Music now. Films tomorrow.
This time last year, the main theme was how little music I found worth buying in 2014:
Maybe it was just a slow year. Or maybe I’ve finally become like my friends who have decided that all modern music sucks and the only good “new” music is old music you haven’t heard before. I’m not convinced of that. Then again, most “new” music I like is really either old bands who are still around or new bands looking to recreate old music.
Anyway, we’ll put the theory to the test in 2015.
We did. And the theory has legs, because 2015 was another relatively uninspiring year in terms of “must listen” music. I only bought 22 albums/EPs this year (a couple of which seemed like a good idea at the time but now make me lament the fact that there are no refunds on iTunes).
That’s not to say the 20 albums on this year’s list are shite. They all have their merits. But only about a third of them were genuinely exciting experiences for me.
So, like last year, this is more of a list of all the music I felt was worth spending money on in 2015 – or at least ones I could actually get copies of. There were a number of new releases I wanted to buy but couldn’t because they weren’t for sale out here in Hong Kong (even on iTunes), and I couldn’t find physical copies when I went to the US in October.
So that’s why new albums by Calexico and Tricot are missing, for example.
Anyway, here’s what I spent 2015 listening to.
DISCLAIMER: Based on music I actually bought/acquired/downloaded/streamed between December 2014 and November 2015, and therefore a useless metric for everyone else.
TOP 20 DEF LPs/EPs OF 2015
1. Public Service Broadcasting,
The Race For Space (Test Card Recordings)
2. The Sonics,
This is The Sonics (Revox)
3. John Carpenter,
Lost Themes (Sacred Bones/Rodeo Suplex)
4. Algiers,
Algiers (Matador)
5. Johnny Dowd,
That's Your Wife On The Back Of My Horse (Mother Jinx)
6. FFS,
FFS (Domino)
7. BadBadNotGood feat. Ghostface Killah,
Sour Soul (Lex Records)
8. Violent Femmes,
Happy New Year (Add It Up)
9. They Might Be Giants,
Why? (Idlewild)
10. The Fall,
Sub-Lingual Tablet (Cherry Red)
11. Los Plantronics,
Surfing Times (Jansen Plateproduksjon)
12. Dog Party,
Volume 4 (Asian Man)
13. Los Tiki Phantoms,
Los Tiki Phantoms y El Misterio del Talismán (Discmedi)
14. Dave Cloud and the Gospel Of Power,
Today Is The Day They Take Me Away (Fire Records)
15. Motörhead,
Bad Magic (UDR)
16. Gwenno ,
Y Dydd Olaf (Heavenly/PIAS)
17. Rocket From The Tombs,
Black Record (Fire Records)
18. Sleater-Kinney,
No Cities To Love (Sub Pop)
19. Dengue Fever,
The Deepest Lake (Tuk Tuk)
20. The Mutants,
Tokyo Nights (Killer Tracks)
( Details, blah blah blah ... )And there you are.
PRODUCTION NOTE: For long-time readers who actually keep up with this kind of thing, I decided to drop this year’s Pre-Show Awards due to a lack of compelling material, apart from the cover art, which I decided to work into the main list.
Tomorrow: the films!
Turning Japanese,
This is dF
