#22

Can’t tell if.jpg

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#23

Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert - Here Lies the Body
Low - Double Negative
Kathryn Joseph - From When I Wake the Want Is
Grouper - Grid of Points
Idles - Joy as an Act of Resistance

These are the ones that are really doing it for me in 2018 and can’t see it changing…though hoping for something between now and the end of the year to come and give me a real kick.

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#24

Too early for me to put together a top five, but I’m listening to Let’s Eat Grandma again and I’ll be very surprised if anything comes close to this. It’s just so well put together, the only album this year where I get genuinely excited at the start of each track.

Apart from that, Low is probably the only other album I’ve thought was ‘great’ this year but I haven’t spent enough time with it so far.

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#25

I expect to see Idles and Let’s Eat Grandma in the top 5…two albums I couldn’t get on with but appreciated the appeal.

If I was to vote now, it’d probably be Anna von Hausswolff, Car Seat Headrest, Tim Hecker, Parquet Courts and Rival Consoles (not in order)…but I’ve still got a large backlog from Q4, including:

Daughters
Julia Holter
Cloud Nothings
Thom Yorke
Ian William Craig
Adrianne Lenker

Plus I’ll inevitably feel like I have to put Moonface in somewhere

#26

There’s a chance The 1975 might fall into this category, but just looking at other things that have come out this year, there are only two where I’ve managed over 200 individual track scrobbles. which backs up my feeling that this year has been underwhelming for me. idk, Janelle Monae might make it in there.

#27

Subthread: Dissapointment of the year

Preoccupations - New Material was a massive let down as the s/t is one of my favourites of recent years. Sounded great but the song writing wasn’t there at all.

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#28

Yes, I completely forgot that came out this year :frowning:

#29

hard to argue with this. I actually enjoyed ‘New Material’ a lot more after I heard them play live but that’s true of almost anything and I’m not sure it’s enough to save the record.

Plus also… ‘New Material’. C’mon chaps. C’mon.

#30

I think I’m going to have to go back to Idles again because I think (and I hope I’m wrong) that it might be that fabled beast the anti-grower . Loved it when I first heard it but it’s been diminishing returns ever since sadly. Hope it clicks with me again.

#31

Haven’t thought about a top ten or whatever for this year yet but a quick scan of new releases I’ve actually bought this year is I think about 70% female artists/female fronted bands.

Have thought for the last few years increasingly my favourite artists are female.

#32

I haven’t even started to rank this year’s albums as yet.

Lots of good stuff but this year but nothing that has really leapt out as a stand out favourite. Potentials for the top 5 are Hot Snakes, IDLES, Clutch, A Forest of Stars, Mesarthim, Unreqvited, Wolvennest, Half Man Half Biscuit, Anna Von Hausswolff, Zeal & Ardor, Superchunk, Svalbard, Mudhoney and Let’s Eat Grandma.

It’ll likely be a couple of weeks until I get the chance to do some re-listening and ranking.

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#33

I’m doing the same thing I did last year and having a top 64, pairing them off randomly and making them duke it out to go through to the next round… Not sure whether to dump all this into a thread or not, and if so which one…

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#34

That Courtney Barnett album was the biggest disappointment. I mean, it’s fine, but it just isn’t anywhere as good as her earlier stuff

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#35

Similar here - four of my top five are female fronted, while APTBS have a female drummer/co-singer these days :+1:

#36

Father John Misty - God’s Favourite Customer

Apart from Date Night I couldn’t remember one other song. It isn’t bad at all it just isn’t as good as the last 2 albums.

#37

I wonder what the reason is? Is it just that the old school record industry didn’t give opportunities to women and that its collapse has opened up access?

#38

Been thinking about this over the last couple of years - is it my taste in music that has changed, or something about the music industry? Probably both and maybe for another thread?

'cause you mentioned 2002 I took a look at discogs (yeah I know) and I reckon of the 22 albums I own from that year (excluding a few compilations) only 2 are female artists (Sleater Kinney & Saint Etienne). Makes me think there are a wealth of female artists I missed probably prior to the streaming era.

#39

I remember @Scagden’s competition from last year, cracking idea.
I’m not going to go that far myself, but will try & revisit some of the albums that I haven’t gone back to a lot.
On my 3rd listen today of Now Only by Mount Eerie … my take away from this is that Phil Elverum is firmly one of my all time favourite artists. I only got into Mt Eerie & The Microphones last year but have picked up practically everything & having had so many albums to get through, I don’t think I gave the new one as much time as it deserved. Will likely rank high in my top 5.

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#40

I think it’s definitely an industry change. Looking at the top 50 albums from 2002 on acclaimedmusic.net there are only 5 by female artists (although there are a couple of others with female members like Broken Social Scene and Múm). There are still 5 in 2005 and again in 2007, 7 in 2010 then 14 in 2015, 19 in 2017. I think there will be more in 2018.

The site represents mainstream critical consensus rather than anything cutting edge but it suggests a real change in the last five years from what was a fairly steady 10% up towards 50%.

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#41

I was thinking the main big pop stars are all women - Beyonce, Rhianna, Adele, Swift, Ariana Grande - but I guess that’s not true as there’s all those Sheeran & Sam Smith type blokes plus all the EDM/superstar DJ types are all blokes. Maybe the more critically acclaimed pop is female dominated though?