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The last album which blew you away

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The band LYR released their latest album last Friday & I reckon I have listened to it about 50 times in the last 5 days! This is an exaggeration to make a point, but I’m probably not out by much. I think it is wonderful & will likely feature on a few end of year lists if there is any justice.

LYR are made up of Richard Walters, Patrick J Pearson & poet Simon Armitage, whose lyrics are as you would expect & are thankfully included as a sleeve with the record. I discovered them by way of the ‘Discover Weekly’ playlists on Spotify in 2021 & the track Cascade Theory was the one that tempted me to delve further.

I’ve enjoyed a lot of albums this year, but this is the most enamored I have been with a new album for a good few years. It has that brilliant thing where something new is jumping out with each listen and each track has a claim to be the best on the LP. Today it is the closing track ‘To The Fashion Industry In Crisis’, but when I had it on last night it was ‘Hockney Red’. On Fridays first listen it was ‘Living Legend’ & I was already a huge fan of lead singles ‘Presidentially Yours’ & ‘The Song Thrush & The Mountain Ash’. That is half of the album straight off & i’m very taken with the other half too.

Last night my partner was laughing at me for poring over the sleeve & sitting at the edge of the sofa trying to climb into the record player whilst it was playing!! She said the last time I was like this about an album was with Car Seat Headrest & that was released back in 2015!

Anyway, this got me thinking. What was the last new album that made you feel like this??

2

Comments

  2. There are two that have been on constant rotation for the past few weeks and they will definitely be amongst my favourite albums of the year. I expected both to be good and so didn’t;t really blow me away – although both exceeded expectations

    Natalie Merchant / Keep Your Courage
    The first track “Big Girls” especially is just gorgeous and one of those that raises the hair on the back of my neck at certain points (the strings) every time I listen…..

    Sigur Ros / Atta
    Just sublime. An album that I can just sit back and get totally immersed and lost in. A real return to form> I posted the video for the lead single a couple of weeks ago, so won’t post again (and the video is not one for report viewing !)

    • @Chrisf Nathalie Merchant’s album is definitely the best album I have heard this year and Big Girls the best song. The voices are perfect, the strings, the horns – everything.
      Can’t wait to see her on tour.
      @seanioio I heard the Song Thrush and the Miuntain Ash on 6music at the weekend and not only was I blown away but so too my wife it will definitely be in the house in no time.

  3. I love this type of question because it reaffirms that it’s not just me who is underwhelmed by new music and struggles to find something they love.

    “Blew you away” – that’s a strong term and I would always hesitate before applying that to an album. The Paul Simon one a couple of months ago initially impressed me, but I’ve cooled on it a bit now. However, I think an album which hit the spot for me in May was the new one by octagenarian folk singer Shirley Collins, Archangel Hill. Her voice has aged beautifully and gives a poignancy to the songs I just can’t get enough of.

    But albums like that are few and far between. I can’t think of anything else in the last five years that’s really grabbed me like this.

    • I love all those 1960s and 70s folk classics by Shirley Collins – you know: Anthems in Eden, Love, Death & the Lady, No Roses, and Folk Roots, New Routes.
      It was great to see her making a comeback in 2016 with Lodestar, but the songs that I heard from that album didn’t grab me.
      The one song that I’ve heard (on the Ian A. Anderson podcast) from “Archangel Hill” I liked a lot. So maybe I should investigate this new record.

      • I should confess here I’m not really a fan of the old Shirley Collins stuff! In fact, I’m quite picky when it comes to 60s/70s folk in general – I’m a dabbler rather than a true believer.

        But something has just elevated Shirley since she is now older and her voice has weakened and deepened. Maybe I’m hearing something that isn’t there, but the feeling of maturity and wisdom of it just makes my spine tingle. Similarly to Johnny Cash when he got old. It feels like she has arrived somewhere she was always meant to be.

          • I should say as well it’s the fragility of her voice as well that gets to me. And I know that sounds a bit patronising I suppose. But it’s the idea that she doesn’t have the skills she once had (range and power) that she can’t show off or be superhuman because she just doesn’t have that option any more.

            Am I being patronising to elderly performers? Yeah, maybe. But I would the restrictions of age force a performer to work within their limitations, which can sometimes lead to interesting results. I like to see (for example) a young buck like Hendrix in his prime with fingers just racing over the fretboard, but it can get tiring sometimes and you crave the simplicity of a lesser talent working within the limits of what they are good at. The same reason I always liked those stories where Superman loses his powers and is brought down a peg or two.

