My favourite albums of 2015

Here's my favourite of the new albums I've listened to this year. I do like a list. I've done a Spotify playlist as well. Here goes, if you have any recommendations for me please let me know. 

1	Nadine Shah	Fast Food
2	The Drink	Capital
3	Bop English	Constant Bop
4	The Staves	If I Was
5	Julia Holter	Have You In My Wilderness
6	Sufjan Stevens	Carrie & Lowell
7	Leaf Library	Daylight Versions
8	John Grant	Grey Tickles, Black Pressure
9	This is the Kit	Bashed Out
10	Villagers	Darling Arithmetic
11	Marika Hackman	We Slept At Last
12	Benjamin Clementine	At Least For Now
13	Ezra Furman	Perpetual Motion People
14	Tame Impala	Currents
15	Eska	Eska
16	Lucy Rose	Work It Out
17	Courtney Barnett	Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
18	Ghost Poet	Shedding Skin
19	Richard Hawley	Hollow Meadows
20	The Charlatans	Modern Nature
21	Gaz Coombes	Matador
22	Soak	Before We Forgot How To Dream
23	Kendrick Lamar	To Pimp a Butterfly
24	Blur	The Magic Whip
25	Kurt Vile	B'lieve I'm Goin Down

It has been a very good year for music but there were only two records in it this year: I couldn’t split the top 2 but because I am close friends with two thirds of the Drink but not two thirds of Nadine Shah ‘Fast Food’ is my number one. Shah’s beautifully distinctive voice and captivating songs should have won her far more plaudits than she received. I love it and when me and Anthony J Brown agree on music we are definitely right. The Drink’s record should have got more love and attention as well, it builds on the first album with a more varied sound and a collection of brilliant songs. ‘You Won’t Come Back at All’ was probably my favourite track of the year showing off Dearbhla Minogue’s tremendous voice and a poppier side to The Drink’s music: all bands would do well to be a little influenced by Abba.

The last thing I want is to be accused of favouritism so I will also admit I also know roughly 20% of the band at number 7 - Leaf Library - although not terribly well. This is an inventive and engaging record which gets better every play and manages to be pretty whilst retaining an edge.

The rest of the top 5 includes Julia Holter’s record which rightly has been high in end of year lists, Bop English, who is in one of my favourite bands White Denim, with an album of enjoyable rock and roll, and The Staves whose gentle and compelling folkish songs I returned to over and over again this year.

A number of old favourites returned this year, most successfully was Sufjan Stevens whose record I wasn’t sure about initially but rewarded repeated listens. John Grant’s release wasn’t as warm as his previous two and I didn’t enjoy it as much. It does, however, have the advantage over most others of being a John Grant record. Gaz Coombes and The Charlatans came back with their best albums for years. Richard Hawley’s Hollow Meadows is very good but I was hoping he would have more of the psychedelic edge which made his last record, Standing at the Skies Edge, such a triumph. Blur’s comeback was fun with some good songs but you get the feeling it could have been better if the whole band had spent more time on it.

I listened to all the Mercury Prize nominees this year and attempted an FA Cup knock out thing  which fizzled out due to not getting much response and me not finding the time (or being arsed) to do it. It was a pretty good year though and there are a few nominations in my list, including the winner Benjamin Clementine, which was my favourite. I’m not sure why Nadine Shah wasn’t nominated though, but let’s hope The Drink will be next year.

My favourite albums of 2014

Here we go again. Top 20 of the records I've listened to that came out in 2014 (with a couple from the previous year that I hadn't heard). I hope you enjoy it, let me know what you think of my choices and anything I might have missed. Spotify playlist of my favourite song from each record is here (minus Moz).

1. Sharon Van Etten - Are We There
Since 2012's Tramp figuratively knocked me into a hedge I've been a huge fan of SVE's;. Are We There is even better. It's quite a sad record but it's done so beautifully it almost makes you nostalgic for heartache. I love every one of the 11 tracks, they are tender, melancholic and strangely uplifting, showcasing Van Etten's magnificent vocals. Closing song, Every Time The Sun Comes Up is my favourite song of the year, and this is easily my favourite record of the year.

2. Sun Kil Moon - Benji
It has been a pretty happy year for me (family life being brilliant, work going well in the second half of the year at least, friends being ace)  but the second on the list is another and emotional record. Benji is a collection of simple and affecting songs musing on death and mortality. My greatest memory of listening to this album was whilst spending a summer's Saturday morning knocking down a shed, a perfect metaphor for absolutely nothin

3. The Drink - Company
The musical highlight of the year has been the well deserved success of The Drink, whose rhythm section is my close friends Daniel and David. I've liked all the bands Daniel and David have been involved in and it has been lots of fun turning on 6 Music to hear Dearbhla's tremendous vocals and wonderfully odd lyrics or reading the many positive reviews of this cracking debut album, full of twisted pop songs and strange directions. Listen to Microsleep; listen to Wicklow. I would love this band even if my friends had nothing to do with it, that they do makes me love The Drink even more.

