The albums thread - 2014

I thought you were all trolling about War On Drugs new album.

Herr Tubthumper said:

Here's my top 10. I have decided to keep it to a strict 10 otherwise it becomes more a list of purchases, as opposed to a list of my favourites, of 2014.

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Great write-up thanks for that. My thoughts:

Neneh Cherry - yes! It'll probably make my top ten too. I got into yhis album after seeing that Richard Villalobos had remixed one of her tracks.
East India Youth - Not so sure about. Not an album that I think I could grow to love.
Kompakt Vol 14 - I've got this too, in fact I've got a lot of the Kompakt compilations and the Michael Mayer Immer collections too from the same label. I adore Kompakt Records. Great ethos and fantastic stable of artists.
War On Drugs - thumbs up
Avi Buffalo - thumbs up
Rufus Wainwright - not heard it and unlikely to hunt it out. I'm not a fan.
Gruff Rhys - thumbs up
Caribou - as stated in previous posts I find it a bit 'meh'
Wildest Dreams - not heard it but sounds right up my street. Thanks for the heads up
Broken Bells - not heard it but find Danger Mouse stuff very hit and miss. Will give this a listen as your description intrigues me

tinycowboy said:

Sorry - not including Buzzer!

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Haha! I was about to say something there. To be honest, I'm not sure my politics are a million miles from HT's some of the time.

Buzzer said:

Haha! I was about to say something there. To be honest, I'm not sure my politics are a million miles from HT's some of the time.

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Or mine. I much prefer One Nation Tories to the current neoliberal lot.
It might disturb you too that I'm in agreement with some of your recent recommendations on here: I've now listened to Temples a couple of times and it's growing. I'm currently listening to Alvvays too, and like that Hurrah for the Riff Raff too. So ta.

Buzzer said:

Haha! I was about to say something there. To be honest, I'm not sure my politics are a million miles from HT's some of the time.

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That's the spirit - time to cross the floor. I sometimes wonder whether there are other Green Party-voting accountants within half a mile of me at work. However, my next-door neighbour at work approves of the Ride reunion. And he reckons Bob Mould was rubbish last night - too loud and not enough Sugar tracks. Think he's showing his age...

Machiavelli said:

Or mine. I much prefer One Nation Tories to the current neoliberal lot.
It might disturb you too that I'm in agreement with some of your recent recommendations on here: I've now listened to Temples a couple of times and it's growing. I'm currently listening to Alvvays too, and like that Hurrah for the Riff Raff too. So ta.

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n It wouldn't disturb me a bit, I'm very evangelical when it comes to music.

Buzzer said:

n It wouldn't disturb me a bit, I'm very evangelical when it comes to music.

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I might be when it comes to politics too. I bought five yesterday, and am still most taken by Ty Segall.

Slightly off topic. Where do you guys go to find out about music related stuff?

Web
Drowned In Sound - I visit daily, mainly for the forum though, I've gone off the main site a bit. If they really rave about something I'll be tempted.
Pitchfork - I know they cop a lot of stick (hipsterville etc...) but I still think they are right far more often than not.
Quietus - As an ex-metal kid with broad taste, thios site is perfect for me. I trust them the most
XXJFG - Brilliant Brighton based blog
All Music - For back catalogue stuff
Metacritic - For a more rounded view of releases.
Resident Advisor - For electronic music.

Print Media
Wire - Just the best music publication out ther bar none. It is a bit serious but they are normally so far ahead of the curve it's unreal. Their readers and writers AOTY polls are incredibly good.

I pick up Loud and Quiet and Crack of the free papers. I still miss Stool Pigeon, (RIP) probably the best music mag I've ever read.

Radio
6 music but I am not religious about listening to any show. Riley, Coe and Ravenscroft I normally dig. Hate Lamacq, not mad keen on Keavney.
http://www.the-seance.com/ on Reverb. Pete Wiggs of St Etienne fame and my mate do a show together. I know I'm biased but I think it's brilliant.

I'd be interested what else people use?

spring hall convert said:

Slightly off topic. Where do you guys go to find out about music related stuff?

Web
Drowned In Sound - I visit daily, mainly for the forum though, I've gone off the main site a bit. If they really rave about something I'll be tempted.
Pitchfork - I know they cop a lot of stick (hipsterville etc...) but I still think they are right far more often than not.
Quietus - As an ex-metal kid with broad taste, thios site is perfect for me. I trust them the most
XXJFG - Brilliant Brighton based blog
All Music - For back catalogue stuff
Metacritic - For a more rounded view of releases.

Print Media
Wire - Just the best music publication out ther bar none. It is a bit serious but they are normally so far ahead of the curve it's unreal. Their readers and writers AOTY polls are incredibly good.

