Looking back on 2017 list I realize it may have been one of my favorite years in music ever. Not only do I absolutely adore and constantly revisit the top10 I’ve made, but there’s also a couple of fantastic albums I either completely missed (Manchester Orchestra’s “A black mile to the surface”, Ola Kvernberg’s “Steamdome”) or way undervalued (Roger Waters’ “Deja Vu”, Polkadot Stingray’s “Zenchizennō”). If I were to make a top10 list of 2017+2018, let’s just say it wouldn’t be very different from last year’s. Anyway I’m just thinking of what to put in the intro when I should be just getting straight into albums. So without further ado, I present my 2018 top10 albums of the year.
Sike! Just kidding, it’s actually Honorable Mentions. Let’s start by doing justice to Japanese alternative music by recognizing the greatness that is harunemuri’s pop-rock-rap fusion in her sophomore album "harutosyura", an eclectic blend of genres with great flow, catchy melodies and suprising tone shifts that can catch one off guard on the first listen. As silly as it may sound, I feel the real spirit of punk from artists such as her or Wednesday Campanella, making music with no regards to its history, rules or context, just doing what they like. And the results are hooking and lovely.
Amen Dunes’ “Freedom” is a different kind of recommendation because quite frankly, listening to the album doesn’t do much for me - I’ve even returned to it a couple of times, but it never really clicked, it were just some nice, chill songs to listen to in the background. However, I’ve happened to listen to three different renditions of the album on live shows - and each time I was left in awe. His concerts at KEXP and Pitchfork are among my favorites from the past year, they are very emotional and powerful, and that energy beautifully complements songwriting - but somehow it’s just completely absent from the studio recording. And apparently the artist has completely redone the record once, unsatisfied with the first result, which makes me even more suprised that this is his final version, when the live shows seem to offer so much more. In any case I highly recommend the live shows and, hey, maybe check the record too, you might have a different reaction from me.
And finally something that didn’t make my top10 albums list mostly because it’s not an album, but an EP - Nothing But Thieves’ “What did you think when you made me this way”. I might’ve considered it had I loved all 4 tracks - but as it is, one of them is “only” fine. And yes, the other three are magnificent, with extremely catchy melodies, great riffs, absolutely fantastic bridges and addicting vocals. What shocks me about writing this is that this band is very much pop-rock, and arguably with hints of pop-punk, a genre I usually react to allergically in same vein that some people do to country or reggae. And yet here I am praising the quintet’s sound and hoping that they can produce an album of similarly high quality - it would be very hard to keep one off the top10 list.
And speaking of those, it’s time for the real meat.
10. PRhyme - PRhyme 2
After 4 years we got a follow-up to PRhyme, a project by DJ Premier, Royce da 5’9” and a lot of great guests that happens to be perhaps my favorite hip-hop album of all time (especially the deluxe version featuring fantastic tracks with Black Though, Doom and Logic). As you can guess by the placement, this one didn’t wow me quite as much - the tracklist is almost twice longer than the debut and I’m not gonna lie, half the tracks I could do without, and then the highs don’t hit quite as much either. There aren’t quite as many esteemed guests, Royce is back to his more average performance (he really outdid himself back on PRhyme) and even DJ Premier’s beats don’t feel quite as inspired as his best work. But gosh darn did “Sunflower Seeds” and “Flirt” give me some really good vibes. I doubt I’ll listen to this whole album many more times, but I’m sure I’ll throw on a few songs from it every now and then.
9. Anderson East - Encore
Anderson East is an artist whose style lies somewhere between Broadway musicals, soul, rock and R&B. His singing reminded me of those classier pop artists (like I dunno, Garou?), and… that’s about all I have to say. This particular sound is somewhat new to me so I don’t have much point of reference. And while I really like it, I didn’t end up loving this album - some of the songs are somewhat boring, and some can be even irritating at times. “Sorry you’re sick” is a perfect example of one where the lyrics and overall melody would sometimes really get to me, but then I would just focus on horns and suddenly I like the album again. “Girlfriend” and “All on my mind” are probably the two tracks I would highlight, but other than that, take it or leave it depending on whether you like the genre.
