To begin, 2018 has been horrendous. So horrendous that I'm certain I won't experience a year that is worse and to be honest, thank fuck for that.
On the subject of honesty, without trying to sound like a purveyor of glib platitudes, yet still joining the chorus of clichés - along with a great support network of people (you know who you are) - music has indeed saved me. Particularly some of the albums noted below.
I won't go too much
into it, as there are certain passages in the forthcoming ramblings that will hint
towards my experiences this year. Again, without trying to sound glib, hold your
loves one, tell them you love them and enjoy what you enjoy in this life
because it's too fucking short.
50.
Artist: Nothing Album: Dance on the Blacktop
Label: Relapse Records
Dance on the Blacktop is more aligned with Nothing’s first record, Guilty of Everything and in all honesty, the band is better for it. Tired of Tomorrow was a divisive record, a lot slower and seemed to stem the momentum Nothing had gained from Guilty of Everything. There’s nothing genre-defining throughout these nine tracks - yes, it’s rocking and yes it’s shoegazey. However, it’s a refined offering from Nothing which sees Dance on the Blacktop contain some of the band’s finest work to date.
Favourite Tracks: Blue Day Baby, Hail on the Palace Pier, (Hope) Is Just Another Word With a Hole In It.
49.
Artist: Parquet Courts
Album: Wide Awake!
Label: Rough Trade
They’re back! Well, Parquet Courts never really
went away. I’m not as enamoured with this bunch like most others, however Wide
Awake! Is very much their finest album since Light Up Gold. It’s a
rocking album, it’s a dancey album, it’s quite an emotional album and it’s a
political album. It’s a best-of Parquet Courts album without being, indeed, a
best-of.
Favourite
Tracks: Total Football, Mardi Gras Beads, Death
Wil Bring Change.
48.
Artist: Anna von Hausswolff
Album: Dead Magic
Label: City Slang
Organ
drones made for cathedrals. That's what Sweden's Anna von Hausswolff taps into
with her fourth album, Dead Magic.
It's very much an artistic statement, boring into an earth filled with
scepticism and impending dread. It's an intimidating listen in parts, but if
you're ever at rock bottom, you need to meet darkness head on and Dead Magic certainly taps into this
vein. The venerable Randall Dunn enhances this album from behind the studio
glass, adding the necessary sonic bedding, as he so often does.
Favourite Tracks: The Truth, The Glow, The Fall, Ugly and Venegeful, Källans Ateruppståndelse.
47.
Artist: Dilly Dally
Album: Heaven
Label: Partisan
Dilly Dally’s Heaven is a striking listen. It welds elements of grunge and pop into this atmospheric bubble which bursts courtesy of Kate Monk’s serrated cigarette-addled vocal pipes. Heaven is a fiery record brimming with spit and crackle but it is tempered with tenderness which has been cleverly woven through subjects not limited to love, self-respect and capitalism.
Favourite Tracks: I Feel Free, Sober Motel, Heaven.
Artist: Cash Savage and The Last Drinks
Album: Good Citizens
Label: Mistletone Records
Where these end-of-year lists are concerned, there’s always a bolter and Cash Savage and The Last Drinks’ Good Citizens is that album. While its pastoral leanings are prevalent, the undercurrent of anger is where Good Citizen shines - it’s themes largely based around Australia’s infamous same-sex marriage debate. It’s a very Australian album and to be honest, it’s good to see a band not shy away from their own locality and Good Citizens has an abundance of it. It’s basically a rural Victorian pub brawl.
Favourite Tracks: Pack Animals, Sunday, February, Good Citizens.
45.
Artist: Neko Case
Album:
Hello-On
Label:
-ANTI
Inspired
by events not limited to her house burning to the ground, as well as the #Metoo
movement, Neko Case’s Hell-On is the
New Pornographers star at her beatnik best. This album has so much to give,
even after ten or so listens you still discover those trademark quips that Case
has nestled expertly through the equally splendid instrumentation. She’s
poetic, prolific and with Hell-On,
Neko Case confirms that she is unique.
Favourite Tracks: Halls of Sarah, Curse of the I-5 Corridor, My Uncles’s Navy.
Artist: Gaz Coombes
Album: World’s Strongest Man
Label: Caroline International
Favourite Tracks: Deep Pockets, Slow Motion Life, Wounded Egos.
43.
Artist: Big-Ups
Album:
Two Parts Together
Label:
Exploding In Sound Records
New
York firebrands, Big-Ups, are back with Two
Parts Together. While this album has somehow slipped under the radar, the
angst is still very much at a premium. They have used the likes of Rodan and
Slint as worthy reference points, injecting a spirited vigour into the eight
respective spitfires which comprises Two Parts Together. It’s short, sharp and
very urgent.
