2015 FBG Album Poll - Courtney Barnett is #1 (1 Viewer)

[Northern Voice]

#18

Baroness - Purple

41 Points, 2 Votes

Ranked Highest By: Bonzai, Fiddles

Previous Albums on our Countdown: Yellow & Green (#18 in 2012), Blue (#6 in 2009)
Review: It's a wonderful thing when a highly anticipated metal record finally comes out and turns out to be really worth the wait. People have been hyping up Baroness' new release, Purple, like crazy, and with good reason. The group were in a nearly fatal bus accident in 2012 that resulted in two members getting seriously injured and leaving the group; whether Baroness would ever record music again was up in the air. It's a good thing they decided to, though: Purple has just as much energy and power as the group's older works, but with a more refined and mature sound.


Guitarist Pete Adams has said that "We didn't want to make a mellow, sad, dark thing. We needed to be up-tempo. We needed to be melodic, and it also needed to be aggressive." It's an apt description of how the record flows; every song stands along as a catchy, heavy hymn to psychedelia, while also working together in the cohesive way that marks a good album. "Chlorine & Wine" is classic Baroness goodness, full of heaviness and gigantic choruses. Opener "Morningstar," an album highlight, demonstrates this well; it's a melodic, heavy anthem that starts off the record on a strong note.

If you've loved Baroness's previous work and were holding your breath for this one, or if you are new to the group but love psych metal or more accessible heavy bands like Saviours and Mastodon, this is a must-hear. Baroness are back, and they sound as good as ever. (Abraxan Hymns)

 

[Northern Voice]

I didn't realize we were so high on his 2012 album...

#17

Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear

42 Points, 4 Votes

Ranked Highest By: pettifogger, The Dreaded Marco, Eephus, Jaysus

Previous Albums on our Countdown: Fear Fun (#2 in 2012)
Review: Self-awareness and sincerity have always been crucial tools of the singer-songwriter trade, which is why it was so refreshing when Josh Tillman exploded onto the scene with Fear Fun, his 2012 LP as Father John Misty. After years toiling away in Seattle peddling his self-described "sad wizard songs," here was an album filled with fun and linguistic frivolity, with Tillman waxing poetic about war, waste and his own mortality, all within just one soulful song about mankind's obsession with oil ("Now I'm Learning to Love the War"). Throw in the jokes he'd pepper his live show with, and Tillman was quickly becoming the Grand Fool of folk rock.


Now, everything has changed. Inspired by the life and love he's created with his wife Emma, and the ways in which he shed his self-infatuated, swagger-y lothario persona and learned to accept love in his life, I Love You, Honeybear is an 11-song treatise on becoming a sentimental human being in an increasingly vapid world, one in which love can be found with a click of the mouse or a swipe of the screen. The themes are universal, yet its subject matter and ways in which the album executed are deeply personal, making this a truly resonant record.

This is a gorgeous album, one whose pure beauty and unadulterated emotion — the un-forced flamenco feel and sweeping strings of "Chateau Lobby #4 (in C for Two Virgins)," for example — can't help but be evened out by some bawdy escapades (it's hard to think of anyone making the words "mascara, blood, ash and cum" sound as sexy as he does on the album's opener). Still, Tillman gives listeners ample amounts of sugar and schmaltz to wash all the bitter and lewd moments of I Love You, Honeybear out of their mouths (the Postal Service-esque "True Affection" is jarring at first, but a true highlight).

Once a Henry Miller-esque wannabe at the mic, Tillman is a new man by album's end, candidly crooning about meeting his future wife in the most mundane fashion — in a parking lot while going to the convenience store — on the aptly titled "I Went to the Store One Day." It's a simple but perfect finale to this lush and vivid tale of love conquering all inner demons, making the rest of the album even more memorable by proxy. But the tales in I Love You, Honeybear are told in a non-chronological order, and because of this, it's in an earlier number, "When You're Smiling and Astride Me," in which we see Tillman's true redemption from his old, narcissistic ways: "You see me as I am, it's true/ Aimless, fake drifter, and the horny man-child momma's boy to boot," he sings passionately to his partner. "That's how you live free/ Truly see and be seen."

Truly, Tillman's intentions and feelings as a songwriter have never seemed so clear. (Sub Pop)

 

[Eephus]

I liked the Baroness album but on first listen I thought it veered into Steel Panther self-parody territory at times. It also came out so late in the year that I only listened to it a couple of times.

 

[Northern Voice]

#16

Chris Stapleton - Traveller

42 Points, 2 Votes

Ranked Highest By: pettifogger, Bonzai

Review: Mercy, this is good. Chris Stapleton, a Kentucky-born son of a coal miner, has spent the past couple of decades dividing his time between an excellent bluegrass band called the Steeldrivers and a healthy career writing songs for people like Adele, George Strait and Darius Rucker. In a genre full of great songwriters, Stapleton has stood apart. Like Guy Clark or John Hiatt, he is a master craftsman: Stapleton can turn a phrase on a dime, build a narrative out of a few evocative lines and bleed hot blood all over the page. You want to hear what it sounds like when soulful country music is done right? This is your man. This is your album.


Blessed with a gravelly voice that hews a line through the territory occupied by folks like Gregg Allman, Bob Seger and Wilson Pickett, Stapleton's record recalls the best of 1970s southern rock. (To underline this connection, he covers the Charlie Daniels Band's "Was it 26," and owns it, telecaster blues and all.) But Traveller isn't just an exercise in classic country revivalism; like Sturgill Simpson before him (with whom he shares a producer in Dave Cobb), Stapleton has taken the old tools and crafted something that feels as new as tomorrow morning. On the album's best track, the stunning and stark "Daddy Doesn't Pray Anymore," Stapleton tasks a traditional melody and familiar structure to explore his father's loss of faith ("I guess he's finished talking to the Lord") while simultaneously deconstructing their fraught relationship. The last verse is perfectly calibrated, and it's emotionally devastating. It is, quite simply, a masterpiece. (Mercury Nashville)

 

[Northern Voice]

I should have reversed FJM and Chris Stapleton, I've always used # of votes as the tie breaker.

