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OMG IT'S VERBWHORES BEST RECORDS OF 2015 THREAD 2015

Started by alan nagsworth, December 21, 2015, 03:01:38 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

alan nagsworth

What's everyone saying then? I can't be fucked to do a proper top 10 or anything, but I will state that the best record I heard all year is:

Ezra Furman - Perpetual Motion People.



Battling personal demons with an honesty that is both charming and engaging, backed by equally spiky and enthralling hooks galore, this guy grabbed me from the moment I saw him dressed in drag and howling out "Restless Year" on Jools Holland. It is quite honestly excellent, and he's one of the most exciting emerging talents I've had the pleasure of discovering for some time. Wall-to-wall classic rock 'n' roll jams, swaying in and out of soul, doo-wop and new wave styles, effortlessly weaving a narrative of his recent life experiences. I can't find anything to fault about it, really. Straight up 10/10.

Restless Year (Live on Jools Holland)

Lousy Connection

Body Was Made

Other notable releases include:

Commodo, Gantz, Kahn - Volume 1: Flawless dubstep mini LP from three of the hottest names on the scene. I went through a period of about two weeks when these seven tracks were pretty much the only thing I listened to. The drop on "AMK" gives me chills.

AMK

Alaska Thunderfuck - ANUS

Drag queens don't take themselves too seriously, so it's not surprising to discover that a lot of their musical output carries little outside of hilarious, gimmicky appeal. This of course is heightened by the accessibility of music videos online, as often I find this music doesn't really stand up when listened to without some equally outrageous visual accompaniment. However, Alaska surprised a lot of people this year by releasing a very coherent album of really great songs that were as ludicrous as they were genuinely enjoyable. She's always been one of m favourite queens, but I wasn't expecting to enjoy this album quite so much. It is bloody great, though.

Your Makeup Is Terrible

Blanck Mass - Dumb Flesh

In the wake of the vapourave scene, (which, regardless of whether you like it or not, has certainly died down significantly since its birth a mere few years ago) I was extremely pleased to see something emerge which seemed to carry the a e s t h e t i c of the scene behind something a lot more sustainable: hard, industrial dance music. Blanck Mass has created just that: something which is bewilderingly alien but irresistibly punchy and head-noddingly fucking awesome. This to me is miles above and beyond anything Fuck Buttons have done.

Dead Format

Carly Rae Jepsen - E•MO•TION

Filling the boots of an international smash hit standalone single which in turn spawned endless parodies, memes, covers and remixes is a heady business indeed. Jepsen not only took this task head on, she managed to convince her label to let her co-write all the songs herself, and the resulting album is a brilliant collection of shimmering pop bangers. I only checked this out yesterday but I can already tell it's one of the freshest pop efforts I've heard in some time.

Run Away With Me

Deradoorian - The Expanding Flower Planet

This one was highly anticipated, and it didn't disappoint by any real measure. Since hearing her on Dirty Projectors' "Stillness is the Move" (one of the only songsDP I actually enjoy, purely on account of her presence), I was utterly enchanted by her voice. Corny as it may sound, this record carries the organic quality of its title very close by, to the point where it's often difficult to see anything outside of the limitless constraints of some colourful new world, where every song here serves as some form of national anthem. Sublime.

Komodo

Ratatat - Magnifique

Blistering return to form after some five years of inactivity. Straight back to their defining "Classics" album sound, fantastic instrumental guitar/electronic music that is at times cinematic and poignant and at others carries the clout of Daft Punk and '90s gangsta rap instrumentals at their respective high points.

Rome

Thee Oh Sees - Mutilator Defeated At Last

John Dwyer, the man who is seemingly permanently glued into his ensemble of teeny tiny shorts and a guitar strapped up to his neck, once again adds another notch to the constantly unfurling stream of feedback and manic yelps of his feverish and fun musical output which shows no signs of slowing down. This one has stood up a lot stronger than "Drop" on repeat listens, and seeing it performed live recently only confirmed just how much of a shit-kicking belter of a record it really is.

Rogue Planet

I have some other choices - some more obvious, and some which are decent but not as great as the above - but I'll keep it at this for now, as I have stuff to do and I've written far more than I intended to already.