I pick up Loud and Quiet and Crack of the free papers. I still miss Stool Pigeon, (RIP) probably the best music mag I've ever read.

Radio
6 music but I am not religious about listening to any show. Riley, Coe and Ravenscroft I normally dig. Hate Lamacq, not mad keen on Keavney.
http://www.the-seance.com/ on Reverb. Pete Wiggs of St Etienne fame and my mate do a show together. I know I'm biased but I think it's brilliant.

I'd be interested what else people use?

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You often.
I've only really had easy access to digital radio recently, but R6 is good, and I'd go along with your views on those DJs -- Riley's the one I listen to most often (I remember seeing him with the Creepers a long while back, and found him thoroughly entertaining), and I can't stand that limited Lamacq, the indie-Cowell, Ravenscroft I haven't heard but one of my colleagues who I trust rates him, so I'll have to.
Thanks for the summaries of those sources.

Herr Tubthumper said:

Funny. Whilst I'm happy to get stuck in and criticise and mock people's political opinions I rarely feel the slightest inclination to rubbish anyone's musical views no matter what. I rarely even question anyone's music tastes. It's a lovely parallel world.

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A few more (mini) reviews from me, with thanks again to my new-music personal shopper [MENTION=5200]Buzzer[/MENTION] for the steers:

Half Man Half Biscuit - Urge for Offal. I'll let you in on a secret - its heresy, amongst my indie brethren, but I simply don't really GET HMHB. Of course I appreciate the clever wordplay and that, but as MUSIC I don't especially enjoy listening to it. Not their worst effort by far, though.

Hafdis Huld - Home. Textbook HH, sugar-sweet indie-pop.

Gruff Rhys - American Interior. Was worried by [MENTION=5200]Buzzer[/MENTION] description of it as a 'concept album about a Welsh explorer who mapped the Missouri River', but proved to be pleasantly surprised. Less 'concept' and more simply high quality, lo-fi guitars and melodies.

Hymnalaya - Hymns. If low key, gentle Icelandic folk ballads are your bag (they are) then you'll enjoy this.

J Mascis - Tied to a star. This is terrific. A little 'by numbers' low fi indie guitar, but beautifully done.

JJ - V. Decent stuff. That album by iamamiwhoami(?) that I disagreed with [MENTION=12101]Mellotron[/MENTION] about yesterday - this is the record that one wanted to be.

James - La Petite Mort. I haven't really given James a lot of thought since (the utterly brilliant) Stripmine. By the sounds of this, it was an error of judgement. Songwriting to match their peak, coupled with some electronic / percussion tracks behind, and Tim Booth's delivery is still very engaging. Excellent album.

Johnny Marr - Playland. JM will always be that first love, that I'll never fully fall out of love with, whatever they do in later life. This is actually OKAY, and definitely better than the first solo album, but honestly, if it wasn't who it is, it would barely register. I'm convinced though, that the genius that he is, there is still a fantastic project or two left in him. Just needs the right collaboration - preferably a really interesting (female?) vocalist.

King Creosote - From Scotland with Love. I enjoyed this. It's interesting - something different. How to describe it? Scottish/Gaelic indie-folk? I do wonder how quickly the 'something different' will stay endearing, though. I'm convinced that in 6 months time I will either love this record, or find it unlistenable. I THINK I'll love it.

Lamb - Backspace Unwind. Quite nice in parts. Ambient / electronica with a breathy female vocal. Not ENTIRELY my thing, but found myself very much enjoying it.

Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence. She's exceedingly good at what she does, and she's implausibly sexy - this is beautifully done, but I was a bit disappointed - only in that this simply sounds like a continuation of the first album. I wanted to hear her experiment a BIT. I guess when your first sells a ZILLION copies, its hard to bring yourself (or your record company) to change direction at all.

Literature - Chorus. I've [MENTION=12196]tinycowboy[/MENTION] to thank for bringing this one to my attention. And big thanks are due - its a (jangly indie) delight.

Luluc - Passerby. Gentle (Australian) indie/folk guitar and a quite lovely female vocal. This is great...

...but this is better. Marissa Nadler - July. She sounds kind of similar to Lana DR actually, but with some of the attitude replaced with vunerability - and better for it. The music / production is much simpler, too.

and finally:

Mary Lou Lord - Got No Shadow. This is actually from 1998 rather than 2014! - but I just bought it, so I'm going to include it anyway... Spectacularly good. I'm a little bit in love with this record. I guess you'd call it indie/folk, but with a tiny hit of country. Its way better than that sounds.

spring hall convert said:

Slightly off topic. Where do you guys go to find out about music related stuff?

