Father John Misty comes back with a frankly magnificent piece of work… and the video’s really something, too.
Mr. Story’s Albums of 2016
In no particular order, the albums that I have most enjoyed this year …
Frankie Cosmos – Next Thing
No matter what mood I am in I love listening to this. It’s bizzarely universal for me. If I want to jump about and sing like nobody is in the room then I put it on, if I want to chill out, I put it on. Morning, evening. I think you get the point.
Nicolas Jaar – Sirens
I loved his first, I loved the Darkside album and I love this. I don’t think this is as strong as Darkstar – Psychic but its a hell of a listen.
Olafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm – Trance Frendz
I listen to loads of music that I would never choose for the AOTM. Maybe that is disrespectful to the Brothers. Perhaps I should branch out? These two musicians / composers (whatever) get together to go on hikes and talk about making music. Occasionally they meet in one or the others home cities to make some music. One evening they recorded 6 tracks, live with no overdubs or post fannying about. They created a haunting alum of calm lilting piano music that is then blended into electronic claustrophobia. Those of you who know Paul Ledger will appreciate his comment after he sat in the dark and listened in full on his head phones ‘Its beautiful Joey but you’re still one dark fucker’.
VIDEO LINK CAUSE THE BLOG WONT LET ME PASTE DIRECTLY INTO THE BODY LIKE ABOVE!!!
Bon Iver – 22, A Million
I didn’t know what to make of this at first … I love it now. He’s pretty bloody consistent isn’t he!
Christine and the Queens – Chaleur Humaine
I don’t care if its not the artists original words, language guests etc. I love love love it. Probably album of the year for me. Thank you David.
Anderson .Paak – Malibu
This has been with me nearly all the year I think. This and Frankie Cosmos. They’ve been consistently albums I’ve turned to.
Agnes Obel – Citizen of Glass
Beautiful
JANUARY: Agnes Obel – Citizen of Glass
I cannot claim any long-standing relationship with Ms. Obel’s music. One evening in late November I switched 6 Music and caught the back-end of a live session. It was the voices I heard that sparked my interest initially. I think I only heard about 90 seconds but after a bit of ‘Ask Jeeves’ (Q:does that still exist?… A:I don’t know, Google it?) I was introduced to Ms. Obel’s music. Citizen of Glass was not out but there were a few tracks on Spotify and I loved each and everyone.
As referenced previously in my wittering, I don’t get as much time to listen to music as I used to / would like. I do listen to music in the evenings but my evenings are not as long as they used to be. Following the daily bedtime battle and the realisation that child-2 will probably be awake for 3 hours in roughly 2.5 hrs we like to keep the evenings calm. I like to read but am useless at reading when listening to some music. I struggle with a lot of music with lyrics when reading. Over the course of a few years this has significantly changed my listening habits. My evening music has become calmer and more instrumental. I listen to a lot of (cringe) ‘Modern Classical’ ‘Neo-Classical’ (puke) and other terms for music with strings that nobody knows what to call. Musicians (composers?) such as Olafur Arnalds, Max Richter, Johann Johannsson and Julian Barwick have become the main-stay of what I actually listen to. However, I’ve not shared any of this on the blog which is stupid really as it is what I listen to and this blog is supposed to be about sharing new music and what we’re currently listening to.
Which brings me to Citizen of Glass by Agnes Obel. Ms. Obel is a Danish singer / songwriter. A bit of time on ‘Ask Jeeves’ suggests numerous genres for her music – classical, folk, pop, experimental among others. The main point for me is that her music is calming and beautiful. There are no beats. There will be no-cool-down-with-the-kids points available for referencing this album, unless of course the kids are listening to music like this which could well be happening given my proximity to ‘cool’.
