At the end of a disappointing year, for reasons both public and private, the greatest tribute I can pay 2016 is waiting until it's over before I post this. In doing this the blog archive for 2016 remains blank. This isn't fair of course, as there was as much good music in 2016 as any other year, it's just that I didn't experience as much of it as I normally do. I went to about half as many gigs as recent years - and NO festivals! - and I heard half as many albums as usual.
I got it together to list my top 10 gigs on twitter and now I've managed to collate my favourite albums as well. As is the style with such lists, the top 5 are solidly set and numbers below that are interchangeable. In common with recent years I don't see much of a pattern in my list. If anything I have a tendency to surround myself with familiar names such as the late Bowie and Cohen but also Dinosaur Jr, Teenage Fanclub and Tortoise, many of whom released their best music in ages. One other personal trend I only noticed when compiling this list was that I found myself drawn towards both ambient/ electronic music and traditional songwriting, whilst the garage/psych acts that I have been enjoying over the last decade took a back seat. Anyway, here's my list. Over and out...
1. Emma Pollock 'In Search of Harperfield' (Chemikal Underground)
2. Brigid Mae Power s/t (Tompkins Square)
3. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 'Skeleton Tree' (Bad Seed Ltd)
4. David Bowie 'Blackstar' (ISO)
5. The Avalanches 'Wildflower' (XL)
6. Cavern of Anti-Matter 'Void Beats/ Invocation Trex' (Duophonic)
7. Dinosaur Jr 'Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not' (Jagjaguwar)
8. Anna Meredith 'Varmints' (Moshi Moshi)
9. Julianna Barwick 'Will' (Dead Oceans)
10. Teenage Fanclub 'Here' (PeMa)
11. Piano Magic 'Closure' (Second Language)
12. Sea Pinks 'Soft Days' (cf records)
13. PJ Harvey 'The Hope Six Demolition Project' (Island)
14. Hannah Peel 'Awake but Always Dreaming' (Juno)
15. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith 'Ears' (Western Vinyl)
16. Solange 'A Seat at the Table' (Saint/ Columbia)
17. The Body 'No One Deserves Happiness' (Thrill Jockey)
18. Mitski 'Puberty 2' (Dead Oceans)
19. Tortoise 'The Catastrophist' (Thrill Jockey)
20. Vanishing Twin 'Choose your Own Adventure' (Soundway)
21. Josephine Öhrn + The Liberation 'Mirage' (Rocket Recordings)
22. The Goon Sax 'Up to Anything' (Chapter Music)
23. Cate Le Bon 'Crab Day' (Drag City)
24. Leonard Cohen 'You Want it Darker' (Columbia)
25. Brian Eno 'The Ship' (Beat Records)
No comments:
Post a Comment