January 2016 review

This has been the first full month of my commitment to rating and slating as much of this year's music as possible, and I have a feeling it will be one of the easiest. I have been pleasantly surprised at the amount of releases I've wanted to to listen to this month, and better still the amount I have genuinely enjoyed. 

I actually haven't listened to everything I wanted to this month, and there may be some I look back on in a quieter month and kick myself for not adding. There's not been too many big hitters releasing this month, and that's left it open for other artists to come in and populate the top 5 with original sounds that some of you may be completely unaware of. I'm really into my top 3, all candidates for a top 20 spot at the end of the year.

Each month I'll be ranking at least a top 5 with a video under The Best. Anything else I listened to falls under The Rest. I'm gonna also have a Dud section for truly awful records. None that I listened to were that poor this month, but we might get one in February...

The Rest:

The Black Queen - Fever Daydream - B

Electronic/Ambient


David Bowie - Blackstar - B

Experimental Pop

I know some of you are spitting feathers at me for this right now, but I just don't get this one. Blackstar is meant to be Bowie's last will and testament, the final monologue from seminal artist, but it falls short in so many ways. The music lacks any kind of cohesive direction. It's so hard to fit this in a genre, and not in a good way. The whole thing is grey slush with a few noodlings every once in a while.

The intro and title track is 10 minutes long, and nothing happens for the first 5. This trend continues throughout Blackstar to form a whole lot of unsatisfying hot air. Bowie's voice had been ravaged by his illness and is presented to us through a heavy vocoder effect throughout the entire album. That's kind of cool and quirky for a while, but for 40 minutes? No sale. Lyrically, Blackstar is so abstract it hardly makes any sense.

The album attempts a zenith with the ending duo of Dollar Days and I Can't Give Everything Away but it's so lethargic that it never gets there. It's a habit of most music listeners to give undue credence to releases from a legendary artist just by virtue of them being so exalted, but that seems to be the only praise this release can muster. One for the purists only.


Hinds - Leave Me Alone - C

Garage Rock/Indie


Ignite - A War Against You - C

Melodic Hardcore


Savages - Adore Life - C

Post Punk/Indie/Alternative


Saul Williams - MartyrLoserKing - B

Saul Williams is Death Grips for the more subtly-minded. He has a unique style of whispered poetry/accusatory shouting over heavy repetitive motifs that lends him some clout. Williams dips into many different forms on Martyr, but never settles. Each song feels like a bridging track in the middle of an album. You're always waiting for it to start, but it never does. The constant need to make a point gets grating after a while, as does the boisterous vocal shouting. His earlier work covers all musical styles and lyrical themes presented on Martyr, so this is superfluous. It's not a bad album, but it offers nothing new.


Villagers - Where Have You Been All My Life? - C

Indie/Folk


The Best:

01: Adrian Younge - Something About April II - A

Soul/R 'n B/Pop/Funk

Adrian Younge is part of an exciting scene is Los Angeles, that of the journeymen of local music. This album is neither Soul, nor Hip-Hop, it is neither Pop, nor Funk, yet it is all of those and more at once. Younge hits the quad-point of these styles all the way through Something About April II, pushing out lilting gold nuggets of music. Each song is accessible and radio-friendly, yet deep and creative enough to keep repeated listens a must. April is barely 30 minutes long. You can plug this in for your commute and it'll be done while you're still on the tube.

Anderson .Paak released a similar effort earlier this month with Malibu, (see below) and while that has some wonderful melodies and songs, the length is a little prohibitive and some of the tunes can get commercial and samey. Not so with April. This album keeps rewarding with welcome ear worms, a full cadre of back up musicians and other lead singers expand the music far beyond the reach of any other record in terms of style, mood and form I've heard this month. It's smooth, it's funky, it's dirty, it's exciting, and it's everything L.A has to offer right now.

02: Mystery Jets - Curve Of The Earth - A

Alternative/Progressive/Post-Rock

Mystery Jets have been firmly off my radar for almost a decade. They were one of those names that popped up from time to time, supporting bigger bands and getting sage nods from Indie aficionados whenever their moniker was mentioned. This is their 6th album, but the first I've ever listened to. I'm glad I did, because Curve Of The Earth is a superb record. This is emotional and epic.

Curve is soaring, feedback-laden guitars, anthemic choruses and melodic hook lines everywhere, with a couple of ballads in there to spruce it up. The songs are almost all in excess of 4 minutes, but never get too long or outstay their welcome. Mystery Jets have so many sounds and musical progressions in their palate, it's a real effort from them to keep this album at 41 minutes, the perfect length for Curve to be. But keep it they do, and their ideas are ripping apart the edges of Curve minute after minute. Top pick for me is Midnight's Mirror, but check out the video for Telomere:

03: Anderson .Paak - Malibu - A

Hip-Hop/Soul/R 'n B

04: Bloc Party - Hymns - B

Indie/Alternative Dance

Bloc Party have formed and changed subtly over the years. Intimacy was a flashpoint of divide for their fan base, the band choosing an alternative downbeat direction to contrast their early career Indie sensibilities. This would eventually prove a solid decision, as it extended their material's reach and longevity, making sure Bloc Party didn't die out after The Mid-00's Indie/Garage Rock Revival ebbed away.

Kele Okereke's song writing has matured brightly over the past decade-and-a-bit. His mood on Hymns is always upbeat, even on the quieter pieces. Most of the songs are about love, in different guises. The Love Within and Only He Can Heal Me are about Okereke's relationship with god, while Exes, Virtue and My True Name are impassioned, tender messages to a lover. The band are in a solid groove of their own, all the while nodding to their heroes and contemporaries with musical cues. The Good News is my top pick from Hymns, check out the late-career-Blur-esque guitar lick on that one: 

05: Daughter - Not To Disappear - B

Alternative Pop/Indie

That's that for January, I'm looking forward to the rest of 2016, but I've already got some great shouts for the end of year top picks. As always, tell me what you think, am I right, wrong or just plain daft? See you in a month.