There’s been a great deal written here and elsewhere about the best albums of 2015, but in this day and age, more often than not, it is the individual tune that has the greater impact. Albums don’t always get listened to in their entirety – unless of course you happen to be a music critic, which is probably why we bang on about them and make so many lists – so in celebration of the humble single and the killer album track here are five great songs from 2015.
The Echo and The Always were an amazing discovery this year and this track pretty much encapsulates what they are all about. I didn’t actually give ‘Capable Of’ much credit on first listen, there are other more immediate tracks on the album, but it has grown on me and repeated listens have revealed more and more.
I fell in love with Wolf Alice in the middle of 2015 and have been playing them to death ever since. ‘Your Love’s Whore’ was the track that did it for me, don’t know why really, just something about it gets me every time.
‘My Terracotta Heart’ is so wrapped in the history of Blur, and particularly the relationship between Damon and Graham, that it has a significance way beyond the norm. Anyone who loves this band cannot fail to be touched by its stark beauty.
Dave Gahan‘s album with Soulsavers had a tremendous impact on me this year, no song more so than ‘Tempted’. This is a quite sublime performance that gives me goosebumps.
IMHO, ‘Gunga Din’ is quite simply the best thing The Libertines have ever done. Lyrically, it is fantastic, musically, it nails it, but most importantly it has that little extra “I don’t know what” that great tracks need. Killer.
Going through other end of year lists and also reading reviews from other publications, I can’t help but feel that there is a tendency to celebrate the technically proficient, the groundbreaking or the daring, with little emphasis on how music actually makes you feel, which is surely the most important thing, no? I mean there are things in life that you fall in love with totally illogically, it’s not important how technically good it is, sometimes it’s simply how that thing, person or piece of music makes you feel. Anyway, my so called best records of the year are not necessarily the most technically brilliant, but each and every one of them moved me one way or another. Here’s the third and final part.
Girl Band – Holding Hands With Jamie
Luckily, Girl Band manage to combine daring with emotion; their music spoke to me in ways I can barely begin to express. Sublime.
Wolf Alice – My Love is Cool
A constant on my headphones since July, this is an album of great songs about friends and lovers with a very cool indie/pop/rock vibe. Its highly listenable, easily relatable and even the filler is killer.
British IBM – Psychopaths Dream in Black and White
A fairly simplistic easy going record with beautiful swathes of cello that turn it into a soothing feast of aural delight. Lovely.
Sam Duckworth – Amazing Grace
A deceptively deep album underpinned by subtle atmospheric touches beneath the folky acoustics; it’s a bit like running into an old friend and being greeted with the warmest of hugs.
Haybaby – Sleepy Kids
Haybaby have a hard edged indie sound described as sludge pop and slop rock, whatever they may be, and they make a mighty fine racket. I absolutely adore their album – buy it!
The Libertines – Anthems for Doomed Youth
Contains song of the year in ‘Gunga Din’ plus a host of other top moments like ‘Barbarians’ and ‘Iceman’. It’s lyrically sharp, musically vibrant and has just the slightest hint of music hall charm. Comeback of the year.
Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
Obvious choice I know, but it’s really good; you don’t get eleven Grammy nominations by chance you know. This is the kind of direction hip-hop has been begging for, a little less bling and a lot more substance and with killer tunes like ‘i’, ‘King Kunta’ and ‘Alright’ Kendrick is the Negus right now.
Sleater-Kinney – No Cities to Love
Quite simply a great album. The veteran Riot Grrls came back with slice after slice of hook filled punk fuelled badass tunes. Every track a winner.
What’s that? Put them in order! Really? You´re sure?
Ok, go on then; counting down from twenty to one here are the top twenty records of the year in my humble opinion.
