”!
Okey-dokey. That’s it for now I’ll be back a bit later with albums 30 to 21.
I hasten to disagree.
“The Nashville Sound” is a shade disappointing after the excellence of “Something More Than Free”, which achieved the the miracle of surpassing “Southeastern”.
Sort of, in that it is a poor cousin of the earlier 2. Great genes, just less good.
Yeah but it has We were Vampires which is as good as any of the songs on the other two albums.
Apart from The Unthanks, the only one on this l have heard of, let alone listened to, is the first one – Randy Newman. While not up there with Sail Away or Good Old Boys I wouldn’t be quite so negative
Good to see Soft Error making your top fifty, along with Yazz Ahmed and Vijay Iyer (which should be a lot higher, in my view). I have some Mulcahy but not his latest. I’ll check it out.
I was beginning to worry that this List of Lists had been lost in the post.
I have actually heard of five of the artists. Flirting with the mainstream this year, Duke!
I am sure that I will find several new favourites among the artists you have mentioned.
“…a bit later…”
(*drums fingers*)
There are three in that list that I’ve seen live here in London this year.
Sophie Hutchings was a featured artist at one of the Union Chapel “Daylight Music” concerts a while back. Excellent.
Yazz Ahmed was part of a trio with fellow-trumpeter James Brady and pianist Alcyona Mick, playing at another one of those Daylight Music concerts. Also excellent.
Saw Martin Hederos as part of ex- Esbjorn Svensson Trio bassist Dan Berglund’s Tonbruket at the Vortex Jazz Club in hip and happening Hackney. They were superb.
They sound like three fine gigs.
I’m envious of you, Mike – envious of the range of musical events available in London. Yazz Ahmed and Sophie Hutchings are about as likely to play Tristan da Cunha as they are to do a gig in Dear Old Stockholm…
Sorry to keep you waiting, Mr Robot. It’s now a lot later. Indeed, it’s the next day. So let’s dash straight into the next ten entries in this modest little chart. Yep, we’re talking about the discs that are holding down the coveted spots between no.30 and no.21…
30. Gilroy Mere – The Green Line
Very pastoral instrumental album composed by Oliver Cherer (under the name “Gilroy Mere”) in tribute to Green Line buses, which transported Londoners out to the countryside for many decades. Beautifully packaged by the always wonderful Clay Pipe Music
http://www.claypipemusic.co.uk/2017/10/gilroy-mere-green-line.html
29. Jon Brooks – Autres Directions
Another impeccable instrumental release from Clay Pipe Music. This time, Jon Brooks records his musical impressions of living in a French village (on the Cherbourg peninsula, I think).
https://cafekaput.bandcamp.com/album/autres-directions
28. Michael Vincent Waller – Trajectories
Waller is a New York minimalist composer, and here he’s written a series of short, restrained duets for piano and cello. I like to work to this.
https://michaelvincentwaller.bandcamp.com/album/trajectories
27. Björn Meyer – Provenance
At the age of 52, after decades as a sideman, Swedish bass player Meyer gets his first solo outing for ECM records. It was worth the wait.
https://bjornmeyer.bandcamp.com/releases
26. Orchestra Baobab – Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng
The previous Orchestra Baobab album was ten years ago, but the band pick up the threads again as if the gap had only been a few weeks. Sadly, the great Togolese guitarist Barthélémy Attisso is no longer with the band, but they still have that inimitable Baobab sound.
25. David Rawlings – Poor David’s Almanack
Every single David Rawlings album and every single Gillian Welch album is really good. How on earth do they do it?
24. Gunn-Truschinski Duo – Bay Head
US guitarist Steve Gunn has really been on a winning streak in the past few years. Here, he does a bit of loose jamming with his trademark distorted guitar sound, and John Truscinski adds some drumming and synths. It all works admirably.
https://threelobed.bandcamp.com/album/bay-head
23. Joan Shelley – Joan Shelley
Straight out of the Kentucky hills, Ms Shelley’s eponymous fourth outing. Once again she’s aided by the peerless Nathan Salsburg on guitars, and if anything, her voice is purer and more lovelorn than ever.
