2016 Top 40

At long last, here's the top 40 for 2016's albums. It's a lot later than I'd planned to do it - Blame a 2 week blackout with our internet connection for that. I've given a couple of retrospective A* to the top 2 records, they both are something very special and they deserve it. This blog is already miles long, so I'll just get on with it:

40: Kayo Dot - Plastic House On Base Of Sky – B

39: Nine Inch Nails - Not The Actual Events – B

38: Adult Jazz - Earrings Off! – B

37: Kanye West - The Life Of Pablo – B

36: M.I.A - AIM – B

35: Trixie Whitely - Porta Bohemica – A

34: Czarface - A Fistful Of Peril – B

33: Meshuggah - The Violent Sleep Of Reason – A

32: Iggy Pop - Post Pop Depression – B

31: Kid Cudi - Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin' – A

30: Roisin Murphy - Take Her Up To Monto – A

29: Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker – A

28: Animals As Leaders - The Madness Of Many – A

27: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Cell Phone Bikini – A

26: Avalanches - Wildflower – A

25: Metallica - Hardwired... to Self-Destruct – A

24: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - A Lovejoy – A

23: Anderson .Paak - Malibu – A

22: The 1975 - I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It – A

21: Aesop Rock - The Impossible Kid – A

20: Band Of Horses - Why Are You OK? – A

19: 65Daysofstatic - No Man's Sky: Music For An Infinite Universe – A

18: Bon Iver - 22, A Million – A

17: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Sworn Virgins – A

16: Melt Yourself Down - Last Evenings On Earth – A

15: Mystery Jets - Curve Of The Earth – A

14: Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool – A

13: Kate Tempest - Let Them Eat Chaos – A

12: The Dillinger Escape Plan - Dissociation – A

11: De La Soul - and the Anonymous Nobody... – A

10: BADBADNOTGOOD - IV – A

BBNG's 2nd year in a row in my top 10 is a nice surprise to me, a group I'd not heard of 18 months ago but now at the forefront of my listening habits due to their stellar bank of releases. The cinematic, polished Hip-hop beats of Sour Soul, a masterful collaboration with Wu legend Ghostface Killah was one of the finest records of 2015, and they've followed that up with IV, a more orthodox release for BBNG.

What lifts IV above the general hubbub of Jazz records and indeed some of it's very own material is the guest vocal spots, serving as islands of conventional structure that break up the general fuzz of the experimental, drawn-out instrumental bulk of the record. That stuff is the key element to understanding the wonderful creativity behind IV, but those guest appearances - Mick Jenkins' fierce verse on Hyssop Of Love, the only full Hip-hop song on the album, Charlotte Day-Wilson's beautiful vocal take on In Your Eyes, and the top cut from the album, Time Moves Slow, with Sam Herring's velvet-toned delivery - These songs elevate up IV to something really special. Certainly a superb album, but one for those with an acquired taste.

09: Yeasayer - Amen & Goodbye – A

Amen & Goodbye is the 4th studio effort from experimental rock arty-New-York-dudes-with-crazy-names group Yeasayer. Famous for their forays into several styles of music at a time, this album is no different, kicking off with the huge, synth-infused epic I am Chemistry - One of the finest cuts of the year - serving as the first song proper on the album. In five minutes, Yeasayer travel through electronica, acoustic guitar breakdowns and a children’s choir. The mutant vista of the song is accessible yet complex; it stretches out its lifespan to a sum much greater than its parts. Songs like Silly Me, Cold Night and Dead Sea Scrolls travel down a more traditional pop/dance/anthemic groove, while Prophecy Gun and Divine Simulacrum explore more experimental realms. Amen & Goodbye covers a huge amount of ground within the set parameters of the group’s earlier work – This feels like a summation of their career to date.   

So it goes for the entire album, as each song starts, a new journey begins. Baroque Pop cuts a deep vein through this record, and is its only true leitmotif. The bridging track Child Prodigy attests to this, a harpsichord solo piece with applause and crowd noise in the background. Some of the lyrical subject matter is academic to an absurd point, which is actually a good thing, as it adds to the classical high-art feel and helps to make Amen & Goodbye a cohesive, end-to-end project. Amen & Goodbye is brimming with hooks, catchy tunes and downright bangers that make the listening experience one of the smoothest and most enjoyable rides of 2016, while keeping the sound fresh and full of variety. Yeasayer’s quirky funkiness is spread joyously across from start to finish, and makes them a shoe-in for the top 10 for the year. A delightful, unexpected treat.

08: Adrian Younge - Something About April II – A

Something About April II was an early year perk-up from Adrian Younge, serial songsmith and much-sampled hero of the L.A scene. Younge’s work has been compared to such disparately positioned artists as Ennio Morricone, The Beatles and Otis Redding. April is as solid a representation of his style as anything else he’s put out in his career, and continues a remarkably prolific arc of releases. Hell, he’s released 2 more since this one!

This is similar to Anderson .Paak’s Malibu, released the same month and lauded by critics. April was far more slept-on, unjustly – It’s a supreme, expansive accessible Jazz/Pop record, as short as you like, 13 songs all under 4 minutes, all sweet, radio-friendly numbers, simple and polite. Intricacy takes a hike for the beauty of melody. Most of the rest of this top 10 are well-known hits of 2016. This one’s a bit more exclusive. Take the time to listen to it.

07: A Tribe Called Quest - We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service – A

One of the most celebrated rap records in 2016 came from one of the biggest acts in the game, barely 6 weeks before 2017, topping many end-of-year lists and rubbing shoulders with the genre’s newest and brightest stars. There’s a new golden generation coming through, but it seems there’s still room for some of the old heads to have their say.

Thank You’s staying power lies in the weird idiosyncrasy of its content. Nothing sounds quite like a Quest record, the scope of their sound is immense, flitting from the mellow head nodders like Melatonin and The Killing Season to whacked-out nutty sessions like Mobius, Kids…, and Black Spasmodic and the straight-up experimentation from Solid Wall Of Sound, they don’t settle for an easy beat or soft landing.

Quest’s sound has an unmistakable old-skool edge to it, the intro to Dis Generation, the hook to Lost Somebody, the bassline to We The People, it all harks back to their signature 90’s sound. There’s a millennial glow to it all though, and along with the guest spots from some of the finest contemporary princes of Hip-hop, they strike a solid balance. Thank You is a worthy way to honour the late Phife Dawg, and a huge statement for Quest to bow out with.