Favourite Tracks: Trying to Love, Fear, Imaginery Dog Walker.
42.
Artist: BEAK>
Album:
>>>
Label:
Invada Records
Portishead’s
Geoff Barrow has delivered once again with his BEAK> project. Entitled >>>, this one's a bit more of
a slow burner, but once you’re there, the results are brilliant and in fact a
defining moment for the band. There’s plenty of Kraut rock fumes rising from
the benchtop cooker here, however >>> seems more slanted on the
accessible side of things than its older siblings, to the point where I imagine
this to be quite rocking live. For maximum listening experience, listening to this one with a nice set of headphones is essential.
Favourite Tracks: Birthday Suit, King of the Castle, When We Fall.
41.
Artist: The Field
Album:
Infinite Moment
Label:
Kompakt
Axel
Willner is back with his latest instalment of The Field. This time in Infinite Moment. Over the last five
years, Willner has deviated from the early days of Here We Go From Subliminal and Here
and Today, however with Infinite
Moment, he slips back into the cloud-floating ambient techno realm that
many identified with as his golden period. Although it’s more of the same,
perhaps substantiating the notion of Willner being a one-trick pony, it
shouldn’t really hold water given the trick is so good.
Favourite Tracks: Divide Now, Something Left, Something Right, Something Wrong, Who
Goes There.
40.
Artist: Insecure Men
Album:
Insecure Men
Label:
Fat Possum
An
off-shoot of The Fat White Family, Insecure Men (comprising of Saul Adamczewski
and Ben Romans-Hopcraft) provide a more accessible route to the roads of
self-inflicted chaos. Insecure Men is a dose of druggy dystopian lounge-pop,
with smatterings of country thrown in to put you off balance. It’s naughty,
too. References to Whitney Houston and Cliff Richard are sure to jerk the
collective heads of the virtue signalling self-righteous. That’s art, though.
It should be provocative, even if it sometimes offends. Insecure Men are
certainly that.
Favourite Tracks: Subaru Nights,
Teenage Toy, Whiney Houston and I.
39.
Artist: Anne Garner
Album:
Lost Play
Label:
Slowcraft Records
Anne
Garner’s Lost Play is a spatial,
morose offering of slow-core bliss. Mount Eerie’s Now Only might just be the saddest record released this year, but
Garner’s effort runs it very close. Inspired by the death of her mother,
Garner has carved out an album full of slow-motion synths that provide
incessant waves of sorrow. It’s lump-in-your-throat material, but in times of need,
Lost Play is vital. A spellbinding
alternative to Julia Holter right here.
Favourite Tracks: The Living, Toys,
Not Home.
38.
Artist: Suuns
Album:
Felt
Label:
Secretly Canadian
Montreal’s
Suuns return with their best album to date in Felt. While they have always been a bit of a hit and miss
proposition (Zeroes QC = hit, Hold/Still = miss), this is the album
that Suuns have always been capable of making. There’s the odd-ball post-punk
leanings that are reminiscent of Clinic, but there’s a sparse electronic
undercurrent that opens up Felt as
this swirling subtle ambient rock album. Suuns have seemingly been listening to
a lot of Aphex Twin and Felt is a lot
better for it.
Favourite Tracks: Make it Real, Peace and Love, Moonbeams.
37.
Artist: Wooden Shjips
Album: V
Label: Thrill Jockey
While many have grown accustomed to Wooden
Shjips’ psychedelic motorik jams, on their latest album, V, the ‘Shjips
seem to have really found their sweet spot. It’s a great record, sun-drenched
in psychedelic pop and for someone who could previously take or leave them, now
I’m not so sure. V is the album of 2018 to watch the sunrise to with
cigarette and cup of tea in hand. You wouldn’t have previously associated
Wooden Shjips as a morning band but with V they are very much in that
realm.
36.
Artist: Yo La Tengo
Album: There’s a Riot Going On
Label: Matador
While exactly not reinventing the wheel with There’s
a Riot Going On, Yo La Tengo takes us on a journey where they showcase all
of their past and current glories, spanning over fifteen songs. It takes a
while to pierce, probably because of the loose production techniques employed
throughout, however it adds to the whole experience. It’s rocking, it’s
cinematic, it’s tender. It’s twee. It’s everything we’ve come to love from Yo
La Tengo.
Favourite Tracks: You Are Here, For You Too, Above the Sound, Forever.