22. Bill MacKay – Esker
Bill MacKay is a mate and recording partner of the rather more famous Ryley Walker. This is an LP of brief, light acoustic guitar sketches that leave the listener curious to hear more.
21. Yorkston/Thorne/Khan – Neuk Wight Delhi All-Stars
Admirable – and very prompt – follow-up to my second favourite album of last year. They’re still be best Scottish/English/Indian world music crossover trio on the block.
Right. That’s how it stands at the moment. I’ll be back with the next exciting installment when I’ve written a sentence or two about each album!
It’s just the excitement spilling over. When I was small it was all about the anticipation of a magic man ghosting down our chimney. Now it’s this..
I am still optimistic that the Stereophonics latest will make an appearance, though in truth I hadn’t expected to see it feature so high up the list.
Ed Sheeran at No. 1.
Damn – someone’s guessed.
There must be a mole in my very secret operation deep in a cave here in Sweden. Kaisfatdad – it’s not you, is it? Somehow, DisappointmentBob managed to get hold of the information. I understand Ladbrokes are no longer taking bets on Ed Sheeran being No.1…
“Damn – someone’s guessed” or “someone’s guessed: Damn.”
I like the sound of that Yazz Ahmed album. Ordered.
It’s excellent, as is the Dinosaur album mentioned in the next part of the list.
Been waiting for this list but it always ends up being rather expensive…
Well, Afterworders, I know you’re all agog. You can’t work, you can’t do the last of your Christmas shopping. You keep updating the Afterword page to see whether the next installment of duco01’s Top 50 has appeared. Well, here it is: numbers 20 to 11. Crikey, there are some nice little albums here, and no mistake…
20. Chuck Johnson – Balsams
Chuck Johnson. Guitarist from California. Every time he releases something new, it’s in a different style from before, but everything he puts out is worth hearing. This time he’s in a dreamier mood, with the pedal steel weaving a spacier sound.
19 Penguin Café – The Imperfect Sea
With this release, Arthur Jeffes has really assumed the mantle of his later father Simon. Anyone who loved the old Penguin Café Orchestra will be thrilled at how the tradition is being maintained.
18 Mark McGuire – Ideas of Beginnings
Vin du Select Qualitite Records has introduced the world to so many wonderful guitar players over the years. And here’s the latest of them: Mark McGuire. One (vinyl) side of sprightly acoustic pieces and one side of more searching electric workouts. Nice stuff.
https://markmcguire.bandcamp.com/album/ideas-of-beginnings
17. Afous D’Afous – Tenere
Touareg band from southern Algeria. They sound like a slightly more exuberant Tinariwen. Therefore, they must be good.
https://afousdafous.bandcamp.com/album/tenere
16. Dinosaur – Together, As One
It certainly was nice to see this album – as the token jazz nominee – fighting it out for the Mercury Prize. Top UK trumpetperson Laura Jurd rechristened her band “Dinosaur” and made this fine record, with more than a few echoes of “In a Silent Way”.
15. Tinariwen – Elwan
All Tinariwen albums sound the same. But that’s perfectly all right. Because they’re all good.
14. Garth Knox And The Saltarello Trio/John Zorn – Leonard: The Book of Angels 30
John Zorn’s thirty-two album series of compositions “Masada Book Two – the Book of Angels” took him 12 years to complete and must be one of the most ambitious projects ever envisioned and accomplished by any musician. For the 30th album in the series he enlists the help of viola player Garth Knox and the Saltarello Trio for some deep, resonant, medieaval-flavoured chamber klezmer.
13. Matti Bye – This Forgotten Land
Matti Bye is a Swedish composer of film and TV music. These pieces drift by in a wonderfully tranquil manner, like the slow soundtrack of some arthouse film.
12. Lisas – Fiddle and Accordion Conversations
Lisa Rydberg plays violin. Lisa Långbacka plays bass accordion. This stripped-down format puts a wonderful twist on traditional Swedish folk tunes and the duo’s own compositions alike.
11. Offa Rex – The Queen of Hearts
The Decemberists have always been quick to acknowledge their interest in English folk music. Here they team up with pianist and singer Olivia Chaney for a feisty run through a set of folk standards. I’d like to see Chaney and Colin Meloy work on some original material together, too.