06: Frank Ocean - Blonde – A

Blonde has that instant classic quality, the sound you know will go down as the sound of the decade. The vocal harmonies touch on Pop, Soul, R ‘n B and Hip-hop sensibilities, while simultaneously transcending those labels and forming into something more. This multi-textural distilled chill-out is Ocean’s bread and butter, he floats along the lazy river of each song’s fuzzy-lude-dream delivery and watches as it dissipates into the atmosphere.

Blonde is the album I think Kanye wanted to make with The Life of Pablo. It’s light dustings of keys over vocal sketches, field recordings and library footage. It’s deep organs and vocal trills. It’s short compartmental suites that flow through together and form sweet little pockets of 3 or 4 songs you have to listen to in one go. The guest spots are nuanced - I didn’t notice half of them before reading the credits. This is Ocean’s salutation to life. As Ocean observes in Pink And White: “Like glory from above.”

Blogger is very helpful and only lets you put videos from Youtube on your blog, so. Yeah. Here's the Vimeo link for Nikes: https://vimeo.com/179791907

05: Bat For Lashes - The Bride – A

Bat For Lashes is the musical vessel for the multi-instrumental efforts of Natasha Khan, one of the most talented and brilliant songwriters to come out of the UK in the last decade. her 4th record The Bride is a concept album about a woman whose fiancee dies on the day of their wedding. The Bride deals with the story from that point, all the fall-out and emotional turmoil that such a life-changing event would bring is explored and laid bare. It's a complex, difficult album, but it's highly rewarding on repeat listens, and that's why it sits comfortably in the top 10 from 2016.

It's tough to categorise this album, Khan's lyrical consistency and song(wo)manship makes it tempting to lump her in the Singer-Songwriter trope, but that's far too broad a definition for her work. At times, the musical content of The Bride is challenging, with some sparse noise tracks, but it's all held nicely together by the concept and storyline. There's no "single" as such on The Bride. It's not easy listening, or something you play in the car with your grandparents. That's the point, though. The Bride pushes you to understand the weight of passion and despair contained within it, and once you let yourself in to the lonely, depressive world of The Bride's eponymous heroine, you unlock a superb record that begs to be listened to in full, over and over again. 

04: Laura Mvula - The Dreaming Room – A

This has been one of the most slept-on releases of 2016. I’m disappointed that more outlets didn’t pick this one up, because it’s exactly the kind of album music critics love. There’s a lot of styles explored on The Dreaming Room, Mvula plays around with elements of pop, rock, funk and world music, but in the end though, I think it’s best described as experimental pop. Mvula’s song writing touches on a wide variety of themes and that coupled with the fantastical magic realm of her music makes The Dreaming Room an irresistibly rewarding album to listen to.

There’s a feeling on this album that I get while listening to Bjork’s music. The way Mvula sings and manipulates her voice in post-production makes it sound alien at times, and like Bjork, Mvula uses her voice as an instrument first, and as a conveyance of lyrics second. This attitude of her vocals being fair game for experimentation opens up a huge amount of possibility.

With such a wealth of sounds present on The Dreaming Room, it’s exciting to think that this is only the 2^nd full length album from Laura Mvula. The work accomplished on this album will hopefully be a taster of things to come. It’s going to be well worth following Mvula’s career – She’ll more than likely be putting out records of this calibre for many years.

03: Regina Spektor - Remember Us To Life – A

The hugely talented Regina Spektor released her 7th album in 2016, carrying on her legacy of solid, masterful records. It’s another sleeper release; too many publications shoved Remember Us To Life in the doldrums of a top 100, or missed it off completely. Such a shame, but their loss is our gain. The album’s intro salvo is positively rambunctious, Bleeding Heart starts off as a blippy pop-indie cut and finishes with a full-on rock guitar outro, Older And Taller is a summery, sentimental American Folk tune, The Grand Hotel’s rich piano melody sounds like a warm 90’s Hollywood blockbuster soundtrack, Small Bill$ stalks and undulates through a moderate beat, and before you know it, Spektor has covered any number of musical styles and genres within 20 minutes.

My top pick from Remember is the vast, symphonic cut The Trapper And The Furrier, the emotional zenith of the record, a scathing monolith of a piece that begins with a haunting spoken word intro and builds up into the stratosphere, at times Spektor’s hands slamming down on the piano keys make you almost want to click the volume down a few notches to save your ears. Pure passion.

The rest of the album follows suit, the key element binding this together is Spektor’s magnificent songwriting, the fact that she sits alone on the piano writing these tunes and envisions the enormous compositions they are going to be makes the music that bit more personal. Her lyrical content deals in the literal, metaphysical and downright cryptic, most songs encapsulating all three. Spektor enjoys telling us about her personal tragedies, she creates characters with back stories, and she opines on the world in her own unique fashion. It’s all tied together sweetly to form a bright and brilliant gem of a record. You gotta listen to this one!

02: Kendrick Lamar - untitled unmastered. - A*

Kendrick Lamar’s latest record might just be his finest moment. From the high reached last year, it would have been understandable if Kendrick took a break to work on a follow-up, after all, how can you follow such a huge project like To Pimp A Butterfly? The answer is with untitled unmastered.

What strikes me about this record is the brazen roughness of it. Releasing it with no promotion and putting out straight on to Spotify requires a huge level of self-confidence. The lack of song titles, some tracks holding more than one song, the extended jam and studio chatter at the end, it’s all so mutant and frayed. It gives the project a truly unique sound, the experimentation is magnified with every dud note and odd key stroke.

Kendrick’s the brightest star in a golden generation of rappers. To Pimp A Butterfly was truly magnificent, perhaps even era-defining, but it was too opulent. That’s what pushed it off the edge of being a perfect record. untitled unmastered strips that sheen off and gives us the goods with no pretension and that’s why it’s so important. History may forget this quicker than Butterfly, but after all’s said and done, this is the top rapper in the game at his best.

The nature of this project means there's been no official music video release yet, so take a look at this superb live performance from last year:

01: Chance The Rapper - Coloring Book - A*

Legendary albums are zeitgeist. It’s a vital quality of any top-tier release to represent the time it was released. People go on about “timeless” albums, but do they really exist? That’s a question worthy of lengthy discussion, for sure. When a great record comes out that could only have been released when it was released, that cranks it up a notch. Coloring Book is one of those legendary classics.