4. Cate Le Bon - Mug Museum
One of 2 that were actually released in 2013 but I caught up with late, listening to Marc Riley (the other being Ezra Furman). This is another record full of odd, catchy pop songs. Cate Le Bon (no relation) has a folky voice that almost sounds arch but that suits the majesty of the music,  I Can't Help You and Are You With Me Now being stand-out tracks.

5. Slow Club - Complete Surrender
It's always good to have a Sheffield band to root for. All the best Sheffield bands support Wednesday of course* (Heaven 17, Human League, Arctic Monkeys, Pulp, Richard Hawley) so I was always going to like Slow Club. And I did, until this record when it's mix of tender ballads and MO town tinged footstompers meant that they moved into the love category, along with John Sheridan, David Hirst, Chris Waddle et al.

6. Morrissey - World Peace Is None Of Your Business
Oh, bloody hell Morrissey, what a twerp you are. Despite the record company rows and the appalling message regarding the democratic process (each time you vote you support the process, indeed), this was a proper return to form. It had musical flourishes and some experimentation, and some of the lyrics were almost as clever as Moz thought they were. Loved the Willy Wonka honking on I Am Not A Man.

7. Steven James Adams - House Music
Steven is another person I know, although not nearly as well as David and Daniel, but Michael who appears on the album is another close pal. It's  a beautifully played and sung collection of honest, lyrically strong, songs that I kept returning to all year. How We Get Through is a particular highlight.

8. Jack White - Lazaretto
Jack White doesn't always do it for me, he can be too arty and clever at the expense of a real emotional connection. I could call him pretentious as well, but could really get away with it after that first sentence. This is one of his best in recent times though, with enjoyable bombast and thoughtful quieter moments.

9. Tweedy - Sukierae
eff Tweedy  from Wilco and his son, Spencer, worked together on this record. During the recording Jeff's wife, Spencer's mother was diagnosed with cancer. Whilst that terrible news has obviously impacted on the record it doesn't dominate and this is a varied rock double album which maintains quality across 20 tracks.

10. Parquet Courts -  Sunbathing animal
The closest thing we have these days to Pavement (and that includes solo Malkmus). If you don't believe me check out some of the song titles (Instant Disassembly; Raw Milk; What Colour is Blood). This is a fun knockabout record from a band who seem to keep getting better.

11. First Aid Kit - Stay Gold
The little music snob devil on my shoulder tells me not to like First Aid Kit, since David Cameron emerged as a fan and they started being played on daytime Radio 2. Well, I do still like them, their  harmonies and pretty country tinged songs, and I suppose Cameron claimed to like The Smiths as well so they are in good company.

12. Neneh Cherry - Blank Project
A hugely welcome return from Neneh Cherry who produced brooding, trip hop infused record that seems to have been a little overlooked. Youknowwhatimean?

13. Jane Weaver - The Silver Globe
One of the highlights of the year was me and a bunch of old university friends going back to Liverpool, 20 years after meeting there. Liverpool never fails to put me into a joyous reverie, a little like Jane Weaver's ethereal collection of off kilter folk and pop songs. And guess where she's from? Only Liverpool! (I need some wine).

14. The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream
I was disappointed on first listen, I loved Slave Ambient  and had read the relentlessly positive reviews so was expecting a masterpiece. What I thought I'd got on first listen was a band trying to sound like Springsteen and ending up sounding like The Killers (post being good). I was mainly wrong of course, there were interesting moments and good songs on this record. But it's the fourteenth best album I've heard this year, nowhere near the best.

15. Childhood - Lacuna
One of the few acts on this list I'd not heard of before 2014, Childhood's indie pop songs are catchy and clever with big choruses. They are on this list in spite of a rather lukewarm review of The Drink on Roundtable…

16. Elbow - The Take Off And Landing Of Everything
This album worked well for me because it felt like Guy Garvey and co had decided there was no point in trying to re-write One Day Like This anymore. Instead they produced their most musically interesting record for years with some instrumentation that worked really well, especially the strings on Change and the trumpets on the wistful My Sad Captains.

17. Ben Watt - Hendra
Easily the most mature and middle of the road record on the list (yep, even more so than Elbow) but this is a great record which I first listened to after I bought it for my Mum for her 60th birthday (another highlight of the year was her birthday, celebrated in Thailand). Watt worked with Bernard Butler on the record and his influence is mostly obvious on the best tracks, like the title track, Hendra, which could be an early Suede B Side, the highest compliment.


18. The Amazing Saakeheads - Amphetamine Blues
Ah, the least mature and least middle of the road record on the list. If you haven't heard them before, think of their name and imagine what they sound like. They sound like that, but better and with a very Scottish man singing. And at their best, like Here it Comes Again, they sound a bit like Make Up.

19. Ezra Furman - Day Of The Dog
With rasping  and honking saxophones and vocals that sound like Ezra is quite at the end of his tether, this a fun romp of a record. Particular highlights include My Zero annd Day of the Dog which I always think (hope) is going to turn into The Timewarp, but never does.

20. Real Estate - Atlas
The worst named band on the list, and possibly in the world. They have the same name as a directorate at my work. I'm off to form a band (possibly with David from The Drink) called Finance and Corporate Services, see how we get on. The music though, is really good take on 90s indie which is why I like it so.


*Blade Paul Heaton being the exception that proves the rule.