The Best Of 2018 (So Far)

Anyone who is not completely overwhelmed with musical choice in 2018 is either not paying attention, stuck in a rut, or phenomenally lazy. In my Of Note In 2018 playlist, for example, I’m tracking over 400 releases from all genres and the year is just at the halfway point. As a point of comparison, the same playlist in 2017 topped out at just over 500 entries. Unless we’re due for a sonic drought over the next six months, this should be a banner year. Of course music is not a numbers game and when it comes down to what is going to nourish your head, heart and body, there’s always going to be those few that demand compulsive listening and get you through your days. Here are the 25 new albums that are really doing it for me this year.

1. Holly Miranda - Mutual Horse Through the alchemy of her craft, Miranda transmutes difficulties in her life into glorious sonic adventures while never losing touch with the raw emotions behind it all. 

2. Jonathan Wilson - Rare Birds Despite a dodgy lyric or two, Wilson’s third album is a passionate masterpiece filled with intricate layers, novel textures, and less fealty to classic rock tropes and traditions. Need convincing? If you’re in NYC on July 29th, let him close the deal at a free concert at the Lincoln Center Out Of Doors festival. 

3. Pusha-T - Daytona Cutting through the noise of Kanye West’s “no apology tour,” this first in a string of spring releases from G.O.O.D. Music’s Wyoming sessions delivered ALL the goods. West’s production is both diamond-sharp and packed with grit, marrying rare soul samples with sleek beats to stunning effect. Even better, it is solely focused on showing off King Push’s precise and passionate flow, dripping with contempt for his inferiors and pride in all he’s accomplished. In addition to his trademark cocaine rap and salvos in an epic beef with Drake, Push takes time out in Santeria to remember his friend and road manager, De’von Pickett, expressing the pain and vulnerability he felt in the wake of his murder: “The Lord is my shepherd, I am not sheep/I am just a short stone's throw from the streets/I bring my offerin', I will not preach/Awaken my demons, you can hear that man screaming/I'm no different than the priest...” At just 27 minutes, Daytona is a heat-seeking missile that wastes no time and hits targets over and over again with devastating accuracy. On his third solo album, Pusha-T has finally matched the consistency and power of his best work with Clipse. The fact that Kanye, whose loyalty to the culture has been in serious question, crafted these perfect beats and bequeathed them to his colleague is a sign that there is still love in the man - and maybe hope for us all. In fact, West might have benefited from a few of the beats here and on Kids See Ghosts, his very good collaboration with Kid Cudi. His own album, despite having its moments, was the weakest of his career.

4. Olivia De Prato - Streya Like Michael Nicolas's cello album Transitions from 2016, De Prato's solo debut is as perfect an exemplar of a modern single-instrument album as you're going to hear. Flawlessly played and curated, Streya is an unforgettable journey through the sonic possibilities of the violin.

5. Hollie Cook - Vessel Of Love Third time and continuing to charm, Cook's delicious update on rocksteady reggae comes with a bittersweet sting that just makes it more addictive. 

6. Natalie Prass - The Future And The Past When I saw Prass back in 2015, she used a customized mix of 90's R&B and hip hop to warm up the crowd before her set. So I was not entirely surprised to find her second album full of intricate and slyly funky grooves. Not only is her versatility on full display here, but so is that of Matthew E. White, once again in the producer's chair, and his stellar band of Richmond, VA musos. While there are still plenty of the intimate relationship songs Prass is known for, like Lost ("I get lost, I get lost, when I'm with you/But at what cost, at what cost, do I let you do what you do"), there are also politically acute numbers like Sisters ("One time for our girls at school/Who can’t get ahead no matter what they do/And when they grow up and they try to work/Oh no, but they ain’t nothing but the shorter skirt, hey") and Ship Goes Down ("And I will never kneel when/Power is in fear/And aimed upon me/Oh no, no, I am never drowning"). One model here is the world-beating songwriting of Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers of Chic, who always tried to have "big idea" on which to hang their gossamer but deep dance tracks. Part of the disco movement was about solidarity among outsiders, literally expressed on the dance floor. So invite your friends and neighbors over for a Prass party and when the sun comes up call your elected officials and remind them who they work for.

7. Father John Misty - God’s Favorite Customer Mr. Tillman shows no sign of slowing down, following up 2017’s epic Pure Comedy with this relatively stripped-down collection of songs. Featuring both his trademark dark humor and a new sense of vulnerability, even if occasionally cloaked in 70’s soft-rock bathos, Tillman knocks a few new holes in his wheelhouse on his fourth release as FJM. Jonathan Rado’s smart production can also have a rocked-out edge, something that’s been MIA since Fear Fun in 2012. 

8. Jonny Greenwood - Phantom Thread and You Were Never Really Here OK, I know I'm cheating here, but maybe by the end of 2018 I'll figure out which side of Greenwood I like better: the Bernard Herrmann-esque romantic of Phantom Thread or the chilly dealer in dread of YWNRH. Both are tours de force of cinematic music-making that intrigue and delight whether you've seen the films or not.

9. Palm - Rock Island Shimmering blasts of knotty repetition define the sound of this Philly-based art-rock band, combining the brittle funk of Talking Heads with sunshine-drenched melodies in a single-minded pursuit of cerebral ecstasy. See them live if you can!

10. Scott Johnson and Alarm Will Sound - Mind Out Of Matter Johnson is the master of notating speech and composing musical accompaniment, a technique he’s been perfecting since the 1970’s. These settings of the philosophical, theological and scientific musings of Prof. Daniel C. Dennett (based on his book Breaking the Spell (Religion as a Natural Phenomenon)) show a new subtlety in Johnson’s approach to language. And the music is so full of sparkle and interest that you will keep listening long after you’ve absorbed all the text. Naturally, the playing by Alarm Will Sound is virtuosic and full of verve, a fitting reminder of the extraordinary legacy of their founder, Matt Marks, who died suddenly earlier this year. Come out to Roulette on Thursday, August 16th as the new music community gathers to remember him with performances and conversation.

11. Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel Smart songwriting, gritty guitars and a tough rhythm section honed from two years of touring add up to Barnett’s most confident album yet, even if one song is called Crippling Self-Doubt And A General Lack Confidence. If we can name our fears, we can conquer them.

12. Andy Jenkins - Sweet Bunch The other great Spacebomb release in 2018, this is a sweet bunch of songs indeed, long on sticky melodies and hooks and full of heartfelt singing and expert playing. At this point Matthew E. White could start his own festival with just the artists he’s produced and it would instantly be one of the best in the land. 

13. Shame - Songs Of Praise Not the second coming, just a damned good rock album steeped in the verities of classic post-punk and filled with energy and invention. Still trying to see them live, hopefully I'll have a chance in the fall. 

14. Seabuckthorn - A House With Too Much Fire Andy Cartwright uses the organic textures of various guitars layered hypnotically with loops and electronics to create immersive mood exercises perfect for soundtracking your next walking meditation. 

15. Kali Uchis - Isolation After The Storm, one of the singles from this debut showed up in my Discover Weekly playlist (it can work!) and I was immediately in the groove. Having Bootsy Collins guest on bass and vocals didn’t hurt and somehow Tyler The Creator was restrained enough to not overshadow Uchis’s voice, which is both airy and earthy. That doesn’t mean I expected the album to be this strong, however, especially when I got a glimpse of the cheesy cover. But, lo and behold, Uchis has assembled one of the most compelling R&B albums of recent years, with catchy melodies, slinky beats and just enough wit and contemporary edge to keep it from being retro. Get some of these tracks on your BBQ playlist STAT. 

16. Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet - Landfall This elegy for NYC after Hurricane Sandy finds these old school avant gardists meshing seamlessly and producing one of the most soulful albums of their lengthy careers. 

17. Black Milk - FEVER Mainly known for his skills behind the boards, the Detroit-based producer-rapper fully comes into his own as a double threat on this album. Most importantly, his finesse on the mic has freed him up to make the most personal record of his career, full of relatable thoughts and feelings. He’s been on tour with a live band - show up and cheer him on. 

18. Maya Baiser - David Lang: The Day Made up of two lengthy works for cello, electronics and voice, this album sets in stone some of Lang’s finest music, World To Come (2003) and The Day (2016). Seeing Baiser perform them only confirmed how deeply involved she is in this music, playing their commemoration of the post-9/11 landscape with compassionate virtuosity. 

19. David Garland - Verdancy In which the New York radio legend moves to the country, borrows a guitar modified by his son for Sean Lennon, and uses it to explore previously unmapped terrain between folk and contemporary classical music. There’s only one track I don’t care for over four hours of music, so this is definitely verdant territory. 

20. Wang Lu - Urban Inventory This portrait recording features six of Lu's compositions performed by a starry array of ensembles including Third Sound, ICE, Alarm Will Sound and the Ensemble Intercontemporain. Their involvement is a tribute to Lu's dazzling music, which shows a complete  mastery of orchestration and dynamics as well as a polyglot style based on a broad field of influences. Listening is like being in the hands of a great storyteller as each piece pulls you through its narrative in a series of musical page turners. The vignettes of the title piece may be based on Lu's formative experiences in Beijing but her sonic translations are universal enough that any city dweller will feel a burst of recognition. Urban Inventory announces the arrival of an incredible talent whose gifts will likely only continue to grow.

21. Clarice Jensen - From This That Will Be Filled This solo debut from ACME's Artistic Director includes one of the last works by the late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson alongside a piece by Michael Harrison and a two-part composition by Jensen herself. Jensen's ideas about what the cello can do in various enhanced environments are never less than fascinating and the playing and recording are always sublime.

22. Eddie Dixon - Coinstar On his first album in four years, this master of gnarled and tangled Americana strips down his sound, letting his guitar dole out rock & roll wisdom in between lyrics that limn the realms of the have-nots (“Everything’s a brass ring, everything's a sweepstakes car,” he sings in Coinstar, “If I get to heaven, can I finally see a doctor, please?”) and point out just how much American exceptionalism is based on oppression. This is the perfect companion to Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickeled And Dimed or Howard Zinn’s A People’s History Of The United States, but it’s got a beat and you can dance to it. If you feel scarred by Dixon’s scabrous wit, that’s just because we’re all implicated in one way or another.

23. Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino We can all debate whether this is an Alex Turner solo project or a great, lost Last Shadow Puppets album, or we can just listen, floating off in a woozy fantasia of retro sci fi musings that take place in a future that seems strangely familiar. Turner slows down his usually motor-mouthed vocals to a Lennon-esque drawl that weaves its way through spacious arrangements of burbling bass, chamber-pop keyboards and witty drums. The guitars, so central to the Monkeys sound in the past, serve mainly as punctuation, a reflection of the fact that Turner did much of the songwriting on piano, which also expanded his melodic horizons. Kudos also to Turner's compatriots Jamie Cook (guitar, keys), Nick O'Malley (bass) and Matt Helders (drums) for strapping in for this unusual mission. I admire any band that can make a complete u-turn when following up their most successful album, potentially sloughing off legions of fans in the process (check out the Arctics Facebook page - not a comfortable place these days!), but the fact is I would book a long stay at Tranquility Base under any name.