Chance’s moniker may lead the uninitiated to believe that this is a Hip-hop record, when it’s actually much more than that. Yes, Chance does rap, but there’s also a full gospel choir on most of the songs, there’s Sou­­l and R ‘n B tracks, there’s a centrepiece slow-jam track featuring Justin Bieber, all this and more to form a sweet, sunny ultra-feel-good album. One of the songs is just D.R.A.M, a friend and collaborator of Chance’s repeatedly affirming that everyone is special in their own way – “This I know is true, when I look at you.” The album’s cover is a shot of Chance smiling and holding his newborn child, the songs Blessings and Angels are about the joy of friendship, love and fatherhood. Joy is the theme throughout Coloring Book, and it never lets up.

One of my absolute favourite songs from 2016 is on this album, Same Drugs, a sentimental nostalgic piano-led piece about growing up and seeing old friends after years apart – “Wendy you’ve changed, Wendy you’ve aged/I thought you’d never grow up, I thought you’d never…/Window closed, Wendy got old/I was too late – A shadow of what I once was.” Childhood is so fleeting in memory. A genuinely spine-tingling moment.

With the tumultuous socio-political situation in the USA becoming more chaotic by the day, it’s comforting to see such a positive record released by a prominent artist from the POC community. Dark times tend to bring out the best in good people. Coloring Book implores and obligates you to be the finest person you can be. An album that spans so many genres, has a unique sound and has such a peaceful message has to top the list of 2016’s albums.

December 2016 Review

The final month of the year is never really that good for new music. Everyone's on their holidays, or lazing about in the label's offices, watching the clock tick down and shopping for their Secret Santa present. No one wants to actually put the work into releasing an album. I found it hard to make up the numbers with the releases. I even considered a Neil Young album, for Chrissakes! The top album in December 2016 is the weakest no.1 of the year on this blog. It's still great to listen to though, even if you're not a fan of the artist. And so:


The Rest:


Omar Rodríguez-López - Some Need It Lonely - B

Experimental Rock/Dub


Omar Rodríguez-López - Nom De Guerre Cabal - C

Electronica/Experimental Rock


Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 3 - C

Hip-hop


EL-P and  Killer Mike dropped Run The Jewels 3, the predictably titled follow up to RTJs 1&2 on Christmas Eve, an early present from one of the game's most popular groups. There's been some pretty damn monumental rap records released this year but this one? Eh. Not so much.

Is this a joke album? It feels like a joke. The lyrics are appalling. Bragadoccio is the self-evident currency of Hip-hop, but lines like "I'm the shit/Looking at the money like it's mine to get/I'm the shit bitch/Everybody down, throw the pistol and fist" and "I got a good thing with a bad bitch/ that's rare bitch/She don't even like you hoes/she'll walk in the room take errr bitch" would have you laughed out of any half decent open mic night, so why do RTJ think they can spunk out such garbage? So it goes for all of the songs on this album, with far too many examples to mention.

The beats are bassy and decent enough, they keep the record simmering along with no real aural challenge and it's at least nice to hear a rare Zach De La Rocha guest spot on the final track. Ultimately though, RTJ3 carries on EL-P and Mike's infuriating insistence on constantly proclaiming themselves gods of Hip-hop without ever deigning to prove it. A schoolboy pissing contest.


The Best:


01: Omar Rodríguez-López - A Lovejoy - A

Experimental Rock/Synthpop 


After 12 releases in 2016 and 364 days, my best buddy Omar finally hits the top spot. A Lovejoy is as it's name suggests - euphoria on high, romping through verdant fields of pop, rock, synth and classical styles to achieve a truly brilliant climax to this year's releases. The record bubbles with tight pop loops and whispery vocal hooks, mixed with complex acid synth riffs. For the first time in 39 solo releases, El Maestro has taken command of a wonderfully effective synth string section in I Bet He'd Like That, which is a rare first for an artist with such a vast back catalogue.

You can be up in the clouds with the driving beats and basslines and then dropped flat out into ambient noise forests on the turn of a sixpence. This harsh dichotomy of pleasure and pain lifts the already stratospheric album above the rattle and clang of his middling releases to place it in the top tier of the Ipecac spectrum, along with Cellphone Bikini and Arañas en la Sombra.

Though this doesn't beat the exemplary Sworn Virgins to the top of the baker's dozen of releases from OR-L in 2016, it comes a close 2nd, and is a welcome surprise, dropped less than 48 hours before the close of the year, putting strength behind my regular lament at major publications putting out end-of-year lists in bloody NOVEMBER. It ain't over, 'till it's over.

02: Kid Cudi - Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin' - A

Experimental Pop/Alternative R 'n B


Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin' is the latest project from the genre-busting, ambitious and voraciously talented Kid Cudi. Split across 4 sections, each titled more opulently than the last, (the final quarter is named It's Bright And Heaven Is Warm, for goodness sake,) this album explores a wide range of moods and textures in search of a defining moment of  spiritual clarity.

Slayin' is best listened to as a skimming exercise for good tunes, rather than as a full-length session. There's plenty of R 'n B flavoured treacle to wade through to get to the good stuff, but it is worth it for highlights such as Cosmic Warrior, Frequency and Surfin', the latter of which features a subtle but effective guest spot from Pharrell Williams. My cut of choice is Distant Fantasies, a dark, enigmatic tune that harks back to the dark MF DOOM beats of a decade ago.

This one is a lot like The Weeknd's album from the other month. Not only stylistically - I should think the Venn diagram for fans of both artists features a healthy overlap - But also because it's just too long! Slayin' is almost 90 minutes in length, an enormous project, but that's not justified by the content. You could trim off a lot of filler and have one of the best records of the year. As it stands, Slayin' is a great listen for a long drive, and unfortunately, far too much of a good thing.

03: Nine Inch Nails - Not The Actual Events - B

Alternative Rock/Industrial Metal


Not The Actual Events was released with a characteristic lack of pretence to fulfil Trent Reznor's promise that Nine Inch Nails would return in 2016. Three and a half years hence from the superb comeback record Hesitation Marks, Events clocks in at barely over 20 minutes, so it doesn't quench the thirst a full length Nails LP would, but it is good to get stuck into a new chunk of flesh from the grand master.

