Potentially a bit mean-spirited…but then perhaps we can condense all our curmudgeon into one thread, leaving all the individual album threads to be full of positivity…
Elbow - Little Fictions
(down there with their worst albums. I’m particularly annoyed with some calling it a “return to form”… “The Takeoff…” is there most consistent and lovely album, IMO)
I also think the Vagabon, Brand New and LCD Soundsystem album are pish, FWIW
The War On Drugs - A Deeper Understanding
The excuses people use to list music.
you are crazy
8,5/10
The xx - I See You
8/10
But yeah, the laws of subjectivity mean that this thread will just go on until all the critically acclaimed releases of the year have been named ¯_(ツ)_/¯
The XX are physically incapable of recording an 8/10 album. Their peak is a dull but listenable 5.5
That Elbow claim is insane. Lovely album.
new Slowdive was just alright.
First xx album was clearly and obviously an 8. They haven’t released a song that survives three minutes in the memory since.
I’ve struggled to be enthused by anything much this year
A list of releases many have championed and none particularly stood out…
Magnetic fields
Ema
Brand New
Wolf Alice
Perfume Genius
Slowdive
Arca
Chelsea wolfe
Trying to get into the Protomartyr but its not doing it for me.
I think my ears are broken…
First album turned their limitations into something that sounded intimate and singular. Would have been a great “one off” album, but instead the follow up records badly exposed how limited musicians, singers and songwriters they are
might try this one as well, but I really can’t get excited for them. The singer is just so goddamn boring!
new EMA peaked with Breathalyzer, but everything after that wasn’t nearly as interesting.
For me this really did abandon everything that made them great.
Idles.
Don’t dislike them, just don’t understand why they get all the attention as the political rock band of choice. I even heard Jeremy Vine on Radio2 saying he wanted to play them on his show. Everyone’s so busy fapping over them, a lot of equally great outspoken bands go unnoticed.
father john misty
He’s so intense live though, so I can’t on board with that at all.