Lord Mandrake

Antonio Sanchez
Hiatus Kaiyote
The Internet
Benjamin Clemantine
Roots Manuva
Leron Thomas
Kendrick Lamar
Thundercat
Retiree
Werka
Darkstar
Gecko Turner
Oddisee
Matthew E White

alan nagsworth

please try and actually write why you like the things you like and post song links otherwise this will just be a shit list thread that no one gives a toss about

ta
x

Norton Canes

30 - 21:

Blanck Mass - Dumb Flesh
The Chemical Brothers - Born In The Echoes
Errors - Lease Of Life
Martin Gore - MG
Holly Herndon - Platform
Lower Dens - Escape From Evil
Marina And The Diamonds - Froot
Scuba - Claustrophobia
Shamir - Ratchet
Vessels - Dilate

Actually Born In The Echoes was a real let-down, but even a mis-firing album from The Chemical Brothers was still good enough to sneak into the year's best-of list. Ratchet was certainly the perkiest album of 2015, while Marina's Froot revelled in its own luscious charms. Martin Gore showed why he should have a go at producing the next Depeche Mode album on his own, compression tanks were needed as Scuba took techno to unfathomable depths and Vessels made a bid for album cover of the year with this, expertly encapsulating their continual-mix techno odyssey:


Norton Canes

20 - 11:

Alpine - Yuck
Braids – Deep In The Iris
Ekoplekz - Reflekzionz
Georgia - Georgia
Emilie Nicolas - Like I'm A Warrior
Princess Chelsea - The Great Cybernetic Depression
Soko - My Dreams Dictate My Reality
Squarepusher - Damogen Furies
John Tejada - Signs Under Test
Youth Lagoon - Savage Hills Ballroom


Georgia Barnes stole a march on her Leftfield-rehashing dad this year putting out an album full of gargantuan beats and incisive rhymes. Squarepusher hit full-on berserker mode with pounding, frantic rhythms in a drum and bass assault of furious whirling steel, Soko dialled the kohl-encrusted angst up to eleven, and John Tejada hit upon the perfect techno accompaniment for midnight cityscape sojourns. Meanwhile Alpine produced the creamiest, dreamiest, most blissfully delicious pop music of the year, Princess Chelsea hugged our inner cynic, and Youth Lagoon left us quietly, queasily devastated.

Norton Canes

(these are lovingly copy n' pasted from another website, in case you haven't already guessed)

10 - 7 (I couldn't whittle the shortlist down to a top 5)

Arca - Mutant
Deradoorian - The Expanding Flower Planet
Haiku Salut - Etch And Etch Deep
LA Priest - Inji

To be honest the Arca album might have been higher up the list with a few more listens. It's a brave and confrontational album, music on the bleeding edge of avant garde – search for 'Arca Mutant'on YouTube and take a look at a few of the accompanying videos. It's one of the closest things to an Autechre album I've ever heard – it doesn't slavishly imitate their trademark glitches but it achieves the same sense of fluid, organic machinery.

I discovered Haiku Salut when I followed a link to the extraordinary video for Hearts Not Parts. The rest of Etch And Etch Deep is very much in the same vein, beautiful and intricate instrumentals weaving electronica and folk in a way that completely avoids the hipster cliches of 'folktronica'.

Deradoorian inhabits the periphery of Broadcast territory, ethereal melodies shot through with a wintry chill. And as for LA Priest - who wouldn't be delighted to see the return of Late Of The Pier's erstwhile vocalist, reinvented as a sleazy disciple of Prince?

Norton Canes

6 - 4:

Empress Of - Me
Purity Ring - Another Eternity
Son Lux - Bones

I can't remember what led me to Empress Of, the solo project of singer-songwriter Lorely Rodriguez. The first track on Me is the kind of routine pop fluff which suggests enjoying the album will be a transient experience; but then it delivers an extraordinary triple-whammy of songs - the aquatic throb of Water Water, the stark pulse of Standard and the dementedly catchy How Do You Do It - that marks it out as something way more accomplished. It's Rodriguez's smart lyrics that seal the deal though, at the heart of which is an insistent questioning of her status as a woman in both her relationship and the wider world.