Events has big shades of Reznor's 90's material, chainsaw guitars, enormous walls of  sound and distant, pained screaming are all over it. Along with that, there's a marked determination with this release to distance it from the rest. To that end, there's a measured influence from Atticus Ross; The Idea Of You has the most industrial feel to a Nine Inch Nails song since Broken, and the smooth production and industrial noise have his fingerprints all over it. There is also an ever-so-slight hint of How To Destroy Angels slipping through the cracks.

In the end though, the bulk of the sound comes from Reznor himself, as you would expect. Nine Inch Nails has this brillliant idiosyncrasy threaded through 30 years of releases, the same leitmotifs and lyrical phrases littered throughout the 3 decades of music, and Events is no different. Whether this is no more than a perfunctory flourish or an indicator of a new era in the disparate vista of releases from this life-long artistic project remains to be seen.

04: J. Cole - 4 Your Eyez Only - B

Hip-hop/Trap

05: Childish Gambino - Awaken, My Love! - B

Soul/Funk/R 'n B/Psychedelic


Donald Glover's musical alter-ego snuck out a nice little record at the start of December. Moving away from his traditional rapping style, Awaken, My Love! represents Gambino's 3rd studio full-length, and a departure into more adventurous territory. I've always appreciated artists that take a left turn and try something new. Awaken at least covers that base, giving it some worthy moments, with elements of many different styles.

It doesn't do them much justice though, and after all's said and done, there's quite a bit of fluff on Awaken, and you'd have to be really dedicated to get any more than a handful of spins out of it. The music Gambino makes feels incredibly happy and fun, an open invitation to the world to enjoy the ride along with him. The appropriately sunny, keys-soaked California and the Megadrive synth-guitar masterpiece Redbone are the two stand-outs from this enjoyably flawed record.

So that's that for 2016. I'm gonna compile a top 40 over the the next few days and push that out. I'm very happy with my top choices from 2016, there's some obvious releases, some that have been wildly popular this year, some that have been underrated, and some I don't think I've seen in any end-of-year lists at all. I like to think my list reflects as wide a range of music as possible, which is the aim of this blog. One thing I noticed is lacking is debut albums, I think I've probably listened to less than 5 all year, which is something I want to remedy in time for 2017's top list. 2016's top choices are coming soon!

November 2016 Review

It was hard to listen to a full crop of albums in December, what with Christmas and New Year and drinking my body weight in Prosecco every weekend. In between the cheeseboard binges, endless travel and general festive fun I actually ended up listening to 9 albums. That's more than some people managed all year, so I'm happy with that.

The Progressive Metal fans amongst you will have spotted May's Protest The Hero EP sitting there, sticking out like spotty ginger child. I don't know why, but I had it in my head that it had been released in November, so I stuck it on the list with these albums and listened through. It's too good to not list to be fair, it only just missed the top 5, so it's going in!


The Rest:


Justice - Woman - B

Electro House/Nu-Disco


Protest The Hero - Pacific Myth - B

Progressive Metal


Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Weekly Mansions - B

Electronic Pop


Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Zapopan - C

Experimental Rock


The Best:


01: A Tribe Called Quest - We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service - A

Alternative Hip-hop


With the tragic death of legendary MC and all-round decent dude Phife Dawg coming earlier in 2016, the Hip-hop world breathed a heavy sigh of resignation - It meant no more new material from A Tribe Called Quest, the cerebral superstars that have rang against the walls at any given 4am after party throughout the past 25 years. When the group announced the release of We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service mere months after Phife's passing, it signalled a surprise resurrection. Quest were back in the game, for the final round.

Q-Tip's voice is the smoothest in the business, the velvet-toned counterpoint to Phife's more rugged delivery. When they mix in with the idiosyncratic quirkiness and warm Jazz tones that comprise the Quest sound, it's hard to think of a Hip-hop group that can match them for sheer likeability. The tunes roll off the tracklist one-by-one and all add their own spice to the eclectic blend of sounds. We The People..., a short, downbeat statement on the oppression of minority groups, Melatonin, a chilled vocal-hooked instant Quest classic, Black Spasmodic, an off-kilter guitar skank, Movin' Backwards, featuring a top-notch turn from Anderson .Paak, all these songs are undeniably brilliant, pushing through with Quest's righteous Afro-centrism just as well as any of their 90's output did.

Phife is tributed on this record perfectly. It would be too easy to turn Thank You into a memorial project, overshadowing the fine work put into the album before he died. Instead, Quest dedicate only 2 songs to their fallen comrade, the easy-soul cut Lost Somebody and The Donald, which is a buoyant closing number, Phife Dawg's name being repeated affectionately over and over until the end of the record. That's fitting for Phife - From what I've heard of him, he'd never want it to be all about him.

Thank You holds on to the basic tenets the group gained fame for in their earlier years. They've not lost the magic after nearly 3 decades. It's wonderful that Phife ended up with a few verses on record for this project, their presence is a grand tribute for the man, it's good that he was able to put his imprint on the last ever Quest album. If this is the final chapter of A Tribe Called Quest's journey, it's a brilliant way to end such a distinguished group's time in the game.

02: Metallica - Hardwired... to Self-Destruct - A

Heavy Metal


The Hetfield/Hammett partnership is one of my favourites in all music. The great thing about the boys is that they are nowhere near the most technical or creative players in the world, but something happens when they get together that is teeth-clenchingly monolithic. Together, they've written some of the most ubiquitous and celebrated pieces of heavy guitar music, and along with one of  the worst drummers ever and a revolving cast of bassists, they've ruled the goddamn universe for about 30 years. They released a double album of Thrash Metal in November, and it's rock solid.

Hardwired... to Self-Destruct pulses with thrash and flex, calling back to their 80's material with chugging guitars, Hetfield's signature rallying calls, and complex song structure. They've always been anti-war, but this one feels like a specific statement against the rising tide of conflict across the globe. There's a lot of hard grooves on the album, with some softer tracks - The guitar work on Dream No More, Halo On Fire and Here Comes Revenge echoes Superunknown-era Soundgarden, ManUNkind is a wandering elaborate piece with many different moods. Songs like that give a break from the long thrash sections that reverberate throughout pieces like Atlas, Rise!, Moth Into Flame, Spit Out The Bone and the like. It's well-balanced, and just about worth the double album status.

Hardwired's got that Metallica imprint all over it - the barely controlled rage, the speaker-melting guitar solos, the sombre ballad sections, the distraught desperation at the insanity of man. The production is thick, it's a perfectly constructed brick wall. The guitars sit crisply above the drums, and the vocals only take prominence when they absolutely have to. Because that's why we're here, right? We want riffs. Perhaps that's what's so attractive about Hardwired, it's not Metallica doing covers, or stripping themselves back, or being clever. It's Metallica being Metallica.

