DiS Users' March 2021 Album Of The Month - The Results

Music
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VOTE FOR YOUR TOP FIVE ALBUMS!!

Vote for your favourite five albums. Make your selections clear please as it makes tallying up the scores easier. If you list a whole bunch of albums without making your selections clear I’ll take the first five mentioned as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th. No joint positions please. Sorry to be a pedant.

Your album of the month will get five points, 2nd placed album four points, 3rd placed album three points, 4th placed album two points and 5th one point. If you name only one album I’ll give that five points. If you name two albums I’ll score them with five and four points etc. You get the message.

My choices:

1. Lana Del Rey - Chemtrails Over The Countryclub

2. Valerie June - The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers

3. Painted Shrines - Heaven and Holy

4. Middle Kids - Today We’re The Greatest

5. The Anchoress - The Art Of Losing

I won’t bother repeating my opinions of the LDR album but Norman Fucking Rockwell is probably my favourite of the last five years and this is a brilliant follow up.

Valerie June’s previous was my AOTY in 2017 and again an excellent follow up. Really love the fuller and woozy sound she has on this. If anyone liked this one definitely check out The Order Of Time.

Painted Shrines had some brilliant moments of woozy folk pop and enjoyed this a lot. Liked Middle Kids and probably need a few more listens to this and The Anchoress was good also.

I thought I’d start the ball rolling before tomorrow’s releases. Tune-Yards is the big release for me tomorrow and First Aid Kit have a live album which I probably will check out at some point. Tune-Yards almost certainly will change my top 5.

Always a lot of great recommendations from you guys about albums that I’ve missed or overlooked.

Please forgive any shameless bumps of this thread during the week. I’ll keep this thread open until Sunday 4th April so you’ll have over a week to listen to tomorrow’s releases before choosing.

Vote now!! (Or later in the week) but make your choices clear please.

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  1. DVNE - Etemen Ænka
  2. Wolvennest - Temple
  3. Mare Cognitum - Solar Paroxysm
  4. Fuath - II
  5. Morke - We Are The River

DVNE’s second album sees the UK band building on their debut Asheran to produce an absolutely stellar album of sludgy progressive/post metal, a strong contender for my album of 2021!

Wolvennest from Belgium craft an album of psychedelic, doomy, ambient blackened goth (or something). Put this on headphones late at night and enjoy the trip!

Mare Cognitum returns after last year’s epic split with Spectral Lore. Solar Paroxysm is an atmospheric black metal eulogy to a dying world, pummelling blast beats and fantastically melodic riffs, it’s a beast!

Fuath’s second album walks a more aggressive, dark path than main man Andy Marshall’s other, more folk tinged project Saor. Another album like MC above packed with earworm inducing riffs.

I only heard the Morke album for the first time a couple of days ago but I had to include it here. One man naturalistic atmo black project from the US. A comment on the bandcamp page puts it better than I can (from ex Disser @goatmeatmf actually) - “A remarkable, emotionally powerful and musically absorbing album that will be one of those albums that quietly overwhelms you until you realise you listened to nothing else all week.”

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  1. Arab Strap - As Day Gets Dark
  2. Promises - Floating Points & Pharoah Sanders
  3. Menneskekollektivet - Lost Girls
  4. HARAM - Armand Hammer
  5. DEACON - serpentwithfeet

DEACON is starting to grow on me don’t think it is quite as good as soil though.

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There I was worrying that Covid will impact the amount of new music being released this year. What a great month

  1. Armand Hammer - Sharam
  2. Genesis Owusu - Smiling with no Teeth
  3. Arab Strap - As Day Gets Dark
  4. Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders - Promises (will probs be top 3 of the year after a few more listens)
  5. Not Waving & Romance - Eyes of Fate
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Shamefully the only album from March I’ve listened to is Lost Girls - Menneskekollektivet and it is superb

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What a month!

  1. Lana Del Rey
  2. Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders
  3. Jane Weaver
  4. The Antlers
  5. Lost Girls

The top four are probably my favourite four albums of the year so far. Lost Girls will probably be up there as well but I’m putting off listening to it properly until the vinyl comes out in a couple of weeks.

