Best music of 2023

Good tidings, folks and friends. I’m not trying to get away from Spotify or anything, but I’d be stretching the truth to suggest I wasn’t more than a little obsessed with the statistics. In some ways I tried to game it a bit, making sure I played the catalogues of a sprinkling of artists who are, at the very least, severely under-listened to on streaming services. I have a whole “deserve more love” playlist for several bands with fewer than a thousand monthly listeners, but the handful I made sure to play every week of the year were Suns of the Tundra, Ensemble 1, Laura, and Ro (as well as Life Coach (with Jon Theodore on drums), Fox Wound, and Five-Way Split at various points). This proved no problem with Laura and Ro, particularly with the latter’s new album from January this year, but I confess I got bored doing it with SOTT about June time, at least until the new record came out. Nevertheless, SOTT was my top artist on Spotify Wrapped – apparently, I spent 136.5 hours listening to them (four studio albums plus a soundtrack) which rendered me a top 0.05% fan. That probably earned them a few pennies, but I did also buy the new album on CD and digital.

Other Wrapped stats are 110 days of total listening, 15,922 songs (including one of Ro’s 114 times), Lana Del Rey was my 3^rd top artist and Melvins 5^th – as a learned friend pointed out, one only has to listen to each song once for it to count for a lot – with Laura and Ro in 2^nd and 4^th. So far so cool, but then my top genre was movie tunes. Because children (Disney).

Speaking of cutting down, I’m pretty sure I have written, more than once, about how I might try to listen to less new stuff. So of course my 2023 playlist has more than 400 albums on it, falling just short of 350 hours. Assuming two listens of everything, that accounts for circa 30 of the 110 days, leaving 80 days for Tool and John Coltrane, etc.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2XuCoM24EFoaXQxAuQZXHD?si=K_OJkH5JRu2ZrT4Hy057ZQ&pi=e-AXGqxM7bQUyZ

I couldn’t tell you a thing about many of those 400 records, but I can’t remember any being anything approaching objectively ‘bad’ or unlistenable. I suppose it’s simply a case, as always, of what makes one sit up and take notice, and want to listen again. Granted, where one is already familiar with, or a fan of, an artist’s previous work one is undoubtedly more likely to give stuff that doesn’t grab immediately a few more listens ‘just to make sure’. I do that with Tool’s Fear Inoculum all the time. I’m also trying to move away from being disappointed by things, doing my best to remember that the concept of mean reversion suggests that an amazing record is not likely to be followed by an even better one.

When people talk about zeitgeists in music, I guess they mean what’s achieved critical mass. Not necessarily in the mainstream but at least in an established subculture. One might lament this, but it seems like it could be the case that for every instance of an artist changing the sound or even dumbing it down, there will be one somewhere who isn’t. Or the other way around – Metallica put out another by-the-numbers metal record but there will be plenty of other metal bands doing something exciting and more original. It also means one will have to take the music press with a larger pinch of salt – what they decide is cool this year doesn’t detract from what else is alive and well, and discoverable on streaming or youtube or whatever.

I’m dangerously close to digressing, but the point I really wanted to make is how easy it is to pick any genre and find plenty of awesome stuff that happened in it in 2023. Not all of it will be innovative and interesting, but some is! For example, there was a wide range of jazz, with established artists playing it safe but well, plenty of avant-garde, and more than one future classic potentials. Some favourites include Yussef Dayes’ Black Classical Music, Johnathan Blake’s Passage, Paul Dunmall’s Bright Light a Joyous Celebration, Emma Rawicz’s Chroma, Jaimie Branch (RIP)’s Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die (world war), Lakecia Benjamin’s Phoenix. I also thought the Neck’s new one was really cool. And I was surprised by how much I enjoy Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s latest, given he, er, doesn’t play trumpet on it.

Post-rock had far from a horrible year. After Ro, I think maybe hubris.’ The One Above was my second favourite. (I’m not sure if the word ‘second’ is redundant here.) Shoegaze, I know, but Slowdive’s everything is alive continues their wonderful comeback.

I am largely unqualified to talk about pop music, but favourites included Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS, Caroline Polachek’s Desire, I Want to Turn Into You, and P!nks’s TRUSTFALL. Sleep Token (ha!) not so much (I’m mostly joking here. Fair play, but it’s not really my thing). Much has been made of Corinne Bailey Rae’s left-turn into multiple genres, but I haven’t listened enough to form an opinion.

Ditto for hip-hop, but outside of the record that made it onto my final list of favourites, I really enjoyed Logic’s College Park. I think it’s a concept album, and it’s very funny in places, but none of that overshadows the beats and raps. billy woods is a name that comes up more than once, I was surprised I enjoyed Nas’ new material given there was so much of it and I mostly only like him because of Illmatic (and previous Korn collaborations). And it never fails to warm my heart to have something new from Oddisee.

With apologies for the flimsy categorisation, from singer/songwriters there are a couple of standouts one will see on every year-end list, not least boygenius’ the record, which is an amazing listen…when I remember to put it on and pay attention. Kara Jackson’s Dickhead Blues surely deserves an award for song name, and it was good to have a more straightforward Keaton Henson back. PJ Harvey’s new record didn’t stick for me, but I seem to remember enjoying Hayden Pedigo more than a little (listening back to it now to check, it seems there’s no singing. Whoopsy. Told you).

There is nearly always some great hardcore (/punk/post-hardcore/etc) and this year was no exception. I enjoyed the new Dreamwell and the Jacob Bannon-featuring Sexless Marriage, and I really enjoyed (supergroup) Empire State Bastard (I’m pretty sure there’s a drums-and-vocals-only track on there, which reminds me of Converge), (supergroup, again) Better Lovers, and Fiddlehead. There was even a new record from Will Haven, who seem to have come and gone over the (20+) years.

Lazily lumping together ambient, instrumental, and electronic, it seems I will always love everything Warmth and Loscil do. For whatever reason I often put on Mioclono and Jack Vanzet when people came over, I didn’t hate Mac DeMarco’s effort, may Ryuichi Sakamato rest in peace, and Moby’s ambient record is my very first entry on the year’s playlist. I do really like the new DJ Shadow, except to say I’m not sure how much of a good DJ Shadow record it is. I’ve listened to M83 several times and can’t recall a damn thing about it.

Even more lazily, I am going to group together ‘genre metal’. By this I mostly mean black and death, and permutations thereof, maybe with some doom and sludge and other things in there too. There’s an awful lot of this in my 2023 collection, driven by two friends, one relatively new and one an old school friend I hadn’t spoken to in years. (His number one genre on his Spotify Wrapped was dissonant death metal.) I’m not saying I don’t take it seriously but most of it really is great fun – not just the names and the titles and the artwork and the genre hallmarks, but the riffs and the songs too! I nearly put Liturgy in my top 15, because when it works, it’s mind-blowing (‘bananas’, my old school friend said), but it is a bit long for what it is. Perhaps length is a requirement to be avant-garde, I don’t know. Other highlights include Tomb Mold, Spirit Possession, and Cattle Decapitation, but there were plenty of others.

Some artists I would like to spend more time with include Alfa Mist, Actress, Marnie Stern, Raul Refree, Lambert, Spotlights, Militarie Gun, Sampha, and Graf Orlock.

