Listening Habits 09-10.2018

It won't be long until the endless scroll of the "Albums of the Year" lists for 2018 begins on your screens and as we consider our own two cents on the matter, here are the latest new albums with the most spins on C.M.C.'s record player for the first couple of months of the fall season:

Anna Calvi's "Hunter", her third and probably best album so far, is at the top of our list and is certainly a strong candidate for 2018's year-end Top 5, while Martin Phillipps continues his songwriting rejuvenation with "Snow Bound", the second album for New Zealand's legendary The Chills after their comeback in 2015.

Six years ago Cat Power claimed the top of our 2012 Albums of the Year list with "Sun". Her return with "Wanderer", the 10th album in her amazing 23-year career, finds her returning to a more acoustic sound with minimal arrangements where her voice is the center of attention and shining as always.

Other notable releases this fall which also deserve prominent positions in the coming year-end lists are "Possible Dust Clouds", Kristin Hersh's latest solo release and first for Fire Records, where her electrifying sound reaches the fever pitch we usually find in her Throwing Muses records, and "Marauder", Interpol's sixth album who have collaborated with producer Dave Fridmann to give us perhaps their best work in this decade.

Add to these five excellent new albums, the strong releases by newcomers Bodega from New York, who have one of the best debuts of 2018 with "Endless Scroll", Australia's The Goon Sax who share some of the same DNA with The Go-Betweens (both literally and metaphorically as Robert Forster's son Louis is one of the founders of the band), Bristol's positive punks Idles, Denmark's Iceage and Japanese-American songwriter Mitski and you have a pretty solid Top 10 for September-October 2018. And, of course, there's more...

Check out our Top 15 below and listen to a playlist with some of the standout tracks from these albums:

Top 15 Albums

1.   Hunter - ANNA CALVI
2.   Snow Bound - THE CHILLS
3.   Wanderer - CAT POWER
4.   Possible Dust Clouds - KRISTIN HERSH
5.   Marauder - INTERPOL
6.   We're Not Talking - THE GOON SAX
7.   Endless Scroll - BODEGA
8.   Joy As An Act Of Resistance - IDLES
9.   Beyondless - ICEAGE
10. Be The Cowboy - MITSKI
11. Sparkle Hard - STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS
12. The Church of Simultaneous Existence - THE AINTS!
13. Pinned - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
14. Hell-on - NEKO CASE
15. Goners - LAURA GIBSON

Top 15 Tracks

1.   As a Man - ANNA CALVI
2.   You Get  - CAT POWER
3.   Make Time 4 Love - THE GOON SAX
4.   Complex - THE CHILLS
5.   Breathe In - KRISTIN HERSH
6.   The Rover - INTERPOL
7.   How Did This Happen?! - BODEGA
8.   Danny Nedelko - IDLES
9.   Pain Killer - ICEAGE
10. Nobody - MITSKI
11. Refute - STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS
12. Last Lion of Albion - NEKO CASE
13. Domestication - LAURA GIBSON
14. Never Coming Back - A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
15. Red Aces - THE AINTS!