The Musical Advent Calendar - Door Number Five

Day five of the Musical Advent Calendar sees Skillers reveal himself to be a Desperate Journalist. Wait. What's that, Skillers? Oh. A Desperate Journalist fan. Our mistake... Here are our No. 20 albums of the year. 

Andy Welch
The Charlatans - Modern Nature (BMG)

Enough has been written about The Charlatans terrible fortunes over the years, and the way they've always bounced back, without me adding to it. But just as they returned after Rob Collins' death with the brilliant Tellin' Stories, this return to form came after Jon Brookes' premature passing. The background is one thing, the songs are another, which, regardless of the circumstances in which they were written, are among the best in the band's already spectacular career.





Rory Dollard
Jessica Pratt - On Your Own, Love Again (Drag City)

A delicate, highly-strung slice of American folk that could have landed at any point from 1960 onwards. Some are sure to be put off by Pratt's stylised vocals, but those left standing should find plenty to unpack in this densely-woven nine-song set.




Matt Collins
SOAK - Before We Forgot How to Dream (Rough Trade)

SOAK sound a lot like Daughter, which is probably the main reason I love them. Delicately picked acoustic guitars, echoey electric guitars, scared and mournful songs of love lost. All in that slightly throaty tone that is de rigeur at the moment.

Dom Farrell
Leon Bridges - Coming Home (Columbia)

From the heavy Sam Cooke stylings to the vintage clothing and recording equipment, it would be easy for Coming Home to fall on its face in a fashion befitting of some risible, pastiche farce. Thankfully, it’s largely executed with a joyful brilliance. Fine songs just about withstand the historical weight attached to them. Just tremendous, wonderful fun.

Andrew Gwilym
Modest Mouse - Strangers to Ourselves (Colombia)

There were times over the last eight years where you wondered what on earth had happened to Modest Mouse. We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank and Good News for People Who Love Bad News had marked them out as an innovative, eccentric and intriguing. Then, they disappeared. Isaac Brock talked about making an album with Big Boi, but didn't. Guitar-for-hire Johnny Marr got bored of waiting and released two solo albums. The longer the wait, the more difficult to meet expectations and so it proves with Strangers to Ourselves. This is a fine record, but it is more a case of individual songs standing out than this being a cohesive work. Not that it doesn't make for a compelling listen, particularly on 'Shit In Your Cut' and 'The Tortoise and the Tourist'.




John Skilbeck
Desperate Journalist - Desperate Journalist (Fierce Panda)

This curiously slid from number five to number 20 in the course of an evening’s deliberation. Reminds me of the wonderful The Organ. I liked this album a lot, its freshness and vigour enough to challenge the sense it had been all done before.




Pranam Mavahalli
Kamasi Washington – The Epic (Brainfeeder)

I'm a worrier. And one of the things I worry about is the effect of mobiles and devices on my concentration-span. To remedy this, last year I decided to read some VERY LONG BOOKS, in an effort to prove to myself that I can think with sustained effort if I needed to. At times this felt like an ordeal (I didn't enjoy Parade's End at all), but then in other cases it was a complete joy (Anna Karenina/Moby Dick). Which brings me to the debut three-hour long, triple album that is Kamasi Washington's The Epic. Yes it looks daunting. Yes you might not think you have the time. And yes, it's jazz. But don't let that put you off. There's lots to appreciate here, the band backed by choir often swell to, well, epic proportions, and if it lags at times you know there's another moment around the corner that will make up for it.



Ian Parker
The Arcs - Yours, Dreamily (Nonesuch)

What to do when your drummer has broken his leg (particularly when, you know, your drummer is the only other guy in your band)? Why not form a new one and bash out a record in a couple of weeks? The Arcs don't sound a million miles off recent Black Keys records, but the idea is not to make a Black Keys record, and Auerbach has also brought in a bunch of Daptone regulars (we already touched upon how great Daptone can be) to send this in a more soulful direction. The results are exactly what a side-project should be - a whole heap of fun. 