This is Metallica's 10th studio effort, and the causal observer can be forgiven for thinking that there is little ground left to cover in their creative sphere, Metal being the intensely dense, nuanced genre it is. What you've got to remember here is that Hardwired is their first album since the complex and demanding Death Magnetic, now 8 years in the past, and is quite a switch-up from that album's style. It represents a sound they haven't explored on a record cover-to-cover for a quarter of a century. For that alone, it deserves its spot. While much of the latter half of 'Tallica's back catalogue has been routinely slung onto the "Yeah, it's alright" pile, I'd like to think that this one has a little more staying power. The best one they've done since The Black Album.

03: Animals As Leaders - The Madness Of Many - A

Progressive Metal/Jazz

04: Czarface - A Fistful Of Peril - B

Hip-hop


Rap's superhero obsession has permeated the genre's DNA since records began, with some of the most stoic personalities indulging in their own pseudonym-based villainy at some point in their career. Czarface is the latest iteration of Wu-Tang visionary Inspectah Deck and 90's beatsmiths 7L & Esoteric's coalition, and represents their own tribute to the cartoon heroes of their childhood. A Fistful Of Peril offers up an unapologetic slice of old-skool beats, pumping with the fresh production of the modern era.

Peril doesn't push the boundaries any further than last year's Every Hero Needs A Villain, but that's the point. Czarface is it's collective member's folly, their unfettered sandpit project, a reward for the big rap records of 20 years ago. The boys revel thoroughly in the flat-out, driven-through simplistic beats. Repetitive guitar chops and nerdy vocal samples abound. It's easy, smooth stuff. The age of Boom-Bap has passed, but its fans are still around, and there's plenty of room for this head-bopping gem in today's Hip-hop landscape.

05: The Weeknd - Starboy - B

Pop/RnB


Solo songsmith and Millenial Wail-milking The Weeknd drops his latest smooth cut of silk, with a smattering of impressive guest appearances. This album has surprised me in how little attention it's got from the mainstream music press - his sound is rhetorically zeitgeist. The melodic, pitch-shifted warblings sometimes morph into full-on rap verses, channelling the likes of Drake and Kanye, with whom Mr Weeknd could (and should) be granted contemporary status. Starboy is the kind of stuff that could only be made in the mid-10's; we will look back on music like this in 20 years and say it was the sound of the decade.

Sadly, Starboy is a good example of a trope I find completely distasteful in music - Too many songs on an album. I'm no minimalist by any stretch, (the 2nd album on this top 5 is a double) but there's an art to knowing when it's time to fade out the dying embers of the closing number, and on this album, that's around about the 12th track. Unfortunately, it just keeps going. When you stuff 18 songs on to the same disc, inevitably it will suffer from the inclusion of a lot of filler, which is such a shame, because there is absolutely no need to pad this record out. There are over half a dozen wonderfully catchy downtempo tunes lost in the swamp. It's worth finding them if you wanna dive in and have a swim.

That's November's choices. As always, I'm very happy with the top 5, there's just simply been loads of brilliant releases in 2016. The top list will be hard to compile, mainly 'cos I'm gonna have to leave some incredible records out of the top 20. It's gonna be good though, There are several albums I've loved this year that haven't had nearly enough recognition. So I'll recognise them. Happy New year, everyone.

October 2016 Review

There were some great albums released in October. I've been on the hunt for a solid, guitar-oriented, heavy album all year, and I think this month's crop might just have cracked it. There's been tons of great Hip-hop and pop albums I've listened to this year, but a lot of the guitar albums I've tried have been average, so it's been good to listen to some proper good heavy stuff. There's more coming up next month too. The calibre of the records in October was high, 5 A's were hard to rank, mainly because I didn't want to relegate such high quality albums to 4th or 5th. With a weaker selection, some of the top 5 could have been album of the month. This month's #1 is especially good, and might just sneak into the end-of-year top 10.


The Rest:


2 Chainz - Hibachi For Lunch - C

Hip-hop


Darkthrone - Arctic Thunder - B

Black Metal


Mono - Requiem For Hell - B

Post-Rock


Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Infinity Drips - C

Experimental/Noise/Ambient


The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Third World Pyramid - C

Alternative Rock/Psychedelic


Yelawolf - Hotel - B

Hip-hop


The Best:


01: The Dillinger Escape Plan - Dissociation - A

Mathcore/Experimental Rock


This album will be a choice way out of left field for most people. The 6th and final (if vocalist Greg Puciato is to believed) studio album from a heavy/shouty band with about a million notes in each riff is unlikely to be seen on many end-of-year lists in 2016. I wasn't expecting it myself; I've never given The Dillinger Escape Plan much of a chance, barring the superb Aphex Twin cover they pushed out over a decade ago. But this really is worth it. Trust me.

Dissociation's not an album that is easy to listen to, or rewarding in a traditional sense. What makes it so great is the span of different styles touched by the band, and the complex and subtle interplay of melodies that you only hear after 10 listens. There's a Jazz breakdown section in Low Feels Blvd that comes out of nowhere. It's a trip to listen to DEP develop that into a harsh Metal/Hardcore thrashfest over the course of a couple of minutes. That's what keeps me coming back to this record, there's surprises everywhere and progressive sections that need digesting over time.

Dissociation is full of half-time thrashy groove-drops, it has soaring vocal choruses, it has trapdoors that still catch you out after a few spins. There's not much in the way of accessibility here, but if you're listening to Dissociation to relax in the bath, you're barking up the wrong tree. Having said that, the closing pair of string-led songs bring the last 11 minutes back from the stratosphere, and ensure a soft landing. Nothing To Forget is markedly simpler than the other songs while the heartfelt vocal performance from the aforementioned Puciato on the closing and title track is incredible. If this is DEP's last ever album, it's probably the highest note they could reach.

02: Kate Tempest - Let Them Eat Chaos - A

Alternative Hip-hop/Spoken Word


Kate Tempest's long list of accomplishments belie a huge amount of work in her short time on this planet. Barely out of her youth, she's already a celebrated and much-loved wordsmith, known for possessing one of the most extensive vocabularies in UK Hip-hop and having a golden ability to utilise it. When I saw her new album pop up, it was an automatic addition to this month's short list.