The album is cinematic and sweeping. It has a rhythm to its sequence and provides a progression through the tracks but also a gentle return to its starting point. By this I mean that listening on repeat is a rewarding experience. There are 10 tracks in all, 8 vocal and 2 instrumentals. The instrumentals (for me) do not feel like filler and have stand out qualities that set them apart as rewarding entities in their own right. The instrumentation is 100% acoustic / orchestral – lost of piano (though this is her album where she consciously steps away from reliance on the piano), strings, harpsichord, harp, spintet, celsta (…. I’m not selling this am I?) and of course her voice. I’ve not checked all the vocal credits but she provides her own backing vocals and harmonies. She even duets with herself on ‘Familiar’ where she provides a ‘male’ counterpoint to her beautiful ‘female’ vocal.
As with many albums the greatest rewards come on repeat listens when you have the ability to concentrate on the music rather than as background music. I hope that you guys get as much from this as I have. I appreciate that this may not be ‘your usual thing’ but hey, it may well be and you’ve just not been blogging about it like me.
Run The Jewels – Panther Like A Panther
So hip hop is serving it up already early in 2017….
DECEMBER: We Got It From Here… – A Tribe Called Quest
Ach, so late on this one. Soooooo sorry.
I mean, there’s not much to say in a weird way, is there? After an EIGHTEEN YEAR gap, and after losing one of the group’s cornerstones and founder members, Phife Dawg, and without much of a contribution from Ali Shaheed, who would be have been surprised if ATCQ would have returned with something a bit tired, a bit old, a bit derivative.
Instead, they rock up with one of the albums of the year and add a genuine new chapter to an already glittering career. Like Bowie’s Blackstar, this album is one you’d be happy to put next to their finest like their debut or Midnight Marauders.
Let’s be clear: they’re not totally reinventing themselves, and there is something enjoyably familiar about hearing that ATCQ sound. But what makes this such a thrilling listen is to hear Q-Tip and the crew sounds so vital, so passionate, so playful and so political.
It’s almost an embarrassment of riches. The first four or five songs are all stone cold classics, and almost every contribution brings out the best in everyone – the tracks with Andre 3000, Busta Rhymes, Kendrick Lamar and Anderson .Paak are all total standouts. It also rewards repeated plays, and each time I find a new track that I’ve overlooked.
If there’s a criticism, it’s maybe that with it’s a touch overlong, and with the loss of 2 or 3 tracks, it would have been flawless. But actually, there’s not really a track I dislike intensely, and I love nearly all of it.
Welcome back ATCQ. The world missed you. The world needs you.
2016 and its music
If February the 3rd, 1959 was the day that music died when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson all died in a plane crash, then surely 2016 will be remembered as the year that music died. From David Bowie dying in the early days of January to the passing of George Michael on Christmas day, you’d be hard pressed to find a music fan of any genre or era in the last 50 years that didn’t loose one of their heroes. Some of us were lucky enough to be treated to one final swan song with he likes of Bowie and Tribe Called Quest (Phife Dawg) releasing arguably some of their best work ahead of their departure, whilst all of the lost artists left us with music that will stay with us for our lifetimes.
2016 for me as a music fan was a strong year with a mixture of new artists and familiar faces releasing some very strong albums, especially within Hip Hop and Soul. I did how ever find that over all the UK seemed to take the foot off the gas after very strong years in 2013, 2014 and 2015. 2016 also saw coming out parties for many artists that were on the cusp of great things with the likes of Chance the Rapper, Anderson Paak and Solandge making strong statements of intent.
2017 is already looking to be a fantastic year for music. But ahead of us turning to the next chapter, please find my top tens of the year.
Albums
Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here… Thank You For Your Service
Michael Kiwanuka – Love and Hate
NxWorries – Yes Lawd
Baio – The Names
She Drew The Gun – Memoirs Of The Future
Frank Ocean – Blonde
Lapsley – Long Way Home
Anderson Paak- Malibu
Common – Black America Again
Kendrick Lamar – Untitled Unmastered
Singles
Jules Et Spatz – Rotwii Lied
De La Soul – Exodus
Moderate – Running (AME Remix)
Lee Burridge & Lost Desert – Lingala
Christine and the Queens – Titled
Mackelmore & Ryan Lewis – White Privilege II
Natia Rose – Sqwad
Matronomy – Old Skool
DJ Shadow feat Run The Jewels – Nobody Speak
David Bowie – Lazarus
- I decided to leave any tracks that were in my top ten albums off. Essentially, listen to those full albums.
