New Releases: January 2016

Round-up of the most interesting albums and singles released in January 2016:

Albums 

SAVAGES -  Adore Life 
DAVID BOWIE - Blackstar 
DAUGHTER - Not To Disappear
ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER - New View
TINDERSTICKS - The Waiting Room
SHEARWATER - Jet Plane and Oxbow
TY SEGALL - Emotional Mugger
POP 1280 - Paradise
HINDS - Leave Me Alone
CHAIRLIFT - Moth
BLOC PARTY - Hymns
TRICKY - Skilled Mechanics
FAT WHITE FAMILY - Songs For Our Mothers
MYSTERY JETS - Curve of the Earth
SUEDE - Night Thoughts
PETE ASTOR - Split Milk
EMMA POLLOCK - In Search of Harperfield
SUN KIL MOON / JESU - Sun Kil Moon / Jesu
THE BESNARD LAKES - A Coliseum Complex Museum
CHARLIE HILTON - Palana
MONEY - Suicide Songs
NIGHT BEATS - Who Sold My Generation
HENGE - Henge
GET WELL SOON - Love
CONRAD KEELY - Original Machines
HALF JAPANESE - Perfect
TORTOISE - The Catastrophist
BONNIE PRINCE BILLY - Pond Scum

Singles & EPs

SAUNA YOUTH - The Bridge
METZ - Eraser / Pure Auto
THE MANHATTAN LOVE SUICIDES - Bikini Party / Birthday Kill
FAT WHITE FAMILY - Whitest Boy on the Beach
LEFTFIELD - Head and Shoulders / Little Fish
MAJICAL CLOUDZ - Wait & See EP 
WALL - Wall EP
NIGHT BEATS - No Cops
MONEY - I'll Be the Night
BOYS FOREVER - Poisonous
TELEGRAM - Taffy Come Home
GANG - Animalia / Breath Before Death
GOGGS - She Got Harder / Billy is a Runaway
EX CULT - Stick the Knife In / Dogs Roll In / New Crawl
JOY AGAIN - Looking Out For You / How You Feel
DEAN AND BRITTA - Don't Think Twice, It's Alright / Hey Paula
CHRISTIAN BLAND AND THE REVELATORS / CHRIS CATALENA - Split EP

Sauna Youth - The Bridge

#BestNewMusic 2016: January

The first batch of exciting new music releases for 2016 is already here. Have a listen below to Daughter, Savages, Animal Collective, Mass Gothic, The Manhattan Love Suicides and Eleanor Friedberger who are kicking off 2016 in style with their latest albums and singles:

"Numbers" by Daughter, taken from their excellent second album "Not To Disappear", released on January 15th, 2016.

"Adore" is taken from "Adore Life", the highly anticipated sophomore album by Savages, coming out on January 22nd, 2016.

Impressive video for Animal Collective's latest single "FloriDada", taken from "Painting With", out on February 19th, 2016.

"Every Night You've Got To Save Me" by Mass Gothic whose self-titled debut album will be released on February 5th, 2016.

"Bikini Party / Birthday Kill", the new 7" single by The Manhattan Love Suicides.


"Sweetest Girl" taken from Eleanor Friedberger's third solo album "New View", out on January 22nd, 2016.

Lazarus

R.I.P. David Bowie, one of the last true music legends. "Blackstar" is a fitting epilogue to an incredible body of work.

2015 Review: Top 50 Albums of the Year

Happy 2016 to all! We will start the New Year (our 9th on Blogger, if you can believe it) in our usual way, which means it's time for our Albums of the Year list!

Especially this year, it was a good thing that we have waited until the very last day on the calendar before finalizing this list, as 10 of the 50 albums that you see below, are records we've listened to for the first time during December. This means it would have been a very different (and much weaker) list, had we rushed to publish it earlier.

