Top 25 Albums of 2015 - No.5 to No.1

The final part of my Top 25 Albums of 2015 neatly provides my first Top 5 summary of 2015. All five of these albums were contenders for the number one spot at some point in the year. The fact that Sleater-Kinney, one of my very favourite bands returning after a ten year hiatus, only come fifth underlines this.

5. Sleater-Kinney "No Cities To Love" - Pitchfork review - No Cities to Love is a disarming, liberationist force befitting the Sleater-Kinney canon. Fervent political leftism has been implicit to this Olympia-born trio since they first inverted Boston's "More Than a Feeling" on a 1994 comp and that goes on here as well; we desperately need it. It is astonishing that a radical DIY punk band could grow up and keep going with this much dignity and this many impossibly chiseled choruses. No Pistol, Ramone, or unfortunate mutation of Black Flag could have done this.

4. Thee Oh Sees "Mutilator Defeated At Last" - Pitchfork review - Thee Oh Sees have one type of song that is consistently great. It’s the fast and heavy track that combines the creepy and ugly sensibility of the Cramps with krautrock's streamlined sense of repetition. Mutilator delivers plenty of these songs. "Withered Hand", "Lupine Ossuary", and "Rogue Planet" each strikes that perfect balance of druggy alienation and soothing forward motion, of sublime rhythmic focus and freaked-out guitar violence.

3. Ezra Furman "Perpetual Motion People" - Guardian review - It rages along at a cathartic intensity that perfectly matches the lyrics. Haunted Head evokes the tumult of a bipolar mind in manic mode, the opening Restless Year and Lousy Connection are part painful self-examination, part triumphant Rebel Rebelish rallying cries.

2. B.C. Camplight "How To Die In The North" - The 405 review - This will be a lot of people's first encounter with BC, so let's get one important thing out of the way: he sounds a lot like Brian Wilson. Not just in voice, but in tone, delivery and arrangement too. It's a little disconcerting at first, but go with it: there is treasure in abundance on this record. The theatrical influence is undeniable, from the torch-song opening of 'Good Morning Headache' to the deliciously overwrought chorus of closer 'Why Doesn't Anybody Fall In Love'. It is light years ahead of his previous two albums.

1. LoneLady "Hinterland" - The Quietus review - Hinterland is playful – a vibrant and urgent combination of genealogy and vision – and it is this that truly makes it a masterpiece. Not only does Julie Campbell have the creative chops to create such richly evocative music, but she does it with a wink and a smile. Hinterland feels like a thesis on Manchester and its musical lore. By simply adding the rhythm of her shoes hitting the pavement, she's transformed a nostalgic archive into tightly executed, profoundly new, dance music.

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Top 25 Albums of 2015 - No.10 to No.6

Into the top ten now and proof that 2015 really was an exceptional year for music. This batch of records would stand up pretty well to previous years top fives and I've played all of them a lot.

10. Sauna Youth "Distractions" - The Quietus review - If you're coming to London-based post-punk four-piece Sauna Youth as a new listener, then the first thing to point out is that their name is something of a misnomer. Although definitely too young to remember first-hand the DC hardcore scene that occasionally perforates their sound they're probably old enough to recognise that Loud & Quiet's recent comparison of them to Parklife-era Blur might be more than just a music journo shorthand.

9. The Wave Pictures "Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon" - Pitchfork review - Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon is roughly their 16th album, their gnarliest yet, and it’s another collaboration, this one produced and co-written by beret-wearing punk artiste Billy Childish. The garage-rock primitivism marks the first time they’ve really glamourized their limitations. The slight redirection is likely thanks to Childish, who was expelled from art school for having "an attitude of total rejection" and has since devoted his life to demystifying the pompous institutions of modern art and music.

8. Courtney Barnett "Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit" - Pitchfork review - Sit is Barnett's first album, the follow-up to two EPs collected on The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas. Its music is descended from 1990s grunge, descended in turn from '60s garage and psychedelia—the rocks to the balloons of Barnett's thoughts, which blow back and forth above the distorted guitars buoyed by gas we can't actually see. Without her words, the music would sit there; without the music, Barnett would drift away. Half the time, she doesn't even sing, but talks, slipping into melody mid-line as though she just remembered she was playing music.