35.
Artist: Ought
Album: Room Inside the World
Label: Constellation
With Ought’s third album, Room Inside the
World, frontman, Tim Darcy, delivers a striking performance. His vocals
have drawn comparisons with Morrissey, however it’s far more nascent
than that. Room Inside the World projects a youthful zest and three
albums in, it’s probably their finest offering to date. Its intensity is tamed
by several slower numbers which balances the weight of the jagged post-punk
incursions, which cut right through you.
Favourite Tracks: Disgraced in America, Disaffection, Desire.
34.
Artist: Oh Sees
Album:
Smote Reverser
Label:
Castle Face Records
I’ve
always been somewhat hesitant of Mr Dwyer and his sonic travails. Oh Sees (formally
Thee Oh Sees) always prospered more in a live milieu, thus making them quite a
scarce commodity on these parts. However, their new album, Smote Reverser, is undeniably good. Like headphones-on-smiling
whilst-shopping-in-Aldi good. It’s a snapshot of what makes everything great
about the band. It’s psychedelic. It’s that signature frenetic garage fuzz,
injected with off-cuts of metal and speed-rock. Smote Reverser will make fans salivate, illuminating the love they
already have for the band, whilst also drawing in new ears to punish (hello!)
Favourite Tracks: Last Peace, Moon Bog, Abysmal Urn.
33.
Artist: Here Lies Man
Album:
You Will Know Nothing
Label:
Riding Easy Records
With
their second album in as many years, Los Angles’ Here Lies Man continue on the
path of ascendency. You Will Know Nothing
is a seamless cathartic experience underpinned by West African rhythms. They
are a band that slips between the cracks of early Black Sabbath and bending the
hard-rock breakdowns of Blue Oyster Cult, all through the scope of Afrobeat and
psychedelia. There’s something here for everyone and that’s the greatest
quality of You Will Know Nothing.
Favourite Tracks: Animal Noises, Summon Fire, Taking the Blame.
32.
Artist: Red River Dialect
Album:
Broken Stay Open Sky
Label:
Paradise of Bachelors
For
one reason or another, I’ve never been taken with British folk music. There’s
always an exception and in this case, it’s Red River Dialect, or in particular
their latest album, Broken Stay Open Sky.
This is tender, thought-provoking folk music reminiscent of early Calexico,
sprinklings of the Dirty Three with a Go-Betweens chime. After seeing them
support The Weather Station earlier this year, their energy still manages to
translate on record and with Broken Stay
Open Sky, they’ve released a gem.
Favourite Tracks: Kukkuripa, Open Sky (Bell), Campana.
31.
Artist: Half Man Half Biscuit
Album:
No One Cares About Your Creative Hub So Get Your Fuckin’ Hedge Cut
Label:
Probe Records
Ahh,
Nigel Blackwell. The gift that keeps on giving. I mean, look at the title, No One Cares About Your Creative Hub So Get
Your Fuckin’ Hedge Cut. Need I say more? Don’t tell Nigel about the perfect
time to take your dog for a walk. Don’t get kitted out in Team Sky replica
kits, either. These, along with many more subjects, are ripe for satire, which
Blackwell brings to life famously. It’s probably the angriest album they’ve
released in years and the funniest, too. They say the world needs more bands
like Half Man Half Biscuit but if it did, quite frankly it’d reduce the
brilliance of this.
Favourite Tracks: Knobheads on Quiz Shows, Renfield's Afoot, The Announcement, Every Time a Bell Rings.
Artist: Beach House
Album: 7
Label: Domino
As
the title blatantly suggests, we are seven albums deep with Beach House and the
quality doesn’t seem to be receding anytime soon. Here, Victoria Legrand and Alex
Scally enlisted Spaceman 3’s Sonic Boom to open up their sound from behind
the studio glass and open up he does. 7
has a looser sound but is still underpinned by Beach House’s dream pop
aesthetic. There’s still the customary Mazzy Star haze which provides a blanket
to 7. It’s yet another string to
their bow.
Favourite Tracks: Pay No Mind, Lose You Smile, Last Ride.
29.
Artist: The Ex
Album: 27 Passports
Label: Norman Records
The
Dutch anarcho punks return their first album in eight years and it
reverberates with anger. As the title suggests, 27 Passports, is politically fuelled as The Ex have drenched this
partisan narrative in junkyard dissonance. While Steve Albini wasn’t on
production duties for 27 Passports,
there’s still that underpinning of razor-wire that features so prominently in
Albini produced albums. In fact, aesthetically, there are also shades of
Mission of Burma’s Vs. 27 Passports is rough and tumble, honest
and raw and probably The Ex’s best album for quite some time.