Another Eternity and Bones almost exist as mystical counterpoints to each other – respectively, heaven and hell encapsulated. As their titles suggest, the former is all light and air, while the latter is dry, brittle, inert. Purity Ring build on the same template as 2012's Shrines, all ethereal electronic melodies and abstruse lyrics, admittedly with a more pronounced pop sheen this time round – but that hardly matters when they deliver phenomenal tracks like Flood On The Floor and Sea Castle. Son Lux was sick with fever when he recorded Bones, and it shows – his performance is shot through with hoarse delirium. It works in his favour though, investing an infernal intensity to tracks like Change Is Everything and You Don't Know Me.

Norton Canes

3. Lonelady – Hinterland

I think I might be on record as saying, shortly after the release of Hinterland, that besides Unknown Pleasures it was the best Manchester album ever made. With the benefit of hindsight this was clearly an exaggeration - I'd completely forgotten about 808 State's Ex:El for one thing, and I've heard Oceansize's 2003 debut Effloresce spoken of in reverential tones. Still, Hinterland reverberates with the stark, skeletal rhythms of Joy Division and their Mancunian heirs - febrile, fidgety funk; taut, vital and humming with power like the cables carrying electricity for the city's trams. It's constantly tense and unsettled, a snapshot of places on the edge, overlooked in the transition towards gleaming regeneration; a paean to anywhere left behind by the future.

2. Zhala - Zhala

Whereas Zhala is just a fucking blast from start to finish. Holy Bubbles! (NSFW)

Norton Canes

1. Susanne Sundfør - Ten Love Songs

Blah blah, alternate universe... blah blah, Ten Love Songs shifting millions of units, blah blah, stacks of Adele's 26 lying stubbornly unsold on the shelves... I'm sure I end up saying this about at least one album in each of my end-of-year lists. I mean come on people, the Norwegians have got the hang of buying Susanne Sundfør's albums in massive quantities, what's so difficult? Is the sweeping, sumptuous majesty of Accelerate not enough to convince you? What about the fervent yearning of Fade Away? Look, this woman's written you the best Bond theme ever and still you're not paying attention.

Honestly. People.

Pepotamo1985

LoneLady - Hinterland

As I wrote in May, this was one of the best things I heard this year, and it retains this position as we inch closer to 2015 being over.

I really liked Campbell's first album (Nerve Up), which managed to somehow simultaneously sound like cuts from a really fantastic Factory records tribute CD, and the lost recordings of a bona fide Joy Division contemporary finally released for public consumption thirty years after being committed to tape. On that record, she was a peerless and worthwhile imitator, but also a unique and worthy peer of her forebears.

She has outdone herself on this record though - outdone herself big time. She's expanded her sound, taking on more influences while also taking greater ownership of her music. It's a synthesis of 101 different inspirations which sounds exactly nothing like any of them. In any given minute, I'm hearing Talking Heads, Gang of Four, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Fleetwood Mac, ESG, Blondie, Elvis Costello, Talk Talk, U2, Simple Minds, REM, PJ Harvey and more [nb]in a lift[/nb].

This is dense, exciting music, complex without being wanky or self-indulgent. There's a shit ton of stuff going on all the time, and a cornucopia of instruments on almost every track. She evidently has a mind for the grand and the busy, and the practical talent to back it up. It has so much depth to it, I haven't grown tired of it despite listening to it on average twice a week since I got it.

Perhaps what's most staggering is this record is almost exclusively the work of Campbell herself - recording, production, mixing, writing and playing almost exclusively done by her solo. Staggeringly talented person she is.

Some cuts;

Hinterland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J0gmOkaak0
Groove It Out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlFe8yfYSHw

The Fall - Sub-Lingual Tablet


To my ears this is very, very easily the finest Fall LP since YFOC, and certainly one of their best from the past 15 years overall.

Not sure where all the complaints about Mark E. Smith's degenerating vox come from, either - I'm not hearing the guttural gnawing and atonal yelping that made Ersatz GB and ReMit such chores to listen to anywhere on SLT, bar Stout Man (where the vocals are obviously deliberate). In fact, his chords haven't sounded this full for quite some time.

The band themselves sound tight and vital, and I don't think The Fall has produced such consistently interesting and idiosyncratic noises in ages. It's also, crucially, busy. There's so much stuff going on all the time, I'm still hearing new snatches and undercurrents and subtleties however many listens later. One of the reasons ReMit was shit was that the songs were so straight; it was all surface level and singular. There was nothing happening beneath the main noise thrust. To understand what I mean, listen to Junger Cloth followed by Stout Man (the latter being easily the worst track on SLT, in relative terms), then Junger Cloth again. Really listen, on good headphones or something.