Let Them Eat Chaos is a straight-up concept album based around one moment in time shared between 7 complete strangers. The story reflects Tempest's views on the world and modern London, which is explicit from the first few seconds. What makes this stand out however, is the gallons of pathos that flood through and greet you. It's a friendly, welcoming listen. The politics and social commentary aren't abrasive, and the balance between story and rhetoric is perfect.

Tempest brings her characters alive with honest care, her voice sometimes cracking with emotion, sympathising with their state. In turn, it makes you care about them, too. The people in Chaos are relateable in the extreme; As I was listening, I began to associate them with real people and faces I know. As the story progresses, through several different perspectives, and backed by some solid Hip-hop beats, Tempest's worldview, both warm and gritty, gets mapped out, and it's hard to disagree with the matter-of-fact common-sense nature of it. Her closing statement implores us all to love and care more. After all that's said and done on Chaos, that's a strikingly positive notion to take home.

03: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Cell Phone Bikini - A

Progressive Rock/Experimental Rock/Psychedelic


It feels like El Maestro is having a clear-out of the vaults with these albums. There's been some filler records that don't warrant much attention, and some of them have alternate versions of previously released songs on them. Hell, one of them even has an Ellie Goulding cover on it. This raft of releases (and with more to come in 2017) seems to be him drawing a line under his solo projects and putting everything out, for better or worse.

Cell Phone Bikini is one of the stronger releases. With an exciting blend of mid-career Mars Volta-esque guitar riffs and some powerful vocal takes from Teri Gender Bender, OR-L's long time musical collaborator, this is a great listen for any fan of OR-L's music. All the hallmarks of a classic OR-L release are on Bikini - His signature freaked-out guitar style, the idiosyncratic off-kilter song structuring, the mumbling distorted singing from his own voice contrasted with an intense, high-range lead vocalist, it's all there. It's a good representation of the breadth of his solo work for someone who's never heard anything he's done.

I don't usually like Teri's vocals on record, and to be honest I don't rate her as an artist/musician full stop. But her turn on Bikini completely lifts the album. It's the best thing she's ever been on, and shows a maturity and passion I've not heard on anything else, Le Butcherettes or otherwise. Her vocals on Suetre y Aire, Amarillo and Sell Yourself In in particular spring out of the mix and bring the songs to life. Bikini is an opportunity for Teri to stamp her brand on an album, and she shines out of each and every song.

OR-L is his generation's Zappa. He's worked with dozens of different musicians and spread out over countless forms of music. His style is hard to pin down, but there's a delightful fusion aspect to his work and it's uniquely weird. He's skipped through several vocalists in his time, and maybe with Teri Gender Bender, he's found a keeper. Bikini isn't the most experimental OR-L album, but it's a great showcase of his and Teri's partnership, and a positive sign for future releases from the duo.

04: Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker - A

Folk/Soft Rock


What can you say about Leonard Cohen that hasn't been said before? One of the most underrated of the God Tier songwriters of the last century, he was inspirational to millions, and enjoyed a career that spanned multiple decades. He succumbed to mortality barely 3 weeks after You Want It Darker was released. This album is his final statement, and deals with his imminent death in a brilliantly optimistic way.

It's impossible to not draw comparisons with this and David Bowie's Blackstar. Both projects are attempts by the artist to capture a final snapshot of their thoughts as the twilight of their existence closes around them. While I didn't really dig Blackstar, Darker is something I understood from the first listen. I think that's because it's simpler. Cohen has always been known for his poetic lyrics before any musical backing. While Bowie was a multi-faceted artist who created music, art and fashion as a package, Cohen's work is intended to be a vessel for his words. Cohen has never been cited for experimental envelope-pushing as Bowie was, simply as a great lyricist.

And so it is on Darker, the music is a gentle breeze accompanying the artist's reflections on an extraordinary life. Some of Darker is touched with sadness, but overall Cohen is content and humorous about death which makes what could be an uncomfortable album an uplifting experience. Cohen's final word is as moving as anything he's ever done, and signs off one of the greatest ever songwriting legacies with style and grace.

05: Meshuggah - The Violent Sleep Of Reason - A

Progressive Metal

That's October's picks done and dusted. I'm already listening to November's albums, and there are some superb releases already making my top 5 for next month a difficult choice. I'm looking forward to the end of the year top albums list. I'll have the agony of choice - This year has been stellar. As several professional publications release their end-year lists, I'm happy to see some of my top picks rate so highly, and kinda smug to see some of them ignored. I've now listened to over 100 albums this year, and I'm looking forward to putting together a really strong top 20.

September 2016 Review

I've been sat here with the cursor flashing and a severe case of writer's block for the last week. To be honest, the crop of albums hasn't been that good in September (barring the top 3) so I found it hard to do my usual thing and just tap out a blog in a couple of hours. I think that the top album from September will be right up with the absolute best from 2016, but everything else I can take or leave. I've not written about it, but the Pixies album is disappointing. Obvious comment warning - They really need Kim Deal back. How can you call it a Pixies album without Kim Deal? It's a dull, middle-aged record. Like many of the big acts releasing this year, (Chili Peppers are another good example) it's been poor, and a world away from their best material. As always, the younger musicians seem to have made the best stuff this month. The old masters are dying.

The Rest:

Devendra Banhart - Ape in Pink Marble - C

Acoustic/Soft Rock

Matt Berry - The Small Hours - C

Jazz pop/Easy Listening

Jamie T - Trick - B

Indie/Rock/Alternative Hip-hop

Kool Keith - Feature Magnetic - C

Hip-hop

Omar Rodríguez-López - Umbrella Mistress - B

Psychedelic/Pop

Omar Rodríguez-López - El Bien y mal Nos Une - C

Experimental Rock/Electronica

Pixies - Head Carrier - C

Alternative Rock

Warpaint - Heads Up - C

Art rock/Indie

Sorry everyone, but this is a stinker! I loved Warpaint's last record, their self-titled effort from 2014, and also The Fool, so I was excited about this one. Warpaint have already created their own musical blueprint. You know a Warpaint song within the first few seconds. That's so vital, and will keep them going for a long time. But Heads Up is a let down following on from the strong clutch of releases Warpaint have put out.

