Albums of the Year 2018

[theboyangel]

25 minutes ago, choffer said:

I've already downloaded three albums having skimmed through this thread. In fact I'd wager I've picked up on a good number of the below from VT recommendations.

My (edited) list:

 

Ruins - First Aid Kit

The End of the F******g World Soundtrack - Graham Coxon

Silver Dollar Moment - The Orielles

Wide Awake - Parquet Courts

Tell Me How You Really Feel - Courtney Barnett

Heaven and Earth - Kamasi Washington

Psychic Data - TVAM

Suspiria - Thom Yorke (who?)

Darker Days - Peter Bjorn and John

Yawn - Bill Ryder Jones

The Lost Tapes - Ghostface Killah

The Pirate's Gospel - Alela Diane

More or Less - Dan Mangan

Hope Downs - Rolling Blackout Coastal Fever

>>> - Beak>

Deportation Blue - BC Camplight

Reduxer - Alt-J

Colors - Beck

Elevators: Act I & II - Bishop Nehru

1,2, Kung Fu - Boy Azooga

Die Cut - Cut Chemist

All Good Wishes - Gulp

Joy as an Act of Resistance - Idles

Dirty Computer - Janelle Monae

Thuban - Lay Llamas

I'm All Ears - Let's Eat Grandma

Double Negative - Low

Sculptor - Luluc

No Sounds are Out of Bounds - The Orb

The Pocket Watch - Pan Amsterdam

King of Cowards - Pigsx7

Waking Up In Another Town - Ride

Acts of Fear and Love - Slaves

Lush - Snail Mail

Family of Aliens - Teleman

 

Missed the new Dan Mangan album - will seek that out! Cheers

[bickster]

Quote

Heaven and Earth - Kamasi Washington

Ok... I'm prepared for the abuse... it's all a bit f***ing Disney in places

I've listened to it a few times and... well... it sounds like it should accompany a Disney animated movie. Beauty and the Beast maybe

[choffer]

4 minutes ago, bickster said:

Ok... I'm prepared for the abuse... it's all a bit f***ing Disney in places

I've listened to it a few times and... well... it sounds like it should accompany a Disney animated movie. Beauty and the Beast maybe

No abuse deserved - we each hear music differently. I'm no aficionado, I just kinda liked it. Listening to it in the summer made me think I was walking through Harlem in the late 70's.

(It was probably a Disneyfied Harlem though as I didn't get held up with a knife by some feller wearing platform boots and a fedora.)

[Xann]

Realised I'd bought bugger all from this year a few weeks ago and started listening around.

Will maybe pick up the Skee Mask and Rival Console albums? There are others to investigate where I've only heard a single track.

 

[bickster]

5 minutes ago, Xann said:

Rival Console albums?

Its on my list of things I missed too

[Delphouneso]

40 minutes ago, bickster said:

Ok... I'm prepared for the abuse... it's all a bit f***ing Disney in places

I've listened to it a few times and... well... it sounds like it should accompany a Disney animated movie. Beauty and the Beast maybe

Disney might be a bit harsh, but I can't say I wasn't disappointed. Especially so as I thought Harmony of Difference was pretty decent and a sign of good things to come.

Need to start putting my list together, though there's a few in this thread that have completely passed me by this year that I now need to check out.

Edited December 10, 2018 by Delphouneso

[bickster]

2 minutes ago, Delphouneso said:

Disney might be a bit harsh, but I can't say I wasn't disappointed. Especially so as I thought Harmony of Difference was pretty decent and a sign of good things to come.

Need to start putting my list together, though there's a few in this thread that have completely passed me by this year that I now need to check out.

Yeah I listened to the previous album, I think it much better than this one

[Delphouneso]

I've got a fair bit of catching up to do but thus far there's been nothing mindblowing for me this year, seems it's been a decent year for decent music. As a consequence I'm going for just a top five, as outside of that there's probably another 20-30 similarly 'good' albums.