7. Joanna Newsom "Divers" - Guardian review - A lean, compact summary of the joys of Newsom, still an acquired taste to some, but to others, one of the undisputed greats working in our lifetime. Here are 11 tracks, none of them outstaying their welcome, in which glee and sorrow and erudite lyrical puzzles worthy of Araucaria come wrapped in music of breathtaking agility, conjoining eras and textures without a care.

6. Low "Sixes & Ones" - Guardian review - Ones and Sixes is an ear-pricking listen, particularly on headphones. It’s not just the death watch beetle tick of the programmed drums on Congregation, either. The discrete potato-chip crunch of Parker’s drum beats, and the space around each instrument on first single No Comprende, are two more ways in which producer BJ Burton has brought Low’s music into crisp resolution.

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Top 25 Albums of 2015 - No.15 to No.11

The next batch of five includes a band releasing they're first album for almost 50 years and a band who include a member who's main on-stage involvement is drinking cans of Red Stripe.

15. The Sonics "This Is The Sonics" - Pitchfork review - If garage rock was conceived in the ’60s as the primal sound of teenage boredom, frustration, and angst, what does it mean when men in their seventies attempt to play it? There’s probably a deep and worthy discussion to be had somewhere in there, but the Sonics don’t give a shit about that, nor should they. The Tacoma band’s new release This Is the Sonics is their first studio album of all-new material in 49 years, and that fact alone is staggering. What’s even more remarkable, though, is how one of garage rock’s most legendary bands has dared to test their legend by making a record that spits, snarls, drools, honks, wails, and screams as if it were 1966 all over again.

14. Godspeed You! Black Emperor "Asunder Sweet & Other Distress" - Quietus review - 'Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress' is exceptional in the GY!BE canon in a whole heap of ways. Firstly, it's a mere 40 minutes long - which is short by anybody's modern standards, let alone for the band which popularised the 20-minute plus track time for a whole generation. What's more the four tracks that make up the album play through as one single suite, resulting in a potent statement that it's tough to argue against always sitting through in its entirety.

13. Primitive Parts "Parts Primitive" - Short punky blast that wears its influences on its sleeves but leaves you smiling and wanting more. Featuring Lyndsay from Sauna Youth and Kevin & Robin from Male Bonding this is an album full of catchy hooks and no nonsense tunes that wouldn't sound out of place on a Stiff Records compilation.

12. Sleaford Mods "Key Markets" - Clash Music review - One-dimensional. Exhilarating. Crude. Hilarious. Gritty. Perplexing. These are just some of the words that have probably been used to describe Sleaford Mods in the last 12 months. All of them may be true, but 'Key Markets' is some of the most invigorating, honest and vital music you will hear this year.

11. Samantha Crain "Under Branch & Thorn & Tree" - Guardian review - Samantha Crain has been championed and invited on tour by folk sisters First Aid Kit, though where their music supplies ringing harmonies and dappled sunlight, something more solemn broods within hers. Crain’s songs are often peopled by outsiders struggling against bitter circumstances; Elk City imagines a woman eking out a life in a crumbling town, You or the Mystery addresses a reclusive neighbour found dead in his kitchen. But though many of these songs are racked with sadness, their effect is strangely uplifting. The richness of Crain’s voice and the elegant simplicity of the musical arrangements bring drama to these stories. And the striking imagery of her lyrics finds beauty and pathos in the details of downtrodden lives.

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Top 25 Albums of 2015 - No.20 to No.16

Continuing the countdown from 20 to 16, this section provides a nice mix of Folk, Pysch and Garage Rock. Time is getting the better of me so rather than struggle over the words I'm quoting from online reviews.

20. Föllakzoid "III" - Drowned in Sound review - It’s the band’s stated aim with this record to show what can be done with a minimalist techo approach to their craft, and as the lead guitar swirls in and out during this track’s sixth minute it is impossible to say anything other than that Föllakzoid have scored a resounding success.

