New Releases: November - December 2015

And with this post we conclude our presentation of the most interesting albums, singles and EPs released in 2015. It is, of course, rather impossible to listen to everything we have included in these series of posts, but we did our best and you can find out what we have enjoyed the most so far by clicking here to revisit our Listening Habits posts of the year.

Time, then, to put on our thinking caps and start putting everything in order for our year-end lists, which are coming up in the second half of December. Watch this space...

Albums

GRIMES - Art Angels
JENNYLEE - Right On!
NOTS - We Are Nots
CAR SEAT HEADREST - Teens of Style
ROCKET FROM THE TOMBS - Black Record
BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE - Mini Album Thingy Wingy
ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF - The Miraculous
KELLEY STOLTZ - In Triangle Time
KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD - Paper Mache Dream Balloon
MY DISCO - Severe
TRAAMS - Modern Dancing
CHORUSGIRL - Chorusgirl
RINGO DEATHSTARR - Pure Mood
BEACH SLANG - The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Us
BILL RYDER JONES - West Kirby County Primary
JOE GIDEON - Versa Vice
THE NECKS - Vertigo
WIMPS - Suitcase
VIDEO - The Entertainers
FLOATING POINTS - Elaenia
ARCA - Mutant
VOID VISION - Sub Rosa
ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER - Garden of Delete
SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE - Hexadic II
THE CHAP - The Show Must Go
DARREN HAYMAN - Florence
TY SEGALL - Ty Rex
SMOKE FAIRIES - Wild Winter
CASSIE RAMONE - Christmas In Reno
KURT COBAIN - Montage of Heck - Home Recordings

Singles & EPs

PARQUET COURTS - Monastic Living EP
THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION - Human Obscene / Shake That Bat
PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING - Sputnik / Korolev
THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART - Hell EP
NEW ORDER - Tutti Frutti
JLIN - Free Fall EP
LINTON AND STEWART / THE AISLERS SET - Split
NOTS - Reactor
SPRING KING - Who Are You?
FOO FIGHTERS - Saint Cecilia EP
MERCURY REV / LOST HORIZONS - Rainy Day Record / Life Inside A Paradox
THE BESNARD LAKES - The Golden Lion
THE LOVELY EGGS - Goofin Around (in Lancashire)
YAK - No EP
BOSS - I'm Down With That
BLACK LIPS / THE COATHANGERS - Freedom Fries / Watch Your Back
MERCHANDISE feat. DUM DUM GIRLS - Red Sun
SOLEDAD BROTHERS - Human Race Blues / Soledarity
THE WHARVES - Naz / My Will
DIET CIG - Sleep Talk / Dinner Date
BRUISING - Emo Friends / Honey
PUMAROSA - Priestess
NATALIE PRASS - Side by Side EP
BASIA BULAT - Infamous
BEAT MARK / PROPER ORNAMENTS - Flowers / Two Weeks
EVERYTHING EVERYTHING - No Reptiles
RICHARD HAWLEY - I Still Want You
PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED - The One
THE WOLFMANHATTAN PROJECT - Smells Like You / You Are My Glue
KID CONGO AND THE PINK MONKEY BIRDS - Bruce Juice / El Cucuy
RICKED WICKY - Poor Substitute
RICKED WICKY - Number I Can Trust
DRACULA LEGS - Bulldozer / Party at Ed's
LUCIE BARAT AND THE AU REVOIRS - Fallen
VANT - Parking Lot / The Answer
UMMAGMA - Frequency EP
HOT CHIP - Huarache Lights Remixes
NOEL GALLAGHER'S HIGH FLYING BIRDS - The Dying of the Light
PAUL WELLER - Pick It Up
KURT COBAIN - And I Love Her / Sappy (Early Demo)

Grimes - Flesh without Blood/Life in the Vivid Dream

2012 Review: Top 60 Albums of the Year (1 to 30)

Happy New Year to everyone! And what better way to start off 2013 than with the presentation of our 30 favorite albums of the year that was.

All the albums that occupy the first five positions of our list equally deserve the honor of being crowned "Album of the Year". In the end, we decided to make 2012 the year of the Cat and give our Number One to "Sun" (Matador), Cat Power’s ninth studio album, which quickly became my personal favorite of her outstanding discography (along with 2003’s "You are free"). Chan Marshal took the risk of trying a new, electronic-based sound for her first album of original material in six years and the end-result is truly refreshing. Despite the various personal troubles that she went through in that time, "Sun" turned out to be her most optimistic sounding record to date, showing us a more mature Chan, ready to deal with the problems of this ruin we’re all living on and to give out some good advice in her most soothing voice.

