I wasn't looking for it, but Florist's album Emily Alone is right now my lead candidate for AMR's 2019 album of the year.
Recommended if you like: Julien Baker, the pastoral side of of Animal Collective circa Sung Tongs and Campfire Songs.
Go ahead and listen here.
1. Default Genders “Vietato Calpestare i Prati” Main Pop Girl 2019
2. Schneider TM “Reality Check” Zoomer
3. Red Meat “12-Inch 3-Speed Oscillating Fan”* Meet Red Meat
4. Dead Prez “Hip-Hop” Let's Get Free
5. Nate Young “March of Dimes” Volume Two: Nightshade
6. Zola Jesus “Night” Stridulum
7. Mountain Man “Window” Magic Ship
8. Mix Master Mike “Can of Kick Ass” Anti-Theft Device
9. Fiona Apple “Criminal” Tidal
T. HEALTH “DARK ENOUGH” DEATH MAGIC
*Notes:
3. I learned the song from Ha Ha Tonka's cover version (they learned it from Big Smith's cover).
2,3,4,8,9. I thought this was a strong showing from the late 90s. But:
The Dead Prez album didn't get released until 2000 (further research: the song came out in early 1999).
Schneider TM wasn't out until 2002! (Which I guess makes sense, I know I was living in Idaho when I got his first album, Moist, which times that to summer 1999.
I've been checking out The Birds Outside Sang (which sounds like it would be right up your alley). Only gone through it a couple times, but I like it.
Yeah, I've now downloaded almost her/their whole discography. But Emily Alone is a step beyond those. Without starting there, I don't know that I would have given the earlier albums second listens.
Or maybe you said that because the word "Birds" in the total?
The new album has nicely placed sounds from outside. The most foregrounded is a hummingbird's twitter (kindof like cell-phone interference) on "Celebration".
Takes the "neighbor mowing his lawn" from AC's Campfire Songs to a better level.
(On that AC album, while I like the aesthetic, I found the incredibly loose form hard to pay attention to. It's really only the final song, "Doggy", that I liked. Emily Alone has actual songs, none of the tribal or faux-naïve jam-band-drum-circle influences.)
I just read a comparison to Nick Drake's Pink Moon, and though I've only listened to parts of it, I get it. This could totally be used in that same VW ad, to the same effect. I think "Shadow Bloom", with these lyrics:
specifically birds singing, yeah.
also, that's why i try to start earlier in an artist's catalog.
i might really like one of their earlier albums, but if i hear a later one first, the earlier stuff might not be as well received as it could have been if i start with their later stuff.
I think this is the opposite of what you're describing. I'm listening more to the earlier albums because I can hear where things went.
If someone just played the first album for me without me having heard the new one, I would have just thought it "meh" and likely not returned.
this is a potential hazard, yes.
01. "The Noise Of Carpet" – Stereolab – Emperor Tomato Ketchup
02. "Metal Heart" – Cat Power – Moon Pix
03. "Last Ride" – Beach House – 7
04. "Strange Hellos" – Torres – Sprinter
05. "Stoned And Starving" – Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold
06. "Good Arms Vs. Bad Arms" – Frightened Rabbit – The Midnight Organ Fight
07. "Keep Your Head Up" – Cults – Static
08. "Gospel" – The National – Boxer
09. "Jethro" – Thundercat – Drunk
10. "Blow My High (Members Only)" – Kendrick Lamar – Section.80
RIP to The Moneyman