8. Black Foxxes - Reiði
“romantic gloom 🌹🔪” is how the three-piece British band describes their sound. Reiði is a very alternative-rock album with compositions designed to be emotional by drowning you in sound and atmosphere using the few instruments at their disposal and the classic quiet/loud dynamic, evoking a very melancholic tone. It more or less succeeds and the only thing that keeps this album low on the list is that I got bored of it somewhat quickly - after a dozen-or-so listens the emotions dampened and there wasn’t much to keep me coming back. The one track that worked longer than the rest was the ender “Float on”, which has the most wall-of-sound effect out of them, which seems to work towards the band’s benefit. They are pretty young so I’ll definitely keep looking forward to what they bring in the future.
7. Nas - Nasir
When Kanye announced week-to-week releases of 4 albums he produced, the one that seemed the most out of the left field was “Nasir”. A legendary name from the 90s, already in rap history books, he’s still active, yet I’ve never seen much love for any of his stuff from this decade - an old dog like him teaming with the controversial figure was just something I didn’t expect. But I just love the result so, so much. Nas takes the listener on the journey with his usual political preachings which at times were so rambly that I couldn’t help but wonder if Nas is intentionally not making sense, or at least making some weird statements for the sense of a bigger narrative rather than a particular message. But more than anything, I think his lines just flowed really well, with ideas that make interesting song lyrics and iconic sentences that burn into your memory. Also, this is as much a Kanye album as it is a Nas one - and it features some of the freshest production and cleanest singing in West’s career. “Not for radio” and “everything” are two songs I love returning to. Judging by the review aggregates, this is going to be nothing more than a footnote in Nas’ career, but for me, it was the best hip-hop album of 2018.
6. Shame - Songs of praise
A debut album by a London quintet that is very much punk revival through and through. Reverbed vocals, raw guitars, seemingly simple melodies and sparks of brilliance in songwriting that resulted in gems like “One Rizla” and “Tasteless”. The singing is definitely a high point of this album with very british-punk-like voice breaks and shifts from borderline spoken word to emotional screeching with technical falsetto in between. On another note, there’s a sense of fun that seemed lost in translation in the initial transition from original punk to post-punk that modern bands are retroactively adding and Shame does that very non-intrusively, which works to the benefit of the record. Overall it’s just a great, highly recommendable album in its genre.
5. Spiritualized - And nothing hurt
It’s a Spiritualized album.
Ok, fine - Spirtiualized is pretty much the band the term “space rock” was invented for. The sound somewhere between post-rock and shoegaze, full of guitar effects, looping song structures, dreamy singing and occasionally additional instruments such as brass winds and synthesisers for extra energy. Yet at the same time Jason Pierce knows when to hold back, don't overdo it, so as not to make the music feel difficult, uninviting. Truth be told, this might be my least favorite album of theirs. Some call it the most distilled, pure form of Spiritualized, but I would call it a little too safe, a bit milquetoast and perhaps even uninspired. The feeling of exhaustion would reflect frontman's sentiment, who feels like he's done all the music in him and it's about time to hang the guitar. But at the same time, the album is still galaxies ahead of the contemporaries.
So, once again. It’s a Spiritualized album.