Guy Atkinson
Toundra – IV (Superball Music)

As has been the case for the last five years or so, one genre has dominated my listening again this year: post-rock. I don’t remember where I first heard about this Madrid-based band, but I do remember the flight back from Spain earlier this year, where this crushing album served as the perfect soundtrack.

Steve Pill
Songhoy Blues – Music in Exile (Transgressive)

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner was an unlikely choice to produce this debut by Songhoy Blues, a Mali blues band he discovered during one of Damon Albarn's excursion to West Africa.
In the nicest possible way, his presence can barely be felt on Music in Exile beyond the odd fuzzy guitar line and a decidedly New York-style break in Irganda. From their message to their sound, Songhoy Blues sound startlingly cohesive, as if the band were simply recorded live in a room, and all the better for it. Highlights include 'Jolie', which echoes the groove from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's Massive Attack-assisted 'Mustt Mustt' as if played around a campfire at 3am, and the awesome 'Desert Melodie', the most intricate, rousing and downright fun slice of African desert blues since Amadou & Mariam's 'Wati'.

The Musical Advent Calendar - Door Number Four

Day four of the Musical Advent Calendar and, besides our No. 21 albums of the year, it seems it's already time for Dollard's inevitable world music pick, though it is at least something we've all heard of this time. Meanwhile Matt nominates a Welsh windbag, and Pranam considers a road not travelled.

Andy Welch

Roisin Murphy – Hairless Toys (Play It Again Sam)

Like a lot of people, I quite liked Moloko and their Balearic big singles, but never really investigated any further than that. I've paid a lot more attention to Roisin Murphy's solo material, though, and Hairless Toys is her best yet. There's deep house, Italo and Studio 54-style disco, even country in what sounds like a bizarre twist but works perfectly. A great record.

Rory Dollard
Songhoy Blues - Music In Exile (Transgressive)

Time for the internationally recognised 'Dollard's world music pick' Is it that time already? I'm a long-time sucker for the desert blues genre and these boys from Mali do it in style: slinky, lean guitar lines, hypnotic arrangements and chanted vocals. Just by the by, these blokes were forced out of their homeland by jihadists who attempted to ban music (and alcohol…and cigarettes). Context is always relevant.

Matt Collins
Sweet Baboo - The Boombox Ballads (Moshi Moshi)

Welsh windbag Sweet Baboo has fantastic knack for story based, twee songwriting with jump up and down melodies. He’s is terrific live to boot. The Boombox Ballads is a fantastically fun collection of songs.

Dom Farrell
Richard Hawley - Hollow Meadows (Parlophone)

If we were ranking these albums in order of the best promotional interview given, Richard Hawley would have the whole thing boxed off via this rampaging, barmy and heartfelt effort with the Guardian. The follow-up to 2012’s surprisingly but gloriously visceral Standing At The Sky’s Edge, Hawley’s seventh solo outing moves back towards the straightforward crooner territory of Coles Corner. As smooth and satisfying as one of his favourite Sheffield ales, things do get a touch one-paced before the majestic 'Heart of Oak' comes around.

Andrew Gwilym
Craig Finn - Faith in the Future (Partisan) 

I will always go in to bat for Craig Finn. He will probably never top his Hold Steady work on Boys and Girls in America, but he remains, for me, one of the best storytelling songwriters of the last 15 years. This does not threaten to be a career defining piece of work but is more complete than his opening solo effort Clear Heart Full Eyes. 'St Peter Upside Down' may be the best song on either record, while 'Sarah, Calling From a Hotel' is a perfect reflection on getting older and includes a nice nod to Hold Steady classic 'Chips Ahoy!'

John Skilbeck
Escort - Animal Nature (Escort)

I had this New York disco troupe at number two in my 2012 list. The follow-up stalls at 21. Imagine their devastation.

