Recent reviews
Recent lists
Recent writings
✦
✦
✦
Albums of the year? Either something you finally got around listening to, or one that actually came out this year.
Cindy Lee Diamond Jubilee, saigon soul revival Moi Luong duyen, bladee cold visions, ekko astral pink balloons, endlessness nala sinepro, duster in dreams, doechii alligator bites never heal
Geordie Greep - The New Sound is my favorite this year, second fav is Lives Outgrown by Beth Gibbons; other artists that put out some pretty good stuff this year: Jessica Pratt, Old Saw, Chelsea Wolfe, Adrienne Lenker, Ugly (UK), Romi Peles, Tapir!, samlrc, Haley Henderickx and Laura Merling. The New Sound and Lives Outgrown both feel like necessary albums, definitely listen if you have not
Thanks for the recs. That Jessica Pratt album is great. Love a few of your other recommendations. Had no idea Greep went solo but I'll give it a shot.
I don’t really keep up with new releases because it fatigues me but I liked Cold Visions and JPEGMAFIA’s new album. GY!BE as well of course I only fell in love with Come With Us by The Chemical Brothers this year. I’ve always loved Star Guitar (wtf that music video is the most awesome shit ever) but never really listened to the rest of the tracks on that album. Hoops and It Began In Afrika is so, so good
Godspeed is great, they need to make music forever. I regret not seeing JPEG a year or two ago when he was in town. But I swear the whole (yes, broad) genre of cloudrap died with Lil Peep; it still sounds just as grating and morose, only now it lacks the originality of its one genuinely interesting spokesman and just feels like a totally faded cultural moment. A similar fate to vaporwave, maybe. I could just be a loser and a curmudgeon but every time I hear most cloudrap I want to gouge my ears out.
Interesting, I’m not a fan of recent cloud rap either and hated Bladee’s stuff between Icedancer and Cold Visions. I dont listen to much cloud rap outside goth money records and reptilian club boyz, do you have any recs?
No, you definitely know more than me. I just recently read a bunch about Lil Peep and appreciated his outspoken personality in retrospect. In terms of weird internet rap I'm more on the Lil Ugly Mane side of things, I guess.
Bladee's Cold Visions is of course the best release of the year
New Godspeed You! Black Emporer album
3+5 by Melt Banana is my favorite, followed by Xiu Xiu's release, Archivos de Radio Piedras, and Night Palace.
Holy shit! I had no idea Melt Banana came out with a new album!
Yeah, there wasn't much publicity for this release. It's definitely a lot more approachable than Fetch, which I liked but could only listen to occasionally.
Never listened to Melt Banana. Need to give them a shot as their vibe seems kinda similar to Boris, who I enjoy.
As I get older I find it increasingly frivolous to choose and rank calendar year albums, but I did listen to amazing stuff that deserves praise and I'm curious if anyone else had a good year for music. For older stuff, I totally slept on Sly & The Family Stone; There's a Riot Goin' On is such a deep, strange, hallucination of an album. The story behind it is crazy. It's admirable he made such great, deeply feeling music while doing loads of PCP and afraid that his bassist hired someone to assassinate him. The perfect counterpoint to Marvin Gaye's magnificent What's Going On. Otherwise, Diamond Jubilee by Cindy Lee is unlike anything I've ever heard. The quality and originality of almost every song is unbelievable, despite the album being a double LP. I was supposed to see his final concert in Montreal until he cancelled; hugely disappointed and I hope he continues to make music.
Yes diamond jubilee!!!
I liked Mount Kimbie's 'The Sunset Violent'. Not quite as good as Love What Survives but some nice King Krule features.