Normally
when I write these things I take a good few hours, get through a good amount of
beer or wine, and have a jolly good ramble. This year I’m going to keep it
short(er) and make even less of an effort to come up with common themes and write in anything other than lists.
Disappointments
I’m not
going to prattle on about what I found disappointing, except to say while on
the new A Perfect Circle record, Eat the Elephant, Maynard James Keenan’s vocal
performance is incredible throughout, there isn’t much else to what appears to
be their young adult contemporary piano album. A big exception to this is the
track By And Down The River, a rerecording of older track By And Down. This
song actually has some guitar in it, and it is fascinating to listen to the two
versions side by side to hear how Maynard does the vocals differently.
While I
like the new Deafheaven (Ordinary Corrupt Human Love) a lot, especially the
song Glint, they don’t really have the same impact as they did with Sunbather,
and these days their idea of diversifying away from black metal is to get more
and more cheesy, this time with some tinkly piano.
The Black
Queen (electronica group featuring Greg Puciato from now defunct The Dillinger
Escape Plan)’s sophomore Infinite Games was more sprawling and less hooky than
their debut.
Surprises
In terms of
surprises, I’d mention the latest Soulfly record, Ritual. I have a lot of time
for Max Cavalera in general and Soulfly in particular, but I know a lot of folk
are dismissive of everything post-Sepultura, even going so far as to suggest
Soulfly are “the babyshambles of metal”. While this is admittedly amusing, I
think it misses much of what’s great about the Brazilian band, most of which
comes down to musical competence (no-one’s a slouch at their instruments,
particularly drummer Zyon Cavalera, Max’s son) and variation – both within a
record, where I’m mostly thinking of the long-traditional instrumental
self-titled tracks (you can make a playlist of just these and everyone would
have a good time), and between them – the early stuff was plenty nu metal,
whereas Ritual is mostly thrash but with some death/black thrown in too. Not a
failed experiment. Finally, I love how Max seemingly has so many friends in the
business, with whom he has collaborated over the years; Ritual features Randy
Blythe from Lamb of God and Ross Dolan from Immolation.
I would
also mention how much I liked Dev Hynes (Test Icicles, Lightspeed Champion)’s
Blood Orange project’s album Negro Swan. Not normally something I would pay
much attention to, but Blood Orange has been recommended to me before and this
record rightly features in several end-of-year lists.
“Thinking
person’s hardcore band” Between The Buried And Me’s album was their best in
several, although I’m not sure why it was released in two parts (as I only
streamed it rather than purchased perhaps it doesn’t matter).
Near misses
Great
albums that didn’t make my arbitrary top ten include:
- Sons of Kemet – Your Queen Is A Reptile (still great music from a still-inspired tenor sax/tuba/drums/drums line-up, this time with fiery politics)
- Turnstile – Time & Space (solid and nuanced hardcore punk from this US band)
- Conjurer – Mire, Coilguns – Millennials (two more fantastic metal bands whose names begin with C that put out great albums in 2018)
- Jon Hopkins – Singularity (I’ve been less enamoured with 2018’s offering from solo electronic music producers than I was in 2017, but this came close)
- Kamasi Washington – Heaven and Earth (A for effort. Wins points for sheer quantity, especially as this 2hr+ LP was accompanied by EP The Choice)
- Nils Frahm – All Melody (can always be relied upon for his music’s minimalist beauty)
- Phil France – Circle (a largely electronic solo record from the ex-The Cinematic Orchestra pianist)
- The Armed – excellent Kurt Ballou (Converge) produced electronics-featuring hardcore
A top ten
Once again
not in any particular order, but here we are:
Rolo
Tomassi – Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It
It was a
mistake I didn’t include Grievances in my 2015 top ten. It was cohesive,
intelligent, and inclusive of some of their best work. So is the new one. One
of the most consistently excellent bands around, it is a shame they’re not
bigger than they are.
Check out:
Rituals, The Hollow Hour
Pianos
Become The Teeth – Wait For Love
Wow what a
surprise. What can I say, I’m a fan. I will say that for the first time across
their four albums there are one or two dud tracks on this one, and if they keep
it up it will all get a bit wearing in a couple of albums time, but Wait For
Love delivers on everything we’ve come to expect and love from Baltimore’s post-post
hardcore PBTT. There was a lot of marketing ahead of this one, including a
rather beautiful and artful trilogy of music videos (remember those?) but I’m
not sure how well it worked out for them.
Check out:
Forever Sound, Love On Repeat
IDLES – Joy
As An Act Of Resistance
What I
would call, musically, a “less is more” type approach to punk (except for the
bass perhaps), I like this for the lyrics as much as anything else.
Check out:
I’m scum, Great
This Will Destroy
You – New Others Parts One and Two
Epic
post-rock double album. Masterful.
Check out:
The whole lot. Both parts. One right after the other.
Aukai –
Branches of Sun
Acoustic
guitar, piano, strings, beats (and probably a few other things). Atmospheric,
chilled, gorgeous.
Check out:
Colorado, Turning Days
Maisha –
There Is a Place
There wasn’t
much jazz this year I was excited about in advance, except perhaps Kamasi
Washington’s latest epic near-masterpiece. So I’ve had to take a few chances
and, y’know, actually listen to something before I decide whether I’ll like it
or not. Even music from, shock horror, British
artists. Such as saxophonist Nubya Garcia, who’s had a great year. Under
her own name there’s the single When We Are, and with several other members (rhythm
section plus guitar) the drummer Jake Long-led outfit Maisha. The solos from Garcia
(who also plays flute on this record) and guitarist Shirley Tetteh are
particularly inspired throughout this five-track foray into what I believe they
call spiritual jazz.
Check out:
Osiris, Eaglehurst / The Palace
Craft –
White Noise And Black Metal
Frankly I
love the title. And the music sounds exactly like that. There seems to be something
of a resurgence of black metal, and I happened to check this one out after
finding it on an end-of-year list somewhere on the internet. I’ve not really
been into the more homogeneous extreme metal (the multi-genre spanning Opeth
has generally been as far as I’ve got) but perhaps that’s now changing.
Check out:
Again, Crimson
Cult Leader
– A Patient Man
The other
metal band whose name begins with C that I didn’t leave off my top ten list. On
another day I could have picked the Coilguns or Conjurer, but today I’ve gone
with the initially gloriously relentless Cult Leader, who throughout the record
explore some different terrain, by which I basically mean there are some pretty
bits in among the noise.
Check out:
I Am Healed, A Patient Man
Makaya
McCraven – Universal Beings
Largely
improvised (even more than usual) double album from groovy (in a literal, not
60s, sense) jazz drummer McCraven and friends, not least a Harpist!
Check out:
The whole thing from start to finish really, but opener proper Holy Lands will
give you a good idea.
MOL – Jord
Like (French
“blackgaze” (y’know, black metal mixed with shoegaze, obviously band) Alcest
but much heavier when they get heavier. From Denmark. Put out a record in 2018
that was better than Deafheaven’s.
Check out:
Lambda, Jord
A 2018
playlist: link
Merry Christmas you filthy animals