A good year for a record company is of course defined by its financial results. I have no idea how 4AD is doing in that department, but artistically the historic label has had an outstanding 2012, reflected by the fact that three of its releases are in our Top 5, between the second and fourth place:

"Visions" by Grimes earned much deserved high praise all around and ended up at the top of many year-end lists, while fellow Canadians Purity Ring have also done well with their debut album "Shrines" (our Debut of the Year). If you are looking for a fresh sound that defines 2012, I think the majestic synthpop hybrids concocted by both Grimes and Purity Ring have the answer. The sound of Mark Lanegan and his band, on the other hand, comes from the glorious past of guitar music. It is definitely not new but only a fool would take its classic quality for granted. Best guitar rock record of the year featuring perhaps the greatest singer of the last 25 years in superb form!

As for our fifth "Album of the Year", "Bloom" (Bella Union / Sub Pop) is the record that proves that Beach House are on their way to becoming one of the most important bands of this decade. The continuous evolution of the duo’s sound has driven them to new heights on their fourth and best album so far, a magnificent work that shows it is not impossible to improve on the perfection of "Teen Dream".

Here is the top half of Cool Music Central’s Top 60 Albums of 2012 (for the second half, click here):

Top 30 Albums of 2012

1.   Sun - CAT POWER

2012 was the Year of the Cat: Our Album and Single of the Year belong to Chan Marshal!

2.   Visions - GRIMES

"Grimes' vision for a perfect electropop future takes shape and form in the glorious 13 tracks of Visions" (complete post here)

3.   Shrines - PURITY RING

"Shrines is one of the albums defining the electronic sound of 2012" (more here)

4.   Blues funeral - MARK LANEGAN BAND

"All the different musical elements from Lanegan's many collaborations are weaved together in Blues Funeral, making it one of the most diverse sounding records of his career" (more here)

5.   Bloom - BEACH HOUSE

"A majestic record that may prove to be the duo's finest hour" (more here)

6.   Attack on memory - CLOUD NOTHINGS

"The intense, hard-hitting sound of Attack On Memory is inspired by groups like Wipers or Husker Du and this young band’s true achievement here is that they are able to follow in the footsteps of such legends without missing a beat" (more here)

7.   Silver age - BOB MOULD

"Bob Mould’s Silver Age is a return to the sound of his Sugar years, a record that proves he can still produce the same fire and fury that inspired the early '90s alternative rock explosion" (more here)

8.   Blunderbuss - JACK WHITE

Jack White offers a record that musically may be a little more laid back than his previous work but is no less striking, exhibiting once again his admirable skill of making music firmly rooted in rock tradition that sounds fresh and forward-thinking.

9.   Kill for love - CHROMATICS

The sleeper hit of the year - a cinematic synth pop epic that gets better and better every time you decide to immerse yourself in its  lush sounds.

10. (III) - CRYSTAL CASTLES

Their journey to the heart of darkness continues (more about (III) in our next "Listening Habits" post, coming soon).

11. Give you the ghost - POLIÇA
12. Cancer 4 cure - EL-P
13. WIXIW - LIARS
14. Celebration rock - JAPANDROIDS
15. I bet on sky - DINOSAUR JR.
16. Lost songs - ...AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD
17. Metz - METZ
18. 2:54 - 2:54
19. A thing called Divine Fits - DIVINE FITS
20. The bears for lunch - GUIDED BY VOICES
21. The seer - SWANS
22. Worship - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
23. Reign of terror - SLEIGH BELLS
24. Lonerism - TAME IMPALA
25. Our house on the hill - THE BABIES
26. Twins - TY SEGALL
27. Open your heart - THE MEN
28. Meat and bone - THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION
29. Mature themes - ARIEL PINK'S HAUNTED GRAFFITI
30. Swing lo Magellan - DIRTY PROJECTORS

For our Top 50 Singles of 2012 click here.

Highlights from our Top 20 Albums of the Year:

The Best of 2012 so far

It's that time of the year again: the temperature's rising to dangerous levels (at least here, at Europe's Dirty South) and just before we take a brief summer break during which we'll fly over to Lisbon, Portugal for the Optimus Alive festival (check out the line up here and expect a full report next weekend), we have for you today our traditional mid-year report with our favorite albums and singles of the year so far. For even more recommendations, you can check out here the lists we post every two months in our Listening Habits series.