OK. Right. Well then. I better get on with the main event. In the end, after all of the above, it was surprisingly easy to whittle it down to a favourite fifteen. I have in the past often included things that I loved even if I couldn’t think of something to say about them. That would have meant including a few names from my best-songs playlist, especially Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Rozi Plain, JW Francis, 100 gecs, and Mutoid Man. I also think Foo Fighters put out their best record since One by One, and Avenged Sevenfold’s latest is indeed bonkers. But this year I’ve gone for the no-brainers, things I remember without having to refer back to anything.

Albums: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Ze2aEq0hek0HSEzOC9LxF?si=YDjeTnnqQdqOyuSrcvRY5w&pi=e-8OhyqH30SROR

Songs: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1VxORHMxJqS0nkQD0vy2G0?si=TcQJuHSvQ5ybZN2xVnv1hQ&pi=e-PfAzuWeTSj-f

Ro – Baiagoan

Spanish post-rock band with fewer than 400 monthly listeners on Spotify and whose 2020 record, Athalase, was one of my favourites that year. Baiagoan is bigger and better in every way. Some cheesy distortion aside, largely devoid of bells and whistles – as I often like to say, the simple (but not simplistic) sound of some friends making alchemy in someone’s garage. They have achieved so much with so little it’s astonishing. The title track is worth the price of admission almost by itself; the guitar interplay is sublime.

Jose James – On & On

One of my favourite artists but I certainly don’t like everything he does. That’s surely inevitable given all the different things he tries – jazz, R&B, a Christmas album, tribute albums to Billie Holiday, Bill Withers, and now Eryka Badu. I thought it was an odd choice that wasn’t going to work, but I was very wrong. It’s a great covers album and a great jazz record.

Emiliana Torrini, The Colorist Orchestra – Racing the Storm

Electronic folk meets a chamber orchestra, with sublime results. A captivating, albeit a bit cutesy, voice.

Lana Del Rey – Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd

There’s plenty I’m dubious about on LDR’s ninth album – the awkward title, its length, the unnecessary inclusion of the original version of Venice Bitch, and A&W not being as good as every critic seems to think it is – but I have been wrong about Lana Del Rey enough times in the past that, like Martin Scorsese and Al Pacino getting their Oscars for The Departed and Scent of a Woman even though they’d done better before, I am not going to fail to include her record in my list of favourites this time. Looking back, I should have included NFR (turns out one of my favourite albums ever, and whose frequent revisiting likely drove LDR’s 3^rd spot of my top 5 Spotify artists) in 2019 and Chemtrails over the Country Club in 2021. There are, nonetheless, more than enough highlights on DYKTTATUOB to justify its inclusion, not least Candy Necklace with Jon Batiste, and Let the Light in with Father John Misty.

Five-Way Split – All the Way

I think this was a random Spotify recommendation. If not, then I have no idea how I came across it. I don’t think I’ve heard of any of the quintet before, and they have precisely 43 monthly listeners on Spotify. It’s hardly innovative, but it’s one of the most expert and perfect distillations of straight-ahead jazz I have ever heard.

bar italia – Tracy Denim

Crunchy, jazzy, often witty indie.

Fox Wound – Death Blossoms in a Trauma Year

I think hardcore music can live or die by its vocalist, or at least without a good one its all too easy to sound generic or copycat. Luckily, Fox Wound’s (c.250 monthly listens on Spotify, just to confirm my cool credentials) vocalist more than holds his own against the rest of the band and its engaging arrangements.

Blackbraid – Blackbraid II

Full disclosure, I’m a sucker for acoustic guitar in odd places, such as electronic (Four Tet) and, in this case, black metal music. Spotify lists Sgah’gahsowáh (Jon Krieger)’s solo project “Indigenous black metal from the depths of the Adirondack (Northeast New York) wilderness.” I gather he plays everything except drums himself; I think there might even be some flute in there somewhere.

Noname – Sundial

The final track, Oblivion, which features Common, is a song of the year. I confess, rightly or wrongly, that it ticks all the boxes I like for hip-hop – organic sounding beat, great hook (from Ayoni), varied lyrics, the sound of her voice – plus some tiny but appealing little quirks like the way she says “yo”. The rest of the album more than holds up against that standout, though, especially on tracks like boomboom and gospel? (featuring billy woods, among others). Short and sweet too, clocking in at just over half an hour across 11 tracks.

Sunny War – Anarchist Gospel

Much like for Five-Way Split, this must have been a random Spotify suggestion. Despite the title and artwork, it’s very much a folk record, and it’s quite extraordinary. The playing, the arrangements, the lyrics, the hit-rate across the 14 songs,…something this good shouldn’t be this hard to find.

Laufey – Bewitched

Close your eyes and don’t listen too hard and you might be forgiven for thinking this Chinese-Icelandic pop-jazz singer is the second coming of Ella Fitzgerald. I won’t promise I’ll think that forever but while the album is very far from daring or innovative, it is incredibly addictive and really rather lovely.

Crosses – Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete

I wasn’t sure where I was going to land with this, but where I have is that there are plenty of good songs on this, again outside of the one that most immediately stood out (the title track, featuring Chino Moreno at his most soothing and beautiful). Found is probably my second favourite. The synth arrangements rarely fail to be interesting, and Moreno’s gift for hook and melody has seemingly returned, following its absence on Deftones’s Ohms from 2020. As per their M.O., it’s very much a collection of songs rather than an album with real flow, but with such illustrious features as El-P and Robert Smith), it would be churlish to complain.

Sofia Kourtesis

I think I’m right in saying that electronic music is a genre where women are underrepresented, but I hope that a record as stunning as this does nothing but help change that. Came out the same day as DJ Shadow and I much prefer it. My favourite electronic music has to be beautiful as well as cool, funky, or banging, and Kourtesis has certainly nailed that.

Howling Giant

I kept filing this under ‘genre metal’, largely because it’s the AOTY of my friend who’s mostly into doom metal, but it’s actually prog and not really death/black at all. This is the sort of mind trick memory failure that happens when you spread yourself too thin, I suppose. I could learn from that, but likely won’t. Anyway, it’s prog where the songs come first, and the extremely catchy riffing is the first thing you notice.

Night Verses

And finally, a band I only heard of because Tool picked them to support next year’s tour. Independently awesome though, I have discovered. Not a million miles off Animals as Leaders, I’m going to conclude. By which I mean a proggy, mathy, heavy (am I supposed to mention ‘djent’ too?) instrumental trio.

 

So there you have it. Thanks very much, and happy Christmas, one and all.

Best music of 1997

See “Best of 2008” for a general introduction.

As I wrote in my “Best of 2000” entry, you’ll see that as I move backward in time I am starting to run out of a good stock of records from these years that I have memories and opinions and any sort of knowledge or interest in. With the possible exception of Natalie Imbruglia’s Left of the Middle, albums from 1997 that I like would have been listened to years later. I was only 12 and so my formative years weren’t quite upon me yet.

1997 had plenty to be famous for, with records like Radiohead’s OK Computer, Daft Punk’s debut Homework, Björk’s (best album) Homogenic, The Prodigy’s The Fat of the Land, Deftones’ Around the Fur, Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s F# A# Infinity, and Foo Fighters’ The Colour and the Shape still being raved about (in niche Facebook groups or mainstream music magazines) today.

Dream Theater’s fourth album Falling Into Infinity was meant to be a bit more commercial sounding. I suppose it is, but I still have a lot of affection for a lot of the tracks on it, although it doesn’t feature anywhere the top of a DT album ranking.

Mogwai’s debut Young Team is generally considered their magnum opus, but I don’t personally agree.