In no order:

Big Red Machine - s/t
Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner realising a project that began as a song by the same name on a charity record a few years back. I was super excited when I heard this happened, it didn't live up to expectation but then I have massively high expectations when it comes to JV.

Khruangbin - Con Todo El Mundo
Khruangbin just make me feel good. Soundtrack of my summer.

Noname - Room 25
Big D'Angelo/Badu/Soulquarians vibe here which is completely my jam.

Beach House - 7
Super consistent band in another solid record shocker.

Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs
I'm as surprised as anyone this one's on here, but I like it. Saw it called 'Sadvillainy' somewhere which made me chuckle, and whilst it's on nowhere near the same level it's not the most outrageous assessment.

Couple of special mentions / questionable entries:

John Coltrane - Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album 
Recorded in '63 but released this year, that counts right?

Tierra Whack - Whack World
Whether a 15 minute 'visual and auditory project' can feature on an AOTY list I'm not sure, but it's one of the more interesting things I've listened to / watched this year.

Edited December 10, 2018 by Delphouneso

[chrisp65]

I've drawn up a Venn of the lists, looks like I need to check out Psychic Data - TVAM

[bickster]

5 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

I've drawn up a Venn of the lists, looks like I need to check out Psychic Data - TVAM

Right up your street methinks

[chrisp65]

Just now, bickster said:

Right up your street methinks

I currently have to go out and find a biryani in the centre of Sheffield, then I'll get all youtubed up...

[hogso]

11 hours ago, Rugeley Villa said:

@Designer1

Throw some decent doom my way. Not too familiar with modern music if I’m being honest. Don’t like screaming vocals. Just some nice slow, dark ,grinding doom. 

Both Sleep and YOB released real good records this year. 

I've got to mention The Body too. Not a recommendation that really ticks your boxes as there's lots of screaming vocals, and they're far too 'experimental' to be called doom, really, but they can be a crushingly dark listen. 

[cyrusr]

17 minutes ago, hogso said:

Both Sleep and YOB released real good records this year. 

I've got to mention The Body too. Not a recommendation that really ticks your boxes as there's lots of screaming vocals, and they're far too 'experimental' to be called doom, really, but they can be a crushingly dark listen. 

@Rugeley Villa 2nd from me. Sleep - The Sciences in particular are right up your Sabbath street. 1 track is even called Giza Butler. Should have been in my honourable mentions as well but forgot..!

[8pints]

 

[rjw63]

Stepping into this void of musical snobbery I haven't purchased much new stuff. Ghost would be up there, and I just discovered Monster Magnet released a new LP a few months back so I'm ordering that and having it as my number 1, cuz they're great.

There are two new releases by The Beach Boys, The 1968 Friends Sessions and The 1969 20/20 sessions. Annoyingly it's digital only, not even a **** CD release. So can't rate them as yet.

[rjw63]

@Xann ...Monster Magnet have reissued 25...Tab on vinyl.

I've already got the wife to buy it for me

[Xann]

13 hours ago, rjw63 said:

@Xann ...Monster Magnet have reissued 25...Tab on vinyl.

I've already got the wife to buy it for me

My 27 year old CD sounds great

No doubt they'll release the first album on vinyl at some point.  'Spine Of God' completes the three to have

[Dr_Pangloss]

For hiphop it's Masta Ace and Marco Polo's album 'A Breukelen Story', nothing, and I mean nothing, ,comes close.

[Stevo985]

On 15/12/2018 at 09:37, Dr_Pangloss said:

For hiphop it's Masta Ace and Marco Polo's album 'A Breukelen Story', nothing, and I mean nothing, ,comes close.

Just checking this out off your recommendation.

It's **** excellent.

[Dr_Pangloss]

2 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Just checking this out off your recommendation.

It's **** excellent.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with Masta Ace in general but if you're not I'd strongly recommend listening to 'A Long Hot Summer', 'Disposable Arts' and 'Sittin on Chrome'. All amazing albums. Definitely one of the best to ever do it.