Favourite Tracks: New Blank Document, Footfall, The Sitting Chins.
Artist: Olden Yolk
Album: Olden Yolk
Label: Trouble In Mind
Boston’s Olden Yolk have released a gem in their debut self-titled album. Although underpinned by psychedelia there’s an organic folk feel, coupled with a Byrds-y chime. It’s a great fit, with the ten tracks bleeding into each other seamlessly. It’s an album from a precocious bunch and if they can better this with their next effort, then things may just get serious. Fans of The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s output in the ‘90s, you may want to hold an ear to this.
Favourite Tracks: Cut to the Quick, Takes One to Know One, Esprit de Corps, Aria.
27.
Artist: Goat Girl
Album: Goat Girl
Label: Rough Trade
Goat Girl are fun. They don’t take themselves
too seriously and with their self-titled debut, it makes it all the better for
listening. Sonically, we’ve heard this before, but oddly not exactly in this
part of the world. It has an acid-damaged late ‘80s Australian pub rock vibe
enmeshed with a post-punk sprawl, giving the album a grimy Englishness about
it. From creeps on trains to throwing stones in response to been thrown bones,
it works well in the realm of basically not giving a fuck about too much in
life.
Favourite Tracks: Burn the Stake Creep, Slowly, Reclines, Throw Me a Bone.
26.
Artist: Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
Album: Hope Downs
Label: Sub Pop
Ahhh,
these Aussies. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever's two Eps, Talk Tight and French Press, hinted
towards something special and with Hope
Downs, they've delivered. This is a band that are well and truly in the groove.
It's simple Go-Betweens-y jangle pop with a the backbone of how indie-rock
should sound circa 2018. The adage known as 'they're good bunch of lads' is
usually reserved for bands who are indeed that, but - all told - a bit shit
where the music is concerned. Not the Rolling Blackouts’, though. Good lads and
a proper good band and probably the best one to come out of Australia in years.
Favourite Tracks: An Air Conditioned Man, Talking Straight, The Hammer.
25.
Artist: Crippled Black Phoenix
Album:
Great Escape
Label:
Season of Mist
It
was getting to a stage where you thought that Crippled Black Phoenix would be
best served drawing the curtains. However, some bands prosper when the chips
are down, and with their music fully immersed in the current political climate,
the band has blown out the cobwebs and produced their finest album in years
with Great Escape. This album is
filled with drawn-out rockers that amalgamate post-rock, psychedelia and ‘70s
hard-rock. Crippled Black Phoenix have defied the odds with Great Escape. It’s great to have them
back.
Favourite Tracks: To You I Give Us, Slow Motion Breakdown, The Great Escape (Pt I), The Great Escape (Pt II).
Words originally appeared on Getintothis.
24.
Artist: Tropical Fuck Storm
Album: A Laughing Death In Meatspace
Label: Joyful Noise Recordings
Album: A Laughing Death In Meatspace
Label: Joyful Noise Recordings
Gareth
Liddiard has pushed both The Drones and his acoustic guitar aside in favour of
the haphazard gale-force outfit know as Tropical Fuck Storm. Whether the band’s
name, the title of their debut album, A
Laughing Death In Meatspace, or the album artwork takes the gold medal is
much cause for debate, however one thing’s for sure - this album is a defining
piece of work from Liddiard and partner/Drones bandmate, Fiona Kitschin. This
is rock music on the ultimate acid trip. The backing vocals by guitarist, Erica
Dunn (High Tension), and drummer, Lauren Hammel (Harmony) are the vital foundation for Liddiard’s dry witted antipodean
diatribes. A Laughing Death In Meatspace
really is a triumph.
Favourite Tracks: You Let My Tyres Down, Soft Power, A Laughing Death In Meatspace.
23.
Artist: Yves Tumor
Album:
Safe in the Hands of Love
Label:
Warp
The artist in 2018 conjuring up the ultimate out-of-body-experience is definitely Sean Bowie, better known to us as Yves Tumor. Safe in the Hands of Love is a brooding mesmeric album barbed with ambience, swirling with electronica and dream-pop, sprawling with noise and alternative rock, and alleviating with pop and R&B. For those of you suffering from withdrawals of all things A.R. Kane., you may have just found your calling, but in an even more perverse obscure world. It makes no sense to the point that it actually does and that’s what’s so captivating about Safe in the Hands of Love. It’s an emphatic work of art.
22.
