Here’s the sad thing. I had this list finished on December 13th. Yeah, I could’ve posted this any time over the past three months, and I’ve just been sitting on it. At first it was because my life was immensely busy. I had a birthday, then my daughter’s birthday, then Christmas, then my son’s wedding, then New Years. After that the excuses begin to peter out. I just never got around to it. Part of it was that I’ve been working on my favorite movies list too and that got drawn out through procrastination as well. But when it came to the music, it was pretty simple.
How simple, you ask? Well, in the past I’ve often complicated the process by measuring what an album is achieving vs. its listenability vs. the musicianship vs. some indiscernible quality about it that makes it an artistic accomplishment vs. how much I chose to listen to it. Well, this year I just went with the last category there. Which albums did I keep returning to over and over throughout the year? Sometimes that means the later releases in each year get short shrift because I just don’t have enough time with them, but this year I think I did a pretty good job sticking with what was really hitting with me at any given time.
Certainly this means there were plenty of great albums that I listened to during the year that did not make the list that would have if I’d included more spots and considered more factors. New albums by Jana Horn, Empath, Sonic Youth, Camp Cope, Kurt Vile, High Pulp, MJ Lenderman, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Envy Of None, Painted Shield, Wilco, Angel Olsen, Tim Heidecker, Horsegirl, S.G. Goodman, Black Country New Road, Graham Hunt, Soccer Mommy, Garcia Peoples, Young Guv, Chat Pile, The Berries, Momma, Eli Winter, Kuedo, Sharon Van Etten, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bill Orcutt, and Smut all could’ve been considered for this list. You see how complicated it could get? But none of those were albums I seemed to return to as much as these 11 albums. Here they are in release order.
Bliss Fields - Slowly, However
January 14
Many Hats
Tangerine Dream - Raum
February 25
Kscope
Wet Leg - s/t
April 8
Domino Recording Co.
Sunflower Bean - Headful of Sugar
May 5
Mom+Pop
The Smile - A Light For Attracting Attention
May13
XL Recordings
Craig Finn - A Legacy of Rentals
May 20
Thirty Tigers
Michael Rault - s/t
June 10
Wick Records
Klaus Schulze - Deus Arrakis
July 1
SPV Recordings
Charlie Reed - Eddy
July 21
Earth Libraries
Shabason & Krgovich - At Scaramouche
October 7
Ideé Fixe Records
Blinker The Star - Love Oblast
November 10
Blinker The Star
As always I also include my favorite scores of the year in a separate list. Film scores have really been starting to explore a vast amount of non-traditional approaches of late, and I can’t think of a better time to be into film scores. The fact that Disasterpeace, John Carpenter, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Blanck Mass, and Nick Cave and Warren Ellis all had multiple scores each released this year, like they were all Hans Zimmer or Michael Giacchino, tells you how diverse film and television scores are becoming these days. You might also notice a score from a film released in 2005, which never received a multiple medium release until this year, hence why it is included. Here are my 11 favorites…
Boy Harsher - The Runner
January 22
NUDE CLUB
Michael Giacchino - The Batman
February 24
WaterTower Music
Blanck Mass - Ted K
March 18
Sacred Bones Records
Richard Thompson - Music From Grizzly Man
May 6
No Quarter Records
John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, Daniel Davies - Firestarter
May 13
Back Lot Music
Howard Shore - Crimes of the Future
June 10
Mercury Classics
Disasterpiece - Bodies Bodies Bodies
August 10
A24 Music
John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, Daniel Davies - Halloween Ends
October 14
Sacred Bones Records
Ludwig Goransson - Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
November 11
Marvel Music
John Williams - The Fablemans
November 11
Sony Classical
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Bones and All
November 18
The Null Corporation
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