Three big themes for me this year:
1. I spent a lot of time listening to stuff that was new to me but which didn't come out this year, or which I hadn't listened to in more than a decade. Aaron Dilloway, Emot, my own 90s records, some other things.
1b. Is this what middle age feels like?
1c. I also spent a lot of time listening to digital libraries of bird songs and calls, trying to get better at recognizing them. That really shouldn't be relevant here, but it took a lot of my listening time.
2. I've given up on my old reliable methods of staying current on anything, and nothing's replaced them. I haven't even read my smattering of reliable top-#0s lists. There are probably awesome things I missed like house singles.
3. I almost want to talk more about the albums that don't show up on these list. Yeezus, the Kniφfe, Beyoncé, Modern Vampires (only because I believe some here think it stellar), etc.
My rules, you don't have to use them:
Songs from the album list are pretty much excluded from the song list.
Released in calendar year 2013.
This is some mix of "favorite" and a more objective "best", but "best" is just about how well things meet my (capricious) tastes.
I go until I don't.
Songs:
1. Lion Vs. Gazelle, "What I like about You": I wrote good things about this earlier in the year.
2. Annie, "Invisible": I wrote good things about this earlier in the year.
3. Lydia Loveless, "Water": What if the Weeknd was believable and sung country songs about Lake Michigan? The sexiest thing Ms. Loveless has recorded, and the whole EP has me excited for the soon-to-be-released second Bloodshot album, which has several songs better than this.
4. Colin Stetson, "To See More Light": Bonny Bear mars a good portion of the rest of the album, but this side-long piece makes up for all of that with starkness and emotion. (Some of the Vernon tracks are alright, but not the ones where he sings Bon Iver style.)
5. Katy B, "Aaliyah": Showing that she may be able to replicate the first album and its slew of singles.
6. Zola Jesus, "Fall Back": Her only new song of the year and it's more or less the best midtempo adult contemporary ballad I've ever heard.
7. Peaking Lights, "Subterranean Brainblow": Hits me better than anything on Lucifer, my summer jam.
8. The Field, One of the songs of Cupid's Head: I can't remember which
9. The Knife, "Full of Fire": This song really stands out on the album, making up for the lack of a hook or melody with that driving drum, and the slowly effected vox.
Albums:
1. (Vacant) I didn't come across many albums that I felt wholeheartedly in support of this year. Giving Dilloway album of the year twice in a row (even if last year was a retrospective correction) seems alienating for the wgom readers, and my confidence that there isn't a different album out there that I didn't hear
2. Aaron Dilloway, Siena: Some tape loops, scratching, a recognizable sample. Digital-only and available for free makes it feel like a throwaway album, but it's nearly as good as last year's Modern Jester, and better than most of the things Dilloway asks you to pay for. It was on my shortlist from the beginning. Ambient pieces groan and creak in the background, looming behind you. Now I can see why Pan_Sonic spent so much time on ambient pieces: they wanted this sound. And the perky minute-long "Siena 2" was my most-listened-to new song this year.
3. Ha Ha Tonka, Lessons: Finding a great way forward that DOTD suggested but I doubted they'd be able to pull it off, to say nothing of this well. Four or six of these songs would be in my top list.
4. Julianna Barwick, Nepenthe. I hope. I forgot this was released and then finally got it when Beyoncé was released, but it sounds like what I'd hoped for in an album after I first heard Florine.
5. The Bad Bad Hats, It Hurts EP. These five songs are all really cute and fun and peppy but never get Twee. I should probably have more than three albums on my album list, so these fifteen minutes are going to have to count.
Reissues:
1. Bottle Rockets, Bottle Rockets and the Brooklyn Side: I've loved these for years. Now I own them honestly. "'Radar Gun', man. 'Radar Gun'!!!"
2. Nath Family, Sounds of the Indian Snake Charmer Vol 1 and Vol 2. Crazy stuff, but it makes other music sound lamely normal for a while. Use sparingly.
Ugh, that was a horrible year-end review of music. Halfway to half-baked. But I said I'd do it, so here it is anyways, and I'm just stopping it there. Make a better one yourself, please.
Non-2013 albums:
The Drones - Wait Long By the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By
E-6 posted a song of theirs and it led to me listening to this album over and over. Less on the noise part of the spectrum, but still somewhere on that scale.
