That time of year again
Rather scarily, it is nearly the end of the year. It really doesn’t seem like a year since I was in Brazil, 9 months since I moved house, or 6 months since I met K, but the calendar doesn’t lie. And the end of the year can mean only one thing - lists of good stuff from the year just gone.
 This year has been unusual for me in that a larger-than-normal percentage of the music that I’ve consumed has been actually released this year. So, in more-or-less chronological order, my favourite albums of the year are:
- Frank Turner / Sleep Is For The Week
- The Hold Steady / Boys & Girls In America
- Battles / Mirrored
- Dinosaur Jr / Beyond
- Go! Team / Proof Of Youth
- Gallows / Orchestra Of Wolves
- Future Of The Left / Curses
- Aesop Rock / None Shall Pass
- Gallon Drunk / The Golden Mile
- Buck 65 / Situation
Honourable mention should go to the Wu-Tang Clan’s ‘8 Diagrams’ which I’m really enjoying this week but I’m unsure of its long-term appeal at the moment. I’ve made the mistake of including Wu albums in these lists in the past and then felt a bit stupid a few months later.
COMMENTS / 16 COMMENTS
Chris, Dec 13 07 at 4:26 pmIn no order:
Grinderman - Grinderman
Robyn - Robyn
Future of the Left - Curses
Go! Team - Proof of Youth
Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Battles - MirroredI’m sure I had one more earlier, so I might add that later. I spent large portions of this year being disappointed by sub-par albums from artists whose releases I had been anticipating.
tismey, Dec 13 07 at 5:00 pmDammit - I forgot about Grinderman… I’d probably put that above Gallon Drunk in the late-night whisky music category
Rob, Dec 13 07 at 5:32 pmOff the top of my head, and including EPs and 45s n that:
Heliocentrics - Out There
Burial - Ghost Hardware 12″
Nostalgia 77 Octet - Weapons of Jazz Destruction
Menahen Street Band - Make The Road By Walking 7″
Sputnik Brown - U Having Fun Yet EP
Clutch - From Beale Street To Oblivion
Dinosaur Jr - Beyond
Charles Bradley & the Menahen Street Band - This World Is Going Up In Flames 7″There were probably others, but i figure the stuff i immediately remember must be what i liked most…
L, Dec 13 07 at 10:12 pmUntrue by Burial is a clear winner for me, although the Cinematic Orchestra album was good too.
BenP, Dec 14 07 at 9:54 amUntrue and Cinematic Orchestra, aye, definitely… And
Radiohead - In Rainbows,
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver,
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Grinderman,
PJ Harvey - White Chalk,
Battles - Mirrored.I kinda liked one track on that Robyn album but I was treating it as a kind of guilty pleasure…
Thanks as always for the clutch of recommendations, I’ll be hammering the torrents tonight
BenP, Dec 14 07 at 9:59 amum, by “hammering the torrents” I mean “going down HMV” of course
Tim D, Dec 14 07 at 1:18 pmI too have listened to much more new stuff this year. Predictably, I’ve barely even heard of most of yours. I’d have The Go! Team on my list, though I wasn’t as overwhelmed by the new one as I was by the first one. And Radiohead are rubbish. My list:
PJ Harvey - White Chalk
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Gogol Bordello - Super Taranta!
The National - Boxer
The Go! Team - Proof Of Youth
Caribou - Andorra
Elliott Smith - New Moon
Kings Of Leon - Because Of The Times
Cansei de Ser Sexy - Cansei de Ser Sexy
LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of SilverWow, I managed a whole ten. Biggest disappointment? Spooky’s new album, Open. Absolutely terrible.
tismey, Dec 14 07 at 4:34 pmActually Gogol Bordello deserve an honourable mention in my list too - spent a lot of time listening to that record over the summer.
Rob, Dec 15 07 at 6:59 pmWondered if L & Ben would be casting their vote for Untrue. It amazed me on my first listen, but the Ghost Hardware 12″ got far more repeated play. The vinyl cut of Untrue is apparently different to the CD in some way, so it might just be that those three tracks were culled for a 12″ & seem different in isolation - but they play more like a hybrid of the direction of Untrue, and the feel of the first album.
Didn’t even realise Cinematic Orchestra & Battles had had albums out. I’m so out of touch…
Ben, Dec 17 07 at 2:03 pmNot really in order but LCD should probably be at the top…
LCD Soundsystem - Silver
The National - Boxer
PJ Harvey - White Chalk
Gruff Rhys - Candylion
Grinderman - Grinderman
Burial - Untrue
Soulsavers - It’s Not How Far You Fall It’s the Way You Land
Dinosaur Jr - Beyond
L, Dec 17 07 at 8:06 pmHey, that Grinderman album is really good.
Surely Ben you should be saving the top spot for Bonny Prince Billy as usual.
Ben, Dec 18 07 at 2:54 pmThe Bonnie Prince Billy album was a bit late really, and was mostly covers, and was more an EP than an album but was close nonetheless. His cover of R Kelly’s ‘The World’s Greatest’ is pretty special.
Dave, Dec 18 07 at 8:48 pmHere’s mine, best first:
We Are The Night by Chemical Brothers
Candylion by Gruff Rhys
Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem
Sleep Is For The Week by Frank Turner
An End Has A Start by Editors
Neon Bible by Arcade FireI haven’t bought so much, but those were good.
Tim D, Dec 20 07 at 1:24 pmAre we allowed to start insulting each other’s tastes now?
Anonymous, Dec 28 07 at 6:11 pmGah! I forgot Forget Cassettes, ‘Salt’. I’m also convinced that this is not the record I thought I might have forgotten above, so there may be more to come.
Anonymous, Dec 28 07 at 6:11 pmMenomena! That’s it. I think.
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