Keep in mind that the order in which we present these albums and singles is not random at all, but for these lists we prefer to avoid using numbers as the ranking is particularly fluid at this point in time, with new entries changing things around all the time (hello A Place To Bury Strangers and Metric). It's safe to say though that "Visions" by Grimes and "Bloom" by Beach House are clearly leading the album pack at this time and Cloud Nothings along with Mark Lanegan Band are following close behind. Cat Power's brand new song "Ruin" is our current obsession which brings it straight at the top of the singles' pile with a bullet, although there are several other equally worthy entries as you can see below:

Top 30 Albums (January - June 2012)

• Visions - GRIMES
• Bloom - BEACH HOUSE
• Attack On Memory - CLOUD NOTHINGS
• Blues Funeral - MARK LANEGAN BAND
• Blunderbuss - JACK WHITE
• Cancer 4 Cure - EL-P
• Worship - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
• 2:54 - 2:54
• Kill For Love - CHROMATICS
• Reign Of Terror - SLEIGH BELLS
• Give You The Ghost - POLIÇA
• Synthetica - METRIC
• Django Django - DJANGO DJANGO
• Ekstasis - JULIA HOLTER
• Between The Times And The Tides - LEE RANALDO
• Sweet Heart, Sweet Light - SPIRITUALIZED
• Open Your Heart - THE MEN
• Tramp - SHARON VAN ETTEN
• Europe - ALLO DARLIN'
• Ghostory - SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
• Manifest! - FRIENDS
• The Only Place - BEST COAST
• Nootropics - LOWER DENS
• Animal Joy - SHEARWATER
• Interstellar - FRANKIE ROSE
• The Horror - POP. 1280
• Let's Go Eat The Factory - GUIDED BY VOICES
• With Siinai: Heartbreaking Bravery - MOONFACE
• Port Of Morrow - THE SHINS
• Master Of My Make - Believe - SANTIGOLD

Top 30 Singles (January - June 2012)

• Ruin - CAT POWER
• Genesis - GRIMES
• Fineshrine - PURITY RING
• The Gravedigger’s Song - MARK LANEGAN BAND
• Love Interruption - JACK WHITE
• Lazuli - BEACH HOUSE
• Know Me - FRANKIE ROSE
• Creeping - 2:54
• The Only Place - BEST COAST
• Youth Without Youth - METRIC
• Stay Useless - CLOUD NOTHINGS
• My Heart Beats - VERONICA FALLS
• Capricornia - ALLO DARLIN'
• Lay Your Cards Out - POLIÇA
• Brains - LOWER DENS
• Off The Wall - LEE RANALDO
• The Night - SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
• Mind Control - FRIENDS
• Default - DJANGO DJANGO
• R U Mine? - ARCTIC MONKEYS
• Chocolate Boy - GUIDED BY VOICES
• You Are The One - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
• The House That Heaven Built - JAPANDROIDS
• Krokodil - ST. VINCENT
• Leonard - SHARON VAN ETTEN
• Little Girl - SPIRITUALIZED
• The Rifle's Spiral - THE SHINS
• The Full Retard - EL-P
• Disparate Youth - SANTIGOLD
• I Want You - PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL

Grimes - Nightmusic ft. Majical Cloudz 

Beach House - Lazuli

Listening Habits 03-04.12

Our favorite spring albums express a confusing mix of contrasting, extreme emotions, from ecstasy to horror, but the one sitting at the top of our list states a clear, bright vision about the present and future of pop music.

"Visions", Grimes’ debut album for 4AD and third overall, bristles with inspirational melodies and playful beats. Claire Boucher, the Montreal-based musician and producer behind the name Grimes (see also here), has the admirable ability to take in all sorts of disparate influences, from Cocteau Twins to Aphex Twin, and use them as ingredients for her unique, inventive dance-pop hybrid. Her ethereal falsetto soars over a troubled ocean of electronic pulses, digital beats and harmonies that come together to create a euphoric, transcendent sound. Grimes’ vision for a perfect electropop future takes shape and form in the glorious 13 tracks of "Visions", an early candidate for "Album of the Year".