20 Luna Sol – Blood Moon
19 Blind Wives – Recovery positions
18 The British IBM – Psychopaths Dream in Black and White
17 Romans – – = +
16 Sam Duckworth – Amazing Grace
15 Girl Band – Holding Hands With Jamie
14 Of Allies – Fragments
13 The Libertines – Anthems for Doomed Youth
12 Iron Maiden – Book of Souls
11 Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
10 Sleater-Kinney – No Cities to Love
9 Halestorm – Into the Wild Life
8 Haybaby – Sleepy kids
7 Blur – The Magic Whip
6 Placebo – Unplugged
5 Public Enemy – Live from Metropolis
4 D’Angelo – Black Messiah
3 The Echo and the Always – And After That The Dark
2 Dave Gahan & Soulsavers – Angels and Ghosts
1 Wolf Alice – My Love is Cool
While thinking back over the music I’ve enjoyed during the past year, I came to the realisation that a very large portion of it came from female artists or female fronted bands. This really shouldn’t be noteworthy in this day and age, but if you think about it, with the exception of the pop market, most musical styles are still pretty much male dominated. I mean, think of your all time favourite metal/rock/indie/rap acts and basically only indie really has a high chance of including a girl and she’s almost certainly gonna be called Kim.
As such, Indie continues to lead the way with a much higher percentage of female fronted bands; maybe it’s down to being a less image oriented genre, where who or what you are is far less important than your art, who knows? Even so, with the exception of Florence’s last minute headline slot at Glastonbury, the UK festivals were still shamelessly male dominated, indicating that there remains an undercurrent of male bias in the industry. This is highlighted by the fact that when you consider that based on merit alone, rather than the questionable practice of positive discrimination; that is, using record sales and critical acclaim as a guide, the main stage at Reading, Glastonbury, Leeds or IoW could easily have lined up Bjork, Florence, Sleater-Kinney, Wolf Alice, Courtney Barnett and Soak on the main stage; wouldn’t exactly have been torture now, would it?
So, whether the powers at be choose to recognize it or not, there has been a lot of damn fine records released this year by women across all genres, even Rap. Therefore, in my best Emma Watson-esque spirit, I think it only fair and right to give a shout out to some of the supremely talented ladies that have contributed so much to my listening pleasure of late.
Although the overriding misogyny of the Rap/Hip-hop scene continues to be a difficult hurdle for female talent, the likes of Kate Tempest, the classy Dej Loaf and Little Simz represent a new generation of talented girl rappers. In addition, 2015 also saw the return of some old school talent; with the unique Missy Elliott coming back with a stylish new single after stealing the half time show at the Superbowl from under Katy Perry’s nose. However, it’s Tairrie B., one of the most pioneering performers in the game, that has most surprised and challenged me this year with her return to the genre for the accomplished ‘Vintage Curses’ project (https://hardpresseded.wordpress.com/2015/08/18/tairrie-b-vintage-curses/). It showed that she still has a flow comparable with any major rap artist around right now, as well as being as empowering as ever. Check out this badass remix of ‘Wicked Witch of the West Coast’ by Mediatrix – another upcoming female talent.
Hard Rock / Heavy Metal is another complicated area for women, but the likes of Pvris and Marmozets are breaking down old fashioned sexism with the sheer quality of their material. Speaking of quality, I can’t put down the smoking ‘Into the Wild Life’ by Halestorm; Lzzy Hale has a superb hard rock vocal and on ‘I Am The Fire’ she is, well, on fire.
As I said before though, it’s the world of indie/alternative where women are really holding their own. I cannot get enough of Wolf Alice’s ‘My Love is Cool’, especially killer tracks like ‘Bros’, ‘Your Love’s Whore’ and ‘You’re a Germ’. Lead vocalist, Ellie Rowsell, has a superb voice, drifting easily from a breathy hush to a full blooded scream on WA’s classy songs – album of the year?
I discovered the old school indie sludge punk of Haybaby a couple of months back and believe they too are set for bigger things. Leslie Hong has a very strong voice and is equally good whether understated or raging; I love her screaming “I don’t give a fuck if you love me anyhow” in the middle of the chorus to ‘Old Friends’, badass.
Laura Hancock of The Echo and The Always, is another vocalist that has seriously impressed me this year. She has a little more bite to her voice, which glides easily amongst the multiple facets of their intriguing record; she can deliver a pop hook with ease, hold her own on rockier numbers but also has the smoothness of a folk singer. This band will be massive.
To be honest, there is so much amazing female talent around right now, whether it’s a tiny upcoming band like False Advertising (Jen Hingley), hot new singer-songwriter like Soak or a legend like Björk, I could go on and on giving examples. Suffice to say that with so much good music on offer I find it staggering that the issue of equality still needs to be addressed in the music business.