19. Dead Rat Orchestra "Tyburnia" - The Dead Rat's have been on a run of fascinating projects recently and show no signs of slowing down. Tyburnia is the soundtrack to James Holcome's film of the same name, charting the history of public execution and the echoes of those events on contemporary times.

18. Trembling Bells "The Sovereign Self" - Line of Best Fit review - A glorious collage of musical artistry, drawing from darker regions than did any of its predecessors, it’s a work of extraordinary ambition, integrating aspects of Classical Greek tragedy, unorthodox religious imagery and some of the more jagged, acid-tinged pastoralism of drummer-vocalist Alex Neilson’s late 1960s psych-folk heroes the Incredible String Band.

17. Barrence Whitfield & The Savages "Under A Savage Sky" - Allmusic review - The production captures the raucous sound of the Savages' live show with good and greasy accuracy, and when Barrence sings "It's no sin to lose control," he's neatly summed up what's great about this band -- and this album. Those who still believe that rock & roll can and should make you move ought to put Under the Savage Sky on their playlists pronto; it's the raw real thing

16. Moon Duo "Shadow of the Sun" - Pitchfork review - Although Shadow of the Sun is rooted in psychedelia, there are elements of proto-punk all over it, darkening the songs and making them more human. "Wilding", the album's standout opening track, resembles one of Jonathan Richman’s more uptempo songs, tinged with a tinny Haight-Ashbury tambourine and some wigged-out synths. Johnson’s solos, which can occasionally wander, are concise and focused here, setting an energetic stage for what’s to come.

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Top 25 Albums of 2015 - No.25 to No.21

2015 was a fantastic year for music. I don't know if there was something special in the water or I just managed to hear a lot of good stuff but I don't remember a year in which I discovered so many new albums that I loved. For the first time since I started this blog I've got enough for a Top 25 (and plenty more beyond that).

25. Speedy Ortiz "Foil Deer" - Punk infused Indie rock that never fails to put a smile on my face. Their second proper album (third if you count Sadie Dupuis' self recorded debut) is the perfect combination of spiky guitar and well crafted lyrics.

24. La Luz "Weird Shrine" - An album of Garage Rock influenced tunes with Sixties Girl Group harmonies was always going to lure me into it's charms and seeing them live at the back end of October removed any doubts I had.

23. Beirut "No No No" - Zach Condon's full band version of Beirut continues where the excellent Rip Tide left off in 2011 with another wonderful album. It didn't fair so well critically anyone who counts a rotary valve flugelhorn and a ukulele as his main instruments is going to get a lot of slack from me.

22. Fuzz "II" - Few bands could be quite so well named. Fuzz are yet another string in Ty Segall's many bows. There's more than a hint of Sabbath here and, though I don't actually own a copy yet, this was too good to leave out of my top 25.

21. Deerhunter "Fading Frontier" - Bradford Cox's first release since recovering from being hit by a car. It's a beautifully fragile release that reveals more each time I listen. They played a session for Marc Riley which really opened my ears to their music, Bradford was particularly erudite that night and I was drawn in as much by his enthusiasm as anything else.

Top 5 Albums of 2014

Not only did I leave this until 2014 was completely over but I've left it to the tail end of my top fives of the year thereby ensuring I'm only eight months ahead of the major music publications Albums of 2015.

1. Sharon Van Etten "Are We There" - I first discovered Sharon Van Etten after her third album Tramp did well in the 2012 end of year round ups. Had I heard that album earlier I’m sure it would have done well in my own top 5 that year. My expectations for Are We There were, therefore, pretty high and initial listens a little disappointing. Are We There is a sparser record with some fairly downbeat themes so not the sort of album that you’ll instantly love. However, repeated listening proved rewarding. It is a heartrendingly wonderful collection of songs full of emotional resonance. Eleven tunes that I think are all superb and at least five of which were contenders for my song of the year.

2. Shellac "Dude Incredible" - This may well be my favourite Shellac album ever. It’s intense and loud and brilliant. I’m a big fan of Steve Albini’s ability as a sound engineer and he’s done an amazing job on Dude Incredible. It’s a bit of a cliché but the drum sound is particularly incredible. Every beat is crystal clear and resonates with the enormous power of Bob Weston’s sticks.