Have a Nice Life - Deathconscious
Post-rock with a bit of shoegaze-y fuzz to it. Recommended by a co-worker. Mildly amusing song titles and pretty good music.
Classical albums:
Jace Clayton - The Julius Eastman Memory Depot
Eastman was a gay black minimalist composer in late 70's New York City (hence the proactive titles to the pieces featured). Clayton remixes some of
his pieces here, but never with a heavy hand. I like his touches and I like the original works.
Caleb Burhans - Evensong
You probably all know that I love Burhans' work. This album has some choral and some instrumental works, and they're all awesome.
Electronic Albums:
Fuck Buttons - Slow Focus
I was wrong about this album. I didn't like the first thing I heard from it and never gave it a real shot. In listening to things for this list, I realized this is a good album (minus "The Red Wing", which I still don't care for). Not as soaring as Surf Solar, but plenty good.
The Holocene - eis
Damaged tapes cut together to create a really cool atmosphere. I picked this one of his because it was the best overall album (and short too, right around 30 minutes), but I enjoyed everything he put out this year.
The Haxan Cloak - Excavation
This is just dark. There's no other word.
Rock Albums:
Grouper - The Man Who Died in His Boat
Drone-folk. It's a different thing, but even though it's quiet, it still has a little edge that keeps me interested.
The Joy Formidable - Wolf's Law
Not quiet. Really good straightforward, loud rock music.
Indian Jewelry - Peel It
Noisy rock kind of stuff. More techno influences that the others, they have a strange aesthetic, but they always have one or two (or three) killer songs on every album of theirs that I've picked up.
Roomrunner - Ideal Cities
Noisy rock kind of stuff. A little more aggressive than the others, but that works for me.
Fins - (self-titled)
Noisy rock kind of stuff. Closer to punk than the others, but I might just think that because the album is so short. Nonetheless, it's pretty good.
True Widow - Circumambulation
Maybe my favorite album of the year. Slow, with just enough menace.
A Few Single Songs that Stood Out:
I put together a set of 20 songs from the year that you can get at the bottom of this post (it's a big file, but it's over 2 hours of music, so maybe it's worth it?) There's a song from each of the albums above, plus some others.
Maya Beiser - Spiegel im Spiegel (Arvo Part) - Simple but almost perfect.
Adam Carpet - Babi Yar - Whatever genre this music is, I'm a sucker for it. Instrumental rock somewhere along the post- and prog-rock spectrum.
EMA - Satellites - Not technically released yet, but still, I'm beyond excited for this album in 2014.
Eomac - Spoock - That weird off-center bicycle wheel sound gets me. Techno.
Toe Cutter/Thumb Buster - Thee Oh Sees - This song is cool.
A Tooth For an Eye - The Knife - I like this one better than Full of Fire, but the album in general I still haven't got into just yet.
There are probably others that I will remember once I mail this LTE, but that's enough to start with.
Shoot, I should have checked that Grouper.
She's been on my iPod plenty, but I've never given her a good listen.
Still think the best track on Slow Focus ("Stalker" or "Hidden XS"?) is lesser than the worst track on Tarot Sport, and probably just sounds like a Tarot Sport outtake.
Which, even if I go with that as still very good, leads me to the problem of the Field and Tim Hecker and a few others: Consistently good releases of albums that aren't really differentiable to me.
Cupid's Head felt different from The Field in much the same way that Kindred felt different to me from Burial's other stuff - just a little darker, just a little more aggressive.
Ah, I meant to check this one out literally all year. I never did. In a year where I even sampled the Mindless Self Indulgence album (terrible, btw), there's no good excuse for that.
I gave Shaking the Habitual four or five tries, it never really clicked. Some decent songs, and when I was in the right mood, one of the superlong noisy tracks (I forget which one) got its hooks into me, but overall, the album was just 'meh'.
I kid you not, I meant to recommend this album to you three years ago. He's got new material coming out this year. I'm not going to say that Deathconcious is on my absolute must-have list, but some of it is pretty good.
There isn't a whole lot from 2013 that I can recommend.
I was disappointed in the Guided By Voices entry -- English Little League, only had a couple of great songs. However, 2012's The Bears for Lunch has grown on me a lot and I consider it one of their best. Robert Pollard released a bunch of solo stuff that didn't do a whole lot for me either.
Dessa's album Parts of Speech is pretty good. At least the hip hop songs are. I could do without the ballads however.