The Verve’s Urban Hymns was everywhere I seem to remember, with more than a couple of very strong songs.

Metallica’s Reload was the companion to 1996’s Load and is the weaker of the two, but along with the black album it was one of the first I got in to, so I don’t dismiss it all that readily. Songs like Fuel and The Memory Remains have endured in Metallica setlists, Fixxer is not a bad epic, and I really don’t hate The Unforgiven II, however we might feel about the original or song sequels in general.

AFI’s Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes is the purist’s choice for inclusion in AFI’s ‘great trilogy’ meaning that Sing the Sorrow is not. I don’t associate SYMAOYE with a time and place quite so much, although it is perhaps a summery album in a way the more gothic later albums are not. It’s quite short and raw, and while it does have the what was standard-for-a-while intro track, and there are plenty of standout moments, it’s not crafted like what came after. Note the reoccurrence of the number three in the track names (it was their third studio album) – Three Reasons, Third Season, Three Seconds Notice, Triple Zero.

The debut LPs from both At the Drive-In and Limp Bizkit hinted at what would come later but neither are without merit on their own. Depending on your point of view, perhaps. Similarly, Machine Head’s sophomore The More Things Change… gets lost in the shuffle a little, but many would hold it up next to Burn My Eyes.

In the same way that In Utero is not as slickly produced as Nevermind, I thought for many years that The Offspring’s Ixnay on the Hombre came before Smash. As often happens, I was wrong about that. The Meaning of Life is one of my favourite Offspring songs, though.

The Melvins’ Honky was the first album following the Atlantic trilogy (alas they were not the Nirvana II the major label was hoping for, and grunge died) and is one of the more experimental ones. I’m OK with that in general but it’s still not one of my favourites.

And that’s all I have to say really about records that aren’t in my top…14 this year. Which are:

Björk – Homogenic

Probably her best album and definitely the most consistent front to back. Very strings and beats driven, even James Bond-y at times (put Björk up with Caro Emerald as suggestions for bond theme singers). While it’s clear how marmite Björk is, this CD made me a convert for life. Fun fact: the track Unravel has featured at least twice in Late Night Tales compilations – in The Flaming Lips’ and Midlake’s, if not others.

Bob Dylan – Time Out of Mind

I get a bit of a kick out of the fact that given Robert Zimmerman has both hot streaks and periods of barrel scraping, one of the former happened in the 90s of all decades. Well, it started in the 90s anyway, with nothing less than his 30^th studio album. I have posited in the past that Dylan’s music isn’t exactly beautiful per se but there are several exceptions to that – songs like Lay, Lady, Lay, and Sara, for instance. And Not Dark Yet from this. Gives me chills.

Coalesce – Give Them Rope

I have previously written that I don’t find things ‘too heavy’ anymore. Given the recent likes of Lorna Shore pushing heavy vocals to the limit, I might have to revise that. But at one time I would have found the relentless metalcore assault of Coalesce to be approaching that limit. But in a sweet spot that makes it eminently enjoyable and even listenable, albeit perhaps at the expense of variety. There was a 2011 CD reissue that came with a little piece of rope in the case, which was a cool little touch.

Deftones – Around the Fur

Suffers at the end from the 90s CD fashion of making a 40-minute album 70 minutes long but to be fair the non-silence secret song Damone is worthy of being a proper track. There was a time when I found White Pony not heavy enough and so this was my favourite Deftones’ album. I’ve probably grown out of that, but it is apparently Chino’s own favourite. Debut Adrenaline has perhaps not dated that well, but AtF certainly has, and the tracks My Own Summer (Shove It) and Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) could never be overplayed.

Depeche Mode – Ultra

The last in an absolutely incredible 5-album run. It is perhaps the 5^th out of those 5 but Freestate is one of my favourite deep cuts for sure. Unlike every DM record that came after, this record is definitely non-filler heavy, although it’s quite dreamy so I think works better as a whole than necessarily having standout moments (the aforementioned aside).

Elliot Smith – Either/Or

I’m listening to this right now to try to come up with something more to say about it other than “I think it’s a good record and I like it a lot”. So far I’m reminded that while it isn’t just one man and a guitar, it is still just one man (Smith played every instrument – making him the Dave Grohl of indie/folk? Not that such a comparison is needed). Sad but also optimistic, three of the songs featured on the Good Will Hunting soundtrack (along with another Smith song, Miss Misery), and the album quite rightly features on many publications’ all-time best-of lists.

Foo Fighters – The Colour and the Shape

It’s tempting to say that it begins and ends with Everlong, and certainly that song is worth the price of admission alone, but luckily there were two other quality singles in Monkey Wrench and My Hero, plenty of decent deep cuts, and a sense of cohesive progression through the album.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – F# A# Infinity

I think I’ve placed the ! historically incorrectly, given that’s where it is now but perhaps it came after emperor back then? It’s like Panic! At the Disco all over again. Well anyway, Canadian post-rock/avant-garde collective (I think given the heavily left wing politics it actually is a collective rather than me just trying to find another word for band) make the sort of music that is so awesome, in the biblical sense of the word, that people who wouldn’t generally go in for singer-less field-recording laden 20 minute epics will gladly make an exception. The Sad Mafioso section of East Hastings is sublime enough as it is, but seeing/hearing it from the stage alongside the live visuals is positively transcendental.

Incubus – S.C.I.E.N.C.E

Perhaps a little patchy and immature (and the most ‘nu metal’?) compared to something like Morning View but probably still my 3^rd favourite after that and Make Yourself. It’s definitely more rock than the funk that preceded it, the 90s hidden track stuff is actually quite enjoyable even after several listens, it has the DJ-driven companion track Magic Medicine to Make Yourself’s Battlestar Scralatchtica, Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song) has a lovely sax solo, New Skin is one of my favourite Incubus tracks (including the percussion at the end), and the lyrics are some of Brandon Boyd’s cleverest.

Radiohead – OK Computer

As experimental as it is, it’s still heavily guitar driven and has some great riffs and incredible vocal tunes. And probably the best lyrics of any Radiohead album. These days I probably revisit Kid A and In Rainbows more, but many purists will still swear by this and The Bends as peak Radiohead. I used to be able to play Karma Police on drums, which isn’t saying much but there is an awesome little fill towards the end.

Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen we are Floating in Space

Once upon a time I wouldn’t have touched this with a barge pole, but it’s actually more space rock and experimental than it is ‘indie’ so fair enough. I even went to a whole-album show of it at the Barbican, where my companion and I got vomited on by a patron in the row behind. That never happened to me at a metal gig!

Stereophonics – Word Gets Around

I had Performance and Cocktails first, then on a trip to Cologne on the German exchange we went to a music shop and I spent some of the spending money my parents had given me, on Garbage’s self-titled debut (again, I had album number 2 already) and Stereophonics’ debut. It’s definitely a rawer sound, particularly Kelly Jones’ voice, which is surely an acquired taste. It works though. I haven’t listened to either Stereophonics album in many years (I didn’t get any more) but I recently found myself adapting the tune of Check My Eyelids For Holes to something to do with my daughter’s toileting (“check your nappy for poo” if you must know. Sorry Kelly).

The Notorious B.I.G – Life After Death

I’m not super into mainstream hip hop, but I like Eminem and Dr Dre as much as the next person, but [Biggy Small’s] second album, as presciently titled as his debut Ready to Die (he died…) is hard not to like (usual gripes about double albums aside). Especially the beautiful triple white vinyl package available as part of Record Store Day (thanks very much).