 

[Northern Voice]

#15

Sleater-Kinney - No Cities to Love

43 Points, 2 Votes

Ranked Highest By: Karma Police, Fiddles

Review: Many reading this were undoubtedly still in short shorts when Sleater-Kinney last released an album. The ten years since 2005’s ’The Woods’ is a long time. In their absence, things changed - their melodic bite missed as countless contemporaries reformed, split and reformed again, often shrugging out new material as if some kind of reluctant contractual requirement. Other projects - notably the great one-album shot of Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss’ Wild Flag - sparked and shined, but even that brilliance wasn’t quite the same.


But Sleater-Kinney, they couldn’t do a tired once round the block with the greatest hits in tow. In returning alone they’re making a statement that the best is yet to come. Spoiler alert: ’No Cities To Love’ proves it.

Opener ‘Price Tag’ shares nothing with Jessie J’s super hit of the same name. No mucking about, Brownstein and Corin Tucker are straight back in tandem over Weiss’ thumping beats, snarling and prowling in a way that still knows no equal. ‘Surface Envy’ and its refrain of the power of three is a straight up battle cry, ‘Bury Our Friends’ the adrenaline shot that first announced this was no comeback, but a seamless reclaiming of the baton.

Indeed, there’s more than a convincing argument that ‘No Cities To Love’ could be Sleater-Kinney’s finest work to date. Honed to their sharpest point, it’s certainly their most immediate. ‘A New Wave’, ‘Gimme Love’, ‘Fangless’ - the whole front end of the album is one rattling, acerbic roar. ‘Hey Darling’ turns the biographical sass to eleven (“You want to know where I’ve been for such a long time?”), ‘Fade’ rumbles and growls to a close. From front to back there’s not an ounce of flab - a perfectly toned muscle that sits out of time in the best possible way.

Though some of their peers may have waned on their long, drawn out returns, Sleater-Kinney have only grown stronger in their time off. Ten years away has made them more essential than ever. Nostalgia be damned.

 

[Eephus]

I should have reversed FJM and Chris Stapleton, I've always used # of votes as the tie breaker.

Misdeal. Let's start over.

This time I'll give something 30 points.

 

[Northern Voice]

#14

Wilco - Star Wars

44 Points, 3 Votes

Ranked Highest By: mphtrilogy, erricctspikes, The Dreaded Marco

Previous Albums on our Countdown: The Whole Love (5th in 2011), Sky Blue Sky (11th in 2007)

Review: Opener ‘EKG’ is a short, instrumental Beffhearty jam that quickly moves into an exciting Kraturock rhythm. Wilco did this on The Whole Love, opening with the brilliantly left field ‘Art of Almost’ but didn’t really follow through; this time though, they go all out. ‘More’ is squalling keyboards, ####ed-up acoustic guitar sharp stabs of strangeness from Nels Cline’s magic guitar. ‘Random Name Generator’ – one of the album’s highlights – is a hook-filled glam rock stomp and possibly the first Wilco song you can dance to. ‘The Joke Explained’ is fuzzy stoner rock that sounds like Tweedy telling Mac Demarco 'this is how you do it, kid'. Then there’s ‘You Satellite’, which is perfect: destined to be regarded as one of their best ever songs, it descends subtly into a bruise-coloured maelstrom of guitars, echoing My Bloody Valentine or The Jesus and Mary Chain.


OK the second half of the album isn’t quite as good – it’s an 8/10 whereas the first five songs get a solid 10. ‘Taste the Ceiling’ and ‘Where do I Begin’ are as close as Star Wars gets to the mid-tempo, straightforward stuff of the Sky Blue Sky era, but this time around the understated little guitar and keyboard flourishes feel like part of an interesting song rather than masks for shortcomings. Besides, you’ve still got the brilliant punkish, punchy ‘Pickled Ginger’ (the song Tweedy performed in character as part of fictional band Land Ho in Parks and Recreation last year) and the dreamy closer ‘Magnetized’, which is a beautiful showcase for Mike Jorgensen and Pat Sansone’s keyboards.

 

[Northern Voice]

I'll give $50 to anyone who guesses the top 10 correctly before I start posting it. Not in order, just the 10 bands in it.

 

[Northern Voice]

#13

Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Style

47 Points, 3 Votes

Ranked Highest By: The Dreaded Marco, Eephus, Northern Voice

Review: Car Seat Headrest (né Will Toledo) has been cranking out commendable, although not entirely memorable, lo-fi bedroom pop for the past five years at an alarming rate. Toledo’s prolific output (11 self-released Bandcamp albums) is enough to make Robert Pollard raise a salty salute, but with Headrest’s 2015 release How To Leave Town, Toledo’s ambitions seemed to be outpacing his abilities. That’s why Teens Of Style is such a pleasant surprise; a sprawling, shambolic, post-everything revelation. Though let’s be clear that Toledo is not reinventing the wheel. Bright horn blasts cut through dissonance, recalling Neutral Milk Hotel and The Ladybug Transistor, while Toledo’s distortion-mic delivery is a dead ringer for Julian Casablancas.


While the influences are clear, Toledo is upfront about it. There’s no attempt to hide behind snark or irony, and while much of the record is awash in reverb and wall of noise haze, Toledo maintains the hooks and accessibility that always made him attractive. With Teens, Toledo has reworked material from the first three years of his band’s existence, culling the best bits from 3 (2010), My Back Is Killing Me Baby (2011), and Monomania (2012) and reconstructing them on fresh sonic palettes. Where the original versions felt constrained and limited by production restraints, Teens allows Toledo the room to explore and treat each song as a mini epic. Standout tracks “Times To Die” and “Los Borrachos (I Don’t Have Any Hope Left, But The Weather Is Nice)” crack the five-minute mark without wallowing in psych excess, as Toledo reins in laptop noodling for tight composition.

