Listening Habits 2015 05-07

Just before our summer break, we have prepared the list of our favorite albums for the period of May - July 2015, led by Holly Herndon and the wondrous, experimental electronica to be found on her sophomore full-length "Platform". 

The Fall are back with their 31st studio LP "Sub-Lingual Tablet" which, of course, could not be missing from our Top 5, while Giant Sand and Mark Kozelek's Sun Kil Moon are also in there with their latest efforts. 

If you're in the mood to try something new, we would suggest lending an ear to the catchy guitar pop of young Londoners Wolf Alice who make good on the promise of their early singles with debut album "My Love Is Cool". Time to take shelter from the summer heat and hit play:

Top 15 Albums

1.  Platform - HOLLY HERNDON
2.  Sub-Lingual Tablet - THE FALL
3.  Universal Themes - SUN KIL MOON

4.  Heartbreak Pass - GIANT SAND
5.  My Love Is Cool - WOLF ALICE
6.  Wire - WIRE
7.  II - METZ
8.  MCIII - MIKAL CRONIN
9.  California Nights - BEST COAST
10. Born Under Saturn - DJANGO DJANGO
11. Deeper - THE SOFT MOON
12. Carrie & Lowell - SUFJAN STEVENS
13. How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful - FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE
14. Rough Trade Shops Recorded At The Automat: The Best Of Rough Trade Records - VARIOUS ARTISTS
15. About the Young Idea The Very Best of The Jam - THE JAM

Top 12 Tracks

1.  Interference - HOLLY HERNDON
2.  Auto Chip 2014-2016 - THE FALL
3.  First Light - DJANGO DJANGO
4.  Giant Peach - WOLF ALICE
5.  With A Sort Of Grace I Walked To The Bathroom To Cry - SUN KIL MOON

6. Texting Feist - GIANT SAND

7.  Blogging - WIRE
8.  Acetate - METZ
9.  Wrong - THE SOFT MOON
10. Say - MIKAL CRONIN
11. Fine Without You - BEST COAST
12. What Kind Of Man - FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE

Wolf Alice - Giant Peach

Django Django - First Light

The Best Albums of 2015 so far

July is well underway, the temperature's rising and amid capital controls, financial and various other types of crisis and closely averted (?) catastrophes, we remain dedicated to the cause of new music discovery.

In this spirit, as we always do at the halfway point in the year, we have prepared a list of 40 albums, that may or may not be the "best" of the year so far, but they are certainly those that we have listened to the most in the past six months.

As usual, this list is without an "official" ranking, however the order of presentation is definitely not random and there is no doubt in my mind that the four albums at the top by newcomer  Courtney Barnett, '90s-school rockers Sleater-Kinney and Built To Spill, and (surprise - surprise) Holly Herndon with her left-field electronica, will be among the contenders for "Album of the Year" in less than six months from now.

Top 40 Albums of January - June 2015

• Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit - COURTNEY BARNETT
• No cities to love - SLEATER-KINNEY
• Untethered moon - BUILT TO SPILL
• Platform - HOLLY HERNDON
• Ivy tripp - WAXAHATCHEE
• Escape from evil - LOWER DENS
• Viet Cong - VIET CONG
• "Freedom tower" - No Wave dance party 2015 - THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION
• The magic whip - BLUR
• Foil deer - SPEEDY ORTIZ
• Hinterland - LONELADY
• Sub-lingual tablet - THE FALL
• Strangers to ourselves - MODEST MOUSE
• Short movie - LAURA MARLING
• Another eternity - PURITY RING
• The race for space - PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING
• What a terrible world, what a beautiful world - THE DECEMBERISTS
• Heartbreak pass - GIANT SAND
• Fast food - NADINE SHAH
• I want to grow up - COLLEEN GREEN
• California nights - BEST COAST
• MCIII - MIKAL CRONIN
• Kintsugi - DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
• Born under Saturn - DJANGO DJANGO
• To pimp a butterfly - KENDRICK LAMAR
• Shadow of the sun - MOON DUO
• Universal themes - SUN KIL MOON
• My love is cool - WOLF ALICE
• Wire - WIRE
• II - METZ
• Deeper - THE SOFT MOON
• Transfixiation - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
• Panda Bear meets the Grim Reaper - PANDA BEAR
• Carrie & Lowell - SUFJAN STEVENS
• Edge of the sun - CALEXICO
• Distractions - SAUNA YOUTH
• Peanut butter - JOANNA GRUESOME
• Mutilator Defeated At Last - THEE OH SEES
• Whatever, My Love - THE JULIANA HATFIELD THREE
• Blade of the Ronin - CANNIBAL OX

Listen below to a playlist with some of our favorite tracks from our Top Albums of 2015 so far:

And since "Sub-lingual Tablet" is not on Spotify yet, here's "Auto Chip 2014-2016" from the still mighty Fall:

The Fall - Auto Chip 2014-2016

New Releases: May - June 2015

Various recent events have delayed us, but our round-up of the most interesting releases of the last couple of months is finally here:

Albums

HOLLY HERNDON - Platform
THE FALL - Sub-Lingual Tablet
GIANT SAND - Heartbreak Pass
SUN KIL MOON - Universal Themes
MIKAL CRONIN - MCIII
METZ - II
JOANNA GRUESOME - Peanut Butter
DJANGO DJANGO - Born Under Saturn
BEST COAST - California Nights
WOLF ALICE - My Love Is Cool
SAUNA YOUTH - Distractions
PINS - Wild Nights
THEE OH SEES - Mutilator Defeated At Last
UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA - Multi-Love
PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL - Home Economics
CROCODILES - Boys
MY MORNING JACKET - The Waterfall
JIM O'ROURKE - Simple Songs
MAC MCCAUGHAN - Non Believers
JAMIE XX - In Colour
LEFTFIELD - Alternative Life Source
ALGIERS - Algiers
JACCO GARDNER - Hypnophobia
TORRES - Sprinter
GIRLPOOL - Before the World Was Big
BULLY - Feels Like
FUCKED UP - Year of the Hare
LOOP - Array 1
THE MEMBRANES - Dark Matter / Dark Energy
REFUSED - Freedom
THE HELIO SEQUENCE - The Helio Sequence
PREFUSE 73 - Rivington Não Rio
HOT CHIP - Why Make Sense?
BLANCK MASS - Dumb Flesh
KINSKI - 7 (Or 8)
ROBERT POLLARD - Faulty Superheroes
KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD - Quarters
NOVELLA - Land
THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH - Dark Bird is Home
DEATH AND VANILLA - To Where the Wild Things Are
ICKY BLOSSOMS - Mask
SURFER BLOOD - 1000 Palms
ASH - Kablammo!
PAUL WELLER - Saturn's Pattern
FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
FFS (Franz Ferdinand / Sparks) - FFS
SARAH CRACKNELL - Red Kite
THE VACCINES - English Graffiti
PALMA VIOLETS - Danger in the Club
FAITH NO MORE - Sol Invictus
BRANDON FLOWERS - The Desired Effect
SUMMER CAMP - Bad Love
SON LUX - Bones
DU BLONDE - Welcome Back To Milk
JENNY HVAL - Apocalypse, Girl
SLAVES - Are You Satisfied?
CEREMONY - The L Shaped Man
EVERYTHING EVERYTHING - Get to Heaven
TOTAL BABES - Heydays
SO STRESSED - The Unlawful Trade of Greco-Roman Art

Singles & EPs

SHARON VAN ETTEN - I Don't Want To Let You Down EP
METRIC - The Shade
PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCAST - Go!
THE CRIBS - Different Angle
BLACK TAMBOURINES - Domino / A Forest / Friendship
PREFUSE 73 - Forsyth Gardens EP
GIRLS NAMES - Zero Triptych
THE POP GROUP / SLEAFORD MODS - Nations / Face To Faces
SAUNA YOUTH / MONOTONY - Split (Transmitters / Human Troll / Luxury Flat)
CHEATAHS - Murasaki EP
LOOM - Bleed On Me
THE HOWLING HEX - Butterfly / Party Shoes
TAUCHSIEDER feat. COLIN NEWMAN - Herd The Shadows
PAUL WELLER - Saturns Pattern
NOEL GALLAGHER'S HIGH FLYING BIRDS - Riverman
JOHNNY MARR - Candidate
THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS - Electronic Battle Weapon 11
MATES OF STATE - You're Going To Make It
THE TWILIGHT SAD / ROBERT SMITH - It Never Was the Same
EZRA FURMAN - Restless Year
RICKED WICKY - Jargon Of Clones
RICKED WICKY - Tomfoole Terrific
SLAVES - Cheer Up London
THE VACCINES - Dream Lover
THE WAVE PICTURES - The Fire Alarm
SUMMER CAMP - Bad Love
NICOLAS JAAR - Nymphs 11
SARAH CRACKNELL with NICKY WIRE - Nothing Left to Talk About
FLO MORRISSEY - Pages of Gold
EVERYTHING EVERYTHING - Regret
CIRCA WAVES - Stuck in My Teeth
HOOTON TENNIS CLUB - Kathleen Sat On the Arm of Her Favourite Chair
LIDS - Lids
PIANO WIRE - The Genius of the Crowd
NAYTRONIX - Mister Divine / Shadows

Holly Herndon - Interference