Pranam Mavahalli
George Fitzgerald – Fading Love (Double Six)

Back in the day you'd see men (it was invariably men) in record shops with a stack of vinyl at the in-store deck, working out whether they'd buy a record from listening to a 30-second snippet. As a youngster I wanted to be part of this strange esoteric group, but felt I had neither the required skill nor the requisite taste. Nowadays when our lives are increasingly time-pressured, it's easier than ever to hit 'skip' when you're bored of a track. Which makes me wonder why I ever wanted to be one of those guys in the first place...In any case, it took me just 30 seconds to fall for George Fitzgerald's latest album. A lovely synth wash sets the tone for the rest of the album – hushed yet punchy, great on headphones, melodic and very addictive.

Ian Parker
Kurt Vile - B’lieve I’m Going Down (Matador) 

The follow-up to the magnificent Wakin' On A Pretty Daze is a rather different beast, with a more acoustic feel and perhaps even a little more order to affairs. Only a little, mind you, as listening to this record is like drifting off into one of Vile's dreams - a wonderful, woozy way to spend an afternoon.

Guy Atkinson
Westkust – Last Forever (Luxury)

Featuring members of a recent favourite of mine, Makthaverskan, it was never in doubt that I’d fall under the spell of this fuzz-drenched, shoegaze-inspired Swedish outfit. 

Steve Pill
Sleater Kinney – No Cities To Love (Sub Pop)

Having shamefully never listened to a Sleater Kinney album prior to their triumphant comeback this year, I largely knew them not as original Riot Grrl heroines but as "that Portlandia band". If my abject idiocy hasn't stopped you from reading further, let me just say this: No Cities To Love is superb rock'n'roll music: loud, brash, rousing, fun and just a bit cleverer than it initially seems. How it compares to their back catalogue, I couldn't say – I've not felt the need to look any further than this just yet.

The Musical Advent Calendar - Door Number Three

Today's theme seems to be drunken conversations in or out of bars, with people who may turn out to be folks from Milwaukee, or may turn out to be folk musicians. Meanwhile, Pranam goes for something reassuringly bonkers...it's day three of the Musical Advent Calendar, and our No. 22 albums of the year. 

Andy Welch

Will Butler – Policy (Merge)

I might be committing some sort of heresy here, but I really don't like Arcade Fire. I've listened to them, and just don't get what the fuss is about. I did, however, really enjoy Richard Reed Parry's solo album Music For Heart And Breath, and continuing my enjoyment of the solo works of Arcade Fire members comes Will Butler's Policy. I love the Talking Heads-style pop of 'Anna', and the way it doesn't really sound like anything else on the record, or indeed Arcade Fire. Policy bounces around between genres and Butler sounds like he's having a blast.

Rory Dollard

The Unthanks - Mount the Air (Rabble Rouser Music)

I met Becky Unthank once. Outside a boozer in Manchester, friend of a friend type situation. Spent the entire 15 minutes talking with her about baking (I can't, she can..from memory). Anyway, he only told me who I’d been talking to after she left. In retrospect I might have done better with that time. It's great that these guys exists, and do well, and put this deliciously broody Northumbrian folk music into a world that didn't even know it wanted it. I don't listen to it as often as I should but it never fails to hit the spot when the time comes.

Matt Collins
FFS - FFS (Domino)

The collaboration between Franz Ferdinand and Sparks and how good an idea it even is is addressed immediately on the track 'Collaborations Don’t Work'. The fact that such a thing has even happened is great. FFS definitely sounds a lot more FF than S but it's just as bouncy and fun an album as you would expect to hear from these two bands. 

Dom Farrell
Natalie Prass - Natalie Prass (Spacebomb)

The Spacebomb project is one of the most endearing musical tales of our time. The feted Muscle Shoals model re-imagined by a group of chaps who look like they’ve rolled over from Richmond, Virginia’s most recent comic book convention. Their records showcase discerning, retro-tinged wonder - never more so than in the case of 'My Baby Don’t Understand Me', the show-stopping and devastatingly beautiful opener on Natalie Prass’ eponymous debut LP. The easy swagger of 'Bird of Prey' then shimmers into view and, although there are peaks and troughs thereafter, the highs are dizzying.