3. Thee Silver Mt. Zion "Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything" - A bit like Shellac, this might be my favourite Silver Mt Zion album. It's certainly their most commercial, though this is a statement based on my fairly skewed idea of what might constitute commercial and with the understanding that TSMZ are about as far from commercial as you can get without reaching the outskirts of the Avant Garde.

4. Johnny Cash "Out Among The Stars" - I wondered whether this album was really eligible seeing as it was originally recorded in 1981. However, seeing as it was released for the first time in 2014 it surely does. Recorded when Cash’s career was on a downward path, his record company at the time refused to release it. In the nineties the American Recordings series reinvigorated Cash's career but also captured his gradual decline in health. Some of the later releases became quite an emotional listen as his voice became more fragile. What makes Out Among The Stars particularly enjoying is hearing Johnny Cash in his prime again. There’s some real joy in these tunes, a little cheesy in places perhaps but some proper high points too. Baby Ride Easy is a lovely duet with June Carter Cash, Tennessee has a chorus sung by school children that will melt your heart and both Out Among The Stars and She Used To Love Me are proper Cash classics.

5. Mogwai "Rave Tapes" - Mogwai just don’t release bad albums. Rave Tapes might not be quite as fantastic as Hardcore Will Never Die but it's still a fabulous record. I saw them live on this tour at an amazing gig back in January where my restricted view seat was almost as good as having a back stage pass.

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Top 5 Albums of 2013

Breaking with my tradition I thought I'd get this in before the end of the year. Seems I'm still almost a month behind most of the music press but it'll be one less 2013 post for me to bore you with in January.

1. Low "The Invisible Way" - This album came out in January, I think, which might explain why it's not featured that high on many of the media lists. I've loved it all year and that's not been diminished by the passage of time. I missed their London gig in April so had to travel to Cambridge in November to finally catch them live. They were stunning that night and made every minute of the three hours it took me to get there worthwhile. I think 2014 will see me try to fill in the gaps in my Low collection.

2. Eleanor Friedberger "Personal Record" - I've known a lot of these songs from early in the year thanks to frequent plays by Marc Riley. She followed this with a fantastic session in August and that was the final push I needed to get the album. Despite the name the album was co-written with alt-folk singer/novelist John Wesley Harding. It's full of catchy songs with intriguing lyrics. I regret not getting to the show she played at Bush Hall but with a UK based band put together by David Brewis of Field Music I hope she'll be back over soon.

3. Bill Callahan "Dream River" - A late purchase but one that zoomed to the top of my favourites. I thought his 2009 album, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, was as good as he could get but Dream River runs that very close indeed.

4. Euros Childs "Situation Comedy" - I've picked up a few Euros Childs' albums over the last year or two but this is the best thing I've heard by him yet. Again Marc Riley played a big part in this thanks to frequent plays. Laura J Martin also features on several tracks on flute. The album is packed with perfect pop tunes that have genuinely funny, and at times quite poignant, lyrics. I saw him play the Boston music room in October and don't think I've ever laughed so much at a music gig.

5. Ezra Furman "Day Of The Dog" - The first time I heard the track Tell 'Em All To Go To Hell I assumed it was by some 70s Glam band I'd not heard before. Then My Zero came along and took the sound in a more Indie direction. The rest of the album flits from genre to genre whilst retaining a consistent sound thanks to Ezra's voice and the copious amounts of saxophone (unusually this is a good thing).

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Top 5 Albums of 2012

This is my favourite of the end of year top fives but also the one I found hardest to compile. There are at least another five albums I'd have happily included in the top five, but these were the ones I felt provided the soundtrack to my year.