I think this album is a victim of 2 main problems - Poor production, and too many songwriting compromises. The sound is muddy and prioritised badly; melodies that should be loud and proud are pushed down in the mix and lost, while background percussive elements and ambient guitar sounds are at the fore. It's confusing, you don't know which bit you're meant to be listening to, or which part is meant to be the lead. Couple that with not one of the members of this unique, talented and exciting band taking control at any point, and you're left with a mess of numb sounds, paths that lead to nowhere and the sonic equivalent of feeling too full after a big meal.

There's a few songs on here that are worth a go, intro track Whiteout is easily the best song on Heads Up, and Above Control is certainly worth a few spins. There's not much else to pick at though, even New Song, the obvious single from this album is laboured and far too deliberately composed. I'm never going to write off this band, because their previous releases have been so strong, but Heads Up has probably been the most disappointing release I've heard this year.

The Best:

01: Regina Spektor - Remember Us To Life - A

Alternative pop

Regina Spektor has slowly bubbled around my consciousness for a number of years, but I'd not picked up any of her albums and gave it a proper listen up until last month. She's always been on my ever-lengthening musical to-do list, always lauded and recommended by fellow music junkies, so when I saw she'd completed her latest record, Remember Us To Life, I had to get it on my circulation for September.

Spektor has a grasp around her songwriting that her fellow American pop acts could only dream of. Her skillful mastery of the piano and the comfort with which she explores the full range of her vocal ability on Remember... instantly warms your ears with familiar tones. From the blippy pop bounciness of Bleeding Heart, through the spacious, echoey Obsolete and the upbeat head-nodder Small Bill$, Spektor narrates a rich novella of sound, many pieces requiring dozens of musicians to accomplish, but always with Spektor at the heart, the maestro, sat at her piano, controlling the flow. 

The Trapper And The Furrier is my favourite cut from Remember..., it being the enormous orchestral centrepiece of the record. It starts with a calm spoken word intro and builds up the intensity with each passing section, adding in string stabs and timpani crashes. The song threatens to fully let loose several times but is always pinned back at the last moment. The cryptic lyrical passages in the verses are complimented by Spektor's direct observation in the chorus - "What a strange, strange world we live in/Where the good are damned, and the wicked forgiven." It's one of my top 5 tunes from the whole year.

Spektor writes stories, she distills and concentrates the world around her, she builds around childhood memories and subtle observations. She writes about the injustice in the world and the full gamut of human emotion, dusting her songs with the embers of sentimentality, never enough to get schmaltzy - not at all - but enough to make you feel safe, welcome and loved. Remember... is a powerful journey. It gets you hooked from the first listen and offers more and more with every spin. It's put Regina Spektor right up with the very best artists in the world right now. A very important release from 2016.

02: Bon Iver - 22, A Million - A

Experimental Folk/Ambient

I'm happy to be able to put a Folk artist on this list. It's not a genre I take much inspiration from, and I don't mean anything negative by that. It's just not my cup of tea, generally. But I do like to give everything a chance, and I like to try and see the value in all music. 22, A Million got so many positive reviews, I had to see what all the fuss was about.

While created by a Folk artist, 22 is so loosely based in that genre it's hardly worth mentioning The F Word. It's so experimental at times that it's hard to put it in any sort of pigeonhole. That's what's intriguing and fascinating about this project - I've never heard anything like it. Sometimes the lead vocal is so warped and twisted, it takes a couple of listens to realise it's not some synth bassline. The level of experimentation on 22 is through the roof, one reviewer mentioned it was one of the biggest style changes since Radiohead's Kid A, which ain't too bad a thing to be compared to, is it.

22 is a short, oblique picture of  a band hitting a remarkable creative zenith. It's a mutant creature, a hybrid of acoustic and synthetic, of flesh and metal. The lyrics are hard to make out most of the time. There's no discernible melody in many of the tunes. But something about this album keeps me coming back for more. It's disarmingly accessible, in spite of the amorphous form to each composition. 22 resonates with hope, happiness, and the joy of living. It's such an odd record, but it's beautiful.

03: M.I.A - AIM - B

Electronic/Alternative pop

Everyone knows M.I.A from Paper Planes, but she's released tons of great music before and since then, and is also an accomplished artist across several types of media. AIM is her latest project, and it's just as catchy and fun as anything else she's put out. I love the attitude on AIM - It's such an inclusive, welcoming record, and there's a strong pride and self-love exuding throughout.

Each song is crafted in M.I.A's own style, that earworm-plentiful mash-up of London Hip-hop and Asian/African traditional music mixed up with pop song structuring, which makes the album hugely accessible. You can pick it up and put it down whenever you fee like it. AIM one of those albums that sticks with you after the first listen. Some of the ambient elements are mesmerising; wailing vocal samples and swords clashing sometimes form the percussive base of an entire song.

AIM has a rough continuity about being a refugee and borders, obviously a  nod to the current migrant crisis in the middle east. The album is generally positive though, and doesn't waver on getting slowed down in a political bog for too long, which keeps the experience light and doesn't detract from the music at all, which is sharp, astute and relentlessly cool. M.I.A has stated that this will be her last album. I hope she changes her mind in the future, because I think she's still got a lot to give to us.

04: Preoccupations - Preoccupations - B

Alternative rock/Post punk

05: Wilco - Schmilco - B

Indie/Folk/Rock

That's that for September. I cannot recommend Regina Spektor's album enough, it's such a special journey. It's gonna be at least top 5. Tell me what you think, anyway, as always.

August 2016 Review

August was another grand month for music. I had to go for a top 6 again. Too much quality to merely put out 5. I found myself wishing for more time to really get to grips with some of the top releases. I usually have any given album sussed in 5 listens or less, but the top 3 certainly deserve a double figure amount of spins.