Andrew Gwilym

Ryan Adams - 1989 (Pax-Am)

This had the potential to be a musical nightmare. Covers albums are often hit and miss, but actually recording a faithful reimagining of someone else's work is fraught with danger. The fact that Adams makes a success of his take on Taylor Swift's multi-million seller speaks volumes of his talent, which he has not always made full use of. Adams understands the tenderness and heartache lurking beneath the pop sheen these tunes have been drenched in. His take on songs like 'Bad Blood' and 'Blank Space' are wonderful. It does the job of highlighting not just Adams, but the quality of Swift herself.

John Skilbeck
Prinzhorn Dance School - Home Economics (DFA)

Heard this for the first time while rummaging at Drift record shop in Totnes in June. It’s a great shop, pretty much worth the trek to Devon, and this was a surprisingly whipsmart, if very short, record.

Pranam Mavahalli
Paradise Bangok Molam International Band - 21st Century Molam (Studio Lam)

A couple of years ago a friend showed me a Youtube of a wedding band from South East Asia playing wild groove laden, psychedelic-sounding music that was as thrilling as it was unexpected. Much later I realised that they were playing morlam music – a genre that I think is unique to the north-eastern part of the country. This record's as rocking and energetic as any other psych album I've heard this hear, and when it veers into disco it grooves in a way that turns me into a grinning idiot.

Ian Parker
Saun & Starr - Look Closer (Daptone)

Daptone just don't seem to put out bad records - sticking to a traditional recipe but making sure the retro flavours never become overpowering. Saun & Starr cut their teeth singing backing vocals for the label's star act Sharon Jones, but prove here they are more than capable of shining in their own right. 

Guy Atkinson
Menace Beach – Ratworld (Memphis Industries)

The ongoing trend for stealing inspiration from scuzzy 90s alt-rock is one crime I’m willing to let pass if the pop gems crafted from those ideas are as tuneful as this.

Steve Pill
Blur – Magic Whip (Parlophone)

I recently had a drunken conversation about music with a guy from Milwaukee in which I suggested that bands never release better albums once eight years have passed since their debut. They still make good, even great albums, but only ever variations on what has gone before. The theory was, like myself at the time, hardly watertight, loosely based on the Rolling Stones and Radiohead, but once he tried to disprove this with a slew of his favourite bands (Wilco, The Replacements), it seemed to stand up. (For the record, we extended the timescale to 13 years for solo acts, to take into account the lack of interband friction and Blood On The Tracks). Now, while I'd welcome anyone to come up with an exception to our pointless rule, it brings me nicely to Blur. As much as Graham Coxon seemed intent on willing The Magic Whip into being in a nostalgic attempt to lull Damon Albarn out of the dull grey funk that descended on him in recent years and manifest itself in the hideous cover art and inert atmosphere of his really-not-very-good solo debut, the result is still somewhat of a pastiche of the bands glory days (which, theory fans will note, ended with 1999's 13, eight years after debut album Leisure).  Nevertheless, from the bovver boot stomp of 'Go Out' to the spectral sashay of 'Ghost Ship', I can't help but feel that, as with many of my teenage favourite bands, a half-decent Blur album is still a million miles more appealing than all but 21 of the year's other releases.

The Musical Advent Calendar - Door Number Two

Now we can put all that over-sentimentality about it being the final Musical Advent Calendar to one side - at least until December 24 - let's push on as we reveal our No. 23 albums of the year. Rory marks the occasion by pining for some guy no one else remembers - apparently goes by the name of Ali or something, Dom forms a circle and invites us all to sing kumbayah, while Pranam brings us this Advent Calendar's first Marmite reference. We're sure it won't be the last.

Andy Welch

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds – Chasing Yesterday (Sour Mash Records)

When Noel Gallagher announced his debut solo album, he also announced a second album made with Amorphous Androgynous that would come out at some point during 2012. Based on remixes AA had done for Oasis, and Gallagher's dabbling with that particular strand of psychedelia, it was infinitely more exciting than that enjoyable, yet meat-and-potatoes debut. Unfortunately it never came to pass, Gallagher saying it just wasn't up to scratch, and while his puzzling refusal to finish it is frustrating, we have at least heard glimpses. There was 'Shoot A Hole Into The Sun', a B-side, and one or two moments on Chasing Yesterday which elevate it to a record I've really enjoyed in the past year to what I think it one of the year's best. 'Riverman', 'The Dying Of The Light' and, best of all, 'The Right Stuff', are some of the best tracks Gallagher has been involved with. They almost make up for the album he apparently deleted.