Toledo’s songwriting has always been his strong suit, and his ruminations on well-worn themes of unrequited love, alienation, and teenage rebellion are spiked with wisdom. On the raucous single “Something Soon” Toledo laments, “I want to break something important / I want to kick my dad in the shins” without sounding like a bratty teen. Where M83’s Saturdays=Youth delivered a dream-pop document of John Hughes-era romanticism, Teens, in its own scruffy way, is the final death knell for the synth nostalgia movement. Those familiar with Toledo’s back catalog will marvel at the reworking of their favorite tracks, while the uninitiated will likely discover a bright young talent and wonder how the hell they’ve been missing out.

 

[El Floppo]

Thread needs more chatter between NV posts but I haven't listened to a lot of the picks (yet).

I didn't like the Tame Impala album but maybe didn't give it enough of a chance. I liked 1989 a lot conceptually but the more I listened to it, the more I preferred the original. The Kendrick Lamar seemed more like an album to respect than love but since my kids moved out this year, I listened to a lot less rap than in recent memory.

there were a couple of tunes on the Tame Impala album I really liked... but I just kept losing steam listening to the whole thing.

the Kendrick Lamar album is really, really good... I said earlier that I figured it was going to get a lot of votes, so I abstained.

Kendrick beaten by Scottish rappers.

lol. I really liked that Young Fathers album... most fully realized of their work so far, which I've liked straight along.

 

[Northern Voice]

#12

Modest Mouse - Strangers to Ourselves

48 Points, 3 Votes

Ranked Highest By: E-Z Glider, Nick Vermeil, JZilla

Previous Albums on our Countdown: No One's First and You're Next (#35 in 2011), We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (#8 in 2007)

Review: Modest Mouse are arguably the biggest band to come out of the underground scene since the grunge era. Their effervescent 2004 anthem “Float On” is so perfectly engineered that it’s charted three entirely different times (first in its original form, then reworked into pop hits by Pink and Lupe Fiasco); the campfire-handclap sound the group helped pioneer became mainstream and exploded into a genre unto itself.


In the years since their last release, 2007’s We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, the band have become workhorses on the festival circuit and seemed to be slipping into a well-deserved, cruise-controlled middle age. But Modest Mouse work by their own inscrutable logic, so instead of returning with an album of material made for outdoor sing-alongs, they’ve thrown back to the squirrelly experimental roots that produced their 1997 cult classic The Lonesome Crowded West. Group mastermind Isaac Brock hasn’t lost the prodigious hook-writing chops that were always there, even at their most jagged: First single “Lampshades on Fire” is a punchy, seesawing winner, and even if the jaunty “The Best Room” doesn’t sear its melody into your brain as immediately as “Float On,” it still shares that paradoxically weightless rock stomp, with a lovely, masterful two-part bridge. The album’s real heart, though, is in the spots where Brock lets his eccentricities run wild. “Pistol (A. Cunanan, Miami, FL. 1996)” is named for the man who murdered Gianni Versace, and is as deeply creepy as its subject matter. It’s as strange as “Lampshades” is accessible, a tricky move pulled off expertly, and proof that the band’s found a vital second wind

 

[Northern Voice]

#11

Kurt Vile - B'lieve I'm Goin' Down

48 Points, 4 Votes

Ranked Highest By: E-Z Glider, JZilla, El Floppo, The Dreaded Marco

Previous Albums on our Countdown: Wakin on a Pretty Daze (#12 in 2013), Smoke Rings for My Halo (#28 in 2011)

Review: Kurt Vile’s been carving out his own singular niche since his nascent days recording for Gulcher and Mexican Summer, releasing limited edition LPs such as Constant Hitmaker and God Is Saying To You, while still moonlighting with The War On Drugs when the former LP was released. His artistic breakthrough, along with the slow ending of the incessant comparisons to The War On Drugs, began when he signed with Matador in 2009 and released Childish Prodigy, to this day perhaps his most underrated album, but the one which gained him indie luminary fans such as Kim Gordon and Bradford Cox. He’s struck creative gold from that point onward, veering from strength to strength on the likes of the concise, soft-hewn pop of 2011’s Smoke Ring For My Halo, to the elongated, Crazy Horse-esque jams of Wakin On A Pretty Daze. His sixth album, B’lieve I’m Goin Down…, finds Vile at his most loose and bleary-eyed, with a hazy, vertiginous feel on the darkest and most spontaneous collection of songs he’s released to date.


Opener “Pretty Pimpin” is a surging, melodic number, thematically akin to New York Dolls’ “Personality Crisis,” as Vile contemplates life on the road disconnected from himself and his family (“I woke up this morning didn’t recognize the man in the mirror / Then I laughed and I said ‘oh silly me… that’s just me’”). It’s something of an aberration as Vile assumes characters throughout B’lieve, as on the loping, banjo driven number “I’m An Outlaw,” invoking Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood, while conjuring the stark anomie akin to the novel’s protagonist Hazel Motes, or any prototypical outsider, really, as he laconically croons, “Girl you got wise blood to come when summoned / I’m an outlaw on the brink of self-implosion.”

“That’s Life Tho, Almost Hate To Say,” is even resigned in its gentle plucking style, although it’s dignified resignation, as Vile intones, “Almost hate to say / That’s life, though… in every brutal way,” again alluding to O’Connor, this time The Violent Bear It Away, as he elliptically references Francis Tarwater and the doomed inevitability of his existence.

Despite copious O’Connor and Cormac McCarthy references, B’lieve is anything but a stereotypically nebbishy academic album akin to The Decemberists’ work. It hews much more closely to Isaac Brock’s hallucinatory scorched-earth apocalyptic premonitions on Modest Mouse’s finest moments, and musically, it’s the purest distillation of Vile’s idiosyncratic style to date.

The album’s emotional apotheosis occurs on the fireside balladry of “Stand Inside,” seemingly both an apology and affirmation to Vile’s wife. Musically, with its meditative guitar figures and rippling piano, it recalls the more tender moments of Neil Young’s Sleeps With Angels, and shares with that album a recognition of just how inherently ephemeral love can be. It’s cautiously optimistic, slyly suggesting that being apart from his loved ones can actually grow his relationship with them, before concluding, “Every window, everywhere I go / You spy on me / Keep me unlonely.” It’s an unsparing sentiment of love, loss, and redemption, and a sublime example of the divine alchemy that pervades B’lieve, easily Vile’s masterpiece to date.

 

[El Floppo]

totally missed that Modest Mouse had a new album this year.

and I'm obviously on an island in really not liking Father John Misty. reminds me of too-clever college kids who write poetry about nonsense thinking themselves hot ####.

I'll give $50 to anyone who guesses the top 10 correctly before I start posting it. Not in order, just the 10 bands in it.

Courtney Barnett...

 

[Northern Voice]

#10

Royal Headache - High

50 Points, 2 Votes

Ranked Highest By: Bonzai, JZilla

Review: Royal Headache are Australia’s best rock band because everything they do strikes a chord of import. This second album, High, skips abruptly between joy and sadness, despair and resignation, abandon and calm, in a manner that feels eternally pressing, but especially now. It is anxious, crestfallen and incapable of peace. It’s what an Australian rock record, at least one made by four men, should sound like in 2015. Any less is a waste of time.


This is not a didactic or complicated band. A lot of Royal Headache’s songs are about elusive objects of desire (High) or trying to find some form of escape in a world that seems to forbid it (Electric Shock). They aren’t as light on their feet as they were on their 2011 debut – there are times on High when the ensemble slows its pace, as on the ballad Wouldn’t You Know – but these departures from punk orthodoxy allow Shogun’s vocals to insinuate much more than the band’s earlier lovelorn outsider anthems. Royal Headache isn’t a punk band any more, but that’s OK. They’re more.

It’s everything that goes unsaid that makes Royal Headache special. Shogun’s vocals – the simple sound of them – are coarse yet nuanced and ripe with potential meaning. It’s possible to hear this as functional, energetic rock music, but more engaged listening reveals something primal in these howls, something desperate and yearning.

When Shogun sings about a lost lover on High, it doesn’t sound like that’s all he has lost. Blow the song’s meaning totally out of proportion and it still makes sense, because his lyrics aren’t as crucial as the sensations his voice conveys.

Royal Headache aren’t going to save Australian rock music, nor is it their prerogative to do so. But it’s very difficult to hear this band without being moved, and High captures them at their best. Go to one of their shows and see for yourself: few other Australian rock bands are capable of inducing such frenzy.

 

[Eephus]

I'll give $50 to anyone who guesses the top 10 correctly before I start posting it. Not in order, just the 10 bands in it.

Canadian dollars? Hardly worth the bother

 

[Northern Voice]

#9

Failure - The Heart is a Monster

56 Points, 3 Votes

Ranked Highest By: erricctspikes, Fiddles, JZilla

Review: The Heart is a Monster picks up right where Fantastic Planet left off, maintaining the same core values of strongarm guitar sounds, pristine production and luscious melodies. “Hot Traveler,” “Come Crashing” and the skronking “Atom City Queen” bash and crash with graceful hammers, never letting the tunes drown in pummel. “Snow Angel,” “Otherwhere” and “Counterfeit Sky” shift further into the band’s psychedelic side, without loss of brute strength. “The Focus” and “Fair Light Era” play most bluntly with the dynamic shift most endemic to the style, moving easily from floating in space to crushing the puny humans below. The disk reaches its apex with “I Can See Houses,” nearly seven minutes of lava flowing into the heart of an acid star.


Andrews’ burnished singing sits comfortably atop the guitar edifice he and Edwards lay down, while Scott shifts rhythms on a dime to keep even the dreamiest tracks moving steadily. Produced with utmost clarity and letting the performances speak for themselves, The Heart is a Monster is that rare comeback record that sounds like no time has passed whatsoever. Having not lost a single step, Failure is as potent a force now as it was when its style of music was king.

 

[Northern Voice]

#8

Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color

56 Points, 3 Votes

Ranked Highest By: erricctspikes, Fiddles, E-Z Glider

Previous albums on our Countdown: Boys & Girls (#24 in 2012)

Review: When Brittany Howard, the Shakes’ frontwoman, is asked what kind of band they are, she says: “I have no clue.” Their million-selling 2012 debut, Boys & Girls, grew out of their roots as a raucous covers band, driven by the sandpaper soul of Howard’s mighty voice, with the shrapnel of Otis Redding, Black Sabbath and Rolling Stones songs embedded in its Southern rock.

But their sophomore album will rattle the expectations of heritage rock fans as Howard allows her fierce fire to burn through the genres from heavy rock, through Seventies-style funk soul to punk and grunge. Sometimes she does it all in the space of one song: The Greatest starts with a muttered “check it out”, launches into an abrasive thrash, morphs briefly into a Velvet Underground dirge, then a Fifties rock’n’roll ballad, then an organ mimics electronica before the song heads back into Lou Reed country for a few final riffs that feel like an angry postscript to Sweet Jane.

Easiest to groove into are the Mayfield-indebted Don’t Wanna Fight and the roared soul of Miss You. But the weirder moments – the molten strings and xylophones – redefine the band as a powerful and original force.

 

[Eephus]

#10

Royal Headache - High

50 Points, 2 Votes

It was a very good year for Australian and New Zealander music. This one made my long list along with The Twerps and the Salad Boys. Tame Impala has been listed and I assume Courtney Barnett is in the top 10 somewhere. I believe Unknown Mortal Orchestra has some Antipodean connections.

My personal favorites were from **** Diver and Gold Class, which both made the short list. I'm looking forward to the US release of Marlon Williams' album next month.

 

[Northern Voice]

Their first album since we've been doing this not to crack the top 3.

#7

The Decemberists - What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World

60 Points, 3 Votes

Ranked Highest By: Jaysus, Fiddles, kupcho1

Previous albums on our Countdown: The King is Dead (#2 in 2011), The Hazards of Love (#3 in 2009), The Crane Wife (#3 in 2006)

Review: Indie rock fanatics and tastemakers have gotten so used to Portland's Decemberists having a narrative concept (The Crane Wife, The Hazards of Love), or trying to prove something (the "We're not a prog band – really!" songcraft of The King Is Dead) that an album as straightforward as What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World feels underwhelming. Put aside expectations of grandeur, however, and Colin Meloy's musical and thematic obsessions reward handsomely. The lustful "Philomena" emulates Sixties girl-group pop, while the melancholic "Make You Better" and "Cavalry Captain" find the band pursuing indie pop at its most melodic. "Lake Song" pursues Nick Drake under a pink moon, while "Carolina Low" and "Better Not Wake the Baby" evoke folk of a less specific but more timeless nature. "Anti-Summersong" and the resigned, painfully meta "The Singer Addresses His Audience" touch on one of Meloy's pet themes: the relationship between artists and their consumers. What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World isn't a concept LP or any kind of statement of higher purpose. Instead, it simply illuminates the Decemberists' inviolate strengths.

 

[Northern Voice]

#6

Dawes - All Your Favorite Bands

63 Points, 3 Votes

Ranked Highest By: Jaysus, pettifogger, Abraham

Review: WELCOME TO the Hotel California, four decades later.


The characters and conversations in the stunning new songs by Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes all seem to haunt the halls that the Eagles made iconic.

In “Somewhere Along the Way,” Goldsmith pinpoints that place where “the dream and the circumstance continue their tortured dance.” In “I Can’t Think About It Now,” he exposes “the pact between the writer and the star,” while in “Waiting for Your Call” he speaks of “the charms and riches that do not seem to last.”

However familiar this L.A. story may be, Goldsmith conveys it with fresh wounds, original language and folk-rock melodies you’ll love on first listen. The new album, “All Your Favorite Bands,” wins on every level — in observation, performance, composition and sound.

The sense of place in the music won’t surprise anyone who has followed the Dawes story so far. Their three previous albums established the group as heirs to the Laurel Canyon scene of the 1960s and ’70s — that mythic place of inspiration and networking for stars from Joni Mitchell to CSNY.

Today, Dawes leads a new wave of smart stars from the area, including Rilo Kiley, Jonathan Rice and Mike Bloom.
For the band’s fourth work, Goldsmith conceived his most concise and catchy material to date. He simplified his writing from 2013’s “Stories Don’t End.” His famously long verses have been honed to haikus.

 

[Northern Voice]

#5

Wolf Alice - My Love is Cool

64 Points, 4 Votes

Ranked Highest By: Steve Tasker, Eephus, JZilla, Northern Voice

Review: For a band, as in life, it can take a while to find comfort in your own skin. Nobody comes fully formed, most remain perpetual cookie dough. Years of experimentation, mistakes, missteps and false dawns can pass before finally finding a real identity; one that not just the fans, but the band themselves truly believe in. It’s not something that’s often crystallised by the time debut albums come along. The biggest acts around may have been wildly successful with their early steps, but it’s only much later they firmly cement that style. Most never get there at all.


And then there’s Wolf Alice.

Remember the first time you heard ‘Bros’? Tugging the heartstrings without ever being mawkish, even on its hundredth listen it sounded magical. And yet this was still early days for them. If there was ever one marker for what this band could be, that was it.


No haste, no bombast, just a quiet, sure confidence.
But even in the face of something so remarkable, the London four-piece have been deliberate in their lack of haste. Playing chicken with the hype train, they’ve taken their time - each step a perfect move down a path to something special. From the initial explosion of opening statement ‘Fluffy’ to the ‘how do you leave that off an album’ brilliance of ‘Moaning Lisa Smile’, nobody would have blamed them if they’d simply collected their recent past glories together and called it a full-length. It would still have stood out. They’d still have been huge. The fact they didn’t is exactly why this is no normal band.

From winding, bewitching opener ‘Turn To Dust’ onwards, where other bands would turn right, Wolf Alice go left. Ellie Rowsell’s vocal cuts like diamond, not glass, opting for ethereal swirls, not basic verse / chorus / verse mundanity. No haste, no bombast, just a quiet, sure confidence. It’s no gamble. ’Bros’, retooled to fit the flow of the record, is soon on the scene. From there on in, there’s no doubt. ‘My Love Is Cool’ isn’t simply a great debut. It’s not just a great album full stop. It’s, in no uncertain terms, a remarkable one. The furthest from route one they could ever get, Wolf Alice aren’t just sure of who they are; they own it.

 

[Northern Voice]

#4

Jamie xx - In Colour

92 Points, 5 Votes

Ranked Highest By: E-Z Glider, Brony, Nick Vermeil, Steve Tasker, kupcho1

Review: There are passages on In Colour where the music is huge and anthemic while being simultaneously open and intimate. Opening track "Gosh" is the table-setter. It builds, one loop upon the next, each new brick of groove slotting into place, until it becomes a sky-scraping edifice whose call-to-motion is impossible to resist. And then, just as the last tightly-bound fixture is put into place, there comes a squelchy, slightly awkward synthesizer solo that sounds like it was knocked off in one hurried take by someone who approaches the instrument with the excitement of a newcomer. When the keyboard falls in, which is still exciting and surprising after many dozens of plays, it’s as if our tower of sound is suddenly crowned by a massive cluster of balloons that lifts it into the sky, Up style.


