half-year top 10 list

As 2018 is almost halfway over, here's my list of my top 10 albums so far:
1. U.S. Girls-IN A POEM UNLIMITED (4AD)
2. CupcakKe-EPHORIZE (self-released)
3. Janelle Monae-DIRTY COMPUTER (Bad Boy)
4. Ben LaMar Gay-DOWNTOWN CASTLES CAN NEVER BLOCK THE SUN (International Anthem)
5. SOPHIE-OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES (Future Classic)
6. Oneohtrix Point Never-AGE OF (Warp)
7. A. A. L.-2012-2017 (Other People)
8. Bettye LaVette-THINGS HAVE CHANGED (Verve)
9. Melody’s Echo Chamber-BON VOYAGE (Fat Possum)
10. JPEGMAFIA-VETERAN (Deathbomb Arc)

Ugh...it's that time already? I love reading these but hate trying to come up with them myself; I always feel so painfully unhip. However thanks for your list, gives me some titles to search for.

I will say I've liked everything I've heard from the recent Snail Mail album.

I wrote a review of the Snail Mail album, where I said that apart from "Heat Wave," none of the songs stuck with me at all although Lindsey Jordan is obviously very talented. The huge acclaim it's received puzzles me - it seems like fairly generic indie rock. But I will agree with Shame and Tracey Thorn, who came close to making my list.

I'm on a Facebook music discussion group, where someone posted his top 58 albums of 2018! I decided this list was not self-indulgent after reading that one.

Shame, Shopping, the Shannon Shaw "Nashville" album, Snail Mail and Andrew W.K.

I still love the new Chvrches -- and Tracey Thorne's "Record".

Frank Turner's "Be More Kind" is a shoo-in for Top 10 contention simply for being released this year.

I understand your reservations with snailmail. The reason I like hearing it may be only because it evokes fleeting memories of early 90s indie when (my) life was simpler (I think the soccer mommy album fills a similar role).

Johnny Marr
Simple Minds
The Damned

I'm pretty old school as evidenced by my list. However, I must admit I'm kinda digging reggaeton...my son listens to it all the time, and I've taken a liking to J Balvin. His new album is really good.

I've only heard reggaeton from radios in stores and restaurants (given the number of Latinos in New York, it's inescapable) i, but I've been meaning to check out J Balvin's album on Spotify, since I've enjoyed "Mi Gente" and "I Like It."

There's a 3rd CD (not just 2) that has an awesome cover of "Ooh Child." So, naturally, I started with the 3rd CD first. If that's what it takes for me to know his music, so be it.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Wrong Creatures
The Damned - Evil Spirits
The Fratellis - In Your Own Sweet Time
Hot Snakes - Jericho Sirens
Johnny Marr - Call the Comet
Moaning
The Pop Cycle - Where the Action Is
Rolling Blackouts C.F. - Hope Downs
Spirit Award - Neverending
The Wombats - Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life

I have really liked the Loma, Rolling Blackouts C.F., Neko Case, and Flasher. I have of course heard a lot about the new Kamasi Washington but I just don't have the critical ear to say whether a 2+ hour jazz odyssey is great or just a lot of music. Also I don't go for the wordless choruses that Kamasi uses on a lot of his music.

We did a whole podcast on Snail Mail as an example of potentially damaging hype -- I think it's good, and Lindsay is talented, but it has gotten far too much undeserved hype. Snail Mail should be regarded as a promising talent but not have so much undue expectation placed on the debut record.

I got the Kamasi album today. I have deliberately tried to listen to new jazz this year, and he actually seems to be the one contemporary jazz musician with a toehold in something approaching pop culture. But I got it separated into halves, as two different MP3 files (HEAVEN and EARTH), and it might be better to listen to them that way rather than trying to absorb 150 minutes of music in one sitting. I only listened to the entire 3 hours of THE EPIC in a row once.

Loma were on my shortlist; if my list was a top 20, their album would be on it.