Artist: High On Fire
Album:
Electric Messiah
Label:
Relapse Records
What
a year it’s been for Matt Pike. First Sleep unleash a beast that is The Sciences, then High On Fire release Electric Messiah – an album that makes
all the senses in your brain go crazy. It’s riffs to the sky. It’s slam dancing
circle-pit mad. It’s tongue out and shake your head uncontrollably near the
jukebox in some fleapit boozer. Electric
Messiah is the best bits of crust punk. It’s the best bits of hardcore.
It’s the best bits of metal. It’s the best bits of stoner. It’s the best bits
of sludge. And it’s the best bits of doom. Matt Pike is no Lemmy. Matt Pike is,
indeed, Matt Pike and that’s absolutely fine by me.
Favourite Tracks: Sanctioned Annihilation, Electric Messiah, Freebooter, Drowning
Dog.
Words originally appeared on Getintothis.
21.
Artist: Gruff Rhys
Album:
Babelsberg
Label:
Rough Trade
Super
Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys is back with his latest solo oeuvre, Babelsberg. While many are crying out
for a new SFA opus, Babelsberg is
more than enough to appease the band’s adherents. Rhys takes us on an
orchestral journey through the 60s and 70s here. It’s Gruff immersed in the
West End and all told, the results are brilliant. It's pop underpinning almost
panders to the dad rockers who want to branch out and get a bit wild. The
people with a couple of kids in tow who did a shit loads of drugs in the ‘90s.
Sure, it might not drag any new listeners in, but Babelsberg is an important piece to be welcomed into the pantheon
of one Gruff Rhys.
Favourite Tracks: Frontier Man, Drones in the City, Negative Vibes, Selfies in the Sunset.
20.
Artist: ANMLPLNET
Album:
Fall Asleep
Label:
Ba Da Bing Records
Boston
duo, ANMLPLNET, are Leah Wellbaum (Slothrust) and Mickey Vershbow (Dams Of
The West). Fall Asleep is their debut
album and it’s a triumph. I mean, any album that opens up with a track entitled
‘I Was Fucked By A Cloud’ can’t be anything other than good, right? Only six
tracks deep, but it never outstays its welcome. Fall Asleep is a tender heartfelt psychedelic dream-pop traipse,
brimming with emotion and hard-hitting tones. It’s fragile but, like all
promising songwriters, Welbaum always has you firmly in the palm of her hand.
Low fans, this is one for you.
Favourite Tracks: Ride, Elephants Aren't So Big, All the Butterflies.
19.
Artist: Hot Snakes
Album: Jericho Sirens
Label: Sub Pop
Album: Jericho Sirens
Label: Sub Pop
After
reforming back in 2011 for ATP’s Nightmare Before Christmas, since then Hot
Snakes have been dangling the new album carrot out for their aficionados and
with Jericho Sirens, seven years was
worth the wait. Hot Snakes don’t miss a beat here, effortlessly picking up where
2004’s Audit In Progress left off.
It’s as urgent as it is anthemic and Hot Snakes fans would be hard-pressed to
feel anything other than elation at the results. If ever there were an Indian
summer for a band, then the Hot Snakes are currently bathing in the sun on the
back of Jericho Sirens.
Favourite Tracks: I Need a Doctor, Jericho Sirens, Death Camp Fantasy, Death of a Sportsman.
18.
Artist: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs
Album: King Of Cowards
Label: Rocket Recordings
The Geordie five piece are back, this time with their second album, King Of Cowards. It brims with fury in shorter bursts as opposed to the experimental primal rock that was Feed the Rats. You really need to give this album a lot of time to get to its core. They are often the best listens and King Of Cowards is certainly that. It spills across the canvas of every exciting rock genre in the past thirty years, but through a scope that possesses raw vigour and a raucous edge.
Favourite Tracks: GNT, Shockmaster, Cake of Light, Gloamer.
Getintothis Interview.
Getintothis Live Review.
17.
Artist: Daniel Avery
Album: Songs For Alpha
Label: Mute Records
Almost five years since Drone Logic,
Daniel Avery’s Songs For Alpha is very much worth the wait. It’s full of
sweaty dancefloor occupying sounds. Along with the signature Avery bangers,
there’s flourishing ambient touches that interweave gracefully throughout Songs
For Alpha. It’s a dazzling record, and more so through the experience of
vinyl, capturing the perfect resonance and filling every corner of the room.Artist: Daniel Avery
Album: Songs For Alpha
Label: Mute Records
Favourite
Tracks: Sensation, Diminuendo, Slow Fade.
16.