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I’ll amend my choices to include Lost Girls later.

Can’t quite put my finger on what I like about it except the fact that it’s a great album.

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All of Jenny Hval’s stuff is worth listening to - she’s one of the most intellectually interesting artists around I think. The Lost Girls project is a slightly more accessible take on her usual stuff (although lots of her solo stuff is pretty accessible actually)

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I’ve seen her a few times live. She always great.

The best was at Cafe Oto maybe five years ago. It was more performance art than a gig and all the better for it.

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Good month

  1. Arab Strap
  2. Prequel (many thanks to @incomplete for highlighting)
  3. Floatie
  4. Rone (& Friends)
  5. Wurld Series
Honorable mentions

Painted Shrines
New Pagans
Mint Julep
Lycoriscoris
NewDad
Guedra Guedra

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  1. Lost Girls - Menneskekollektivet
  2. Jane Weaver - Flock
  3. V/A - La Ola Interior (Spanish Ambient & Acid Exoticism).

Might be cheeky and add more if I discover anything via this thread.

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  1. Dvne - Etemen Ænka (had to copy and paste that from LastAstronauts post)
  2. Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark
  3. Chevelle - NIRATIAS
  4. Tomahawk - Tonic Immobility
  5. Lana del Rey - Chemtrails…
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  1. Arab Strap
  2. Lana Del Rey
  3. Floating Points
  4. The Antlers
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A really strong month. I think these 5 records might actually be the best 5 records I’ve heard all year and I could have placed them in any order.

  1. Genesis Owusu - Smiling with no Teeth
  2. Floating Points - Promises
  3. For Those I Love - For Those I Love
  4. Armand Hammer - Haram
  5. Kas - Like Sunlit Threads
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I’m at a total loss in ranking this month’s albums. I’ve put a frankly ridiculous 41 records into my albums of the year playlist (roughly anything I think is 7/10 or above), a lot I’ve only listened to once or twice and been impressed but there’s just been so much good stuff that any five picked for points feels right until I look at the other ones until it feels all wrong.

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For me, one of the weakest months for a few years. I’d normally expect around 20-30 above 7/10 in a month but have only 8 or 9. However, some great albums in that top few.

  1. Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark
  2. Floating Points & Pharoah Sanders - Promises
  3. Veronica Swift - This Bitter Earth
  4. Jon Batiste - WE ARE
  5. Mint Julep - In a Deep and Dreamless Sleep

Veronica Swift is the finest jazz singer I’ve heard for a long time and one of the few that can hold their own alongside the greats (Ella, Billie etc). A really amazing singer and a great album.

Jon Batiste has delivered a great soul/jazz/gospel/funk album that sounds in parts like Stevie Wonder and other similar artists.

Others that impressed me this month include Lana Del Rey, William Doyle, Valerie June. I need more time with Clark, The Antlers, Hannah Peel, and Lost Girls.

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I’m the same as you, I had lots of great albums in January and February, whilst March didn’t have as many. Still some nice albums though:

  1. Loney Dear - A Lantern And A Bell
  2. Mehro - Sky On Fire
  3. Soso - If And Only If
  4. Noga Erez - Kids
  5. Thierry Larose - Cantalou

Alice Phoebe Lou - Glow
Middle Kids - Today We’re The Greatest
Renee Reed - Renee Reed
Ralf Hildenbeutel - Makari
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson - Theory Of Ice
Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark
Tune-Yards - sketchy.

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  1. Lana Del Rey
  2. Valerie June
  3. Lost Girls
  4. Painted Shrines
  5. Tune-Yards

My revised choices.

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  1. For Those I Love
  2. Lost Girls - Menneskekollectivet
  3. Floating Points - Promises
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Haven’t managed a good deep dive into any of these but…

  1. Genesis Owusu - Smiling with No Teeth
  2. Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark
  3. Dust Moth - Rising // Sailing
  4. Dvne - Etemen Ænka
  5. Pupil Slicer - Mirrors

Hons: Tomahawk, The Horrors EP, Lana Del Rey, The Antlers, '68, Open Hand, Thirdface and Regional Justice Center