Albums Thread - 2015

[spring hall convert]

Leftfield return with a new record

http://www.nme.com/news/leftfield--2/83915

Dates in June as well - hopefully they are warm ups for a Glatonbury show! Jason Williamson from Sleaford Mods does a turn on the album, lets hope it's a bit better than the cringey track he's just released with The Prodigy.

 

[Machiavelli]

Yesterday I bought new albums by Courtney Bartnett, Matthew E White, Bjork, Ghostpoet and Zun Zun Egui. So far Ghostpoet has it.
Also looking forward to new albums by Godspeed and Polar Bear.

 

[spring hall convert]

Regular readers of this thread may be aware that I have a huge soft spot for veteran Dutch underground world/jazz punks The Ex, for my money the best live outfit out there at the moment (or certainly the best live outfit that you can see for less than £10 in a venue that holds around 150) They have been working with Ethiopian group Fendika.and the link below contains 'Addis Hum' the first track released from the collaboration.

http://thequietus.com/articles/17520-the-ex-fendika-addis-hum

They've been playing this for 18 months or so now, can you imagine how foot-tapping this one is live?

 

[spring hall convert]

Godspeed stream

http://www.theguardian.com/music/20...asunder-sweet-and-other-distress-album-stream

 

[Gwylan]

Just bought Sufjan Stevens' Carrie and Lowell, his tribute to mother and stepfather: a fantastic set of stripped-down songs with some particularly poignant lyrics. It's one of his best

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Leftfield return with a new record

http://www.nme.com/news/leftfield--2/83915

Dates in June as well - hopefully they are warm ups for a Glatonbury show! Jason Williamson from Sleaford Mods does a turn on the album, lets hope it's a bit better than the cringey track he's just released with The Prodigy.

It has a few good lines but this is all. In anticipation of the gig next week I've been listening to the new Prodigy album as a whole. It's a bit patchy, like all their albums and like a lot of singles-based dance acts tend to be, but it has some tracks which I think will work very very well live.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Just bought Sufjan Stevens' Carrie and Lowell, his tribute to mother and stepfather: a fantastic set of stripped-down songs with some particularly poignant lyrics. It's one of his best

I would say it is his best, slightly better than Illinois.

The new Mountain Goats album is streaming on NPR.

http://www.npr.org/2015/03/29/395108044/first-listen-the-mountain-goats-beat-the-champ

If you like Sufjan Stevens you should like Mountain Goats!

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

The new Buena Vista Social Club album, featuring odds and ends from the 1998 album is also brilliant.

Buena Vista Social Club - Lost and Found: http://youtu.be/FnwC94A-ITU

 

[spring hall convert]

Pitchfork in slagging British music off shocker

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/20286-culture-of-volume/

Still not as bad as this crime (don't be fooled by the mark, it was originally U.2)

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11152-do-you-like-rock-music/

 

[Machiavelli]

Cheers for this. Listening on soundcloud. Just my thing.

My thing too. Thanks for the link [MENTION=14921]spring hall convert[/MENTION]

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I'm enjoying the new Wand album. For fans of Ty Segall etc.

 

[CorgiRegisteredFriend]

A good month for releases- anyone listening to Slug album Ripe?

 

[Machiavelli]

A good month for releases- anyone listening to Slug album Ripe?

Is it? I only say this because this thread has gone somewhat quiet of late. Anybody got any thoughts as to why?

 

[spring hall convert]

I'm enjoying the new Wand album. For fans of Ty Segall etc.

Playing TGE I believe.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Playing TGE I believe.

I'd recommend checking them out. Love their current album.

 

[spring hall convert]

I'd recommend checking them out. Love their current album.

I'm a bit over garage/ psych rock at the moment (too many haircut bands jumping on the bandwagon - Brighton is full of them at the moment) but will always give something released by Burger, Castle Face or In The Red a go.

 

[Buzzer]

Here's my favourite albums of 2015, so far. Apologies for the length of the post and that it's a cut-and-paste job from my blog.

I've tried to put this in order but undoubtedly my choice is skewed with what I have been listening to lately and that is probably why I have Gaslamp Killer at number 1 but it really is a quite amazing album. I can't stop listening to it. Ghostpoet is well deserving of the second slot with an album that, in my humble opinion, is a dead cert for a Mercury Prize nomination. In third place is Stealing Sheep. Their 2015 album 'Not Real' just begs you to hit the repeat button I could listen to it all day, every day. It's been a so-so year for music so far, in my opinion, with the good albums being very good but a lot of weak material out there too. Maybe it will pick up later in the year, we have of course Blur's comeback album out soon and available for streaming right now.