24. Jane Church - Calimocho Molotov! I picked this up on cassette (download code included!) at one of their many gigs and, trust me, it's more fun than a vintage convertible on a sunny day. In wake of their recent signing to Greenway Records it seems the rest of you will have to wait for a more official release in the fall. Matt Stevenson writes and sings songs that stick and the backing by Ali Awan (lead guitar), Turner Stough (bass), and Peter Hilton Jr. (drums) could not be more engaging. Hilton especially deserves credit for the murderous swing of the sound. Pure joy - get on board.

25.  Elsa Hewitt - Quilt Jams Hewitt released three albums of her warm, fuzzy electronic compositions last year so I would not have looked askance if she had taken the year off. Apparently, that's just not in her nature. Not only has she just released this collection of minimalist sketches for guitar and electronics but there's another, livelier album promised for the fall. Quilt Jams does just what it says on the tin, enveloping the listener in a comforting wash of sounds. If you have a tape deck, you can buy it on cassette, which adds to the density of the sound. It also comes with a handmade sleeve - but act fast, there are only three left!

Listen to a sample of most of these albums with this handy playlist:


Keep up with everything I'm tracking with these Of Note In 2018 playlists:
Of Note In 2018 - Includes all the tracks in the genre-specific lists
Of Note In 2018 (Classical)
Of Note In 2018 (Electronic)
Of Note In 2018 (Hip Hop, R&B & Reggae)
Of Note In 2018 (Rock, Folk, Etc.)
Of Note In 2018 (Reissues)

Record Roundup: Rock 100’s

Even if they don't end up on the charts, ruled these days by hip hop and pop from the Swedish-industrial complex, there's still a lot of great albums drawing on the rock tradition. So many, in fact, that I’m going to resort to the Bill Kopp 100-word (or less!) review method to cover as many as possible right here, right now.

Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel The great Aussie hope continues her heat-seeking trajectory with even more assurance and dynamic range than earlier works. Barnett's influences are here to return the favor in the form of Kim and Kelly Deal from The Breeders, but they don't overshadow Barnett's core players: Bones Sloane, Dave Mudie and Dan Luscombe (bass, drums, keys etc., successively), who play as one. While the songs are still deeply personal, there's a sense of the world beyond her garden, making Barnett the rare artist using her success to expand her perspective rather than narrow it. Can't wait to see her in Prospect Park!

Father John Misty - God’s Favorite Customer There's always more to write about the Father, but cruel abundance has me including him here. Suffice it to say, this is the album Josh Tillman needed to make after the searing and sardonic essays in song of Pure Comedy. GFC is sparer in construction and the production has both more edge and more transparency than past works. While not as radically reductive as Plastic Ono Band, Lennon is definitely a touchstone. With producer Jonathan Wilson more of a sideman here, much credit to Jonathan Rado of bedroom pop classicists Foxygen for helping to realize FJM’s vision.

Jane Church - Calimocho Molotov! The project of Jackson Church, who used to be in psych-rockers Spires, Jane Church delivers supremely catchy rock songs with tight arrangements, superbly swinging drumming and lyrical smarts. They gig in NYC all the time and are growing fast. Go see them and grab this concise debut on cassette so you can say you knew them when. 

Andy Jenkins - Sweet Bunch According to Matthew E.White, who produced this debut with his killer Spacebomb crew, Jenkins was such a good songwriter in high school that White stopped writing songs for ten years. I believe it: after a couple of listens, I was singing along with his soulful Americana like I’d known these songs forever. Jenkins deploys his warm if modest voice with wise restraint and the musical surroundings go beyond sympathetic to symbiotic. This is kind of album that ever so kindly slips its hooks into you with no intention of letting go - and you won’t want it to. 

Melody Fields - Melody Fields Shamanistic sax, serrated fuzz guitar and 12-string jangle define the sound of these Swedish psychonauts who seem to travel through space and time with equal ease. If that makes them seem like throwbacks, the lack of self-consciousness to their approach and sheer excellence of their songs makes them thoroughly contemporary. And in Rain Man they’ve written a song worthy of their heroes from the original exploratory epoch that inspired them. 

Roaming Herds Of Buffalo - The Bugbears This Seattle band has been at it for the better part of a decade and their latest finds them at a new level of expertise, weaving guitars and keyboards into harsh and hypnotic patterns. If the vocals seem slightly like an afterthought, you won’t care at all when the herd is at full-speed stampede. 

Snail Mail - Lush Lindsey Jordan has the gift of composing songs that breathe in and out and move with the dynamics of life. Her unmannered singing is refreshing even when it slices right to the emotional bone. Besides her guitar playing (she started when she was five), which can go from a strummy jangle to a rowdy squall, the drumming of Ray Brown is the other star here - whether tight or splashy, he always knows when to fill space or create it. Jordan is just 19 and listening to her grow up in public should be a fascinating and illuminating ride. 

Starcrawler - Starcrawler A lot of so-called garage rock sounds like a put on to me - not these guys. Pure filth, sloppy, grinding, filth, but tuneful. I'm not surprised that they're from L.A., but I am surprised that Ryan Adams produced something with this much personality. With ten songs in 27 minutes, no idea overstays its welcome, even when you want it to, as on the blistering Love’s Gone Again. I don’t think too hard about this addictive stuff, but when my lizard brain tells me to hit “repeat” I do so. 

Wand - Perfume Also from L.A., Wand seems perpetually on the edge of a breakthrough, both artistically and commercially. Perfume is their most ambitious album yet, and while not all their attempts at expanding their psych-rock sound are 100 percent successful (Pure Romance, for example, is a little dull), when they hit it, they hit it hard. The title track is a case in point, marrying an epic construction and breakneck tempo to guitars that aim for the moon and go soaring past. 

Wooden Shjips - V. After 2011’s titanic Vol. 2, these California psych-rockers took a turn towards slickness, with, like, songs and upfront vocals. What were they thinking? While V. still has less scuzz than Vol. 2, its loose, hypnotic jams and hazy singing represent a return to form. There’s also a new pastoralism to some of the songs and, as the guitar spirals melodically skyward, you could almost be listening to the early Allman Brothers. 

