Now that my friends was a hell of a year for music. It took a lot of work to get this down to 10 albums but here we are. In no particulate order I give you….
Special Explosion*
To Infinity
Special Explosion, who sound absolutely nothing like their name might suggest, come from Seattle. You can really tell as everything about them screams Pacific Northwest.
Firmly sounding like Death Cab for Cutie, with a dash of the melodic side of Modest Mouse, Special aren’t reinventing the wheel here but they are making some of the most beautiful indie music I’ve heard all year.
There was a new Death Cab album out this year and I’ve never been bothered to listen to it, because I have this. It’s all I need for my guitar based, indie rock loveliness. The drums are crisp and the bass is so beautifully warm, underpinning the vocal harmonies perfectly.The production here makes everything shine.
This is a fantastic album and almost a unicorn in a world where I’m finding less and less indie guitar bands I like.
The track Fire is the song that got me into SE. The harmonies and the drums driving them are the kind of thing that I’m all about. It just grabbed me from the first listen and didn’t let go.
* I have just discovered that this album came out on the 15th of December last year.
After writing this. So fuck it. It stays.
Rolo Tomassi
Time will die and Love will bury it.
So I was late to the RT party, a only got into them on the last album (One of my albums of the year 2015). And on that they had changed from the ADD hardcore/mathcore insane speeds and time changes. Not that Grievances wasn’t really fast and heavy, it was just more focused. There was a groove to songs. Time will die is another huge step forward for the band. One that is finally getting them the attention they deserve.
The opening is pure fake out, the first track is an ambient number followed by Aftermath, a track that would be a straight up indie song, if it wasn’t for the drums letting you know something else is going on. The drums are too frantic and don’t lock in the way you’d expect till the chorus. I’ll not lie, I had to check to make sure I was listening to the right album.
Then Rituals punches you right in the face.
I mean, there is an intro, but at 45 seconds in the song goes full screaming and blast beats. It’s exhilarating.
It’s like being in a car crash. Suddenly everything goes spinning, you have no idea what the hell is going and you’re confused and wondering if you’ve been hurt. Scary; but the adrenaline rush is worth it.
The biggest change to the band’s sound in Time Will Die is that the synths have been turned way up and give the album such a more textured sound than the usual drum abuse and riffing I’d expect in this kind of music.
RT stand out amongst their peers because, song after song because they can hold your attention, switching between the breakneck speed and the clean, even a few times in the one song without it becoming annoyingly jarring. Nothing overstays its welcome but they no longer have the ADD compulsion to change every few bars, the album exists at it’s own perfect pace.
Though it does do one thing I truly hate though, the last track is a barely there sigh that just slips past, making almost no impression. This would have been quite a good way to relax out of such a frenetic album but the penultimate track, Contretemps, isn’t that fast and is a much better song. At 53 minutes this album would have lost nothing by being 5 minutes shorter.
But that’s my only real criticism of an amazing record.
The pop song
The not at all a pop song
Legend of the Seagullmen
S/T
One of the most obvious things missing from my music collection is fun.
I don’t do silly and would happily beat whacky to death with a stick, so it’s a bit of a shock to have a comedy prog metal album in my top ten. But it makes a bit more sense when I tell you there are members of Tool, Mastodon and Dethklok in it.
It’s a loose concept of the mysterious Seagullmen and various sea creature attacks, and is pretty bloody silly. The Fogger is about a creature “that stalks the ocean in search of users, abusers and polluters and deals lethal justice with his third eye while ripping the faces from skulls”.
Attack of the Giant is about a giant squid attack on Hollywood beach.
So you can kind of work out from there if you’re in or not. The music jumps from Misfits-esque punk, to prog shredding to lush Morricone orchestral pieces, it shouldn’t work. It works brilliantly. Yes, it is very silly, but most importantly, it’s very good.
George FitzGerald
All That Must Be
The most damning criticism of dance music has to be “Guardian reader electronica”. It speaks of safe music for middle class dinner parties, of Morcheba and has me running in the other direction.