Patty Griffin's Silver Bell is excellent. Recorded in 2000, released in 2013.
Best Coast (Fade Away)and Lydia Loveless had EPs that were pretty good, can't wait for full albums.
EDIT: DG's list reminded me that that I should have included that Joy Formidable album too.
(Wow, look at all those female artists!)
Here's my regular top 10:
1. Too Much Sex (Too Little Jesus) -- Drive-By Truckers -- Alabama Ass Whuppin'
2. Louie Louie -- The Pretenders -- Pretenders II
3. White Minority -- Black Flag -- Black Flag
4. Oblivious -- Aztec Camera -- High Land, Hard Rain
5. This Land Is Your Land -- Woody Guthrie -- The Asch Recordings Vol. 1
6. I Can't Dance -- Gram Parsons -- Grievous Angel
7. Autonomy -- The Buzzcocks -- Singles Going Steady
8. The Man Comes Around -- Johnny Cash -- The Man Comes Around
9. I Can't Stand It -- The Velvet Underground -- VU
10. A Salty Salute -- Guided By Voices -- Alien Lanes
B1. Gimme Noise -- The Replacements -- Stink
B2. Haywire -- The Jayhawks -- Sound Of Lies
Usually, I like her ballads as ways to cut the hip-hop (though the hip-hop is still the main draw for me), but Parts of Speech was just overloaded with balladry. I was able to pick and choose some stuff that I liked quite a bit, but there were a lot of momentum killers on that album.
I got Silver Bell for EAR for Christmas, and was only able to give it a passing listen.
It was actually the first Patty Griffin EAR or I had heard, this promo EP, right before Silver Bell was quashed.
It was hard for EAR after hearing Patty's re-recordings of some of the best songs from the album for later albums (and Dixie Chick albums). I had also burnt her a bootleg version years ago, so it was a mix of nothing new and not the versions she loves. She really misses the coda to "Mother of God" that showed up on Impossible Dream
EAR may grow to like it more with time, as she did the previous two albums.
I have no idea what the best songs or albums of 2013 might have been, so here's just a regular old random ten list, courtesy of pandora. com:
1. "Sam's Song"--Bing Crosby--Bing's Gold Records
2. "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"--Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell--The Complete Duets
3. "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"--Peter, Paul & Mary--In the Wind
4. "The Peanut Vendor"--Louis Armstrong--The Big Band Recordings 1930-1932, Volume 2
5. "Your Love"--The Outfield--Play Deep
6. "Luther Played the Boogie"--Johnny Cash--Johnny Cash Greatest!
7. "Little Bitty Pretty One"--Bobby Day--The Best of Bobby Day
8. "Little Rabbit"--Open Road--Lucky Drive
9. "Right or Wrong"--George Strait--Right or Wrong
10. "Sandpiper"--Tim Janis--American Horizons
Rather than listdump on everyone (if you're curious, you can always head over to my personal blog and look over all of the various lists), I'll post my top 5 and a few other things as I think of them.
5. Mikal Cronin - MCII
I've never really gotten into the Ty Segal collective thing. Luckily, that's in no way a prerequisite to enjoying MCII. All you really need to an appreciation for excellent, guitar rock. There's plenty of that to go around.
4. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels
What a pleasant little gift this was. Dropped for free on that wonderful July afternoon, I instantly knew that this was going to be top 5. Every song just feels so BADASS.
3. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
I've always enjoyed Vampire Weekend a fair bit - they make fun music, after all - but this album surprised me. They've always been verbose (one of their breakout songs was about Oxford Commas and Lil Jon, for crying out loud), but on Modern Vampires, they really go for broke. The emotional moments pack a little bigger wallop; the stakes are a little higher (or, as in "Ya Hey", a LOT higher). I wouldn't have guessed that they had an album like this in them, but I'm glad they did.
2. The National - Trouble Will Find Me
High Violet was, and remains my pick for best album to come out in the 2010's (have we settled on what the last couple of decades are supposed to be called?). This one was bound to suffer in comparison, as they were never going to be able to top the somber rush of "Bloodbuzz Ohio", or the semi-serene panic of "Conversation 16". Once I was able to move beyond that, I was able to view Trouble Will Find Me as an excellent album made by one of my favorite bands.
