So here we are, close of play 2017 and it's been another good year I think.
Judged, as always, purely on the basis of the basis of being the album I've listened to the most, album of the year is....
A lot of my favourite acts of the 90's have made comeback albums over the last few years, but this has been the best by far, every track is strong, and it's the sound of a band that has matured in it's own exile but not lost the essence of the music that won it's fan's love nearly two decades ago, whose devotion has been paid off in spades. It's a triumph for a band who were so derisively written off at the start of the Brit Pop era, just at the time they really began to grow artistically. They watched on as the style they helped create underwent a re-appreciation and then showed the young whipper-snappers how it's done. Loved it, loved it, loved it.
Close contenders:
Thundercat - Drunk
Laura Marling - Semper Femina
Karen Gwyer - Rembo
Forest Swords - Compassion
Honourable mentions:
Ibibio Sound Machine - Uyai
Bonobo - Migration
The Bug vs. Earth - Concrete Desert
Tinariwen - Elwan
Blanck Mass - World Eater
Hans Zimmer & Benjamin Wallfisch - Blade Runner 2049 Soundtrack
Public Service Broadcasting - Every Valley
Mogwai - Every Country's Sun
Bicep - Glue (thanks to @Baines' left foot for getting me onto this)
Moon Duo - Occult Architecture vols 1 + 2
Actress - AZD
Vermont - Vermont II
Erased Tapes - Collection 8
Bjork - Utopia
Various - Spiritual Jazz 7 - Islam
John Carpenter - Anthology
The Oh Sees - Orc
Floating Points - Mojave Desert
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - The Kid
Four Tet - New Energy
Wolf Alice - Visions of a Life
Bibio - Phantom Brickworks
Jlin - Black Origami
Les Hommes - The Sinner
The Belbury Circle - Outward Journeys
From the vaults:
Miles Davis - Blue Haze
The Cure - Head on The Door
Thelonious Monk - Live in Tokyo 1963
Siouxsie And The Banshees - Tinderbox
What are your highlights for the year gang?
Judged, as always, purely on the basis of the basis of being the album I've listened to the most, album of the year is....
A lot of my favourite acts of the 90's have made comeback albums over the last few years, but this has been the best by far, every track is strong, and it's the sound of a band that has matured in it's own exile but not lost the essence of the music that won it's fan's love nearly two decades ago, whose devotion has been paid off in spades. It's a triumph for a band who were so derisively written off at the start of the Brit Pop era, just at the time they really began to grow artistically. They watched on as the style they helped create underwent a re-appreciation and then showed the young whipper-snappers how it's done. Loved it, loved it, loved it.
Close contenders:
Thundercat - Drunk
Laura Marling - Semper Femina
Karen Gwyer - Rembo
Forest Swords - Compassion
Honourable mentions:
Ibibio Sound Machine - Uyai
Bonobo - Migration
The Bug vs. Earth - Concrete Desert
Tinariwen - Elwan
Blanck Mass - World Eater
Hans Zimmer & Benjamin Wallfisch - Blade Runner 2049 Soundtrack
Public Service Broadcasting - Every Valley
Mogwai - Every Country's Sun
Bicep - Glue (thanks to @Baines' left foot for getting me onto this)
Moon Duo - Occult Architecture vols 1 + 2
Actress - AZD
Vermont - Vermont II
Erased Tapes - Collection 8
Bjork - Utopia
Various - Spiritual Jazz 7 - Islam
John Carpenter - Anthology
The Oh Sees - Orc
Floating Points - Mojave Desert
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - The Kid
Four Tet - New Energy
Wolf Alice - Visions of a Life
Bibio - Phantom Brickworks
Jlin - Black Origami
Les Hommes - The Sinner
The Belbury Circle - Outward Journeys
From the vaults:
Miles Davis - Blue Haze
The Cure - Head on The Door
Thelonious Monk - Live in Tokyo 1963
Siouxsie And The Banshees - Tinderbox
What are your highlights for the year gang?