Rory Dollard
Eskimeaux - OK (Double Double Whammy)

'Broken Necks' is a beaut. I know we're early in the game but go on, give it a listen. It's what people who know about this stuff call a perfect three-minute pop song. There's one or two others cut from the same cloth on here too, in the vein of the Concretes, or Camera Obscura. I tell you who might like it, Ali Mason. Remember him? That bloke who voted for tea (nice move), Eliza Doolittle (preposterous) and, dunno, probably Laura Marling loads of times. WHERE ARE YOU ALI? WHY DO YOU NEVER STOP BY HERE? MAYBE TO SAY GUY'S SELECTIONS HAVE PROMPTED YOU TO REVISE ALL YOUR MUSICAL TENETS. ANYTHING.

Matt Collins
The Unthanks - Mount the Air (Cadiz Music)

The Unthanks have to be one of the best groups of musicians around. Their unique take on North East folk combines beautifully with a gentle melancholy and lush instrumental classical instruments on this album, better than ever.

Dom Farrell
New Order - Music Complete (Mute)

'Restless', the opening track and lead single on Music Complete, could very well be called 'Fed-up, Tired and Grumpy In Late Middle Age' given the weariness in Bernard Sumner’s ever dulcet tones. This much might be expected from a man embroiled in an unseemly spat with his arch musical ally of 40 years that would, frankly, be unbecoming of people 40 years younger. The ghost of Peter Hook is felt on this record. A handful of times you find yourself checking over your shoulder to see exactly when the rumbling, rocksteady bass line will arrive. Alas, it never does. But there remains plenty to enjoy, as New Order sans-Hook turn relocate their Ibiza-era handbook, with Chemical Brother Tom Rolands adding some extra production muscle. As ever, Sumner’s unfailing melodic brilliance bails out his often sub-sixth form poetry lyrics. A flawed but worthy return. Now, can’t everyone just be friends?

Andrew Gwilym
Neil Young and The Promise of the Real - The Monsanto Years (Reprise)

God bless Neil Young. He is unstoppable. If he fancies recording an album in a contraption resembling a telephone box, he will. If he wants to make an album with an orchestra, you better believe it is happening. If he wants to date Daryl Hannah, you won't be stopping him. So an album of songs about GM crops should come as no surprise. But what makes this, and most Neil releases, so compelling is the fire and passion that drives them. You can hear and feel Young's anger and depth of feeling on a subject close to his heart. He burns with a thrilling righteous rage, making for a thrilling righteous record.

John Skilbeck
Childbirth - Women’s Rights (Suicide Squeeze)

This is a hoot. Childbirth, seventh on my list last year with the cassette-only It’s A Girl album, rattled out a second brilliantly deadpan LP of super-brief sling-shots that more often than not hit their intended target.

Pranam Mavahalli
Holly Herndon - Platform (4AD)

Do you believe in opposites? Is there such a thing as black and white? Are logic and creativity different things? Is the left brain separate from the right brain? If there's such a thing as 'good' then is there such a thing as 'evil'? Do you love Marmite? Do you hate it? Perhaps Holly Herndon's album is a little like Marmite. Its fusion of synthesised sounds and human voice might not be to everyone's taste. But the music here's often thrilling, it's never less than interesting, and at times it's downright baffling. So I guess I like this because I'd much rather be challenged by a piece of music than hear something that's familiar. A very current and forward-looking take on the dichotomy (if there is one) between humans and machines.

Ian Parker

Paul Weller - Saturns Pattern (Parlophone)

The Modfather has been on a fantastic musical journey these past few years, with 2008's 22 Dreams heralding a new, more experimental phase of his solo career which saw him reaching back to the Style Council and infusing his songs with an array of fresh sounds. There have been some thrilling results, but I've never really gelled with any of those records the way I did with the likes of the great Stanley Road. If anything, Saturns Pattern takes a slight step back with its sonics, but maybe that's why I've found it easier to settle in to its groove, turning to it again and again this year.