The view from this vantage point never flags. "Sleep Sound" takes a sample of the Four Freshmen’s "It’s a Blue World" and gently cuts it into pieces, the voice tumbling through time in a manner not unlike what the Field’s Axel Willner did to the Flamingos' "I Only Have Eyes for You", but the whole thing is filtered and submerged, a dream of water that’s soothing even as it hints of drowning. "I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)" features rapper Young Thug and dancehall vocalist Popcaan and while the combination of the three was iffy on paper, they wind up clicking. Thug is bursting with joy as he delivers profane couplets in his sing-song cadence, and Popcaan grounds the music and forms a bridge to the ragga of Jamie xx’s jungle heroes. As the album moves on, Jamie xx moves through styles and textures, everything unified by his highly attuned ear.

Three tunes find Jamie xx collaborating with his bandmates, and, like "Good Times", they show how well he straddles the line between "song" and "track." "Stranger in a Room", featuring Oliver Sim, could be a (very good) xx song and is the only thing here that seems like it could have come from the band. Romy’s melody on "SeeSaw" is all hushed confession mixed with longing, but instead of spare guitar and drums, Jamie xx surrounds it with breakbeats and a pulsing synth that suggests the cosmos, merging the closest possible feelings with the vastness of the infinite. "Loud Places", making brilliant use of a sample of jazz drummer Idris Muhammad’s "Could Heaven Ever Be Like This", is a song of contrast in the manner of "SeeSaw". But the sample on "Loud Places" is warmer and more inclusive, and it’s followed by a brilliantly simple lyric about club-going loneliness and desire that might make Morrissey jealous: "I go to loud places/ To search for someone/ To be quiet with."

That clash of feeling, of being overwhelmed by everything at once while also wanting to zoom in on and live inside the tiniest detail, is the animating force of In Colour. Late in the album, the rush comes to a head on "The Rest Is Noise", a track that functions as the flipside to "Gosh", the party turned inside out, as shouting abandon gives way to a huge wash of yearning. There’s even a small nod to "Gosh"’s synth break as the album seems to return from where it started. It makes me think of a comment from Jamie xx regarding one of the record’s most modest tracks, "Obvs", which is is driven by a steel drum lead. Jamie xx is fascinated by the instrument and has returned to it regularly, describing its appeal like this: "You can make it sound quite melancholy…but at the same time, it reminds me of paradise." It’s not a bad description of how In Colour works. It’s the album as raucous party where the thrill of the moment never quite obliterates the wistful sadness that comes from knowing it will all end too soon.

 

[Northern Voice]

#3

Grimes - Art Angels

98 Points, 5 Votes

Ranked Highest By: Brony, Nick Vermeil, Steve Tasker, kupcho1, Northern Voice

Previous Albums on our Countdown: Visions (#5 in 2012)

Review: Over the past five years, hardly any other artist in music has weaved together a catalog of material as dark and danceable as that of Canadian singer and producer Grimes. By making the slick production style and staid framework of ’80s pop contemporary and marrying it with a wide range of dejected, unsettling, and unsettled lyrical content, her music has a tendency to adopt the aesthetic of a gothic dance party raging at 2 a.m. at the modern equivalent of Studio 54. On her latest record Art Angels the room spins faster than it ever has before as she once again plumbs her own emotional depths with a smile on her face and scream in her heart.


Much like Kevin Parker of Tame Impala or Kurt Vile, Grimes handles almost every single facet of the writing, performing, recording, and producing process by herself (she also designs her album covers, creates her own videos, and choreographs her own stage show), and much like Vile and Parker she’s an exacting perfectionist. Art Angels only exists in the form that it does because she recorded an entire album’s worth of different songs that she ended up scrapping because it didn’t cut the mustard.

It seems clear that while Grimes has the ability to create some of the most infectious and hook-driven music around, her ambitions are much larger. Songs like “Flesh Without Blood” and “Realiti” are about as traditionally framed and catchy as anything you’re liable to hear on the radio. But then there are other moments, like “Scream,” which heavily features Taiwanese rapper Aristophanes going off on a singular twangy, repetitive guitar melody and a break beat before the whole climaxes in a tornado of hellish wailing.

That is the most extreme and striking example of the duality of Art Angels and in most places those two impulses are coalesced in a far subtler manner. The song “California” is a prime example. From the sonic level, it’s a track that seems tailor made to soundtrack the state’s signature sunshine and good vibrations. You can get wrapped up in its effervescence until the words sink into your brain and the true pain and hurt behind it all seeps into your heart. “California, you only like me when you think I’m looking sad / California I didn’t think you’d ever treat me so bad.” It’s “California Dreamin’” flipped on it’s head and it’s absolutely devastating.

The full weight of Grimes’ abilities as both a producer and singer are brought to bear on the “Kill V. Maim.” As a song, it’s almost bi-polar in its execution, with the singer veering wildly into a number of different lanes between her own signature pitch, vocal-chord ripping shrieks, and early-period Kanye West chipmunk squeaks splayed over a dance track tempo that would no doubt bring a knowing smile to Madonna’s face. It’s the entirety of everything Grimes has tried to accomplish on Art Angels in one four-minute package. It’s slick and gritty, fun and funny, and horrifying and grotesque all at once. It will also make you shake your ### like nothing else.

 

[Northern Voice]

Put me on a pedestal and I'll only disappoint you

#2

Chvrches - Every Open Eye

113 Points, 6 Votes

Ranked Highest By: mphtrilogy, Nick Vermeil, Steve Tasker, kupcho1, Northern Voice, Jaysus

Previous Albums on our Countdown: The Bones of What You Believe (#9 in 2013)

Review: Chvrches has yet to make a misstep. The Scottish trio built some buzz in 2012 by releasing tracks online, followed up with a solid EP that spring, then capitalized on its momentum with one 2013’s best albums. From there it toured relentlessly—364 shows in two years, according to its press materials—while frontwoman Lauren Mayberry made waves speaking out against online harassment of female artists. Everything has gone right so far for Chvrches, which is great for the group, but also raises expectations for what it does next.


Everything continues to go right for Chvrches on Every Open Eye, released almost two years to the day after its debut, The Bones Of What You Believe. The trio—rounded out by multi-instrumentalists Iain Cook and Martin Doherty—returned to its home studio in south Glasgow to make Every Open Eye, the same place it made Bones, and just like on that album, Chvrches self-produced the new one. As helpful as it can be to have a disinterested third party to serve as coach, bull#### detector, and referee, it can be a hindrance for a band that has a singular sense of purpose, as Chvrches possesses on Every Open Eye.

At 11 songs in 43 minutes, nothing lingers too long, and nothing sags. The sequencing paces the hooks nicely: The first four songs alternate heavy-hitters, with the solid opener “Never Ending Circles” setting up the hooky “Leave A Trace,” then into the brisk “Keep You On My Side,” which segues into the hook-laden “Make Them Gold.” “Clearest Blue” picks up the pace before downshifting a bit into “High Enough To Carry You Over” (sung by Doherty), then moves into the triumphant “Empty Threat.” The slower, more somber “Down Side Of Me” gives way to the defiant “Playing Dead,” which could be addressing the harassment Mayberry spoke of last year: “If I give more than enough ground, will you claim it? / I will take it all in one breath and hold it down / And if I try to pretend that I don’t hear it / You can tell me to move and I won’t go / You can tell me to try and I won’t go.” Then again, so could the similarly assertive “Bury It,” which follows: “We will bury it and rise above / Bury it and rise above you.” Like “You Caught The Light” on Bones, Every Open Eye closes on a moody, reflective note with “Afterglow,” a prototypical album-closer anchored by dreamy, twinkling synths and Mayberry in torch-singer mode. The album ends with her repeating simply, “I’ve given up all I can.”

All of Chvrches might as well be saying that, because Every Open Eye reflects the effort that went into it. The record feels like the kind a band releases just before it takes off. If Every Open Eyes turns out to be Chvrches’ breakthrough album, no one should be surprised.
#1

Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit

145 Points, 9 Votes

Ranked Highest By: E-Z Glider, pettifogger, El Floopo, Northern Voice, The Dreaded Marco, Karma Police, Nick Vermeil, kupcho1, mphtrilogy

Review: Courtney Barnett’s skill is in making the pedestrian sound poignant. Everyday observations and mundane afterthoughts become focal points. From elevator dings to pressed-metal ceilings, tiny things hog the limelight on debut album ‘Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit’. The real star, however, is the storyteller. She announced herself two years back with a double EP of dry wit and heady rock n’ full. On her full-length proper, Barnett arrives as a longstanding voice, someone who’s going to long outlive the characters she writes about.


What worked on ‘A Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas’ has been upped tenfold. Jagged guitar lines don’t just prod the conscience, they surge right past. A full band mentality boasts the thrill of the Aussie’s live shows, providing more grit than ever. But everything falls back to the twenty-something in the centre. Who else writes songs - really good songs, to be precise - about roadkill, hayfever, organic vegetables and doing backstroke without coming off like a bit of a prat? Tongue placed firmly in cheek, it takes guts and gusto to pull this off, no doubt. But try placing these songs in other hands - even legendary names would clumsily stumble over lines about the Great Barrier Reef dying. Who else can bash out the lyric, “more people die on the road than they do in the ocean / maybe we should mull over killing cars instead of sharks / or just lock them up in parks where we can go and view them”? Make it a football chant - there’s only one Courtney Barnett. That’s what makes this debut so exceptional.

Across the record, she’ll flick between bold, ragged chants (‘Pedestrian At Best’) to sluggish jet-lagged drawls (‘Kim’s Caravan’, where she sounds close to collapse). Aspects of her own life filter into focus. Some of the names are autobiographical. The rusty tour sprawl is most definitely real. But more often than not, the spotlight’s reserved for strangers. Whether it’s a barely-enthused prospective first time buyer checking out ‘Depreston’, or ‘Elevator Operator”s contemplative office worker who’s bunking off, everyone has their place in this record.

Make no mistake - this is a debut like few others. In fact, the only way we’ll ever get another record like ‘Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit’ is if Barnett hits Groundhog Day. It’s beyond bonzer, mate.

 

[Steve Tasker]

#10

Royal Headache - High

50 Points, 2 Votes

It was a very good year for Australian and New Zealander music. This one made my long list along with The Twerps and the Salad Boys. Tame Impala has been listed and I assume Courtney Barnett is in the top 10 somewhere. I believe Unknown Mortal Orchestra has some Antipodean connections.

My personal favorites were from **** Diver and Gold Class, which both made the short list. I'm looking forward to the US release of Marlon Williams' album next month.

I should've had Courtney Barnett on my list, would've been in the 10-15 range I'd think....not sure how it slipped by as the year went on. Oh well.

 

[Eephus]

Hmm top three.

I figure Courtney Barnett is in there since she was mentioned a lot in the AOTY thread.

I don't think this board has ever been big on Sufjan Stevens.

Most folks here seem to favor big rockist guitar albums but it's been a tough century for that so far.

I'm going with One Direction here.

No clue on the third.

ETA: too slow

 

[Steve Tasker]

Pretty sure this is the first time I've hit on 4 of the top 5 albums.

Awesome work as always, NV.

 

[Eephus]

Big year for the chicks. 4 out of the top 5. Who said music are all gay.

 

[El Floppo]

Pretty sure this is the first time I've hit on 4 of the top 5 albums.

Awesome work as always, NV.

I usually get 1 or 2 in the top 10, but most of my top picks end up getting ####-canned.

seems like this list is following the pitchfork/indie trend vibe of electro-poppy/easy-listening/dancey stuff. not really my scene, man.

eta: here's the list I sent NV...

1. Highest Point in Clifftown- Hooton Tennis Club (22)

2. Transfixiation- A Place to Bury Strangers (19)

3. Early Risers- Soliders of Fortune (16)

4. No Life for Me- Wavves, Cloud Nothings (16)

5. Sometimes I think and Think and Sometimes I just Sit- Courtney Barnett (16)

6. The Agent Intellect- Protomartyr (16)

7. White Men Are Black- Young Fathers (14)

8. In a Restless House- City Calm Down (13)

9. Multi-Love- Unknown Mortal Orchestra (11)

10. b'lieve i'm going down- Kurt Vile (8)

11. ll- Fuzz (8)

12. Undertow- Drenge (7)

13. Key Markets- Sleaford Mods (6)

14. Show Your Teeth- The Castillians (6)

15. Ratworld- Menace Beach (6)

16. Mind on Fire- Dan Deacon (6)

17. A Flourish and a Spoil- The Districts (6)

18. Viet Cong- Viet Cong (2)

19. What Went Down- Foals (1)

20. 11- Metz (1)

Almost...

Restarter- Torche

Sun Coming Down- Ought

Bad Magic- Motorhead

Currents- Tame Impala

No No NO- Beirut

Golem- Wand

 

[Eephus]

Thanks NV. Got some more albums to add to my queue.

 

[El Floppo]

thought for sure Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Protomartyr, Fuzz and Foals would make it up there.

 

[El Floppo]

Thanks NV. Got some more albums to add to my queue.

ditto... great work as always, NV.

always fun to go in and listen to the things I've completely missed.

 

[Northern Voice]

My list, for the record:

Spoiler

Courtney Barnett 30

Chvrches 25

Brandon Flowers 20

Maccabees 20

Wolf Alice 20

Car Seat Headrest 12

El Vy 12

Beach Slang 10

Yukon Blonde 10

The World Is a Beautiful Place... 9

Craig Finn 5

Carly Rae Jepsen 5

Death Cab for Cutie 5

The Wonder Years 5

Tame Impala 4

Grimes 4

New Order 4

 

[Abraham]

totally missed that Modest Mouse had a new album this year.

and I'm obviously on an island in really not liking Father John Misty. reminds me of too-clever college kids who write poetry about nonsense thinking themselves hot ####.

I'll give $50 to anyone who guesses the top 10 correctly before I start posting it. Not in order, just the 10 bands in it.

Courtney Barnett...

I don't like Father Jon at all.

 

[Northern Voice]

Okay, so now that this has finished, is there any interest in a song draft? Either straight 2015, or it's been a while, could do a "new music draft" and say 2013-2015 or similar range? My thinking for this would be not categories or even mixtape, just straight up old style pick your favourite songs and bring them to everyone's attention. I know we could just post lists, but I think the slow reveal of drafting gives time to actually listen to the songs as they're selected and brings out more discussion - or maybe there's year end music/list/draft fatigue right now?

 

[Eephus]

always game for a music draft

 

[El Floppo]

thought for sure Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Protomartyr, Fuzz and Foals would make it up there.

NV... I can't have been the only one voting for those- thought they generated some traction in the 2015 thread.

 

[Bonzai]

#10

Royal Headache - High

50 Points, 2 Votes

It was a very good year for Australian and New Zealander music. This one made my long list along with The Twerps and the Salad Boys. Tame Impala has been listed and I assume Courtney Barnett is in the top 10 somewhere. I believe Unknown Mortal Orchestra has some Antipodean connections.

My personal favorites were from **** Diver and Gold Class, which both made the short list. I'm looking forward to the US release of Marlon Williams' album next month.

I put the Marlon Williams folder on my list this year based on the 5 or so songs I've heard out there.

 

[Eephus]

The Titus Andronicus album is the one I'm most surprised didn't chart. It seems like that kind of guitars and screaming sound always has done well here in the past. I appreciated the ambitiousness as an _ALBUM_ but thought it was hit and miss as a collection of songs. It was on my first cut list but it moved steadily down as I realized how little interest I had for listening to it again.

 

[Bonzai]

For the record:

Royal Headache - High - 30
Baroness - Purple - 30
Chris Stapleton - Traveller - 25
James McMurtry - Complicated Game - 20
Sufjan Stevens - 15
Marlon Williams - s/t - 15
Titus Andronicus - The Most Lamentable Tragedy - 15
Red Dons - The Dead Hand of Tradition -10
Ultimate Painting - Green Lanes - 10
Ty Segall - Mr. Face - 10

 

[Eephus]

#10

Royal Headache - High

50 Points, 2 Votes

It was a very good year for Australian and New Zealander music. This one made my long list along with The Twerps and the Salad Boys. Tame Impala has been listed and I assume Courtney Barnett is in the top 10 somewhere. I believe Unknown Mortal Orchestra has some Antipodean connections.

My personal favorites were from **** Diver and Gold Class, which both made the short list. I'm looking forward to the US release of Marlon Williams' album next month.

I put the Marlon Williams folder on my list this year based on the 5 or so songs I've heard out there.

This Screaming Jay Hawkins cover on YouTube is worth six minutes of your time.

 

[Bonzai]

Kid is gonna do some things.

 

[Steve Tasker]

always game for a music draft

Same here, but it usually ends up with me drafting a bunch of songs that were on no one's radar anyway.

 

[Eephus]

always game for a music draft

Same here, but it usually ends up with me drafting a bunch of songs that were on no one's radar anyway.

It's kind of hard to have a scarcity gimmick in a Songs of 2015 format

 

[Nick Vermeil]

Nice work NV. I have some listening to do.

 

[Brony]

Just catching up on this now as I've been swamped workwise. Awesome job as always NV!

Nice blend of stuff that I've liked/loved and some other albums I need to check out. I thought I'd be the outlier fruitcake that liked Jamie XX and Grimes; glad to see I'm not the only one. Great albums.

 

[Nigel Tufnel]

Not enough of y'all listened to Salad Boys. Thanks NV.

 

[Bonzai]

Not enough of y'all listened to Salad Boys. Thanks NV.

I'll have to correct that.

 

[Nigel Tufnel]

Not enough of y'all listened to Salad Boys. Thanks NV.

I'll have to correct that.

You'd like it. I loved Baroness and Titus Andronicus and of course Ty Segall too.