UKH

Nicked from the books and films of 2017 threads.

A few of mine,

Ride - Weather diaries

She drew the gun - Memories of another future

Beck - Colours

This is the kit - Moonshine freeze

What are folks albums of 2017 recommendations?

In reply to Tobes:

Villains - Queens of the Stone Age

Who Built the Moon - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

Ageing rock really, I'm turning into a stuffy old git, following my musical idols to their respective graves, oblivious to the latest trends. It's easier this way.

In reply to Tobes:
I enjoyed Ghostpoet's album, Dark Days and Canapes. Excellent stuff.
Thea Gilmore's album The Counterweight was, not untypically, a mixture of good stuff and stuff that was, for me, less so; but the good bits were very good.
It took me a while to properly get to grips with Every Valley, by Public Service Broadcasting, but again, the good stuff was worth persevering with.
And I enjoyed discovering the Hackney Colliery Band; their live album was a reminder of just how good they are in concert.

And thinking back, I saw all of those play live this year with the exception of Thea Gilmore, and it was only being on holiday when she played in Bristol that made me miss her. The next concert I have tickets for is to see Camel play in September; I don't think they'll be doing much new stuff...

T.

In reply to Tobes:
Things are getting desperate for me these days. I used to be able to come up with a list of my favourite albums of the year, but now even going through all of the 2017 albums I've listened to is a pretty short list!

I quite liked the Ride album as well, although there were too many clunkers on it for it to be approaching classic.

QOSTA album sounds good when it's on but I rarely get an urge to listen to it. Just has me digging out Kyuss instead.

The new Wolf Alice album (Visions of a life) starts really well, but tails off after a handful of tracks.

Silver/Lead by Wire isn't bad, but quite mainstream sounding for them.

Probably the most consistent 2017 album I've listened to is the 'Every Country's Sun' by Mogwai - pretty good but not their best by a long shot.

My most listened-to 'new' album last year (ie one I hadn't heard before) was probably the first Throwing Muses album, released in 1986. Perhaps that says more about me than the music that has been out recently...

Is it in their loud/quiet style or their quiet/quiet style?


I’ve had Steely Dans Goucho on heavy rotation this year (no idea what year that was released without digging out though) which puts many other records in the shade really.

In reply to broken spectre:


I've stopped listening to anything written before 1650.

In reply to Tobes:

My brain cells move at such a glacial pace that most things that came to mind came out in 2016 or even earlier.

However, i’ve enjoyed Modern Kosmology by Jane Weaver, best driving to work album;

my favourite psychedelisisers Bardo Pond delivered splendidly with Under the Pines;

favourite archive/re-issue was Hitchhiker by Neil Young - wonderful document of a deeply stoned session playing a mix of the familiar and the new to me;

best discovery was Jambinai, South Korean proggyness using some trad instruments, stick this in your pipe;
youtube.com/watch?v=PB1k7CDVWVk&

Thurston Moore’s Rock and Roll Consciousness has a blissful quality but my favourite listen from last year is his former bandmate Lee Renaldo’s beautiful Electric Trim, it really got under my skin (just ignore track 2).

Note to self; buy one new album per week in 2018.

In reply to Tobes:

Ghostpoet’s was decent. I looked forward to LCD’s but it didn’t quite do it for me. Should have stayed retired as their first 3 albums are class. Arcade Fires was good and better than they’ve done for some time. Didn’t bother with QOTSA, they went rapidly down hill after they sacked Nick Oliveri (admittedly for the right reasons!) IMO.

Think my favourite was the Idles album though. I’d imagine they are great live.

In reply to snoop6060:

I was similarly disappointed although the live performance I saw in Manchester was first rate.

Currently listening to A Deeper Understanding by The War on Drugs. Its standout tune Thinking of a Place is many critics' favourite song of 2017 and, at 11 minutes long, a suitably bonkers choice for the first "single".

In reply to BnB:

Aye, defo brilliant live so I guess their return is positive in that they've at least done some more shows. The album received really good reviews too, and it's pretty good, but it just doesn't have any bangers on it like all 3 of their other albums. Remember he was quoted as saying that they were packing it in as he thought they had done the best work they could possibly do on the first 3 albums. Which was hard to disagree with at the time. And even more so now.

In reply to pasbury:

Some great recommendations there!

Have heard a lot of the Jane Weaver lp on 6music (which I liked) so likely to get a copy now.

And South Korean prog, I’m sold! Will check that out too

In reply to malky_c:



I have a worse problem - I am not sure what I've listened to in 2017 that is actually from 2017.
A large part of this due to a changed listening habit, I have a Spotify Premium account now which enables me to listen to plenty of new stuff but I never feel that I am listening "properly", nor that I "have" a new album. Also the release dates are slightly lost to me.
I've liked Gurr, PINS, Pumarosa and the new Hurray for the Riff Raff albums this year, for example, but I don't know exactly when those albums came out, and they would only be "albums of the year" by dint of not having that much competition!
Possibly the only new album I actually bought, was Alessi's Ark's fourth one which is nice and has three or four lovely songs on, but I have to be honest and say it is isn't up to the standards of her previous three.
Angel Olsen's "Phases" is nice but necessarily patchy and it doesn't count (it is old out-takes etc)

Interesting to see all the love for Jane Weaver, I find her a bit pedestrian, I liked her more folky phase around 14 years ago.

Oh! I forgot Girl Ray, mainly cos I am in a grump from having been unable to see them play live.
I should definitely buy that album and rescue it from Spotify anonymity. Really good stuff

Also need to follow up some good stuff I've seen live e.g. Gallops.


Hurray, that might be in my top 20 of all time

In reply to Tobes:


Quiet/quiet, although not as subdued as some of their film soundtracks. Couple of tracks that slowly build into a crescendo, but overall probably not a million miles from 'Rave Tapes' in feel.

In reply to Blue Straggler:



That's probably most people's problem these days (although maybe it's just me that sees it as a problem!). I've been using Spotify for years, but in the last 2 or 3 it has completely taken over from buying albums - I think the last CD I bought was in 2015. In many ways it's much more convenient but it has completely taken the fun out of browsing in record shops (if you can even find a shop that has a decent selection of catalogue in it that is). I thought of 3 or 4 more albums for the 2017 list, but when I checked, it turned out they were released the previous year or even the year before!

In reply to malky_c:

For me it's not just about the fun of browsing in record shops, but (more) the experience of picking a CD from a stack in my own house.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

I think, on balance, one loses a lot of engagement when consuming music or books digitally.

In reply to Pursued by a bear:


I must investigate this, always catches my ear when I hear some on the radio.


I really don't "get" PSB. Am I missing something? I initially liked some of the singles off the earlier album (with all the Apollo Misson Control samples) but even those started to get a bit tired quite quickly. Every Valley (or at least, what I heard of it on 6Music, which was A LOT as the band seem to virtually sponsored by the BBC!) just seemed like more of the same but with a different subject matter.
Yet so many people love them, that I think I really must have some sort of blind spot. Well, live and let live etc. ...


Just remembered, I like Aldous Harding's new album although I've been hearing it in parallel with hearing her 2015 offering for the first time properly, and they sort of blend into one.

In reply to Blue Straggler:




Nope, not my cup of tea either but it’s a broad church innit. I think they’ll run out of 1950s Etonian reporters voices to sample eventually, but where will they go after that?