Anyway, there's weirdness aplenty here, challenging weirdness, new weirdness. Even the best offerings from the past decade (YFOC, Fall Heads Roll, etc.) have had a tendency to descend into muscular rock far too frequently; while often thrilling, still a bit comfortable and safe for The Fall. On the other hand, much of the stranger stuff from the same period has depended on electronic noise to get its oddity across. Delightfully, very little of that on here, on both counts.

Add to this, the production is fucking banging; layered, nuanced, clear, immersive. Ersatz GB and ReMit both suffered from shitty mixing (in Ersatz GB's case, I think this ruined a lot of promising tunes - on ReMit, it just made a weak experience even feebler). Real time and effort has gone into making this sound urgent and sparkling.

Anyway, yeah. SLT is fucking brilliant.

Morrison Lard

Quote from: Pepotamo1985 on December 21, 2015, 05:18:01 PM
The Fall
...
The band themselves sound tight
To my ears The Fall haven't sounded tight for 20 years, maybe more.

The album still gets a 7/10 for me just for the line:
"Pieeeerce Brosnan how dare you prescribe sad grief and bed wet pills, gooooood grief, beeeeeed wet"

non capisco

#11
Bearing in mind I'm at my least considered and articulate when I'm talking about music I really like so this is gonna be a load of old gush....

KAMASI WASHINGTON - The Epic
Just a magisterial, towering fuck off great big jazz beast of a thing and hearing him knocking some of it out at a last minute gig at the Scala filled every fibre of my being with delirious joy.
It makes me want to cry, this record, with him wailing away, inhabiting this music. When I put this on at work 9 out of 10 couriers come in and ask what it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtQRBzSN9Vw



DEERHUNTER - Fading Frontier
I love the giddy fuck out of Bradford Cox and he's really firing on all melodic cylinders with this 'un. That bam bam bam triple salvo of 'All The Same', 'Living My Life' and 'Breaker' is probably the best opening sequence of any album I've heard this year. Lockett Pundt's tune 'Ad Astra' is also absolutely sublime. When the chorus of that comes crashing back in at the end. Oooooh. Also what I love about Fading Frontier is for the most part Cox is really showing off his voice instead of hiding it as he usually does in the mix and singing through cheap mics. As anyone who's ever been to a Deerhunter show will attest the lad has some serious pipes on him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCVWrqxyt3Y

"Under the stars...that are slowly dying...oh no."

THE BLIND SHAKE - Fly Right
Maybe more of an EP followup to last year's fucking amazing 'Breakfast Of Failures' rather than a proper LP but they are pretty much my favourite band at the moment and I love listening to that intergalactic extraterrestrial backyard surf punk of theirs. I will bang on ad nauseum to anyone who is unfortunate enough to be in my path about this band until they submit and give them a listen. 'Apes Live A Life' off this is amazing. Do yourself a favour and check them out. They're back over in London playing live in February apparently. Their show at the Shacklewell Arms was heart-burstingly brilliant. I adore them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_74Q2HeFyfE

SUFJAN STEVENS - Carrie and Lowell
Breaks your heart a million different ways, this. I love singing along to records and I can't get through some of these without choking up so fuck knows how he does it. The melodies on this thing. 'I love you more than the world can contain in its lonely and ramshackle head'. That bit. Every time. Fucking love the angelic whispery git.

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


THEE OH SEES - Mutilator Defeated At Last
Just a really, really good John Dwyer album. 'Sticky Hulks', what a tune. And the new two drummer live setup is summit else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dua9gPlfzG0

JANE WEAVER - The Silver Globe
Again, melodies. 'Mission Desire', absolutely addicted to that tune. I got into her this year so all her previous stuff kind of melts in together. 'You Are Dissolved', that is a sublime pop song. 'Argent'. Ooof.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET6nFIe0QG0


LOW - Ones And Sixes
Best record they've put out in years. So many killers on this but 'Landslide' is something else.

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

PANDA BEAR - Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper
'Selfish Gene' might be in contention for my favourite song of the year. That closing hook 'You'll trip up again/You'll trip up again/Go get up again'. You can do worse than that for a personal musical mantra, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMHCLRR0CS4


LONELADY - Hinterland
Like St Vincent fed through the weird scratchy Prince of something like 'All The Critics Love U In New York'. Brilliant stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J0gmOkaak0

ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER - Garden Of Delete
Just got into his stuff after the world and their dog was recommending him to me. Got a ticket to see him in February and thoroughly looking forward to it.

D'ANGELO AND THE VANGUARD- Black Messiah
Technically 2014 but fuck it, it's an album I've played to within an inch of its life this year. Just amazing.

I'm sure I'll think of more and be back to this thread. I did really like the Faith No More newie but it's got a few duds and 'Matador' kind of towers over the rest of it but I was just so happy to have them back.

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


non capisco

#12
Quote from: alan nagsworth on December 21, 2015, 03:01:38 PM
Ezra Furman - Perpetual Motion People.

Funnily enough I only heard 'My Zero' from one of his earlier records for the first time off someone on Cymbal the other day and it stopped me in my tracks as being a perfect pop song. Def gonna get on this now.

EDIT: Yeah, this is joyous. Cheers for the tip off.

Johnny Yesno


Danger Man



Cornershop Hold On, It's Easy.

QuoteThe urge to reimagine your debut album as an instrumental, easy-listening affair with added swing is not perhaps one that strikes most bands, but Cornershop have always been something of a square peg. Their first album, Hold on It Hurts, was noisy and boisterous enough to take its place in the riot grrrl movement (despite the group's all-male lineup); Hold On It's Easy – which reworks every track from the 1993 original – is performed by Preston's Elastic Big Band and would sound more at home as a 70s TV theme or, in the case of their woodwind and brass reworking of Change, Air's Moon Safari. The original's political side has naturally been dimmed, replaced with an impressive knack for revealing melodies you never knew existed beneath the feedback (Born Disco, Died Heavy Metal is a particular revelation). It might not make for the most essential listening of 2015, but Hold On It's Easy is a playful distraction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1lwvxyveJQ


Custard

Belle and Sebastian – Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance



Repeated listens gradually revealed one of their strongest records in years.

Could've done with being a bit shorter, but it's a small gripe really, when the tunes are this good

Pity about the fuck-awful cover-art, mind!

Noodle Lizard

I didn't listen to many from this year, and most of the ones I did that are getting all the plaudits left me a bit cold.  But here are the ones I did like in no real order:

Arche - Dir en grey
Vitium - sukekiyo
The Epic - Kamasi Washington
Divers - Joanna Newsom
Elaborate Anoraks - Dr Syntax & Pete Cannon
Vulnicura - Bjork

I really didn't care about To Pimp A Butterfly, despite constantly being told I should.

I've only listened to two albums from this year this year. Seems like a bad year for music but the best year for games. Good year for TV. Bad year for films. Books are OK. Food is very good. Tea and coffee are OK. Wine is fine. Whisky is OK. Family is good. Wife is great. Water is great. Walking all time good. Compassion is OK. Politics really bad. Environment really bad but pretend to be OK. War is really bad. Disease is really bad. Aliens no sign. God is OK.

U.S Girls - Half Free.

Fucking lovely album. Lovely atmosphere. Slight menace and sadness to its retro sensibilities which is always something I love.

Damn That Valley is second best track of the year for me.

Cuntz - Force the Zone

Melbourne band that are great fun. Kicked up a bit of a stink in the US recently due to their name but the bottom line is these guys are fun and heavy. This album is actually genuinely great.

Tame Impala - Currents.

Man how can you not grin when you hear this?
It's hugely overplayed on the radio over here but still, undeniably fun album.

Earl Sweatshirt - I Don't like Shit, I don't go outside

This is my favourite of the year. Easily Earl's best album. Sad woozy beats with brilliant lyrics. AM // Radio is track of the year.

I'm sorry. I'm not very good at talking about music. Basically I like stuff because I like it!

Honourable mentions: Vince Staples, Beach House's second album. Thundercat and Death Grips had a good single. Not good albums I would say, unfortunately.

Dishonourable Mention: Grimes. Art Angels was a bit rubbish wasn't it?