Other notable releases that kept our hi-fi busy in the last couple of months included the self-titled psychedelic electro-pop debut of Edinburgh art school graduates Django Django, the ecstatic bedroom pop of  L.A.-based experimental composer Julia Holter whose magnificent "Ekstasis" sounds like a Greek tragedy scored by Laurie Anderson, and the brutal sounds of two of Sacred Bones Records finest signings, our recent visitors The Men and horror-mongers Pop. 1280. The Men exercise greater control over their adventurous noise creations in "Open Your Heart", while also trying their hand successfully at more traditional rock songwriting, while Pop. 1280 go the way of The Birthday Party in a mission to create pure, post-punk sonic terror - a mission that we can declare accomplished.

Top 12 Albums

1.   Visions - GRIMES
2.   Django Django - DJANGO DJANGO
3.   Ekstasis - JULIA HOLTER
4.   Open Your Heart - THE MEN
5.   The Horror - POP. 1280
6.   Ghostory - SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
7.   Port Of Morrow - THE SHINS
8.   Animal Joy - SHEARWATER
9.   Clay Class - PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL
10. In Time To Voices - BLOOD RED SHOES
11. Last Words: The Final Recordings - SCREAMING TREES
12. Some Easy Magic - FUNGI GIRLS

Top 20 Tracks

1.   Oblivion - GRIMES
2.   Lazuli - BEACH HOUSE
3.   In The Same Room - JULIA HOLTER
4.   White Wind - SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
5.   Default - DJANGO DJANGO
6.   The Full Retard - EL-P
7.   V∆! (Nightmare Fortress Remix) - BRUXA
8.   You Are The One - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
9.   Open Your Heart - THE MEN
10. Burn The Worm - POP. 1280
11. R U Mine? - ARCTIC MONKEYS
12. No Way Down - THE SHINS
13. Forever And A Day - GIANT GIANT SAND
14. Breaking The Yearlings - SHEARWATER
15. Brains - LOWER DENS
16. Jack the Ripper - JAPANDROIDS
17. Lost Boys - DEATH GRIPS
18. Sing Orderly - PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL
19. Cold - BLOOD RED SHOES
20. Doldrums - FUNGI GIRLS

Grimes - Oblivion

And here's one in tribute to the late, great Adam Yauch, The Beastie Boys' MCA:

Beastie Boys - Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun

(mp3s via stereogum, magnet magazine, kexp blog and hozac)

 

2012's Next "Big" Things: The search is on...

The hottest topic of discussion among music fans around this time of the year is usually which new bands have what it takes to become the next "big" things in the year ahead. Taking motivation from the many lists out there, we've done our research and we've come up with the following shortlist of five new bands that fit the profile of what we'd like to listen to more in 2012. Let's have a listen:

Friends

It's not the first time I'm writing about Brooklyn's five piece funk-pop sensations Friends. Their excellent second single "I'm His Girl" was the subject of this post and it also got them a place in the Top 20 of our Singles Of The Year list. Let's hope that in 2012 the band will be able to live up to our expectations and deliver an album full of goodies like this one:

2:54

This London-based group was formed a couple of years ago by sisters Hannah and Colette Thurlow who used to play in the punk band The Vulgarians. The name of their new band comes from their favorite moment in a Melvins song although their dreamy new sound has more in common with the early '90s shoegazers than with the sludge-rock of Washington State's proto-grungers. Check out the impressive video for the title-track of their recent EP "Scarlet" below, as well as earlier single "Cold Front" which is my favorite 2:54 song so far:

Scarlet

The History Of Apple Pie

If you loved Yuck last year then you should definitely lend an ear to London five piece The History Of Apple Pie. Their debut single "You're So Cool" was released last summer on Roundtable Records and here's the excellent "Mallory" which followed it at the end of 2011:

Milk Music

They come from Olympia, Washington and they make the sort of guitar noise we haven't heard since the SST days of Dinosaur Jr. Do I need to say more? If you know what SST stands for, I'm sure you're already trying to track down Milk Music's self-released debut 12" "Beyond Living". Here's the title track and here's the link to listen to them live on WFMU:

Grimes

Grimes, aka Montreal-based Claire Boucher, has already made waves with her first releases on Arbutus Records. Her recent signing to 4AD and the forthcoming, highly anticipated full-length "Visions" will undoubtedly make her lovely electropop sound known to a much wider audience. Here’s "Genesis" off "Visions", one of her finest songs so far: