Olimite wrote:

Giving the Metric album a listen as I heard someone say positive things about it. May have been here - memory ain't so great anymore.

Me. It's fucking brilliant, easily their best for 10 years or so.

x

Just in from seeing Morgan James and her band. I know, classy coffee table jazz singers ain’t for everyone, but fuck me, her voice is one of the strongest I’ve ever heard. There’s something about watching someone at the top of their craft doing more in an understated way than most can manage at full belt.

She did a mixture of Joni Mitchell songs, Beatles songs, and her own. Threw in a couple of old blues standards too.

The Beatles ones were revelatory. Every style from lounge jazz to Led Zeppelin. Breathtaking stuff in a wee venue.

Cheers g.man, that will do for tomorrow’s commute.

Anyone got any shouts from this list:

50. The Necks - Body
49. Mary Lattimore - Hundreds of Days
48. Laura Veirs - The Lookout
47. Julia Holter - Aviary
46. Kathryn Joseph - From When I Wake the Want Is
45. Anna Calvi - Hunter
44. Ryley Walker - Deafman Glance
43. Tracey Thorn - Record
42. Melody’s Echo Chamber - Bon Voyage
41. Cat Power - Wanderer
40. Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino
39. Eleanor Friedberger - Rebound
38. Calexico - The Thread That Keeps Us
37. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Sparkle Hard
36. The Lemon Twigs - Go to School
35. Go Kart Mozart - Mozart’s Mini Mart
34. Hookworms - Microshift
33. Connan Mockasin - Jassbusters
32. Gwenno - Le Kov
31. Gazelle Twin - Pastoral
30. Mélissa Laveaux - Radyo Siwel
29. Let’s Eat Grandma - I’m All Ears
28. Dirty Projectors - Lamp Lit Prose
27. Idles - Joy As an Act of Resistance
26. John Prine - The Tree of Forgiveness
25. Courtney Marie Andrews - May Your Kindness Remain
24. Paul Weller - True Meanings
23. Kurt Vile - Bottle It In
22. Father John Misty - God’s Favorite Customer
21. Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Hell
20. Jack White - Boarding House Reach
19. Cowboy Junkies - All That Reckoning
18. The Breeders - All Nerve
17. Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel
16. Ezra Furman - Transangelic Exodus
15. Elvis Costello & The Imposters - Look Now
14. Ry Cooder - The Prodigal Son
13. Young Fathers - Cocoa Sugar
12. Neko Case - Hell-On
11. Richard Thompson - 13 Rivers
10. Sons of Kemet - Your Queen Is a Reptile
9. Christine and the Queens - Chris
8. Beak - >>>
7. Gruff Rhys - Babelsberg
6. Janelle Monáe - Dirty Computer
5. Yo La Tengo - There’s a Riot Going On
4. Spiritualized - And Nothing Hurt
3. Ty Segall - Freedom’s Goblin
2. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Hope Downs
1. Low - Double Negative

I still do an album swap thing at work with three colleagues where we each pick an album from a year-end magazine list (Uncut this time) and swap the cds around. A loose rule is don't buy something by anyone whose albums you usually buy. I thought I'd settled on Rolling Blackouts but I listened while washing up yesterday and wasn't keen.

Fair few in there I’ve enjoyed.

Anna Calvi
Hookworms
Gwenno
Idles
The Breeders
Elvis Costello
Young Fathers
Christine & the Queens
Yo La Tengo

Yeah, that's an excellent list.  Thoughts on a couple...

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks,
Courtney Barnett,
The Breeders  - I lumped these three together as I realised I had similar feelings about them (they also coincidentally have Kim Deal on them to a greater or lesser degree).   All three are very, very good, but somehow didn't quite click for me.  Barnett's is her most accessible to date but loses a certain amount of charm. The Breeders album is very much a Breeders album, but it's no Last Splash.  Meanwhile those Badgers who saw Malkmus live earlier this year may well disagree, but I thought his latest did some interesting stuff, but didn't entirely work.

Dirty Projectors - pretty much a return to form.  Warm, sometimes funny, intricately layered.  I still missed Amber Coffman, but none the less it's a difficult record not to like.  (Having said that, a friend described it as "hipster bollocks".)

Idles - I've written a lot about them already.  I think I described it as a "violent demand for vulnerability" or something equally pretentious - but I stand by it.  Sometimes hilarious, sometimes utterly heartbreaking, always engaging.  However, not for co-workers who are put off by "shouting men", as one of my kids described it.

Spiritualized - Does exactly what you expect a Spiritualized album to do, with the exception of being surprising.  Perfectly formed, brilliantly crafted pop songs, that suffer only from familiarity, and a certain superficiality.

Low - Amazing but challenging.  I genuinely had to go and check the record when I first put this on, as I thought I'd damaged it.  Beautiful and fractured, an album that makes you work for its rewards.  Definitely Not For Everyone, and whilst I think it's a masterpiece, I'll admit it's not an album I regularly pop on for a listen.

There are a few others on there that I'd regard as "good but ultimately forgettable", but the highlights for me are the ones I've listed.

I miss being on top of new music as a result of running the music dept in my hmv. I find it hard to sit down and listen to something new or from someone I don't know, picked up so much from it just being on in work. Le sigh.

afgavinstan wrote:

I miss being on top of new music as a result of running the music dept in my hmv. I find it hard to sit down and listen to something new or from someone I don't know, picked up so much from it just being on in work. Le sigh.

I'm buying less and less each year, definitely far less new albums.  I only bought Prine and Monae from the list.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

afgavinstan wrote:

I miss being on top of new music as a result of running the music dept in my hmv. I find it hard to sit down and listen to something new or from someone I don't know, picked up so much from it just being on in work. Le sigh.

I'm buying less and less each year, definitely far less new albums.  I only bought Prine and Monae from the list.

I just know there'd be at least half of that list I'd have probably listened to and probably be in here raving about. But as it stands I know nothing and just fall back to the security blanket of albums I already know and love like why the fuck can't I stop listening to Manchester Orchestra. Oh well!

Idles are the best new band I’ve heard in years.

Eh?

Aye so I listened to that Beak album and it is indeed a belter like their previous two albums. They always record them live, without any overdubbing or any repair so if there are minor mistakes or issues, they just leave them in. This album especially feels like they really got into the groove for a lot of tracks, it is far more in your face than the previous two.

My missus likes a lot of landfill indie though, it should be said.

I think I might've ordered the Beak album if I'd seen that video earlier, v.good.

nick_md wrote:

The missus saw Courtney Barnett and Neko Case in the last couple of weeks, I couldn't make either. If they're getting props from Best Forum I should probably look into them more eh.

Both artists of significant merit for me.