Still need to catch up but so far these...........Shame, RBCF, Iceage, Superchunk



Post Edited (06-27-18 13:34)

Faves>
No Age - Snares Like a Haircut - wow
Superchunk - What a Time To Be Alive - just now at zenith, these guys
Wand - Perfume - again something unique - opener is the anthem you swear you've heard before
Wye Oak - Louder I Call - absolutely their best; back-loaded [try Symmetry]
Beach House - 7 - deep tracks best
Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really - change in tack proves smart
Neko Case - well, a TP house band, so...
Beck- Colors [yes from last year but took a long time to click]

Others>
Damned - Evil Spirits - Was disappointed at first but now I get it; half is great
Belle & Sebastian - 3 EPs - culled no faves
Eels - exactly one song is brilliant, would still see live
Gruff Rhys - too MOR for me
GBV - Space Gun - not as stacked as the wonderful How Spell Heaven
Jesus Jones - Passages - yeah, I gave it a listen
Malkmus - Sparkle - dawning on me
Wombats - Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life - seemed too generic (some trax definitely - this is a live band) but maybe another spin
NiN - as bad as the last ten or fifteen or whatever number have tried to capture early NiN
Parquet Courts - not sure yet but in top 30 maybe
Spirit Award - Neverending - just a little psych/shoegazy; maybe in top 30
RBCF - sounded better after 2nd, due for 3rd
Snail Mail - didn't catch me
Johnny Marr - I like but not love his stuff
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Wrong Creatures - disappointed; not their best
The Fratellis - In Your Own Sweet Time - meh
U.S Girls - too cutesy pop, unironically for me, made me reach for a nearby Black Flag cleanse
Hot Snakes - Jericho Sirens - rock with some roll but a couple stand up
Pop Cycle - Where the Action - in the pub rock, Lloyd Cole/Jason & Scorchers, '80s type box

EPs>
Middle Kids - EP - genius, the LP not so much - try On My Knees
Empath - Liberating Guilt

Must-hear Songs>
Alice Bag - A Stranger
Buffalo Tom - All Be Gone
Ezra Furman - Love You So Bad
Goat Girl - Cracker Drool
Hot Snakes - Jericho Sirens
Illuminati Hotties - Shape of My Hands
Okkervil River - Pulled Up the Ribbon
Soccer Mommy - The Last Girl

Mainstream Pop>
Shannon Shaw - In Nashville [Cryin My Eyes Out is pop classic]

Shannon Shaw is your idea of "mainstream pop?" You inspired me to watch her video for "Broke My Own," and it's a very good Motown/Phil Spector pastiche, but this is nowhere close to the top 40 in 2018, unless Adele overdubbed the vocals and turned it into a sappy ballad with lots of piano. I was thinking more of Demi Lovato's "Sober" or Ariana Grande's "The Light Is Coming," both excellent pop singles that came out after I made my half-year music top 10 lists.

I just heard the song 'desertion' by Motorcade from their 2018 s/t debut album. If the whole thing is like this, I may have a winner (for me). Yes, it's derivative, sounds like so many things I've heard before, not pushing new boundaries....but it's what I want to hear right now as I type this.



Post Edited (07-05-18 21:27)

I don't do top 10s until it's time (and then only when pressed, as I've come to think nobody actually reads these, and why should they?), but here are my favorite happenings of the year so far, in no order:

The Nels Cline 4 - Currents, Constellations
The Young Mothers - Morose
Jon Lundbom Quartet - Live at Monks
Chris Cogburn/Ingebrigt Haker Flaten/Bob Hoffanr/Henry Kaiser - En las Montanas de Excesos
E - Negative Work
Monks of Doom - The Bronte Pin
Mal Waldron Trio - Free at Last (not a new record, but one I've recently discovered and really loved)
The Internet - "Roll (Burbank Funk)"

And the following concerts:
Atomic @ Beerland, Austin, TX
Electric Wizard @ Stubb's, Austin, TX
Broken Shadows @ North Door, Austin, TX

Well, the Internet's full album is released tomorrow - the singles have been very promising, and I thought Syd's solo album from last year was overlooked. I wrote a review of E's album for Gay City News and listened to it repeatedly in order to do so, but haven't played it once since finishing that review. A lot of talent obviously went into it, but to me it sounds like a second-string Dischord or Touch & Go release circa 2002.

E is pretty much the only new (if bands made up of veterans like Thalia Zedek can be called "new") rock band making music I find compelling, so obviously I disagree.

I'm listening to the new Internet right now.



Post Edited (07-20-18 10:01)