Okey dokey. That’s it for now. I’ll be back with numbers 10 to 6 either this evening or tomorrow morning….
Looking forward to road testing some of these on Spotify. Not convinced there’s anything on this Mark McGuire record we haven’t heard on other Mark McGuire records. Also, I was really looking forward to the Penguin Café one, but it just didn’t do anything for me.
great list
I thank you, Mr seekenee, sir.
And with the Top 10, it’s going to get even more great. Probably.
Groovy
Junior’s tip for Duco # 1 : Kronos Quartet with Trio Da Kali – Ladilikan
Great album!
Will he show Balmorhea/Clar Light. He’ll be cross if he doesn’t and then hears it….
I’m in shock – I own ten of these albums…! 😉
Well, you know, Locust, I’ve been drifting into the mainstream for many years now!
Oh dear. I’ve forgotten an album. I’d missed it probably because I only have it as a download, and not a physical product. I like it so much, I would’ve put it at number 8 or 9 in my chart. But it’s too late to insert it now, as that would mean dropping every other album down a place, and poor old Randy Newman falling out of the bottom of the list at no.51. So I’ll just tell you about it now anyway:
Elkhorn – The Black River
Elkhorn. Two guys from New York. One acoustic guitar, one electric guitar. No vocals. Music in the American Primitive spirit of John Fahey. Assured new music that somehow sounds like standards that you should already know; sounds as old as the hills.
https://debaclerecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-black-river
Right, and now we can proceed to numbers 10 to 6 – a list which should’ve had the Elkhorn album stuffed in the middle somewhere.
10. Kamasi Washington – Harmony of Difference
Washington’s 2015 3CD release “The Epic” was a real five-course dinner of an album, whereas this 30-minute offering is more of an hors d’oeuvre. It’s extremely tasty, though, moving slightly away from pure jazz in the direction of funky soul-jazz instrumentals. Enormous fun.
9. Trio da Kali & Kronos Quartet – Ladilikan
Here’s the album that Junior Wells predicted above. Crossover projects between African artists and non-African artists sometimes sound rather forced and artificial, but this one has a really natural, organic vibe right from the start. The Kronoses keep a fairly low profile, but bring a beautifully full instrumental sound to the whole thing, and Hawa Kassé Mady Diabate sings up a STORM.
8. Mammal Hands – Shadow Work
“Shadow Work” matches the extremely high standards set by the Norwich trio’s 2016 release, “Floa”. Piano-sax-percussion. Punchy, accessible and strong on melody. The sort of thing that gives contemporary UK jazz a good name.
https://mammalhands.bandcamp.com/album/shadow-work
7. Trio Mediaeval & Arve Henriksen – Rímur
Three Norwegian female classical/folk singers, of one whom is a hardanger fiddle player. One Norwegian trumpet player. Doing a collection of Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish folk songs and hymns. On ECM Records, of course. Manfred Eicher at the production desk. Quite immaculate.
6. Lubomyr Melnyk – Illirion
On the front of this album, with a massive great beard and monk’s cowl, Melnyck seems so austere as to make Rasputin look like ‘Diddy’ David Hamilton. He’s a Canadian pianist of Ukrainian origin, and is supposed to be able to simultaneously play up to 19 notes per second on each hand. 19 notes per second? Is that even possible? Anyway, “Illirion” makes no.6 on my list, not because Melnyck can play extremely fast, but because all five of these solo pieces are sublime.
Okey-dokey. That’s it for now. I’ll be back later today or tomorrow with my five favourites of 2017. For the first time in my life I’m cooking for lots of people on December 23, 24, 25 and 26. And I’d rather underestimated the amount of work required. So I’ll see you all with the TITANIC Top Five …. When I can find a spare moment.
Agree comments re World music collaboration and how Kronos /Trio De Kali is an exception.
Come on, enough art gallery music. Where’s the reggae!? 😉
Where’s the reggae? I refer m’learned friend to my original post at the top. Copious amounts of reggae will be found in the duco01Top 25 Reissues and Archival Recordings of 2017 – coming your way sometime next week! There won’t be much art gallery music in that chart, I can assure you.
So far I have 6 of these beauties with Yazz Ahmed ordered on there strength of your comments @duco01. Not bad eh?
Only the Kamasi Washington, so far (though I’ll be downloading Yazz Ahmed from emusic, just as soon as their server’s back up. )
I’m playing my joker in the reissues round.
Oh wait – and the Unthanks. I’m on a roll.
Oh dear – it’s happened again. I’ve forgotten another album. I was reading through someone else’s Top 20 on the other thread, and suddenly I saw Michael Chapman’s “50” there. Of course! I love that record. Age has lent a wonderfully rough, gravelly timbre to the great Yorkshireman’s voice, and with “50” he may have come up with his strongest set of songs since “Fully Qualified Survivor” in 1970. If I’d remembered this album, it would’ve been at around number 6 in my chart. So everyone else moves down a rung, right down to those bubbling under the chart this year, which include Courtney Marie Andrews, Bedouine and the Sixteen.
So, finally, we come to the Top Five. Hope you’ve enjoyed this little rundown – and I’ll see you in a few days for my votes for the Top 25 Reissues and Historical Recordings of 2017.
Here we go…
5. Roger Robinson – Dog Heart City
Two years after “Dis Side Ah Town” came “Dog Heart City”. They are the “Forces of Victory” and “Bass Culture” of the current era. Roger Robinson reappeared with ten fresh bulletins from South London, railing against the gentrification of his home turf (“I used to know these parts / But now they draw this town with new maps”). Some of the tracks are sung in his light falsetto, with the rest being intoned in his righteous Trinidadian growl. I there anyone else doing what Roger Robinson is doing today? If there is, I haven’t heard them.
4. Hampshire and Foat – Galaxies Like Grains of Sand
Every year, without fail, keyboardman Greg Foat pops up with an instrumental jazz album that floors me with its casual excellence. This time he’s teamed up with fellow Isle of Wighter Warren Hampshire to record some unusually laid back material. Foat is clearly a fan of the legendary UK pianist Mike Garrick, right down to the sleeve design of the new record, which pays subtle tribute to Garrick’s classic 1965 “October Woman” set.
3. John Zorn/Julian Lage and Gyan Riley – Midsummer Moons
Composer/musician John Zorn had made over 400 albums. Over FOUR HUNDRED. So you’d think, with all that quantity, that the quality would be all over the place, and he’d make quite a few records that were crap. But there’s not much evidence of that. This album is at the very quietest end of the Zorn repertoire (the rowdy end is very rowdy indeed). Acoustic guitarists Julian Lage and Gyan Riley play 10 exquisite duets with a lunar theme. Great late-night listening. Very meditative.
2. Jake Xerxes Fussell – What in the Natural World
I’ve seen quite a few references to this album on the Aftwerword during the year, so I’m a little surprised that I seem to be only the second person to have it on their best-of-year list. Fussell’s eponymous debut a couple of years ago was a decent enough folk album, but gave no hint of the glories that were to come with this record. With “What in the Natural World,” Fussell fills the shoes worn by Ry Cooder between, say, 1972 and 1979. That’s to say that he selects and covers historical songs from across the panoply of American music – blues, folk, country and early jazz – and arranges and plays them brilliantly. From the first couple of lines of Duke Ellington’s “Jump for Joy,” I was hooked.
1. Magnetic Fields – 50 Song Memoir
It’s been 17 years since the Magnetic Fields’ “69 Love Songs,” and I must admit I didn’t think Stephin Merritt could do it again. But he has. You probably know the idea of the album, suggested by Robert Hurwitz, president of Nonesuch Records: 50 songs, one for each year of Merritt’s life; five CDs, one for each decade. A message scribbled on a serviette on the album’s back cover informs us “It’s mostly love and music, so don’t dig for much of a storyline”. But ultimately, the fifty snapshots do add up to some sort of sketchy narrative: the weird childhood, the times playing in electronica/pop bands, the years sharing cramped apartments, the shadow of AIDS – all recalled in Merritt’s familiar, rather arch baritone. It’s funny, self-deprecating, reflective. “I Wish I Had Pictures” with its elegiac tone, is the penultimate song, but it should really be the last: “I wish I had pictures of every old day / Cause all these old memories are fading away.” He’s kept at least some of those memories alive on this remarkable, fully realised set. A huge achievement.
Hard to disagree with 50-Song Memoir. It’s a major piece of work and Merritt clearly put his heart and soul into it. Also, coincidentally, my gig of the year.
That’s a very nice flourish at the end. Hard to disagree that 50 Songs isn’t a magnificent achievement. I feel as though I’ve only just started to get to know it.
However, you seem to have forgotten another album. Surely, Zara McFarlane should be in your top three? Reggae, Jazz, exquisite singing and playing. It should be right up your street.
Happy Christmas, duco. I’m looking forward to all your dub recommendations already.
Confession: I still haven’t listened all the way through 69 Love Songs, so I question my ability to get through 50 Song Memoir!
So far I’ve listened to twenty…but then I needed to listen to something else entirely for a while…haven’t gotten back to it yet (that was many months ago), even though I did really like most of the tracks I got through.
I just find that a little of his voice goes a long way.
Final count: twelve albums (unless Randy Newman got pushed out by the new inclusion, in which case I own eleven of these). Which is twelve (or eleven) more than I’ll own off your next list, I suspect!
Sorry for the slightly surly comment about Randy Newman above.
Listened to the Martin Hederos album (No 34), really beautiful solo piano compositions, music after my own heart. Satie-esque (in a good way for once). Thanks.
Glad you like it, Mousey. Yes, a lovely album. The only slight beef I have with it is that it’s a bit … short. 32 minutes. As soon as it finishes, I think “I could do with another 15 minutes of this!”
I’ve created a playlist with tracks from as many of the Duke’s Fab Fifty as I could find on Spotify so that I can gradually explore this treasure trove of goodies and find some new favourites. Only a few missing!
Interesting to see two Swedish pianists on the list: Martin Hederos and Matti Bye.
The former is very well known here. A founder member of Soundtrack of our Lives, he has also worked together in a duo format with many Swedish singers.
Matthias Hellberg
Sofia Karlsson
Nina Persson
Nina Ramsby
I have seen Matti Bye live in one of his “day jobs”: as a pianist for silent films at Filmhuset. He was excellent.
Here is some music he has composed for some Swedish silent classics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7ZoPfx-VKE&list=PLCJ_OIyw2Ar7xJ3p1lMUKYiwGvsO_QRiN
Here he is playing in a clock repair shop!
Glad to see the Duke bringing these two talented chaps to the attention of the AW cognoscenti.
Matti Bye is also the son of Birgitta Andersson – of Teskedsgumman/Från A till Ö/HasseåTage fame…!
I have the excellent classic Swedish silent films boxset, and his music really is perfect for all of them.
Thanks Locust. Fascinating to know. Birgitta was certainly a major name in Swedish film and theatre world in her day.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birgitta_Andersson
We have a hire car for the holidays and I am really enjoying driving around with my Dukalacious Spotify playlist on random.
Trio da Kali and Kronos are a s wonderful as I might have expected.
And then there is Roger Robinson, Michael Chapman, Trio Medieval, Kamasi…. Choc-a-block with gems!
And some great surprises like Mammal Hands who are very moreish.
Just listening now to number 20, Chuck Johnson’s Balsams: exquisite soundscape (pedal) steel. For lovers of BJ Cole’s excursions with Emily Burridge and the like.
Nice work, Retro. That track was gorgeous.
The Duke’s lists are always worth exploring. There is always stuff that I am very pleased to have found out about.
Here’s a gig I would have liked to have attended.
Thanks @duco01 for another fascinating list – always educational – where else will would you find an album (Gilroy Mere’s The Green Line) that includes a cut out and stick cardboard model of a Green Line bus…
Unusually, I own none of ’em – and only listened to the three ECM albums – so plenty to explore. For me 2017 has been a stellar year musically and there’s been plenty of stuff I’ve missed that lists from the likes of yourself and others on here to set things up nicely for the new year.
Glad you liked it, Morrison!
Yes, the Gilroy Mere album does indeed include a cut out and stick cardboard model of a Green Line bus. I haven’t put mine together yet. It’s still in flat, pristine condition, just looking at me….