The Prodigy – The Fat of the Land

The dance album beloved by metalheads across the globe, it almost drips with darkness and dread and menace. It’s not exactly an album of deep cuts though – the singles (Smack My Bitch Up, Breathe, and Firestarter) and Mindfields (I wanna say this was used in The Matrix?) are probably still the best tracks on it.

1997, a playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2uclLpCBhHkXFxv6F7lWFd?si=gwLKfFQsTGOJK6sELF8yVA

AFI – A Single Second
At the Drive-In – Ticklish
Ben Folds Five – Battle of Who Could Care Less
Björk - Joga
Bob Dylan – Not Dark Yet
Coalesce – Have Patience
Daft Punk – Around the World
Deftones – Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)
Depeche Mode – Freestate
Dream Theater – You Not Me
Elliott Smith – Between the Bars
Foo Fighters – Everlong
GY!BE – East Hastings
Incubus – New Skin
Limp Bizkit – Faith
Machine Head – Ten Ton Hammer
Melvins – Lovely Butterfly (not on Spotify)
Metallica - Fixxxer
Mogwai – Katrien
Natalie Imbruglia – Torn
Radiohead – Electioneering
Sick of it All – Built to Last
Spiritualized – Cop Shoot Cop
Stereophonics – More Life in a Tramps Vest
Texas – Halo
The Notorious B.I.G – Mo Money Mo Problems
The Offspring – The Meaning of Life
The Prodigy – Breathe
The Verve – Weeping Willow

Will Smith – Men in Black

Best music of 1998

See “Best of 2008” for a general introduction.

As I wrote in my “Best of 2000” entry, you’ll see that as I move backward in time I am starting to run out of a good stock of records from these years that I have memories and opinions and any sort of knowledge or interest in. Like for 2000, I only have 31 albums on my longlist for 1998. Of these, I was into precisely one at the time – Garbage’s Version 2.0 (maybe The Cardigans – Gran Turismo too, but that could well have been the year after). I would have been aware of a few others, at least the singles on the radio, but that’s all. Everything else is retrospective!

There are a few classics from this year that I certainly recognise as such, albeit they’ve passed me by a little too much or just haven’t quite made the top cut. Or really, any of the long list could form a credible shortlist. Things like UNKLE’s Psyence Fiction, Elliot Smith’s XO, Botch’s American Nervoso, Hole’s Celebrity Skin, Beastie Boys’ Hello Nasty, Raised Fist’s debut Fuel, Fatboy Slim’s You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, Massive Attack’s Mezzanine, and Air’s Moon Safari.

I’m not sure Faithless (Maxi Jazz RIP) were ever much of an album band, although I might be wrong. 1998’s Sunday 8PM features such enduring classics as God is a DJ and Bring my Family back. Placebo’s Without You I’m Nothing is also home to some of their greatest songs – not least Pure Morning, the title track, and Every Me, Every You.

Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane over the Sea is from this year. I’ve tried it a couple of times and it is yet to take. Pearl Jam’s Yield features one of my favourite songs in Brain of J. but the rest of it is merely OK.

Manic Street Preacher’s This is my Truth tell me yours has some of their greatest songs on it, but there aren’t many album tracks that hold their own against the singles, and it feels a song or two too long overall.

Some great nu-metal from Soulfly (their debut following Max’s departure from Sepultura), Pitchshifter, and the underrated One Minute Silence.

One year before the release of Mos Def’s solo debut Black on Both Sides, he collaborated with Talib Kweli on Black Star. Two of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time, in two years, then.

Finally, this was the year of Offspring’s Americana. While Pretty Fly for a White Guy was kinda cringy I guess, most of the rest of it was on par with Smash, I’d say. I certainly prefer it to Ixnay on the Hombre.

On to a top 11, then:

At The Drive-In – In/Casino/Out

A bit simpler than Relationship of Command, perhaps – certainly rawer, given it was recorded live (meaning all together rather than individual, but still in the studio) – but another fantastic ATDI album nonetheless. Plenty of punk with clever chords, and Napoleon Solo is one of the most beautiful things they ever did. The two-guitar interplay between Omar and Jim is just sublime. The lyrics almost make sense too.

Boards of Canada – Music has the right to Children

An old friend had probably played this in the flat, but it wasn’t until 2013’s Tomorrow Harvest that I got there myself (what a stunning album that is). I believe MHTRTC, the Canadi…Scottish Electronic duo’s debut album is generally considered their magnum opus, and features on several non-genre best-of lists, but the entire output is worthy.

Cave In – Until Your Heart Stops

My introduction to Cave In was via 2003’s melodic indie record Antenna. It was quite some time before I explored outside that, but before the rather gorgeous 2013 Record Store Day release on double vinyl. Despite the somewhat emo title, UYHS is raging metalcore, and it’s astonishing.

Garbage – Version 2.0

The album where it all began. I had the Spice Girls’ first two albums on cassette, plus some singles, but the first two CDs I ever bought were Natalie Imbruglia’s Left of the Middle and Garbage’s 2^nd album Version 2.0. I think Texas’ White on Blonde was third. A friend who knew how much I loved this record wandered into my room at university once to tell me he’d heard on the radio that…Colin Murray…I think…had suggested this as an example of a disappointing follow-up to a classic debut album. As amazing as self-titled is, that sentiment is just incredibly wrong. While the production is certainly very slick, once again Shirley shines through as an imperfect (and therefore perfect) rock star as she sings, croons, whispers, and spits her lyrical witticisms. Push It (not to be confused with Salt N Pepa or Tool’s songs of the same name, although the former got a writing credit for similarity – Brian Wilson got more for the sample of Beach Boys’ Don’t Worry Baby) was the universe’s way of letting me know I was going to be into heavy rock music and The Trick is to Keep Breathing is a real tearjerker (the book on which it’s based is a fine piece of Scottish literature. Incredibly depressing, mind). But really the whole thing is a marvellous ride.

Korn – Follow the Leader

Most of it hasn’t dated very well, and some of it is plain awful, but for a time this was peak Korn. Songs like Freak on a Leash and Got the Life, however, are enduring nu-metal classics.

Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation of

Sometimes a record is so good it doesn’t matter what genre it is. This is one of them. I love everything about it – the singles, the deep cuts, the tunes, Hill’s voice, the skits, the concept, the musical quotations, and the spirit of collaboration (although Hill didn’t like to acknowledge this much outside of the named features).

Opeth – My Arms, Your Hearse

Another super-emo title of an album that isn’t. Progressive death metal, anyone? While Demon of the Fall is possibly Opeth’s best ever song, the rest of the album is nothing to sniff at, and it works well as a conceptual whole. In particular, each song’s lyrics end with the title of the next song.

Refused – The Shape of Punk to Come

This record is almost beyond reproach, being both easy to rock out to and ridiculously clever. I suppose it does wear its influences quite obviously on its sleeve, but ‘great artists steal and all that’ as I am very fond of parroting. The Ornette Coleman-referencing title and picture of John Coltrane on the cover are enough to make me delirious, but New Noise has got to be one of the greatest headbangers of all time. Nothing quite like it has been made since. To be fair to Refused themselves, they haven’t tried.

REM – Up

I don’t think many fans of REM at the time held this album in very high esteem. Even if it was OK, the absence of founding drummer Bill Berry was strongly felt. Even in spirit if not in sound (although drum machines are used at times). But it was one of the first REM albums I listened to, kindly handed down to me by a colleague at Waitrose at a time when I was branching out from just metal music. I relistened to it last year and I found once wasn’t enough, having it on repeat for several days. I just think it has a really high hit rate of good songs, Michael Stipe’s vocal melodies are lovely, and it gets better and better as it goes along.

