Thursday 31 December 2015

Albums of 2015

Despite compiling a list of my favourite albums of the year every year, it’s been a while since I published here for absolutely no one to see …

So, in ‘broken’ traditional style, here lies my offering for 2015 with minimal descriptive copy as it’s been a busy week and my motivation is low … for the writing you understand, for music listening there is no letup!


20        Human Don’t Be Angry  - “Electric Blue”

19        Belle & Sebastian - “Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance”
                 
18        Idlewild - “Everything Ever Written”

17        Beach House - “Depression Cherry”

16        Floating Points - “Elaenia”

15        Kathryn Joseph - “Bones You Have Thrown Me and Blood I Have Spilt”

14        Low - “Ones and Sixes”

13        Kagoule  - “Urth”

12        The Fall - “Sub Lingual Tablet”

11        New Order - “Music Complete”


10        Caspian  - “Dust & Disquiet”

Fourth album by American post-rockers that culminates in a final title track that has no place being that good!

9         Desperate journalist - “Desperate Journalist”

Think Echobelly meets Gene and the retro flashbacks kick in … thanks to consistency of delivery, this comes off as more that a pseudo tribute though … superb stuff!

8         Georg Holm (Sigur Ros) - “Circe”

No Sigur Ross album in 2015 so we just had to make do with this score for upcoming BBC documentary “The Show of Shows” by ¾ of the Icelandic band’s touring members.  An eclectic collection of instrumentals than can feel disjointed at times but ultimately superb!

7         EZTV - “Calling Out”

Brooklyn collective deliver retro guitar based indie that brings back Teenage Fanclub memories … what’s not to like!

6         Aero Flynn  - “Aero Flynn”

Close friend of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Josh Scott finally breaks cover to release his first proper album.  This was my Majorca holiday pool side staple earlier this year and deserves way more attention and acclaim than it got.

5         Desaparecidos - “Payola”
             
Conor Oberst (temporarily hopefully) ditches the Bright Eyes moniker and reforms the American politic punk combo for only their second album since forming in 2001.  Non-stop 100mph delivery of challenging content that harks back to a more politically aware musical generation of yesteryear.

4         Blanck Mass - “Dumb Flesh”

As big a shift from his eponymous debut as you can imagine, Benjamin John Power returns with a mind bending noise monster!

3         A Mote of Dust - “A Mote of Dust"

Craig Beaton of Aereogramme and The Unwinding Hours reinvents himself yet again in a stripped down guise that delivers one of the most introspective & beautiful albums in a long time... Really looking forward to seeing Craig execute this live in an intimate Aberdeen venue in January 2016.

2         Stephan Bodzin - “Powers of Ten”

A tweet from the account of Scottish electronic collective Very Very Small Inclusions about the great sounds on the new Stephan Bodzin album encouraged me to check this out... Incredibly consistent electronica!

1         Godspeed You! Black Emperor - “Asunder, Sweet and Other Dreams”

Like watching an episode of The Leftovers, pressing ‘play’ or dropping the needle on any Godspeed album signals an investment in time that is never comfortable but always rewarding.  Digitally, this comes across as two behemoth tracks sandwiching two drone / noise instalments … on vinyl, it all just makes sense.  


Final ‘track’ “Piss Crowns Are Trebled” has to be one of the most perfectly conceived & executed instrumental rock tracks in history … perfect!