1. Sigur Rós - Kveikur
Valtari felt like a return of sorts for Sigur Rós after the "poppier" Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust (not to mention Jónsi's solo album). That said, repeated listens made it feel like something was missing. Whether it was the squall of Ágætis Byrjun or the steady propulsion of ( ), it felt... lacking.
Kveikur is not lacking.
There's a lot of talk of this being a darker album, or that it's more influenced by industrial music. That only seems true when compared to Valtari or Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust. Sigur Rós' earlier stuff could certainly seem pretty like a sunrise, but there was always a tumultuous undercurrent. With large parts of Kveikur it feels like they simply brought it to the foreground. However, deeper listens reveal lots of break sin the clouds. "Ísjaki" is one of the most beautiful songs they've ever written, and that's by no means an outlier.
I had hailed Valtari as a "return to form". Kveikur proves that while that may have been true, it's far more exciting to watch this band head off in interesting new directions.
...and what the hell, I'll put my top five favorite songs on here, too...
5. Youth Lagoon - Mute
4. Sigur Rós - Brennisteinn
3. Daft Punk - Get Lucky (feat. Pharrell Williams)
2. Phosphorescent - Song For Zula
1. Arcade Fire - Reflektor
Deafheaven's not on either of the condesnsed lists, but that album was rejenkulous. I almost used 'Dreamhouse' for my 'Best of 2013' selection. Blackgaze pummel mixed with big stretches that almost resemble Explosions in the Sky. A unique musical experience. Like I mentioned over at nibbishment, it's the type of album that makes you try to seek out its twin, but I have a feeling it'll be a fruitless search.
Kanye was... something. He made some of the most bracing songs of the year, and I'm constantly fascinated by how fully he's rejecting radio play without having lost any of his pop culture significance (and that not all on Kim, he maintained hugeness through MBDTF, even though that album only had the one top 40 that I remember). In the end, though, there was a lot on the album that didn't catch me, or actively put me off. 'Black Skinhead' and 'New Slaves' are still great songs, though.
The Haxan Cloak doesn't show up on the condensed list, either, but DG's not kidding. That album is darkness. I played Excavation at 8 in the morning on a sunny day, and it still feels like it sucks the light from the room. Great stuff from front to back.
If I'd spent more time with the Tim Hecker album, it probably would've made my top 20. Burial, too.
Re: Deafheaven
I think this convinced me to pick it up. I missed it when it came out, and meant to listen to it when I saw it on year-end lists. Now I'll get it, in a minute or two.
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What was I doing again?
LIST TIME!!!!!!!!11
15. The Besnard Lakes - Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO
Let's start it off with some slow-burning modern psychedelia.
14. Mark Kozelek & Desertshore - Mark Kozelek & Desertshore
The prolific dick Koz had the most Koz year ever, releasing three albums. Two are on this list, but only one has a song with the line "I like Kirk Hammett and Steve Vai, but I hate Eric Clapton and Nels Cline."
13. The Joy Formidable - Wolf's Law
Still don't like it as much as their debut (and geez, it already feels like forever ago that it was released) but it's fun.
12. Arcade Fire - Reflektor
Yeah, I'm still not sure this belongs on my list at all, but then I listen to the title track, "Normal Person" and "Porno" and think, "of course it does". Skipping the "Night Time"s always helps.
11. Foals - Holy Fire
Are these guys popular? I mean, like, Muse-level popular? Some things I read suggests they are, but I have no idea. What I do know is they keep doing their tightly-wound, off-kilter twists on that mid-00s Brit-indie-rock sound we all loved so much, and doing it well.
10. Intronaut - Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words with Tones)
This year's DK-list installment of "The Is-this-a-metal-album? metal album". Apologies to Deafheaven.
9. Mark Kozelek & Jimmy LaValle - Perils from the Sea
More Koz, and there are probably a few more strong songs here. Plus the backing music is much fresher and unique for the Koz context.
8. Moonface - Julia with Blue Jeans On
I said last year's Spencer Krug album was mostly good only because of the non-Krug performers. Here we have nothing but Krug himself and a piano, and the result is some of the best songwriting he's done in several years.
7. Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork
Pretty much worth the wait.
6. Arctic Monkeys - AM
They keep cranking out great albums, I keep putting them on my lists.
5. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
I truly never thought these guys would sniff one of my lists, but the strength and complexity of the arrangements combined with the lyrical depth makes it a no-doubter.
4. The Darcys - Warring
Here's one I imagine few will have heard of. They're Canadian. They play mostly spacey indie-rock. They made a real nice album.