4. The Voidz - Virtue
With a very unique style of singing and use of post-production effects on his voice, Julian Casablancas is a vocalist who’s hard to miss if you’re into contemporary music. The frontman of the beloved The Strokes and collaborator of many artists such as Daft Punk or Lonely Island, The Voidz is on the more experimentative end of his projects, with style that comfortably places them between rock, pop and electronic. Virtue features everything you might want from an album like this - a very unique sound that refers to 70s and 80s without falling into the common cliches that those decades usually inspire, great songwriting that resulted in tracks that are all different and all memorable, and a few standouts like “My friend the walls” and “Pink Ocean” that are just fantastic. As I've mentioned, its very eclectic, you could look for all sorts of inspirations in any of its 15 tracks and I bet you would be right in your assumptions. And of course singing is fantastic. The album just seems to lack something special that would captivate me entirely - as it stands, I have to admit that I would sometimes get bored while listening to it, even though I liked the song, but it just didn’t excite me. In any case I can’t complain, it’s as good time as any to be a Casablancas fan and it’s about time more people became The Voidz fans as well.
3. mewithoutYou - (Untitled)
nine twenty seven am SEVENTWENTYNINEANYGHDFASDSASDGFASWDAS
Man, I love albums with a good opener. An extremely distorted riff, a drum roll that leads into the vocalist stepping in and proceeding to alternatively sing and viscerally scream for the entirety of the short song, and most of the record. Aaron Weiss’ vocals are a definite standout on the whole album, but so is the great sound of distorted guitars, simple but effective drumming, absolutely fantastic production that places every sound in the right place, and then there’s the songwriting itself. How “Flee, thou matadors” seamlessly transitions from tense verses into a calm chorus, the absolutely beautiful ballad in “New wine, new skins”, the experimental outro track that feels like it’s gonna get interrupted by some loud noise any second, but then it suprisingly ends. Post-hardcore is in a very good place and with albums like (Untitled) it feels like there’s still room to grow within this somewhat specific niche, and I’ll gladly go on the journey whenever mewithoutYou decides to take me.
2. Daughters - You won’t get what you want
Oh boy. When I first heard this, I was left speechless. I literally had no words to describe what I just listened to and how it made me feel. This experimental noise rock album is just so visceral and devastating, it conveys a great sense of emotional dread, it’s like staring into the void, well aware that it will also stare at you, but unable to turn away your sight. Most of the album is fairly aggressive, inciting the most dark, primal urges, but some of the tracks lean more into post-punk-ish hypnotizing uneasiness. It’s just so cold and uncaring. If (Untitled) is like a soundtrack of fighting to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, YWGWYW is the sound of impending doom. It’s a really astonishing record that I imagine will probably stand the test of time the most out of this list, even if it wasn’t my favorite this year.
1. Parquet Courts - Wide Awake
That honor goes to a band I wasn’t well acquainted with, the New Yorkian art punk quartet called Parquet Courts and their 8th record “Wide Awake”. Now, I rarely rate grower albums highly - I’m impatient and dismissive, and even on principle I think that if albums can’t win me within first few minutes (let alone within the entire first listen), it’s a massive flaw. And here, I give it a full listen… And I felt NOTHING. It barely registered that I listened to 40 minutes of music. But for some reason I just couldn’t let it go - I don’t know why, but I remained curious about this record. I kept returning to it, second, third, fourth time. And eventually, it clicked. And once it did, I actually can’t understand how come I didn’t fall in love from the first listen.
The opener is just fantastic. It starts with this simple, funky, garage intro, before it suddenly transitions into a different tempo with an incredible bass line, soon later a hoarse vocal goes in, and as the song continues, it almost feels like jumping between tracks with how suddenly different sections transition into one another. Shortly after middle point of the track we hit a great, catchy bridge, and soon after the track ends and we’re into a Talking-Heads-like "Violence" with vocalist losing his mind over the weird melody, and then a great downer in "Before The Water Gets Too High", and the great tracks just keep on coming and coming, and then the album ends, with no single downpoint in sight.
The band just hits on every note - in some places they go into very simplistic punk riffs and drum patterns, in others’ it’s their experimentation that does the job, and then there’s "Freebird II" which in a different life would’ve been a generational anthem. I’ve been listening to Wide Awake almost every day for over half a year now and there are no signs of me getting bored with it. An outstanding record that I can only hope propels Parquet Courts into greatness.
No comments:
Post a Comment