I listened to fewer new albums this year, it seems. It also seems that I haven’t updated my list of ‘Current Distractions’ much at all this year.
Anyway, for what it’s worth (as usual, in no particular order), the albums I’ve enjoyed most this year:
The Gutter Twins / Saturnalia
Bon Iver / For Emma, Forever Ago
Los Campesinos! / Hold On Now, Youngster…
The Night Marchers / See You In Magic
Portishead / Third
Tegan & Sara / The Con
The Apples / Buzzin’ About
Blood Red Shoes / Box Of Secrets
Cat Power / Jukebox
Johnny Foreigner / Waited Up Til It Was Light
Honourable mention should go to Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan’s Sunday At Devil’s Dirt, which I only left off because I didn’t want to put 2 Lanegan projects in the top ten. This year’s offerings from Frank Turner and Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly would have been contenders if they didn’t both contain one song that makes me scrabble for the skip button.
No hip-hop on there this year, I notice. There were a few albums this year – Guilty Simpson, Lyrics Born, Q-Tip, The Roots – but none that I properly engaged with.
I’ve bought plenty of records this year, but the only new, 2008 one I can remember is the Menehan Street Band LP, which is killer. Apart from that, i think most of what new stuff i’ve bought has been 7″s, 12″s – or it’s been old stuff.
The “new” Machine Head album is awesome… but it turns out that came out last year and I didn’t notice. Hm. New Metallica album was really boring.
The Madvillain 2 boxset gets an honourable mention, just for the awesome box packaging. But i’ve looked at it more than I’ve played it..
Funny year for me. Finally digitised my whole collection (from scratch – went over the crappy bit rate stuff) as it was going into storage. So new records have been a bit thin and I’ve been busy falling in love with some old records. Suspect Squarepusher would have been on there, but I haven’t actually got it yet (roll on Christmas). Anyway:
Bon Iver / For Emma, Forever Ago
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy / Lie Down In The Light
Cat Power / Jukebox
Elbow / The Seldom Seen Kid
Fleet Foxes / Fleet Foxes
Gnarls Barkley / The Odd Couple
Lupe Fiasco / The Cool
MGMT / Oracular Spectacular
PJ Harvey / White Chalk
Isobel Cambpell and Mark Lanegan / Sunday At Devil Dirt
The Portishead album has to be my favourite of the year. Given how good Dummy was, I was surprised to find that the new one actually tops it for me. Quite different, mind you, and therefore not easy to make a direct comparison. But that in itself is surprising of a band I (and most people) pidgeonholed some time ago.
I’ve had another year of getting my head stuck in an album for a month to the point of obsession, which makes for a boring Last FM. Hard to pick a favourite, so here’s five in no particular order:
Elbow – Seldom Seen Kid
Maps – We Can Create
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
Sol Seppy – The Bells Of 1 2
Engine 7 – Me, But Perfect
So, after careful consideration, in some sort of order:
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazerus Dig!
Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
Cat Power – Jukebox
TV on the Radio – Dear Science
Bonnie Prince Billy – Lie Down In The Light (honourable mention to the live album ‘Is it the Sea’)
Oh, and The Gutter Twins had the best gig until I saw Boss Hog last week…
And one I must listen to more but couldn’t at work and now is too scary for headphones:
Portishead – Third
Thanks for the copy of Bon Iver, Ben. I’ve changed my mind now.
Maps and Peej were both last year. Tsk.
I’ve not listened to much new stuff this year, so it’s a shorter list than I’d like, and fairly similar to Ben’s.
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
Minotaur Shock – Amateur Dramatics
Portishead – Third
Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
Roots Manuva – Slime and Reason
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
If we’re allowing old-stuff-but-discovered-this-year, then I’d add:
Bat For Lashes – Fur and Gold
Sol Seppy – The Bells Of 1 2
The Knife – Silent Shout
Ulrich Schnauss – On My Own (just the one song, which is obviously cheating, but it’s such a good song)
Still finding the Bon Iver album brilliant, apart from one or two lyrical lapses. Passing swiftly over the sixth form poetry of ‘sky is womb and she’s the moon’, I’m most peturbed by the lines in Skinny Love (possibly the best song on the album):
“I’ll be holding all the tickets
And you’ll be owning all the fines”.
So his relationship with Emma floundered because he kept running up parking tickets that she had to pay? Doesn’t sound quite so tragic now…
Forgot about Pinch – Underwater Dancehall, the instrumentals version. (The LP was definitely this year anyway; the CD may have been last year, i’m not sure) Anyway, very good dubstep record, much better than the pretty formulaic stuff that sadly seems to have become the norm over the last year..
Nick Cave album was also great, as others have mentioned.
Still not heard the new Portishead, tho I wasn’t that taken by Machine Gun when I heard that..
I thought last year had been rubbish for music, but this has forced me to remember that I’ve actually enjoyed a lot of stuff. Here is a disappointingly predictable collection of skinny white boys with guitars, and skinny (unless you’re a roadrunner records exec.) white girls playing the piano:
Tegan And Sara/The Con
Amanda Palmer/Who Killed Amanda Palmer
Papier Tigre/The Beginning And End of Now
These Arms Are Snakes/Tail Swallower And Dove
Fight Like Apes/Fight Like Apes And The Mystery Of The Golden Medallion
The Mae Shi/Hlllyh
My nominee for thing I didn’t hear till this year, but that actually came out last year is Melt Banana/Bambi’s Dilemma, which allows me to deviate wildly from my norm by adding some Japanese noise rock to the mix.
Will probably add more when I realise I forgot things.