1. Godspeed You! Black Emperor "Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!" - An unheralded return for everyone's favourite post-rock champions. Their return to the live stage two years ago suggested this was possible but I was expecting a little more warning. I read a tweet from The Quietus in the morning and by the afternoon had ordered a copy and downloaded the digital version. I love Godspeed but their last recorded output (2002's Yanqui U.X.O.) and a feeling of disappointment after their reunion no-longer-on-hiatus shows had left me ambivalent to new material. That all changed when I actually played it, though the surprise nature of it's arrival no doubt also helped. Allelujah is probably their most concise and accessible release since the Slow Riot EP. Mladic and We Drift Like Worried Fire are both epic 20 minute plus tracks that benefit from having been a part of the bands live show for some time. They sound familiar yet fresh and, for me, the length is not in any way daunting. Mladic in particular is a song I can play again and again without getting tired of. The two shorter drone based tunes that intersperse the longer tracks are essential to the overall balance of the album. They help created that moody and mysterious atmosphere that characterised the band's early days. I saw them live in November and it might have been the best live performance I've seen them give. They even played a spectacular 45 minute track which has not yet been released which bodes well for their future.

2. The Jim Jones Revue "The Savage Heart" - The buzz prior to the album release was that The Savage Heart would see the band explore new musical territory. This led to some talk amongst my pals as to whether this was a worrying turn of phrase. Turned out we had nothing to be worried about, the record is excellent and they're still an amazing act live. The album does display a broader palette than their previous releases but essentially the fundamental love of primal rock'n'roll is very much still in place. If anything the introduction of a few slower paced tunes (and I don't mean slow just less frenetic than previous efforts) will give everyone a chance for a breather when they play live. That's not to say the album doesn't have it's fair share of stompers. Opener It's Gotta be About Me and Where Da Money Go? are as in your face as anything of the previous two LPs, whilst In And Out Of Harm's Way is a brooding masterpiece at the heart of the record.

3. Laura J Martin "The Hangman Tree" - This came out in January, so I've lived with it for a long time now but it's charms are still as strong as when I first heard it. Marc Riley had played a fair bit of Laura in 2011 as well as hosting a couple of sessions, so I was already familiar with her best songs and chomping at the bit for the release of an album. At it's heart this is folk with a contemporary twist. It highlights Laura's multiple instrumental talents whilst never sounding overblown and has some moments of genuinely sublime song writing. In some ways I was disappointed the album didn't get broader exposure but the benefit of this was that I saw her live three times last year in small venues. Laura is in her element on stage with every show featuring at least one new song I suspect it won't be long before album number two.

4. Neil Cowley Trio "The Face Of Mount Molehill" - Another album from the early part of the year for which my love has not faded several months on. This is basically a Jazz album but one that exists in the Venn diagram overlap formed by Jazz, Rock and Adult Pop. I've talked about my reasons for taking an interest in Neil before (short version; He used to live across the road and he's a Fulham fan) and I'd enjoyed previous album Loud... Louder... Stop!. Mount Molehill may well be his magnum opus though. It took a little while for it to sink in, and seeing him play live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall certainly helped, but once it did it seemed like these were tunes I'd known forever.

5. Field Music "Plumb" - It has been a remarkable year for Field Music capped by a well deserved Mercury prize nomination. Field Music only really clicked for me after seeing them live at the end of 2011 and I'm still finding my way through their extensive back catalogue. Plumb finds the band exploring the unlikely territory between Indie-Pop and Progressive Rock. They comfortably avoid any of the excesses of the Prog era (no song breaks the 4 minute barrier) but manage deliver some exquisitely clever music along the way. I kind of saw them live twice in 2012. The first show at KCLSU went a little awry for me but their gig later in the year at the Electric Ballroom in Camden was a triumph.

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Top 5 Albums of 2011

The start of my annual review of the year. This could take a few weeks so forgive me if it gets boring, this is as much for me as it is for you!

2011 turned out to be a year in which I listened to a lot of music. My eMusic subscription, some excellent BBC 6Music shows and Spotify combined to allow me to hear pretty much any album I wanted to. This proved to be too easy for me to take advantage of and I think I listened to well over 150 albums, old and new. That’s clearly too many for anyone to take in properly and a lot of those never made it past play one. Despite that I discover a good 20 cracking new albums. Of course my taste in music is a little quirky at best so you might not enjoy them all.