System of a Down – s/t

Three of the bands I loved when I was getting into (nu-metal) music were Slipknot, 36 Crazyfists, and System of a Down. I was hooked by all three debut albums. Then, really strangely, the sophomore records came out and I didn’t like any of them. 36 CF’s A Snow-Capped Romance I grew to love but the other two I never did. Kerrang! recently asked for people’s unusual music opinions on Facebook and my comment that neither Toxicity nor Iowa are either band’s best work made it into their final ‘article’. I think I managed to avoid being called an edgelord in the comments, thankfully. Both records have stand-out moments but there’s a goodly amount of filler there too. SOAD’s self-titled, on the other hand, now that was a revelation. I hadn’t listened to it in years and worried that it wouldn’t have dated very well, Serj especially sounding a little too much 90s metal quirky (the Biffy Clyro of metal?), but no I think it holds up. The funny thing about the hate or indifference that a lot of those 90s metal bands get is how good a lot of them are as musicians. Whereas in, say, Limp Bizkit that accusation probably can’t be levelled at every member, in SOAD it can.

Tortoise – TNT

Chicago post-rock (with jazz and electronics) band Tortoise is one of those artists where I more or less got into all of it at once. Which means I generally listen to the entire back catalogue in one go, in chronological order. Nevertheless, TNT stands out. Even though its predecessor gets most of the accolades, I think TNT is the more consistent record front to back. Perhaps it’s not quite as innovative, but then why would it be?

1998, a playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6FgdwwFhpb8L7UCRO1Gngl?si=lWhPAHaVSrmXfqQgygZt3Q

Air – La femme d’argent

At the Drive-In – Napoleon Solo

Beastie Boys – Intergalactic

Black Star – Re:Definition

Boards of Canada – Olson

Botch – Dali’s Praying Mantis

Cave In – Moral Eclipse

Elliot Smith – Waltz #2 (XO)

Faithless – God is a DJ

Fatboy Slim – The Rockafeller Skank

Garbage – Push It

Hole – Celebrity Skin

Korn – Freak on a Leash

Ms. Lauryn Hill – Doo Wop (That Thing)

Manic Street Preachers – If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next

Massive Attack – Teardrop

Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

One Minute Silence – South Central

Opeth – Demon of the Fall

Pearl Jam – Brain of J.

Pitchshifter – Microwaved

Placebo – Pure Morning

Raised Fist – Monumental

Refused – New Noise

R.E.M. – Daysleeper

Soulfly – Bumbklaatt

System of a Down – Sugar

The Cardigans – My Favourite Game

The Offspring – The Kids Aren’t Alright

Tortoise – I Set My Face to the Hillside

UNKLE – Rabbit In Your Headlights

Best music of 2022

Howdy folks. Here we are again. Earlier than usual this year – I finished a final run-through of my 2022 playlist (at the time of starting writing, 284 albums, 240 hours, and 3,243 tracks) so I’m ready to ramble! This also means I can spend the rest of December listening to what I want to. Not that I don’t enjoy listening to all this new stuff, and there was a tonne of great music released in 2022, of course, but perhaps it’s a question of when. Sometimes you’re just in the mood for some 1980s Iron Maiden, y’know? Or Christmas music, given the time of year. This is mostly the only time when I forget I’m not supposed to like cheesy music, but then some records, like Vince Guaraldi’s soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas, are classics regardless. Plus, as I’ve written before, a December cannot go by without a ritual listen of Tool’s Lateralus and AFI’s The Art of Drowning (or Korn’s Issues at New Year’s).

And Spotify Wrapped only goes up to the end of November – I had previously hoped it would refresh every time I clicked on it, but no dice. Alas, not even something as seemingly sweet and harmless as Spotify Wrapped (I said Spotify Wrapped, not Spotify) can be considered uncontroversial or something not worth being shamed for on the internet (not me personally, I have nice friends, but I’ve seen a few memes taking the piss out of it. It makes you wonder what social media is for if not a bit of fun). But another record year as it happens, being over 101 days’ worth of listening! As my ever-longer suffering wife will tell you, there is noise from some speaker or other pretty much from 0700 to 2300. Every day. Even when I have a call or meeting. This worked fine until a) I realised I wasn’t always taking in what folk were saying, and b) when I changed a setting which meant background noise came through much louder and clearer and colleagues started asking me about it. Luckily, I have fixed the latter.

My top artist was Melvins. I was in the top 0.1% of listeners apparently, but as a learned friend pointed out, one could probably achieve that without listening to the same Melvins song more than once. My top song was Blacklight Shine by The Mars Volta.

I often mention disappointments, as personal, mean-spirited, and unnecessary as that is. I only really mean where expectations aren’t met – y’know, coz happiness = reality less expectations. (I thought the new Arcade Fire albums was fairly bad but I’m not a fan so who cares.) I don’t think much of the new Beyonce or Taylor Swift, but as amazing as Lemonade and folklore/evermore were, I was never going to, was I? I should say that I am even more unqualified to comment on such genres I know little about. But given how wide I cast my net of musical consumption, I don’t often get accused of discernment either. Well anyway, the only real disappointment was Pianos Become the Teeth’s Drift. It’s basically Kyle Durfey with backing tracks, but since he’s musically the weakest link (when they’re all working together, he normally still manages to be wonderful) this was not a good idea.

I didn’t mention Red Hot Chili Peppers. It would be rich of me to sit here and say something disparaging about Anthony Kiedis, or any other aspect of the band, given 1) what I was saying about social media a moment ago, and 2) they were my 3^rd most listened to band on Spotify (after Melvins and Cult of Luna, ahead of Lamb of God and The Mars Volta). If you’re a fan, particularly of ‘classic’ Chilis, then what a year it was to be alive! 34+ tracks of new music! The return of John Frusciante! I guess my expectations were never going to be met though. Frusciante returning? They did that already. Why bother writing any more songs at this point, could we just have some jamming? Well, we’ve had a Frusciante solo EP including a 15-minute track of basically just guitar soloing, and I wasn’t into it. This is not to say there are not plenty of great moments among those two 17+ track albums, but I’m not sure what the records add overall. Then again, I like the lounge jazz moments on Return of the Dream Canteen, so you can’t trust anything I say…

There were many wonderful surprises though:

• Slipknot’s The End, So Far fits in, I think, with the idea that the odd-numbered major Slipknot releases are the best (s/t, vol.3, 5. The Grey Chapter). I sometimes listen to WANYK and remember I don’t like most of it, whereas with The End I remember I do
• Porcupine Tree and Alexisonfire’s comeback albums are both pretty great. Coheed and Cambria’s new one wasn’t exactly a comeback but a new C&C being good isn’t guaranteed. This one is though
• A return to form (again) from Joss Stone, and a Christmas album too
• A return to form (again) from Machine Head
• I will apparently never not like alt-J
• Some of my favourite releases are from genres I wouldn’t normally listen to and artists I hadn’t previously heard of, but more on that in a bit
• If you like electronic / ambient music, then you’ll have loved 2022 (current affairs aside, I mean). So many incredible releases, even though it wasn’t hard to pick a favourite, but more on that in a bit too

Near misses:

• Yard Act – The Overload: post-punk with talky vocals. Didn’t like the first listen. Loved it from the second. Political and witty
• Korn – Requiem: honestly, really enjoyable. Very strong melodies
• Rolo Tomassi – When Myth Becomes Memory: one of the most consistent bands around. Something about the new record doesn’t quite put it on par with the last two, but it’s not far off
• Placebo – Never Let Me Go. The best album since Meds, IMO. And quite possibly they finally have something approaching good album art. Maybe
• Meshuggah – Immutable. I remember finding Clockworks indistinct, particularly when compared to Koloss and Obzen. Seeing the Swedish djent overlords live this year (at the Royal Albert Hall of all places) and listening to the new record enough have ensured that hasn’t happened again. While the usual things that make Meshuggah the band it is are present and correct, there is the odd curveball thrown in too
• Fontaines D.C. – Skinty Fia. Another one I didn’t take to initially but soon grew on me. The tunes are really beautiful in a way they wouldn’t be if someone sung them properly
• King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Too many albums released to pick from, so I haven’t. But they’re great fun
• Cave In – Heavy Pendulum. Their best album in 17 years. Rifftastic. A bit long, perhaps
• Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band. A friend has been telling me about this multitalented Liverpudlian for years and years. Then I got dragged to a gig at Shepherd’s Bush earlier this year. It was wonderful. And this particular musical outlet of Mick Head released an album. That album is very good. It consists of great song after great song that stay at the forefront of your mind and attention
• Warmth – The Night. Huerco S. – Plonk. Loscil – The Sails, Pt.1. Blood Incantation – IO. Nils Frahm – Music for Animals (all 3 hours of it). Just five of the fantastic and gorgeous ambient releases that are beautiful but I didn’t love quite as much as the one I put in my top list
• Greg Puciato – Mirrorcell. Second solo album from The Dillinger Escape Plan frontman. His first – 2020’s Child Soldier: Creator of God – was heavy on atmospherics and weirdness. This one is more about riffs and melody, and succeeds pretty well on that front
• The Mars Volta – s/t. OK, yes, sure. If it had been released as an Omar (Rodriguez-Lopez) solo record no-one would, having listened to it, accuse it of sounding like a Mars Volta record. On the other hand, The Mars Volta was a band of ideas, and this is exactly what this album is. The difference is that without the noodling there is no breathing room for those ideas and they come at you a bit relentlessly. It sounds incredible though (coming from someone who thinks De-Loused had their best production and sound), and features some of Cedric’s best ever vocal work
• Blaqk Audio – Trop D’Amour. Davey and Jade’s (AFI) most consistent album from start to finish
• I initially had these in my top few separately but if I’m going to pick just one black metal album then I will relegate Wake – Thought from descent and black particles – loss function to this list of near misses. Both really are excellent though

As usual, I’ll have missed and overlooked and forgotten things, and been hopelessly wrong about others, but here are the records that really stood out for me this year.

As ever, cheers! And happy Christmas and new year.

Link: 2022 best SONGS playlist

Link: 2022 best ALBUMS playlist

Wiegedood – There’s always blood at the end of the road

Imagine black metal that is incredibly fun, dare I say even catchy, but with no loss of pummelling savagery. Voila.

Cult of Luna – The long road north

My favourite album of the year is by Cult of Luna. Again. What an astonishing late period (or mid I suppose if they go another 20 years) they are having. Fans liked 2013’s Vertikal and 2016’s Mariner well enough but, a couple of tracks on Vertikal aside, I’m fairly lukewarm towards those two records. So, for me 2019’s amazing ‘A dawn to fear’ was a real surprise. What’s perhaps even more surprising is that three years later (not forgetting last year’s EP ‘the raging river’) they’ve done it again! TLRN is perhaps not a million miles from ADTF in terms of style or sound or construction, but there is still a sprinkling of small innovations, most notably avant-garde saxophonist Colin Stetson’s involvement. Once again, it’s the guitar top lines singing out over everything that steal the show, but the chilling and cohesive atmosphere is also what makes it yet another masterpiece from the post-metal Swedes.

Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

I have this vague idea that sometimes a good sound can hide unexceptional songwriting. And that often I’m willing to forgo the latter for the former. When your band doesn’t use a lot of dirty vocals or distortion on the ol’ guitars and that, there are fewer places to hide. But you can still be layered and complex, of course. Now while this double-album starts off totally fine, after about the first third, or perhaps even quarter, we suddenly get this incredible run of strong songs. There’s a fair bit of variation in there an’ all, which I guess is essential for such a long record! Worth it though.

Zeal & Ardor – s/t

I kept thinking this basically sounded like Kings of Leon with blast beats. Then I actually bothered to look it up and the idea is a combination of African-American spiritual music and, well yes, black metal. But who knew it was possible to still be original in 2022? And pull it off too.

Nilüfer Yanya – PAINLESS

The second album from the English/part-Turkish singer-songwriter (she also plays guitar and keyboard I think). I read in a review somewhere that Radiohead is a clear influence. And yes I can definitely hear that. But I’m fine with it. Great artists stealing and all that. Not the only album in this list that sounds like Radiohead.

Charlotte Adigery, Bolis Pupil – Topical dancer

Definitely one to file in the Pitchfork folder of things usually too cool for me. But the stark clarity and sly humour of every element – vocals, lyrics, beats – appeals anyway.

DARK – dark_1

This is my favourite ambient/electronic release of the year. There was a dark_2 too but the first one just really stood out for me. I’m beginning to think that anything with a Steve Reich style pulsating repetition I’m going to like by default.

Machinedrum / tstewart – elysian

My other favourite electronic / producer record this year. I loved 2013’s Vapor City but haven’t delved beyond – there’s quite a lot of material under various different names. Speaking of which, I think this may technically count as a tstewart (as in Travis Stewart) release, but it shows up under both names. I seem to recall Bonobo’s Simon Green did the artwork too.

The Smile – A light for attracting attention

The Smile consists of Thom and Jonny from Radiohead and one of the drummers from Sons of Kemet. So far, so amazing. Described as the best thing to come out of a Radiohead side-project, I would certainly agree with that. It’s probably the best Radiohead-related thing since In Rainbows (or Nilüfer Yanya’s PAINLESS – see above). Have I mentioned Radiohead enough? Radiohead.

Wovenhand – Silver sash

Another sterling record from the heavy-but-slightly-country rock and roll brainchild of singer and songwriter and guitar player David Eugene Edwards. According to Wikipedia, the latter stuff is less country and more “gothic Americana”. Sounds apt to me

Nduduzo Makhathini – In the spirit of Ntu

For most of the 2010’s I had my favourite contemporary jazz artists whose new releases I would await with bated breath. For many of those it seems their heyday has probably passed, and since I had my children I’m not at Ronnie Scott’s every week or at the London Jazz festival every night like I once was, keeping up with what’s cool. But I still manage to check out some new stuff, and keep an eye on jazz magazine recommendations and year-end best-of lists. Near misses include Trish Clowes’ ‘A view with a room’, Immanuel Wilkins’ ‘The 7^th Hand’, and Empirical’s Like Lambs. But in the end, I have plumped for South African pianist Makhathini’s record, which manages to feature both everything I already love about jazz – driving rhythm, soaring solos, distinct little motifs that stay with me, only occasional vocals – and a fair bit of incorporation of African sound and original flourishes.

OFF! – Free LSD

A hardcore supergroup of sorts, it manages to stand well on its own. This third album is somehow classic but also refreshing, with some incredible riffing. With 20 tracks over only 38 minutes, it succeeds not only in vitality and urgency but craft and concept.

Oren Ambarchi – Shebang

A guitar led jazz quartet with a heap of electronic loops and effects, beautifully realised. Bears another Steve Reich comparison, particularly on the relentlessly forward-moving IV

Svaneborg Kardyb – Over Tage

Understated and Danish jazz from the Portico Quartet school of haunting melody. Sounds like an electronic chillout album played by two humans – Nikolaj Svaneborg on the Wurlitzer and piano, and Jonas Kardyb (Cardi B?) on percussion.

Best music of 2021

Last year I think I overdid it with trying to keep up with new music. “Circa 200 albums, comprising more than 190 hours and 2,535 tracks” I said it was. I wondered whether lock-downs and extensive WFH were a factor. And then overall, both old and new, I listened to over 72 days’ worth of Spotify over the first 11 months of 2020, an average of over 5 hours a day. OK, I said to myself, that was a fun experiment, no doubt with the world going back to normal in 2021 my listening habits will go back to normal too and I’ll be binging on whichever back catalogues I wish to and not checking out the umpteenth release of an artist I’ve never really listened to before but they have a new album out so now’s the time I ought to. So that’ll explain why my “2021” playlist is only c.240 hours and 3,240 tracks long. Oh. Wait. FFS.

And I listened to more than 94 days’ worth of Spotify over the first 11 months of 2021, which averages at more than 6 hours a day. So I suppose there were plenty of back catalogue binges in there too. In an attempt to really dive into / show off about this, last year I essentially grouped loads and loads of releases by genre (as best I could) and put an asterisk or a comment against the odd few. Doing that once is quite enough thank you, so I’ll just link to the full playlist below then pick out for discourse a few things that really struck me.

Link: 2021 Longlist

In terms of disappointments, there were none, really, this year. At worst a few idiosyncratic frustrations. Things like Adele’s new record being a total mess, Black Country, New Road being touted as the next big thing (it’s better than fine, sure, but the vocals are marmite and little of the instrumenting hasn’t been done by post-rock or jazz artists before), Lana Del Rey’s inevitable and totally understandable mean reversion after 2019’s stunning masterpiece Norman Fucking Rockwell (although, tbf, at least one of her two 2021 releases is still very good), AFI’s weakest album in a while (although not without its moments, and in some cases the lyrics aren’t as bad as Davey Havok’s post-Sing the Sorrow average), or Lorde’s misfiring and trying-far-too-hard-to-sound-like-Lana-Del-Rey-and-not-succeeding third album and its bizarrely sexualised marketing. Deafheaven’s Infinite Granite is fine if you like atmospherics but not so much if you like black metal. Great Mass of Color is one of the songs of the year though. IDLES’ CRAWLER, on the other hand, is a return to form after last year’s trying-far-too-hard Ultra Mono.

No, 2021 was far from musically disappointing. There were some marvellous surprises, inspired comebacks (I mean more in terms of quality from bands that have been around but in 3/5 star territory for a while, rather than, say, Abba), and even where legacy bands are still resting on their laurels there were decent and solid releases from many of them (looking at you, Dream Theater and Iron Maiden). Genre music is alive and well, from jazz (a plethora of excellence this year, including big band which is never normally my first jazz love) and post-rock (god bless the appreciation society group on Facebook) to ambient/electronic/DJ/produced and post/hardcore both traditional and innovative. There was some incredible women-led music, in genres both typical (singer/songwriter, pop) and less so (alternative, non-operatic metal).

As usual, I’ll have missed and overlooked and forgotten things, particularly releases from near the end of the year (Arca’s four albums kick ii-iiiii, for example), but here are some records that really stood out for me.

Link: 2021 best songs playlist

Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster – The World Inside

There were a tonne of great post-rock releases this year. All the ones I’m aware of can be found in my full 2021 playlist, plus BRUIT <_’s The Machine is burning and now everyone knows it could happen again which is on Bandcamp but not Spotify, but MONO’s Pilgrimage of the Soul (a return to form after 2019’s largely low energy Nowhere Now Here), God Is An Astronaut’s Ghost Tapes #10, Barren Lands’ The Singularity, Where Mermaids Drown’s And the Raging Winds do Blow, RWYR’s Distance, KAUAN’s Ice Fleet, and Glasgow Coma Scale’s Sirens are particularly wonderful. Post-metal wise, Cult of Luna struck again with the 5-track (but still long enough to be an LP) The Raging River and Bossk returned with their most Cult-of-Luna sounding record yet, Migration (no complaints from me on that front, but the album does perhaps contain one or two too many intros rather than full songs). Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Mogwai’s 2021 releases are both decent but perhaps not spectacular. Well anyway, The World Inside is heavy at times without being full on metal, borders on math-rock at other times, and is incredibly solid and listenable from start to finish. It gains points for only having a few thousand listens on Spotify.

Ulysses Owens Jr. Big Band – Soul Conversations

While I don’t always keep up to date with new releases, occasionally I’ll have a look at what Jazzwise or Jazziz or whoever is saying is getting released next month, and this year I managed over 40, so ok. And I don’t dislike any of it. With jazz I never comprehend why what gets picked up by non-jazz fans gets picked up by non-jazz fans, so even though Sam Gendel and Sam Wilkes’ Music for Saxofone & Bass Guitar albums are excellent, I suppose they were also in the right place at the right time (I believe the track BOA features on a TV show). On Cairn, Fergus McCreadie’s piano trio alternates effortlessly between calm and intensity. McCreadie features energetically on saxophonist Matt Carmichael’s Where Will the River Flow. Portico Quartet’s Monument is their most satisfying effort since 2009’s Isla. The groups Ill Considered and Artifacts on the freer end of the jazz spectrum. But the record that really made me sit up and take notice (I’m going to use this phrase a lot) was drummer Ulysses Owens Jr.’s Big Band’s Soul Conversations. The problem I often have with big bands is the same as jazz “with strings”, where the more instruments you add the more constrained and confined it all becomes (I like solos that shoot for the moon and adore non-vocal showboating, as long as it’s not done at someone else’s expense). There are exceptions of course – Stan Getz with strings, Miles Davis with Gil Evans, Mingus Big Band, and so on, but in general no thanks. Until now it seems – high energy, lots of solos, good material (Two Bass Hit, Giant Steps, Human Nature), this is big band music right up my alley.

Architects – For Those That Wish to Exist

Should that be who rather than that, maybe? Well anyway, this came out in February and I kept listening to it for ages. On the more melodic side of metalcore, great tune follows great tune. I’m going to say it culminates with centrepiece Goliath, featuring Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro (who in another example of championing British metalcore, also features on While She Sleeps’ NERVOUS) but there are a further three guest spots – Winston McCall of Parkway Drive, and Liam Kearley of Black Peaks, and, most surprisingly, perhaps, Mike Kerr of Royal Blood. While this is certainly one of my favourite songs of the year, I am not totally convinced that it transcends the genre – while that matters little to me it does mean I would be more self-conscious about recommending it to others.

The Armed – Ultrapop

There’s a lot made around the marketing of this collective – no-one’s totally sure who’s in the band, the videos are a bit odd, the album cover seemingly more suited for, say, hip-hop or R&B maybe, but thankfully the music is great regardless. Definitely on the more innovative end of this year’s hardcore (see Dreamwell’s Modern Grotesque and Every Time I Die’s Radical for examples of greater purity but no less excellence. The latter features a guest spot from Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull – I have to say, I am enjoying these melody-focussed popular band people finding their way to heavy!). If you want a band that dropped off that end completely but still made something great, check out Genghis Tron’s Dream Weapon.

Turnstile’s Glow On is most people’s favourite hardcore record from 2021, I gather (it is fabulous, tbf), and I liked Quicksand’s Distant Populations too (albeit not as much as their previous album).

Chantal Acda – Saturday Moon

Onto the singer/songwriters now. On the female-side, weird but wonderful Acda’s Saturday Moon is my favourite. Her voice sounds like a vibrating (and female) Nick Drake, which trust me is a good thing. Julien Baker’s Little Oblivions, Lucy Dacus’ Home Video, Meskerem Mees’ and Tamara Lindeman’s The Weather Station’s ignorance are all close seconds. Willy Mason’s Already Dead wins on the male-side.

Wheel – Resident Human

Of all the bands that sound a bit like Tool (apparently this was a whole thing at some point), this one I like. A lot. Something like Chevelle, on the other hand, I do not.

Gojira – Fortitude

Definitely as fantastic as all the year-end lists suggest. It’s nothing less than metal in its sound, and decidedly Gojira – that sweepy djenty thing they do never seems to get old – but it’s almost pop-like in its immediacy and high hit-rate.

Glen – Pull!

Instrumental but not really post-rock I don’t think – it’s more riff-y and solo-y, for instance.

Dinosaur Jr. – Sweep it into Space

This is a prime example of a band I finally bothered to listen to, having not before. Turns out the umpteenth album of the lo-fi grunge stalwarts is excellent. I had it on repeat for a while; it’s catchy as hell.

Body Metta – The Work is Slow

Not actually a double-t – a Pi I think? Well anyway, this is the more ambient and noisy and experimental and instrumental side of things, and it’s a winner for me.

Garbage – No Gods No Masters

I absolutely adored 2012’s comeback Not Your Kind of People. 2016’s Strange Little Birds kinda passed me by. No Gods No Masters is another doozy, though. Quite surprising though – who knew a mid-tier pop-rock band whose heyday was the mid/late 90s could make an album this abrasive – musically, lyrically, and politically – witty, and good after all these years? The bonus tracks are all joys too.

Yasmin Williams – Urban Driftwood

One woman and a guitar. Well, not quite, as she plays other things too, but it’s all just her I think. On the guitar, at least, she is both a virtuoso and an innovator.

Jinjer – Wallflowers

In terms of excellent female-fronted metal in 2021, we had the melodic Spiritbox, the slick Employed to Serve, and the slightly more jagged and experimental Jinjer. All three are excellent but Wallflowers wins out for the occasional curveball and frontwoman Tatiana Shmailyuk’s flawless transitions between clean and dirty vocals (I showed the Pisces video to several people earlier in the year). There is something endearing in what would be cringy in English if it came from someone whose first language it was – the sheer fact that the band is called something that sounds like “ginger”, the “stop / go” thing on the track Mediator – but they get away with it, being both Ukrainian and masters of their craft.

Halsey – If I can’t have love, I want power

A pop star in the vein of P!nk, at least image/attitude-wise, I’d say, but I’m no connoisseur. I only came here (as they say in youtube comments) to the album because Nine Inch Nails produced it. I listened to it once and thought nothing of it, then moved on. Maybe I was distracted or focussed on work or something, because when I listened to it again I fell for it big time. That’s what good pop records are supposed to do, right? Well a great pop (and “alternative”) record it certainly is, and Trent and Atticus’ production is beautiful (see the stunning Bells in Santa Fe, for instance). Some other notable personnel include Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham and Dave Grohl, who plays drums on the track honey. Speaking of honey, what a song that is. I posted a video of a live version with Halsey in a room awkwardly pirouetting in a mullet and a Miss Haversham dress and throwing her mic around and trying not to drop it as she gets increasingly covered in literal honey. I was mesmerised by this bedroom-mirror style performance and when I fantasise about my alternative life as a rock star rather than an actuary I picture myself dancing like that. I showed the video to my wife who stared at me until I admitted there is perhaps a sexual element to it too. Halsey’s not unattractive, so what. Perhaps that’s why my post didn’t attract a single “like” – given my love of esoterica and disregard for social media niceties that’s not that uncommon, but still. When I played the song for the umpteenth time, in the car, some days later, I was asked whether I was obsessed. My wife was only teasing, but I have listened to that song A LOT. Which, with WFH and my SONOS setup around the house, means so has she. Side note: the lyrics throughout the album are particularly good, too.

Ensemble 1 – Guitar, Bass & Drums

Sounds like a cross between Animals as Leaders and Steve Reich. What else do you need to know, go listen! With only 25 monthly listeners on Spotify, they’ll appreciate it.

Little Simz – Sometimes I might be Introvert

The problem hip-hop has with me is that I rarely sit and listen to music these days – it’s nearly always the soundtrack to something. Which means that I won’t be listening to the words that closely and I feel that with good hip-hop that’s missing 90 per cent of the point. But with Sometimes… I did sit up, and I took notice.

Thrice – Horizons/East

I loved this more than I’ve loved a whole Thrice album since 2009’s Beggars. Although as good as the whole thing certainly is (I’m looking forward to its counterpart Horizons/West, obvious in retrospect but still took me by surprise) I find myself constantly drawn to the tracks Northern Lights – song of the year material, for sure (one of the guitar parts is based on the Fibonacci sequence, apparently – take that, Tool!) – and Robot Soft Exorcism, in particular.

Public Service Broadcasting – Bright Magic

As well constructed as the album is, I have come to find that the band’s best songs are all on the earlier albums. So what a voyage of discovery this was. It was recommended to me so I did some digging. Looking them up on Wikipedia I was presented with two red flags – the band name, and the presence of banjo. But the name is not some twee meaningless indie nonsense, it is the perfect name for this band and what they do (in a way, set historical events to music), and the banjo only makes them sound like Mumford & Sons to the extent that Kraftwerk sounds like Mumford & Sons. So thank goodness for all of that.

The World is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die – Illusory Walls

The first 9 tracks present a fair variation of decent songs, a couple of them over five minutes. So far, so good. Then the last two tracks are 35 minutes between them. And they’re both incredible. Emo/rock band goes progressive, in a big way.

Alda – A Distant Fire

Black metal with some other things. So the opposite of Deafheaven, in a way (I like Deafheaven, for the record). Works really well. If we’re talking about good black metal / blackgaze in 2021 then An Autumn for Crippled Children’s As the Morning Dawns We Close Our Eyes (I swear there’s steel pan there on the second track), MØL’s Diorama and Wolves in the Throne Room’s Primordial Arcana all deserve a mention.

Flying Lotus – Yasuke

I streamed it. I loved it. I streamed it again. I loved it. And so it went. Then I discovered it’s a soundtrack album for the Black samurai anime series of the same. Well who cares it’s not a studio album, it’s still going on my list.

Other producers’ albums I have enjoyed immensely over the year include Bicep’s Isles, Madlib’s Sound Ancestors, edIT’s Come to Grips (his first record since 2007, although it’s not very glitchy), and:

DJ Format – Devil’s Workshop

I like DJ Shadow and this sounds like DJ Shadow so… A bit of research suggests that indeed this record was made by one man and a sampler and a record collection. So there you have it. A marvellous piece of work in its own right, nonetheless.

Happy New Year y'all