3. Jason Isbell - Southeastern
Fulfilling the promise he showed in the DBT days with his best front-to-back solo album.
2. Volcano Choir - Repave
Look, if you paid attention to my 2010 and 2011 lists you already guessed what the top two spots would be.
Which brings us to...
1. The National - Trouble Will Find Me
There was never any doubt, but if there was, it ended this summer with a few experiences I had that lined up close enough to the lyrics of "Pink Rabbits", closer than any song has to my life in a long time.
I've said I thought High Violet is at least their second-best album, but I truly think this one may have overtaken it for me.
ARGH. I totally forgot to listen to that Volcano Choir album. I had it queued up one night, but got distracted and never came back to it.
Great list, as always, lots of stuff for me to check out.
I think Arcade Fire's Normal Person is song of the year.
I'm just gonna say it... I like The National, but I don't get the brilliance from it that you and Nibs are always talking. What am I missing? Is it mostly a lyrical thing?
Late explanation. Might never be read by anyone.
For me, it's partially a lyrics things, partially a voice thing, and partially a drums thing. All three are generally excellent.
What really sells me on them is that there's a lot of songwriting craft that makes the song more than the sum of their parts. That's a really cliche thing to say, of course, but it's also a true thing to say. For example, "Bloodbuzz Ohio" features some great drumming and some excellent singing, but there are plenty of songs that feature both of those that top out around "that was a really good song". Not to go the "intangible" route, but there's something about the delivery and the way the song is written that brings it from "good song" to "song you'll remember forever".
And that's maybe my fourth favorite song from the CD it's on.
I didnt buy enough new albums to compile a list. Maybe 2014 will be a better year.
'Delta Lady' - Joe Cocker Ultimate Collection
'I Hear You Calling' - Gob The World According to Gob
'The Idea of Growing Old' - The Features Exhibit A
'Bodyrock' - Moby Play
'Slip Slidin Away' - Paul Simon The Paul Simon Collection
'Johnny B. Goode' - Chuck Berry The Great Twenty-Eight
'Going to California' - Led Zeppelin IV
'All Down the Line' - Rolling Stones Exile on Main St
'Only Happy When it Rains' - Garbage Garbage
'A Little Bit of Abuse' - The Kinks Give the People What They Want
As will be noted in a couple days, I really didn't listen to anything released in 2013 somehow. I picked up a small handful of albums, but only one was technically new.
The albums I did purchase, however, were pretty great for the most part:
Enslaved - Riitiir
This was my first experience with Enslaved and I was blown away immediately. Basically its epic Viking metal and it feels that way. They make great use of both harsh vocals and a close to monotone clean vocals. I need to work on their back catalog.
Epica - Requiem for the Indifferent
Epica continues to be great.
Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage
Another band I had not listened to prior to this year. This is their 2012 release. They are a French technical death metal band and most of their melody comes from interesting vocal work.
Kreator - Phantom Antichrist
Legendary German thrash band with a very strong 2012 release.
Amon Amarth - Deceiver of the Gods
This was very Amon Amarth-y. They don't deviate from their sound much at all, and that's not a bad thing. They know what they are and do it well.
Orden Ogan - To the End
Holy crap is this an awesome album. Yet another new band to me. Its about as power metal as it comes with some blistering guitar work and fun, sing-along type choruses. (Check out the title track or "The Things We Believe In" for good examples.)
Winter Storm - Within the Frozen Design
My only purchase of a 2013 album. This is kind of a symphonic metal band with a gurl singer, but not really anything like the first bands that come up when thinking about symphonic metal (Epica, Nightwish). The songs aren't quite as sweeping, and she has a deeper, more haunting voice than others in this category.
I'm unable to do a meaningful album list, since I didn't listen to many albums. But I can do a top 10 song list! So here it is (in no particular order):
1. "Royals" - Lorde - Ok, I could probably put this album up there, since I've heard over half of it. And it's all awesome. But this song is brilliant, and I'm still not tired of it.
2. "Diane Young" - Vampire Weekend - Ok, I could probably put this album up there too, since I've heard over half of it. A lot of sameness, but different from previous VW. Very good, excited to see this band growing musically.
3. "The Wire" - Haim - It was between this one and "Don't Save Me," (I didn't want a band listed twice), but I'll go with their first single. I think this band needs a little editing, since they go long a bit, but what they're putting out is very good, from what I've heard.
4. "Heavy Bells" - J. Roddy Walston & The Business - I think a lot of people here would like this one. Or maybe you guys all already know it? I just realized today that this band also sings "Marigold" which I've been enjoying a ton too. I might need to check them out more.
5. "Harlem" - New Politics - Talk about energetic. I love it.
6. "New Life" - Jim James - This one was a slam dunk for my summer mix, and was the perfect closing note for it. Find the radio edit if you can, as it'll save you a minute and you won't lose anything.
7. "Lady You Shot Me" - Har Mar Superstar - I don't generally like Har Mar Superstar, but this song definitely worked for me.
8. "Magazine" - Caroline Smith - I found myself with this one caught in my head more times than most songs this year.
9. "Lucky" - Daft Punk - Possibly my favorite song of the year. I'm surprised these guys pulled that off, since, although I like a lot of their stuff, I've never loved it. This, I love.
10. "Is This How You Feel" - Preatures - Possibly my favorite song of the year. Haven't heard anything else from this band, but I'm excited to.
B: Tourniquet - Jeremy Messersmith - Looking forward to more from this guy coming in 2014.
This was what I put on my year-end mix. I still have it accessible if anyone would like a copy; just shoot me an email.
CH's 2013 Year End Mix
1. Seasick Steve - Coast is Clear / Hubcap Music
2. Son Volt - Brick Walls / Honky Tonk
3. Luke Winslow-King - Moving On (Towards Better Days) / The Coming Tide
4. Peter Walker - Wonder / Has Anybody Seen Our Freedom?
5. Howe Gelb - Picacho Peak / The Coincidentalist
6. Bombino - Amidinine (My Friend) / Nomad
7. Queens of the Stone Age - I Sat By the Ocean / … Like Clockwork
8. Daft Punk - Give Life Back to Music / Random Access Memories
9. Enrico Rava - Blood on the Dance Floor / On the Dance Floor
10. Gregory Porter - Free / Liquid Spirit
11. Robert Glasper Experiment feat. Common & Patrick Stump (with Michael Erik Dyson) - I Stand Alone / Black Radio 2
12. Vijay Iyer & Mike Ladd with Maurice Decaul - Derelict Poetry / Holding It Down: The Veterans’ Dreams Project
13. Cécile McLorin Salvant - Deep Dark Blue / WomanChild
14. Mulatu Astatke - Azmari / Sketches of Ethiopia
15. Tomasz Stańko New York Quartet - Faces / Wisława
16. Aaron Parks - Reverie / Arborescence
Best albums of 2013:
Vijay Iyer & Mike Ladd - Holding It Down: The Veterans’ Dreams Project
- Take one of our top jazz pianist/composers, add a librettist, and a chorus of Iraq & Afghanistan veteran voices providing war poetry/spoken word over the music. Powerful stuff.
Gregory Porter - Liquid Spirit
- As a friend said this week in his own review, this is jazz, but jazz by way of Bill Withers, Teddy Pendergrass and Marvin Gaye. Really, really, really good.
Robert Glasper Experiment - Black Radio 2
- Jazz & hip-hop fusion. I was blown away by last year's Black Radio, but this follow-up might be even better.
Tomasz Stańko New York Quartet - Wisława
- One of the tightest jazz quartets recording right now. A double album without a single miss.
Aaron Parks - Arborescence
- Fantastic debut album on ECM. Incredibly lush sound, very atmospheric. If you like solo piano jazz, you've gotta get this.
Bombino - Nomad
- Very guitar-heavy Nigerian blues rock. And it rocks.
Enrico Rava - On the Dance Floor
- Apparently Enrico Rava, one of the best jazz trumpeters alive, had never heard of Michael Jackson until Jackson's death. Rava started listening to Jackson's catalog, then assembled a band for a live recording celebrating his favorite songs. They blow the doors off.
Peter Walker - Has Anybody Seen Our Freedom?
- Recorded in a commune forty-plus years ago, this finally saw the light of day late in 2013. A mixture of 12-string flamenco and raga, with some folk thrown in. Wow.
Seasick Steve - Hubcap Music
- From train-riding hobo to a significant blues artist with seven records since 2004. Not sure if this is my favorite of his, but it's darn good. His voice & instruments are unlike any other.