Guy Atkinson

Annabel – Having it All (Tiny Engines)

The ‘emo revival’ (it never went away for this punter) continued apace in 2015, with this rousing record one that kept me coming back for more.
 

Steve Pill
Ryan Adams – 1989 (Pax-Am)

When 1989 dropped, you couldn't move for think pieces about the rightness of it all, ones that generally concluded that Adams was batshit crazy and Taylor Swift was the new messiah (I'm paraphrasing here). Ignore the songwriting credits, focus on the performances and this is the best thing Adams has recorded since the 14-minute, 11-song Replacements pastiche 1984 and the most heartfelt set since god knows when. Adams may not have written the songs himself but heartbreak really brings out the best in the guy and there is a delicious irony to the fact that he ended a marriage to one American girl-next-door popstar and found solace in the lyrics of another. Listen without prejudice to 'Blank Space' or 'Welcome to New York' and the emotion is clearly raw. What could have been an extended episode of BBC's Live Lounge becomes something altogether more fascinating, while its length acts as a mark of its sincerity. For the first time in over a decade, I'm awaiting his next set of originals with real anticipation.

The Musical Advent Calendar - Door Number One

These are emotional times. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to what will be the final Musical Advent Calendar. It seemed a harmless idea - using the days of the December to countdown your favourite 24 albums of the year - but we had no idea. Since that half-baked plan was hatched at a Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson gig in Leeds some time back in 2009, this here Advent Calendar became something of an obsession for many of us, a project which became so over-engrossing it influenced the way we listened to records every day of the year. Somehow as we dive into the seventh edition, we've not grown to hate the monster it became, but that is partly the reason we're calling it a day now. The great Neil Young has taught us many things, and high on the list of life lessons is this: It is better to burn out than to fade away. So let's end this while we still love it.

Off we go then. We have 164 albums to get through between now and Christmas Eve, and it seems somehow that is not enough. How else to explain Skillers and Steve choosing to spend most of their reviews talking about records they haven't selected? We'd better not waste any more time...


Andy Welch
Ryan Adams - 1989 (Pax-Am)

Where have the last 12 months gone? Can it really be a year since I last missed all of Ian's deadlines? Suppose it can. And it really wouldn't be a Ragged Glories advent without this man. Hopefully it's eligible. There were endless think-pieces written about Adams' covering of Taylor Swift's (most excellent) album, and while many of them had him down as some eternal mansplainer, giving legitimacy to Swift's 'girly' album by making it more 'boyish' – their sentiment not mine – they at best gave it more thought than Adams had and missed the point. To me, it sounds like an exercise that started as a mess-around in the studio, and escalated from there. That playfulness comes across on a few of the tracks, the ones that work the best, although there are also a couple that pale in comparison to the originals. Taken at face value, it's very enjoyable to listen to, nothing more, nothing less.




Rory Dollard
Wilco - Star Wars (dBPM)

I love Wilco as much as the next guy, assuming the next guy is Jeff Tweedy. Love 'em. Flat out love 'em. So it was pretty nice to see them drop an unexpected album FOR FREE earlier this summer. But to be honest the force wasn't with them this time. It's not Jar Jar Binks by any means - check out the woozy little track below - but it's more Phantom Menace than New Hope. If anything this sums up my overall conclusion on 2015 - a year where lots of artists I like or love didn't quite hit their previous marks.

Matt Collins

Waxahatchee - Ivy Trip (Wichita)

This Waxahatchee album sounds like wonderfully an old 90s demo some punk garage rock girl band would come up with. Scuzzy guitars, an off-kilter pop sensibility, weird, dirty and gloriously melodic all-in-one.

