TOP ABLUMS OF 2017

Tough year. It weighed heavily on me. I often found myself overwhelmed by my thoughts, feelings, concerns, and frustrations for the state of our country and the world at this truly polarizing time. Thank goodness for family, friends, community, and music!

The role that music plays in my life is a significant one. No more so then in times like these. And this year, in-particular, my musical tastes, interests, and needs bounced between two extremes. One extreme was music that could totally help me escape to my happy place. The other was music that spotlighted those things that weighed heavily on me. 

My list of favorite albums reflects these extremes, which is why it is twice the length of the past few years. So with 12 months of listening and more albums than I can count, here are my favorite 20 albums of 2017. 

1. LCD Soundsystem, American Dream

   

2. Hurray For The Riff Raff, The Navigator

 

3. Little Cub, Still Life

    

4. Susanne Sundfør, Music For People In Trouble 

    

5. Ulver, The Assassination of Julius Caesar

   

    

6. Trampolene, Swansea To Hornsey

   

7. Wolf Parade, Cry Cry Cry

    

8. Pumarosa, The Witch 

    

9. Everything Everything, A Fever Dream 

    

10. Dori Freeman, Letters Never Read

    

TOP ABLUMS OF 2016

What a year for music. From Kendrick Lamar to Beyonce. From The Avalanches to Glass Animals. From Radiohead to Bon Iver. Month after month, I was overwhelmed with the sheer number of great albums that were released. And yet, none of these or so many albums were my favorites of 2016. So what did make my list? Those albums that not only really grabbed me from moment one, but those that I was drawn back to throughout the year. Each one is something special. And, I will go out on a limb and say that together, they may represent the strongest collection of albums that I compiled in a single year in a very long time. Enjoy.

Michael Kiwanuka, Love & Hate

Max Jury, Max Jury

The Amazing, Ambulance

   

David Bowie, Blackstar

Song: Lazarus

Airbag, Disconnected

Villagers, Where Have You Been All My Life

   

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Marillion, F.E.A.R.

 

The Dear Hunter, Act V: Hymns With The Devil In Confessional

   

Brent Cobb, Shine On Rainy Day

 

Kate Tempest, Let Them Eat Chaos

The Radio Dept., Running Out Of Love

   

 

TOP ALBUMS OF 2015

2015 was an exceptional year for new music and my Favorite's list could have been significantly longer. The albums in this collection rose to the top for me and most closely reflects my musical interests throughout the year. 

1. Olafur Arnolds & Alice Sara Ott, The Chopin Project

2. Barna Howard, Quite A Feelin' 

  

3. The Milk Carton Kids, Monterey

4. Destroyer, Poison Season

5. Natalie Merchant, Paradise Is There 

  

6. New Order, Music Complete

7. The Charlatans, Modern Nature

   

8. Oddissee, The Good Fight

9. Andrew Combs, All These Dreams

10. Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit

TOP ALBUMS OF 2014

Another year has passed. I honestly thought that this would be the year where I would get back to writing more...anything really..about all of the great new music that I explore all year, especially the music that can't escape me, even when I am not listening. That obviously didn't happen. But it is year's end, so here is my list of top albums for 2014. 

Damien Rice, My Favorite Faded Fantasy

It has been eight long years since Damien Rice release his last album. So where was he? In an interview he did for The Telegraph he described his self-exile as a time of "transition," One in which he shedded old attitudes to life and exploring new ones. "I am really curious about life, about why we are all here. I notice my skin is aging, things are changing, I've seen people dying, so that's the train we are all on. And I would like to figure some shit out before I reach the destination." Back now, Rice takes us into the mind of a man who is searching and yearning for many answers, but is getting more comfortable with just living the journey.   

Elbow, The Take Off And Landing Of Everything

If one has a music blog named after a song by a band, can the writer truly be objective about the band and their music? I hope so. At least I think that I am. Yes, Elbow's last album, Build A Rocket Boys!, also made my 'Best Of' list back in 2011, but it should have. Elbow truly is one of the great bands of their generation. With each new album they further establishing themselves as a class unto themselves. With The Take Off And Landing Of Everything, Elbow has given us another collection of stellar songs. While one might confuse these lengthier songs as being more ambitious than on past albums, this is not the case. Elbow's music has always been about creating specific soundscapes and on The Take Off And Landing Of Everything, the band simply allows these songs to fully occupy the spaces where they live. 