            (This comment obviously doesn’t apply to the elderly Harrison Ford in the new Indiana Jones film, which, as my other thread will attest, is just rubbish).

    • You’re a man after my own heart @Arthur-Cowslip. It’s quite a while since anything blew me away (where IS Moose when you need him?), but I’d say that from this year’s releases the ones that I’ve had on repeat play the most have been Weathervanes by Jason Isbell, and Cowboy Junkies’ Such Ferocious Beauty which does run sublimity perilously close.

      As for LYR, I absolutely love Simon Armitage as a poet, and have read pretty much everything he has written. He’s witty, literate, thought provoking and above all accessible, but I can’t help thinking he may have over-stretched himself with the LYR project. I’ve listened to bits of it and thought it a tad self-indulgent, so perhaps I need to go away and listen to the whole album before making up my mind.

    • Sadly, being “blown away” by an album is something I associate with being a teenager. I’ve heard lots of great music, bought much of it, listen to it often, got to know it – but blown away? No. I’m sure that it says more about me than the music, frankly…

      I note that others have added music that they love/like/enjoy, rather than “mind completely blown” so perhaps I’ll mention Big Hogg – Pageant of Beasts. But the album I can’t get enough of at the moment is Fado Tradicional by Mariza – for some reason it’s really speaking to me just now…not sure that counts as blown away, though.

      • Sadly, yes, I’ve come to the conclusion it is mainly a teenage thing. Maybe it’s just the novelty of properly hearing good pop/rock music as a teenager that hits you in a way the grinding monotony of adulthood can’t recapture.

        I distinctly remember hearing Hey Jude for the first time, and the chord change into the long outro felt like my world had opened up. (And many other Beatles songs made me feel this way the first time I heard them). I’ve never really quite been able to recapture that same hit since.

          • Maybe I’m being too absolutist over the definition of “blown away”. I can certainly find new music to enthuse over – but I’m not sure that the effect on my agèd brain is quite what I got as a teenager.
            Godbluff/ Still Life, CTTE/Relayer, S&BB – when I first heard them I was transported: and I knew I’d be listening to them forever. To date, that has proved correct.

                • Pedant alert – I think on the album version it’s actually a guitar duet (with himself) rather than a “solo”. He seems to be playing two takes, alternating between each bar. Probably trying to copy the Abbey Road triple guitar solo on The End (guitar a trois? what’s the phrase?)

  4. I’m cheating, but the new Nick Drake tribute, The Endless Coloured Ways isn’t out until Friday, but many tracks are available. Having snarfed the lot for review purposes, I can say it is an album of the year. OK, a couple of missteps, but the standard is almost otherwise phenomenal. Here’s the much touted Fontaines DC version of Cello Song, truly the last band one might consider covering the Tanworth bard:

    • I was a bit underwhelmed with this on first listen, but then the chorus burrowed into my brain & kept popping into my head. After a few listens i was hooked it is a good un

      • For avoidance of doubt: what you’re describing here is NOT being blown away by this? It sounds more like the “six listens” rule – which is fine, but not what I thought you were after in the OP…

        • This is definitely a ‘six listen’ one & did not blow me away.

          The LYR one in the OP was very instantaneous & totally got me. For a bit of contrast, last year I listened to the latest SOAK album once a day for about 6 months & it would definitely feature highly on my favourite albums of all time. However. it was an album that did not blow me away on first listen & it took a couple of weeks to bed in to my brain before taking up residence.

  6. I chanced upon Domi and JD Beck yesterday. Ridiculously young prodigies with debut album guests including Anderson Paak, Busta Rhymes, Thundercat, Snoop, Mac DeMarco, Herbie Hancock and Kurt Rosenwinkel, My ‘Blown Away’ moment happened when I saw the video of JD Beck aged 16 doing Zildjian Live

  8. I don’t know if it really counts as new or not, seeing as who’s involved, but the first (self-titled) album by grizzled ex Fall alumni House Of All is brilliant and has been on regular turntable action here, as well as in the car. Give it a go…if you liked the sound of The Fall but could never get past Mark E. Smith, (I thought he was great mind) then this might be for you.

  10. Natalie Merchant, as recommended by @Chrisf is one. Both my wife and I love that.

    The other we both love is Stand In The Joy by William Prince. I mentioned William in another thread a couple of months ago and included a performance of his song titled Goldie Hawn, from this album.

    This is the opening track, When You Miss Someone.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZudQ96PoGSM

    We have tickets to see both Natalie and William later this year.

  12. I saw this lot exactly 7 days ago at my local dinky venue & bought the CD.
    I’ve found myself playing it every chance I get – the album was recorded in 2019 but then along came COVID so the touring plans of the Norwegian based outfit were scuppered & childcare also got in the way.
    The album is called ‘Closeness’ & it’s gorgeous including an unexpected cover of Bowie’s ‘This Is Not America’.

    I should be heading out for more lovely sounds, but have already imbibed too much red to cycle into town ( been a long week)) & I’m feeling the pull of Esme on ‘Sowing Bee’.

  13. I’ve been impressed with a few of my recent purchases – The National, Jessie Ware, Sophie Ellis-Bextor – but the one that’s really knocked me sideways as I bought it ‘blind’, is Joy’all by Jenny Lewis. Never has a title been so apt.

    • That Jessie Ware album is a favourite for me – completely full of earworms, so I’ve got tunes from it in my head even though I’m not listening to it now – which is what makes a blow-away record for me. None of that 6 listen malarkey – it has to work the first time – and stay working every time after that.

      I am sure there are many worthy albums mentioned in this thread, but I’m with the Baron on this one – most likely once or twice played and then discarded. How many cover albums, to take the Nick Drake example, ever overtake the original record/artiste in popularity in your playlists?

  18. I only got this last week but can’t stop playing it.

    I was in a shop and they were playing this album, Jim “Love Makes Magic”

    English singer songwriter. Great “yacht rock” vibes. This years Young Gun Silver Fox.

  19. It depends entirely what you mean by “blew you away”.

    If it’s “I really like this album, I’ll still be listening to it in a year”, then the new ones from Lil Uzi Vert, Young Thug, Killer Mike, Christine and the Queens, Kaytramine, JPEGMAFIA and 100 Gecs have all ticked that box this year.

    If it’s “this album has invaded my brain and I know I’ll still be listening to it regularly a decade from now” then Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour, Lana Del Rey’s NFR, Carly Rae Jepsen’s Dedicated, Taylor Swift’s Midnights, Bronco by Orville Peck, Pusha T’s Daytona, Longwave by Bonny Doon, Deafheaven’s Ordinary Corrupt Human Love and – most recently – Overmono’s fantastic Good Lies.

    If it’s “this record has realigned my soul, I want to be buried with it” then Frank Ocean Blond was probably the last one, although Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers is also in the chat.

    Additionally, I went to see The 1975 with some mates last weekend and I’m now listening to their most recent one a lot, largely because I’m trying to figure out who this band remind me of. At the moment I’ve got an ungodly mix of Blur, Duran Duran and INXS, but it’s still not quite on the button. I have thought about their show a lot though, don’t know if that counts as being blown away but I was definitely blown somewhere.

    • The Overmono is great @bingo-little. My take on Phoebe Bridgers is that she can make a stupendous ep – so stitch together the best six tracks from Punisher and the best six from Stranger In The Alps and you have one mind-blowing album. At the moment mind-blowing tracks – Scott Street, Kyoto, I know The End – rather than albums.

      • That was totally my experience with Stranger in the Alps, but I thought Punisher worked beautifully as an album experience. The songs are so of a mood that it all hangs together wonderfully. I like it more and more as the years go by,

        Apropos of my post above I should also say; this is just out, and it’s brilliant. Love the demented crescendo.

    • I honestly envy your enthusiasm for new music! I’m not going to look up any of those because I know they won’t satisfy my grumpy old ears (I already tried that Frank Ocean chap and I don’t get it). But it must be great to still be able to get that kind of joy from music.

      • His voice is amazing and I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything he’s released so far. He’s very high on my list of artists to see live, and this is one of my absolute favourite songs by anyone in the last few years…

  20. I suppose you can be blown away by a record and then just stop listening to it after a certain time, such is the fickle nature of taste. I don’t know about having to love it from first play either. I have been massively impressed by certain albums to the point where I think this is really something after a short time and then that feeling only grows until I think this is a masterpiece, and it gets me every time.

    I also would pick out NFR by Lana Del Rey. I had decided she wasn’t for me when everyone was raving about the debut and I didn’t expect that to change. I don’t know why I started to play NFR but with streaming you can try new things more easily of course. I completely altered my view of this artist and play all her records now but for me NFR is the best of hers. it just feels like she was at the peak of her powers.

    The other one that I think of in this regard that came out in the 2010s or later is Hand. Cannot. Erase by Steven Wilson. I ordered the vinyl version unheard, based on the praise it had received here and there. Again another artist whose oeuvre became a new, enjoyable world to explore as a result but this album is one that feels like it couldn’t have been made now but then again it’s got modern sounds that make it clearly new. It could be made for someone who loves Pink Floyd but it’s better in some ways. That song Perfect Life is so moving and beautiful I think. The whole album never fails to hit the spot.