1. Mogwai "Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will" – When I first got into music I was like a loyal dog. Once I had decided I liked a band I would obsessively buy everything they released; LPs, 7 inches, 12 inches, picture disks, solo albums by the singer, solo albums by the drummer, even solo albums by the bassist’s ex-girlfriend. Whilst I remain obsessive about music (and just about everything else as this blog proves), these days I am a more fickle fan. I loved the first two or three Mogwai albums, but my interest had waned. That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed their later releases, I just haven’t found myself playing them all that often. I’d probably have let “Hardcore” pass me by completely if a friend had not gone to see them live earlier in the year and piqued my interest.

It’s an album that combines the edge of Mogwai’s early releases with a poppier sensibility. Simpler tunes than previous albums, that build into brooding crescendos like opener “White Noise”. Though still largely an instrumental band Mogwai are now more comfortable offering the occasional vocal even if it is vocoder enhanced. “Mexican Grand Prix” is a fine example of this approach and possible a candidate for replacing Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” in a future series of F1 coverage. “Rano Pano” demonstrates majestic layers of fuzz guitar and the piano into to “Letters to the Metro” is genuinely beautiful. “George Square Thatcher Death Party” provides a bouncy bit of fun before the 23 minute epic of “Music for a Forgotten Future” proves the band have lost none of their zeal for instrumental majesty.

2. P.J. Harvey "Let England Shake" – This might be an obvious choice (the number 1 album for 2011 in Mojo, NME & Uncut) but PJ’s Mercury Prize winning album is outstanding and a very close second to Mogwai for me. Polly Jean is a songwriter who gets better and better. I missed the initial excitement generated by her early albums but her first Mercury Prize winning album “Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea” shaved off the rough edges and drew me in. Since then she has alternated between the bloody good, “Uh Huh Her” & “A Woman A Man Walked By”, and the absolute genius “White Chalk” & “Let England Shake”. One of the highlights of last year was seeing David Cameron fail miserably to appear “hip” and generally look a bit uncomfortable whilst PJ played “Last Living Rose” on the Andrew Marr Show.

3. Trembling Bells "The Constant Pageant" – One of my new favourite bands. I had not been completely won over by their 2009 debut album, "Carbeth", but was completely stunned by their second album, 2010’s “Abandoned Love”. That was still on heavy rotation when “Constant Pageant” came out this year – they’re nothing if not prolific – and this new release showed a further progression, hinted at in “Abandoned Love”, from folk to seventies rock. I’m desperate to see them live. Alex Neilson sounds like an amazing drummer and also provides complimentary vocals to the stunning voice of Lavinia Blackwall. They are in many ways a modern day Fairport Convention, no bad thing in itself, but have something a bit special that really hits the right buttons for me.

4. Beirut "The Rip Tide" – Zach Condon has brought the Beirut sound into the mainstream with this album. His first LP “Gulag Orkestar” (2006) was influenced by Balkan folk, whilst the folow up, “The Flying Club Cup” (2007) was influenced by Jacques Brel and French chanson music. 2009’s E.P. “March Of the Zapotec” didn’t quite live up to those early standards but added Electronica to Zach’s list of influences. Now performing as a fully fledged band Beirut seem to have got the balance between ethnic influence and popular music absolutely perfect. “The Rip Tide” has a lush sound that emphasises the best bits of his previous albums whilst retaining that fragile charm of a solo folk artist. It’s like a “Best Of” but with brand new songs.

5. Y Niwl "Y Niwl" – I spent some time considering whether this album ought to be in my top five. It is, after all, nothing you won’t have heard before. Instrumental Garage Surf rock basically. However, there’s something about this collection of songs that always brings a smile to my face. I first heard the band on a Marc Riley session back in January. It wasn’t just their Link Wray inspired sound that appealed, the band had a laid back manner and sense of humour that won me over. All the tracks on this debut LP are numbered, a la ¡Forward, Russia!, in Welsh (where the band are from. Y Niwl means The Fog, I think) which is exactly the sort of neat gimmick that appeals to me. I picked up the album pretty quickly and it’s brought a smile to my face every time I’ve played it since.

NOTE: I have taken a step into the world of commerce by signing up for the Amazon Associates program. That means if you buy any of the albums you reach from my Amazon links I'll get a small percentage. I'm hoping this won't screw up the nature of this blog but let me know if it gets annoying and I'll stop!