Artist: Efrim Manuel Menuck
Album: Pissing Stars
Label: Constellation
Efrim
Manuel Menuck’s second solo album seems to hit the rewind button, providing a
snapshot of the lead-up to the inevitable disaster, where dark clouds hover
amid the eerie hum. While the first side of Pissing
Stars, Menuck’s second solo album, is dotted with that Godspeed-esque
dystopian drone and distortion, it’s the second side of the longer-player that demonstrates Menuck’s sonic shift, almost conjuring up
a pop utopia of sorts. Whilst sporadically easier on the ear than a lot of his
previous works, Menuck has still managed to carve out a lonely album with Pissing Stars.
Favourite
Tracks: A Lamb in the Land of Payday Loans, LxOxVx / Shelter in Place, Pissing
Stars.
15.
Artist: Marissa Nadler
Album: For My Crimes
Label: Sacred Bones Records
Marissa Nadler has stripped things to the bare bones on For My Crimes. In summary, it’s just her and a trusty guitar. And it works. There’s a few guest appearances, too (Sharon Van Etten, Eva Gardner), but never do these collaborations overshadow the bourgeoning song-smith. These songs are short and simple, but after the last two epic journeys with producer Randall Dunn, For My Crimes is a welcome addition to her immense cannon of work. In fact, it’s up there with the best Nadler has done.
Favourite Tracks: I Can't Listen to Gene Clarke Anymore, All Out of Catastophes, Dream Dream Big in the Sky, Flamethrower.
14.
Artist: Yob
Album: Our Raw Heart
Label: Relapse Records
Yob’s fourth album, Our Raw Heart,
is inspired by a near death experience suffered by frontman/ bassist, Mike
Scheidt. Throughout these seven tracks, you can feel the emotion roaring from
the speakers. It’s weighty, it’s heartfelt and it’s simply crushing. The
closing title track is stunning. It’s their best song written to date from an
album that shares the very same accolade.
Favourite
Tracks: Ablaze, Beauty in Falling Leaves, Our
Raw Heart.
13.
Artist: Eric Bachmann
Album:
No Recover
Label:
Merge Records
Eric
Bachmann returns with his follow-up from the brilliant self-titled album
released in 2016, No Recover. The
Archers of Loaf and Crooked Fingers frontman has stripped back things here and
whilst it’s more impenetrable than its predecessor, No Recover provides an array of fabulous moments once you find its
sweet spot. While taking some time to reveal itself and sink into your pores,
with that in mind I hope listeners give this album the time it truly
deserves.
Favourite Tracks: No Recover, Waylaid, Wild Azalea, Dead and Gone.
12.
Artist: Hiro Kone
Album:
Pure Expenditure
Label:
Dais Records
Under
Nicky Mao’s Hiro Kone project, she captures a brooding darkness presented
through this narrow scope of flickering ambient flourishes and elusive beats.
On Pure Expenditure, it has a similar
vibe to what Growing were trying to do in their attempt to reconstruct rock
music with Pumps. In another world
not featuring the likes of Al Jorgensen and Trent Reznor this may well have
been the industrial sound. Mao effortlessly projects looming drones, kinetic
synths and skinny, ribcage tickling beats that are utterly majestic. Pure Expenditure is Hiro Kone’s finest
effort yet.
Favourite Tracks: Pure Expenditure, Scotch Yoke (Parts II and II), Poortgebouw, Outside the Axiom.
11.
Artist: Suede
Album: The Blue Hour
Label: Rhino Entertainment
After the return to form that was Bloodsport,
along with follow-up Night Thoughts, Suede are back with arguably their
finest effort since Dogman Star. The Blue Hour bursts at the seams with
a brooding rural locality, a thread running through the album which is largely
told from a child’s perspective. It’s a reflective statement inspired by Brett
Anderson’s childhood and it’s timely, for it is Suede at their bombastic best
and their most alluring. The Blue Hour is
as obscure and beguiling as anything they’ve written.
Favourite Tracks: Wastelands, Beyond the Outskirts, Life Is Golden, Don’t Be Afraid
If Nobody Loves You.
10.
Artist: Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks
Album:
Sparkle Hard
Label:
Domino
Stephen
Malkmus. Thank you for re-joining us, good sir! After meandering through the
indie-rock pantheon for the last ten years, it’s good to see that he and his
band, the Jicks, still have the ability to floor and with Sparkle Hard they do just that. This is vintage Malkmus. His sharp
ironic acumen, the loose jammy sounds. Sparkle
Hard is pretty much everything that’s great about Stephen Malkmus and The
Jicks and while people yearn for another Pavement album, for mine, the first
four solo/Jicks albums stand up against anything Pavement has done.