Dom Farrell
Paul Smith & The Intimations - Contradictions (Billingham Records)

As we prepare to enter the fearful unknown that is the post-Musical Advent Calendar era, I’d like to start our prolonged lap of Yuletide dishonour with something comfortingly familiar. Contradictions is a record you feel you might have heard a hundred times before on first listen, from the simple arrangements built around pleasing guitar jangle to the touching, vivid observations Maximo Park frontman Paul Smith has made a career of. On this second solo outing, Newcastle’s foremost trilby enthusiast is on fine form.




Andrew Gwilym

Frank Turner - Positive Songs for Negative People (Xtra Mile/Polydor)

What always made Frank Turner such an engaging listen was his ability to make the small-scale elements and details of life sound like a call to arms. This approach reached its zenith with the brilliant England Keep My Bones, but was followed by Tape Deck Heart, which was far more widescreen and the less effective for it. This latest offering still aims for arena rock, but has dialled back some of the sheen and is all the better for it. It will be intriguing to see where Turner goes next.

John Skilbeck
Dilly Dally - Sore (Partisan)

This isn’t the cool list. There’s no room for Joanna Newsom, Julia Holter, Bjork, Courtney Barnett, Natalie Prass, Metz, Torres, Drinks, Blank Realm, La Luz, Girl Band, Deerhunter, Grubs, The School, Robert Forster, Heather Woods Broderick, Gwenno, Haiku Salut or Susanne Sundfor. They all made mind-blowingly brilliant records this year: what was I thinking? Could I have been thinking at all straight when I came up with this list very late, happily buzzing on an October night. No doubt there’s an utter Eliza Doolittle of an album within my actual selections. Dilly Dally made the cut. I could easily have made them my number one, but they shape up as a perfect number 24: their inclusion a tell-tale sign my taste has developed barely a smidge since we began this splendid annual charade. Thanks Ian, for all your efforts. These have been seven fine years of agreeing to disagree.



Pranam Mavahalli
Sufjan Stevens – Carrie and Lovell (Asthmatic Kitty)

There's plenty to like here. The lyrics are moving yet sharp, the melodies are affecting, and I particularly love the way some of the the songs segue into ambient interludes. And yet...I have problems with it, the largest one being Sufjan's voice, which has a syrupy quality to it that to me is a stumbling block. It's the kind of voice I'd associate with a fey Youtuber singing a heartfelt version of a Taylor Swift song on a ukelele. And try as I might, I can't get past this image. Taste is a funny thing - there's stuff I love (jungle, free jazz, modern classical) which others tell me is borderline unlistenable. Now if Sufjan's next album is a free jazz, jungle take on the ukelele, maybe I'll get interested...

Ian Parker
Sun Kil Moon - Universal Themes (Rough Trade)

He's a spiteful, cantankerous bastard, is Mark Kozelek, but then we already knew that. What puzzles me is that this often vicious beast can make such deeply personal records, and make them well...so beautiful. Perhaps this endless contradiction is what makes them such a compelling listen.







Guy Atkinson

Joey Bada$$ - B4.DA.$$ (Cinematic Music Group)

One of only a handful of hip-hop albums I listened to this year, but this intelligent, old-school flavoured debut gave me significantly more pleasure than Kendrick Lamar’s bloated effort.










Steve Pill
C Duncan – Architect (Fatcat Records)

Let’s begin by looking backwards and all the albums that nearly got here. I considered very closely but couldn’t find room for the following: Richard Hawley (his best is elsewhere), Kendrick Lamar (admire it, not alpha male enough to truly embrace it), Laura Marling (a victim of her own prolific-ness and in need of a new direction, perhaps), Ryley Walker (too much of a Buckley/Morrison pastiche), Leon Bridges (too much of a Sam Cooke pastiche) and Ezra Furman (all a bit too Dexy’s for me, despite how much I loved 2013’s Day of the Dog). All of which almost makes me think I must subliminally hate solo artists, so I best put one here. C Duncan is perhaps the first occasion that the Mercury Prize has actually done its job and turned me on to a record I would have otherwise overlooked. The beautifully-layered vocal harmonies, crisp acoustic guitars and electronic wizardry variously recall Sufjan Stevens, Kings of Convenience and Adem, while still conjuring a mood and soundscape all of its own.