REGULAR readers may well have noticed one thing missing from the last post – assuming that is, they have read these two sister pieces in the right order.
For a blog that rattles on about music, it was sorely lacking from the last entry. But hey, this started out as a travel-writing site and there’s been precious little of that recently.
Time to address both issues – if losing weight and getting is the main aim for the 2018, more regular articles and travel posts is the second.
As for music, there’s a good reason there was no mention of the A-Z iPod challenge, mainly because it hadn’t got anywhere (before this weekend’s travel-laced trip to London) since we left it at Girl From Mars.
That’s mainly because my listening has been concentrating on another annual tradition, wading through albums which made the 2017’s finest lists but which never caught my eye.
Still investigating some of them, but time for the end result of my much belated list of 2017’s best albums
- Album of the Year – Every Valley, Public Service Broadcasting
No surprise to anyone who has heard me banging on about it. There’s even a post all about it. Not an opinion shared by all – many plump for their previous album The Race for Space – but the often emotional journey through the history and suffering of mining communities is by far their most complete work, imbued with a heart lacking in previous efforts.
- Surprisingly Close to Top Spot – Sleep Well Beast, The National
Giving Public Service Broadcasting top spot would have come out of the blue not that long ago, The National hot on their heels would have been an even bigger surprise. They have totally passed me by for years, despite the devotion of some very good musical judges.
This album changed that. Every listen has closed the gap to top spot. Who knows where we’ll be as time goes by – Drive-By Truckers emerged from the pack to be undoubted number one a year ago.
- Discovery of the Year – Stranger In The Alps, Phoebe Bridgers
Not one that popped up on too many best of… lists, but did crop up enough to pique my interest. And boy, was it worth investing some time in, gatecrashing the top three of the year.
It’s far from perfect. Like many debut albums, it does slightly peter out but her voice, sheer honesty and some serious songwriting chops are enough to leave you wanting more – especially given the 1-2-3 punch of the opening salvo of Smoke Signals (possibly song of the year which manages to reference The Smiths, Lemmy and Bowie in the course of five extraordinary minutes), the catchy Motion Sickness and the emotionally fraught Funeral.
Ever so slightly in love with her. One to watch.
- Really Can’t Decide Album of the Year – The Nashville Sound, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
Could easily have dismissed as disappointment of the year, but probably doesn’t deserve that – having heard much of it live, reassessed it. It’s just not a patch on Isbell’s previous two offerings.
Think the problem is summed up in the title. His Americana storytelling has taken on too much of a Nashville sheen, sounding too country, too corporate Nashville, too Radio 2.
- Rethink of the Year – Prisoner, Ryan Adams
Nobody crops up more often on the A-Z journey through my iPod than Adams – with the possible exception of Dave Gedge – but on first couple of hearings, wasn’t expecting this to appear on an end-of-year lists.
But when it kept cropping up in the upper reaches, went back to a second look and, you know what, it’s better than first thought. Not perfect, certainly not a Heartbreaker (what is?), but his most complete offering for some time.
- It’s Good But… of the Year – American Dream, LCD Soundsystem
Another which kept cropping up near the top of magazine lists – right at the top of more than one. Another band that have only really skimmed past my consciousness. At their best, very good, but the fall off is quite quick.
Don’t think this hits the heights of North American Scum, New York I Love You or a few others, but consistently pretty good. Just not that good.
- Tenuous Claim to Fame Award – Earl Grey, Girl Ray
It almost hurts me to criticise this (however much that is mixed with praise), having first met the singer, guitarist and main songwriter when she was just a few days old. And been the best man at her parents’ wedding (her mum’s in the video just up there and her dad is, in many ways, the godfather of the Travel Marmot).
And do really like a lot of it. Just can’t help thinking they’d have been better off waiting before putting out their debut album and flesh out their sound bit more.
Definitely ones to watch.
- Collaboration of the Year Award – Lotta Sea Lice, Kurt Vile & Courtney Barnett
Had a brief obsession with Barnett when she first appeared on the scene. This one came out of leftfield but after a couple of listens makes perfect sense.
- Worth A Listen, But It’s Not…. Award – Shared between a string of old favourites who returned with perfectly decent albums. Just not ones which ever emerged from the shadows of earlier classics.
Between them, At The Drive-In (who returned 17 years after the truly wonderful noise that is Relationship of Command with in ter a li a), The Shins (Heartworms), Grandaddy (Last Place) and Billy Bragg (Bridges Not Walls) have released some of my all-time favourite albums. Bit further down the list this year guys.
Nearest to recapturing former glories were Ride whose Weather Diaries was one of the year’s present surprises. That Arcade Fire’s Everything Now failed to spark was not that big a surprise.
- Well Worth Seeking Out – Not the top echelon, but worth anyone’s time. A few new discoveries, eponymous efforts by Cigarettes After Sex and The Weather Station , ever-reliable efforts from Mogwai (Every Country’s Sun) and John Murray (A Short History of Decay) and the return of Michael Head, now monikered with The Red Elastic Band on Adios Señor Pussycat.
- And The Rest… – Worth a listen and, in my case, further investigation:
Antisocialites – Alvvays
Love In The Fourth Dimension – The Big Moon
Joan Shelley – Joan Shelley
English Tapas – Sleaford Mods
Relatives In Descent – Protomartyr
A Deeper Understanding – The War On Drugs
Out In The Storm – Waxahatchee