Woods, With Light and with Love

I have been a fan of Woods for a few years now, having first been introduced to them through their 2012 release Bend Beyond. Since then, I have gone back and spent time with their earlier albums. They are all very good, with each one building on the strengths of the previous. As Ian Cohen wrote for Pitchfork, 'this isn't a jamband who occasionally stumbles onto golden tunes: Jeremy Earl's high, distinct voice is predisposed to melodies that quickly corkscrew their way into your memory'. With With Light and with Love, Woods arrives with a new collection of catchy, foot-tapping songs that combined to make this their best album yet.  

Luluc, Passerby

Passerby is a beautiful album and one of the best releases in 2014. It's the kind of album built for a cozy, quite morning when you want to slow life down. NPR's Stephen Thomson described Zoe Randell and Steven Hassett's album best when he wrote that they 'traffic in gentle, disarming simplicity, rarely allowing their music to speed up past a gentle lope...Luluc uses calm as a medium unto itself.' This calmness, at the center of Passerby, is what really resonated with me. It elevates the beauty of these songs, the songwriting, and instrumentation. Passerby is simply a gorgeous album and one not to be missed.

Spoon, They Want My Soul

Some wines age beautifully over time, some spoil. The same can be said of bands. After 21 year together, I can say that Spoon is aging beautifully and their new album, They Want My Soul, maybe their best yet. This statement maybe a hard sell to the many Spoon faithfuls, including myself. Spoon has always owned their own space in the music world. No one sounds quite like them and I think that they have taken conscious strides to ensure that this is the case. On They Want My Soul, like with a nicely aged bottle of wine, there are subtleties, depth, and undertones. And like a finely aged Cabernet, this album is bigger and bolder than those released in their youth. So drink this one up.

Mac Demarco, Salad Days

Funny, offensive, slacker, and talented. These are all words that have been used when writing about Montreal native Mac Demarco. I would say that all are on point. Not giving a shit is also how I would describe him and his music. Demarco marches to his own beat, with his own sound and style. It works and it works, really well. Don't let the slacker grooves or slightly off-kilter sound fool you. Demarco is a serious musician with a knack for writing incredibly catchy songs. Recognition for his latest collection of songs comes with Salad Days' nomination for Canada's 2014 Polaris Music Prize for best album of the year.

Warpaint, Warpaint

Warpaint was released way back in January and it has been a listening mainstay for me all year. To me this is the best compliment that I can pay to the band. Spotify was right on target when describing Warpaint as 'a unique force of four, delivering the deep, dark and mesmerizing sounds of swampy bass and ethereal vocal hooks.' In an interview with The Fader, the band said of their first album, the critically praised The Fool, that they had so much to say that the record was a bit chaotic. Not so on Warpaint. The 2014 version of Warpaint is more subtle and frankly more seductive. Talking about Warpaint, the band said that they wanted a more spacious, sexier record where 'things aren't being spoon-fed to you.' 
                                                     They definitely achieved the sound and space that they set out to
                                                     create and have me hooked.

Beck, Morning Phase 

When Beck released Sea Change back in 2002, it was a revelation. The songs and album completely turned everything that Beck had done before on its side. I completely fell for that album and wondered if Beck would ever return to that musical space. Twelve years later, Beck has done just that. With Morning Phase, Beck revisits everything that made Sea Change such a special album. Yet it is a different album. There was an intimacy with Sea Change that frankly can never be duplicated. But it does not need to be. Beck is not trying to duplicate the past. He is acknowledging it and using the framework for what made that album so special to explore something new. 

Distance, Light & Sky, Casting Nets

Chris Eckman, Singer/songwriter and founding member of the Seattle band The Walkabouts, along with British-Dutch singer/songwriter Chantal Acda, and composer Eric Theileman of the EARR Ensemble, released this gem of an album last month. I'm sure that it is not yet on the radar of most folks, but it should be. Casing Nets is a warm and beautifully realized album. Amazing to me is that these three artists walked into a studio in Prague earlier this year with producer Phil Brown (Talk Talk, Spirit of Eden), having only played together once before, and having only shared these songs via email, and recorded this album in six days. Recorded live with almost no overdubbing, these songs provide a listening experience that exemplifies true artistry at work.

Melanie De Biasio, No Deal

Harriet Gibsone, who writes for The Guardian, wrote "Among the buzzing cyber hive and unrelenting pace of modern life, there is a special place for albums that suspend time." She was speaking of No Deal, the slow burning, atmospheric, and utterly captivating new album by Belgian jazz singer and flautist Melanie De Biasio. De Biasio has said that she likes the space in blackness because you can imagine so many things. In an interview with Mojo, De Biasio added "What was important to me...was to create a space with no time, and to let the listener put his own emotions in.....I hope that this record give a space for the listener to dream, rest or have a good time." Does it ever.

                                                    

 

Not Ready To Leave 2013 Yet!

Every year around the Holidays, when I have some extra time to spare, I go on a bit of a quest to find and explore music that I may have missed throughout the year. It is a fun time for me and I am always excited about the prospect of finding one more great album. 

In 2013 there was an album that was right under my nose for a good portion of the year and I just never gave it a listen. Actually, I did....for about 3 minutes of one song. I am kicking myself now. If I had listened to Savages' Silence Yourself all those months ago, not only would this album have been on my list of top albums of the year, but I would be on my 50+ listen by now. 

Savages, Silence Yourself
Right from the beginning, with the name Savages, this post-punk, London based, gang of four women is putting the listener on notice that they are in for something that is not dull. As Dazed Magazine noted a 'ferocious debut' album.

In an interview with Pitchfork, guitarist Gemma Thompson said that the name of the band came from books that she read when she was growing up. "Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye, Bukowski. There's a point where you think everyone knows what's going on, how it all makes sense. Then you realize that everyone's just pretending. I remember sitting on a train and realizing that if it was suddenly the end of the world, we'd take on animal instincts again-- I had an apocalyptic vision of everyone tearing each other apart." As she added in another interview with Dazed, the name references "the dialectical relationship between beauty and destruction."

Savages' songs are loud, brash, rhythmic, smart, sonically sound, uncompromising, and damn good. Lead singer Jehnny Beth, in the same Pitchfork interview, said that she did not want to write love songs. "I wanted to write songs that were more violent. For example, I listened a lot to Black Sabbath, and I really liked how strong it is. I had been reading a lot of poetry about the Second World War from the perspective of the English in occupied France. From where they were standing, it was half romantic, half war poetry. I thought the link between the two was really interesting, but I needed a project to be able to write about this stuff."

Savages, Silence Yourself is more than a project. It's the band's call to arms, which they describe beautifully on the cover of their album.

The world used to be silent

Now it has too many voices
And the noise is a constant distraction 

They multiply, intensify

They will divert your attention to what’s convenient
And forget to tell you about yourself

We live in an age of many stimulations 

If you are focused, you are harder to reach 

If you are distracted, you are available 

You are distracted, you are available

You want flattery, Always looking to where it’s at 

You want to take part in everything
And everything to be a part of you

Your head is spinning fast at the end of your spine 
Until you have no face at all

And yet if the world would shut up, even for a while
Perhaps we would start hearing the distant rhythm of an angry young tune
And recompose ourselves

Perhaps having deconstructed everything
We should be thinking about putting everything back together 

Silence yourself.

With those words I give you Savages:

TOP ABLUMS OF 2013

It's been a year since I have posted anything to my blog. I honestly thought that I was done writing. A busy and full life will do that to a person. But music has always been such a huge part of my life and I never stopped listening. In fact I listen to more music now that I did even when I was writing. Perhaps I have more time to listen because I am NOT writing. In any event, this year has been an especially great year for music and many have asked me about my favorite albums of the year. This question got me inspired to spring into action and write about those albums. So here they are.....

1. Arctic Monkeys, AM
My son says that AM is the best album by the band yet. It's hard for me to agree or disagree with him. Comparing AM to the band's first two albums is a bit like comparing apples to oranges. I loved the explosive energy and roughness of the band's early albums and I never really wanted their sound to change. Yet as we all know, over time things do change. The great news is that over the years the band has grown and matured and so have their songs and songwriting, and now I find myself absolutely loving where the band is today.

2. Arcade Fire, Reflektor

I loved Funeral, Arcade Fire's debut album. But I must have been one of the lone folks to not think that the band's 2010 release, The Suburbs, was the best album of the year. After two years of absence, the band is back with an epic album produced by James Murphy. From the opening song Reflektor to the 11 minute closer Supersymmetry, this album serves as a reminder that albums as albums, and not just a loose collection of songs, do still have their place and relevance in today's musical environment.

3. Airbag, The Greatest Show On Earth

Airbag has quickly become one of my favorite bands. On their third album, The Greatest Show On Earth, the Norwegian prog rock band has fully matured into exceptional songwriters, incorporating a tapestry of textures, shifting tempos, and bombastic dynamics, engaging the listener with a balanced combination of both moody atmospheric soundscapes and grandiose sonic assaults in the tradition of albums like "Dark Side Of The Moon". Prognaut.com

4. Phosphorescent, Muchacho
Matthew Houck, who performs under the moniker Phosphorescent, was one of my great musical discoveries this year. I don't know quite how Houck escaped my musical radar for so many years. Now, having listed to his entire catalog of music, I can say that Houck is a special musical artist. With this said, while Houck has written some truly great songs in the past, Muchacho is his first fully realized album. Like a number of the albums on my best of list this year, Muchacho is an album that needs to be listened to and experienced in its entirety.

5. Kacey Musgraves, Same Trailer Different Park

"Mercury Records debut album is everything a new artist dreams her first record will be. 'Same Trailer Different Park' is well-written, edgy (yet familiar) and coated in "cool." Musgraves is an original who at age 24 is surprisingly wise and adept at using her voice to share her experiences." Taste of Country

6. Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires Of The City
I can't say that I have been a big fan of the band's past work. They had their moments, but I thought that they were a bit overrated. Not so on their latest album. Vampire Weekend's songs shine on Modern Vampires Of The City. This album is pure pop joy. What captivates me most about this album is the way the band layers each song with sounds and textures that give them such richness and warmth.

7. The National, Trouble Will Find Me

Not much for me to say here. I'm a bit biased when it comes to this band. In my heart and mind, The National can do no wrong. Fortunately for me, the band has not proven me wrong yet. Trouble Will find Me is another exceptional album by one of the best bands in the country. 

8. Daft Punk, Random Access Memories

I will admit that this album was one of my guilty pleasures of this past year. But that's OK, I know that I am not alone. Who hasn't found him or herself singing along to Get Lucky, which is right up there with the best songs of the year. Yet this album is so much more than a great sing-along-song. This French duo, know for their electronic music, pays homage to the best of the disco era while keeping their feet firmly planted in the here and now. This fusion of musical styles and eras works flawlessly and creates an awesome album. 

9. Jason Isbell, Southeastern
People still refer to Isbell as the former member of Drive By Truckers. I love that band, but Isbell has been on his own since 2007, which is quite a while. In that time, Isbell has established himself as a special songwriter and singer. On Southeastern, Isbell reaches new hights with both. In an interview with Rolling Stone Esbell said that after getting sober, writing and recording the new album felt more natural to him.... and telling the story of his recovery has become part of his existence. Fortunately for us we all become the second beneficiary of sobriety. His story telling and life observations have never been better. Here is a song from the album, a song about cancer, that exemplifies what is so special about Isbell's songwriting.

10. James Blake, Overgrown
Two years ago, Blake's self titled debut album was one of my favorites of the year. As much as I loved it, I honestly thought that Blake would be a one trick pony. Marrying Electronic, Dubstep, R&B, and anything else that one could think of, Blake created a musical space that was totally original and new. But then what? On Overgrown, Blake has taken all that he has done and learned and has moved into a new, more sophisticated, and fully realized space. This is truly an incredible creative effort.