Shoulders?-Stomach!



Tangerine Dream - Quantum Key EP

The first record since Edgar Froese's untimely death, this record is really a window into a world where you had Edgar's ceaseless (until he died) energy and commitment to Tangerine Dream's heritage but also a collaboration of individuals with good taste and modern production skills.

Instead of the churning out of half-finished garbage in the 1990s and 2000s under a series of dramatic sounding conceptual guises, here is a tight record that contains musical traces of the 70s Virgins years right up to the present, and includes Edgar's actual input, as there is still a wealth of material and ideas he's left behind, so if they want this to continue, his presence will continue to be felt.

Mala Kunia was the last record and this is very much building on that, playing around with tempo and texture, but with a form slowly starting to take on a consistent shape and substance- and a few stylistic surprises actually - track 3 for example is a slow-slow patient dark piece, the sort Edgar was sadly incapable of making on his own since the mid-80s.

The guitars are all but gone, but it's not all electronic, there is some quite interesting use of violin at various points that still give things a vaguely new-age tinge at points, never in a terrible way.

I liked half of it straight away but I now like nearly all of it, something I've spent a long, long frustrating journey through TD's discography not experiencing.

One to pleasantly surprise electronic music fans and a worthwhile document for music fans and historians generally as evidence for just why certain bands keep on going.

Serge

Well, yes I have to agree with nagsworth on this one, my album of the year is also



'Perpetual Motion People' Ezra Furman

Although I'd noticed his records in the shop before, I'd never particularly paid any attention to them, and after reading a couple of interviews where it mentioned his gender fluidity and Jewish faith, I don't know, it almost seemed like he was trying too hard to have some sort of gimmick to hang his name on (it seemed to me, who is obviously an idiot, I should add), and I was predisposed to take against the album before I'd heard a note. And then I heard it. And heard it again. And again. And bought it. And took it home and listened to it again and again and realised what an interesting guy he really is (I love someone who writes copious liner notes) and just how fucking great this album is. Alongside Mac DeMarco - who I know is loathed as much as he is liked in these parts (and whose 'Another One' was a real grower after seeming like a letdown compared to 'Salad Days') - he is making interesting noises out of great pop songs and topping them with some of the smartest lyrics. My personal favourite track on the album is 'Haunted Head', but there's not a duffer on there.

THE REST OF MY TOP TEN:

'Qualities Of Bodies Permanent' Sarah Davachi

This was going to be my album of the year all the way up to the point that I heard Ezra, even though it pains me that there is no physical version of it that I can take home and treasure. But the epic Eliane Radigue-esque drones on this album still work on MP3, and have been given a proper hammering over the past few months. She also released the excellent 'Baron's Court' earlier in the year, and has yet another album due out soon. Amazing stuff.

'Good Sad Happy Bad' Micachu And The Shapes

After the slightly underwhelming second album, Mica Levi did the astonishing 'Under The Skin' soundtrack (the only thing I liked about that film) and then came blasting back with this. It so annoyed my old boss at Rough Trade that he said he thought it sounded like a bunch of demos, but he's wrong. It sounds great.

'The Miraculous' Anna Von Hausswolff

Bloody incredible, out there stuff - the closest thing I can compare it to is the inventive flights of These New Puritans, taking risks and extending the song form into new shapes whilst also having a good old blast on the organ at Lincoln Cathedral. This should have been in all of the End Of Year lists, not J***a H****r!

'Key Markets' Sleaford Mods

Finally got around to checking these guys out, figuring that I'd probably like them, given their Midland roots, left wing politics and love of swearing. And boy, this didn't disappoint. A friend of mine doesn't get that the swearing is what makes it so great - these are not random 'fucks' and 'cunts', every single one is crafted.

'Songs To Play' Robert Forster

Ah God, I love old Rob. Not many of his contemporaries are making records this good these days. Also contains my favourite line of the year: "I'm not the sheriff, I'm the joker of this town"

'Talk About Country' Legends Of Country

Full disclosure: Jof Owen - the man who is LOC - is a good friend of mine. But seeing as a lot of friends of mine have been in bands that I think are drivel, it's not a given that their records will wind up in my Top Ten. But this one did, and well-deserved it is, too. Possibly the first country album to have a line about Whitstable on it.

'Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit' Courtney Barnett

No surprises here, I've banged on about my love of the Courtney it's ok to Love on here before. This was the album that had the most riding on it for me this year, as I was worried that she wouldn't be able to top the heights of the excellent two EPs that preceded it, but top them she did. And for the first time since The Soft Pack, an artist I'm making sure I buy all the singles they put out. She's fab.

'Art Angels' Grimes

Yeah...it's not quite as good as 'Visions', mainly because it doesn't have 'Genesis' on it, but this is still brilliant.

'Frid' Hills

They keep getting compared to Goat, which annoys me, as Goat are COMPLETELY FUCKING SHIT and these guys are leagues above them. Six long psych jams to freak out to with melodies that are earworms.

Right....I was going to carry on with this list, but I have to go and watch 'Luther' so I can get annoyed about how it's not as good as it should be, so I'll write about the rest of my Top 50 - yes, that's right, 2015 has been so good I actually have a Top 50 - tomorrow.

Mark Steels Stockbroker

Gnod for me, if only because I'm sure it was released in 2015.

non capisco

Quote from: Serge on December 22, 2015, 08:48:27 PM

'Frid' Hills
They keep getting compared to Goat, which annoys me, as Goat are COMPLETELY FUCKING SHIT and these guys are leagues above them. Six long psych jams to freak out to with melodies that are earworms.

Forgot about this one. It's great. They do sound exactly like Goat without the afrobeat influence though, Serge! Aren't some of Goat even in Hills?!

Milverton



My most listened to tracks from 2015. Yes, it's a top eight and a half. Very mainstream by standards here, I'm afraid.

Number one would be Bowie's Blackstar but my OCD library system decrees its 2016, even though it is technically already out.

Crabwalk

#25
1) On Your Own Love Again - Jessica Pratt

A spellbinding, unique and timeless record. The last time that an acoustic singer-songwriter came anywhere near releasing my favourite album of the year was probably 'Ys' by Joanna Newsom, and similarly here JP possesses a writing style, persona and voice that's utterly transportive.

Strange Melody

2) Poison Season - Destroyer

Their previous album 'Kaputt' was one of my absolute favourites of recent years, and this is a bold and brilliant follow-up. Dan Bejar injects some unexpected Springsteenian melodrama into his hazy, intimate songs. It's the type of ambitious, widescreen journey that you rarely get from an album these days.

Times Square

3) Black Messiah - D'Angelo & The Vanguard

I know that technically this was a 2014 release, but it really deserves the widest praise possible and it didn't get it in the 2014 lists due to its December launch. If you've still not heard it, you should. A super-tight, swaggering comeback that's classically vintage yet utterly contemporary.

The Charade

4) Divers - Joanna Newsom

More open and emotional than 'Ys', and more digestible than 'Have One On Me', this might end up my favourite Joanna Newsom record.

Sapokanikan

5) VEGA INT. Night School - Neon Indian

The party record of the year for me, Neon Indian have made a record that sounds like a collaboration between mid-80s Scritti Politti, Ariel Pink and Todd Terje. Mega-hooks, smeared beats, layer-on-layer of supersonic synths.

Slumlord

6) Multi-Love - Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Another album on my list somewhat indebted to The Purple One, injecting funk into the UMO mix works a treat. Sexy, weird, brilliant.

Ur Life One Night

7) Invite the Light - Dâm-Funk

If you've love in your heart for P-Funk, get this album. A super-tight, brilliantly sung celebration and defence of funk as a 21st century force.

We Continue



8) The Beyond / Where the Giants Roam - Thundercat

Brilliant mini-album from Thundercat, supported by Flying Lotus and Kamasi Washington (his record just missed out because I can still barely get my head around it), this is prime Brainfeeder gorgeousness.

Song for the Dead

9) Allas Sak - Dungen

Swedish psych-prog played with an injection of soul, via their marvellous rhythm section. I love the way the songs sound carefully composed, but are played with spontaneity and freedom. Lush and very enjoyable.

Akt Dit

10) Sour Soul - BADBADNOTGOOD & Ghostface Killah

The Canadian jazz three-piece back Ghostface here, bringing a cinematic vibe that compliments him perfectly. Who needs vintage samples when you can compose and play as well as this?

Mind Playing Tricks

Edit: So many good records this year; here's a quick run through 11-20 as a huge treat for you:

11: Sold Out - DJ PayPal

12: Currents - Tame Impala

13: Talent Night at the Ashram - Sonny & The Sunsets

14: Elaenia - Floating Points

15: Fading Frontier - Deerhunter

16: Mutilated Self Defeater - Thee Oh Sees

17: Linear Labs: Los Angeles - Adrian Younge

18: Another One - Mac Demarco

19: The Original Faces - Helen

20: Carrie & Lowell - Sufjan Stevens

buttgammon

Deerhunter - Fading Frontier

Short, poppy and cohesive, this is something I've played time and time again ever since it came out. In fact, it might be my favourite Deerhunter album, and they're one of my favourite bands of recent times. The guitar sounds are beautiful and there are so many great moments - the chorus on 'Breaker', the floaty bits on 'Living My Life', the spiky rhythm of 'Snakeskin', the line "You should take your handicaps/ Channel them and feed them back/Until they become your strengths"...

Holly Herndon - Platform

Coming from a similar place to Oneohtrix Point Never's Replica, this is dense and often brilliant music created from millions of samples and sources. There is a nocturnal and urban vibe to this album that makes me think of Blade Runner, especially when choppy synthscapes and dissected beats zoom past us. But for all the deliberately unfocused textures, there are moments of real unity too. 'Home' is a paranoid love song about espionage, while 'Lonely at the Top' is a bizarre ASMR interlude featuring a massage. But it is in the twisted abstraction of 'Interference' and 'Chorus' that this album sails into brilliance.

Neon Indian - Vega Intl Night School

A messy, fun, shiny, danceable album that delves into a colourful world of eighties-influences. Like Era Extrana, the shimmering mess of this album was too much for me to take in at first but I quickly grew into it. 'Annie' and 'Slumlord' are the two best singles of this year, two fun, catchy songs that epitomise the whole album.

Fort Romeau - Insides

Some very good deep house with all sorts of classic sounds and a slightly sleazy vibe (I swear 'Not a Word' is based on sex shop music). The lengthier tracks like 'All I Want' slowly and skilfully build tension until the moment comes and when it does come, it's fantastic.

justin_bennett

My top 40 of 2015 playlist.

A Start Of Sorts – Man Power
Some – Nils Frahm
Argenté – Floating Points
Boys Latin – Panda Bear
Maw – Chelsea Wolfe
Kassidat El Hakka – SEXWITCH
Cocaine Cat – Tess Parks, Anton Newcombe
Stealing Cars – Nadine Shah
Continental Shelf – Viet Cong
Far – The Soft Moon
Lease Of Life – Errors
Tour de France – Gulp, Miaoux Miaoux
Patriarchaeth – Gwenno
Moons In My Mirror – H. Hawkline
Shifting – Wire
Lady Eggs – Warmduscher
Aurora – Meatraffle
Psyche Ersatz – The Moonlandingz
I Need a Connection – Jane Weaver
Loud Places – Jamie xx, Romy
TURN AWAY – East India Youth
Undr – Levantis
Blinding Horses – Regis
Pandemic – Rabit
STONEFIST – HEALTH
Pears For Lunch – Girl Band
Supermaster – A Place To Bury Strangers
Johnny Delusional – FFS, Franz Ferdinand, Sparks
Emilie – The Charlatans
Singularity – New Order
Cassiopeia feat. Gregor Schwellenbach – Kölsch
Blackstar – David Bowie
Vaginoplasty – Peaches, Simonne Jones
Guantanamo – JLin
Time Travel – Death and Vanilla
Space Precious Time – K-X-P
Walls – Rival Consoles
Swept – Kiasmos
Brace Brace - Alien Alien Remix – Boot & Tax
Asunder, Sweet – Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Fin – Man Power


Serge

Quote from: non capisco on December 23, 2015, 12:04:18 AMForgot about this one. It's great. They do sound exactly like Goat without the afrobeat influence though, Serge! Aren't some of Goat even in Hills?!

No, they're not! My old boss at Rough Trade kept telling customers this, and I kept having to remind her that it wasn't true. I don't think they sound that much like Goat - I felt there was a more Eastern-tinged vibe to them than Goat.