Probably the most noticeable absence from my list is Kendrick Lamarr. I get why the album is raved about so much but, sorry, it's just not for me. It's a little too knowing, a little too self-congratulatory and the repetitions get right on my wick. Too many bad memories of Wyclef Jean in the Fugees. Another absentee is Bjork. Now I love Bjork, really love Bjork and her latest album is also her most personal so it should be up there as one of my favourites too. I just wish it had a killer tune on it and she sounds so sad, too sad. It's not comfortable listening.

The biggest disappointments of the year have undoubtedly been Belle and Sebastian with an over-produced, disco-inspired mess that ruins some all too infrequent great moments and the Waterboys who sound like a pub blues cover band with their comeback album. Purity Ring's 'Another Eternity' is an album that puzzles me. Critics rave about it but to my ears every tune sounds the same, vocoded and formulaic. And then there's that Prodigy album. Dear oh dear. I'm not sure they should have bothered. Did they actually bother or is their latest just the bits left over from previous albums that didn't make the cut? Godspeed! You Black Emperor wasn't what I was hoping either. The last track is them in their finest pomp but before that you have to get through a lot of post-rock guitar, the sort that Explosions in The Sky do so much better.

So here's my list:

1 The Gaslamp Killer - 'The Gaslamp Killer Experience Live in Los Angeles'
2 Ghostpoet - 'Shedding Skin'
3 Stealing Sheep - 'Not Real'
4 Father John Misty - 'I Love You, Honeybear'
5 The Districts - 'A Flourish and a Spoil'
6 Stornoway - 'Bonxie'
7 Marika Hackman - 'We Sleep At Last'
8 Monophonics - 'Sound of Sinning'
9 Sufjan Stevens - 'Carrie & Lowell'
10 This Is The Kit - 'Bashed Out'
11 Dan Mangan - 'Club Meds'
12 Courtney Barnett - 'Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit'
13 Lonelady - 'Hinterland'
14 The Decemberists - 'What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World'
15 Krill - 'A Distant Fist Unclenching'
16 Moon King - 'Secret Life'
17 Nadine Shah - 'Fast Food'
18 Public Service Broadcasting - 'The Race For Space'
19 Showstar - 'Showstar'
20 The Wave Pictures - 'Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon'

And here's a link for a stream of the full Gaslamp Killer album: http://music.thegaslampkiller.com/album/the-gaslamp-killer-experience-live-in-los-angeles

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Here's my favourite albums of 2015, so far. Apologies for the length of the post and that it's a cut-and-paste job from my blog.

[/URL]

I have the Stornoway album on my list of things to check out so will look forward to that, surprised to see The Decemberists so high up on your list - I have all of their albums, even the overblown concept albums, and couldn't get into that one.

I also think the Nadine Shah and Lonelandy albums haven't been discussed enough so glad to see them so high up on your list.

 

[Buzzer]

surprised to see The Decemberists so high up on your list - I have all of their albums, even the overblown concept albums, and couldn't get into that one.

I think because at heart I'm a big fan of pop and the three and four minute tunes are what I love the most. This huge change for them into a more conventional album format just works for me - plus I love the explanatory song right at the beginning where they acknowledge the change and that it's uncomfortable for both them and their fans but that it was necessary. That kind of honesty makes me love them more.

I also think the Nadine Shah and Lonelandy albums haven't been discussed enough so glad to see them so high up on your list.

That Lonelady album is quite something, isn't it? Yet another female British talent that is changing the way we think about electronic music. FKA Twigs is already an international A lister and the likes of Lapsley and Lonelady will join her soon, surely. And it's about time that the music industry had a long hard look at itself and the sexism and misogyny. It's great to see FKA Twigs et al challenging the status quo. (I'll get off my soapbox now)

Nadine Shah just gets better and better with everything she does - and she even found time to collaborate with Ghostpoet. She reminds me a lot of Mirel Wagner or a very dark PJ Harvey.

 

[Machiavelli]

I'm a big fan of that Ghostpoet album too but, at the moment, I'm particularly enjoying that Follakzoid album called III which has prevented me from even listening to the new Godspeed album. Thanks to @springhallconvert for the recommendation.