Furthermore, so does Sparkle Hard.
Favourite Tracks: Solid Silk, Bike Lane, Middle America, Kite, Difficulties - Let Them Eat Vowels.
9.
Artist: Skee Mask
Album: Compro
Label: IIian Tape
Skee Mask loosely sticks to the principals of
ambient techno on Compro, however
there is a heaviness that bleeds into these tracks, providing an unprecedented
vigour, to the point where you feel yourself on the fringes of the dance floor.
This is where the results on Compro are fascinating. There is an energy
with this album rivalling Daniel Avery and by its conclusion it transcends it. 2018 has
been a strong year for electronic music and Skee Mask sits atop of the summit
where the genre is concerned. Compro - electronic album of the year.
Favourite
Tracks: Soundboy Ext, Dial 274, Flyby Vfr.
8.
Artist: Deafheaven
Album:
Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Label:
-ANTI
Four
albums in and Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
is Deafheaven‘s most eclectic yet. It’s also the album which they seem most at
ease with themselves, and where many artists stumble at this juncture,
Deafheaven seem to revel, finding an inner strength, growing stronger as a
band. As individuals. The fierce collision between crystallised beauty and
poignant brutality hasn’t sounded so majestic for years. It proves that
Deafheaven are one of the finest architects of illuminating even the darkest
corners this world has to offer. There simply is no other band out there like them.
Favourite Tracks: You Without End, Honeycomb, Glint, Worthless Animal.
7.
Artist: IDLES
Album:
Joy As An Act of Resistance
Label:
Partisan Records
IDLES
really have arrived. While Brutalism, for me,
felt a bit too forced, there were signs. Last track, ‘Slow Savage’ was a tender
reflective statement and from there, that tenet has bled into Joy As An Act of Resistance. One of the
finest records out of the UK for a long time. Frontman, Joe Talbot, spearheads
this call to arms. Brexit, anxiety, bereavement, community, socialism. It’s all
here. This, my friends, is sonic therapy.
Favourite Tracks: Never Fight a Man WQith a Perm, I'm Scum, Danny Nedelko, June, Samaritans.
6.
Artist: Mount Eerie
Album:
Now Only
Label:
Elverum & Son
No
words can be said about this album. Just listen to it. For those who haven’t
suffered losing their soulmate, you won’t understand the severity of Philip
Elverum’s words on Now Only. Those
who have; well, you will. That’s no disrespect to those who fall into the
former category. Take it as a blessing that you aren’t included in this horrific
guild of exclusivity. Sadly, I lost my wife this year. It hurts. Like no pain
you’ve felt before. Whether Now Only
is some sort of burning beacon for bereavement, I’m not so sure. However, it
now exists as a prominent feature in my life and for that I thank Philip
Elverum and his courage for sharing this soul-destroying piece of art. I will
speak more about this album in time because its bravery deserves the attention.
Now is not the time, though.
Favourite Tracks: Distortion, Earth, Two Painting by Nikolai Astrup, Crow, Pt. 2.
5.
Artist: Cloud Nothings
Album:
Last Building Burning
Label:
Carpark Records
While
last year’s Life Without Sound was
Cloud Nothings with the edges somewhat softened, the band quickly turn things
around 18 months later with frontman, Dylan Baldi, once again capturing that
aggression which made Cloud Nothings the band we all grew to love with Last Building Burning. Randall Dunne is at
the helm to sprinkle the sonic fairy dust and his work twiddling the knobs has
harnessed Cloud Nothings’ ability to just let loose and project bile. Last Building Burning
angry, it’s personal, and it’s up there with their finest effort that, for me,
is Here and Nowhere Else.
Favourite Tracks: Leave Him Now, Offer An End, Dissolution, Another Way of Life.
4.
Artist: Emma Ruth Rundle
Album:
On Dark Horses
Label:
Sargent House
Emma Ruth Rundle has managed to get in the studio and conjure up more magic, this time with the mesmerising On Dark Horses. Like her last album, Marked For Death, On Dark Horses’ quality is inexorable. Not one weak moment finds its way to tape here and the more time given to these tracks, the more they flourish. With On Dark Horses, it’s difficult to articulate its magnitude. Listening to this album, along with its predecessor, and Emma Ruth Rundle creates an atmosphere that makes her listeners feel safe. Like we’re all fighting against the darkness together and somehow it will be okay. She is hands down one of the most exciting artists around today.