What's been rocking your world?

You may also enjoy:
Best Of 2017: The Top 25
Dylan-Lamar-Misty: An American Trilogy

Record Roundup: Guitars, Guitars, Etc.
Best Of 15: The Top 20
Catching Up With 2015
Best Of 12: Part Two
Live Review: Play Misty For Me

Best Of 15: The Top 20

When I waded in with my mid-year report back in July, my musical cup runneth over enough that I picked 20 albums to celebrate. Then, it became a bit of a horse race to see what would stay on the list, in what position, and what would drop off. In the final analysis, these adjustments are not really about quality but reflect what albums became the soundtrack of my life and defined 2015 for me. 

Remarkably, the six top spots remained exactly the same, and six others stayed on the list, which made it tough for later releases to shoehorn their way in. But horn in they did, helping to create what I now present to you as The Top 20 of 2015.

1. Holly Miranda - Holly Miranda Watching Holly perform many of these songs solo at The Studio in Freehold, NJ only served to solidify my judgment that this is the album she was born to make.

2. Gecko Turner - That Place By The Thing With The Cool Name Sometimes it seems as if the world has gone mad. I prescribe more Gecko. Pursue your happiness here.

3. Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear  The world of music could use more people like Josh Tillman, who brings a dyspeptic flair to everything he does. This album is a masterpiece and behind the jokes is something as serious as his - and your - life.  He's also a pop culture critic of rare perspicacity, as proved by his pointed jab at Ryan Adams covering Taylor Swift.

4. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly  What, I'm going to speak for Kendrick Lamar? Here's the man himself, quoted by BET.com at his Terminal 5 concert earlier this year: “People have said a lot about this album. They done said ‘album of the year,’ ‘album of this generation’ and all that s**t. That’s cool. But on some real s**t, making this motherf**kers album was therapy. Not only for you, but for me… [It’s] some s**t that y’all can feel whether you insecure, vulnerable, mad, happy, angry, sad. You pop this motherf**ker's tape in, and you love and you live this s**t.” I love it and live it and I think we're going to be alright. But, Kendrick...tape?

5. Natalie Prass - Natalie Prass Natalie Prass is full of surprises and Matthew E. White's sympathetic and masterful production couldn't be more perfect.

6. The Amazing - Picture You Though the elements are familiar, there's a sense of discovery that makes it all seem fresh. European rock music at its finest.

7. Killing Joke - Pylon The original lineup of this legendary band is at full throttle - 35 years after their classic debut. 

8. Phil Cook - Southland Mission Since his band Megafaun broke up, there have been a lot of folks depending on Phil Cook to make them sound great in the studio and on the road. They might find him a little harder to book now that he's made this gem of an album.

9. Wilco - Star Wars It was fun to watch the ripples from the surprise release - for free, at first - of Wilco's ninth studio album. But what lasts are the songs and the sense of six brilliant individuals playing as one.

10. Iron & Wine and Ben Bridwell - Sing Into My Mouth In which Sam Beam and Band of Horses frontman Bridwell set their iPods on shuffle and sing the heck out of whatever they love. Beautifully arranged, too. And if Beam wants to do a whole album of Sade covers, sign me up.

11. Guilty Simpson - Detroit's Son Even if I hadn't had the opportunity to go deep with Guilty in a wide-ranging interview, I would've noticed him coming into his own on his best full-length yet. The spectacular beats are by Katalyst from Quakers.

12. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think And Sometimes I Just Sit It's a good thing Barnett is so approachable - otherwise her dazzling lyrics and protean talent would be overwhelming. She pushes her voice and guitar into some new places on her debut full-length and there's still the sense that she will go further in the future.

13. Missy Mazzoli with Victoire and Glenn Kotche - Vespers For A New Dark Age At first the rapturous beauty is almost distracting. But then you realize Mazzoli is using it to hold off despair. Such is the power of art.

14. Jamie XX - In Color Unlike many who work mainly with electronic sounds in a pop context, Jamie is as deft with silence as he is with sound, giving his up-to-the minute collages a timeless elegance. For more good times, check out the remix EP of the album's doo wop to hip hop summer smash.

15. Boogarins - Manual Their debut album went platinum in their home country of Brazil, helped no doubt by their relentless live attack. The U.S. might catch up a little with their second album, which has added a soaring inevitability to their gorgeous psych-rock explorations. Don't let the name put you off - it's a type of jasmine flower that is said to smell like "pure love." This album is sweet indeed.

16. In the Light of Air: ICE Performs Anna Thorvaldsdottir Not yet 40, Thorvaldsdottir continues to astonish with her grasp of orchestration and structure. This album, spectacularly performed and recorded by the International Contemporary Ensemble, features the four-movement title piece, which brings to mind Eno crossed with Sibelius, and Transitions, for cello and electronics. While there is a darkness to her work, it's never hopeless. I learned from Meet The Composer that Iceland, where Thorvaldsdottir is from, is of comparatively recent volcanic origin. Maybe that's why artists like her and Björk are so unbeholden to the past. Can't get enough of Anna? Check out Clockworking by Nordic Affect, another excellent album which includes her Shades of Silence among other Scandinavian works.

17. Leonard Cohen - Can't Forget: A Souvenir Of The Grand Tour Now 80, the Canadian poet can be forgiven for indulging in a little nostalgia - except every song on this patchwork collection of live performances sounds fresh from his pen. There are also two previously unreleased songs, including the wry blues of Never Gave Nobody Trouble, and two covers, one of which finds him fearlessly taking on George Jones. Quietly miraculous. 

18. Matthew E. White - Fresh Blood For his second album, White dialed up his sound with more players and an even more assured set of songs. He's always going to have a modest voice but he plays well to his strengths. There was nothing modest, however, about his performance atBRIC Arts Center in March, where he led a 20-piece orchestra. He was unafraid to take command of the stage - and the audience - delivering an impassioned and warmly inclusive set that showed him at his best. More, please. 

19. BADBADNOTGOOD with Ghostface Killah - Sour Soul In the last week or so Wu Tang Clan has been in the news quite a bit, in relation to the multi-million dollar sale of a very limited edition album to "pharma-bro" Martin Shkreli. My only hope is that some of this tabloid coverage will shine a little light onto Sour Soul. The Wu's Ghostface Killah chews the scenery with vigor on this collaboration with Toronto-based ensemble BADBADNOTGOOD, which provides enough crime-jazz swagger to burn. Kendrick Lamar got a lot of credit for incorporating elements of jazz into the tapestry of To Pimp A Butterfly, but nothing on that album swings like Sour Soul.

20. Tom Holkenborg aka Junkie XL - Mad Max Fury Road OST No Grammy nod for this all-but overwhelming heavy metal symphony? For shame. Hopefully, the Oscar voters will get the memo.

Here's the playlist - if you hear something you like, make sure to click through to the album. There's not a bad song in the bunch.


What's topping your list? Let me know where we overlap - and where we don't. Soon to come: overviews of The Best of The Rest Of 15, Classical & Composed, Reggae & Hip Hop, and Singles & EP's. Subscribe above to make sure you don't miss anything!

The Best of 2015 (So Far)

Isn't it wonderful when an album becomes like a public square and a huge variety of people come together to debate and celebrate its merits? Kendrick Lamar's extraordinary To Pimp A Butterfly definitely falls into this category and as such is probably the most important record of the year so far. 

But it is part of the critic's duty to balance the personal and the public and to speak from their heart, which is why To Pimp A Butterfly is not my number one album at this point.

That honor goes to Holly Miranda's self-titled second (or third, depending on how you count) album. While PhD theses may not be written unpacking dense political themes, hearing her completely blossom as an artist is a thrill in its own right. Also, watching a lesbian couple sing along to All I Want Is To Be Your Girl at Holly's recent concert does lend some weight to her place in the culture at this time in history. 

With that said, and with further ado shown the door, here's my Top 20 of the year so far. 

1. Holly Miranda - Holly Miranda We've known for some time that Holly Miranda is a genius interpreter. Now she finally has written a batch of songs consistently worthy of her gifts as a singer. 

2. Gecko Turner - That Place By The Thing With The Cool Name If I were king of the world there would be no more war because we would all be too busy dancing to Gecko. 

3. Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear With a novelist's eye for detail, a golden voice, and Jonathan Wilson as his producing partner in crime, FJM strikes again. Turning his withering gaze on himself as much as the American landscape, no one can make you laugh until you cry (and vice versa) like the former J. Tillman. And if there's a better performer hitting the stage in 2015, I'd like to know about it. 

4. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly Much has already been written about the complexities of Kendrick's masterpiece but let's not lose sight of its simpler charms, such as the fact that it is the most groovalicious hip hop album in quite some time. Give some credit to George Clinton and the Brainfeeder crew of Flying Lotus, Thundercat and Kamasi Washington. But the star of the show is always Kendrick, a true virtuoso rapper who has made more than the most of his voice, which is not a naturally beautiful instrument. Believe it or not, I think he will only get better as he matures away from his focus on using dysfunctional relationships between men and women as a central metaphor for power and control. 

5. Natalie Prass - Natalie Prass As a fan of Matthew E. White's cosmic Americana for the last few years, I was pre-disposed to like Natalie Prass's debut, which was produced by him and features the brilliant cast of characters from his own albums. However, I did have to fight through a slight overreaction to her chirpy vocal quirks to get to the core of her greatness. It was worth the journey, though, to connect with her rock-solid songwriting, which finds common ground between Stax and the great American songbook. There's also a toughness under the vocal delicacy that keeps it from effervescent into the ether.  

6. The Amazing - Picture You Elegance and reserve are not often on the list of psych-shoegaze virtues but this Swedish quintet emphatically make the case for them on their third album. The long songs gradually reveal more of the band's depth and versatility with each listen. Guitars are the main focus, but the production eases in organ, horns, strings and woodwinds in a most beguiling way.

7. SWR Vokalensemble - Italia Marcus Creed leads the talented singers of the SWR in an intelligently programmed selection of Italian choral music with captivating results. 

8. Jamie XX - In Colour I don't care for the XX but I loved We're New Here, Jamie's full-album remix of Gil Scott-Heron's final work so I thought I'd give this a try. Gosh am I glad I did! Aggressively hip, kaleidoscopic and alternating between melancholy and joy - sometimes in the same song - this is easily the electronic record of the year. Guest appearances by XX colleagues are brief and work well in this context but I think Jamie has more fun without them. Good times. 

9. Patrick Watson - Love Songs For Robots Watson has always been an expert at creating moods but on his latest he sustains one across the whole album. I think of the album as one long piece, a sleek and cinematic epic, so lush and gorgeous that your neck hairs will be permanently tingling. Glorious stuff. 

10. Matthew E. White - Fresh Blood White is no stranger to lush textures himself and follows up 2012's Big Inner with another deeply felt set of songs. He's got some of Curtis Mayfield's touch for the dramatic, both in the way he deploys horns, strings, and backup singers, but also in the way he cares so much about people and their connections. He's one of the good guys. 

11. BADBADNOTGOOD with Ghostface Killah - Sour Soul In which the Toronto-based post-jazz trio hook up with Wu-Tang mainstay Ghostface and create a collection of noir-inflected tracks that don't compromise the agendas of either party. Ghostface sounds invigorated, spitting gritty tales over horns and strings  and BBNG go all in on embracing their dark side. The best hip hop album no one is taking about. So I'm talking about it. 

12. Missy Mazzoli with Victoire and Glenn Kotche - Vespers For A New Dark Age Night is falling in Missy's world, too, so grab on and soar the heavens on the wings of soprano angels. 

13. Ryley Walker - Primrose Green Dazzling acoustic player Walker plies his trade in some of the sun-dappled territory marked out by Tim Buckley on such albums as Happy/Sad and Blue Afternoon - a realm not visited enough in my opinion. 

14. Leonard Cohen - Can't Forget: A Souvenir Of The Grand Tour I'm not 100% sure why, but I have found Leonard Cohen's latest albums to be no more than intermittently satisfying. For every great song like Nevermind (now the perfectly doomy theme for season two of True Detective), there are a few that seem too self-regarding. It's as if he got so caught up in being LEONARD COHEN that he couldn't just be himself. This album, an unusual hybrid of live takes of old songs, new songs recorded at soundchecks, and covers, has completely cracked the code. He's in terrific voice and his band is with him every step of the way as he transforms such classics as Field Commander Cohen and Joan Of Arc while introducing witty new gems like Never Gave Nobody Trouble. Somehow it all works together for his best collection since Ten New Songs. 

15. Tom Holkenborg aka Junkie XL - Mad Max Fury Road OST George Miller's surprising return to brilliantly brutal cinematic form was ably assisted by Holkenborg's smashing score. Like a cyborg Wagner, Holkenborg welds electronics and symphonics into unstoppable heat-seeking missiles of sound. You might want to be careful about driving under its influence. 

16. Noveller - Fantastic Planet Sarah Lipstate wields her guitar and a raft of electronics to explore the tributaries left by the innovations of Fripp and Eno in the 1970's and Glenn Branca in the 1980's. Beautifully atmospheric. 

17. Pond - Man It Feels Like Space Again Mojo Magazine docked these guys a star for being too weird. If I need say more, I'll just refer to the 3-D production, sly melodies and their supremely rhythmic take on neo-psych.

18. Bob Dylan - Shadows In The Night This may be Dylan's most atmospheric album ever, wandering the dark corners of Tin Pan Alley in a hand-picked selection of songs associated mainly with Frank Sinatra. Dylan's engagement with the clever lyrics of another era have smoothed out his voice and brought out a delightful wryness in his delivery. The production is a minimal, charcoal sketch surrounding Dylan, who stands firmly in the spotlight. Old dog, new tricks - yet again. 

19. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think And Sometimes I Just Sit The Aussie treasure returns with her first official full-length and slays with her carefully observed story-songs. She also plays a mean guitar and drives the band harder when it's called for. She's great live, too - catch her if you can. 

20. Ibeyi - Ibeyi These Parisian twins are descended from Cuban musical royalty. Based on this stunning debut, their deeper roots in Nigeria are also not too distant. Yoruba rhythms and themes collide with contemporary hip hop-based production and Ira Gershwin-influenced lyrics, all delivered as if it were no big deal by their heavenly voices. 

The new Apple Music has 19 of the 20 albums here - give a listen to a playlist of songs. 

Spotify has 18 of the 20 - listen below.

What's topping your list?

Catching Up With 2015

After the frenzy of year-end lists, AnEarful went a bit quiet as my family launched into an extensive apartment renovation. While (maybe) not as stressful as moving, this project required our full attention. I'm very lucky to have a wife who understands my passion for music and so a centerpiece of our living room is now an enormous wall unit that absorbed all of my CD's and will soon house all my LP's as well. 



This is not a collection to be dusted off from time to time. It is a library that I engage with on a daily basis, helping me make different connections and discoveries the same way shopping in a record store does as opposed to buying or streaming online.

Fortunately, thanks to Spotify, Freegal Music and other sources, I have kept up pretty well with what's been going on this year - I just haven't had time to write about it. As usual, I have an "Of Note" playlist on Spotify where I dump anything that catches my ear. You can subscribe to the playlist to follow along as I add (and sometimes subtract) songs. If you do, let me know what I might be missing out on!

To bring things up to date, here's an attempt at a breezy overview of 2015, quarter one.

Live And Direct



Matthew E. White at BRIC last month. 

In addition to the Kate Tempest show I covered recently, I feel privileged to have made it to two other concerts during this busy time. Father John Misty slayed at Rough Trade back in February. No surprise there, as I've seen him twice before and he's one of the great performers of our time. I still can't get over how he and his excellent band launched into the title track of I Love You Honeybear as if they were slamming home a four-hour epic concert. And his version of Leonard Cohen's I'm Your Man fit him as well as his stylish jacket. Just three weeks later, I slogged out to BRIC for a Matthew E. White extravaganza, with all the horns, strings, and backup singers you could want. This was the third time I've seen him as well and it was everything I've ever hoped for since the first time I heard Big Love from his debut. Listen for yourself, thanks to WFUV. More to come: Talea Ensemble at the Italian Academy on April 8th and Natalie Prass at Bowery Ballroom on May 4th.

Listen Keenly

The phantasmagorical interior of I Love You, Honeybear 

There are 43 tracks in the Spotify playlist so far. Obviously, three of them feature Kanye West, who is working his way towards a new album. Not so obviously, two of them have Paul McCartney, who seems to be having a ball, and even Rihanna sounds appealing on FourFiveSeconds. Keep Kanye away from awards shows - in the studio he can do very little wrong. He might have gone back to his Pro-Tools, however, after hearing To Pimp A Butterfly, the astonishing album from Kendrick Lamar. While at times it sounds like the greatest album OutKast never made, it triumphs through density, complexity, layers of emotion, and a gorgeously funky, wide-ranging production. Lamar has single-handedly made 2015 a good year for hip hop - with an assist from Ghostface Killah, who teamed up with Canadian noir-jazzers BadBadNotGood on Sour Soul. He sounds newly enlivened by the surroundings and is on point throughout, especially on the Donald Goines homage, Tone's Rap. It's hard to imagine that I won't still be listening to both of these come December.

I've already mentioned Father John Misty and Matthew E. White, who have both blown through any sophomore issues with great follow up albums. Each is worth getting on vinyl, FJM's I Love You, Honeybear for the mind-blowing packaging (warped vinyl and all), and White's Fresh Blood for the bonus disc of stripped down versions. While White's arrangements are spectacular, they wouldn't mean anything if the songs weren't so damned good. Both of them mine 60's and 70's sounds to great effect, which can also be said of Ryley Walker, a virtuoso guitarist making a move to wider exposure with his second album, Primrose Green. He's been covering Van Morrison's elegiac Fair Play in concert, which is a great point of reference, as is Tim Buckley, Nick Drake and Fotheringay. It's an old sound that never gets old. The production is lush and Walker pushes his voice and his band hard, breaking prior restraints and landing in a deeply emotional place. You gotta hear it.

Matthew E. White has also gifted us with the debut of Natalie Prass, surrounding her songs of heartbreak with a variety of settings, from his patented take on symphonic soul on several songs, to a string quartet and harp on Christy and pure classic Disney orchestration on It Is You. Dusty In Memphis comes to mind, and although Prass is more of a quirky chirper than the legendary Ms. Springfield, they both have a similar steel to their delicate spines. Possible best-new-artist stuff. Speaking of which, Courtney Barnett was one of the surprising delights of last year and now we have her first official full-length, Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit. Many reviewers reference Nirvana when talking about Barnett but I prefer to leapfrog right back to deadpan pop-punk of The Vaselines. In any case, Barnett's trademark storytelling, off-hand delivery and overall pluck are honed to fine point here, along with her guitar playing, with both more abandon and more polish to the sound. Promise delivered, further delight guaranteed. Chastity Belt never seemed that promising to begin with, but Time To Go Home is a nice surprise, tuneful and reflective.

Psychedelic sounds have gradually returned as a regular part of the landscape. This isn't always a good thing as the result often sounds like an ill-fitting costume, but three albums out this year make a strong argument in favor of keeping modern psych around. The Amazing spin out an elegant, filigreed sound on Picture You that slowly creates a distortion in the atmosphere. While the vocals could be stronger, most of the time the intertwining guitars are shouldering the load anyway. Pond, whose Hobo Rocket was an overlooked gem back in 2013, are back with Man It Feels Like Space Again. The production gleams with confidence and the songs are both muscular and wonderfully weird. Finally, we have Wand, who make seismic noises for connoisseurs of amplifier hum like me. Golem is their earth-scorching second album and the charred trees that surround it in an ever-widening circle look...beautiful.

Funny to think of a time when synthesizers seemed to threaten the natural order of things. Now they're used for retro-leaning music as often as an upright bass and a hollow-body guitar. It can be a wonderful thing when it works, such as on the electro pop of Father John Misty's True Affection, but pretty dreary elsewhere. James Greenwood, who performs as Ghost Culture, takes us back to The Factory on his self-titled debut, building up rich layers of keyboards and ticking rhythms and singing over them in an airy, disaffected tenor. His album succeeds because he seems not to care a whit what anyone thinks, as if he's saying "I'm 24 and this is all new to me. Come on and dance!" Why say no?

A lot of the music above is from people in the earlier stages of their careers. That could certainly not be said of Björk, now the subject of a retrospective at MOMA after all. Vulnicura is her seventh album since Debut and her third in a row that I find myself mostly admiring rather than loving. I'm a fan of art song as much as the next guy, but these pieces often come across as slightly formless, leaning a bit too much on the sheer beauty of the sound and the diary-like intrigue of the lyrics. Arca, who produced some of it, fell in the same static trap on his album last year. Björk's voice is in top form, at least, but I certainly don't need Antony intruding on my reverie. I don't know what she - or anyone else - sees in that guy.

Lastly, it all comes down to Bob Dylan. The day is growing ever nearer when we will look back and marvel that we ever shared the planet with such a titanic artist. But until then, he's right in the thick of it, planting his flag in the culture of today just as firmly as in decades past. He's always been indebted to and recharged by the songs of the past, so why not an album of Tin Pan Alley songs associated with Frank Sinatra? Dylan's affection and admiration for Sinatra has been clear ever since his moving performance of Restless Farewell at Frank's nationally televised 80th birthday celebration in 1995. Also, his voracious appetite to discover the structure of songwriting must have led him to look pretty closely at the Great American Songbook from time to time. As far as comparing his voice with The Voice, Dylan had this to say in his intense interview in AARP Magazine: "Comparing me with Frank Sinatra? You must be joking."


But Shadows In The Night is no joke. Brilliantly produced by Dylan (as Jack Frost), each song is set in a charcoal sketch of swaying bass, strummed guitar, and pedal steel (the great Donny Herron), with glints of other sounds and textures. Dylan embraces the songs, in all their theatricality and old-fashioned romanticism, while also holding them slightly distant, as if almost amused. His voice sounds clear and even supple without hiding any of its well-worn qualities as he navigates the sometimes dramatic melodies. In the end, Shadows In The Night is a mood piece. Give it a chance and it will mesmerize you.

What have you been listening to in 2015?

Best Of The Rest Of 14: Synths & Who's New (To Me)

Synthesized But Not Synthetic

Thank god Matt Taibbi is back, because Rolling Stone had the worst Best Albums of the Year list of, well, the year. U2, Bruce Springsteen? Only Jan Wenner thought those albums were among the best of 2014. And Taylor Swift at #10? I heard Wenner broke his sacroiliac contorting himself to pander to so many audiences. But one big thing they did get right was putting Thom Yorke's Tomorrow's Modern Boxes on there. Much coverage focused on his method of releasing it as a BitTorrent file, but after you've downloaded the thing (you can also get it from Bandcamp) the music is what matters. And the music is very good, with Yorke's angelic tenor sounding better than ever over slightly off-kilter electronic grooves. Perhaps the only thing keeping TMB off my Top 20 was a slight sense of over-familiarity - as if this is pretty much the album we would expect him to make. But if Yorke is content to tread water, I'm happy to paddle next to him in his rarified ocean.

Fans of Washed Out and M83 should also delve into the soundscapes of Michael Hammond, composer, sound-designer, and singer, released under the name No Lands. An arty and ambient take on synth pop (think Talk Talk's Spirit Of Eden), debut album Negative Space is gorgeous and never ceases to be intriguing. 

Although some reviews seemed to expect dance music from Patten's Estoile Naiant, it was really a series of electronic collages that kept moving forward without resorting to cheap rhythmic techniques. Mouse On Mars is in his DNA, just as Kraftwerk and Neu are in the DNA of Finland's Siinai. Their album Supermarket was expertly executed and focused on telling the story of a trip to, yes, the supermarket. Delightful and eerie in equal measures. When I think of Siinai, I often think of Seekae (something about the vowels), who released two albums in 2014. The Worry, the more song-based of the two, finds him working out some personal stuff over moody and colorful backgrounds. I like his plainspoken voice better than James Blake's and find him less pretentious overall. Find Seekae.

It could be coincidence or it could be the ripple effect of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's Oscar-winning soundtrack to The Social Network, but either way three of the year's most striking electronic albums were also soundtracks. Mica Levi's score to sci-fi art film Under The Skin creates a chilling mental movie using very simple elements. I wouldn't have expected such bleak rigor from the leader of the irritating Micachu & The Shapes, and I hope her dark night of the soul continues. Cliff Martinez of Drive fame is always worth listening to and kudos to the producers of The Knick for going with his anachronistic electronics instead of a period score. As always, Martinez's work is as slippery as a murderous icicle and just as cold. Son Lux has long been a favorite of mine and a nice end-of-year surprise was having his Original Music From And Inspired By: The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby drop on Spotify. Beautiful stuff, on the more ethereal side for him but with that signature feeling of consequence throughout.

I was on the Twigs tip before she was FKA and eagerly awaited her first full-length. As much as I tried, however, I did not swoon for LP1, finding it static and over-thought, although I did like Video Girl. At first I thought part of the problem with her album was that Alejandro Ghersi, better known as Arca, didn't produce the whole thing. His &&&&& EP was so stunning, as was his work on FKA Twigs early EP2 (not to mention the stuff he did for Kanye West on Yeezus), that I thought he could have saved LP1. But then his own album, Xen, came out and it was just as stiff, seeming to wither on the vine while I listened to it. The one highlight was Thievery, which burst from the general torpor with a beat straight from the dancehall. Hopefully Arca and FKA Twigs will get over themselves and serve up something more tasty in the future - they've both got the talent to do it.

Feels Like The Very First Time

Here's a quick rundown of some folks I heard for the first time in 2014 and who I now consider in the club, so to speak. They weren't all new artists but they were new to me.

I loved Courtney Barnett's draggy sound, witty lyrics, dynamite guitar and pure rock'n'roll attitude, all of which suffused the catchy, heartfelt songs on The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas. After seeing her rip the Bowery Ballroom apart by turning all those qualities up to 11, I know she has an even better record in her. Can't wait.

Eddie Dixon's Bump Key, which I might have found on Bandcamp myself if he hadn't contacted me first, was full of fractured Americana. I've also been having a ball discovering his earlier albums.

I had a wonderful night in Nashville thanks to Wild Ponies and Catherine Ashby and I've really enjoyed reliving it through their recent releases, Things That Used To Shine and Tennessee Tracks. Both records are filled with great music and great potential.

I've long enjoyed Sylvie Simmons writing in Mojo Magazine and elsewhere - who knew that she was hiding her quirky light as a singer-songwriter under a bushel? Her debut album, Sylvie, was beyond charming.

Ian William Craig is an operatically-trained Canadian tenor who knows his way around the studio, seeming to construct the spooky, layered pieces that make up A Turn Of Breath out of scraps of half-remembered sound. Striking stuff.

Richard Dawson has one of the weirdest takes on British folk I've ever heard, torturing an out-of-tune guitar till it bleeds. It's hard to tell if he knows exactly what he's doing on Nothing Important but I can assure you it sounds like nothing else.

Ben Howard's cinematic folk is far more conventional, touching on Coldplay at times, but there is a passionate heart beating underneath it all, and the tracks on his second album, I Forget Where We Were, often build to a real intensity. 

When Nick Mulvey was a member of the Portico Quartet, they were nominated for a Mercury Prize. He was nominated again for his solo debut, First Mind, which draws on folk, jazz and latin rhythms some of the same nubby-sweater warmth of classic Cat Stevens. His voice is a reassuring burr and he packs a lot of incident, melody and intelligence into his well-arranged songs.

Lastly, TV Girl's French Exit was a fun trip on the lighter side. These guys know their sixties pop and their St. Etienne and put it all together into shiny, smart packages with a faint sense of amusement. Don't let them have all the fun - join in.

What new discoveries did you make this year?



Still to come: Classical & Composed and Out Of The Past.

P.S. Since Thom Yorke hates Spotify as much as Taylor Swift (although perhaps for different reasons (and they're both dead wrong)), he is not represented on the playlist above - don't let that stop you from hearing Tomorrow's Modern Boxes.