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Apart from here and Twitter and Facebook band pages

Online magazines:
(apart from the ones you have already mentioned that I look at, mainly pitchfork
jajajamusic.com (exclusively Nordic/Scandinavian music)
thisisfakediy.co.uk
theeargazm.com
thefourohfive.com (I love this website - very good IMO)
thelineofbestfit.com
xl8r.com
pastemagazine.com
stereogum.com
NME
Guardian music site
Various record label sites: !K7, jagjaguwar, heavenly, rough trade etc

Band websites:
bandcamp
soundcloud
mixcloud
...and I love going on mystery tours of Youtube clicking random links and seeing where they take me.

Print media:
Wire - often goes right over my head and can be too far out there but I've come across a lot of cool stuff too
Mojo magazine - I ignore the obligatory Dylan/Zeppelin/Beatles/Floyd articles and go straight for the album reviews and a very good album of the year list

Buzzer said:

...and I love going on mystery tours of Youtube clicking random links and seeing where they take me.

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A big THIS. Love to do this.

That's how I found, indie-guitar/surf rock combo Honeyrider - in a link from a J&MC track -I think because somewhere on an old label website, someone had refered them (not especially accuartely) as sounding like a cross btween the J&MC and the Beach Boys!

hans kraay fan club said:

Literature - Chorus. I've tinycowboy to thank for bringing this one to my attention. And big thanks are due - its a (jangly indie) delight.

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Great choice man Will this joyous festival of classic indiepop make my top ten? Maybe. Will the flawless fifth track - the best indie riff in the world bursts out of the speakers in the first six seconds, which is then withheld for four verses and chucked back in your face for an extended, but still painfully brief instrumental outro, culminating in heartbreaking twin guitar jangle, all in less than 150 seconds: restraint and limited release - why Debaser never gets boring - make it into my top tunes? It's possible.

May give Gruff a go - I usually quite like his stuff without loving it.

tinycowboy said:

Great choice man Will this joyous festival of classic indiepop make my top ten? Maybe. Will the flawless fifth track - the best indie riff in the world bursts out of the speakers in the first six seconds, which is then withheld for four verses and chucked back in your face for an extended, but still painfully brief instrumental outro, culminating in heartbreaking twin guitar jangle, all in less than 150 seconds: restraint and limited release - why Debaser never gets boring - make it into my top tunes? It's possible.

May give Gruff a go - I usually quite like his stuff without loving it.

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Your way with words, has just forced me to break from the intimate moment I was enjoying with Mirel Wagner, to re-play that single track. Terrific stuff.

I'm rubbish at writing about music. I can write about football all day, but am utterly incapable of capturing the essence of a piece of music

I check out Brighton Noise for gig listings and previews. I take a look at Metal Sucks and No Clean Singing now and again for the heavier stuff.

In fairness this and the live music thread have been quite good in pointing me towards stuff that I am not aware of too.

I look at DiS, Pitchfork; listen to 6 Music - especially Coe and Ravenscroft; in addition, various Twitter feeds that I follow.

hans kraay fan club said:

JJ - V. Decent stuff. That album by iamamiwhoami(?) that I disagreed with [MENTION=12101]Mellotron[/MENTION] about yesterday - this is the record that one wanted to be.

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We clearly want different things and look for different things when it comes to music. The imagery on some of JJ's stuff is fantastic but musically and melodically she is miles behind iamamiwhoami for me. Really obvious chord progressions and nothing interesting vocally for me, while Jonna Lee is an utter genius in how she uses her voice.

As I said though, love some of the imagery in JJ's videos, so will probably give another go at some point.

What do you think of Grimes stuff, HKFC?

Another area where I think we clearly differ as well is that I've somehow gotten to a point were I find 99% of guitar music painfully dull, when it was all I was listening to a few years ago.

Mellotron said:

We clearly want different things and look for different things when it comes to music. The imagery on some of JJ's stuff is fantastic but musically and melodically she is miles behind iamamiwhoami for me. Really obvious chord progressions and nothing interesting vocally for me, while Jonna Lee is an utter genius in how she uses her voice.

As I said though, love some of the imagery in JJ's videos, so will probably give another go at some point.

What do you think of Grimes stuff, HKFC?

Another area where I think we clearly differ as well is that I've somehow gotten to a point were I find 99% of guitar music painfully dull, when it was all I was listening to a few years ago.

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Never heard Grimes.

There's something pure about a girl and a guitar, that no amount of bells, bleeps and whistles will ever outshine, for me.

I just read Drowned in Sound and Pitchfork, then download any album I fancy the sound of on Spotify, if I really end up liking the album I buy it which runs about 6 or so albums a month.

Just seen the Resident top 100, the war on drugs in at first. I totally get why people like that record but I can't help but think it would benefit from chopping a couple songs to make it run better.