My earphones have been as busy as ever with the likes of Haybaby and Wolf Alice, but there’s been plenty of other stuff filling my personal airwaves. I’ve reviewed some great stuff for Already Heard, like Saint (the) Sinner, Aurora and This City Limits (See below for reviews), as well as the new Nitin Sawhney and Jeff Lynne’s ELO releases right here. It’s all great stuff but there’s a few other things topping my personal charts right now.
Dave Gahan & Soulsavers
It’s quite natural for stuff that I’m reviewing to get a fair few plays, but Dave’s latest has been on super heavy rotation ever since. The almost cinematic quality of this sweeping soundtrack to life is extremely impressive and its depth and texture nothing short of sublime. Gahan puts in a strong vocal performance throughout; the rough edge to his voice carrying an emotional weight that combines beautifully with the epically dark gospel feel. Killer.
The Cult
I’m not ashamed to admit that The Cult is my all time favourite band and tend to get played pretty much every week as it is. So when I decided to do my 10 reasons The Cult are awesome piece (https://hardpresseded.wordpress.com/2015/11/10/10-reasons-the-cult-are-awesome/) it was the perfect excuse to delve into their back catalogue even more. Electric/Peace got a fair few listens as did Love. They are such a unique band, despite wearing their influences on their sleeves; nobody else sounds like them and they defy classification. Billy Duffy’s guitar playing is always superb, conjuring up varied riffs and smoking solos, while Ian Astbury’s baritone is the most distinctive voice in rock. Here is something a little newer though, from the soundtrack to Gone In 60 Seconds, ‘Painted on my Heart’. Love ’em.
Of Allies
I’ve reviewed them, I’ve interviewed them, I’ve featured them in not one but two other pieces and yet I can’t stop listening to them. Both the first EP, ‘Tempers’, as well as its follow up, ‘Fragments’, are regular listens that I just never get tired of hearing. On Tempers we get the earworm that is ‘Ghosts’, the brooding ‘Our Decay’, the bombastic ‘In Screens’ with its guitar interplay and hook filled chorus, the ebb and flow of the atmospheric ‘In Stasis’ with its epic finale and the massive ‘Play Dead’. Fragments is equally triumphant with its slightly more radio friendly, but no less hard edge sound. The title track is pure quality, ‘One 19’ is a hook filled belter, ‘Old Bones’ is full of twists and turns, while ‘Tempers’ rocks seriously hard before the accomplished ‘Call It Home’. Basically, I cannot get enough of this band and am stoked that work on their debut LP has begun – look out for them in 2016.
There’s a strong indie flavour to my listening right now, with Wolf Alice still more than pertinent, but as ever, I’ve been getting through a lot of music and there’s certainly been some cool new discoveries, like Haybaby, mentioned below. However, as I have given a fair amount of space to some of the bands that are on heavy rotation before, and don’t want to risk sounding repetitive, I’m only including the most relevant things this month, just in greater depth. Enjoy!
Haybaby – Sleepy Kids
Reviewed this the other week for Already Heard and have been playing it to death ever since. There are rough edges aplenty and some seriously sloppy guitars; throw in the lazy croon of Leslie Hong and some histrionics, and you’ve got a superb mix for their songs about life and lust. I’m finding more and more that I like with every listen; from the “I don’t give a fuck” attitude of ‘Old Friends’ and the breezy bass of ‘Her’, through to the insistent melody of ‘Elevator Song’ and the awkward geekiness of ‘Shy’. It’s a sublime record well worth repeated listens, whether it’s to revel in the emotional outpouring of the monumental ‘Edelweiss’, for the vaguely sinister ‘Doored’ or the superb ‘Pizza Party’, there’s never a dull moment and ‘Sleepy Kids’ is fast becoming one of my favourite records of the year. Full review here:http://alreadyheard.com/post/131624144363/album-review-haybaby-sleepy-kids)
Girl Band – Holding Hands With Jamie
Similarly sublime, significantly more sinister but no less enjoyable is the wholehearted festival of noise that is Girl Band. There is something strangely compelling about ‘Holding hands with Jamie’, making it a challenging but rewarding listen that will have you rethink how music should be. There’s no bullshit here, it’s music as art that reaches deep inside – go on, dive in. (Full review here:https://hardpresseded.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/girl-band-holding-hands-with-jamie-review/)
The Libertines – Anthems for Doomed Youth
I kinda missed out on the whole Libertines furore the first time round, so I didn’t have the same level of anticipation/expectation about this album as many people did. I’d got into Pete and Co recently though, so for me it just picked up from where they left off, the band members’ individual histories having no bearing on my enjoyment of the record. As such, I’ve been racking up the streams and loving Doherty’s poetic, semi music hall, Artful Dodger take on the world. Anthems is lyrically sharp, especially on the superb ‘Gunga Din’, surely the Libertines at their very best. Other high points are the rousing ‘Barbarians’, the quintessentially British ‘Iceman’ and the boisterous ‘Heart of the Matter’. All in all, the whole album is thoroughly enjoyable, highlighting everything that makes the Libertines the most important British act since Britpop.