I've listened to countless hours of music in my time, but it still astounds and delights me how a band or artist can squeeze so much content into an hour of sound. It's what keeps me coming back. I'm really happy with the top album this month. It was a genuine random punt, I just listened to it because it was made by such a legendary group. It's mad how things work out, really. If you'd have told me at the start of the year that I'd have been gushing my heart out about an album which has Justin Hawkins on it, I'd tell you to GTFO. August was awesome, I'm already looking forward to some big releases from September, too. I hope you like it:


The Rest:


Crystal Castles - Amnesty (I) - B

Experimental electronica


Dinosaur Jr - Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not - C

Alternative Rock/Indie


of Montreal - Innocence Reaches - B

Indie/Psychedelic/Electronic


Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Blind Worms, Pious Swine - B

Alternative Pop/Alternative Rock


Thee Oh Sees - A Weird Exits - B

Alternative Rock


The Best:


01: De La Soul - and the Anonymous Nobody... - A

Alternative Hip-hop/Rock/Pop

Sometimes, being a legendary artist can be a poisoned chalice. Your seminal breakthrough record will be the one all your later material gets measured against, and people will inevitably be disappointed. You'll be expected to play the old classics at each show, even though you may have no passion for them any more, after decades of gigs and thousands of performances. One way to remedy the late-career ennui is to remain creative and fresh. Easier said than done, but De La Soul are managing to do just that.

and the Anonymous Nobody... is a truly audacious project. Broadly, it's a Hip-hop album (of course) but to brand it as just that would do disservice to the many surprises and curveballs De La Soul pack into this album. It's dazzlingly overwhelming on the first few listens, the brainy twists, tempo shifts, and little snippets all tumble out of the bag of tricks in an even and considered manner. It settles down after you get to grips with the content. Nobody is a grower.

There is so much familiar content here to latch on to. Pain, one of the initial single releases, is a slice of golden, Snoop Dogg-featuring West Coast Hip-hop that could have been recorded 20 years ago. Snoopies, a sleeper track featuring the one and only David Byrne, undulates between a weird pop section and a couple of rap verses. Perhaps the most bizarre featured artist is Justin Hawkins (yes, THAT Justin Hawkins) who has been plucked from obscurity to belt out theatrical vocals on Lord Intended, a Blues-heavy guitar jam. These are but 3 examples of the wonderful quirkiness that De La Soul bring to the fore on Nobody.

The crazy randomness and mutant nature of the genre-splicing on Nobody is what gives it so much strength. It's quite lovely to see that a group like De La Soul, over a quarter of a century in the game, can come out with something as brilliant and fresh as Nobody. There's been bigger rap releases this year, but this is just as exciting as anything the new generation of young Hip-hop stars have come out with. De La Soul still have a lot to share with us. They haven't taken their foot off the gas since the 80's. Long may they continue.

02: Frank Ocean - Blonde - A

Alternative Pop/Ambient Pop

Frank Ocean is one of those exciting artists who are seemingly impossible to pin down to one genre. He blends elements of Soul, Pop, R 'n B, and Hip-hop to form his uniquely ambient style. His exhortation during Nights - "This feel like a quaalude" sums it up perfectly - His music is a delightful head trip. A good coma.

Blonde is a pleasant scrapbook of sketches, a sparse but welcoming world of friendly happiness. One thing that resonates throughout the album is Ocean's sheer joy at performing, often his mumbling delivery breaks into glorious, triumphant vocal melodies. You get the picture he's happy just to be here, and though his career is going from strength to strength he's still humble and thankful for where he is. It lends sincerity to Blonde, making it an easy, sympathetic album to listen to.

There's a distinct lack of continuity to Blonde. You could put this album on in a random order, and it'd still feel right. The only motif is the ambient synth riff present on at least 4 tracks, in the background of the skits and throughout most of the final song. That just about ties everything together, but apart from that, you're on your own. This is a good thing; you're permitted to wander around the sound world at your leisure, picking and choosing favourite moments to savour as the album meanders dreamily along.

There's no video I can find on Youtube for this album - shame, because Pink And White is a beautiful song. Stick that on Spotify, whydontcha.


03:  65Daysofstatic - No Man's Sky: Music For An Infinite Universe - A

Post Rock/Electronic/Ambient

The soundtrack to Everyone's Favourite Game just happens to be orchestrated by one of the UK's most underrated bands. 65daysofstatic may not assault the charts with each single release or headline Glastonbury every 5 years, but they have a dedicated cult following, and a huge amount of respect for their monumental brand of electronic Post Rock.

No Man's Sky has been a good couple of years in the making, and it shows. Each piece is written to perfection; every sparse drone, every inch of feedback is planned meticulously to afford the maximum amount of emotion and expression to the listening experience. Epic is a word often associated with this band, but it's so true - Listen to the peaks during songs such as Monolith and Red Parallax, hair-raising moments that catch the breath from the bottom of your lungs. 65 is 15 years old, and still pushing out creative and credible work.

No Man's Sky is effectively a dual project - The album proper is 10 (relatively) short compositions, but is packaged with 6 soundscapes which clock in at well over an hour, doubling the album's length. This may feel daunting to the casual listener, but it is worth diving into all of this music. It represents a handy summation of 65's work to date; the album oscillates comfortably between the guitar-heavy and electronic elements that define their sound.

I'm a bit biased here - 65 are one of my favourite bands, and are from Sheffield. I've gigged in the same venues, recorded in the same studios and have a couple of mutual friends with some of the band members. South Yorkshire's a big village, as they say. But I think the A rating is justified through the sheer breadth of this project, and the ease of it's execution. 65 are a band firmly rooted in their groove, and they have their own unique sound within the wide parameters of Post Rock.

04: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Arañas en La Sombra - B

Experimental Rock/Progressive Rock

05: Russian Circles - Guidance - B

Metal/Progressive Metal

"Instrumental Metal album" is half a sentence that isn't going to excite a lot of people, and when I had a look at this I have to say I expected this to be a filler record to flesh out the month's choices. Instead, I found Guidance to be a thoroughly enjoyable listen, easy to catch on to, and highly accessible.

The intro salvo covers the first 3 tracks of Guidance, breaking you in to the tightly-wound grooves that make Russian Circles teeter on the knife edge between Hard Rock and Metal. The genius of those intro tracks is that there isn't one definite moment where The Heavy Bit comes in, obviously an elemental staple of heavy guitar music. This keeps you engaged and receptive, and before you know it, 20 minutes have passed.

Guidance isn't going to appeal to anyone who isn't already familiar with this genre, but it's well worth a spot in the top 6 this month. If nothing else, the mid-album zenith Afrika should be an essential listen for any true metalhead, in a year where there hasn't yet been a true classic of the genre to listen to.

06: Banks & Steelz - Anything But Words - B

Hip-hop

So that's that for another month. To all my Volta-heads (I know y'all read this) I'm well into all those early TMV grooves on Arañas en La Sombra. It's such a nostalgia trip listening to that record. Some of those sessions must have been proto-Volta sessions, no? Like, Frances The Mute era. Anyway, this OR-L multi-release thing is VERY exciting. See you in a month.