Hip hop n jazz taken and beaten to death, appropriately enough as this is an exploration of the inevitability and condition of death, and how mysterious it really is.
The Detroit quartet deliver a profoundly intimate album, with lyrics as dense as Faulkner and arrangements that blow your usual Americana out of the water.
(No Spotify track available, so you can have something else he recorded in 1994 on there)
Aphex Twins long lost 1994 album is now available thanks to kickstarter, with all its bouncy electro-crunchers, salsa acid house, and a whole bunch more.
Ali Wells, aka Perc, is at the forefront of this resurgence largely because he's been making scraping techno bangers, with little rest or deviation, since 2002. In parts eerie and thrumming, elsewhere dubby and ambient, it’s a bold if messy work that brings together a disparate bunch of ideas in a fascinating manner.
The second album from the ‘Worms outdoes its predecessor in terms of proto-punk, garage, psychedelia. Leaner, meaner and tougher, these worms will have you hooked.
As close to ‘pop’ music as we’ll come, we could list a whole bunch of stuff it kinda sounds like, but, really, it sounds like no one on earth, other thanTahliah Barnett. Is she the girl from that video? Not any more.
(No Spotify track available, nor anything remotely similar)
The debut full-length release from Travis Laplante's genre-defying tenor saxophone quartet, featuring a dreamlike montage of the performers and audio from the record.
oh, almost forgot to mention...special NoPrize goes to the first person to spot the, ahem, deliberate, mistake I will undoubtedly make at some point in the listing.
The album of the year. Yes, I know it’s only a number 20, but it IS the album of the year. The rest of you are wrong. Beautiful melodies, lush arrangements, and a truly barking story combine to create wonder and joy.
Beck’s 12 studio album takes us back into Sea Change territory, Beck adds his idiosyncratic twist to harmony-laden folk-rock ditty’s in a way that stops it from just being another hippy singer-songwriter odyssey. Folk album of the year.
Big Star sampling from the off, this is a lot more accessible than many expected from half of Hype Williams, in fact you could even call it a pop album, with some delicious play-off’s between Blunt and erstwhile collaborator Joanna Robertson.
Urban favourites Broken family Band man makes his first solo album. Okay, it bares certain similarities to his earlier albums, but there’s nothing wrong with that when he writes as well and as wittily as this.
Casual, confident, and unburdened by the imagined need for significance, it’s casual, confident, and unburdened by the imagined need for significance, it’s disco, with shades of cocktail lounge, exotica, surf instrumentals, and other styles that favor whimsy and novelty over sober artistic expression.
The Indianna rapper and the Californian hip-hopper come together to create a modern classic that recalls the dark-alley vibes of Raekwon's classic, RZA-produced 1994 debut, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.
How could he possibly follow up Andorra and (2010 UAotY winner) Swim? By doing pretty much more of the same with added hints of R&B and hip hop. Not as immediately magnificent as its predecessors, it’s a grower not a shower.
It’s the anti-folk album of the year. Sometimes it sounds like Les Dawson’s piano playing, sometimes it sounds like Captain Beefheart. Occasionally it even sounds like music. Quite brilliant, if that’s your sort of thing.
(No Spotify track available, so you can have a similar piece by him from 2012)
Last year’s AotY was the year of eerie, swirling electronic soundtracks, and this would have fitted right in. An astounding piece from an inquisitive and inventive musician
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.