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
- Nile Rodgers really made this album, but I thought it was well done from start to end, with only a low point ("Giorgio by Moroder") or two ("Motherboard").
I picked up Nomad a few months back and I'm a big fan as well.
High five. I didn't know the first thing about Bombino before I snagged that albumoin a whim. It was easily I one of my better cultural choices of the entire year.
How was that Son Volt album? Middling reviews probably unfairly prevented me from checking it out properly but I've really enjoyed the stuff Farrar puts out. I'm guessing it deserves a fair listen at the very least.
It deserves a fair listen, but I wasn't really moved anywhere with it. Pleasant enough, but a bit disappointing considering where it might have gone.
I had to do a list dump since I'm terrible at ordering things. So this is a first stab and it'll probably change at some point. But yeah. Something like this.
01. Pissed Jeans - Honeys
02. Gucci Mane - Trap House III
03. Wimps - Repeat
04. Whores - Clean
05. TV Ghost - Disconnect
06. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels
07. A$AP Ferg - Trap Lord
08. Danny Brown - Old
09. Waxahatchee - Cerulean Salt
10. Da Mafia 6ix - 6ix Commandments
11. Pampers - Pampers
12. Shitfucker - Suck Cocks in Hell
13. Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin
14. Migos - YRN
15. Yuppies - Yuppies
16. Future of the Left - How to Stop Your Brain in an Accident
17. Iron Reagan - Worse than Dead
18. Kanye West - Yeezus
19. Savages - Silence Yourself
20. A$AP Rocky - Long.Live.A$AP
21. Chelsea Wolfe - Pain is Beauty
22. The Icarus Line - Slave Vows
23. Juicy J - Stay Trippy
24. Crocodiles - Crimes of Passion
25. Italians Do It Better - After Dark 2
10. Eleanor Friedberger Personal Record - Pretty straight forward pop rock songs (especially considering the source). Liked it quite a bit though I miss the weirdness her brother brings to the proceedings in the Fiery Furnaces.
9. Grouper The Man Who Died in His Boat - Mak's Drone Folk tag sums it up nicely.
8. The National Trouble Will Find Me - I only recently got this, but it seems ready to stack up nicely with their best work.
7. Julianna Barwick Nepenthe - Still sounds like a Julianna Barwick record, just BIGGER. Wonderful, ambient soundscapes capable of soothing the savage beast. This was the anecdote to Deafheaven's Sunbather.
6. Courtney Barnett The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas - Funny, literate slacker rock from a sharp Aussie gal.
5. Kurt Vile Wakin' on a Pretty Daze - Philly rocker puts together an epic roadtrip soundtrack.
4. Foxygen We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic - LA youngsters pilfer freely from classic 60’s and 70’s rock and roll. Sound great doing it.
3. Mikal Cronin MC II – Text book power pop from Ty Segall cohort. Really wonderful guitar rock from a bright young talent.
2. Bill Callahan Dream River - Former Smog dude just keeps sharpening his craft. Might be the best songwriter of his generation. And his dry, deep voice is a perfect vehicle for his poetic flights.
1. Julia Holter Loud City Song - Lush dream-pop laced with elements of jazz, classical and world music. Cosmic cabaret, if you will, and an album in the truest sense: 9 songs, 45 minutes, none of it wasted. Plus, she’s got a gorgeous voice. Most excellent.
Along with the Drones and Patty Griffin's Silver Bell, I discovered the very righteous rock and roll of Brooklyn outfit The Men several years after the fact.
More thoughts...
I don't get all the love for Daft Punk. I felt that was the worst album I listened to for any length of time all year.
It actually made it so that listening to any music was not enjoyable for a week or two. Then I removed it from my iPod and will never go back again.
I thought about re-listening carefully to figure out what was going on, but decided that life was too short and that it would be better to listen to something -- anything -- that didn't give me such a negative reaction.
I'm really hoping that someone will listen to and enjoy these Dilloway records. I feel like I'm all alone here.
I just d/led that Holocene album. I've liked his other stuff. (That feels somehow related.)
I've been meaning to listen to his solo stuff for some time, I'm going to add it to my backlog of stuff I need to listen to. 🙂
Knowing you liked his work with Wolf Eyes makes me optimistic, even though it's different than that.
It's wierd though, I listen to other related sound releases and they do little for me. Something in the guy's formulation outside of the "tape loop/hiss" genre makes it work.