    These two records make me think wow, really great music like this can still be made that has qualities of the best music I know from the past without being somehow retro and derivative, repeating what’s already been done. There’s plenty of new music to like but these records have become all time favourites, which happens less often when you get older and tend to play it safe with the comfort of the tried and tested.

  21. On a tangent (nothing new there), but one thing which I think actively works to automatically make me dislike new music is this tendency to slot everything into categories these days. It feels like every style of music can be labelled, which I think can work to kill it. Am I wrong, or has anyone else noticed this?

    A good example is DJ Shadow. I absolutely love DJ Shadow and when he came out in the mid nineties I had no idea what it was or what to call it. But now he just gets labelled “plunderphonics” or “EDM” or “trip hop” or whatever and it just feels much less exciting.

    Pink Floyd, Bowie, Kate Bush and other big hitters of the seventies and eighties. What WERE they? I don’t think there was actually a name at the time. (And now they are just “legends” or “heritage rock”).

    I remember being baffled and thrilled by Spiritualized but now they are just “post-rock” or whatever.

    Struggling to think of more examples, but I’m also thinking of this term “folk horror” which is bandied about these days. I love the Wickerman film and especially the soundtrack, but it’s known now just as “folk horror” – a neat description, but ultimately feels limiting.

    I don’t know, when you put something in a bottle like this, it limits not only the music itself but also how your mind reacts to it.

    • Pink Floyd? In the early seventies, they were probably best described as “underground”…no longer applicable after DSOTM turned into a monster.

      There’s a view that Pink Floyd were the ultimate “progressive” band.
      There’s also a view that Pink Floyd were “never progressive”.
      Both these views have been expressed on these very pages…

    • This post has confused the hell out of me.

      Pink Floyd are a Rock band, DJ Shadow and Spiritualised aren’t “new” music, DJ Shadow isn’t EDM (and the fact you have to list three genres and an “or whatever” to try to pin him down somewhat undercuts the argument that contemporary artists fall into neater categories) and Spiritualised aren’t to my mind Post-Rock (too many vocals).

      I think you’ve probably got this backwards; you think new music fits into neat categories because you don’t listen to new music, rather than the other way round.

      I’ve spent the last week trying to figure out what the hell The 1975 are, most of the last three months trying to figure out what genre LEAN BEEF PATTY is and most of the year trying to figure out whether the Lil Yachty album is Hip Hop or Prog.

  22. I can’t say the last time I was totally enraptured by something new. Does Bob’s Shadow Kingdom count, even if it’s new versions of older songs? I loved that.

    Hepworth espouses one of his better theories in a recent Word in Your Ear podcast, that as you get older if you hear something that totally stops you in your tracks it becomes less and less likely that it was something released last week and more likely that it was something released perhaps 50 years ago.

    • He could be almost right, I still like to give new music a listen but rarely do any of the new genres appeal, ‘plunderphonics?’ (thanks Arthur) especially that clippoty hoppity stuff, although that’s not new is it.

      Anyhow back to what Heppo said, I have been knocked out by many albums/artists I missed the first time around way back in the last century too many to mention.

      • “I have been knocked out by many albums/artists I missed the first time around way back in the last century too many to mention” – yeah, that’s true. I am getting mixed up with loving new music and discovering old music.

        As I commented on here fairly recently, I only just in the last few months got properly into Gustav Holst (only a hundred years too late). Certainly not new, but new to me and yes, I suppose he blew me away.

      • No.

        OK, I’ll expand. His point as I think he meant it, and certainly as I understood it, is that you are most likely to be grabbed by something which was recorded before you were born, not that you are constantly reminded of the joy of discovery by rehearing the music of your own youth.

        • Ok well that wasn’t clear to me but now it is. I know of no one like that except him. I suppose I went to my first ballet in 2019 in St Petersburg, live in a theatre, and was blown away and I got it not having done so before, I mean on TV. So there’s that. Then again when I was 17 I saw a performance of Schoenberg on Tv and promptly bought a copy of Pierrot Lunaire. I used to listen to my Dad’s classical records such as Rite Of Spring, Elgar’s cello concerto with Jacqueline Du Pre ( a record to blow you away if ever there was one) and some Mozart piano concertos. I used to go to the library and loan records then tape them, Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and such. I find Heppo’s theories want to limit and define the way things are with rules only he can see. I don’t really see the need for them.

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