Favourite Tracks: Fever Dreams, Darkhorse, Apathy on the Indiana Border, You Don't Have to Cry.
Words originally appeared on Getintothis.
3.
Artist: Sleep
Album: The Sciences
Label: Third Man Records
The masters of tone. The masters of drone. The
masters of doom. The masters of Bolivia’s finest. If you imagine Matt Pike
occupying the top of a mountain, shirtless, guitar intact and just ripping out
riffs so hot that his tattoos almost peel from his body. This is The Sciences. Sleep’s first record since
Dopesmoker and arguably their
greatest feat yet. It’s been a long time coming but what a return it is.
Favourite Tracks: Sonic Titan, Antacticans Thawed, The Botanist.
2.
Artist: Bambara
Album: Shadow on Everything
Label: Wharf Cat Records
Ever wondered what a Dashiell Hammett novel
would sound like? Look no further, it would sound like Bambara. Shadow on Everything is good. Very
fucking good, actually. Simmering with manic rage, sprawling with Gun Club
noise, Shadow on Everything has a
Crime and City Solution feel about it, but make no mistake, Bambara are very
much their own band. Easily, the find of the year. The southern gothic freight
train blues that is Shadow on Everything doesn’t possess one single weak
spot, unearthing a poetic genius - frontman, Reid Bateh.
Favourite Tracks:
Jose Tries to Leave, The Door Between
Her Teeth, Wild Fires, Backyard.
1.
Artist: Low
Album:
Double Negative
Label:
Sub Pop
While
far removed from Low’s signature slow-core blueprint, Double Negative is still very much a Low album. With the assistance
of BJ Burton (Bon Iver), this could well be one of the greatest re-sets in
modern times. Their template has been thrown at the wall, put through the
mincer, and the results are a reassembled warped combination of skewed vocals,
scarred guitar and post-apocalyptic atmospherics. At the time, Drums and Guns was seen as the black
sheep of Low’s body-of-work, however Double
Negative has a dark political undercurrent which in many ways is as equally
uncharted territory for Duluth’s finest band. It’s a terrain that could swiftly
become their natural habitat and while it’s vastly different to anything
they’ve done in the past, the song-writing is some of the greatest Low has
achieved to date.
Favourite Tracks: Quorum, Dancing and Blood, Always Up, Poor Sucker, Disarray.
Words originally appeared on Getintothis.
Top 50:
50. Nothing
49. Parquet Courts - Wide Awake
48. Anna Von Hausenwolf - Dead Magic
47. Dilly Dally
46. Cash Savage and The Last Drinks Good Citizens
45. Neko Case - Hell-On
44. Gaz Coombes - World's Strongest Man
43. Big-Ups - Two Parts Together
42. BEAK - >>>
41. The Field - Infinite Moment
40. Insecure Men - Insecure Men
39. Anne Garner - Lost Play
38. Suuns – Felt
37. Wooden Shjips - V
36. Yo La Tengo - There's a Riot Going On
35. Ought - Room Inside the World
34. Oh Sees – Smote Reverser
33. Here Lies Man - You Will Know Nothing
32. Red River Dialect - Broken Stay Open Sky
31. Half Man Half Biscuit – Half No-One Cares About Your Creative Hub So
Get Your Fuckin’ Hedge Cut
30. Beach House - 7
29. The Ex - 27 Passports
28. Olden Yolk - Olden Yolk
27. Goat Girl - Goat GirlS
26. Rolling Blackout Coastal Fever – Hope Downs
25. Crippled Black Phoenix – Great Escape
24. Tropical Fuck Storm - A Laughing Death In Meatspace
23. Yves Tumor - Safe in the Hands of Love
22. High On Fire - Electric Messiah
21. Gruff Rhys - Babelsberg
20. ANMLPLNT - Fall Asleep
19. Hot Snakes - Jericho Sirens
18. Pigs X 7 - King of Cowards
17. Daniel Avery - Songs for Alpha
16. Efrim Manuel Menuk - Pissing Stars
15. Marissa Nadler - For My Crimes
14. Yob - Our Raw Heart
13. Eric Bachmann - No Recover
12. Hiro Kone - Pure Expenditure
11. Suede - The Blue Hour
10. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Sparkle Hard
9. Skee Mask – Compro
8. Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
7. IDLES - Joy As An Act of Resistance
6. Mount Eeerie - Now Only
5. Cloud Nothings - Last Building Burning
4. Emma Ruth Rundle - On Dark Horses
3. Sleep - The Sciences
2. Bambara - Shadow on Everything
1. Low - Double Negative
By Simon K.