Happy New Year brothers and I look forward to 2017!
King Britt presents Obafunke – Uzoamaka (King Britt’s Scuba Mix)
I’ve just lost myself in this song.
Common – Pyramids
I know I’ve already posted a track from his new album, but this will be one of my tracks of the year no doubt! Common is back to his old self it seems!
Childish Gambino – “Awaken, My Love!”
Well where the hell did this come from? Childish Gambino AKA Donald Glover drops his 3rd album under the CG monkier out of nowhere, and it is a BEAST. Always been slightly underwhelmed by his previous output, which felt to more like hip hop you could admire more than love. It was too clever and tricksy and I don know, I didn’t feel it.
This is a totally different beast. This isn’t hip hop at all – it’s a funk or soul album, steeped in Sly Stone, Prince and Funkadelic, and it’s as properly far out at times as either George Clinton or Sly. It’s a bold step to the left, and he pulls it off with incredible confidence. I’m only my 2nd listen, but I am LOVING it…
November: Jagwar Ma – Every Now and Then
So here’s November’s offering and I confess to be coming into this review from a fairly biased starting position. I love what Jagwar Ma do and have done since seeing them in the John Peel tent on a Saturday lunchtime at 2013’s Glastonbury with my other half and the blog’s Guy Hornsby. To sum any band up is tricky: they’re original but they steal. They have their own sound but it’s interspersed with little nuggets taken from elsewhere. They’re the embodiment of an oxymoron but boy does it work. Consequently, they’re incredibly easy to connect with, especially if you’re someone who’s easily swayed by a band shamelessly throwing back to mid-90s baggy psych one minute (Man I Need) and bringing trance-era vibes the next (Four).. Gabriel Winterfield and Jono Ma are consummate musical magpies, all about the loops and repetition, like so much electronic music that it’s wonderful to disappear into… so with much of that 2013 set it felt almost illegal to be having that much fun on a Saturday afternoon.
That brings us to Every Now and Then which, I’ll be honest, I didn’t really want to review because I’d be buying this album anyway and sometimes it’s tricky to be objective with something you’ve been looking forward to for so long. But here we are and I’ve had this album for about a month or so now (having caught them live again at the Brudenell Social Club in the meantime). Again, where Jagwar Ma just do it so well is they’re amazing with taking tropes and little hooks of other sometimes timeless tunes and textures and weaving them into their own songs. In Say What You Feel, it’s pure Beach Boys harmony and melody thrown in but it’s not immediately obvious that’s what they’re doing as it’s swirling around gorgeous twists of reverse track and backing vocals. They’re taking what they kicked off with the debut Howlin’ and expanding it, making the soundscapes wider and richer (I know many albums are but it’s one hell of a headphone listen).
The album’s first single, OB1 is pretty much a stepping stone between the debut and this new collection of songs but it’s one where it almost feels like they’re plagiarising themselves it’s so close to The Throw in feel, for instance. But with them being who they are, it’s a head nod, an acknowledgement and then straight into an immediately accessible belt-out chorus. I can’t help thinking that if they were a guitar band as opposed to synth dance they’d be quite at home doing the arena tour circuit with refrains like that in their locker.
It took me a few listens to put my finger on it but there’s a moment in Loose Ends which is pure Beetlebum by Blur and another example of where they’re the magpies I’ve been pointing towards. The song where the album’s title comes from is beautifully crafted, layered and produced; it’s as good as anything the band have done and is so wonderfully hypnotic.
Every Now and Then is a fine example of a band having found their niche and are now exploring the sound that they’ve created. They’re evolving at a steady pace and they continue to be not only a fine live act (you really should try to catch them if they’re playing near you). This second album is the sound of a band stretching their legs and hitting their stride.
thisisnothappening.net 