Sorry, that does nothing for me either Bob.
The Damien Rice album is great, but I don't think it's really album of the year material.

I'm sure there's plenty of good stuff if you go and seek it out and listen to 6 music. I haven't bothered with that for years but still find some good stuff filters through to me through the miasma of mainstream media consumption. Not this year though.

Brooks wrote:

It's just so easy to give no shits about music now. It's not like it's culturally vital at all.

Poor out a little liquor. This is probably sadly insightful, hey.

Still have a lot of time for my list, TBF.

And while I can also see where g is coming from, there's still worthwhile stuff out there. IMO etc

I think to much loneliness and long distance is making you depressed g.

What was so wonderful about 2013? 2012? 2011? I can't remember, off the top of my head without referring to Google, a single album I liked from 2012! or 2011! for that matter!

I guess it's a subjective thing.

The War on Drugs is currently sitting on a metacritic rating of 86 and Sun Kil Moon on 84. I can see neither album maybe your cup of tea but any year that gives two stone cold classics is no bad in year in my book.

Of course it's no 1997.

Personally I have a lot less time to listen to music these days as my commute to work is an hour a day shorter and my wife and I watch more TV so I'm finding less memorable music but I think it may just be me.

I predict that Einstürzende Neubauten - Lament will be my Album of the year. It's a concept album about World War I, commissioned by a Flemish town as a performance piece to commemorate the centenary. I've not listened to it in its entirety as it's on my Xmas list and I may not even get to hear it this year. The Youtube clips I've seen of the performances are impressive and I'm a bit gutted I didn't hear about it before. I've not listened to much else new this year.

Tempy wrote:

You should listen to Ypres by Tindersticks too. Was commissioned for the a WW1 museum a few years ago, released this year.

I will certainly give it a go.The Tindersticks singer always sounds a bit like Vic Reeves singing in the club style to me, so I might end up laughing my way through it.

The War on Drugs comes in second on the Guardians list.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/dec/11/best-albums-of-2014-no-2-lost-in-the-dream-by-the-war-on-drugs

Must check out the FKW Twigs album too.

And some other things.

I'll give it a rest now though.

to be fair I've bought a lot of stuff this year that got great reviews that I ended up not really liking.

Pallbearer and Merchandise spring to mind.

You realise you'll never agree on this? Music is even more subjective than games. And you're all wrong anyway...



Anything by Thomas Bergersen also gets on my list of Best Things In The Universe Ever...

I've only bought 3 new releases dated 2014.

There's plenty of stuff that came out this year I'll be listening to a few years on I reckon. But, it's all from established artists that I already know. Too much new stuff that is kinda treading water. Like, The Malkmus/Jicks album is probably his second maybe third best attempt with that set up, but If you don't like old Malks I doubt it's gonna do much for you.

In the long term it's the way things are going, there's no scenes or unique spikes of activity these days as the internet has diluted it all. I will admit I didn't really try very hard with the youtube list cos I didn't think anyone would bother with it. Just typed Band + Album and added whatever hit came up first. But I mean If you don't like Shellac and can't get excited for their first album in 7 years I can't help you sorry.

Yes, I've been ploughing through them. Listened to the first thee tracks in that War on Drugs album so far. Not setting my world on fire.

I'm sure that it isn't g's cup of tea, but Trangender Dysphoria Blues is one of the best albums I've ever heard, not just this year. Instant classic for me.

It's one of those rare albums I can stick on repeat and listen to for hours.