The reason I even mention it is because GRE was thrown around a lot when this came out.
It some ways it might be deserved, there is no edge here, nothing pushing music forwards, but not not everything needs to. This is a hug of an album. It’s warm and friendly, a place to retreat from the harsh places in my music collection. When you get Tracy Thorn in to do vocals on an album it’s almost a statement of intent. You know what it’s going to sound like but it will sound brilliant.
There are quite a lot of collaborators on this album but it never drowns out George’s own sound, Lil Silva provides a post dubstep feel to Roll Back and Bonobo turns up for one of the dancier tracks and none of it feels out of place, the whole sound hangs together to make a satisfying album which can be unusual in dance music.
My only complaint about the album is I would have liked a few more bangers on it but as it stands, it’s a great piece of electronica.
Midas Fall
Evaporate
My quick pitch for Midas Fall is Tori Amos’ post rock band. Now that’s not entirely fair to the band but it’s quite the compliment from someone who loves Little Earthquakes as much as I do. The album opens with Bruise Pusher, starting with a gentle build of piano and hushed voice it slowly builds into a song that sustains tension more than it ever explodes in a stereotypical post rock climax. This album, thankfully is better than that and shys away from crescendocore.
“In sunny Landscapes” could be pure Tori if not for the rumbling threat of Ebowed guitar that is buried low in the mix, flowing under the beautiful vocal and piano, threatening violence but never delivering, just leaving menace in its wake.
And that is something that this album does amazingly, the tension and release keep the album vital and hold your attention the whole way through.
Built on electronics, a filthy guitar sound and an amazing vocal performance, this album is stunning.
Just play it loudly for the best effect.
Zeal & Ardor
Stranger Fruit
Is a one man project by Manuel Gagneux. Due to a suggestion on 4chan of all places, he decide to fuse, and I’m quoting wiki here, “black metal and Negro spirituals” which is just fucking nuts. (For the record, 4Chan did not use the phrase “Negro spirituals” but I’m sure you can work out what was said.)
This shouldn’t work, at all.
But Gagneux decided the project would be about the question of “what if American slaves had embraced Satan instead of Jesus?” This is about as ballsy a thing to base a band on that I can think of. But concept is nothing if you can’t back it up and Z&A’s first album was good, but no one knew if you could make a second album out of a sound like that without the novelty wearing off.
So answer is yes, you can make a great album out of this without it getting stale. This fusion of gospel and black metal is astounding. Manuel’s huge voice holds all the songs together. From the repetitive chain gang call of the Gravedigger Chant to the metal fury of You ain’t coming back, Gagneux’s vocal holds the whole show together. Not in any way to put down the song writing it’s absolutely gripping. The songs are short sharp shock, with nothing clocking in over 4.30 which is important on an album like this.
Too much of this album is going to kill it, I just want to listen to it over and over but I know I have to be careful; it’s like a black metal sugar rush. You have to use it sparingly or you’ll get sick of it.
Gravedigger’s chant
Not metal
You ain’t coming back.
Very metal.
Pig
Risen
I first came across Pig supporting NIN in 1994 and the reason they stuck with me was because of how much everyone hated them. I still haven’t seen a band go down that badly to this day. But we liked the guitarist; he had a fez. He seemed cool.
But apart from Sinsation in ‘95 I never got into them. I owe a shout out to Adam at A Model of Control for even getting me interested enough to check this out and seeing as it made my top 10 I’m glad he did.
This is a slow paced industrial album, all filth and sleaze delivered with a evangelical twist. Built with chunky guitar sounds, almost funky basslines and a evil preacher delivery that would make any good Christian want to bath in holy water. Yup, sleaze is the best way to sum this album, from The Vice Girls “kiss the rest now fuck the best”, to “give me secrets and vaseline” in Leather Pig, Raymond knows what’s on his mind and is not afraid to croon it at you in the most way disturbing he can.
There are a lot of light touches in a genre not really know for it. The backing vocals seem to have been provided by Bowie’s ghost in places and there are Thin White fingerprints all over the album. I have no idea how He didn’t get sued for Loud, Lawless and Lost, it’s built from pieces of Fame with almost no effort made to hide it.
But aside from that misstep, this is a fantastic album from a genre I gave up on decades ago.
Huntsmen
American Scrap
When I read the review that said this was a perfect mix of metal and Americana, my first response was “Why the fuck would anyone want to do that?!?” But something in the review made me check them out and I’m very glad I did.
The next thing to shock me was how much the first track, “Bury me deep” sounds like Dave Gilmour on Acoustic guitar. The thing that shocked me is that I didn’t care. (I am not a Floyd fan) So what you get here is some quality metal but with the storytelling of Springsteen. To say it’s unusual is understating things quite a bit, but it works and it works well.
All this would be pointless if the music isn’t up to snuff and I can assure you that it really is. Slow clean passages run into huge riffs. There are touches of Black Sabbath in places, crushing walls of noise in others, but like most of the bands on this list, they just don’t sound like anyone else. Doom and post metal rub shoulders with passages that sound almost like the Decemberists.
The high point of the album is Atlantic City, a bone dry mix of Americana crime story and steely eyed metal. While the album has some bellowed vocals this is clean sung and so a bit more listener friendly as an into to an amazing band.
Ancestors
Suspended in Reflections
Ancestors were a doom band who disappeared for a few years and have come back almost unrecognisable. Taking their lead from 90’s bands like Codeine, this is far more Alt rock that doom metal and far more experimental and interesting than most alt rock.
The opening track, “Gone” is a thundering introduction to the album, with the subtlety of a hammer blow. Everything is as far up the mix as it can be and it’s a little overwhelming. The second track shifts gears and we’re almost in Slowcore country, there is an obvious Low comparison here and it’s a good thing.
“Lying in the Grass” hides the singers voice in vicorder at the start, slowing reducing the effect, making the vocal become human as the song builds, reminding me of Pink Floyd of all things, until the guitars soar and we’re in a wall of sound we never say coming.
“Release” is a twinkly light jazz interlude. They even switch to a double bass for it. It’s a bit baffling at first, but then the overdriven synths come in and push the track into much darker places. It’s another way that shows that Suspended just isn’t like any other album I’ve listened to.
By the time you finish the aptly named “The Warm Glow” it’s just time to start the album again. It’s just magic.
And my album of the year. Really, this one is from 2018
Tomorrow We Sail
The Shadows
So this is my album of the year. It came out in March but I only discovered them in September. However it wasn’t love at first listen though. There was far too much folk going on for my tastes. (Too much folk for me is usually any at all) I recommend it to a friend and moved on. I’m not sure why I came back but I’m so glad because I love this album. I honestly can’t get enough of it, I’ve been listening to it daily for ages now and it’s getting to the point that I’m having to be careful not to kill it.
If this album was a person I think it’d be avoiding me at this point. There’s a bunch of things that will make a band musical catnip to me and TwS manage to get almost all of them into one short, amazing album.
I am an absolute sucker for multi part harmonies and orchestral post rock and this album might just meld these two things better than any other album I’ve heard. For such a delicate album there’s also a political fury that you just don’t get in music these days, but when you have song titles like “The Ghost of John Maynard Keynes” you’ll spot that pretty quickly. The repeating lyrics of “They’re spreading lies to keep us combining, the scapegoat changes but the story stays the same” are pretty blunt about it, but God damn! it’s good to see bands being political again.
This is a brilliant, beautiful album and I can’t recommend it enough.
The video I’ve picked to show just how good they are is a live session. Normally I would never start someone on a band with a live clip but they do this so well it’s jaw dropping.
Dive in.
Here’s to 2019 and all the new music to find.
The ways of exile 