Basically, I spend any available moment of any given day (i.e. When I’m not in the classroom) listening to music, so, I take in a fair mix of styles and genres. I readily admit to my fair share of mainstream listening; Blur, Bjork and Kendrick Lamar in particular of late, but I’m open minded and will give anything a chance, from new alternative releases to blasts from the past. So here’s what’s been on heavy rotation of late…
WOLF ALICE
‘My Love is Cool’ is required listening, from the invitingly soft laid back vocal of opener ‘Turn to Dust’, through the Pixies inspired You’re a Germ’, past the poppy ‘Lisbon’ and onto the pure indie heaven of ‘Swallowtail’ and ‘Fuzzy’s feedback fury. Track after track of top quality songs full of nuances and complexities that make this a debut album of surprising depth that keeps me coming back for more. Quality.
SAM DUCKWORTH
Sam Duckworth’s Amazing Grace has been my go to album for the last couple of months when I want something a little more reflective and a little less noisy. I actually described it as being “like a warm hug from an old friend” when I first reviewed it, and time has just turned it into an older friend. The subtleties and atmospherics make for an interesting dynamic – perfect for end of the day headphone listening.
D’ANGELO
D’Angelo has been a playlist constant since Black Messiah’s surprise release at the back end of 2014. The politically charged album defies classification, buzzing around the fringes of funk, soul and R&B with a rocky edge to the guitar playing, D’Angelo’s smooth as honey voice understated and confident on this retro- familiar collection of percussion rich tunes. Modern classic.
LED ZEPPELIN
Released in the middle of 2014, the reissue of Led Zeppelin II was a late Christmas present, and while I have more or less ignored the disc of extras, (I’m a great believer in the philosophy that if it was that good they’d’ve put it out before), it does have one or two moments of note like the rough mixes of ‘Heartbreaker’ and ‘Ramble On’ and the interesting ‘La La’. ‘Whole Lotta Love’ without the guitar solo makes for excruciating listening though! However, coming back to the original was like catching up with a childhood friend and chatting like it was just yesterday. Now we get together a couple of times a month because it is without a doubt still one of the finest collections of songs ever recorded – all killer, no filler.
LONELY THE BRAVE
I’m not entirely sure why I can’t stop playing this record, but I just keep going back to Lonely the Brave’s The Day’s War (Victory Edition). I guess it’s the measured approach to their fearless song writing – they’re not afraid to talk about how they feel and explore their own sound – I suppose there’s a kinda naked honesty that I find endearing, even on the redux versions and extra tracks. There’s been all kinds of comparisons to the likes of Biffy Clyro but LTB possess a much more robust sound, both instrumentally and vocally, which gives the music a strength that is rarely found theses days. They will be enormous.
MARY J. BLIGE
Don’t know if this counts as a guilty pleasure, especially given that she played Glastonbury this year, but I do love a bit of Mary J. and London Sessions has given a welcome reboot to her career. The collaborations with the likes of Disclosure and Emeli Sandé have reinvigorated her sound and though there are a couple of throwaways, killer moments like the intense ‘Whole Damn Year’, the retro ‘Therapy’ and the clubby ‘Follow’ make it worth repeated listens.
Hard Pressed 