However we did not have to wait this long to decide on our Album of the Year. Already at the half-way point of 2015 it was obvious that Courtney Barnett's official debut "Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit" (2013's introductory "The Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas" was, as the title revealed, a compilation) was a strong candidate for this title and it would have taken something very special to surpass it. Actually Julia Holter's baroque pop masterpiece "Have You In My Wilderness" came close, but I'm a sucker for a great guitar hook and Barnett's record is brimming with those. So, despite the fact that she sings in "Pedestrian At Best" (our Single of the Year) "tell me I'm exceptional and I promise to exploit you", we are going to ignore her warnings and put her record on a pedestal with no fear of disappointment. Go ahead Courtney, make that origami, you really do deserve it!

Here are the Top 50 Albums of 2015 (and some of those that came close), based on what we were able to listen to so far (check out Cool Music Database later in the year for the final edition, as it is certain we are going to discover a few more great 2015 releases as we are going through all the other year-end lists out there):

Top 50 Albums of 2015

1.  Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit - COURTNEY BARNETT

2.  Have you in my wilderness - JULIA HOLTER

3.  No cities to love - SLEATER-KINNEY

4.  Untethered moon - BUILT TO SPILL

5.  The agent intellect - PROTOMARTYR

6.  Currents - TAME IMPALA

7.  Platform - HOLLY HERNDON

8.  Ivy tripp - WAXAHATCHEE

9.  Viet Cong - VIET CONG

10. Sun coming down - OUGHT

11. Half free - U.S. GIRLS
12. Fading frontier - DEERHUNTER
13. The expanding flower planet - DERADOORIAN
14. Depression cherry / Thank your lucky stars - BEACH HOUSE
15. Escape from evil - LOWER DENS
16. The magic whip - BLUR
17. Short movie - LAURA MARLING
18. Ones and sixes - LOW
19. Algiers - ALGIERS
20. Foil deer - SPEEDY ORTIZ
21. Silver bullets - THE CHILLS
22. Poison season - DESTROYER
23. B'lieve I'm goin down… - KURT VILE
24. Return to the moon - EL VY
25. Key markets - SLEAFORD MODS
26. "Freedom tower" - No Wave dance party 2015 - THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION
27. Sub-lingual tablet - THE FALL
28. Hinterland - LONELADY
29. Death magic - HEALTH
30. Another eternity - PURITY RING
31. Ghost notes - VERUCA SALT
32. Fast food - NADINE SHAH
33. Divers - JOANNA NEWSOM
34. Universal themes - SUN KIL MOON
35. Strangers to ourselves - MODEST MOUSE
36. Works for tomorrow - ELEVENTH DREAM DAY
37. Heartbreak pass - GIANT SAND
38. What went down - FOALS
39. My love is cool - WOLF ALICE
40. The race for space - PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING
41. To pimp a butterfly - KENDRICK LAMAR
42. I want to grow up - COLLEEN GREEN
43. Why choose - SHOPPING
44. Wire - WIRE
45. Music complete - NEW ORDER   
46. Born under Saturn - DJANGO DJANGO
47. What a terrible world, what a beautiful world - THE DECEMBERISTS
48. Dodge and burn - THE DEAD WEATHER
49. High - ROYAL HEADACHE
50. Pylon - KILLING JOKE

Bubbling under: II - METZ, Anthems for doomed youth - THE LIBERTINES, Kintsugi - DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE, California nights - BEST COAST, MCIII - MIKAL CRONIN, Shadow of the sun - MOON DUO, Panda Bear meets the Grim Reaper - PANDA BEAR, Me - EMPRESS OF, Pagans in Vegas - METRIC, Edge of the sun - CALEXICO, Carrie & Lowell - SUFJAN STEVENS, Stuff like that there - YO LA TENGO, Transfixiation - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS, Deeper - THE SOFT MOON, How big, how blue, how beautiful - FLORENCE + THE MACHINE

Have a listen on Spotify:



Click here for our Top 50 Singles of 2015.

2015's Album Wall of Fame